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diff --git a/old/11124.txt b/old/11124.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..26950cb --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11124.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7949 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Northumberland Yesterday and To-day, by Jean F. Terry + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Northumberland Yesterday and To-day + +Author: Jean F. Terry + +Release Date: February 17, 2004 [EBook #11124] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NORTHUMBERLAND *** + + + + +Produced by Miranda van de Heijning, Margaret Macaskill and PG +Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + +[Illustration: BAMBURGH CASTLE.] + +Northumberland Yesterday and To-day. +BY +JEAN F. TERRY, L.L.A. (St. Andrews), 1913. + +_To Sir Francis Douglas Blake, +this book is inscribed in admiration of +an eminent Northumbrian._ + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +CHAPTER I.--The Coast of Northumberland + +CHAPTER II.--North and South Tyne + +CHAPTER III.--Down the Tyne + +CHAPTER IV.--Newcastle-upon-Tyne + +CHAPTER V.--Elswick and its Founder + +CHAPTER VI.--The Cheviots + +CHAPTER VII.--The Roman Wall + +CHAPTER VIII.--Some Northumbrian Streams + +CHAPTER IX.--Drum and Trumpet + +CHAPTER X.--Tales and Legends + +CHAPTER XI.--Ballads and Poems + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS. + + +BAMBURGH CASTLE +(_From photograph by J.P. Gibson, Hexham_.) + +TYNEMOUTH PRIORY +(_From photograph by T.H. Dickinson, Sheriff Hill_.) + +HEXHAM ABBEY FROM NORTH WEST +(_From photograph by J.P. Gibson, Hexham_.) + +THE RIVER TYNE AT NEWCASTLE +(_From photograph by T.H. Dickinson, Sheriff Hill_.) + +NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE + +NORTH GATEWAY, HOUSESTEADS, AND ROMAN WALL +(_From photograph by J.P. Gibson, Hexham_.) + +ALNWICK CASTLE +(_From photograph by J.P. Gibson. Hexham_.) + +WRECK OF THE "FORFARSHIRE" +(_From illustration kindly lent by B. Rowland Hill, Newcastle_.) + +SKETCH MAP OF NORTHUMBERLAND +(_From a Drawing by C.H. Abbey_) + + + + +INTRODUCTORY. + + +The following book makes no pretensions to be a mine of deep historical +research or antiquarian lore; its object will have been achieved, and +its existence to some extent justified, if haply by its aid some of the +dwellers in this northern county of ours, with its past so full of +action, and its present so rich in the memorials of those actions, may +pass a pleasant hour in becoming acquainted through its pages with the +happenings which have taken place in their own particular fields, their +own streets, or by their own riverside. + +I am aware that many learned volumes on this subject, representing an +enormous amount of patient labour and careful research in their +compilation, are already in existence. To such this little book can in +no sense be a rival; but there must be many people who have not a +superabundance of time, to enable them to dig out the information for +which they wish, from these various sources; nor can they always make +these volumes their own, to be consulted at leisure. + +Northumbrians have always been interested in the records of their own +county, and are now-a-days not less so than when, some three-and-a-half +centuries ago, Roger North found them "great antiquarians within their +own bounds." If to such as these this little book may perhaps bring in a +more convenient form the information they seek, and help them to become +better acquainted with the county which inspired Swinburne to write in +stirring phrases of "Northumberland," and to address the home of his +people as + + "Land beloved, where nought of legend's dream + Outshines the truth"-- + +I shall be more than satisfied. I would take this opportunity of +expressing my grateful thanks to the Rev. Canon Savage, of Hexham, for +information relating to the tomb of Alfwald the Just, in the Abbey, +given with courteous readiness; to the Rev. Canon Jeffery, of Bywell, +for similar kindness regarding Bywell St. Peter's; to R.O. Heslop, Esq., +whose profound store of learning on the subject of "Northumberland +words" was in cases of uncertainty my final court of appeal; to E.T. +Nisbet, Esq., and J. Treble, Esq., to whom I am greatly indebted for +their goodness in reading my manuscript, and for their generous +encouragement following thereupon; to C.H. Abbey, Esq., for his kindness +in executing the map which accompanies these pages; and to Mr. G.P. +Dunn, of Corbridge, for much helpful criticism, and many suggestions +which only want of space has prevented my adopting in their entirety. + +J.F.T. + +_31st May_, 1913. + + + + +NORTHUMBERLAND YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY + + +CHAPTER I. + + +THE COAST OF NORTHUMBERLAND. + + "We'll see nae mair the sea banks fair, + And the sweet grey gleaming sky, + And the lordly strand of Northumberland, + And the goodly towers thereby." + + --_A.C. Swinburne_. + + +Wild and bleak it may be, hard and cruel at times it undoubtedly is, +but, nevertheless, this north-east coast of ours is at all times +inspiring, whether half-hidden by storm-clouds, its cliffs and hollows +lashed by the "wild north-easter," or seen calmly brooding in the warm +haze of a summer's day, its grey-blue water smiling beneath the +grey-blue sky, and its stretches of sand and bents edging the sea with a +border of gold and silver. + +In keeping with either mood of nature, the ancient Priory of Tynemouth, +standing on the sandstone cliffs on the northern bank of the Tyne, +rearing its grey and roofless walls above the harbour mouth, strikes a +note that is symbolic of the Northumbria of old and the Northumberland +of to-day--the note, that is, of the intimate commingling of the romance +of the warlike past and the romance of the industrial present. Here, +above the mouth of the river on which so many of the most noteworthy +advances in industrial science have been made, and out of which sail the +vessels which are often the last word of the moment in marine +engineering and construction, stand calmly looking down upon them all +the fragments of a building which was a century old when John signed +Magna Charta, and which stands upon the site of another that had already +braved the storms of nearly five hundred years. + +Looking upon the Priory of St. Mary and St. Oswin we are carried back to +the days when Edwin, the first king of Northumbria to embrace +Christianity, built a little church here, in which his daughter took the +veil. King Oswald had the first wooden structure replaced by a stone +one; and here, in 651, the body of another good king--Oswyn--was brought +for burial from Gilling, near Richmond in Yorkshire, where, disbanding +his army, he sacrificed his cause and his life to Oswy of Bernicia, with +whom he had been about to fight. + +[Illustration: THE PRIORY, TYNEMOUTH.] + +When the pirate ships of the Danes swept down upon our coasts, the +Priory of St. Oswin, conspicuous on its bold headland, could not hope to +escape their ravages. It was destroyed by the fierce invaders; but King +Ecgfrith[1] of Northumbria restored the shattered shrine. Again, in the +year 865, it was sacked and burnt, and the poor nuns of St. Hilda, who +had already fled from Hartlepool to Tynemouth hoping to find safety, +were ruthlessly slain and earned the crown of martyrdom. It was again +restored; but, five years later, the destroying hands of the invaders +fell on the place once more, and for two hundred years the Priory stood +roofless and tenantless. After the Norman Conquest, Waltheof, Earl of +Northumberland bestowed it upon the monks of Jarrow. The rediscovery of +the tomb of St. Oswyn in 1065, had gladdened the hearts of the monks, +and forthwith the monastery was reared anew over the ashes of its former +self. + +[Footnote 1: Pronounced "Edge-frith."] + +Mowbray, the next Earl of Northumberland, re-endowed the building. He +had quarrelled with the Bishop of Durham, so in order to do him a +displeasure, he made Tynemouth Priory subordinate to St. Albans instead +of to Durham and brought monks from St. Albans to dwell there. The new +buildings were finished in 1110, and the bones of St. Oswyn enshrined +within them, the right of sanctuary being extended for a mile around his +resting-place. This right, however, was already in existence, and had +been appealed to in 1095 by Mowbray himself, who fled here pursued by +the followers of William Rufus, against whom he had rebelled. The King's +men disregarded the sanctuary right, captured Mowbray, and sent him +prisoner to Durham[2]. [Footnote 2: See account of Bamburgh Castle.] + +In later days the queens of Edward I. and Edward II. visited Tynemouth +Priory; and it was from Tynemouth that the foolish King Edward II. and +his worthless favourite Piers Gaveston fled from the angry barons to +Scarborough. In the reign of Edward III., after the battle of Neville's +Cross, David of Scotland was brought here by his captors on his way to +Bamburgh, from whence he was sent to the Tower. + +At the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII. the Priory was +inhabited by eighteen monks with their Prior. They bowed to the King's +decree and left the monastery; but the church continued to be used as +the parish church until the days of Charles II., when Christ Church was +built. + +The Priory has many times formed the subject of pictures by famous +artists, the best known being that of no less a genius than J. M. W. +Turner; and its picturesque ruins are a well-known landmark to the +hundreds of voyagers who pass it on their journeys, outward or homeward +bound. Within the last few years the Priory has been in some measure +repaired and restored. + +There is but little left of Tynemouth Castle, which was built as a +protection for the monastery against the attacks of the Danes. It stands +in a commanding position on a neighbouring cliff, and is now used as +barracks for garrison artillery corps. During the days when Scotland +harried the English borders, the Priors of Tynemouth maintained a +garrison here; and later, in Stuart days, Charles I. visited the North, +and the fortress was strengthened just before the outbreak of the Civil +War. It was captured, notwithstanding, by Leslie, Earl of Leven, after +he had left Newcastle. Colonel Lilburn, left in charge as governor, +shortly afterwards avowed himself on the side of King Charles; but he +speedily paid for his change of allegiance, for the Castle was re-taken +by a force from Newcastle under Sir Arthur Hazelrigg, and Lilburn lost +his life in the fight. The Castle has long been used as a depot for the +storage of arms and ammunition. Behind the Spanish Battery which +commands the entrance to the Tyne stands a statue of the famous +North-countryman, Admiral Collingwood. + +Connected with Tynemouth, by the fact that a small chantry belonging to +the Priory once stood there, is St. Mary's Island. One may walk +unhindered at low tide across the rocks to this favourite place, but +where the chantry stood there is now a lighthouse with a powerful +lantern, flashing its welcome light to the seafarers nearing the mouth +of the Tyne, and extending + + "To each and all our equal lamp, at peril of the sea, + The white wall-sided war-ships, or the whalers of Dundee." + + +Between Tynemouth and St. Mary's Island lie Cullercoats, Whitley Bay, +and Monkseaton, and together these places make practically one extended +seaside town, stretching for three or four miles along the sea-front, +and joined by a fine parade which leads to open links at Monkseaton. Of +these places Cullercoats is most noteworthy. This picturesque fishing +village, with quaint old houses perched in every conceivable position on +the curve of its rocky bay, is, needless to say, a favourite camping +ground for artists. The Cullercoats fishwife, with her cheerful +weather-bronzed face, her short jacket and ample skirts of blue flannel, +and her heavily laden "creel" of fish is not only appreciated by the +brotherhood of brush and pencil, but is one of the notable sights of the +district. At Cullercoats is struck a note of the most modern of modern +achievements--the Wireless Telegraphy Station (225 feet); and here, too, +is situated the Dove Marine Laboratory, looked after by scientists on +the staff of the Armstrong College at Newcastle. + +In fine weather the crowds which pass and repass along the top of the +bold cliffs which overlook the fine stretch of sands between Cullercoats +and Monkseaton show how many hundreds of Northumbria's busy workers +enjoy the fresh breezes from the sea on this pleasant and bracing coast. +Out at sea, opposite the Parade, vessels built in the busy shipyards on +the Tyne may be seen doing their speed trials over the measured mile. +The Peace of St. Oswyn may, in fact, be said to brood over Tynemouth, +even in these days, for it is an increasing custom for those who can do +so to remain in Newcastle and other busy centres of toil only during +business hours, and to leave workshop and office every evening for their +home by the sea: while the tide of noisy, happy, boisterous +excursionists has rolled on to Whitley Bay, leaving Tynemouth to its +old-time sleepy content. Northward to Hartley and Seaton Sluice the +cliffs are very fine. Hartley, with its bright-looking red-tiled houses, +once belonged to Adam of Gesemuth (Jesmond) who lived in the reign of +King John. Coming down to modern times, about thirty years ago a gallant +Hartley man, Thomas Langley, rescued two successive shipwrecked crews on +the same day, in one case allowing himself to be lowered over the cliffs +at a terrible risk in the furious storm. + +Seaton Sluice belongs to the ancient family of the Delavals, whose +house, Delaval Hall, may be seen not far away, peeping from amongst the +trees which surround it. Seaton Sluice owes its name to the Delaval who +placed the large sluice gates upon the burn, in order to have a strong +current which, in rushing down to the sea, would be able to wash the +mouth of the stream clear from the silt and mud brought in by the +incoming tide. A later baronet, Sir John Hussey Delaval, made the +cutting through the solid rock which is so striking a feature of the +harbour. It was ready for the entrance of vessels in March, 1763. + +Delaval Hall is now owned by Lord Hastings, the present representative +of the Delavals, which family became extinct in the male line early in +the nineteenth century. The last Delaval, a very learned man, was buried +in Westminster Abbey in 1814. The Hall was built for Admiral Delaval in +1707 to the design of Sir J. Vanbrugh, who also designed Blenheim +Palace, given by the nation to the great Duke of Marlborough about the +same time. + +Hartley Colliery, about half a mile away, has a sad interest as being +the scene of the terrible accident in 1862, when a number of men and +boys were imprisoned in the workings owing to the blocking up of the +only shaft by a mass of debris, caused by the fall of an iron beam +belonging to the pumping engine at the pit-head. Before the shaft could +be cleared and a way opened to the workings, all the poor fellows had +died, overcome by the deadly "choke-damp." Joseph Skipsey, the pitman +poet, in a simple ballad, tells the pathetic story. + + "Oh, father! till the shaft is rid, + Close, close beside me keep; + My eyelids are together glued, + And I,--and I,--must sleep." + + "Sleep, darling, sleep, and I will keep + Close by--heigh ho."--To keep + Himself awake the father strives. + But he--he, too--must sleep. + + "Oh mother dear! wert, wert thou near + Whilst--sleep!" The orphan slept; + And all night long, by the black pit-heap + The mother a dumb watch kept. + +From here, northward, the coast is rather dull and uninteresting, +although the sands are fine, until we reach Blyth, at the mouth of the +little river of the same name. This town is growing rapidly in size and +importance; the export of coal has greatly increased since the harbour +was so much improved by Sir Matthew White Ridley, and now totals some +millions of tones a year. The river Wansbeck not far north of the mouth +of the Blyth, in the latter part of its course flows through a district +begrimed by all the necessary accompaniments of the traffic in "black +diamonds," and reaches the sea between the colliery villages of Cambois +and North Seaton. + +On the point at the northern curve of Newbiggin Bay stands Newbiggin +Church, and ancient building, whose steeple, "leaning all awry," is a +well-known landmark for sailors. The site of this church is in danger +of being undermined by the waves, and, indeed, part of the churchyard +crumbled away many years ago; but such defences as are possible have +been built up around it,--and the danger averted for a time. Newbiggin +itself is a large fishing village and an increasingly popular holiday +resort, for it possesses not only good sands but a wide moor near at +hand which provides one of the best of golf courses; and, also, a short +distance along the coast, are the attractive Fairy Rocks. + +Newbiggin was a town of some importance in Plantagenet days, with a busy +harbour, and a pier; and in the reign of Edward II. it was required to +contribute a vessel towards the naval defence of the Kingdom. + +Northward from Newbiggin Point is the magnificent sweep of Druridge Bay, +stretching in a fine curve of ten miles or more to Hauxley Haven. Here, +the sands of a warm golden colour, the wind-swept bents of silvery-grey, +and the vivid green of the grassy cliff tops edge the curve of the bay +with a line of bright and delicate colour, only thrown into greater +relief by the brown reefs and ridges which stretch out from the rocky +shores, and by the deep blue-green of the waves rolling inshore in long +majestic lines, to break into hissing foam on the sharp reefs, or slide +smoothly up the yellow sands in the centre of the bay. Above, beyond the +grassy tops of the cliffs, stretch deep woods, with the old pele-tower +of Cresswell looking out from amongst the trees, fields many-coloured +with their burden of varying crops, and wide lonely moors, where one may +walk for half a day without hearing any sound save the wild screaming of +sea-birds, or the whistle of the wind, with the low boom of the waves +below sounding a deep-toned accompaniment. The bay is not always so +peaceful, however, and many wild scenes and terrible shipwrecks have +taken place here, as everywhere along our wild north-east coast. The +Bondicar rocks, by Hauxley, and the cruel spikes of the reef at Snab +Point, near Cresswell, have betrayed many a gallant little vessel to her +doom. Not, however, without bringing on many an occasion proof of the +courage which is shown as a matter of course by the fisher folk on our +coasts. At Newbiggin, and Cresswell, for instance, deeds have been done, +which, in their simple unassuming heroism, may be taken as typical of +the hardy race which could count Grace Darling among its daughters. + +About thirty years ago, a ship drove ashore off Cresswell one bitter +night in January, and the fisher folk crowded down to the shore, +watching with sorrowful eyes the hapless crew clinging to their +unfortunate vessel, which was slowly being broken up by the waves. There +was no lifeboat at Cresswell then, and all the men of the village, +except the old men who were past work, had gone northward, when the +oncoming storm prevented their return. The women and girls heard the +cries of the schooner's crew, and mourned to each other their inability +to help. But one gallant-hearted girl, named Peggy Brown, cried out, "If +I thowt she could hing on a bit, I wad be away for the lifeboat." But +between them and Newbiggin, the nearest lifeboat station, the Lyne Burn +runs into the sea, and spreads widely out over the sands; and the older +people told Peggy she could never cross the burn in the dark. She set +off, however, the thought of the drowning men hastening her on. For four +miles she made her way in the storm and darkness, partly along the +shore, scrambling over rock's, and wading waist-deep through the Lyne +Burn and one or two other places where the waves had driven far up the +sands, and partly across Newbiggin Moor, where the icy wind tore at her +in her drenched clothing. She pressed on, however, and managed to reach +the coxswain's house and give her message. The lifeboat was immediately +run out, and the men reached the wreck in time to save all the crew +except one, who had been washed overboard. + +On another occasion one of the fishermen, named Tom Brown, was preparing +to go out, with the help of his two sons, in his own fishing coble to +the aid of a ship in distress on the reef. A carter had come down to the +beach, the better to watch the progress of events, and, terrified by the +thundering waves, his horse took fright, and in its plunging drove the +cart against the little boat, making a hole clear through one side. "Big +Tom," as he was generally called, merely took off his coat, rolled it +into a bundle and stuffed it against the hole. Then he beckoned to +another fisherman, saying to him "Sit on that." The man clambered in, +and without the loss of another minute these four heroes set off to save +their fellow creatures' lives, with a broken and leaking boat in a heavy +sea. And they did it, reaching the brig only just in time, for it went +to pieces a few minutes after the shivering crew had been safely landed. + +Incidents like these, which could be multiplied indefinitely, bring a +glow of pride to the heart, and a reassuring sense that the degeneration +of the race is not proceeding in such wholesale fashion--in the country +districts, at any rate--as the pessimists would have us believe. + +At the northern extremity of Druridge Bay is the little fishing village +of Hauxley, with the chimneys and pit-head engines of Ratcliffe and +Broomhill Collieries darkening the sky to the south-west. Passing the +Bondicar rocks and rounding the point we enter the "fairway" for +Warkworth Harbour and Amble, where a brisk exportation of the coal of +the neighbourhood is carried on. + +Lying out at sea, opposite Amble coastguard station, the white +lighthouse on Coquet Island keeps watch over the entrance to the +harbour. Some of the walls of the monastery, which stood on the island +in Saxon days, can now be seen forming part of the dwelling of the +lighthouse keeper. For many generations, too, hermit after hermit went +to dwell on this tiny islet, and St. Cuthbert himself is said to have +inhabited the little cell at one time. The island was captured by the +Scots in the Civil Wars of King Charles's reign, and held by them for a +time. + +The situation of Amble, at the mouth of the Coquet, has been looked upon +as convenient from very early days, for there are signs which tell us of +a population here at an early period. Several cist-vaens, or ancient +stone coffins, have been found near the town, and a broken Roman altar +was unearthed in the neighbourhood. The monastery which stood here, like +that on Holy Island, was, in later times, inhabited by Benedictine +monks, who were under the authority of the Prior of Tynemouth. William +the Conqueror gave the then Prior the right to collect the tithes of the +little town. + +A short distance from Amble, and practically encircled by the Coquet +which here makes a wide sweep, we come upon Warkworth, prettiest of +villages, combining the beauties of sea-shore and river scenery, and +rich in the possession of that romantic castle, the ruins of which carry +the mind back to Saxon times; for they stand on the site of an older +fortress erected by Ceolwulf, a Saxon King of Northumbria. He was the +patron of Bede, who dedicated his "Ecclesiastical History" to his royal +friend. Ceolwulf built both the fortress and the earliest church at +Warkworth, and a few stones of this latter building are still to be +seen. In 737, two years after the death of Bede, this royal Saxon laid +aside his kingly state and became a monk on Lindisfarne, + + "When he, for cowl and beads, laid down + The Saxon battle-axe and crown." + +It was when the castle was bestowed by Edward III. upon Lord Percy of +Alnwick that it became, for more than two hundred years, the chief +residence of that illustrious family; becoming in the next reign of +historical value as the home of that Hotspur whose valour and gallantry +made Henry IV. envy the Earl of Northumberland, in that he "should be +the father of so blest a son." In Act II., Scene 3 of "Henry IV.," Part +II., Shakespeare has laid the scene at Warkworth Castle, where Hotspur's +wife, troubled by her lord's moody abstraction, tries to win from him +the reason of his secret care. And after the battle of Shrewsbury, +Rumour, flying with the news of Hotspur's death, says:-- + + "Thus have I rumoured through the peasant towns, + Between the royal field of Shrewsbury + And this worm-eaten hold of ragged stone, + Where Hotspur's father, old Northumberland, + Lies crafty-sick." + +Two years after this, the castle was besieged by Henry IV. himself, and +surrendered to him after a brief bombardment by the newly invented +cannon. The keep was re-built by Hotspur's son, after the family +possessions had been restored to him by Henry V., and it is now the only +remaining part of the castle which is almost perfect. One of the +half-ruinous towers remaining is called the Lion Tower, from the +sculptured lion on its walls; while another rejoices in the curious name +of Cradyfargus. A strange story is told of a blue stone to be seen in +the courtyard of the castle. Many years ago, so runs the tale, one of +the custodians of Warkworth Castle dreamed three nights in succession +that a large treasure was concealed beneath a blue stone in a certain +part of the castle grounds. He told this dream to a neighbour, and after +allowing two or three days to pass, finding the dream constantly +recurring to his mind, he thought he would go to the place indicated, +and see what he could find. To his disappointment, however, he +discovered that some one had been there before him; a large hole had +been dug, and on the edge of it lay the blue stone. + +Needless to say, the hole was empty, nor could the keeper discover +anything about the treasure in the neighbourhood. It is said that a +certain family in the village became suddenly rich; and, many years +afterwards, a large and ancient pot, supposed to have been that in which +the buried treasure had been contained, was found in the Coquet. + +The main street of Warkworth leads straight up to the postern gate of +the castle, and many stirring sights have the successive inhabitants of +the little village looked upon, as the fortunes of the owners of the +castle waxed and waned throughout the many centuries in which the lords +of Warkworth played a notable part in the history of England. They saw +Henry Percy, entrusted with a share in the safe keeping of the country, +set out from Warkworth for Durham, to help in winning the victory of +Neville's Cross. + +They saw Hotspur's force set out for the Cheviots to intercept Douglas +and his followers, which they did at Homildon Hill, near Wooler; and it +was the quarrel in connection with the prisoners taken on that day which +led Hotspur and his father openly to throw off their allegiance to +Henry IV., so that a few months later the peasants of Warkworth saw +their idolised young lord set out for what was to prove the fatal field +of Shrewsbury. They saw Hotspur's father, the first Henry Percy to +receive the title of Earl, (a title which had been given him at the +coronation of Richard II.) set out with a brave force after Hotspur's +departure; and they saw his return, almost alone, dejected and broken in +spirit, having learnt that the help so tardily given had come too late, +and the life of his gallant son was ended. + +They saw the siege train of Henry Bolingbroke laid against the castle, +directed by Henry in person, provoked into these active measures by the +open rebellion of father and son, though Northumberland had tried to +make it appear that he was innocent of any treasonable act. After +capturing the castle, Bolingbroke bestowed it on his third son, John of +Lancaster, and the villagers saw the young prince riding in and out +among them daily so long as he made the castle his home. + +Then, in the next reign, they welcomed the return of Hotspur's son, +Henry, to the home of his fathers, restored to him by Henry V.; and, +within a short time, saw him bring home his bride, Eleanor Neville, +daughter of his friend and neighbour, the Earl of Westmoreland. + +In the Wars of the Roses, Warkworth Castle saw many changes of fortune, +as the tide of victory flowed this way and that. The Percies were all +Lancastrians, though Sir Ralph Percy changed sides twice. The castle +fell into the hands of the Yorkists, and the great Earl of Warwick, the +"King-maker" himself, made it his headquarters for a time, while he +superintended the sieges of Alnwick, Dunstanborough, and Bamburgh, which +were all invested at the same time. Eventually, after the Wars of the +Roses concluded, Warkworth was restored, along with the other Percy +estates, to its original owners. + +Finally, the inhabitants of the little village saw the church entered by +the Jacobites in 1715, when Mr. Buxton, chaplain of the little force, +prayed for James III. and Mary the Queen-mother; and General Forster, +dressed as a trumpeter, proclaimed King James III. at the village cross. + +A few miles north from the mouth of the Coquet, the little Aln spreads +over the sandy flats near Alnmouth, and reaches the sea. It has changed +its course, for at one time it flowed to the south of Church Hill, +instead of to the north as at present. The town of Alnmouth, viewed from +the train just before entering Alnmouth Station, looks very picturesque, +especially if the rare sunshine of an English summer should be lighting +up the bay, bringing out the vivid red of the tiled roofs against the +grassy hills fringing the links which lie on their seaward side, and +lighting up, also, the yellow sands and long lines of sparkling wavelets +edged with white. + +Alnmouth depends for its living on a fleet of fishing boats, and on the +numbers of visitors who seek its fresh breezes and inviting shores each +summer. Golfers, indeed, find it pleasant all the year round, as there +is only a scarcely appreciable interval in the winter months when their +favourite pastime cannot be followed on the breezy links. On Church +Hill, now crowned by a few old stones, once stood a Norman church, +dedicated to St. Valery, which, in its turn, occupied the site of an +older Saxon building, supposed to have been the church which Bede refers +to as being at Twyford, where a great synod of clergy was held in the +year 684, and Cuthbert appointed Bishop of Lindisfarne. It is a matter +of dispute whether this Twyford was Alnmouth or Whittingham, but the +two fords at Alnmouth seem to point to a decision in favour of that +place. The old Norman church, which fell into ruin at the beginning of +last century, was fired at by the famous pirate Paul Jones; the cannon +shot, weighing 68 pounds, missed the church, but struck a neighbouring +farm house, doing great damage. + +The coast north of Alnmouth becomes rocky and wild, and very +picturesque, and the villages along the coast are being sought out by +holiday makers in increasing numbers, year by year. Boulmer, one of +these villages, was a famous place for smuggling in the old days, and +many an exciting scene and sharp encounter took place between the +smugglers and the King's men. Not far away is Howick Dene, a lovely +little glen leading down to the sea from Howick Hall, the home of Earl +Grey. + +Cullernose Point, a striking crag, is formed by the outcrop of a portion +of the Great Whin Sill, which from here can be traced to the south-west, +and thence right across the county. + +At Craster, another fishing village and a favourite holiday haunt, is +Craster Tower, which has been the home of the family of Craster since +before the Conquest. Not far to the north is the famous Rumble Churn in +the rocks below Dunstanborough Castle, where the waves roll in and out +of the caves and chasms with weird and hollow rumblings. There is +another Rumbling Churn in the cliffs near Howick. + +The famous divine of the Middle Ages, John Duns Scotus, was born in this +parish--that of Embleton; the group of buildings known as Dunston Hall, +or Proctor's Steads, is supposed to have been his birthplace, and a +portrait of the learned doctor is to be seen there. + +Dunstanborough Castle stands in lonely grandeur on great whinstone +crags, close to the very edge of the sea, and on the first sight of it, +Keats' wonderful lines spring involuntarily to the lips:-- + + "Magic casements, opening on the foam + Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn." + +Forlorn, indeed, though not in exactly the sense conveyed by the poem, +is this huge fortress now; it abides, says Freeman, "as a castle should +abide, in all the majesty of a shattered ruin." The primitive cannon of +the days of the Wars of the Roses began to shatter those mighty walls, +and, unlike Bamborough, it has never been strengthened since. Simon de +Montford once owned this estate, and the next lord of Dunstanborough was +a son of Henry III., to whom Earl Simon's forfeited estate was given. +His eldest son, Thomas of Lancaster, took part with the barons in +bringing the unworthy favourite of Edward II., Piers Gaveston, to his +death. Under the King's anger, Lancaster went away to his Northumbrian +estate, and began to build this mighty fortress, though he already owned +the castles of Kenilworth and Pontefract. In the Wars of the Roses, +Dunstanborough Castle was taken and retaken no less than five times, and +Queen Margaret found refuge here, as well as at Bamburgh; but apart from +these occasions, Dunstanborough has not taken nearly so great a part in +either local or national history as the other Northumbrian castles of +Bamburgh, Warkworth, and Alnwick, though greater in extent than any of +them. In 1538 an official report describes "Dunstunburht" as "a very +reuynous howse"; and the process of dilapidation was soon aided by +enterprising dwellers in the neighbourhood using the stones of the +forsaken castle to build their own homesteads. + +From the castle northward curves Embleton Bay, in which, after having +been buried in the sand for ages, a sandstone rock was uncovered by the +tide, having on its surface, chiselled in rough but distinct lettering, +the name "Andra Barton." Sir Andrew Barton, daring Scottish sea-captain +and fearless freebooter, was slain in a sea-fight off this part of the +coast, in the days of Henry VIII., by the sons of Surrey, one of whom, +Sir Thomas Howard, was Lord Admiral at the time, and so, in a measure, +responsible for the defence of the English coast. The loss of his brave +sea-captain and his "goodly ships" was one of the grievances in the long +list which led King James IV. to declare war against England, and led to +the fatal field of Flodden, in which Admiral Sir Thomas Howard and his +brother took part under the command of their father, the Earl of Surrey. + +The wide sweep of grassy common beyond the sands in Embleton Bay is, in +summer time, covered with a profusion of wild flowers, chief amongst +them being the wild geranium, or meadow cranes-bill, whose +reddish-purple blossoms grow in such abundance as to arrest the +attention of every visitor. A little way back from the sea-shore, in the +middle of this wide space, lies the village of Embleton, which possesses +an ancient and interesting church, and a vicarage, part of which is +formed by an old pele-tower. Embleton would seem to have a reputation to +keep up in the way of famous churchmen. Duns Scotus has been already +mentioned; and one of the vicars here was a cousin of Richard Steele, +the essayist and friend of Addison; and he described the country squires +of his day in a paper which he contributed to the "Spectator" of that +date, 1712. + +Another Vicar of Embleton, who lived here from 1874 to 1884, was Dr. +Mandell Creighton, the learned historian, who became Bishop of London. + +The well-known journalist, W.T. Stead, was born in the parish of +Embleton, though his childhood was passed in very different +surroundings, in the narrow streets and grimy atmosphere of +Howdon-on-Tyne. His recent death on the ill-fated _Titanic_ will be +fresh in the minds of all. + +Newton-by-the-Sea is reached by a pleasant walk along the sea-shore. (It +is to be understood that in this journey along the coast we are moving +northward always). There is here a cheery-looking white-washed +coastguard station standing on the bold headland of Newton Point. + +Past this point is Beadnell Bay, with green and grassy Beadnell just +beyond Little Rock. The small fishing harbour at Beadnell has the unique +distinction of being the only harbour on the east coast whose mouth +faces west, and the short pier, running _inland_ from rocks to shore, +acts as a breakwater against the heavy easterly or southeasterly seas +and makes the harbour a safe anchorage for fishing craft or small +yachts. The rocks around this bay are very interesting, showing the +various strata very plainly, and containing many fossils. The striking +cliff called Ebbe's Nook is supposed to have been named after the Saxon +princess Ebba, sister to King Oswald, and the ruins which were +discovered on the headland, to be all that is left of a chapel erected +to her memory. + +At Seahouses is an extensive fish-curing establishment, a fact which +proclaims itself unmistakably as you near the village, especially if the +day chance to be at all warm. A little distance from the shore is +another fishing village, North Sunderland, and northward from Seahouses +is the inn called The Monkshouse, from the fact that it once belonged to +the community on Lindisfarne. + +Bamburgh Castle, magnificently placed on a lofty crag rising +perpendicularly from the greensward on the west or landward side, and +almost as steeply from the sea which washes the north and east sides, +lies like a majestic lion on its mighty rock "brooding on ancient +fame." The voices of children at play on the sands below sound faint and +far in the still air; the sea birds, with the summer sunshine flashing +on their outspread wings, sweep round and round; in the far distance a +trail of smoke low down on the horizon marks the track of a passing +steamer; and near at hand, southward a little way from the castle cliff, +the rocky islets of the Farne group lie drowsily asleep on the +gently-heaving swell of the grey-blue waters. Behind the castle lies the +pretty old-fashioned village with its quaint hostelries and grove of +trees; and from the higher parts of the new golf-links the player may +look round on a view which would be difficult to match, comprising as it +does, the Farne Islands and Dunstanborough to the south, and northward, +Holy Island, with its castle and abbey and the bluish haze of smoke +lying over Berwick; while, on the western skyline, on a clear day, may +be seen the rounded caps of the Cheviots. + +The beginnings of Bamburgh take us back more than a thousand years, to +that long-ago summer of 547, when the _cyuls_ (keels) of the marauding +Bernician chieftain Ida and his followers grounded on the shore of our +Northland, and the work of conquest began. Ida was not slow to grasp the +importance of such a commanding site as this isolated mass of basaltic +crag, and the rude stronghold which crowned it. It became in time a +formidable fortress, and remained for centuries the headquarters of the +kings of the North. + +Here reigned Ida and his sons--six of them--for more or less short and +stormy periods, and Ethelric of Bernicia, who vanquished the +neighbouring prince of Deira, and thus reigned as the first king of +Northumbria as Northumbria. The Celtic name of the fortress was +Dinguardi, or Dinguvardy; and tradition has it that this was Sir +Lancelot's castle of Joyeuse Garde, where he had often feasted the +Knights of the Round Table, and where he, at last, came home to die. The +fact that Bamburgh is the only pre-Conquest castle in Northumberland +disposes of the claim of Alnwick. + +"My fair lords," said sir Launcelot, "wit ye well, my careful body will +into the earth; I have warning more than I will now say; therefore, I +pray you, give me my rights." So when he was houseled and eneled, and +had all that a Christian man ought to have, he prayed the bishop that +his fellows might bear his body unto Joyous Gard. + +Some men say Anwick, and some men say to Bamborow; "how-beit," said sir +Launcelot, "me repenteth sore; but I made mine avow aforetime, that in +Joyous Gard I would be buried; and because of breaking of mine vow, I +pray you all lead me thither." Then was there weeping and wringing of +hands among all his fellows. + +And so, within fifteen days, they came to Joyous Gard, and there they +laid his corpse in the body of the quire, and read many psalters and +prayers over him and about him.... And right thus, as they were at their +service, there came sir Ector de Maris, that had sought seven years all +England, Scotland and Wales, seeking his brother sir Launcelot.... Then +went sir Bors unto sir Ector, and told him how there lay his brother sir +Launcelot dead. + +And then sir Ector threw his shield, his sword, and his helm from him; +and when he beheld sir Launcelot's visage, he fell down in a swoon; and +when he awoke, it were hard for any tongue to tell the doleful +complaints that he made for his brother. "Ah! sir Launcelot," said he, +"thou wert head of all Christian knights!" "And now, I dare say," said +sir Bors, "that sir Launcelot, there thou liest, thou wert never matched +of none earthly knight's hands; and thou wert the courtliest knight that +ever bare a shield; and thou wert the truest friend to thy lover that +ever bestrod horse; and thou wert the truest lover of a sinful man that +ever loved woman; and thou wert the kindest man that ever stroke with +sword; and thou wert the goodliest person that ever came among press of +knights; and thou wert the meekest man, and the gentlest, that ever eat +in hall among ladies; and thou wert the sternest knight to thy mortal +foe, that ever put spear in the rest." + +Then there was weeping and dolor out of measure. + + --_Malory's Morte d'Arthur_. + +Ethelfrith, who succeeded Ethelric, gave the fort to his second wife, +Bebba, after whom it was named Bebbanburgh, which soon became Bamburgh. + +In the days of King Edwin, who succeeded Ethelfrith, Bamburgh was the +centre of a kingdom which extended from the Humber to the Forth, and as +Northumbria was at that time the most important division of England, the +royal city of Bernicia was practically the capital of the country. The +reign of King Oswald, though shorter than that of Edwin, was equally +noteworthy from the fact that in his days the gentle Aidan settled in +Northumbria, and king and monk worked together for the good of their +people, and Bamburgh became not only the seat of temporal power but the +safeguard and bulwark of the spiritual movement centred on the little +isle of Lindisfarne. On the accession of Edwin, Oswald, son of +Ethelfrith, had fled from Bernicia and taken refuge with the monks of +Iona, living with them till the time came for him to rule Northumbria in +his turn. As soon as possible after the inevitable fighting for his +political existence was over, he sent to Iona for a teacher to come and +instruct his people in the truths he had learned; and a monk named +Corman was sent. He, however, was unable to make any impression on the +wild and warlike Saxons of the northern kingdom, and he soon returned to +Iona with the report that it was useless to try to teach such obstinate +and barbarous people. One of the brethren, listening to his account, +ventured to ask him if he were sure that all the fault lay with the +people. "Did you remember," said he, "that we are commanded to give them +the milk first? Did you not rather try them with the strong meat?" With +one accord the brethren declared that he who had spoken such wise words +was the man best fitted for the task, and the gentle Aidan was sent to +Oswald's help. In such a fashion came the Gospel to Northumbria, and +Aidan became the first of the long roll of saints whose deeds and lives +had such incalculable influence on Northumbrian history. From Aidan's +arrival in 635 until the death of Oswald the relations between the king +and the monk who had settled on Medcaud or Medcaut, soon to be known as +Lindisfarne, and later as Holy Island, were those of friend to friend +and fellow-worker, rather than those of king and subject. + +After the death of Oswald, his conqueror Penda, the fierce King of the +Mercians, harried Northumbria, and appearing before the walls of +Bamburgh prepared to burn it down. Piles of logs and brushwood were laid +against the city and the fire was applied. Aidan, in his little cell on +Farne Island, to which he had retired, saw the clouds of flame and smoke +rolling over the home of his beloved patron. Raising his hands to +Heaven, he exclaimed, "See, Lord, what ill Penda is doing!" Scarcely had +he uttered the words, when the wind changed, and drove the flames away +from Bamburgh, blowing them against Penda's host, who thereupon ceased +all further attempts against the city. + +Not long after this, Aidan was at Bamburgh, when he was seized with +sudden illness, and died with his head resting against one of the wooden +stays of the little church. Penda came again the next year, and this +time both village and church were burnt, all except, says tradition, the +beam of wood against which Aidan had rested in his last moments. + +When the Danish ships appeared off our shores, in the two centuries +following, Bamburgh was attacked and plundered several times. In the +days of William Rufus, as we have seen, Robert de Mowbray, Earl of +Northumberland, rebelled against the Red King, in company with his +uncle the Bishop of Coutances, Robert of Normandy, and William of St. +Carileph, Bishop of Durham. Rufus marched into Northumberland, but the +quarrel was adjusted for the time; though private strife between the two +Bishops led to Mowbray's driving the monks of Durham from the Priory at +Tynemouth and replacing them by monks from St. Albans. + +Later, however, Mowbray disobeyed a summons from the Red King, who once +more marched into Northumberland. He reached Bamburgh, and invested it, +but failed to make any impression on that impregnable stronghold, within +whose walls were Mowbray and his young wife, the Countess Matilda, and +his nephew, who was Sheriff of Northumberland. Rufus, finding all +attempts to carry the fortress useless, began to build a wooden fort, +called a _Malvoisin_, or "Bad neighbour"; and so anxious was he to have +it speedily erected that he made knights and nobles as well as his +men-at-arms take part in the work. + +Mowbray, from the battlements, called out to many of these by name, +openly taunting those who had secretly promised to join him, or had +expressed themselves as in sympathy with his disobedience. His words +gave great amusement to Rufus and the nobles who were truly loyal, and +much mortification and vexation to those whom he so ruthlessly exposed. +Rufus left the "Bad neighbour" to continue the siege and went southward. + +Mowbray, led to believe that Newcastle would receive him, and take his +part, stole away from Bamburgh by sea, and reached Tynemouth. On +proceeding to Newcastle, however, he found he had been mistaken, and +hurriedly fled hack to Tynemouth, pursued by his enemies. He held out +against them for a day or two, but was then captured and taken to +Durham. Meanwhile the high-spirited Countess held Bamburgh against all +assailants; but Mowbray's capture gave Rufus an advantage he was not +slow to use. Returning to the North, he ordered Mowbray to be brought +before the walls of Bamburgh, and threatened to put his eyes out if the +Countess did not immediately surrender. Needless to say, she preferred +to give up the castle, and Mowbray's reign as Earl of Northumberland was +over. + +Thereafter Bamburgh was visited by various sovereigns in turn, when +their affairs brought them to the northerly parts of their kingdom. When +Balliol, tired of long years of conflict, surrendered most of his rights +to Edward III., it was at Bamburgh that the convention was concluded. In +this reign the castle was greatly strengthened. + +In the Wars of the Roses, Bamburgh was held for the queen by the +Lancastrian nobles of the north country--Percy and Ros--with the Earl of +Pembroke and Duke of Somerset; but was obliged on Christmas Eve, 1462, +to capitulate to a superior force. The next year the Scots and the +queen's French allies surprised it, and re-captured it for Henry VI. and +his courageous queen; but Warwick, "the King-maker," came upon the +scene, and after a stout resistance the garrison surrendered. + +When the Union of the Crowns took place in 1603, Bamburgh was no longer +necessary as a defence against the Scots, and its defences were +neglected. The Forsters, into whose hands it passed in the days of James +I., were a spendthrift family, and gradually wasted their rich estate, +until in 1704 it had to be sold, and was bought by Lord Crewe. He was +Bishop of Durham at the time, having been promoted to that position by +Charles II., who liked his handsome figure and pleasing manners. When at +the age of fifty-eight, he wished to marry Dorothea Forster, daughter of +Sir William Forster, of Bamburgh, the lady, who was many years younger, +refused him at first; but some years later he renewed his suit, and this +time was