y
 
 Ex Libris 
 C. K. OGDEN 
 
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 THE LIBRARY 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
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 f
 
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 DESCRIPTIVE AND HISTORICAL 
 
 NOTICES 
 
 OF 
 
 SOME REMARKABLE 
 
 Jto^tijumb^tan Caftle0, Cfju^cljes, 
 
 AND ANTIQUITIES: 
 
 IN A SERIES OF VISITS TO 
 
 €^t t\\ml^khin\ nf /iiirjinb; tlje !JHitoi[ Cjiiirtli nf IM'jinni ; 
 
 €ljf I^Erisji (i^liErrlirH nf Ijnugjitntt-lr-liiriiig, 3iiDrF^!j^ 
 
 Sktlml; (Dningjiniii, nn^ lltjtuE; 
 
 ^t Mnit €milm nf ^5ml\}n ml nf HC^ntljnl; 
 
 '^jlj llttiEB^ !>ltiki| nf Umminsto; tit. 
 
 WITH BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF EMINENT PERSONS. 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM SIDNEY GIBSON, ESQ. E.S.A. F.G.S. 
 
 BARRISTER-AT-LAW; A LOCAL SECRETARY AT NEWCASTLE OF THE ARCHiEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE : 
 
 MEMB. OF THE ECCLESIOLOGICAL AND NEWCASTLE ANTISUARIAN SOCIETIES: 
 
 HON. MEMB. OP THE ST. ALBAn's ARCHITECTURAL SOCIETY, 
 
 ETC. 
 
 FIRST SERIES. 
 
 REVISED AND REPRINTED (BTREaUEST,) FROM THE NEWCASTLE JOURNAL, WITH NUMEROUS 
 
 ADDITIONS, AND EMBELLISHED WITH 
 
 VIEWS OF FINCHALE, AND OF THE ABBEY CHURCH OF HEXHAM. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 WILLIAM PICKERING, 177, PICCADILLY. 
 
 NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE : 
 
 ROBERT ROBINSON, PILGRIM STREET. 
 
 MDCCCXLVIII,
 
 LONDON : 
 1'. WHlTi; AND SON, PIIINTERS, 
 2, DEVONSHIUE SUOARE.
 
 TO 
 
 
 THE PRESIDENT, VICE-PRESIDENTS, AND FELLOWS 
 
 €\)t laritti] nf 5lntii|uarieB 
 
 (Df JlmrnstlMtjinH-d'tinB, 
 
 THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE DEDICATED : 
 
 THE VISITS THEY DESCRIBE 
 
 HATING PROCEEDED FROM THE ANTIftUAUIAN FEELING WHICH IT IS 
 
 THE PROVINCE OF THAT SOCIETY TO ENCOURAGE, 
 
 AND 
 
 THE AUTHOR TRUSTING 
 
 THAT OTHER MEMBERS MAY' BE LED TO PUBLISH HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF 
 
 THE INTERESTING PLACES WHICH THEY MAY VISIT 
 
 IN OLD NORTHUMBRIA. 
 
 i f\y^^ i r;5^
 
 A VISIT TO 
 
 THE PRIORY AT FINCHALE. 
 
 This very interesting Monastery, the ruins of which are 
 situated in a romantic spot not far from the renowned city 
 of Durham, was founded late in the reign of Henry II. and 
 was inhabited by Benedictine monks, owing obedience to 
 the parent monastery of that place. The extreme beauty 
 of their situation, has given to the Ruins of Finchale a mo- 
 dern celebrity, especially in the north of England, which is 
 hardly less extensive than the antient fame for sanctity and 
 learning which was awarded to Finchale in the days when 
 it was eminent among the fair monasteries that once adorned 
 our land. Its ruins are accordingly sought out year after 
 year by many a tourist, and (not very appropriately) by 
 many a gay and thoughtless pleasure-party : but the early 
 and monastic history of Finchale is little known, and few 
 of those who come to experience the enchantment of the 
 scene, cherish more than mere transient curiosity to know 
 something of the events which there occurred and excited 
 emotions and passions that have been for ages extinguished 
 in the grave These ruins w^ere the hallowed object of a 
 pilgrimage by the writer on a recent occasion ; and he hopes 
 the following sketch of the history of Finchale may be ac- 
 ceptable to the general reader, for the interest which attaches 
 to that history is by no means confined to the ecclesiastical 
 antiquary. 
 
 A rural and pleasant road conducts the rambler from 
 Leamside, which is a station on the York and Newcastle 
 Railway, to the woods of Coken (one of the fairest of the 
 former possessions of Finchale,) which cover high sloping 
 grounds above the river — the Wear — on the margin of 
 which the Ruins of Finchale Priory stand, and are opposite 
 to the spot which they occupy. Of the grey walls, scattered 
 
 B
 
 2 A VISIT TO 
 
 in melancholy arrang;ement over the green l)anl< of the 
 river which flows heneath, a picturescpe view is every here 
 and there atibrded tlu-ough tiie thick foliage of these woods. 
 The scene is heautiful at any time ; hut seemed still more 
 beautiful on a sweet day in the month of September, when 
 there w^as a blue mist like that of summer in the horizon, 
 and autumn had begun to tint the forest leaves and to add 
 warm hues to the beauty of the sylvan landscape. The aspect 
 of Nature prepared the mind to receive the peculiar im- 
 pression of a scene which is full of a poetry born of the past. 
 The locality of Finchale Priory is distant about three 
 miles from Durham : it is a sort of Vaucluse which mii::ht 
 have delighted the refined and romantic Petrarca ; and it 
 has been appropriately described as "one of those truly 
 monastic situations where the world seems shut out by 
 walls of beauty and peace ; — a spot which holiness seems to 
 have marked out for its own from the creation." The 
 ruins are situated on the river's smooth green bank, which 
 slopes gradually to the waters, in a romantic and seques- 
 tered dell. The stream sweeps round the eastern and 
 northern sides of the little peninsula on which they stand. 
 The priory, as Mr. Surtees said, was shrouded " in deep 
 retirement." It derived a still more solenm character from 
 being surrounded by an old oak wood, much of which has 
 since fallen ; and the level plot of ground which the builders 
 of Finchale Priory cleared for its buildings and garden, is 
 almost covered by these monuments of its former monastic 
 inhabitants. The Wear, in this part of its winding course, 
 passes through sequestered lands and solemn solitudes ; 
 there, reposing in deep glassy pools ; here, rushing im- 
 petuously over its bed of solid stone ; w^hile opposite to, and 
 as it w^ere closing in the ruins, the woods of Coken "in sign 
 of worship w^ave." These occupy rising grounds and high 
 grotesque cliffs above the river, which are shaded by native 
 oak springing from the crevices of the rock. Over these 
 high grounds the road already mentioned passes. Crossing 
 the river at a ferry (wdiicli is anything but safe or con- 
 venient when the river is at all flooded,) and arriving in the 
 venerable presence of "the old choranvalls," they are found 
 to be of considerable extent, and to present abundant ex- 
 amples of decorated work, as well as of the architecture of 
 the Early English period, which will be described presently.
 
 FINCHALE PRIORY. 6 
 
 the fabric of the Norman church having entirely vanished. 
 To the architect, therefore, no less than to the antiquary, 
 these ruins are full of interest ; and the more so, because 
 there is not another building of decorated work worthy of 
 note in the county of Durham ; indeed there are few speci- 
 mens of it as added to buildings of an earlier period in this 
 part of old Northumbria, owing perhaps to the incessant 
 wars between England and Scotland in the age when the 
 decorated style prevailed in this country, and to the active 
 part which the ecclesiastical Princes Palatine of Durham, 
 and their obedientiaries and vassals, monastical as well as lay, 
 were obliged to take in those desolating contests. Unpeo- 
 pled and desecrated for three centuries. Time has spread 
 over the chief portions of these grey walls, a mantle of 
 venerable and luxuriant ivy, whose roots entwine about the 
 foundations, and whose branches have penetrated the inter- 
 stices of the masonry, rearing their perennial foliage where 
 all beside is crumbling to ruin. 
 
 But written records have been faithful to their trust, 
 while changes and revolutions have been overthrowing 
 massive edifices, and removing generations of men and the 
 things of which the writers wrote ; and of the reverend 
 persons who moved within these deserted walls, as well as 
 of the former condition of the priory, history affords many 
 distinct and interesting traces. The materials for illus- 
 trating the former condition of the priory, are, a valuable 
 series of charters of donation, papal and episcopal confir- 
 mations, and those entries in the several registers of the 
 parent monastery of Durham which relate to the govern- 
 ment and general history of Finchale. Its Priors have also 
 left to us, in account-rolls of their house, materials of great 
 value for illustrating, not only the history of this particular 
 monastic establishment and its buildings, but also the history 
 of the order to which it belonged ; of many of the monks 
 personally, of the manners of their times, and of northern 
 philology, prices, and statistics. These rolls owe their 
 origin to an act of the Prior of Durham and his Chapter, so 
 early as a. d, 1235, whereby it was decreed that the priors 
 of the several cells should return yearly an account of their 
 possessions and revenues ; and should visit the mother 
 Church of Durham annually, to render account of the state 
 of their respective houses. Unfortunately, however, the 
 
 B 2
 
 4 A VISIT TO 
 
 extant series of annual returns from Finebale does not be2;in 
 earlier than a.d. 1303 ; and from that year the series is 
 far from being coni])letc. These account rolls and the 
 charters were published, in 1837, by the Surtees Society. 
 A still more interesting publication of the same society, 
 which has very recently been delivered to the members, 
 furnishes abundant materials for illustrating the condition 
 of Finchale dining the reigns of Henry I , Stephen, and 
 Henry H., wlicn it was irradiated by the virtuous life of the 
 holy hermit Godric, of " sainted fame," — a period antece- 
 dent, not only to the construction of the present buildings, 
 but to the foundation of a priory upon this spot. The still 
 earlier history of Finchale, that is to say, its history during 
 the reigns of the Anglo-Saxon Kings, is, however, lost in 
 the distance of antiquity. Finchale is a Saxon name. Its 
 orthography in the pages of monastic chroniclers is various. 
 It occurs as Fincanheal, Fincanhalth, Phincenhale, and also 
 Finkhaugh. The former part of the name may be derived 
 from the locality having been inhabited by finches; and 
 the latter, either from the Cymric word heah hall, which 
 probably originally indicated a stone building,'' or from the 
 northern word haugh — low-lying flat groimd, properly on 
 the border of a river beneath higher land ;^ and thus we 
 have the haugh or plain of the finches. But beings of a 
 more important kind were found at Finchale at a very early 
 period ; for we learn that an ecclesiastical synod, for the 
 purpose of regulating church discipline and kindred matters, 
 was held there in a.d. 792, during the prelacy of Higbald, 
 Bishop of Lindisfarne.'^ Another synod was held at Finchale 
 
 * Kemblc, Cod. Dipl. Anglo-Sax. vol, rici, Horemitae de Finchale. [Surtees 
 
 iii. ill pref. So we have Streaneshalch, See. 1817, §§ 50, 53, 58, 97, 105.] 
 (Whitby) wliich name in the Saxon of 
 
 Beda's history is written Streoneslialh. ' ^el. Coll. vol. m. p. 388, on the 
 
 Jlh seems derivable from the Saxon authority of Flores Hist. This event 
 
 healh, which, like the word //all, sig- is placed m 791 by Roger de Wondover, 
 
 nihes an eminent luiilding. The names "» «•>*-' *''loi"^'« Histonarum, (ed. Coxe, 
 
 Valhaul and Upsala are said to have i- ~^^) who says : — " Eodem anno 
 
 the same derivation. concrregata est Synodus ni loco qui 
 
 ' I'iiichale' dicitur, pra'sidente ai-chie- 
 
 h Dr. Jamicson derives it from the piscopo, cum suis sufi'raganeis episcopis, 
 
 Teutonic awe, and ^'ai/(/e, ])ratuin, pas- ct aliis multis." Tlie Saxon Chronicle 
 
 cuum, locus pascuus et convallis, qualia places this Council in 788, with wliich 
 
 loca inter monies ct amnes visuntur." Spelman agrees, ( Concil. p. 304.) 
 
 Thisaccurately coincides with the local- Also Lei. Coll. vol. i. p. 190, from 
 
 ity of Finchale, as described by Regi- Henry of Huntingdon, 
 nald, in Lib. de Vita et Mirac. S, God-
 
 FINCHALE PRIORY. 
 
 in A.D. TQS,** and again a council assembled there in a. d. 
 810, on the fourth of the nones of September." Whether 
 the present Finchale occupies the place which was rendered 
 famous by these provincial councils, is doubtful. It is 
 probable, however, that tlie invasions of the Danes dispersed 
 the tenants and laid in ruins the edifices of the monastic 
 walls, within which the grave churchmen assembled, what- 
 ever may have been the place of their assembly. At all 
 events, the name of Finchale does not again occur until 
 some years after the Norman conquest of England. When, 
 in the reign of Henry I. Godric took up his residence as a 
 hermit there, the foundations of antient buildings were dis- 
 covered. Reginald of Durham,^ says : — 
 
 " Siquidem ibi sub terras occulta cespite plurima videntur 
 fundamenta diruta comparere ; atque dum terra altius, Hgone 
 perquirente, subfoditur, plurima congeries ossium defunctorum in 
 terra? ipsius utero saepius repperitur. Unde patet quod hominum 
 ibidem plurima habitatio fuerit, cujus testimonium satis probabile 
 ilia visio sepulclirorum et fundaminum indubitanter exstitit," &c. 
 
 The circumstances which led to this place becoming the 
 hermitage of Godric are very interesting. 
 
 The reader may be here reminded, that William de 
 Carileph, the second Bishop of Durham after the Conquest 
 (the prelate to whom the present magnificent cathedral 
 owes its origin,) introduced and brought around his church 
 a colony of poor and strict Benedictines, who had travelled 
 northwards in the time of his predecessor, and had been 
 permitted by that prelate to take up their abode in the once 
 illustrious, but then long deserted, monasteries of Wear- 
 mouth and Jarrow, under tlie government of the pious 
 Aldwin, a man of great discretion and high moral character. 
 In A.D. 1083, Bishop William gave them possession of the 
 cathedral itself; and three days after doing so, exhibited to 
 them letters from the Pope and the King of England sanc- 
 
 ** Rog. de Wend. Flor. Histor. i. 
 26.5, (lib. impress.) " Eodem anno, 
 Eanbaldus Eboracensis Archiepiscopus, 
 apud Finchale synodum congregavit." 
 See Symeon, and Spelm. 317. Roger 
 Hoveden, (annul, par. prim. ed. Savile, 
 Franc. 1601, p. 406,) says, this comicil 
 was liL'ld at " Phincahnhal, praesidente 
 Eunbaldo archiepiscopo aliisque quam- 
 
 plnrimis principalibus et ecclesiasticis 
 viris, niultade utilitate sanctae Dn eccle- 
 siae,gentisque Northanhimbrorum omni- 
 anique provinciarum consiliati simt, " &c. 
 
 « Lei. Coll. ut snp. 
 
 f Lib. de Vit. et Mir. S. Godr. (lib. 
 impress.) § 57. For a notice of this 
 work see p. 11, post., and addenda for 
 translated extracts.
 
 O A VISIT TO 
 
 tiouing his proceed inijs, which letters are still preserved at 
 Durham. I'o Akhvin he confided, as Prior, the care and 
 management of the whole monastery. Such was the small 
 and humble rise of that mighty stream, which, growing 
 through successive ages into the full tide of monastic 
 ])ower, — illustrated by worth and learning, and hallowed by 
 fervid zeal, — rolled on through many hundred years, until, 
 at the bidding of an avaricious and sanguinary tyrant, it 
 was arrested and overwhelmed in the fatal sixteenth century 
 by the ruins of the Religious Houses of our land. About 
 the time when the monastery of Durham was thus founded, 
 there was born, in the county of Norfolk, a man who, by 
 the grace of God, became one of the brightest lights of that 
 monastic fraternity, and whose fame led to the endowment 
 of Finchale Priory— one of the first and fairest of the 
 daughters of the mother Church of Durham. That man 
 was Godric. His father's name was Ailward ; his mother's, 
 Aedw^enna. They were humble lay folks, but attached to 
 the Christian faith. At his baptism, Godric was named 
 after his godfather. He resided with his parents for some 
 time on the Lincolnshire coast, near the river Welland. 
 Soon after he attained man's estate, he engaged in merchan- 
 dize, and continued so occupied for sixteen years. He 
 acquired a ship, in wdiich he traded to Denmark and else- 
 where, and became himself a sailor. Behold him 
 
 " — Launch tlie vessel, and unfurl the sails, 
 And stretch the swelhng canvas to the gales," 
 
 who afterwards retired far from the ports of commerce and 
 the haunts of men, and led for more than sixty years the 
 austere life of a holy hermit in the deep sylvan solitudes of 
 Finchale ! But Godric was not formed to be "a wandering 
 merchant," to " frequent the main" — 
 
 " A mean seafarer in pursuit of gain, 
 Studious of freight, in naval trade well skill'd." 
 
 In the course of his wanderings, he made a pilgrimage to S. 
 Andrew's in Scotland, whereto it was then the custom to 
 resort ; and having, in the course of his travels, visited 
 Lindisfarne, where he was imjiressed by the peaceful and 
 religious deportment of the good monks, and edified by the 
 account given to him of the holy career of S. Cuthbert, he 
 made a vow to l)cgiii a new course of life. He accordingly
 
 FINCHALE PRIORY. 
 
 visited Rome, Jerusalem, and various shrines, especially those 
 of S. James, of Compostella, which had been then recently 
 raised by the Pope to metropolitan dignity, and of S. Giles 
 in France, and returned to England. But he resolved once 
 more to proceed to Rome ; and his mother desiring to ac- 
 company him, they made the pilgrimage together, and toge- 
 ther returned home. The journey was then no easy matter. 
 It was attended with many difficulties and dangers, arising 
 partly from the robbers by whom the way was beset, and 
 in no small degree from the want of convenient roads. On 
 his return, he sold his property, and resolved to become an 
 anchoret. He resided for a short time at Carlisle, antiently 
 Lugabalia, where he fully learned (" plene didicerat ") the 
 psalter. He afterwards withdrew from human society for 
 nearly two years, and lived in the woods upon herbs, and 
 among the wild animals. On this occasion he seems to 
 have become familiarized with the reptile tribe ; and we 
 shall see that he renewed his familiarity with them when he 
 took up his residence at Finchale. But he had not yet 
 selected that spot as the place in which to dedicate the 
 remainder of his days to God. For a time he abode in the 
 hermitage of Wolsingham, where the circumjacent woods 
 were inhabited by wolves, of the frequent occurrence of 
 which destructive animals in England so late as in the reign 
 of Edw. I. there are many proofs. According to Reginald, 
 his biographer, he spent a year and nine months at Wol- 
 singham. The blessed Confessor Cuthbert is recorded to 
 have appeared to him, and he resolved to proceed once 
 more to Jerusalem, for which purpose he solemnly took 
 the cross. In his journey he exchanged, for the austerities 
 he had practised in the wilderness, others of a more severe 
 kind. Returning to England, he resided for nearly two years 
 in an old hermitage at Eskdale-side, near Whitby ; 
 
 " Where sweetly on the pilgrim's ear, 
 Was wont to steal the hermit's hymn ;" 
 
 but not finding a suitable residence in that spot, he came 
 again to the land of S. Cuthbert, " quemsemper miro ex- 
 coluit afFectu" to reside. This he appears to have done in 
 consequence of an invitation from the mighty Saint, who 
 moreover spoke to him of "locum in sil vis circa Dunelmum 
 prope positum Finchale nominatum," and promised to be 
 his patron. Godric went to reside at Durham, and fre-
 
 8 A VISIT TO 
 
 (juently visited the shrine of S. Cuthbert ; whose island of 
 fame was visited, as has been ah^eady stated, for the purpose 
 of devotion : and it seems probable that the example of the 
 illustrious Cuthbert had great influence in forming Godrics 
 determination. While residing in the city of Durham, he 
 became " edituus '' (ostiarius ?) of the church of S. Giles 
 there.? But constant to his purpose of living in a solitude 
 dedicated to God, he journeyed forth to the place indicated 
 in the vision of S. Cuthbert, viz. Finchale. He had heard 
 that it was uninhabitable, by reason of serpents abounding 
 in it ; and when he had been guided to the spot, he w^as 
 received in an extremely discouraging manner, for he w'as 
 attacked by a large wolf; but making the sign of the cross, 
 which had not been seen for ages in this deep valley of 
 solitude, he adjured his ferocious assailant that he should 
 do him no harm. Escaping the danger, he returned to 
 Durham, but his resolution to take up his abode at Finchale 
 had been made. Rodulf, a priest, son of Bishop Flambard, 
 induced his father to permit Godric to settle there, which 
 he did accordingly about a.d. 1110; and the hermit after- 
 W'ards left his sylvan retirement only thrice. The wildness 
 of the spot must have been sufficiently repulsive. Reginald's 
 language is as follows : 
 
 " Quo perveniens vicHt locum totuni spiuosum et horridum, ut- 
 pote pene incopiitum ipsius tciT» colonis, et domesticum aspidum 
 habitaculuin et speluiicam serpentis. Ncc proindc in aliquo ex- 
 hovruit, seu gcnimina viperinas inultitudinis et squalidae solitudinis 
 horrenda sepulchra extimuit."'' 
 
 We are not told whether, on Godric's prayers, the ser- 
 pents were changed into coils of stone, as the serpents 
 around Whitby are related to have been " when holy Hilda 
 prayed." But the spot possessed some advantages. 
 
 " Locus etiaiu ille in profundo vallis est imo positus, qui supra 
 ripam praedicti fluniinis ex adversa parte quani incolit, rujnhus 
 permaxiiuis et altissimis inontibus in cunctis pracscriptis tribus 
 partibus est prascinctus. Quos niontiuni apices et rupium quan- 
 titates terrae naturalis unibiculus eflicit ; qui instar niontis prao- 
 stantissimi, sese in altitudineni perniaximam porrigendo distendit. 
 . . . . Infra vcro illius lustri anibituni, quaedani planities est 
 qua' in inio profundi residet, ubi undique inclusa neniore per- 
 
 K ll was dedicated in a.d. 1112. '' Lib. de Vit. et Mir. S. Godr. § 52.
 
 FINCHALE PUIORY. \) 
 
 pulchra, licet moclica, area jacet, in qua juxta fluenta piscosi flu- 
 minis, vir Dei construxit suae habitacula conversationis."* 
 
 The territory at Finchale was a hunting ground of Bishop 
 Flambard. When Godric was placed there, this bishop 
 transferred the " Heremitorium de Finchale, cum agris suis, 
 et piscaria, et omnibus rebus ceteris adjacentibus" to the 
 Prior and Convent of Durham.'' The holy monk and her- 
 mit would have been astonished if told, or if, in virtue of 
 his prophetic power, he could have foreseen, that to this then 
 desolate solitude, the fame of his sanctity, and the graces 
 accorded after his death to his merits, would in after years 
 bring pilgrims from every part of England, and that the sick 
 and suffering would come from far and near to seek relief 
 through the instrumentality of the potent physician of 
 Finchale, when he had long been gifted with glory among 
 the saints. By the Bishop's Charter, Godric was to hold 
 of the Prior and Monks of Durham for his life, and the 
 monks after the death of their brother Godric were to be 
 at liberty to place in the hermitage any other of their 
 brethren. 
 
 The Finchale which was thus originally given to S Godric 
 for his residence, stood about a mile above the present 
 Finchale, on the same side of the river ; and of this 
 " mansiuncula vetus" there are distinct traces. There are 
 " remains of old walls clothed with ivy, lines of masonry 
 covered with turf, and a smooth greensward marking 
 antient care and cultivation." This little plot of ground, 
 which comprises about a quarter of an acre, is of a tri- 
 angular shape, bounded on one side by the river, and is still 
 called Godric's Garth.' Afterwards, the holy man discover- 
 ed a plot of ground in another part of the deep solitude of 
 the wooded banks of the Wear, which formed a more favour- 
 able situation, and here he built a " casa," and subsequently 
 an oratory, or structure which is called Capella Beatae Marise, 
 and to this cell he transferred his residence."' Other build- 
 ings also were erected. Reginald has written as follows:** 
 
 ' Lib. de Vit. et Mir. S. Godr. § 58. ties non modica, situ et visu ad inhabi- 
 
 ^ Charters and Account Rolls of tandum accomoda, ad quam se trans- 
 
 Finchale, lib. impress, p. 20. Flambard fercus mansiunculam vetcrem deseruit, 
 
 was Bishop from 1099 to 1128. et oratorium ct domunculas sibi neces- 
 
 ' Ibid. pref. xiii, sarias construere coepit." 
 "> The situation is described, " plani- " InVit.S.God.ut sup. § 68, and § 144.
 
 10 A VISIT TO 
 
 "Exacto sul) tali agone alitiuaiito tempore, tandem Christi 
 athleta c(t'])it sil)i tectuium a?dificia nova construere. In primis 
 igitur dc li<;nis inlorniibus et vir^ulis niodicam casam coniposuit, 
 quani JJeatui Maria; Capellani iioniinavit, (puc ad orientalem 
 structural ipsius plagam sita est ; et seorsum, domus alia ea major 
 ad occidentalis plaga; regionem compo.sita est. Nihil tamen medi- 
 um aliud intercrat, nisi quod ejusdcni ])arietis divisio capelhe ipsius 
 secretissima a domo in qua conversahatur tantuiinnodo separabat. 
 In exteriori igitur domo utensilia quaeque operibus suis neces- 
 sarie accommoda habuit ; et seorsum in aliquo ipsius angular i 
 latibulo lapides molares erexit, ubi grana quae mctendoconquisierat, 
 molendo in I'arinaj similaginem connninuebat, quam aqua consper- 
 sam ipse propriis manibus composuit, et pastum pugnis suis allevi- 
 ando, contundendo et infundcndo compegit." &c. 
 
 The oratorium and its altar (which was dedicated to the 
 Blessed Virgin Mary,) is mentioned frequently by Reginald. 
 Later, it is called Ecclesia S. Mariee. In it, there were 
 a crucifix and an image of the Blessed Virgin, and a bell 
 was procured for it, and was sounded for the celebration of 
 the canonical hours. Although Godric had taken up his 
 residence here, neither he, nor his mother, brother and sis- 
 ter, appear to have renounced the ties of natural affection, 
 for they came from a distant part of the country to reside 
 near to him. His mother shortly afterwards died ; and Godric 
 was assured that, by his prayers, her soul was delivered from 
 purgatoiy. His brother was drowned in the Wear ; and 
 Godric had the like hai)py assurance, that a similar good 
 office of fraternal love and charity was in like manner suc- 
 cessful. For his sister, he built a cell near his own oratory; 
 and she was long his only companion. But on her illness 
 she became an inmate of an intirmaiy at Durham ; and on 
 her death, Godric is described to have seen her soul carried 
 to heaven between two angels. The holy man was now 
 completely alone. He formed a garden, and he practised 
 agriculture ; he employed himself in grafting, he planted 
 trees, and forbade the stags to meddle with them ; and 
 he practised the constant austerities of fasts, vigils, and 
 flagellations. Like Job, he might have called himself " a 
 brother of dragons, and a companion of owls." Amongst 
 other severeties, "Erat quidem hoc in loco balneorum, cui vir 
 Domini nudus in aquis usque ad collum nocturno tempore 
 l)ervigil ])crsisteret, et vota sua coram Domino perfunderet/' 
 Elsewhere this bath is called a " casum aqua3 concavum" —
 
 FINCHALE PRIORY. 11 
 
 excavated in the ground, "in hoc usque ad collum stabat 
 immersus, orationes et psahnos cum lacriniis gemituque 
 prof'undens," &c. He wore sackcloth and a breastplate, and 
 used a stone for his pillow and table. We have seen how he 
 ground his corn, and made his bread; and a minute description 
 of the bread and herbs he used is given by Reginald." His 
 kindness to the lower animals is mentioned by his biogra- 
 pher. He speaks of them as the brute or unreasoning 
 servants of God. Yet, notwithstanding his austerities and 
 his virtues, innumerable instances are recorded of the ways 
 in which he was harassed by the devil in various disguises. 
 Once, the evil spirit overthrew the crucifix in his oratory ; 
 on another occasion, struck and insulted the holy hermit ; 
 and he was persecuted moreover by particular demons 
 whom he named. One of them tempted him in the form of 
 a young woman, but on his adjuring the evil spirit, it stood 
 confessed. During the earlier part of his residence at 
 Finchale, he had an extreme aversion to intercourse with 
 mankind ; and he even refused to accept food which, when 
 his residence became known in the vicinity, the country 
 people occasionally brought to him. But this " soldier of 
 Chrisf \vas able to tame the snakes, which were his constant 
 neighbours and companions. He afterwards however per- 
 mitted strangers to visit him, but he communicated only 
 with those who were recommended by the prior of Durham, 
 under whose control he placed himself. He however 
 observed silence strictly. Some of his fellow creatures 
 behaved to him more ferociously than the wolves and 
 serpents, for S. Godric was robbed and nearly killed by the 
 Scots, probably in that invasion of England by David, in 
 1138, which ended in his defeat at Cuton Moor, commonly 
 called the Battle of the Standard. They were in search of 
 treasure, which it was the custom to deposit in the churches ; 
 and the Scots, when in pursuit of it, did not refrain from 
 violating the sanctuary itself. On this occasion, a Scot was 
 drowned in crossing the Wear, after he had committed the 
 plunder. But holier and kinder visitors came to cheer 
 him in his course ; and in one of his many visions, the 
 Blessed Virgin, accompanied by Mary Magdalene, appeared, 
 as Reginald has recorded, and taught Godric a song,? the 
 
 " In Vit. S. Godr. ut sup. § 69, 70. f Ibid. p. 119. See also Wendover, 
 
 Floies Hist. ii. 348, ed. Coxe.
 
 12 
 
 A VISIT TO 
 
 words of which are preserved. The intercourse between 
 him and Res^inald extended over a considerable portion of 
 S. Go(hic's residence at Finchale, and was terminated only 
 with liis life ; and several instances occur of his connnunica- 
 tions with eminent Cistercians, as well as with Benedictine 
 monks and other ecclesiastics. In a conversation with 
 William de Sancta Barbara, J3ishoj) of Durham, he prophe- 
 cied as to the periods of their respective deaths, and he 
 built his own tomb. But his hour was not yet come. 
 After A.D. 1 149, he built a larger church, in commemora- 
 tion of deliverance from an inundation of the river, as will 
 be mentioned presently ; and this church, Bishop William 
 de Sancta Barbara dedicated, i in honour of S. John the 
 Baptist and the Holy Sepulchre — " Perfecta igitur ejus eccle- 
 sia lapideo tabulatu composita, in honore Sepulchri Domini 
 et S. Johannis Baptistie pra^conis Christi, piissimi advocati 
 sui, dedicata est, et locus ille onmibus celeberrimus effectus 
 est." The Bishop assigned land to the use of the church 
 of Finchale. S. John the Baptist was held in great honour 
 there, and numbers of people were in the habit of assem- 
 bling at Finchale on the vigil of his feast. The oratory of 
 S. JNIaiy (which none were allowed to enter save S. Godric 
 himself,) and tlie church of S. John (to which strangers 
 came,) were distinct ; as we find a notice, that a cloister 
 extending from the one to the other was built and thatched,' 
 A "ccUula" was built near the church of S John. It w^as 
 destroyed by fire. The fioods also beat against his house, 
 for two serious inundations are recorded. On one of these, 
 his cell escaped, thougli the flood destroyed bridges and the 
 adjacent houses. On the other, the biiihhng was nearly 
 overflowed and in peril of ruin, but he adjured the waters 
 in the holy name of our Saviour: — " Tunc servi Dei oflici- 
 nis ruina dimersionis pene imminuit. Unde egressus ad 
 
 '• He was Bislio]) from 1 1 115 to 1 1 ')2. incipiclKit, ct altcriiis capitis principiuiii 
 
 ■■ " Igitur Eccltsiola ipsius lapidea juxta liincn ecclosias Bcati Joliannis 
 
 dedicata, coepit consolatione nuitua yi- Baptistjc fineni percipiebat; quod vir- 
 
 ces altenias tcuiporuni relevare ; et gulis coryhris totuni crat liinc ct indc 
 
 mine in Oratorio S. Mariic, nunc in contcxtuni, et dcsupcr ejusdcni generis 
 
 ccclesia S. Johannis IJaptista', oralioni- tegulis alterutro latere adopertuni, un- 
 
 bus solitis Domino vacare ; cuj us alter- dique vero stramine vilissimo sen foeni 
 
 na immutatio ])lurima ei sjepius fuit squalentis uliginc fuerat co-opcrtum, 
 
 consolatoria rctbcillatio. llndc daus- et acutis vir}j;idarimi toxtulis rotundanti 
 
 trum quoddam, licet permodicum et schemata fbeni vel straniinis fasciculis 
 
 vile fuisset, sibi confecerat, cujus ex- qniscjue iiiterius pra'strictim inclusus." 
 
 ordii finis ab ostio jcdificii S. Mariir Lib. de Vit. S. Godr. § 114.
 
 FINCHALE PRIORY. 13 
 
 alveum fluminis, virga, quam dextera prsetendebat, tumores 
 
 aquaruin potenti verborum virtute repressit Mox 
 
 igitur aquae furor instar montis intumuit, et ex altera parte 
 per aggeres prominentissimos pene ad saxei coUis medium 
 se grassando, Sceviendo et intumescendo erexit." 
 
 The waters retired — " Et ex altera parte fluminis, pluri- 
 mam lapidum mulitudinem de durissimi montis latere 
 divulsit De quibus postea lapidibus in lionorem Dei, 
 et ob memoriam tanti miraculi, etiam Johannis Baptistse, 
 qualis hactenus cernitur, fabricata ecclesia est."* 
 
 To the church of S. John thus founded, a monk from 
 Durham came every Sunday and holy-day to celebrate mass. 
 The floor of the church was covered with rushes. Various 
 buildings are mentioned: — the domus communis, domus 
 hospitalis, domus hospitii, the semidomus, the domus pur- 
 gatoria, and the sterquilinium ; these appear to have stood 
 to the west of the church. It would seem that the wood 
 had to be cleared when these buildings were formed. 
 Near them was a spring, afterwards called the fountain of 
 S. Godric. Two bovates of land in the distant territory of 
 Lothian were given to him by Malcolm IV.,' and Henry 
 II. was one of his benefactors, by giving land at Sadberge." 
 
 Minute descriptions of S. Godric's personal appearance 
 and attire are given by Reginald : — 
 
 " The man of God was of moderate stature, wide across the 
 shoulders, which is a sign of manly strength; he was, moreover, 
 very robust and of a sound constitution, and strongly built in 
 every joint of his limbs; his face was rather long, and his eyes 
 were grey and sparkled with a bright radiance ; his eyebrows were 
 rather thick and almost joined each other ; his forehead was wide 
 and of becoming height ; his nose was long and a little arched, but 
 wide at its extremity ; each nostril was of moderate size, and at 
 the point itself his nose was handsomely curved. His chin was 
 narrow and his cheeks were long ; in every part, his beard covered 
 them perfectly, which was rather long and thick. His mouth was 
 very well formed with lips, moderately arched ; and the hair of his 
 head, as well as his beard, was quite black in the early part of his 
 life ; but afterwards, as old age advanced, it was completely suf- 
 
 ^ The cell, as appears from its ruins, "At the time of the compilation of 
 
 was situated on the steep bank of the Boldon Book, (1183) Sadberge was still 
 
 river, within a very few feet of its in possession of the Crown. It was 
 
 margin, even in summer. granted to the see, however, by King 
 
 • He was much praised by Godric. Richard I. 
 He reigned 115.3—1165.
 
 14 
 
 A VISIT TO 
 
 fused with an aiimlic whiteness. His neck was of some thickness 
 and of no <^reat length ; and in it the arteries, small muscles, and 
 veins were visihle hy their ruddy colour, and performed the ollice 
 of respiration with a certain gentle suavity. His shoulders were 
 extended both in breadth and thickness, which is usually a sign of 
 strength. His chest was ample, and on either side the shape of 
 his ribs could be seen."" 
 
 The holy hermit was confined to his bed for eight years 
 before his death, and lived for a length of time upon milk. 
 He was anxious for his deliverance from the body. When 
 Reginald first hinted at his scheme of writing the present 
 life, Godric disapproved of it ; but wdien near his end, he 
 encouraged the biographer to proceed in his work. He 
 died on the 21st May 1170, before the altar, in his church 
 of S. John the Baptist, after having tenanted this hermitage 
 for the long space of sixty years. A minute account is 
 given ^ of the manner in which his body was prepared for 
 burial, and it was interred in a stone coffin in the same 
 edifice. His funeral was very numerously attended. A 
 plate of lead, the inscription upon which is given by Regi- 
 nald,'' was deposited in his tomb. His brethren at Durham 
 cherished all his reliques with affection ; and amongst the.se, 
 express mention is made of his shoes, his cap, his girdle, 
 his beard, his hair, the rings of his breast-plate, his cross, 
 his crucifix, his rosary, and the horn in which wine was 
 kept in his oratory.* 
 
 When Godric's long life of devotion and austerity was 
 thus closed, and he had departed to his heavenly Lord, the 
 
 ^ Lib. de Vit. et Mir. S. Godr. § 153. 
 
 > Ibid. p. 327. 
 
 ^ " Anno ab Incarnatione Domini 
 M^C^lxx" xij. kl. .Jiinii, feria v*, die 
 octava Ascensionis Domini, anno lien- 
 rici Regis junioris xvi", episcopatus 
 Hugonis xvii". obiit pi.-u mcmori;e God- 
 ricus lieremita de Fiiiehale, (jui in boc 
 loco per annos ix''' lieremiticam vitam 
 duxit; eademque hora feria vi. sepeliri 
 divinitus pomernit qua Christus, Qucni 
 semper diiexerat, pro ejus redemptione 
 in Crueis patibulo spiritum emisit." — 
 [Ibid.] 
 
 " To the minute and interesting par- 
 ticulars relating to tlie character and 
 personal appearance of Go(h-ic which 
 are given by Reginald, William of 
 Newburgh adds, " Denique cadibutum, 
 
 quern Dr.o gratum et sublimis esse 
 meriti forte didicerat devote amplexus, 
 in cibo et potu, in vcrbo et gestu, homo 
 simplicissinuis, decente cum gravitate 
 servare modum studiut. Velox ad 
 audicndum, tardus autem ad loquen- 
 duu), et in ipsa locutione parcissimus." 
 [Hist. lib. ii. c. 20.] An erudite and 
 accurate edition of an Account of tlie 
 Life and Miracles of Godric the hermit 
 Saint, written by his contemporary 
 Reginald, a monk of Durham, at the 
 s])ecial instance of the illustrious Ailred, 
 abbat of Rievaidx, has just been given 
 to the world by the Rev. Josej)h Ste- 
 venson, for the Surtees Society. The 
 text of it is derived from the Bodleian 
 MS. Laud. E. 47, otherwise 413, col- 
 lated with other MSS. The style is
 
 FINCHALE PRIORY. 15 
 
 church enrolled hmi amongst the blessed confessors, saints, 
 and martyrs ; and he was succeeded in his hermitage by a 
 monk of Durham, who was a relation. His name is not 
 mentioned ; but we shortly afterwards find that two monks 
 of Durham, namely, Reginald and Henry, had taken up 
 their residence at Finchale, with a corody (an allowance 
 from the convent) for their support. It is probable that the 
 first-named monk was identical with Reginald the historian 
 and biographer of S. Godric ; and here, possibly, the 
 erudite monk actually wrote some portion of those works 
 which have procured for his name the praise of posterity. 
 In the deep retirement of this sequestered spot, the holy 
 brothers exercised the religious ordinances of their rule; on 
 the banks of this green peninsula, within "the circling 
 sweep " of the ever-flowing waters, they sat in heavenly 
 contemplation ; from this place, in the constant vigils of 
 the night, they looked upon the host of the stars of heaven, 
 and watched the various changes of the firmament, and " of 
 the brilliant potentates that bring winter and summer to 
 mortals ;"'' here they saw the broad moon climb above the 
 wooded heights, and irradiate with her silvery light the 
 sequestered dell of wood and water in which they dwelt ; 
 here they passed the noon- tide heats of summer ; and, 
 warmed by devotion, were insensible to the winter snows. 
 
 The monks who first came to Finchale seem to have 
 appreciated the advantages of the place, with its quarries 
 and its timber, both adjacent to their hands, and its peace- 
 ful seclusion from the warfare which then agitated the 
 world, and was felt with peculiar severity in the counties 
 of Northumberland and Durham. And so 
 
 In the antique age of bow and spear, 
 
 And feudal rapine clothed in iron mail, 
 Came ministers of peace, intent to rear 
 The mother Church in this sequester'd vale." 
 
 They were enabled to accomplish this their pious aim by 
 the following circumstances : 
 
 On the death of Bishop William de Sancta Barbara, 
 on the 14th of November 1152, the choice of the convent 
 
 copious, descriptive, and even lofty. from the lips of the subject of his 
 
 It contains a multitude of interesting memoir, during the holy anchoret's 
 
 and valuable particulars, most of which last long illness, 
 the author appears to have derived '' Eschylus.
 
 16 A VISIT TO 
 
 of Durliani (lor the chiircli then possessed some liberty 
 to elect her bishops, cincl was not bound to accept a 
 man owing his nomination merely to his academical con- 
 nections, to his proficiency in the art of preaching smooth 
 things, to his latitudinarianism, or to his interest with 
 the minister of the day,) fell on Hugh de Puiset, or 
 F*usiaco, commonly called Pudsey, who was already 
 Archdeacon of Winchester and Treasurer of York ; — a 
 young ecclesiastic, distinguished for his noble birth and 
 personal accomplishments, no less than for his merits as a 
 churchman. He received consecration to the oflice of 
 bishop from the Sovereign Pontiff, on the vigil of S. 
 Thomas next following, being then, as humorously observed 
 by a monkish historian, a venerable youth of twenty-five. 
 About A. D. 1180, ten years after S. Godric's death, Bishop 
 Hugh confirmed, to the convent of Durham, the grant of the 
 hermitage of Finchale ; and by another charter gave, in free 
 alms, to the monks Reginald and Henry, then inhabiting 
 Finchale, and the monks of Durham, w4io, succeeding them, 
 should there serve God and S. John, the place of Finchale, 
 with the mill and fishery and other possessions ; giving to 
 them in addition a tract of land adjoining, and granting 
 liberty for the foundation of a priory at Finchale. The 
 bishop by this charter proceeds to grant to the two monks, 
 " ut habeant in Haia nostra unum Taurum et viirinti Vaccas, 
 cum sequela trium annorum, et sedecim boves, et ducentas 
 oves cum agnis unius anni, et sexaginta porcos cum porcellis 
 uiiius anni. Concedimus etiam pmedictis monachis de 
 Finchale, ut habeant de Haia nostra ad a^dificandum et 
 comburendum, sine vasto, per visum forestarii nostri."'' 
 
 Such w^as the state of Finchale at that time ; and it would 
 seem that the monks were not slow in availing themselves 
 of their privileges, for soon after the death of S. Godric, the 
 foundations of a Priory Church were laid at Finchale, 
 
 But here it may be interesting to review the circum- 
 stances which led to the creation of a priory at Finchale. 
 Before his elevation to the mitre, Hugh de Pudsey had 
 three natural sons ; "^ their mother was Adelis de Perci. 
 Henry, the eldest, appears to have been territorially con- 
 
 <^ Finch. Charters, p. 21. to tlie pious Louis VII. kin<j of France. 
 
 '^ They were, Henry ; Burchard, trea- The hitter died before tlie bisliop, viz. 
 surer of York; and Hugh, chancellor in 1189.
 
 FINCHALE PRIORY. 
 
 17 
 
 nected with the county of Durham, and to have derived 
 from his mother an interest in property within the Percy 
 fee in Craven, especially a right in the parish and advowson 
 of the church of Gigleswic, a member of that fee ; for that 
 church, remote as it was, became the property of the mo- 
 nastery which he founded at Finchale, as will be mentioned 
 presently.^ It appears that Henry de Pudsey, at some time 
 late in the twelfth century, desired to found a religious 
 house. And here we may stop to inquire, why the Norman 
 nobles and the possessors of land were forward in founding 
 cells and augmenting monasteries ? The act itself was dic- 
 tated by reUgious motives ; but it brought its rew^ard even 
 in this life, for it returned tenfold in the improvement of 
 their estates, in the education of their vassals, in the re- 
 pression of disorder, and in the superior skill in handicraft 
 everywhere introduced by the monks. They were the great 
 instructors of antiquity, more especially in secular arts and 
 learning ; and but for the exertions of that body of men 
 whom it has been the fashion for modern enlightenment to 
 abuse, the land would have continued in barbarian darkness . 
 Their influence on the laity was great ; and by the force of 
 example they were, in times of lawlessness and oppression, 
 a living lesson of the blessings of obedience, the value of 
 discipUne, and the reaUty of spiritual things. From their 
 position also, and their union, they were enabled to enforce 
 good rule, and to become the maintainers of right against 
 the lawlessness of might They were, moreover, a shelter 
 to the poorer classes, the instructors of their children, the 
 physicians of their sick and aged ; and wherever they were 
 established, there fertility and good order prevailed. 
 
 Henry de Pudsey then, having become possessed of the 
 vills of Wingate and Haswell, near Durham, conferred them 
 upon monks, probably from the monastery of Guisborough, 
 in Yorkshire,^ for which house he seems to have had some 
 
 « His wife, whom he frequently men- 
 tions in his gifts to Finchale, was 
 named Dionisia ; and from them are 
 probably descended the Pudseys of 
 Bolton and Barforth. Dr. Whitaker, 
 speaking of the family of Pudsey, 
 which succeeded to tlie estate of Bolton 
 in Craven, in the reign of Henry III. 
 says, that it was originally Norman, 
 being connected on the father's side 
 
 with a nephew of king Stephen ; and 
 being on tlie mother's side also of 
 noble descent, traced to the first race 
 of the Pei'cys. Of this antient family. 
 Sir Ralph Pudsey is to be remembered 
 for his disinterested loyalty ; for it was 
 he who afforded an asylum to the 
 unfortunate Henry VI. after the battle 
 of Hexham. 
 
 f Founded by Robert de Brus in 1 1 29.
 
 18 A VISIT TO 
 
 affection, and thus was founded " tlie Church of S. Mary of 
 Hessawell." It is doul)tful, however, whether a monastery 
 w^as ever huilt there ; for the " Canons of Gish'urne" are 
 soon afterwards found to have migrated to a newly-founded 
 monastery or cell in a sheltered and more heautiful situation, 
 namely, upon the streamlet called the Brune (Browney),at 
 a place called Bakestanetbrd, now Baxterwood, ahout a 
 mile from Durham, and this was called the Monastery of 
 S. Mary " de Novo Loco super Brune," but no progress 
 seems to have been made in the building of edifices there. 
 This little monastery of Augustinian Canons, which was 
 governed by Stephen, a dignitary of the mother church of 
 Guisborough, received, during their short residence at Ba- 
 kestaneford, several grants from Pudsey, their chief patron, 
 and from other benefactors. But it would seem that the 
 monks, who had now been established for a century at Dur- 
 ham, did not approve of the introduction of a foreign order 
 into the midst of their possessions ; and accordingly har- 
 mony did not long prevail between the two establishments, 
 Galfrid of Coldingham relates, that Pudsey was brought to 
 repent what he had done ; and a mutual agreement, which 
 was probably suggested by Hugh the bishop, was entered 
 into between the monks of Durham and Henry the founder, 
 whereby the former granted to him Finchale w^ith its ap- 
 purtenances, to the intent that he should there build a 
 church and convent, to which house the possessions pre- 
 viously conceded to the convent of our Lady of the New 
 Place, should, with the consent of the canons of Guisbo- 
 rough, be transferred, and that it should be subjected to the 
 jurisdiction of the mother church of Durham. Stephen 
 and the canons w^ere at first conciliated by receiving posses- 
 sions elsewhere, but the worthy father, who seems to have 
 been reluctant to leave his new place upon the Brune, 
 afterwards resisted the execution of the arrangement. Le- 
 gal proceedings, the notices of which are very interesting, 
 w^ere however adopted, to compel the performance of his 
 promise to relinquish the charters of the monastery over 
 which he had for this brief time presided. The authority 
 of the Pope himself was brought to suppress further oppo- 
 sition ; and Father Stephen accordingly, in the presence of 
 Bertram, prior of Durham, renounced all the possessions of 
 his monastery into the hands of the monks of Durham, and
 
 FINCHALE PRIORY. 19 
 
 set to his charter of release the common seal with which his. 
 little fraternity were, even at this early period of their cor- 
 porate existence, provided.^ And thus the banks of the 
 Wear, instead of those of the Browney, were destined to be 
 adorned by a priory, and to be illustrated by the monastic 
 virtues. 
 
 Accordingly, in 1196, Henry de Pudsey, "inclining his 
 heart to do the will of God and to erect a house in honour 
 of His Name," was led to transfer to Finchale his pious 
 intentions, and the arrangement was confirmed by the 
 charter of Hugh the bishop. Its possessions then consisted 
 of the gifts transferred from the canons of the New Place, 
 of a small church, of the other buildings raised by the holy 
 anchoret, of a salmon fishery for the supply of their table, 
 of nearly the whole of the present Finchale farm, of three 
 acres of land at Bradley, and of two bovates of land at Sad- 
 berge, for their maintenance.^ The pious founder reserved 
 to himself and his heirs the right of appointing the prior ; 
 and in the above mentioned year, conferred the dignity upon 
 Thomas, the sacrist of Durham, who was thus the first to 
 hold an office which became afterwards of very high repute. 
 The founder also, by his charter, ordained a perpetual daily 
 distribution of alms, in bread, drink, and vegetables, among 
 paupers and divers indigent persons who should resort to 
 the monastery of Finchale. That the charitable purpose 
 of the donor was fulfilled as long as his monastery existed, 
 appears from the Valor Ecclesiasticus, a survey made when 
 a change, little foreseen by the pious founder and the 
 monks, befel the object of his affectionate solicitude. At 
 this melancholy period (ad. 1535) the sum of 9/. lOs. 
 yearly appears to have been payable by the monastery 
 under the charter of Henry de Pudsey. But to resume. 
 Pope Celestine, by bull dated at the Lateran on the 6th of 
 the nones of May, in the seventh year of his pontificate, 
 confirmed Henry de Pudsey's grant of Wyndegate, Hesse- 
 well and Heppedun" (Hetton-le-hole) to the house of 
 Finchale. And thus was the priory founded, in the place 
 hallow^ed by the chapel and hermitage of the holy Godric. 
 In the same place, possibly, the pious founder sought 
 the blessings of religion in retirement. At all events we 
 
 s Finch. Charters, p. 15. '' Ibid. pref. xiv. 
 
 c 2
 
 20 
 
 A VISIT TO 
 
 know' that within the peaceful walls which his piety had 
 caused to be erected, he was at length interred, in the 
 hope of a joyful resurrection and of that heavenly sanc- 
 tuary and presence where the " righteous shall be in ever- 
 lastiniz; renieinbrance. ' 
 
 Within tlie first fifty years after Henry de Pudsey had 
 thus established the monks at Finchale, the greater part of 
 their endowments w^ere conferred upon them. Of the ex- 
 tent of their ultimate possessions, the Account Rolls must 
 be looked to for accurate information, and in this sketch 
 it W'Ould not be interesting to readers, if we were even to 
 enumerate the places in which the monks of Finchale held 
 possessions.'' But the monastery was not richly endow^ed, 
 
 ■ Lei. Itin. viii. p. 52. 
 
 ''It may however be stated, tliat 
 besides the property granted to the 
 lierniitage by Bishop Fhiinbard, and 
 that wliicli was conferred by the cliarter 
 of Bishop Pudsey, and the manors of 
 Wingate and Haswell and the land in 
 Hetton, granted by their founder, Henry 
 de Pudsey, as alread}- mentioned, they 
 had land by iiis gift at Yokeflete, in the 
 East Riding of York (in the vill of 
 which place the pi'ior afterwards en- 
 joyed his free court and judicial privi- 
 leges) ; land at Bradley, which appears 
 to have been conferred on the monks 
 before Pudsey's foundation ; land in 
 Little Stainton ; at Wudeshend in the 
 parish of Chester-le-Street ; and a toft 
 and a croft at Brandun, in the parish 
 of Brancepeth; land and a fishery in the 
 adjacent territory of Coken ; land at 
 Hutton, in the parish of Hesleden ; 
 land and a mill at Coxhoe ; land at 
 Sofiley, Spirlswood, and Lumley ; at 
 Iferymanside, near Coken-ford ; and at 
 Newton, near Durham; at Amerston, 
 in the parish of Elwick, and at Castle 
 Eden ; land and a rent-charge in the 
 manor of Thorj) (Tliorpthewles) ; at 
 Ilollinside, in the j)arish of Whickham ; 
 at Iveston, in the i)arish of Lanchester ; 
 at " Yupeton," and at Smallees, in the 
 parish of Wolsingham ; the fishery of 
 Crok, in the Jyne ; connuon of pas- 
 ture at Bakestaneford, ajid a house in 
 the North Bailey, at Durham ; rent- 
 charges from Hartlepool, N<'lst()n, Em- 
 bleton, and several of the otlier places 
 already named ; burgages in Sunder- 
 land ; and wheat from Hart, and from 
 
 Owton, in "the parish of Stranton. 
 Amongst their possessions were the 
 advowson and appropriation of the 
 church of Gigleswic, in the West 
 Hiding, given by Henry de Pudsey, 
 and confirmed by the Bishop Hugh, 
 and the a])propriation of the church of 
 Bishop Middleham. As to the former, 
 we find (Finchale Charters, p. ()7), that 
 William de Percy, lord of the Percy 
 fee in Craven, and immediate ancestor 
 of the noble family of Percy of Nor- 
 thumberhmd (who died in 29th Hen. 
 HI. and was interred in the monastery 
 of Sallay, which had been founded by 
 his ancestors), granted to the monks of 
 Finchale, at some time between a.d. 
 1226 and 1229, a confirmation of the 
 advowson of this church. Amongst 
 other donations was the engagement of 
 Peter de Vallibus to sustain a light for 
 ever before the shrine of S. Godric, 
 which became the subject of a judicial 
 award by the Abbat of Newminster, 
 the Prior of Tyncmouth, and the Arch- 
 deacon of Northumberland, in the time 
 of Thomas Melsonby who became 
 Prior of Durham in 1233. (Finch. 
 Charters, p. 2G.) 'I'he charters of do- 
 nation and otherwise relating to the 
 possessions of Finchale, including epis- 
 copal and royal confirmations, occupy 
 from p. 1 to p. 1G9 of the volume pub- 
 lished by the Surtees Society. Amongst 
 the royal confirmations is one by Hen. 
 II., who, at Knaresborough, in the pre- 
 sence of Bishop Hugh de Pudsey and 
 other nobles, granted " Deo et Capelhe 
 de Finchalla" two bovates of land of 
 his demesne at Sadberge. Bishop Hugh
 
 FINCHALE PRIORY. 
 
 21 
 
 and the subjection of its lands to plunder in the Scotish 
 wars and invasions, occasionally reduced its revenues 
 greatly, and at times rendered them very precarious. And 
 yet, at the dissolution, the gross yearly income of the 
 priory was valued at a sum equivalent to nearly £2000 of 
 our present money. 
 
 The revenues which the monks derived, were not, how- 
 ever, sufficient, for nearly half a century after their foun- 
 dation, to enable them to commence the erection of a larger 
 church. But when, under their paternal rule, forests were 
 cleared, fields brought into cultivation, and an industrious 
 peasantry raised up on the convent lands, their revenues 
 increased ; and in 1 24 1 , the good fathers, who, unlike 
 some cathedral dignitaries and richly beneficed clergymen 
 in modern times, thought always of the honour of God, and 
 never of personal aggrandisement, resolved to rebuild the 
 church, and extend the monastic edifices at Finchale. We 
 have not any information as to the number of monks 
 included in the fraternity at this time. Of their proceed- 
 ings, however, some very distinct traces are afforded in the 
 valuable series of indulgences granted to the faithful of 
 their respective flocks, by various English and Scotish 
 Bishops, for the purpose of obtaining their pious contri- 
 butions towards the good work. The various indulgences, 
 by means of which the men of the north were induced to 
 contribute money if they possessed it, and labour if they had 
 not money, to the new fabric, are all preserved at Durham, 
 and are under the seals of the various prelates. The 
 series begins in 1239, with an indulgence granted by Gilbert, 
 Bishop of Candida Casa (Whithern in Galloway),' which 
 records the dedication of the altars in the church of 
 Finchale ; the greater altar in honour of S. John the Bap- 
 tist, another in honour of the Blessed Virgin, and a third 
 
 de Pudsey was a veiy distinguished 
 Prelate of Durham. He held the high 
 offices of Justiciary of England and 
 Earl of Northumberland. His works 
 of public mimificence were many and 
 splendid ; and amongst them was the 
 addition of the Galilee or West Chapel 
 to his cathedral church of Durham. 
 He departed this life in 1195. 
 
