the Foss. Of this Clifford's Tower is about all of the ancient work
that remains. It rises on its mound high above the surrounding
buildings, and was the keep of the ancient fortress, constructed
according to a remarkable and unique plan, consisting of parts of four
cylinders running into each other. It dates from Edward I., but the
entrance was built by Clifford, Earl of Cumberland, its governor under
Charles I. The interior of the tower was afterwards burned, and George
Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends, who was imprisoned there,
planted a walnut tree within the tower which is still growing. It was in
the keep of the Norman castle, which this tower replaced, that the
massacre of the Jews, which grew out of race-jealousy at their great
wealth, occurred in 1190. On March 16th the house of Benet, the leading
Jew in York, was sacked by a mob and his wife and children murdered.
Five hundred of his countrymen then sought refuge in the castle, and
those who remained outside were killed. The mob besieged the castle, led
by a hermit from the neighborhood "famed for zeal and holiness," who was
clothed in white robes, and each morning celebrated mass and inflamed
the fury of the besiegers by his preaching. At last he ventured too near
the walls, and was brained by a stone. Battering-rams were then brought
up, and a night's carouse was indulged in before the work of knocking
down the castle began. Within was a different scene: the Jews were
without food or hope. An aged rabbi, who had come as a missionary from
the East, and was venerated almost as a prophet, exhorted his brethren
to render up freely their lives to God rather than await death at the
enemy's hands. Nearly all decided to follow his counsel; they fired the
castle, destroyed their property, killed their wives and children, and
then turned their swords upon themselves. Day broke, and the small
remnant who dared not die called from the walls of the blazing castle
that they were anxious for baptism and "the faith and peace of Christ."
They were promised everything, opened the gates, and were all massacred.
In later years York Castle has enclosed some well-known prisoners, among
them Eugene Aram, and Dick Turpin, who was hanged there. The York
elections and mass-meetings are held in the courtyard.

Here Wilberforce, who long represented York in Parliament, spoke in
1784, when Boswell wrote of him: "I saw what seemed a mere shrimp mount
upon the table, but as I l