accepted. When the Forster estates were sold and their debts +paid, there was scarcely anything left for the heirs--Lady Crewe and her +nephew, Thomas Forster, who afterwards became the General of the +ill-fated Jacobite rising in 1715, and whose escape after his capture +was contrived by his high-spirited sister, Dorothy Forster the second. + +Lord Crewe, in his will, left a great part of his fortune to found the +Bamburgh Trust, for which his name will ever be remembered. The most +notable of the trustees, Archdeacon Sharp, administered the moneys in so +wise and beneficent a manner that to him most of the credit is due for +the real usefulness of the Crewe charities. These include a surgery and +dispensary; schools; the relief of persons in distress; the clothing and +educating of a certain number of girls; the maintenance of a lifeboat, +life-saving apparatus, and everything necessary for the relief of +ship-wrecked persons. A lifeboat, kept in the harbour at Holy Island, is +always ready to go out on a signal from Bamburgh Castle. + +The castle was extensively restored and repaired by the late Lord +Armstrong; but, sad to say, since his death it has been stripped of many +of its treasures. The church, dedicated to St. Aidan, stands at the west +end of the village; but there is no vestige remaining of the one built +in Saxon times, the present building having been erected when Henry II. +was king. In the churchyard is the grave of Grace Darling, and many +hundreds come to look on the last resting place of the gentle girl who +was yet so heroic, when her compassionate heart nerved her girlish frame +to the gallant effort on behalf of her fellow-creatures in dire peril, +when she + + ".... rode the waves none else durst ride, + None save her sire." + +The beautiful monument over her grave is by Raymond Smith, and is an +exact duplicate of the original one, also by him, which was being +injured so much by the weather that it was removed to a position inside +the church. The duplicate was commissioned by Lord (then Sir William) +Armstrong. + +The island on which yet stands the lighthouse which was Grace's home is +the Longstone, almost the farthest seaward of the rocky group of the +Farnes, lying almost opposite Bamburgh. The Longstone is only about four +feet above high-water mark, so that in stormy weather the lighthouse is +fiercely assailed by the heavy seas, and the keepers are often driven +for refuge to the upper chambers. To the Longstone might with truth be +attributed the opening lines of Kipling's poem, "The Coastwise +Lights":-- + + "Our brows are bound with spindrift, and the weed is on our knees, + Our loins are battered 'neath us by the swinging, smoking seas; + From reef, and rock, and skerry, over headland, ness, and voe, + The coastwise lights of England watch the ships of England go." + +There are about twenty of these little islets to be seen at low tide, +and very curious are some of their names--The Megstone, The Crumstone, +The Navestone, The Harcars, The Wedums, The Noxes (Knokys), and The +Wawmses. The largest, Farne Island, is the nearest to the coast, and is +the one to which St. Aidan retired, and on which St. Cuthbert made +himself a cell, and where he lived for some years, leaving Lindisfarne +(Holy Island) very often for months together, to dwell alone on this +almost bare rock and devote himself to holy meditation and prayer. + +To this island came King Ecgfrith of Northumbria with Archbishop +Trumwine and other representatives of the Synod to beg the hermit to +accept the Bishopric of Hexham; and it was on this island that St. +Cuthbert died, the monks who had gone to look after him signalling the +news of his death to his brethren at Lindisfarne by means of torches. +The island is rocky and precipitous, with deep chasms between the high +cliffs; and when a north wind blows, the columns of foam and spray, from +the waters dashing into the chasms and over the tops of the cliffs, may +be seen from the mainland rising high into the air. + +Before the first lighthouse was built on Farne Island, in 1766, a coal +fire was kindled every night on the top of the tower-like building used +as a fort. This method of warning passing vessels had been used +continuously since the days of Charles II. In great contrast to this is +the modern lighthouse, with its acetylene gas lights and its automatic +flash apparatus. + +Close to Stapel Island are the three high basaltic pillars, of rock +called the Pinnacles. On all these islands sea-birds breed, but +especially on the Pinnacles, the Big and Little Harcar, and the islet +called the Brownsman. + +Thousands and thousands of them perch and chatter on the rocks and fly +screaming in the air, amongst them being guillemots, kittiwakes, gulls, +terns, cormorants, puffins, and eider-ducks, for which latter St. +Cuthbert is said to have had great affection; certainly they are the +gentlest of these wild sea-fowl. + +Bidding farewell to the rocky Farnes, we sail past Budle Bay, into which +runs the Warenburn and the Elwick burn, and underneath whose sandy flats +is the buried town of Warnmouth, once a busy seaport, to which Henry +III. granted a charter. Approaching Lindisfarne, "Our isle of Saints, +low-lying on the blue breast of the curling waters, is hushed and silent +in the lightly-purple mists of morning, like the wide aisles of a great +cathedral at daybreak, before the feet and tongues of sightseers disturb +the solemn stillness. The tideway is covered with water, and the +footprints of the pilgrims who came yesterday to the shrine of St. +Cuthbert have passed into oblivion like footmarks on the sands of time." +(_Galloway Kyle_.) The modern pilgrim to Holy Island generally takes +train to Beal station, and from there walks to the seashore, and crosses +the long stretch of sand between Holy Island and the mainland. The +governing factor in the possibility or otherwise of making the journey +is the state of the tide, for these sands are entirely covered by the +sea twice a day, so that Holy Island can only be said to be an island at +high tide. + + "For with the flow and ebb, its style + Varies from continent to isle; + Dry-shod, o'er sands, twice every day + The pilgrims to the shrine find way; + Twice every day the waves efface + Of staves and sandall'd feet the trace." + +There are dangerous quicksands on the way, too, and a row of stakes +points out the proper course to be taken. + +We have already seen that St. Aidan settled on Lindisfarne and have +treated of him in connection with Bamburgh. After his death another monk +of Iona, Finan, succeeded him and carried on his work; and after Finan +came Colman, who resigned after the Synod of Whitby had decided to keep +Easter according to southern instead of northern usage. St. Cuthbert was +Prior of Lindisfarne at this time. Later, the seat of the bishopric was +removed from Lindisfarne to York, when it was held by that restless and +able prelate, Wilfrid, for a time. Then the bishopric was divided and a +see of Hexham formed, as well as that of Lindisfarne, which included +Carlisle, out of the northern portion of the diocese of York. + +St. Cuthbert was bishop of Lindisfarne for two years, having exchanged +sees with bishop Eata, who went to Hexham. The stone coffin in which St. +Cuthbert's body was pieced, after his death on Farne Island, was buried +on the right side of the altar in the Abbey of Lindisfarne, which by +this time had arisen on the little island. A later bishop, Edfrid, +executed a wonderful copy of the Gospels, which was illuminated by his +successor, Ethelwald. Another bishop enclosed it in a cover of gold and +silver, adorning it with jewels; and, later, a priest of Lindisfarne, +Aldred, wrote between the lines a translation into the vernacular, and +added marginal notes. This precious manuscript, a wonderful example of +the beautiful work done in monastic houses in the north so many +centuries ago, is now in the British Museum, where it is known as the +"Durham Manuscript." + +When the pirate keels of the Danes appeared off our coasts about the end +of the eighth century, Lindisfarne Abbey was one of the first points of +attack; and in 793 it was plundered of most of its wealth, and many of +the monks were slain. For nearly a century afterwards it was left in +peace, but in 875 the Danish ships appeared again approaching from the +south, where they had just sacked Tynemouth Priory. The bishop, +Eardulph, last of the Lindisfarne prelates, and the brethren hastily +collected their most treasured possessions, and with the body of St. +Cuthbert, the bones of St. Aidan, and other precious relics, they fled +from their island home, and journeyed north, west, and south for many +years before they found a resting place at Chester-le-Street near +Durham. For seven years they carried with them the body of St. Cuthbert; +and it is said that the final choice of a resting place for the body of +their beloved saint was indicated to them by supernatural means as they +approached Durham. + +In 1069 William the Conqueror marched northward to visit with sternest +punishment the hardy north-men, who were so long in submitting to his +authority; and the monks of Durham fled before the advance of the +relentless Norman, carrying with them, as before, the body of St. +Cuthbert. They reached Lindisfarne in safety to find the Abbey in the +ruinous state in which it had been left by the Danes two centuries +earlier. Thus, once again, the body of St. Cuthbert rested on the little +island where so many years of his life had been spent. + +In 1070 the brethren returned to Durham and in 1093 the building was +begun, almost simultaneously, of the present glorious Cathedral of +Durham and a new Priory and Church on Lindisfarne, and a strong +resemblance may be traced between the two buildings The Abbey was +deserted on the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII., and +gradually fell into ruins. + +The Castle, which stands on a lofty whinstone rock at the south-east +corner of the island, is a conspicuous object for many miles, whether +viewed by land or sea. It is supposed to have been built in the reign of +Henry VIII., at a time when defences were commanded to be made to all +harbours. If the Castle has had any appreciable share of romantic +incidents in its history, the records thereof seem to be unknown; but +one which has come down to us is the account of its daring capture by an +ardent North-country Jacobite, Lancelot Errington, in 1715. The +garrison consisted of seven men, five of whom were absent. Errington, +who was master of a small vessel lying in the harbour, discovered this, +and immediately made his way to the Castle accompanied by his nephew, +and overpowered the two men who were left in charge, turning them out of +the Castle. He then signalled to the mainland for reinforcements, but +none were forthcoming. A company of King's men came instead and +re-occupied the place, Errington and his nephew escaping, to wander +about in the neighbourhood for several days, hiding from pursuit, before +they got clear away. The Castle was for many years the home of the +coastguardsmen, who must have found it a most advantageous position for +their purpose, as they had an uninterrupted view of miles of coast line. + +Northward from Holy Island, but on the mainland, lies Goswick, from +whose red sandstone quarries came the material for building the Abbey of +Lindisfarne. Further north we come in sight of the coal pits and smoke +of Scremerston, while beyond it, Spittal and Tweedmouth bring us right +up to Berwick-on-Tweed itself, that grey old Border town which has seen +so many turns of fortune, and been harried again and again, only to draw +breath after each wild and cruel interlude, and go calmly on its quiet +way until it was once more called upon to fight for its very existence. + +Though definitely forming part of English soil since 1482, it is not +included in any English county, but, with about eight square miles +around it, forms a county by itself. Hence the addition, to any Royal +proclamation, of the well-known words "And in our Town of +Berwick-upon-Tweed." + +Sir Walter Scott's description of the Northumbrian coast, in his poem of +Marmion may well be recalled here. It will be remembered that the +Abbess of Whitby, with some of her nuns, was voyaging to Holy Island, +and we take up the description when + + ".... the vessel skirts the strand + Of mountainous Northumberland; + Towns, towers, and halls successive rise, + And catch the nuns' delighted eyes. + Monkwearmouth soon behind them lay, + And Tynemouth's Priory and bay. They + marked, amid her trees, the hall Of lofty Seaton Delaval; + They saw the Blyth and Wansbeck floods + Rush to the sea through sounding woods; + They passed the tower of Widdrington, + Mother of many a valiant son; + At Coquet-isle their beads they tell + To the good saint who owned the cell. + Then did the Alne attention claim, + And Warkworth, proud of Percy's name; + And next they crossed themselves, to hear + The whitening breakers sound so near, + Where, boiling through the rocks, they roar + On Dunstanborough's caverned shore. + Thy tower, proud Bamburgh, marked they there, + King Ida's castle, huge and square, + From its tall rock look grimly down + And on the swelling ocean frown. + Then from the coast they bore away + And reached the Holy Island's bay. + + * * * * * + + As to the port the galley flew, + Higher and higher rose to view + The castle with its battled walls, + The ancient monastery's halls, + A solemn, huge, and dark-red pile + Placed on the margin of the isle. + + In Saxon strength that abbey frowned, + With massive arches, broad and round. + + * * * * * + + On the deep walls, the heathen Dane + Had poured his impious rage in vain; + And needful was such strength to these, + Exposed to the tempestuous seas, + Scourged by the winds' eternal sway, + Open to rovers fierce as they. + Which could twelve hundred years withstand + Winds, waves, and northern pirates' hand." + + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +NORTH AND SOUTH TYNE. + + "On Kielder-side the wind blaws wide; + There sounds nae hunting horn + That rings sae sweet as the winds that beat + Round banks where Tyne is born." + --_A.C. Swinburne_. + +Between Peel Fell and Mid Fell, almost the farthest western heights of +the Cheviot Hills, a little mountain stream takes its rise, and flows to +the south and east. This little burn is the North Tyne, the beginnings +of that stream which, deep, dark, and swift at its mouth, bears the +mighty battleships there built to carry the war-flags of the nations +round the world. In the wild and lovely district where the North Tyne +takes its rise, is Kielder Castle, a shooting box belonging to the Duke +of Northumberland. + +This neighbourhood is the scene of two romantic ballads; that of the +"Cowt (colt) of Kielder" and the Ettrick Shepherd's ballad of "Sir David +Graeme." The deadly enemy of the young "Cowt," so called from his great +strength, is Lord Soulis of Hermitage Castle, on the Scottish side of +the border. The Cowt, with his followers, was enticed into the Castle, +where Lord Soulis purposed his death; but the gigantic youth burst +through the circle of his foes and escaped. The evil Brownie of the +moorland, however, gave to Lord Soulis the secret which safeguarded the +young Cowt. His coat of mail was sword-proof by a spell of enchantment, +and he wore in his helmet rowan and holly leaves; but these would all be +of no avail against the power of running water. The Cowt was pursued +until, in crossing a burn, he stumbled and lost his helmet, and ere he +recovered, his enemies were upon him, and they held him under water +until he was drowned. + +Not far from the mouth of the Bell Burn, which here runs into the Tyne, +a circle of stones outside an ancient burial ground is known as the +Cowt's Grave. + + "This is the bonny brae, the green, + Yet sacred to the brave, + Where still, of ancient size, is seen + Gigantic Kieldar's grave. + + * * * * * + + Where weeps the birch with branches green + Without the holy ground, + Between two old grey stones is seen + The warrior's ridgey mound. + + And the hunters bold of Kieldar's train, + Within yon castle's wall, + In a deadly sleep must aye remain + Till the ruined towers down fall." + +In the ballad of "Sir David Graeme," by James Hogg, the lady of the +story watched out of her window in vain for the coming of her "noble +Graeme," who had vowed that the hate of her father and brothers would +not keep him from coming to carry off his fair lady on St. Lambert's +night. + + "The sun had drunk frae Kieldar Fell + His beverage o' the morning dew; + The deer had crouched her in the dell, + The heather oped its bells o' blue. + + * * * * * + + The lady to her window hied, + And it opened o'er the banks o' Tyne; + An' "O! alack," she said, and sighed, + "Sure ilka breast is blythe but mine?" + +Her forebodings prove only too true, for her lover's faithful hound +seeks her out, and with mournful looks induces her to follow him over +Deadwater Fell, and guides her to a lonely spot where the body of the +gallant Graeme, slain by her brothers, is lying. + +In the neighbourhood of these desolate Fells are to be found many traces +of ancient British Camps. + +The little mountain streams which here help to swell the stream of the +North Tyne are, on the south side, the Lewis and Whickhope Burns, and on +the north, the Plashetts and Hawkhope Burns. On both sides of the Tyne, +near the Whickhope and the Hawkhope Burns are many remains of an ancient +pre-historic forest, the largest being near the Whickhope Burn where the +abnormally thick stems of trees may be seen. + +The little village of Falstone is set amongst trees, in the midst of +pleasant meadows, a welcome relief from the bare fells and moorlands +around it; yet this wild scenery has a distinct fascination of its own, +and adds not a little to the charm of the varied landscape within the +bounds of our northern county. At Falstone a fragment of an ancient +cross was discovered, with an inscription carved upon it--in Roman +letters on one side and in the Runes of the Anglo-Saxons on the other. +The inscription states that a certain Eamer set up the cross in memory +of his uncle Hroethbert, and asks for prayers for his soul. The +existence of a similarly inscribed cross is not known, so that the +Society of Antiquaries, in whose keeping this cross rests, has in it +probably a unique treasure. + +The Tarset Burn, upon which stands the village of Thorneyburn, runs into +the Tyne not far from Falstone, and reminds us of the old Border-riding +days, when the rallying-cry of the men of the district in many a feud +with neighbouring clans was--"Tarset and Tarret Burn, Hard and +heather-bred, yet-yet-yet." Near the spot where the Tarset Burn joins the +Tyne is a grassy hill on which once stood Tarset Castle, a stronghold of +that Red Comyn whom Bruce slew in the little chapel at Dumfries, and of +whose death Bruce's friend Kirkpatrick said he would "mak' siccar"! + +The village of Charlton, on the north bank of the Tyne, and the mansion +of Hesleyside on the other, carry the mind back to the old reiving +plundering days, for it was at Hesleyside that the incident of the +ancient spur of the Charlton's took place, doubtless many a time and +oft, when the good lady of Hesleyside served up the spur at dinner as a +gentle hint that the larder was empty, and it behoved her lord to mount +and away to replenish the same, preferably with stock from the Scottish +side of the border, or if not, a neighbour's cattle would serve equally +well. + +The Charltons, Robsons (possibly the lineal descendants of "Hroethbert" +of the ancient cross) and Armstrongs, held almost undisputed sway over +this region, and the district teems with reminders of their prowess and +traditions of their exploits. The men of Tynedale (the North Tyne) and +Redesdale were known as the fiercest and most lawless in all that wild +district. Redesdale is a district of monotonous, almost dreary, +moorlands, and wild, bare fells, where sheep graze on what scanty +provender the bleak hills afford, finding better fare, however, in the +valleys near the river banks, where the pasture is fresh and green. + +Bellingham is to-day the most considerable village of the neighbourhood; +it stands conveniently at the foot of the hills where the little Belling +Burn, or Hareshaw Burn, joins the main stream. In Hareshaw woods is the +beautiful Hareshaw Linn, where the stream falls down through a break in +the sandstone cliffs, and forms a picturesque waterfall, fringed with +ferns and trees and cool mosses. It well repays one for the walk of a +mile or so through tangled underwoods by the side of the burn. +Bellingham gives its mime to the family of de Bellingham, whose chief +seat, however, is now in Ireland and no longer in the little +north-country town. + +The massive church here, with its roof of stone, bears eloquent +testimony to the need for fireproof buildings in a village so near to +Scotland in the days of Border warfare. Outside the churchyard wall is +the well of St. Cuthbert, or "Cuddy's Well," which was greatly venerated +in early days, and many stories are told of the miraculous power of its +waters. Inside the churchyard a grave is pointed out as the burial place +of the robber whose tragic end was told by James Hogg in his gruesome +story of "The Long Pack." + +The village itself is plain and bare, as might be expected from a +settlement which would probably find that unattractiveness in either +wealth or appearance was a tolerable safeguard. + +Below Bellingham the North Tyne is joined by its longest and most noted +tributary, the Rede Water, which also rises in the Cheviots. Rising in +the hills north of Carter Fell, it flows south-east, through a wild +region, passing, while still high up amongst the hills, the little +village of Byrness, and the new reservoir at Catcleugh, where a supply +of pure water is stored for the use of the dwellers in distant +Newcastle. On its way to the Tyne, it passes many an old pele-tower, and +the Roman stations of Bremenium (Rochester) and Habitancum, near +Woodburn. The ancient Roman road of Watling Street crosses the Rede at +Woodburn, leading from Habitancum to Bremenium. + +Many mountain streams, clear and sparkling, or peaty and brown, join the +Rede Water on its way, amongst others the little Otter Burn, by whose +banks took place that stirring episode in the constant quarrels between +the Douglases and Percies known as "Chevy Chase," from which the fierce +battle-cries ring down the five centuries that have passed since that +time, with sounds that echo still. + +The pretty village of Redesmouth (or Reedsmouth) stands where the Rede +Water enters the North Tyne, and a few miles further on the rapid little +Houxty Burn pours its peaty waters into the main stream. + +On the right bank of the Tyne stands Wark, conveniently placed at one of +the most important fords of the Tyne in former days. Like other towns +and villages so placed on different streams throughout the country, the +advantages of its situation have evidently been appreciated by the +successive inhabitants of the land, for there are traces of its +occupation by Celt, Roman, and Saxon; and, later, the town was the most +considerable in Upper Tynedale. During the time that this part of +England was ceded to the Scottish Kings, David and Alexander, it was at +Wark that the Scottish law courts for Tynedale held their sittings. The +mound called the Mote Hill, near the river, marks the spot where, in all +probability, the ancient Celtic inhabitants met together to administer +the rude justice of prehistoric times, and to make the laws of their +little settlement, which grew to much greater proportions in later +years. In fact, it is supposed that the Kirkfield marks the site of a +church which stood in the midst of the once extensive town. + +A little way up the Wark Burn, above the bridge, there may be seen some +upright stems of Sigillaria in the exposed face of the cliffs. On the +opposite side of the river from Wark is Chipchase Castle, one of the +finest mansions in Northumberland, standing in the midst of the +beautifully wooded and picturesque scenery which, from this point +onwards is characteristic of the North Tyne. Of the former village of +Chipchase scarcely a trace remains, though its name, if nothing else, +shows that here has been a village or small town, important enough to +have its well-known, market; for "Chip," like the various "Chippings" +throughout England is derived from the Anglo-Saxon _ciepan_--to buy and +sell, to traffic. In the reign of Henry II., Chipchase was the property +of the Umfravilles of Prudhoe; but later it passed into the hands of the +well-known Northumbrian family of Heron. + +Not far from Chipchase Castle are the famous Gunnerton Crags, formed by +an out-crop of the Great Whin Sill. These lofty cliffs have been the +site of a considerable settlement of the ancient British tribes who +dwelt in the district in such numbers, as is evident from the scores of +camps, which may be traced all over this part of Northumberland. The +naturally strong position on the Gunnerton Crags, would be certain to +commend itself to a people, the first requisite of whose dwelling places +was strength and consequent safety. + +At Barrasford the making of the railway cutting led to the opening up of +a large barrow, or burial place, of the ancient Britons; and a single +"menhir," supposed to be the solitary survivor of a large group of these +huge stones, stood near the village school some years ago. + +Passing Chollerton and Humshaugh, embowered amongst spreading trees, we +arrive at Chollerford, the prettiest village of North Tyne, lying near +the river where it was crossed by the Roman Wall. From the bridge which +spans the Tyne at Chollerford one of the finest views of the river, both +up and down the stream, is to be seen; and to watch the swift brown +stream, after a flood or a freshet, foaming through the arches is an +exhilarating sight. The bridge itself is a modern one, for we know that +all the bridges on the Tyne, except that of Corbridge, were swept away +by the great flood of 1771. + +In 1394, that prince of bridge-builders, Bishop Walter de Skirlaw of +Durham, granted thirteen days' indulgence to all who should assist in +rebuilding the bridge at Chollerford; so that already there was one here +which had evidently fallen into disrepair. Yet, in the ballad of "Jock +o' the Side," the rescuers, with Jock in their midst, reach Chollerford, +and, after some anxious questioning of an old man as to whether the +"water will ride," are compelled to swim the Tyne in flood, which their +pursuers, coming up, will not attempt to do. Now Bishop Skirlaw's +bridges did not usually disappear; those of Yarm, Shincliffe, and +Auckland have stood until to-day, with occasional repairs. Are we then +reluctantly to question the truth of "Jock o' the Side"? Surely, if the +choice remain of the accuracy of the ballad or the fact of the bridge, +it is the duty of all leal North-country people to swear by the ballad. +Perhaps the good Bishop did not personally oversee the rebuilding of +Chollerford Bridge: more probably the Wear and Tees do not come down +with the angry impetuosity of the Tyne in flood! + +The remains of the great Roman camp of Cilurnum (The Chesters) may be +seen here within Mrs. Clayton's park. This was the largest military +station in Northumberland, Corstopitum, which is very much larger, being +more of a civil settlement. At some little distance below the present +bridge some of the piers of the old Roman bridge are still to be seen +when the river is low. + +Eastward from Chollerford is the little church of St. Oswald, standing +where the battle of Heavenfield took place. When Penda of Mercia, and +the British Prince Cadwallon, were warring against Northumbria, the +greatest Northumbrian King, Edwin, was defeated and slain by them; and +on their return to the attack, Ethelfrith's eldest son, called back from +exile to take the vacant throne, and rule in his father's seat of +Bamburgh, also fell before their fierce onslaught. His brother Oswald +now took command of the Bernicians and prepared to lead them against the +foe. Oswald posted his men in a strong position on the north side of the +great Wall; and, setting up a huge cross of wood, called upon all his +followers to bow before the God of whom he had learnt during his exile +in Iona, and to pray to Him for victory. His army obeyed, and, in the +battle which followed, Oswald's forces were completely victorious. The +Mercians, and their allies, the western Britons, were routed, and driven +out of Bernicia, and Cadwallon was pursued as far as the Denise Burn, +and there slain. The Denise Burn is supposed to have been the Rowley +Burn, which flows into the Devil's Water, on whose banks stands Dilsten +Castle. Some time later, on the spot where Oswald's Cross had stood, a +church was erected and dedicated to the royal Saint. It was served from +Hexham Abbey. + +After passing Wall, which, however, is not quite so near the Roman Wall +as Chollerford is, we come to the pretty village of Warden, nestling +beneath the woods of Warden Hill; and here, just above Hexham, the North +Tyne unites with its sister river in the rich meadow lands which lie +near the old town. + +The South Tyne has journeyed from Cross Fell, where it takes its rise, +northward through a corner of Cumberland, past Garrygill and Alston, +until it enters Northumberland where the Ayle Burn on the one hand, and +the Gilderdale Burn on the other, flow into it. Here is Whitley Castle, +where was a small Roman station called Alio, and Kirkhaugh Church, +charmingly placed on the bank of the river, which continues its course +northward past Slaggyford, Knaresdale, Eals, and Lambley, till it flows +past the fine Castle of Featherstone, and the ruins of Bellister, where +it turns eastward to Haltwhistle. + +The little streams which enter the South Tyne up to this point flow +through wild and romantic glens, two of them owning the Celtic names of +_Glen Cune_ and _Glen Dhu_. + +The family of Featherstonehaugh is one of the oldest in the North; and +it was concerning the death of one of this family--Sir Albany +Featherstonehaugh, who was High Sheriff of Northumberland in the days of +Henry VIII.--that Mr. Surtees, the antiquary, wrote the well-known +ballad, which, when Surtees gave it him, deceived even Sir Walter Scott +into thinking it genuinely ancient. The first verse of the ballad shows +with what a verve and swing the lines go. + + "Hoot awa', lads, hoot awa' + Ha' ye heard how the Ridleys, an' Thirlwalls, an' a' + Ha' set upon Albany Featherstonehaugh; + And taken his life at the Deadmanshaw? + There was Willimoteswick, + And Hard-riding Dick, + An' Hughie o' Hawdon, an' Will o' the Wa' + I canno' tell a', I canno' tell a' + And mony a mair that the de'il may knaw." + +The ruins of Bellister Castle stand against a sombre background of +woods, only a little way from Haltwhistle. The Castle once belonged to +the Blenkinsopp family, who also owned Blenkinsopp Castle, about two +miles away. The name was formerly spelt Blencan's-hope--the hope being +valley or hollow--and the Castle, like many other places, has its +legendary "White Lady." + +Haltwhistle is a little straggling town lying on both sides of the main +road above the South Tyne, where it is joined by the Haltwhistle Burn. +By going up the valley of this pretty little stream we shall arrive near +the Roman station of AEsica, on the Wall. The town of Haltwhistle is +peaceful enough now, but it had a stirring existence in the days when +Ridleys, Armstrongs, and Charltons, to say nothing of the men of +Liddesdale and Teviotdale, had so strong a partiality for a neighbour's +live-stock and so ready a hand with arrow and spear. In the old ballad +of "The Fray of Hautwessel," we are told that + + "The limmer thieves o' Liddesdale + Wadna leave a kye in the haill countrie, + But an[3] we gi'e them the cauld steel, + Our gear they'll reive it a' awaye, + Sae pert they stealis, I you saye. + O' late they came to Hautwessel, + And thowt they there wad drive a fray. + But Alec Ridley shot too well." + [Footnote 3: But an = unless.] + +The most notable feature of present-day Haltwhistle is the finely placed +parish church, of which the chancel is the oldest part, having been +built in the twelfth century, so that it was already an old church when +Edward I. rested here for a night in 1306, on his way to Scotland for +the last time. When William the Lion of Scotland returned from his +captivity, after being taken prisoner at Alnwick in 1174, he founded the +monastery of Arbroath in thanksgiving for his freedom, and bestowed on +the monks the church of Haltwhistle. + +All that remains of the old Castle, or "Haut-wysill Tower," is the +building standing near the Castle Hill, which latter has been fortified +by earthworks. The Red Lion Hotel is a modernised pele-tower. The +general aspect of the place is singularly bare and bleak; but from +several points in the town, notably from the churchyard terrace, fine +views of the river valley may be obtained. + +Henshaw (Hethinga's-haugh) is a little village which King David of +Scotland, when he was Lord of Tynedale, gave to Richard Cumin and his +wife, who afterwards bestowed it on the Cathedral of Durham. It lies by +the side of the main road to Bardon Mill, which is the most convenient +station for travellers to alight at who wish to visit the Roman Wall and +the Roman city of Borcovicus, and the Northumberland lakes. Some little +distance up the hill from Bardon Mill station is a very pretty little +village whose name speaks eloquently of other invaders than the +Romans--the village of Thorngrafton (the "ton" or settlement on Thor's +"graf" or dyke). Near at hand there are quarries from which the Romans +obtained much building material for the Wall; and in one of these old +quarries some workmen discovered a bronze vessel full of Roman coins, a +few of gold, but most of silver. This was known as the "Thorngrafton +Find," and the interesting story of it is told by Dr. Bruce. + +On the opposite side of the South Tyne from Henshaw, Willimoteswick +Castle stands on the level plains which are as characteristic of the +south bank of the river as are the steep slopes of the north bank. One +of the towers of this old Castle yet remains, and forms part of the more +modern farm-house which stands there. Willimoteswick was long in the +possession of the Ridleys, and it is generally accepted as having been +the birthplace of Bishop Ridley, though Unthank Hall, nearer to +Haltwhistle, and also a home of that family, disputes the honour. The +Bishop, who suffered death at the stake in the troublous times of Queen +Mary, in touching letters bids farewell to his Cousin at Willimoteswick +and his sister and her children at Unthank. + +On the same side of the Tyne is Beltingham Church, with some wonderful +old trees in the churchyard, and Ridley Hall, which takes its name from +that family, although not now occupied by them. Here the Allen flows +into the South Tyne, and nowhere in the whole of the county is there a +more beautiful and romantic scene. By the side of the stream the Ridley +woods stretch for a mile or two, and the delightful mingling of graceful +ferns, overhanging trees, tall, rugged cliffs, flowering plants, and +sparkling waters forms a succession of lovely scenes throughout their +length, which, with the play of lights and shadows on the dimpled +surface of the stream, and frequent glimpses of grassy glades and cool +green alleys, make a walk through these enchanting woods an +unforgettable delight. + +The Allen Burn, which gives its name to the beautiful district of +Allendale, is, like the Tyne, formed by the junction of two streams, the +East and West Allen, which rise near each other in hills on the border +of Northumberland and Durham, down the opposite slopes of which run the +little streams which feed the Wear. After flowing apart for some miles, +the East and West Allen unite not far from Staward railway station. Both +rivers flow, for the first part of their course, through a wild and +hilly region, rich, however, in minerals. On the East Allen are the +towns of Allenheads, formerly a busy centre of the lead-mining industry, +and Allendale Town, which lies about 1,400 feet above the sea-level. + +As the lead-mining industry has decreased, Allendale has turned its +attention to other methods of living, and now caters for the army of +visitors who, each summer, climb its hills and wander through its woods +and lanes, and by its riverside, as did the Allendale maid whose memory +is perpetuated in the simple lines of the little poem, "Lucy Gray of +Allendale." + + "Say, have you seen the blushing rose, + The blooming pink, or lily pale? + Fairer than any flower that blows + Was Lucy Gray of Allendale. + + Pensive at eve, down by the burn, + Where oft the maid they used to hail, + The shepherds now are heard to mourn + For Lucy Gray of Allendale." + +Not far from the village of Catton, the name of "Rebel Hill" reminds us +that it was a vicar of Allendale, Mr. Patten, who joined young +Derwentwater in the rising of "The Fifteen," and was appointed chaplain +of the little army. He met some half-dozen men of the neighbourhood at +this hill, when they set off together to join the rest of the forces at +Wooler. + +On the West Allen is the lonely little hamlet of Ninebanks, with +Ninebanks Tower, concerning which little is known with certainty; and on +this stream also are two of the most strikingly beautiful places in +Northumberland--the delightfully picturesque village of Whitfield, and +the well-known Staward-le-Peel. + +The ruins of the "Pele" tower stand on a high grassy platform, +safeguarded on three sides by tall cliffs and tumbled boulders; the +remains of a ditch may also be traced. From this point a splendid view +of the river valley, with its steep precipices, overhanging pinewoods +intermingled with trees of less sombre hue, and the bright course of the +river, may be obtained. At a point a little higher up the valley, where +the waters of the stream are held back by some huge rocks, they form a +deep pool, and then flow onwards through a narrow gorge called Cyper's +Linn. Following the stream now until it has merged its waters in those +of the South Tyne, we turn eastward with the main stream and come to +Haydon Bridge. + +This considerable village, gradually growing to the proportions of a +small town, lies on both sides of the river, which is here crossed by +the substantial bridge from which the village takes its name; for the +original village of Haydon stood at some distance up the hill on the +north side of the stream. On the hillside may still be seen the ruins of +the old church, in which services are occasionally held in the summer +time. The chancel, apparently dating from the twelfth century, and a +later little chapel to the south of it, are all that are left of the +building. Some very quaint inscriptions are to be seen in the +churchyard, and there are many sculptured grave-covers within the +church. Many of the stones used in the building have evidently been +brought from the great Wall, or probably from the Roman station of +Borcovicus, some six or seven miles to the north; and what a rush of +bewildering fancies crowds upon one's mind on first discovering that the +font was originally a Roman altar! + +The old church must have looked down on many a wild and curious scene in +the days when Scot and Englishman sought only opportunities to do each +other an injury, and the river-valleys were the natural passes through +which the tide of invasion, raid, and reprisal flowed. + +In the beginning of the reign of Edward III., about 24,000 Scots, under +Douglas and Murray, crossed the Tyne near Haydon Bridge, and rode on to +plunder the richer lands that lay to the south and west. They reached +Stanhope and encamped there for a time. The young king set out +northwards with a great army to punish these marauders, and he was told +by his scouts that they had hastily left Stanhope on his approach. He +and his army pushed on quickly until they reached Bardon Mill; and, +crossing the Tyne, marched down to Haydon Bridge, expecting the Scots to +return by the way they went. It was miserable weather, and the feeding +of so many thousands of men was no little problem. They scoured all the +country round for provisions, getting the most from the Hexham Abbey +lands. Meanwhile it rained and rained, and no Scots appeared. After a +week of waiting, Edward, in great disappointment, went to Haltwhistle, +while his followers reconnoitered in all directions. Finally, he had the +mortification of learning that the Scots were still at Stanhope, but +before anything more could be done, they betook themselves back to +Scotland by a different route, and there was nothing left for Edward but +to give up the expedition in despair. + +The bridge at Haydon appears to have been the only one for some distance +up and down the river in the sixteenth century, for we read of its being +barred and chained, on various occasions of marauding troubles in +Tynedale, to prevent the free-booters re-crossing the river. + +In the days of Charles I. Colonel Lilburn marched to Haydon Bridge in +command of some troops of the Roundheads, on his way to join their +comrades at Hexham as a counter-move to the operations of the Royalist +troops in the North. Little more than thirty years after this, when the +days of Cromwell's power had come and gone, and Charles II. ruled at +Whitehall, the old Grammar School was founded at Haydon Bridge in 1685 +by a clergyman, the Rev. John Shafto. Various changes have taken place +in the school from time to time, necessitated by the gradual changes and +educational needs of the passing years; and now, like the Grammar School +of Queen Elizabeth at Hexham, it has been entirely re-constituted to +meet modern requirements. John Martin, the famous painter of "The Plains +of Heaven," received the beginnings of his education at this school. He +was born at East Land Ends farm in 1789. In after years the authorities +of Haydon Bridge Reading Room, wishing no doubt to afford a perfect +example to future generations of the truth of the proverb concerning a +prophet and his own country, refused some of Martin's pictures, which +the gifted painter himself offered to them--an act which their +successors have doubtless regretted. + +At a little distance along the Langley Road, which leads past the +school, a memorial cross is standing. It was erected in 1883 by the late +Mr. C.J. Bates, the historian of Northumberland, to the memory of the +last of the Derwentwater family, whose castle of Langley he purchased. +The inscription on the cross reads:--"To the memory of James and +Charles, Viscounts Langley, Earls of Derwentwater, beheaded on Tower +Hill, London, 24th February, 1716, and 8th December, 1746, for loyalty +to their lawful sovereign." + +A striking testimony, this, to the fact that freedom in England is a +reality, and not merely a name. In what other land would an inscription +such as this have been allowed to remain for more than twenty-four +hours? + +A couple of miles or more down the South Tyne is Fourstones, so called +because of four stones, said to have been Roman altars, having been used +to mark its boundaries. A romantic use was made of one of these stones +in the early days of "The Fifteen." Every evening, as dusk fell, a +little figure, clad in green, stole up to the ancient altar, which had +been slightly hollowed out, and, taking out a packet, laid another in +its place. The mysterious packets, placed there so secretly, were +letters from the Jacobites of the neighbourhood to each other; and the +little figure in green was a boy who acted as messenger for them. No +wonder that the people of the district gave this altar the name of the +"Fairy Stone." + +Between Haydon Bridge and Fourstones are both freestone and limestone +quarries, which latter have supplied many fossils to visitors of +geological tastes. Halfway between Fourstones and Hexham, the two +streams of North and South Tyne unite, and flow together down to the old +town of Hexham, with its quaintly irregular buildings clustering in +picturesque confusion round its ancient Abbey, which dominates the +landscape from whatever point we approach. + +Warden Village, already mentioned, lies in the angle formed by the +meeting of the two streams, and has an ancient church which, however, +has been largely rebuilt. From High Warden, near at hand, a delightful +view may be obtained for a long distance up the valleys of North and +South Tyne. On the summit of this hill there are the remains of a +considerable British camp, showing that they had seized upon this point +of vantage, and though the ancient British name has not come down to us, +it is evident from the Saxon name of Warden (_weardian_) that Saxons as +well as Britons were fully alive to the merits of the situation, +"guarding" the valley at such a commanding point. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +DOWN THE TYNE. + + +The town of Hexham, standing on hilly ground overlooking the Tyne, +immediately below the point at which the North and South Tyne unite, and +spreading from thence down to the levels all round, is one of the most +ancient in the kingdom. To write of Hexham with any measure of fulness +would require much more space than can be given to it within the limits +of a small book; only a mere summary can be offered here. Britons, +Romans, and Saxons, in turn, have dwelt on and around the hill which, in +Saxon days, was to be crowned with Wilfrid's beautiful Abbey, which, we +read, surpassed all others in England at that time for beauty and +excellence of design and workmanship; nor was there another to equal it +anywhere on this side of the Alps. + +The name of Hexham is generally understood to be derived from the names +of two little streams, the Hextol and the Halgut, now the Cowgarth and +the Cockshaw Burns, which here flow into the Tyne; or, as Mr. Bates +suggests, it may have been the "ham" of "some forgotten Hagustald," +which the name perpetuates. In any case its name was Hagustaldesham when +King Ecgfrith (or Egfrid) of Northumbria gave it to his queen, +Etheldreda, who wished to take the veil. Queen Etheldreda, however, +preferred to go to East Anglia, which was her home; she retired to a +convent at Ely, and bestowed the land at Hagustaldesham on Wilfrid, a +monk of Lindisfarne, clever, ambitious and hardworking, who had become +Bishop of York, which meant Bishop of all Northumbria. + +Wilfrid had been to Rome, and seen the churches of that city and of the +lands through which he travelled; and, on his appointment to power, he +set himself to make the churches of his diocese worthy to compare with +those of older civilizations. He did much to the cathedral of York, and +built that of Ripon; but the Abbey of Hexham was his masterpiece. He +built a monastery and church, dedicating the latter to St. Andrew, for +it was in the church of St. Andrew at Rome that, kneeling, he felt +himself fired with enthusiasm for his work, in the same church from +which Augustine had set out on his journey to Britain some fifty years +before. The year 674 is generally accepted as the date on which this +noble Abbey was founded. + +Wilfrid lived in great splendour at York, and ruled his immense diocese +with a firm hand; in fact, he was the first of that line of great +ecclesiastics who have moved with such proud, and oft-times turbulent, +progress through the pages of English history. King Ecgfrith's second +wife, Ermenburga, was jealous of the great power and magnificence of the +Northumbrian prelate, and through her influence, Archbishop Theodore was +induced to divide the huge diocese of Northumbria into four +portions--York, Hexham, Ripon and Withern in Galloway. Wilfrid, +naturally indignant, found all his protests disregarded, and immediately +set out for Rome, to obtain a decree of restitution from the Pope. It +was given to him, but little cared the Northumbrians for that. Wilfrid +was imprisoned for nine months, and then banished from Northumbria. + +He went southwards and dwelt in Sussex, where his genius for hard work +found scope in a mission to the Saxons of the south lands, and where he +built and founded more churches and monasteries. Readers of "Rewards +and Fairies" will have made acquaintance with Wilfrid in his Sussex +wanderings and hardships. On his recall to the North by King Aldfrith, +he returned to Hexham. On the death of Aldfrith, the new King, Edwulf, +banished Wilfrid once more, ordering him to leave the kingdom within six +days; but the friends of Aldfrith's young son, whom Edwulf had +dispossessed, obtained the ascendancy, and Wilfrid was re-instated in +his Abbeys of Hexham and Ripon. + +While on his way back from Rome, on his last visit, Wilfrid had a severe +illness, but was granted a vision in which he was told that he had four +years more to live, and that he must build a church to the honour of the +Blessed Virgin. The little church of St. Mary, which stood close to the +walls of the great Abbey of Hexham, was erected in fulfilment of this +command. + +In the Abbey church itself, all that was known for centuries of the +original work of Wilfrid was the famous crypt, which is almost unique, +that of Ripon, also the work of Wilfrid, being the only one like it; but +recent excavations have brought much more of the ancient cathedral to +light, and laid bare, not only its original plan, but some of the walls, +and part of the very pavement trodden by the feet of Wilfrid and his +fellows so many centuries ago. The tomb of Wilfrid, however, is not at +Hexham, but at his other foundation of Ripon. + +The ancient Abbey suffered much at the hands of the Danes, and in later +years from the ravages of the Scots, having been burnt several times, +notably in 1296, when 40,000 Scots ravaged the North of England, +plundering, burning, and laying waste wherever they went, exactly as the +Danes had done four hundred years before. Some of the stones of the old +Abbey yet bear traces of the fires by which the ancient building was so +often nearly destroyed, and in these frequent conflagrations all +records, charters, etc., of the Abbey, from which might have been +compiled a complete history, not only of the Abbey but of much of the +provincial and national history of the times, were lost. + +The Abbey was restored and rebuilt again and again, but for varying +reasons was without a nave for some hundreds of years. Within the last +ten years, however, a complete restoration has been carried out, under +the loving, and, what is more to the point, the capable superintendence +of Canon Savage and his colleagues, in the spirit and manner, as nearly +as possible, of the beautiful portions already standing; and several +disfiguring so-called "restorations" of nineteenth century work, which +could only detract from the beauty and dignity of the noble building, +have been removed entirely. This work was completed in 1908, and all who +have the honour of our famous county at heart must rejoice that its +noblest church is at last more worthy of its own high rank and glorious +past. + +Among the many deeply interesting objects to be seen in the Abbey is the +stone Sanctuary seat--the Frid Stool, or seat of peace--at which +fugitives, fleeing from their enemies, might find refuge. It is believed +that this was the "Cathedra" of St. Wilfrid himself. The arms and back +of the chair are ornamented with a twisted knot-work pattern. The right +of Sanctuary extended for a mile round the Abbey, the boundaries being +marked by crosses, one at each point of the compass at that distance. + + +[Illustration: HEXHAM ABBEY FROM NORTH WEST] + +Other treasures of the Abbey are the beautiful Old Rood Screen, dating +from the end of the fifteenth or beginning of the sixteenth century; +some wonderful old paintings, especially the portraits of the early +Bishops of Hexham, Alcmund, Wilfrid, Acca, Eata, Frithbert, Cuthbert, +and John, which date from the fifteenth century; the mediaeval carved +and painted pulpit, and the tomb of good King Alfwald of Northumbria. +Many of the stones used by Wilfrid's builders were of Roman workmanship, +and seem to have come from the Roman city of Corstopitum, at Corbridge. +An inscription on one of these old stones in the crypt takes us back +some centuries before even Wilfrid's time, for it commemorates the +Emperor Severus and his two sons, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Caracalla) +and Publius Septimius Geta, and has the name of the latter erased, as +was done on all similar inscriptions throughout the Empire, by order of +the inhuman Caracalla, after his murder of his brother. + +A very interesting feature of the building is the stone stairway in the +South transept, by which the monks ascended to their dormitories above. + +Quite near to the Abbey, at the other side of the Market Place, the +ancient Moot Hall claims attention. The modern visitor to the old town +walks beneath the gloomy archway, with its time-worn stones, which forms +the basement over which the Moot Hall stands. Another building, grim and +dark, near at hand, is the Old Manor House, in which the business +connected with the ancient Manor of Hexham was transacted. + +An old foundation in the town was the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, +which, after having fallen into desuetude for many years, has been +revived in a form appropriate to modern needs, and housed in a worthy +building, formally opened by Sir Francis Blake on November 2nd, 1910. +The site on which the new Grammar School of Queen Elizabeth stands is +one of the finest in the county, commanding, as it does, an +uninterrupted view of the river valley for some distance, and of the +rising ground beyond. + +At the beginning of last century, Hexham was famed for its +glove-making: but that industry has forsaken the town for many years. +Now, Hexham is surrounded by acres of market-gardens, from which the +produce of Tynedale is carried far and wide. + +The spacious stretch of level meadow-land below Hexham, rising gradually +up to the swelling ridges beyond, is said to have been the scene which +John Martin had in mind when he painted the "Plains of Heaven"; though +the level reaches above Newburn, unencumbered with buildings in John +Martin's time, and then a scene of quiet pastoral beauty, also claim +that honour. + +Flowing now between well ordered gardens, green meadows, and ferny +banks, brawling musically over shingly shallows, or crooning gently +between fringing woods, the Tyne rolls onward to Corbridge, receiving on +its way the Devil's Water, a sparkling stream which flows through scenes +of enchanting beauty, whether between rugged cliffs and heather clad +hills as in its upper course, through the graceful overhanging trees and +cool green recesses of Dipton woods or between rich meadows and green +pasture-land where it loses itself in the bosom of the Tyne. + +There is no more delightful experience than to wander through the woods +of Deepdene (Dipton) on a summer's day, when it requires no stretch of +the imagination to believe oneself in an enchanted forest, or, on +hearing a crackle of twigs, or faint sounds of the outside world +filtering through the green solitudes, to turn round expecting to see a +maiden on a "milk-white steed," or one of the Knights of the Round Table +come riding by, in bravery of glistening armour and gay surtout, and to +find oneself murmuring, "Now, Sir Gawain rode apace, and came unto a +right fair wood, and findeth the stream of a spring that ran with a +great rushing, and nigh thereunto was a way that was much haunted. He +abandoneth his high-way, and goeth all along the stream from the spring +that lasteth a long league plenary, until that he espieth a right fair +house and right fair chapel enclosed within a hedge of wood." + +On the green meadows of Hexham Levels and near Dilston Castle--two spots +of more than ordinary historical interest--the Lancastrian cause +received, in 1464, a blow from which it never rallied, though the +courageous Queen fought gallantly till the final disasters at Barnet and +Tewkesbury. The general of her forces, the Duke of Somerset, was +beheaded in Hexham market-place, and, together with several others of +rank and station, buried at Hexham. The well-known incident of Queen +Margaret's escape into Dipton, or Deepdene woods, where she and young +Prince Edward met with robbers, and afterwards escaped by the aid of +another member of that fraternity, took place a year before this, after +the first battle of Hexham in 1463. The year had been one of constant +warfare between York and Lancaster in the north, the Castles of Alnwick +and Bamburgh having fallen into the hands of Queen Margaret's friends +once more, after having been raptured by Edward of York the year before; +the Scots with Margaret and King Henry VI., had besieged Norham, but +were put to flight by the Earl of Warwick and hid brother, Lord +Montague; the royal fugitives sought safety at Bamburgh, whence the +Queen, with Prince Edward, sailed for Flanders, leaving King Henry in +the Castle where he was in no immediate danger; Warwick, with his +forces, retired southward again, and the gentle King remained in his +rocky stronghold, and enjoyed there nine months of unwonted peace. +Shortly after this, the Duke of Somerset deserted the cause of York for +that of Lancaster, and became the leader of the Queen's forces. In +April, 1464, he and Sir Ralph Percy opposed, at Hedgeley Moor, the +troops of Lord Montague journeying northward to escort the Scottish +delegates who were coming to York to make terms with Edward of York. Sir +Ralph Percy was slain, exclaiming as he fell "I have saved the bird in +my bosom"--that enigmatic sentence which has given rise to so much +conjecture, but which is generally held to mean that he had saved his +honour, by dying at last, after so many changes of front, in the service +of that King and Queen to whom he originally owed allegiance. "Percy's +Cross," marking the site of his death, may be seen by the side of the +railway near Hedgeley Station, on the Alnwick and Wooler line. + +The rest of the force dispersed, and made their way to Hexham; and Lord +Montague marching upon them from Newcastle, a sharp engagement took +place on the Levels, near the Linnels Bridge, with the result, as we +have seen, of the defeat and death of Somerset, and the overthrow of +Queen Margaret's hopes in the north, where she had had a strong +following. + +The historical interest centred on Dilston Castle brings us to much +later times, and enshrines a story which possesses a pathetic interest +beyond that of any other place in Northumberland. Originally the home of +the family of D'Eivill, later Dyvelstone (which explains the name +"Devil's Water") Dilston Castle came into the possession of the +Radcliffes by marriage, and in the days of the Commonwealth the +Radcliffe of the day forfeited his estates on account of his loyalty to +the house of Stuart. Charles II. restored them, and the close attachment +between the houses of Stuart and Radcliffe continued until the fortunes +of both were quenched in disaster and gloom. The figure of the young +and gallant James Radcliffe, last Earl of Derwentwater, holds the +imagination no less than the heart as it moves across the page of +history for a brief space to its tragic end. Though born in London, in +June 1689, young Radcliffe passed his childhood and youth in France in +the closest companionship with James Stuart, son of the exiled James II. +At the age of twenty-one he returned to his home in Northumbria, and +took up his residence there, his charming manners, kind heart, and +openhanded hospitality speedily endearing him to all classes. His +servants and tenants, in particular, were passionately devoted to him. +In the words of the old ballad of "Derwentwater"-- + + "O, Derwentwater's a bonnie lord, + And golden is his hair, + And glintin' is his hawkin' e'e + Wi' kind love dwelling there." + +On his marriage in 1712, the young bride and bridegroom remained for two +years at the home of the bride's father, and preparations were made for +restoring the glories of Dilston on an extensive scale. On +Derwentwater's return to his beautiful Northumbrian seat in 1714, the +death of Queen Anne had excited the hopes of all the friends of the +house of Stuart, and plots and secret meetings were being planned +throughout Scotland and the north of England, the objective being the +restoration of the exiled Stuarts to the throne. Derwentwater took +little part in these attempts to organise rebellion for some time, but +at length was drawn into the dangerous game, as he was too valuable an +asset to be passed over by the Jacobite party. + +At last rumours of the projected rising reached London, and a warrant +was issued for the arrest of Derwentwater, even before it was known +whether he had actually joined the plotters, his well-known friendship +with the exiled Prince making it almost certain that he would be an +important figure in any movement on their behalf. For the next few weeks +the young Earl found himself obliged to remain in hiding, finding safety +in the cottages of his tenants, and in the houses of friends and +neighbours. Finally, though his good sense warned him that he was +embarking on an almost hopeless enterprise, he decided to throw in his +lot with the Jacobites. + +Tradition has it that his decision was brought about by the taunts of +his Countess, who, like the rest of the Jacobite ladies, was more +enthusiastic than the men. Throwing down her fan, she scornfully offered +that to her husband as a weapon, and demanded his sword in exchange. The +immediate result was seen on that October morning when Derwentwater and +his little band of followers rode over the bridge at Corbridge with +drawn swords, on their way to Beaufront, which was their first +rendezvous; and from there proceeded to Greenrigg, near the great Wall, +which had been appointed as a general meeting-place. + +There they were joined by Mr. Forster, of Bamburgh, with his contingent, +and a few from the surrounding district. Rothbury next saw the little +army, which was joined on Felton Bridge by seventy Scots; and thereafter +Warkworth, Alnwick, and Morpeth heard James Stuart proclaimed King under +the title of James III. + +Newcastle was to have been their next objective, but, hearing that the +city had closed its gates, and intended to hold out for King George, the +Jacobite force, after some indecision, returned northward to Rothbury, +where they were joined by a large company of Scottish Jacobites under +Lord Kenmure. Northward again they marched to Kelso, where more than a +thousand Scots joined forces with them. + +The little army numbered now almost 2,000, and a council was held to +determine what their next step should be. On its being resolved to enter +England, some hundreds of the Highlanders returned home, leaving an army +of about 1,500 to march southwards to Lancashire. On their way they put +to flight at Penrith a motley force which was raised to oppose them; +and, elated with a first success, moved forward to Preston, grievously +disappointed on the way at the failure of the people of Lancashire to +rise with them, for they had been given to understand that thousands in +that county were only awaiting an opportunity to declare for "King +James." + +At Preston they barricaded the principal streets, and repulsed General +Willis; but the arrival of General Carpenter from Newcastle changed the +face of affairs. Young Derwentwater had fought valiantly and worked +arduously at the barricades, but Forster--whose appointment as General +had been made in the hope of attracting other Protestant gentry to the +Jacobite cause--offered to submit to General Carpenter under certain +conditions. Carpenter's reply was a demand for unconditional surrender, +and the hopeless little tragi-comedy was played out. The last scene took +place on Tower Hill three months later, when the gallant young Earl, +then only twenty-six years old, laid down the life which, after all, had +been spent in the service of others, with no selfish purpose in view, +and which was offered him, together with wealth and freedom, if he would +forsake his faith and throw aside his allegiance to the house of Stuart. +Refusing to purchase life at such a price, he was condemned, and +executed on Tower Hill on February 24th, 1716. + +His brother Charles, who had been by his side throughout the rising, +had the good fortune to escape from Newgate Prison, and passed most of +his life abroad. Thirty years later, on his return to take up arms on +behalf of James' son Charles--"bonnie Prince Charlie"--when he also drew +the sword in an attempt to regain the throne of his fathers, Radcliffe +was captured and beheaded. (For account of a monument to the memory of +these two brothers see in previous chapter paragraph relating to Haydon +Bridge.) + +The story of General Forster's escape from Newgate is told by Sir Walter +Besant, as all readers of his novel, "Dorothy Forster" know, though the +author has taken those minor liberties with unimportant facts which are +by common consent allowable in fiction. + +James Radcliffe's friends were allowed to have his body, though they +were forbidden to carry it home for burial; for such were the love and +esteem borne for the young Earl in the hearts of all his North-country +friends and dependents, that the authorities feared a disturbance of the +peace should his body be brought amongst them while their rage and grief +were still at their height. Notwithstanding the prohibition, however, +the body was brought secretly to Dilston, and buried in the vault of the +chapel, which, with the ruined tower, are all that remain of the home of +the Radcliffes. Standing amidst luxuriant foliage, and overlooking a +romantic dell, the ruins of tower and chapel remain as they fell into +decay on the death of their luckless owners. The confiscated estates +were bestowed on Greenwich Hospital, whose agents administer them still, +with the exception of certain portions purchased from time to time by +various landowners. No other family took the place of the Radcliffes in +the deserted halls; but tradition holds that the unfortunate Earl and +his sorrowful lady still revisit their ancient home. The Earl's body is +now at Thorndon, in Essex. Below is Surtees' beautiful ballad, "Lord +Derwentwater's Farewell." + + + + + LORD DERWENTWATER'S FAREWELL + + "Farewell to pleasant Dilston Hall, + My father's ancient seat; + A stranger now must call thee his, + Which gars my heart to greet. + Farewell each kindly well-known face + My heart has held so dear; + My tenants now must leave their lord + Or hold their lives in fear. + + No more along the banks of Tyne + I'll rove in autumn grey; + No more I'll hear, at early dawn, + The lav'rocks wake the day; + Then fare thee well, brave Witherington, + And Forster ever true; + Dear Shaftsbury and Errington, + Receive my last adieu. + + And fare thee well, George Collingwood, + Since fate has put us down; + If thou and I have lost our lives, + Our king has lost his crown. + Farewell, farewell, my lady dear, + Ill, ill thou counsell'dst me; + I never more may see the babe + That smiles upon thy knee. + + And fare thee well, my bonny gray steed, + That carried me aye so free; + I wish I had been asleep in my bed + The last time I mounted thee; + The warning bell now bids me cease, + My trouble's nearly o'er; + Yon sun that rises from the sea + Shall rise on me no more. + + Albeit that here in London Town + It is my fate to die; + O carry me to Northumberland, + In my father's grave to lie. + There chant my solemn requiem + In Hexham's holy towers; + And let six maids of fair Tynedale + Scatter my grave with flowers. + + And when the head that wears the crown + Shall be laid low like mine; + Some honest hearts may then lament + For Radcliffe's fallen line. + Farewell to pleasant Dilston Hall, + My father's ancient seat; + A stranger now must call thee his, + Which gars my heart to greet." + +Near to Corbridge the waters of the Tyne lave the ancient piers of the +old Roman bridge which led to Corstopitum, the most considerable of the +Roman stations in this region. The recent careful excavations have laid +bare the evidence of what must have been a most imposing city, and many +treasures of pottery, coins and ancient jewellery and ornaments, +together with large quantities of the bones of animals, some of them +identical with the wild cattle of Chillingham, have been brought to +light. The famous silver dish known as the Corbridge Lanx, which was +found at the riverside by a little girl in 1734, had evidently been +washed down from Corstopitum. It is now preserved at Alnwick Castle. +The antiquity of Corbridge is thus superior to that of Hexham, as far as +may be known; but on the other hand, while Hexham in Saxon times grew to +power, Corbridge declined. Yet, in its time, it was more than the home +of a famous Abbey; it was a royal city, albeit the date of its elevation +to royal rank coincided with the decline of the kingdom of which it was +the final capital. When the fierce and ruthless internal quarrels, which +rent Northumbria after Edbert's glorious reign, had weakened it so that +it fell a prey to the gradual encroachments of its northern neighbours, +the once royal city of Bamburgh was left in the hands of a noble Saxon +family, and the court was removed to Corbridge, which remained the abode +of the kings of Northumbria until Northumbria possessed royal rank no +longer. The tale of the two hundred years during which Corbridge was the +capital city is a tale of red slaughter and ruin, murder and bitter +feud, not against outside foes, but between one family and another, +noble against king, king against relatives of other noble houses, +amongst which might possibly be found the thegn to succeed him, or to +murder him in order to bring about his own more speedy elevation to a +precarious throne. + +So much was this the case, that Charles the Great, at whose court the +learned Northumbrian, Alcuin, was secretary, said that the Northumbrians +were worse than the invading heathen Danes, who, by this time, had begun +their ravages in the land. Amongst the rulers of Northumbria in those +days, the name of Alfwald the Just, who was called "the Friend of God," +shines out with enduring light across the stormy darkness of that +terrible period; yet even his just and merciful rule and noble life +could not save him from the hand of the assassin. He was buried with +much mourning and great pomp in the Abbey at Hexham; and during the +recent excavations the fact of a Saxon interment was verified as having +taken place beneath the beautiful tomb which tradition has always held +to be that of King Alfwald the Just. This fact also helped to +demonstrate the extent of the original Abbey. + +There was a monastery at Corbridge in the year 771, which is supposed to +have been founded by St. Wilfrid. Of the four churches which were +erected in later times, only one survives--the parish church of St. +Andrew, which occupies the site of the early monastery. In this ancient +church may be seen part of the original Saxon work, and many stones of +Roman workmanship are built up in the structure. + +Like most other old churches in the north, it suffered severely at the +hands of the Scots, and, as at Hexham Abbey, traces of fire may be seen +on some of the stones. + +King David of Scotland, on his invasion of England in 1138, which was to +end at the "Battle of the Standard," at Northallerton, encamped at +Corbridge for a time, and terrible cruelties were committed in the +district by his followers. In the next century, King John turned the +little town upside down in his efforts to find treasure which he was +convinced must be concealed somewhere in the houses; but his search was +fruitless. In the days of the three Edwards, during the long wars with +Scotland, Corbridge suffered terribly, being fired again and again; on +one occasion, in 1296, the destruction included the burning of the +school with some two hundred hapless boys within its walls.[4] [Footnote +4: _See_ Bates, p. 149.] + +Those heroes of our childhood's days, William Wallace and Robert Bruce, +were far from guiltless in these cruelties, though in justice to them +personally, the wild and lawless character of the men who formed their +undisciplined hosts must be remembered; and we know that Wallace tried +to save the holy vessels in Hexham Abbey, but, as soon as his back was +turned, they were swept away in the very presence of the officiating +priest. + +During these terrible years most of Northumberland was a desolate waste; +and divine service had almost ceased to be performed between Newcastle +and Carlisle, even Hexham being deserted for a time. After the battle of +Bannockburn, matters were worse, if possible, and all the north lay in +fear of the Scots, but from time to time spasmodic efforts at +retaliation were made by the boldest of the Northumbrian landowners. In +the reign of Edward III., however, many of these great landowners +thwarted the King's designs by making a traitorous peace with their +turbulent neighbours. + +David II. of Scotland encamped at Corbridge for a time during his second +attempt to invade England but this expedition ended in his defeat and +capture at Neville's Cross. Thereafter the north had rest for some +years, and Corbridge seems to have been left in peace. The Wars of the +Roses passed it by; and the Civil Wars in Stuart days also, except for +an unimportant skirmish; and the only part Corbridge saw of the Jacobite +rising of "The Fifteen" was the little cavalcade from Dilston which +clattered over the old bridge on its way to Beaufront. That bridge is +the same which we cross to-day; the date of its erection, 1674, may be +seen on one of its stones, and it was the only one on the Tyne which +withstood the great flood of 1771, when even the old Tyne Bridge at +Newcastle was swept away. + +Quite close to the church there is an old pele-tower, which is in an +excellent state of preservation, little of it having disappeared except +the various floors. The vicars of Corbridge must have been often +thankful for such a refuge at hand, where they could bid defiance to +marauding bands, whether of Scottish or English nationality. In the +Register of the parish church may be seen a most interesting entry, +showing the Earl of Derwentwater's signature as churchwarden. + +At a little distance from Corbridge, to the northward, is the fortified +manor-house of Aydon Castle, standing embowered in trees where the Cor +burn runs through a little rocky ravine, down whose steep sides Sir +Robert Clavering threw most of a marauding band of Scotsmen who had +attacked the grange; the place known as "Jock's Leap" obtained its name +from one of the Scots who escaped the fate of his comrades by his leap +for life across the ravine. The Castle, or hall, as it is variously +called, has not suffered such destruction as might have been expected, +seeing that it dates from the thirteenth century; but the thickness of +its walls, and the arrow-slits and narrow windows are obvious proof of +the necessity for defence which existed when it was first erected in the +days of Edward I. Many features of great interest, notably the ancient +fireplaces, remain in the interior of the building. + +Returning down the Cor burn to the Tyne, our way lies eastward by the +side of the river, which here, after splashing and sparkling over the +shallows below Corbridge, narrows again to a deeper stream of swifter +current, and flows between green meadows and leafy woods, fern-clad +steeps and level haughs, all the way down to Ryton, where the +picturesque aspect of the river ceases, and it becomes an industrial +waterway. On this reach of the river are several places of considerable +interest. + +Riding Mill, a pretty village in a well-wooded hollow, enclosed by steep +hills which rise ever higher and higher to the moors by Minsteracres and +Blanchland, stands where Watling Street, or Dere Street, leading down +the long slope of the country from Whittonstall, on reaching the Tyne +turned westward to Corstopitum. Further down the stream is Stocksfield, +where the aged King Edward I. halted on his last journey into Scotland, +on that expedition which was to have executed a summary vengeance upon +the Scots; he journeyed forward by slow stages, but was taken ill at +Newbrough, where he stayed for some time, before continuing his journey +by Blenkinsopp, Thirlwall, and Lanercost to Carlisle. + +On the opposite side of the stream from Stocksfield is the lovely +village of Bywell, a "haunt of ancient peace," "sleeping soft on the +banks of the murmuring Tyne." This little peaceful spot was at one time +a very busy centre of life and industry on a small scale; in the Middle +Ages the inhabitants drove a thriving trade in all the necessities for a +people who spent a great part of their lives upon horseback, especially +in the making of the ironwork required--"bits, stirrups, buckles, and +the like, wherein they are very expert and cunning." The Nevilles, lords +of Raby and earls of Westmoreland, held Bywell at this time; before that +it was in the hands of the Balliols, of Scottish fame, who, like the +Bruces, were Norman knights high in favour with their kings, Norman and +Plantagenet, though they afterwards became their most determined foes. + +Long before the advent of the Normans, a church was built here by St. +Wilfrid, and in it--St. Andrew's or the "White" Church--Egbert, twelfth +bishop of Lindisfarne, was consecrated by Archbishop Eanbald in the year +803. More than a thousand years afterwards, in 1896, an Ordination +service was again held at Bywell, in St. Peter's church, when five +deacons were ordained by Bishop Jacob. And in times yet more remote +than Wilfrid's age, Roman legionaries crossed the Tyne at this point +over a bridge of their own construction, of which the piers might be +seen until our own day. Bywell, too, had its "find" of Roman silver; in +1760 a silver cup was found in the Tyne, bearing the inscription +"Desidere vivas" around the neck of the vessel. + +When the Nevilles were lords of the manor of Bywell, they began to build +a castle here, which, however, was left unfinished; the ancient tower +still standing, with its picturesque draping of ivy, was the gate-house +of the intended fortress. On the rebellion of the northern earls in +1569, Westmoreland's forfeited lands passed to the crown, so that Bywell +was held by Queen Elizabeth for a year or two, until she sold the estate +to a branch of the Fenwick family. + +Bywell is unique in Northumberland in possessing two churches side by +side yet in different parishes. The town of Bywell, we are told by the +same authority before quoted, lay in a long line by the north bank of +the Tyne, and was "divided into two separate parishes" even then, so +that there ought to be traces of former buildings westward from the +present village. In connection with the two churches which adjoin each +other so closely, tradition tells the well-known story of the two +quarrelsome sisters who could not agree on the building of a church and +therefore each built one. One might have imagined, with some show of +reason, that there being two parishes, the two churches were placed +there in sheltering proximity to the castle, were it not for the fact +that the churches were in existence long before the stronghold of the +Nevilles was contemplated. + +St. Andrew's, called the "White" church from the fact of its being +served in later days by the White friars, is the more ancient of the +two. As we have seen, a church erected by St. Wilfrid stood on this +site, and a goodly portion of the Saxon work remains in the tower. The +hagioscope, or "squint" in this church, and the "leper" window in St. +Peter's are interesting relics of the Middle Ages. + +St. Peter's, or the "Black" church which once belonged to the +Benedictines or Black friars, is of much later date than its neighbour, +though still an ancient building, being supposed to date from the +eleventh century. Its most interesting possessions are two very old +bells, bearing Latin inscriptions, one announcing "I proclaim the hour +for people rising, and call to those still lying down," and the other +reading "Thou art Peter." + +Bywell suffered greatly in the flood of 1771, when the bridge was swept +away, many houses destroyed, several people drowned, and both churches +greatly damaged. + +It is not surprising that this tranquil little village--"the retreat of +the old doomed divinities of wood and fountain, banished from their +native haunts," to quote Mr. Tomlinson's happy phrase--has always been +beloved of artists, many of whom have transferred to their canvasses the +beauties of its mingled scenery of graceful woods and sparkling waters, +ancient fortress, peaceful meadows, and gray old towers. Many noteworthy +and fine old trees are to be found in and around this artists' haunt. + +On the opposite side of the river, Bywell's younger sister, Stocksfield, +grows apace, reaching out towards the lulls and along the eastward +lanes, though not as yet in such measure as to cover the hillsides with +any semblance of a town, being still almost hidden amongst the profusion +of trees that clothe most of the district in their leafy greenery. On +the north bank of the stream the village of Ovingham now rises into +view, its name telling us plainly that there was a settlement here in +Saxon times "the home of the sons of Offa"; and the slope above the +river is fittingly crowned by the ancient church of St. Mary, whose +tower, with its curiously irregular windows, is the work of the Saxon +builders of the original church. The rest of the building, except some +Saxon work at the west end of the nave, dates from early Norman days. +Here is the burial place of the famous brothers John and Thomas Bewick, +who were born at Cherryburn House, just across the river. In this +delightful spot the boy Thomas Bewick grew up, absorbing unconsciously +the natural beauties that are to be found here by the Tyne and in the +little ravine through which the Cherry Burn flows, which beauties he so +lovingly reproduced on his engraving blocks later in life. + +At the fords of Ovingham, Eltringham, and Bywell, the Scots under +General Leslie crossed the Tyne in 1644, and made their way into Durham, +leaving six regiments to watch Newcastle. + +The picturesque ruins of Prudhoe Castle, whose lofty towers dominate the +valley for some distance up and down the stream, stand on a commanding +rocky ridge above the Tyne. The lands of Prudhoe were given, soon after +the Norman Conquest, to one of Duke William's immediate followers, +Robert de Umfraville; and it was Odinel de Umfraville who built the +present castle in the twelfth century. Its strength was soon put to the +test, for a few years after it was built William the Lion of Scotland +found that the place baffled all his attempts to capture it. In his +anger he determined to reduce the fortress of Odinel, who had spent much +time at the Scottish court in his youth, the Kings of Scotland being at +that time lords of Tynedale. The attempt ended in total failure, the +greatest harm the Scots did on that occasion being to destroy the +cornfields and strip the bark from the apple trees near the Castle; +while, a day or two afterwards, Odinel de Umfraville, with Glanvile and +Balliol, captured the Scottish monarch himself at Alnwick. + +Another Umfraville, Richard, quarrelled with his neighbour of Nafferton, +on the opposite side of the river, for having begun to erect a fortress +much too near Umfraville's own. He sent a petition to the King on the +subject and King John commanded Philip de Ulecote's building operations +to cease. The unfinished castle, known as Nafferton Tower, remains to +this day as Philip's masons left it so many centuries ago. + +Sir Ingram de Umfraville was by the side of Edward II. at Bannockburn, +when, before the battle, Bruce ordered his men to kneel in prayer. +Edward looked on the kneeling host, and turning to Umfraville, exclaimed +"See! Yon men kneel to ask mercy." "You say truth, sire," answered the +knight of Prudhoe; "they ask mercy--but not of you." + +The last Umfraville, who died in 1381, left a widow, the Countess Maud, +who married a Percy of Alnwick, and so the castle passed into the hands +of that family, in whose possession it still remains. + +When Odinel de Umfraville was building the keep of his castle, every one +in the neighbourhood was pressed into the service, and all lent their +aid except the men of Wylam. Wylam had been given to the church of St. +Oswyn at Tynemouth, and, as was customary, was freed by charter from the +duty of castle building, or any other feudal service excepting such as +were rendered to the Prior of Tynemouth as occasion arose. So, in spite +of the angry surprise of the lord of Prudhoe, the Wylam men quietly held +to their charter, and not all Odinel's threats or persuasions moved them +one whit. + +The Stanley Burn, which enters the Tyne close to Wylam railway station, +divides this part of the county of Durham from Northumberland, so that +from Wylam to the sea the south side of the Tyne is in the county of +Durham. The most noteworthy object at Wylam, or, to be precise, a little +way along the old post-road, leading to Newcastle from Hexham, is the +red-tiled cottage in which George Stephenson was born in 1781. It stands +on the north bank of the Tyne, where it can be distinctly seen from +passing trains. Its neighbour cottage has been repaired and re-roofed, +but Stephenson's cottage remains unaltered. + +Mr. Blackett, who owned Wylam Colliery at the beginning of the +nineteenth century, took the keenest interest in the question of +locomotives, and had tried more than one on his estate before George +Stephenson brought them to the point of practical use. At Newburn, just +four miles down the Tyne, George Stephenson passed many years of his +youth; here he learned to read and write, when he was old enough to earn +a man's wage and could afford the few pence necessary; and here, in the +parish church, may be seen, with an interval of twenty years between +them, the entries of his two marriages. + +Newburn is important nowadays for its steel works, within whose +workshops is incorporated an old building formerly known as Newburn +Hall; but in days long past its importance arose from its being on the +ford of the Tyne nearest to Newcastle. This ford was frequently made use +of, notably by the Scots in the reign of Charles I. Their chief camping +ground is pointed out to us by the name of Scotswood, which also +describes what Scotswood was like in those days--a great contrast to its +present appearance, when the lines of brick and mortar stretching out +uninterruptedly from Newcastle make it practically one with that town. +In 1640, the Scottish army, under General Leslie, faced the Royalist +troops, under Lord Conway, on the south side of the river. The Scots +mounted their rude cannon on Newburn Church tower, and the English +raised earthworks along the bank of the river, which was here fordable +in two places. The two armies calmly watered their horses on opposite +banks of the stream all the next morning, but a shot at a Scottish +officer from the English ranks precipitated the battle; and the Scottish +army, having made a breach in both earthworks with their artillery, +waded across the fords and drove the Royalist troops up the bank, after +one spasmodic rally, which, however, failed to check the Scottish +advance. The way was now open for the Scottish army to continue down the +south bank of the Tyne and attack Newcastle from Gateshead. It had been +Lord Conway's task to prevent this, but owing to his incapacity or want +of whole-hearted enthusiasm for his cause, he failed entirely. + +Not until 1644, however, was a Scottish attack on Newcastle actually +made, for on this occasion Leslie, as we have already seen, led his men +across the fords higher up the river and marched southwards. The +earthworks thrown up by Conway's troops may still be seen on Stella +Haughs. + +It is supposed that the Romans had a fort here, commanding the passage +of the river; indeed it would have been strange had this not been the +case, for the Romans were not the people to disregard any point of +strategical importance, especially one so near their stations of Pons +Aelii and Condercum. Many stones of Roman workmanship have been used in +the building of the Newburn church. + +From this point to its mouth, nearly fifteen miles away, both banks of +the Tyne present an unbroken scene of industry. Between the steel works +of Newburn and the iron and chemical works, the brick and tile works of +Blaydon and past the famous yards of Elswick, down to the wharves and +shipyards of North and South Shields, the Tyne rolls its swift dark +waters through a scene of stirring activity; the air is dusky with soot +and smoke, and reverberant with the clang of hammers and the pulsing +beat of machinery. Some old and world-famed works have been closed or +removed, like Hawks' and Stephenson's, but others, many others, have +opened; and the map of the positions of Tyne industries, published under +the auspices of the Newcastle and Gateshead Chamber of Commerce, is a +record of resolute toil and brilliant achievement in the many aspects of +industrial life represented on the river. + +And, apart from the mere prosperity and commercial supremacy of the +district, there is another cause for pride in the many notable +inventions which hail from Tyneside; from the locomotive and the +"Geordie" lamp of Stephenson, the hydraulic machinery and the big guns +of Armstrong, to the wonderful turbine engines of Parsons; the invention +of water-ballast, too, belongs to the Tyne, for it was the idea of a +Gateshead man, and first used at Jarrow. + +And, in connection with ships and seafarers, though not in any +commercial sense, we may proudly recall the fact that the first Lifeboat +was launched on the Tyne and named after the river; and the first +Volunteer Life Brigade was formed at Tynemouth. The Worth Eastern +Railway is carried across the Tyne by the Scotswood Bridge; and it was +on this part of the river that the boat-races, for which the Tyne was +once famous, were rowed. At Newcastle, the river is bridged by four huge +structures--The Redheugh Bridge, the new King Edward VII. bridge, the +High Level, and Swing Bridges,--all connecting Newcastle with the sister +town of Gateshead. An interesting sight it is to see the Swing Bridge +gradually turning on its central pivot, until it lies in a straight line +up and down the stream, allowing some huge liner to pass, or some new +battleship, fresh from Elswick, to sail down the river, on its way to +make its trial trip over the "measured mile" in the open sea at the +mouth of the river, and thereafter to take its place among the armaments +of the nations. + +The High Level Bridge allows ships of any height to pass under its lofty +and graceful arches, which look so light, but are yet so strong. This +splendid bridge is an enduring monument of Robert Stephenson, whose work +it was; and the story of its erection, at the cost of nearly half a +million of money, makes most interesting reading. It took nearly two and +a half years to build, and was opened for traffic in 1849--little more +than three years after the first pile was driven in. A few months later, +in 1850, the newly built Central Station, with its imposing portico, was +opened by Queen Victoria. + +Passing down the Tyne from Newcastle, which requires separate notice, +and Walker, with its reminiscences of "Walker Pit's deun weel for me," +we arrive at Wallsend, which in twenty-five years has grown from a +colliery village with a population of 4,000 to a town of 23,000 +inhabitants. Here are great shipbuilding and repairing yards, chemical +works and cement works; here, too, are Parsons' Steam Turbine Works, +where was designed and built the little "Turbinia," on which tiny vessel +the early experiments were made with the new engines; and here are the +famous mines which have made "Best Wallsend" a synonym for best +household coal all over the land. These mines, after having been closed +for many years, were reopened at the beginning of the century, and now +turn out upwards of one thousand tons of coal per day. + +The church of St. Peter, at Wallsend, is little more than a hundred +years old; the old Church of Holy Cross, now long disused, was built +towards the end of the twelfth century. But Wallsend itself, as all the +world knows, is of much greater antiquity, for was it not, as its name +proclaims, situated at the end of the Great Wall? Its name then, +however, was not Wallsend but Segedunum. + +Willington Quay, further down the river, was, for a time, the home of +George Stephenson, and here his son, Robert, was born. At Howdon, which +used to be known as Howdon Pans, from the salt-pans there, the painter +John Martin and his brothers once worked when boys, being employed in +some rope-works. Here, too, the Henzells, a family of refugees who +settled in the district in the days of Elizabeth, founded some glass +works, for which industry the Tyne has been famous from that day to +this. + +[Illustration: THE RIVER TYNE AT NEWCASTLE (showing Swing Bridge open).] + +Before the railway on the south side of the river was laid down, +passengers who wished to reach Jarrow had to alight at Howdon and cross +the river; and a racy dialect song--"Howdon for Jarrow" with its refrain +of "Howdon for Jarra--ma hinnies, loup oot"--commemorates the fact. +Willington Quay and Howdon carry on the line of shipbuilding yards to +Northumberland Dock and the staithes of the Tyne Commissioners, where +the waggon ways from various collieries bring the coal to the water's +edge. Tyne Dock, just opposite, and the Albert Edward Dock near North. +Shields, provide abundance of shipping accommodation, besides what is +afforded by the river itself; and now the river flows between the steep +banks of North and South Shields. As the names declare, these two +growing and prosperous towns once consisted of a few fishermen's huts, +or "shielings"; but that was long ago, when the north shore of the Tyne +was owned by the Prior of Tynemouth, and the southern shore by the +Bishop of Durham, and the citizens of Newcastle complained to King +Edward I. that these two ecclesiastics had raised towns, "where no town +ought to be," and that "fishermen sold fish there which ought to be sold +at Newcastle, to the great injury of the whole borough, and in detriment +to the tolls of our Lord the King." These quarrels between Newcastle and +the other settlements on the Tyne continued with varying results, until +in the days of Cromwell, Ralph Gardiner of Chirton, a little village +close to North Shields, took up the cudgels for the growing towns; and +by dint of great perseverance, and in spite of much persecution and +ill-will, succeeded in getting most of the unjust privileges of their +stronger neighbour abolished. + +There were salt-pans, too, on both sides of the mouth of the Tyne, which +were worked in connection with the monasteries from very early days; and +Daniel Defoe, when he visited the north in 1726, declared that he could +see from the top of the Cheviot "the smoke of the salt-pans at Sheals, +at the mouth of the Tyne, which was about forty miles south of this." + +North Shields clings haphazard to the steep bank of the Tyne, and +spreads away up and beyond it, reaching out towards Wallsend on the +river shore and Tynemouth along by the sea, the older parts by the +river looking black and grimy to the last degree; but there is a silver +lining to this very black cloud--not visible, it is true, but distinctly +audible--in the great shipbuilding and repairing works known as Smith's +Dock, one of the largest concerns of the kind in Great Britain, where so +many hundreds of men earn their daily bread; and in the fishing +industry, which was the foundation of the town's prosperity, and bids +fair to be so for many years to come, as it is increasing year by year. +The Fish Quay at North Shields is a sight worth seeing; and, in the +herring season, it is increasingly frequented by Continental buyers. + +The fortunes of South Shields and Jarrow, though these towns are not in +Northumberland, are yet so bound up with the story of the Tyne that no +one would ever think of that river without them. Especially is this the +case with Jarrow, which "Palmer's" has raised from a small colliery +village to a large and flourishing town. In those famous yards, +everything that is necessary for the building of the largest ironclad, +from the first smelting of the ore until the last rivet is in place, can +be done. All Northumbria--Northumbria in the ancient and widest sense +of the word--owes a debt of gratitude to Jarrow, for was it not the home +of Bede? The monk of Jarrow, who spent all his long life in the same +monastery by the Don, coming to it when he was a child of ten, made that +spot of Northumbrian ground famed to the farthest limits of the +civilized Europe of his day; and scholars from all over the Continent +came to learn at the feet of the Northumbrian teacher. Beloved and +revered by all, and in harness to the last hour of his busy life, he +died in the year 735, just one hundred years after the coming of Aidan +to Lindisfarne. "First among English scholars, first among English +theologians, first among English historians, it is in the monk of +Jarrow that English literature strikes its roots."