 ' The bishop of the district of Gal- 
 loway, in Scotland, whose see was 
 situated at Whithern or Candida Casa, 
 being a suffragan to York, an inter- 
 
 course was thus established with Dur- 
 ham, and the bishops frequently visited 
 that place. In and after Godric's time, 
 the people of that diocese were wild 
 and barbarous. It would seem that a 
 state of things existed in this part of 
 Scotland, similar to that which has 
 prevailed during the agrarian rebellion 
 in Ireland; for in 1222, Adam, Bishop 
 of Caithness, was murdered by persons 
 from whom he had ventured to demand 
 the payment of tithes appropriated to 
 his church.
 
 22 A VISIT TO 
 
 in honour of S. Cutlibert. From an indulgence granted 
 in 1241, it appears, that the monks were then contem- 
 ])lating tlie construction of a new church. In 1242, the 
 work is spoken of as commenced. Another indulgence, in 
 1246, excites the pious to contribute "ad sustentationem 
 luminaris ecclesia? Beatte Mariee de Finchal." In 1248 the 
 new church was still in progress. William de Lanum, 
 archdeacon of Durham (who died in 1249), commanded 
 his clergy to persuade their flocks, on three separate Sun- 
 days, to contribute their aid to the fabric ; and referring to 
 the indulgences granted, he adds, that every contributor 
 would participate in the advantages to be derived from the 
 religious services of the mother church of Durham and all 
 her cells.'" In 1254, the monks still required the aid of the 
 faithful in their work ; and Walter, Bishop of Durham, 
 confirmed the indulgences previously granted, and himself 
 granted an additional indulgence. On the feast of S. 
 Oswin, king and martyr, A.D. 1260, Henry, Bishop of 
 Candida Casa, then at Tynemouth, granted another indul- 
 gence ; and in the same year Robert, Bishop of Dunblane, 
 exhorts his flock to visit devoutly the church of S. John 
 of Finchale and the tomb of S. Godric. In 1266, Archi- 
 bald, Bishop of Moray, grants an indulgence towards sus- 
 tentation of " the lights and ornaments of the chapel of 
 S. Godric in Finchale, and the building of the window that 
 was to light it from the east." An indulgence granted in 
 127,5 by Robert de Insula, Bishop of Durham, lately Prior 
 of Finchale, is granted in favour of the newly erected altar 
 of S. Mary in that church. In 1277, Walter, Bishop of 
 Rochester, sojourning at Finchale, granted a similar indul- 
 gence ; and the series ends, in 1288, with an indulgence 
 granted by Alan, a bishop whose diocese was the far- 
 remote and storm-swept promontory of Caithness, to all 
 who should devoutly give alms at the altar of S. Mary in 
 Finchale." 
 
 The last of the above-mentioned indulgences that speaks 
 of the work as unfinished, bears the date of 1264. 
 
 An episode, connected with personal history, here invites 
 
 "' The money to be collected was to small amount of historical information, 
 
 be paid to tho archdeacon at bis occuj)}- from pa^c 109 to page 191 in 
 
 visitation. the volume of Finchale Charters already 
 
 " These documents, whicli afford no cited.
 
 FINCHALE PIUORY. 23 
 
 our attention. In 1260, while the monks of Finchale were 
 raising their new church, their prior, Robert de Stichill, 
 was raised to the princely episcopate of Durham, to which 
 he was elected by the voice of the convent of that place. 
 He was bred a monk there, and in his youth had committed 
 some faults ; but, warned to repentance, an entire change 
 took place in his character, and his merit became the foun- 
 dation of his future honours. With the northern nobles in 
 general, he espoused the cause of Henry HI. throughout 
 the barons' wars ; and he who had led a peaceful life and 
 rule in the tranquil seclusion of Finchale, was called upon, 
 as bishop, to array the force of the palatinate beneath the 
 banners of his Sovereign. 
 
 " In peace, love tuned the shepherd's reed, 
 In war, he rode the warrior's steed." 
 
 Out of the forfeited possessions of Peter de Montfort 
 within his see, he founded the hospital of Greatham ; and 
 he erected Howden into a collegiate church. He conducted 
 himself towards the monks with kindness and moderation. 
 Having been overtaken by a mortal illness at Arbreules, in 
 France, on his return from a general council at Lyons in 
 1274, his remains, were interred in a neighbouring convent 
 of Benedictines, and his heart was brought to be deposited 
 among his beloved fraternity in the chapter-house of his 
 church of Durham." To the great honour of the fraternity 
 of Finchale, he was succeeded by another prior of that 
 monastery ; and immediately on the death of Bishop Robert 
 de Stichill becoming known, Robert de Insula was elected 
 to wear the vacant mitre. He probably assumed a name 
 from Holy Island, the place of his birth. Mr. Surtees 
 suggests that it is not improbable that he was at first 
 employed in a menial office in the convent ; his merit, 
 however, led to his being professed a monk, procured for 
 him the confidence of his brethren, the rite of ordination, 
 and ultimately the honour of elevation to the episcopal 
 throne. It was he who conferred the church of Middle- 
 ham on his former brethren of Finchale. To his motherP 
 
 ° Surtees, History of Durham, I, attained the mitre, he gave to lier a 
 
 XXX. On the day of his funeral his train of servants and an honourable 
 
 seals were broken and offered to St. establishment ; but, as appears from 
 
 Cuthbert. an anecdote recorded by Rlr. Surtees, 
 
 n Her situation in life had been ex- she became wearied by homage and 
 
 tremcly humble ; but when her son want of occupation.
 
 24 A VISIT TO 
 
 he cherisljed a dutiful atl'ection. To his spiritual mother he 
 was not less dutiful. He enacted in synod several eccle- 
 siastical constitutions, and took an active part in the public 
 events of his day. He departed this life at his castle of 
 Middleham, on the 9th of June, 1283, and was interred in 
 his chapter-house. It is honourable to the monastic cha- 
 racter of olden time, that, although enthroned at Durham, 
 
 " Where valour bowed before the rood and book, 
 And kneeling knighthood served a prelate lord," 
 
 many of the monks (including these worthy priors of 
 Finchale) who were elected to the high office of Bishop of 
 Durham, carried with them to the palatine throne the 
 piety and humility of the cloister. " The court of Dur- 
 ham," says Mr. Surtees (who is speaking of the splendid 
 pontificate of Anthony Beke, the next successor of Robert 
 do Insula) " exhibited all the appendages of royalty ; and 
 he appeared as the military chief of a powerful and inde- 
 pendent franchise. Nobles addressed the palatine sovereign 
 kneeling; and instead of menial servants, knights waited 
 in his presence-chamber and at his table." But although 
 the regal prelates of Durham thus maintained palatial 
 dionity, and were surrounded by the habitual luxury of 
 state, they did not forget the exercise of Christian virtues. 
 They maintained likewise a princely hospitality, and dis- 
 pensed a charity that knew no bounds ; their personal 
 temperance was exemplary ; through their works of public 
 munificence their liberality has come down to our time in a 
 perennial stream ; their lives were devoted to the interests 
 of religion ; and, under their rule, the service of the Most 
 High was provided for with suitable and stately magni- 
 ficence. But we are now becoming familiar with docu- 
 ments which shew that the monks of old have not always 
 had justice done to their memory, and which aflford 
 evidence of more piety and more intelligence in the inha- 
 bitants of the cloister, than some scoffing historians of 
 modern years would wish us to believe. 
 
 But to return to the ecclesiastical buildings of Finchale, 
 which, during these pontificates, had attained completion. 
 The monks entirely rebuilt their church, and the only trace 
 that remained of their tbrmer edifice, was the tomb of S. 
 Godric; which, says Mr. Raine, if an opinion may be formed
 
 FINCHALE PRIORY. 25 
 
 from the portions of it that were discovered during recent 
 explorations in the church, was of the altar form, and bore 
 the stamp of Norman architecture. Of the church so 
 built, considerable portions remain, notwithstanding the 
 extent of the alterations made in later periods. The por- 
 tions so remaining are precisely in that style of architecture 
 which prevailed during the period of the indulgences 
 already mentioned. With the exception of mouldings in 
 the doorways of the nave and the refectory, and of the capi- 
 tals of pilasters of the eastern lights, which were originally 
 lancets, of the (double) piscina near the high altar, and of an 
 Early English capital of a pier aisle on the north side of 
 the chancel, there is an absence of the elaborate ornament 
 so frequently found in Early English buildings. To the 
 decorations mentioned, we should add another relic of this 
 early church, viz. an elegantly carved boss or keystone of 
 the groining of the tower, ornamented with an oak branch 
 and acorns, which is preserved in the prebend's house 
 adjacent. In its original plan, the church of Finchale was 
 cruciform, consisting of chancel with north and south aisles, 
 nave also with north and south aisles, and north and south 
 transepts which had a tower at the intersection, supported 
 on pointed arches of beautiful proportions springing from 
 massive cylindrical piers. A winding stair, the only one 
 in the church, and which probably led to a gallery, is within 
 one of the piers already mentioned — the pier in the north 
 Wv^st angle. The tower, 
 
 " Whence time has heard the peal rung out by night," 
 
 was surmounted by a low and heavy stone spire, which was 
 standing in 1655, and probably later.i 
 
 But before the expiration of a century and a half from 
 the completion of this Early English church, the fabric 
 underwent great alterations. The monks contracted its 
 dimensions, by filling up the piers between the choir and 
 aisles and the nave and aisles with masonry, in which they 
 inserted lofty windows of the (decorated) period. Some 
 historians assign 1364 as the date of these extensive alter- 
 ations. The masonry so inserted is of a stone different to 
 and less enduring than that which forms the original fabric, 
 
 1 A representation of it forms one of the plates in Dugd. Men. Angl. 
 
 oiig. edit. p. 512.
 
 26 A VISIT TO 
 
 and the masonry is of a rough and very inferior character. 
 Of the niullions and tracery of the windows, however, the 
 one entire window and the many portions of other win- 
 dows remainino;, exhibit good workmanship. Traces remain 
 of the roofs of the aisles, which were severed from the body 
 of the church by these alterations. There appears also to 
 have been a chantry chapel eastward of the north transept 
 and entered from it. Of the causes which led to the 
 alterations, we have not any information, but remembering 
 the troubled state of public aifairs for some time before 
 the period when those alterations appear to have been 
 made, and the outrages which were committed by the Scots, 
 and by the armies who consumed the produce of the con- 
 vent lands, it may, indeed, be conjectured, tliat the priory 
 of Finchale sustained injuries in some of these devastating 
 inroads, which the good monks found to be irreparable in 
 the impoverished state of their revenues, otherwise than by 
 contracting the original dimensions of their fine abbey- 
 church. On this occasion, the south aisle of the nave was 
 converted into the northern alley of the cloister. The 
 -account rolls for several years before 1369 contain dis- 
 bursements among workmen, and for materials, which shew 
 that some works of magnitude, not only in the church but 
 also in the monastic buildings and domestic offices, were in 
 progress. These classes of payments do not occur after 
 that year. In the annual accounts of the shrine-keeper at 
 Durham, under the year 1435, is an entry that 6s. 8d. were 
 " given to the fabric of the church of Fyncall.'"' The 
 account-rolls of Finchale itself, in that year, and for two or 
 three years before and after, do not notice the fact of any 
 works being in progress ; but that some repairs and alter- 
 ations were made about that time is apparent in different 
 portions of the ruins ; the peculiar alterations, however, 
 which were made in the aisles, as already mentioned/ 
 belong to the previous century. From the time they 
 were effected, therefore, the church consisted merely of 
 the chancel, the nave, and the transepts. 
 
 The altar in the south transept, which was dedicated to 
 
 ■■ Rainc's S. Cutlibcrt, Ito. p. 151. octagonal pillars wore removed from 
 
 * When, at the time of these altera- the south side of the nave, which have 
 
 tions being made, the pillars and arches been built into an adjacent shed. 
 
 were inclosed in the new masonry, two
 
 FINCHALE PRIORY. 27 
 
 S God lie, stood immediately under the spacious decorated 
 window in the eastern wall, which probably occupies the 
 place of the window, which, as we have seen, was built in 
 1266. Of this splendid fabric, parts of the tracery remain. 
 
 '• A mighty window, hollow in the centre, 
 Shorn of its glass of thousand colourings, 
 Through which the deepen'd glories once could enter — 
 Streaming from off the Sun like seraph's wings — 
 Now yawns all desolate." 
 
 Under the tomb in front of this altar, which had been 
 supposed to cover the remains of the patron saint, were 
 found, in 1836, the bones of a very tali man which appeared 
 to have been interred without a coffin. They were there- 
 fore, not the bones of S. Godric, whom Reginald describes 
 to have been of low stature. A few glazed tiles were found 
 near the shrine, and these probably had known the foot- 
 steps of pilgrims long departed. The north and south 
 transepts are exactly equal in length and width. The 
 chancel is longer than the nave. The western doorway is 
 of good Early English work ; above it have been three 
 lancets, as indicated by the splays remaining, and these 
 do not appear to have given place to decorated windows. 
 The walls are of great thickness. Four pillars on either side 
 supported the arches of the nave; they are alternately round 
 and hexagonal, with roll capitals. The massive cylindrical 
 pillars at the intersection of the cross, have octagonal 
 capitals, and form a square, 21 feet in diameter. Two 
 beautiful lancets remain in the north transept. The east 
 wall of the choir has totally fallen : originally it was 
 pierced for lancet windows, but a decorated window appears 
 to have been inserted at a later period. A circular turret 
 still crowns the south-east gable. There are two pillars in 
 the choir on either side, supporting three arches, which have 
 been filled up with masonry, pierced by a decorated win- 
 dow : in the choir the columns were all circular. Portions 
 of the canopy of the sedilia remain, and there is a very 
 fine double piscina, surmounted by a shelf within the 
 canopy. Since 1830, this interesting fabric has been par- 
 tially cleared from the fallen masonry and the rubbish 
 that had accumulated since the dissolution ; but heaps 
 of fragments have yet to be removed — for there is no
 
 28 ,. A VISIT TO 
 
 hope that they will be reunited. When the dehris was 
 removed from the base of the tower piers, there appeared 
 part of what was, probably, the rood screen. It was covered 
 in plaster, diapered, the ground yellow, the pattern seme 
 of five foils, gules. 
 
 The arrangement of the monastic buildings of the priory 
 of Finchale was very similar to that of the buildings at 
 Durham, though on a much smaller scale. They all date 
 from about the middle of the thirteenth century to a.d. 
 1500. The cloister is a quadrangle, of which the wall of 
 the nave forms the north side : its architecture is probably 
 as early as 1250. The monks' walk extended round this 
 square, and was a covered cloister. On the east side of this 
 quadrangular inclosure, immediately adjoining the south 
 transept, and partly lighted from it, was the chapter-house. 
 The doorway is beneath a pointed arch, having a lesser arch 
 on either side.' The refectory extended along a considerable 
 part of the south side of the cloister ; it was a magnificent 
 vaulted hall, 36 feet in length by 24 in width, lighted 
 from the south by six Early-English windows. Beneath 
 this hall is a crypt, with very remarkable groining, which 
 exhibits a fine specimen of Early-English work of this kind. 
 The crypt is supported by a row of four octagonal pillars, 
 without capitals, which extend down the middle, and from 
 these the groins are sprung. The pilasters in the walls 
 and the angles have moulded capitals ; it is about eight 
 feet in height, and has six small lights to the south. Unlike 
 some fine vaulted chambers beneath other portions of the 
 monastic buildings, this crypt is in fine preservation ; and 
 its sombre and shadowy aspect carries back the mind to 
 other days. Its deep gloom forms a startling contrast to 
 the sunny glow without. Returning to the light of day, 
 the doorway to the refectory from the cloister demands 
 attention. It is enriched by good mouldings. A flight of 
 steps leads beneath it into what was the hall of the refec- 
 tory. On the west side of this hall the remains of a fire- 
 place are very distinct; and on the same side is an aperture 
 which probably communicated with the buttery-hatch and 
 kitchen beyond : the garth on the south side of these 
 
 ' In the giouiul-phin of Finclialc, house is marked erroneously, it would 
 which is given in the volume of char- seem, further to the south, and the 
 ters and account-rolls, the chapter- library is made to occupy its place.
 
 FINCHALE PRIORY. 29 
 
 buildings was the orchard. The abbey cemetery occupied 
 a space southward of tlie choir aisle, bounded on the west 
 by the chapter-house, library, &c. ; on the south by the 
 guest-hall and chambers of the prior ; and towards the 
 east looking upon the river, whose waters — now flowing in 
 sunshine, now moving on in umbrageous gloom and hasten- 
 ing to the ocean — appropriately resembled the stream of 
 human life hastening onward to eternity. A passage led 
 to the cemetery from the cloister. On the other side of 
 that passage, the library terminated the range of buildings 
 to the south. This apartment appears to have occupied 
 the upper floor of a sort of square tower. Of the literary 
 treasures which were once collected within its walls, no list 
 has come down to us ; but a very distinct notice of the 
 proceedings by which they were supplied, is afforded by 
 the Burney MS., [310, folio, vellum,] in the British Mu- 
 seum ;" for a note inscribed therein states it to have been 
 written in Finchale by the hand of William du Stiphel, of 
 Bretagne, whom Ughtred de Boldon, Prior of Finchale, 
 *' himself," says Mr. Raine, "the most learned man of his 
 day," brought to Finchale as a transcriber. '^ Besides the 
 chantry chapel, already mentioned, of which the wall of 
 the north aisle of the choir and the east wall of the transept 
 formed two sides, which was lighted by a decorated win- 
 dow, and entered by a door from the transept, there was 
 a chapel at the gate. This edifice stood considerably to 
 the westward of the church. A mound composed of its 
 masonry alone marks its site. A foundation -charter relating 
 to this chantry was executed by Thomas, Prior of Dur- 
 ham, (probably Thomas Melsonby, who became prior in 
 1233,) from which it appears that he bound himself to 
 find a secular chaplain to celebrate, in the chapel of the 
 Blessed Virgin, in the house of Finchale, for the souls of 
 Geoffrey, the son of Hugo de J arum, his wife and ancestors, 
 and that this chaplain was to have his corody (allowance 
 for support) from the priory of Finchale, and a mark of 
 silver annually for- this service, charged on the rents of the 
 vill of Softley. 
 
 u This MS. contains Jerome's trans- Durham, where he wrote a large and 
 
 lation of Eusebius, Bede's Ecclesiastical fine MS. (of Lyra), wliich is now in 
 
 Histoi-y, and some other of the minor the library of the dean and chapter, 
 works of that ever venerable author. y Finch. Charters, p. 109, where the 
 
 * After finishing his employment at document, entitled " Fundacio Can- 
 
 Finchale, the transcriber proceeded to tariae ad Portam de FynchaH"is given.
 
 30 A VISIT TO 
 
 The prior's hall and chapel, entered by a winding stair 
 from an adjacent chamber which communicated with the 
 library, are in a state of confused ruin, and are for the most 
 part filled with masses of masonry covered with grass and 
 shrubs. Yet that chapel was, day by day, the hallowed place 
 of pious orisons, and that hall the scene of courtly hospi- 
 tality ; for there the nobles who occasionally visited the 
 secluded house of Fincliale, were entertained by the reverend 
 prior. Edmund, vulgarly surnamed Crouchback, second son 
 of King Henry III., and amongst his other titles, EarJ of 
 Lancaster, was at Finchale on the 4th December, 1285, 
 with several clerks, knights, and nobles ; and there, for 
 the health of his soul and the soul of his consort, 
 Blanche, Queen of Navarre, gave to God and the church 
 of the hermit saint, an annual rent of twenty shillings 
 from his mills of Emeldon, in Northumberland, *' ad sus- 
 tentacionem luminaris ecclesise antedicta3." This grant 
 was in the following year confirmed by Edward I.^ Other 
 instances might be cited to shew that nobles resorted to 
 the hospitable convent for entertainment, as well as did the 
 indigent to its gate for support ; — but alas ! — 
 
 " Long rolling years have swept those scenes away." 
 
 The apartments of the prior are built over vaulted 
 chambers of massive Early English structure. The prior's 
 chapel, which was on the south side of his chamber, termi- 
 nated the range of these buildings towards the river. The 
 window is of perpendicular work. On the north side of the 
 prior s chamber are the remains of a square tower. From 
 a front of it which faces the river, projects the lower part 
 of what has been a bay window, from which a succession of 
 reverend fathers may have gazed upon a view possessing 
 features of remarkable beauty. This window opens upon 
 the full sweep of the Wear, as it skirts the monastic 
 grounds, overshadowed by the murmuring woods of Coken, 
 and " places full in view such a combinatioji of rock, wood, 
 and water, as is surpassed only by the magic scenery of 
 Fountains and Bolton." The account-rolls contain items 
 
 '■ Henry of Monmouth, fourth earl, lumer cntour le corps Seinte Godriko." 
 
 created Duke of Lnncaster, in i;5")3 A confirmation of the cliarter was ob- 
 
 directed liis prccc])t to the bailiff of tained in i;572, from John, Duke of Lan- 
 
 Emeldoii, for tlic payment of this rent raster, King of Castile and Leon (Jolm 
 
 to the prior, " por la sustenauncc du of Ghent), and another from Henry V.
 
 FINCHALE PRIORY. 31 
 
 of expentlitiirc by the monks, for glazing a chamber called 
 the Douglas tower ; and this was probably the room with 
 the bay window which commands the enchanting view 
 described. The remaining portion of the window is 
 popularly called "the wishing chair." If it have any of 
 the virtue attributed to such seats, let all who sit there 
 wish to see these walls once more the abode of relisfion, 
 charity, hohness, and learning ! But, to return to the 
 history of this chamber, which was one of the best situated 
 apartments in the priory. To illustrate the origin of its 
 appellation, Mr. Raine remarks, that the Earls of Douglas 
 had much intercourse with the convent of Durham and the 
 cell of Coldingham, in which they occasionally held office 
 as seneschals, and that in journeying to the former, one of 
 them may have visited Finchale and have given his name 
 to the tower in which he was lodo-ed.* 
 
 To describe the arrangement and condition of the rest 
 of the monastic buildings, would be to extend this account 
 far beyond its prescribed limits. Suffice it to notice a 
 building in which it has been the fashion for self-indul- 
 gent, arrogant, and scoffing puritanism, to pretend that the 
 monks spent most of their time ; but where, in fact, they 
 were found for very few hours out of the twenty-four, 
 namely, the dormitory. This would seem to have been a 
 range of building on the west side of the cloister, sup- 
 ported by vaulted chambers, one of which, yet remaining 
 on the right of the western front of the church, probably 
 was the exchequer of the convent, or the celerar's lodging; 
 and here, probably, was the entrance to the cloister and to 
 the rest of the monastic buildings. From the account-rolls 
 it appears that there was a chamber in the priory which 
 also deserves mention. It was called the " plaerchambre," 
 and was appropriated to dramatic representations, and to 
 the assembly of the monks to hear the minstrels and glee- 
 men, who were welcome guests within the walls of the 
 monasteries. 
 
 Of the priors of Finchale themselves, we have little room 
 
 * There may, adds the reverend called the owner of the priory, and lie 
 
 editor of the account-rolls, have been has manifested /us taste by doing much 
 
 an Earl of Douglas who was able to to preserve its venerable ruins, and 
 
 appreciate a scene so fair. A clergy- to free parts of the church from the 
 
 man who bears that name is now, in accumulated desecrations of three cen- 
 
 right of his stall in Durham cathedral, turies.
 
 32 A VISIT TO 
 
 to speak on this occasion. The names of fifty of these 
 reverend fathers are on record. Two became bishops of 
 Durham, as ab*eady mentioned ; and another, viz. Richard 
 Bell, who was prior from 1457 until 1464, became Bishop 
 of Carlisle in 1478, and died in 1496, aged 86, and was 
 interred in the choir of his cathedral church. By a dis- 
 pensation from Pope John XXIII. to the church of Dur- 
 ham, he was ordained priest when only twenty-two years 
 of ao'c. Uo-htred de Boldon, Prior of Finchale, who has 
 been already mentioned, was a very eminent person m his 
 day. He became prior on the 25th of August 1367, and 
 held the office until 1372. In 1374, Edward III. selected 
 him for an embassy to Rome ; and in the following year he 
 again occurs as Prior of Finchale. He w^as not only a 
 judicious patron of literature, but was himself the author 
 of a considerable number of works.'' 
 
 The prior, sub-prior, and celerar of Finchale were 
 appointed by the prior and convent of Durham. « The 
 monks at Finchale were monks of Durham, and were 
 removed from cell to cell at the pleasure of the prior of the 
 mother church." The number of monks sojourning at 
 Finchale seems to have varied from time to time; in 1317 
 there were nine ; in 1408, the fraternity numbered eight 
 monks ; and at the dissolution, according to one account, 
 the prior and eight monks constituted the convent. Leland, 
 however, says, that it then comprised thirteen monks. In 
 the middle of the fourteenth century, they are reproved for 
 keeping a pack of hounds (which with the dignified secu- 
 lar clergy was a common habit) ; and a century after- 
 wards they had become so luxurious that they wore linen 
 shirts, an indulgence not within the rule of their order. 
 In 1387, an instance occurs in the history of this convent, 
 which illustrates one of the benefits that resulted from 
 monastic institutions. It happens to be recorded under 
 that year, that the prior maintained and clothed the son of 
 
 •» Lists of his writings are given by "^ A letter written by that dignitary, 
 
 Pits and Leland. Amongst the MSS. in the middle of the 15th century, al- 
 
 of the Dean and Cliapter of Durham, ludes to misconduct, for which the of- 
 
 we find "Duo Tractatus Utredi Mo- fending monk was punished by not being 
 
 nachi Dunohnensis, de Substantialibus addressed in tlie usual way, and by not 
 
 Regulse Monachalis et de Perfectione being peniiitted to shake hands with his 
 
 Vivendi." brethren at Durham, on his road from 
 
 " Finch. Charters, ut sup. pp. 28, Lythum through Durham, to Finchale. 
 
 31, 32, 34. « Lei. Itin. vol. vii. p. 64.
 
 FINCHALE PRIORY. 33 
 
 a vassal, and sent him to Durham school, with a mainte- 
 nance for six or for eight years, as his case might require. 
 Again, the account-rolls contain many instances of sums 
 paid for special charitable purposes, as well as for ordinary 
 alms. In the Valo?^ Ecclesiasticus (which Survey was 
 made under the Act 26 Hen. VIII.), we find, under the 
 head of " elemosina," at Finchale, that of old time fifty 
 shillings were there paid in alms to two poor bedemen ; 
 and that " of antient custom" alms were there given and 
 distributed to the poor, " in ccena Domini et duobus diebus 
 sequentibus," 265. 8<:/., amounting to £34 3s. lU. yearly. 
 The alms then still distributed under Henry de Pudsey's 
 charter are also mentioned. In this place we cannot 
 pause to take even a rapid sketch of the rule which 
 governed the monastic life at Finchale; for the original rule 
 of S. Benedict, the statutes of S. Dunstan " the father of 
 monks," the statutes of Lanfranc, of the Council of Late- 
 ran, of Pope Gregory IX. (a.d. 1238), of Pope Benedict 
 XII. (a.d. 1336) and of provincial chapters, would all 
 require to be stated. Suffice it to say, that the hours 
 which the monks set apart for devotion every day were 
 many, and were inconsistent with self-indulgence ; their 
 diet was a continued round of self-denial ; their dress was 
 well calculated to repress pride, and their discipline to pre- 
 serve them from sin. They practised the virtues of humi- 
 lity and obedience ; as a monk could not individually pos- 
 sess property, he was not actuated by covetousness or 
 avarice — besetting sins of this commercial age ; their mo- 
 nastic wealth was devoted to the maintenance of a solemn 
 magnificence in the worship of God, to the encouragement 
 of arts and learning, and to the relief of suffering humanity. 
 But in 1535 that wealth was coveted by a profligate and 
 avaricious tyrant ; and the storm of devastation that was 
 sweeping over the other monasteries of England, in that 
 year reached the secluded Priory of Finchale, together with 
 all the " lesser houses," viz. the monasteries whose annual 
 income was less than £200. The mandate of the spoiler 
 had gone forth that the venerable edifice, which more pious 
 sovereigns and a long succession of religious men had 
 affectionately laboured to sustain, should be rendered deso- 
 late ; their peaceful cloister echoed the unhallowed foot- 
 steps of his mercenary emissaries, and those antient walls, 
 
 D
 
 34 A VISIT TO 
 
 within which the praise of the Heavenly King liad day by 
 day for centuries, resounded, were stripped of all that was 
 saleable, and left unroofed and desecrated, to become the 
 heap of ruins that we see them now : — 
 
 " One holy Henry reared the Gothic walls, 
 And bade the pious inmates rest in peace ; 
 Another Hemiy, the kind gift recals, 
 
 And bids devotion's hallow'd echoes cease." 
 
 At the time of the dissolution of the m.onastery, the 
 yearly revenues were valued at £122 15s. 3c?. In the 
 26th Henry VHI. the church and the possessions of the 
 house were granted by the Crown to the dean and chapter of 
 the cathedral church of Durham, and now remain attached 
 to one of her prebendal stalls. Of the church-plate, vest- 
 ments, and reliques, which belonged to the monastery, no 
 account has come down to us.^ 
 
 In conclusion, a few words may be added touching 
 Coken, a fair and adjacent possession of Finchale Priory. 
 Galfrid Rufus, who was Bishop of Durham from 1138 to 
 1140, confirmed to the monks of Durham the vill of Coken, 
 with its manorial privileges, which iEUafus, a priest, had 
 shortly before given to that convent. In process of time, 
 says Mr. Surtees, the prior exchanged with the family of 
 Kibblesworth his lands in Coken for lands in Wolviston. 
 Petronilla de Cokyn the heiress, however, by several 
 charters, conferred all her land and woods and house and 
 possessions in Coken, on the monks of Finchale ; and thus 
 the chief portion of the vill — the inheritance of the Kib- 
 blesworths therein — became vested in the church of Finch- 
 ale. Tlie wood, between a grange that belonged to the 
 prior and the road from Lumley to Finchale, was called 
 Ferymanside ; and in 1476 Sir George Lumley released to 
 the monks of Finchale all his right therein, from Cokenford 
 to the anticnt dyke on the brow of the hill, near Love Oak, 
 thence eastward to Lumley-way, and thence southward by 
 the same dyke, till it reaches the Wear.^ The grange of 
 
 f From 1354, Henry de Pudsey's The volume of Finchale documents, 
 
 drinking cup is mentioned in several already cited, contains (at p. 36) the 
 
 annual inventories of the monastic record of a curious proceeding in a.d. 
 
 treasures of Finchale. 1474, when John Raynoldson and John 
 
 K Surtees's Hist. Durh. i. p. 206. Fery, of the vill of Coken, having in-
 
 FINCHALE PRIORY. 35 
 
 Coken, described as late parcel of the monastery of Dur- 
 ham, was sold by the Crown in 35 Henry VIII., and has 
 been long- held by the family of Carr, though not in the same 
 line. Early in the present century, the mansion-house 
 became, in consequence of revolutionary storms upon the 
 continent, the asylum of nuns of S. Theresa. This holy 
 sisterhood afterwards removed to the neighbourhood of 
 Darlington. The whole of the grounds lie within a pen- 
 insula, washed on three sides by the Wear, and separated 
 from the grounds of Lumley on the north by a rocky 
 dingle. The natural beauties of the spot were greatly 
 improved by the owners who were predecessors of Mr. 
 Standish in this property; although much of the solemn 
 character of the place has been lost by the fall of the old 
 oak wood. The walks are carried over deep wooded dells, 
 or along terraces on the brink of the Wear, at the base of 
 high cliffs ; while on the opposite side, closely surrounded 
 by rising grounds, stand the shattered ruins of Finchale 
 Priory, mantled by a profusion of ivy — 
 
 " which now with rude hixuriance bends 
 
 Its 'tangled foliage through the cloister'd space, 
 O'er the grey windows' mouldering height ascends, 
 And fondly clasps it with a last embrace." 
 
 ADDENDA. 
 
 The following passages are abridged and translated from 
 Reginald's Life of S. Godric, and are given consecutively in this 
 place, as illustrative of that antient specimen of monastic biography, 
 and of the foregoing Sketch : 
 
 Having chosen a seafaring life with all its toils, he became distinguished 
 for the uprightness of his dealings. His frame was robust, and his health 
 good, and he excelled other men in his capacity for long and assiduous 
 attention to the occupations of business. That, moreover, which bodily 
 strength would not have sufficed to effect, was rendered easy of accomplish- 
 
 curred excommunication by reason of of their penitence, ordered them to do 
 
 having violated the liberties of St. Cuth- penance in the cathedral church, and 
 
 bert, appeared at Dm-ham before the then forgave them. Another offender 
 
 prior, at whose feet they fell ; and from Coken, on the same day appeared, 
 
 praying to be absolved from the dread- and with tears bewailed his fiuilt, and 
 
 ful sentence, submitted to the penance he was sentenced to do penance at 
 
 and correction he might prescribe. Finchale. 
 The venerable father on being assiu'ed 
 
 D 2
 
 36 LIFE OF 
 
 ment by the skill and knowledge which long experience had given to him, 
 and by a prudent habit of forethought. The Lord was always in his 
 thoughts, and he was sedulously careful to raise the eyes of his mind 
 towards God, ^yho preserved his footsteps and delivered him from peril, 
 Who protected him from tempests and from the attacks of robbers by land 
 and pirates by sea, as well as from the treachery of his associates and the 
 evil designs of those who would have led him astray. The Lord more- 
 over gave him strength to resist and to conquer, and grace that his soul 
 shoidd not be subdued by the body. In all things he learned, that wis- 
 dom becomes more powerful by trial ; and whatever transgression he had 
 committed in his youth was made a means of his advancement in virtue 
 afterwards. 
 
 In his long voyages, going and returning frequently across the blue 
 waters of the sea, he had visited many holy places. Amongst these, it 
 was his custom to visit the famous abode of the holy Apostle Andrew, 
 which is situate on the antient frontiers of Scotland, and there he fre- 
 qi^ently offered vows that were prompted by his devotion. So, also, being 
 a merchant and wayfarer, he many times touched at the island of Lindis- 
 farne, where that most pious confessor of the Lord, Cuthbert, formerly held 
 his episcopal seat, having previously led for a long time the solitary life 
 of a hermit on that spot. There, hearing of the wonderful acts of God 
 displayed in his Saint, he began in his heart to contemplate a design of a 
 similar kind, to think of solitude, and of changing the objects of his life ; 
 and from that time he began to set a much lower value upon the profits of 
 traffic. And here, when resting on his travels, he bent his knee, or kiss- 
 ing the ground, frequently prostrated himself as a suppliant, and with 
 hands hfted up towards Heaven implored the clemency of God, while, in 
 the fervour of devotion he recalled the wonderful acts of the Almighty, 
 saying, " Here, Cuthbert, the man beloved of God, offered sweet prayers 
 to Christ, minghng them with his tears; here lowly bending he cast him- 
 self before the Lord ; here he felt the refreshing embrace of sleep ; here 
 with his holy feet he pressed the earth ; here he drew water from the 
 stony rock." [Lib. impress. Vit. et Mir. S. Godr. p. 30 seq.] 
 
 While he was in doubt as to the manner in which the mercy of God 
 would dispose of him, he walked alone through desert places, and entreat- 
 ed of the Lord that He would direct his actions. Having invoked 
 S. Cuthbert, whom he always reverenced with devotion, the voice of an 
 unseen being was heard, saying, " Go, to be crucified with the Lord, 
 again to Jerusalem, and on your return from thence, seek a place in the 
 woods near Durham and named Finchalech ; for this is the will of 
 S. Cuthbert whom you have invoked, since he wishes that hereafter thou 
 be not separated far from him." While he was listening to this voice, he 
 beheld on turning towards the right hand a venerable man clad in episco- 
 pal vesture, who said to him, " I am Cuthbert, the bishop, and am now 
 about to be thy patron in all thy wants and necessities. Wherefore, when 
 thou shalt have fulfilled the labours of the journey aforesaid, thou shalt 
 serve the Lord under my protection in the place called Finchalech." 
 When the servant of the Lord eruleavoured to follow the form which he 
 had seen, he perceived that it was disappearing, and speedily it vanished 
 from his sight. Then returning to the city, he assumed the cross of the 
 Lord, placing it upon his shoulder, and it was consecrated with the 
 blessing of the priest. [Ibid. p. 52.]
 
 S. GODRIC. 37 
 
 On arriving at Finchale he beheld a place altogether wild, for it was 
 almost unknown even to the inhabitants of the neighbouring country, 
 and was the abode of the native vipers, and the hiding place of snakes. 
 But he did not entertain any dread on that account, nor did he fear the 
 nests of that multitude of vipers, nor the gloomy tombs that existed in 
 that uncultivated solitude. 
 
 Forasmuch as many foundations of ruined buildings are observed to 
 remain in that place, overgrown by the grassy turf, and heaps of the 
 bones of men are frequently discovered under the ground, when it is 
 turned up rather deeply by the spade, it appears that many a habitation 
 of men may have existed there. But, besides the indubitable traces of 
 these tombs and foundations, the holy man sometimes saw visions of the 
 deceased, which shewed to him very evidently what kind of intercourse 
 it was that he held in that place. 
 
 This spot is situated in the deepest hollow of a valley, which is encircled 
 on the three sides mentioned before, by rocks and lofty cliffs, rising above 
 the bank of the river, on the opposite side to that on which he lived. A 
 central plot of land is thus naturally inclosed by those lofty rocks, which 
 are so high as to resemble a mountainous ridge when viewed from 
 beneath, and appear on every side to impend and overhang in altitude 
 like lofty towers. But below, in the circuit of that deep valley, there is 
 a certain plain, where there lies an open space surrounded by a wood ; 
 this space is very beautiful, though of moderate extent ; and in this the 
 man of God constrvicted the place of his abode, near the course of a 
 stream abounding with fish. [Ibid. p. 70.] 
 
 The soldier of Christ began to construct new buildings for himself. At 
 first he erected a small house of unhewn branches and twigs, which he 
 called the Chapel of the Blessed Mary, and which was situated on the 
 eastern side of the previous structure. A little ajjart from it, another 
 house larger than the former, was built towards the west. A wall 
 separated the chapel from the inner and secret abode in which he dwelt. 
 In the exterior house he kept certain implements that were suited to his 
 needful labours ; and apart he set up mill-stones, in which he ground the 
 corn that he had reaped, into the state of fiour, which he mixed with 
 water, and prepared with his own hands, kneading the paste by beat- 
 ing it. 
 
 So, after his little church of stone had been dedicated, he began, now in 
 the oratory of S. Mary, now in the church of S. John the Baptist, to 
 serve the Lord with the accustomed prayers. He made a cloister, 
 though it was small and humble ; the termination of it at one end was at 
 the door of the chapel of S. Mary, and the other was near the threshold 
 of the new chapel of S. John the Baptist; the whole of its fabric was 
 platted together on either side with twigs of hazel ; and it was closed with 
 a covering of the same kind, coated with rushes, dried grass, and clay. 
 
 He never passed a day in idleness, but every hour employed himself in 
 prayer, meditation, or good works ; for he knew that idleness is an enemy 
 to the soul, and that he is guilty of folly who does not labou)- in summer 
 that his axe may rest in winter. He was sowing, that he might reap the 
 harvest of an eternal reward ; and he did not rest from his work either in 
 summer or in the severity of winter. In nights that were chilled with 
 frost, when the cold was piercing and the snow deep, he went to the 
 bank of the river, and having cast off all his raiment, he entered the
 
 38 LIFE OF S. GODUIC. 
 
 water, and, remaining therein, he offered himself a living sacrifice to the 
 Lord. There was in that place a rock hollowed by the waters, which, at 
 the bottom of the river, as may now be seen, presented a wide concavity 
 like a vase of stone, but it was fashioned by nature alone, without the aid 
 of any artificer or mason. Having entered into this, and standing in the 
 water until it reached his neck, he recited psalms, and poured forth 
 prayers with many tears, his hands raised towards Heaven. Neither rain, 
 or llood, or fall of snow, interrupted this his accustomed discipline, which 
 he usually practised on the night of every Sabbath-day ; and by this 
 kind of nuvrtyrdom he com})elled the flesh to obey the spirit. 
 
 In the time when Geoffrey presided over the Church of Durham, the 
 rain once fell in floods so great that the waters rose above their accus- 
 tomed bounds, and carried away all the bridges over the river Wear, and 
 the houses near them. The water not only overflowed the meadows, and 
 carried away the hay and corn that were stacked in large ricks in the 
 fields, but its force tore up the oaks that stood on the banks of the river. 
 The man of God, who had made for himself a cell not far from the 
 river, was devoting himself to prayer within it, while the waters were 
 rising over the locality, and at length covered his buildings. The faithful, 
 coming thither from the neighbourhood, alarmed for his safety, bewailed 
 him as one who was dead. His cell was of such age, and so fragile, that 
 they did not suppose it could resist the force of the waters ; and all feared 
 that the man of God had been carried away into the torrent, and over- 
 whelmed amidst the rushing waters. But when, after a few days passed 
 away, the deluge abated, the man of God, with all his buildings, were 
 found to have escaped uninjured. Then his friends and neighbours in 
 astonishment enquired of him how he could have so escaped ? To whose 
 enquiries he replied, that during all the flood he was assiduously employed 
 in his exercises of devotion, and that the waters had not touched him 
 nor entered his buildings. The assembled neighbours finding that all 
 which belonged to him was uninjured by the water, knew that he was 
 indeed the faithful servant of God. These facts were related to us by 
 one who knew and saw them, namely, Wibert the soldier, grandson of 
 Rannulfus the Archdeacon, whom Bishop Geoffrey had sent thither at that 
 time with companions to search for the corpse of the man of God, for they 
 believed that he had been swallowed up by the waters. 
 
 The mercy of Almighty God ever manifests divine wonders to approve 
 the merits of His servants. The river Wear, when swelled with a sud- 
 den inundation, on another occasion rose over the banks of its channel, 
 covering the land adjacent, and threatening to overwhelm the buildings 
 of the servant of God. Going out from thence towards the river, with a 
 rod, which lie stretched forth in his right hand, he commanded the waters, 
 in the mighty Name of the Lord Jesus Christ whom he served, to retire 
 from his edifices and rise against the rocks on the opposite side of the 
 river. Soon, therefore, the torrent humbly obeyed him, and served him 
 doubly, for it not only did not pass the limit of his prohibition, but raging 
 among the rocks on the opposite shore, tore away a multitude of stones 
 of which the Church of S, John such as it is now seen was afterwards 
 built, to the honour of (Jon and in remembrance of this miracle, which 
 has been communicated to us l)y trust-worthy men who witnessed it.
 
 39 
 
 AVISIT TO DENTON, RYTON, 
 
 THE CASTLE & VILLAGE OF PRUDHOE, 
 
 AND THE 
 
 PARISH CHURCH OF SAINT MARY AT OVINGHAM. 
 
 A READER of English parochial topography must remember 
 that the writer was not in Rome; and, if in his little selected 
 region he finds an edifice of some architectural pretensions 
 and of some historic fame, or a spot remarkable for beauty, 
 or for beino; the scene of an historical incident which was 
 stirring and momentous to its former inhabitants, he may 
 be excused for magnifying their importance, and for dwel- 
 ling even with minuteness upon their features, since there 
 is not anything greater around him to engage his sympa- 
 thies or absorb his attention. And though he discourse 
 only of " a mound of earth raised by unknown hands, and 
 for some unknown purpose," his research is not in vain, if it 
 tends to throw a few rays of light upon the manners and 
 characters of generations passed away ; or excites in any 
 mind a feeling for antiquarian investigation which was not 
 felt before. Having said thus much by way of preamble, 
 the writer proceeds to describe what he saw on his visits to 
 the places above mentioned, (which were among the most 
 agreeable of his rambles in the " long bright golden days " 
 of the last summer,) and what history says about them. 
 
 Proceeding westward from Newcastle by the old Hexham 
 road, which is formed, as is well known, upon the founda- 
 tion of the wall of Severus, and is identical with the famous 
 Roman military way, first constructed (probably) by 
 Agricola, and improved by the first named Emperor; and 
 ascending from the heights above the village of Benwell 
 and the estate and mansion known as Benwell Tower, near 
 the site of the famous Roman station of Condercum, and 
 which, in later times, was probably the first place where 
 coals were raised in England ; we pass the head of a wide,
 
 40 A VISIT TO 
 
 deep, romantic clean, from whence the little hamlet of 
 Denton would seem to derive its name, and enter the 
 ])arish of Newburn. Denton Burn, at the foot of Benwell 
 hill, is made remarkable by a portion of the wall of Severus 
 being there visible — the only fragment that remains near to 
 Newcastle. It is said that two hundred yards of this cele- 
 brated wall were wantonly destroyed early in the present 
 century. In a field not far from Denton Hall, on the 
 south-west, three very antient sepulchral chambers or enclo- 
 sures, covered by a large stone, were lately discovered ; one 
 of them was full of bones, another contained a small urn, and 
 the third was filled with fine soft yellow sand.* Beyond 
 Denton Burn, the road again coincides with the wall ; and 
 in a sheltered valley, from which the view of the verdant 
 uplands, and of the hills on the south side of the river, is 
 very beautiful, stands Denton Hall, a mansion, the erection 
 of which may be attributed to the Elizabethan era, if not to 
 the reign of Henry VIII. It is situated on the north side of 
 the road, and is approached through a short avenue of fine 
 old trees. It is built of stone ; and its west and east 
 fronts — partially overgrown with luxuriant ivy — are of a 
 very picturesque aspect. The exterior of the edifice forms 
 a plain but interesting example of a manorial residence of 
 the period; but after entering the hall, the antiquary's hopes 
 are disappointed, for it has undergone the destructive 
 metamorphic process of modernizing; and this has been 
 effected without any regard to the date and character of 
 the fabric. The original windows, however, remain ; and 
 are divided into three, four, and five lights, by stone 
 mullions. But in this antique mansion and its pretty 
 gardens, we tread on ground which once knew footsteps 
 yet more venerable than those of its builders. History and 
 tradition indicate this spot as once occupied by the ministers 
 of religion ; and there is good reason to believe that a 
 chapel and grange were here maintained by the monks of 
 Tynemouth, when they were lords of this fair estate. 
 Traces of a chapel and a cemetery have been found in the 
 gardens. A slab incised with a memorial cross and sword 
 were discovered there many years ago ; and steps, supposed 
 to lead to a vaulted chamber, were disclosed in the course 
 
 " An account of this discovery is given in tlie Archseol. ^Elian. vol. i. p. 101.
 
 DENTON. 41 
 
 of digging for the formation of the pleasure garden to the 
 south of the hall. There is also a tradition of a subter- 
 ranean road; but of this the writer possesses no certain 
 information. The neighbouring tower of Benwell belonged 
 to, and was the summer residence of, the priors of 
 Tynemouth : adjacent to it, they had a small domestic 
 chapel, and interments at a later period took place around 
 it ; the chapel having been used, for many years after the 
 Reformation, for the good of the inhabitants of Benwell 
 Township, until it was discovered that the sacred edifice 
 interrupted the view from the mansion. Of the former 
 lay-owners of the manor of Denton, history affords few 
 glimpses. Of the builders of the hall itself, and the first resi- 
 dents therein, published works afford no information what- 
 ever ; but it is believed that there are MSS. and title deeds 
 in the Rokeby family which would elucidate these matters. 
 About A.D. 1240, the heirs of John Fitz Robert are stated 
 (in the Testa de Nevil) to hold of the king in capite the 
 barony of Whalton with its members, amongst which is 
 Denton ; and this manor, Hawise of Newham held by the 
 service of a knight's fee of the old feoffment. A carucate 
 of land in the vill of Denton was held by Robert de 
 Hephale, in 32 Edw. 1. as appears from the escheats of that 
 year; and Robert Fitz Roger occurs in those of 2 Edw. II. 
 as then seised of that vill. Members of a family which held 
 property here, and derived a name from it, are first 
 mentioned in the reign of Edw. II. In the ninth year of 
 that reign, John de Denton obtained from the king a grant 
 of the manor of Woodhorn.'' In the sixteenth year of the 
 same reign, he granted to the brethren of S. Augustine's 
 monastery in Newcastle, lands in Newcastle and Gateshead. = 
 Denton Chare, in the former town, to this day indicates the 
 site of a part of his possessions there. He departed this 
 life before 1325 ; for, on the eve of the festival of the 
 Purification in that year, the goods of the house of S. Edmund 
 in Gateshead were delivered, on the death of John de 
 Denton, late master of that hospital, to Roland Archbishop 
 of Armagh, his successor, by John de Pollowe and John 
 de Darlington, his executors.'* In 2 Edw. III. the king 
 
 ^ Rot. Lit. Pat. U Ed. II., par. 2, "^ Inq. ad quod damnum, 16 Ed. II. 
 
 m. 5. No. 99. 
 
 '' Surtees's Hist, of Durham, ii. 381. 
 
 y
 
 42 A VISIT TO 
 
 appointed John de Denton, jointly with Robert deTughale, 
 to collect his customs in the port of his town of Newcastle ; 
 and in the ninth year of his reign, the same king committed 
 to him the custody of the lands in the vill of Merdesfen, 
 which had belonged to David do Strabolgi, Earl of Athol.^ 
 In 11 Edw. III. the king granted to him the reversion of 
 the vill of Newbiggen, after the death of Mary de S. Paul, 
 Countess of Pembroke, yielding therefore £10 6s. yearly,^ 
 and also certain waste lands in Newcastle.* In the same 
 year (1336) he held the high office of mayor of Newcastle. 
 The family of Widdrington had a considerable interest in 
 the manor of Denton,*' and several transactions respecting 
 that manor with the family who derived their name from it ; 
 for, in 1327, John de Denton granted to Roger, brother and 
 heir of John de Widdrington, late lord of Denton, and their 
 heirs, an annual rent of five marks ; and in 1328, Sir 
 Geoffrey Scrope, baron of Whalton, confirmed lands in 
 Denton, as a manor within his barony, to the same Roger. 
 In 1334, Richard Halden, chaplain, gave to John de Denton 
 one whole moiety of that manor, and of tlie manor of 
 Redewode, near Newburn, with two tofts and two crofts 
 and thirty acres in Denton, for life ; paying to Roger de 
 Widdrington annually five marks ; with reversion, after the 
 death of the grantee, to John de Emeldon, son of William 
 de Emeldon, and of Agnes, who was the daughter of John de 
 Denton, and their heirs. Sir Gerard de Widdrington, in 
 1355, granted to Edmund de Widdrington, a yearly rent of 
 ten marks out of the manor of Denton. In 1380, Adam de 
 Fenrother, clerk ; William de Meryngton, chaplain ; Hugh 
 de Brandon, William de Chevyngton, and William de 
 Seton, by the King's license, assigned to the Prior and 
 Convent of Tynemouth, the manors of Denton and Rede- 
 wode, saving the annual rents of ten marks and one mark. 
 The former rent charge w^is, in 1382, acknowledged to be 
 in reversion to the use of John de Widdrington, heir of 
 Roger, to whom, in 1393, John, son of John, son and heir 
 of John de Denton, late burgess of Newcastle, released his 
 right in the lands in Northumberland, which belonged to 
 John de Denton his grandfather. The family of Widdring- 
 
 •^ Originalia, 9 Ed. III. '' Hodgson's Hist, of Northumber- 
 
 ' Ibid. 11 Ed. III. land, vol. ii. part ii. p. 22G. 
 
 8 Inq. ad quod dam. 11 Ed. III. 50.
 
 DENTON. 43 
 
 ton occurs as being in receipt of the rent of ten marks in 
 the reign of Henry VI. In the 31st year of that reign, the 
 Prior of Tynemouth let to Gerard de Widdrington all the 
 tithes which his father had held previous to that time, and 
 Gerard acknowledged that he was paid for the farm (rent) 
 of Denton to that time * In the Ministers' accounts after 
 the dissolution, Roger Errington, the bailiff for the Crown 
 in Denton, in 30 Henry VIII. accounts for quit rents from 
 tenants therein, amounting to £6 135. 4d.; for £20 for the 
 farm of a coal mine worked in the lordship of Denton, at 
 the rate of twenty chaldrons for every working day ; and 
 for £4 for the farm of a salmon fishery in the Tyne within 
 the manor. An account is preserved, in which Lancelot 
 Errington, who then held the same office, accounts for the 
 like particulars from 20 to 40 Elizabeth ; and for £26 13s. 
 4d. for the farm of two mines of coal within the fields of 
 Denton, w^hich were leased to him at that rent.'' Soon 
 after the Reformation, Denton was the residence of members 
 of this family (of Errington) ; and more than a century 
 afterwards, that is, in a book of rentals and rates with 
 proprietors' names taken in a.d. 16G3,' Mr. Gilbert 
 Errington occurs as owner of West Denton. From the 
 Erringtons, the estate passed to a family named Rogers ; 
 the estates of the last of whom were, about 1760, divided 
 amongst the representatives of the female heirsj and Denton 
 came to the Hon. Edward Montagu, who was eminent for 
 his acquirements in science. This gentleman married, in 
 1742, Elizabeth, eldest daugliter of Matthew Robinson, of 
 West Layton, Yorkshire, who became the celebrated Mrs. 
 Montagu. Her literary genius, talents, and beauty, were 
 themes of admiration ; and her conversation was sought by 
 the elegant, the learned, and the dignified of her time. 
 This distinguished lady resided long at Denton Hall, in 
 which she is said to have made many alterations ; and 
 while residing there, Dr. Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds, 
 Garrick, and other persons of immortal fame, were her 
 guests. Her hospitality embraced also the poor of her 
 neighbourhood. An instance is on record ; for on the 5th 
 of August 1770, she entertained, at Denton Hall, eighty 
 
 ' Hodgson's Hist. Noithumb., lit sup. ' Hodgson's Hist, of Nortlmmber- 
 
 ^ Hist, of Tyiicniouth Priory, Minis- land, ut sup. 
 ters" Accounts in Ajipondix, /;ff4-6/??«.
 
 44 A VISIT TO 
 
 boys and girls, who wore educated at her expense. Four 
 years previously, Mr. Montagu gave an entertainment 
 there to the workmen, on the winning of coal at West 
 Denton. Some of Mrs. Montagu's far-famed letters were 
 written from this spot. She departed this life on the 25th 
 of August 1800, in the 80th year of her age, having sur- 
 vived her husl)and for a quarter of a century ; and the 
 estate came to her nephew, Matthew Robinson Montagu, 
 who became Lord Rokeby, and in his lordship's successors 
 it still remains. This antique mansion thence derived the 
 designation of Montagu Hall. The present lessee is 
 Richard Hoyle, Esq. who resides here with his family, in 
 courageous defiance of the fact that possession of it is 
 claimed by a spirit. A gloomy chamber, rendered more 
 gloomy by the tradition that it is especially visited by the 
 spirit of Denton Hall, is called Johnson's chamber; and 
 an umbrageous walk beneath some lofty and venerable trees 
 seen from its window, is called Johnson's walk ; in conse- 
 quence of the great lexicographer having been fond of that 
 studious seclusion during his visits to Denton; and cer- 
 taiidy in the pale moonlight — 
 
 " With all the mystery by midnight caused," 
 
 it is a walk well calculated to be invested with " shadows 
 wild and quaint." But fame tells a startling tale; for that 
 this antique house is the abode of a mysterious guest, not 
 bidden by its living tenants, is firmly believed, not only 
 by the vulgar, but also by persons of education and social 
 rank — 
 
 " Now in the moonlight, and now lapsed in shade, 
 With steps that tread as heavy, yet unheard," — 
 
 the spirit of these walls pursues its shadowy walk. Nor 
 is its presence made known by sight only, since strange 
 noises are said to be heard. It is, however, a benevolent 
 spirit; for old pitmen are said to have declared, that they 
 have been warned by it to fly from impending danger in 
 the mine. Examples, supported by credible testimony, are 
 not wanting, in which apparitions have fulfilled some office 
 of warning or mercy, to beings yet amongst the living."* 
 
 "• One of the most interesting of Tourists," avouches in tlie following 
 these, is the tale which the reverend terms: — A gentleman was returning 
 author of " Ilierologus, v,y the Church to his house at Evesham, in Worces-
 
 DENTON. 45 
 
 And such may be the mission of this spirit. At all events, 
 many "more than credit the strange tradition." It is said 
 to take the form of a woman, and is familiarly known as 
 Barbara ; but what being of other days returned from the 
 regions of silence, or what beauty in the grave it represents, 
 and what its object, are questions of appalling mystery still 
 unsolved. Remembering the early connection of this pro- 
 perty with the great Benedictine monastery at Tynemouth, 
 it may be that the spirit, if spirit there be, is that of a 
 monk, who, like Byron's black friar, refused to be driven 
 away when his church was made the prey of the spoiler : — 
 
 " Though he came in his might, with King Henry's right 
 
 To turn Church lands to lay ; 
 With sword in hand, and torch to light 
 
 Their walls, if they said nay : 
 A monk remained, unchased, unchained ; 
 
 And he did not seem formed of clay ; 
 For he's seen in the porch, and he's seen in the Church, 
 
 Though he is not seen by day." 
 
