English History and Legends Come Alive in York

We have been driving slowly through the late autumn heather of the moors from Viking Age sculptures and the castle of “Brideshead Revisited” to a preserved Roman road, Capt. Cook’s harbor, Robin Hood’s Bay and the abbey of Dracula brooding over the North Sea.

Could such a drive of little more than 50 miles through so much of the history, legends and literature of England be called a journey across a countryside “relatively undiscovered by today’s standards of tourism”?

Those words in the official guidebook to the North York Moors reflect the realities of travel today in the moorlands of northeastern England, cradled against a rocky North Sea coast.

Visitors who come here are those who like to step quietly off the main roads of travel, just as Charles Dickens did when he relaxed between the Yorkshire heather and the sea at Sandsend.

Words of Walpole

Some visitors have already read what novelist Horace Walpole wrote in the 18th Century when, only 15 miles from the city of York, he came upon a castle setting “worthy of the Druids,” with the “noblest lawn in the world fenced by half the horizon.”

My wife Elfriede and I are fortunate not only to have been directed toward the North York Moors by English friends but also to be traveling with novelist James A. Michener and his wife Mari. Since his days as a university student in Scotland more than 50 years ago, Michener has continued to immerse himself in the history and literature of what is likely the most written-about country on earth.

To set the mood for our visit we are staying on the outskirts of York at Middlethorpe Hall, a Queen Anne-style country house built of mellow red brick in 1699 for Thomas Barlow, a prosperous master cutler who felt ready to establish himself as a country gentleman.

Middlethorpe became in the 18th Century the home of the famous diarist and traveler, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Married to an ambassador, she traveled widely and brilliantly chronicled her impressions, including those of her life here in Yorkshire.

By 1980 Middlethorpe Hall was long past its era as an elegant country home. Historic House Hotels Ltd., which restored Bodysgallen Hall in North Wales, took over the restoration of Middlethorpe.

Now the house could once again be a setting for Lady Montagu’s social life and diaries. The front portals lead into a stone-flagged entrance hall, as in a medieval manor. A few steps inside is the magnificent carved oak staircase, supported by a Corinthian column.

The floor is covered with black-and-white marble squares. Beyond the paneled drawing room is the grand ballroom, added to the house in 1750. The dining room with Ionic pilasters has been restored to its 17th-Century elegance, with an international wine list enhancing the haute cuisine of this late 20th Century.

Comfortable Feeling

The dozen bedrooms and sitting rooms in the main house give us the feeling that we are a guest in a private country home. The fireplaces glow, the bathrooms have brass taps. Architects have restyled the 18th-Century stable courtyard into a small wing of guest chambers and suites.

Gardens and parkland have been restored with the same care, a small lake formed and hundreds of trees planted. A stone eagle, crest of the founding Barlow family, presides over the gardens from the north entrance. The uniformed attendant who came to take our baggage could have been receiving Barlow guests.

Middlethorpe overlooks the park-like expanse of York’s historic racecourse and is only a mile and a half from that city. York began as a Roman fortress in AD 71. A thousand years ago York was under Viking rule and was called Jorvik. By the end of the 15th Century the awesome cathedral known as the Minster was completed, the largest medieval structure in the United Kingdom.

The Minster is still a center of religious life. As we looked up at the arched windows of stained glass, the feeling of unending time and space prepared our senses for the moors.

Vikings Strike Anew

From Jan. 23 to Feb. 28 the Vikings will “invade” again during the annual Jorvik Festival. There’ll be Scandinavian dancers in the city squares, torchlight processions, longboat races on the river, jazz from Denmark, Nordic feasts, children’s competitions and evening fireworks.

Less than 20 minutes toward the North York Moors from York along route A64 sits Castle Howard, judged by Horace Walpole in the 18th Century to be worthy of the Druids. It is also the castle selected as the principal location for the award-winning TV series, “Brideshead Revisited.”

Part of this palatial building is still the residence of the Howard family, descended from the 3rd Earl of Carlisle for whom it was designed in 1699. The major part of it is open to the public every year from March 31 to Oct. 31.