--_J.R. Green_. + +The Jarrow of to-day, and all its neighbours of industrial Tyneside, +possess no beauty of aspect such as the towns that are more fortunately +situated on the upper reaches of the river; they are muffled in clouds +of smoke and soot, and darkened by the necessities of their toil in +grimy ores and the ever-present coal. But no one who has ever looked on +these smoky reaches of the Tyne with a seeing eye, or steamed down the +river on a day either of gloom or sunshine, can refuse to acknowledge +that it has a certain grandeur, a stern beauty of its own, that can stir +the heart and the imagination more deeply than any mere prettiness. + +From the numberless hives of activity on both sides of the river clouds +of smoke roll heavily upward, and jets of steam from panting machinery +leap up in momentary whiteness on the dark background; the white wings +of flocks of wheeling gulls flash in the occasional sunshine which +lights up the scene, and between the clouds there are glimpses of blue +sky. Towards sunset, the evening mists drape the darkening banks and +crowded shipping in a soft robe of gray, which, together with the +glowing sky behind, produces most wonderful Turneresque effects; and the +fall of night on the river only changes the aspect without diminishing +the interest of the scene. The blaze from a myriad workshops and forges +glows against the darkness, the lamps twinkle overhead on the steep +banks, and the lights from wharf and steamer are reflected in a thousand +shimmering lines on the dark water, which flows on soundlessly, like the +river of a dream. + +On a day of wind and sun all these beauties are intensified a +thousandfold; the smoke is blown hither and thither in flying clouds, +the current seems to rush more swiftly, and a sense of vigorous life +permeates the whole scene, giving to the beholder a feeling of keen +exhilaration, as of new life rushing through his veins. Especially is +this the case on reaching the mouth of the river and meeting the dancing +waters of the open harbour, where the twin piers of South Shields and +Tynemouth reach out sheltering arms. Within the wide bay they enclose, +the storm-driven vessel may always find comparatively smooth water, how +wildly soever the waves may rage and roar outside. + +It is difficult to believe that so lately as the years 1858-60, the +"bar" at the mouth of the Tyne was an insuperable obstacle to all but +vessels of very moderate draught; and that ships might lie for days, and +sometimes weeks, after being loaded, before there came a tide high +enough to carry them out to sea. The river was full of sand-banks, and +little islands stood here and there--one in mid-stream, where the +ironclads are now launched at Elswick. Three or four vessels might be +seen at once bumping and grounding on the "bar" unable to make their way +over. Well might the old song say-- + + "The ships are all at the bar, + They canna get up to Newcastle!" + +An old map of the Tyne shows a number of sand-banks down the lower +reaches of the river, with ships aground on each, of them. + +But the River Tyne Commissioners have changed all that, and their +implement of warfare has been the hideous but necessary dredger. No +longer need vessels of heavy tonnage desert the Tyne for the Wear, as +they were perforce driven to do during the first half of the nineteenth +century, for the Wearsiders had set about deepening and widening their +river long before the Tynesiders did the same by theirs. Considerable +and continuous pressure had to be brought to bear on the civic +authorities at Newcastle before they finally took action; but having +once done so, the future of the Tyne was assured. Now it ranks second +only to the Thames in the actual number of vessels entering and leaving, +and owns only the Mersey its superior in the matter of tonnage. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE. + + "Her dusky hair in many a tangle clings + About her, and her looks, though stern and cold, + Grow tender with the dreams of by-gone days." + + --_W.W. Tomlinson_. + +The outward signs of "by-gone days," in the Newcastle of to-day, with +the one notable exception of the Castle, must be diligently sought out +amongst the overwhelming mass of what is often called "rampant +modernity," of which the town to-day chiefly consists. The modernity, +however, is not all bad, as this favourite phrase would imply; much of +it is doubtless regrettable and a very little of it perhaps inevitable; +but no one will deny either the modernity or the beauty of Grey Street, +one of the finest streets in any English town; or the fine appearance of +Grainger Street, Blackett Street, Eldon Square, or any other of the +stately thoroughfares with which Grainger and Dobson enriched the town +within the last eighty years--no one, that is, who has learned to "lift +his eyes to the sky-line in passing along a thoroughfare" instead of +keeping them firmly fixed at the level of shop windows. + +The grim old building which, when it was new, gave its name to the town, +is one for which no search needs to be made; its blackened and time worn +walls are seen from the train windows by every traveller who enters the +city from the south. So near is it to the railway, that in the +ultra-utilitarian days of sixty or seventy years ago, it narrowly +escaped the ignoble fate of being used as a signal-cabin. It was +rescued, however, by the Society of Antiquaries, and carefully preserved +by them--more fortunate in this respect than the castle of Berwick, for +the platform of Berwick railway station actually stands on the spot once +occupied by the Great Hall of the Castle. + +The site of the New Castle, on a part of the river bank which slopes +steeply down to the Tyne, had been occupied centuries before by a Roman +fort, constructed by order of the Emperor Hadrian, who visited Britain +A.D. 120. He also constructed a bridge over the Tyne at this spot, fort +and bridge receiving the name of Pons Aelii, after the Emperor (Publius +AElius Hadrianus). This became the second station on the Great Wall +erected by Hadrian's orders along the line of forts which Agricola had +raised forty years before. This station shared the fate of others on the +abandonment of Britain by its powerful conquerors, who had now for more +than two hundred years been its no less powerful friends and protectors. +Pons Aelii fell into ruins; but so advantageous a site could not long be +overlooked, and we read of a Saxon settlement there, apparently that of +a religious community, from which fact it was known as Monkchester. All +the records of this period seem to have perished, for we hear nothing of +the settlement during the Danish invasions; but a Saxon town of some +kind was evidently in existence at the time of the Conquest, though in +1073 three monks from the south who came to York, and, obtaining a guide +to "Muneche-cester," sought for some religious house in that settlement, +could find none, and were prevailed upon by the first Norman Bishop of +Durham, Walcher, to stay at Jarrow. The years from 1069 to 1080 were +evil years for Northumberland, for at the first-named date the Conqueror +devastated the North, and left neither village nor farm unscathed; and, +as the desolated land was beginning to recover again, Odo of Bayeux and +Robert of Normandy relentlessly laid it waste once more, partly in +revenge for the murder of Bishop Walcher at Gateshead, and partly to +punish Malcolm of Scotland for his invasion of Norman territory. + +It was on his return from this expedition, which had penetrated as far +north as Falkirk, that Robert, by his father's orders, raised a +stronghold on the Tyne on the site of the old Roman fort, in the year +1080. His brother, William Rufus, erected a much stronger and better +one, the Keep of which, re-built by Henry II., stands to-day dark and +grim, looking out over river and town, as it has stood since the Red +King ruled the land, and, like his father, the Conqueror, found it +desirable to have a stronghold at this northern point of his turbulent +realm, around which a town might grow up in safety. + +The roof and battlements of the Keep are modern, but the rest of it--the +walls, 12 to 18 feet thick; the dismal dungeon, or guard chamber, with +iron rings and fetters still fastened to the walls and central pillar; +the beautiful little chapel, with its finely-ornamented arches; the +little chambers in the thickness of the walls; the well, 94 feet deep, +sunk through the solid masonry into the rock beneath; the arrow slits in +the walls; the stones in the roof scored with frequent bolts from the +besiegers' crossbows, one of which bolts is firmly embedded in the wall +opposite one of the narrow windows; the ancient weapons and armour--all +these breathe of the days when the Red King's castle took its part in +the doings of our hardy ancestors in those stormy times in which they +lived and fought. + +The last time the old Keep was called upon to act as fortress and refuge +in time of war was in Stuart days, after the ten weeks siege of +Newcastle by the Scottish General Leslie, Earl of Leven, in 1644, when +brave "Governor Marley" and his friends held out in the castle for a few +days longer, after the town was taken. In memory of this stout defence +and long resistance King Charles gave to the town its motto--_Fortiter +defendit triumphans_, which Bates gives as having originally been +_Fortiter defendendo triumphat_--"She glories in her brave defence." + +Two of the original fireplaces still remain in the Castle, and there are +besides many objects of great interest which have been bestowed there +from time to time for safe keeping; and many more are to be seen at the +Black Gate, formerly the chief entrance to the Castle Hall and its +surroundings. The Great Hall of the Castle, in which John Baliol did +homage to Edward I. for the crown of Scotland, stood on the spot now +covered by the Moot Hall. The Black Gate, the lower part of which is the +oldest part of the building, which has many times been altered and +repaired, is now used as a museum. There were nearly a dozen rooms in +it, and not so many years ago the Corporation of Newcastle let these out +in tenements, until this building also was rescued from degradation by +the Newcastle Society of Antiquaries, who took down most of the dividing +walls, and converted it into a museum. Here may be seen stored many +sculptured stones, altars, and statues, which have been brought from the +various Roman stations in the north. + +Around the walls of one room are to be seen facsimiles of the famous +Bayeux tapestry; there is also a model of the Castle as originally +built, and there are many more exhibits and loans of the very greatest +interest. + +Of the walls of Newcastle only fragments remain, the most considerable +portion being found between Westgate Road and St. Andrew's Churchyard; +here are also remains of several of the watch-towers that stood at +intervals around the walls--the Heber Tower, the Mordaunt or Morden +Tower, and the Ever Tower. Between the two first named towers may be +seen a little doorway, walled up, once used by the Friars, who obtained +from Edward II. permission to make the doorway in order that they might +the more easily reach their gardens and orchards outside; but they had +to be ready to build it up at a moment's notice on the approach of an +enemy. One of the towers--the Carliol or Weaver's Tower--was pulled down +to make room for the Central Free Library, opened in 1881. Many little +fragments of the Castle wall are to be seen near the High Level Bridge, +incorporated in other walls, as far as the South Postern of the Castle, +which is said to be the only remaining Norman postern in England and is +the oldest remaining part of the Castle. + +The old streets of Newcastle are fast disappearing to make room for the +ever-increasing needs of commerce; at the moment of writing it is being +proposed to pull down more of the historic street called the Side, to +make room for new printing offices. At the head of this curious old +street, which curves downward from the Cathedral to the river, stood the +birthplace of Cuthbert Collingwood, who was to become Admiral Lord +Collingwood, and second in fame only to Nelson himself. Both this house +and the one where Thomas Bewick had his workshop, near the Cathedral, +have gone to make room for new buildings. + +At the foot of this street, where it curves to the river front, is the +Sandhill, facing the Swing Bridge. Here are several old houses +remaining, with many-windowed fronts, looking out on the river. One of +these was the house of Aubone Surtees, the banker, whose daughter +Bessie, in 1772, stole out of one of those little windows, and gave +herself into the keeping of young Jack Scott, who was waiting for her +below. The adventurous youth became Lord Chancellor of England, and is +best known as Lord Eldon; his brother William became Lord Stowell, and +was for many years Judge of the High Court of Admiralty. + +Opposite the old houses of the Sandhill, close to the river bank, is the +old Guildhall, greatly altered in appearance from the time when John +Wesley preached from its steps to the keelmen and fishermen of the town. +It was here that a sturdy fishwife put her arms round him, when some +boisterous spirits in the crowd threatened him with ill-usage, and, +shaking her fist in their faces, swore to "floor them" if they touched +her "canny man." + +This spot, where the Swing Bridge unites the lower banks of the stream, +seems always to have been the most convenient point for crossing the +river, for the present bridge is the fifth that has spanned the Tyne at +this point: Hadrian's bridge, Pons Aelii; a mediaeval bridge destroyed +by fire in 1248; the Old Tyne Bridge, swept away in the flood of 1771; +the successor of this, which was found too low to allow of the passage +of such large vessels as were able to sail up the Tyne after the +deepening of the river bed; and the present Swing Bridge, which is +worked by hydraulic machinery, the invention of Lord Armstrong. We do +not know how long Hadrian's bridge lasted, but William the Conqueror, +when returning from his expedition into Scotland in 1071, was obliged to +camp for a time at "Monec-cestre," as the Tyne was in flood, and there +was no bridge. + +Some ancient houses are to be found in Low Friar Street, one of which, +with winged heads and dolphins carved on it, is said to be the oldest +house in Newcastle. Turning up an opening on the west side of this +street, all that is left of the ancient Blackfriars' Monastery may be +seen; some of its rooms are used as the meeting places of various Trade +Guilds, and the rest form low tenement houses, in the walls of which are +many Gothic archways and ancient window-openings built up. Over the door +of the Smith's Hall is a carving of three hammers, and the +inscription:-- + + "By hammer and hand + All artes do stand." + +This Hall was formerly the Great Hall of the monastery; and here Edward +Baliol did homage to Edward III. for his crown of Scotland. Nun Street, +leading out of Grainger Street, reminds us of the days when the Nunnery +of St. Bartholomew stood in this part of the town, and the Nun's Moor +was part of the grounds belonging to the establishment. In High Friar +Street, which was not then the dilapidated lane it now appears, Richard +Grainger was born. + +Another part of the town which has fallen from its former high estate is +the Close, which lies along the river front, westward from the Sandhill. +Here, at one time, lived many of the principal inhabitants of +Newcastle--Sir John Marley, Sir William Blackett, Sir Ralph Millbank, +and others equally important; and here, too, was the former Mansion +House of the city, where the Mayors resided, and where they could +receive distinguished visitors to the town. Amongst those who have been +entertained there were the Duke of Wellington and the first King of the +Belgians. But in 1836 the Corporation of Newcastle sold the house, with +the furniture, books, pictures, plate, and everything else it contained. + +Eastward from the Sandhill is Sandgate, immortalised in the "Newcastle +Anthem"--The Keel Row. Its present appearance is very different from the +green slope and sandy shore of former days; the keelmen, too, have +vanished, and their place in the commercial economy of the Tyne is taken +by waggon-ways and coal-shoots. The old narrow alleys of the town, +called "chares," are fast disappearing; the best known is Pudding Chare, +leading from Bigg Market to Westgate Road. Many and various are the +explanations that have been offered to account for its curious name, but +the true one does not seem yet to have appeared. + +Pilgrim Street owes its name to the fact that it was the route of the +pilgrims who came in great numbers to visit the little chapel or shrine +of Our Lady of Jesmond, and St. Mary's Well. In Pilgrim Street was the +gateway of a stately mansion, surrounded by beautiful gardens, called +Anderson Place, from a Mr. Anderson who bought it from Sir Thomas +Blackett in 1783. It had been built by another Mr. Anderson in the reign +of Queen Elizabeth, on the site where once stood the monastery of the +Grey Friars; he, however, had named his mansion "The Newe House." In +this house Charles I. lived when a prisoner in Newcastle. Anderson Place +no longer exists, but the Newcastle of to-day has a constant reminder of +its last owners, for Major George Anderson, son of the Mr. Anderson who +purchased it in 1783, gave to the Cathedral of St. Nicholas the great +bell--known on that account as "The Major"--whose deep reverberant +"boom" can be heard for a distance of ten miles. The bell was re-cast in +1891, and in 1892 a new peal of bells was consecrated by Canon Gough. + +Westgate Road is another interesting street; the old West Gate stood +near the site of the present Tyne Theatre, and from this point onward +the street follows, almost exactly, the line of the Roman Wall. + +Some noteworthy houses in Newcastle are--No. 17, Eldon Place, where +George and Robert Stephenson lived in the years 1824-25; No. 4, St. +Thomas' Crescent, where the celebrated artist, Wm. Bell Scott lived when +he was headmaster of the School of Art, and to whom Swinburne wrote a +fine memorial poem; the Academy of Arts, in Blackett Street, built for +the exhibition of pictures by those well-known painters T.M. Richardson +and H.T. Parker, and for a short period the home of the Pen and Palette +Club, which, both here and in its new home at Higham Place, has +entertained many people distinguished in letters, art, and travel who +have visited the town of late years; and No. 9, Pleasant Row, the +birthplace of Lord Armstrong, which has only recently been destroyed to +make way for the N.E.R. Company's new ferro-concrete Goods Station in +New Bridge Street. + +The list of important buildings in Newcastle, exclusive of the churches, +is a long one; one of the most prominent is the Library of the Literary +and Philosophical Society, familiarly known as the "Lit. and Phil.," +which stands at the lower end of Westgate Road, a little way back from +the roadway. It is built on the site of the town house of the Earls of +Westmoreland; and its fine Lecture Theatre was a gift to the Society +from Lord Armstrong. It is the centre of the intellectual life of the +city as a whole, apart from the work of the justly famed Armstrong +College, a teaching institute of University rank. This was formerly +known as the Durham College of Science, and, with the Durham College of +Medicine, forms part of the University of Durham. + +Other seats of learning in the town are the Rutherford College, in Bath +Lane, and the Royal Grammar School, which dates from the reign of Henry +VIII. It was reconstituted by Queen Elizabeth, and has had many changes +of abode. At one time it occupied the buildings of the Convent of St. +Mary, which covered the space where Stephenson's monument now stands. +While the Grammar School was located there, the boys Cuthbert +Collingwood, William Scott, and John Scott, who afterwards became so +famous, attended it; and other distinguished scholars were John Horsley, +author of _Britannia Romana_, and John Brand and Henry Bourne, the +historians of Newcastle. The school is now situated in Eskdale Terrace +and its splendid playing fields stretch across to the North Road. + +One of the most interesting buildings in Newcastle is the Hancock Museum +of Natural History, at Barras Bridge. It contains a matchless collection +of birds, and some unique specimens of extinct species; also the +original drawings of Bewick's _British Birds_, and other works of his. +The famous Newcastle naturalist, John Hancock, presented his wonderful +collection, prepared by himself, to the museum. Here, too, is a complete +set of fossils from the coal measures, including some fine specimens of +Sigillaria. These are only a few of the treasures contained in the +museum, which was built chiefly through the generosity of the late Lord +and Lady Armstrong, Colonel John Joicey of Newton Hall, Stocksfield, and +Mr. Edward Joicey of Whinney House. + +The new Victoria Infirmary, on the Leazes, is a magnificent building, +and was opened by King Edward VII. in 1906. It was erected by public +subscription, and when L100,000 had been subscribed, the late Mr. John +Hall generously offered a like sum on condition that the building should +be erected either on the Leazes or the Town Moor. Arrangements were made +to do so, and another L100,000 given by the present Lord and Lady +Armstrong. + +But fine as all these buildings are, the pride of Newcastle is one much +older than any of them--the Cathedral church of St. Nicholas, with its +exquisitely beautiful lantern steeple. This wonderful lantern was the +work of Robert de Rhodes, who lived in the fifteenth century. The arms +of this early benefactor of the church may yet be seen on the ancient +font. The present church was finished in the year 1350, says Dr. Bruce; +but there was a former one on this site to which the crypt is supposed +to belong. It has undergone many alterations at different times, and has +sheltered within its walls many and various great personages. + +[Illustration: NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE.] + +In 1451, a treaty between England and Scotland was ratified in the +vestry. In the reign of Henry VII., his daughter, Princess Margaret, +attended mass here, with all her retinue, when she stayed in the town on +her way to Scotland to be married to the gallant young king James IV. +She was entertained at the house of the Austin Friars, which stood where +now stands the Holy Jesus Hospital at the Manors, near to the Sallyport +Tower. When James I. became king of England, he attended service here, +as he passed through Newcastle on his way to his southern capital. In +the reign of his ill-fated son, Charles I., Newcastle was occupied by +the Scots, under General Leslie, for a year after the battle of Newburn in +1640; and again in 1644 was besieged by them for ten weeks. On this +occasion the town nearly lost its chief ornament and pride--the lantern +of the church; for "There is a traditional story," says Bourne, "of this +building I am now treating of, which may not be improper to be here +taken notice of. In the time of the Civil Wars, when the Scots had +besieged the town for several weeks, and were still as far as at first +from taking it, the General sent a messenger to the Mayor of the town, +and demanded the keys and the delivery up of the town, or he would +immediately demolish the steeple of St. Nicholas. + +"The Mayor and Aldermen, upon hearing this, immediately ordered a +certain number of the chiefest Scottish prisoners to be carried up to +the top of the old tower, the place below the lantern, and there +confined. After this, they returned the General an answer to this +purpose, that they would upon no terms deliver up the town, but would to +the last moment defend it; that the steeple of St. Nicholas was indeed a +beautiful and magnificent piece of architecture, and one of the great +ornaments of the town, but yet should be blown to atoms before ransomed +at such a rate; that, however, if it was to fall it should not fall +alone; that at the same moment he destroyed the beautiful structure he +should bathe his hands in the blood of his countrymen, who were placed +there on purpose, either to preserve it from ruin or to die along with +it. This message had the desired effect. The men were kept prisoners +during the whole time of the siege, and not so much as one gun was fired +against it." + +In 1646, when Charles I. was a prisoner in Newcastle for nearly a year +(from May, 1646, to February 3rd, 1647), this was the church he +attended; and we may picture him listening perforce to the +"admonishing" of the stern Covenanters. In this connection occurs the +oft-told story of his ready wit, when one of the preachers wound up his +discourse by giving out the metrical version of the fifty-second Psalm, +with an obvious allusion to his royal hearer:-- + + "Why dost thou, tyrant, boast abroad, + Thy wicked works to praise?" + +Charles quickly stood up and asked for the fifty-sixth Psalm instead:-- + + "Have mercy, Lord, on me, I pray, + For man would me devour." + +The good folk of Newcastle with willing voice rendered the latter Psalm, +doubtless to the discomfiture of the preacher. + +Gray, who published his _Chorographia_, or Survey of +Newcastle-upon-Tyne, just three years after this, describes St. +Nicholas' as having "a stately, high, stone steeple, with many pinakles, +a stately stone lantherne, standing upon foure stone arches, builded by +Robert de Rhodes.... It lifteth up a head of Majesty, as high above the +rest as the Cypresse Tree above the low Shrubs." + +The church underwent a terrible despoliation at the hands of the Scots +in 1644; but more terrible still were the injuries it received, a little +more than a century later, from those who ought to have been its +friends. In the years 1784-7 there were many alterations made in the +building, during which almost all the old memorials and monuments +perished, or were removed; those which were not claimed by the living +representatives of the persons commemorated being ruthlessly sold, or +destroyed; and the brasses were disposed of as old metal. The modern +alterations and restorations have been more happy in their effect, and +one of the notable additions to the church is the beautiful carved oak +screen in the chancel, the work of Mr. Ralph Hedley. + +There are many beautiful memorial windows in the church, and many +memorials in other forms to the various eminent North-country folk who +have been connected with Newcastle and its chief place of worship. The +Collingwood cenotaph is the most interesting of all; the brave Admiral's +body, as is well known, lies beside that of his friend and commander, +Nelson, in St. Paul's Cathedral, but this memorial of him is fittingly +placed in the Cathedral of his native town, within whose walls he +worshipped as a boy. There are two monuments by Flaxman--one of the Rev. +Hugh Moises, the famous master of the Grammar School when Collingwood +was a boy; and the other of Sir Matthew White Ridley, who died in 1813. +Of the newer monuments, those of Dr. Bruce, of Roman Wall fame, and of +the beloved and lamented Bishop Lloyd, are particularly fine. + +Near the east end of the church, which was raised to the rank of a +Cathedral in 1881, is hung a large painting by Tintoretto, "Christ +washing the feet of the Disciples"; this was presented to the church by +Sir Matthew White Ridley in 1818. There are many more things of interest +in the Cathedral, but mention must be made of a wonderful MS. Bible, +incomplete, it is true, but beautifully written and illuminated by the +monks of Hexham, and other manuscript treasures carefully kept in the +care of the authorities. + +The oldest church in the town is St. Andrew's, supposed to have been +built by King David of Scotland at the time when that monarch was Lord +of Tynedale, in the reign of King Stephen. It suffered greatly in the +struggle with the Scots, whose cannon, planted on the Leazes, did it +great damage, and some of the fiercest fighting, at the final capture +of the town, took place close by, where a breach was made in the walls. +In such a battered condition was it left that the parish Registers tell +us that no baptism nor "sarmon" took place within its walls for a year +(1645). But a marriage took place, the persons wedded being Scots, who, +we learn from the same authority, "would pay nothing to the Church." + +In the church is buried Sir Adam de Athol, Lord of Jesmond, and Mary, +his wife. It is supposed that this Sir Adam gave the Town Moor to the +people of Newcastle, though this has been disputed. A fine picture of +the "Last Supper," by Giordano, presented by Major Anderson in 1804, +hangs in the church. + +St. John's Church ranks next to St. Andrew's in point of age; there are +fragments of Norman work in the building, and it is known to have been +standing in 1297. To-day the venerable pile, with its age worn stones, +stands out in sharper contrast to its environment than does any other +building in the town, surrounded as it is by modern shops and offices. +The memories it evokes, and the past for which it stands, are such as +the citizens of Newcastle will not willingly let die; and when, a few +years ago, a proposal was made for its removal, the proposition aroused +such a storm of popular feeling against it that it was incontinently +abandoned. + +All Saints' Church was built in 1789, on the site of an older building +which was in existence in 1296, and which became very unsafe. Here is +kept one of the most interesting monuments in the city--the monumental +brass which once covered the tomb of Roger Thornton, a wealthy merchant +of Newcastle, and a great benefactor to all the churches. He died in +1429. He gave to St. Nicholas' Church its great east window; but, on its +needing repair in 1860, it was removed entirely, and the present one, +in memory of Dr. Ions, inserted; and the only fragment left of +Thornton's window is a small circular piece inset in a plain glass +window in the Cathedral. He gave much money to Hexham Abbey also. + +Besides the famous men already mentioned in connection with the town, +Newcastle possesses other well-known names not a few. In the Middle +Ages, Duns Scotus, the man whose skill in argument earned for him the +title of "Doctor Subtilis," owned Northumberland as his home, and +received his education in the monastery of the Grey Friars, which stood +near the head of the present Grey Street. He returned to this monastery +after some years of study at Oxford; in 1304 he was teaching divinity in +Paris. + +Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of London in the reign of Edward VI., whose +Northumbrian birthplace at Willimoteswick has already been noted, +received his early education at the Grammar School in Newcastle, and on +going to Cambridge was a student at Pembroke. We are told he was the +ablest man among the Reformers for piety, learning and judgment. As is +well known, he died at the stake in 1555. + +William and Elizabeth Elstob, who lived in Newcastle at the end of the +seventeenth century, were learned Saxon scholars, but were so greatly in +advance of the education of their times that they met with little +encouragement or sympathy in their labours. + +Charles Avison, the musician and composer, was organist of St. John's in +1736, and afterwards of St. Nicholas'. + +It was he to whom Browning referred in the lines-- + + "On the list + Of worthies, who by help of pipe or wire, + Expressed in sound rough rage or soft desire, + Thou, whilom of Newcastle, organist." + +These lines have been carved on his tombstone in St. Andrew's +churchyard. He is best known as the composer of the anthem "Sound the +loud timbrel." + +Mark Akenside, the poet, was born in Butcher Bank, now called after him +Akenside Hill. His chief work "The Pleasures of Imagination," is not +often read now, but it enjoyed a considerable reputation in an age when +a stilted and formal style was looked upon as a true excellence in +poetry. + +Charles Hutton, the mathematician, was born in Newcastle in 1737. He +began life as a pitman; but, receiving an injury to his arm, he turned +his attention to books, and taught in his native town for some years, +becoming later Professor of Mathematics in the Royal Military Academy at +Woolwich. + +John Brand, the antiquary and historian of Newcastle, was born at +Washington, County Durham, but came to Newcastle as a child. After +attending the Grammar School, he went to Oxford, by the aid of his +master, the Rev. Hugh Moises. He was afterwards curate at the church of +St. Andrew. + +Robert Morrison, the celebrated Chinese scholar, was born near Morpeth, +but his parents came to Newcastle when the boy was three years of age. +He died in China in 1834. + +Thomas Miles Richardson, the well-known artist, was born in Newcastle in +1784, and was at first a cabinetmaker, then master of St. Andrew's Free +School, but finally gave up all other work to devote himself to his art. + +Robert Stephenson went to school at Percy Street Academy, which for long +has ceased to exist. There he was taught by Mr. Bruce, and had for one +of his fellow-pupils the master's son, John Collingwood Bruce, who +afterwards became so famous a teacher and antiquary. + +Newcastle is not, as most southerners imagine, a dark and gloomy town of +unrelieved bricks and mortar, for, besides possessing many wide and +handsome streets, it has also several pretty parks, the most noteworthy +being the beautiful Jesmond Dene, one of the late Lord Armstrong's +magnificent gifts to his native town. The Dene, together with the +Armstrong Park near it, lies on the course of the Ouseburn, which is +here a bright and sparkling stream, very different from the appearance +it presents by the time it empties its murky waters into the Tyne. +Besides these there are Heaton Park, the Leazes Park, with its lakes and +boats, Brandling Park, and others smaller than these; and last, but most +important of all, the Town Moor, a fine breezy space to the north of the +town, of more than 900 acres in extent. + +Of statues and monuments Newcastle possesses some half-dozen, the finest +being "Grey's Monument"--a household word in the town and familiarly +known as "The Monument." It was erected at the junction of Grey Street +and Grainger Street in memory of Earl Grey of Howick, who was Prime +Minister at the passing of the Reform Bill. The figure of the Earl, by +Bailey, stands at the top of a lofty column, the height being 135 feet +to the top of the figure. There is a stairway within the column, by +which it can be ascended, and a magnificent view enjoyed from the top. + +In an open space near the Central Station, between the _Chronicle_ +Office and the Lit. and Phil., there is a fine statue of George +Stephenson, by the Northumbrian sculptor, Lough. It is a full length +representation of the great engineer, in bronze, with the figures of +four workmen, representing the chief industries of Tyneside, around the +pedestal--a miner, a smith, a navvy, and an engineer. At the head of +Northumberland Street, on the open space of the Haymarket, stands a +beautiful winged Victory on a tall column, crowning "Northumbria" +typified as a female figure at the foot of the column. This graceful and +striking memorial is the work of T. Eyre Macklin, and is in memory of +the officers and men of the North who fell in the Boer War of 1899-1902. +Two other noteworthy statues in the town are those of Lord Armstrong, +near the entrance to the Natural History Museum at Barras Bridge, and of +Joseph Cowen, in Westgate Road. + + +THE KEEL ROW + + As I came thro' Sandgate, + Thro' Sandgate, thro' Sandgate, + As I came thro' Sandgate, + I heard a lassie sing + "O weel may the keel row, + The keel row, the keel row, + Weel may the keel row + That my laddie's in + + "O who is like my Johnnie, + Sae leish,[5] sae blithe, sae bonnie; + He's foremost 'mang the mony + Keel lads o' coaly Tyne + He'll set and row sae tightly, + And in the dance sae sprightly + He'll cut and shuffle lightly, + 'Tis true, were he not mine! + [Footnote 5: Leish = lithe, nimble.] + + "He has nae mair o' learnin' + Than tells his weekly earnin', + Yet, right frae wrang discernin', + Tho' brave, nae bruiser he! + Tho' he no worth a plack[6] is, + His ain coat on his back is; + And nane can say that black is + The white o' Johnnie's e'e + [Footnote 6: Plack = a small copper coin, worth about one-third of a + penny.] + + He wears a blue bonnet, + Blue bonnet, blue bonnet, + He wears a blue bonnet, + And a dimple in his chin + O weel may the keel row, + The keel row, the keel row, + Weel may the keel row + That my laddie's in." + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +ELSWICK AND ITS FOUNDER. + + Sailed from the North of old + The strong sons of Odin; + Sailed in the Serpent ships, + "By hammer and hand" + Skilfully builded. + + * * * * * + + Still in the North-country + Men keep their sea-cunning; + Still true the legend, + "By hammer and hand" + Elswick builds war-ships. + + --(_Northumbriensis_). + +For a mile and a quarter, along the north bank of the Tyne, stretch the +world-famed Elswick Works, which have grown to their present gigantic +proportions from the small beginnings of five and a half acres in 1847. +In that year two fields were purchased as a site for the new works about +to be started to make the hydraulic machinery which had been invented by +Mr. Armstrong. + +In this undertaking he was backed by the wealth of several prominent +Newcastle citizens, who believed in the future of the new +inventions--Messrs. Addison Potter, George Cruddas, Armourer Donkin, and +Richard Lambert. At that time Elswick was a pretty country village some +distance outside of Newcastle, and the walk along the riverside between +the two places was a favourite one with the people of the town. In +midstream there was an island, where stood a little inn called the +"Countess of Coventry"; and on the island various sports were often +held, including horse-racing. + +The price of the land for the new shops, which were soon built on the +green slopes above the Tyne, was paid to Mr. Hodgson Hind and Mr. +Richard Grainger; the latter of whom had intended, could he have carried +out his plans for the rebuilding of Newcastle, not to stop until he made +Elswick Hall the centre of the town. + +Until the new shops were ready to begin work, some of Mr. Armstrong's +hydraulic cranes were made by Mr. Watson at his works in the High +Bridge. + +All the summer of 1847, the building went briskly on; and in the autumn +work was started. At first Mr. Armstrong had an office in Hood Street, +as he was superintending his machinery construction in High Bridge, as +well as the building operations at Elswick. On some of the early +notepaper of the firm there is, as the heading, a picture of Elswick as +it was then, showing the first shops, the little square building in +which were the offices, the green banks sloping down to the waterside, +and the island in the middle of the shallow stream, while the chimneys +and smoke of Newcastle are indicated in the remote background. Along the +riverside was the public footpath. + +The first work done in the new shops was the making of Crane No. 6; and +amongst other early orders was one from the _Newcastle Chronicle_, for +hydraulic machinery to drive the printing press. The new machinery +rapidly grew in favour; and orders from mines, docks and railways poured +in to the Elswick firm, which soon extended its works. + +In 1854, when the Crimean War broke out, Mr. Armstrong was requested to +devise some submarine mines which would clear the harbour of Sebastopol +of the Russian war-ships which had been sent there. He did so, but the +machinery was never used. + +At the same time, in his leisure moments, he turned his attention to the +question of artillery. The guns in use at that time were very little +better than those which had been used during the Napoleonic wars; and +Mr. Armstrong devised a new one, which was made at his workshops. It was +a 3-pounder, complete with gun-carriage and mountings, and is still to +be seen at Elswick. + +With the usual reluctance of Government departments to consider anything +new, the War Office of the day was slow to believe in the superiority of +the new field-piece; but when every fresh trial proved that superiority +to be beyond doubt, the gun was adopted. And then Mr. Armstrong showed +the large-minded generosity which was so marked a feature of his +character. Holding in his hand--as every man must, who possesses the +secret of a new and superior engine of destruction--the fate of nations, +to be decided at his will, and with the knowledge that other powers were +willing and eager to buy with any sum the skill of such an inventor, Mr. +Armstrong presented to the British Government, as a free gift, the +patents of his artillery; and he entered the Government service for a +time, as Engineer to the War Department, in order to give them the +benefit of his skill and special knowledge. + +A knighthood was bestowed upon him, and he took up his new duties as Sir +William Armstrong. An Ordnance department was opened at Elswick, and the +Government promised a continuance of orders above those that the Arsenal +at Woolwich was able to fulfil. All went well for a time, but after some +years the connection between the Government and Elswick ceased; the +Ordnance and Engineering works were then amalgamated into one concern, +and Mr. George Rendel and Captain Noble--now Sir Andrew Noble, and one +of the greatest living authorities on explosives--were placed in charge +of the former. + +Released from the agreement to make no guns except for the British +Government, Elswick was open to receive other orders, which now began to +roll in from all the world. Elswick prospered greatly, until suddenly +there came a check, in the shape of a strike for a nine hours day, in +1871. After the strike had lasted for four and a half months, work was +resumed; but the old genial relationship between masters and men had +received a rude strain, and was never the same as before. + +Shipbuilding had been taken up a year or two before this, but the +earliest vessels were built to their order in Mr. Mitchell's yard at +Walker. The first one was a small gunboat, the "Staunch," built for the +Admiralty. In later years the Walker ship-yard was united to the Elswick +enterprises, and a ship-yard at the latter place was also opened. + +Meantime, Captain Noble had been experimenting further in artillery, and +in 1877 another and better type of gun was produced. It was adopted by +the Government, and all guns since then have been modifications, more or +less, of this type. In 1876 the famous hundred-ton gun for Italy was +made, and was taken on board the "Europa" to be carried to her +destination; this vessel being the first to pass the newly-finished +Swing Bridge, another outcome of the inventive genius of the head of the +Elswick firm. The gun, which was the largest in the world at that time, +was lowered into the "Europa" by the largest pair of "sheer-legs" in +existence, and was lifted out again at Spezzia by the largest hydraulic +crane of that day, and all these were the work of the Elswick firm. + +Soon after this the firm became Sir W.G. Armstrong, Mitchell, and Co.; +and in consequence of the continued increase of business, it became +necessary to open Steel Works also. This is one of the most notable +features of the Elswick works; the wonders of ancient magicians pale +into insignificance before the marvels of this department, and no +Eastern Genius could accomplish such seemingly impossible feats with +greater ease than do the workmen of Elswick. + +The works continued to grow still further, and soon Elswick was building +cruisers for China, for Italy (where works at Pozzuoli--the ancient +Puteoli--were opened), for Russia, Chili, and Japan. Tynesiders took a +special interest in the progress of the Japanese wars, for so many of +that country's battleships had their birth on the banks of the river at +Elswick, and Japanese sailors became a familiar sight in Newcastle +streets. Groups of strange faces from alien lands are periodically seen +in our midst, and met with again and again for some time; then one day +there is a launch at Elswick, and shortly afterwards all the strange +faces disappear. They have gathered together from their various quarters +in the town, and manning their new cruiser, have sailed away to their +own land, and Newcastle streets know them no more; but, later, +Tynesiders read in their newspapers of the deeds done on the vessels +which they have sent forth to the world. + +The ice-breaker "Ermack" is one of the firm's most notable achievements, +the vessel having been built and designed in their Walker yard, to the +order of the Czar of Russia, in 1898, for the purpose of breaking up +ice-floes in the northern seas, and more especially for keeping open a +route across the great lakes of Siberia. + +The Elswick firm became Armstrong, Whitworth and Co., Ltd., in 1897, +which was also the year of another great strike; and two years later, a +disastrous fire burned down three of their shops, throwing two thousand +men temporarily out of employment. Still the works continued to grow, +and business to increase, until, instead of the five and a half acres +originally purchased, the Company's works, in 1900, covered two hundred +and thirty acres, and the number of men on the pay-roll was over +25,000--that is, sufficient with their families to people a town three +times the size of Hexham. And the scope and extent of these works are +extending, and yet extending; and now Elswick and Scotswood form an +uninterrupted line of closely-packed dwellings, which stretch without a +break from Newcastle, and make a background for the immense works on the +river shore; and one would look in vain for any signs of the pretty +country lanes and village of sixty years ago. + +The founder of this great enterprise, in the early days of the Company, +built for his workpeople schools, library, and reading rooms, as well as +dwellings, and met them personally at their social gatherings and +entertainments--generally provided by himself; but the increasing size +of the concern, the excellence and capability, amounting to genius, of +the various heads of departments chosen by him, and his own increasing +years and failing health, led to his gradual withdrawal from personal +attendance at Elswick. The last time he appeared there officially was +when the King of Siam visited the works in 1897. + +One who knew him well has written of him, "His mind was at the same time +original and strictly practical; he noticed with a penetrating +observation, and drew conclusions with intuitive genius. Abstract +speculation had no charm for him; he never cherished wild dreams or +extravagant ideas. But if his conception was thus wisely restricted, his +execution of an idea was unrivalled in its thoroughness. Whether he was +founding an industrial establishment, or building a house, or making a +road, the hand of the man is quite unmistakable. There is the same solid +basis, the same enduring superstructure. Every stone that is laid at +Cragside or Bamburgh seems to be stamped as it were with the impression +of his great personality, and the thoroughness of his work." All his +life long, the thoroughness with which he was able to concentrate his +mind on the one subject which occupied it at the time, was a marked +feature of Lord Armstrong's character. + +In the early period of his career, while he was still in a solicitor's +office, and when the study of hydraulics was absorbing all his leisure +hours, he was quizzically said to have "water on the brain." Electrical +problems also engaged his attention, and in 1844 he lectured at the Lit. +and Phil. rooms on his hydro-electric machine, on which occasion the +lecture room was so tightly packed that he had to get in through the +window. In the following year he explained to the same society his +hydraulic experiments and achievements; in 1846 he was elected a Fellow +of the Royal Society; and the next summer, 1847, saw the Elswick Works +begun. + +It is difficult to realize the fact, brought home to us on looking at +dates like these, that Lord Armstrong and Robert Stephenson were +contemporaries, and that both great engineers were engaged at the same +time on the works which were to bring them lasting fame. The life and +work of Robert Stephenson seem so remote, so much a part of bygone +history, that it strikes the mind with an unexpected shock to realise +that here is a life which began about the same time, yet has lasted +until quite recent years; for Lord Armstrong's long and successful +career only closed with the closing days of the nineteenth century. + +In the later years of his life he was greatly interested in repairing +and partly re-building the historic castle of Bamburgh, which Mr. +Freeman calls "the cradle of our race," and which Lord Armstrong +purchased from Lord Crewe's Trustees. Of his personal character, the +writer above quoted says, "Apart from his intellectual gifts, Lord +Armstrong's character was that of a great man. His unaffected modesty +was as attractive as his broad-minded charity. In business transactions, +he was the soul of integrity and honour, while in private life his mind +was far too large to regard accumulated wealth with any excessive +affection. He both spent his money freely and gave it away freely. His +benefactions to Newcastle were princely, and his public munificence was +fit to rank with that of any philanthropist of his time." + +Princely, indeed, were his gifts to his native town, as the list of them +will show; they embraced either large contributions to, or the entire +gift of, Jesmond Dene, the Armstrong Park, the Lecture Theatre of the +Literary and Philosophical Society, St. Cuthbert's Church, the +Cathedral, St. Stephen's Church, the Infirmary, the Deaf and Dumb +Institution, the Children's Hospital, the Elswick Schools, Elswick +Mechanics' Institute, the Convalescent Home at Whitley Bay, the Hancock +Museum--to which he and Lady Armstrong contributed a valuable collection +of shells, and L11,500 in money--the Armstrong Bridge, the Armstrong +College, and the Bishopric Endowment Fund. