THE HISTORY OF THE TOWN AND CASTLE OF CAWOOD. ENTIMATELY connected with the history of the parish of Sherburn, is that of Cawood, the parish lying between the parish of Sherburn on the west, and the river Ouse on the east. Like Sherburn, in former times, but down to a far later period, Cawood was one of the principal seats of the Archbishop of York. As a place of unquestionable antiquity, however, Cawood is undoubtedly below its neighbour and former rival in greatness; yet the date of the foundation of its grandeur can be traced to the exact period of that of Sherburn. Both places are said to have been given to the see of York by King Athelstan, probably about the year 930; and from that time, for a number of years, both places were the houses of the northern prelates. The early history of Cawood is unfortunately involved in much obscurity. Prior to the latter part of the twelfth century very little is known of it, for, singularly enough, the three parishes of Cawood, Wistow, and Selby, are not surveyed in Doomsday Book, and as the usually comprehensive accounts of places enumerated therein are not to be recovered from other and contemporary documents, whatever is said of it, previous to that period, must necessarily be founded rather upon conjecture than direct historical records. Stirring events have undoubtedly been |