 " But, beware ! beware ! of the black friar. 
 
 He still retains his sway ; 
 For he is yet the Church's heir 
 
 Who ever may be the lay. 
 He sweeps along in his dusky pall 
 
 As o'er the grass the dew : 
 And whatsoe'er may be his prayer. 
 
 Let our's be for his soul." 
 
 But it is now time to exchange the shady seclusion of the 
 antique Hall of Denton, with its romantic and supernatural 
 associations, for the glare of daylight, and that very unro- 
 mantic and utilitarian creation of modern days — the rail- 
 way ; and accordingly, we descend the road above the deep 
 
 tershire, one summer evening in the are two of tliem''' Shortly after pass- 
 late twilight, when, a short distance ing these men, the appai'ition vanished, 
 from the town, he saw, on the opposite Some time subsequently, it was dis- 
 side of the road, a friend whom he well covered that the two men had formed 
 knew to have been for some years dead : a design of robbing, on that particular 
 excessively terrified, he cpxickened his evening, the gentleman whom I have 
 pace, the figure did the same : he mentioned, and were only restrained 
 walked slowly ; the apparition followed from doing so, from the belief that he 
 his example : so the pair kept on, till was accompanied by a friend. . . . 
 they were almost in the town, when the "Who can tell," adds the relator, 
 gentleman in question saw two ill-look- " how often as real, though not so clear, 
 ing fellows crouching down at the side a benefit results from such agency ?" 
 of a hedge, and heard one of them say to [Hierol. p. 144.] 
 the other, " It won't do, Tom ; there
 
 46 A VISIT TO 
 
 dean already mentioned, to the station of the Newcastle 
 and Carlisle railway, at Scotswood, a short ride upon 
 which brings the wanderer to the picturesque village of 
 Ryton, which is situated on the south side of the river 
 Tyne, and in the county of Durham. 
 
 The village of Ryton" is well described by Surtees as 
 seated in a fair, fertile, widened vale, where the Tyne flows 
 broad and clear, free from the impurities of trade and 
 manufacture which darken his downward course. The 
 aspect of the village, which contains the mansions of some 
 resident gentlemen, is much more attractive and pleasing 
 than is the aspect of most Northumbrian villages, at least in 
 mining and manufacturing districts of the counties. There 
 is an air of comfort and of rustic quiet here, which is re- 
 freshing to the denizen of a busy, smoky town. He is 
 tempted to contrast the comforts of those whose lot is cast 
 in such healthful and contented spots, with the squalid 
 misery sustained by the unhappy artizans who are crowded 
 by the iron hand of poverty into the dismal and foetid depths 
 of narrow alleys, such as those which abound in Gateshead 
 and even in Newcastle (not to mention that " (bleary tract 
 of labour" called Ouseburn, near the latter town), where 
 the comforts, even the decencies of life are unknown ; and 
 which fester in heathenism, sin, and misery, while the 
 energies of society are engaged in forming new highways 
 for the strides of sordid speculation, and in building costly 
 temples of mammon. But let us not here indulge in such 
 painful reflections. 
 
 It is the beautiful prospect from the churchyard, which 
 first attracts the footsteps of the visitor to Ryton. A rich 
 foreground of wood and pasture slopes towards the river, 
 of whose broad bright stream the eye embraces a con- 
 siderable sweep, its waters washing the deep haughs and 
 meadow grounds on the Durham side ; whilst the northern 
 banks rise abruptly, the rising grounds partly enclosed 
 and cultivated to their summit, and diversified by various 
 pleasant objects ; while elsewhere — 
 
 lip the sunny banks 
 
 The trees retire in scatter'd ranks. " 
 " The first syllabic of this name, is an old British ajipellalion for water.
 
 RYTON. 47 
 
 The ancient parochial town of Newburn," distinguished by 
 its church tower, appears on a sheltered height on the 
 northern side, and the more distant landscape embraces 
 various hamlets : the mount of Heddon-on-the-Wall and 
 the woods of Wylam are to the west ; while to the east, the 
 heights above Benwell and Newcastle bound the prospect. 
 In a spacious enclosure, beautifully wooded, from which 
 the ground slopes abruptly towards the river, stands the 
 Church, an Early English structure of great beauty and 
 regularity, dedicated in honour of the Holy Cross. It is 
 approached under the shadow of lofty elms, and surrounded 
 by verdure. It consists of a well-proportioned chancel, 
 with priest's entrance on the south ; the splays of the door- 
 way and windows of this portion of the edifice being orna- 
 mented with Early-English corbels and other decorations ; 
 a nave with aisles, and a west tower surmounted by an 
 octangular spire. Its height is 108 feet. The principal 
 entrance is by a south porch. A doorway under a pointed 
 arch has been closed up in the north aisle. The high roofs 
 of equilateral pitch have given place to roofs less suitable 
 to the loftiness and solemnity of the edifice. The west 
 tower is supported on arches springing from clustered 
 pillars of early date. The chancel arch is lofty, and a 
 chancel screen of oak, carved in tracery of great beauty, 
 has been restored. The chancel is stalled on both sides in 
 oak. The drawback is, that, in some particulars we have 
 the semblance of costly material and workmanship without 
 the reality. In late times an east window, described as of 
 perpendicular work, having six lights, divided by a stone 
 transom, was inserted ; but recently, three lancet-windows 
 have been restored, and are in harmony with the original 
 lancets on the south side of the chancel. They have been 
 filled with stained glass. The windows in the aisles have 
 for the most part been modernized, but some remain, the 
 tracery of which is good. There was a chantry in honour 
 of the Blessed Virgin Mary in this church. The chaplain 
 occurs in a survey made in the time of Bishop Hatfield 
 
 " The Church of Nevvburn is of very the time of the Norman and the Plan- 
 
 antient dedication. The tithes of the tagenet monarchs, enjoyed many royal 
 
 parish were given, along with those of privileges and exemptions; but from the 
 
 St. Nicholas in Newcastle, to the time when the town of Newcastle 
 
 Church and Canons of S. Mary of became its rival in these, Newburn 
 
 Carlisle, by Henry I. The borough, in ceased to be a flourishing place.
 
 48 A VISIT TO 
 
 (1345 to 1381), but the foundation is unknown. A mes- 
 suage and eighteen acres, called S. Mary's lands, were 
 given by the lord of the neighbouring manor of Crawcrook, 
 for the support of a chaplain at this altar; and in 1498, 
 John Saunder granted a cottage, three acres, and a plot of 
 ground in Ryton, to William Clarke, chaplain, and his 
 successors, for the perpetual maintenance of a light before 
 the image of S. Mary. In the middle of the chancel, 
 before the place of the high altar, lies the recumbent effigy 
 of a nameless ecclesiastic; whose hands, elevated on the 
 breast, clasp a book bearing the effigy, probably of an 
 eagle, while his feet rest on a lion. The sculpture is good, 
 and the material seems to be Stanhope marble. There do 
 not appear to be any other monumental memorials of me- 
 diaeval time. Modern epitaphs abound, but few deserve 
 notice. One, on a brass plate in the north wall, com- 
 memorates Francis Bunney, Rector of Ryton and Arch- 
 deacon of Northumberland, who died in 1617 ; and is made 
 to say, that, having buried there his four sons, he hasteneth 
 to heaven after them. The reader will, therefore, not be 
 surprised to find that he was a great admirer of Calvin, a 
 famous preacher, and, as Wood adds, " a stiff enemy to 
 Popery." Another rector, the Rev, John Lloyd, 1765, is 
 stated to have been distinguished for his extensive learning, 
 and his fervent zeal for the Protestant religion, and the 
 rights and liberties of his country. How diflerent the brief 
 and touching memorial in mediaeval times, consisting, as it 
 usually did, of an invocation of the Saviour's mercy, and 
 the edifying symbol of the cross, with or without the name 
 of the departed !p 
 
 The earliest rector of Ryton, recorded by Surtees, is 
 William de Marghe, who was inducted a.d. 1254. Ano- 
 ther was Nicholas Gategang, Chancellor to Bishop Beau- 
 mont, a.d. 1334. The most distinguished rector of recent 
 times was Thomas Seeker, who resigned the ificumbency 
 in 1738, for the bishopric of Bristol, was translated to 
 Oxford in 1757, and became Archbishop of Canterbury in 
 1758. The Honourable Richard Byron, who was third 
 son of William, fourth Lord Byron, became rector in 1769. 
 He died 5th November 1811, aged 88. The venerable 
 
 p An old stone coffin of the ordinary form has been disinterred, and lies in 
 the church-yard.
 
 RYTON. 49 
 
 Archdeacon Thorp, some of whose ancestors were incum- 
 bents of Ryton, is now rector. The rectory-house and 
 gardens enjoy a sweet and appropriate situation. The 
 edifice is an excellent, spacious house, chiefly built by 
 Dr. Finney, who became rector in 1706. It stands in 
 comfortable, old, sheltered gardens, which have been im- 
 proved in the present incumbency ; yet, says Surtees, 
 without any affront to the genius loci, the house has not 
 degenerated into a mere lay residence (the frequent con- 
 sequence of modern ecclesiastical alteration), but retains 
 that sober yet cheerful aspect, which at once marks its 
 proper use and designation ; and, since Surtees wrote, a 
 like spirit has dictated the care of the church itself. A 
 reverent and jealous regard for the honour of the house of 
 God actuates the present incumbent ; and his gifts of carved 
 work for the sacred fabric appropriately perpetuate his 
 laudable feeling. A heavy western gallery, erected by a 
 company of smiths at Winlaton, has been taken away ; but 
 unsightly pues have yet to be removed, when a return 
 to correct taste and ecclesiastical feeling shall reject these 
 innovations. Bishop Fordham granted license to Thomas 
 de Gretham, Rector of Ryton, to carry a subterranean 
 aqueduct from Southwell, through the demesne land of 
 the Bishops of Durham (who were lords of the manor 
 of Ryton) to the rectory. In the adjacent, rural, secluded 
 churchyard, there is not any thing to disturb "the still and 
 mute sanctity of the grave." It is full of those soothing and 
 benignant influences of nature, which the fields and woods, 
 those " types of renovation and decay," offer to the notice 
 of the serious and contemplative mind. The sensations of 
 pious cheerfulness which attend our steps to the house of 
 God, are profitably chastened (says Wordsworth) in the 
 stillness of rural places, by the sight of the graves of 
 kindred and friends gathered together in that general 
 home towards which the thoughtful yet happy spectators 
 themselves are journeying. In the fair blossoms of spring, 
 succeeding to the season of suspended animation, in the 
 bright verdure of summer, in the richness of autumn, and 
 in the sweet air, with its wooing embrace. Nature must 
 here come forth to meet the mourner with most cheering 
 influences. And when the sun sets over those grassy 
 mounds, and descends to rise again in brightness, we view 
 
 E
 
 50 A VISIT TO 
 
 u type of the course of those departed spirits, who, 
 severed by the tomb, are, as we hope, shining more 
 brightly in celestial glory ; while in the perennial verdure 
 of the trees that spring from the clay, we seem to find an 
 emblem of 
 
 " The sweet and natural hopes that shall not die, 
 Long as the sun his gladsome course renews." 
 
 But, notwithstanding the fascinations of the place, we must 
 not linger in a sentimental mood. On the north side of 
 the church, embowered in wood, is a singular mount, on 
 which several trees are growing. It is upwards of twenty 
 feet in height above the level of the churchyard ; and, 
 though the ground slopes from it evenly on the side of a 
 deep wooded dell, it has been pronounced to be a barrow. 
 It has not been opened. Surtees says that a similar mound 
 near Bradley Hall was found to contain a hislvaen, or 
 square cavity, composed of rude stones set on edge, 
 enclosing some human remains. The sepulchral chambers 
 found at Denton were of similar character ; but it does 
 not appear that there were any traces of a barrow there. 
 The summit not only affords a charming prospect, but a 
 suitable seat for pensive contemplation, and to this spot the 
 good ecclesiastics who served the church of Ryton, no 
 doubt, frequently resorted. It would be difficult to find an 
 eminence above the Tyne from which the view is more 
 beautiful and pleasing, unless it be the sylvan eminence 
 known as the Priest's Seat, westward of the old Abbey of 
 Hexham, from which the view embraces the meeting of the 
 North and South Tyne, and a rich wooded valley. The 
 spire of Ryton Church, towering above the thick surround- 
 ing foliage, forms a picturesque object, visible from a great 
 distance. Returning to the village green, which is still 
 surmounted by a neat cross, we may call to mind, that, 
 when the renowned Wallace held the feast of misrule 
 and devastation in Northumberland, which lasted from 
 the 1st of November 1297, to the following Candlemas, 
 the village is said to have been burned ; and here it was 
 that, half a century later (in 1346,) S. Cuthbert ad- 
 monished David of Scotland, in a vision, to beware of 
 entering his sacred patrimony, and committing therein 
 the outrages that had marked his invading course to Hex- 
 ham. David disregarded the warning, but the fatal issue
 
 PRUDHOE CASTLE. 51 
 
 (to him) of the contest of Nevil's Cross, sufficiently punished 
 his temerity. The ancient tenures by which the men of 
 Ryton held the vill of the see of Durham, are mentioned in 
 that venerable survey — the Boldon Book, which was made 
 A.D. 1183.^ The greater part of the lands in the manor 
 are said, by Surtees, to be still held of the Dean and 
 Chapter, by lease or copy of court-roll. The common 
 forge, of which the dimensions were forty feet by twenty 
 feet, and the water-mill, held by the tenants in common, 
 are mentioned in Hatfield's survey. An inquisition taken 
 in 1344, states that from time immemorial there existed 
 at Ryton, a fishery called the Blacklough, belonging to 
 the bishop, and another called Cromwell, a third called 
 Whickham Draw-water, and another called the Rutyare. 
 The common belonging to the manor was of great extent ; 
 a division was made in 1638; and the whole of the allot- 
 ments are stated to be held by copy of court-roll, under a 
 rent of four-pence an acre, the mines beneath being reserved 
 to the See. Twenty acres were allotted to the lord's mill, 
 to provide horses for bringing corn. 
 
 Pursuing our course towards the west, we leave the 
 village of Wylam, on the northern bank of the river, and 
 passing through a beautiful country agreeably diversified 
 by wood and water, we arrive beneath the grey ruins of 
 pRCJDHOE Castle, which crown a proud height on the 
 south side of the Tyne, opposite to Ovingham, and occupy, 
 together with the moat and garden, three acres of ground. 
 The situation of this celebrated fortress is one of great 
 natural strength and rare picturesque beauty. The 
 language of the King in Macbeth,' may well be applied 
 to it : — 
 
 " This Castle hath a pleasant seat : the air 
 Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself 
 Unto our general senses :" — 
 
 As may also be the reply of Banquo : — 
 
 " the heaven's breath 
 
 Smells wooingly here." 
 
 Towards the river, the abrupt cliff is crowned by its mas- 
 sive walls, which are defended by bastions of amazing 
 
 1 By Bishop Hugh de Pudsey, ■■ Act. 1. sc. 6. 
 
 nephew of King Stephen. 
 
 E 2
 
 52 A VISIT TO 
 
 Strength. Mounting- the steep hill on which the fortress 
 stands, and passing under a screen of lofty and noble trees, 
 we enter the castle from the south. It is surrounded on 
 three sides by a moat or deep ditch, (the other side — the 
 northern — being so steep as not to require this defence), 
 and over this ditch a draw-bridge gave access to the castle, 
 probably in the place which is now occupied by a tongue 
 of land connecting it with the road. The outward gate 
 appears to have been built in the form of a tower, and was 
 defended by works of great strength, and by walls of thick 
 and solid masonry. Only portions of them, however, now 
 remain ; they are said to have been in decay even in the 
 reign of Queen Elizabeth. The superstructure of the inner 
 gateway is an embattled square tower, which is not less 
 than forty feet in height, with a semi-circular arched gate- 
 way, over which is the chapel ; and from this tower, the 
 outward wall runs right and left upon its circuit. The 
 avenue between the gate towers is flanked by walls of great 
 thickness, and which probably formed a covered way. 
 Steps on either side, within these walls, conducted to an 
 embattled platform, and gave access for the garrison to the 
 outward turret, A sally-port is on either side, within the 
 first gate-tower. On the east side of the castle walls, an 
 embattled turret or tower of observation remains ; beyond 
 it, the landscape is closed by a fine grove of stately trees. 
 The walls to the west, which inclose the keep and the 
 inhabited portion of the castle, are strengthened by massive 
 buttresses, now embraced by venerable ivy. On the south- 
 western angle of the wall is a square bastion tower, with a 
 circular base ; while further in the same direction, is a 
 semi-circular bastion tower on the brink of the cliff, by 
 which the approaches from the north-west and west of the 
 fortress were commanded. Within the wall, to the left of 
 the inner gateway, are the remains of chambers that were 
 once inhabited by the powerful, the noble, the beautiful, 
 and the lovely, but which are now desolate and in ruin, — 
 
 " And there no harp beside the blaze, 
 Tells maiden's love, or hero's praise ; 
 The mantling brambles hide the hearth, 
 Centre of hospitable mirth." — 
 
 These apartments communicated with the inner gate- 
 tower, in which is the domestic chapel of the garrison.
 
 PRUDHOE CASTLE. 53 
 
 Above this wall, the central keep rises in the majesty 
 of Norman might, venerable and impressive, even in 
 ruin. This massive structure was about sixty-five feet 
 in height; considerable portions of it remain, of which 
 the principal parts are on the south and west. It 
 would seem that an open area surrounded the central 
 keep, which, in the usual style of the Norman Castle, 
 stood apart from the outworks by which it was sur- 
 rounded. The tiers of low chambers in the north-west 
 tower were singular in their form and height, which latter 
 seems to have been insufficient to admit of the defenders 
 standing upright. Steps ascend from the area to the top 
 of the wall in several places, these passages being suffi- 
 ciently broad to allow the armed men of the garrison to 
 pass each other, defended on the outside by a rampart. 
 On the time-worn keep, one turret only remains ; but it is 
 probable that a turret was added to each corner of this 
 structure. A long flight of steps remains within the fabric 
 of the massive western wall of the keep, which led probably 
 to the state apartments. These apartments do not appear 
 to have been lighted by any windows ; nor do the floors 
 seem to have been supported by stone vaultings, but the 
 places in which beams were inserted are visible. This 
 portion of the fortress, as well as the interior of the semi- 
 circular tower which occupied the north-west side of the 
 castle, and the walls remaining within the ramparts, all are 
 in a state of confused ruin. 
 
 " The martial terrors long have fled 
 
 That frown'd of old around its head : 
 
 The battlements, the turrets grey, 
 
 Seem half abandoned to decay ; 
 
 On barbican, and keep of stone, 
 
 Stern Time the foe-man's work has done." 
 
 The tower of the inner gateway appears to be a superstruc- 
 ture on the original Norman fabric. The masonry of the 
 walls of what was originally the covered way is, apparently, 
 likewise Norman, but the chapel is probably of the 
 Edwardian era. Above it, are the remains of the Parvise 
 or Priest's chamber. Alas ! how long it is, since within 
 the chapel walls the accents have been heard of that 
 liturgy for the daily recital of which they were reared by 
 the antient lords of Prudhoe ! Until lately, the chapel was
 
 54 A VISIT TO 
 
 allowed for some time to be a receptacle for rubbish used 
 in repairs — it now forms a domicile for pigeons. This 
 domestic chapel is lighted by lancet windows, of which, 
 three are in the sacrarium — two over the place of the altar, 
 and a third separated from them, in the angle to the 
 south-east which commands a view over the approach to 
 the fortress from that direction. The desecrated condition 
 of this hallowed chamber, where the former lords of Prudhoe 
 knelt, is probably unknown to the noble Duke who has 
 succeeded to the dignities and vast possessions of the 
 illustrious line of Percy;' and there is reason to believe, 
 that his Grace would feel pleasure in directing this chapel 
 to be at least decorously preserved, if not restored with 
 pious care. Within it, Gilbert de Umfranville, who was 
 summoned to parliament as Earl of Angus in 25 Edward I. 
 founded a chantry, which he endowed with land for the 
 maintenance of two chaplains. In a survey made in 1596, 
 which is preserved in the writings of Mr. Grose, it is 
 stated that there is within the site, and without the walls of 
 Prudhoe Castle, an elder chapel, which was theretofore very 
 fair and covered with slate ; and that in the time when 
 divers dwellers were on the demesnes, a person dwelled 
 with his cows in that chapel, and thereby defaced it, but 
 that the timber, walls, and slate then remained. This was 
 a speedy revolution of feeling, since this desecration took 
 place within fifty years of the Reformation ! This may be 
 the building which Wallis, in his History of Northumberland 
 (1769) speaks of, as the chapel of Our Lady belonging to 
 the castle of Prudhoe, then in view from Ovingham on the 
 opposite side of the river, together with the ruins of the 
 castle. Wallis adds, " the castle is now in ruins, as is 
 the chapel of Our Lady at the foot of the hill." Hugh, 
 fourth Duke of Northumberland, caused the walls of this 
 castle to be carefully repaired, with a view to the pre- 
 servation of all that remained of this once celebrated for- 
 tress. The only portion of the works of that period which 
 excites regret, is the modern-fashioned structure built 
 within the area of the castle for a resident steward, and 
 now inhabited by Mr. W. Laws, one of the late Duke's 
 Commissioners, its style being totally out of keeping with 
 the venerable walls of the original castle. And now a few 
 
 ' This visit was made in August, 1 847.
 
 PRUDHOE CASTLE. 55 
 
 words about its former lords. After the reign of Henry II, 
 the castle and barony of Prudhoe were long in the inhe- 
 ritance of the Umfranvilles, — a family of great renown. 
 The barony of Prudhoe was bestowed by King Henry I. 
 on the Norman chieftain Robert, distinguished among the 
 Saxons as " Robert with the beard ;" the King gave to him 
 also the lordship of Redesdale ; and his successor, Gilbert 
 de Umfranville, occurs in the reign of Henry III. as holding 
 these fair possessions, by the service of two knight's-fees 
 and a half. It is probable that the oldest portions of the 
 massive building already described, were raised in and 
 before the reign of Henry II. In that reign the castle 
 became conspicuous for its successful resistance to William 
 the Lion, King of Scotland, who besieged it long, without 
 effect, and was obliged to retire after the loss of many of 
 his army. So says William of Newburgh. On his return 
 he was taken prisoner at Alnwick, by Odonel, then Lord of 
 Prudhoe, aided by Barnard de Baliol, and other warriors. 
 These events occurred in 1174. According to the chro- 
 nicle of a monk of Tynemoutb, Odonel oppressed his 
 neighbours to provide means and men for strengthening 
 this castle. In the 14th year of King John's reign, Richard 
 de Umfranville pledged his four sons and his castle of 
 Prudhoe, for his fidelity to the crown ; but he nevertheless 
 took arms with the Barons, whereupon his possessions were 
 bestowed on Hugh de Baliol. He obtained restitution 
 from Henry III., and gave a toft and eight acres of land in 
 the village of Prudhoe to the monks of Hexham, who 
 may be taken to have signahzed their pious zeal, by com- 
 pleting about this time the building of their Abbey Church 
 — the noble fabric, of which the choir and transepts yet 
 remain to us. In this village of Prudhoe, on the brow of the 
 hill, is a farm house, which, although it has been modern- 
 ized for a residence within the last half century, contains 
 evidence that it was an ecclesiastical structure. A door- 
 way, with Early English mouldings, walls of great thickness, 
 and the shape of the building, sufficiently testify its antient 
 character ; and it is probable that this very edifice arose 
 from and, until its defacement, commemorated the pious 
 gift of Richard de Umfranville. How desirable it is, that 
 this antient chapel should be restored for the honour of God, 
 and the benefit of the villagers of Prudhoe ! The labours 
 
 ;/■
 
 56 A VISIT TO 
 
 of the clero-ymen of Ovingham, the parish church, must be 
 rendered dislieartcnino; in the last deg^ree, as reo-ards this 
 somewliat extensive village, by the want of a chapel there. 
 A conventicle has invaded the village of Prudhoe, and at 
 present the bulk of the villagers are misled by self-con- 
 stituted dissenting teachers. The baronial origin and asso- 
 ciations of this village afford additional cause to deplore 
 that the beneficence of professing churchmen has not 
 been directed to supply the spiritual wants of this part of 
 the populous parish of Ovingham. But, to return to 
 antient times : — Gilbert de Umfranville, who died in 1245, 
 is styled by Matthew Paris, a famous baron, the guardian 
 as well as the ornament of the northern parts of England. 
 In the twentieth year of the reign of Edward II. this 
 castle was in the crown ; for we find, on one of the rolls 
 called Originalia, an entry to the following effect : — 
 
 " The King- to Roger de Mowbray, Constable of the Castle of 
 Prudhoe, greeting. We send you warning that you cause to be 
 applied in the repair and restoration of the castle aforesaid, 
 moreover in the construction of a certain peel beyond the gates of 
 the same castle, for the greater safety of the saine castle, a sum 
 not exceeding twenty marks, of the issues of your bailiwick, 
 through the view and testimony of Richard de Emeldon, Mayor of 
 Newcastle-upon-Tyne." 
 
 In 25 Edward III. Gilbert de Umfranville, who w^as 
 summoned to Parliament as Earl of Angus, obtained from 
 the king in council, leave to keep all prisoners who should 
 be taken within his liberty of Redesdale, in his Castle of 
 Prudhoe, instead of his Castle of Harbotle, on account of 
 the latter being ruined by the Scotish wars. He died in 
 1381, and was the last baron. By the marriage of bis son 
 to Margaret, sister of Henry, Earl of Northumberland, the 
 castle and barony of Prudhoe, and the manor of Ovingham, 
 descended to the noble family of Percy, in whom it con- 
 tinued, though not W'ithout interruption by attainders, 
 during the wars of the Roses, and the eventful contests 
 wdiich followed the Reformation. Through successive 
 Earls and Dukes of Northumberland, the castle and barony 
 at length descended upon Hugh, fourth duke, in whose life- 
 time, that is to say, in the year 1816, Algernon, his second 
 son, now Duke of Northumberland, was called to the 
 peerage by the title of Baron Prudhoe.
 
 OVINGHAM. 57 
 
 After taking one more survey from this interesting 
 fortress of the neighbouring country ; of 
 
 " The meadows spread in beautiful repose ;" 
 
 of the green hills which rise above them as far as the eye 
 can reach ; of the broad Tyne flowing calmly in azure 
 brightness beneath its verdant slopes ; of the noble trees in 
 the adjacent wood, especially the oaks, 
 
 " Emblems of England's ancient faitli," 
 
 we bend our steps towards Ovingham. The want of a 
 bridge across the Tyne here has been long felt by the 
 parishioners. A ferry-boat is at present the only means of 
 communication, and it is often a work of time to draw the 
 ferryman from the recesses of his villa — the neighbour- 
 ing alehouse. During floods, or inclement weather, the 
 parishioners at Prudhoe, and elsewhere on the south side of 
 the river, must be almost debarred from attending Divine 
 service, or availing themselves of the oflices of the church ; 
 while, for manufacturing and commercial purposes, it may 
 be supposed that a bridge would prove of great value. 
 Mackenzie (writing in 1825) says, that when it was pro- 
 posed to erect a monument in memory of the then late 
 Duke of Northumberland, the building of a bridge here 
 was suggested as the noblest and most useful monumental 
 edifice that could be devised. This charitable object, which 
 still remains to be accomplished, seems to urge a revived 
 claim upon the Lord of Prudhoe, now become Duke of 
 Northumberland. Besides, the inhabitants of Ovingham, 
 Ovington, and the adjacent country on the north side of the 
 Tyne, are, by the want of a bridge, deprived, in a great 
 measure, of the advantages of that rapid communication by 
 railway which has been completed since Mackenzie wrote. 
 A station has been fixed at the foot of Prudhoe Castle. 
 
 The pleasant village of Ovingham is situated on the 
 northern bank of the Tyne, about ten miles from Newcastle. 
 The name of this village and parish, and of the neighbour- 
 ing village of Ovington, may, with Ovynford, in Yorkshire, 
 be derived from Ovatio — a petty triumph upon some 
 victory obtained over the Britons by their conquerors. 
 However this may be, the spot became ere long the site of
 
 58 A VISIT TO 
 
 triumphs of a spiritual kind ; for a church and rehgious 
 house were founded here in Saxon times, and the due per- 
 formance of the offices of rehgion was probably provided 
 for by the monks of Hexham, to whose great monastery 
 the tithes of this parish became in later years appropriated, 
 and to which, this small religious house or cell owed 
 obedience. The tithes of Ovington were confirmed by 
 Henry L and Henry H. to the monks of Tynemouth. This 
 was, probably, before the mother church of Ovingham had 
 acquired parochial riglits ; for, after the reign of Henry H. 
 we do not find these tithes in the possession of the monks 
 of Tynemouth ; but the Prior of Tynemouth occurs in the 
 taxation made under the grant of Pope Nicholas IV. to Edw. 
 I. as having " a portion " in the tithes of Ovingham, which 
 portion was valued in 1291 at £3 lOs. the rectory being 
 then valued at £96 4s. \0^cL But, in 1357, this portion 
 was valued at 135. 4d. only, so destructive had been the 
 effect of the Scotish invasions and warfare. 
 
 The antient and interesting church of the extensive 
 parish of Ovingham stands in the village. It is a cru- 
 ciform structure, and is dedicated in honor of the 
 Blessed Virgin Mary. Its low square tower proclaims very 
 high antiquity. The church is a spacious structure, and 
 consists of chancel, nave, and south aisle, and two transepts, 
 each having a western aisle ; a south porch, and western 
 tower. The interior of the sacred edifice is lofty and 
 solemn. An eminent ecclesiologist, who has recently 
 visited this fine church,* accurately describes the whole 
 fabric, with the exception of the tower, as being of First 
 Pointed work, with some peculiarities, or rather man- 
 nerisms, but yet the work of a master ; the east end as 
 having a very lofty triplet ; the eastern walls of the tran- 
 septs an equal quadruplet, which produces a remarkable 
 effect; and each end of the transepts a couplet. The 
 mannerisms he describes as being apparent in the arrange- 
 ment of the piers — circular, with octagonal capitals — and 
 the buttresses, which, above the string-course, terminate in 
 semi-octagonal pilasters. Some of these peculiarities are 
 also observable at Bywell ; and their occurrence in the 
 Abbey Church of Hexham, which was built about a.d. 1200, 
 
 • In a paper entitled " A Pilgrimage to Ilcxham and Lindisfarn." — Ecclesiol. 
 
 No. Ixi.
 
 OVINGHAM. 59 
 
 and presents a very model of First Pointed work, certainly 
 afford an argument, that the church at Ovingham and the 
 churches at By well were built by the architect of Hexham, 
 or by masons who were formed in his school. The eastern 
 triplet at Ovingham, which presents a resemblance in 
 height to that in the priory church at Tynemouth, though 
 it has not the elaborate decoration which distinguishes that 
 beautiful specimen of Early English architecture, has been 
 newly filled with stained glass. The altar, unhappily, is not 
 what it appears to be — it is only coloured to represent stone, 
 and it looks very bare and modern, The sedilia have tre- 
 foiled heads. The tower, though it has no " long-and-short" 
 work, and is built for the most part of large stones, is 
 probably Saxon : the reverend writer in the Ecclesiologist 
 already referred to, pronounces it to be decidedly so, from 
 its height, its baluster-windows, its details, its general con- 
 tour, and he even thinks that it was one of S. Wilfrid's. 
 If this be so, it stands unimpaired, a venerable witness of 
 the flight of more than a thousand years. A portion of a 
 beautiful foliated sepulchral cross has been recently inserted 
 in the western wall of the porch, for the sake of pre- 
 servation ; it has been mistaken for a dedication cross. 
 The tower contains three bells. 
 
 Opposite to the church and nearer the river, stood the 
 religious house already mentioned, which was separately 
 endowed. It is stated to have been founded by one of the 
 noble family of Umfranville, who gave it to the church of 
 Ovingham. The parsonage-house occupies the site of this 
 antient monastic cell, a portion of the edifice of which is 
 preserved in the existing mansion. The possessions of this 
 cell, with the tithes of Ovingham and the advowson, came, 
 after the dissolution, to be possessed by the family of 
 Addison. They were sold to a gentleman named Clarke, 
 but profited him little, as his daughter inherited the pro- 
 perty, and carried it to William Bigge, Esq. of Benton, from 
 whom they passed to Charles William Bigge, Esq. of Linden. 
 The situation of this peaceful and secluded parsonage-house, 
 and of its pretty gardens, which overhang the river, is 
 extremely pleasing, and invites to contemplation. It occu- 
 pies, with the rest of the village, a gentle eminence, sloping 
 towards the water, and sheltered by the green hills which 
 rise around its verdant site. The cottages that cluster
 
 GO A VISIT TO 
 
 beneath the venerable church tower, most of them sur- 
 rounded by their httle gardens, and their aspect of humble 
 comfort, refreshingly distinguish this quiet village from 
 those hideous aggregations of sordid and comfortless hovels 
 which have arisen in some neighbourhoods around iron 
 works, and such like tracts of labour. In Northumberland 
 and Durham, some of these labourers' villages possess a 
 repulsive appearance w hich is peculiar to themselves. Their 
 long rows or narrow alleys of squalid dwellings, divided by 
 waggon-ways, or by rows of dust heaps and pig-styes, 
 afford, in too many localities, melancholy specimens of 
 disregard for the health, decency, and comfort of the 
 occupiers. No church rises in the village of the pit or iron 
 works, however large its perpetually increasing population 
 may be, or however great the owners' gains. The conven- 
 ticle, unfortunately, is pretty sure to rear its front ; but, 
 " not a single house of God is seen in all the dreary tract 
 of labour." Neither (except in a few instances) is there 
 any trace of a provision for the recreation, the moral or 
 mental improvement of the toiling population, or for the 
 maintenance of maimed or aged workmen, or of the families 
 of those w hose lives have been lost in the perilous processes 
 of coal mining, or shortened in the exhausting labours 
 which have enriched the district. The funds wdiich w^ere 
 subscribed for a monument to the late Lord Durham 
 would have afforded an excellent opportunity for beginning 
 such a good work, in a manner which w^ould at the same 
 time have formed a commemoration most appropriate in 
 the midst of the colliery wealth of the house of Lambton. 
 But, in accordance with the taste of the age, no such pur- 
 pose of active and perennial usefulness was to be sought ; 
 and the useless erection, in the form of a Grecian temple, 
 wdiich crow ns the lofty hill of Penshaw% is accordingly, a 
 conspicuous monument of feeling misdii'ected, and money 
 misapplied." 
 
 In the peaceful village of Ovingham, however, one may 
 banish for a wdiile all these reflections ; and, in the calmness 
 of a sweet summer's evening, at this spot, allow the 
 thoughts to be influenced only by its fascinations. Looking 
 
 * Its ardiitcctuie, however, reflects Architects, Messrs. J. and B. Green, 
 credit on the taste and skill of the of Newcastle.
 
 OVINGHAM. 61 
 
 upon the dark grove of trees — the veterans of the wood 
 that still guard, as it were, the antient towers of Prudhoe 
 Castle, on which now no living warder walks ; and beholding 
 the old parish church, and thinking of its antient glories, 
 one may say with the poet : — 
 
 " Much that was noble, Time hath being defiling : 
 
 Much that was fair, the early death hath died : 
 
 Yet still through yon thick branches faintly smiling. 
 
 Glows the departing ray of even-tide ; 
 
 And voices whisper through those green leaves sighing, 
 
 AU that is great must triumph over dying." 
 
 Now comes "still evening on," and the hues of the 
 purple landscape and green fore-ground fading as pass — 
 
 " The western waves of ebbing day — " 
 
 the moon at length sheds over the fair scene that silvery 
 light, in which the shadowy ruins of the ancient castle of 
 Prudhoe are seen to advantage ; — 
 
 " For the gay beams of lightsome day, 
 Gild but to mock the ruins grey." 
 
 On a calm night so illumined, the scene is full of a spiritual 
 kind of loveliness. The silvery orb, moving in brightness 
 up the dark blue sky, throws her pale radiance over the 
 landscape ; here is the peaceful village nestling around that 
 grey Saxon tower of the church, on which she has shone as 
 brightly for many hundred years ; there, on the opposite 
 side of the river, rise the wooded heights of Prudhoe, 
 crowned with the ruins of the fortress, whose strength has 
 at length surrendered to the long siege of time ; beyond, on 
 either side, the green slopes stretching far into the distance, 
 and lost in haze, bound the prospect ; while, between the 
 dark banks of the river, the waters flow in a broad stream, 
 silent, save where below the village their silence is broken 
 in their fall over the weir or ledge of rough stones which 
 stretches across the river ; and the only living objects 
 whose wakefulness contrasts with the repose that ensues 
 around, are restless fish, which every here and there start 
 from the stream, and glitter for a moment in the moonlight. 
 May the images which pass unbidden through the reader's 
 mind in the dreamy scenes of tranquil night, be bright and 
 glittering likewise ; and may a day of enjoyment and a
 
 62 OVINGHAM. 
 
 night of pleasant dreams, undisturbed by the spirit of 
 Denton Hall, reward all who shall visit the places of which 
 we have written. 
 
 ADDITIONAL NOTES. 
 
 Page 55. — Hugh de Baliol. He was lord of the neighbouring ba- 
 rony of Bywell, which he held in capite hy the service of five knights' fees. 
 His ancestors had the wardship of Newcastle by the gift of Wilham the 
 Red. A lofty and massive tower is almost the only relic of his warlike 
 successors which remains at Bywell. Their possessions here came to the 
 Nevils, lords of Raby, in the reign of Richard II. A forest well stocked 
 with red-deer once belonged to Bywell, and the village was a flourishing 
 one in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when its inhabitants were expert 
 workers in iron for the horsemen and borderers. The tenants of each 
 manor in the barony were bound to guard the judge of assize in his pro- 
 gress through this part of the country in times when travelling had greater 
 dangers than those of the railways of our time. Lord Chief Justice North 
 describes his attendants on one of these occasions as wearing long beards, 
 short cloaks, long basket-hilted broad swords hanging from broad belts, 
 and as mounted on little horses, so that their feet and swords touched the 
 ground. The situation of Bywell, which is not far distant (westward) from 
 Prudhoe, is extremely beautiful. The antique towers of tlie two churches 
 of Bywell, the lofty and imposing monument of by-gone centuries which 
 time has left to us in the gate-tower of the Baliols' Castle, the woodlands 
 which surround these relics of mediaeval piety and feudal might, the quiet, 
 picturesque houses of the little village, and the verdant beauty of the banks 
 of the river which sweeps in a picturesque curve past the village, combine 
 to form a scene of great interest and beauty. 
 
 Page 50. — Gilbert de Umfranville. In the year mentioned in the text 
 (29 Hen. III.) the sherifl"of Northumberland was commanded by the king's 
 writ to allow the executors of this nobleman to have free administration of 
 all his goods and chattels, that they might execute his will ; and by another 
 grant in the same year, the king committed to Robert de Crepjiinge, the 
 castles of Prudhoe and llarbotle, and all the lands and tenements which 
 were of Gilbert de Umfranville in Northumberland, to hold during the 
 royal pleasure.
 
 63 
 
 e ciLKS a£u 
 
 A VISIT TO HEXHAM.' 
 
 We are told that, during the time when the illustrious 
 John of Beverley held the see of Hexham, of which he was 
 one of the earliest bishops, it was his custom to withdraw 
 himself from the world on every opportunity that offered, 
 and especially during Lent, to meditate in the sweet retire- 
 ment of the Eagle's Mount, near Hexham, where, amongst 
 some shady trees, he founded a little oratory, which he 
 dedicated to S. Michael. Let us, now that this holy season 
 has again come round,'' follow the example of the good 
 prelate, by withdrawing our attention, if it be possible, from 
 the troubled affairs which agitate the social and political 
 world, and fix it for a while upon the history of his 
 church and see, and of the men by whose lives it was illus- 
 trated in antient time. 
 
 Readers who are acquainted with this locality do not 
 need to be informed, that Hexham stands upon a consider- 
 
 ^ In the foregoing view, the Ahbey 
 Church of Hexham is represented as 
 it would appear if the proposed restor- 
 ations were effected, a plan for its re- 
 
 storation having been for some time be" 
 fore the public, but which for want of 
 funds allowed to languish 
 '' This article appeared in March 1848.
 
 64 A VISIT TO 
 
 able hill, in a very beautiful part of the county of North- 
 umberland, about twenty miles westward from Newcastle. 
 The Tjme flows in a broad and rapid stream through its 
 adjacent valley on the north, and hills clothed with wood, 
 rise in picturesque beauty beyond. Of the surrounding 
 country, on the opposite side of the river to Hexham, an 
 enchanting view is afforded from " the Seal," — a broad 
 public walk, shaded by a noble band of lofty trees, which, 
 though those trees may not be old enough to have been 
 planted by ecclesiastical lords of Hexham, was probably a 
 daily walk of the pensive monks. In this boulevard, Hex- 
 ham possesses an advantage which few towns can boast. It 
 is separated from the abbey church by a kind of moat, and 
 lies to the west of the town. The view commanded from 
 this walk, and its peaceful situation, must be beautiful and 
 pleasing at all times, but the scene is peculiarly charming 
 when the leafy veterans of this noble avenue are bathed in 
 the purple glory of a summer's sunset — 
 
 " And silence claims her evening reign." 
 
 But, the beauties of nature must not detain us from those 
 of history, whose page, though it may not be lighted up by 
 the glowing hues of the sky, and made attractive by the 
 charms of the sylvan landscape, shines with the recorded 
 virtues of holy men of old, and is bright with the tints of 
 former splendour, and of glories which have been long 
 translated to a heavenly sphere ; — 
 
 " They come, in dim procession led" — 
 
 the humble, the pious, the charitable, the learned, the 
 noble, of other days, who have long departed to (we hope) 
 the unfading rewards of another life, leaving in their own 
 lives on earth, examples well calculated to prepare us to 
 follow them, and in the history of this, their church, 
 abundant matter to excite our interest, and afford us 
 much instruction. 
 
 The Abbey and Cathedral Church of S. Andrew of 
 Hexham, is extremely interesting, not only on account of 
 its architectural features, amongst which is a Saxon crypt, 
 probably the crypt constructed by S. Wilfrid, the renowned 
 saint who built the first church of Hexham, but also on 
 account of its association with an early and most eventful
 
 HEXHAM, 
 
 65 
 
 period of English ecclesiastical history. Richard, prior of 
 the monastery which was re-founded at Hexham in the 
 reign of the third of the Norman Kings of England, and 
 who flourished in the times of Henry II., says that the town 
 was named Hextoldesham, from the rivulet Hextold run- 
 ning by it, which sometimes swelled to a large stream.^ He 
 speaks of this town as being in his time small, and thinly 
 inhabited, but as having been once large and magnificent, 
 as the remains of antiquity then shewed.'' The site of 
 Hexham, with a considerable territory around it, w^as 
 the dowry of S. Etheldreda, Queen of Egfrid of Northum- 
 bria ; and these fair possessions she conferred on S. Wil- 
 frid, who raised at Hexham a church which he dedicated in 
 honour of S. Andrew (whom he seems to have regarded 
 with great veneration) , and a monastery, in which, probably, 
 the prelate founder placed Benedictine monks.= Richard 
 of Hexham says, that this gift was made in a.d. 675, and 
 with a view to the erection of Hexham into a bishop's 
 see/ It is, therefore, not improbable that Hexham was a 
 royal residence in the days of Egfrid and his Queen ; and 
 from their desire that it should receive episcopal dignity, it 
 may be supposed that this part of their kingdom was then 
 so populous as to demand the missionary labours and 
 superintendence of a bishop. A glowing description of the 
 early edifice is given by Richard, the Prior of Hexham 
 already cited, and his testimony of its beauty is entitled to 
 great weight ; for, although he wrote at the distance of 
 perhaps three centuries from the destruction of that edifice 
 by the Danes, his relation was founded on trustworthy 
 authority, and on actual remains of the Saxon church he 
 described, which were then existing, and confirmed the 
 account of its magnificence. From his description, S. Wil- 
 frid's church appears to have been cruciform, with clerestory, 
 triforium, and crypt ; and to have contained, besides the 
 high altar, altars dedicated to Our Lady, to S. Michael, 
 
 « There are two streams at Hexham, ^ Spehn. Councils, i. 213, where 
 
 the Hextol-burn and the Haligut-huYU, Wilfrid claims the foundation. It will 
 
 which unite and flow into the Tyne. be seen presently that he adopted the 
 
 Hexham seems to have been also called Benedictine rule, with which he became 
 
 Halgutstad by the Saxons; hence the acquainted in Italy. 
 
 Latin name of the See — " Ep. Hagus- f Ric. Hagust. ut supra. Lei. Coll. 
 
 taldensis." vol. ii. 259, iii. 109, and Tanner's 
 
 " Ric. Hagustald, apud Twysd. De- Notitia Monast. Northumberland, No. 
 
 cem Script, p. 290, xv.
 
 (J6 A VISIT TO 
 
 S. Joliii tlie Baptist, and to All Saints, Hexham was the 
 fifth church of stone that was reared in Saxon times, its 
 predecessors being Whithern, York, Lincoln, and Ripon. 
 Ninian, who erected the stone church at Whithern, was 
 regularly instructed at Rome in her faith and learning. ^ 
 Wilfrid, the builder of the churches of Hexham and Ripon, 
 and the beautifier of his cathedral church of York, had in 
 hke manner studied at Rome, and he more than once visited 
 the apostolic see in after years. Churches built in the 
 Roman manner had crypts, were supported by arches and 
 columns, were cruciform, had chapels with their altars, and 
 windows which were filled with glass. The exertions of 
 Wilfrid as a church builder, were widely diffused. He first 
 repaired and beautified his church of York, which had been 
 built only forty years before by Edwin King of Northum- 
 bria ; and for the rude contrivances of an unskilful age, he 
 substituted the more elegant and useful invention of glass. 
 At Ripon he raised a new church, which was built from the 
 foundations according to his design. The masonry is 
 described to have been polished, the roof to have been 
 supported by rows of columns, and the principal entrances 
 adorned by porticos. But the church of Hexham was the 
 last and most admired of his w^orks. His plans were exe- 
 cuted by workmen whom he had procured from Rome. The 
 height and length of the walls, the beautiful polish of the 
 stones, the number of the columns, the porticos, and the 
 spiral windings which led to the top of each tower, have 
 exercised the descriptive powers of his biographer, Eddius, 
 wdio wrote in the same age in which the Saint lived, and 
 who, after two journeys to the apostolic see, boldly pro- 
 nounced that there existed not, on this side of the Alps, a 
 church to be compared with that of Hexham.'' Eddius says 
 that the capitals of the colunms, and the arch of the chancel 
 were decorated, " historiis imaginibus et variis ceelaturarum 
 figuris ;" — executed by artists from Italy and France.' 
 
 e Beda, lib. iii. c. 4. afterwards procured from tlie same 
 h Eddius, Vit. S. Wilfr. c. 22, in country, the services of men skilled in 
 Decern Script, p. 62, and Gale. tlie manufacture of glass. The church 
 ' Ric. Hagust. ut supra. So, Bene- was built after the Roman manner, 
 diet Biscop, who, fron^ devotion to S. which, in fact, included every character- 
 Peter, founded the Church of Were- istic trait of what is called the Saxon 
 mouth, brought workmen from Gaul to style. [See Beda's Hist, of the Abbats 
 build and decorate his church, and of Wereniouth.]
 
 HEXHAM. 67 
 
 Richard the Prior of Hexham accordingly tells us,'' that for 
 elegant workmanship and extraordinary beauty, Wilfrid's 
 Church of Hexham stood foremost among the monasteries 
 of England. " Here," says William of Malmesbury, " were 
 erected buildings with a towering height of walls, and 
 various winding staircases, finished in a surprising manner 
 by the art of the masons, whom by liberal rewards he had 
 brought from Rome, so that the buildings might have an 
 aspect of Roman magnificence, and long resist the attacks 
 of time." Richard of Hexham also says, that aqueducts of 
 hollow stone were formed through the town to bring water 
 for the use of the monastery. 
 
 And here it seems appropriate that we should turn from 
 these glimpses of his greatest architectural work to the 
 history of S. Wilfrid himself. This celebrated prelate was 
 of noble parentage in Northumbria. In his childhood he 
 had the misfortune to lose his mother, but Queen Eanfleda 
 seems to have taken a mother's interest in the young 
 Saxon, who, at the age of fourteen, was sent by her, with 
 his father's consent, to the monks of Lindisfarne. His 
 manners and conduct captivated those with whom he 
 became acquainted, and even in youth he seemed destined 
 to ecclesiastical distinction. He went to Lyons for the 
 prosecution of his studies, and after he had studied at 
 Rome, under Boniface, he at Lyons received the ecclesias- 
 tical tonsure from the bishop, his friend and benefactor. 
 On his return to Northumberland, he was received into the 
 family of Alchfrid, son of Oswiu, then king, in 658 ; and in 
 664 was chosen bishop of the then vast territory of North- 
 umbria, the chief seat of whose bishop was York. As the 
 see of Canterbury was at that time vacant, Alchfrid sent 
 Wilfrid to France, that he might be recommended by the 
 French king to the prelates for consecration as Bishoj) of 
 York. He was then in the thirtieth year of his age. Agil- 
 bert, who, with twelve other bishops, performed the conse- 
 cration with great solemnity at Compeigne, received him 
 joyfully, and he was carried by the bishops in a golden 
 chair, according to the custom of the Gauls, Whilst Wil- 
 frid was yet in Gaul, Oswiu, the king, appears to have 
 transferred his favour to Chad, who hastened to obtain 
 consecration from Wini of Winchester, the only bishop 
 
 ^ Ric. Hagust. ut sup. 290. 
 F 2
 
 68 A VISIT TO 
 
 then alive among tlie Anglo-Saxons, who performed the 
 ceremony with the aid of two British ])relates. Wilfrid, 
 on his return, found Chad in possession of the northern 
 hisho])ric, and he retired to his monastery of Ripon, which 
 had been a })rcscnt from Alchfrid, the patron of his youth. 
 At the end of three years, Theodore, the new metropolitan, 
 visited Northumbria, condemned the intrusion of Chad, and 
 established Wilfrid in possession of the bishopric to which 
 he had been ordained. Oswiu shortly afterwards (a.d. 670) 
 died, and was succeeded by Egfrid, another of his sons, 
 whose favour Wilfrid for some years enjoyed. In this 
 period, Wilfrid, having built a church at Ripon in honour 
 of the prince of the apostles, which edifice was of wrought 
 stone, with colunms and porticos, or aisles, held a solemn 
 dedication, which was attended by Egfrid and his brother 
 Elwin, with the abbats and ealdormen of the kingdom of 
 Northumbria. The altar was covered with purple and 
 gold, and the people came and received communion. Wil- 
 frid enumerated in the assembly the lands bestowed upon 
 this church, and the king feasted all the people for three 
 days.' But, after a while, because Wilfrid alone governed 
 all the churches of Bernicia and Deira (the territory north 
 of the 1 lumber), and possessed the monasteries of Hexham 
 and Ripon, his power and revenues were made the subject of 
 animadversion, although in private he led an abstemious life, 
 and in i)ublic was indefatigable in the performance of his 
 duties. The fact appears to be that he offended the new 
 queen, Ermenberga, who, in revenge, sought to prejudice 
 the king against him. S. Etheldreda, his first queen, had 
 obtained his permission to devote herself to Christ, in a 
 monastery, and received the veil from AVilfrid's hands. 
 When, says the historian, the king determined upon mar- 
 rying Ermenberga, his heart was weaned from the affection 
 with which he had formerly regarded S. Wilfrid."" The 
 new queen enumerated with a woman's persuasive force, all 
 the temporal glory and secular riches of the bishop, 
 although, if he was rich, he knew no other use of what he 
 possessed than to employ it in the foundation of churches 
 
 ' S. Wilfrid presented to his church cration of his church of Hexham, he 
 
 a copy of the gospels written in gold on likewise dedicated, with ])ious munifi- 
 
 purple leaves, and cased with gold and cence to the service of God, the costly 
 
 precious stones. Kdd. Vit. S. Wilf. and enriched productions of art. 
 
 c. xvii. apud Gale, torn. iii. H9. It " Angl. Sax. 1. 598. 
 may be supposed that on the conse-
 
 HEXHAM. 
 
 69 
 
 and in the relief of the poor. The dissensions between 
 Wilfrid and his sovereign arose about a.d. 678. Theodore 
 was invited to the Northumbrian court, and found that the 
 spiritual interests of all the Saxons and Picts who dwelt 
 between the Humber and the Firths of Forth and Clyde, 
 were watched over by the prelate who resided sometimes 
 at York, and occasionally at Lindisfarne and at Hexham ; 
 and upon the plea that this immense diocese needed division 
 into more proportionate districts, Theodore divided into 
 the four bishoprics of York, Hexham, Lindisfarne, and 
 Whithern, the several provinces of the Northumbrian king- 
 dom." Eata was consecrated Bishop of Hexham, being the 
 first ecclesiastic who held that dignity. He had been Abbat 
 of Melrose, whence he was removed to the priorate of Lin- 
 disfarne, where he numbered S. Cuthbert among his dis- 
 ciples. Other ecclesiastics were appointed to the rest of 
 the new sees ; and Wilfrid, thus ejected from the whole of 
 his bishopric, without a canonical fault or legal process 
 against him, determined to appeal from the judgment of 
 Theodore, the metropolitan, to the superior authority of 
 the Roman Pontift'. And so, amidst the tears of his monks, 
 he departed for the apostolic see. His enemies intrigued to 
 procure his spoliation and arrest in France, but he escaped 
 their machinations. He was hospitably received by Algisus, 
 King of the Frisians, to whom the Frank ish king offered 
 a bushel full of golden crowns if he would give up the fugi- 
 tive prelate ; but Algisus, burning the letter before the 
 face of the Frankish ambassador, imprecated the Divine 
 vengeance upon him who would be guilty of an act so base 
 as that which he was asked to commit. Wilfrid's enemies 
 in Britain in like manner offered immense gifts to Berchter, 
 King of Campania, in whose court Wilfrid rested, if he 
 would arrest the exile in his progress towards Rome ; but 
 this sovereign magnanimously sent Wilfrid and his com- 
 panions forward in safety to their destination, where it 
 
 " No doubt the province was too 
 vast to be efficiently superintended by 
 any single prelate, especially in days 
 when bishops were called upon to mi- 
 nister to the humblest of their flock, 
 and to ti-avel without any of the appli- 
 ances of modern luxury, through a 
 thinly peopled and almost barbarous 
 territory. The original plan of the far- 
 
 seeing Gregory the Great contemplated 
 the consecration of twelve prelates for 
 the church of Northumbfia ; and the 
 venerable Beda advised that this plan 
 should be carried out. Instead, how- 
 ever, of that advice being followed, the 
 Bishopric of Hexham was allowed to 
 become extinct before the expiration of 
 that (the eightli) century.
 
 70 A VISIT TO 
 
 was declared, by the juds^inent of tlie Pope, who was assistea 
 by a large council of bishops, that Wilfrid had been unjustly 
 accused and dei)rived. He and his companions returned 
 safely to England from their perilous journey, and Wilfi'id 
 presented to his Sovereign the papal decree. But the 
 king ventured to make him a captive. He was condemned 
 to indignities, and was detained a prisoner for several 
 months." On the alarming illness of the queen, the cause 
 of his persecution, he was set at liberty, but banished 
 from his see. He then resided long amongst the inhabi- 
 tants of the southern portions of England, whom he rescued 
 from servitude to the evil one. While thus employed, he 
 founded the monastery of Bosenham, and filled it with the 
 monks who had come with him from Northumbria. From 
 this monastery and Selsey, arose the episcopal establish- 
 ment of Chichester. Wilfrid remained in that province 
 of England for four years. In a.d. 685, Egfrid departed 
 this life, and was succeeded by his brother Aldfrid. Shortly 
 afterw^ards, the venerable Archbishop Theodore found his 
 end approaching, and, as he had been the first to inflict, so 
 he was also the first to repair the injury. He confessed to 
 Wilfrid his penitence for having consented to the wishes 
 of princes who sought to deprive him of his possessions, 
 and these holy prelates w^ere reconciled to each other. 
 The archbishop thereupon sent letters to the kings of 
 Mercia and Northumbria, adjuring them to become recon- 
 ciled to Wilfrid ; but he did not live to see the result of 
 his departing exhortation. His death speedily followed. 
 Aldfrid, the new king, gave to Wilfrid immediate possession 
 of the church of Hexham, and shortly afterwards restored 
 to him the temporalities and dignity of Bishop of York, and 
 possession of the monastery of Ripon. Of all his benefices, 
 Wilfrid valued most the church of Ripon. The magnificence 
 of its buildings was achieved by his genius and liberality ; 
 and its monks — the first in the north who professed the 
 Benedictine rule — revered him as their father and bene- 
 factor.'' During five years he resumed the exercise of 
 
 «> King Egfrid especially directed iiedictinc rule to the knowledge of the 
 
 that Wilfrid should be fettered in soli- Saxons was claimed b}' S. Wilfrid, and 
 
 tary confinement ; but, according to by a prudent amalgamation of its cus- 
 
 his biographer Kddius, the chains could toms with those of bis countrymen, be 
 
 not be afHxed to his body. greatly improved the state of monastic 
 
 p The merit of introducing the Be- discipline.
 