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +THE CHEVIOTS. + +From the crowded, bustling scenes of Tyneside to the solitude of the +Cheviot Hills is a "far cry," even farther mentally than in actual tale +of miles. Yet the two are linked by the same stream, which begins life +as a brawling Cheviot burn, having for its fellows the head waters of +the Rede, the Coquet, and the Till, with the scores of little dancing +rills that feed them. + +Nowhere in this land of swelling hills and grassy fields can one get out +of either sight or sound of running water. Every little dip in the hills +has its watercourse, every vale its broader stream, and the pleasant +sound of their murmurings and sweet babbling fills in the background of +every remembrance of days spent upon the green slopes of the Cheviots. +You may hear in their tones, if you listen, the shrill chatter and +laughter of children, soft cooing voices, and the deeper notes of +manhood, and might fancy, did not your sight contradict the fact, that +you were close to a goodly company, whose words met your ear, but whose +magic language you could not understand. + +One little burn of my acquaintance, which runs through field and dell to +join the Till, I have hearkened to again and again for hours, unable to +break away from the spell of its ever-varying, yet constant music--a +sort of wilder, sweeter version of Mendelssohn's Duetto, with the voices +of Knight and Lady alternating and intermingling amidst a rippling +current of clear bell-like undertones. + +Down from Cheviot itself, the lovely little Colledge Water splashes its +way, issuing from the wild ravine called the Henhole, where the cliffs +on each side of the rocky gorge rise in some places to a height of more +than two hundred feet. Concerning this ravine, there is a legend that a +party of hunters, long ages ago, were deer-stalking in Cheviot Forest, +when on reaching the Henhole their ears were greeted by the most +ravishing music they had ever heard. Allured by the enchanting sounds, +they followed the music into the ravine, where they disappeared, and +were never again seen. + +The range of the Cheviot Hills stretches for about twenty-two miles +along the north-west border of Northumberland; and as the width of the +range is, roughly speaking, twenty-one miles, we have a tract of over +three hundred square miles of rolling, grassy, and heath-clad hills, of +which about one-third is over the Scottish border in Roxburghshire. The +giants of the range, The Cheviot (2,676 feet high), Cairn Hill (2,545 +feet), and the striking cone of Hedgehope (2,348 feet), are all near to +each other on Northumbrian soil, a few miles south-west of Wooler, which +is a most convenient starting place for a visit to any part of the +Cheviots, as the Alnwick and Cornhill Railway brings within easy reach +the heights which lie still farther north. + +The quiet little market town lies pleasantly among green meadows almost +at the foot of the Cheviots; its low substantial stone houses, with few +gardens in front, give the place a somewhat monotonous appearance, but +the newer streets try to make amends by blossoming out into brilliant +flower-plots in summer-time. Still, one would not quarrel with the older +buildings; solid and unpretentious, they must look much the same as in +the days of Border turmoil, when the first requisite in house or town +was strength, not beauty. + +Near to Wooler are many interesting places; within the limits of quite a +short stroll one may visit the Pin Well, a wishing well of which there +are so many examples to be found wherever one may travel; the King's +Chair, a porphyry crag on the hill above the Pin Well; Maiden Castle, +or, less euphoniously, Kettles Camp, an ancient British encampment on +the same hill, the Kettles being pot-like cavities in the ravines +surrounding it; and the Cup and Saucer Camp, just half a mile distant +from Wooler. The Golf Course is now laid out on these same heights. + +To reach the Cheviots from Wooler, the most usual way is by the +beautiful glen in which lies Langleeford. The bright streamlet known as +the Wooler Water runs through it from Cheviot on its way to the town +from which it has taken its present name; formerly it was known as +Caldgate Burn. It was at Langleeford that Sir Walter Scott stayed, as a +youth, in 1791, with his uncle, after they had vainly attempted to find +accommodation in Wooler. Here they rode, fished, shot, walked, and drank +the goat's whey for which the district was famous in those days and for +long afterwards. + +Cheviot itself, or "The Muckle Cheviot," is a huge cumbrous-looking +mass, with rounded sides and flat top, boggy and treacherous, where, +nevertheless, many wild berries brighten the marshy flats in their +season. The name "Cheviot" is said to mean "Snowy Ridge" and well does +this highest summit of the range merit the name, for on its marshy top +and in the rocky chasms of Henhole and Bazzle, the winter's snow often +lies until far into the summer. Down through the weird and fairy-haunted +cleft of Henhole, as we have seen, the little brown stream of Colledge +Water splashes its way, breaking into golden foam between mossy banks as +it reaches the outlet, and turns northward to join the Till. + +This little burn is one of the prettiest of mountain streams; and in the +district surrounding it are perhaps more points of interest than any +other stream of such inconsiderable dimensions can show, saving only its +neighbour, the Till. The whole of the surrounding country, wild, lonely, +and romantic, teems with memories and reminders of the past. Sir Walter +Scott, while on the visit already referred to, found an additional +pleasure in the presence of so many relics of ancient days in the +neighbourhood. "Each hill," he wrote to a friend, "is crowned with a +tower, or camp, or cairn, and in no situation can you be near more +fields of battle." + +Indeed, the whole district of the Cheviots, and the lower lines of +swelling hills into which the land subsides as it nears the sea, is +crowded with the memorials of an earlier race; from every hill-top and +rocky height they speak with tantalising half-revelations of that race +which the Romans found here when their galleys brought them to the land +which was to them Ultima Thule. No convincing explanation has yet been +found of the concentric circular markings, with radiating grooves from +the cup-shaped hollow in the middle, which are scored on the rocks +wherever traces of an ancient camp are found; and the numbers of these +traces are proof that this district was once a very thickly populated +part of Britain. + +And when Angle and Saxon were driving the early inhabitants before them, +westward and southward, these hills and valleys still sheltered a +considerable population; and Bede tells us of a royal residence not far +away, at the foot of the well known Yeavering Bell, one of the more +important hills of the range. It rises to a height of more than 1,100 +feet, and then abruptly ends in a wide, almost level top, grass-grown +and boulder-strewn, and crowned near the centre with a roughly-piled +cairn. The ancient name of Yeavering Bell, as given by Bede in his +account of the labours of St. Paulinus, was Ad-gefrin. + +To recall the days when King Edwin and his queen, Ethelburga, came here +from the royal city of Bamburgh, we must go back to a time nearly forty +years after the Bernician chieftain, Ida, established himself in that +rocky fortress, from whence he ruled a district roughly corresponding to +the present counties of Durham and Northumberland, and known as +Bernicia. One of Ida's successors, Ethelric, overcame the tribe of +Angles then established in the neighbouring district of Deira--the +Yorkshire of to-day. His successor, Ethelfrith, ruled over the united +district, and married the daughter of Ella, the vanquished chieftain. +Her brother, Edwin, he drove into exile, and the young prince found +refuge at the court of Redwald of East Anglia, where he remained for +some years. + +Redwald's friendship, however, does not seem to have been above +suspicion, for we find that Ethelfrith's bribe had on one occasion +nearly induced him to give up his guest, whose life, however, was saved +by Redwald's wife who turned her husband from his purpose. In his exile +the thoughts of the young prince often turned towards his own land; and, +once, as he sat brooding over his misfortunes, he saw in a vision one +who came and spoke comforting words to him, saying that he should yet be +king and that his reign should be long and glorious. "And if one should +come to thee and repeat this sign," said the stranger, laying his right +hand on Edwin's head "wouldst thou hearken to his rede?" Edwin gave his +word, and the vision fled. Some little time after this, Ethelfrith of +Northumbria, as the united districts were now called, fell in battle +against Redwald, and Edwin, returning northward, became ruler of +Northumbria, the sons of Ethelfrith fleeing in their turn before the new +king. Edwin wedded, as his second wife, Ethelburga, daughter of that +king of Kent in whose days Augustine came to England; and being a +Christian princess, she brought with her a priest to her new home in the +north. The priest's name was Paulinus; and one day he went to the King +and, placing his right hand on Edwin's head, asked if he knew that sign. +Edwin remembered, and redeemed his promise. He hearkened to the teaching +of the earnest monk, with the result that before long he and his court +were baptised by Paulinus, Edwin's little daughter, it is said, being +the first to receive the sacred rite. + +This was at York; and when the king and queen went to the royal city of +Bamburgh, or to their country dwelling at the foot of the Cheviots, +Paulinus accompanied them; and wherever he went, he laboured to teach +the North-country Angles and Saxons the gospel of Christ. This country +dwelling, to which came Paulinus and his royal friends, was Ad-gefrin, +or Yeavering; and though it is extremely unlikely that any traces of it +could remain until our day, yet tradition points out a fragment of an +old building still standing there, as a remnant of the royal residence. + +In the region of Kirknewton, a pretty little village to the north-west +of Yeavering, where Colledge Water joins the Glen, which gives its name +to the romantic district of Glendale, Paulinus baptised many hundreds of +Edwin's people; and the name of Pallinsburn--which is now confined to a +house at some little distance from the burn--enshrines the memory of +yet another scene of the labours of the indefatigable monk. + +If we stand on the wind-swept top of Yeavering Bell, we are surrounded +by the evidences of still more remote days, for the whole of the summit +was once a fortified camp of the ancient Britons. A roughly-piled, but +massive wall, now almost all broken down, surrounded it, and within its +grass-grown oval are two additional walls, at the east and the west ends +of the enclosure, and many hut-circles, evidences of the rude dwellings +of our remote ancestors. Excavations here many years ago brought to +light a jasper ball, some fragments of a coarse kind of pottery, and +some oaken armlets. Evidently the enclosure on the summit was intended +to be a last resort in time of danger, for traces of many huts are to be +found outside its encircling wall, which is surrounded by a ditch and a +low rampart of earth. At the east end, where the porphyry crag juts out +from the hilltop to a height of about twenty feet, full advantage has +been taken of this naturally strong position. + +Now, instead of advancing foes, the spreading heather climbs steadily up +the sloping sides of this ancient stronghold, and invades the central +enclosure at its will; a few hardy sheep that have wandered up here from +the richer pastures below, and now and again a stray tourist, anxious to +make acquaintance at first hand with one of the more famous of the +Cheviot heights, and more than satisfied with the glorious view spread +out before him, are all that disturb the brooding peace of its grassy +solitudes. Up here the wind blows keenly around us with an exhilarating +freshness in its breath, and we think regretfully of coats left behind +at the shepherd's hospitable dwelling, which, with the rest of the +cottages clustering round the old farm house, lies sunning itself in the +warm glow of the September afternoon, in the green fields at the foot +of the sheltering hills. + +Looking southward now, up the stream, there is stretching away to the +left the long ridge of Newton Tor, and away behind it Great Hetha and +Little Hetha; while half-way down the vale the Colledge Water tumbles +over the rocks at Hethpoole Linn (or Heathpool, as the modern rendering +has it), breaking into amber spray deep down beneath overhanging trees +and boulders and golden bracken. + +This brings our thoughts to days comparatively modern, for when Admiral +Collingwood was raised to the peerage of Great Britain, it was by the +title of "Baron Collingwood of Caldburn and Hethpoole, in the county of +Northumberland." The brave Admiral was fond of planting an oak tree +whenever he found an opportunity, to secure the continuance of those +wooden walls which in his hands, and in those of his life-long friend, +Nelson, had proved such a sure defence to his country. In a letter dated +March, 1806, he wrote to his wife, "I wish some parts of Hethpoole could +be selected for plantations of larch, oak, and beech, where the ground +could best be spared. Even the sides of a bleak hill would grow larch +and fir." In another letter some months later he told her what +"agreeable news" it was to hear that she was taking care of his oaks, +and planting some at Hethpoole; and saying that if he ever returned he +would plant a good deal there; adding, however, that he feared before +that could take place both he and Lady Collingwood might themselves be +planted in the churchyard beneath some old yew tree. + +Hethpoole presents us with a link not only with history, but with +romance as well. An ivied ruin near at hand, with walls of enormous +strength, is said to be the remains of the castle where the final +tragedy in "The Hermit of Warkworth" took place. Here, it is said, the +distracted lover came upon his lady and his brother, who had at that +moment effected her escape, and not recognising the youth, rushed upon +the pair with drawn sword, only to discover too late his terrible +mistake, and lose both brother and bride--for the lady received a mortal +wound in trying to save her rescuer. + +Turning our eyes now northward across the Glen from Yeavering Bell, we +are looking towards Coupland Castle, and the fact that it was built so +late as the reign of James I. bears eloquent testimony to the insecurity +of life and property on the Borders even at that period. The barony +either gave its name to, or took its name from, a well-known +Northumbrian family, of which one of the most prominent members was that +Sir John de Coupland who succeeded in capturing David of Scotland at the +battle of Neville's Cross--not, however, before he had lost some of his +teeth by a blow from the mailed fist of that doughty monarch! + +Beyond Coupland Castle we look across Milfield Plain lying in the angle +formed by the meeting of the Glen with the deep and sullen Till, whose +slow windings can be traced as it gleams at intervals between the +undulations of the lower hills through which it flows northwestward to +the Tweed. Though a brisk and sparkling stream in certain parts of its +course, the general characteristics of the Till are well borne out by +the lines-- + + Tweed says to Till + "What gars ye rin sae still?" + Till says to Tweed + "Though ye rin wi' speed + And I rin slaw; + Where ye droon ae man + I droon twa." + +There is yet more of historical and traditional interest to note in this +view from the top of Yeavering Bell, which, as I saw it last, lay warm +in the glow of a September afternoon. Nennius is our authority for +stating that on Milfield Plain took place one of the great conflicts in +which King Arthur + + + "Fought, and in twelve great battles overcame + The heathen hordes, and made a realm, and reigned" + + +And, as we gazed, the level spaces seemed peopled once more with +charging knights, flashing sword and swinging battle-axe, and the +intervening centuries dropped away, and Arthur's call to battle for "our +fair father Christ," seemed curiously befitting that romantic scene. +But, as the shadows lengthened, and the streams took on a golden glow in +the rays of the September sun, then slowly setting, "the tumult and the +shouting of the captains" died away, and the figure of an earnest monk +seemed to stand by the riverside, with prince and serf, peasant and +warrior for his audience, and the cold bright waters of the Glen +dripping from his hand, as he enrolled one after another into the ranks +of an army mightier than the hosts of Arthur or Edwin. + +Milfield again emerges into notice out of the obscurity of those dark +ages, in the days of the Bernician kings who succeeded Edwin; for Bede +tells us that "This town (Ad-gefrin) under the following kings, was +abandoned, and another was built instead of it at a place called +Melmin," now Milfield. Nothing, however, remains here of the buildings +which once sheltered the royal Saxons and their court. In later days, +Milfield has a melancholy interest attaching to it from its connection +with the battle of Flodden; for, on the heights above, King James fixed +his camp, in the hope that Surrey would lead his troops across the plain +below. Of the other considerable heights of the Cheviot range, Carter +Fell and Peel Fell are the best known; they both lie right on the border +line of England and Scotland, between the North Tyne and the Rede Water. +As we have already seen, the men of Tynedale and Redesdale bore a +reputation for lawlessness in the time of the Border "Moss-trooping" +days, and until nearly the end of the eighteenth century the tradesmen +and guilds of Newcastle would take no apprentice who hailed from either +of these dales. The tracks and passes between the hills, once alive with +frequent foray and wild pursuit, are now silent and solitary but for the +occasional passing of a shepherd or farmer, and the flocks of sheep +grazing as they move slowly up the hillsides. A quaint survival of the +remembrances of those days was unexpectedly brought before me one day. A +child presented me with a bunch of cotton-grass, gathered on the moors +not far from the Roman-Wall. I asked if she knew what they were that she +had brought. "Moss-troopers," she replied. + +Many of the Cheviot heights bear most suggestive and interesting names, +such as Cushat [7] Law, Kelpie [8] Strand, Earl's Seat, Stot [9] Crags, +Deer Play, Wether Lair, Bloodybushedge, Monkside, etc., etc. + +[Footnote 7: Cushat = a wood-pigeon.] +[Footnote 8: Kelpie = a water-witch.] +[Footnote 9: Stot = a bullock.] + +In these lonely wilds, which occupy all the northwest of the county, one +may travel all day and meet with no living thing save the birds of the +air, and a few shy, wild creatures of the moorlands; curve after curve, +the rounded hills stretch away into the distance, grass-grown or +heatherclad, with occasional peat-mosses; above is the "grey gleaming +sky," and, all around, a stillness as of vast untrodden wastes, and a +sense of solitude out of all proportion to the actual extent of this +lonely region. The fascination of it, however, admits of no denial, even +on the part of those newly making its acquaintance; while those who in +childhood or youth roam over its wild fells, and feel the spell of its +brooding mystery, retain in their hearts for all time an unfading +remembrance of its magic charm. + + COLLEDGE WATER. + + + My sire is the stooping Cheviot mist, + My mother the heath in her purple train; + And every flower on her gown I've kissed + Over and over and over again. + + The secret ways of the hills are mine, + I know where the wandering moor-fowl nest; + And up where the wet grey glidders[10] shine + I know where the roving foxes rest. + [Footnote 10: Glidders = Patches of loose stones on the hillside.] + + I know what the wind is wailing for + As it searches hollow and hag and peak; + And, riding restless on Newton Tor, + I know what the questing shadows seek. + + I know the tale that the brown bees tell, + And they tell it to me with a raider's pride, + As, drunk with the cups of Yeavering Bell, + They stagger home from the English side. + + I know the secrets of haugh and hill; + But sacred and safe they rest with me, + Till I hide them deep in the heart of Till, + To be taken to Tweed and the open sea. + + --_Will. H. Ogilvie_. + + BY PERMISSION OF MESSRS. W. AND R. CHAMBERS + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +THE ROMAN WALL. + + + "Take these flowers, which, purple waving, + On the ruined rampart grew, + Where, the sons of Freedom braving, + Rome's imperial standard flew. + Warriors from the breach of danger + Pluck no longer laurels there; + They but yield the passing stranger + Wild-flower wreaths for Beauty's hair." + --_Sir Walter Scott._ + (Lines written for a young lady's album.) + + + +Of all the abundance of treasure which Northumberland possesses, from a +historical point of view--of all its wealth of interesting relics of +bygone days--ancient abbey, grim fortress, menhir and monolith, camp and +tumulus--none grips the imagination as does the sight of that unswerving +line which pursues its way over hill and hollow, from the eastern to the +western shores of the north-land, visible emblem, after more than a +thousand years, of the far-flung arm of Imperial Rome. + +From Wallsend on the Tyne to Bowness on the Solway Firth it strode +triumphantly across the land; even now in its decay it remains a +splendid monument to that mighty nation's genius for having and holding +the uttermost parts of the earth that came within their ken. As was +inevitable, after the lapse of nearly eighteen centuries the great work +is everywhere in a ruinous condition, and in many places, especially at +its eastern end, has disappeared altogether; but not only can its course +be traced by various evidences, but it was actually standing within +comparatively recent years. As lately as the year 1800--lately, that is, +compared with the date of its building--its existence at Byker was +referred to in a magazine of the period. Now nothing is to be seen of it +excepting a few stones here and there, for many miles from Wallsend; but +the highroad westward from Newcastle, by Westgate Road, as is well +known, follows the course of the Wall for nearly twenty miles. But +farther west we may walk along the uneven, broken surface of the mighty +rampart, or climb down into the broad and deep fosse which lies closely +against it along its northern side, without troubling ourselves with the +arguments and uncertainties of antiquaries, who have by no means decided +on what was the original function of the Wall, who was its real builder, +why and when the earthen walls and fosse which accompany it on the south +were wrought, and many other smaller controversial points, which afford +endless matter for speculation and discussion. + +Early references to the Wall show that our forefathers knew it as the +Picts' Wall; it is now generally referred to as the Wall of Hadrian, the +general concensus of opinion yielding to that indefatigable ruler the +credit of having wrought the mighty work. Whether built originally as a +frontier line of defence or not, opinions are not agreed; but it is very +certain that the Wall afforded the only secure foothold in the North to +the Romans for well-nigh two centuries of hostility from the restless +Brigantes to the southward, and the Picts and Scots to the north; and +for another century or so after their southern neighbours had become +friendly and peaceful, it still remained a substantial bulwark against +the northern barbarians. + +Throughout the whole of its length it steadily holds the line of the +highest ridges in its course, climbing up slopes and dipping down into +the intervening hollows with the least possible deviation from its +onward course. The most interesting, because most complete, portion of +the Wall, is that in the neighbourhood of the three loughs--Broomlee, +Greenlee, and Crag Loughs, which, with Grindon Lough to the south of the +Wall, boast the name of the Northumberland Lakes. On this portion of the +wall is situated the large Roman station of Borcovicus, from which we +have gained a great deal of our information as to what the life of the +garrisons on this lonely outpost of Empire was like. + +The station is situated on hilly ground, which slopes gently to the +south, and is nearly five acres in extent. On entering the eastern +gateway one cannot but experience a sudden thrill on seeing the deep +grooves worn in the stone by the passing and repassing of Roman cart and +chariot wheels. That mute witness of the daily traffic of the soldiery +in those long-past centuries speaks with a most intimate note to us who +eighteen hundred years afterwards come to look upon the place of their +habitation. The station itself is of the usual shape of the Roman towns +on the course of the Wall--oblong, with rounded corners. The greatest +length lies east and west, in a line with the Wall; and two broad +streets crossing each other at right angles lead from the north to the +south, and from the east to the western gateways. Each of the four was +originally a double gateway; but in every case one half of it has been +closed up, no doubt when the garrison was declining in numbers, and the +attacks of the enemy were increasing in severity. + +[Illustration: NORTH GATEWAY, HOUSESTEADS AND ROMAN WALL.] + +Considerable portions of the guard-chambers, one at each side of each +gateway, still remain; and near one of them was found a huge stone +trough, its edges deeply worn by, apparently, the frequent +sharpening of knives upon it. Its use has not been determined; Dr. Bruce +tells us that one of the men engaged in the work of excavation gave it +as his firm opinion that the Romans used it to wash their Scotch +prisoners in! The buildings of the little town--a row of houses against +the western wall, two large buildings near the centre of the camp, with +smaller chambers to the east of them--in which the garrison lived, +worked, and stored their supplies, are still quite plainly to be traced, +although the walls are only three or four courses high in most places, +and of the pillars the broken bases are almost all that remain. + +A considerable number of people dwelt outside the walls of this, as of +all the stations, sheltering under its walls, and relying on the +protection of its garrison; the slope to the southward of Borcovicus +shows many traces of buildings scattered all over it. On the northern +side, the steep hill, massive masonry, and deep fosse would seem to have +offered well-nigh insuperable difficulties to an attacking force such as +then could be brought against the camp; yet not only here, but in all +the stations whose remains yet survive, there is unmistakable evidence +that more than once has the garrison been driven out by a victorious +foe, to re-enter and occupy it again at a later period. And when we +consider that the Wall and its forts were garrisoned by the Romans for a +period extending over nearly three centuries, a period corresponding to +the time from the reign of James I. to the present day, it becomes a +matter of wonder, not that such was the case, but that such occurrences +were not more frequent than the evidences seem to declare. + +In spite of all the hard fighting, however, the recreations of lighter +hours would seem not to have been forgotten; on the north of the wall is +a circular hollow in the ground, evidently a little amphitheatre, in +which doubtless many a captive Briton and Pict played his part. On a +little rise to the southward, called Chapel Hill, stood the temple where +the garrison paid its vows to the various deities of its worship. Many +remarkably fine altars found on this and other sites have been +preserved, either at the fine museum at The Chesters, or at the Black +Gate in Newcastle. One of the most striking is the altar to Mithras, the +Persian sun-god, found in a cave near the camp, evidently constructed +for the celebration of the rites connected with the worship of Mithras. +The altar shows the god coming out of an egg, and surrounded by an oval +on which are carved the signs of the Zodiac. + +The Teutonic element in the garrison is represented by the altars to +Mars Thingsus, the discovery of which caused great interest in Germany, +and by the altars to the Deae Matres--the mother-goddesses, whose carved +figures are shown seated, fully draped, and holding baskets of fruits on +their knees. They are generally found in sets of three; but +unfortunately they have been much mutilated, and all the examples +remaining are headless. The Deae Matres would seem to correspond in some +degree to the Roman Ceres and the Greek Demeter, the bountiful givers of +the fruits of the earth. The majority of the altars found are, as was to +be expected, dedicated to the deities of Rome; chiefly, as shown by the +constantly recurring I.O.M.--_Jovi optimo maximo_--to "Jupiter, the best +and greatest." The varying inscriptions which follow as reasons for +their erection as votive offerings give us glimpses of the life in these +communities clearer than those afforded by anything else. And as most, +if not all, of our knowledge concerning the details of the Roman +occupation of the north-country has to be obtained from the inscriptions +which the garrisons left behind them, the inscribed stones as well as +the altars are of the greatest possible interest and value. One such +stone, found at the Borcovicus mile-castle, states that "the Second +Legion, the August (erected this at the command of) Aulus Platorius +Nepos, Legate and Propraetor, in honour of the Emperor Caesar Trajanus +Hadrianus Augustus." + +At "Cuddy's" (Cuthbert's) Crag near Borcovicus is one of the most +picturesque bits of scenery to be found on the whole course of the Wall. +My first acquaintance with it was made on a day of grey mist and +drizzling rain, which completely hid any view of the surrounding +country, and of necessity confined our attention to the stones (and wet +grass!) immediately beneath our feet. But another visit was on a day of +wind and sunshine, and in the company of a group of light-hearted +students. We explored the ruins of Borcovicus, walked along the broad +and broken top of the Wall, and climbed up hill and down dale with it +under the pleasantest conditions, if a trifle breezy on the heights. +June was at her traditional best, which she does not often vouchsafe to +show us; flowers waved all around, amongst the grass and in the crannies +between the stones, and more than once the lines at the head of this +chapter were quoted by one to another. Again and again our progress was +stayed while we admired the glorious view spread out all around, but +especially was this the case at Cuddy's Crag. We looked westward over +Crag Lough, its usually dark waters flashing in the afternoon sun; the +three Loughs were all within view; away to the southward, beyond +Barcombe Hill, and the site of Vindolana, Langley Castle could be seen, +"standing four-square to all the winds that blew"; and further away +again, beyond the valley of the South Tyne, to the southwest the faint +outlines of Crossfell and Skiddaw. Northward it was quite easy to +imagine oneself looking out over the Picts' country still, so far do +the moorlands stretch, and so few are the signs of habitation. Rolling +ridges stretch northward, wave upon wave, clothed with grass and +heather, amongst which Parnesius and Pertinax went hunting with little +Allo the Pict; to the northeast the heights of Simonside showed; and far +beyond them, though more to the westward, the rounded summits of the +Cheviots lay on the horizon. + +A short distance westward from the Crag is Hot Bank farmhouse, a place +which most visitors to the Wall remember with grateful feelings; for +what is more refreshing, after a long tramp, than a farmhouse cup of tea +accompanied by that most appetising of Northumbrian dainties, hot girdle +cakes! The Visitors' Book at Hot Bank is a "civil list" of all the most +learned and noted names in Great Britain, and many outside its shores, +together with legions of humbler folk. In this it resembles the one at +Cilurnum, which is the only other considerable station along the line of +the Wall in Northumberland. + +This station of Cilurnum, or Chesters, is a little over five acres in +extent, and is quite near to Chollerford station on the North British +Railway. To describe Cilurnum in detail, and the interesting museum +connected with it, filled with a wonderful collection of objects found +on the line of the Wall, would require a book to deal with that alone. +The general plan is the same as that which we have already seen at +Borcovicus, with the same rounded corners, and double gateway with +guard-chambers at each side; the western and eastern walls at Chesters, +however, have each an additional single gateway to the south of the +larger portals. We must content ourselves with a short survey of the +camp, with its two wide streets at right angles to each other as at +Borcovicus, and the rest of them very narrow--indeed, little more than +two feet in width; the remains of its Forum and market, its barracks +and houses, its open shops and colonnades, the bases of the pillars yet +in position; its baths, with pipes, cistern, and flues; and a vaulted +chamber which was thought, on its being first excavated, to lead to +underground stables, for a local tradition held that such were in +existence, and would be found, with a troop of five hundred horses. The +vault, however, did not lead further, so that the tradition remained +unproven. Notwithstanding this, there was a grain of fact in it; for +Chesters was a cavalry station, and five hundred was the full complement +of the _ala_, or troop (_ala_ being a "wing," and cavalry forming the +"wing" of an army in position). + +Outside the walls of Cilurnum are traces of the usual suburban +dwellings; and here, near the river, stood the villa of the officer in +command of the station. The excavation of all these buildings and many +others took place in the forties and fifties of last century, and were +due to the energy of Mr. John Clayton, the learned and zealous +antiquary, in the possession of whose family the estate still remains. +To Mr. N.G. Clayton we owe the Museum at the Lodge gate, which he built +for the reception of the notable collection it contains of antiquities +gathered from all the various stations in Northumberland. A very fine +altar brought from Vindolana at once strikes the eye, and may be taken +as a type of many others, though not many are so perfect. The gravestone +of a standard-bearer, from the neighbouring station of Procolitia, shows +a full-length carving of the dead warrior. Other inscribed stones are of +great interest, though unfortunately most of them are but fragments; +still these fragments not infrequently contain a few words which enable +students of them to confirm a date or a fact concerning the garrisons, +which must otherwise have been a matter of pure conjecture. For +instance, it might seem very improbable that the same regiments should +have been quartered in certain stations for over two hundred years; yet +one of the inscribed stones proves that such was the case at Cilurnum. +The inscription states that the second _ala_ of the Asturians repaired +the temple during the consulate of certain persons, which is found to be +about the year 221. In the _Notitia_, which was not compiled until the +beginning of the fifth century, the second _ala_ of the Asturians is +given as the garrison of Cilurnum. + +Another thing which strikes the imagination is the sight, after the +lapse of so many centuries, of the erasures on various inscribed +stones--erasures of some emperor's or Caesar's name after his death by +the chisel of a soldier in one of his legions on this far-away post of +his empire. It is one thing to read one's Gibbon, and learn of the +murder of Geta, son of Severus, by order of his brother Caracalla, and +another to see the youth's name roughly scratched out on a stone in +Hexham Abbey crypt; and to read of the assassination of Elagabalus does +not move us one whit, but to see his name erased from a stone in +Chesters museum brings the tumultuous happenings in ancient Rome very +closely home to us. + +Here are also several Roman milestones, with their lengthy and sonorous +inscriptions, from various points on the Wall; and a miscellaneous and +deeply interesting collection of smaller articles, such as ornaments of +bronze, jet, or gold, fibulae (brooches or clasps), coins of many +reigns, Samian-ware, terra-cotta and glass, parts of harness, etc., etc. + +Of carven figures there are several besides the standard bearer already +mentioned. The best is a figure of Cybele, with elaborate draperies, +but unfortunately headless; another, of Victory, holds a palm branch in +the left hand, but the right arm is missing. A soldier is shown with +spear, shield, and ornate head-piece; and a representation of a +river-god, the genius of the Tyne, is worthy of notice. He is a bearded +figure, after the style of the figures of Nilus, or the representations +in old prints of Father Thames. From Procolitia comes an altar to the +goddess Coventina, a name not met with elsewhere, the presiding genius +of the well in that station. She is shown reclining on a water-lily +leaf, holding in one hand a water-plant, and in the other a goblet from +which a stream of water runs. An elaborate carving of three water +nymphs, most probably meant to be in attendance on the goddess, is one +of the few pieces of sculpture that are not greatly mutilated. + +Centurial stones are numerous, having been put up at all parts of the +Wall to record the building of such and such parts by various centurions +and their companies. The mark >, which Dr. Hodgkin supposes to be a +representation of the vine rod, a centurion's symbol of authority, and +the sign C or Q, are used to signify a century. Thus a stone inscribed Q +VAL. MAXI. states that the century of Valerius Maximus built that part +of the Wall. Two or three small altars are inscribed DIBVS +VETERIBVS--"To the Old Gods"; and Mars Thingsus is well represented. + +A very important relic of Roman times found at Cilurnum was a bronze +tablet of citizenship, giving this coveted privilege to a number of +soldiers who had served in twenty-five campaigns and received honourable +discharge. There have been only three specimens of this diploma found in +Britain, and all are preserved in the British Museum. There are many +memorial tablets erected by wives to their husbands, and husbands to +their wives, which leads to much speculation as to how these ladies, +high-born Roman, native Briton, or freed-woman, liked their sojourn in a +small garrison town on the breezy heights of a Northumbrian moorland. +Those ladies who dwelt at Cilurnum, however, had not so much cause to +complain, for such natural advantages as were to be had were certainly +theirs, in that sheltered spot. The scenery round about Cilurnum is +quiet, peaceful and pastoral, altogether different from the wild beauty +of Cuddy's Crag, Limestone Corner, or Whinshields. + +Having now noticed the two chief stations on the line of the Wall, it +will be interesting to follow the course of the rampart itself +throughout its journey across Northumberland, though to do so in detail +is impossible within the limits of so small a volume as the present one. +Neither would it be necessary, or desirable, for the last word in +detailed description has been said long ago in the two wonderfully +exhaustive treatises on the subject by Dr. Bruce. + +A list of Roman officials, civil and military, throughout the empire has +come down to us; in this list--_Notitia Dignitatem et Administratem, tam +civilium quam militarium in partibus orientis et occidentis_--the +portion which relates to the Wall is headed, _Item per lineam +Valli_--"Also along the line of the Wall." The following is a copy of +this portion, as given by Dr. Bruce in his _Handbook to the Roman Wall_. + + The Tribune of the fourth cohort of the Lingones at Segedunum. + + The Tribune of the first cohort of Cornovii at Pons Aelii. + + The Prefect of the first _ala_ of the Asturians at Condercum. The + Tribune of the first cohort of the Frixagi (Frisii) at Vindobala. + + The Prefect of the Savinian _ala_ at Hunnum. + + The Prefect of the second _ala_ of the Asturians at Cilurnum. + + The Tribune of the first cohort of the Batavians at Procolitia. + + The Tribune of the first cohort of the Tungrians at Borcovicus. + + The Tribune of the fourth cohort of the Gauls at Vindolana. + + The Tribune of the first cohort of Asturians at Aesica. + + The Tribune of the second cohort of Dalmatians at Magna. + + The Tribune of the first cohort of Dacians, styled Aelia, at Amboglanna. + + The Prefect of the _ala_ called "Petriana," at Petriana. + + The Prefect of a detachment of Moors, styled Aureliani, at Aballaba. + + The Tribune of the second cohort of the Lingones at Congavata. + + The Tribune of the first cohort of Spaniards at Axelodunum. + + The Tribune of the second cohort of the Thracians at Gabrosentum. + + The Tribune of the first marine cohort, styled Aelia, at Tunnocelum. + + The Tribune of the first cohort of the Morini at Glannibanta. + + The Tribune of the third cohort of the Nervians at Alionis. + + The Cuneus of men in armour at Bremetenracum. + + The Prefect of the first _ala_, styled Herculean, at Olenacum. + + The Tribune of the sixth cohort of the Nervians at Virosidum. + +Of these stations, with their officers and troops, only those as far as +Magna are in Northumberland; the rest continue the chain of defences +across Cumberland to the Solway Firth. Besides these stations, there +were _castella_ at the distance of every Roman mile (seven furlongs) +along the Wall, from which circumstance they are known as +"mile-castles." They provided accommodation for the troops necessary +between the stations, which were at some distance from each other; and +between each two _castella_ there were also erected two turrets, so that +communication from one end of the Wall to the other was speedy and +certain. + +All traces of the station of Segedunum (Wallsend) have long since +disappeared; the Wall from there, beginning actually in the bed of the +river, ran almost parallel with the N.E.R. Tynemouth Branch, a little to +the south of it, and climbing the hill to Byker, went down the slope to +the Ouseburn parallel with Shields Road, crossing the burn just a little +to the south of Byker Bridge. From there its course has been traced to +Red Barns, where St. Dominic's now stands, to the Sallyport Gate, and +over the Wall Knoll to Pilgrim Street; thence to the west door of the +Cathedral, and on past St. John's Church, up Westgate Road. + +The station at Pons Aelii, it is generally agreed, occupied the ground +between the Cathedral church of St. Nicholas and the premises of the +Lit. and Phil. Society. Following the Wall up Westgate Road, we are now +out upon the highway from Newcastle to Carlisle, which, as we have seen, +is upon the very line of the Wall for nearly a score of miles. At +Condercum (Benwell) the next station, garrisoned by a cavalry corps of +Asturians from Spain, a small temple was uncovered in the course of +excavating, and two altars found still standing in their original +position. Both of these were to a deity unknown elsewhere, given as +Antenociticus on one, and as Anociticus on the other. The former was +erected by a centurion of the Twentieth Legion, the Valerian and +Victorious, whose crest, the running boar, we shall meet with more than +once in our journey. + +Westward from here, near West Denton Lodge, faint indications of the +turf wall (generally called the Vallum, to distinguish it from the +Murus, or stone wall), come into sight, and traces of a mile-castle to +the left of the road. After this the Vallum and Murus accompany each +other for the rest of their journey, with but little intermission. The +next mile-castle was at Walbottle, from which point a delightful view of +the Tyne valley and the surrounding country can be obtained. Passing +Throckley and Heddon-on-the-Wall, where the fosse on the northern side +of the Wall is well seen, and also the Vallum and its fosse, Vindolana +(Rutchester) is reached; but there is little evidence here that it is +the site of a once busy and bustling garrison station. Indeed, up to +this point and for a considerable distance further, a few courses of +stones here and there are all that is to be seen of the Roman Wall, its +material having for the most part been swallowed up in the construction +of the turnpike road on which we are travelling. This road was made in +1745 because there was no road by which General Wade could convey his +troops from Newcastle to Carlisle, when "Bonnie Prince Charlie" marched +so gaily to that city on his way southward, and so sadly, in a month, +returned again. + +The Wall now makes for the ridge of Harlow Hill, while the Vallum goes +on in a perfectly straight line past the picturesque Whittle Dene and +the waterworks, until the Wall joins it again near Welton, where the +old pele-tower is entirely built of Roman stones. After Matfen Piers, +where a road to the northward leads to the beautiful little village of +Matfen, and one to the southward to Corbridge, the Wall passes Wall +Houses and Halton Shields, where the various lines of the Wall, road, +and earthworks, as well as the fosse of each, can be distinctly seen. +Passing Carr Hill, the Wall leads up to the station of Hunnum (Halton +Chesters), where Parnesius was stationed when Maximus gave him his +commission on the Wall. It is not easy to recognise the site now, but as +we follow the road we may comfort ourselves with the reflection that at +least we have walked right across it from the eastern gate to the +western. + +A short distance further on is Stagshawbank, famed for its fairs, the +glory of which, however, has greatly departed since the days when Dandie +Dinmont had such adventures on returning from "Staneshiebank." It stands +just where the Wall crosses the Watling Street, which enters +Northumberland at Ebchester, and crossing the moors to Whittonstall, +leads down the long descent to Riding Mill; there turning westward to +Corbridge, it comes straight on to Stagshawbank, leading thence +northwestward past the Wall through Redesdale to the Borders, which it +reaches at Ad Fines Camp, or Chew Green, where the solitudes of the +Cheviots and the silence of the deserted camp are soon to be startled by +the rifle-shots of Territorials at practice. West of Stagshawbank the +earthen ramparts are to be seen in great perfection. + +As the Wall nears Chollerford, one may see, a little to the northward, +the little chapel of St. Oswald, which, as we have seen in a former +chapter, marks the site of the battle of Heavenfield. Just before +reaching this point, there is a quarry to the south of the Wall from +which the Romans obtained much building-stone, and one of them has left +his name carved on one of the stones left lying there, thus--(P)ETRA +FLAVI(I) CARANTINI--_The stone of Flavius Carantinus_. + +At Plane Trees Field and at Brunton there are larger pieces of the Wall +standing than we have yet seen. The Wall now parts company with the +highroad, which swerves a little to the north in order to cross the Tyne +by Chollerford Bridge, while the course of the Wall is straight ahead, +for the present bridge is not the one built and used by the Romans. That +is in a line with the Wall, and therefore south of the present one; and +as we have already noticed, its piers can be seen near the river banks +when the river is low. A diagram of its position is given in Dr. Bruce's +_Handbook_. + +The Wall now leads up to the gateway of Cilurnum, which we have already +visited; and after leaving the park, it goes on up the hill to Walwick. +Here it is rejoined by the road, which now for some little distance +proceeds actually on the line of the Wall, the stones of which can +sometimes be seen in the roadway. The tower a little further on, on the +hill called Tower Tye, or Taye, was not built by the Romans, although +Roman stones were used in its erection; it is only about two hundred +years old. + +At Black Carts farm, which the Wall now passes, the first turret +discovered on the line of the Wall after the excavations had begun, and +interest in the subject was revived, was here laid bare by Mr. Clayton +in 1873. At Limestone Bank, not much further on, the fosse north of the +Wall, and also that of the Vallum, show a skill in engineering such as +we are apt to fancy belongs only to these days of powerful machinery, +and explosives for rending a way through the hardest rock. The ditches +have both been cut through the solid basalt, and great boulders of it +are strewn around; one huge mass, weighing many tons, has been hoisted +out--by what means, we are left to wonder; and another, still in the +ditch, has the holes, intended for the wedges still discernible. + +A mile or so further on is Procolitia (Carrawburgh), where is the famous +well presided over by the goddess Coventina, whose acquaintance we have +already made at Cilurnum. The remains of the station at Procolitia are +by no means to be compared with those at Borcovicus or Cilurnum; very +few of its stones are yet remaining. The well was the most interesting +find at Procolitia. It was known to be there, for Horsley had mentioned +it; but the waters which supplied it were diverted in consequence of +some lead-mining operations. Then the stream formed by its overflow +dried up, grass grew over its course and over the well, and it was lost +sight of entirely. But the same thing which had led to its disappearance +was the means of finding it again. Some lead miners, prospecting for +another vein of ore in the neighbourhood, happened to dig in this very +spot, and soon struck the stones round the mouth of the well. Mr. +Clayton had it properly excavated, and was rewarded by coming not only +upon the well, but a rich find of Roman relics of all kinds, which had +either been thrown pell-mell into it for concealment in a moment of +danger, or, what is more likely, been thrown in during the course of +ages as votive offerings to the presiding goddess of the well. There +were thousands of coins, mostly silver and copper, with