" Our Boys " At Wood Green.

1 ; J . Walker 2 ; and T . Allison 3 . L . Jones pulled up well from scratch , and looked like winning in tho last lap , but when nearly home he fell . Throwing tho Cricket Ball— II . England ( 91 yards ) 1 ; A . R . Parker 2 . G . Dawson , II . Pulman and V . J . Lee also competed . Half Mile Handicap .-E . lies ( 30 yards ) 1 ; J . Hutton ( 10 yards ) 2 ;

F . Booth ( 60 yards ) 3 . Twelve competitors . Long Jump ( Open ) . —L . Jones ( 14 feet ) 1 ; J . Waddiugton 2 . Nine competitors . Tng of War . —In the first pull off V . J . Lee ' s team won easily against A . R . Parker ' s ; and in tho second R . Head ' s team were victorious

against R . KeddalPs . In the final , after a tie , Head's team secured the prizes , though they had a slight advantage in respect to ground . Sack Race . —J . Walker 1 ; S . Roberts 2 . Small Boys' Race . —G . Warner 1 ; W . Emmott 2 ; T . Allison 3 . Band Boys' Race . — E . B . Tibbitt 1 ; P . Garston 2 ; E . Jones 3 . Special Race for prizes given by the Lord Mayor . —First , 21 s , L .

Jones ; second , 12 s 6 d , R . lies ; third , 7 s 6 d , H . Healey . At the conclusion of tho sports the prizes were distributed by Mrs . Edgar Bowyer , for whom hearty cheers were given , as well as for the Lord Mayor , Bro . Raynbam Stewart and the other members of the House Committee , Bro . Frederick Binckes , the Secretary , and the Head Master Bro . the Rev . Richard Morris . Afterwards there was dancing in the schoolroom , and a most enjoyable evening was passed , up to the latest hour of the returning trains for town .

York Castle.

YORK CASTLE .

FROM THE KETSTONE .

/ " \ NE of the most picturesque of our numerous York ruins is what " is left of the old Castle of York , and strangers should make a point , in fine weather , of getting a view of the ancient tower from tbe Bail Hill , or part of the old . fortifications on the opposite side of the river . Of the stout pile which for so many centuries alternatel y guarded and threatened the good burgesses of York , little now

remains , but the remnant is both characteristic and interesting . As York was always the key of the military roads , north and south , so , from the very earliest recorded days , its castle was an important stronghold , and so remained until the age which saw the demolition of the mediaeval fortresses , the advent of battering artillery , aud the substitution of earthworks for high stone walls . For

many years York Castle has been used as a county prison , and a modern battlemented wall with massive towers now takes tbe place of the former moat , but inside this wall is enclosed the old keep , known as Clifford ' s Tower , whose interior has been the scene of some of the most tragic episodes in England ' s history . Tbe ancient family of Clifford were appointed Wardens of this tower during the reign of

William the Conqueror , and from that date until 1684 , when the tower was gutted by fire , it remained a military stronghold . It was the scene , in the reign of Richard I ., of a horrid massacre of Jews , rivalling in atrocity those which are now faking place in Russia . A conspiracy against these unfortunate people , many of whom , possess , ing great wealth , resided in York , was formed by the inhabitants of

the city , and most of them in alarm begged to be admitted into the tower for safet y . Here they would have been secure , except- for a misconception on the part of the governor , who imagined the Jews had taken possession of the fortress , and appealed to tbe sheriff , who instantly called out his whole posse comitatus to besiege the castle . When the Jews saw that they were certain to be destroyed , they

resolved to cut the throats of their women and children , and then set fire to the tower , which they did . Those who esc-ped the knife or the flames were mnrdered by the bloodthirsty mob outside , to whom the last remnant of the Jews had opened the gates under a promise of safety . Thns , on the 11 th March 1190 , perished about 2000 of the chosen people , men , women and children .

Perhaps the criminal records and associations of the Castle as a jail are as interesting as anything to most people , and this county prison conld tell some terrible stories of the captives who have lived and died within its walls , or been dragged out to suffer a terrible death . The first record we have of its use as a jail is in 1569 , when its governor or jailer Oswald Wilkinson was taken to London , tried

as a traitor , and banged , drawn and quartered , at Tyburn . This same method of doing to death was as common at York as anywhere else , for the assize records show that between 1370 and 1879 about five hundred and sixty-four people were beheaded or hanged here . Up to the former date the power of life and death had been in tho hands of the Abbot of St . Mary at York , whose ancient prison-house

is still to be seen , bnt subsequently this terrible authority was usurped by the government , and a new gallows was bnilt on the Knaves Mire , a low-lying and level tract of land outside the City , and now the race course , and there men were hanged and quartered , and women guilty of " petty treason" ( which included husband murder ) were burned . All sorts of prisoners were held here in promiscuous

bondage , and frequently enongh the judges were spared the trial , and the hangman the despatch of many wretched individuals , by the diseases peculiar to prisons , which then raged without hindrance , and often decimated the crowd of unhappy wights . The parish regisler of St . Mary , the nearest church to the castle , gives sickening proof of this , for " natural death , " in those clays , was held to be synonymous with every form of fever , bronchitis and other ailments connected with

cold and starvation , which wore wont to be contracted by those confined in the wretched apartments of a prison in the good old days . All sexes and ages were bundled together into one set of rooms , and the condition of their Hve 3 was so horrible that misery became converted into desperation , and fights were frequent . As often as irot the results of these scrimmages were fatal , and the governor seldcm cared to interpose unless tho noise interfered with the comfort of tho garrison , in which case a few of the jailers would make a raid upon

York Castle.

