THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

Greater than all the folk-lore and the history of these dales is their wonderful beauty of scenery, their purity of air, and the peaceful lives which their folks live.  From the summit of Danby Beacon, a round-topped hill, encrusted with tumuli nd earthworks, and eloquent of the long-dead prehistoric races who lived there, the eye falls on one of the widest prospects in Yorkshire, wherein there is scarce a spot that is not full of invitation to one weary of the life of cities to rest and let the affairs of the outer world go by unheeded for ever.

Fletcher/Picturesque3

At last I reached the Beacon, the highest point, houe-crowned, of all that part of the North Yorkshire moors, and the site of a beacon in Armada times, and on many subsequent occasions when it was thought or feared that invasion might ensue. Before me, looking westward, was moor, so that I could see nothing else. On either side was moor, with a valley on the left, and on the right, to the north, an expanse of cultivated land beyond. Across the valley just named there was moor again; and the valley was, it was clear, but a narrow one; while behind me, as I knew, lay three good miles of moor, and nothing but moor. It was a solitude, and a singularly lonely solitude.

Atkinson/Parish