 HEXHAM. 
 
 71 
 
 his former episcopal authority; but they were years of 
 toil and conflict. He was at length called upon by the 
 king to resign the possession of Ripon, that it might be 
 made the seat of a bishop. He refused to comply ; the 
 king threatened vengeance, and Wilfrid, in a.d. 692, flew 
 to the friendly protection of Ethelred, King of Mercia, 
 at whose court he remained for nine years. During these 
 events S. Eata departed this life,^ and he was succeeded 
 in the episcopal dignity of Hexham, in a.d. 685, by 
 S. John of Beverley. This illustrious man was born at 
 Harpham, educated in S. Hilda's monastery of Whitby,' 
 and afterwards by Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 He became a monk in the monastery of Beverley ; and 
 afterwards, it is said, led the life of a hermit at Erneshowe, 
 ( the Eagle's Mount ) already mentioned. If he was a 
 hermit before he became Bishop of Hexham, he, like the 
 mighty S. Cuthbert, sacrificed his love of peaceful retire- 
 ment to the call of duty, for he led a life of active usefulness 
 in the episcopal ofllce, not only as Bishop of Hexham, but 
 subsequently as Bishop of York, the fifth in succession 
 from the blessed Paulinus. Beda himself was a disciple 
 of S. John of Beverley, and received ordination from his 
 hands." But, to return to the fortunes of S. Wilfrid. By 
 the papal sentence on his appeal, he was to consent to the 
 partition of the Northumbrian diocese, with liberty, how- 
 ever, to select the new prelates out of his own clergy. This, 
 however, does not appear to have been done. In 702, the 
 successor of Theodore invited Wilfrid to a council at 
 Canterbury, wherein he was required to resign his episcopal 
 authority. He refused to do so, and again the controversy 
 was transferred from remote Northumbria to apostolic 
 
 q In 682, when Lindisfarne was 
 made a bishopric, S. Eata became the 
 fii'st bishop, being succeeded by Tun 
 bercht at Hexham, but the latter was 
 deposed, and S. Cuthbert was nomi- 
 nated his sviccessor ; he, however, ex- 
 changed sees with S. Eata, who thus 
 died bishop of Hexham. [See Lei. 
 Collect, i. 327, 368.] 
 
 f The blessed Hilda, under whose 
 maternal rule as abbess, so many dis- 
 ciples were prepared for the life eternal, 
 departed in a.d. 680 to receive its un- 
 fading rewards. 
 
 ' S. John of Beverley exercised 
 the jurisdiction of a bishop for thirty- 
 three years ; and in a.d. 721, ascend- 
 ing, says his biographer, to the heavenly 
 kingdom, his remains were interred in 
 the porch of S. Peter, in his own 
 monastery of Beverley, to which he 
 had again retired. As S. John of 
 Beverley, this faithful servant of Christ 
 became renowned in lands far from the 
 native woods of Deira which his virtues 
 had first irradiated.
 
 72 A VISIT TO 
 
 Rome. The judgment of the Pope, after a hearing which 
 occu})ie(l four months, acquitted Wihrid of every accusation 
 which had heen brought against him ; and he returned to 
 England to convoke a council, with a view to an amicable 
 arrangement with Bosa, (who had been consecrated by 
 Theodore to the see of York, on the first partition of 
 Wilfrid's diocese,) and with John the Uishop of Hexham. 
 It was arranged that the latter should succeed Bosa at York, 
 and that Wilfrid should resume the bishopric of Hexham, 
 with his abbey of Ripon ; and the three prelates engaged to 
 efface from memory all past causes of dissension. Aldfrid, 
 meantime, died, having before his death, expressed his 
 desire to be reconciled to Wilfrid. His sonOsred succeeded ; 
 but Wilfrid does not appear to have enjoyed for more than 
 four years the peace thus established, for he departed this 
 life in a.d. 709, having for forty five years held the 
 office of bishop.' His remains were interred with due 
 honour on the south side of his beloved monastery of Ripon. 
 Some time before his death, the bishop led eight of his 
 most trusty friends into the treasury, and divided its 
 contents into four portions ; one of which he set apart 
 for foreign churches, another for the poor of his people, a 
 third portion for the abbats of his monasteries of Ripon and 
 Hexham, and a fourth for the reward of those friends who 
 had followed him into exile, and had not yet received any 
 recompense. These washes were faithfully observed after 
 his sepulture ; and, in addition, a munificent benefaction 
 was yearly distributed on the anniversary of his departure 
 among- the poor of the district — a noble example, that a 
 benevolent man may continue to effect good ujjon the earth 
 long after he shall have been removed from visible presence 
 among the living. S. Wilfrid was an indefatigable church- 
 builder. Besides the first cathedral church at Hexham, 
 already described, and the monastic church of Ripon, he 
 built two other churches at Hexham, the one dedicated in 
 
 ' From S. Wilfrid's time, (says Dr. tVid are said to have been translated to 
 
 Linp^avd, on whose pages this sketch of Canterbury by Archbishop Odo, but 
 
 S. Wilfrid's life is for the most part this is doubtful. His epitaph, which was 
 
 founded) down to the reign of Edward inscribed in his church of lti])on, is 
 
 the Confessor, we read no more of ^'iven by tlie venerable Heda, in Ilistor. 
 
 any arbitrary deposition of bishoj)s at Eccles. lib. v. caj). xix. lie had 
 
 tiie will either of the king or of the reached his 7()lh year, wlien he returned 
 
 metropolitan. The remaius of S. AVil- after hi^ second appeal to Home.
 
 HEXHAM. 73 
 
 lionoiir of S. Mary, and the other of S. Peter. Of the 
 former edifice, which was the parish church until after the 
 suppression of the monastery, the only remaining portions 
 are built into surrounding houses ; while of the latter, not 
 even a local tradition exists. An eminent ecclesiologist, 
 who made a pilgrimage through this part of the country 
 last autumn, has moreover declared, that he traces in the 
 church towers of Ovingham and Bywell, the work of the 
 Hexham architect; and he thinks that the tower of Oving- 
 ham was one of S.Wilfrid's, that both the Bywell churches 
 were originally of his foundation, and that their towers are 
 marked by his hand. S.Wilfrid certainly built a cruciform 
 church of stone, in the place of his predecessor's favourite 
 oratory near Hexham, dedicated to S. Michael, which was 
 erected as already stated, at Erneshowe, or S. John Lee — 
 a corruption, no doubt, of the name of S. John of Beverley. 
 A new church, which at a distance looks picturesque 
 among the trees, has been built in lieu of the ruined church 
 of S. Michael. 
 
 S. Wilfrid was succeeded as Bishop of Hexham by his 
 chaplain" Acca, probably a native of the diocese of York, 
 who had been his companion in his exile. This admirable 
 man, whose mind had been cultivated during his residence 
 amidst Roman refinement, whose feelings had been warmed 
 under an Italian sun, and whose taste had acquired the 
 tints of an Italian sky, greatly delighted in improving the 
 choral service of his church, and adding to its splendour. 
 By him, the buildings of Wilfrid were continued and com- 
 pleted ; he emiched its walls, and presented to it costly 
 coverings for the altar, with communion plate and candle- 
 sticks, besides a library for his monks, collected at no small 
 pains and cost. The Venerable Beda was much attached to 
 Acca, and dedicated some of his compositions to him ; and 
 such was his worth and virtue, that he was looked upon by 
 his flock as a guardian angel, commissioned to lead them 
 to the glory of heaven, to which the good Acca himself 
 departed on the 20th October, a.d. 740," when his spirit, 
 says the chronicler, was joined to the angels, and his body 
 
 " Ven. Beda, in Hist. Eccles. lib. v. Act. Saiict. Ord. S. Bened., iii. 209, 
 cap. XX. and see Rich. Hagust. in sec. 10-14. 
 
 Decern Script, col. 297, and Mabillon, '' llic. Hagustald, ut sup. 298. — Sim. 
 
 Dunelm. col. 101.
 
 /4 A VISIT TO 
 
 rested at the east end of his church, from whence, however, 
 it was afterwards removed to Durham. 
 
 Lch\nd enumerates thirteen bisliops of the see,'' the last 
 of wliom was Tiherth, who departed this life about a.d. 821, 
 when the brief episcopate of Hexham was suffered to termi- 
 nate, and the diocese was superintended by the Bishop of 
 Lindisfarne. In less than fifty years afterwards, (a.d. 867) 
 the church and monastery, which had acquired so much 
 stately magnificence under the care and skill of S. Wilfrid 
 and S. Acca, was plundered and destroyed by the Danes ; 
 and in the fury of warfare, — 
 
 '* When Denmark's raven soar'd on high, 
 Triumphant through Northumbrian sky," — 
 
 the episcopal dignity entirely vanished. Some treasure, 
 which appears to have been buried at this period in or 
 within the precinct of the church of Hexham, was recently 
 (October 1832) discovered. It consists of a large collec- 
 tion of the Anglo-Saxon coins, called stycas — a collection 
 larger in number than any previously found, and includes 
 coinage of the reigns of several monarchs and archbishops 
 of York. It was found at a depth of seven feet, about 
 three yards from the west wall of the north transept — a 
 part of the church-yard which has been of late years 
 appropriated as a burying ground. Many years ago it was 
 an eminence called the Campey-hill, probably formed by the 
 ruins of part of the church, and the consequent accumula- 
 tion of debris since the time when the coins were concealed, 
 which, as already stated, was probably on the approach of 
 the Danes, about a.d. 867 ; and, of course, prior to the 
 erection of the present building. There is no reason to 
 suppose that the depth at which the coins were found was 
 the depth at which they wxre deposited by the person who 
 there concealed his treasure. Mr. John Adamson, in his 
 valuable memoir on this discovery,"" estimates the total 
 number of coins at 8000. They were enclosed in a bell- 
 shaped bucket, made of brass and ornamented, but without 
 a cover.'' In 867, the Danes slew Ella, the Northmbrian 
 monarch, and took possession of the antient Deira ; and 
 
 > Lei. Collect, i. 320. » It is nearly 11 inches in height, 10 
 
 ' Communicated to tlic Soc. of An- inches wide at the base, and 7^ inches 
 
 tiq. of London, and printed in Arch. in width at the top. 
 
 vol. XXV. 279 scq.
 
 HEXHAM. 75 
 
 their ravages after the battle of York, in that year, assign a 
 very cogent reason for the precaution taken by the owner 
 of the treasure, who, as he did not return to resume 
 possession of it, probably perished in the general massacre. 
 For more than two hundred years the church and monastic 
 buildings seem to have remained in ruin and desolation, 
 which was the state of many of the other Saxon monasteries 
 during the chief part of that dark and turbulent period. 
 But, in the reign of Henry I , when religion and learning 
 had begun to revive, visions of the antient glory of Hexham, 
 and of the great bishops who had adorned it by their virtues, 
 presented themselves to the Norman prelates of Northum- 
 bria ; and Hexham, with the neighbouring territory, which 
 was afterwards known as Hexhamshire, was acquired by 
 the see of York, under the royal authority, but not without 
 an unsuccessful claim on the part of the Bishop of Durham.'' 
 And about a.d. 1113, Thomas, the second of that name, 
 Archbishop of York, caused the sacred edifice to be restored, 
 and refounded there a body of monks, whose successors 
 continued to hold these fair possessions down to the period 
 of the more lasting and fatal spoliation in the sixteenth 
 century. The monks, who on this foundation were estab- 
 lished at Hexham, were Augustine canons. The good 
 brethren, doubtless, were no sooner in possession of the 
 hallowed patrimony of their Saxon predecessors, than they 
 proceeded to complete, not only a monastery for them- 
 selves, but a church for the service of the Most High, Who 
 had delivered His people from a worse than Egyptian 
 bondage, and had led them forth by the waters of comfort 
 to a rich and goodly heritage in the land. But the principal 
 portions of the existing fabric are not so old as the time of 
 Archbishop Thomas H. ; and before the expiration of a 
 century from the time of his foundation, the Norman church 
 had expanded into the magnificent fabric, of which the choir 
 with its two aisles, the transepts with their eastern aisle, 
 and the central tower, yet remain ; the nave of this en- 
 larged church having been destroyed by the Scots in 1296, 
 and not since rebuilt. The present church appears to have 
 
 ^ Tanner'sNotitiaMonast.Northumb. from the see of Durham, as a pimish- 
 
 XV.; Godwin, lib. epis. 454 ; Lei. Coll. ment to Ralph Flambard, the tlieu 
 
 torn, i. p. 122. 'i'homas, tlie Arch- bishop, with whom the king was at 
 
 bishop, died in 1114 (14 Henry I.) enmity. 
 Hexham is said to liave been taken
 
 7C) A VISIT TO 
 
 been built about a.d. 1200, or at all events, during the first 
 years of the thirteenth century ; and it has been said to 
 present a very model of" First-Pointed work. The length 
 of the choir, including the Lady Chapel, is about 95 feet, 
 that of the transei)t is 150. The church of Hexham is, 
 therefore, larger in its plan tlian such cathedral churches 
 as Ripon, Rochester, and Carlisle. The present entrance 
 is from the northern transept, — under a doorway of most 
 incongruous style and character, which is a monument of 
 the taste and liberality of the Mercers' Company at 
 the time of its erection. The view wdthin the transepts, 
 looking south, cannot easily be rivalled. The height, 
 extent, and solemn character of this part of the noble pile, 
 afford a fine example of the impressive sublimity of Early 
 English church architecture. The tower is supported by 
 four light and lofty arches springing from massive tall 
 clustered pillars, opening into each of the four divisions of 
 the cross. The foliage of the piers is singularly elaborate 
 and graceful ; and the arrangement of the triforia through- 
 out the edifice is almost matchless in any building of the 
 period for beauty and effect. The enrichments and character 
 of these galleries are very similar to those at Holyrood. 
 Above the triforia, on either side, is a row of clear story 
 windows. The antient carved oak stalls surround the 
 choir — the very stalls in which the departed brethren of 
 the monastery chanted the daily offices of devotion ; but, 
 these beautiful relics are blocked up by pues more than 
 usually high, cumbrous and offensive, and a narrow passage 
 only is left between these unsightly defacements and tlie 
 stalls. Deep and heavy wooden galleries block up the piers 
 of the choir, and its aisles are used as passages to these very 
 offensive wooden constructions. The canopy or tabernacle 
 work of these stalls was ruthlessly cut away to make room 
 for Sir E. Blackett's galleries. But for the evidence of self- 
 laudatory inscriptions, it would be difhcult to believe that 
 even the miserable taste of the last century accounted the 
 erection of such defacements as these to be meritorious. 
 An inscription u})on one of them, however, states it to bave 
 been built in 1740 by Sir E. Blackett, at his sole expense, 
 and to have been iriven bv him to the church for the use of 
 the public, the self-denying baronet reserving only the 
 front seat to himself!
 
 HEXHAM, 77 
 
 In the north aisle of the clioir is a most curious and 
 perfect chapel, separated from the choir by parclose work 
 of very beautiful character ; this is commonly called the 
 chapel of Prior Richard, but it is probably a mortuary 
 chapel of one of the late priors. At all events, its date is 
 subsequent to the time of Richard the prior and historian. 
 The basement is of stone, but the panels are of wood. The 
 stone altar, with its five crosses, extends across the east 
 end, and is quite perfect ; it rests on a stone or rubble 
 basement. A large portion of the painted and gilded 
 decoration of this chapel remains. It does not now con- 
 tain any sepulchral memorials. Adjacent to it, is a large 
 and magnificent altar-tomb, the decorations of which may 
 be as early as the time of Richard, the famous prior. And 
 close to it, is a veritable relic of the Norman Church of 
 Hexham — viz. the stone chair, called the Frithstol, or Seat 
 of Peace, and which formerly stood nearer to the high altar; 
 for Hexham possessed, from its earliest days, the privilege 
 of sanctuary, — "a privilege which, however inconsistent it 
 may be with a more perfect system of legislation and in- 
 ternal policy, was dear to humanity in times of anarchy and 
 barbarism; because, whilst it oflfered an asylum to the 
 innocent and powerless from the vengeance of a remorseless 
 enemy, it compelled the guilty to make to the injured party 
 legal compensation for the offence. "" The limits of the 
 asylum were very extensive. There were four crosses set 
 up, in as many directions, at a certain distance from the 
 church, in the four ways leading thereto, within which 
 crosses, the whole town of Hexham was included. If a 
 fugitive or malefactor, flying for refuge to that church, was 
 taken within these crosses, but without the town, the party 
 who ventured so to arrest him forfeited two hundreds, a sum 
 probably represented by £16 ; for arresting the fugitive 
 within the town the penalty was increased to four hundreds; 
 within the sanctuary, viz. the walls of the church-yard, to 
 six hundreds ; within the church, to twelve hundreds ; and 
 within the doors of the choir, to eighteen hundreds, or 
 £144, besides penance, as in the case of sacrilege ; but, if 
 the pursuer dared to take the fugitive from the Frithstol, 
 or from among the holy relics behind the altar, the offence 
 
 •^ Lingard's Hist. Angl. Sax. Church, i. 275, edit. 1845.
 
 '8 
 
 A VISIT TO 
 
 was not redeemable by any sum. -^ Tlie Frithstol, therefore, 
 was highly reverenced .« But, the time-honoured privilege 
 of sanctuary, which the good monks had for centuries 
 extended to their fellow creatures, could not avail them- 
 selves, when the myrmidons of the royal malefactor of the 
 sixteenth century came to wrest from them their fair 
 possessions, to scatter their relics, to break down the peace- 
 ful and holy symbols of religion and mercy, and 
 
 "To bid devotion's hallow'd echoes cease." 
 
 Neither was their sanctuary reverenced by the Scotish 
 invaders, who, in the reign of Edward I. having burned 
 the suburbs of Carlisle, came to Hexham, and consumed 
 the priory with all its charters and muniments of title. It 
 was on this occasion that the nave of the church was 
 destroyed/ This melancholy event is placed in the year 
 1296.^ It led to the grant of a charter of confirmation by 
 King Edward I. in the 27th year of his reign,'' whereby, 
 after reciting an inquisition taken on the prayer of the 
 prior and convent, which set forth the destruction of their 
 house and cliarters by the Scots, the king, for restoring 
 the state of the monastery, confirms their title to the lands, 
 tenements, rents, and services therein specified, of which, 
 by the inquisition already mentioned, they had been found 
 seised at the time of the Scotish invasion. In this docu- 
 ment all the possessions are set out. A contemporary 
 exemplification of it remains in the manor office at Hexham. 
 And yet the Scotish warriors did not always come as ene- 
 mies, for in 1159, King David and Prince Henry his son 
 met the cardinal legate at Hexham, and were there honour- 
 ably entertained. 
 
 "* Staveley, 173; Rich. Has:iist. apiul 
 Decern. Script, ch. 13, col. 308. See a 
 leai'ned paper, by tlie Rev. Sanuiol 
 Pegge, on Asyhun or Sanctuary, in 
 Archseoh viii. 1. seq.; Sanctuar. Dun- 
 elm, et Beveriac. pubHshed by the 
 Surtees Society, wlicre some very in- 
 teresting ])articuhu's are given; Drake's 
 Hist, of York, p. 548, and App. xc. ; 
 and Thoroton, 313. By stat 1 James I. 
 0. 25, the antient privih'ge of sanctuary 
 in cluirciies was aboHslicd. In the 
 Scotish Rolls we find a commission from 
 Edw. III. empowering Edw. de Baliol, 
 King of Scotland, to array the felons 
 
 in the sanctuaries at Beverley, Ripon, 
 Tynemoutb, Hexham, and Wetlieral, 
 who were willing to join the army 
 against Scotland, and a grant of pardnn 
 to such "grithmen." [Rotul. Scot. lib. 
 impress, i. 029.] 
 
 '• As to " Frithstol," seeSpelm. Gloss. 
 
 f In the conunand of the Scotish 
 army there were seven earls. Lei. Coll. 
 tom. i. p. 540. 
 
 p Lell. Coll. tom. i. p. 180, "a.d. 
 riyf), Hagustaldunum a Scottis de- 
 pracdatum et incensum." 
 
 •■ It is granted at Newcastle, on the 
 23rd November, 27 Edw. I. (1298.)
 
 HEXHAM. 79 
 
 On the west side of the church are the remains of the 
 monastic buildings, whose cloisters and chapels, says Mr. 
 Gough, (writing in 1789) were to be seen a few years ago.' 
 The refectory, then still entire, was used for public dinners. 
 This part of the monastery was fitted up as a manor house 
 by persons who came into possession of the abbey lands. 
 The dwelling house has been twice destroyed by fire ; and 
 though the owners were great and powerful in their gene- 
 ration, their days have been short upon the land, and the 
 monks of Hexham continue to be avenged upon the usurpers 
 of the patrimony of the church. The principal gate of the 
 monastery remains, and it is a most beautiful as well as 
 venerable structure. In the vindictive and sanguinary 
 retribution which fell upon the participators in '' the pil- 
 grimage of grace," the last prior suffered death by hanging 
 beneath this very gate-way, under which he had so often 
 passed — the acknowledged lord of the homage and posses- 
 sions of his antient house. Within that gate, poverty and 
 misfortune never failed to obtain relief, for a large portion 
 of the revenues of the church were distributed among the 
 poor by the hands of the monks, who were exhorted to 
 prefer the service of the indigent brethren of Christ, before 
 that of the wealthy children of the world. 
 
 Beneath the space once occupied by the nave, the 
 antient Saxon crypt was discovered, in the year 1726, in 
 digging the foundation for a buttress to support the west 
 side of the transepts. Stukely and Gale, who then 
 examined this fabric, found in it two Roman inscriptions ; 
 one built into the wall, and another into the roof of the 
 north passage leading into the body of the crypt. Horsley 
 found another Roman fabric in the arch of one of the door- 
 ways.'' Together with the inscriptions, fragments of ap- 
 parently Roman mouldings are extensively used in the 
 walls ; and, from the presence of these remains, and the 
 fact that quarries existed in the neighbourhood of Hexham 
 Horsley inferred that it was a station — 
 
 " Where Rome, the empress of the world, 
 Of yore her eagle wings unfurl'd." 
 
 * Camd. Brit. vol. iii. 249, Cough's Robert Clarke, to be a relic of the Saxon 
 
 edit, Mackenzie supposes the old arch- monastery. 
 
 way opening into Gilesgate, and near ^ These remains are engraved in Brit. 
 
 to the new house erected by the Rev. Rom. pi. 35, 36, figures cviii. cix. ex.
 
 80 A VISIT TO 
 
 But there are many instances in tlie county of Northum- 
 berland, of Roman remains having been used in building, 
 when plenty of stone was to be found nearer than the place 
 from which those remains must have been procured. From 
 1775, wlicn Ilutcliinson visited this crypt, to 1^45, it 
 remained undescribed ; but in the latter year, Mr. Fairless 
 of Hexham, communicated to the Archaeological Institute, 
 a plan, drawn by him from correct measurement of this 
 antient structure.' It is more than probable that this crypt 
 is the identical subterranean oratory constructed by Wilfrid.'" 
 A crypt exists in a similar position, viz. beneath the nave 
 in Ripon Cathedral ; which church, as we have seen, was 
 one of Wilfrid's foundations." The floor of the crypt at 
 Hexham is about eioliteen feet from the surface. An 
 arched door way, six feet three inches in height, conducts 
 to an arched chamber nine feet high, and nine feet two 
 inches by five feet seven inches in area, having a recess in 
 the wall. Opposite the first mentioned entrance, another 
 arched doorway leads from this chamber to the largest 
 chamber of the crypt, which is arched, and is thirteen 
 feet four inches by eight feet in area, and nine feet high, 
 having three square recesses in the walls, and a stone 
 bracket at the east end. On the right of the entrance to 
 this chamber, another arched doorway leads to a small 
 chamber with pointed triangular roof, formed by large flat 
 stones ; and, beyond this, another passage or apartment 
 runs the length of the large chamber, having an elbow to 
 the south, and a flat roof. On the left of the first mentioned 
 chamber a doorway conducts to another chamber six feet 
 by three feet six inches in area, with a pointed triangular 
 roof, and an arched doorway leading into a passage similar 
 
 ' Pi-inted in the Archaeol. .lour. vol. cliristians, for the celebration of their 
 
 ii. p. 242. forbidden rites when harassed by ])agan 
 
 " "Igitur profunditatem ipsius Ec- persecution. There is some ground for 
 
 clesiae Criptis et Oratoriis subteranneis, sui)posing that this crj-pt is the only 
 
 et viannn anfraclibus, inferius cum existing edifice in which christian rites 
 
 magna industria fundavit." Ric. Ha- were celebrated by S. Paul in person, 
 
 gust. ap. Twysd. D. S. 220. See Mr. S. Smirke's paper, in Archaeol. 
 
 " Outside of the walls of the city of xxv. p. 278. Mr. Ledwich in a me- 
 
 Syracuse there is, or lately was, a small moir, also published in the Archieol. 
 
 church of high antiquity, dedicated to vol. viii. p. 179, note, refers to the crypt 
 
 S. John; it has been built over a still of Ilexbam, to its fragments of Roman 
 
 more antient place of worship, being a inscriptions, and to tlie grostescpie 
 
 subterranean chapel or crypt, which, figures (which he deems true Sigillaria 
 
 there is reason to believe, was one of or Sigilliola), and nuich carved work 
 
 those caves resorted to by the early therein contained.
 
 HEXHAM. 81 
 
 to the one last described, having an elbow to the north, 
 which is walled up. And now let us tind a sermon in 
 these antient stones. They were inscribed by Roman 
 legions, to commemorate, probably at the neighbouring 
 station of Corbridge, the progress of the Roman eagles 
 and the victories of Roman generals, or to propitiate the 
 favour of imaginary gods ; but, ere a few centuries had 
 elapsed, the victors and their power had disappeared from 
 Britain, and their very emperors, who aimed at the dominion 
 of the world, had become extinct, and had given place in 
 the Capitol of the Caesars, to the mitred successors of 
 S. Peter. The conquests which those stones record, and 
 the very language with which they were inscribed, had 
 been long obliterated in death, and forgotten among the 
 living who surrounded them ; and conquerors of Teutonic 
 race had succeeded to the occupation of England, when 
 Rome, now become Christian, again subjected this country to 
 her sway; but, the missionaries by whom she accomplished 
 this conquest, and the arms they employed, were of a very 
 different kind to those with which antient Rome had 
 overspread these distant shores, and widely different was 
 the object of that expedition. Those missionaries now 
 converted the Pagan Saxons to the religion of Christ ; 
 and the votive tablets and military inscriptions of heathen 
 Rome were taken from the ruins of a Roman station, by 
 the peaceful hands of Saxon prelates, to form the fabric of 
 a Christian temple. For two centuries the mural witnesses 
 thus strangely transplanted, beheld the rites of the Church 
 of Christ ; but at the end of that period, the ravens of 
 Denmark floated where the cross had gone on before, and 
 again overshadowed in pagan darkness, not only the 
 triumph of Christian architecture, but also all trace of 
 the victories which had been achieved beneath the long- 
 departed eagles of mighty Rome. Ere two centuries more 
 had passed away, the exiles of the cross returned to build 
 again the old waste places — to occupy the beloved but 
 desolated home of their predecessors. Once more, from 
 Hextold's Mount, the Christian banner floated over the 
 peaceful vale, and men might descry — 
 
 " S. Andrew's cross, in blazonry 
 Of silver, waving wide."
 
 82 A VISIT TO 
 
 The Roman inscriptions, meanwhile, relapsed into ob- 
 livion for centuries : but, when these undying memorials 
 of Roman dominion were again disclosed to view in the 
 Saxon crypt of Hexham, another change had occurred in 
 that church. After she had seen a lona; and time-honoured 
 succession of priors and monks, and the pavement of her 
 noble fabric, wliich once knew their daily footsteps, had be- 
 come thickly studded with their sepulchral memorials ; after 
 she had received from pious munificence, and had enjoyed 
 for some hundred years temporal possessions almost equal 
 to a principality, a sacrilegious tyrant invaded her antient 
 cloister, seized upon her treasures, decreed that laymen 
 should devour her patrimony, and established a new form 
 of worship in lieu of that which, for six centuries, had been 
 there offered to the Most High. And now the antiquary 
 comes with inquisitive eyes and mourning footsteps to 
 trace these memorials of the mutability of all human affairs; 
 and is warned to fix his hope in Him who knows no change, 
 to seek the inscription of his own name in the Book of Life, 
 and to lay up treasures in a kingdom which passes not 
 away. 
 
 The church of Hexham still crowns its lofty hill, and is 
 seen from afar like the guardian president of the wooded 
 vale through which the rapid Tyne flows by, as when 
 S. Wilfrid came to found here his monastery and cathedral 
 church. And still within its venerable fabric, or beneath 
 its shadow, — 
 
 '* The dead of feudal ages sleep," — 
 
 the departed bishops and priors who adorned that church 
 by their piety and extensive charity and learning, the 
 departed nobles who claimed their last repose within its 
 hallowed precincts, and with whose ancient grave-stones 
 and memorial brasses its pavement was erewhile piously 
 inlaid. But the days of its antient glory have departed. 
 The abbey lands no longer sustain a dignified worship or 
 a daily charity. The tithes of the parish — the spiritual 
 revenues of that dowry which the pious S. Etheldreda 
 brought to her heavenly spouse, when she bestowed these 
 upon His church, and dedicated herself to religion, are 
 possessed by an impropriator, and dissipated in foreign 
 lands; while a very small portion of those revenues is
 
 HEXHAM. 83 
 
 received by the clergyman, as if even the cold periodical 
 formalities of parochial duty were provided grudgingly ; 
 the fabric of the church which saints erected and illus- 
 trious prelates adorned, is abandoned in one of its principal 
 features (the Lady Chapel) to decay, and the dignity and 
 beauty of the whole structure are defaced by modern 
 barbarisms ; while in place of that ardent feeling of chivalric 
 and pious times, which gloried in devoting worldly sub- 
 stance to the honour of God and the stately splendour of 
 His church, we find a sordid and miserable parsimony, 
 which even refuses to provide sufficient funds for rescuing 
 the Lady Chapel from a state of defilement and neglect, 
 and allows that once beautiful addition to the antient 
 fabric to remain a desecrated ruin — its floor unpaved, and 
 even used for modern interments, its upper portion boarded 
 over for some secular purpose, and the tracery of its 
 windows barbarously blocked up with rubbish, where erst 
 some holy legends shone in transparent glowing hues. 
 
 It is understood, that the plan which was set on foot 
 some years ago for its restoration is likely to be relinquished, 
 the subscriptions received having proved wholly inade- 
 quate to defray the cost of the repairs, after purchasing the 
 tenements which had been erected against the east end 
 of the church, and which it was desirable to pull down. 
 The windows of the chapel, which are of the middle 
 pointed period, and must have been exceedingly beautiful, 
 are now displayed, but the deplorable state of dilapidation 
 into which the fabric has fallen is manifest also. The 
 committee are said to have made several appeals for local 
 support, but without success. It would be curious to 
 contrast the amount raised for railway speculations by 
 some neighbouring proprietors, with their contributions to 
 the restoration fund of this once beautiful structure. 
 
 Before we leave the church, let us briefly notice some of 
 the monumental effigies. Near the entrance, is the recum- 
 bent figure of an Augustine canon, who has long slept 
 there the enduring sleep, while storms and changes of 
 which he never dreamed, have swept over his lowly 
 couch : — 
 
 " His form you may trace, but not his face — • 
 'Tis shadow'd by his cowl." 
 
 The person commemorated was probably a prior of the 
 
 G 2
 
 84 A VISIT TO 
 
 monastery. The churcli contains also a monumental effigy 
 intended to commemorate some lord of the noble race of 
 Umfranville, many of the members of which family were 
 benefactors of the priory." And several very early se- 
 pulchral stones, incised, some with plain, some with flori- 
 ated crosses, have been rescued from decay, and ranged in 
 the north transept. Most of these memorials of the name- 
 less dead are exceedingly beautiful in design. One of the 
 oldest commemorated John dc Malerbe ; and a warrior 
 commemorated by an effigy in the transept is probably 
 Galfrid de Ay den. A recess near the north aisle of the 
 clioir is said to be the resting place of Alfwold, King of 
 Northumbria, who was assassinated in 788 ; but as this 
 elaborate tomb is not contemporary, and as this monarch 
 was not a founder, the tradition cannot be relied upon. 
 Many sepulchral stones in the pavement of the church 
 have been inlaid with brasses. Others were incised in 
 memory of departed ecclesiastics. Another inscription is 
 \ in memory of Robert Ogle, son of the Lady Helen, heiress 
 of the Bertrams of Bothal, by her marriage with Sir Robert 
 Ogle,p and it records that he died on the vigil of All Saints, 
 A.D. 1404. The church contains also the effigy of Henry 
 Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, the unfortunate nobleman 
 who was captured at Hexham by the army of Edward IV. 
 when they surprised the little band of the Lancastrian 
 forces, and was there beheaded, and interred in the abbey. 
 And here another episode of that fatal contest which is con- 
 nected with Hexham, may be adverted to. 
 
 Somerset, whose forces did not exceed five hundred men, 
 was encamped on the banks of the Dilswater, near Hexham. 
 When Nevill, Lord Montagu, warden of the East Marches, 
 advanced to surprise him, he endeavoured to save himself 
 by flight, but was made prisoner. King Henry, however, 
 wiio had fled from Hexham before the arrival of Montagu, 
 contrived to escape, though he was closely pursued, and he 
 found an asylum among the natives of Lancashire and 
 Westmorland, who were devoted to his cause. But the 
 
 ° It is probably in commemoration '" These eminent persons are men- 
 
 of Richard de Umfranville, who gave tioned in the " Walk from Morpeth to 
 
 to the canons of Hexham a toft and Bothal," forming a subsequent portion 
 
 eight acres of land in Prudhoe, and died of the present series of " Visits." 
 in A.D. 1227.
 
 HEXHAM. 85 
 
 king was at. length betrayed and taken prisoner.^ After 
 the fatal battle of Hexham, (15th May, 1464), when the 
 victorious followers of the house of York broke into the 
 Lancastrian camp at Hexham "Levels," Queen Margaret, 
 alarmed for the safety of the little prince, her son, fled 
 with him on foot into the adjacent forest, guarded only by 
 De Breze. Ere long, the unhappy fugitives were despoiled 
 by robbers of their jewels and robes of state ; but, while 
 the robbers were disputing about the division of the spoil, 
 the queen fled with her son to a distant thicket for conceal- 
 ment. Beset by outlaws, and by enemies yet more danger- 
 ous — the partizans of the usurping Edward, the fugitive 
 queen and little prince, when the shades of evening closed 
 around them, crept fearfully from their retreat. They en- 
 countered another armed denizen of the forest, but he 
 turned out to be a Lancastrian gentleman, who had been 
 ruined in King Henry's cause ; and, taking the prince in 
 his arms, he led the queen to his own retreat — a cave, then 
 surrounded by the forest, where the royal fugitives received 
 such attention as his wife could afford. This cave is de- 
 scribed to be in a most secluded spot, on the south bank of 
 the little rapid stream which runs at the foot of Blackhill. 
 It is about two miles from Hexham ; and is still known in 
 local traditions, as Queen Margaret's cave. The entrance to 
 it was formerly artfully concealed from sight, as Sir Walter 
 Scott describes the mountain eyries of highland freebooters 
 to have been ; the entrance is still very low ; the dimen- 
 sions of the cave are thirty-four feet by fourteen feet, and 
 it is said to have been divided into two distinct apartments. 
 Such was the comfortless retreat in which the majestic and 
 beautiful Margaret of Anjou, with the youthful hope of 
 Lancaster, passed two days of fearful suspense. She was 
 afterwards discovered by some devoted friends, from whom 
 she learned the narrow escape of her royal husband, and 
 the safety of noble kinsmen whom she had numbered with 
 the slain ; and, guided through the forest by the generous 
 outlaw, on her way to Carlisle, she thence embarked upon 
 that voyage which brought to her new suffering and 
 peril.' 
 
 1 The unfortunate monarch was cap- ■■ See Lives of the Queens, vol. iii, 
 
 tmed as he sat at dinner inWaddington p. 273 seq. The reader will find in 
 Hall, Yorkshire. Archseol. ^liana, vol. iv. p, 32, an_.
 
 86 
 
 A VISIT TO 
 
 But we must not linger amid the monuments and histo- 
 rical associations of this venerable dome, though the me- 
 mories of departed worth and virtue have been there 
 garnered up in the tranquil and confiding care of holy 
 church, a keeping which shadows forth the enduring repose 
 of eternity, and triumphs over the evanescent agitation 
 and troubles of the world. Before, however, we bid adieu 
 to the priory church, we must notice the rood screen, which 
 is very beautiful. It is of flamboyant character, but pro- 
 bably not much earlier than a.d. 1500; its panels contain 
 many figures of saints, and the drawing and colouring are 
 effective and in good preservation. There is some beau- 
 tiful carved oak work in the sedilia, on the south side of 
 the altar. The altar itself is an unmeaning production of 
 the end of the last century. It should have been stated, 
 that the stained glass has utterly disappeared from the 
 great east window. 
 
 Let us now take a rapid view of the endowments which 
 the monastery enjoyed, and of its connection with the see 
 of York. 
 
 Upon the new foundation of the monastery, by Thomas 
 the archbishop, it was endowed with the cathedral church 
 of S. Andrew of Hexham, and its privileges, and with all 
 the tithes, both great and small, of the parish of Hexham, 
 which seem to have been acquired for this purpose by the 
 Chapter of York, from Richard de Maton, canon of Be- 
 verley, to whose stall they were appropriate. Thurstan, 
 the succeeding archbishop, gave to this monastery the 
 corpus of the now suppressed prebend of Salton, in the 
 cathedral church of York, which included the appropria- 
 tion of the church of Salton and the advowson of the 
 vicarage.* These gifts were no sooner made than other 
 possessions were conferred upon the monastery by pious 
 and munificent individuals, — the owners of property far 
 and near. Of the estimation in which the monks of 
 
 account of a very singular place of con- holds of the harassed Lancastrians in 
 
 cealment, found in working a limestone the north of England : and it is not 
 
 quarry upon the coast near North Sun- improhable that this very cave may 
 
 derland, at a spot called Snook Point, likewise have afforded a place of con- 
 
 which lies ahout half way between cealnicnt to the heroine of the Red 
 
 Bamburgh and Dunstanburgh. Those Rose. 
 
 castles, and the castle of Alnwick, were, * These were antiently rated as worth 
 
 as the reader knows, the last strong- £53 13*. 3(/. yearly.
 
 HEXHAM. 87 
 
 Hexham came to be held, some proof is afforded by the 
 names which occur in the roll of their benefactors; amongst 
 whom we find, in addition to the founders and other 
 archbishops of York, William the Lion, king of Scotland, 
 Odinelde Umfranville, Richard de Umfranville, Margeriade 
 Umfranville, Walter de Bolbeck, Roger de Merlay, Roger 
 Bertram, Bernard de Baliol, Hugh de Baliol, Robert de 
 Skipton, Adam de Tynedale, lord of Warden, Walter de 
 Insula, Robert de Insula, Alicia of Bolam, James de Cauz, 
 and Alicia his wife, Gilbert de Wircestre, John de Wir- 
 cestre. Sir Thomas de Divilston, the abbat of Newminster, 
 Richard Cumin, Robert son of Hubert Delaval, Thomas de 
 Fenwick, and other eminent persons. The monks possessed 
 the appropriation of the church of Walden with its chapels, 
 the church of ChoUerton with its chapels, the church of 
 Ovingham, the church of Slaley, and a portion from the 
 church of Stamfordham, all in the county of Northumber- 
 land ; and the appropriation of the churches of Aldstone, 
 Renwick, and Isell, in Cumberland ; and of Ilkley and 
 Edstone, in the county of York. Amongst their temporal 
 possessions, — which were not only in the immediate vicinity 
 of their church, but were scattered over the counties of 
 Northumberland and Cumberland, and extended into York- 
 shire, — were the manor of Warden, the demesne and vill 
 of Whitfield, the manor of Cheeseburn, Hugh Delaval's 
 manor and land in Benwell, and the manor of Stella. The 
 territory, afterwards called Hexhamshire, appears to have 
 been retained as a manor of the Archbishop of York, and. 
 such it continued until the exchange in 1545, when the 
 temporal rights of the see of York thereto were conceded 
 to the Crown, but the spiritual jurisdiction over the church 
 of Hexham was retained. Hexhamshire was co-extensive 
 with the present regality, and embraced the parishes of 
 St. John Lee and Allendalcj besides that of Hexham. The 
 archbishops of York appointed their justices itinerant, by 
 whom they held pleas of the crown and other pleas, and 
 appointed their sheriff and coroner for Hexhamshire;' 
 they enjoyed, moreover, the usual regalities within this their 
 manor and county," besides the right of holding fair and 
 
 ' Plac. Quo. War. Nortliumb. 12 " Plac. coram H. de Cressingliam, 
 
 Edw. I. r. 3 dors. .Just. Itiu. at Newcastle, Trin. 21 
 
 Edw. I. r. 31.
 
 88 A VISIT TO 
 
 market at Hexham. The arehbishops thus exercised a 
 palatial jurisdiction independent of the sovereign, and the 
 tenants of the manor were exempt from public subsidies/ 
 The antient officer called the bailiff" is still the chief civil 
 governor of the town, and is appointed by the lord of the 
 manor, in the place which the archbishop's seneschal held. 
 In 1545, the then Archbishop of York exchanged the manor 
 of Hexham with the Crown, for some of the spoils of other 
 monasteries ; and in the fourteenth year of the reign of 
 Queen Elizabeth it was made a part of the county of North- 
 umberland. In the twenty-first year of that reign, the 
 V^ manor of Hexham was sold by the Crown to Sir John 
 Forster, lord warden of the Middle Marches ; and in the 
 forty-third year of that reign it devolved on his son-in-law, 
 Sir John Fen wick ; whose grandson, Sir John Fenwick,^ sold 
 it in the reign of William III. to an ancestor of the family 
 of Blackett, from whose hands it passed to those of Mr. 
 Beaumont.^ With this property, passed also the site of 
 the antient monastery, with some of its lands. On the dis- 
 solution, in 30 Hen. VIII. they were granted to Sir Regi- 
 nald Carnaby, but came again to the Crown, and were given 
 by Queen Elizabeth to Sir Christopher Hatton, from whom 
 they came to the family of Fenwick, owners of the manor, 
 and were disposed of as already mentioned. The clear an- 
 nual value of the endowments of the monastery was stated, 
 at the period of the dissolution, at £122 lis. Id., a sum 
 equivalent probably to upwards of £1,200 of our money. 
 At that time, the canons who formed the brethren of the 
 monastery were fourteen in number. The impropriator and 
 parishioners are said to have agreed to abandon S. Mary's 
 Church, and to make the Priory Church thenceforward the 
 church of the parish. 
 
 With the monastery and its other possessions there came 
 
 " Pat. 33 Edw. III. p. 2, m. 19. practice, was omitted by her, and she 
 
 y This possessor is supposed to be the erected a iiionunient in York Cathedral 
 
 Sir John Fenwick who commanded a to perpetuate his memory. [Celeb, 
 
 regiment in the service of the Dutch Trials, iii. 2G9.] 
 
 usurper, when Prince of Orange, in ^ A fire engine and buckets used to 
 
 IG7G; and who was beheaded on a stand in the transcjit, presented to the 
 
 charge of high treason, on 23rd Jan. inhabitants by this gentleman, to sym- 
 
 1697, at the age of 52. He was so bolize, it is supposed, the desire of the 
 
 tenderly beloved by his wife, the Lady lord of the manor to extinguish the 
 
 Mary, eldest daughter of Charles, Earl flame of ecclesiastical feeling, in case it 
 
 of Carlisle, that no stratagem to save should be kindled by Hexham's antient 
 
 him that love could invent or duty glories.
 
 HEXHAM. 89 
 
 to the Crown the house of S. Giles, a hospital for leprous 
 persons, which was of the foundation of the archbishops 
 of York, at least as early as the reign of King Johni'' 
 and another charitable foundation called the 'Spital, 
 which was dependent on the priory, and is said to have 
 stood about a mile westward from the town, near that plea- 
 sant eminence, shaded by trees and watered by the Tyne, 
 which is now occupied by Mr. Kirsopp's mansion and 
 surrounded by his beautiful park. Further to the west, 
 a gentle acclivity overhung by trees, leads to a spot called 
 the Priest's Seat, an eminence which commands a most 
 lovely view. In the rich valley to the west, the north Tyne 
 and the south Tyne are seen to unite into the broad and 
 shining stream which flows at the foot of this sylvan retreat ; 
 and which, after passing under the picturesque stone bridge 
 to the east, is lost in the wooded vale, whose distant hori- 
 zon is closed by the Northumbrian hills ; eastward, the 
 peaceful town rises upon its hill, crowned by the venerable 
 abbey church ; while at the foot of the rising grounds 
 which occupy the opposite side of the river, and nestling 
 beneath the waving woods, is the tranquil mansion of 
 Mr. Brooksbank, called the Hermitage, in memory of 
 S. John of Beverley, who loved the sylvan retirement of 
 this " hamlet in the haugh," which was hallowed by the 
 small church dedicated in his honour as already mentioned; 
 and to which the monks of Hexham, in reverence for that 
 holy prelate, went annually in solemn procession. This 
 hermitage also came to the Crown at the dissolution of 
 the monastery. 
 
 Returning to the town of Hexham, the visitor remarks 
 the quaint and antique character of many of the buildings, 
 and the air of repose which pervades the streets. On the 
 east side of the market-place is a fine old gateway, beneath 
 which the ecclesiastical lords of Hexham, their noble visi- 
 tors, and many a personage of historic fame, have passed. 
 The gate tower is a fine and substantial structure, which 
 seems as old as the time of Edward H. The antient court- 
 house of the archbishop and of the priors, erroneously 
 supposed to have been a palace of the bishops, is a square 
 fabric, with small loopholes and corbel battlements. It 
 seems to have been the chief fortress of the place, and may 
 
 * Cart. 2 Joh. p. 2.
 
 . 90 HEXHAM. 
 
 have been the prison of the lords of the manor and shire. 
 The interior of this castle keep, now the manor office, 
 possesses many features of antiquarian curiosity. Before 
 feudal sway and palatial dignity had vanished from Hex- 
 • ham, the prior's school probably furnished such means 
 of education as were required ; but, when the town was 
 deprived of the time-honoured establishment which had 
 there fostered religion and learning, it became necessary to 
 provide some means for educatiim, and a grammar-school 
 was founded by Queen Elizabeth in 1598, which was sub- 
 sequently aided by private benefactions, but is now said 
 not to possess any endowments. Wall is'' gives a goodly 
 list of other local charities, from which it appears that the 
 poor of Hexham have been liberally provided for by many 
 neighbouring benefactors. It is to be hoped that their 
 charitable wishes are punctually fulfilled. Among these 
 good deeds of private munificence, mention must be made 
 of the foundation of a lectureship in the gift of the Mercer's 
 Company, endowed under the will of Richard Fishburn, 
 made in 1625.' 
 
 And now, impressed with all the memories of the past, 
 and lamenting the departure of its ecclesiastical glories, 
 we bid adieu to Hexham, and are swiftly conveyed by 
 a mode of travelling which would have greatly astonished 
 the good monks, to the smoky town of Newcastle and its 
 busy scenes, so unlike those which have surrounded us on 
 our pensive yet pleasant day at antient Hexham. 
 
 '' Hist. Nortlnimb. ii. 100 seq. be derived from the register of Hexham, 
 •= A fragment of a cartulary on vel- formerly belonging to Sir John Fen- 
 limi, in small 4to. which once belonged wick. It contains a rental of the con- 
 to Hexham Piiory, and came into the vent estates made in a.d. 1479. The 
 possession of Ralph Thoresby, whose inquisition touching those estates, taken 
 autograph it bears under date 1711, is in 12G7, has been already mentioned, 
 now in possession of J. B. Nichols, Ksq. See, also, Dodsw. Collect, vol. cxviii. 
 and some extracts from it are printed in fo. 101 ; MS. Cott. Vitellius, E. xiii fo. 
 the Collectanea Topog. et Geneal. vol. 2.3. MS. Cott. Titus, A. ii. 11 ; MSS. 
 vi. p. 38, seqq. It contains fourteen Harl. No. (5909, pp. 46, G5, 89, lOG, 122, 
 leaves of parchment, written partly in and 123, No. G970, pp. 20G, 207, No. 
 the 15tli, and partly in the IGth cen- C971, and No. G972, being extracts from 
 tury. The only other cartulary of registers of York. Some manuscripts 
 Hexham now known to exist, is in the connected with the Priory of Hexham 
 hands of T. W. Beaumont, Es(j. lord are understood to be in the possession 
 of the manor, and is commonly known of Sir Walter C. Trevelyan, Bart. ; 
 by the name of the Black Book of and documents relating to the See of 
 liexham. It is preserved in the Manor York, in the custody of the Chapter 
 Oliice. Some extracts from it are in Clerk, may be referred to for further 
 Dodsw. Coll. vol. XV. which purport to information.
 
 91 
 
 A VISIT TO HOUGHTON-LE-SPRING. 
 
 On our last walk, we made a pilgrimage to a renowned 
 historic site, and to the church of a once-flourishing priory 
 — a foundation eminent in the annals of holy men, but now, 
 unhappily, in ruin. Let us on the present occasion, direct 
 our footsteps to a religious edifice not connected with a 
 monastery — an edifice which, like the church of Hexham, 
 has survived the storms of centuries, and which has not 
 been levelled by puritanical fury, or by the iron hand of 
 time. We will, accordingly, turn aside from the busy 
 paths of commerce, and exchange the highways of sordid 
 speculation for the rural fields ; we will escape for awhile 
 from the populous streets, and tread the sunny pathways 
 of Nature ; and vvith history for our companion and 
 guide, visit places and buildings that bear the impress of 
 the past. And to what spot more interesting could we 
 bend our footsteps, than the retired village of Houghton- 
 le-Spring? We shall there find many attractive features, 
 though they are not of the same kind as those which bring 
 the pilgrim to the now-deserted walls of one of the vast 
 conventual churches, whose ruined state ought to humiliate 
 our fellow-countrymen ; and cannot boast those associations 
 which invite the eager tourist to some feudal stronghold that 
 still retains the majestic features of Norman might. In 
 visiting Houghton, we come not to a spot conspicuous in 
 national history, or famed for monuments of monastic 
 wealth and fervour, — within whose walls, the incense of 
 praise and prayer ascended seven times a day before the 
 throne of the Most High ; but, we bend our footsteps to a 
 place which can boast a noble monument of the architectural 
 skill of early parochial church builders, a place which has 
 been irradiated by virtue and by love of learning, and which 
 has become celebrated as the sphere of action of reverend 
 men, whose lives were passed, not indeed in the cloister, 
 but in the equally unobtrusive service of religion, in the 
 zealous performance of parochial duty — foremost among 
 whom, is the renowned and time-honoured Bernard Gilpin.
 
 92 A VISIT TO 
 
 Before the York and Newcastle railway brought the 
 travelling world within two miles of Houghton, this con- 
 siderable village, lying as it does far fi'om the old north 
 road, enjoyed a seclusion of which even the proximity of 
 the railway has not entirely deprived it. Houghton is situ- 
 ated at the head of a fine vale, opening to the south and 
 west, and sheltered on the north and east by a high chain of 
 limestone hills, one of which, called Warden Law, is said, 
 indeed, to form the highest elevation in this part of 
 the county of Durham. The village itself is irregular, 
 stretching nearly half a mile in length ; it contains several 
 substantial, as well as interesting, domestic structures. 
 The name is probably derived from the Saxon words Hou — 
 a hill, and ton — a vill, or place of dwelling. Houghton is 
 now one of the great manors of the see of Durham ; but, 
 at a period of high antiquity, a freehold manor appears to 
 have existed here, and to have been the possession of the 
 knightly family of Le Spring.* Of these antient lords of 
 Houghton, who, perhaps, communicated their name to the 
 village, a few scattered evidences alone remain. Sir Henry 
 Le Spring is the first of whom mention is made, and he 
 occurs in a.d. 1264. He is said to have been at the battle 
 of Lewes, and to have married the daughter and heiress of 
 Roger Bernard, high constable of Palatial Durham. Sir 
 John Le Spring next occurs as lord of Houghton ; and he 
 was murdered at his own manor-house, about G Edward II.'* 
 This event has been commemorated in a ballad, from which 
 the following verses are extracted :— 
 
 ** He fell not where before the cross 
 
 The waning crescent fled, 
 Wl)ere the martyr's palm and golden crown, 
 Reward Christ's soldier dead. 
 
 " But by murderous hand and bloody brand 
 — In his garden bower, with his paramour, 
 
 Did his soul from his body fleet ; 
 
 And through mist, and mirk, and moonlight grey, 
 
 Was forced away from the bleeding clay, 
 
 To the dreaded judgment- seat. 
 
 ^ Surtces, Hist, of Durham, vol, i. assassination of Sir John, Ralph Lord 
 
 145. Ncvil of llaby, for seizing and obsti- 
 
 '' The same historian records, that nately retaining his armour, was ex- 
 
 on 7tli August 1313, soon after the connnunicated by Bishop Kellaw.
 
 HOUGHTON-LE-SPRING. 93 
 
 " In the southern aisle, his coat of mail 
 
 Hangs o'er his marble shrine ; 
 His tilting spear is rusting there, 
 
 His helm and his gaberdine. 
 
 *' And still when the guilty night returns, 
 
 On the eve of S. Barnabas bright, 
 The dying taper faintly burns 
 
 With a wan and wavering light. 
 And the clammy midnight dew breaks forth 
 
 Like drops of agony 
 From the marble dank ; and the armour's clank 
 
 Affrights the priest on his knee." 
 
 And the ballad concludes with this admonition and request — 
 
 " Watch, for thou knowest not thy hour ; 
 
 And to .Tesus bright, and Mary of might, 
 Pray for the soul of the murder'd knight. 
 
 Who died in the moonlit bower. ""^ 
 
 The only other member of the family who is mentioned 
 is Mary, said to be daughter and heiress of Sir Henry, 
 who married Roland, son of Hervey Belasyse, of an antient 
 family of Durham gentry, which held lands in Henknowle 
 and the neighbouring territory of Morton-le-Grangc. Her 
 husband is said to have become, in her right, lord of 
 Houghton ; however, the name of Le Spring occurs no 
 more. Mr. Surtees remarks, that the family of Belasyse 
 seems to be the only family who can claim to be the repre- 
 sentatives of the antient lords of Houghton ; but, as at 
 the distance of a century from the death of Sir John, 
 John Belasyse occurs as holding certain lands of the heirs 
 of Sir John Le Spring, it would seem that the manor was 
 not then vested in the Belasyse family. Mr. Surtees says, 
 he is not aware of the existence of any freehold manor in 
 Houghton at a later date. As already stated, the Bishop 
 of Durham is lord of the manor, and his seneschal, or a 
 
 •^ The history of this ballad is some- minstrelsy, even upon Sir Walter Scott; 
 what extraordinary. There is now no and in like manner, many persons (and 
 doubt that it was a genuine production amongst them the present writer) had 
 of Mr. Surtees, the historian ; who, from supposed this ballad to be of antient 
 his reading and abilities, was well fitted date. It was expressly stated so to be 
 to cast any striking event of history in a historical notice pi-efixed to it, as 
 into the old ballad style. The worthy published in a collection of North- 
 historian is known to have imposed a Country Ballads, about two or three 
 similar literary coimterfeit of antient years since in London.
 
 94 A VISIT TO 
 
 deputy, now holds his copyhold court or halmote twice a 
 year within it. Lands, called Court Close, were held by 
 the antient rectors, by the service of providing a dinner 
 for this officer, his clerk and servants, upon these occasions; 
 anfl for other lands held by them the rectors were bound 
 to feed the horses and retinue of the seneschal. Of the 
 buildings w^hich existed in this fair inheritance of the Le 
 Springs, before or during their times, scarcely any traces 
 remain. We only know that a church was endowed at 
 Houghton as early as a. d. 1131, when a clerk occurs as 
 rector ; and that old people have a tradition of antient 
 buildings having existed in a now irregular inclosure within 
 the village called the Kirkland — parcel of the glebe of the 
 rectory. Mr. Surtees, however, speaks of the appearances 
 in question ( for they are little more than appearances) as 
 the traces of works and entrenchments. Whatever they 
 were, no account of them has been preserved. The principal 
 mound of earth enclosed an oblong square. In Hatfield's 
 survey, (a.d. 1345-81,) the water-mill, the brewery, and 
 the common forge, are mentioned ; and the master of 
 Kepyer Hospital held in Houghton a place for a grange. 
 
