“In Pykering Chirch I saw 2 or 3 Tumbes of the Bruses wherof one with his Wife lay yn a Chapel on the South syde of the Quirr, and he had a Garland about his Helmet.  There was another of the Bruses biried in a Chapel under an Arch of the North side of the Body of the Quier:  and there is a Cantuarie bering his Name.

[Illustration:  Pickering Castle from the Keep, looking South-West.

The gate tower is just shown on the left.  In the centre is the Mill or Miln Tower, with the circular stone staircase projecting like a turret at one corner, and in the foreground is one of the ruined towers that guarded the inner gateway.  In the distance is the broad Vale of Pickering.  The high ground is behind one’s back to the north. ]

“The Deane of York hath by Impropriation the Personage of Pykering, to the which diverse Churches of Pykering Lith doith Homage.

“The Castelle Stondith in an End of the Town not far from the Paroch Chirch on the Brow of the Hille, under the which the Broke rennith.  In the first Court of it be a 4 Toures, of the which one is Caullid Rosamunde’s Toure.

“In the inner Court be also a 4 Toures, wherof the Kepe is one.  The Castelle Waulles and the Toures be meatly welle.  The Logginges yn the ynner Court that be of Timbre be in ruine, in this inner Court is a Chappelle and a cantuarie Prest.

“The Castelle hath of a good continuance with the Towne and Lordship longgid to the Lancaster Bloode:  But who made the Castelle or who was the Owner of afore the Lancasters I could not lerne there.  The Castelle Waulles now remaining seme to be of no very old Building.

“As I remembre I hard say that Richard the thirde lay sumtyme at this Castelle, and sumtyme at Scardeburgh Castelle.

“In the other Part of the Toune of Pykering passing over Brook by a Stone Bridg of v Arches I saw 2 thinges to be notid, the Ruines of a Manor Place, caullid Bruses-Haul and a Manor Place of the Lascelles at Keld head.  The Circuite of the Paroch of Pykering goith up to the very Browes of Blackmore [Blackamoor was the old name for the moors north of Pickering], and is xx miles in Cumpace.

“The Park by the Castelle side is more then vii Miles in [qu:  circuit], but it is not welle woodid.”

The site of the Manor House of the Bruces appears to be in a field to the west of Potter Hill where hollows and uneven places in the grass indicate the positions of buildings.  The fine old Tudor house of Wellburn near Kirby Moorside until recently was in a ruinous state, and might possibly have disappeared after the fashion of Roxby and this Hall of the Bruces, but it has lately been completely restored and enlarged, and although its picturesqueness has to some extent been impaired owing to the additions, they are in the same style of architecture as the original building, and in time will no doubt mellow down to a pleasanter companionship.