four gold pieces +among them; and a large collection of miscellaneous objects, including +vases, shoes, pearls, ornaments, altars and inscribed stones, all of +which were taken to Chesters. The next point of interest on the Wall is +the farmhouse of Carraw, which the Priors of Hexham Abbey once used as a +summer retreat. A little further on, at Shield-on-the-Wall, Wade's road +crosses to the south of the earthen lines, and parts company with the +Wall for a little while, for the latter bends northward to take the high +ridge, as usual, while the road and Vallum continue in a straight line. +The fragments of a mile-castle are standing just at the point where the +Wall swerves northward; indeed, we have been passing the sites of these +_castella_, with fragments more or less in evidence all along the route, +but those which we shall now encounter are much more distinctly to be +seen than their fellows on the eastern part of the journey, many of +which have disappeared altogether. + +The high crags which here shoulder the Wall are part of the Great Whin +Sill, an intrusive dyke of dolerite which stretches from Greenhead +northeastward across the county nearly to Berwick. The military road +here leaves the Wall, with which it does not again come into close +contact until both are near Carlisle, though in several places the Roman +road will be encountered near the Wall in a well-preserved condition. +The Wall now climbs another ascent to the farmhouse of Sewingshields, +which name is variously explained as "Seven Shields," and as "The shiels +(shielings, or little huts) by the seugh" or hollow--the hollow being +the fosse. Sewingshields Castle, long since disappeared, is the scene of +the knight's adventures in Sir Walter Scott's "Harold the Dauntless." +And tradition asserts that King Arthur, with Queen Guinevere and all the +court, lies in an enchanted sleep beneath the castle, or at least its +site. Not only is there no castle, but the Wall also has been despoiled +to supply the material for building the farmhouse and other buildings in +the neighbourhood. The Wall climbs unfalteringly over the crags, one +after the other, until the wide opening of Busy Gap is reached. This +being such a convenient pass from north to south, it was naturally used +constantly by raiders and thieves; and such an unenviable notoriety did +it possess, that to call a person a "Busy Gap rogue" was sufficient to +lay oneself open to an action for libel. Climbing the next slope we look +down on Broomlee Lough and reach the portion of the Wall we have already +noted--Borcovicus (Housesteads), Cuddy's Crag, Hot Bank farmhouse, and +Crag; Lough. + +The course of the Wall continues, past Milking Gap, along the rugged +heights of Steel Rig, Cat's Stairs, and Peel Crag, till on reaching +Winshields we are at the highest point on the line, 1,230 feet above the +sea-level. Dipping down to Green Slack, the Wall crosses the valley +called Lodham Slack, and begins to ascend once more. The local names of +gaps and heights in this neighbourhood are highly descriptive, and +sometimes weirdly suggestive; we have had Cat's Stairs, and now we come +to Bogle Hole, Bloody Gap, and Thorny Doors. A little further west from +here the very considerable remains of a mile-castle may be seen, in +which a tombstone was found doing duty as a hearth-stone. The +inscription recorded that it had been erected by Pusinna to the memory +of her husband Dagvaldus, a soldier of Pannonia. + +Westward from this mile-castle the Wall climbs Burnhead Crag, on which +the foundations of a building, similar to the turrets, were exposed a +few years ago; then it dips down again to Haltwhistle Burn, which comes +from Greenlee Lough, and is called, until it reaches the Wall, the Caw +Burn. From the burn a winding watercourse supplied the Roman station of +AEsica (Great Chesters) with water. Just here the Wall is in a very +ruinous condition; and of the station of AEsica but little masonry +remains, though the outlines of it can he clearly traced. Beyond AEsica, +however, is a splendid portion of the Wall, standing some seven or eight +courses high. Here it climbs again to the top of the crags which once +more appear, bold and rugged, to culminate in the "Nine Nicks of +Thirlwall," so called from the number of separate heights into which the +crags divide, and over which the Wall takes its way. + +At Walltown, on this part of its course, is to be seen an old well, in +which Paulinus is said to have baptised King Edwin; but the local name +for it is King Arthur's Well. Now the Wall descends to a level and +pastoral country, leaving behind it the wild moorland and craggy heights +across which it has travelled so long; but unfortunately much of it has +been destroyed by the quarrying operations at Greenhead. Of the station +of Magna (Caervoran) little can be seen at the present day. This station +and Aesica are nearer to each other than are any other two stations on +the Wall, and a line of camps, five in number, stand south of the Wall +and Vallum, from Magna to Amboglanna, showing that a third line of +defence was deemed necessary where the natural defences of moorland +ridge, lough or crag were absent. + +The Roman way called the Stanegate comes from the eastward almost up to +the station of Magna, which stands a little to the south of both Wall +and Vallum, between them and Wade's road, which here approaches nearer +to the Wall than it has done for many miles. + +Another Roman road, the Maiden Way, comes from the South closely up to +the Vallum, quite near to Thirlwall castle. The name "Thirlwall" was +supposed to commemorate the "thirling" (drilling or piercing) of the +Wall at this point by the barbarians, but this is extremely doubtful; +though the difficulty of defending the wall on this level tract lends an +air of likelihood to this supposition. Near here the little river Tipalt +flows across the line of the Wall on its way southward to join the North +Tyne. + +Passing Wallend, Gap, and Rose Hill, where Gilsland railway station now +stands, we follow the Wall to the deep dene of the Poltross Burn, which +forms the boundary between Northumberland and Cumberland. The railway +just beyond the burn crosses the line of the Wall; and, further on, an +interesting portion, several courses high, takes its way through the +Vicarage garden. Here we will leave it to continue its way through +Cumberland, and turn our attention to the chief Roman ways which cross +Northumberland, with other stations standing upon them. + +The Watling Street or Dere Street, we have already noticed; and the +chief station on it, which has also proved to be the largest in +Northumberland, is Corstopitum, near Corbridge. The recent excavations +since 1906 have resulted in the finding of many interesting relics, +including some hundreds of coins, amongst which were forty-eight gold +pieces, of later Roman date, ranging from those of Valentinian I. to +those of Magnus Maximus. Pottery in large quantities has also been +found, most of it, of course, in a fragmentary condition, but some +pieces, notably bowls of Samian ware, almost perfect, and dating from +the first century. Several interesting pieces of sculpture have been +unearthed; one a finely sculptured lion standing over an animal which it +has evidently just killed; this was, no doubt, used as an outlet for +water at the fountain, judging by the projection of the lion's lower +lip. Another piece of sculpture represents a sun-god, the rays +surrounding his face; and several altars and many inscribed stones are +also amongst the treasures lately revealed. A clay mould of a human +figure was also found, which is supposed to represent some Keltic deity; +but as the figure wears a short tunic not unlike a kilt, and carries a +crooked club, the workmen promptly christened it Harry Lauder! The +buildings in this town, for it is much more than a military station, +have been large and imposing, as is shown by each successive revelation +made by the excavators' spades. The portion of the Watling Street +leading from Corstopitum to the river has also been laid bare. + +The Roman road called the Stanegate runs westward from the North Tyne at +Cilurnum, a little to the north of Fourstones railway station, through +Newbrough, on past Grindon Hill, Grindon Lough, which it passes on the +south, and Grindon Dykes, to Vindolana (Chesterholm) another Roman town, +which lies a mile due south from Hot Bank farmhouse on the Wall. +Vindolana stood on a most favourable site, a high platform protected on +three sides, and it covered three and a half acres of ground. Here no +excavations have yet been made, and the site is grass grown and desolate +although the outlines of the station may be distinctly traced. A ruinous +building to the west of this station was popularly called the Fairies' +Kitchen, a name given to it on account of the marks of fire and soot on +the pillars. From the station several inscribed stones and altars have +been taken to the museum at Chesters. One of them is dedicated to the +Genius of the Camp by Pituanius Secundus, the Prefect of the fourth +Cohort of the Gauls, which cohort, as we have already seen by the +_Votitia_, was stationed here. In the valley below Vindolana a little +cottage is standing. It is built entirely of Roman stones, and was +erected by an enthusiastic antiquary, Mr. Anthony Hedley, for himself. +Many of the stones used in its construction have inscriptions on them; +and in the covered passage, leading from the cottage down to the burn, +we come upon one of them inscribed with the name of our old friend the +XXth Legion, and its crest, the running boar. The most interesting relic +of all in the neighbourhood is a Roman mile-stone, standing in its +original position on the Stanegate. + +Leaving Vindolana, this road goes on westward to Magna, where it joins +the Maiden Way, another important Roman road, which runs from north to +south. Coming from the neighbourhood of Bewcastle Fells, it enters +Northumberland at Gilsland, and leading eastward as far as Magna, then +turns directly southward past Greenhead. + +In concluding this chapter on the Roman remains in our county, _apropos_ +of the wholesale destruction of the Wall and larger stations which has +taken place in the last century or two, I will quote the words of two +historians on that subject. Dr. Thomas Hodgkin says: "In the reign of +Queen Elizabeth, Camden, the enthusiastic antiquary, dared not traverse +the line of the wall by reason of the gangs of brigands by whom it was +infested. The union of the two countries brought peace, and peace +brought prosperity; prosperity, alas! more fatal to the Wall than +centuries of Border warfare. For now the prosperous farmers of +Northumberland and Cumberland awoke to the building facilities which +lurked in these square green enclosures on their farms, treated them as +their best quarries, and robbed them unmercifully of their fine +well-hewn stones. Happily that work of demolition is now in great +measure stayed, and at this day we visit the camps for a nobler purpose, +to learn all they can teach us as to the past history of our country." + +None, I think, will disagree with these words of the learned Doctor, +whether or not they may go as far as Cadwallader J. Bates, who, in +concluding his chapter on the Roman Wall, gave it as his opinion that +"unless the island is conquered by some civilized nation, there will +soon be no traces of the Wall left. Nay, even the splendid whinstone +crags on which it stands will be all quarried away to mend the roads of +our urban and rural authorities." + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +SOME NORTHUMBRIAN STREAMS. + + + "Come, don't abuse our climate, and revile + The crowning county of England--yes, the best. + + * * * * * + + Have you and I, then, raced across its moors. + Till horse and boy were well-nigh mad with glee, + So often, summer and winter, home from school, + And not found that out? Take the streams away, + The country would be sweeter than the South + Anywhere; give the South our streams, would it + Be fit to match our Borders? Flower and crag, + Burnside and boulder, heather and whin,--you don't + Dream you can match them south of this? And then, + If all the unwatered country were as flat + As the Eton playing-fields, give it back our burns, + And set them singing through a sad South world, + And try to make them dismal as its fens-- + They won't be! Bright and tawny, full of fun + And storm and sunlight, taking change and chance + With laugh on laugh of triumph--why, you know + How they plunge, pause, chafe, chide across the rocks, + And chuckle along the rapids, till they breathe + And rest and pant and build some bright deep bath + For happy boys to dive in, and swim up. + And match the water's laughter." + + + * * * * * + +Northumberland is fortunate in the number of rivers which, owing to the +position of the Cheviot Hills, flow right across the county from west to +east. These Northumbrian streams have a distinct character of their own, +and are of a different breed from those of the southern; counties. They +are neither mountain torrents nor placid leisurely rivers, such as are +met elsewhere in Britain, but busy, bright, joyous, and sparkling, +never sluggish, never silent, even when deep and full, as is the Tyne in +its lower reaches. With the Tyne and its tributary streams we have +already travelled; but there are others yet awaiting us, claiming our +attention sometimes for the romantic scenery through which they run +their bright course, sometimes for the historic sites they pass on their +way, sometimes for both reasons. Wansbeck, Coquet, Aln, or Till--each +has its own interest, as has also the Tweed in that score or so of miles +along which it can he spoken of in connection with Northumberland. + +The source of the Wansbeck, the only "beck" the county possesses, is +amongst the "Wild Hills o' Wannys" (Wanny's beck) a group of picturesque +sandstone crags which surround Sweethope Lough, a sheet of water which +covers 180 acres. The scenery of this upper course of the Wansbeck is +very striking, from the Lough to Kirkwhelpington, flowing between bleak +moorland and rich pasture, and on to Littleharle Tower, which stands +secluded in deep woods. + +Another mansion near at hand, and most picturesquely situated, is +Wallington Hall, lying a short distance away on the north bank of the +Wansbeck. It is one of the most notable country houses in +Northumberland, and especially so on account of its unique +picture-gallery, roofed with dull glass, and containing several series +of pictures connected with Northumbrian history. One of these is a +series of frescoes by William Bell Scott, whose name was for so many +years associated with all that was best in art in Newcastle, and whose +picture of the "Building of the Castle" may be seen at the head of the +staircase in the Lit. and Phil. building. His pictures at Wallington +are:--1. The Building of the Roman Wall. 2. The visit of King Egfrid +and Bishop Trumwine to St. Cuthbert on Fame. 3. A Descent of the Danes. +4. Death of the Venerable Bede. 5. The Charlton Spur. 6. Bernard Gilpin +taking down a challenge glove in Rothbury Church. 7. Grace Darling and +her father on the way to the wreck. 8. The Nineteenth Century--showing +the High Level Bridge, the Quayside, an Armstrong gun, etc., etc. +Another series consists of medallions and portraits of famous men +connected with Northumbrian events, from Hadrian and Severus down to +George Stephenson and others of modern times; while yet another depicts +all the incidents of "Chevy Chase." + +Some miles further eastward, the Wansbeck receives the Hart Burn--which, +by the way, is larger than the parent stream at this point--and, a +little later, the Font. The lovely little village of Mitford, once +important enough to overshadow the Morpeth of that day, lies at the +junction of Font and Wansbeck. The Mitfords of Mitford can boast, if +ever family could, of being Northumbrian of the Northumbrians, as they +were seated here before the days of the Conqueror, who made such a +general upsetting amongst the Saxon landowners. + +The beauty of the two miles walk along the banks of the Wansbeck from +here to Morpeth is not easy to surpass in all the county, though several +parts of the Coquet valley may justly compete with it. William Howitt +has left on record his admiration for this lovely region, and said +Morpeth was "more like a town in a dream" than a reality. Especially is +this so when looking at the town from the neighbourhood of the river. +Before actually reaching Morpeth the Wansbeck waters the fair fields +that once held Newminster Abbey in its pride; now, nothing remains but +an arch or so and a few stones, to remind us of the noble abbey which +Ralph de Merley built so long ago. When only half built it was +demolished by the Scots under King David; but willing hands set to work +again, and the abbey and monastery were completed. + +In the town of Morpeth, though newer buildings are stretching out +towards the outskirts, many of the ancient buildings and streets remain, +and the general aspect of this part of it is much the same as when the +Jacobites of Northumberland gathered together here, and the clergyman, +Mr. Buxton, proclaimed James III. in its Market Place. Of Morpeth +Castle, built by a De Merley soon after the Conquest, only the gateway +tower remains, but the outlines of the original boundary walls can be +clearly traced. A company of five hundred Scots, whom Leslie had left as +a garrison in 1644, held out here for three weeks against two thousand +Royalists under Montrose. After the cannonading received during that +siege, the walls were not repaired again, and the castle fell into +decay. The inhabitants of Morpeth have a daily reminder of times yet +more remote, for the Curfew Bell still rings out over the little town +every evening at eight o'clock. + +Another walk of three miles along the still beautiful banks of the +Wansbeck brings us to Bothal, another little village of great beauty, +embowered and almost hidden amongst luxuriant woods. Its curious name is +derived from the Anglo-Saxon _bottell_, a place of abode (as in +Walbottle). The name conjures up memories of the knights of old, their +loves and their fortunes, fair or disastrous; for the best-known version +of "The Hermit of Warkworth" tells us that it was a Bertram of Bothal +who was the luckless hero of that tale, though another version avers +that he belonged to the house of Percy. + +Wansbeck's fellow stream, the Coquet, has its birth amongst some of the +wildest scenery of the Cheviot Hills, where the heights of Deel's Hill +and Woodbist Law look down on the now silent Watling Street and the +deserted Ad Fines Camp. In its windings along the bases of the hills it +is joined by the Usway Burn, said to be named after King Oswy, between +which and the little river Alwine lies the famous Lordship of Kidland, +once desolate on account of the thieving and raiding of its neighbours +of Bedesdale and Scotland. + +Hodgson, in his "Northumberland," says of this region, "All the said +Kydlande is full of lytle hilles or mountaynes, and between the saide +hilles be dyvers valyes in which discende litle Ryvvelles or brokes of +water, spryngynge out of the said hilles and all fallynge into a lytle +Rever or broke callede Kidlande water, w'ch fallethe into the rever of +cockette nere to the towne of alwynntonn, w'tin a myll of the castell of +harbottell." The reasons for the desolation of Kidland are graphically +set forth:--"In somer seasons when good peace ys betwene England and +Scotland, th'inhabitantes of dyv'se townes thereaboutes repayres up with +theyr cattall in som'ynge (summering) as ys aforesaid, and so have used +to do of longe tyme. And for the pasture of theyr cattall, so long as +they would tarye there they payed for a knoweledge two pens for a +household, or a grote at the most, though they had nev' so many +cattalles. And yet the poore men thoughte their fermes dere enoughe. +There was but fewe yeres that they escaped w'thout a greatter losse of +their goodes and cattalles, by spoyle or thefte of the Scottes or +Ryddesdale men, then would have paide for the pasture of theyr cattail +in a much better grounde. And ov' (over, besides) that, the saide valyes +or hopes of Kidlande lyeth so distant and devyded by mounteynes one from +an other, that such as Inhabyte in one of these hoopes, valeys, or +graynes, can not heare the Fraye outcrye, or exclamac'on of such as +dwell in an other hoope or valley upon the other side of the said +mountayne, nor come or assemble to theyr assystance in tyme of +necessytie. Wherefore we can not fynde anye of the neyghbours +thereabouts wyllinge cotynnally to Inhabyte or plenyshe w'thin the saide +grounde of Kydland, and especially in wynter tyme." + +These reasons were given by the people of "Cockdale" in the neighbouring +valley, to account for the desolation of Kidland, which lay open on the +northward to attacks from the Scots, and had no defence on the south +from the rievers of Redesdale. The inhabitants of Coquetdale seem to +have been a right valiant and hardy fraternity, honest and fearless, +well able to give good blows in defence of their possessions, for it is +left on record that "the people of the said Cock-dayle be best p'pared +for defence and most defensyble people of themselfes, and of the truest +and best sorte of anye that do Inhabyte, endlonge, the frounter or +border of the said mydle m'ches of England." The traces of these days of +raid and foray are to be found in abundance all over Coquetdale, as +indeed all over Northumberland, in pele-tower and barmkyn, fortified +dwelling and bastle house. + +Harbottle Castle would have a good deal to tell, could it only speak, of +siege and assault from the day when, "with the aid of the whole county +of Northumberland and the bishopric of Durham," it was built by Henry +II., until, after the Union of the Crowns, it shared the fate of many of +the Border strongholds, and fell into gradual decay, or was used as a +quarry from which to draw building material for new and modern +mansions. At Rothbury, a pele-tower has formed the dwelling of the +Vicars of that town from the time that any mention of Whitton Tower is +to be found, it being first noticed as "Turris de Whitton, iuxta +Rothebery." Rothbury itself occupies quite the finest situation of any +of the Northumbrian towns. Others, besides it, lie on the banks of a +pretty river; others, too, possess fair meadows and rich pastures; but +none other has the combination of these attractive features with the +finer surroundings of hill, crag, and moorland as picturesquely +beautiful as those of Rothbury. In the old church here Bernard Gilpin, +"the Apostle of the North," often preached; and even the fierce rival +factions of the Borderland were so influenced by the gentle, yet +fearless preacher, that they consented to forego their usual pleasure of +"drawing" whenever they met one of a rival family, at least so long as +Gilpin dwelt among them, and especially to refrain from showing their +hostility in church. + +There are in Coquetdale, as elsewhere, memorials of the ancient British +days in the many camps to be found on the summits of the hills near the +town, on Tosson Hill and the Simonside Hills; and not camps only, but +barrows, cist-vaens, and flint weapons in considerable numbers. The +magnificent view to be obtained, on a clear day, from Tosson Hill or the +Simonsides is one to be remembered; to the west and north stretch the +vales of Coquet and Alwin, with the rolling heights of the Cheviots +bounding them; northward are the woods surrounding Biddlestone Hall, the +"Osbaldistone Hall" of Scot's _Rob Roy_, awakening memories of Di +Vernon; far to the eastward a faint blue haze denotes the distant +coastline; while southward, over the dales of Rede and Tyne, the smoke +of industrial Tyneside lies on the horizon, with the spires and towers +of Newcastle showing faintly against the heights of the Durham side of +the Tyne. + +One of the chief sights of Rothbury is the beautiful mansion of Cragside +and the wonderful valley of Debdon and Crag Hill, as transformed by the +first Lord Armstrong into a paradise of beauty, where art and nature are +so blended as to make a romantically artistic whole. Another lovely spot +on the banks of Coquet is at Brinkburn, where the famous Priory stands +almost hidden at the foot of thickly wooded slopes. A very much larger +portion of this fine Priory is still standing than is the case with many +other religious houses of the same age, for it dates from the reign of +Henry I. The story is told of Brinkburn as well as of Blanchland, that a +party of marauding Scots on one of their forays passed by the Priory +without discovering it in its leafy bower; and so overjoyed were the +monks at their escape that they incautiously rang the bells by way of +showing their delight. The Scots, who had passed out of sight but not +out of hearing, immediately returned on their tracks, and, guided by the +joyful peal, reached the Priory, sacked the buildings, and then set them +on fire. It may well be that the tragedy occurred at both places, on +different occasions. + +Farther eastward down the Coquet are two places pre-eminently noted as +centres for the sport for which the river is famed above all other +Northumbrian streams, though some of them are worthy rivals. These two +places are Weldon Bridge and Felton; the old Angler's Inn at the +first-named is a favourite rendezvous of the fraternity of rod and +creel. Fishermen have long known the fascination of these two places, +and I quote from the "Fisherman's Garland" two stanzas written by two +enthusiastic anglers in praise of them. The writers are Robert Roxby +and Thomas Doubleday. + + + "But we'll awa' to Coquetside, + For Coquet bangs them a'; + Whose winding streams sae sweetly glide + By Brinkburn's bonny Ha'!" + + _Written in 1821_ + + "The Coquet for ever, the Coquet for aye! + The _Woodhall_ and _Weldon_ and _Felton_ so gay, + And _Brinkburn_ and _Linden_, wi' a' their sweet pride, + For they add to the beauty of dear Coquetside." + + _Written in 1826_ + +Felton, a charmingly placed little village, on the banks of the river +where they are overhung by graceful woods, and diversified by cliff and +grassy slope, stands just where the great North Road crosses the Coquet. +By reason of this position it has been the scene of one or two events of +historical interest, notably those connected with the "Fifteen" and the +"Forty-five." On the former occasion, the gallant young Earl of +Derwentwater, with his followers, was joined here by a band of seventy +gentlemen from the Borders, and they rode on to Morpeth to proclaim +James III. And thirty years later, the soldiers of George II. passed +over the bridge from the southward, led by the Duke of Cumberland, and +pressed on towards the Scottish moor where they dealt the final blow to +the Stuart cause at Culloden. The interesting old church at Felton, +dating from the thirteenth century, is well worth a visit. After leaving +Felton behind, the Coquet enters on the most marked windings of all its +winding course, until, when it enters the sea at Warkworth Harbour, just +opposite Coquet Island, it has contrived to lengthen out its journey to +a distance of forty miles. + +The bright clear stream of the Aln also begins its short journey across +Northumberland from the heights of Cheviot, but in the narrower +northern portion of the county. Alnham, with its pele-tower Vicarage, +ancient church, and memories of a castle, stands just at the foot of the +hills, near the source of the river. Some three or four miles eastward +along its banks, a walk through leafy woods brings us to +Whittingham--the final syllable of which, by the way, one pronounces as +"jam," as one does that of nearly all the other place-names ending in +"ing-ham" in Northumberland, contrary though it be to etymological +considerations--excepting, curiously enough, Chillingham, situated in +the very midst of all the others. The "ing" and "ham" are in themselves +a historical guide to the days in which the various villages received +their names, these two syllables being a certain indication of a Saxon +settlement, the "home of the sons, or descendants of" whatever person +the first syllable indicates. Thus, Edlingham, only a few miles away, is +the "home or settlement of the sons of Eadwulf"; Ellingham, the "home of +the sons of Ella," and so on. How the "Whitt" syllable was spelled we do +not know; most probably Hwitta or Hwitha--for all our _wh's_ were _hw_ +originally--_hwaet, hwa, hwaether_ and so forth. + +This ancient village is in these days a charming and peaceful place, +lying in the midst of rich meadow lands, and surrounded by magnificent +trees. It had its romances, too, in the course of years; so long ago as +the days of the early Danish invasions a certain widow in Whittingham, +in the reign of King Alfred, had no less a person than a Danish prince +among her slaves; he was ransomed, however, and made king of the Danes +in the North, in consequence of a vision in which St. Cuthbert had +directed the Abbot of Carlisle to see this done. Young Prince Guthred's +gratitude showed itself in a substantial grant of land to St. Cuthbert +at Durham. Whittingham Church is supposed to have been founded by the +Saxon king Ceolwulf, whose acquaintance we have already made at Holy +Island, and he bestowed the lands of Whittingham on the church at +Lindisfarne. It still shows some of the original Saxon work at the base +of the tower, and much more was to be seen before the so-called +"restoration" of the church in 1840. The pele-tower on the south side of +the river, after its days of storm and stress are over, still serves as +a shelter in time of need, for it is now used as an almshouse for the +poor of the village, a former Lady Ravensworth having originated the +quaint idea and seen it carried out. + +Whittingham Fair, now Whittingham Sports, a well-known rendezvous of the +whole countryside, has lost some of its former splendour, but is still +looked forward to with great enjoyment in the surrounding district. The +old coaching road from Newcastle to Edinburgh passed through the +village, crossing the Aln by the stone bridge, from whence it went on +through Glanton and Wooler to Cornhill. + +In the vale of Whittingham, the little Aln flows placidly along, its +waters murmuring a soothing refrain, a peaceful interlude between its +busy bustling beginning and its ending. Before reaching Alnwick it flows +past the ancient walls of Hulne Abbey, the monastery of Carmelite friars +so romantically founded by the Northumbrian knight and monk after his +visit to the monastery on Mount Carmel. A considerable portion of the +ancient building is still standing, and few sites chosen by the old +monks, who had an unerring eye for beauty as well as safety and +convenience in their choice of abode, can surpass this one, surrounded +by fair meadows, and standing on the green hill-side, with the rippling +Aln flowing through the levels below. In Hulne Park is also the +Brislee Tower, erected by the first Duke of Northumberland in 1781, on +the top of Brislee Hill. + +[Illustration: ALNWICK CASTLE] + +Alnwick itself, with its quaint, uneven, narrow streets, and grey stone +houses, looks the part of a Border town even in these days; and the grim +old Hotspur tower, bestriding the main street like an ancient warrior +still on guard, helps to give the illusion an air of reality. The tower, +however, was not built by Hotspur, but by his son. The names of the +streets, too, are redolent of the days when the only safety for the +inhabitants of a town worth plundering lay in the strength of its walls +and gateways. Bondgate, Bailiffgate, and Narrowgate, still speak of the +days of siege and sortie, of fierce attack and stout defence. + +The magnificent castle which dominates the town stands majestically at +the top of a green slope above the Aln, its vast array of walls and +towers far along the ridge, fronting the North as though still looking, +albeit with a seemingly languid interest, for the coming of the Scots +who were such inveterate foes of its successive lords. The principal +entrance, however, the Barbican, faces southwards to the town, and here +the massive gateway, with portcullis complete, and crowned by quaint +life-size figures of warriors in various attitudes of defence, conveys +the impression that the huge giant is still alert and on guard. The +history of Alnwick is the history of the castle and its lords, from the +days of Gilbert Tyson, variously known as Tison, Tisson, and De Tesson, +one of the Conqueror's standardbearers, upon whom this northern estate +was bestowed, until the present time. After being held by the family of +De Vesci (of which the modern rendering is Vasey--a name found all over +south-east Northumberland) for over two hundred years, it passed into +the hands of the house of Percy. The Percies, who hailed from the +village of Perce in Normandy, had large estates in Yorkshire, bestowed +by the Conqueror on the first of the name to arrive in England in his +train. The family, however, was represented by an heiress only in the +reign of Henry II., whose second wife, a daughter of the Duke of +Brabant, thought this heiress, with her wide possessions, a suitable +match for her own young half-brother Joceline of Louvain. The marriage +took place; and thereafter followed the long line of Henry Percies +(Henry being a favourite name of the Counts of Louvain) who played such +a large part in the history of both England and Scotland; for, as nearly +every Percy was a Warden of the Marches, Scottish doings concerned them +more or less intimately--indeed, often more so than English affairs. + +It was the third Henry Percy who purchased Alnwick in 1309 from Antony +Bec, Bishop of Durham and guardian of the last De Vesci, and from that +time the fortunes of the Percies, though they still held their Yorkshire +estates, were linked permanently with the little town on the Aln, and +the fortress which alike commanded and defended it. The fourth Henry +Percy began to build the castle as we see it now; but to call him "the +fourth" is a little confusing, as he was the second Henry Percy, Lord of +Alnwick. On the whole, it will be clearer to begin the enumerations of +the various Henry Percies from the time they became Lords of Alnwick. It +was, then, Henry Percy the second, Lord of Alnwick, who began the +re-building of the castle; he also was jointly responsible for the +safety of the realm during the absence of Edward III. in the French +wars, and in this official capacity, no less than in that of a Border +baron whose delight it was to exchange lusty blows with an ever-ready +foe, he helped to win the battle of Neville's Cross. His son, Henry, +married a sister of John of Gaunt, and their son, the next Henry Percy, +was that friend who stood John Wycliffe in such good stead, when he was +cited to appear before the Bishop of London. Henry Percy, who had been +made Earl Marshal of England, and the Duke of Lancaster took their +places one on each side of Wycliffe, and accompanied him to St. Paul's, +clearing a way for him through the crowd. It does not belong to this +story to tell how their private quarrels with the Bishop prevented +Wycliffe's interrogation, and how he left the Cathedral without having +uttered a word; we are concerned at the moment with his North-country +friend, who, the same year, was created Earl of Northumberland, which +title he was given after the coronation of Richard II. Nor was this all, +for he was that Northumberland whose doings in the next reign fill so +large a part of Shakespeare's Henry IV., and he was the father of the +most famous Percy of all, the gallant Henry Percy the fifth, better +known as "Harry Hotspur." Hotspur never became Earl of Northumberland, +being slain at Shrewsbury in the lifetime of his father, whose estates +were forfeited under attainder on account of the rebellion of himself +and his son against King Henry IV. + +King Henry V. restored Hotspur's son, the second Earl, to his family +honours, and the Percies were staunch Lancastrians during the Wars of +the Roses which followed, the third Earl and three of his brothers +losing their lives in the cause. The fifth Earl was a gorgeous person +whose magnificence equalled, almost, that of royalty. Henry Percy, the +sixth Earl of Northumberland, loved Ann Boleyn, and was her accepted +suitor before King Henry VIII. unfortunately discovered the lady's +charm, and interfered in a highhanded "bluff King Hal" fashion, and +young Percy lost his prospective bride. He had no son, although married +later to the daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury, and his nephew, Thomas +Percy, became the seventh Earl. + +Thereafter, a succession of plots and counterplots--the Rising of the +North, the plots to liberate Mary Queen of Scots, and the Gunpowder +Plot--each claimed a Percy among their adherents. On this account the +eighth and ninth Earls spent many years in the Tower, but the tenth +Earl, Algernon, fought for King Charles in the Civil War, the male line +of the Percy-Louvain house ending with Josceline, the eleventh Earl. The +heiress to the vast Percy estates married the Duke of Somerset; and her +grand-daughter married a Yorkshire knight, Sir Hugh Smithson, who in +1766 was created the first Duke of Northumberland and Earl Percy, and it +is their descendants who now represent the famous old house. + +At various points in the town are memorials of the constant wars between +Percies and Scots in which so many Percies spent the greater part of +their lives. At the side of the broad shady road called Rotten Row, +leading from the West Lodge to Bailiffgate, a tablet of stone marks the +spot where William the Lion of Scotland was captured as we have already +seen, in 1174, by Odinel de Umfraville and his friends; and there are +many others of similar interest. + +Within the park, approached by the gate at the foot of Canongate, is the +fine gateway which is all that is left of Alnwick Abbey. No more +peaceful spot could have been found than this, on the level greensward, +surrounded by fine trees which shelter it on all sides save one, and +near the brink of the little Aln, whose banks are thickly covered with +wild flowers, while the steep slope on the opposite side of the river is +overhung with shady woods. The extent of the parks may be judged from +the fact that the enclosing wall is about five miles long. At the foot +of Bailiffgate, on the edge of a steep ridge above the descent to +Canongate and the banks of the river, the ancient parish church, +dedicated to St. Mary and St. Michael stands in a commanding position. +The present building dates from the fourteenth century, and occupies the +site of an earlier one, whose few remaining stones have been built into +the present structure. Two other reminders of long-past days are to be +found in Alnwick; one is the large stone in the Market Place to which +the bull ring used to be fixed in the days when bull-baiting and +bear-baiting took place; and the other, a relic of days still further +back in the distant years, is the sounding of the Curfew Bell, which is +still rung here every evening at eight o'clock. Altogether there is the +quaintest and most unexpected mingling of the ancient and modern in the +little feudal town. + +Between Alnwick and the sea, the Aln winds its way past Alnmouth +Station, formerly known as Bilton Junction, and past Lesbury, a pretty +little tree-shaded village, to the sandy flats by Alnmouth where it ends +its journey in the North Sea. + +The Till, by whose side we shall next wander, flows in the opposite +direction, for that historic stream is a tributary of "Tweed's fair +river, broad and deep," and curves from the Cheviots round to the +North-west, where it enters the larger stream at Tillmouth. It begins +life as the Breamish, tumbling down the slopes of Cushat Law within +sight of all the giants of the Cheviot range. The Linhope Burn, a fellow +traveller down these steep hillsides, forms in its course the Linhope +Spout, one of the largest waterfalls to be found amongst the Cheviots, +before it joins the Breamish, which then flows through a country of +green slopes and grassy levels to Ingram. This village possesses an old +church with massive square tower and windows which suggest the fortress +rather than the church. The heights which stretch eastward from the +Cheviots and bound the valley of the Till add not a little to the beauty +and variety of the scenery in this district. + +The little stream, which turns northward near Glanton railway station, +moves on in loops and windings past Beanley, which Earl Gospatric held +in former days by virtue of the curious office of being a kind of +official mediator between the monarchs of England and Scotland when they +came to blows; and past Bewick, with its little Norman church buried +from sight amongst leafy trees. The effigy of a lady in the chancel of +this church is said to be that of Matilda, wife of Henry I. This is the +more likely in that the lands of Bewick formed part of her dowry, and +were given by her to the monks of Tynemouth Priory. At Bewick Bridge the +little stream ceases to be the Breamish, and becomes the Till; as an old +rhyme has it-- + + "The foot of Breamish, and head of Till, + Meet together at Bewick Mill" + +Some miles to the northward, the Till reaches the little village of +Chatton, having, on the way, passed a little to the westward of +Chillingham Castle and Park, where is the famous herd of wild cattle. +Roscastle, a craggy height covered with heather, stands at the edge of +the chase, and looks over a wild and romantic scene of moorland and +pastureland, deep glens and heathery hills. The Vicarage at Chatton is +another of those north-country vicarages in which an old pele-tower +forms part of the modern residence. On the top of Chatton Law is an +ancient British encampment, with inscribed circles similar to those on +Bewick Hill. + +From Chatton, the loops and windings of the Till grow more insistent, +and the little stream adds miles to its length by reason of its +frequent doubling on its tracks; this, however, but gives an added charm +to the landscape, as the silvery gleams of the winding river come +unexpectedly into view again and again. It flows on through Glendale, +with which attractive region we have already made acquaintance; and on +its banks are the two prettiest villages in Northumberland--Ford and +Etal. + +Ford Castle, as seen at the present day, is chiefly modern, but the +northwest tower is part of the old fortress of Odenel de Forde, which +experienced so many vicissitudes in its time. One of the most famous +owners of Ford Castle was Sir William Heron, who married Odenel's +daughter, and who held the responsible and troublesome office of High +Sheriff of Northumberland for eleven years, besides being Captain of +Bamburgh and Warden of the northern forests. The castle was burnt down +by James IV. of Scotland just before the battle of Flodden, which was +not by any means the only time in its career that it was demolished, +entirely or in part, and restored again. + +In the village of Ford, the walls of the schoolroom are decorated by a +series of pictures of the children of Scripture story, for whose +portrayal it is said the Marchioness of Waterford, the artist, took the +village children as models. The late Vicar of Ford, the Rev. Hastings +Neville, has laid all who are interested in the rural life of +Northumberland, and the quaint and traditional manners and customs of +the North-country which are so fast disappearing, under the greatest +obligation to him for his interesting and entirely delightful little +book, "A Corner in the North." Historical records, and matters of +business, ownerships, etc., connected with any special area can always +be turned up for reference when required; but the manner of speech, the +customs of daily life, the quaint survivals of former usages and +half-forgotten lore, being entirely dependent on individual memory and +oral tradition, only too often disappear before any adequate record can +be made. Hence it is a matter for congratulation that such a book should +have been written. + +Etal, Ford's pretty neighbour, also boasts a castle, built only two +years after that of Ford and by the same masons. A considerable portion +of the ruins remains, but, unlike Ford Castle, it was never restored +after James the Fourth's drastic handling of it, but was left to decay. +Opposite Ford and Etal, on the left bank of the Till, is Pallinsburn +House, referred to in another chapter, and the village of Crookham; and +beyond the woods of Pallinsburn, Flodden ridge, with its memories of the +disastrous field on which James was slain. + +The mansion house of Tillmouth Park, owned by Sir Francis Blake, is +built of stones from the ruins of Twizell Castle, on the northern bank +of the Till; the castle was begun by a former Sir Francis Blake but +never finished. Between the two buildings the Berwick Road crosses the +Till by Twizell Bridge, over which Surrey marched his men southward on +the morning of Flodden. Not far from this bridge, to the westward, is +St. Helen's Well, alluded to by Scott in his account of the battle, in +"Marmion"-- + + "Many a chief of birth and rank, + St. Helen, at thy fountain drank." + +Sibyl's well, from which Lady Clare brought water to moisten the lips of +the dying Marmion, is beside the little church at Branxton. Tillmouth, +however, has older memories still; for it was to the little chapel there +that St. Cuthbert's body floated in its stone coffin from Melrose, +dating the course of its seven years' wandering, ere it found a final +rest at Durham. + + + "From sea to sea, from shore to shore, + Seven years Saint Cuthbert's corpse they bore + They rested them in fair Melrose, + But though alive he loved it well + Not there his relics might repose, + For, wondrous tale to tell, + In his stone coffin forth he glides, + A ponderous bark for river tides, + Yet light as gossamer it glides + Downward to Tillmouth cell. + + * * * * * + + Chester-le-Street and Ripon saw + His holy corpse, ere Wardilaw + Hailed it with joy and fear; + Till, after many wanderings past, + He chose his lordly seat at last + Where his cathedral, huge and vast, + Looks down upon the Wear." + + _Sir W. Scott_--MARMION. + + +The "stone coffin" was boat-shaped, "ten feet long, three feet and a +half in diameter, and only four inches thick, so that, with very little +assistance, it might certainly have swum; it still lies, or at least did +so a few years ago, in two pieces, beside the ruined chapel at +Tilmouth."--_Sir W. Scott's Notes to "Marmion."