View of Swale Dale from Whitcliffe Scaur

Slide 1: Swale Dale proper may be said to start from Richmond. In romantic beauty it can hold its own with any other Yorkshire dale. The river being more confined between steep banks, rushes through rocky ravines and over high precipices and thus making it a more impetuous and turbulent stream than most of the other Yorkshire rivers, and giving it the character of a mountain torrent rather than a smooth flowing river. A good point for viewing the scenery of the Upper Swale is to be obtained from the top of Whitcliffe Scaur and rendered famous as the site of the extraordinary leap and still more remarkable escape of a hunter named Robert Willance in the year 1606, whose horse ran away and precipitated both itself and its rider to the bottom of the Scar. The horse was killed on the spot but Willance receiving no injury beyond a broken leg. The four miles from Richmond to Marske through woods and meadows, and under beetling cliffs are a happy introduction to the sterner beauties that succeed