Celia travelled extensively from spa town to spa town but enjoyed exploring country towns and stately homes. In 1697 she visited Yorkshire as part of her Northern Journey to take various spa waters.
Her views on Ripon
A pretty Little market town mostly built of Stone, 8 mile (from Knaresborough I think), a Large Market place with a high Cross of severall Stepps; we were there the Market day where provisions are very plentifull and Cheape.
In the Market was sold then 2 good Shoulders of veal, they were not very fatt nor so large as our meate in London but good meate, one for 5d the other for 6d , and a good quarter of Lamb for 9d or 10d , and its usual to buy a very good Shoulder of Veale for 9 pence, and a quarter of Beefe for 4 shillings; Indeed it is not large ox Beef but good Middling Beasts: and Craw ffish 2d a Dozn -so we bought them.
Notwithstanding this plenty some of ye Inns are very dear to Strangers that they Can impose on. The town Stands on a hill and there is a good large Stone built Church well Carved, they Call it a minster. There is very fine painting over the alter, it Looks so natural just like Real Crimson satten with gold ffringe like hangings, and Severall rows of Pillars in jsles on Either side wch looks very naturall. There are two good Bridges to the town, one was a rebuilding, pretty large with Severall arches Called Hewet bridge-its often out of repaire by reason of the force of ye water that Swells after great raines, yet I see they made works of wood on purpose to breake the violence of ye Streame and ye Middle arche is very Large and high.
There are Severall good houses about ye town and Severall Gentlemens Seates about a mile or two distance’…She went on to describe Newby Hall which she thought was the finest country house in Yorkshire at the time.
Celia’s interests
Celia was nothing if not practical. She was interested in what she saw, the lives people led and the sights that she might see. She always wrote about town markets, describing how busy they were and whether they were thriving or not.
Celia was also very enthusiastic about stone built houses, wide streets and cleanlinesss. Rather than looking to the past her writing suggests she was in favour of modernity. Interestingly, many of Ripon’s buildings were rebuilt from brick by the time of Celia’s visit – or at least old timber framed buildings were being record in brick to make them look thoroughly modern. Obviously brick was less expensive that stone – by the end of the Georgian period it was the building material of choice and reflects the changing social status of town dwellers as well as the increasing wealth of the urban and mercantile classes.
Inevitably my pictures of Ripon town are locked up on my faulty external hard drive – but at least its an excuse to go back…
Celia Fiennes – England from a Side Saddle.
Early in 1280 Queen Eleanor of Castile arranged a marriage for the sister of one of her closest ladies in waiting, and first cousin, Joanna de Fiennes. The ‘sister’ was Margaret de Fiennes, and the ‘lucky’ husband was Edmund Mortimer of Wigmore. Edmund’s father had been the leader of the ‘Hit-Squad’ at Evesham that had killed Simon de Montfort. Margaret and Edmund’s son was the infamous Roger Mortimer.
In her, ‘Through England on a Side-Saddle,’ Celia Fiennes, a direct descendant of Joanna describes the Eleanor Cross at Hardingstone, erected by Edward I to his wife’s memory as a memorial to “some queen of England.”