_ + +Three or four miles from Tillmouth, south-westward up the valley of the +Tweed, and just beyond Cornhill, lies the village of Wark, near which +the remains of the famous Border castle are still standing. The castle +was built on a stony ridge of detritus called the _Kaim_, which +stretches from Wark village towards Carham. In the reign of Henry I. all +those who owned land in the North were seemingly animated simultaneously +by a lively desire to secure their Borders; Bishop Flambard began to +build Norham Castle, Eustace Fitz-John, husband of Beatrice de Vesci, +built the greater part of Alnwick Castle, and Walter Espic raised the +mighty fortress, the great "Wark" or work (A.S. _were_ or _weare_) on +the steep ridge above Tweed, in "his honour (seignieury) of Carham." + +From that time the castle of Wark went through a greater succession of +sieges, assaults, burnings, surrenders, demolitions, and restorations +than any other place in England, except, perhaps, Norham Castle or +Berwick-upon-Tweed. In an age and situation where hard blows given and +returned, desperate adventures and equal chances of life or death were +the common-places of everyday existence, Wark was probably the place +where these excitements were to be had oftener than anywhere else. + +The romantic episode which gave rise to the establishment of the Order +of the Garter is generally allowed to have taken place at Wark Castle. +The young king of Scotland, David Bruce, had "ridden a raid" into +England, and ravaged and plundered on his way as far as Auckland, after +having burnt the town of Alnwick, amongst others, but having been +repulsed before the castle. King Edward III. was at Stamford when he +heard of the invasion; but hurrying northward he reached Newcastle in +four days. The Scots, retreating before him, passed Wark Castle, which +was held by the Countess of Salisbury and her nephew, in the absence of +her husband. The young man was loth to let so much English booty be +carried off under his very eyes, so he fell upon the rearguard, and +succeeded in bringing a number of packhorses to the castle. On this the +whole Scottish array turned back, and a siege of the castle began; but +the Countess spiritedly held out, and Edward meanwhile drew nearer. Some +of the Scotsmen were captured, and from them the Countess's nephew +heard that Edward had reached Alnwick. He stole out of the castle before +dawning in heavy rain, to let the King know where his help was urgently +needed; and by noon of the same day Edward was at Wark, only to find his +quarry flown, the Scots having retreated a few hours earlier. The King +was joyfully received and thanked by the grateful Countess; and he in +his turn was much struck by the beauty and grace of the high-spirited +lady, and showed his admiration plainly. In the evening, according to +tradition, a ball was held, at which the incident occurred, so often +related, of the accidental losing of her garter by the fair chatelaine, +and the restoration of it by the King, with the remark, as a rebuke to +the smiling bystanders,--"_Honi soit qui mal y pense._" This he +afterwards adopted as the motto of the Order he established in honour of +the beautiful Countess. + +The Garter is the most exclusive of Orders, and consists of the reigning +Sovereign and twenty-five Companions, of whom the Prince of Wales is +always one; and it takes precedence of all other titles, ranking next to +royalty. It is a matter of great pride to all Northumbrians that perhaps +the only instance of its having been bestowed on any except a peer of +the realm or a foreign Sovereign, has occurred recently in the bestowal +of the coveted decoration on Sir Edward Grey, a member of the ancient +and important Northumbrian house of that name. + +Every King of England from Henry I. to Henry IV., seems to have been at +Wark at some time during his reign, with the exception of Richard +Coeur-de-Lion and Richard II. After the Union of the Crowns, Wark, like +most other fortresses in the north that were not in use as the dwellings +of their owners, was allowed to fall into decay. From Wark to Carham is +a walk of only two miles along the road which follows the course of the +river, and ultimately leads to Kelso. Carham has the remains of an +ancient monastery; and here the Danes, after having plundered +Lindisfarne, fought a battle in which the Saxons, led by several +Bishops, were defeated with great slaughter. From Carham, having reached +the last point of interest on the Tweed within the Northumbrian border, +we must retrace our steps to Tillmouth, and follow the Tweed through +pasture land and level haughs, until we come in sight of the steep +cliffs and overhanging woods by Norham Castle. + +Naturally here, the words of the opening canto of "Marmion" are recalled +to our memory-- + + "Day set on Norham's castled steep, + On Tweed's fair river, broad and deep, + And Cheviot's mountains lone + The battled towers, the donjon keep, + The loophole grates, where captives weep, + The flanking walls that round it sweep, + In yellow lustre shone." + + +The "castled steep" is still crowned by a massive fragment of the old +fortress that has braved, in its time, so many days of storm and stress. +A good deal of the curtain wall, too, is standing, and the natural +defences of the castle are admirable, for a deep ravine on the east and +the river with its steep banks on the south made it practically +unassailable at these points. It was built in 1121, as we have seen, by +Bishop Flambard of Durham, as a defence for the northern portions of his +diocese. The necessity for its presence there was soon made apparent, +for it was attacked by the Scots again and again; and by the time thirty +years had passed. Bishop Pudsey found it necessary to strengthen it +greatly. When Edward I. was called to arbitrate between the claimants +to the Scottish throne, he came to Norham and met the rival nobles, who, +with their followers, were quartered at Ladykirk, on the opposite side +of the Tweed. It was known as Upsettlington then, however; the name of +Ladykirk was bestowed upon it long afterwards, when James IV. built the +little chapel there, in gratitude for an escape from drowning in the +Tweed. Edward held his interview with the Scottish nobles in Norham +church, and announced that he had come there in the character of lord +paramount, and as such was prepared to make choice of one among them. +Edward did not by any means make up his mind quickly, and the various +places in which the successive acts in the affair took place are widely +scattered, for he met the nobles at Norham, some time afterwards +delivered his decision at Berwick, and finally received the homage of +John Balliol at Newcastle. + +Norham, like Wark, has also its romantic episode--or rather, an episode +more conspicuously so in a series of them to which the name might with +justice be applied. It occurred during the time that Sir Thomas Gray was +holding the castle against a determined blockade of it by the Scots in +1318. A certain fair lady of Lincolnshire sent one of her maidens to a +knight whom she loved, Sir William Marmion (whose name probably +suggested to Sir Walter Scott the name for the hero of his tale of +Norham and Flodden). Sir William was at a banquet when the maiden came +before him bearing a helmet with a golden crest, together with a letter +from his lady bidding him go "into the daungerust place in England, and +there to let the heaulme be seene and knowen as famose." Evidently it +was well known where "the daungerust place in England" was to be found, +for the story laconically says "So he went to Norham." He had not been +there more than a day or two when a band of nearly two hundred Scots, +bold and expert horsemen, led by Philip de Mowbray, made an attack on +the castle, rousing Sir Thomas and his garrison from their dinner. They +quickly mounted, and were about to sally forth when Sir Thomas caught +sight of Marmion, in rich armour, and on his head the helmet with the +golden crest; and halting his men, he cried out, "Sir knight, ye be come +hither as a knight-errant to fame your helm; and since deeds of chivalry +should rather be done on horseback than on foot, mount up on your horse, +and spur him like a valiant knight into the midst of your enemies here +at hand, and I forsake God if I rescue not thy body dead or alive, or I +myself will die for it." At this Marmion mounted and spurred towards the +Scots, by whom he was instantly set upon, wounded, and dragged from the +saddle. But before they had time to give him the final blow they were +scattered by the rapid charge of Sir Thomas and his men, who quickly +rescued Marmion and set him on his horse again; and using their lances +against the horses of the Scots, caused many of them to throw their +riders, while the rest galloped away. The women of the castle caught +fifty of the riderless horses, on which more of the garrison mounted and +joined in the pursuit of the flying Scots, whom they chased nearly to +Berwick. + +The tables were sometimes turned, however; and on one of these occasions +the valiant Sir Thomas Gray and his son were enticed out of the castle +into an ambush laid for them by their foes, and both captured. + +In 1513, just before the battle of Flodden, its walls were at length +laid low by James IV., but not until the famous cannon "Mons +Meg"--still, I believe, to be seen at Edinburgh Castle--had been brought +against it. One of the cannon-balls fired from "Mons Meg" was found, +and is still kept with others at the Castle. It is said that the Scots +were told of the weakest spot in the fortifications by a treacherous +inmate of the castle, who doubtless expected a rich reward for his +information. Indeed, the ballad of "Flodden" says he came for it; but +the valiant and chivalrous king would give him no reward but that which +he said every traitor deserved--a rope. + +Afterwards the castle was restored once more, but its more stirring days +were over; and, to-day, it stands a shattered but dignified ruin, +overlooking the tranquil river and peaceful woodlands which once echoed +so continuously to the clash of arms and the shouts of besiegers and +besieged. + +The village of Norham was in Saxon days known as Ubbanford--the Upper +Ford of two that were available in those days on the Tweed. There was a +church here, too, in Saxon times, for Bishop Ecfrid built one about the +year 830, and in it was buried the Saxon king Ceolwulf who became a +monk: the present church has a good deal remaining of the one built on +the same site by Bishop Flambard, about the same time as the castle. +Earl Gospatric, whom William the Conqueror made Earl of Northumberland +in return for a considerable sum of money--doubtless thinking that to +give a Northumbrian the Earldom would reconcile the North to his +rule--is buried in the church porch. Gospatric joined in the resistance +of the North to William, but returned to his allegiance later. The +Market Cross of Norham stands on the original base. + +From Norham to Tweedmouth the river sweeps forward between picturesque +ever-widening banks, and often hidden by a leafy screen, past the +village of Horncliffe, beneath the Union Suspension Bridge, one of the +first erected of its kind, until at length its bright waters lave the +historic walls of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in the quiet harbour there +meet the inrushing tide from the North Sea. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +DRUM AND TRUMPET. + +"The history of Northumberland is essentially a drum and trumpet +history, from the time when the _buccina_ of the Batavian cohort first +rang out over the moors of Procolitia down to the proclamation of James +III. at Warkworth Cross"--_Cadwallader J Bates_. + + +This sentence of the historian of Northumberland sums up the story of +our northern county no less admirably than tersely, and it would be +difficult to find one which should more clearly bring before us the +whole atmosphere of north-country history and north-country doings for +many centuries. + +Within the limits of this chapter it is impossible to go into the +details of every "foughten field" within the county; the most that can +be done is to indicate the many and treat in detail only the few. A +goodly number have already been alluded to in connection with the place +where each occurred. + +After the Roman campaigns, from those of Agricola to those of Theodosius +the elder and Maximus, and the legion sent by Stilicho, the earliest +battle story is that of the one in Glendale fought by King Arthur. Then +the forming of the kingdom of Bernicia with the advent of Ida at +Bamburgh was the beginning of a long-protracted struggle between the +various little states, each fighting for its life, and surrounded by +others equally determined to take every advantage that offered against +it. The sons of Ida fought against the celebrated Urien, a Keltic +chief, who almost succeeded in dispossessing them of their kingdom of +Bernicia. Hussa, one of Ida's sons, ultimately vanquished Urien's son +Owen, "chief of the glittering West"; and after Hussa's death Ethelric +of Bernicia, as we have seen, overcame the neighbouring chieftain of +Deira, thus forming the kingdom of Northumbria. His successor, +Ethelfrith, in the year 603 gained a great victory over a large force of +northern Britons under a leader named Aedan at a place called +Daegsanstan, which is thought to be Dissington, near Newcastle. His +further victories were gained outside the limits of our present survey. + +After the long and glorious reign of Edwin, his successor, Ethelfrith's +sons came back to Bamburgh; the eldest, Eanfrid, was slain within a +year, and his brother Oswald carried on the struggle against Penda of +Mercia. We have seen how he fought against Penda and Cadwallon on the +Heavenfield near Chollerford, and gained a victory which obtained for +him many years of peace. Penda was finally slain by Oswald's successor +Oswy in a great battle which is supposed to have taken place on the +banks of the Tweed. + +Many years afterwards, Sitric, grandson of that Prince Guthred who was +once a slave at Whittingham, married a sister of King Athelstan, +grandson of Alfred the Great. When Sitric died, Athelstan came northward +to claim Northumbria for himself. He captured Bamburgh--the first time +that stronghold of the Bernician kings had ever been taken--and arranged +for two earls to govern Northumbria for him. They attempted +unsuccessfully to oppose a force of Scots under Anlaf the Red, who was +joined by two earls of Bretland (Cumbria); and the whole force encamped +near a place called Weondune, supposed to be Wandon near Chatton. +Athelstan advanced against them and challenged them to a pitched battle +on this ground. They agreed, and with much deliberation the course was +staked out with hazel wands between a wood and a river (Chillingham +woods and the Till). The Scots greatly outnumbered Athelstan's men, who +set up their tents at the narrowest part of the plain, giving their king +time to reach a little "burg" (Old Bewick) in the neighbourhood. A +running fight followed, which was carried on the next day, and with the +help of two brothers, Egil and Thorold, who were Norsemen, it ended in a +complete victory for Athelstan. While in the north, King Athelstan gave +the well-known rhyming charter to a certain Paulan of Roddam; + + "I kyng Adelstan + giffs hier to Paulan + Oddam and Roddam + als gud and als fair + als evyr thai myne war, + and thar to wytness + Mald my Wiffe." + +Shortly after this, at the Battle of Brunanburh, Athelstan vanquished +Anlaf Sitricsson and Constantine, king of the Scots. The site of this +battle would seem to have been in Northumbria, as it was into the Humber +that Anlaf and Constantine sailed with their large fleet; but the +precise spot has never been determined. + +In the reign of Knut the Dane, the Scots obtained the whole of Lothian +from the Saxon earl of Northumberland, and the vast possessions of St. +Cuthbert beyond the Tweed seemed about to be lost to the church of +Durham. Accordingly, the clergy called upon all the people of St. +Cuthbert from the Tees to the Tweed--all those, that is, who dwelt on +lands granted by various donors to the church of St. Cuthbert--to rise +and march northward to fight for their lands. This great company set +out, in the autumn of 1018, and reached Carham on the Tweed, where they +were met by Malcolm king of the Scots. A comet had been seen in the sky +for some weeks and the fears inspired by this dread visitant seem to +have had more effect upon the Northumbrians than upon the Scots. From +whatever cause it arose, when the two forces joined in battle a panic +spread among the followers of St. Cuthbert. They were utterly routed, +and most of the leading Northumbrians as well as eighteen priests were +slain--thus curiously repeating the experience of the earlier battle of +Carham. + +For the next three hundred years Northumberland was swept by successive +waves of raid and reprisal, in the course of which occurred the two +well-known events, the attack of William the Lion of Scotland on Alnwick +Castle, and the more famous affair still, the struggle between Percy and +Douglas known as the battle of Otterburn, which was fought in "Chevy +Chase" (Cheviot Forest). More important poetically than politically, it +stands out more vividly in the records of the time than many other +conflicts of larger import. The personal element in the fight, the deeds +of gallantry recorded, the sounding roll of the chief knights' names, +and the high renown of the two leaders, throw a glamour around this +particular contest which is kept alive by the ballads that chant the +praises of Percy or Douglas according as the singer was Scot or Saxon. +Sir Philip Sidney, that "verray parfit gentil knight" and discriminating +_litterateur_, said "I never heard the old song of Percie and Douglas +that I found not my hart mooved more than with a trumpet: and yet it is +sung but by some blynd Crowder,[11] with no rougher voyce than rude +stile! which beeing so evill apparelled in the dust and cobweb of that +uncivill age, what wolde it work trimmed in the gorgeous eloquence of +Pindare!" [Footnote 11: Crowder = fiddler.] + +In the endless warfare of the Borders the second of two short-lived +periods of truce had just expired, and an organised raid on a large +scale was arranged by the Scots. The main body was to ravage Cumberland; +and a smaller, but picked force led by Earls Douglas, Moray, and March +came southward by way of Northumberland. But Northumbrian towers and +towns knew nothing of their passing; they marched rapidly and by stealth +into Durham, having crossed the Tyne between Corbridge and Bywell, and +began to harry and lay waste the greener pastures and richer villages of +the southern county, the smoke of whose burning homesteads was the first +intimation to the unlucky English of the fact that a Scottish host was +in their midst. + +The Earl of Northumberland remained at Alnwick in the hope that he might +be able to attack the Scots on their homeward journey; but he despatched +his sons Henry Hotspur and Ralph in all haste to defend Newcastle. The +Scots in due time appeared before the walls. + + And he marched up to Newcastel + And rode it round about; + "O wha's the lord o' this castel? + Or wha's the lady o't?" + + But up spake proud Lord Percy then, + And O but he spake hie! + "I am the lord o' this castel, + My wife's the lady gay." + +Douglas challenged Percy to meet him in single combat, and Percy +promptly accepted. In the duel Percy was unhorsed, and Douglas captured +his pennon and his gauntlet gloves, embroidered with the Percy lion in +pearls. This trophy Douglas vowed he would carry off to Scotland with +him, and set it in the topmost tower of his castle of Dalkeith, that it +might be seen from afar. "By heaven! that you never shall," replied +Percy; "you shall not carry it out of Northumberland." "Come and take +it, then," was Douglas' answer; and Hotspur would have attempted its +recovery there and then, but he was restrained by his knights. Douglas, +however, said he would give Percy a chance to recover it, and agreed to +await him at Otterburn. + + "Yet I will stay at Otterbourne, + Where you shall welcome be; + And if ye come not at three dayis end, + A fause lord I'll call thee" + +Next day the Scots left Newcastle and marched northward. They took Sir +Aymer de Athol's castle of Ponte-land, and the good knight Sir Aymer +himself, and went on their way, harrying and burning as they went. At +Otterburn they halted, and rested all night, making huts for themselves +of boughs and branches. The spot they had chosen was a strong one, on +the site of a former British camp; and not only was it surrounded by +trees, but was near marshy ground as well. Next day they attempted to +take Otterburn tower, but without success. + +Meanwhile word was brought to Hotspur that the Scots would spend the +night at Otterburn; and he, without waiting for Walter de Skirlaw, +Bishop of Durham, who was expected that evening with a strong force, at +once set off with 600 spearmen, and a force on foot which is variously +given as anything from 800 to 8,000. They covered the thirty-odd miles +by the time evening fell: and as the Scots were at supper in their +little huts, they were startled by a tumult amongst their grooms and +camp-followers, and cries of "a Percy! a Percy!" and the Englishmen were +among them. The Scottish leaders had placed their camp-followers and +servants at the outermost; part of their encampment, facing the +Newcastle road; and Hotspur's force, ignorant of this, mistook it for +the main camp. While they were thus engaged, the Scottish knights were +enabled to make a detour around the scene of the first attack, and take +the English in the rear. With loud shouts of "Douglas! Douglas!" they +fell upon them, and a fierce hand-to-hand struggle began. The moon rose +clear and bright, and the quiet evening air was filled with the din of +battle, the ring of steel on steel, the crash of axe on armour, the +groans of the wounded, and the battle-cries of the combatants on each +side. Sir Ralph Percy, pressing too rashly forward, was captured by a +newly-made Scottish knight, Sir John Maxwell. The battle was turning in +favour of Hotspur, when Douglas sent his silken banner to the front and +with renewed shouts of "Douglas!" the Scots pressed forward and overbore +their foes. According to Froissart, there was not a man there, knight, +squire, or groom, who played the coward. "This bataylle was one of the +sorest and best foughten without cowards or faynte hearts; for there was +neither knight nor I squire but that did his devoyre and foughte hande +to hande." Great deeds were done, and the fame of none amongst them is +greater than that of the gallant Widdrington; + + "For Witherington my heart is woe, + That ever he slaine sholde be! + For when his legs were hewn in two + He knelt and fought on his knee" + +Douglas rushed into the thickest of the fray, and Hotspur tried to find +him, but in the dim light that was difficult, especially as Douglas +had, in his haste, come to the fight without helmet or breastplate. +Presently he was borne to the ground by three English spears; and as he +lay guarded by his faithful chaplain, Sir John and Sir Walter Sinclair, +with Sir James Lindsay, came upon him. "How fare you, cousin?" asked Sir +John. "But poorly, I thank God," answered Douglas; "for few of my +ancestors died in bed or chamber. I count myself dead, for my heart +beats slow. Think now to avenge me. Raise my banner and shout 'Douglas!' +and let neither my friends nor my foes know of my state, lest the one +rejoice and the other be discomforted." His dying commands were obeyed; +and while his battle-cry was raised anew, his dead body was laid by a +"bracken bush," and the fact of his death concealed from friend and foe +alike. The furious onslaught of the Scots now carried all before them; +and Hotspur fell a captive to the sword of Sir Hugh Montgomery, a nephew +of Douglas, after a fierce hand-to-hand encounter. The two chief English +leaders being captured, the day, or rather the night, was with the +Scots, in fulfilment of an old prophesy that "a dead Douglas should win +a field." + + "This deed was done at Otterbourne + At the breaking of the day; + Earl Douglas was buried at the braken bush, + And the Percy led captive away." + + +When the fray was over, the two sides treated their captives with +knightly courtesy, many being allowed to go to their homes until they +recovered from their wounds, on giving their word of honour to send the +amount of their ransom, or themselves return to their captors. + +The Bishop of Durham, immediately after having had some refreshment at +Newcastle, had set out to join the Percies; but as he and his men +neared Otterburn, they met so many fugitives who gave them anything but +reassuring accounts of the fortunes of their friends, that half of his +force melted away, and the Bishop had perforce to return to Newcastle; +it was scarcely to be expected, indeed, that everyone should have that +thirst for hard blows which distinguished the knights and their +immediate followers. The Bishop, however, made one capture--Sir James +Lindsay, who had ridden so far in pursuit of Sir Matthew Redman that he +found himself amongst the force advancing under the leadership of the +warlike prelate. + +When the Scots retired from their camp, they took the body of Douglas +from the "bracken bush" where it lay, and carried it away for burial in +Melrose Abbey; and Hotspur, as the price of his ransom, built a castle +for Sir Hugh Montgomery. + +After this there was peace on the Borders for the next ten years or so, +when the game began again as merrily as ever. When Sir Thomas Gray was +absent from his castle of Wark-on-Tweed, attending Parliament, the Scots +came down upon it and carried off his children and servants. Sir Robert +Umfraville met and checked another company that were harrying +Coquetdale. In the year 1400, Henry Bolingbroke himself led an army to +Edinburgh; but a guerilla band of Scots, avoiding his line of march, +stole behind him and ravaged Bamburghshire. + +Two years after this, a party of Scots under the next Douglas rode into +Northumberland, coming nearly as far south as Newcastle. Hotspur set off +from Bamburgh, of which castle he was Constable at the time, to +intercept them. He awaited them on the banks of the Glen, near Wooler; +and the archers of his force went out for forage meanwhile. When the +Scots arrived, they found themselves in the presence of an enemy whom +they had imagined to be behind them, and they immediately occupied +Homildon Hill. The archers, returning, saw the Scottish force on the +hill, and began the attack forthwith, letting fly their arrows upon the +foe with deadly precision. Flight after flight fell upon the Scots, who +were completely bewildered, and seemed incapable of action. A Scottish +knight, Sir John Swinton, implored the leaders to charge, passionately +exclaiming, "What madness has seized you, my brave countrymen, that you +stand here like deer to be shot down? Follow me, those who will! We will +either gain the victory, or die like men of courage." + +On hearing these brave words, Adam de Gordon, Swinton's deadly foe, felt +his hatred turn to admiration, and kneeling before Swinton, begged that +he might receive the honour of knighthood from so valiant a hand. The +two gallant knights then charged the enemy, followed by a number of the +Scots; but the showers of arrows forced them to retreat towards the +river, and thither also moved the whole Scottish force, followed still +by that grim and deadly hail from the English bows. Hotspur would now +have charged, but the Earl of March, his former antagonist, now his +friend, restrained his impetuous leader, and persuaded him to let the +archers continue their effective work. + +The event proved his wisdom; the Scots were utterly routed by the +archers alone. The unfortunate Archibald Douglas added another to his +long list of reverses; he was taken prisoner, sorely wounded, as was +also Sir Hugh Montgomery, and over four-score others of importance. It +was in connection with these prisoners, whom Hotspur refused to deliver +up to Bolingbroke, that the quarrel took place which eventually led +Northumberland and his son Hotspur openly to throw off their allegiance +to Henry Bolingbroke and join in the rebellion of Owen Glendower. Not +only did Hotspur refuse to give up Douglas and the others to King Henry, +but he wished Henry to ransom his brother-in-law Mortimer. + + _K. Henry_. But sirrah, henceforth + Let me not hear you speak of Mortimer. + Send me your prisoners with the speediest means, + Or you shall hear in such a kind from me + As will displease you.--My lord Northumberland, + We licence your departure with your son.-- + Send us your prisoners, or you'll hear of it. + +(_Exeunt_ K. Henry, Blunt, _and train_) + + _Hotspur_. And if the devil come and roar for them + I will not send them:--I will after, straight, + And tell him so. + + * * * * * + + _Worcester_. These same noble Scots + That are your prisoners-- + + _Hotspur_. I'll keep them all; + By heaven, he shall not have a Scot of them; + No, if a Scot would save his soul, he shall not; + I'll keep them, by this hand. + + _Worcester_. You start away, + And lend no ear unto my purposes. + Those prisoners you shall keep.-- + + _Hotspur_. Nay, I will, that's flat:-- + He said he would not ransom Mortimer; + Forbade my tongue to speak of Mortimer; + But I will find him when he lies asleep, + And in his ear I'll holla "Mortimer!" + Nay, I'll have a starling shall be taught to speak + Nothing but "Mortimer," and give it him + To keep his anger still in motion. + + _The First Part of_ KING HENRY IV., _Act I., Scene 3_. + + +The fight at Homildon Hill took place on a Monday in August, 1402, and +the memory of it is kept alive by the name of the "Monday Clough" near +Wooler, where the archers commenced the fight. + +More than a hundred years after this, the last, and in many respects the +greatest, battle ever fought on Northumbrian soil took place at Flodden. +King James IV. of Scotland had several grievances against England, which +had rankled in his mind for some time; he had not yet received the full +amount of the dowry which had been promised with his wife, Margaret +Tudor, sister of Henry VIII., although they had been married for many +years; a Scottish noble, Sir Robert Ker, had been killed in +Northumberland, and the slayer could not be found to be brought to +justice--he was outlawed, but that seemed to King James very +insufficient; a Border raid on a large scale, led by Lord Hume, had met +with disastrous defeat on Milfield Plain at the hands of Sir William +Bulmer; and Andrew Barton, a notable sea-captain, whom James was looking +forward to seeing as one of the best leaders of his new navy, had been +killed in a sea-fight by Thomas Howard, Lord Admiral of England. Added +to all this, France had appealed to him to invade England in order to +force Henry VIII. to abandon his French war; the English monarch was +just then conducting the siege of Terouenne, and the Queen of France +sent a romantic appeal to James (together with a large sum of money) +begging him to march "three feet on to English ground" for her sake. + +No time could have been more favourable in James' eyes for the +enterprise; and in a very short space of time he had an army of 100,000 +men collected, and marched from Edinburgh to the Tweed, which he crossed +near Coldstream. He laid siege to Norham, and captured it after a week's +investment; and thereafter Wark, Ford, Etal, Duddo and Chillingham fell +before him. He took up his quarters at Ford Castle, and on marching +later to meet Surrey, left it almost in ruins. + +Surrey meantime had gathered a large force from the northern counties, +much to James' surprise, for he had taken it for granted that nearly +every English fighting man would be with Henry in Flanders. There were +bowmen and billmen from Cheshire and Lancashire under the Stanley +banner; and James Stanley, Bishop of Ely, brought the banner of St. +Etheldreda, the Northumbrian queen who founded the monastery of Ely. +Admiral Sir Thomas Howard brought a band of sailors to join his father +at Alnwick. Dacre came with a strong contingent from the western +Marches, men from Alston Moor, Gilsland, and Eskdale, and also some from +Tynemouth and Bamburgh; and Sir Brian Tunstall with Sir William Bulmer +led the men of the Bishopric under the banner of St. Cuthbert. + +From Alnwick Surrey sent a letter pledging himself to meet James by +September 9th, and challenging him to battle, a challenge which was +promptly accepted by the Scottish king. Marching from Alnwick towards +the Scottish army, Surrey encamped on September 6th on Wooler Haughs. +James had formed his camp on Flodden Hill, and all Surrey's devices +could not induce him abandon this strong position. Many of his own +nobles advised him not to risk a battle, but to withdraw while there was +yet time; and some were ready to leave the camp and return home, which +thousands of the more undisciplined in his army had done already, being +more anxious to carry off their plunder safely than to stay and fight. +But James was eager for the contest, and felt himself bound in honour to +give battle to Surrey; he answered haughtily those who counselled +retreat, and scornfully told Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus, that he +might go home if he were afraid. The old man sorrowfully left the field, +but his two sons remained with their rash but gallant king, and were +both slain. + +On the day before the battle took place, Surrey, that "auld crooked +carle," as James called him, marched his men northward across the Till +and encamped for the night near Barmoor Wood. To the Scots this looked +as though they had gone off towards Berwick, to repeat James' own +manoeuvre, and invade the country in the absence of its king; and they +must have thought that there would be little chance of the battle for +which James had punctiliously waited taking place on the morrow. But +Surrey's purpose proved to be quite otherwise. On the following morning +he sent the vanguard of his army, with the artillery, to make a detour +of several miles round by Twizell bridge, where they re-crossed to the +south bank of the Till; and coming south-eastward towards Flodden, they +were joined by the rest of the army, which had plunged through the +stream, swollen by continuous rains, at two points near Crookham. The +two divisions met at Branxton, after having waded through a marsh which +extended from Branxton nearly to the Till, and which the Scots had +thought impassable. + +Seeing that the English were about to occupy Branxton Hill, which would +entirely cut him off from communication with Scotland, James was forced +to abandon his advantageous position; he gave orders for the camp-refuse +to be fired, and under cover of the dense clouds of smoke marched down +to forestall Surrey and occupy Branxton ridge. The two armies suddenly +found themselves within a few spears' length of each other, and the +battle was begun by the artillery on both sides. + + Sudden, as he spoke, + From the sharp ridges of the hill, + All downward to the banks of Till + Was wreathed in sable smoke. + Volumed, and vast, and rolling far, + The cloud enveloped Scotland's war + As down the hill they broke; + Nor martial shout, nor minstrel tone + Announced their march; their tread alone, + At times one warning trumpet blown, + At times a stifled hum. + Told England, from his mountain throne + King James did rushing come. + Scarce could they hear or see their foes + Until at weapon-point they close. + +Many of the raw levies on the English side fled at the first sound of +the Scottish cannon; but the master of the ordnance, Lord Sinclair, was +killed, and his guns silenced. Then the battle joined, and the first +result was that the English right wing under Sir Edmund Howard was +scattered and broken before the impetuous charge of the Gordons and +Highlanders under the Earl of Huntley and Lord Home. Sir Edmund narrowly +escaped with his life; but Lord Dacre bringing up his reserve of +horsemen at that moment checked the further advance of the Scots. The +two central divisions of the armies engaged each other fiercely, the +Earl of Surrey, with his son Sir Thomas Howard commanding the English +centre, and King James, with the Earls of Crawford and Montrose that of +the Scots. Sir Thomas, after having been so hard pressed as to send the +_Agnus Dei_ he wore to his father as a signal for help, afterwards with +Sir Marmaduke Constable defeated the Earl of Crawford, whose division +was opposed to him. Dacre and Sir Thomas now charged Lord Home and +drove him some little way back, but could not dislodge his men entirely +from their position. The Earl of Bothwell, who commanded the Scottish +reserves, now came up to the help of the king, and the day seemed about +to be decided in favour of the Scots, when Lord Stanley, on the English +left, exactly reversed the fortunes of the right wing, and scattered and +routed the Highlanders led by the Earls of Lennox and Argyle. Then with +his Lancashire lads he attacked the rear of the Scottish position, as +did also Dacre and Sir Thomas Howard. + + "They saw Lord Marmion's falcon fly, + And stainless Tunstall's banner white + And Edmund Howard's lion bright + All bear them bravely in the fight, + Although against them come + Of gallant Gordons many a one, + And many a stubborn Highlandman, + And many a rugged Border clan + With Huntly and with Home. + Far on the left, unseen the while, + Stanley broke Lennox and Argyle." + +Nothing now remained for the Scottish centre, hemmed in on all sides, +but to make a stubborn last stand; and gallantly did they do it. The +flower of Scotland's chivalry surrounded their brave monarch, and in the +falling dusk fought desperately to guard their king. + + "No thought was there of dastard flight; + Linked in that serried phalanx tight, + Groom fought like noble, squire like knight, + As fearlessly and well. + The stubborn spearmen still made good + Their dark impenetrable wood, + Each stepping where his comrade stood + The instant that he fell." + +As night fell, the fierce struggle continued until the darkness made it +impossible to see friend or foe, but the fate of Scotland's bravest was +sealed. The king lay dead, covered with wounds, and around him a heap of +slain; those who were able made their way in haste from the field, while +the English host encamped where it stood. The more lawless in each army +plundered both sides impartially, and when the king's body was found +next day, it too was stripped like many others around it. + + "Then did their loss his foemen know, + Their king, their lords, their mightiest low, + They melted from the field as snow + Dissolves in silent dew. + Tweed's echoes heard the ceaseless plash + While many a broken band, + Disordered, through its currents dash + To gain the Scottish land; + To town and tower, to down and dale, + To tell red Flodden's dismal tale, + And raise the universal wail." + +The tragic effects of that terrible day were long felt in Scotland. +Every family of note in the land lost one or more of its members on the +fatal field, besides the thousands of humbler beings who fell at the +same time. Scotland did not recover from the crushing blow for more than +a hundred years; and for many a day the people could not believe that +their gallant king was really slain, but continued to hope that he had +escaped in the darkness, and would one day return. + +There has recently been erected on Flodden Field a simple cross of stone +as a memorial of that tragic day. It was unveiled on September 27th, +1910, by Sir George Douglas, Bart. The inscription on the stone is "To +the Brave of both Nations." + + + + + THE FLOWERS OF THE FOREST. + + + A LAMENT FOR FLODDEN. + + I've heard the liltin' at our ewe-milking, + Lasses a' liltin' before dawn o' day; + But now they are moaning on ilka green loaning-- + The Flowers of the Forest are a' wede away. + + At bughts,[12] in the mornin', nae blythe lads are scornin', + Lasses are lonely and dowie and wae; + Nae daffin', nae jabbin', but sighin' and sabbin', + Ilk ane lifts her leglin [13] and hies her away. + + In harst, at the shearing, nae youths now are jeering, + Bandsters are lyart,[14] and runkled, and gray; + At fair or at preaching, nae wooing, nae fleeching [15]-- + The Flowers of the Forest are a' wede away. + + At e'en, in the gloaming, nae younkers are roaming + 'Bout stacks, with the lasses at "bogle" to play; + But ilk ane sits drearie, lamenting her dearie-- + The Flowers of the Forest are weded away. + + Dool and wae for the order sent our lads to the Border! + The English for ance by guile wan the day; + The Flowers of the Forest, that fought aye the foremost, + The prime of our land, are cauld in the clay. + + We'll hear nae mair liltin' at our ewe-milkin'; + Women and bairns are heartless and wae; + Sighing and moaning on ilka green loaning-- + The Flowers of the Forest are a' wede away. + + [Footnote 12: Bughts = sheep-pens.] + [Footnote 13: Leglin = milk-pail.] + [Footnote 14 Lyart = grizzled.] + [Footnote 15: Fleeching = coaxing.] + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +TALES AND LEGENDS. + + +Northumberland, as might be guessed from its wild history, is rich in +tales of daring and stories of gallant deeds; there are true tales, as +well as legendary ones, which latter, after all, may be true in +substance though not in detail, in spirit and possibility though not in +a certain sequence of facts. Now-a-days we look upon dragons as fabulous +animals, and stories of the destruction they wrought, their fierceness +and their might are dismissed with a smile, and mentally relegated to a +place amongst the fairy tales that delighted our childhood's days, when +the idea of belief or disbelief simply did not enter the question. Yet +what are the dragon stories but faint memories of those gigantic and +fearsome beasts which roamed the earth in the "dim, red dawn of +man"--their names, as we read the labels on their skeletons in our +museums, being now the most fearsome things about them! No one can deny +that the ichthyosaurus, plesiosaurus, and all the rest of their tribe +did exist; and were they to be encountered in these days would spread +the same terror around, and find man almost as helpless before them as +did any fierce dragon of the fairy tales. That part of the legends, +therefore, has its foundation in fact; though from the nature of the +case, we certainly do not possess an authenticated account of any +particular contest between primitive man and one of these gigantic +creatures. That oldest Northumbrian poem, however, the "Beowulf," +chants the praises of its hero's prowess in encounters of the kind; and +the north-country still has its legends of the Sockburn Worm, the +Lambton Worm, and the "Laidly" Worm of Spindleston Heugh, the two first +having their _venue_ in Durham, and the last in Northumberland. The +Spindlestone, a high crag not far from Bamburgh, and Bamburgh Castle +itself, form the scene of this well-known legend. The fair Princess +Margaret, daughter of the King of Bamburgh was turned into a "laidly +worm" (loathly or loathsome serpent) by her wicked stepmother, who was +jealous of the lovely maid. The whole district was in terror of this +dreadful monster, which desolated the country-side in its search for +food. + + "For seven miles east and seven miles west + And seven miles north and south, + No blade of grass or corn would grow, + So deadly was her mouth. + + The milk of seven streakit cows + It was her cost to kepe, + They brought her dayly, whyche she drank + Before she wente to slepe." + +This offering proved successful in pacifying the creature, and it +remained in the cave at Spindleston, coming out daily to drink its fill +from the trough prepared for it. But the fear of it in no wise +diminished, and + + "Word went east, and word went west, + And word is gone over the sea, + That a laidly worm in Spindleston Heugh + Would ruin the North Countree." + +The news in due course comes to the ears of Princess Margaret's only +brother, the Childe Wynde, who is away seeking fame and fortune abroad. +In fear for his lovely sister, he calls together his "merry men all," +and they set to work to build a ship + + "With masts of the rowan-tree," + +a sure defence against the spells of witchcraft; and hoisting their +silken sails they hasten homeward. + + "... ... The wind with speed + Blew them along the deep. + The sea was calm, the weather clear, + When they approached nigher; + King Ida's castle well they knew, + And the banks of Bamburghshire." + + +The wicked queen saw the little bark coming near, and knew that her +guilt was about to meet its reward. In haste she tried to wreck the +vessel, but the rowan-tree masts made her spells of no avail. Then she +bade her servants go to the beach and oppose the landing of the Childe +and his crew; but the servants were beaten back, and the young knight +and his men landed in Budle Bay. The worm came fiercely to the attack, +as the Childe Wynde advanced against it; but on meeting him, and feeling +the touch of his "berry-brown sword," it besought him to do it no harm. + + "'O quit thy sword, unbend thy brow, + And give me kisses three; + For though I be a laidly worm + No harm I'll do to thee. + + O quit thy sword, unbend thy brow, + And give me kisses three; + If I'm not won ere the sun goes down + Won shall I never be.' + + He quitted his sword, and smoothed his brow, + And gave her kisses three; + She crept intill the hole a worm, + And came out a fayre ladie." + +The knight clasped his lovely sister in his arms, and, casting around +her his crimson cloak, led her back to her home, where the trembling +queen awaited them. Her doom was spoken by the Childe Wynde-- + + "Woe be to thee, thou wicked witch; + An ill death mayst thou dee! + As thou hast likened my sister dear, + So likened shalt thou be" + +and he turned her into the likeness of an ugly toad, in which hateful +shape she remained to her dying day, wandering around the castle and the +green fields, an object of hatred to all who saw her. The +"Spindlestone," a tall crag on which the young knight hung his bridle, +when he went further on to seek the worm in the "heugh," is still to be +seen, but the huge trough from which the worm was said to drink has been +destroyed. + +There are two legends somewhat similar to each other which are told of a +company held in the spell of a magic sleep, to be awakened by certain +devices, in which the blowing of a horn and the drawing of a sword are +prominent. One is the story of "Sir Guy the Seeker," and is told of +Dunstanborough Castle. Sir Guy sought refuge in the Castle from a storm; +and while within the walls a spectre form with flaming hair addressed +him, + + "Sir knight, Sir knight, if your heart be right, + And your nerves be firm and true," + +(fancy "nerves" in a ballad!)