Walks Through the City of York

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1880 edition. Excerpt: ... prior to the use of street-lamps, though not at a more distant period than the middle of the last century. Within my recollection most of the houses of the gentry in York were provided with these conveniences, but now this is one of the very few remaining examples. The time has gone by when ladies and gentlemen returned from their revels by the light of flambeaux: --When in long rank a train of torches flame, To light the midnight visits of the dame. In the reign of King Charles II. (1673) the only mode of lighting the city during the dark nights was by 24 large lanthorns, "which the Lord Mayor caused to be made and hung up at convenient places in the corners of the principal streets of the city, to give light to those who passed through the streets." Two centuries earlier, when King Edward IV. paid a visit to the city, 100 torches were provided by the Corporation for the firepans for lighting the streets at night during the time the King was in the city. At other times, I presume, the citizens were left to grope their way through the dark streets and alleys aa they best could. Pursuing our way down Blake Street we shall observe with regret that, for the sake of giving a trifling increase of width to the street, the original semicircular portico of the Assembly Rooms was sacrificed a few years ago to make room for the present less appropriate structure. Of the Burlington Rooms a copious account is given in the Eboracum, to which I have little to add. The ceremonial of laying the foundation stone was reported in the newspapers of the day in the following terms: --On the 1st March, 1730, being the Queen's birthday, the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, with all the gentlemen in the town, laid the foundation stone of the Theatre, which is to be...