The great influence of the royal State, second only to that of the Church, appears in the enclosing fortifications and especially in the solid stance of the Castle, where the keep stands out stoutly on its fortified mound.  The whole castle, self-supporting within its own defences, its massive walls, broad moats, outer and inner wards, protected gateways, drawbridges and other tactical devices, conveys an impression of power.  On the Bishop-hill side of the river there remains the mound (Baile Hill) on which the other castle was erected by order of William the Conqueror.  The whole city is enclosed by defensive works consisting of an embattled wall on a mound, with a moat or protecting ditch running parallel to it.  At intervals along the walls there are towers.  Where the four main roads enter the city there are the four gateways, or Bars, high enough to act as watch-towers and fit by their solid construction to offer a stout defence.  The royal State keeps its stern watch around and within.

The third great element, the People, are represented by the few narrow, winding streets and the crowded houses, sending up blue smoke from their hearths, clustering round the great buildings of Church and State.  The town itself is almost entirely in the eastern section of the city.  On the western side the houses are grouped along the river bank and between Micklegate Bar and Ouse Bridge; there are several monasteries and churches in this section also.  The third estate, the closely living masses, the people, has its outstanding buildings, but these are of comparatively local and small importance.  Although the city and guild halls stand out utilitarian yet beautiful above the dwelling-houses, yet they are not at all so prominent as the great erections of the Church and the State.

A glance over the city to-day from the Walls or the top of a church tower emphasises the dominance of the cathedral over the whole city.  The castle keep (Clifford’s Tower) is still an important feature in the view.  There were as rivals neither factories nor great commercial offices in the fifteenth-century city.

St. Clement’s Nunnery and six churches, of which three were not far from Walmgate Bar and one was near Monk Bar, were actually outside the city walls.

Without the city and the cultivated land near by most of the country consisted of great stretches of forest,[1] i.e. wood, marsh, moor, waste-land.  This surrounding forest-land was crossed by the few high-roads leading to and from the city, which they entered through the Bars.  The country was not all wild and tenantless, for here and there, scattered about, were baronial castles and estates, and monastic houses and lands, all of which had their farming.  In the forests there were villages each consisting of a few houses grouped together for common security, where lived minor officials and men working in the forest.  The great Forest of Galtres, to the north of York, was a royal domain.