Though agriculture has not been neglected, but on the contrary has been practised with great suc cess in some of the richest spots, yet the breeding of cattle and other live stock is carried on to a greater extent here than in the other Ridings. The operations of the dairy are also common. The cows are generally of a small size: the average weight of the oxen is 40 stone. Flocks of sheep are numerous; of which they are rapidly improving the kind by the introduction of better breeds. The fine wool of this division is not exported. but used for the manulacture of hosiery, which the females here cultivate pretty considerably. This Riding has long been celebrated for the rearing of horses, calculated respectively for the draught, the turf, and saddle, and vast numbers of them are pur chased at the York and Howden fairs by dealers from London and almost every quarter of the em pire. There is also a smaller breed, not unlike the Scottish Shelties and Galloways.
This Riding, like the division last described, can hardly be said to be possessed of any mineral wealth. Lead, iron and copper mines have been wrought to a very small degree. Coal is found, but the quality is bad, and fuel is imported from Durham. Alum is got in considerable quantities, and is the source of considerable wealth. There are no manufactures, except those of linen, knit hose, and gloves, but none of them carried on very extensively.
Of towns and villages the most important are Whitby, population, 12,331; Scarborough, 8533; Northallerton, 4431; Maldon, 4005; Richmond, 3546; Thirsk, 2533.
With regard to antiquities, Yorkshire was in habited in the time of the Romans by the Brigantes. Eboracum, the present city of York, was the sta tion of the Legio sexta Victrix, where the em perors Severus and Constantius Chlorus died. There are throughout the county many old castel lated remains. The ecclesiastical ruins, however, are the most striking, including no fewer than 106 decayed religious houses, namely, 14 abbeys, 44 priories, 7 alien priories, 13 cells, and 28 houses of friars of various orders. (See Dugdale's Mo nuslicon .Rnzlicanunz.) This county has produced many eminent men; such as Constantine the Great, Allred, abbot of Ricvall, Wycliffe, Sir George Gower, Sandys the traveller, Sir Rohert Stapleton, Garth, Andrew 1\larvel, Tillotson, Bentley, Captain Cook. We may here mention that a curious biographical sketch of St. Ninian, bishop of Candida Casa, written by Allred, abbot of Rievall, who lived in the 12th century, forms the first article of a col lection of ancient biography, published by Pinker ton, and entitled Vitae JIntiquae Sanctorunt, qui ltabitavcrunt in re parte Britanniae, none vomit; Scotia, vel in ejus Insulas. Lond. 1789, 8vo.
See Bigland's Beauties of England and Wales; Hargrore's Yorkshire Gazetteer; Langdale's York shire Topography; and the various Sgricultural Surveys, by Tuke, Brown, Latham, and others. See also in this work, the articles Youx, WAKE FIELD, and the other important towns of this county. (T. n.)