-- + + "Sir knight, Sir knight, a beauty bright + In durance waits for you." + +The ballad, written by M.G. Lewis, now describes in a painfully +commonplace manner the knight's further adventures. He and his guide +wandered round and round and high and low in the maze of chambers within +the castle, until at last a door of brass, whose bolt was a venomous +snake, gave them entrance to a gloomy hall, draped in black, which the +"hundred lights" failed to brighten. In the hall a hundred knights of +"marble white" lay sleeping by their steeds of "marble black as the +raven's back." At the end of the hall, guarded by two huge skeleton +forms, the imprisoned lady was seen in tears within a crystal tomb. One +skeleton held in his bony fingers a horn, the other a "falchion bright," +and the knight was told to choose between them, and the fate of himself +and the lady would depend upon his choice. Sir Guy, after long +hesitation, blew a shrill blast upon the horn; at the sound the hundred +steeds stamped their hoofs, the hundred knights sprang up, and the +unlucky knight fell down senseless, with his ghastly guide's words +ringing in his ears-- + + "Shame on the coward who sounded a horn + When he might have unsheathed a sword!" + +In the morning, the unfortunate Sir Guy awoke to find himself lying +amongst the ruins, and forthwith began his ceaseless and unavailing +search for the lady he had failed to rescue. + +The legend similar to this in many respects is that of King Arthur and +his court at Sewingshields, to which allusion has already been made in +the chapter on the Roman Wall. I cannot do better than give this in the +words of Mr. Hodgson, who tells the story in his History of +Northumberland. "Immemorial tradition has asserted that King Arthur, +his queen Guenever, his court of lords and ladies, and his hounds were +enchanted in some cave of the crags, or in a hall below the castle of +Sewingshields, and would continue entranced there until someone should +first blow a bugle-horn that lay on a table near the entrance of the +hall, and then with the 'sword of the stone' (was this Excalibur?) cut a +garter, also placed there beside it. But none had ever heard where the +entrance to this enchanted hall was, till the farmer at Sewingshields, +about fifty years since, was sitting knitting on the ruins of the +castle, and his clew fell, and ran downwards through a rush of briars +and nettles, as he supposed, into a subterraneous passage. Full in the +faith that the entrance to King Arthur's hall had now been discovered, +he cleared the briary portal of its weeds and rubbish, and entering a +vaulted passage, followed in his darkling way the thread of his clew. +The floor was infested with toads and lizards; and the dark wings of +bats, disturbed by his unhallowed intrusion, flitted fearfully around +him. At length his sinking courage was strengthened by a dim, distant +light, which as he advanced grew gradually brighter, till all at once he +entered a vast and vaulted hall, in the centre of which a fire without +fuel, from a broad crevice in the floor blazed with a high and lambent +flame, that showed all the carved walls and fretted roof, and the +monarch and his queen and court reposing around, in a theatre of thrones +and costly couches. On the floor beyond the fire lay the faithful and +deep-toned pack of thirty couple of hounds; and on a table before it the +spell-dissolving horn, sword, and garter. The shepherd reverently, but +firmly, grasped the sword, and as he drew it leisurely from its rusty +scabbard, the eyes of the monarch and his courtiers began to open, and +they rose till they sat upright. He cut the garter; and as the sword was +being slowly sheathed the spell assumed its ancient power, and they all +gradually sank to rest; but not before the monarch had lifted up his +eyes and hands, and exclaimed-- + + "O woe betide that evil day + On which this witless wight was born, + Who drew the sword, the garter cut. + But never blew the bugle horn!" + +Terror brought on loss of memory, and the shepherd was unable to give +any correct account of his adventure, or to find again the entrance to +the enchanted hall. + +Another legend is connected with Tynemouth. Just above the short sands +was a cave known as Jingling Geordie's Hole; the "Geordie" is evidently +a late interpolation, for earlier mention of the cave gives it as the +Jingling Man's Hole. No one knows how it came by its name; tradition +says that it was the entrance to a subterranean passage leading from the +Priory beneath the Tyne to Jarrow. In this cave it was said that a +treasure of a fabulous amount was concealed, and the tale of this hoard +fired a boy named Walter to seek it out, when he heard the tale from his +mother. On his attaining to knighthood, he resolved to make the finding +of the treasure his particular "quest," and arming himself, he +adventured forth on the Eve of St. John. Making his way fearlessly down +into the cave, undaunted by spectre or dragon, as they attempted to +dispute his passage, he arrived at a gloomy gateway, where hung a bugle, +fastened by a golden cord. Boldly he placed the bugle to his lips, and +blew three loud blasts. To his amazement, at the sound the doors rolled +back, displaying a vast and brightly-lit hall, whose roof was supported +on pillars of jasper and crystal; the glow from lamps of gold shone +softly down on gold and gems, which were heaped upon the floor of this +magic chamber, and the treasure became the rich reward of the dauntless +youth. + + "Gold heaped upon gold, and emeralds green, + And diamonds and rubies, and sapphires untold, + Rewarded the courage of Walter the Bold." + +The fortunate youth became a very great personage, indeed, as by means +of his great riches he was "lord of a hundred castles" and wide domains. + +Of a very different character is the story of the Hermit of Warkworth. +It is unfortunate that this, the most tragic and moving of all +Northumbrian tales, should be most widely known by means of the prosy +imitation ballad by Dr. Percy, whose ability as a poet did by no means +equal his zeal as a collector of ballads. The hero of the sorrowful tale +is said to have been a Bertram of Bothal, who loved fair Isabel, +daughter of the lord of Widdrington. Bertram was a knight in Percy's +train, and at a great feast made by the lord of Alnwick the fair maiden +and her father were amongst the guests. As the minstrels chanted the +praises of their lord, and sang of the valiant deeds by which his noble +house had won renown, the heart of Isabel thrilled at the thought of her +true knight rivalling those deeds of fame. Summoning one of her +attendant maidens, she sent her to Bertram, bearing a helmet of steel +with crest of gold. With the helmet the maiden gave her mistress' +message, that she would yield to her knight's pleadings and become his +bride, as soon as he had proved himself a valiant and worthy wearer of +the golden-crested helm. Reverently Bertram accepted the commands of +his lady, and vowed to prove his devotion wherever hard blows were to be +given and danger to be found. The lord of Alnwick straightway arranged +for an expedition on to Scottish land, in requital of old scores, and +assembled together a goodly company to ride against the Scots. Earl +Douglas and his men opposed them, and blows were dealt thick and fast on +both sides. Bertram was sorely wounded, after showing wondrous prowess +in the fight; but being rescued by Percy, was borne to the castle of +Wark upon the Tweed, to recover from his wounds in safety. Isabel's aged +father had seen the young knight's valour, and promised that the maiden +herself should tend his hurts and care for him until he recovered. Day +after day passed, however, and still she came not. At last the knight, +scarcely able to take the saddle, rode back to Widdrington, tended by +his gallant young brother, to satisfy himself of what had become of his +lady. They reached Widdrington tower to find it all in darkness; and +after repeated knockings the aged nurse came to the gateway and demanded +the name of those who so insistently clamoured at the door. Bertram +enquired for the lady Isabel; and then, indeed, all was dismay. The +nurse, trembling with fear, told the two youths that her mistress had +set out immediately on hearing of her lover's plight, reproaching +herself for having led him to adventure his life so rashly, and it was +now six days since she had gone. Weary and weak, Bertram rested the +night at the castle, and then set out on his search for his lost lady. +That they might the sooner search the country round, he and his brother, +who loved him dearly, took different directions, one going eastward, and +the other north. They put on various disguises as they went, Bertram +appearing now in the guise of a holy Palmer, now as a wandering +minstrel As he was sitting, despondent and well-nigh despairing, +beneath a hawthorn tree, an aged monk came by, and on seeing the +supposed minstrel's face of sorrow, said to him, + + "All minstrels yet that e'er I saw + Are full of game and glee, + But thou art sad and woe-begone; + I marvel whence it be." + +Bertram replied that he served an aged lord whose only child had been +stolen away, and that he would know no happiness until he had found her. +The pilgrim comforted him and bade him hope, telling him that + + "Behind yon hills so steep and high, + Down in a lonely glen, + There stands a castle fair and strong, + Far from the abode of men." + +Saying that he had heard a lady's voice lamenting in this lonely tower, +he passed on, giving Bertram the hope that now at last his quest was +ended. He made his way to that strong castle, and with his music +prevailed upon the porter to let him stay near at hand in a cavern; for +the porter refused to admit him to the castle in the absence of his +lord, though at the same time giving him food and directing him to the +cave. He piped all day and watched all night, and was rewarded by +hearing his lady's voice lamenting within the walls of her prison. On +the second night he caught a glimpse of her beauteous form, fair as the +moonbeams that shone around the tower. On the third night, worn with +watching, he slept, and only awakened as dawn drew nigh. Grasping his +weapon, he stole near to the castle walls, when to his amazement, he saw +his lady descend from her window by a ladder of rope, held for her by a +youth in Highland dress. Stunned at the sight, he could not move to +follow them, till they had left behind them the castle where the lady +had been held captive, and were about to disappear over the hill. +Silently and swiftly then he drew near, and crying furiously, "Vile +traitor! yield that lady up!" fell upon the youth who accompanied her, +who in his turn fought as furiously as he. In a few moments Bertram's +antagonist lay stretched on the ground; and as he gave him the fatal +thrust he cried, "Die, traitor, die!" The lady recognised his voice, and +rushing forward, shrieked, "Stay! stay! it is thy brother." But the +sword of Bertram, already descending with the force of rage and fury in +the blow, could not be stayed until too late. The fair maid's breast was +pierced by the sword of the knight who loved her, and she sank down by +the side of the youth who had delivered her. It was indeed Bertram's +brother, who had succeeded in his search; and the dying maiden found +time to tell of his devotion, in rescuing her from this castle of the +son of a Scottish lord who fain would have made her his bride, before +she, too, lay lifeless by the side of her brave rescuer, leaving her +lover too despairing and desolate to seek safety in flight, so that the +band of searchers from the castle, seeking their prisoner on the hills, +and dreading their lord's wrath on his return, bore him back with them +to the dungeon. Their lord, however, had meantime been taken captive by +Percy (Hotspur), who, as soon as he heard of Bertram's capture, quickly +exchanged the Scottish chief for his friend. Bertram's sorrow lasted for +the rest of his days; he gave away his lands and possessions to the +poor, and retiring to a lovely spot on the banks of the Coquet, where +rocky cliffs overhung the river, he carved out in the living stone a +little cell, dormitory, and chapel, and dwelt there, passing his days in +mourning, meditation, and prayer. In the chapel, with its gracefully +arched roof, he fashioned on an altar-tomb the image of a lady, and at +her feet the figure of a hermit, in the attitude of grief, one hand +supporting his head and the other pressed against his breast, leaning +over and gazing at the lady for ever. The poignant sentence "My tears +have been my meat day and night," is carved over the entrance to the +little chapel. Here, in this beautiful spot, almost under the shadow of +the castle walls belonging to his noble friend, the sorrowing knight, +now a holy hermit, spent the remainder of his life in the little +dwelling he had wrought in the living rock. It remains to-day more +beautiful, if possible, than ever, overhung by a canopy of waving +greenery, and draped with ferns and mosses, their graceful fronds laved +by the rippling Coquet whose gentle murmurings fill the still air with +music. + +The next tale takes us to the neighbourhood of Belford, and out upon the +old post road from London to Edinburgh. In the unsettled times of James +the Second's reign, one Sir John Cochrane of Ochiltree was condemned to +death for his part in the rising which was led by the Duke of Argyle. +Powerful friends, heavily bribed by Sir John's father, the Earl of +Dundonald, were working in Sir John's favour, and they had strong hopes +of obtaining a pardon. But meanwhile, Sir John lay in the Tolbooth at +Edinburgh, and the warrant for his execution was already on its way +northward, in the post-bag carried forward by horseman after horseman +throughout the length of the way. Could the arrival of the warrant only +be delayed by some means, his life might be saved. In this strait, his +daughter Grizzel, a girl of eighteen, conceived the desperate idea of +preventing the warrant's reaching its destination. Saying nothing to +anyone of her intentions, she stole away from home, and rode swiftly to +the Border. Following the road for about four miles on the English +side, she arrived at the house of her old nurse; and here she changed +her clothes, persuading the old dame to lend her a suit belonging to her +foster-brother. Making her way southward, she went to the inn at Belford +where the riders carrying the mail usually put up for the night. Here, +the same night, came the postman, and the seeming youth watched +nervously, but determinedly, for an opportunity of finding out whether +the fateful paper was in his bag or not. No slightest chance presented +itself, however, and an attempt to obtain the mail-bag during the night +failed by reason of the fact that the man slept upon it. One thing she +did accomplish, which gave her hope that the encounter for which she was +nerving herself might end successfully for her; she managed, unseen, to +draw the charges from his pistols. Then the courageous girl rode off +through the dark night to select a favourable spot in which to await his +coming. For two or three lonely hours she waited, the thought that she +was fighting for her father's life giving her courage. In the dim light +of the early dawn she heard the sound of his horse's hoofs from where +she stood in the shadow of a clump of trees; and steeling herself for +the part she was to play, and in ignorance of whether he might have +found out that the charges had been withdrawn from his pistols and might +have re-loaded them, she waited until he was almost abreast of her, and +fired at his horse, bringing it down. Before he could extricate himself +she was upon him with drawn sword; but promising to spare his life if he +would let her have the mail-bag, she seized it and darted away. He +attempted to follow to recover his charge, but she reached her horse, +and rode off like the wind. When she reached a place of safety and +examined the contents of the bag, what was her joy to find that the +warrant was there. It was speedily destroyed; and during the time that +elapsed before the news of the loss could be sent to London and another +one made out, the friends of Sir John succeeded in obtaining his pardon. +"Cochrane's bonny Grizzy" lived to a good old age; and "Grizzy's clump" +on the north road near the little village of Buckton keeps green the +memory of her daring exploit. + +"Bonny Grizzy" was a Scottish maid, though her gallant if lawless deed +was performed on Northumbrian soil; but there is one Northumbrian maiden +whose fame will live as long as the sea-waves beat on the wild +north-east coast, and as long as men's hearts thrill to a tale of +courage and high resolve. Grace Darling's name still awakens in every +bosom a response to all that is compassionate, courageous, and +unselfish; and the thoughts of all north-country folk bold that +admiration for the gentle girl which has been voiced as no other could +voice it, in the magical words of Swinburne-- + + "Take, O star of all our seas, from not an alien hand, + Homage paid of song bowed down before thy glory's face, + Thou the living light of all our lovely stormy strand, + Thou the brave north-country's very glory of glories, Grace." + +The story of her gallantry has been many times re-told, but never grows +wearisome. The memory of that stormy voyage of the _Forfarshire_, which +ended in disaster on the Harcar rocks in the Farne group, remains in +men's minds as the dark and tragic setting which throws into bright +relief the gallant action of the father and daughter who dared almost +certain death to rescue their fellow-creatures in peril. It was in +September, 1838, that the ill-fated vessel left Hull for Dundee; but a +leak in the boilers caused the fires to be nearly extinguished in the +storm the vessel encountered. It reached St. Abb's Head by the aid of +the sails, but then drifted southward, driven by the storm, and struck +in the early morning, in a dense fog, on the Harcar rocks. Nine of the +people on board managed to escape in a small boat, which was driven in a +miraculous manner through the only safe outlet between the rocks. They +were picked up by a passing boat and taken to Shields. Meanwhile a heavy +sea had crashed down upon the _Forfarshire_, and broken it in half, one +portion, with the greater number of crew and passengers, being swept +away immediately. The remaining portion, the fore part of the vessel, +was firmly fixed upon the rock. Here the shivering survivors clung all +that stormy day, the waves dashing over them continually. The captain +and his wife were washed overboard, clasped in each others' arms; and +two little children, a boy of eight and a girl of eleven years of age, +died from exposure and the relentless buffeting of the waves, their +distracted mother clasping them by the hand long after life was extinct. +To a terrible day succeeded a yet more terrible night. + + "Scarce the cliffs of the islets, scarce the walls of Joyous Gard + Flash to sight between the deadlier lightnings of the sea; + Storm is lord and master of a midnight evil-starred, + Nor may sight nor fear discern what evil stars may be." + +Until the morning they endured; and in the stormy dawn the keeper of the +Longstone lighthouse, William Darling, and his daughter Grace saw them +huddled in a shivering heap upon the wave-swept fragments of the wreck. +The girl begged her father to try to save them, and to allow her to help +in the task, and after some natural hesitation he consented. The +brave-hearted mother helped them to launch the boat, and they set forth. + +[Illustration: The Wreck of the "Forfarshire"] + + "Sire and daughter, hand on oar and face against the night. + Maid and man whose names are beacons ever to the north. + ...... all the madness of the stormy surf + Hounds and roars them back, but roars and hounds them back in vain. + + Not our mother, not Northumberland, brought ever forth. + Though no southern shore may match the sons that kiss her mouth, + Children worthier all the birthright given of the ardent north, + Where the fire of hearts outburns the suns that fire the south." + + They reached the rock, where nine persons were still + clinging to the wreck, and + + "Life by life the man redeems them, head by storm-worn head, + While the girl's hand stays the boat whereof the waves are fain." + +With five of the exhausted survivors the boat returned to the Longstone; +and two of the men went back with William Darling for the other four. +All were safely housed in the lighthouse and tended by the noble family +of the Darlings; but the storm raged for several days longer, and made +it impossible for them to be put ashore. When at length they returned to +their homes, and the story of the rescue was made known, the whole +country was moved by it; and presents of all kinds, money, and offers of +marriage poured in upon Grace, who remained quite unmoved by it all, and +was still the gentle unassuming girl that she had always been. She +refused to leave her home, though she was offered twenty pounds a night +at the Adelphi if she would consent merely to sit in a boat for London +audiences to gaze upon her. Sad to say, she died of consumption about +two years afterwards, after having tried in vain to arrest the course of +her sickness by change of air at Wooler and Alnwick; and she sleeps in +Bamburgh churchyard, within sound of the sea by which she had spent her +short life. + + "East and west and south acclaim her queen of England's maids. + Star more sweet than all their stars, and flower than all their flowers." + +The actual boat in which the gallant deed was performed was long +preserved at Newton Hall, Stocksfield; but the owners have lately +presented it to the Marine Laboratory at Cullercoats. + +[Illustration:] + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +BALLADS AND POEMS. + + +The ballads of Northumberland, as all true ballads should do, partake of +the characteristics of the district which is their home. As we should +expect, they treat chiefly of warlike themes, of the chieftain's doughty +deeds, the moss-trooper's daring and skill, of the knight's courtesies +and gallant feats of arms, and the feuds of rival clans; in fact, they +portray for us vividly the time of which they treat, and in a few +graphic touches bring before us the very spirit of the period. In direct +and simple phrases the narrative proceeds, giving with rare power just +the necessary expression to the tale. + +These ballads fall naturally into three main divisions. The historical +ballad is at its best in the famous "Chevy-Chase," which has been the +delight of gentle and simple for centuries; and the oft-quoted +declaration of Sir Philip Sidney concerning it still finds an echo in +our own day. + +Of the two best known versions of the ballad, the one here given is the +more poetical by far; the other, however, contains the account of the +courage of Hugh Widdrington which has made the gallant squire immortal. + +The latter version is as evidently English as the former is Scottish; or +rather, each has grown to its present form as the reciters exercised +their art to please an English or a Scottish audience. In the one +version it is Douglas who takes the offensive, and challenges Percy, +waiting for him at Otterbourne; in the other we are told that + + "The stout Erle of Northumberland + A vow to God did make, + His pleasure in the Scottish woods + Three summer days to take." + +On the death of Douglas-- + + "Erle Percy took + The dead man by the hand, + And said, 'Erle Douglas, for thy life + Would I had lost my land!'" + +When the battle is over, + + "Next day did many widdowes come + Their husbands to bewayle; + Their bodyes bathed in purple blood + They bore with them away; + They kist them dead a thousand times + Ere they were cladd in clay." + +It was neither of these versions, however, that so moved the heart of +gallant Sidney, but a much older one, beginning + + "The Perse owt off Northomberlande + And a vow to God made he, + That he wold hunt in the mountayns + Off Chyviat within days iii." + +Other historical ballads are "The Rising of the North," "The Raid of the +Reidswire," "Flodden Field," "Homildon Hill" and "Hedgeley Moor." + +The next division may be termed semi-historical; that is, they treat of +events which actually happened, but which have chiefly a local interest; +and these may therefore be said to be more truly Northumbrian than any +others. Such are "Jock o' the Side," "Johnnie Armstrong," "Hobbie Noble" +and "The Death of Parcy Reed." + +Of the third class, the romantic ballads, we have not so rich a store; +yet "The Gay Goss-hawk," the "Nut-browne Mayde" and the touchingly +beautiful "Barthram's Dirge" may stand amongst the best of their kind. + +"The Gay Gross-hawk" is one of those delightful and imaginative +productions of which there are so many examples, in which birds and +hounds share their lords' and ladies' secrets, and serve them staunchly +in hours of peril; they belong to the times when fairies were still seen +holding their moonlight revels, when witches exercised their baleful +arts, and fearsome dragons wore still to be met and conquered--"and if +you do not believe it," said Dr. Spence Watson, "I am sorry for you!" + +The "Nut-browne Mayde" is supposed to have been a Lady Margaret Percy, +who lived in the reign of Henry VIII.; and the lover to whom she was so +faithful, notwithstanding his trial of her love by declaring that he was +an outlaw, and "must to the greenwood go, alone, a banished man," was +Henry Clifford, son of the Earl of Westmoreland. The inordinate length +of this ballad forbade its inclusion in the present selection; I am +sensible that that selection may appear somewhat meagre, but only want +of space has prevented the inclusion of others that many of my readers +would doubtless have been glad to see. + +Of songs in dialect, Joe Wilson's "Aw wish yor Muthor wad cum!" stands +easily first; and the other, "Sair feyl'd, hinny!" is given as an +example of the Northumbrian muse in another mood. + +In conclusion, let me say that of the modern verse every example is from +the pen of a Northumbrian. + + + + + + CHEVY CHASE I. + + + It fell about the Lammas tide, + When muir-men win their hay, + The doughty Douglas bound him to ride + Into England to drive a prey. + + He chose the Gordons and the Graemes, + With them the Lindsays, light and gay; + But the Jardines would not with them ride, + And they rue it to this day. + + And he has burned the dales o' Tyne, + And part o' Bamburghshire; + And three good towers on Reidswire fells + He left them all on fire. + + And he marched up to New Castel, + And rode it round about; + "O wha's the lord of this castel? + Or wha's the lady o't?" + + And up spake proud Lord Percy then, + And O! but he spake hie! + "O I'm the lord of this castel, + My wife's the lady gay." + + "If thou art the lord of this castel, + Sae weel it pleases me! + For ere I cross the Border fells, + The tane of us sall die." + + He took a lang spere in his hand + Shod wi' the metal free, + And for to meet the Douglas there + He rode right furiouslie! + + But oh! how pale his lady looked + Frae off the castle wa', + When down before the Scottish speare + She saw proud Percy fa'! + + "Had we twa been upon the green, + And never an eye to see, + I wad hae had you, flesh and fell, + But your sword shall gae wi' me." + + "But gae ye up to Otterbourne + And wait there dayis three, + And if I come not ere three dayis end, + A fause knight ca' ye me." + + "The Otterbourne's a bonnie burn, + 'Tis pleasant there to be; + But there is naught at Otterbourne + To feed my men and me. + + "The deer rins wild on hill and dale, + The birds fly wild frae tree to tree, + But there is neither bread nor kale + To feed my men and me. + + "Yet I will stay at Otterbourne + Where you sall welcome be; + And if ye come not at three dayis end + A fause lord I'll call thee." + + "Thither will I come," proud Percy said, + "By the might of Our Ladye!" + "Thither will I bide thee," said the Douglas, + "My troth I plight to thee." + + They lighted high on Otterbourne, + Upon the bent sae brown; + They lighted high on Otterbourne + And threw their pallions down. + + And he that had a bonnie boy, + Sent out his horse to grass; + And he that had not a bonnie boy, + His ain servant he was. + + And up then spake a little foot-page, + Before the peep o' dawn-- + "O waken, waken ye, my good lord, + The Percy is hard at hand!" + + "Ye lee, ye lee, ye leear loud! + Sae loud I hear ye lee! + For Percy had not men yestreen + To dight my men and me!" + + "But I hae dreamed a dreary dream, + Beyond the Isle of Skye; + I saw a dead man win a fight, + An' I think that man was I." + + He belted on his gude braid-sword, + And to the field he ran; + But he forgot his helmet good, + That should have kept his brain. + + When Percy wi' the Douglas met + I wat he was fu' fain! + They swakked their swords till sair they swat, + The blude ran down like rain. + + But Percy, with his gude braid-sword, + That could sae sharply wound, + Has stricken Douglas on the brow, + Till he fell to the ground. + + Then he called on his little foot-page + And said, "Run speedilie, + And fetch my ain dear sister's son, + Sir Hugh Montgomerie." + + "My nephew good," the Douglas said, + "What recks the death of ane? + Last night I dreamed a dreary dream, + And I ken the day's thy ain. + + "My wound is deep, I fain wad sleep; + Take thou the vanguard of the three, + And hide me by the bracken bush + That grows on yonder lilye lea. + + "O bury me by the bracken bush, + Beneath the bloomin' brier; + Let never a living mortal ken + That ever a kindly Scot lies here." + + He lifted up that noble lord, + Wi' the saut tear in his e'e; + He hid him in the bracken bush + That his merrie men might not see. + + The moon was clear, the day drew near, + The speres in flinders flew, + And mony a gallant Englishman + Ere day the Scotsmen slew. + + The Gordons gude, in English blude + They steeped their hose and shoon; + The Lindsays flew like fire about + Till a' the fray was dune. + + The Percy and Montgomerie met, + And either of other was fain; + They swakked swords, and sair they swat, + And the blude ran doun like rain. + + "Now yield thee, yield thee, Percy!" he cried; + "Or else will I lay thee low." + "To whom sall I yield?" quoth Erle Percy, + "Sin I see it maun be so." + + "Thou shalt not yield to lord or loon, + Nor yet shalt thou yield to me, + But thou shalt yield to the bracken bush + That grows on yon lilye lea." + + "I will not yield to a bracken bush; + Nor yet will I yield to a brier; + But I would yield to Erle Douglas, + Or Hugh Montgomerie if he were here." + + As soon as he knew it was Montgomerie + He stuck his sword's-point in the gronde; + The Montgomerie was a courteous knight, + And quickly took him by the honde. + + This deed was done at the Otterbourne, + About the breaking of the day; + Erle Douglas was buried at the bracken bush. + And the Percy led captive away. + + + + + JOCK O' THE SIDE. + + Now Liddesdale has ridden a raid, + But I wat they had better hae staid at hame; + For Michael o' Winfield he is dead, + And Jock o' the Side is prisoner ta'en. + + For Mangerton house Lady Downie has gane, + Her coats she has kilted up to her knee; + And down the water wi' speed she rins, + While tears in spates fa' fast frae her e'e. + + Then up and spoke our guid auld laird-- + "What news, what news, sister Downie, to me?" + "Bad news, bad news, for Michael is killed, + And they hae taken my son Johnnie." + + "Ne'er fear, sister Downie," quo' Mangerton, + "I have yokes of owsen, twenty and three, + My barns, my byres, and my faulds a' weel filled, + I'll part wi' them a' ere Johnnie shall dee. + + "Three men I'll send to set him free, + A' harnessed wi' the best o' steel; + The English loons may hear, and drie + The weight o' their braid-swords to feel. + + "The Laird's Jock ane, the Laird's Wat twa, + O Hobbie Noble, thou ane maun be! + Thy coat is blue, thou has been true + Since England banished thee to me." + + Now Hobbie was an English man, + In Bewcastle dale was bred and born; + But his misdeeds they were so great, + They banished him ne'er to return. + + Laird Mangerton them orders gave, + "Your horses the wrang way maun be shod; + Like gentlemen ye maunna seem, + But look like corn-cadgers ga'en the road. + + "Your armour gude ye maunna show, + Nor yet appear like men of weir; + As country lads be a' array'd, + Wi' branks and brecham on each mare." + + Sae their horses are the wrang way shod, + And Hobbie has mounted his gray sae fine; + Jock his lively bay, Wat's on his white horse behind. + And on they rode for the water of Tyne. + + At the Cholerford they a' light doun, + And there wi' the help o' the light o' the moon, + A tree they cut, wi' fifteen nogs on each side, + To climb up the wa' of Newcastle toun. + + But when they cam' to Newcastle toun, + And were alighted at the wa' + They fand their tree three ells ower laigh, + They fand their stick baith short and sma'. + + Then up and spak the Laird's ain Jock, + "There's naething for't; the gates we maun force." + But when they cam' the gate untill, + A proud porter withstood baith men and horse. + + His neck in twa the Armstrangs wrung; + With fute or hand he ne'er played pa! + His life and his keys at once they hae ta'en, + And cast the body ahint the wa'. + + Now sune they reach Newcastle jail, + And to the prisoner thus they call: + "Sleeps thou, or wakes thou, Jock o' the Side, + Or art thou weary of thy thrall?" + + Jock answered thus, wi' doleful tone, + "Aft, aft I wake--I seldom sleep; + But wha's this kens my name sae weel, + And thus to ease my wae does seek." + + Then out and spake the gude Laird's Jock, + "Now fear ye na', my billie," quo' he; + "For here are the Laird's Jock, the Laird's Wat, + And Hobbie Noble, come to set thee free." + + "Now haud thy tongue, my gude Laird's Jock, + For ever, alas! this canna be; + For if a' Liddesdale were here the night, + The morn's the day that I maun dee." + + "Full fifteen stane o' Spanish iron + They hae laid a' right sair or me; + Wi' locks and keys I am fast bound + Into this dungeon dark and dreirie!" + + "Fear ye nae that," quo' the Laird's Jock; + "A faint heart ne'er won a fair ladie; + Work thou within, we'll work without, + And I'll be sworn we'll set thee free." + + The first strong door that they cam' at, + They loosed it without a key; + The next chain'd door that they cam' at + They gar'd it a' to flinders flee. + + The prisoner now upon his back + The Laird's Jock has gotten up fu' hie; + And down the stair, him, irons and a', + Wi' nae sma' speid and joy brings he. + + "Now Jock, my man," quo Hobbie Noble, + "Some o' his weight ye may lay on me." + "I wat weel no," quo' the Laird's ain Jock; + "I count him lighter than a flee." + + Sae out at the gates they a' are gane, + The prisoner's set on horseback hie; + And now wi' speed they're ta'en the gate, + While ilk ane jokes fu' wantonlie. + + "O Jock! sae winsomely 's ye ride, + Wi' baith your feet upon ae side; + Sae weel ye're harnessed, and sae trig, + In troth ye sit like ony bride!" + + The night, tho' wat, they didna mind, + But hied them on fu' merrilie + Until they cam' to Cholerford brae, + Where the water ran baith deep and hie. + + But when they came to Cholerford, + There they met with an auld man, + Says, "Honest man, will the water ride? + Tell us in haste, if that ye can." + + "I wat weel no," quo' the gude auld man; + "I hae lived here thirty years and three, + And I ne'er yet saw the Tyne sae big, + Nor running anes sae like a sea." + + Then out and spake the Laird's Saft Wat, + The greatest coward in the companie; + "Now halt, now halt, we needna try't, + The day is come we a' maun dee." + + "Puir faint-hearted thief!" cried the Laird's ain Jock, + "There'll nae man die but him that's fey; + I'll guide ye a' right safely thro', + Lift ye the prisoner on ahint me." + + Wi' that the water they hae ta'en; + By anes and twas they a' swam thro'; + "Here we are a' safe," quo' the Laird's Jock, + "And puir faint Wat, what think ye now?" + + They scarce the other brae had won + When twenty men they saw pursue; + Frae Newcastle toun they had been sent, + A' English lads baith stout and true. + + But when the land-serjeant the water saw, + "It winna ride, my lads," says he; + Then cried aloud--"The prisoner take, + But leave the fetters, I pray, to me." + + "I wat weel no," quo' the Laird's Jock; + "I'll keep them a'; shoon to my mare they'll be. + My gude bay mare--for I am sure + She has bought them a' right dear frae thee." + + Sae now they are on to Liddesdale, + E'en as fast as they could them hie; + The prisoner is brought to his ain fireside, + And there o' his airns they mak' him free. + + "Now, Jock, ma billie," quo' a' the three, + "The day is com'd thou was to dee. + But thou's as weel at thy ain ingle-side, + Now sitting, I think 'twixt thou and me." + + + + + BARTHRAM'S DIRGE. + + They shot him dead at the Nine-stane Rig, + Beside the Headless Cross, + And they left him lying in his blood, + Upon the moor and moss. + + They made a bier of the broken bough + The sauch and the aspin grey, + And they bore him to the Lady Chapel, + And waked him there all day. + + A lady came to that lonely bower, + And threw her robes aside; + She tore her ling lang yellow hair, + And knelt at Barthram's side. + + She bathed him in the Lady-Well, + His wounds sae deep and sair; + And she plaited a garland for his breast, + And a garland for his hair. + + They rowed him in a lily sheet + And bare him to his earth; + And the Grey Friars sung the dead man's mass + As they passed the Chapel garth. + + They buried him at the mirk midnight, + When the dew fell cold and still, + When the aspin grey forgot to play, + And the mist clung to the hill. + + They dug his grave but a bare foot deep, + By the edge of the Nine-stane Burn, + And they covered him o'er with the heather-flower, + The moss and the lady-fern. + + A Grey Friar staid upon the grave, + And sang till the morning tide; + And a friar shall sing for Barthram's soul + While the Headless Cross shall bide. + + + + + THE FAIR FLOWER OF NORTHUMBERLAND + + It was a knight in Scotland born, + (Follow, my love, come over the strand) + Was taken pris'ner and left forlorn, + Even by the good Earl of Northumberland. + + Then was he cast in prison strong, + (Follow, my love, come over the strand) + Where he could not walk nor lie along, + Even by the good Earl of Northumberland. + + And as in sorrow thus he lay, + (Follow, my love, come over the strand) + The Earl's sweet daughter passed that way, + And she the fair flower of Northumberland. + + And passing by, like an angel bright, + (Follow, my love, come over the strand) + The prisoner had of her a sight, + And she the fair flower of Northumberland. + + And aloud to her this knight did cry, + (Follow, my love, come over the strand) + The salt tears standing in her eye, + And she the fair flower of Northumberland. + + "Fair lady," he said, "take pity on me, + (Follow, my love, come over the strand) + And let me not in prison dee, + And you the fair flower of Northumberland." + + "Fair sir, how should I take pity on thee, + (Follow, my love, come over the strand) + Thou being a foe to our countrie, + And I the fair flower of Northumberland?" + + "Fair lady, I am no foe," he said, + (Follow, my love, come over the strand) + "Through thy sweet love here was I stayed, + And thou the fair flower of Northumberland." + + "Why shouldst thou come here for love of me, + (Follow, my love, come over the strand) + Having wife and bairns in thy own countrie, + And I the fair flower of Northumberland?" + + "I swear by the Blessed Trinity, + (Follow, my love, come over the strand) + That neither wife nor bairns have I, + And thou the fair flower of Northumberland." + + "If courteously thou wilt set me free, + (Follow, my love, come over the strand) + I vow that I will marry thee, + And thou the fair flower of Northumberland. + + "Thou shalt be lady of castles and towers, + (Follow, my love, come over the strand) + And sit like a queen in princely bowers, + Even thou the fair flower of Northumberland." + + Then parted hence this lady gay, + (Follow, my love, come over the strand) + And got her father's ring away, + And she the fair flower of Northumberland. + + Likewise much gold got she by sleight, + (Follow, my love, come over the strand) + And all to help this forlorn knight, + And she the fair flower of Northumberland. + + Two gallant steeds both good and able, + (Follow, my love, come over the strand), + She likewise took out of the stable, + And she the fair flower of Northumberland. + + And to the goaler she sent the ring, + (Follow, my love, come over the strand) + Who the knight from prison forth did bring, + To meet the fair flower of Northumberland. + + This token set the prisoner free, + (Follow, my love, come over the strand) + Who straight went to this fair ladye, + And she the fair flower of Northumberland. + + A gallant steed he did bestride, + (Follow, my love, come over the strand) + And with the lady away did ride, + And she the fair flower of Northumberland. + + They rode till they came to a water clear, + (Follow, my love, come over the strand) + "Good sir, how shall I follow you here, + And I the fair flower of Northumberland? + + "The water is rough and wonderful deep, + (Follow, my love, come over the strand) + And on my saddle I shall not keep, + And I the fair flower of Northumberland? + + "Fear not the ford, fair lady," quoth he, + (Follow, my love, come over the strand) + "For long I cannot stay for thee, + Even thou the fair flower of Northumberland." + + The lady prickt her gallant steed, + (Follow, my love, come over the strand) + And over the water swam with speed, + Even she the fair flower of Northumberland. + + From top to toe all wet was she, + (Follow, my love, come over the strand) + "This have I done for love of thee, + Even I the fair flower of Northumberland." + + Thus rode she all one winter's night. + (Follow, my love, come over the strand) + Till Edenborough they saw in sight, + The fairest town in all Scotland. + + "Now I have a wife and children five, + (Follow, my love, come over the strand) + In Edenborough they be alive, + And thou the fair flower of Northumberland. + + "And if thou wilt not give thy hand, + (Follow, my love, come over the strand) + Then get thee home to fair England, + And thou the fair flower of Northumberland + + "This favour thou shalt have, to boot, + (Follow, my love, come over the strand) + I'll have thy horse; go thou on foot, + Even thou the fair flower of Northumberland." + + "O false and faithless knight," quoth she; + (Follow, my love, come over the strand) + "And canst thou deal so bad with me, + Even I the fair flower of Northumberland?" + + He took her from her stately steed, + (Follow, my love, come over the strand) + And left her there in extreme need, + And she the fair flower of Northumberland. + + Then she sat down full heavily, + (Follow, my love, come over the strand) + At length two knights came riding by, + And she the fair flower of Northumberland. + + Two gallant knights of fair England, + (Follow, my love, come over the strand) + And there they found her on the strand, + Even she the fair flower of Northumberland. + + She fell down humbly on her knee, + (Follow, my love, come over the strand) + Crying, "Courteous knights, take pity on me, + Even I the fair flower of Northumberland. + + "I have offended my father dear, + (Follow, my love, come over the strand) + For a false knight that brought me here, + Even I the fair flower of Northumberland." + + They took her up beside them then, + (Follow, my love, come over the strand) + And brought her to her father again, + And she the fair flower of Northumberland. + + Now all you fair maids, be warned by me, + (Follow, my love, come over the strand) + Scots never were true, nor ever will be, + To lord, nor lady, nor fair England. + + + + + + WHITTINGHAM FAIR. + + Are you going to Whittingham Fair + (Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme), + Remember me to one that lives there, + For once she was a true lover of mine. + + Tell her to make me a cambric shirt, + (Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme), + Without any seam or needlework, + Then she shall be a true lover of mine. + + Tell her to wash it in yonder well, + (Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme), + Where never spring water or rain ever fell, + And she shall be a true lover of mine. + + Tell her to dry it on yonder thorn, + (Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme), + Which never bore blossom since Adam was born. + Then she shall be a true lover of mine. + + Now he has asked me questions three, + (Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme), + I hope he'll answer as many for me, + Before he shall be a true lover of mine. + + Tell him to buy me an acre of land, + (Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme), + Betwixt the salt water and the sea sand, + Then he shall be a true lover of mine. + + Tell him to plough it with a ram's horn. + (Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme), + And sow it all over with one pepper corn. + And he shall be a true lover of mine. + + Tell him to shear't with a sickle of leather, + (Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme), + And bind it up with a peacock feather, + And he shall be a true lover of mine. + + Tell him to thrash it on yonder wall, + (Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme), + And never let one corn of it fall, + Then he shall be a true lover of mine. + + When he has done and finished his work, + (Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme), + O tell him to come and he'll have his shirt, + And he shall be a true lover of mine. + + + + + O THE OAK AND THE ASH. + + + A North country mayde up to London had strayed, + Although with her nature it did not agree. + Which made her repent, and often lament, + Still wishing again in the North for to be. + "O the Oak and the Ash and the bonny Ivy tree, + They are all growing green in my North Countrie!" + + "O fain wad I be in the North Countrie + Where the lads and the lasses are all making hay; + O there wad I see what is pleasant to me,-- + A mischief 'light on them enticed me away! + O the Oak and the Ash and the bonny Ivy tree, + They are all growing green in my North Countrie!" + + "Then farewell my father, and farewell my mother, + Until I do see you I nothing but mourn; + Remembering my brothers, my sisters, and others-- + In less than a year I hope to return. + O the Oak and the Ash and the bonny Ivy tree. + They are all growing green in my North Countrie!" + + + + + SAIR FEYL'D, HINNY! + + + "Sair feyl'd, hinny! + Sair feyl'd now, + Sair feyl'd, hinny, + Sin' aw ken'd thou. + Aw was young and lusty, + Aw was fair and clear; + Aw was young and lusty + Mony a lang year. + Sair feyl'd, hinny! + Sair feyl'd now; + Sair feyl'd, hinny, + Sin' aw ken'd thou. + + "When aw was young and lusty + Aw cud lowp u dyke; + But now aw'm aud and still. + Aw can hardly stop a syke. + Sair feyl'd, hinny! + Sair feyl'd now, + Sair feyl'd hinny, + Sin' aw ken'd thou. + + "When aw was five and twenty + Aw was brave an bauld. + Now at five an' sixty + Aw'm byeth stiff an' cauld. + Sair feyl'd, hinny! + Sair feyl'd now. + Sair feyl'd, hinny, + Sin' aw ken'd thou" + + Thus said the aud man + To the oak tree; + "Sair feyl'd is aw + Sin' aw kenn'd thee! + Sair feyl'd, hinny! + Sair feyl'd now; + Sair feyl'd, hinny, + Sin' aw ken'd thou." + + + + + AW WISH YOE MUTHER WAD CUM! + + + "Cum, Geordy, haud the bairn, + Aw's sure aw'll not stop lang, + Aw'd tyek the jewl me-sel, + But really aw's not strang. + Thor's flooer and coals te get, + The hoose-torns thor not deun, + So haud the bairn for fairs, + Ye're often deun'd for fun!" + + Then Geordy held the bairn, + But sair agyen his will, + The poor bit thing wes gud, + But Geordy had ne skill, + He haddint its muther's ways, + He sat both stiff an' num,-- + Before five minutes wes past + He wished its muther wad cum! + + His wife had scarcely gyen, + The bairn begun te squall, + Wi' hikin't up an' doon + He'd let the poor thing fall, + It waddent haud its tung, + Tho' sum aud teun he'd hum,-- + 'Jack an' Gill went up a hill'-- + "Aw wish yor muther wad cum!" + + "What weary toil," says he, + "This nursin bairns mun be, + A bit on't's weel eneuf, + Ay, quite eneuf for me; + Te keep a crying bairn, + It may be grand te sum, + A day's wark's not as bad-- + Aw wish yor muther wad cum. + + "Men seldom give a thowt + Te what thor wives indure, + Aw thowt she'd nowt te de + But clean the hoose, aw's sure. + Or myek me dinner an' tea-- + It's startin' te chow its thumb, + The poor thing wants its tit, + Aw wish yor muther wad cum." + + 'What a selfish world this is, + Thor's nowt mair se than man; + He laffs at wummin's toil, + And winnet nurse his awn;-- + It's startin' te cry agyen, + Aw see tuts throo its gum, + Maw little bit pet, dinnet fret,-- + Aw wish yor muther wad cum. + + "But kindness dis a vast. + It's ne use gettin' vext. + It winnet please the bairn, + Or ease a mind perplext. + At last--its gyen te sleep, + Me wife'll not say aw's num, + She'll think aw's a real gud norse, + Aw wish yor muther wud cum!" + + _Joe Wilson_ + + + + + THE AULD FISHER'S LAST WISH + + + The morn is grey, and green the brae, the wind is frae the wast + Before the gale the snaw-white clouds are drivin' light and fast; + The airly sun is glintin' forth, owre hill, and dell, and plain, + And Coquet's streams are glitterin', as they run frae muir to main. + + At Dewshill wood the mavis sings beside her birken nest, + At Halystane the laverock springs upon his breezy quest; + Wi' eydent e'e, aboon the craigs, the gled is high in air, + Beneath brent Brinkburn's shadowed cliff the fox lies in his lair. + + There's joy at merry Thristlehaugh tie new-mown hay to win; + The busy bees at Todstead-shaw are bringing honey in; + The trouts they loup in ilka stream, the birds on ilka tree; + Auld Coquet-side is Coquet still--but there's nae place for me! + + My sun is set, my eyne are wet, cauld poortith now is mine; + Nae mair I'll range by Coquet-side and thraw the gleesome line; + Nae mair I'll see her bonnie stream in spring-bright raiment drest, + Save in the dream that stirs the heart when the weary e'e's at rest. + + Oh! were my limbs as ance they were, to jink across the green. + And were my heart as light again as sometime it has been, + And could my fortunes blink again as erst when youth was sweet, + Then Coquet--hap what might beside--we'd no be lang to meet' + + Or had I but the cushat's wing, where'er I list to flee, + And wi' a wish, might wend my way owre hill, and dale, and lea. + 'Tis there I'd fauld that weary wing, there gaze my latest gaze. + Content to see thee ance again--then sleep beside thy braes! + + --_Thomas Doublerday_. + + + + + A SONNET. + + + Go, take thine angle, and with practised line. + Light as the gossamer, the current sweep; + And if thou failest in the calm, still deep, + In the rough eddy may a prize be thine. + Say thou'rt unlucky where the sunbeams shine; + Beneath the shadow, where the waters creep + Perchance the monarch of the brook shall leap-- + For fate is ever better than design. + + Still persevere; the giddiest breeze that blows, + For thee may blow with fame and fortune rife. + Be prosperous; and what reck if it arose + Out of some pebble with the stream at strife, + Or that the light wind dallied with the boughs? + Thou art successful.--Such is human life! + + --_Thomas Doubleday_. + + + + + A VISION OF JOYOUS-GARDE. + + + "And so sir Launcelot brought sir Tristan and La Beate Isoud unto + Joyous-gard, the which was his owne castle that hee had wonne with his + owne hands."--_Malory_. + + "Bamburgh ... the great rock-fortress that was known to the Celts as + Dinguardi, and was to figure in Arthurian romance as Joyous Garde ... + "--_C.J. Bates_ (History of Northumberland). + + I wandered under winter stars + The lone Northumbrian shore; + And night lay deep in silence on the sea. + Save where, unceasingly, + Among the pillared scaurs + Of perilous Farnes, wild waves for ever more + Breaking in foam, + Sounded as some far strife through the star-haunted gloam. + + Before me, looming through the night, + Darker than night's sad heart, + King Ida's castle on the sheer crag set + Waked darker sorrow yet + Within me for the light, + Beauty, and might of old loves rent apart, + Time-broken, spent, + And strewn as old dead winds among the salt-sea bent. + + Till, dreaming of the glittering days, + And eves with beauty starred, + Time fell from me as some night-cloud withdrawn, + And in enchanted dawn, + All in a golden haze, + I saw the gleaming towers of Joyous Garde + In splendour rise, + Tall, pinnacled, and white to my dream-laden eyes. + + While thither, as in days of old, + Launcelot homeward came, + War-wearied, and yet wearier of the strife + Of love that tore his life; + + Burning, beneath the cold + Armour of steel, a never-dying flame: + The fierce desire + Consuming honour's gold on the heart's altar fire! + + And thither in great love he brought + The fugitives of love, + Isoud and Tristram fleeing from King Mark. + One day 'twixt dark and dark + These lovers, by fate caught + In love's bright web, dreamed with blue skies above + Of love no tide + Of wavering life may part, or death's swift sea divide. + + But Launcelot, in their bliss forlorn, + Fled from the laughter clear + Of happy lovers, and love's silent noon; + All night beneath the moon + He strode, his spirit torn + For Guenevere! All night on Guenevere + He cried aloud + Unto the moonlit foam and every windy cloud. + + * * * * * + + Then faded, quivering, from my sight + The memory-woven dream. + The towers of Joyous Garde shall never more + Lighten that desolate shore; + No longe'r through the night + Wrestling with love, beneath the pale moon gleam + That anguished form!-- + But keen with snow and wind, and loud with gathering storm. + + _--Wilfrid W. Gibson_. + + (In "The Northern Counties Magazine," March, 1901). + + + + + MY NORTH COUNTRIE. + + + O though here fair blows the rose, and the woodbine waves on high, + And oak, and elm, and bracken fronds enrich the rolling lea, + And winds, as if in Arcady, breathe joy as they go by, + Yet I yearn and I pine for my North Countrie! + + I leave the drowsing South, and in thought I northward fly, + And walk the stretching moors that fringe the ever-calling sea, + And am gladdened as the gales that are so bitter-sweet rush by. + While grey clouds sweetly darken o'er my North Countrie. + + For there's music in the storms, and there's colour in the shades, + And joy e'en in the grief so widely brooding o'er the sea; + And larger thoughts have birth amid the moors and lonely glades + And reedy mounds and sands of my North Countrie! + + --_Thomas Runciman_. + +[Illustration] + + +[Illustration: Sketch Map Of Northumberland.] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Northumberland Yesterday and To-day +by Jean F. 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