“From How Bridge along the Rye to where the Seven falls into the Rye, the whole length of the Seven.

“Wheeldale Beck to

“Mirke Esk to

“The Eske and along the Eske to where Lythe Beck falls into the Eske

“Where the Derwent springs and along the Derwent to where Tillabeck falls into the Derwent.

“Along Tillabeck to King’s Bridge.

“Along the Harford to the Derwent.

“Along the Derwent to where the Rye falls into the Derwent.

“Along the Rye to Howe Bridge.”

The records relating to Pickering are all so accessible since their publication by the North Riding Record Society that those who want to read more details of these picturesque mediaeval days can do so with very little trouble, but from the extracts that I have made, a general idea of the class of information contained in the Duchy Records may be obtained.  In this period many additions and alterations were made to Pickering church.  The Transitional Norman tower was largely rebuilt, and the spire was added in the Decorated style of Gothic prevalent in the fourteenth century.  Below the battlements of the tower there are shields, but the details have almost entirely weathered away.  The reticulated windows of the church belong to the same period.  They are very fine examples of the work of that time.  The north aisle, the chancel, and probably the north window of the north transept also belong to this period, so that work of an extensive nature must have been progressing on the church as well as the castle at the same time.  The walls of the nave and chancel appear to have been raised in the latter half of the fifteenth century, and this would be shortly before the remarkable series of wall paintings came into existence.  The date of these pictures can be brought down to fairly narrow limits, for the arms carried by the four knights who are shown about to murder St Thomas a Becket belong to the years between 1450 and 1460, according to Mr J.G.  Waller.  The Rev. G.H.  Lightfoot, a former vicar of Pickering, mentions[1] the discovery of traces of earlier paintings of superior execution when the present ones were being restored, but of these indications no sign is now visible.

[Footnote 1:  Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, 1895.]

[Illustration:  One of the Wall Paintings in Pickering Church.

St Christopher, the patron saint of travellers with the Infant Christ on his shoulder.  The saint is shown treading upon the serpent and grasping his staff, which is growing at the edge of the stream.

[The copyright is reserved by Dr John L. Kirk]