Peacocks inspected us imperiously. The castle has been called a classic for all time. It was one of the first private manor houses built with a dome designed like the great dome of St. Paul’s in London.

Replicas of the Crown Jewels are on display, and the question is asked: Why queue up in London to see them? We also saw paintings by Holbein, Rubens, Reynolds and Gainsborough. They seem at home amid the Chippendale furniture, the regal porcelain, china and tapestries, the Grecian and Roman statuary.

Displays in the Costumes Galleries are changed every year to show different period selections. Diaghilev Ballet costumes are also featured as if for a different production each year. The Rose Gardens in June are filled with thousands of rare old roses.

Ecological Balance

At Old Malton beyond the castle, we turned up route A169 toward Pickering and the entrance into the North York Moors, a national park in which the need for preserving the landscape, heather and forests is harmonized with the grazing of sheep and cattle; 50,000 sheep graze on 125,000 acres of moorland.

About 40% of the moors form the largest heather-covered upland in England, purple-hued in late August and September, a tranquil place for walking at any season.

You can walk narrow paths through the heather or along Wade’s Causeway, a preserved stretch of Roman road. Roads dating to the 13th Century are another walking temptation. They were laid down just wide enough for a single file of pack animals transporting goods from monastic estates.

St. Ailred of Rievaulx Abbey in the moors wrote in the 12th Century of “a marvelous freedom from the tumult of the world.” Out on the moorland there is still this sense of freedom, and the remains of his abbey are considered the most beautiful in England.

When you walk too fast, the cry of the red grouse--”g’bak, g’bak”--tells you to get back to a more tranquil pace. Burial mounds of prehistoric humans who lived here 5,000 years ago suggest that there is no undue need for hurry. Bronze Age communities left barrows here from the years 1888-500 BC.

From the heather-clad uplands and the forests, route A169 took us to the ancient town of Whitby at the mouth of the River Esk on the North Sea coast.

Explorer’s Birthplace

Capt. James Cook was born in these North Sea moorlands in the village of Marton near Great Ayton in 1728. He started sailing as a young man from Whitby Harbor. The Endeavor, Resolution and Adventure, the three ships that took him to the South Sea islands, Australia and New Zealand, were built in Whitby. The Capt. Cook monument atop West Cliff at Whitby memorializes the great explorer. His house stands in Grape Lane.

Whitby Abbey was founded by St. Hilda, who came to this North Sea town as the daughter of a wealthy prince in AD 657. It hosted the famous Synod of 664 that established the supremacy of Rome over the Celtic Church. Danes destroyed the abbey, Normans rebuilt it, Vikings plundered it.

The abbey was the spiritual home of Caedmon, the first English poet. Bram Stoker came from his theater work in London in 1890 to take a fashionable house atop West Cliff. Looking out at the dark silhouette of the abbey above the North Sea, he wrote “Dracula,” his classic horror novel.

Harbor marinas in this city of about 14,000 population are colorful with pleasure yachts and fishing boats. Visitors are invited to try for trout and salmon in season.

The Spa Theatre presents concerts, variety shows and plays. Weekends and vacationers tuck away in the small hotels and guest houses, or rent a chalet.

Across the Moorlands

The train from Whitby connects a few miles away with the North Yorkshire Moors steam train for its sightseeing trips across the moorlands to Pickering. Walking trails from one to 100 miles wind along the spectacular headlands.

The resort center of Scarborough, which became Britain’s first seaside resort in the 17th Century and has maintained its popularity with the British people, is half an hour’s drive down the coast.

As a winter temptation, Middlethorpe Hall is offering until March 31 a two-night “Champagne Break” package at 100 per person, double occupancy, including a bottle of champagne on arrival, full English breakfasts and an allowance toward dinner of 17.50 per person nightly.

Middlethorpe Hall can be booked through your travel agent or by writing to Middlethorpe Hall, Bishopthorpe Road, York YO2 1QP, England. To telephone from the United States, dial (011) 44-904-641241.