 The church, whicli is dedicated to S. Michael, is in its 
 plan, dimensions, and original features, one of the finest 
 and most considerable parochial structures in the country. 
 It stands at the western end of the town, upon an elevation 
 above the road, and the enclosure around the venerable 
 fabric forms a spacious burial ground, which is skirted by 
 rows of antient sycamores. The church is in the form of a 
 cross ; and consists of a spacious chancel, nave with aisles, 
 transepts, and square central tower. The gables are 
 strengthened by buttresses ; and a parapet of Perpendicu- 
 lar work has been added. Its architecture is of different 
 periods, as we shall presently see. The entrance is on the 
 south-west side of the church. At the intersection of the 
 nave and transepts, four lofty arches form a square, above 
 which rose the tower; but the flat plaster ceiling which de- 
 faces the nave, chancel,*" and transepts is continued under the 
 tower, which is therefore not visible from the interior. Four 
 massive clustered pillars on either side divide the nave and 
 aisles, which latter open into the transepts under low pointed 
 
 ■^ It has been removed from the chancel since this article was written.
 
 HOUGHTON-LE-SPRING. 95 
 
 arches. The columns and roll mouldings of the abacus of 
 the columns of these piers are Early English, probably 
 as early as a.d. 1250. These pillars are of very fine and 
 noble proportions ; and one feels indignant at the wanton 
 barbarism which has concealed their beauty. The two 
 pillars to the westward are separated from the nave by 
 a miserable screen of wood work running from wall to wall 
 beneath a low and unsightly western gallery, which is 
 so deep as to project eastward beyond the second pillars 
 and conceal the best portion of them. Nor are these 
 pillars the only features of the original structure which are 
 hid by this offensive gallery; for the organ stands'^ before 
 the great west wmdow, and completely hides it from view 
 in the interior of the church, — an arrangement the more in- 
 tolerable, as this is a decorated window, probably of the 
 date of 1320, with elaborate flowing tracery in quatrefoil 
 pattern, divided in the lower portion into five lights ; and 
 this tracery has been lately restored in a very creditable 
 manner. Nor are these the only particulars in which 
 modern innovations (committed before the present rector 
 became incumbent) have defaced the beauty of the original 
 structure. On entering the church they meet the eye 
 in every direction. Foremost, in these offences against 
 ecclesiastical order and propriet}^ is the flat plaster ceiling 
 already mentioned, which covers the whole of the church- • 
 a barbarism the more wanton in its perpetrators, since 
 a timber roof exists above it in the chancel, and probably 
 exists over the nave and transepts also. Then there is the 
 position of the pulpit, reading-desk which faces the west, 
 and clerk's rostrum. These form an unsightly pile, which 
 occupies the central space beneath the tower, and blocks 
 up the avenue between nave and chancel. Instead of low, 
 open seats, every inch of ground is covered with pues, and 
 two compartments, each forming five rows of pues, project 
 into the chancel, eastward of the tower piers. *^ The heavy 
 
 ^ This visit was made in Nov. 1847 ; is the removal of the organ to less ob- 
 
 but since that time, the good taste and trusive quarters, viz., to a place in the 
 
 energy of the new rector (the Hon. south transept. 
 
 and Rev. John Grey) have effected ^ Shortly after Nov. 1847, the writer 
 
 most welcome restoi-ations, and re- had the satisfaction of publishing the 
 
 moved many of the defacements and following paragraph : — " In the course 
 
 innovations which concealed the beauty of the alterations which are now in 
 
 and fair proportions of this antient progress in the fine old church of 
 
 church. Amongst these improvements Houghton-le-Spring, some interesting
 
 96 
 
 A VISIT TO 
 
 gallery already mentioned occupies the whole of the west- 
 ern portion of the nave, and is continued over the aisles, 
 with an announcement at the end of the south gallery, that 
 it was erected by the Rev. E. S. Thurlow, rector, in 1834.8 
 The pucs in the transepts rise one row above another, 
 in theatrical fashion. The walls of the chancel and tran- 
 septs are metamorphosed by modern plaster-work and 
 paneling, which has not any pretension to ecclesiastical 
 pattern. The communion-rails are of open iron work, of 
 a character which may be very suitable for a garden-wall, 
 or any secular purpose. A table, with a covering so 
 shabby that it would not be admitted into a well-furnished 
 dwelling-house, is made to serve the purpose of the high 
 altar. The sedilia and the piscina have all disappeared ; 
 there is not any lowly reading-desk in its proper position ; 
 
 discoveries have been made. The re- 
 cumbent effigy of a mail-clad warrior 
 has been discovered in the south tran- 
 sept, on removing the modern screen 
 of lath and plaster, with which some 
 church-defacers were at the pains to 
 cover the interior walls of this ancient 
 fabric. The efligy rests under a spa- 
 cious canopy, which has a deep Early 
 English moulding, in the south wall 
 beneath the window; and adjacent to it 
 is a remarkably fine piscina — shewing 
 that an altar was erected in the adjacent 
 angle of the walls. The legs of the 
 figure were crossed, and the right hand 
 has sheathed the sword. Whatever 
 may have been the valiant deeds or 
 knightly fame of him who bore it, they 
 have been long forgotten ; the device 
 on his shield is obliterated, and neither 
 sculpture nor tradition record the name 
 or family of the crusader who reposed 
 lieneath. Until the eiiigy shall have 
 been cleaned, its details cannot be dis- 
 tinguished ; but, it would seem to be 
 older tlian the effigy which was until 
 lately erected upright against the east- 
 ern wall of the same transept. ' The 
 lowly couch of sleep ' was violated long 
 ago ; and consequently we have no 
 voice from the tomb to speak of the de- 
 parted warrior. The adjacent altar- 
 tomb of the apostolic Bernard Ciil})in 
 has been recently freed from the high 
 pues which were erected around it. In 
 the north wall of the chancel, a deeply- 
 splayed window has been brought to 
 
 view, and it seems to be of an earlier 
 date than the range of Early English 
 windows which adorn the south wall of 
 the chancel. Some of these windows 
 were, until lately, blocked up to receive 
 hideous mural tablets ; but the whole 
 range of windows is now opened, and 
 their effect is admirable. It is to be 
 hoped, that when more necessary im- 
 provements have been made, these and 
 the great east window may be again 
 filled with stained glass. The pile of 
 wood-work crowned by the pulpit which 
 blocked up the space beneath the cen- 
 tral tower has vanished, and the j^'ilpit 
 has been erected in its pi-oper place; 
 the side galleries which defaced the 
 nave have been removed ; and the mo- 
 dern flat ceiling of the chancel has dis- 
 appeared. The good intentions of the 
 exemplary rector have been met in the 
 kindest spirit by the great body of the 
 parishioners ; and already many pues 
 ai'c understood to have been voluntarily 
 j)laced at his disposal, with a view to 
 their being replaced by open seats of an 
 ecclesiastical character. The clioral 
 service has been improved to a degree, 
 which only the utmost zeal and ability 
 could have achieved in so short a time. 
 We congratulate the good people of 
 Houghton upon their new rector, and 
 heartily wish him good speed in his 
 pious work." 
 
 8 It will be observed that these side 
 galleries are now removed.
 
 IIOUGHTON-LE-SPRING. 97 
 
 there are not any stalls for choristers in the chancel, nor 
 is there a lectern, or an alms-chest ; the spacious stone 
 basin of the font is disused. The fine western window, which 
 first attracts the attention of the visitor in approaching the 
 church, is invisible from the interior, as already stated ; 
 while plain white glass in all the windows, and whitewash — 
 that distinctive feature of the churchwarden school — unite 
 to give an air of coldness to the structure. Add to this, that 
 a curious building on the south side of the chancel, which 
 has probably been a chantry chapel, is turned into a vestry, 
 the upper floor being inhabited by the honest sexton and his 
 family. But, it is believed that better days are at hand. 
 The new rector, whose earnestness and good taste are well 
 known, is understood to be desirous to effect the removal of 
 the pulpit and its subordinate boxes, and of the galleries, and 
 the placing of the organ in a more suitable position, and of 
 the singers in their proper place — the chancel. The 
 galleries are not required for the accommodation of the 
 parishioners ; and as to the western gallery, one may suppose 
 that its removal will be readily conceded — although the 
 pues it contains became private property in virtue of the sub- 
 scriptions for its erection — because people complain that 
 in this gallery they cannot hear, and consequently the plea of 
 utilitarianism cannot be brouo;ht a2;ainst a chanoe, which in 
 point of good taste, is so desirable. It is to be hoped, that 
 with the commencement of a new incumbency, the painful 
 feelings said to have been occasioned by many years of 
 non-residence under the preceding incumbency, will be 
 forgotten ; and that the parishioners, animated by a just 
 pride of the fine structure, which it is their privilege to 
 beautify and preserve, and by a sense of the christian duty 
 of aiding the godly efforts of their clergyman, will cheerfully 
 help him to free that antient structure from its present 
 defacement, and put it in a more becoming condition for 
 the public worship of the Most High. 
 
 The chancel is well-developed, its length being 48 feet, 
 and its breadth 20, while the length of the nave is 93 feet, 
 and its width, including the aisles, 46 feet. The octagonal 
 capitals of the chancel arch, and of the arches springing from 
 the tower-piers, indicate early work of the Middle-Pointed 
 style. At the eastern end of the nave there is one step 
 into the transept, from which there are three steps into the 
 
 H
 
 98 A VISIT TO 
 
 chancel, and three more lead to the platform of the altar. 
 The great east window is of the Decorated period, with fine 
 flowing- tracery, and is divided by niullions in the lower 
 portion into five lights. It is to be hoped that this window 
 may be adorned by stained glass, with which it ought to 
 have been filled long ago, and would have been, if late 
 incumbents of this well-endowed benefice had been sensible 
 of the propriety of dedicating at least a portion of its 
 revenues to the pious purpose of honouring the house of 
 God, and enriching it from those abundant sources whicii 
 antient piety would have shuddered at withdrawing from 
 His service. However, the tracery of this fine window 
 having decayed, it was restored about two years ago. 
 A magnificent range of eight lancet windows is on the 
 south side of the chancel, beneath a continued arcade 
 springing from single Early English pilasters of great 
 beauty. The moulding of this arcade is enriched by the 
 nail-head ornament. The columns and mouldings are 
 similar to examples at Warmington, and probably date at 
 least as early as 1260; but the eff'ect of the whole is not 
 rivalled in any other parochial church known to the writer.'' 
 Two of the lancets, eastward, were actually walled up for 
 the reception of miserable monuments of the Georgian a3ra. 
 One similar arch near the north-eastern angle of the chancel- 
 wall remains, but the lancet windows beneath it have been 
 filled up and covered over by plaster, and cannot be seen 
 from the interior. The side lights in the aisles, are each a 
 single broad window, plain, without tracery ; the glazing 
 modern and colourless. A similar, but larger window, is at 
 the end of either transept. The transepts measure 87 feet 
 from north to south. On viewing their exterior walls, it ap- 
 pears that they are, in pnrts, of a period later than the chancel 
 and the piers or pillars of the nave, but they seem to have been 
 lighted by three lancet windows on the east sides, which 
 have been blocked up at some subsequent time. In the 
 west wall of the south transept are corresponding duplets 
 under quatrcfoil heads. The modern alterations inside the 
 transepts, as well as in the chancel, have been great; monoto- 
 nous plaster work, by churchwardens 'yclept ''''beautifying,''' 
 has concealed within the former all trace of the pointed 
 arches and the lancet windows of the original architects. 
 
 ^ See note ('), pp. 95, 96.
 
 HOUGIITON-LE-SPRING. 99 
 
 The chantry chapel already mentioned, which stands on the 
 south side of the chancel, is now used as the vestry, a modern 
 passage communicating between it and the church. The 
 side of a large altar tomb, which may be (but looks hardly 
 old enough to be) the founder's, projects from the modern 
 panel and plaster work into the chancel, nearly in a 
 line with the centre of the (supposed) chantry chapel. The 
 windows of this vestry have trefoiled heads, and it is of the 
 Decorated period. The building is square, and apparently 
 distinct from the chancel, though probably it communicated 
 with the chancel through a building of less height, the roof 
 of which was below the range of lancet windows already 
 mentioned. We find that in the rei2:n of Edw. IV. license 
 was granted by the Bishop of Durham to Henry Gyllowe, 
 clerk, master of Kepyer Hospital, and rector of Houghton 
 from 1470 to 1482, Henry Radclyffe, esq., Wm. Byrdon, 
 prior of Finchale, Edmund Saunderson, and Wm. Rothom, 
 to found a guild in the parish-church of Houghton, in 
 honour of God and the Most Holy Trinity, such guild to 
 consist of themselves and other well-disposed persons of 
 both sexes, with power to plead and be impleaded as a cor- 
 poration, to elect annually a warden or master, and to 
 acquire lands to the annual value of £10, notwithstanding 
 the statutes against mortmain. About the same time, a 
 license was granted to some of these persons, viz. Gyllowe, 
 Radclyffe, and Rothom, with one John Parry, to found 
 a guild in the same church to the praise of God and the 
 honour of the Blessed Virgin. Mr. Surtees thinks that the 
 two licenses refer to only one foundation ; and it is probable 
 that this guild was connected with the chantry of the 
 Blessed Virgin in Houghton church, of which Henry 
 NoUop, who received a pension of £3, in 1553, was the last 
 incumbent. A chantry in this church, dedicated to SS. 
 Margaret and Catherine, is mentioned by Willis, who says it 
 was valued, at the dissolution, at £3 15s. yearly. The 
 building in question is probably connected with the foun- 
 dation referred to, and with these chantries. The light of 
 their founder or founders no longer shines before men, and 
 we on earth can with difficulty make out these imperfect 
 traces of their good works ; but we may hope that they 
 are rewarded with the saints in life eternal, and glorify the 
 Blessed Trinity of heaven. 
 
 h2
 
 100 A VISIT TO 
 
 The upper portion or story of the tower probably fell into 
 decay, for it was replaced at some modern period by the 
 barbarism of a wooden spire, which remained down to a 
 period about twenty orthirty years a|j;o, when a new story 
 was added to the tower, with battlemented parapet ; and in 
 this tower six fine bells were hung about the same time. 
 Unfortunately the old bells were exchanged for these, and 
 it does not appear that any particulars as to their design 
 and chaiacter were preserved. The winding stairs of the 
 old bell-loft still remain, and are coeval with the original 
 fabric of the church. There is a story of a fatal accident 
 connected with the belfry-loft. It is, that in 1315, one 
 John Sayer, of Houghton, flying from a party of Scots to 
 the church, climbed for security into that loft, but was pre- 
 cipitated from thence to the pavement, on which his brains 
 were dashed out. In those days of ecclesiastical reverence 
 and decorum, divine service was of course suspended, and 
 a commission issued to make the usual inquiries, and 
 to " reconcile " the church, after the shedding of blood 
 within the sacred walls. 
 
 It remains to say something of the monuments of the 
 departed in Houghton Church. A fine effigy in stone, 
 which Surtees calls the effigy of a knight, has been 
 removed from its once recmnbent position upon an altar 
 tomb, and has been erected in a standing posture against 
 the east wall of the south transept.^ A more unsuitable 
 position for such an effigy cannot be imagined. The feet 
 and legs have been mutilated, and by an almost un- 
 exampled act of barbarous ignorance, the whole figure 
 has been blackened — possibly in the same taste which 
 induced reforming churchwardens to cover frescos or stone 
 carving with whitewash. This untbrtunate figure, how- 
 ever, is doing penance in a kind of black sheet, which has 
 been worn long enough. Its appearance is unpleasantly 
 startling, especially if one has been reading about the 
 unearthly footsteps once said to tread this spot on the 
 anniversary of the assassination of Sir John Le Spring. 
 The head is inclosed in a low round helmet of unusual 
 form, expanding like a crown from a band or fillet, and 
 rests upon a cushion ; the left arm bears the shield ; the 
 
 ' The effigy has, since tlio ;il)()ve wall, cleaned, and laid in a more suit- 
 visit was made, been detached from the able position.
 
 HOUGHTON LE-SPRING. 101 
 
 right hand rests upon the sword hilt, as if" denoting that the 
 warrior commemorated had sheathed it for ever ; the sur- 
 coat falls in graceful drapery below the girdle, which is 
 without ornament, and the legs were probably crossed. 
 The effigy is clothed in ring armour, and the shield is kite- 
 shaped. The armorial bearing, with which it was probably 
 charged, has been effaced. Collins, in his Peerage, attributes 
 this effigy to Sir Roland Belasyse, who occurs in 48 Henry 
 III., while tradition assigns it to one of the Le Springs. 
 Near to this effigy, also in the south transept, is the monu- 
 ment of the worthily renowned Bernard Gilpin, rector of 
 Houghton, who died on the 4th March 1583. It is a 
 massive altar-tomb of freestone, with some ornament, and 
 bears his armorial device on an escocheon. It would seem 
 as if in this custom of piling up a mass of stone for a tomb, 
 (which is totally unmeaning when not surmounted by a 
 recumbent effigy,) we have the trace of the very antient 
 usage of accumulating a heap of stones, as a memorial of 
 departed prophets, or of important events. The tomb of 
 Gilpin, as well as the effigy described, are partly blocked up 
 by pues ;'' indeed, only a portion of this silent mansion of 
 the departed apostle, whose persuasive tones once woke the 
 echoes of this church, is now left visible ; and the knight's 
 effigy is absolutely in a pue — a situation in which he would 
 have been astonished at finding himself. A large gray stone 
 occupies the central place at the foot of the altar ; upon it 
 there has been a brass, commemorating a priest. The stone 
 has since been appropriated as the grave- stone of a suc- 
 cessor- — the Rev. John Hutton. On a brass- plate, which 
 is above the altar-tomb in the south wall of the chancel 
 already mentioned, is an inscription in memory of Margaret 
 Belasyse, of Henknowle, who, becoming a widow, so con- 
 tinued for fifty-eight years, bestowing her whole time in 
 hospitality and in relief of the poor, and who died at the 
 age of ninety in 1 587, four years after Gilpin — so well did 
 this excellent woman profit by the precepts and benevolent 
 example of her illustrious pastor. An adjacent mural tablet 
 commemorates William " Bellasys " of Morton House, esq. 
 who died in 1641, having served in the high office of sheriff 
 of the county palatine, under three successive bishops. A 
 flat slab of black marble in the chancel floor commemorates 
 
 k See note {') pp. 9.5, 96.
 
 102 A VISIT TO 
 
 George Davenport, rector of Houghton, who died on the 
 Gth July 1677 ; and that he rebuilt the parsonage house, 
 its chapel, and the walls about the garden, and one half of 
 the hosi)ital on the east side of the churchyard ; and 
 bequeathed £160 for the maintenance of three poor people 
 therein. He is also recorded to have been a great benefactor 
 to the Bough Church (S. Mary-le-Bow?) Durham, and to 
 have given seventy MSS. to the bishop's library. It is 
 added that his deeds of charity were such, that the soul of 
 the admirable Gilpin seemed to have descended upon and 
 animated him. Of this worthy successor of Gilpin, some 
 further particulars will be added presently. Major Thomas 
 Lilburn, a co-founder of the hospital, is likewise com- 
 memorated as one who was instrumental in the happy 
 restoration of the king. He died 25th March 1665. The 
 other monumental inscriptions are very numerous ; and 
 being important to family history, are accordingly collected 
 in the valuable pages of Mr. Surtees ; but they are sadly 
 out of keeping with tlie architecture of the church, and 
 many of them are unsuited, in an offensive degree, to an 
 ecclesiastical structure. 
 
 It is now time to collect a few particulars relating to 
 the biography of men, whose worth deserves everlasting 
 remembrance. Houghton-le-Spring is famous as the place 
 irradiated by the life and virtues of 13ernard Gilpin, " a man 
 most holy and renowned amongst the northern English," 
 and who has been called " the Apostle of the North." 
 He well deserves that honourable appellation ; but, let it be 
 remembered, that he was preceded by the great Roman 
 missionary, and that the blessed Paulinus was the first 
 apostle who brought the glad tidings of Christianity to the 
 heathen Saxons of Northumbria. Gilpin was born in 1517, 
 of an antient and honourable family at Kentmire, in 
 Westmorland. His father was Edwin Gilpin ; his mother, 
 Margaret, daughter of William Laton, of Dalemain, since 
 the beautiful seat of the Hasel family, on the water of 
 Eamont, not far from Ulleswater. At the age of sixteen 
 he was entered at Queen's College, Oxford ; where he read 
 Erasmus, and not only the logic and philosophy of the 
 schools, but also Greek and Hebrew. His character and 
 learning, even wiiile at college, recommended him to Wolsey. 
 He was of course educated in the faith of the church of
 
 HOUGHTON-LE-SPRING. 103 
 
 Rome. He disputed publicly against Hooper, Bishop of 
 Worcester, and against Peter Martyr, the latter of wliom 
 was much moved by his laudable life, which he said seemed 
 to honour the cause that Gilpin undertook. He was 
 gradually converted to the doctrines of the Reformation, 
 and he separated from the church of his fathers. His 
 uncle, the learned, mild, and indulgent Tunstall, Bishop of 
 Durham, purposed to send him to visit foreign churches. 
 At this time (1554) the vicarage of Norton was bestowed 
 on Gilpin by the care of his friends, and the bishop urged 
 him to keep that living in his hands by a dispensation, as 
 a provision for his expenses of travelling ; but Gilpin, being 
 very unlike some modern non-resident pluralists, resigned 
 the living to a friend whom he knew to be zealous, boldly 
 telling the bishop who remonstrated with him on his 
 improvidence in so doing, that the devil would not be 
 restrained by any bonds of dispensation from labouring in 
 his absence for the destruction of the people committed to 
 his charge, and that when he should be called upon to give 
 an account of his stewardship, he could not plead that he 
 was dispensed withal, while the devil made havoc of his 
 flock. The bishop, knowing his sincerity, continued his 
 friend, and afterwards urged him to accept a living, but 
 he would not do so. He passed some time in Louvaine, 
 Antwerp, and Paris ; and, confirmed in the principles of 
 the Reformation, returned into England in the reign of 
 Queen Mary. The bishop provided for him the rectory 
 of Easington, to which antiently the archdeaconry of 
 Durham was annexed. Here, without fearing consequences 
 to himself, he sharply reproved as archdeacon, the vices 
 which then prevailed in the church. He was shortly 
 afterwards removed by Bishop Tunstall to the great 
 rectory of Houghton, which he thankfully accepted, and 
 which not even the ofler of a mitre could ever after tempt 
 him to desert. The enemies whom his open and unguarded 
 boldness provoked, did not, however, allow him to enjoy 
 his preferment in peace, for they accused him of heresy — 
 an accusation, which it would be well if the church of 
 England in these days saw authoritatively brought against 
 some of her popular ministers. Gilpin was constantly 
 shielded by Tunstall, but at length was accused before 
 Bonner, Bishop of London, and he prepared for martyrdom
 
 104 
 
 A VISIT TO 
 
 at the stake.' But he was freed from the supposed danger, 
 owing, as it is said, to the death of Queen Alary ; and the 
 road lay open before him to the highest honours of the 
 church. His kind uncle, the meek and beneficent Tunstall, 
 had been deprived of his bisho|)ric, and had no longer the 
 l)Ower to befriend him ; but the powerful Earl of Bedford 
 became his unsolicited patron, and obtained for him the 
 offer of the bishopric of Carlisle, on the death of Oglethorpe, 
 but this preferment he refused. In the following year he 
 declined the provostship of Queen's College. "And now," 
 says his biographer, " Mr. Gilpin being settled at Houghton, 
 persevered most constantly in the duties of the ministry. 
 His parsonage-house seemed like a bishop's palace ; nor 
 shall a man easily find a bishop's house worthy to be com- 
 
 ' A correspondent of the Newcastle 
 Journal desired to add to this account, 
 tlic following extract from a work 
 published by the late Dr. Gillies : — 
 "Bernard Gilpin had many enemies, 
 who often accused him to I>ishop Tun- 
 stall ; but the bishop still continued his 
 friend. His enemies then drew up 
 thirty-two articles against him, and laid 
 tliem before Bonner, Bishop of liondon, 
 who at once took fire, extolled their 
 laudable concern for religion, and 
 promised that the heretic should be at 
 the stake in a fortnight. Mr. Gilpin's 
 friends in London trembled for his 
 safety, and instantly dispatched a mes- 
 sage that he had not a moment to lose. 
 1'he messenger did not surprise him. 
 lie had long been preparing himself to 
 suffer for the trutli, and he now de- 
 termined not to decline it. It was in 
 some sort, he thought, denying his 
 faitli, to be backward in giving the best 
 testimony to it. As it was the business 
 of his life to j)romote religion, if he 
 could better effect this by his death, it 
 was his wish to tlie. He received the 
 account with great composure ; and 
 immediately after, calling up William 
 Airey, a favourite domestic, who had 
 long served him as liis almoner and 
 steward, and laying his iiand upon his 
 shoulder, 'At lengtli,' said lie, 'they 
 have prevailed against me ; I am ac- 
 cused to the Bishop of London, from 
 whom there will be no escaping. God 
 forgive their malice, and grant me 
 strength to uiulergo the trial ! ' He 
 
 then ordered his servant to provide 
 a long garment for him, in which he 
 might go decently to the stake ; and 
 desired it might be got ready witli all 
 expedition, — ' For I know not,' said he, 
 * how soon I may have occasion for it.' 
 As soon as the garment was provided, 
 he used to put it on every day, till the 
 bishop's messengers apprehended lim. 
 His friends, in the mean time, failed not 
 to interpose, earnestly beseeching him 
 to provide for his safety ; but he begged 
 them not to press him longer upon that 
 subject. ' Be assured,' said he, ' I 
 should never have thrown myself volun- 
 tarily into the hands of my enemies; 
 but I am fully determined to persevere 
 in doing my duty, and shall take no 
 measures to avoid them.' In a few 
 days the messengers apprehended him, 
 and put an end to these solicitations. 
 On his way to London he broke his 
 leg, wiiich i)ut a stop for some time to 
 his journey. 'i'he persons in wliose 
 custody he was, took occasion tiience 
 to retort upon him an observation he 
 would frecpiently make, ' That nothing 
 Iiappens to us, but what was intended 
 for our good;' asking him, whether he 
 thought his broken leg was so ? He 
 answered meekly, ' He made no ques- 
 tion but it was.' And, indeed, so it 
 proved ; for before he was able to 
 travel. Queen Mary died. Being thus 
 providentially rescued, he returned to 
 Hougliton tiirougii crowds of jieoj^le, 
 expressing the utmost joy, and blessing 
 God for iiis deliverance."
 
 HOUGHTON-LE-SPRING. 105 
 
 pared to this house of his. Within, it was hke a monastery, 
 if a man consider a monastery such as it was in the time 
 of S. Augustine, where hospitahty and economy went 
 hand in hand. To the poor and the stranger the doors 
 were. always open," There was in Houghton a street of 
 poor people, and every Thursday he provided a large 
 quantity of boiled meat for distribution among them. He 
 was, indeed, by common consent, styled a father of the 
 poor. An anecdote recorded of him shews his benevolence : 
 it is as follows : — Returning from a journey, he saw a poor 
 husbandman's horse fall suddenly when ploughing; the 
 man endeavoured to raise the horse, but it lived no 
 longer, and he cried out that he was undone, and bitterly 
 lamented his loss. Gilpin, who had seen the occur- 
 rence, and waited its issue, thereupon freely gave to 
 the husbandman the horse which his (the rector's) servant 
 was riding, and ordered that the saddle and bridle be carried 
 to the next town. The husbandman declared his inability 
 to pay the price of so good a horse ; but, his benefactor re- 
 plied, "Be of good cheer ; thou shalt never pay for him 
 until I demand it. '' Gilpin entertained his parishioners, not 
 only at Christmas, but kept a table for them every Sunday, 
 from Michaelmas to Easter, entertaining, according to the 
 custom of the age, the gentry, the yeomen, and the poor at 
 separate tables. While thus diligent in his own parish, he 
 saw that the people of some other parishes were destitute of 
 pastors ; for the northern church, which ever since the 
 first establishment of the Reformation, had been torn 
 by dissensions between the Puritans and their opponents, 
 was at that period in a state of neglect and destitution, 
 which in these days it is not easy to conceive. In the 
 reign of Edward VI. he had obtained a license as itinerant 
 preacher throughout England. A few similar licenses 
 were granted about the same period, for the people had 
 been deprived of their old teachers, as well as of their 
 friends the monks, and little was done to provide other pas- 
 tors in their place. Instead of preserving one or two of the 
 monasteries in every county, and providing for the culture 
 of a learned protestant clergy, out of the endowments 
 appropriated in catholic times to religion and learning, they 
 were squandered by the profligate Henry VIII. with heed- 
 less profusion, and continued to be misappropriated by the
 
 lOG A VISIT TO 
 
 Crown. The cliapcls and cliantries which had served 
 as chapels of ease in the larger parishes had been swept 
 away ; many churclies had fallen into the hands of lay 
 patrons indifferent to all religion, " who took no further care 
 than to seek out some poor, base priest, able only to read 
 prayers to the people morning and evening;" and even 
 where the patron was better disposed, it was not always in 
 his power to procure a priest fit for the service of the 
 altar. Nor were the churches in the border districts much 
 better provided in point of ecclesiastical furniture or books. 
 At a church, situated amongst the thieves of Redesdale, 
 where Gilpin preached, there was neither minister, nor bell, 
 nor book, save an old book wdiich was set forth in King 
 Edward's time, and an old psalter sadly torn. Of the 
 ministers of the Reformation, in the northern parishes, 
 many had perished in the convulsions which attended the 
 Reformation ; and in the persecutions of the late reign others 
 had sought provision beyond the seas. A large body 
 of learned men still, however, remained faithful to the 
 Church of Rome. This desolation of the reformed church 
 appeared most of all in Northumberland, and especially in 
 Redesdale and Tynedale, " for in these quarters, especially 
 in that time, the word of God was never heard of to 
 be preached amongst them, but by Master Gilpin's minis- 
 try." Once a year this zealous and benevolent priest made 
 a journey amongst them, usually taking the opportunity of 
 Christmas holydays, when, on account of frost and snow, 
 other men w^ere loath to travel, for he found that at these 
 times the people would more usually assemble. The places 
 of worship in those wild districts were (as they still are) few 
 and scattered. Even in catholic times the itinerant secular 
 priest in these districts frequently disgraced his clerical func- 
 tions by the ignorance, violence, and immorality of a bor- 
 derer. Gilpin underwent great hardships in these journeys, 
 which (whatever may be thought now of itinerant preaching, 
 seeing that it is seldom resorted to except for tlie gratifi- 
 cation of the preacher's vanity, or the advancement of 
 schismatical purposes) were in those days missions of real 
 charity and merit, although undertaken of his own authority. 
 And, amongst his rude and barbarous hearers, he was 
 esteemed a i)rophet, and almost adored. The very thieves 
 and outlaws held him, his horses, and his property sacred ;
 
 HOUGHTON-LE-SPRING. 107 
 
 and a fellow, who had stolen the horses of Gilpin and his 
 servant, not then knowing to whom they belonged, on 
 learning that they were his, speedily brought them back, 
 and craved pardon and benediction, protesting that he 
 feared to be instantly thrust down into hell if he should do 
 Master Gilpin any wrong. His presence appears to have 
 afforded a kind of sanctuary, to which men who stood 
 in fear of their enemies resorted for safety. There was a 
 feud between the parishioners of Rothbury — so deadly, that 
 the two parties could not meet without bloodshed ; and on 
 account of this quarrel, when men of the one party went to 
 church (which probably was very seldom), those of the 
 other stayed away. When, however, Gilpin preached 
 there, both parties came to church, but were ranged in dif- 
 ferent parts of the fabric. Still, they were prevented from 
 falling upon each other, only by the influence of the holy 
 man, and while he was present. 
 
 " Can piety the discord heal, 
 
 Or stanch the death-feud's enmity ? 
 Can christian lore, can patriot zeal. 
 
 Can love of blessed charity ? 
 No ! vainly to each holy shrine 
 
 In mutual pilgrimage they drew." 
 
 Coming to another church in Northumberland, before the 
 people were assembled, he espied a gauntlet, which had 
 been hung up by a parishioner, in token that he challenged 
 to mortal combat the person who should have the temerity 
 to take it down. Gilpin took down the glove, and ex- 
 hibiting it in the course of his sermon, took occasion to 
 reprove these challenges, so unbecoming to christian men. 
 His sermon ended, he visited those who were in prison, and 
 also the poor, and distributed money amongst them ; he 
 procured pardon for some criminals who were condemned 
 to die, and brought them to repentance. 
 
 " To heal divisions, to relieve the opprest : 
 In virtue rich ; in blessing others, blest." 
 
 Such were the objects with which he laboured for eternity. 
 " And in these offices he seemed," says his biographer, "to 
 supply the place of a bishop." Indeed, his career bears a 
 striking resemblance, in many features, to that of the simple 
 minded and holy Aidan, bishop of Lindisfarne. At home,
 
 103 A VISIT TO 
 
 his virtues shone with steady radiance. Cecil, Lord Bur- 
 leigh, on his return from Scotland, was drawn by Gilpin's 
 fame to Houghton, where he was entertained with due rites 
 of hospitality. The great statesman admired the abund- 
 ance of all things, and the courtesy of his reverend host, to 
 whom he said on dej)arting, that what he had then seen 
 exceeded all he had heard in his favour, and he made to 
 Gil})in an offer of his good offices at court. When Burleigh 
 came to Rainton hill, he tin-ned to survey the champaign 
 country he had passed, and looking earnestly towards 
 Gilpin's parsonage and its peaceful situation, he exclaimed, 
 " I do not blame this man for refusing a bishopric, for what 
 doth he w^ant that a bishopric could more enrich him 
 withal ? besides that he is free from its great w^eight of 
 cares." But " the Pilgrimage of Grace " came to disturb 
 him in his peaceful round of duty ; and, alarmed by the 
 movement, he determined to withdraw for awhile to Oxford ; 
 and having exhorted the masters and scholars of the school 
 he had founded and maintained at Hougliton, that they 
 should demean themselves peaceably and prudently, he ac- 
 cordingly went to Oxford. While the followers or army of 
 the Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland were in 
 possession of Durham, some of them visited Houghton, and 
 committed woful devastation in his granaries and farm- 
 yards, appropriating to the satisfaction of their own hunger, 
 without the ceremony of an invitation, the provisions which 
 they found abundantly stored up for the maintenance of the 
 good rector's charity and hospitality. A man whom he had 
 saved from the gallow^s was foremost, it is said, in this 
 havock ; but afterwards, when the course of law^ had taken 
 the place of rebellion, Gilpin, nevertheless, interceded for 
 the lives of many who had injured him. When the troubles 
 were over, he returned to his labours of charity and learn- 
 ing. He seems to have apprehended personal violence 
 from the followers of the catholic party. In Bishop 
 Pilkington, Gilpin had a kind friend ; but his successor, 
 Barnes, had been prejudiced against Gili)in, and the latter 
 was suspended from all his ecclesiastical functions by the 
 bishop ibr disobedience, inasmuch as, when the bishop had 
 desired that Gilpin should preach at his visitation, Gilpin 
 excused himself, in order that he might go his circuit 
 of self-imposed duty amongst the borderers. Gilpin, on his
 
 HOUGIITON-LE-SPRING. 109 
 
 return, found he was suspended ; but he took this patiently. 
 Being required to appear before the bishop and his clergy 
 at Chester (le Street), the bishop couinianded him, on his 
 canonical obedience, to preach. Gilpin would willingly 
 have avoided doing so on such an occasion ; but he obeyed, 
 and when his discourse led him to the reprehension of vice, 
 he boldly reproved the enormities which the bishop per- 
 mitted in the diocese, reminding the prelate that whatever 
 evil he suffered to be done by others was his own. Gilpin's 
 enemies thought his ruin was now sealed, and his friends 
 trembled. But the bishop accompanied Gilpin that day to 
 his parsonage, and when they had reached the parlour, the 
 bishop suddenly took his hand and said, " Father Gilpin ! I 
 do acknowledge you are fitter to be bishop of Durham than 
 myself to be parson of this church of your's. I ask forgive- 
 ness for errors past : forgive me, father ! I know that you 
 have hatched some chickens that now seek to peck out your 
 eyes ; but so long as I shall live bishop of Durham, be 
 secure — no one shall hurt you." Gilpin, therefore, con- 
 tinued to reap in peace and security the fruit of a pious life. 
 But age now began to grow upon him. "After his lean 
 body was quite worn out with diversity of pains-taking, at 
 the last, even feeling beforehand the approach of death, he 
 commanded the poor to be called together, unto whom 
 he made a speech and took his leave of them. Afterwards 
 he did the like to others. He fell sick about the end of 
 February, and after many exhortations to the scholars, to 
 his servants, and to others, he at the last fell asleep in the 
 Lord in great jDeace, in the 66th year of his age." In 
 person he was tall of stature, slender, " and of an aquiline 
 countenance." His apparel was plain and not costly ; he 
 was frugal in his habits, and practised much of the austerity 
 of an antient rule. 
 
 Mr. Surtees remarks, that inimitable, almost, as was 
 the character of Gilpin, his church has never been left 
 destitute, and can boast a succession of pastors, on all of 
 whom, a portion at least of the Northern Apostle's spirit 
 has descended. Of these, none appears to have trod more 
 closely in the steps of his illustrious predecessor than George 
 Davenport, a native of Wigston, in Leicestershire, who 
 was chaplain to the good Bishop Cosin after the Restora- 
 tion. In 1664, on the resignation of Doctor, afterwards
 
 110 A VISIT TO 
 
 Archbishop Sancroft, he was presented to this rectory. With 
 this preferment he too was ever afterwards content, and 
 said he feared to die with any of the church's goods in his 
 hands. This danger, as Mr. Surtees remarks, he probably 
 avoided, for he rebuilt the rectory-house from the ground, 
 added the chapel, and built and endowed one half of the 
 alms-houses, and did other good works. These survive 
 him, and it is difficult to collect any other memorials of a 
 life spent in the unostentatious course of parochial duty. 
 
 " Mirror of constant faith, rever'd, and mourn'd ! " — 
 
 his remains were carried to the grave on the 8th of July 
 1677, amidst the unaffected tears of the parishioners. 
 
 On the 15th January 1709, George, son of Col. Charles 
 Wheler, of the Guards, a worthy Royalist who suffered in 
 the cause of King Charles the Martyr, became rector of 
 Houghton. He w^as descended from an antient family of 
 gentry, and was nephew, by marriage, to Granville Earl 
 of Bath. On his return from travelling through Asia 
 Minor and Greece, being then a layman, he received the 
 honour of knighthood : he published an account of his 
 travels in 1682 ; and in the following year he entered into 
 holy orders, though contrary to the Welshes of powerful 
 friends. Surtees mentions, that an opinion prevails in 
 Wheler's family that his destination to the church origi- 
 nated in a vow made during some personal danger on his 
 foreign travels, from which he was delivered. His sense 
 of the sacred office was extremely high ; he prized it above 
 all earthly possessions and titles ; he esteemed the pastor 
 as " the chief of a christian parish, and general vicar of so 
 manv convents and monasteries as he has houses in his 
 parish ; and if," adds the conscientious rector, " he lives 
 there and does his duty, he deserves to wear a mitre better 
 than the abbat of S. Denys, or, to speak in plain terms, 
 a non-resident bishop." A passage is found in the Rev. Sir 
 George Wheler's work, entitled The Protestant Monastery, 
 (an institute of domestic discipline,) which is illustrative of 
 the feelings of the author, and of a hospitality now, alas ! 
 no more.'" Though strict in his own observances, he 
 
 ■" "The noblest remains of this tial entertainments of the Cathedral 
 English, and I may, I think, say Cliurcli of Duvliam, where eacli pre- 
 christian hospitality, are the rcsiden- bendavy in his turn, entertains with
 
 HOUGHTON-LE-SPRING. Ill 
 
 was not an enemy as the puritans were ( and are ) either 
 to innocent recreations or personal accomplishments ; and 
 his character illustrated the venerable simplicity and 
 modesty of the christian pastor. He bequeathed all arrears 
 of his benefices to charitable purposes in Houghton, so that 
 the revenues of his parish, instead of being gathered into 
 coffers for his descendants, flowed freely back through the 
 country from which they were derived ; and he established 
 a school for the education of thirty poor girls for ever. He 
 died at Durham on the 18th January 1723. 
 
 The living of Houghton is in the gift of the Bishop of 
 Durham. The rector is stated by Surtees to be, generally, 
 entitled to both great and small tithe throughout the parish, 
 except such portions of both as are covered by certain 
 moduses. The glebe is very considerable. On the death 
 of Mr. Thurlow, the late incumbent, certain chapels of ease 
 were constituted district chapelries, and endowed with por- 
 tions of the parochial revenues ; so that the income of the 
 benefice is now much less than it has been hitherto. 
 
 The rectory-house stands to the west of the church and 
 of the village, divided from both by the public road. This 
 house, as it was reared from its ruins by Davenport, and 
 as it continued without much alteration until shortly before 
 Surtees wrote, is described by him as a venerable em- 
 battled building, flanked by an old round tower on the 
 west, and by Davenport's chapel on the east ; surrounded 
 by a curtain wall, part of which had been thrown down to 
 afford a view over rich warm grounds to the south, and 
 by a large enclosed garden on the north, with terrace 
 walks, groves, and fish-ponds. The date of the tower — 
 an old dovecote formed building, which darkened the hall, to 
 which the dining room succeeded, may be placed in the reign 
 of Edward IV.; for, in 1483, JohnKelyng, then rector, had 
 license from the bishop to enclose, fortify, and embattle, a 
 tower above the lower porch within his manse. At this 
 time there were many fortified parsonage-houses in the 
 north. These towers were generally, as at Houghton, 
 additions to the main building, or, where detached, their 
 
 great liberality, the poor and rich neigh- moderate eating, and sober drinking. 
 
 hours and strangers, with generous There is seldom more drunk than the 
 
 welcome, christian freedom, modest love cup and the king's health, and 
 
 deportment, good and plentiful cheer, then every one to his own home."
 
 112 A VISIT TO 
 
 chief use was to preserve valuables from a surprise by the 
 borderers. The low massive towers of older Northumbrian 
 churches were well suited to be used, and were used, for 
 the same defensive i)urposes ; and relics of armour have 
 been found within them. The parsonage of Houghton 
 suffered severely during the civil wars, when the stocks 
 of cattle and corn belonging to the rector and his indus- 
 trious parishioners, were destroyed and consumed by the 
 armies encamped in the neighbourhood. Davenport took 
 down the whole of it, excepting the west tower, and built 
 from the ground those portions of the existing mansion 
 which are the oldest. The tower and (of course) the 
 chapel were both removed when the rectory-house was 
 enlarged by the late rector, at which time it was rendered 
 more convenient, and the garden w^as laid out in lawn and 
 shrubbery, without removing, however, the lofty grove 
 of sycamores or " lovers' walk," which still, from the 
 adjacent rising country, appears to embosom the parsonage. 
 Gloomy and inconvenient as the good Davenport's building 
 may have been, there was yet, says Mr. Surtees, about the 
 old house a religio loci, which no alterations or improvements 
 have been able to replace. It is destined to undergo further 
 changes ; and the present rector has inserted some windows 
 with stone muUions in earlier style, and has commenced 
 other alterations, which seem to involve the gradual trans- 
 formation of the building, but are dictated by good taste." 
 We now must direct our attention to another most 
 important Ibundation in Houghton-le-Spring. On the acces- 
 sion of Queen Elizabeth, " learned men able to preach the 
 word of God " did not abound as they do in this nineteenth 
 century ; and the zealous Gilpin, observing that the 
 Reformed Catholic Church in England suffered greatly for 
 the want of such men, especially in that " rude countrie, " 
 conceived the establishment of a seminary of good litera- 
 ture, or grammar school, " as a seed-plot of religion and 
 good learning for the rising generation." He accordingly 
 built a school, and provided for a master and usher. He 
 chose some of the scholars to be instructed by himself ; and 
 in this school were bred many learned men, even in his own 
 
 " The rectory-house and gardens have, said that tlie latter contains a vcncrahle 
 since the above was written, been very ohl liawthorn, under wliose fragrant 
 greatly improved. It should have been sliado tlie wortliy Gilpin may have sat.
 
 HOUGIITON-LE-SPRING. 113 
 
 times. To it there was a great resort of scholars, some of 
 whom were maintained in the town, while many were 
 boarded in Gilpin's house. He boarded the sons of even 
 knights and es({uires at a small rate ; while those wlio were 
 of his own kindred were free ; and on many poor men's 
 sons he bestowed education, clothing, meat, and drink. In 
 his own house he maintained generally as many as twenty- 
 four scholars, the greater part of whom were of this class ; 
 and in the building, in the ordering and establishing of his 
 school, and its master and usher, he expended £500, a very 
 considerable sum in those days. John Heath, of Kepyer, esq. 
 contributed liberally towards the endowment of this founda- 
 tion ; and " either from compliment to him," says Surtees, 
 *' or because the greater part of the endowment arose from 
 lands belonging to the dissolved house of Kepyer, the school 
 probably received its name." The foundation charter 
 (a.d. 1574) appoints Heath and the rector the first 
 governors of "The Free Grammar School and Alms-house 
 of Kepyer in Houghton-in-the-Spring, " with power to 
 nominate and (if necessary) to correct the master, to make, 
 revise, and from time to time alter the statutes of the 
 school, and to acquire lands not exceeding the value of 
 £50 per annum to its use. The appointment of governors 
 continues in the heir of blood of Heath, and in the rector 
 for the time being ; and in case of neglect, the nomination 
 pro hac vice lapses to the bishop. The first governors do 
 not seem to have enacted statutes; and at Gilpin's death, 
 his foundation was left with no other regulations than 
 such as were contained in the charter; and his will expresses 
 an anxiety for the fate of his then infant and unsettled 
 establishment." The only set of statutes extant bears 
 date in 1658, under the signature of Richard Bellasis, then 
 a governor, but change of times has rendered them for the 
 most part obsolete. It was decided by Lord Chancellor 
 Hardwicke, that the governors might act under the general 
 powers given by the charter, subject to appeal to the heir 
 of Heath and the rector. p Though no express mention 
 
 o Surtees, i. 158. Oxon, and request him that he would 
 P As matter of curiosity, it may he procure some northerne man, in any- 
 stated that the statutes in question re- wise master of art, either of his own 
 quire that " when the school doth want house or some other; " that "the mas- 
 a master, the governors may send to ter shall meddle with, and occupy no 
 Mr. Provoste of Queen's College, in other temporal living," lest the same 
 
 I
 
 114 A VISIT TO 
 
 is made of any provision for poor scholars in the charter 
 of foundation, and though the sums mentioned in the 
 statutes of 1658 for the maintenance of a certain number 
 are so inconsiderable as to render the provision nugatory, " it 
 cannot be doubted," says Surtees, " that Gilpin, accord- 
 ing to his own practice, intended to perpetuate the means 
 of gratuitous instruction to a certain number of poor 
 scholars, in proportion to the state of the revenues. The 
 master is presumed to be at liberty to fix his own terms 
 of education and admission. Poor scholars were admitted, 
 though with long intermissions and great variation both 
 in number and payment; and in 1755, as there was not 
 any evidence of such admissions extending below 1677, the 
 Lord Chancellor did not deem the precedent legally binding 
 on either the master or the governors. The revenues of 
 the foundation are stated, in 1616, at £35 2s. 8d. ; " of this, 
 £3 13s. 4d. goeth to the poore of the paryshe, and £7 6s. 8c?. 
 goeth to poore scholars ; so remaynes to the schole-master 
 £15, and to the usher £9 2s. 8<i." Other revenues follow 
 this enumeration of the original endowments, to which 
 additions have been subsequently made. The chief part of 
 the revenues arose from tithes formerly belonging to the 
 dissolved hospital of S. Giles, of Kepyer, precarious in 
 amount, and in rent charges which became trifling. " The 
 foundation, however, has alw^ays proved sufficient to ensure 
 the attendance of a master of character and ability ; and for' 
 two centuries Kepyer School has continued," says Surtees, 
 " to fulfil the wdse and benevolent purposes of the founder, 
 and to dispense through the neighbouring districts a sufH- 
 cient portion of sound learning and of good morals." 
 Amongst the masters occurs Thomas Griffiths, of Hertford 
 College, Oxon, 1738, who restored the school from a low 
 ebb, and left a handsome collection of books to his succes- 
 sors. The present master is the Rev. Dr. Young, a sound 
 
 be a hindrance to his teaching. If he in matching, either with themselves or 
 
 accept a spiritual living, he is to vacate strangers, in the ox pasture, or on 
 
 the school within a year. His stipend Ilouphton Moor. At breaking up, the 
 
 is to be £'20 per annum ; " and, lastly, scholars shall give the master every 
 
 he sliall not marry without the consent one a penny. " Item, tliere is further 
 
 of the governors." The election of the of the rents so much as will yearly find 
 
 usher is to rest with the governors. five poor scholars, and three poor men 
 
 Tlicre is to be one play-day in the week; or women, allowing them sevenpence 
 
 and on certain days in the spring time, a week, and sevenpence over." 
 the scholars are to exercise their bows
 
 HOUGHTON-LE-SPRING. 115 
 
 and accomplished scholar, under whose government, Kepyer 
 School is not likely to lose any of its high reputation. He 
 is zealously devoted to the duties of his situation, and to the 
 health and welfare of the youths committed to his care ; and 
 the appreciation of these merits, by parents in the district, 
 is marked by his having effected a considerable enlargement 
 and increase in the school buildings and accommodations. 
 
 Among' the most eminent of the scholars educated here, 
 we find some of those who received education from Gilpin 
 himself; and one of these was Hugh Broughton, whose 
 history is extraordinary. Gilpin met with him a poor boy 
 running by his horse's side, in one of his journeys near the 
 borders of Wales. With the consent of the boy's parents, 
 he was brought by Gilpin to Houghton, where he was main- 
 tained and educated by the benevolent rector, who after- 
 wards supported him at Queen's College, and he became 
 the best Hebrew scholar of his age. From a vanity and 
 inconstancy of temper, he, though one of " the chickens 
 hatched " by Gilpin, "did after seeke to peck out his eyes," 
 and lent himself to the enemies of his benefactor. Brough- 
 ton, who was thought to lean towards the Church of Rome, 
 refused the temptation of a cardinal's hat, and died in 1612, 
 in obscurity and distress. George Carleton, another of 
 Gilpin's scholars, became the biographer of his venerable 
 kinsman and patron. His father was governor of Norham 
 Castle. In 1617, George Carleton became bishop of 
 Llandaff; in 1619, was translated to Chichester; and in 
 1628 died, aged sixty-nine, leaving the character of an 
 excellent divine and a polite scholar, not ill versed in 
 antiquities. In his administration of public trusts, he was 
 clear of any imputation ; and in private life was modest, 
 friendly, and affectionate. His life of Gilpin, originally 
 written in Latin, and soon translated, attained before 1636 
 a fourth edition. 
 
 The names of many worthy parochial clergymen, who 
 have owed their education and means of usefulness to 
 Gilpin's foundation, illustrate the list of scholars of Kepyer. 
 Surtees, the historian, was himself a scholar at this school. 
 
 The school and school-house stand on rising ground at 
 the north-east side of the church-yard. The school is a 
 plain edifice ; the walls of the older portion are nearly three 
 feet thick. A large and pleasant garden, which is open to 
 
 I 2
 
 1 IG A VISIT TO 
 
 the scholars, extends at the back of the house, the worthy 
 master allowing- the culture of plants to occupy a part of 
 the time which he is not required to devote to the culture 
 of the youtliful mind. To the south of the school-house are 
 Davenport's and Lilburne's alms-houses. The building is 
 low, but uniform, consistiug- of a centre and two wings. In 
 1668, George Lilburnc, of Offerton, one of the governors 
 of Kepyer School, built the north wing of this house, and 
 granted an endowment of £10 per annum for the support 
 of thrt'C poor persons ; and Davenport, the worthy rector 
 already mentioned, added the south wing, and £160 to the 
 governors of the school for the purchase of lands for the 
 maintenance therein of three more poor persons, to be 
 chosen out of the indigent inhabitants of the parish. Ad- 
 ditional benefactions have since accrued. On Davenport's 
 building is this pious inscription, — "all things come of 
 
 THEE, O LORD ; AND OF THINE OWN HAVE WE GIVEN 
 
 THEE." Unhappily, the word " nothing" might have been 
 too truly added by some of the late abundantly beneficed 
 rectors of Houghton. 
 
 The old Houghton Hall, a family mansion-house of the 
 Huttons, is, after the above described edifices, the most 
 interesting structure in Houghton. The erection of it is 
 attributed to Robert Hutton, who bore a captain s commis- 
 sion in a troop of cavalry in Cromwell's army; and, if village 
 tradition be credited, with the plunder obtained at the 
 sacking of Dundee ; but, its erection may more probably 
 be ascribed to his grandfather, Robert Hutton, doctor 
 in divinity, rector of Houghton from 1589 to 1623, 
 the founder of this family, and nephew of Matthew Hutton, 
 bishop of Durham and archbishop of York, ancestor of 
 Hutton of Marske. This clergyman acquired by purchase 
 a considerable property within the manor. This antique 
 mansion stands a little above the main street of the town. 
 In form, the building is an oblong square. The chief front 
 faces the west, and is without fa(^-ade or ornamented door- 
 way. In the (modernized) principal room on the entrance- 
 floor, the fine old spacious fire-place remains. The rooms 
 are low, and the ceilings and staircases contain some good 
 old timber. The windows are regular, and are divided into 
 five or into three lights by the stone mullionsof the period. 
 The leads of tbe roof are surrounded by a plain pediment.
 
 HOUGHTON-LE SPRING, 117 
 
 The edifice is built of stone, with massive solidity calculated 
 to resist the injuries of time and neglect ; and as it has 
 undergone little repair or alteration, it presents one of the 
 best of the few specimens remaining of the old hall-house 
 of the time of James I. or even of Elizabeth. Capt. Hutton 
 already mentioned, who was an owner of this property, 
 served through the whole of the Scotish campaign, and 
 was with Monk at the storming and plunder of Dundee. 
 After the Restoration, he remained zealously attached to 
 the Puritans, "which," says Surtees, "may probably 
 account for his being buried in his own orchard, where an 
 altar-tomb still records his name," He died in 1680. 
 Village tradition, indeed, assigns a specific cause for his 
 strange choice as to a place of burial ; for, it tells us that, 
 on the death of his favourite charger, he sought the rector's 
 permission to inter the animal in the church-yard, near his 
 own intended place of rest, and that being refused, he 
 buried the horse in his orchard, and determined that, when 
 called to the sleep that knows no waking, he would repose 
 near the remains of his faithful servant, i But, as Mr. 
 Surtees remarks, similar instances of interment in uncon- 
 secrated ground were more common amongst the sectaries 
 of that age than is generally supposed. Amongst other old 
 portraits preserved by the family who inherited this house, 
 and which are now in the possession of its worthy owner, 
 Mr. Anderson, who purchased the property, is a portrait of 
 Captain Hutton, in which he is represented as a bluff 
 weather-beaten soldier, with coal-black hair, not cropped 
 as a round-head's, but flowing over his armour. A pedigree 
 of the Hutton family is given by Surtees, and also in the 
 Hutton Correspondence, edited for the Surtees' Society. 
 
 The last heir male of the Chiltons, a family which held 
 property in Houghton, at least as early as the time of 
 Henry VHL, was Robert Chilton, who married a daughter 
 of Ralph Lambton, of Lambton, and was killed in a duel in 
 his own orchard. Another and more antient family resident 
 in Houghton, was that of Ironside, two members of which 
 became bishops of the see of Bristol. 
 
 A market used to be held here, but it is now disused. 
 
 •> Plutarch tells us, (Vit. Caton. Ma- the Olympic Games, were buried near 
 jor) that when Cimon died, bis horses, to him, and that their monuments were 
 whicli won for him thrice the prize at to be seen adjacent to his own.
 
 118 A VISIT TO 
 
 An early instance of an infraction of game laws is connected 
 with the history of Houghton. In 1453, nineteen laymen 
 were fined by the seneschal for keeping greyhounds and 
 lurchers contrary to the statute, they not being owners 
 of forty shillings a year in land, and for killing hares 
 in Houghton common field. The present population of 
 Houghton is little more than two thousand. It has lately 
 decreased, owing to numbers of the colliery labourers- having 
 gone to neighbouring districts. 
 
