=--Great Northern Railway, King's Cross Station.
=Nearest Station.=--Easingwold _via_ York and Alne; from thence runs
a branch line to Easingwold.
=Distance from London.=--199 miles.
=Average Time.=--About 5 hours.
=Fares.=--No through fares in operation.
=Accommodation Obtainable.=--The village inn--"The Fauconberg
Arms."
The pretty little village of Coxwold, where the Rev. Laurence Sterne
wrote _A Sentimental Journey_, lies about 18 miles north of York. The
hamlet stands on slightly rising ground. At the bottom of the hill is
the village smithy, the well, a farm, and facing a big elm tree is the
inn, bearing a great hatchment-like signboard showing the Fauconberg
arms and motto. The cottages of the villagers are on the slope of the
hill, and at the top is the church to which Sterne was appointed vicar
in 1760. Close at hand is the quaint seventeenth-century house he
occupied. It is a singularly picturesque little building, with its mossy
stone-covered roof, its wide gables, and massive chimney-stacks. Sterne,
in his humorous way, called it "Shandy Hall." The stone tablet over the
doorway states that Sterne wrote _Tristram Shandy_ and _A Sentimental
Journey_ at Shandy Hall; but this is not quite accurate, for he entered
upon the incumbency of Coxwold in 1760, whereas two volumes of _Tristram
Shandy_ had already been published in 1759. Of his life at Coxwold one
gathers that the vicar was more devoted to his books than to his parish.
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