field to Henry Percy, his sister's
husband. The property was to be held on condition that every Christmas
Day he and his heirs should come to Skelton Castle and lead the lady by
the arm from her chamber to the chapel.

The old church of Upleatham, standing by the road to Saltburn, is a
quaint fragment of a Norman building. The tower, bearing the inscription
'William Crow, Chvrchwarden Bvlded Stepel--1664,' is an addition to what
is probably only part of the nave of the little Norman building. It is
now used merely as a cemetery chapel, but it is picturesquely situated,
and on the north wall the carved Norman corbels may still be seen.

CHAPTER IX

FROM PICKERING TO RIEVAULX ABBEY

The broad Vale of Pickering, watered by the Derwent, the Rye, and their
many tributaries, is a wonderful contrast to the country we have been
exploring. The level pastures, where cattle graze and cornfields abound,
seem to suggest that we are separated from the heather by many leagues;
but we have only to look beyond the hedgerows to see that the horizon to
the north is formed by lofty moors only a few miles distant.

Just where the low meadows are beginning to rise steadily from the vale
stands the town of Pickering, dominated by the lofty stone spire of its
parish church and by the broken towers of the castle. There is a wide
street, bordered by dark stone buildings, that leads steeply from the
river to the church. The houses are as a rule quite featureless, but we
have learnt to expect this in a county where stone is abundant, for only
the extremely old and the palpably new buildings stand Christ. Then
comes Herod's feast, with the King labelled _Herodi_. The guests are
shown with their arms on the table in the most curious positions, and
all the royal folk are wearing ermine. The coronation of the Virgin, the
martyrdom of St. Thomas a Becket, and the martyrdom of St. Edmund, who
is perforated with arrows, complete the series on the north side. Along
the south wall the paintings show the story of St. Catherine of
Alexandria and the seven Corporal Acts of Mercy. Further on come scenes
from the life of our Lord. There seems little doubt that all the
paintings, including a number of others in the transepts and elsewhere
that are now destroyed, were whitewashed over at the time of the
Reformation, and it was during some restoration work carried out in 1851
that indications of the paintings were accidentally laid bare. When the
whole