European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 25, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Harrogate an elegant Oasis in the Yorkshire Moor by Craig r. Whitney new York times readers of James Herriot s All creatures great and Small and other books know the Lovely North Yorkshire town of Harrogate As Quot Brewton Quot the quiet spa where his country veterinarian could seek escape on his one free Day a week. Harrogate today Luxuriate in what Herriot has called Quot the gentle air of  Quot even now when i step from my car in Harrogate i can feel myself relaxing feel the tensions and the pressures growing less Quot Herriot explains in his travel Book James Herriot s Yorkshire. Few people come to take the Waters nowadays but Many come to wander through the pleasant Flower gardens or to browse or buy at one of the 40 antique stores. Though Harrogate has a population of 64,000, the bucolic Center gives it the look and feel of a Small town dominated by a spacious Public Park called the stray. It s something like a new England Village Green with gazebos and grass Meadows where on summer evenings bands play and people gambol. The enclosure act that established the Park dating from 1770, allows townspeople to Graze their sheep there. Built on a series of gentle undulations the town is mainly Low victorian Sandstone Neo gothic or neoclassical buildings with the solidity but not the elegance or sweep of the much larger spa at Bath. A statue of Victoria herself presides regally in a Square near the railway station. The Many Large hotels Date from Harrogate s glory Days As a spa for the Gentry from London and Edinburgh since it lies about Midway Between them. The Stark Upland Moorland pastures of the Yorkshire a amps British tourist authority top the melancholy ruins of fountains Abbey. Above modern chairs and tables mingle under the Neo classical dome of the Royal pump room. Dales National Park lie just to the West and North and the town is an Ideal place from which to explore some of the attractions of North Yorkshire though the modern name infuriates local patriots who Point out that Harrogate and Vicinity Are in what used to be called the West Riding. The splendid 12th-Century ruins of fountains Abbey. Cistercian monastery in a Rural Riverside setting in Studley Royal Park is Only a 15-minute drive to the North. Ripon with its Cathedral is 11 Miles North of Harrogate and Knaresborough a medieval town with a Norman Castle Tower perched High above the River Nidd is just three Miles to the East. Knaresborough still has a town crier in 18th-Century dress who sounds like a quaintly Oral version of one of those free newspapers you get at grocery stores ending his announcements with Quot have a Good Day enjoy yourselves and god save the  the victorian Industrial town of Bradford once the Center of the Wool textile Industry that flourished on the backs of the sheep that still populate the country Meadows All around is 20 Miles to the Southwest and Worth visiting for its splendid National museum of photography film and television. Today the Baths at Harrogate Are mostly memories though you can still take one at the turkish and Sauna suite. It is a late 19th-Century imagination of a turkish Bath with moorish Arches and mosaic tiles in the palatial Royal Baths building on Crescent Road. The Baths include a russian steam room three hot rooms called the Tep Darium Cal Darium and la conium a which at up to 220 degrees fahrenheit is something like the inside of a steam locomotive boiler a a cold plunge room and a Massage room. The rooms Combine for what brochures describe As Quot the ultimate in self indulgence. Visitors who feel no need of a Massage or Sauna can continued on Page 12 october 25, 1990 stripes Magazine