n 1702, when the obelisk was erected, and
therefore I will leave the matter to others. It is, perhaps, an
un-Christian occupation to go about the country quarrelling with the
deeds of recent generations, though I am always grateful for any traces
of the centuries that have gone which have been allowed to survive.
With this thought still before me, I am startled by a long-drawn-out
blast on a horn, and, looking out of my window, which commands the
whole of the market-place, I can see beneath the light of a lamp an
old-fashioned figure wearing a three-cornered hat. When the last
quavering note has come from the great circular horn, the man walks
slowly across the wet cobble-stones to the obelisk, where I watch him
wind another blast just like the first, and then another, and then a
third, immediately after which he walks briskly away and disappears
down a turning. In the light of morning I discover that the horn was
blown in front of the Town Hall, whose stucco front bears the
inscription: 'Except ye Lord keep ye cittie, ye Wakeman waketh in
vain.' The antique spelling is, of course, unable to give a wrong
impression as to the age of the building, for it shows its period so
plainly that one scarcely needs to be told that it was built in 1801,
although it could not so easily be attributed to the notorious Wyatt.
Notwithstanding much reconstruction there are still a few quaint houses
to be seen in Ripon, and there clings to the streets a certain flavour
of antiquity. It is the minster, nevertheless, that raises the 'city'
above the average Yorkshire town. The west front, with its twin towers,
is to some extent the most memorable portion of the great church. It is
the work of Archbishop Walter Gray, and is a most beautiful example of
the pure Early English style. Inside there is a good deal of
transitional Norman work to be seen. The central tower was built in
this period, but now presents a most remarkable appearance, owing to
its partial reconstruction in Perpendicular times, the arch that faces
the nave having the southern pier higher than the Norman one, and in
the later style, so that the arch is lop-sided. As a building in which
to study the growth of English Gothic architecture, I can scarcely
think it possible to find anything better, all the periods being very
clearly represented. The choir has much sumptuous carved woodwork, and
the misereres are full of quaint detail. In the library there is a
collection of very ea