 In conclusion, it may be remarked that the amendment of 
 that portion of the road which lays between the Railway 
 Station of Fence Houses and Collier Row, being in Morton 
 township, is much to be desired, and that the formation of a 
 raised and gravelled foot- way beside the road would be 
 a boon to all persons who have occasion to pass, or may be 
 disposed to pass on foot, between those places, whether 
 as residents at Houghton-le-Spring, or as visitors to that 
 interesting spot. 
 
 And now, traversing this road, and turning to survey 
 once more the peaceful church and school and rectory of 
 Bernard Gilpin, we may suppose his spirit still to exhort 
 his successors in the words addressed by the illustrious 
 Alcuin to his brethren in the Saxon cloisters of York : "My 
 friends and brethren! let me entreat you diligently to train 
 our youths in the wisdom of Holy Scriptures, that the light 
 of knowledge, which has shone eminently in our church 
 from the first planting of the faith in our land, may never 
 be extinguished, but may shine brightly in many a place to 
 the praise and the honour of God ; and that your reward 
 may abide in the realm above, never to fade away!"
 
 119 
 
 A VISIT TO THE RUINS OF NEWMINSTER, 
 TO MORPETH AND BOTHAL. 
 
 Arriving at Morpeth by the railway, the first objects 
 which arrest the traveller's attention, are the time-worn 
 remains of the antient Castle that crown one of the 
 eminences above the valley of the town. The visitor, on 
 ascending to the castle, finds that its ruins occupy the sum- 
 mit of a high ridge of land ; the ground sloping from it on 
 every side but the west, on which it has been defended by a 
 ditch. Its position is one of great natural strength, and is 
 remarkable for the picturesque beauty of the view it com- 
 mands over the valley already mentioned, through which 
 the river Wansbeck winds its course ; the view being 
 bounded by w^ooded heights towards the west, by higher 
 ridges towards the north, while in other directions a more 
 open country spreads far and wide. There are not any 
 evidences that this spot was ever the site of a Roman 
 castrum ; and the origin of the fortress in mediaeval times 
 is lost in obscurity. The outer defences are the oldest 
 portions now remaining ; and they are of that rude and 
 strong masonry, which was in use in the times of the 
 Anglo-Norman kings. It seems probable that the site was 
 fortified, and that a castle was erected here by William 
 de Merlay, immediately after the Norman Conquest. John 
 of Hexham expressly affirms that a castle existed here in 
 A.D. 1138; and he (a contemporary wTiter) tells us that 
 it was in the castle of Morpeth that the powerful Ranulph 
 de Merlay, lord of Morpeth, on Christmas-day in that year, 
 received a party of Cistercian monks, disciples of the holy 
 S. Bernard, who came thither from Fountains Abbey, and 
 granted to them his patronage and protection. And here, 
 let us read the results of that visit in the neighbouring 
 memorials of the once rich and famous Abbey of New- 
 minster, which occupied a secluded spot not far from
 
 120 A VISIT TO 
 
 De Merlay's castle. During the long and devastating war- 
 fare with the Danes in England, 
 
 " When Denmark's raven soar'd on high 
 Triumphant through Northumbrian sky," 
 
 the antient monasteries, as we all know, w^ere overthrow^n, 
 and they long remained in ruins ; but after a night of 
 oppressive suffering and desolation, a joyful morning broke; 
 and holy monks, either successors of the persecuted English 
 monastics — revived by the zeal of the ever glorious Dunstan 
 — or followers of the mighty S. Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux, 
 began to traverse the length and breadth of England, to 
 restore the monastic system, and to carry, with subduing 
 power, the glad tidings of christian faith and hope and 
 charity and obedience throughout our native country ; 
 while in their course, there arose those lights of monastic 
 zeal which announced the happy arrival of the messengers 
 of peace and religion, and which thenceforth shone from 
 the numerous monasteries of England, like an uninterrupted 
 series of signal fires lighted up to announce the return 
 of those who had been long absent from their native land, 
 and who fought and conquered beneath the banner of the 
 cross. And as the powers of this world, in the times 
 of which we speak, rejoiced to endow and protect the 
 humble monks, the visitors of Ranulph de Merlay became 
 the first fathers of Newminster Abbey, which that chieftain 
 himself caused to be erected, and himself endowed with 
 a large tract of land and woods that surrounded it on 
 each side of the Wansbeck.^ And there, yielding to the 
 unremitting labour of the monks, the then pathless forest 
 
 * A devout and fervent monk of into it tlie holy colony of Foinitains, 
 
 Fountains, named Robert, was one of which was destined to become a new 
 
 the lioly company who received the nin-sery of saints and a model to the 
 
 protection of Ranulph de Merlay, and whole order. Brother Robert seemed 
 
 in 1138 he was appointed first abbat of so far to eclipse the rest by the lustre of 
 
 Newminster. lie was a native of his piety, that they studied to transcribe 
 
 Yorkshire, and discharj^ed the duties his fer\'our in their actions. In his 
 
 of a parish priest before he took the new abbalial dignity his virtues seemed 
 
 monastic habit in the Benedictine mo- to receive new vigour. He lived in the 
 
 nastery of S. Mary of York. The prior strictest union of friendship with the 
 
 of that house, emigrated with twelve holy S. Godric, and fuiished his course 
 
 monks, to found the celebrated abbey of by a happy death on the 7th June, 
 
 Fountains in 1132, in order to serve 1159. He was interred at Newminster. 
 
 Gou according to the primitive strictness Miracles are said to have attested his 
 
 of the Benedictine rule. At this time, sanctity to the world, and the church 
 
 the Cistercian order had been established ein-olled S. Robert in the illustrious 
 
 at Rievaulx, and S. Bernard received catalogue of the saints.
 
 NEVVMINSTER ABBEY. 121 
 
 opened into pastures, the barren rock became clothed with 
 verdure, and foliage was seen to wave upon its surface. 
 The revenues of the foundation became augmented ; its 
 increasing riches overflowed and fertilized the vicinity ; and 
 a spreading population was raised up, where all before had 
 been wilderness and solitude. William of Bertram, baron 
 of Mitford, gave to the monks the fine vale between the 
 Minster and Mitford; and neighbouring barons conferred 
 upon them, with unsparing hand, other valuable territories 
 and possessions.'' The abbey was situated in an amphi- 
 theatre of forest trees ; and its site is admirable, like that 
 of other Cistercian abbeys, more for the charm of sylvan 
 loveliness than rocky grandeur. But the power of the 
 noble founder and the succeeding barons of Morpeth, could 
 not protect its demesne lands from the ravages of the 
 Scotish invaders ; and the condition of the monks became 
 at many times so grievously reduced, that they w^ere unable 
 to dispense charity to the poor, or to keep up their accus- 
 tomed hospitality — a hospitality which was not confined to 
 ecclesiastics and to travellers of every degree, but occasion- 
 ally embraced even mighty sovereigns ; for Edward I., 
 Edward 11. , and Edward III., are recorded to have been 
 entertained in Newminster Abbey. The liberality of pious 
 donors, however, came to their relief ; and for the revenues 
 and harvests of which they were deprived by warfare, they 
 received augmented possessions at the bidding of religion. 
 But those were halcyon days, in wdiich the blessed influence 
 of the Church was felt and recognized in all the affairs 
 of men ; and so a succession of the peaceful tenants of 
 Newminster Abbey, for four centuries, maintained perpetual 
 prayer and intercession, and charity and hospitality for all 
 men, while their abbats were not unfrequently called to the 
 parliaments of the sovereign. So they laboured, obeyed, 
 and passed to their final rest. But in a.d. 1535, a sceptred 
 tyrant and a servile parliament took upon themselves to 
 annul the grants of antient piety, to seize the possessions of 
 the monastery for the use of the Crown, and to eject the 
 unoffending monks ; and, accordingly, the site of New- 
 minster is deserted now : all is silence where once, day by 
 day and many times each day, year after year and century 
 
 '' See the general charter of confirmation granted by Henry III. in the 38th 
 
 year of his reign.
 
 122 
 
 A VISIT TO 
 
 after century, stately melody was solemnly raised to God ; 
 and grass-grown mounds and a ruined archway, of simple 
 but elegant form, alone mark the spot once covered by 
 Newminster's hallowed walls 
 
 " The reverend pile lay wild and waste, 
 Profaned, dishonoured, and defaced. 
 Through storied lattices no more 
 In soften'd light the sunbeams pour, 
 Gilding the Gothic sculpture rich 
 Of shrine and monument and niche." 
 
 The holy, the noble, the beautiful, and the brave, forgotten 
 upon earth, sleep entombed within that deserted precinct ; 
 and their marble tombstones, on which the perpetual lights 
 of the altar shone, or'' "on which the semblance of saints 
 and angels turned, as the sun and moon in their courses 
 shone through the pictured windows of the abbey church," 
 are now covered by the emerald turf ; the servants of God 
 have long ago been driven from their sanctuary ; and the 
 lands of Newminster have, for the last century or more, 
 belonged to a neighbouring lay owner. Fifteen monks 
 formed the fraternity of this eminent house at the time of 
 the dissolution, wiien the revenue of its possessions exceeded 
 the clear annual sum of £100 of the money of those days. 
 
 ** The bigot fury of the iron time " 
 
 has destroyed almost every vestige of the abbey. Mr. 
 Grose, shortly before 1775, found at the site of Newminster 
 a very antient font, once belonging to the abbey church of 
 S. Mary there, and resembling the antient Norman font 
 of the church of S. Peter in the East, Oxford. "^ At the 
 time when Mr. Grose saw this relic, it was thrown into 
 the road.*-' 
 
 « In the beautiful language of the 
 Rev. John Hodgson, the lamented his- 
 torian of Northumberland. 
 
 ■' A print of the extremely antient 
 font of S. Peter's, at Oxford, is given in 
 tlie 1st vol. of ' Leland's Collectanea,' 
 edit, of 1770, p. 29. The figures of the 
 twelve Apostles are scul])tured in niches 
 beneath an arcade which surrounds it. 
 See a notice of the discovery of the 
 Newminster font, by Mr. Grose, in 
 Gent. Mag. vol. xlv. p. 13. 
 
 « See in ' Collectanea Topogr. et 
 Geneal.,' vol. iii. p. .396, a curious grant 
 to Edgar, (son of Cospatric, the Earl) 
 who was contemporary with King Ste- 
 phen and Henry II., which is there 
 given from a copy of the long-lost New- 
 minster chartulary which found its way 
 from Naworth Castle, but was recently 
 restored to the Earl of Carlisle, after 
 passing through many hands.
 
 MORPETH CASTLE. 123 
 
 But, to return to the history of the castle. King John, 
 in revenge as it would seem, for his northern barons having 
 done homage to the King of Scots, destroyed the castle 
 in A D. 1215. It was rebuilt, and possessed by the noble 
 line of De Merlay, the last lord of which house, Roger de 
 Merlay the third, who died in a.d. 1266, stood loyally 
 to the king in the rebellion of the barons, and "escaped the 
 misfortune of seeing, as his neighbour the baron of Mitford 
 saw, his patrimonial estates strewn like a wreck around 
 him." In a.d. 1265, he founded a chantry in the church 
 of Stannington, (which benefice was afterwards appropriated 
 to Newminster), and his bones were laid to await the morn- 
 ing of the resurrection, among the peaceful tenants of the 
 cloister of Newminster Abbey. The barony of Merlay 
 came to the noble family of Greystock, by the marriage 
 of Mary, daughter and coheir of this Roger, to William, 
 lord of Greystock, to whose mill of Morpeth the burgesses 
 of the town, by deed in a.d, 1282, bound themselves and 
 their heirs to carry all their corn growing upon the land 
 they held of him. The lords of Greystock, a race 
 
 " Recorded eminent in deathless fame," 
 
 were noble benefactors to the house of Newminster; and 
 the worth and good deeds of this illustrious line are 
 conspicuous on the rolls of English history. The barons 
 of Greystock were summoned to the parliaments, with few 
 interruptions, from 1295 to 1485. Ralph de Greystock, 
 the last baron, departed this life in a.d. 1487. Elizabeth, 
 daughter and sole heir of his only son (who married 
 Elizabeth, daughter of Edmund Grey, lord-high-treasurer 
 of England, and of Catherine, daughter of Henry de Percy, 
 Earl of Northumberland, and died in the father s life-time,) 
 married Thomas Lord Dacre, of Gillesland, called Lord 
 Dacre of the North, to which barony that of Greystock 
 became united, until the death of George Lord Dacre, fifth 
 baron of Gillesland, who was killed by an accident in 1659, 
 when the barony fell into abeyance between his three 
 sisters and coheirs, of whom Ann Dacre the eldest, married 
 Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, ancestor of the Dukes of 
 Norfolk ; Mary, the second, married Thomas Lord Howard 
 de Walden ; and Elizabeth, the third, became the wife of 
 Lord William Howard, ancestor of the Earls of Cai"lisle.
 
 124 A VISIT TO 
 
 Thomas Lord Dacre, is said to have shared largely in the 
 plunder of the dissolved monasteries, especially of the 
 neighbom'ing priory of Lanercost. He died in a.d. 1525, 
 and was succeeded by his son, William Lord Dacre, warden 
 of the Marches, whose name was a name of terror to the 
 outlaws of the borders ; and who was one of the lords who, 
 in 1531, signed the letter to Pope Clement VII., intimating 
 that if his Holiness did not comply with the king's wish to 
 be divorced from Katherine of Arragon, the papal supre- 
 macy in England might soon be dispensed with. He 
 died in 1564. His eldest son followed in 1566, the issue 
 of whom were the George Lord Dacre, and his three 
 sisters and coheirs already mentioned. The far-famed Lord 
 William Howard, who died a.d. 1640, possessed of the 
 castle, barony, and manor of Morpeth, with the park and 
 advowson of the church there, and of various other broad 
 lands, here demands a more extended passing notice. 
 
 This distinguished chieftain was third son of the unfortu- 
 nate nobleman, Thomas, fourth Duke of Norfolk (of this 
 family) and grandson of the accomplished poet and cavalier 
 Henry Earl of Surrey ; and by his marriage with the Lady 
 Elizabeth Dacre in 1577, the castle and barony were trans- 
 ferred to this branch of the noble and illustrious house of 
 Howard, in whose possession it has since remained. In 
 consequence of litigation and various troubles brought on 
 him by his religious profession as a Roman Catholic, 
 Lord William did not take up his residence at his other 
 castle of Naworth until 1603. He appears to have repaired 
 it, and adorned its interior ; and here he was visited by 
 Camden in 1607. At this time the borders were in a state 
 of lawless insubordination. The offenders were called 
 moss-troopers, as they were accustomed to conceal them- 
 selves in the wild mosses and bogs with which this part of 
 the country then abounded. Fuller says of them, that 
 they came to church as seldom as the 29th of February 
 comes into the Kalendar. When in their greatest height, 
 he continues, they had two great enemies — the laws of the 
 land and Lord William Howard of Naworth. But he 
 determined to enforce obedience, to repress outrage, to pro- 
 tect the peaceable, and punish the offending ; and his 
 vigilance, firmness, and military I'igour when it was re- 
 quired, were successful in procuring this desired result.
 
 MORPETH CASTLE. 125 
 
 He was the terror of the moss-troopers ; and though he 
 ruled the marches with martial severity, he did much 
 towards the civilization of the barbarous inhabitants of the 
 country. In 1624, Lord William and his lady were settled 
 at Naworth, and all their family, sons, daughters, and their 
 wives and husbands, appear to have lived with them occa- 
 sionally ; tradition says they were fifty-two in family. He 
 had ten sons and five daughters by the marriage already 
 mentioned. His eldest son, Sir Philip Howard, Knight, 
 was ancestor of the Howards, Earls of Carlisle ; and Sir 
 Francis, his second son, was ancestor of that branch which 
 has for two centuries been seated at Corby Castle, and of 
 which Philip Henry Howard, esq. M.P. is the representative. 
 Lord William Howard died at Naworth, on the 9th of 
 October 1640. From his death, until the disastrous fire 
 of 1844) few alterations were made in the castle, and it 
 retained the stern character it presented in olden time, 
 
 "When helmed warders paced the keep, 
 And bugles blew for Belted Will." 
 
 The northern side of the quadrangle was, however, destroyed 
 by fire about 130 years ago. The private apartments of 
 Lord William were in the eastern tower, and consisted 
 of his oratory, his library, and his bedchamber. 
 
 At his castle of Naworth he kept one hundred and forty 
 men constantly under arms ; the approach to his apartments, 
 in a turret of the fortress, was secured by plated doors 
 several in succession, fastened by immense locks and bolts 
 of iron, defending a narrow winding staircase, where only 
 one person could pass at a time. And there he followed 
 the studious pursuits he loved, when the turbulent spirits of 
 the country afforded him time to lay aside his armour. 
 The writer is among the number who have climbed that 
 narrow stair to the apartment and library of this renowned 
 and literate chieftain, the furniture of these rooms being 
 then preserved in the state in which he left them, as if he 
 were expected to return again to kneel in his oratory and 
 use his books and furniture; and as if the beams of his cres- 
 set were expected to be again beheld from his eagle tower, 
 when night had wrapped the demesnes and woods of 
 Naworth in her sable robe. Of his many children, Robert, 
 the eighth son, became a monk. The present worthy 
 incumbent of Morpeth, (the Hon. and Rev. Francis R. Grey)
 
 126 A VISIT TO 
 
 is united by silken ties with his benefice — once the inherit- 
 ance of these mighty lords — for he married the Lady Eliza- 
 beth, fifth daughter of George, sixth Earl of Carlisle and 
 Baron Dacre of Gillesland, the noble inheritor of Morpeth 
 and some other possessions of the Loi-ds of Greystock. 
 The gate-tower of the fortress (the only remaining portion 
 of the castle of Morpeth) was built by William, known as 
 the good Baron of Greystock, who died in a.d. 1359, and is 
 described in his sepulchral monument in the church of 
 Greystock, as a most valiant, noble, and courteous knight 
 of his time and country. He occasionally resided at his 
 castle of Morpeth. There are winding stairs to the top of 
 this tower, which is embattled, with turrets at the corners. 
 The view it commands over the wooded banks of the river 
 is very lovely. Morpeth castle was, however, well main- 
 tained when Leland wrote (circa a.d. 1540), and he calls it 
 " a fair castle." The famous chieftain, Thomas Lord 
 Dacre, warden of the West Marches, already mentioned, 
 resided much at Morpeth, as appears by letters dated in 
 several years between 1516 and 1524. The castle was still 
 a place of strength in the reign of King Charles the Martyr. 
 It was taken by the rebel forces, who, however, after a pro- 
 tracted siege of twenty days, were driven thence in 1644 
 by the Marquess of Montrose, as general for the King in 
 Scotland. The trenches to the westward of the castle were 
 probably raised by his army. The outer walls are now 
 miserably shattered, and it is probable that the ravages sus- 
 tained by the fortress on that occasion were never repaired. 
 The area which these walls enclose shews the former 
 extent of the fortress, for it is eighty-two yards from north 
 to south, and fifty-three from east to west. Not a building 
 of any kind now remains within this interesting and once 
 eventful area. How great the change which time, and 
 degenerate man, and modern manners, have wrought since 
 the Lords of Morpeth here held their baronial state ! 
 
 ** Where banners the invader braved, 
 
 The harebell now and wallflbwer wav'd : — " 
 
 The bee lingers among the flowering plants that form the 
 carpet of their halls, the woodlark carols in the spray which 
 grows were minstrels sang to the baron and his guests 
 of yore : and, instead of a train of knights and nobles,
 
 MORPETH OLD CHURCH. 127 
 
 who come to enjoy the lordly hospitality of the castle, the 
 traveller, with a melancholy sense of departed grandeur, 
 surveys the completeness of its ruin. It is much to be 
 desired that people who can reverence the reliques of the 
 mighty past, and contribute to their preservation, would 
 unite to restore the gateway tower, which would well repay 
 their pains. 
 
 It is now time to turn our steps to the old parish church, 
 which arose in the West Park,^ not far from the castle ; at 
 first under the temporal protection of the lords of Morpeth. 
 On account of its distance from the town, one might suppose 
 that some antient event that happened upon its site, or the 
 occupation of the spot by an early religious structure, had 
 given peculiar sanctity to the place on which the christian 
 edifice came to be founded. An older church, of narrower 
 dimensions than the present fabric, and which was probably 
 the manorial chapel, afterwards endowed with tithes, appears 
 to have stood upon its site ; but there is no tradition as to 
 the occupation of that site in earlier times. The church, 
 which is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, is of purely 
 Middle-Pointed architecture. The nave is 60 feet in lenorth 
 by 46 in breadth, with north and south aisles, divided 
 by five arches — the capitals of the pier arches are not 
 ornamented. The chancel is 41 feet in length by 19 in 
 width, and has four windows on the south side, each of one 
 light. The great east window has five lights with late deco- 
 rated tracery. The western end of the church is surmounted 
 by a tower, and there is a capacious porch. The edifice con- 
 tains many features of great interest to the ecclesiologist ; 
 amongst others, a curious aperture in the external wall, 
 which may have been appropriated to the hearing of confes- 
 sions. The interior of the church has been defaced by 
 ponderous galleries and by particularly unsightly pews ; but 
 the good taste of the present rector has introduced a large 
 number of open seats, of appropriate pattern ; while, as 
 opportunity has offered, pews have been converted into open 
 seats, and people who at first disliked the "innovation " are 
 said to have become on excellent terms with the new seats, 
 and acknowledge them to be a great improvement. Let 
 other incumbents similarly circumstanced be encouraged by 
 
 ^ This demesne contained no less than 142 acres, reserved by the lord 
 
 for his use and pleasure.
 
 128 A VISIT TO 
 
 this example. The font is not remarkable. The stained 
 glass remaining in the east window, is in such a fragmentary 
 state of patchwork that its removal is very desirable; and 
 it is to be hoped that the restorations which the present 
 incumbent has commenced, may, ere long, include this 
 fine window. Great are the changes for the better, which 
 his well-directed zeal has already effected. Thus, a low 
 and unsuitable roof in the chancel has been replaced by a 
 handsome roof, with a good pitch ; a gallery has been 
 removed from the chancel-arch ; and whitewash and plaster 
 have been stripped from walls and pillars. The church 
 does not contain any recumbent effigies or sepulchral 
 memorials of antient date ; but there are some incised slabs 
 and mutilated effig-ies outside the chancel wall. The 
 church-yard is extensive, and is filled with the usual 
 unpicturesque, and in many cases, offensively-inscribed 
 headstones ; but the antient cross in the church-yard has 
 been recently restored. The enclosure is surrounded by 
 some fine trees, and its situation and character are extremely 
 picturesque The advowson belongs to the Earl of Carlisle, 
 as representative of the antient lords of Morpeth, who, 
 when the church was made parochial, became the patron. 
 A chantry was founded in this church by Thomas de 
 Heppiscotes, rector, about 1334, who imposed the obligation 
 of finding the chaplain, upon the monks of Newminster, in 
 consideration of his gift to them of £100 to purchase the 
 perpetual advowson of Whelpington. In 1368, the bishop's 
 license was obtained for the services to be performed by a 
 monk of their own house, on account of the '* scarcity and 
 unscholarlike condition of the chaplains then in the neigh- 
 bourhood." In this respect, at all events, times have 
 changed for the better. At the end of Morpeth bridge, in 
 a vale of wood and water, a chantry chapel was founded, 
 and amply endowed about a.d. 1300, in honour of All 
 Saints ; and within this chapel two other chantries were 
 subsequently founded. The corporation of the town, in 
 1313, bound themselves, in consideration of a rent-charge 
 granted to them, to find a lamp to burn in honour of Our 
 Lord and the Holy Cross for ever in this chapel, and to pay 
 a dole to thirteen poor people on Christmas-day ; and in 
 A.D. 1380, land was granted for the maintenance of a 
 chaplain at the altar of S. Mary, he finding tapers to burn
 
 MORPETH OLD CHURCH. 129 
 
 before the image of Our Saviour in the same chapel. But, 
 the lights and the antient faith departed together from these 
 walls ; and because chantries have been suppressed, we find 
 too commonly that the owners of lands thus dedicated, 
 forget that, in the imperishable registry of Heaven, those 
 lands are indelibly charged with a charitable use : and are 
 content, like the foolish virgins, to let their lamp remain 
 unfed ; fancying, because the chantry lights have been 
 extinguished, that the owners of the chantry lands are 
 absolved from the necessity of substituting other acts of 
 charity for the tapers which there " burned continually, in 
 token " that the givers were "evermore watching to God." 
 The lands of these particular chantries, however, continued 
 even after the reformation, to atford means of illumination, 
 though in another way ; for they, together with additional 
 property, became appropriated to the maintenance of the 
 free grammar-school, founded within this chapel by King 
 Edward VI., in the sixth year of his reign. In the latter 
 part of the seventeenth century, this school was much 
 resorted to for classical learning ; and Charles, third Earl 
 of Carlisle, and William, fourth Lord of Widdrington, were 
 upon the roll of its scholars. These noblemen took different 
 sides in what is called the rebellion of 1715; but, as Mr. 
 Hodgson remarks, the friendship they had contracted at 
 this school was influential in saving the latter from the 
 scaffold. 
 
 Matters municipal come not within the scope of the pre- 
 sent remarks, but for the information of the reader as to the 
 locus in quo, it may be stated that so early as the reign of 
 King John, Morpeth had assumed a municipal form ; and 
 the privilege of holding a weekly market there, was granted 
 in A.D. 1199 to the Lord of Morpeth. From those times, 
 and under the shelter of its castle, the town began to grow 
 into consequence, especially from the time when the fall 
 of the noble family of Bertram of Mitford, in the reign of^ 
 Henry III,, brought decay on that more antient borough. 
 The town is stated to have been consumed by fire, in 
 A.D. 1215, but whether by King John, or by the inhabitants 
 for the purpose of defeating some tyrannical outrage and 
 exaction by that monarch, does not appear. The town was, 
 however, restored in the succeeding reign, during which 
 mention is made of "the free burgesses of Morpeth." Of the 
 
 K
 
 130 
 
 A VISIT TO 
 
 town-cross, no vestige remains. The tanners of Morpeth, 
 on the anniversary oF their guild, (Trinity Sunday) went in 
 procession to church, when its doors and the town-hall were 
 decorated with brandies of oak, and after dinner they had 
 a merry-making. What scenes of innocent festivity have 
 been everywhere witnessed by that venerable relic of 
 antient times — the village cross ! Around that holy 
 symbol " the rude forefathers of the hamlet " were wont to 
 assemble in the long bright summer evenings on Sundays 
 and other festivals ; and in like, manner as their pagan 
 ancestors used occasionally to assemble at holy wells, the 
 dedication of a neighbouring church or chapel brought a 
 throng of people from surrounding villages to partake 
 of the joy and festivity of the occasion. The annual 
 festivities of guild and village Saints-days are forgotten ; and 
 we have instead of them, the Bacchanalian orgies of weekly 
 or monthly club-days, and " the seditious wisdom " of the 
 tap-room. 
 
 When the penal laws of England forbade Roman Ca- 
 tholics publicly to worship God, tlie members of the Roman 
 communion at Morpeth, assembled secretly for that purpose 
 in a house in Bowler's Green, where a priest from Long- 
 horsley attended once a week. But in 1778, they built a 
 chapel in Oldgate.^ 
 
 The church system having obtained, under the incum- 
 bency of Mr. Grey, a visible and active influence in 
 Morpeth, we find, on turning from the past to the present, 
 and pursuing our walk through the one long irregularly 
 built street which forms the chief part of this antient town, 
 that in the course of the year 1846, religion happily regained 
 a portion of her own in Morpeth ; for a most beautiful 
 church, in the Norman style of architecture, was erected in 
 a part of this populous town where it was much required, 
 
 g Tlie first minister who officiated in 
 the new chapel was the Rev. Mr. Tur- 
 ner, who was succeeded in 1802 by the 
 Rev. II. Lawson, to whose memory 
 the foHowing epitaph was inscribed : 
 " »J< Ilic jacet R. D. Henricus Law- 
 son, ex familia nobili de Brough Hall, 
 in comitatu Eboraccnsi, nionachus or- 
 dinis Sancli Bencdicti, Missionarius 
 Apostolicus, Pastor vigilantissinnis, 
 amicus Dei, omnibus charus, et grcgi 
 
 siio desideratissimus, pie obiit 21 men- 
 sis Julii 1821), natus annis G5, saccrdos 
 41. R. I. P.! In ejus memoriam 
 hunc lapidem erexit R. D. Jacobus 
 Higginson amicus ejus charissimvis, 
 confrater, et condiscipulus moerens." 
 
 The eminent writer and antiquary, 
 Mr. John Horsley, well known as au- 
 thor of tlie "Britannia Romana," was 
 minister of the Presbyterian Congrega- 
 tion of this town.
 
 s. James's church, morpeth. 131 
 
 and was dedicated to the service of God in honour of 
 S. James the Great. The distance of the old parish church 
 from the town, and its limited accommodation, debarred 
 a large number of people from assembling in the worship 
 of God according to the rites and ceremonies of the Church 
 of England ; but now, as there are two churches and daily 
 service, all persons have the privilege of assembling in 
 church, and have the further privilege of hearing the 
 choral service of the sanctuary performed with devotional 
 and decorous solemnity, and of participating in the rites and 
 ceremonies of her liturgy in its unmutilated fulness. How 
 different the case in some popular places of worship (so 
 called) where the exaltation of preaching, and the depraving 
 of the Book of Common Prayer, seem the principal desire 
 of the clergymen, although they are in the holy orders of 
 the Church of England ! 
 
 The plan of S. James's Church is cruciform, with cen- 
 tral tower. It consists of nave with north and south aisles, 
 transepts, and well-developed chancel ; with aisles, which are 
 separated from the chancel by stone parcloses of intersect- 
 ing arches, carried round the apse, in which at a goodly 
 height are nine windows, fdled with stained glass*" containing 
 a figure of Our Blessed Lord, and figures of eight of 
 the apostles. The chancel, which is raised by nine steps 
 from the nave, at various distances to the altar, is entirely 
 floored with encaustic tiles of beautiful workmanship. There 
 are sedilia and sacristy on the south side. There are clere- 
 story windows; those above the western door are filled 
 with stained glass, and contain representations of the trans- 
 figuration and the agony of Our Redeemer. The church 
 contains some other stained glass windows. A beautiful 
 corona lucis, of cerulean hue, is suspended under the tower. 
 The total length of the church is 130 feet, the breadth 46, 
 and the seats are low and open throughout. The pulpit is 
 of stone ; and there is an abundance of carved work, all 
 which is beautifully executed. There is a porch on the 
 northern side of the nave. The exterior of the edifice 
 resembles antient Norman churches ; and the whole struc- 
 ture is a noble specimen of the chaste and beautiful 
 solemnity of that style ; while all its arrangements are in 
 harmony with the character of the sacred edifice, which 
 
 *' It is by Wailes, of Newcastle.
 
 132 
 
 A VISIT TO 
 
 seems especially adapted to a ritual of chaste and solemn 
 dignity. The arcliitect is Mr. B. Ferrcy, and it does him 
 honour. Adjacent to the church, a neat building in corres- 
 ponding style has been erected, for the school, lecture, and 
 class rooms. 
 
 But we must now proceed with our walk . Along the banks 
 
 " or solitary Wansbeck's limpid stream," 
 
 the scenery is rich and various, presenting liigh banks 
 clothed with woods, and here and there enclosing knolls or 
 heights of remarkable fertility, or rocks either gray with 
 lichens, or crowned with noble oak and other forest trees. 
 A walk through "the lone and sequestered woods" towards 
 Bothal is a rich treat. After following the pathway by the 
 bank of the river, through thick overhanging foliage, and 
 over branches and the roots of trees, the sounds of the labour 
 of the quarryman, the mason and the builder, surprise the 
 ear ; but more surprised is the eye, on beholding a 
 stupendous fabric of timber in course of construction across 
 the deep dell, — it is the framework of the temporary bridge 
 to carry the railway across the Wansbeck.^ Its height ex- 
 ceeds that of the high-level bridge now in formation between 
 Newcastle and Gateshead; and from the valley of the river 
 a good view is obtained of this elaborate and substantial 
 fabric. It is to be hoped that the sylvan genii of these 
 antient solitudes of Wansbeck, will not resent this invasion 
 by taking vengeance on those adventurous travellers who 
 shall cross the bridge, which, when the stone-work is com- 
 pleted, will still be formidable. Proceeding further, the 
 pilgrim to Bothal again enters the undisputed domain of 
 the " fair-hair'd Dryads of the wood ; "' and upon its 
 northern margin, about three-quarters of a mile westward 
 of Bothal Castle, he comes to the ivy-grown foundations of 
 the edifice which was there dedicated to the Blessed Virgin 
 Mary, and well-known as the New Chapel. Of its origin, 
 history is silent ; but the conjecture does not want pro- 
 bability, that a hermitage antiently stood here, protected by 
 the neighbouring lords of Bothal. This chapel is correctly 
 described by Mr. Hodgson the historian of Northumberland, 
 as beino- in a deliirhtful solitude, where the river banks 
 
 ' This visit was made in the spring of the temporary bridge described. The 
 1817, before the trains were taken over masonry around it is still in progress.
 
 BOTHAL — THE NEW CHAPEL. 133 
 
 approach near to each other, and are deeply overshadowed 
 with oak and other forest trees ; and within their shadowy 
 arcades the antient recluses found a spot admirably calcu- 
 lated for meditation. 
 
 " Nor here the sun's meridian rays had power, 
 Nor wind sharp piercing, nor the rushing shower." 
 
 The dimensions of the chapel are only 24 feet by 14. Its 
 walls are said to have been built of well-wrought freestone, 
 and its roof to have been vaulted with the same material. 
 If Time were the only destroying power that had attacked 
 its fabric, these stones might be standing now ; but at pre- 
 sent all that remains of it are the foundation walls and a 
 few scattered stones, which were found probably too large 
 for convenient removal by neighbouring farmers who, like 
 banditti, have from time to time descended upon this once 
 hallowed fabric, and carried off its materials to repair their 
 walls and fences. Not a vestige of its architectural deco- 
 rations can be found on the site ; but a sculptured shield 
 removed thence to Bothal Castle, is said to bear the arms of 
 Ogle and Bertram quartering Kirkby ; and, therefore, to ^ 
 indicate that this chapel was built in the time of Robert, the 
 first Lord Ogle, who married Isabella, daughter and heir 
 of Alexander Kirkby, of Kirkby Ireleth. Adjoining to the 
 ruined New Chapel are the remains of a well, whose once 
 gushing waters took their constant course beneath the 
 overshadowing oaks.'' Wells by way-sides were formerly 
 provided with dishes for the convenience of travellers, or, if 
 near a monastery, the good inmates themselves came forth 
 to give refreshment to the traveller, with (we may suppose) 
 the invitation, — 
 
 " Drink, weary pilgrim ! drink and pray ! " 
 
 but, as if to remind the way-farer of the departure of those 
 days, when the monks gave refreshment to travellers, — 
 
 " Received the friendless, and the hungry fed " — 
 
 and maintained every here and there a well, furnished with 
 a dish or shell, which might be filled with its crystal waters, 
 the well in question is choked with weeds and rubbish. 
 
 k This well, being beside the ruins of of S. Dunstan and the hermitage of the 
 a chapel, reminds the visitor of that clerk of Copmanhurst, which is so 
 fountain adjacent to the ruined chapel well described in " Ivanhoe."
 
 134 A VISIT TO 
 
 Proceeding onward, through a variety of sylvan scenes 
 equal in beauty to any in the country, the valley of the 
 green Wansbeck widens; and rising on its northern bank, 
 upon a green knoll of oval form, the view from which is 
 confined on every side by an amphitheatre of lofty woods 
 glowing in the afternoon sunlight, stands Bothal Castle, — a 
 still impressive monument of feudal grandeur. From the 
 contemplation of its picturesque beauty, we may here turn to 
 the page of history for some information relating to its 
 former state. It was for Ions: the inheritance of the noble 
 family of Bertram of Bothal, who were descended from the 
 Baliols. Mr, Hodgson says, that the first ray of authentic 
 history that falls on the barony of Bothal, is in the year 
 
 / 1166, when Richard Bertram certified to Henry II. that he 
 held of the Crown three knights'-fees. Robert, lord of the 
 manor of Bothal, in the reign of Richard I., obtained from 
 that monarch a grant that the manor with its dependencies 
 should be raised to the dignity of a barony, and the lords 
 were summoned to the parliaments of the realm. The 
 barony so obtained was not held by the Bertrams beyond 
 
 •^ A.D. 1363. It then passed to the family of Ogle; and 
 in the last century descended on the Dukes of Portland. 
 There is much to interest us in the history of its former 
 owners. The first Bertram was William, son of Guy de 
 Baliol, who, with his wife Hawise, daughter of William 
 de Merlay, baron of Morpeth, and his son, founded the 
 Priory of Brinkburn, in this county. Richard, one of those 
 sons, was a donor to the monks at Tynemouth, and was 
 living in the reign of Richard I. The wardship of his 
 grandson Richard, a minor at his father's deatli in 1203, and 
 of his lands, was purchased of the king for the enormous 
 sum of £6,000. He also was a donor to Tynemouth. In 
 the I7th of John, he took part with the rebellious barons, 
 in consequence of which he was deprived of his lands. To 
 Robert Bertram, heir of the manor of Bothal, and to Gerard 
 
 , de Woderyngton, the king, at Newcastle, on the 25th of 
 "^ November, 1335, gave authority to raise and array the 
 whole disposable force of the Morpeth ward of Northumber- 
 land, and to imprison all who disobeyed their orders. In 
 1343, this Robert obtained the king's license to fortify 
 his manor-liouse of Bothal with crenelles ; or in other words, 
 to fortify and convert it into a castle. He filled many
 
 BOTHAL CASTLE. 135 
 
 public offices of eminence during the reign of Edward III., 
 and fought with bravery in the battle of Nevil's Cross, in 
 which he captured William Douglas, and Malcolm Earl of 
 Wigton, the latter of whom he was commanded by the king 
 to convey to the Tower of London ; but the Earl having 
 escaped, the king empowered Sir Henry de Percy and Sir 
 Ralph de Nevil to arrest the Baron of Bothal himself, and 
 attach all his lands and goods. These were restored to him 
 in the following year, and an annuity of two hundred marks 
 out of the customs of Newcastle was granted to him, for his 
 good services in the capture of Douglas. He died in 1363, 
 leaving only a daughter, Helen, upon whom his barony and 
 possessions descended. The lady of Bothal married first, V 
 Robert de Ogle, and surviving him, lived to marry three 
 other husbands. John, the grandson of Sir Robert and the 
 Lady Helen, (probably the donor of the antient font of the 
 church of S. John in Newcastle, which font was destroyed 
 by the Scots,) took the surname and estates of his grand- 
 mother ; and was lord of Bothal Castle in the beginning of 
 the reign of Henry VL With the great-grandson of this 
 John Bertram, viz., Robert Ogle or Bertram, who died 
 young, ended his issue male; whereupon the Bothal estates, 
 by entail, became the property of the descendants of Sir 
 Robert Ogle, knight, and Maud, daughter of Sir Robert 
 Grey, of Horton. In the contests between the royal houses 
 of York and Lancaster, Sir Robert Ogle, being a zealous 
 partizan of the White Rose, was created Lord Ogle. Cuth- 
 bert, the seventh and last Lord Ogle, married Catherine, 
 daughter and co-heir of Sir Reginald Carnaby, knight, (the 
 grantee from the Crown of the monastery of Hexham,) by 
 whom he had two daughters; the former of whom married 
 Edward Talbot, a younger son of the Earl of Shrewsbury; 
 and the latter married Charles Cavendish, of Welbeck 
 Abbey, and was created Baroness of Ogle. Their son was 
 Sir William Cavendish, better known as the loyal Duke of 
 Newcastle. The Lady Henrietta Cavendish Holies, only 
 daughter and heir of John Holies, Earl of Clare and Duke 
 of Newcastle, (who married the Lady Margaret Cavendish, 
 third daughter and heir of Henry Cavendish, who was the 
 son and heir of William the first Duke of Newcastle,) 
 married Edward Harley, Earl of Oxford, (founder of the 
 Harleian library,) who died in 1741 ; and the baronial
 
 130 A VISIT TO 
 
 honours unfl estates, including the Castle of Bothal, by the 
 marriag'e of their only daugliter and heir to William, second 
 Duke of Portland, has devolved upon his Grace the present 
 Duke. 
 
 The castle walls encircle the brow of the oval hill 
 on vvliich they stand, and enclose nearly half an acre of 
 land. They have been lofty, and strengthened w^ith but- 
 tresses and towers, but have long; been in a ruinous state. 
 The area they enclose, and the western slope, are occupied 
 by gardens and orchards, while some of the antient walls 
 are thickly overgrown with venerable ivy. Of the keep, no 
 portion remains, and sylvan shrubberies occupy the place of 
 halls once hung with tapestries, and which for ages were 
 the scene of feudal state and baronial hospitality. The 
 great gateway is the only perfect part of the whole fortress. 
 This tower was probably erected by Robert Bertram, in the 
 reign of Edward III. It is said that no small portion 
 of the venerable castle has been demolished for the sake of 
 its materials. The southern or inner front of this gate is 
 mantled with ivy. One of the figures over the gateway 
 is in the attitude of sounding a horn, and another seems as 
 if about to cast a stone upon invaders. The building 
 is divided into two floors, the apartments of which are 
 in good preservation, having been recently restored to 
 a considerable extent, and present a fine specimen of the 
 castellated architecture of England. The massive walls 
 now aftbrd a residence to the agent of the noble owner ; 
 and a neat and well-kept avenue conducts to this tower 
 from the high-road, through pleasant gardens. 
 
 Adjacent to the castle, is the church of Bothal. This 
 antient fabric is dedicated to S. John, and probably occupies 
 the place of an earlier edifice. The nave, the floor of 
 which is considerably below the level of the church-yard, is 
 fifty-four feet long and thirty-five feet broad ; and has 
 a north and south aisle formed by octagonal piers of First- 
 Pointed work, with good flowered capitals, and lighted by 
 windows which are square-headed, with the trefoiled 
 arch, and are of much later work. Their date is probably 
 the same period as the east window, viz., 1370 to 1380. 
 The clear story is of elegant Middle-Pointed work. The 
 chancel is entirely First-Pointed, save the east window, 
 which seems to have been inserted late in the fourteenth
 
 BOTHAL CHURCH. 137 
 
 century. The chancel is forty-two feet long by fifteen feet 
 wide ; and has three lancet-lights in the south, and two 
 in the north wall. The east window is of three lights. 
 The roof is nearly flat, and comparatively modern. ^ Little 
 stained glass remains ; but that little serves to excite the 
 greater regret for the loss of that which has disappeared. 
 By the eflect of white-wash and other features of the £. 5. d. 
 and churchwarden style, the interior of the sacred edifice is 
 characterized by an aspect of meanness and neglect, which 
 is painful to behold."' The principal feature of the interior 
 is an altar-tomb in alabaster, at the east end of the south 
 aisle, on which are two recumbent efiigies in the same 
 material, supposed to commemorate Sir Robert Ogle and 
 Helen Bertram, the Lady of Bothal ; she, who with David'^ 
 Holgrave, her fourth and last husband, founded in a.d, 
 1396, a chantry in this church, and endowed it with no less 
 than twelve tofts and two hundred acres of land. And yet 
 the names of these pious donors are to be discovered only 
 in some perishable fragment that has escaped the ravages 
 of time ; and as if a degenerate, an ungrateful and a 
 sacrilegious age were impatient to eflface and dishonour the 
 records of the past, the very monument is defaced by rude 
 initials carved upon it, and by wanton mutilation. The 
 sides are enriched with images and armorial bearings, which 
 might identify the persons intended to be commemorated, 
 but the whole of this elaborate tomb is nearly enclosed by 
 high narrow wooden pews. Stone coflftns have been dis- 
 interred from the church-yard ; and within the church, near 
 the porch, there is an incised slab, in situ, bearing only a 
 cross and a sword. The church has a southern porch, and 
 a campanile with three bells. It has been remarked, very 
 justly, that in the county of Northumberland, where there 
 
 ' It was added towards the close of since this visit was made, the rector, 
 
 the fifteenth century, when the living of Bothal has presented to the parish 
 
 was sequestered for the repairs of the church an oak communion-table, after 
 
 church. a design by Mr. Butterfield ; together 
 
 "' Such, at least, was its state in the with the appropriate vestments, as re- 
 spring of 1847. It is hoped, that as commended by the Ecclesiological So- 
 Mr. Hopwood, the rector, who had re- ciety. He lias provided also, open 
 cently come to this valuable living, was sittings for the children attending the 
 then understood to contemplate some parish scliools. It is hoped tl;at these 
 restorations, a more ecclesiastical cha- are not the only members of his flock 
 racter may have been since given to the for whom open sittings will be provided, 
 sacred edifice, and a spirit of pious The pews, too, have been ejected from 
 liberality displayed in its caio. And the chancel.
 
 138 A VISIT TO BOTHAL. 
 
 are nearly as many castles as churches, we find that if there 
 is an adjacent castle, the church, g-enerally, although of 
 large size, has only a campanile, and seldom a tower — 
 probably to prevent its occupation by an enemy in case of 
 a Scotish irruption. The patronage of the living is in the 
 Duke of l^ortland, as representative of the Bertrams; and 
 the present worthy incumbent, the Rev. H. Hopwood, is 
 nearly related, by marriage, to the noble patron. The 
 village of Bothal itself is very small, but the parish is very 
 extensive. There are about a hundred acres of glebe land. 
 The rectory-house is not near the church ; but, beautiful as 
 is the locality of Bothal, the parsonage is still more agreeably 
 situated at Shipwash, some two miles lower down the river, 
 where an anticnt church once stood, which has been for a 
 long time in ruin. The large bason of its stone-font is 
 mentioned by Mr. Hodgson, as being (when he wrote) used 
 as a trough for the cattle to drink from, in the fold-yard of 
 the rectory-house, but it has been rescued by the present 
 incumbent. 
 
 In conclusion, it may be said, that every natural feature 
 connected with the rectory of Bothal is full of beauty and 
 luxuriance ; but the parish church, the alabaster monument, 
 and the few other reliques of mediaeval time which escaped 
 the destroyer, have too long witnessed to the departure of 
 the munificent and reverential feelings which characterised 
 a better age. The rich inheritance of the Lady Helen — once 
 the fair and noble owner of Bothal, having descended upon 
 the ducal house of Portland, it may be expected that in 
 due time, this fine altar-tomb, probably her monument, will 
 be restored and preserved, with the solicitude becoming the 
 inheritors of her patrimony. And secluded as is its situa- 
 tion, there are few country parish churches which have 
 stronger claims than the church of Bothal to be freed from 
 the incumbrances by which it is choked and defaced, and 
 to be restored and beautified with architectural knowledge, 
 heijTfhtened by reverential feelino- for an antient house of 
 
 IjrOD. 
 
 THE END.
 
 ADDITIONAL NOTES. 
 
 OviNGHAM, page 59. — From a Book of Visitations in the diocese of 
 Durham, held by the Archbishop of York in 1501, it appears, that when 
 the prelate visited the Church of Ovingham, in that year, it was found 
 to be in a very unsatisfactory condition. The record is as follows : — 
 
 " Ecclesia de Ovingham, 
 " Appropriata Prioratui de Hexham. 
 " Parochiani dicunt quod Vicarius non residet in beneficio sue ut 
 tenetur, et dicunt quod matutinae et vesperae non dicuntur horis congruis 
 et consuetis, Dicunt etiam quod fenestrae vitreas in choro sunt confractae ; 
 et injunctum est proprietariis quod sufficienter reparentur et emendentur 
 citra festum Purificationis B. Marise Virginis proximse futurum, sub 
 paena x^." 
 
 Then we have the following information : — 
 
 " Dominus Lodowicus Turner capellanus cantarise S. Thomas de Prod- 
 houe, Dominus Willielmus Frankishe capellanus, Radulphi Harbotell 
 militis praestiterunt obedientiam domino Archiepiscopo Eboracensi. 
 
 " Willielmus Harrison, Johannes Forster, Willielmus Marshall, Wil- 
 lielmus Browne, parochiam ibidem dicunt omnia bene." 
 
 Hexham. — It should have been stated (at page 76) that the antient 
 stalls are thirty-six in number, eighteen being on each side of the entrance 
 to the choir ; and (at page 77) that the altar in the chantry chapel has 
 Norman decorations, as well as the fabric adjacent to it, which is called a 
 large and magnificent altar-tomb. From the aisle, it has the appearance 
 of a tomb, or shrine; but should have been described as inclosing the 
 north side of this chapel. The grotesque figures sculptured in relief on 
 this screen are of decidedly Norman character. 
 
 In mentioning our Lady's Chapel (at page 83) it should have been 
 stated, that if the proposed restoration is not expedited, the eastern wall 
 will probably fall down. As the wealthy lay-impropriator has condescended 
 to allow what is his own work, to be done (or rather attempted to be 
 done) by the subscriptions of his tenants, there ought to be no diflftculty 
 in raising the small sum required for this restoration — a restoration which 
 one would have thought the lay-impropriator would have felt a pride in 
 effecting from his own resources ; the more so, as the enormously produc- 
 tive lead mines, and other vast possessions which he has inherited, were 
 formerly those of the Abbey Church of Hexham. Would to God the 
 Church could have even a part of her own again ! 
 
 At page 84, it should have been stated, that the resting place of King 
 Alfwold is believed to be marked by a large slab, which occupies the 
 angle of the transept and the north aisle of the choir, and is surmounted
 
 ADDITIONAL NOTES. 
 
 by a gotliic canopy. On tliis slab, a cross, inwoven with the True Vine, 
 is sculptured. It is stated at this page, that the Church of Hexham 
 contains the effigy of Henry Duke of Somerset. One of the recumbent 
 effigies now laid upon the floor of the north transept aisle is pointed out 
 as the effigy of that noblen-yin ; but on a second inspection, it is evident 
 that both these effigies are of much earlier date. As to this nobleman, 
 see Sandford's Genealog. History of the Kings of England, " Beauforts," 
 book iv. ch. 11. 
 
 At page 86, it should have been stated, that the mullions and tracery 
 of the great East window (for to a window of this late character, the 
 original lancets of Early English fabric gave place,) are of new work, 
 designed by Mr. John Dobson, of Newcastle, the eminent architect, 
 about 1824. 
 
 The Churchwardens of Hexham now enthrone themselves in the antient 
 canopied stalls which were used as the Sedilia. A sort of opera-box, 
 lined with cloth, furnished with soft cushions, and enjoying a dignified 
 seclusion and privacy, is formed between two piers of the choir, for the 
 accommodation, (it is presumed) of some official, who is good enough to 
 patronize this church. The writer looked into several of the horrid pews 
 appropriated to the humbler parishioners, and found they were absolutely 
 without any board, hassock, or other accommodation for kneeling ! 
 
 The whole interior of this magnificent fabric is clothed in a penitential 
 sheet of whitewash. 
 
 Hougiiton-le-Spring, page 9G. — While these sheets were passing 
 through the press, the original piscina and a narrow pointed door-way 
 were discovered in the south wall of the church on removing the lath- 
 and-plaster work, by which these venerable walls have been hitherto 
 diligently concealed. No doubt, many other long-forgotten portions of 
 tlie fine Early English fabric will, from time to time, reward the research 
 ol' the excellent Rector ; and in due time, the Church of St. Michael at 
 Houghton, may be expected to have regained no small portion of its 
 original aspect. It should have been stated, that the moulding of the 
 narrow door-way alluded to, is ornamented with the dragon — a mark 
 probably of the dedication of the church to that Saim. 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page G3, note*. — The sentence should conclude thm : but which, for want of 
 funds, has been allowed to languish. 
 
 Page 83, line 35. — For near the entrance is the recumbent figure, &c. read, 
 near the entrance to Our Lady's Chapel, and in the angle of the northern aisle, 
 is the removed recumbent fij^ure, &c. 
 
 Page 81.— /'or MOl, m/^/ 1110. 
 
 1', U'tiJtc & Son, I'nuicrH,*, Ucvuiifshirc-squarc, liiiilJul^^^al(.■, Lomluii
 
 u. -tUit:— er ^u.jc-- 
 
 THE RIGHT HOH*f' .TAMES RADCLIFrE . 
 
 Beheaacd 24* Jelnnuny 1716.
 
 s>(L 
 
 Bilston jS^all; 
 
 OR, 
 
 ..MOIRS OF THE RIGHT HON. TAMES RADCLIFFE, 
 
 EARL OF DERWENTWATER, 
 
 A MARTYR IN 
 
 THE REBELLION OF 1715. 
 
 TO WHICH IS ADDED, 
 
 1 ii0it tu IninhirgI totle ; 
 
 WI.H AN ACCOUNT OF LORD CREWE'S CHARITIES, AND 
 A MEMOIR OF THE NOBLE FOUNDER. 
 
 FORMING THE SECOND SERIES OF 
 
 DESCRIPTIVE AND HISTOEICAL NOTICES OF NORTHUMBRIAN 
 CHURCHES AND CASTLES. 
 
 BY 
 
 ^^^TLLIAM SIDNEY GIBSON, ESQ. F.S.A. F.G.S. Lond. 
 
 ,STER-AT-LAW, AND A REGISTRAR OP THE COURT OP BANKRUPTCY; MEMBER OP THE 
 
 FCCLESIOLOGICAL AND NEWCASTLE ANTIftUARIAN SOCIETIES, AND OF THE ARCHITECTURAL 
 
 SOCIETIES OP DURHAM AND S. ALBAN's, A LOCAL SECRETARY OF TUB 
 
 ARCHffiOLOGICAL INSTITUTE; AND AUTHOR OF 
 
 " THE HISTORY OF TTNEMOUTH," " REMARKS ON MEDIEVAL HISTORIANS," 
 
 ETC. ETC. 
 
 .. KELLISHEU WITH .\ PORTRAIT OF LORD DERWENTW.^TEK, A.NU SEVEKAI. 
 HIGHLY FINISHED ENGRAVINGS, 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN & LONGMANS, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 NEWCASTLE : 
 ROBERT ROBINSON, PILGRIM STREET. 
 
 M. DCCC, L.
 
 LONDON : 
 
 W. J. PERRY, 20J, WARWICK LANK, 
 
 PATERNOSTER ROW.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 In presenting before the public a second series of Northum- 
 brian Visits, it is the author's pleasant duty to express his 
 thanks for the indulgent and flattering reception accorded 
 to his former publications. Since he came into Northum- 
 berland, his chief pleasure has been found in visiting antient 
 historic localities, in tracing their history, in collecting 
 memorials of departed worthies, and in writing upon those 
 subjects. The author has consulted only his own plea- 
 sure in the occupation of his leisure hours ; his own predi- 
 lections have guided the choice of his subjects ; and he has 
 written for his own amusement and as an amateur, yet he 
 trusts, sometimes with a devout purpose and a higher aim. 
 As he has not sought pecuniary gain, so he has not written 
 to conciliate popular applause ; and the favourable opinions 
 which have been accorded to his publications, therefore, 
 constitute a reward which he values the more highly. 
 
 The subjects of the following pages belong to the range 
 of personal history and biography, rather than that of topo- 
 graphical or antiquarian research. The name of James 
 
 A
 
 11. PREFACE. 
 
 Radcliffe, Earl of Derwkntwater, lives in popular 
 affection ; and perhaps in English history there is hardly 
 an episode which has even now a firmer hold on popular 
 sympathies (especially in the North of England,) than 
 his melancholy fate ; yet there is not any work in which 
 the scattered materials for a life of the beloved and noble 
 Radcliffe have been collected. It is no insignificant mark 
 of the power of virtue, that his character should have 
 remained the traditionaiy subject of interest after the lapse 
 of so long a period of time. The pale flowers of history, 
 collected in the following pages, have been gathered by the 
 author with a loving ardour ; and he not only wishes that 
 his labours may be as acceptable to the public as they have 
 been productive of pleasure to himself, but that they may 
 be thought to render some justice to the memory of a 
 generous and devoted young nobleman, who can no longer 
 vindicate himself The author has traced, with a kind of 
 affectionate sympathy, the memorials of the generous and 
 gallant Derwentwater, and the touching story of his devo- 
 tion and his fate. Of the degree in which the writer may 
 have succeeded, others must judge ; he can claim credit 
 only for diligence and fidelity ; but having undertaken a 
 memoir on this subject from an admiration of the Earl's 
 character, and a feeling of interest in all that relates to him, 
 the author has been gratified by finding, that all the unpub- 
 lished materials to which he has had access, every piece of 
 evidence that has been discovered, only aids in placing the 
 character of Lord Derwentwater in a bright and estimable 
 point of view, and in justifying the sentiments with which
 
 PREFACE. Ul. 
 
 his memory is regarded in the lands where he once bore 
 sway. 
 
