2 The Old Starre Inn

1 The conquerors of Imperial Rome may have been honoured with wreaths of laurel leaves; lovers and fortune’s favourites have, we are told, roses strewn in their paths; but English magicians were always only ever given common ivy.

2 The great church at York is both a cathedral (meaning the church where the throne of the bishop or archbishop is housed) and a minster (meaning a church founded by a missionary in ancient times). It has borne both these names at different periods. In earlier centuries it was more usually called the Minster, but nowadays the people of York prefer the term Cathedral as one which elevates their church above those of the nearby towns of Ripon and Beverley. Ripon and Beverley have minsters, but no cathedrals.

3 The stones of York

1 The well-known ballad “The Raven King” describes just such an abduction.

Not long, not long my father said

Not long shall you be ours

The Raven King knows all too well

Which are the fairest flowers

The priest was all too worldly

Though he prayed and rang his bell

The Raven King three candles lit

The priest said it was well

Her arms were all too feeble

Though she claimed to love me so

The Raven King stretched out his hand

She sighed and let me go

This land is all too shallow

It is painted on the sky

And trembles like the wind-shook rain

When the Raven King goes by

For always and for always

I pray remember me

Upon the moors, beneath the stars

With the King’s wild company

2 The example cited by Mr Honeyfoot was of a murder that had taken place in 1279 in the grim moor town of Alston. The body of a young boy was found in the churchyard hanging from a thorn-tree that stood before the church-door. Above the door was a statue of the Virgin and Child. So the people of Alston sent to Newcastle, to the Castle of the Raven King and the Raven King sent two magicians to make the Virgin and the Jesus-Child speak and say how they had seen a stranger kill the boy, but for what reason they did not know. And after that, whenever a stranger came to the town, the people of Alston would drag him before the church-door and ask “Is this him?” but always the Virgin and Child replied that it was not. Beneath the Virgin’s feet were a lion and a dragon who curled around each other in a most puzzling manner and bit each other’s necks. These creatures had been carved by someone who had never seen a lion or a dragon, but who had seen a great many dogs and sheep and something of the character of a dog and a sheep had got into his carving. Whenever some poor fellow was brought before the Virgin and Child to be examined the lion and the dragon would cease biting each other and look up like the Virgin’s strange watchdogs and the lion would bark and the dragon would bleat angrily.