ength of one
of the ringers, and that the date 1755 is the year of the re-casting. The
flagon is the only piece of the church plate belonging to this period. It
was made in 1805 by Prince of York.

In the year 1837 the Rev. Joseph Kipling, grandfather of Mr Rudyard
Kipling, was living at Pickering, and on the 6th of July of that year a
son, John, was born. Mr Joseph Kipling was a Wesleyan minister, and his
residence at Pickering was only a temporary one.

Another Wesleyan who was living at this time was John Castillo, the author
of many quaint poems in the Yorkshire dialect, and an original local
preacher as well. He died in 1845, and his grave is to be seen in the
burial-ground of the Wesleyan Chapel. It bears a verse from "Awd Isaac,"
the poem by which he is best known--

"Bud noo his eens geean dim i' deeath,
Nera mare a pilgrim here on eeath,
His sowl flits fra' her shell beneeath,
Te reealms o' day,
Whoor carpin care an' pain an' deeath
Are deean away."

In 1720 a new chapel was built at Pickering for Protestant Dissenters, but
before that time--as early as 1702--Edward Brignall's house was set apart
for divine worship by Dissenters. An Independent Church was formed in
1715, the people probably meeting in private houses for several years.
After this, little is known until 1788, when the Independent Church was
again established, and in the following year a chapel was built, and it
was enlarged in 1814.

It is an interesting fact that about 1862 the small manual organ in the
Independent church was played by a Mr Clark, who was organist at the
Parish church in the morning and at the chapel in the afternoon and
evening. Before this time the Independents had contented themselves with
violins and a bass viol, and for a time with a clarionette.

In 1801, the population of Pickering was 1994, and at the last census
before the accession of Queen Victoria it had increased to 2555.

During the Georgian period Pickering's only external illumination at night
was from that precarious "parish lantern," the moon. The drainage of the
town was crude and far too obvious, and in all the departments for the
supply of daily necessities, the individualistic system of wells,
oil-lamps or candles and cesspools continued without interference from any
municipal power.

The houses and cottages built at this time are of stone among the hills,
and of a mixture of brick and stone in the vale. Examples of cottages can
be seen