As a rule they employed one horse from Pickering to Raindale, where there was a public-house; then two to Fenbogs, and one to Bank Top above Goathland.  If the wind were fair the coach would run to Grosmont by itself, after that one horse took the coach to Whitby.  If more than one horse were used they were yoked tandem; five were kept at Raindale, where Wardell lived.  There were two coaches, “The Lady Hilda” and the “Premier”; they were painted yellow and carried outside, four in front, four behind, and several others on the top, while inside there was room for six.  Wardell helped to make the present railway, and has worked for fifty-five years as a platelayer on the line.  He remembers Will Turnbull of Whitby who used to act as guard on the railway coach, and in the same capacity on the stage-coach from Pickering to York.  He made the journey from Whitby to York and back daily, the coach running in conjunction with the railway coach; the two drivers were Mathew Groves and Joseph Sedman.

Gas, which must have been a perpetual wonder to the village folk when they came into Pickering, made its appearance in 1847; but even at the time of writing the town is only illuminated from the 10th of August until the end of April, and even in that period the streets are plunged in darkness at 11 p.m.  The drainage of the town was taken in hand to some extent about fifty years ago, and the pestilential ditches and sewers that existed to within thirty years of the present time have gradually disappeared.  Then between thirty and forty years ago the great spring in the limestone at Keld Head was utilised to give the town a water-supply, and thus the wells and pumps were superseded.  Before the Local Board came into being about half a century ago, piles of timber were allowed to lie in Eastgate, and generally one may imagine the rather untidy quaintness so strongly characteristic of the engravings that illustrate country scenes in that period.

In 1841 or thereabouts there was a great gale that carried away the sails of the windmill which stood near the railway station, and a year or two afterwards the brick tower was demolished.

The early years of Queen Victoria’s reign saw the destruction of several picturesque features, and they also witnessed the decease of some more of the old customs that were still fighting for their existence.  Some of the old folks can just remember hearing their fathers tell of “the standing in church,” described in the last chapter, and they quite well remember when the children used to receive prizes for saying poetry in front of the Communion-table in the parish church.  Stang-riding continued up to twenty-five years ago in spite of the opposition of the police.  Two figures to represent the individuals who had earned popular disfavour were placed in a cart and taken round the town for three successive nights, accompanied by a noisy crowd, who sang—­

“Arang atang atang
Here do we ride the stang,
Not for my cause nor your cause
Do we ride the stang,
But for the sake of old....”