the prisoners , armed with enormous keys fastened to heavy chains , which they swung ronud and round , and which coming in contact with a prisoner's head would undoubtedly knock his brain 3 out , or at any rate leave him senseless , npon the floor . Under suoh circuni . stances it is not to be wondered at that attempts to break prison were frequent and desperate . In 1653 six prisoners got away ,

and in 1761 when some one hundred and twenty-one French captives of war were confined in York Castle , they cut away the bars of a window , and twenty escaped , of whom ouly six were re-captured . There was a great difference in the respective accommodations of the first , second and third-class debtors and of the criminals . The two former were , up to a very late date , allowed the run of the grass

lawn , in the centre of the prison , where a herd of deer were kept . Both sexes were allowed to mix together , and hold high jinks if they were so minded . Gay and festive was the scene when these privileged folks met at nice little dinners prepared by tbe fair hands of some of the debtors and midnight revels broke the stillness of tho grim court yards . For the third-class debtors , however , there were

no such delights . They were made to feel the pinch of their povert y and inferiority , and had to sleep on rushes in celts with unglazed windows , and subsist on prison fare . Occasionally members of our own Brotherhood found themselves in this unpleasant predicament , for in some of the older minutes of the Grand Lodge of York , I have noticed entries of sums voted for the relief of poor Brethren Ian .

guishing in the debtors prison . When the nnhappy debtors were admitted , they had to pay fees technically known as " garnish " and " chummage , " and when they were discharged , they were again mulcted in various sums before thoy were suffered to depart . In our York prison records are many incidents closely bearing

upon the history of this conntry . In 1291 the Welsh rebel Rees , of Meredith , was hanged here . During the great struggle between the Red Rose of Lancaster and the White Rose of York , this prison alternately held the prisoners of both parties . The bead of the Duke of York was stuck upon Micklegate Bar , the southern entrance of the city , and his face was turned towards York , in order that he

might look upon the spot whence he derived his title . Soon afterwards Shakespeare's " Sun of York" having turned the tables at Taunton Field , rode into York and substituted the heads of tbe Earl of Devon , the Earl of Ryme , and other titled foes , for that of hia father . After the suppression of the Yorkshire rebellion against the land tax of Henry VII ., the leader of the canny Yorkshiremen ,

John a Chambre , was hanged on a " gibbet raised a stage higher than ordinary in the midst of a square gallows , as a traitor paramount , and a number of his men that were hia chief accomplices were hanged upon the lower storey round about him . " N 9 xt amongst the prominent victims of the political struggles of those days came the Yorkshire leaders of the Pilgrimage of Grace , Robert Aske , Lord

Hussey and William Wade , who also suffered the last penalty in the same place . In the great civil war of the Stuarts , York was loyal almost to the last . In 1640 , one Thomas Stafford , was clapped in the Castle for saying that " souldgeares were all rogues , " and that the King was " fitter to be hanged than to be a Kinge , " and two years later , one , John Troutbeck , was also sent to durance vile for

the expressed opinion that the King was" halfo French , halfe Germaine , and that he could live as well without a King as with a King . " But later on , things wero changed , and Colonel Morris and Cornet Blackburn , who were suspected of being concerned in the death of Colonel Rainsborough , at Doncaster , were executed at York after a smart attempt to escape from the Castle . In 1663 there

came a time when the old Puritan spirit broke out again in Yorkshire , and there was a rising against the merry monarch , which cost twenty-two lives on the scaffold aud many other living deaths in the cells of the gloomy castle . In the rebellion under Prince Charlie , YoTk remained steadfast to the House of Hanover , and on the return of cruel Cumberland from the fatal field of Culloden , he rewarded

the citizens for their constancy by leaving to their disposal a large collection of prisoners , most of whom wero executed in the revolting manner peculiar to the age . As for the immense numbers of persons immured in the place because they had the misfortune to be Roman Catholics , Protestants , Quakers , Methodists , or what not , at the wrong time , their name is legion , to say nothing of women accused

of witchcraft . Most of these poor people , however , were guiltless of any crime that in these days would be visited by more severe penalties than a short imprisonment , and many of them were void of offence either towards God or man . Far otherwise was it with some others , who were the perpetrators of desperate crimes , such as Eugene Aram , whose wretched story is so romantically told by

Lord Lytton ; Nevison , who was tho hero of the feat attributed to Turpin , of riding from London to York on his mare in fifteen hours , a distance of 200 miles . Dick Turpin was simply a wretched murderer , who was executed in 1734 , whereas Nevison flourished many years before . About 1676 , he committed a robbery in London , and at daybreak ( 4 a . m . ) mounted his mare and rode into York at

7 p . m . He was arrested and tried , but managed to prove an alibi , and Charles II . nicknamed him " Swift Nick . " Finally , Nevison met his deserts and was hanged on the Knavosmire , in 1684 . Oar last titled priscner was a Lord Eglinton , who managed to kill a Mr . Maddox , in a gambling quarrel , in 1816 , but who was afterwards reprieved . n Some poitions of tho interior structures , and especially the old the

debtors' prison , aro exceedingly fine examples of architecture , of style of Wren , aud the frowning heights of the mediicval wallP , brooby Ihe waters of the river Foss , carry tho thoughts back to an early period of onr history . I am looking forward to meeting some of your friends this summer , as we are told that a great number ot Americans will visit us , and 1 hope that any Brother Masons who come to York will scud mo notice of their visit , and give me the pleasure of "recting them in old Eboracum .

J . E . S IIAND & Co ., Wine Merchant ( Exports anil Valuers ) . Well formentoil old Wine' and matured Spirits . 2 Albert Mansions , Victoria-street , London , o .