In the English language, the words vale, valley, and dale, have very appropriate and distinct meanings : vale, which corresponds in meaning with the word strath in Scotland, signifies an extent of low country, some miles in width, lying between ranges of higher grounds: the word valley is the diminutive of vale; it is commonly used in the south of England, but in the north of England and in the south of Scotland, the word dale is used in the same acceptation, and in the High lands of Scotland the word glen. In a valley, the lower grounds arc narrow, as from half a mile to a mile er two in width, generally with a high steep hank rising on each side. The dell of the south of England corresponds to the groin or gill of the north of England, and the cleugh of the south of Scotland is the diminutive of dale or valley, and generally signifies the branch of a valley, or a short or otherwise inferior valley : dingle is the diminutive of dell.
Of these we mean to confine ourselves entirely to a description of the vales of England ; the values, dells, and dingles, are too numerous, and most of them, though beautiful or striking in their scenery and fea tures, too unimportant to be particularly noticed.
As the north of England partakes of the mountain ous character of Scotland, it cannot be expected to con tain many vales. In entering this country by Northum berland, the first we meet with is the vale of Cocquet, through which the river of that name flows. This vale is particularly noted for its fertility, and for the ex cellence of its agriculture. In the southern part of the same county is the vale of Tyne, which exhibits a great variety of landscape, and a little above Newcastle is very rich and beautiful. The vale of Stockton is form ed of the lower vale lands of the county of Durham, and the district of Cleveland in Yorkshire ; these to gether form one homogeneous vale, through the middle of which the Tees, forming the boundary between the two counties, winds. This vale accompanies the Tees from the moorlands of Durham, in the neighbourhood of Barnard Castle, to its mouth, extending nearly forty miles. It is bounded on the south by the eastern moor lands, and on the north by the high lands of Durham; in its widest part it is 15 miles across; but its up per part, above Darlington, is narrow. In its area are included the towns of Barnard Castle, Darlington, Yarm, Stockton, and Stockesley ; Hartlepool and Gis borough stand. on its margins ; its surface is remarka bly flat, its soil for the most part fertile, and it is dis tinguished for the skill and enterprize of its farmers.
The vale of York may justly be regarded as the first of river vales in the island : it is situated mostly with in the North Riding, but, in its southern extreme, it extends into the West and East Ridings. Its northern limit is formed by a number of shallow small lakes or meres, which lie between the Tees, the Swale, and the Wiske ; the marshes of Yorkshire a'id Lincolnshire constitute its southern boundary ; its western limits are the limestone lands of West Yorkshire, and the skirts of the western moorlands; the moorlands, limestone heights, and wolds, of the East Riding, constitute its eastern boundary. From north to south its length is
about 60 miles ; its average breadth is about 16 ; its area contains more than 1000 square miles. There are nine towns in the area of this vale, the princi pal of which are York, Northalerton, Thirsk, and Bo roughbridge; its western margin is studded with Rich mond, Rippon, Knaresborough, Tadcaster, and Doncas ter; on its eastern margin there are four towns, none of them however of any size or consequence. The sur face of this vale is sufficiently diversified, to give rich ness and beauty to its appearance ; by far the largest portion of its soil is fertile, and its agriculture is gene rally good. The northern extreme of the vale of York imperceptibly unites with the south-west margin of the vale of Stockton ; the rising ground by which they are naturally divided, being so inconsiderable, as to escape the eye in a general view of the country. Thus, there an uninterrupted continuance of wide spreading vale lands, from the mouth of the Tees to the 'limber, a distance of almost a hundred miles.
The limestone lands of east Yorkshire, which stretch westward from near Scarborough, along the feet of the moorlands, to the Hambledon hills, and then bend southward to the extremity of those hills, where the line returns eastward, and along the Howardian hills to Mahon, form three-fourths of the outline of the vale of Pickering ; the remaining quarter is filled up with the chalk cliffs of the \Vold; its form is an imperfect oval, the larger diameter of which is about 35 miles ; its shorter rather more than 10 : its area contains nearly 300 square miles. This vale has all the ap pearance of a lake left dry by nature ; it is in fact a bason formed by eminences on every side, except one narrow outlet for its waters. The rivers which flow through it are the Dement and Rye. The district of Holderness, though not strictly speaking a vale, has so decidedly the natural characters of a true vale district, with respect to elevation, surface, and soil, that it may be proper to notice it along with the vales of Yorkshire. It comprises the country to the north and east of Hull; and is bounded on the north and west by the \Voids, on the east by the British Ocean, and on the south by the estuary of the Humber ; the extent of this flat tract of land between the skirts of the \Vold hills, the sea, and the Humber, is rather more than 400 square miles. The towns of Bridlington, Driffield, Beverley, and Hull', stand near the outline of this district.