CHAPTER II

IMPORTANT FACTORS AFFECTING THE HISTORY OF YORK


A. GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION

Among the factors affecting this particular city geographical position
is evidently the most important. It is to this, combined with the
consequent military value of the site, that York owes its origin as a
city, its importance in the Middle Ages, and its practical importance
to-day. York, which is the natural centre for the North of England, is
the halfway house between London and Edinburgh, and is on the shortest
and quickest land or air route, however the journey is made, between
these two capitals. The Ouse and Humber have enabled it always to be
within navigable distance of the North-East coast. The city itself is
situated on an advantageous site in the centre of a great plain, the
north and south ends of which are open. The surrounding hills and
valleys are so disposed that a large number of rivers radiate towards
the centre of the plain. Civilisation--if we must rank the ultra-fierce
Norsemen, for instance, among its exponents--proceeded westwards from
the coast, and wave after wave of the invading peoples crossed with
ease the eastern and north-eastern hills, which are far less
formidable than those on the west. York was already an important place
in the days of Britain's making, the days when the land was in the
melting-pot as far as race and nationality are concerned.