 Some readers may be disposed to enquire why the author 
 should have become the biographer of Lord Derwentwater ? 
 He does not know that he can better answer such a question 
 than by confessing, that from the moment when he first saw 
 Dilston Hall, circumstances threw a halo of interest and 
 romance in his eyes around the spot and all its history ; 
 and he may be said to have vowed himself to this work 
 fi'om the bright summer day and hour when he first trod 
 the lovely glades of Dilston. It has been truly observed, 
 that the tombstone, with its epitaph half genealogical, half 
 eulogistic, is scarcely so true a record of past greatness and 
 present decay, as the fragments of some antient edifice, of 
 which enough remains to tell the grandeur that was, and 
 has passed away. Few memorials of this kind are more 
 striking than the ruins of Dilston Castle, which stand on a 
 wooded height, commanding an enchanting prospect of the 
 fine valley of the Tyne towards Hexham, partly encircled 
 by a rapid and romantic little stream, which at no great 
 distance falls into that broad and picturesque river. Round 
 those silent reUcs of a feudal age — once a fortress of the an- 
 tient lords of Tynedale, history leads a " dim procession" of 
 stately martial forms — the ancient possessors of the Castle ; 
 but it is the story of the last Earl of Derwentwater which 
 invests the spot with its pecuHar interest, and it is his 
 memory which seems to hallow those roofless chambers 
 and long-quenched hearths. So, likewise, in the eventful 
 drama of the (so called) Rebellion in the year 1715, the 
 
 A 2
 
 IV. PREFACE. 
 
 most interesting as well as the most tragic episode is that 
 in which the chivalrous and amiable Derwentwater forms 
 the principal character. The age of succession wars is 
 hai)pily over, and (as some writer has remarked) the possi- 
 bility of adhering to the descendants of King James II., 
 has long ceased ; and the author may, therefore, without 
 endangering his reputation for loyalty to Queen Victoria, 
 further confess, that had he lived when the young Earl 
 espoused the Stuart's cause, he would probEibly have done 
 as Lord Derwentwater did. So much as to the author's 
 motives, and his sympathies with the subject. He would 
 fain hope, that the bias which may be supposed to be attri- 
 butable to the fact of his having been educated in and 
 having thus long remained a member of the Church of 
 England, will not be thought by members of the Roman 
 communion to disqualify him for doing justice to the 
 character of Lord Derwentwater, for whose noble nature, 
 warm affections, generous motives, and entire devotion 
 to his God, his religion, and his rightful Sovereign, the 
 author feels all the reverence that can be entertained by 
 any member of the antient faith, " which was written on 
 the heart" of Lord Derwentwater " in the antique charac- 
 ters of authoritative age." 
 
 This brings the author to speak of the assistance which 
 has been afforded to him in writing the present memoir of 
 that nobleman ; and first of all, to express his regret that 
 Mrs. Grey of Dilston House, could not be induced to employ 
 the pen which she can use with so much elegance and 
 effect, in composing a memoir of the Earl, which she had
 
 PREFACE. V. 
 
 at one time contemplated. The unpublished materials and 
 correspondence which were then collected by that lady, 
 (and amongst which are letters from Lady Petre to Mrs. 
 Grey, communicating some anecdotes of the Earl's life, and 
 particulars relating to his letters, his attire, and other me- 
 morials of him preserved in Lord Petre's family,) have been 
 in the handsomest manner placed by Mrs. Grey in the 
 hands of the present writer, who desires to acknowledge his 
 obligations to her, not only for those valuable sources of 
 information, but also for her kind readiness at all times to 
 give him, during the progress of the work, the information 
 and suggestions which her local knowledge qualifies her 
 to afford. The author is also indebted to that lady for 
 permission to engrave the very beautiful views on the river 
 below Dilston Castle, and the vignette of the ruins, which 
 were drawn for her by that eminent artist, Mr. Thomas 
 Richardson. They have gained a new beauty in the litho- 
 graphic establishment of Mr. Day. It is the author's 
 agreeable duty also to express his sense of obligation to 
 Philip H. Howard, Esq. of Corby Castle, m.p., for valuable 
 references and information, and for permission to engrave 
 the handsome oak chair which belonged to Lord Derwent- 
 water, and is now preserved in Mr. Howard's ancestral 
 mansion ; to Sir William Lawson of Brough Hall, for the 
 communication of some materials in MS. and in print, from 
 the valuable literary collections of that worthy Baronet ; to 
 John Fenwick, Esq. of NewTastle-upon-Tyne, local solicitor 
 of Greenwich Hospital, a gentleman whose learning, acquire- 
 ments, and topographical information are, with unvarying
 
 VI. PREFACE. 
 
 courtesy and kindness, made available to the historical 
 enquirer, for permission to make use of a series of tran- 
 scripts procured by Mr. Fenwick from records, accounts, 
 and original papers connected with the RadclifFe family, 
 and for other valuable information ; to the Rev. M. A. 
 Tierney of Arundel, for the communication of interesting 
 letters ; to Thomas D. Hardy, Esq. of the Branch Public 
 Record Office at the Tower ; to William Woodman, Esq. 
 town clerk of Morpeth ; to Dr. Lietch of Keswick ; to 
 James Reed, Esq. of Sunderland ; to George Rippon, Esq. 
 of Tynemouth ; to Robert Leadbitter, Esq. of Ryton Grove ; 
 to Mr. Joseph Fairless of Hexham, and to the several 
 other gentlemen who have favoured him by communicating 
 information or relics connected with Lord Derwentwater. 
 
 It only remains to mention that the attainders of the noble 
 Radcliffes are believed to be the only attainders incurred 
 for adherence to the house of Stuart that remain unreversed. 
 Many families claiming through other noblemen, who were 
 engaged with Lord Derwentwater in the same cause, are 
 enjoying their restored estates ; but although there are, and 
 at all times since the forfeiture have been, descendants of the 
 Earl and of his brother, neither the title nor any portion of 
 the family estates have ever been restored. A rent-charge 
 of £2,500 a year, granted in 1787 to Anthony James, Earl 
 of Newburgh, (grandson of the Hon. Charles RadclifFe, 
 brother of the Earl of Derwentwater,) out of the princely 
 property of the Radcliffes, is the only indulgence that has 
 been shown, and that grant is still enjoyed for the life of 
 the Countess of Newburgh, widow of the last male descend-
 
 PREFACE. Vll. 
 
 ant of Charles RadclifFe. The present Lord Petre is the 
 direct representative, in the female line, of the chivalrous 
 and ill-fated Earl of Derwentwater ; and Francis Eyre, pre- 
 sent Earl of Newburgh, is a descendant of the Hon. Mary 
 Radcliffe, a daughter of Charles Radcliffe and Lady New- 
 burgh, his wife, who enjoyed that Scottish peerage in her 
 own right. The author has learned during the progTcss of 
 this work, that Robert Radcliffe, Esq. of Fox Denton Hall, 
 and Ordsall Manor, in the county of Lancaster, claims the 
 antient Earldom of Sussex and Barony of Fitzwalter, of 
 which the first Earl of Derwentwater claimed the revival in 
 his own favour; and it appears that, should those antient titles 
 of the family be restored, there are portions of the property 
 which the Crown has power to restore likewise. The great 
 estates comprised in the marriage settlement of the last Earl 
 of Derwentwater, and to which the issue male of Charles 
 RadclifFe, his brother, became entitled in remainder, were 
 conferred on Greenwich Hospital, under circumstances of 
 unparalleled injustice and wrong ; and although it is some 
 satisfaction to know that the property which the noble 
 owner employed in deeds of charity, beneficence, and hospi- 
 tality, is applied to the relief of the poor and disabled 
 seamen maintained by that great national institution, its 
 revenues enormously exceed the amount required for the 
 beneficent purposes of public charity. 
 
 It is worthy of remark, that the property at Bamburgh, 
 which was granted by King James L to Mr. Forster, was 
 forfeited within a century afterwards by his descendant, in 
 the unsuccessful attempt to restore that monarch's great
 
 Vlll. PREFACE. 
 
 grandson to tlie Stuart's throne ; and that the estates of the 
 two EngUsh leaders of that enterprise became devoted to 
 piibUc charities dedicated to the benefit of seamen ; the 
 princely estates of Lord Derwentvvatcr hav ing been conferred 
 on the Royal Hospital of Greenwich, and those of General 
 Forster having been purchased of the Crown by Bishop 
 Crewe, and being in part also appropriated, pursuant to 
 his will, to the succour and relief of seafaring men ; and all 
 to purposes of charity. 
 
 Referring to a remark at page 35 of the present work, 
 which seems to deprecate the direction in which the Parlia- 
 ment of Wilham III., intent on securing the Protestant 
 succession, looked abroad for successors to the Biitish 
 Cro^\Ti, the author wishes to observe, that although the first 
 monarchs of the House of Hanover gave the people little 
 cause to be satisfied with the consequences of the Act of 
 Settlement, this nation has abundant reason to rejoice, that 
 the limitation of the Crown at the commencement of the 
 last century to the descendants of Elizabeth of Bohemia, 
 has in our day had the result of placing Queen Victoria on 
 the British throne. 
 
 In the memoir of the Hon. Charles Radcliffc it is stated, 
 that a tradition in Northumberland points out Abbot's 
 Stanstead as the place of his actual interment, although 
 his remains were supposed to be interred at S. Giles's in 
 the Fields. It should have been added that there is not, 
 in the churchyard or the register at Abbot's Stanstead, any 
 trace of his interment. 
 
 A representation of the oak chest at Walwick is referred
 
 PREFACE. IX. 
 
 to at page 170 as annexed, but the author has to offer an 
 apology instead of the plate, which, in consequence of a 
 mistake, could not be finished without delaying the publi- 
 cation of the present work. 
 
 The original orthography of the letters printed in the 
 the following pages was not thought worthy of preserva- 
 tion. 
 
 Newcastle-upon-Tyne, May, 1850,
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Portrait of James Earl of Derwentwater - - Frontispiece, 
 
 View on the River below Dilston Castle - - To face p. 2. 
 
 Fac-similes of Autographs of " The Loyal Sir Edward 
 Radcliffe," Francis his son, First Earl of Der- 
 wentwater, Lady Fenwick, his daughter, and Sir 
 William Fenwick, her husband - . _ Page 20. 
 
 Fac-similes of the Autographs of James, last Earl of 
 
 Derwentwater, and his Countess - - - Pages 40-43. 
 
 View on the Banks of Divelswater — the Lord's Mill To face p. 22. 
 
 View of Preston in the Nineteenth Century - To face p. 72. 
 
 View of the Ruins of Dilston Castle - - - Vignette p. 155. 
 
 Fragment of Carved Wood from Dilston Hall - Page 1G2. 
 
 The Derwentwater Chair at Corby Castle - - To face p. 170. 
 
 View of Bamburgh Castle ----- Tofacep. 175.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 A VISIT TO DILSTON HALL. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Situation of the ruined Castle — Scenery of the Divel's "Water, 3 ; Cor- 
 bridge and adjacent historic localities, 4 ; Antient Lords of Dilston ; 
 its aspect in Norman times, 6 ; Langley Barony and Castle, 7 ; 
 acquisition of Dilston by the RadclifFes of Derwentwater in Cum- 
 berland, 8-10. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Derwentwater Manor and antient owners, 10 ; the Radcliffe family 
 and effigies at Crossthwaite, 11 ; marriage of Radcliffe, heir of 
 Derwentwater, with the heiress of Dilston, 12 ; RadchiFe brass at 
 Keswick, 13 ; Knightly inheritors of Dilston and Derwentwater — 
 Sir Cuthbert, Sir George, 14, Sir Francis, 15, the loyal Sir Edward, 
 16 ; his children, 17 ; intermarriage with Sir W. Fenwick of Meldon, 
 ibid.; letter on Sir Edward's death, 18; Sir Francis, (afterwards 
 first Earl,) his marriage and issue, 19 ; their alliances, 19, 20. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Dilston Hall in the time of the first Earl of Derwentwater, 21 ; his 
 ** Household Book, " and domestic establishment, 22 ; singular 
 entries and customs, 25 ; marriage of his son Edward, (afterwards 
 second Earl,) to a daughter of Charles II., 26; Sir Francis created 
 Earl of Derwentwater ; his death, 27 ; Earldom of Sussex, 28 ; 
 issue of marriage of Edward Viscount Radcliffe and Lady Mary 
 Tudor, 29 ; his death, 30 ; second and third marriage of his widow, 
 ibid.
 
 Xll. CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Birth of James, third Earl of Derwentwatcr, 31 ; his cliildhood ; is edu- 
 cated at S. Germain's with the Prince of Wales, 32; hopes of tlie 
 English Jacobites, 33 ; James II. and Queen Mary in their exile, 34 ; 
 Act of Settlement, 35 ; return of the youthful Earl to England on 
 the accession of Anne, 36. 
 
 CHAPTER V, 
 
 Person and character of the Earl, and his amiable qualities, 37 ; corre- 
 spondence with the Swinburne family on his return, 38 ; the young 
 Earl's visits to his Dilston and Derwentwater property, 39 ; curious 
 political club at Walton-le-Dale, 40 ; the Earl's character as a 
 resident landowner, his hospitality, and fondness for the chase and 
 rural pursuits, 41 ; his marriage ; the settlement, 42 ; residence in 
 Gloucestershire ; letters to Lady Swinburne, 44, 45. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Lord Mar's armament in favour of Prince James ; correspondence of the 
 gentry in Northumberland, 47 ; Lord Derwentwater withdraws from 
 Dilston, and commits his gray charger to the care of a friend, 48 ; 
 remains in concealment, 49 ; the Fairy Postman, ibid. ; Charles 
 Radcliffe, the Earl's brother, 50 ; circumstances which deterred the 
 Earl from joining at first in the rebellion ; the pretended persuasions 
 of his lady thereto, ibid. ; romantic legend of the Maiden's Walk, 
 51 ; the Earl suddenly decides to join the rising, 52 ; last orisons at 
 Dilston, 53 ; collects his retainers, and departs, ibid. ; tactics of the 
 squires, 54 ; council of war at Beaufront, 55 ; march to Rothbury, 
 &c., ibid. ; Mr. Forster of Etherstone, chosen General, 56 ; move- 
 ments towards Newcastle, ibid. ; disappointment, and retreat to 
 Hexham, 57 ; the Earl's visit to Staward, 58 ; proceedings of the 
 Scots volunteers, and junction of forces at Kelso, 59 ; character of 
 Brigadier Macintosh, 59, 60. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Council of war, and separation of Scots from English army, 61 ; marches 
 of the latter on the border, and invasion of England, 62 ; ballad, 
 " Derwentwater," founded on an incident while the Earl was in 
 Galloway, 63 ; advance to Penrith, and flight of the Cumbrian Fen- 
 cibles, 64, 65 ; march to Appleby, visit to Lowther, 66 ; desertion 
 by Scotch allies ; failure of promised reinforcements, 67 ; the Earl's 
 farewell to his mountain home, 68.
 
 CONTENTS. Xlll. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 March to Kendal, 69 ; triumphal entry to Lancaster, 70 ; junction with 
 neighbouring gentry, 71 ; the Earl visits Thurnham, ibid. ; proceed- 
 ings at Lancaster, and entertainment by the ladies, 72 ; march to 
 Preston, ibid. ; reinforcements there, 73 ; the Cavaliers spell-bound 
 by the ladies of Preston, ibid. ; fatal delay, 74 ; combination of 
 Government troops and advance towards Preston, 75 ; its capabilities 
 for defence, ibid. ; bad generalship, ibid. • attack by the Government 
 troops ; valour of the Earl and his brother, 7 7 ; conflagration and 
 siege of Preston, 78 ; surrender of the besieged to King George's 
 mercy, 79 ; capture of the Prince's friends in Preston, 80. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Suflferings of the captives ; severe winter, 81 ; disposal of the prisoners ; 
 the Earl and other noblemen and gentlemen conducted to London, 
 82 ; progress to Highgate and thence through London, 83 ; the 
 Earl conducted to the Tower, 84 ; occupies the chamber formerly 
 the prison of Egremont Radcliife, son of the Earl of Sussex, 85 ; 
 intelligence of the calamity reaches Dilston, ibid. • the Countess 
 proceeds to her lord ; rides through deep snow, 86 ; impeachment 
 of the Earl and other noblemen, 87 ; the Earl's plea before the Court 
 of Peers, ibid. ; Lord Derwentwater is sentenced to death, 89 ; 
 applications for mercy by the Countess and noble ladies, 90 ; revenge- 
 ful brutality of George I., 91 ; pardon offered to Lord Derwentwater 
 on condition of apostacy, ibid. ; dissimulation recommended to him 
 by friends, and refused, 92 ; renewed appeals by the Countess to the 
 King, ibid. ; Walpole's measures for securing the sacrifice of the Earl, 
 93 ; escape of Lord Nithsdale, 94 ; fate of other noblemen, ibid. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Account of the Earl's last days in the Tower, 95 ; letter from his Confessor, 
 96 ; his constancy, and exaltation above the world, ibid. ; his attach- 
 ment to Lady Derwentwater, and their last interview, 97 ; letter of 
 exhortation and advice from Bishop Giffard, 98, 99 ; the Confessor's 
 narrative resumed, 100 ; the last letters written by the Earl to his 
 wife's parents, his wife, mother, and aunt, 101-108 ; the Earl dictates 
 his epitaph, 103 ; ballad, " Lord Derwentwater's Farewell," 104 ; 
 morning of his execution, 105 ; scene on Tower Hill, 106 ; the 
 Earl's preparation for eternity ; his firmness and constancy, 107 ; his 
 life again offered to him if he would renounce his faith and King, 
 ibid. ; his attire on the scaffold, ibid. ; his last speech, 108 ; his last 
 devotions, 109 ; his martyrdom, 110.
 
 XIV. CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Grief of Northumbrian peasantry ; Aurorse boreales — " Lord Derwent- 
 water's Lights," 111 ; the Earl's remains taken by his friends, 112 ; 
 cmbahned, ibid. ; are secretly conveyed from the Tower to Essex 
 and thence to Dilston, 113 ; sepulture in the family vault, 114 ; his 
 heart sent to Angers, and preserved in France, 115; wanderings 
 of the Countess and her death, 116 ; traditionary story of her appari- 
 tion at Dilston, 117 ; fate of the Earl's only son, 118 ; marriage of 
 the Earl's daughter to Lord Petre, 119. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Fate of Lord Derwentwater's companions, 120; decollation of Lord Ken- 
 mure ; his speech, 121 ; execution of other champions of the White 
 Rose in Lancashire, 122; anecdote of Thomas Howard, Esq. of 
 Corby Castle, 123; the Rev. William Paul, ibid. ; John Hall, Esq. ; 
 Colonel Gascoigne 124, 125 ; remarkable escape of General Forster 
 by the aid of liis sister, 126 ; other victims, 126-128; escape of Mac- 
 intosh, 128 ; memoir of him, 129 ; escape of other prisoners, 130 ; 
 and acquittal of Lord Widdrington, 132. 
 
 CHAPTER XIIT. 
 
 Memoir of Charles Radcliffe ; his early life and foreign education, 133; 
 his return to England in 1715, 134; his character and disposition, 
 ibid. ; his courage and valour, 135 ; his capture at Preston, and 
 imprisonment in Newgate, 136 ; remarkable letter received by him 
 from the Earl on the eve of his noble brother's execution, ibid. ; his 
 trial, and plan of flight, 137 ; escape from Newgate and flight to 
 France, 138; romantic courtship, ibid,; is married to Lady New- 
 burgh, 139 ; curious picture, ibid. ; his issue ; his visits to England 
 and to Dilston, 140; traditionary anecdotes of Charles Radcliffe at 
 Dilston, 141 ; he joins the armament for the restoration of Prince 
 Charles in 1745, 142. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Curious tradition in Lancashire, 143-147 ; Charles Radcliffe is captured 
 at sea, and again committed to the Tower, 148 ; is tried on the con- 
 viction of 1716, 149 ; difficulty of the Government in proving iden- 
 tity, and correction of an erroneous statement as to the testimony of 
 ISIr. Reed of Aydon, 150 ; is sentenced to death, 151 ; his last days 
 in the Tower, ibid. ; letter to Lady Newburgh, ibid. ; scene on Tower 
 Hill on the morning of his execution, 152 ; his attire ; his calm and 
 heroic demeanour, 153; decapitation; disposal of his remains, 154.
 
 CONTENTS. XV. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Legal effect of the attainder on the rights of Charles Radcliffe's children 
 as tenants in tail, 155-157 ; vindictive cruelty and injustice of the 
 Government, 156 ; usurpation by the Crown of the estates of the 
 remainder-men under settlement, 137 ; endowment of Greenwich 
 Hospital out of the Radcliffes' property, 158 ; value of estates 
 conferred on the public, 159, 160 ; sale of the Cumberland property, 
 160 ; demolition of Dilston Hall, ibid. ; the chapel used for divine 
 service by Protestant clergyman, ibid. • description of Dilston Hall in 
 the time of the Earl, 162, 163 ; loss of the family deeds, 164 ; their 
 recovery, ibid. ; account of the opening of the Earl's coffin, and state 
 of his remains, 165; scandalous outrage, 166; state of the other 
 coffins in the family vault, 167 ; Lord Derwentwater's attire kept as 
 relics at Thorndon Hall, 157 ; other relics at Capheaton, 168 ; at 
 Slindon, 168, 169; altar furniture, oak chest, sword, fowling-piece, 
 169; the Derwentwater chair at Corby, 170; dispersion of old 
 furniture of Dilston Hall, ibid. ; remains of the Earl's houses in 
 Cumberland and at Newcastle; conclusion, 171, 172. 
 
 VISIT TO BAMBURGH CASTLE. 
 
 Sonnet by Canon Bowles, 175 ; situation of the Castle, 175, 176 ; thick- 
 ness of the basaltic rock, and depth of draw-well, ibid. ; plan of the 
 fortress, 177; view from the summit, 178; retrospect of historical 
 events, 179 ; fortified by early Anglo-Saxon Kings, 180 ; Edwin, 
 Paulinus, Aidan, Oswald, at Bamburgh, 181 ; siege by Penda, ibid. ; 
 foundation of the Church, 182 ; state of Bamburgh Castle under 
 the first Norman Kings, 182, 183 ; the keep, the draw-well, ibid. ; 
 reservation of the Castle to the Crown, 183, 184 ; notices of the 
 Castle under King John, Henry III. and Edward I., 184; the town 
 returns representatives to Parliament, ibid.; historical events, 185; 
 Bamburgh Castle during the Wars of the Roses, 186 ; its decadence, 
 and grant to Claudius Forster by James L, 187 ; ecclesiastical foun- 
 dations, 187, 188 ; friary, college, hospital, 188 ; the parish Church 
 of S. Aidan, 189 ; description of the structure, 189, 190 ; monvmients 
 and inscriptions, 191 ; curious crypt, 191, 192; coffins in the Forsters' 
 vault, ibid. ; murder of Ferdinand Forster, ibid. ; the manor-house, 
 193 ; purchase of the property by Lord Crewe, Bishop of Durham, 
 ibid. ; his parentage, education, person, and character, 194, 195 ; 
 preferments and progress in the royal favour, 195 ; becomes Bishop
 
 XVI. CONTENTS. 
 
 of Oxford, ibid.; Bisliop of Durham, 19G; his career as courtier, 
 197 ; acts in the High Commission Court, ibid.] goes abroad on the 
 accession of William and Mary, 198 ; returns and is reconciled to the 
 new Sovereign, ?i/(/. ; his courtships and first marriage, 199 ; succeeds 
 his brother as Lord Crewe, 200 ; marries Dorothea Forster, his 
 second wife, ibid. ; is treated with favour by Queen Anne, and is a 
 supporter at her coronation, ibid ; his conduct as Bishop, and his 
 public works, 201 ; his political character, 202, 203 ; his charity and 
 generosity, 204 ; death of the second Lady Crewe ; he purchases the 
 forfeited property of her nephew, General Forster, 205 ; his bene- 
 factions, and will, 205, 206; his death, 200; portraits of him, ibid., 
 note ; origin of the Bamburgh charities, 208 ; Dr. .Tohn Sharp's 
 restorations of the Castle, 209 ; his beneficence and good works, ibid. ; 
 his residence in the keep, and provisions for its maintenance, 210 ; 
 the library of Bamburgh Castle, 211; benevolent purposes to which 
 the surplus revenues of Lord Crewe's estates continue to be applied 
 at the discretion of his trustees, 212 ; description of the charities of 
 Bamburgh Castle, 213, 211 ; provisions for the benefit of seamen, 
 214, 215 ; events connected with the Farn Islands ; hermitage of 
 S. Cuthbert, 21G; story of Grace Darling's heroic enterprise, ibid., 
 217; her tomb, 218; additional restorations in Bamburgh Church 
 suggested, ibid. ; Conclusion.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 " A presence all around thee dwells 
 
 Of human life and death : — 
 I need but pluck yon garden flower 
 
 From where the wild weeds rise, 
 To wake, with strange and sudden power, 
 
 A thousand sympathies." 
 
 Amongst the many places in the county of Northumber- 
 land, which are not less remarkable for picturesque beauty 
 than for the historical traditions with which they are 
 associated, it would be difficult to find a spot more in- 
 teresting in its memories, and more charming in its features 
 of natural beauty, than the sylvan and secluded domain of 
 Dilston ; which was antiently the inheritance of the lords 
 of Tynedale ; afterwards the seat of a branch of the once 
 powerful family of Radcliffe ; and memorable as the home 
 of James Radcliffe, third and last Earl of Derwentwater, 
 whose life and great possessions were forfeited in 1716, in 
 the attempt to restore the royal line of Stuart to the throne, 
 and whose memory is affectionately cherished in Nor- 
 thumberland. Dilston is surrounded by the poetry of his- 
 torical tradition ; and the character of the scenery which 
 encircles the ruined hall of RadclifFe's fallen line, seems 
 to invest with a romantic charm, the shadows of the past 
 that crowd upon the thoughtful visitor at every step in 
 his approach. 
 
 The gray, shattered ruins of the old castle of the Rad- 
 clifFes of Northumberland, once a massive and lofty quadran- 
 gular tower, crown a green eminence of commanding height, 
 forming a cliff, round a considerable portion of which the 
 
 B
 
 Z A VISIT TO 
 
 river called the Devil's-water, perhaps originally Dj^^elle's- 
 water, flows swiftly to the Tyne, beneath the steep, wooded 
 dccUvities of the Castle-hill. Tliis river is a romantic 
 stream, which, rising in the wild commons of Hexhamshire 
 and Allendale, flows through a ravine, in many places deep 
 and highly pictm'esque. Near Dilston, it is confined 
 between walls of rock, and lofty banks, which are clothed 
 by thick, tangled verdure, and overhung by spreading, 
 noble trees. In summer, the shallow stream glides slowly 
 through its narrow channel, widening here and there into a 
 glassy pool, whose w^aters seem to linger, as they gently flow 
 beneath the verdant glade and take its emerald hue. In 
 some parts of the river's course, the stream runs murmur- 
 ing, but hardly visible, below an umbrageous canopy ; and 
 in others, it is seen flashing round the rocks that wake 
 the ripple of its tran(|uil current. This river has worn 
 its course through walls (so to speak) of diluvial strata, 
 and in some places through solid rock ; registering in its 
 ceaseless flow, the changes that have aftected the country 
 through wdiich it descends to meet the broad and rapid 
 Tyne. The geologist might find abundant phenomena 
 worthy of attention in the features of its channel ; and 
 from the aspect of the higher portions of its valley, and 
 of the neighbouring hills and river-banks, the strata of 
 wdiich are filled with those "medals of Creation" — fossil 
 shells and other organic remains, might theorize on the 
 changes which this district underwent in ages anterior to 
 human records, and probal)ly to the existence of man. 
 In some distant time, before the river wore its tortuous 
 course through beds of rock, a lake seems to have filled 
 up the space between adjacent hills, whose slope is now 
 luxuriantly clothed with plantations and waving w^oods. 
 
 On the bank, opposite to the house, a shady terrace was 
 formed in olden time, which is now partly overgrown by 
 turf and underwood, and approaches, here and there, to a 
 precipitous face of the river-bank, from which openings 
 a striking view of its picturesque and w^inding channel is 
 gained. And from the river-cliff", on the side opposite to 
 Dilston Hall, we suddenly behold its timeworn front tower- 
 ing above woods and gardens — 
 
 " 'Tis a fair scene : — the sunbeams lay 
 On 'battled tower and portal gray."
 
 ^^F 
 
 ^ 
 
 
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 DILSTON HALL. 3 
 
 Below the mansion, an old bridge of one wide arch crosses 
 the river, and gives access to the side from which this view 
 is commanded, and to the antient deer-park. On the hills 
 to the south and west are rising woodlands, and an exten- 
 sive chase, through which, in the time of the noble owners 
 of other days, the bugle horn oft-time sounded, and a 
 gallant company swept over the bridge to enjoy their sylvan 
 pastimes. Those sounds and scenes have passed away ; but 
 the unchanged voice of Nature is heard in the woodland 
 solitudes : the waving breeze of summer stirs the forest 
 leaves ; the notes of the feathered tribe make vocal the 
 greenwood glade ; the stream is heard here gently rippling 
 on its shore, there, murmuring over rocks that oppose its 
 even flow, or in the distance falling over the weir with a 
 monotonous but soothing sound ; * and we here expatiate 
 in historical retrospect under influences which tranquillize 
 and exalt the mind. 
 
 Leaving the river-dell, and ascending to the heights, the 
 eye embraces a wide prospect of the cultivated valley of the 
 Tyne — a scene which in the golden light of a summer's 
 afternoon, is full of tranquil beauty. The broad and shining 
 river is seen flowing through a fruitful country, its glitter- 
 ing stream crossed in the far west distance by the pictur- 
 esque bridge of Hexham. On an evening early in August, 
 the writer waited the decline of the sun beyond the woods 
 in that direction, and saw the orb of day set over the 
 distant bridge, turning to a flood of gold, the stream that 
 shone beneath its arches ; and when the splendour of a 
 gorgeous sky had faded, the charmed beholder watched 
 
 " The tints of twilight bidding day farewell ;" 
 
 and lingered there 
 
 till Hesperus displayed 
 
 His golden circlet in the western shade." 
 
 To the south-west, the venerable abbey-tower of Hexham 
 rises above the dim and distant outline of the town. On 
 
 * At some distance above the antient and which was derived from this part 
 
 bridge which has been already men- of the river-bed, the water falls some- 
 
 tioned, a Weir in the form of a crescent, times in silvery streams, at others, in a 
 
 the convex portion of which points up broad cascade, which pleasingly diver- 
 
 the river, was constructed in 1808. Its sifies the ensemble of the deep and 
 
 height is about ten feet, and over the wooded dell, 
 dark limestone of which it is constructed, 
 
 B 2
 
 A VISIT TO 
 
 rising ground on the northern side of Tynedalc, the fine 
 facade of Bctmliont, whose friendly chiefs often crossed the 
 valley to partake the Radcliffe's hos])itality, stands.out from 
 a dark band of woods ; and eastward, where the broad 
 flood is crossed by a long bridge, — 
 
 the hills look down 
 
 On mighty Romans' antient, martial town," — 
 
 the thinly-peopled, old-world vill of Corbridge, which, 
 rustic and ignoble as its present aspect may be, is dignified 
 by the recollection of its antient extent and importance ; for 
 we cannot forget that one of its streets is on the line of the 
 Watling Street ; that the Roman station stood not far w est- 
 ward from the present town ; '' that in the eighth century a 
 monastery flourished here ; that the Church of S. Andrew — ■ 
 sole survivor of the j)ious foundations of antient Corbridge, 
 was probably founded by S. Wilfrid himself, when he i)re- 
 sided over the neighbouring Church of Hexham ; and that 
 Corbridge, in early days, could boast fom' churches, and 
 owned a large and busy population." But since, 
 
 " For us, historic Ibrnis must haunt the vale, 
 Peojjle the woods or cluster in the gale," 
 
 we must not expatiate beyond the demesnes of Dilston, 
 where we shall find more than enough to engage our atten- 
 tion in the history of antient possessors of that inheritance. 
 
 *• Near the confluence of the brook son of Roger de Clavering, Baron of 
 
 Cor witli tlie Tync, remains of tlic W^arkworth ; hut in the Gth Kdward I. 
 
 Roman bridge are visible. Two altars it reverted to the Crown, and was 
 
 with Greek inscriptions were found granted by Edward III. to Henry de 
 
 here, and are esteemed among tlic most Percy, from whom it descended upon 
 
 curious relicjues of Roman Rritain. his successors, tlie modern Uukes of 
 
 Many other altars and remains of Ro- Northund)erland. In 1138, David 
 
 man occuj)ation have been discovered in King of Scots was encamped near 
 
 and near Corbridge, and the materials Corljvidge. The traditiomd name of the 
 
 of the Roman station were built into " Field of Blood," locally conunemo- 
 
 the existing Church of S. Aiulrew. rates probably some antient battle, the 
 
 •^ Corbridge was important in early occasion and the combatants of wliioh 
 ages after the Conquest, for Henry 1. have alike been long forgotten. When 
 made it appropriate to the canons of King John, on his expedition of ven- 
 tbe chinch of S. Mary of Carlisle. There geance into Northumberland, visited 
 are old foundations marking antient the then reduced town of Corbridge, he 
 buildings ; and in some of the sacred was impressed by the idea that it had 
 edifices of the Corbridge of early days, been a large and ])opulous city, whose 
 the remains of antient lords of Dilston inhabitants had tied on some alarm or 
 were probably interred, but the conse- invasion, and he ordered search to be 
 crated ground has been converted into made for the treasure which he sup- 
 gardens, or covered with farm buildings. posed to be biu-ied. King John was in 
 King John granted the manor to Robert, this locality in 1201, 1208 and 1212.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 5 
 
 who, doubtless, gazed as we do, with feeUngs of admiration 
 upon the fair but then different prospect which surrounded 
 their anqestral home. Otherwise, we might take the reader 
 along the varied banks of the Divel's-Water, on which, 
 about two miles southward from Dilston, is a spot called 
 the Linnels, where the Lancastrian army encamped before 
 the fatal battle of Hexham; and on which banks, farther 
 towards the source of the stream, is "the Queen's Cave," 
 the scene of a romantic but well-known episode in the event- 
 ful life of the Lancastrian heroine — Margaret of Anjou. 
 And the sequestered little peninsula of Nunsburgh pos- 
 sesses every feature that can give charms to such a rural 
 landscape as the Cistercians loved. But the visitor need 
 not go beyond the vicinity of Dilston Hall for solitudes, in 
 which he is invited 
 
 " To sit on rocks, to muse o'er flood and fell, 
 To slowly trace the forest's shady scene, 
 Where things that own not man's dominion dwell." 
 
 And when this stream is swollen by floods, and its waters 
 rush impetuously through their channel, fretting against its 
 rocks, and falling in a sonorous torrent over the weir, while 
 
 " hoarse and high the breezes blow," 
 
 the river-dell, whose scenery is in summer weather so 
 tranquil and soothing, is filled with a gloomy wildness, 
 favourable to the retrospections of the visitor who treads 
 these historic scenes, intent 
 
 " Upon the wrecks that strew Time's starless shore." 
 
 Nor is the spot without those tales of wonder, which, 
 when the locality wears this gloomy aspect, seem congenial 
 to its romantic character. 
 
 But it is time to recal upon our page some biographical 
 traces %f the antient baronial families to whom, 
 
 " In the antique age of bow and spear, 
 And feudal rapine clothed in iron mail," 
 
 Dilston Castle was a home and place of strength — an age 
 long anterior to the brief life-period of the amiable and 
 gentle Earl of Der went water. 
 
 In early records, the place occurs under the name of 
 Dyvelston ; a name of which D'Eivillston is not unlikely 
 to have been the original form ; for, although no record
 
 b A VISIT TO 
 
 has been found to prove such ownership, it may have been 
 the property of the family of D'Eivill, which occurs in 
 history so far back as the reign of Henry I.'' In that 
 early age, however, Dp^lston is mentioned as a lordship of 
 one AVilhain Fitz-Aluric, a descendant, i)robably, of one of 
 those Norman lords, amongst whom the Conqueror so 
 liberally parcelled out the broad lands of England, but of 
 whose history no traces have been saved from the stream 
 of time. The Norman lords of Dilston, could they now 
 see that fair estate, would be not less surprised by its 
 modern aspect, than its inhabitants would wonder at their 
 appearance. They lived at a period when the primaeval 
 woods had not been cleared from the adjacent country, 
 save upon the lines of Roman road, or around the hamlets 
 of the rude forefathers of the Tynedale agriculturists ; 
 when herds of red deer ranged through the chase, and 
 other animals inhabited the district, whose races the pro- 
 gress of cultivation has long destroyed; when the lofty 
 fabric of Hexham Abbey Church — that model of the early 
 English style, had not arisen in the place hallowed by the 
 renowned edifice of Saxon Bishops, on the dowry of 
 S. Etheldreda, and in the capital of the Northumbrian 
 kings ; when the site of the now small vill of Corbridge, 
 with its solitary church, was probably still occupied by a 
 considerable town, and by several edifices of pious dedica- 
 tion, though surrounded at no great distance by the antient 
 wood ; when the hills that slope to the now cultivated 
 valley of the Tyne, had not lost their primieval wildness ; 
 and when the wall, that astonishing relique of Roman 
 power, Avas probably still seen crowning the sterile ridges 
 and descending the declivities of the opposite hills. 
 
 At all events, a family whose name was derived from 
 Dyvelston, were seated here as early as the r^gn of 
 Henry H. In the 18th and 23rd years of that reign, 
 Robert de Dyvelston was assessed for scutage, in respect 
 of his barony. Thomas, his son and heir,"" was succeeded 
 
 •* Diigdalestatesthatof this family was " From the Close Rolls we find, that 
 
 John l)'Eivill, who was a fonnidahle in 5 Ilcnry III. (1220) the custody of 
 
 personage in the north durinji; the contest the lands which were of Thomas de 
 
 of the IJarons with Henry III. (Bar. i. " Divclestun," and the marriage of his 
 
 598.) Among the revenues from the heir, were conferred hy the Crown on 
 
 Bishopric of Durham in 1107, ClO are Stephen de Scgrave ; and the Constal.»lc 
 
 contributed l)V liudo deDaivill to the aid. of Newcastle was coimnanded to deliver
 
 DILSTON HALL. 7 
 
 by Simon cle Dyvelston, who was for some time in the ward- 
 ship of the great Robert Fitz-Roger, and whose property 
 may therefore be supposed to have been very considerable. 
 He was Uving in the 36th Henry HI. His son and heir, 
 Sir Thomas de Dyvelston, knight, was Sheriff of Northum- 
 berland in the 9th Edward I. and gave the manor of North 
 Milburn to the Monks of Hexham. This knight espoused 
 Lucia, daugli|er of Sir William Heron ; and in his time, 
 Dyvelston is mentioned as having manorial privileges. In 
 fulness of time, Sir Thomas was interred within the holy 
 shade of Hexham abbey ; and, as he left no issue, his barony 
 and possessions were inherited by his cousin, William de 
 Tynedale, lord of the neighbouring barony of Langley,^ and 
 other possessions. Thomas de Tynedale, son of this 
 William, left a daughter, Dionisia, who married Roger de 
 Herez, the lord of Claxton ; and a son, William de Tyne- 
 dale, to whom his father gave lands in Corbridge, in the 
 5th Edward H. and who succeeded to the lordship of 
 Dyvelston, on the decease of Lucia, the widow of Sir 
 Thomas, in the eleventh year of the same reign — 1317.^ 
 William de Tynedale, the successor to the lordship, married 
 Lucy, daughter of Robert de Reymes, a Northumbrian 
 worthy, of considerable importance ; and his eldest son, 
 who succeeded him, married Constance, who had survived 
 him in 1347. Ten years later, their son William occurs 
 
 the heir to the said Stephen's wardship. Edw. II. he had a grant in fee of the 
 (Rot. Litt. Claus. 5 Hen. III. m. 17.) Castle and Honour of Cockennouth. 
 The Charter Rolls, the Hundred Rolls, In the 42 Edw. III. Anthony de Lucy, 
 the Inquisitions ^os^ mortem, and other the last lord of that family, was dead, 
 early records, bear testimony in many Langley Castle came to Henry de Peixy, 
 places, to the importance of the family Earl of Northumberland, by his mar- 
 of Divelston during the reigns of John, riage with the heiress ; and in the Percy 
 Henry, Edward I. and Edward II. It family it continued until the attainder 
 seems unnecessary to give the refer- of Henry, the then Earl, temp. Edw. IV. 
 ences. The Castle was granted by the Crown 
 f Langley Castle, which is still a to one of the Percy family in 5 Edw. 
 noble remain offeudal grandeur, was the VI. In 15G9, it had again come to the 
 seat of the barons of Tynedale, and in Crown, by attainder. It was granted 
 the reign of Llenry I. was held of the by James I. to the fortunate adventurer 
 Crown by Adam de Tynedale, by the Murray, Earl of Annandale, who con- 
 service of a knight's-fee. In the reign veyed it to Sir Edward Radclifie, son 
 of Edward II., the barony and castle of Sir Francis, the first baronet, 
 and possessions, had become the inhei'it- § In L310, she, as lady of Dyvelston, 
 ance of Anthony de Lucy, who, for proffered the military service, in respect 
 services to the Crown, was constituted of one-third part of a knight's-fee, to 
 Governor of the Castles of Carlisle, be performed in the muster at Tweed- 
 Appleby, and Egremont; and in 17 mouth. (Parliamentary Writs, i. 406.)
 
 8 A VISIT TO 
 
 as lord of Dy^elston, in tail male ; the remainder being 
 limited to his brother Walter de Tynedale, in fee, who died 
 before 1 Riehard II. (1377,) leaving two daughters, in the 
 event of whose death without issue, he settled his estates 
 upon Sir AVilham Claxton, grandson of his grandfather's 
 sister, Dionisia. On the death, in 1416, of the survivor of 
 them without issue, Sir William Claxton succeeded to this 
 barony, and to other estates of the lords of Tynedale. In 
 the 2nd Richard III. Sir Robert Claxton, who had inherited 
 these possessions, w^as gathered to his fathers, and his 
 second daughter and co-heiress, Johanna, became lady of 
 Dyvelston, which barony seems to have acquired by this 
 time the name of Dilston. She married John Carting- 
 ton, of Cartington Tower, a Northumbrian esquire, wdiom 
 she had sundved in 1521; when, by her will, Dilston w as 
 charged W'ith certain portions, to be paid on the marriage 
 of each of the three daughters of Sir Cuthbert Radclifte, 
 knight, to whom the manor and village of Dilston were 
 devised, to hold to him and his heirs male. The Radcliffe 
 family acquired this fair inheritance by the marriage of 
 Sir Edward Radchffe, knight, before 1494, to Anne, 
 daughter and heiress of John Cartington and Johanna his 
 wife. Sir Edw^ard, who was High Sheriff of Northumber- 
 land, in 17 Henry VII., knight of the body to Henry VIII. 
 and a knight-banneret, w^as the younger son, and ultimately 
 heir of Sir Thomas Radcliffe of Derwentwater, in the 
 county of Cumberland, Baronet, of whose succession to 
 the inheritance of the antient lords of Derwentwater, such 
 a brief sketch will be found in the next chapter, as seems 
 requisite to illustrate the ancestry of James, last Earl of 
 Derwentw^ater, the principal subject of the present memoir.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 *' I mark the mouldering halls of barons bold, 
 And the rough castle, cast in giant mould ; 
 With Gothic manners Gothic arts explore, 
 And muse on noble families of yore." 
 
 When the heiress of Dilston, Cartington, Whittonstall, 
 and Hawthorn, who mherited the estates of the antient 
 lords of Tynedale, espoused Sir Edward RadcHfFe, his 
 father had succeeded to the possessions of the old lords 
 of Derwentwater, in Cumberland ; an estate fair as Norman 
 noble ever won. Of its locality, a few words may not be 
 inappropriate. The river Derwent, rising in Barrowdale, 
 flows at the foot of the mountain range called Derwent 
 Fells, and expands into the bright and spacious lake of 
 Derwentwater. Upon its shores, and overlooking " Kes- 
 wick's beauteous vale," is an eminence called Castle Crag, 
 formerly occupied by a Roman fort, and afterwards by the 
 stronghold of the Norman lords of Derwentwater. Its 
 materials are said to have been employed in building the 
 house on that one of the three wooded islands of the lake,'' 
 which is called " Lord's Island ;" and upon which the 
 RadclifFe family had a residence in later time. This island 
 was originally part of a peninsula ; but when the residence 
 was built, it was separated from the mainland by a ditch 
 or moat, over which there was a drawbridge, the approaches 
 to which may still be seen. Of the house itself, little 
 more than the moss-covered foundations remain.' The 
 estate of the Derwentwater family seems to have originally 
 extended along the shores of the lake for nearly two miles, 
 and for half a mile eastward of the shore. On one side 
 
 *■ The island in the middle of the lake ' The stones, successively of the Ro- 
 
 is presumed to be that on which Ven. man castnim, of the Norman tower, 
 
 Beda relates S. Herbert to have led a and of the lord's residence, are said 
 
 hermit's life, and upon it traces of the to Lave been subsequently used in 
 
 antient cell are believed to be visible. building the town-hall of Keswick.
 
 10 A VISIT TO 
 
 of it, the present road from Keswick to Ambleside is 
 formed through wooded terrace drives, overhung here and 
 there by crags and dark frowning chffs. Its other boundary 
 approached the mighty cascade of Lowdore; while the crest 
 of Wallow Crag, a mountainous and rocky mass, which has 
 looked down upon the different and transitory owners that 
 the vale has known, since the Romans first established 
 their dominion upon this territory, divided the Derwent- 
 w^ater property from the common. And there, surrounded 
 by a combination of grandeur and of picturesque beauty 
 which is almost unrivalled in this country, within sound 
 of the ceaseless w^aterfall, and almost within the shade of 
 wild and lofty Skiddaw, which, from his antient throne of 
 solitude, looks down upon the lovely valley and the tran- 
 quil lake, the knightly ancestors of James Radclifie, third 
 and last Earl of Derwentwater, had their paternal seat. 
 
 The greater part of the parish of Crosthwaite (in wdiicli 
 Keswick is situate) was antiently the inheritance of a 
 family named de Derwentwater, (from the locality of this 
 their chief residence) who had also large possessions in 
 other parts of Cumberland, and in other counties.'' Un- 
 happily, a vagueness shrouds the history of the old 
 possessors of the Derwentwater estates, like the mists that 
 are spread upon their native mountains ; but as early as 
 the reign of King John, this family occurs as possessed of 
 lands in northern counties ;' and in 20 Edward I. we find 
 an inquisition, from which it appears that the ancestors of 
 Sir John de Derwentwater, then lord of the manor of 
 Bolton, Westmoreland, founded a chantry in the chapel of 
 that place ; and it seems, from several inc^uisitions post 
 mortem, that the family w^ere owners of this property for 
 a long period of time. In the 48th Edward III. Sir John 
 de Derwentwater, wdiose seat was on Derwentwater, was 
 Sheriff of Cumberland, which warlike office he again held 
 in the 50th year of the same reign, and in the 1st and 4th 
 of Richard II. ; in the second and eleventh years of whose 
 
 '' Nicholson's Antiq of Westm. and A like mandate was addressed to the 
 
 Cinnb. Vol. ii. p. 77. Sheritr of Westmoreland, in favour of 
 
 ' In 1217, (2 Hen. III.) John de Agnes de Derewentwater ; and to tlie 
 Derewentwater liaving done fealty and SberifTs of that county and of Cumber- 
 service to the new kin<j, tlie Slicrifl'of land, in favour of Adam de Derewent- 
 Yorkshire was connnanded to reinstate water. (Rot. Litt. Glaus. 2 Hen. III. 
 him in the lands lie liad possessed. m. 1(>., m. 18.)
 
 DILSTON HALL. 11 
 
 reign, he was a knight of the shire returned to Par- 
 Uament.'" 
 
 The piety of the Christian, the valour of the soldier, and 
 the sagacity of the statesman, may have united to give 
 renown to these early lords of Derwentwater ; but Sir 
 John, whom we have just mentioned, was the last of his 
 antient race ;" and the then wide forests, the fair meadows, 
 the eagle crags, and the green isle of Derwent's wave, 
 were inherited by his daughter, and became A^ested in 
 the Kadcliffe family by her marriage, in the reign of 
 Heniy V. to Sir Nicholas RadclifFe, an ancestor of that 
 nobleman, whose virtues and whose fate have encircled 
 the name of Derwentwater with undying memories and 
 traditional veneration. 
 
 Sir Nicholas RadclifFe was vSherifF of Cumberland in 
 A.D. 1422. His lineage was not less antient than that of 
 his bride ; for the family, of an important branch of which 
 he was the representative, and which derived its name 
 from the village of Radcliffe, near Bury, Lancashire, is of 
 Saxon origin ; and the pedigree assumes a De Radclijffe 
 anterior to the reign of Henry II. Sir Nicholas Radcliffe, 
 by his marriage with Margaret, daughter and heiress of 
 Sir John de Derwentwater, had issue a son named Thomas, 
 
 '" His arms were, argent, two bars The kniglit is habited in a long, high, 
 
 yvles ; on a canton of the second, a loose tunic or robe, with wide sleeves, 
 
 cinquefoil of the first. secured round the waist by a belt, from 
 
 " The eastern end of the south aisle which an aulmoniere or purse depends 
 in the church of Crosthwaite was the on the right hand side ; the head is 
 place of interment of the Derwentwater bare, the hair formally parted, is long 
 family : it was adorned with their mo- behind, and an enriched collar encircles 
 numental efiigies ; and the Chantry of the neck. The long embroidered man- 
 " S. Maiy Magdalene de Keswyke," tie of knighthood is secured on the 
 was probably founded by some one of shoulders by a band, crossing the chest, 
 this antient race. Two of their monu- The lady's dress is a kirtle or close- 
 mental figures — bodied garment, with long tight sleeves, 
 " Carved in the marble, calm and cold," and long skirt. From beneath a coro- 
 formerly lay side by side, on enriched nal which surrounds the head, a veil or 
 altar tombs, long since destroyed. The hood concealing the hair, falls down 
 efiigies, however, have been preserved ; each side upon the shoulders. An or- 
 but the particular individuals whom namented collar and necklace are round 
 they were intended to commemorate the throat, and a pendant jewel rests 
 are vmknown. It has been suggested, upon the bosom. The waist is encircled 
 from the costume, tliat these may be by a girdle, with a long cord and tassels, 
 the efiigies of the distinguished knight thence descending to the feet. A long 
 mentioned in the text — the last of his open mantle falls from the shoulders: 
 name, and of his wife. Neither of the countenances are defaced. Both 
 them is of sufiiciently early date to re- effigies were originally decorated with 
 present tlie noble individual — colour. (See Gent. Mag. vol. xxxi. N. S. 
 
 '• Who vlauned the chantry's chor;d shrine." p. 374.) This lady was probably noble.
 
 12 A VISIT TO 
 
 who became his heir; and, being then Si r Thomas RadcHife, 
 knight, married Margaret, daughter of Sir WiUiam Parr, 
 of Kendal Castle, an ancestor of that prudent and virtuous 
 Queen of Henry VIII. who, as Pennant remarked, had the 
 rare good fortune to descend to the grave without having 
 suffered decapitation. It was Sir Edward, the third son 
 and surviving heir male of this Sir Thomas Radcliffe and 
 the lady Margaret, who won the lady of Dilston for his 
 bride. Sir Thomas had five other sons. The eldest was 
 John ; the second, Sir Richard Radcliffe, knight ; the 
 third. Sir Edward, (ultimately heir of his father's posses- 
 sions, on the death of his elder brothers, and of the son of 
 each of them) ; and the younger sons were named Nicholas, 
 Christopher, and Rowland ; of whom the two last named 
 professed the religious life. Upon Sir Richard, (who was 
 of Sadbury, Yorkshire,) the Derwentwater estates were 
 settled, in the 21st Edward IV. He was made a knight- 
 banneret by the Duke of Gloucester, for services in the 
 field, in August, 1482; and after the Duke's seizure of the 
 throne, Radcliffe was one of the few persons on whom he 
 conferred the honour of the garter. In August, 1484, he 
 was made High Sheriff of Westmoreland for life. His 
 only son died without issue, and thereupon the estates 
 descended on Sir Edward, his younger brother, who, by 
 his marriage with Anne, daughter and heir of John and Jo- 
 hanna Cartington, (which marriage was solemnized before 
 1494) had issue two sons, named Cuthbert and John, both 
 of whom received the honour of knighthood. Sir Edward, 
 who, as already mentioned, was High Sheriff of Northum- 
 berland in the 1 7tli Henry VII. knight of the body to 
 Henry VIII. and a knight-banneret, was succeeded by his 
 eldest son and heir, who is mentioned as Sir Cuthbert 
 Radcliffe, of Dilston, knight, High Sheriff of Northumber- 
 land in the 19th Henry VIII. ; and who married, in 1514, 
 Margaret, daughter of Henry lord Clifford, Westmoreland, 
 and Vesey," by whom he had three sons, George, Thomas, 
 and Anthony ; besides the daughters mentioned in the will 
 
 " Tliis lady had £500 for a portion, died before the ;5rd May, 4th Edw. VI. 
 
 and the Derwentwater estates were The ehlest daiigliter of Sir Cuthbert Kad- 
 
 scttled on tlie issue of tlie marriage. clifle was Jane, whom Sir Robert Ogle, 
 
 Sir Cuthbert and the lady Margaret lordof Ogle and Bothal, on 8th July, 29 
 
 were married af I>ardon Tower, in lien. VIII., c.ovenanled to wed, before 
 
 Craven, on the 0th January, 1.311 : she the feast of tiie Assumption then next.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 
 
 13 
 
 of Johanna Cartington, lady of Dilston, made in 1 52 1 , as 
 already mentioned. Sir John, his yomiger brother, de- 
 parted this lifeP on the 2nd February, 19 Henry VIII. 
 (1528,) and was interred in the church of Crosthwaite, in 
 which a very remarkable monumental brass '^ perpetuates 
 the memory of the worthy knight and his lady. He was 
 the last distinguished member of his family who was 
 interred in this church. He was a person of eminence in 
 his day, and was many times selected for the important 
 
 P Sir John RadclifFe, by his will, made 
 " at the Isle of Derweiitwater," directs 
 that his remains be interred in the 
 Church of S. Kentigern, at Crosthwaite. 
 To Lord Dacre he bequeaths his bay 
 hobby ; to Lady Dacre, two couples of 
 his best hounds ; to Sir Christopher 
 Dacre, kniglit, a goshawk ; and to John 
 RadclifFe, his kinsman, the greater grey 
 horse. This John was the son of the 
 testator's sister, Anne RadclifFe : he was 
 to be in the rule and ordinance of Lord 
 Dacre, during minority, and to be the 
 testator's heir, and to have all his lands, 
 after tlie death of Alice his wife, ac- 
 cording to his will thereof, made at 
 London, 22nd Nov., 19 Hen. VIIL 
 [ 1527.] The residue of his goods move- 
 able and immoveable were to be at the 
 disposition of his widow, whom he or- 
 dained sole executrix. Lord Dacre of 
 Greystock was to be supervisor of his 
 will, and the testator puts his wife as 
 well as his nephew in the governance 
 of that nobleman, and prays him to be 
 good lord unto them. He ordains that 
 a priest shall yearly say mass, and sing 
 daily for his soul, and the soul of his 
 wife, before the altar of our Lady of 
 Pity, in the church of Crosthwaite, until 
 lands be given or purchased for the 
 finding of a priest to serve the said 
 chapel of Our Lady for ever. A penny 
 dole is to be given to all poor folks on 
 the day of his burial ; every priest at- 
 tending is to have 8d. and his enter- 
 tainment; and twelve poor folks are 
 to have each a black gown and 4d. to 
 bear torches at his interment. The 
 witnesses are William Dacre, Knight, 
 lord of Dacre and Greystock, Thomas 
 Dudley, Thomas Dacre, Lancelot Lan- 
 castre of Sokbrede, Esquires, Gilbert 
 Wharton and John More, gentlemen. 
 
 1 On this brass, (which is the more 
 
 valuable as being one of the very few 
 of this beautiful species of memorial 
 remaining in the churches of Cumber- 
 land,) the knight is represented in com- 
 plete armour of plate, the head, face, 
 and hands only being uncovered. The 
 hair, parted on the forehead, falls in 
 curls behind. Ornamented chains sur- 
 round the neck and shoulders. A long, 
 strait cross-handled sword, and a dag- 
 ger, are the arms worn; and on the 
 heels are the spurs of knighthood. Side 
 by side with the figure of the knight is 
 that of tlie lady, who wears the coif 
 which conceals the hair; this head- 
 dress has an orfray or embroidered edge. 
 The edge of an inider garment encir- 
 cles the throat; over this is a high and 
 close bodied gown, with full, hanging 
 sleeves, the gown falling in long am- 
 ple folds from the girdle, which is 
 clasped by an ornament formed of three 
 roses, and from the gii'dle a long chain 
 depends, at the end of which is an or- 
 nament in the form of a globular tassel. 
 The bust is encircled by a chain, and in 
 both figiu-es, a jewel or decoration is 
 upon the breast. The hands of both 
 are in the usual attitude of supplication. 
 At the foot of the figures is the follow- 
 ing inscription : — 
 
 " ©f DOur rfjarite prap for tte soule 
 of Sir jilofjn liatclif. MnvqW. antr for 
 tl^f state of Dame Slltre, Ijis togfe, tofttr^ 
 sir Jofjn DiictJ tIDc 2nD trap of jJFth- 
 ruarg, Snno Domini f«. D. ixbii., on 
 tol&ose soule Jesu i&abc merrg" 
 
 At the lower part of the brass, be- 
 tween the figures, is a shield bearing, 
 Argent, a bend, engrailed Sable, with a 
 rose in the sinister corner ; at the upper 
 part another shield, Or, two lions pas- 
 sant in pale. Gules, — the paternal coat 
 of Dame Alice. The historical year is 
 1528.
 
