Excerpt from The Old Kingdom of Elmet: York and the Ainsty District; A Descriptive Sketch of the History, Antiquities, Legendary Lore, Picturesque Feature, and Rare Architecture For thirty years and more, and long before I acquired any knowledge on the subject, the very name of Elmet seemed to have something magnetic in its sound. And in due time it became incumbent upon me to put into book form the ideas and information which I had gained. The story of the Kingdom has been gradually acquired, and the structure built up little by little, after long study and repeated visits to the district extending over several years, and the gathering and piecing together of the fragmentary shreds of history. This knowledge cannot be obtained from books, for the best authorities on "North-Humberland History" give only vague references to this old principality. From Bede's time (our first authority) nearly every writer on the subject has trodden in his predecessors footsteps, without attempting to pierce the veil of mystery and silence overshadowing Elmet. I admit the scantiness of the material to be relied upon with absolute certainty; yet the theme is one of absorbing interest, and particularly so to those dwelling in Elmet. In its nomenclature, revealed in the names of its towns, rivers, hills, and prominent crags, still lingers the memory of a people - the Celts - whose kingdom was Elmet. Centuries before any historic record, the wolds of Elmet and the district around the lower reaches of the rivers Aire, Wharfe, and Nidd were the stronghold of a dominant or ruling class. The author is painfully conscious of his shortcomings in regard to the work, and is also aware that the subject, as portrayed in the following pages, is not in any way complete. Probably it will be the means of destroying a fallacy which I have repeatedly heard expressed, namely, that all the historic records concerning the Kingdom of Elmet could be told on a sheet of notepaper. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.