The city yielded to the
Puritans, whose temperament had already rather characterized it.
James II., as Duke of York, made it his brief sojourn; "proud
Cumberland," returning from Culloden after the defeat of the
Pretender, visited the city and received its freedom for
destroying the last hope of the Stuarts; perhaps the twenty-two
rebels who were then put to death in York were executed in the
very square where those wicked men thought I was wanting to play
the horses. The reigning family has paid divers visits to the
ancient metropolis, which was the capital of Britain before
London was heard of. The old prophecy of her ultimate primacy
must make time if it is to fulfil itself and increase York's
seventy-two thousand beyond London's six million.
IX
I should be at a loss to say why its English memories haunted my
York less than the Roman associations of the place. They form,
however, rather a clutter of incidents, whereas the few spreading
facts of Hadrian's stay, the deaths of Severus and Constantius,
and the election of Constantine, his son, enlarge themselves to
the atmospheric compass of the place, but leave a roominess in
which the fancy may more commodiously orb about.
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