YORK, the capital of Yorkshire, an archiepiscopal city, a municipal and parliamentary borough, and the seat of a Poor-Law Union, is situated on the banks of the river Ouse, or Ure, which flows through the midst of it, in 53° 37' N. lat., 1* 4' W. long., distant 199 miles N. by W. from London by road, and 191 miles by the Great Northern railway. The population of the municipal borough in 1851 was 36,303; that of the parliamentary borough was 40,359. The borough is governed by 12 aldermen and 86 connoillors, of whom one is lord mayor ; and returns two members to the Imperial Parliament. The livings are in the archdeaconry and diocese of York. York Poor-Law Union con tains 82 parishes and townships, with an area of 80,519 acre& and population in 1851 of 53,932.
York was originally a town of the Brigantes, a people of Celtic origin, described by Tecitus as the most numerous of the British tribes. It was converted into a Roman station during the second campaign of Agricola in Britain, about A.D. 79. By tho Romans it was called Eburacum, or Eboracum. It appears to have very soon become the principal Roman station of the north, and even of the whole province of Britain. It was the head-quarters of the sixth legion from the time of its arrival in Britain in the reign of Hadrian, till the departure of the Romans from the island. The ninth legion, which came over with the emperor Claudius, had previously been stationed here, and of course continued here after its incorporation with the sixth. From the time of Septimius Soverus, if not earlier, it was the residence of the emperors when they visited the province, and, in their absence, of the imperial legates.
One of the angle towers, and a portion of the wall of Eboracum attached to it, are to this day remaining in an extraordinary state of preservation. Excavations made at various times, aud in different parts of the city, have discovered many remains of the fortifications of Eboracum, on three of its sides. It is inferred that this important station was of a rectangular form, occupying a space of about 650 yards by about 550 yards, inclosed by a wall and a rampart mound on the inner side of the wall, and a fosse without ; with four angle towers, and a series of minor towers, or turrets, and having four gates or principal entrances, from which proceeded military roads to the neighbouring stations mentioned In the • Itinerary' of Autoninua.
Indications of extensive suburbs, especially on the south-west and north-west, exist in the numerous and interesting remains of funereal monuments, coffins, urns, tombs, bathe, temples, and villas, which from time to time, and especially in late yearn, have beau brought to light.
For more than a century after the departure of the Romans we have no account of the state of York. Though it lost the pre eunnenco it had so long meintained as the different Anglo-Saxon kingdoms rose and flourished, yet it was unquestionably the chief city of the north, and an important bulwark against the incursions of the Picts, from which there is reason to believe that it suffered greatly. When the kingdom of Northumbria was constituted, York became the capital, The historical notices of York from the foundation of the kingdom of Northumbria to the Norman Conquest are sufficient to show that it continued to be a place of considerable Importance. It was the principal royal residence. Here, under the lofty walls of York,' says Alcuin, Edwin, king of Northumbria, and fifth Bretwalda, was baptised by Paulinus; and here he erected the first metropolitan church. The first Danish invader found it necessary to employ a considerable force in order to make himself master of this bulwark of the north. Edgar, the first sole monarch of England, held, in the year 966, the Witen agemot in this city. Siward the Dane, who was earl of Northumber land in the reign of Edward the Confessor, built a church at York, dedicated to the royal Danish saint Olaf, or Olave, preparatory to his intended foundation of a monastery, and, dying at York, was buried in that church.