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black Barnsley; as it is appropriately called, from its being situated amid the smoke of engines, and the dingy dust of coal-works.
The clothing country now commenced, and the little villages that occurrred between this place and Wakefield, were busied in some branch of that extensive woollen manufacture which has thrown such inexhaustible wealth into Yorkshire; cloathed its hills with fatness; and filled its broad vales with houses and population. But in attending to the operations of present industry, we were not forgetful of the remains of ancient grandeur; and left the road a mile to the south of Wakefield, to take a passing look at the ruins of Sandall-Castle, built by one of the Earls Warren, in the thirteenth century. It afterwards became the residence of Edward Baliol, who passed here those anxious hours of suspence which elapsed whilst Edward III. was raising an army to re-establish him on the throne of his fathers ; a troublesome possession, which he was afterwards as glad to relinquish to his royal friend, as he had been desirous of obtaining it. In the reign of Henry VI. it afforded less auspicious shelter to the unfortunate Duke of York, who had appointed Sandall-Castle as the rendezvous of his army. Margaret, however, ever prompt and active, reached the spot with her troops before