 14 A VISIT TO 
 
 office of Sheriff of Cumberland, under Henry VII. and his 
 successor. Sir John hkewise several times held the King's 
 commission to treat with his warlike predatory neighbours, 
 the Scots, touching peace and other matters affecting the 
 realm. ]3y his wife, Dame Alicia, he had not any issue. 
 It would seem that she survived him, and caused this brass 
 to be engraved to his memory and her own. 
 
 By a survey made in the 35th Henry VIII. it appears 
 that tlic Derwentwater estates were held by Sir Cuthbert 
 Radchftb, of the Crown, as of the King's manor of Papcas- 
 ter, by the service of two knights' fees, which estates were 
 then late in the tenure of Lady Anne Radcliffe.'' 
 
 Sir Cuthbert departed this life 20th July, 1545, leaving 
 George RadclifFe, his eldest son and heir, then in the 24th 
 year of his age. The manor, park, and mill of Dilston, 
 are mentioned among the estates of which Sir Cuthbert 
 was possessed at the time of his death. The heir of 
 Dilston and Derwentwater was knighted by the Earl of 
 Hertford, in Scotland, on the 23rd September, 1546. He, 
 likewise, filled the office of High Sheriff of Northumberland," 
 and was Lord Warden of the East Marches. He married 
 Katherine, daughter of Sir William Mallory, of Studley ; 
 and had issue an only son, named Francis, who, on the 
 death of his father, on 31st May, 1588, inherited the 
 paternal estates, being then aged 25 years. 
 
 Sir George RadclifFe, on the 16th July, 1576, in con- 
 templation of the marriage of Sir Francis, then his heir 
 apparent, with Isabel, daughter of Sir Ralph Grey, of 
 Chillingham, in the County of Northumberland, settled 
 the estates of Dilston to the use of himself for life ; re- 
 mainder, to the use of Isabel, the bride, for life ; remainder, 
 to the use of Sir Francis, and his heirs male ; remainder, 
 to the use of the settlor, and his heirs male ; remainder, 
 to the use of Anthony, his l)rother, and his heirs male ; 
 remainder, to the use of Cuthbert, son of Anthony Rad- 
 clifFe, and his heirs male ; remainder, to the use of Thomas, 
 then Earl of Sussex, in like manner; with ultimate re- 
 mainder to the right heirs of the settlor for ever. 
 
 ■■ Among the services, was the rcn- other Derwentwater estates ; and in 
 
 dering of 23s. 3(1. for cornagc. By tlie the ."Srd year of tlie same reign, he 
 
 same survey it appears, that Sir Cuth- occurs as owner of Bolton, 
 
 bert held the manor of Talcntirc, as " He so occurs in 5 and 6 Philip and 
 
 well as the lands of Castlerigg, and the Mary.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 15 
 
 Sir Francis, the inheritor of the RadclifFe estates in 
 Northumberland' and Cumberland, settled at Derwent- 
 water. He had issue, by his marriage with Isabel Grey, 
 six sons and seven daughters." He was created a baronet, 
 31st January, 1619. He died on the 23rd December, 
 1622, and was interred at Corbridge, in " his Parish 
 Church." He was succeeded in his lordships and posses- 
 sions by Sir Edward, his second but eldest surviving son 
 and heir, who was a distinguished loyalist ; for which 
 virtue his estates were sequestered by the Parliament. 
 Probably the Sir George RadclifFe, who, when Charles I. 
 thought of sending his son James, Duke of York, into 
 Ireland, was designed by the King to have charge of the 
 youthful Prince,^ was Sir Edward's brother. The Prince 
 himself, in after years, looked upon Sir George RadclifFe 
 as a wise counsellor ; and when he went to Brussels, to 
 visit the Duke of Lorraine, during the exile of his royal 
 brother, Charles II. Sir George was Chamberlain of the 
 Prince's household.'' 
 
 The loyal Sir Edward, the heir of Dilston, who was born 
 on the 1st June, 1589, appears to have executed a deed 
 on 20th October, 1624, being in the life-time of his father; 
 under which, after his death, Francis RadclifFe, his son 
 and heir, and his eight daughters, claimed certain interests. 
 It was probably on the occasion of his marriage that this 
 deed was executed. His wife was named Elizabeth, and 
 she was the daughter and sole heir of Thomas Barton, of 
 Whenby, Yorkshire, esquire. Their son and heir was born 
 in 1624. It would seem that the marriage of Sir Edward 
 
 ' On the 12tll Oct. 1589, Francis, Sixth daughter, Anne 12 August 1595. 
 
 o^v. r.,-.rl lin,',. r.f QJv C ar^^f^c -...li^ Ao Seventh daughter, Jane 17 Novem. 1596. 
 
 son and hen ot_ bii (jeorge who de- pifth son, Francis lo March 1599. 
 
 parted this nfe in the preceding year, Sixth son, Cuthbert is Sept. 1603. 
 
 obtahied special livery of the manor c^ .^ . ,^ ^i. j i ^ 
 
 of Dilston which is described as held ^o that there were three daughters in 
 
 of the Queen in capite. succession, three sons in succession, 
 
 ^ and again three daughters in succes- 
 
 " The following are the names and gjon ; the thirteen children having been 
 
 dates of birth of these children : the list born in the period of twenty years, 
 is in chronological order :— w Clarendon, Hist, of Reb. iii. 302. 
 
 First daughter, Mary Radeliffe, 1 January 1582. ' t ' 1 • *" • j.- -ii i-u 
 
 Second daughter, Margaret 13 January 1583. '' In his communications With the 
 
 Third daughter, Elizabeth 17 August 1585. Duke of Lorraine, he could make him- 
 
 Firstson, Thomas 24 February 1586. cplf ,m,lpv=food bv the Duke onlv in 
 
 Fourth daughter, Katherine 14 April 1588. ^eil unaerstooa oy ine ^ , ^, ^, 
 
 Second son, Edward 1 June 1589. Latin, — a language in which Clarendon 
 
 Third son, Francis 8 Sept. 1590. g^^yg ^g highness did not like to con- 
 
 Fourtli son, John 27 October 1591. •' ' ° 
 
 Fifth daughter, Dorothea 1 January 1594. verse.
 
 16 A VISIT TO 
 
 and his lady was clandestine. In 1G39, they desired to 
 obtain a decree of its validity/ Sir Edward havin"; ad- 
 hered to the faith of his ancestors, in 1637, proceedings 
 against him were commenced, before the commissioners 
 for causes ecclesiastical, in a cause of office, for allowing 
 his children to be unlawfully baptised/ Sir Edward, in 
 his answer, confesses that he had had two children born 
 at Dilston, and christened in the manner mentioned in the 
 articles, within the previous eight years, being since his 
 pardon. The " pardon" probably refers to some political 
 offence, (so called) the nature of which is not known. 
 
 It appears, that shortly before the death of Sir Francis, 
 his father, the mansion-house of Dilston was enlarged ; and 
 we have articles of agreement for these works," dated 
 2nd January, 1621, which were entered into between Sir 
 Edward, then "Edward RadchfFe, of Devilston, esquire," 
 and John Johnson, of Little Langton, surveyor, who duly 
 fulfilled his contract, and received £205 for his services. 
 
 Sir Edward Radcliffe succeeded to the estates and the 
 baronetcy of his father, as we have seen, in December, 
 1622 ; and he lived until December, 1663 ; but the troubles 
 and outrages consequent on the Great Rebellion seem to 
 have embittered the latter years of his life ; and his estates 
 were absolutely declared forfeited to the usurping " Com- 
 monwealth," for treason ; as appears from the proceedings 
 of the commissioners for forfeited estates, under date 
 27th October, 1652; before whom Alice Barton, relict of 
 his wife's father, Thomas Barton, (the said Alice having 
 a jointure life estate in Barton's lands,) Dame Elizabeth 
 Radcliffe, then " wife of Sir Edward Radcliffe, a delin- 
 
 y On this occasion, George Riddell, other stone (which he had leave to 
 
 of Durliani, was Sir Edward's " Coun- work in Dilston park.) The contract 
 
 sel in the law." specifies, w-ith great particularity, the 
 
 * The articles exhihited against Sir works in each floor. There was to be 
 Edwiird were foinidc d on a law then in a window of nine lights transomed, on 
 force toucliing thccliihiren of Roman Ca- tlie hall-floor. The new portions were 
 tholics; and tiie alleged illegality was the to be carried up to the full height of 
 not bringing the children to the parish the wall of the old house. £'20 were 
 church, or presenting them there within to be ])aid to the contractor at the end 
 a certain period, if baptised ])rivately. of every month until the whole £205 
 
 * Johnson was to build, before should be paid. A stone gateway is 
 Michaelmas then next, new portions still standing to the south of the old 
 of tlie house wherein Sir Francis then castle and adjacent to the chapel, over 
 dwelt, to be three stories in height, of Avhich the initials F. 11. and J. R., and 
 good and sufficient free stone, and the date 1016, are distinct.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 
 
 17 
 
 quent;'"'* Francis RaclclifFe, Esq. their son and heir; and 
 Mary, Ehzabeth, Margaret, Dorothea, Anne, Clara, Barbara, 
 and Ursula, their daughters, claimed certain interests in 
 Sir Edward's estates, under the deed of October 1614, and 
 their claims were allowed. 
 
 On a proceeding at law which took place some years 
 previously, viz. in 1635, touching the right to Dunston 
 Wood, within the Park of Dilston, and some other property 
 of Sir Edward RadclifFe, which was claimed by the Earl 
 of Northumberland, Sir Edward produced antient deeds, 
 records, and evidences of title, some of which were as early 
 as the reign of King John.*" He seems to have been 
 enabled to preserve these muniments from the grasp of 
 the Protector's commissioners ; for they continued in the 
 family. Francis, already mentioned as son and heir-ap- 
 parent of Sir Edward Radcliffe, married Katherine, one 
 of the daughters and co-heirs of Sir William Fenwick, 
 of Meldon, knight ■/ and Elizabeth, one of Sir Edward 
 RadclifFe's daughters, married Sir William's son, probably 
 in the year 1641,= and her husband became Sir William 
 Fenwick. Mary, another daughter, married William Tun- 
 
 •> Dame Elizabeth died 19th Dec. 
 1668, and was interred at Dilston. 
 
 <^ On the 22nd November, 1635, Sir 
 Edward RadclifFe, Baronet, put in his 
 answer to a demand made by Richard 
 Lambert of Corbridge, clerk, and Mar- 
 tin Fenwick, gentleman, on behalf of 
 the Earl of Northumberland, relating 
 to Dunston Wood, Middridge, Dilston 
 Eales, and the Common on the south of 
 the Tyne belonging to Corbridge and 
 Dilston ; and he therein averred as to 
 Dunston Wood, that he held the same 
 in fee, as appeared by antient deeds con- 
 firmed 300 years before by the earl's 
 ancestors, lords of Corbridge. This 
 wood, it appears, was known by the 
 name of the Birkeside. He claimed 
 Dilston Eales as parcel of his manor. 
 The close called Middridge was de- 
 scribed as lying upon the rack or 
 " dryghte," belonging to the town of 
 Dilston, and as joining the demesne 
 land thereof. And he alleged, that Sir 
 George, his grandfather, had enjoyed 
 common of pasture in all commons on 
 the south side of the Tyne in respect 
 of his freehold lands in Corbridge. 
 
 ^ Sir William was not living in Dec. 
 1653. 
 
 e The Articles are dated 18 Sept. 
 1641. The lady's portion was £1500. 
 They recite that the bridegroom " in- 
 tends, by the grace of God, to marry 
 and take to his wife, Elizabeth, 
 daughter of Sir Edward RadclyfFe, 
 of the Isle in Dai'wentwater," &c. 
 There is also a letter signed " Your 
 loving Father-in-Law, E. R," dated at 
 Dilston, 6th June 1650, addressed to 
 " Sir Wm. Fenwick, at his house in 
 Meldon," in which he is called upon 
 by the writer to perform certain arti- 
 cles, by stating what lands are to be 
 charged with his wife's dowry. The 
 writer complains that " these miserable 
 times " debar them from verbal con- 
 ference. Sir William subscribes him- 
 self "Your loving Son-in-law," in a 
 letter dated at London, the 12th of 
 April, 1652. Dame Elizabeth Fenwick, 
 the wife, writes to Sir Edward from 
 Meldon, 16th July, 1654. The letter is 
 addressed " To her dear and honoured 
 Father," then at Dilston.
 
 18 A VISIT TO 
 
 stall/ of Scargill and Wicliffe on the Tees, who died on 
 30th August, 1667. In January 1652, they hoth made 
 the declaration of fidelity to the Coininonwealth, in the 
 Manor House at York. 
 
 Sir Ed^Yard himself departed this life in December, 
 1G03, being then in the 75th year of his age ; and was 
 interred in the family vault below the chapel adjoining 
 Dilston Hall ; to which peaceful resting-place his widow 
 followed him, five years subsequently. Shortly after Sir 
 Edward's death, she received from the clergy of the English 
 College at Lisbon, (which was founded in 1G22, and first 
 colonized from Douay,) the following letter of condolence 
 and acknowdedgment, which well desen^es publication, as a 
 testimony to his character : — 
 
 Honored Madam, — We understand by Mr. Salisbury's letters, 
 that it hath pleased God to take to His mercy your dear husband, 
 wliose exemplary life in the best of \'irtues, esj)ecially in that of 
 suffering in so eminent a manner for his Faith, embalm his fame, 
 and so consecrate his memory to posterity, tliat nothing but the 
 proposal of some high authority wants to enroll his name amongst 
 the glorious confessors of Christ's Faith. Doubt not, then, good 
 Madam, but a virtue of so long and mature a growth was ripe for 
 Heaven; and let that consideration sweeten in your pious heart 
 those sorrows which natural and dutiful affection, so worthily 
 placed and cemented by a long society, would otherwise be apt to 
 suggest. Amongst his other pious works which follow him, we 
 understand he hath pleased to bestow £400 on our College at 
 Lisbo : , which, as it obliges us to pour out oiu- prayers for the 
 sold of so liberal a benefactor, so, by reason of the perfect union 
 betwixt your liearts, we cannot but acknowledge we owe in part 
 to the concurrence of your ladyship's charity. Our care shall be 
 so to take order, that it be duly applied to the end he intended it 
 for, as withal to enjoin that liouse to place his name amongst their 
 benefactors for whom by obligation of their rules they all daily 
 pray, and with his, your ladyship's ; whom, as God's grace made 
 partner with him in his virtuous actions and intentions, so our 
 gratitude ought not to separate and distinguish you in the effects 
 of these virtues — the duty of our prayers. Be pleased, then, to 
 accept them, and withal, as true honourers of your virtuous good- 
 ness, — Honored Madam, — your ladyship's ever devoted and most 
 humble servants. — By order of the Dean and Chapter, 
 
 John Holland, Secretary. 
 [December?] 23, 1663. 
 
 f There is a letter from him to his Jan. 1649, and another dated WiclifFe, 
 father-in-law, dated Ilutton, 7th of 22nd March, the year not mentioned,
 
 DILSTON HALL. 
 
 19 
 
 Sir Edward was succeeded by Sir Francis, his only sur- 
 viving son and heir, afterwards created Earl of Derwent- 
 water ; who, as above stated, was born in 1624. It has 
 been already mentioned that he espoused Katherine, who 
 was the eldest of the three daughters and co -heiresses of 
 Sir William Fenwick, of Meldon.s Her mother was Isabel, 
 only daughter and heiress of Sir Arthur Grey, of Spindles- 
 ton, (who was living 14th February, 1629); and at the 
 time of her marriage to Sir Francis, then Francis RadclifFe, 
 esq. she was the widow of Henry Lawson, of Brough Hall, 
 who was slain at Melton Mowbray, in the service of King 
 Charles I. about 1644. By his marriage, Francis RadclifFe 
 had issue five sons ; namely, Edward, who succeeded him 
 in his honours and estates ; Thomas, a colonel in the 
 British service ; Francis, who died unmarried ; William ; 
 and Arthur;'' and four daughters, namely, Anne, who 
 married Sir Philip Constable, of Flamborough, Bart. ; 
 Katherine, Elizabeth, and Mary. The wife of Sir Francis 
 was living in 1682. 
 
 As to these ladies, the unmarried daughters, it would 
 seem that a Mr. Pritchard, probably a Roman Catholic 
 chaplain, had endeavoured to persuade them to become 
 espoused to Christ ; and wished their father to settle £100 
 a year upon each of them, in addition to the portion which 
 was understood to be intended, viz. £500, with a view to 
 
 but probably 1643 (as it adverts to 
 the reported surrender of Newark by 
 Prince Rupert,) in whicli he describes 
 to Sir Edward the repulse of the Scots, 
 who had attacked a little fort at " the 
 Sheles," under a hot fire from Tyne- 
 mouth Castle, and were there cap- 
 tured. 
 
 s Connected with Meldon, mention 
 may be here made of a deed dated 24th 
 December, 1653, from which it appears 
 that George Clarkson, of Newcastle, 
 gentleman, had contracted with the 
 trustees for sale of lands forfeited to 
 the " Commonwealth" for " treason," to 
 purchase two-thirds of various proper- 
 ties, including the manor and lordship 
 with the demesnes and town of Meldon, 
 formerly the lands of Sir William Fen- 
 wick, late of Meldon, knight, deceased, 
 then vested in the " Commonwealth" 
 
 by statute. William Byers, of the parish 
 of S. Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey, 
 gentleman, furnished £500 towards the 
 purchase, and £100 a year for eight 
 years were secured to him upon the 
 lands to be conveyed ; Katherine, the 
 wife of Francis RadclifFe, and Doro- 
 thea Fenwick, spinster, co-heirs of Sir 
 William, agreeing to give that security, 
 and to enter into recognizance accord- 
 ingly- 
 
 '' In a Steward's account, or House- 
 hold Book, from Martinmas 16S1 to 
 Whitsuntide 1682, in the possession of 
 John Fenwick, Esq., of Newcastle, and 
 obligingly communicated by that gentle- 
 man to the writer, there is mention of 
 a payment of £50 to the agent of a 
 Mr. William Meynell, in full of a year's 
 pension, due to " the College," for 
 Mr. William and Mr. Arthur RadclifFe. 
 
 c 2
 
 20 
 
 A VISIT TO 
 
 their entering a convent.* There is a letter signed " Kate 
 Howard," without date or superscription, but addressed 
 probably to Sir Francis, their i'athcr ; in which the writer 
 deprecates their forming a resolution in favour of the 
 religious life, and a})])cars to recommend her nephew as 
 a suitor for Katherine ; adding, as if by way of example 
 and encouragement, that Lady Haggerston and Mrs. Gar- 
 rard hnd once been solicitous to take the veil, but had 
 been induced to marry, and were very happy. Still, it 
 does not appear that either of the ladies was induced to 
 follow this encouraging example. 
 
 After all these biographical particulars of former inhabi- 
 tants of Dilston Hall, the reader may now^ like to see a 
 fac-simile of the signatures of the loyal Sir Edward, of his 
 son and successor, and of Sir WilHam Femvick and his lady; 
 and to peruse the brief notice relating to the mansion, 
 which, together with a continuation of the family history, 
 will be found in the next chapter. 
 
 ' This appears to have reference to the Pension, or Dote, as the French term it, 
 usually paid as the Nun's portion upon being professed.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 21 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 " Why sit'st thou by that ruin'd hall, 
 
 Thou aged Carle, so stern and gray ? 
 Dost thou its former pride recall, 
 Or ponder how it passed away ?" 
 
 The Hall or Mansion, which was added to the antient tower 
 or castle of the Radcliffe family at Dilston, was built by 
 Sir Francis Radcliffe, who, from the time when he suc- 
 ceeded to his paternal honours and estates (1663), con- 
 tinued to reside with his family at Dilston Hall. The 
 mansion which he built, the material of which seems to have 
 been partly brick, stood to the northward of the existing 
 tower, and appears to have occupied a considerable part of 
 the level space now covered with turf, which spreads in 
 that direction. The hall, thus enlarged, had three facades, 
 one of which was formed by the stone tower or older man- 
 sion, whose ruins yet crown the lofty eminence we have 
 described. It seems to have consisted of three floors ; and 
 from a Household Book of the time of Sir Francis, "^ we find 
 
 ^ Besides the curious entries illus- Chapter of Carlisle for a year's chief 
 
 trative of the domestic economy of rent of lands in Corbridge. 
 
 the household of Sir Francis Radcliffe, 6s, 6d. were paid for the " Vacan- 
 
 shortly before he was created Earl of dell," [Viscountal] rent of Dilston due 
 
 Derwentwater, which will be noticed at Michaelmas, 1681. In this year 
 
 presently, we find the following items: Francis Bowes, Esq., was sheriff. 
 
 "1681, Nov. 21. — Paid to Parson 135. 4d were paid for the like rent 
 
 George Forster, in full of his half- out of Thornborough. 
 
 year's rent for the Rectory of Meldon, Sir Thomas Haggerston received 305. 
 
 ended at Martinmas, £6 13s. 4(1. for half a year's bishop's rent of Scre- 
 
 " Dec. 29. — Paid in full for repair merston. 
 
 of the Wright's work in Meldon church, £6 7s. 3 2</. were paid for half a year's 
 
 £4." fee-farm rent in Aydon-Sheles, Coast- 
 
 The cesses for Sir Francis's "part of ley, &c., due to the Crown. 
 
 Meldon," were £15. Fee-farm rents were payable in 
 
 £5 were paid "for Mitford Rectory," respect of Spindleston, Whelpington, 
 
 16 Feb. 1682. Harborne, and Westwood, 
 
 In May 1682, Mr. Simpson was Par- Quit-rent was paid for Middleton 
 
 son of Bywell. Hall, part of which was received by 
 
 15*. lOrZ. were paid to the Dean and the Countess Dowager Ogle Percy.
 
 22 
 
 A VISIT TO 
 
 that hearth- money was paid for twenty- two hearths in Dil- 
 ston Hall.' Those in the old castle alone still remain ; the 
 new mansion, and that which was only partially completed by 
 the last Earl, having been suffered to fall into decay, after 
 the happening of the tragic events which will be narrated 
 in a subsequent chapter; and having been, in 1768, com- 
 pletely removed, leaving only the time-worn but more 
 enduring ruins of the stone tower, which was long resorted 
 to as a quarry by neighbouring peasantry."" What associ- 
 ations cluster around each of those desolate hearths, by 
 whose once-cheerful recess the members of the " house- 
 hold band" wxre wont to assemble ! What " noble forms" 
 moved daily within these roofless, weather-beaten walls ! — 
 
 " Thou hast heard many sounds, thou hearth, 
 
 Deserted now by all ! 
 Voices at eve here met in mirth 
 
 Which eve may ne'er recall. 
 Youth's buoyant step and woman's tone, 
 
 And childhood's laughing glee, 
 And song and prayer have all been known, 
 
 Hearth of the Dead ! to thee. 
 
 " Holy to human nature seems 
 
 The long-forsaken spot ; 
 To deep affections, tender dreams, 
 
 Hopes of a brighter lot ! 
 Therefore, in silent reverence here, 
 
 Hearth of the Dead ! I stand 
 Where joy and sorrow, smile and tear, 
 
 Have link'd one household band." 
 
 The grand entrance of the hall was approached through 
 an avenue of chestnut trees, of which several pairs of noble 
 growth remain, for they have survived the family and race 
 that dwelt within their shade. " How many a tale" could 
 those dark branches tell of the noble subject of our memoir, 
 and of the loved ones who moved beneath their spreading 
 
 Au annuity of £12 was payable to 
 Mr. Alexander Browne, out of Whit- 
 cliapel, part of the Langley barony. 
 
 Dilston demesne, tithe, mill, and 
 two farms, are mentioned as being at 
 this period in the hands of their lord. 
 
 The mill at Haydon Bridge is men- 
 tioned; aiul the lead-mill at Wood Ilall. 
 
 From Nov. 1681 to May 1082, John 
 
 Jefferson, Esq., kept the lord's courts 
 for Wark, Langley, Aldston Moor, 
 Keswick, Thorntlnvaitc, and Whitton- 
 stall. He received £10 a year. 
 
 ' Two shillings a year were paid. 
 
 '" The ruins are now tastefully en- 
 closed on the southern and western 
 sides, and are preserved from dilapi- 
 dation, though they remain roofless.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 23 
 
 foliage, but whose place knoweth them no more ! ' ' Dwells 
 there," the visitor may pensively inquire — 
 
 " — No voice amidst your boughs 
 
 With leaves yet darkly green ? 
 Stillness is round, and noontide glows — 
 
 Tell us, what i/e have seen!" 
 
 "We have seen," might those trees reply, "the venerable 
 descendant of an antient line rear a proud mansion for his 
 posterity ; and when he passed to the tranquil grave, we have 
 seen the coronet that he first wore, and the gi-eat estates 
 that he possessed, devolve successively upon his son and 
 grandson ; — we have seen yon mouldering hall, surrounded 
 by life and hght and hospitality ; but, ere thirty years had 
 passed, we saw that grandson, the last inheritor, violently 
 severed from the living, and borne, when in the bloom of 
 manhood, the honored and beloved of all the neighbouring 
 country, to rest in the obscurity of yonder vault ; and ere a 
 little while, there was no head to wear the glittering circlet, 
 no lord to claim his own, or save his mansion from decay." 
 
 Through a large gateway, hardly less sentimental than the 
 avenue, which has been removed from its former site, the 
 approach, after passing round the side of the hill nearest 
 to the river and the old bridge, entered a formal and stately 
 garden to the west of the mansion. The Chapel, the scene 
 of the domestic worship of the family, the vault beneath 
 which is the place of interment of several of its members, 
 stands to the north of the hall ; and adjacent to it is an old 
 gateway, of the time of Sir Francis (first baronet), on which 
 the initials F. R. and J. R., and the date 1616, are visible. 
 
 We have said that Sir Francis, from the time of succeed- 
 ing to the estates, continued to reside with his family at 
 Dilston Hall; and in the Steward's Account, or Household 
 Book already mentioned, which extends from Nov. 1681 to 
 Whitsuntide 1682, we find a large number of entries illus- 
 trative of the life, habits, and domestic economy of the 
 worthy baronet's family. The domestic establishment seems 
 to have numbered thirty-three servants;" at wages hardly 
 
 ° The chamber maid received £2 a laborers in the garden received 6d. per 
 
 year ; the " huswife," £5 ; under groom, day ; the brewer's assistant, 4d. a day ; 
 
 £3 ; plate maid, £2 ; footman, £4 ; a man employed to look to the lead 
 
 butler, £5 ; Madame Katherine's maid, mines, and who provided the herd's 
 
 £'l ; under lady's maid, 30a-. ; the table at Tyne-head, received ^"5 a year.
 
 24 
 
 A VISIT TO 
 
 exceed! ug in the aggregute £60 a year, of whom that in- 
 dispensable I'unetionaiy, the cook, had £10 a year; the 
 gardener had the hke. The brewer had only £3 a year, yet 
 his office was no sinecure; for, in about nine months, 975 
 bushels of malt were sujjplied at Dilston Hall, for which 
 £ 1 37 1 0.y. were paid ; ° and a new brewing vessel was erected 
 in October 1681. 
 
 From the 19th May 1681 , to 21st March 1682, £15 13s. 
 were paid for salted tish. 
 
 " My Lady RadclifFe," and her daughter Maiy, received, 
 together, a yearly allowance of £200, for clothes. Mr. 
 Francis Radcliffe and his sisters, Katherine and Elizabeth, 
 received each an allowance of £40 a year.'' 
 
 Large sums of money (in one instance £5000,) were 
 charged on the estates in favour of ditferent members of the 
 family ; and there are payments of " consideration money," 
 half yearly, at the rate of six per cent.'' The payments under 
 the head of moneys disbursed to the poor,' and in occasional 
 gi^atuities from November 1681, to June 1682, amount to 
 £93 7s. 2d. 
 
 ° To tlie agent of Mr. Ralph Mil- 
 borne. The price varied from 2.v. (id. to 
 3s. per bushel. Seven Hexham lioUs of 
 malt, at 42^. per boll, were also bought. 
 Incredible as it appears, the monks of 
 tlie abbey of Sallay, in Craven, annually 
 brewed 255 quarters of malted oats, 
 and 104 of barley. Their whole esta- 
 blishment numbered 70 persons. If 
 every quarter was brewed to GO gal- 
 lons, each individual consumed nearly 
 5 quarters, or 300 gallons : but hospi- 
 tality and charity must be taken into 
 the account. The compotus does not 
 contain any |)ayment for wine. [See 
 Whitaker's Hist, of Craven, 40.] 
 
 t' These ladies are not the onlj^ mem- 
 bers of the family who are mentioned 
 in the steward's account. It appears 
 that jCOOO were owing upon mortgage 
 to William Brent and Edward Burdett, 
 Esqrs., as trustees for " Mrs. Clare and 
 Mrs. Ursula Hadclifle, sisters of Sir 
 Francis." jC81 were paid to Mr. 
 Francis Lawson, for three half-years' 
 interest. Ten shillings were delivered 
 to "Madame Barbara Radcliffe," ano- 
 ther sister of Sir Francis, to be given 
 to the poor by his order. On the 20th 
 Dec. 1G81, X'20 were delivered by tlie 
 
 steward to be distributed to the poor, 
 " being left so to be by the Lady Eliza- 
 beth Radcliffe, late deceased." The 
 poor of By well parish were to have 
 £4; of Hexham, £4; of Corbridge, 
 £5 10a- ; of Dilston, £4 10.s. ; and of 
 Slaley Chapelrv, £2. " Madame Anne 
 Radcliff" was' jjaid £300 on 27 .Janu- 
 ary, 1G82, for two half years' considera- 
 tion money of £5000. This lady, in 
 \C)'.)9, made a charitable bequest for the 
 poor. 
 
 1 £6G 13s. 4(/. for a year's consider- 
 ation money of £1000, were paid to 
 " Madame Dorothy Massey ;" £72 for 
 three hall'-ycars' consideration of £800 
 to Mrs. Elizabeth Tuustal ; £24 for a 
 half year's consideration of £800 to 
 Mrs. Anne Howard. 
 
 ■■ Many aged persons are named as 
 recipients of bounty: thus, we have Old 
 Grace White, Old John Legg, Old Ar- 
 thur 'I'ompson, of Hexham, the blind 
 man. Old (iilbert Usher, &:c. Mr. 
 Browne, of Arran, an Irish gentleman, 
 received £1. Poor mariners, whose 
 ship was lost near Holy Island, pre- 
 sented a pass from the mayor of New- 
 castle, and obtained charity. " Eliza- 
 beth Sclby, the innocent," received £1
 
 DILSTON HALL. 25 
 
 Among the payments to players and musicians, we find a 
 gift of lOs. to an old man named Howard, " an organist, and 
 who tuned the verginalls at Dilston,'' and came thither with 
 Dr. Nairne, to sell a pair of organs. " Madame Catherine," 
 hy the order of Sir Francis, gave £1 to Mr. Palmer, the 
 organist, of Newcastle; and Jeriy Kinleyside received 14^., 
 his Christmas wages for piping, by the order of Sir Francis. 
 On the 5th January 1682, "the players who came fi'om 
 about Stella and Bladon to Dilston, and there played the 
 play called " Musadores," received by the baronet's order, 
 one pound. Nor was the Muse of Poetiy wholly dis- 
 countenanced, for " Madame Catherine gave in charity, 
 by the like order, to a Poet that came out of Scotland, 
 to Newcastle, and so to Dilston, about Candlemas, 55."* 
 Alas, poor Poet ! 
 
 There is an item of £22 I9s. 8d. to Mr. Lancelot Algood, 
 for the expensive luxury of legal proceedings, — why charged 
 under the head of " Charitable Disbursements," does not 
 appear.' 
 
 Various presents were received at Christmas and other 
 times. Sir Cuthbert Heron sent a fallow -doe ; Mr. William 
 EiTington, of the Grange, sent "two gi'eat rolls of brawn;" 
 Dr. Nairne (a physician) sent a squiiTcl ; Capt. BickerstafFe, 
 two little beagles ; Mr. John Errington sent fi'om London, 
 a book containing Lord Shaftesbury's Trial, &c. 
 
 Amongst articles for household use purchased, we find 
 " Print for hangings for the new rooms;'' blue cloth for 
 
 yearly in charity. A Mr. Ellos, of Wark, Haydon-bridge, Keswick, &rc., 
 Durham, received from Sir Francis, the stopping at Walwick Grange, Grey- 
 gift of a coat, which, with making and stock Town, Thirkeld, Thornthwaite, 
 trimming, cost £2 9s. Qd. &c. The accounting steward accom- 
 
 ** The season seems to liave been panied him. 
 very stormy : nine roods of wall were Thomas Lumley, of Hexham, inn- 
 driven down by the great flood at Mel- keeper, received YGs. 4rf. for keep of 
 don, on the 26th April, 1682 ; and on Mr. Jefferson's and the Doctor's horses 
 the 4th May, the park wall at Dilston and men, two nights, 
 was reported to be overthrown. This In March and April are charges for 
 flood appears to have interrupted all shoeing the militia or troop horses ; and 
 travelling on Tyne side. On the 9th on the 6th May, arms were fetched from 
 February preceding, Sir Francis was Sir Ralph Jenison. 
 
 informed that the storm was great in The moneys disbursed, as stated in the 
 
 Aldston Moor, and only a week's sup- account from which these extracts are 
 
 ply of hay for the cattle left. Proven- made, amount in all to £1,611 4.9. lOd. 
 
 der was very scarce, and a bushel of ' The payment is made for Mr. Al- 
 
 oats cost 4s. Gd. good's charges in " a Suit wherein Mr. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson, the Steward of the William Charlton and Mr. Wm. Pear- 
 Manor Courts, made a tour in May to son were concerned."
 
 26 A VISIT TO 
 
 liveries ;" Spanish tobacco for Sir Francis, and common 
 tobacco at \s. \d. per pound; honey, at \s. per quart; 
 fifty-six bolls of oats, in four months, at 7s. 8d. and 7s. \0d. ; 
 a ferret for the waiTcn at Dilston, &c. ; and £30 a quarter 
 were allowed to my lady for the house use. 
 
 Having been tempted to make this digression, let us now 
 resume, without fui-ther delay, the history of the family. 
 
 From a minute of the Privy Coimcil, dated 4 June 1679, 
 it appears, that on suspicion of being concerned in the pre- 
 tended " Popish Plot," Sir Francis RadclifFe was in custody 
 of the Serjeant-at-Arms attending the High Court of Par- 
 liament, from which he was now discharged, on giving 
 security in £5000 for his good and peaceable behaviour, 
 and to do nothing prejudicial to the King, and to return 
 to Dilston, and not move beyond five miles from his house 
 without permission. Daniel CoUingwood, Esq. who resided 
 in Middlesex, and David Nairne, of Newcastle, M.D., were 
 the sureties. 
 
 About, or shortly before, the time mentioned in the above 
 Household account. Sir Francis, still in dread of accusation 
 that he had participated in the pretended plot, and repo- 
 sing gi'cat confidence in the integrity and wisdom of JVXr. 
 Ambrose Barnes, a worthy merchant of Newcastle, and 
 alderman of that place, conveyed to him his whole estate 
 in trust.''' It does not appear at what time the property 
 was reconveyed." 
 
 On the 18th August, 1687, (3 James H.) Edward, 
 eldest son of Sir Francis, espoused Lady Mary Tudor, 
 youngest natural daughter of King Charles n.,y who was, 
 at the time of her marriage, in the fourteenth year only of 
 
 " The tailoi" seems to have been well a certificate by a Justice of the Peace — 
 
 paid ; for Tliomas Salkckl, for making not that Sir Francis was free from the 
 
 up these two liveries, one for the foot- jiopisli ])l()t, but — that the baronet, his 
 
 man, and one for the groom, received lady, children, and servants, had been 
 
 £7 17s. lOd., which included all things with the worthy Justice at his house 
 
 thereto beloiifring. at Wolvcrton, Bucks, and were free 
 
 " Life of Ambrose Barnes, Newcastle, from pestilence and infectious disease, 
 
 1828, 8vo. Charnley, p. 19. Ilisbiogra- which he certified, they desiring topro- 
 
 pher states, that old Sir Francis was ceed to Meldon. 
 
 accustomed to call Barnes his honest ^ By Mrs. Davis. — The settlement 
 
 whig ; and, though differing from him in in contemplation of the marriage is 
 
 religious profession, had the highest dated 20th May, 1(387. By it, Langley 
 
 opinion of his worth and honesty. and other properties are charged with 
 
 * There is a docimicnt without date .t';5()00 for the portion of Lady Mary, 
 
 which affords another example of the the bride, 
 sanitary regulations of the age. It is
 
 DILSTON HALL. 27 
 
 her age, she having been born on the 16th of October, 
 1673. 
 
 In the month of March following this event (1688), Sir 
 Francis was created (and, as tradition says, for the sake of 
 his youthful and royally descended daughter-in-law,) Earl 
 of Derwentwater, Baron Tynedale, and Viscount Radcliffe 
 and Langley, honours more deservedly conferred than most 
 of those which had been so lavishly bestowed by the royal 
 brother of King James II. 
 
 In the same year, another son of the Earl seems to have 
 contemplated marriage. There is an anonymous letter, dated 
 3rd August, 1688, addressed to Mr. RadcHffe, at "the 
 Black Posts, in Great Russell Street, near Southampton 
 House, Bloomsbury," in which the writer refers to the 
 youthful bride and the bridegroom, as then residing in 
 London ; and tells Mr. Radcliffe, that fi'om his long absence 
 fi'om home, he is doing himself injuiy in the estimation of 
 Lord Derwentwater, and is suspected of intending to marry 
 foolishly, "this woman being now in town.'' The writer 
 professes to give advice as a well-wisher f and further 
 intimates to Mr. Radcliffe, that he was suspected at Court 
 to have been, underhand, the contriver of delays in his 
 brother's match. If the person addressed was Mr. Francis 
 Radcliffe, he forbore to " marry foolishly," for he did not 
 many at all, and died in his father's life -time. 
 
 The Earl himself did not live long in the enjoyment of 
 his baronial honours, for he departed this hfe in 1697, aged 
 72, and was interred at Dilston. His will is dated 10th 
 April, 1696.^ He was succeeded in his dignities and estates 
 by his eldest son, Edward, who thus became second Earl. 
 
 Mary Radcliffe, sister of Edward, the second Earl, lived 
 
 ^ The writer gives Mr. Radcliffe a equally to be divided between them, 
 
 very unfavourable account of the justice all his messuages and lands in Reeds- 
 
 and morality of the court ; for he is dale, and all monies due to him. Under 
 
 warned, that the free use of money in this devise, the earl's grandsons became 
 
 bribes to favourites, or the zealous ser- tenants in common ; and on the death 
 
 vices of a powerful friend, are the only of Francis, intestate and without issue, 
 
 ways of obtaining anything at court; his moiety of personalty became divisi- 
 
 and adds, " the himself, notwith- ble, by the Statute of Distributions, be- 
 
 standing his so much applauded justice, tween his brothers, James and Charles, 
 
 was never yet known to do anything and their sister. The bx-others being 
 
 for a silent merit." afterwards attainted of high treason; 
 
 " By this will, the testator devised to five-sixths of the bequest were declared 
 
 his gi'andsons, James, afterwards third forfeited to the Crown. His lead coffin 
 
 earl, and Francis, and their heirs, remains in tlie family vault.
 
 28 A VISIT TO 
 
 until 1722, lor her will is tlated the 22nd November in that 
 year; before which time the baronial honours, which she had 
 seen first conferred upon her venerable father, and enjoyed 
 by him, by her brother, and by her nephew James, thh'd 
 and last Earl, had become extinct, after a brief series of 
 dcejily tragic events. 
 
 The Ladies Katherine and Elizabeth Radcliffe, two other 
 sisters of the second Earl, were also living after the attainder 
 of their noble and ill-fated nephew, and claimed an annuity 
 of £100 a year to each, secm'ed on certain portions of his 
 lands. 
 
 Sir Francis Radcliffe, before he was created Earl of Dcr- 
 wcntwater, seems to have been desirous to revive the title 
 of Earl of Sussex, and Baron Fitzw'alter, which had been 
 held for some generations bv members of another branch of 
 the Radcliffe family, — an earldom and barony which had 
 become extinct in 1641, by the death of his kinsman. Sir 
 Edward Radcliffe, without issue, who w-as grandson and 
 heir male of Robert, first Earl of Sussex of the Radcliffe 
 name. This wish of the lord of Dilston, as well as his 
 desire that his eldest son should espouse a daughter of King 
 Charles II., — an alliance from which he probably expected 
 to attain this object, are evidenced by articles dated 1st 
 May 1672, which were prepared, on a meeting of Lord 
 Grandison, Lord Clifford, and Sir Francis Radcliffe, in 
 contcm})lation of a marriage proposed between his son, 
 and Lady Charlotte, daughter of the King and the Duchess 
 of Cleveland, which did not take place. Sir Francis, on 
 this occasion, produced a rent-roll of £6263 — an immense 
 revenue in those days. 
 
 In 1674, the earldom of Sussex was re\'ived in favour of 
 Thomas Lennard, fourteenth Baron Dacre, who married 
 another daughter of the Duchess of Cleveland.'' The 
 barony of Fitzwalter had been previously (viz. in 1669,) 
 revived in the person of l^enjamin Mildmay. In a few 
 years after the failure of this negotiation, the wash of Sir 
 Francis, for an alliance between his family and one of the 
 daughters of King Charles, was accomplished by the mar- 
 riage of his son and heir to the youthful Lady Mary Tudor ; 
 and though the earldom and barony in (|uestion were not 
 
 ^ On liis death in 1715, without issue male, the earldom of Sussex became 
 again extinct.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 29 
 
 revived in favour of himself, he was soon aftei'wards raised 
 to dignities, and received titles which, if they had not a hke 
 prestige of historical renown, were desei^vedly created to 
 exalt the inheritor of great possessions, and of a time- 
 honoured name. The worthy baronet little anticipated that 
 the alliance to the royal house of Stuart, of which he was so 
 ambitious, would prove, in the brief space of less than thirty 
 years, by cementing the attachment of his noble gTandson 
 to the Stuart cause, the fatal occasion of terminating, not 
 only the baronial honours it had been the means of procur- 
 ing, but also the very name of his antient line. 
 
 By this marriage, Edward, afteiwards second Earl of 
 Derwentwater, had issue, James, his eldest son and heir, 
 born in Arlington Street, London, on the 28th June 1689 ; 
 Lady Mary Tudor Radcliffe, his only daughter, who, after 
 1720, married WiUiam Petre, of Stamford Rivers, and died 
 without leaving issue surviving ;" Francis, w^ho died unmar- 
 ried in 1715; and Charles, who sui^ved his gentle and 
 devoted brother, the third Earl, for thirty years, and then 
 followed him to the scaifold, on a sentence for what was 
 called treason, passed in 1716. Of Charles Radcliffe, some 
 biogi-aphical particulars wdll be found in a future chapter. 
 
 The second Earl and his Countess entered into a deed of 
 separation, dated the 6th February, 1 700 ; and in less than 
 five years, they were parted finally by the death of the Earl, 
 
 c The following is an unpublished I am glad to hear they are so little 
 
 letter from this young lady, written be- spoiled. As to the table, though I 
 
 fore her marriage. It is dated 17th am afraid it is scarce worth your accep- 
 
 April 1721, without mention of the tance, it is very much at your service, 
 
 place where it was written : We are all here thank God, very well, 
 
 " Dear Mrs. Busby, — I cannot defer and little lord looks charmingly. Miss 
 
 any longer returning you my thanks for B^ddy has the small-pox, but is in a man- 
 
 your kind wishes as to my being settled; ner out of danger. She is at London, 
 
 it is a great satisfaction to me to hear with Sir John and Lady Webb. My 
 
 that you are so happy yourself, and in- Lady Montague expects to be brought 
 
 deed I should have writ to you upon to bed at the latter end of this month, 
 
 your marriage, had I not been a little and will then go down to her house 
 
 angry at your keeping it a secret from in Condei-ey. I hope the pain in your 
 
 me, who, I am sure, wish you ex- foot is quite gone, and that matrimony 
 
 tremely well, and would not have spoke has cured you of all distempers. I hope 
 
 out had you desired me not ; but how- you will let me hear from you some- 
 
 ever I will say no more of this, which times, which will extremely oblige, dear 
 
 is best, but must beg you will believe Mrs. Busby, 
 that I am always rejoiced when I hear Your friend and servant, 
 
 of your happiness. I must now desire M. Tudor Radcliffe." 
 
 you will send my stooles and couch by The letter is addressed to Mrs. Busby, 
 
 sea, and direct them to Mr. Pierson's. at Dilston, near Hexham.
 
 30 
 
 A VISIT TO 
 
 which occurred on the 29th April, 1705/ His youthful 
 relict did not long- remain a widow, for she married Henry 
 Graham, of Levens, Esq., but he too, depai-ted this life in 
 the following year; and in the August of 1707, she con- 
 tracted a third matrimonial engagement. Her third husband 
 was James Rooke, whom also she survived,'' as well as her 
 illustrious son, James, the third and last Earl, and his 
 Countess, and even the dynasty of her royal father's house ; 
 for she departed this life at Paris, on the 5th November, 
 1726, in the 54th year of her age. 
 
 Such was the lineage of the chivalrous and amiable young 
 nobleman, the memorv of whose virtues and misfoi-tunes is 
 so warmly cherished in the north. 
 
 d There is a scliediile of debts of tlie 
 Countess whicli the Earl had agreed to 
 pay : some of the items are as follow : — 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 Owing to Mr. Tulley, Mercer, in 
 the Piazza, Coveiit Garden 31 7 4 
 
 To Mr. (lussene, Stay-maker, in 
 S. Martin's Lane 14 11 
 
 To Mr. Hinton, at The Indian 
 Queen, in Covent Garden 30 17 4 
 
 To Mr. Dupuis, at The Unicorn, in 
 Pall Mall 12 10 11^ 
 
 To Mr. Simpson, at The Naked Boy, 
 in the Strand 7 19 G 
 
 To Mr. Gairraud, Perfumer, at the 
 comer of Half-Moon Street 1 14 6 
 
 To a washing-woman in Swallow 
 Street 1 0" 
 
 Tlie Earl and Countess seem to have 
 
 long resided in London. Their resi- 
 dence was in Arlington Street, Picca- 
 dilly, where their son James, the last 
 possessor of the transient earldom of 
 Derwentwater, was born in 1689. 
 
 " James Rooke was living after the 
 decapitation of the Earl, in 1716; for 
 there isa ])etition of him and tlie Count- 
 ess, amongst the proceedings of com- 
 missioners of forfeited estates, in the 
 Tower, in which it is stated that the peti- 
 tioners had put in their claim to a rent- 
 charge of £1000 a year, payable to the 
 Countess for her life, and secured on 
 part of the estate of the late Earl ; and 
 which rent-charge had not been paid.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 31 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 'Tis done — and sliivering in the gale, 
 The bark unfurls her snowy sail, 
 And whistling o'er the bending mast. 
 Loud sings on high the fresh'ning blast 
 And I must from this land begone, 
 Because I cannot love but one." 
 
 We now enter upon the history of James RadchfFe, the last 
 possessor of the transient earldom of Dei'wentwater — that 
 scion of an antient and ennobled house, whose name is still 
 enshrined in popular recollection, amid a host of tender 
 memories, and will be cherished in the native land of the 
 Percys, and the Widdi'ingtons, as long as goodness and 
 loyalty shall command admu^ation, and misfortune excite 
 the sympathy of the heart. 
 
 James RadchfFe, eldest son of Edward, second Earl of 
 Dei'wentwater, was born in London, on the 28th June, 
 1689 ; at which time, James II. with his admirable consort, 
 had sought refuge in France, and were living in exile at 
 S. Germain's, surrounded however, by the noble EngUsh, 
 Scottish, and Irish emigrant royalists, who followed the for- 
 tunes of their dethroned monarch. The Prince, whose birth- 
 right was the sovereignty of these realms, was a year older 
 than the infant heir of the earldom and vast possessions of the 
 house of Derwentwater, whose parents, early in his childhood, 
 took him to France for education, whither also, their own 
 sympathies led them, when the Prince of Orange had seized 
 the Stuart's throne ; and when their native land was over- 
 run by his emissaries, and agitated by the new revolution. 
 The youthful heir of Derwentwater was accordingly brought 
 up at S. Germain's, with the little Prince, afterwards called 
 " the Pretender ;" and from this circumstance, together with 
 his consanguinity to the royal house of Stuart, a fi'iendship 
 was formed in youth, which was strengthened by riper age, 
 and terminated only with a life, sacrificed by the Earl in the
 
 32 
 
 A VISIT TO 
 
 cause of his Prince and friend. With his last breath, Lord 
 Derwentwater dechired tlie attachment and devotion he had 
 felt from the time of his inflmcy towards the royal and ill- 
 fated com])anion of his youtii/---an attachment on the part 
 of tlie Eai'l, which was induced by what he himself described 
 as his natural love for the young l^rince — a devotion, 
 prompted by the Earl's conviction that the youthful James 
 Stuart was quahtied to make his people happy ; while on 
 the part of the Prince, attachment was cemented by those 
 amiable traits of character which a contemporary described ' 
 as the extraordinary good qualities of the Earl, and by 
 his power to win affection and esteem. 
 
 When the royal exiles kept court in the chateau of S. 
 Germain's, their abode was full of the young families of their 
 noble adherents, wdio " might be seen sporting together on 
 the parterres in good fellowship, or forming a mimic court 
 and body-guard for the little Prince, whose infantine plea- 
 sures they shared ;" these juvenile Jacobites being objects of 
 tender interest to the exiled King and Queen. The terrace 
 of the chateau on which the royal exiles promenaded was 
 
 ' Miss Strickland mentions, that in 
 an outhouse near the cliateau, an in- 
 teresting portrait of the Prince, as a 
 child, was recently discovered, painted 
 ))robably soon after the retin-n of James 
 II. to S. Germain's, from his unsucces- 
 ful campaign in Ireland ; in which the 
 little Prince is represented with large 
 dark eyes, In'ight complexion, and a 
 profusion of clustering curls. lie is 
 dressed in a red and green tartan frock, 
 with a long waist, and point-lace sto- 
 macher ; and wears a sort of fanciful 
 helmet cap of dark blue velvet, witli a 
 plume of black and blue feathers, the 
 whole being intended for a highland 
 dress. 
 
 At the anticnt Jacobite hotel in S. 
 Germain's, is another portrait of tlie 
 Prince, as a smiling, round-faced child 
 of seven or eight years old, with flow- 
 ing ringlets, and royally robed in a vest 
 or mantle of cloth of gold ; and also a 
 portrait of him, at a later period of his 
 boyhood, he being represented in this 
 portrait as about thirteen, tall and 
 slender, arrayed in cuirass and j)oint- 
 lace cravat; his natural ringlets care- 
 fully arranged and tied with a blue rib- 
 bon. It is said, that when a miniature 
 
 of the Prince was shewn to Pope Ii no- 
 cent XII., his Holiness, though any- 
 thing but a friend of James and Mary, 
 was so pleased by the representation of 
 their child, that, kissing it, be said he 
 " would fain hope to see tlie restoration 
 of that angel to his just right." [Life 
 of Mary Beatrice, Lives of the Queens 
 of England, ix. ;513, 341.] 
 
 The Jacobites are said to have hi- 
 mentcd that the Queen educated the 
 Prince more for heaven than for earth. 
 A charming trait of his sensibilty is 
 related : — Four of his royal father's 
 brave followers, of Dundee, whose col- 
 leagues of the Scottish brigade had 
 been permitted to return home, were 
 lingering near the i)al;ice, when the 
 Prince, then a boy of six years old, 
 was about to step into a carriage, em- 
 blazoned with the arms of Great Bri- 
 tain. Perceiving the unfortunate emi- 
 grants, he beckoned them to approach, 
 and witli that sensibility which has 
 been known to be prematurely deve- 
 l()])ed by misfortune, expressed his gra- 
 titude for their loyalty to his parents, 
 and presented them with his little purse, 
 both words and action being unprompt- 
 ed, and of his own free impulse.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 33 
 
 public, and many of the English who visited France, after 
 the peace of Ryswick, resorted thither, although at the risk 
 of being treated as Jacobites on their return to England ; 
 and " over the devoted little English world," which there 
 surrounded the exiled monarch and his amiable queen, "they 
 reigned in the midst of the empire of France." But few, 
 even of the idle and curious who resorted to this spot, could 
 behold unmoved the King's feeble steps and wasted form, 
 bowed to the earth by sorrow rather than by years, or the 
 pale and anxious countenance of the devout and gentle 
 Queen, glancing with mute eloquence fi'om the object of 
 her solicitude to their son, the cynosure of their hope. 
 The Countess of Powis was governess to the youthful 
 Prince, whose studies appear to have been occasionally 
 shared by the heir of Derwentwater, while he remained at 
 S, Germain's. 
 
 Years passed on without any decisive blow being struck for 
 the restoration of King James to his throne. Preparations 
 for this purpose were made in 1691, by Louis XIV., but 
 produced no result. At length, the news of the death of the 
 eldest daughter of James, Mary, consort of William III., 
 reached S. Germain's, s and revived the drooping hopes of the 
 anxious exiles there. The claims of Anne, as well as those of 
 William himself, rested on the will of the people ; and she, 
 deeming it prudent to 'bide her time, submitted to an arrange- 
 ment with Wilham, which gave him continued possession of 
 the Crown. The English Jacobites urged their King at this 
 crisis to make a descent in England, but the French Cabinet 
 withheld the required aid. In the January of the following 
 year (1696), a strong party of the open adherents and secret 
 correspondents of James in London, intreated him to return 
 in arms, and represented the unpopularity of William III., 
 the miseries caused by excessive taxation and a debased cur- 
 rency, the decay of trade and commerce, and the eagerness 
 of the people to be freed from a foreign yoke. Twelve 
 thousand men were soon on their march for Calais ; but 
 there, by a fatal hesitation or mistake, they awaited news 
 of a rising in England, which Louis XIV. was advised by 
 his ministers to require before risking his troops in that 
 country. Meantime, the spreading fleet of transports in- 
 
 s This event happened on the 15th January, 1695. 
 
 D
 
 34 
 
 A VISIT TO 
 
 tended for their conveyance, was shattered by a violent 
 
 storm : — 
 
 " A King sat on the rocky brow 
 Whicli looks o'er sea-born Salamis ; 
 And ships, by hundreds, lay below, 
 And men in nations ; — all were his ! 
 He counted them at break of day, — 
 But, when the sun set, where were they?" 
 
 And so, again disappointed, the unhappy exile returned for 
 the last time to S. Germain's, and there, on the 16th Sep- 
 tember 1701, he breathed his last, on which event, all the 
 English went to the Piince of Wales and saluted him as 
 King,"* and he was proclaimed by the title of James III. 
 The youthful heir of Derwcntwatcr was ])robably })resent at 
 this ceremony. But while the right of the young Prince 
 was thus recognized in France, and by the Courts of Rome, 
 of Spain, and of Savoy, the son of James II. was the object 
 of proceedings of a very different kind in his own realm. 
 The reign of William, — a Prince who held the Crown by a 
 title different from the accustomed course of descent, and 
 dependent on the authority of a parliamentary convention to 
 vest the regal dignity in the person or persons whom it 
 judged proper, — was drawing to a close. His breath was 
 gi'owing shorter, and his sands of life had nearly run out, 
 
 •' The young Prince received from his 
 dying jjarcnt an admonition, affection- 
 ately addressed to him in the folhjwing 
 impressive language, and whicli, not- 
 withstanding the weakness of sinking 
 nature, was uttered with a fervour and 
 solemnity tliat astonished every auditor. 
 " I am now," said the royal parent, 
 " leaving this world, which has been 
 to me a sea of storms and tempests, it 
 being God Almiglity's will to win me 
 from it by many great attlictions. Servo 
 Him with all your jjowcr, and never 
 put the Crown of England in competi- 
 tion with your eternal salvation. 'I'liere 
 is no slavery like sin : there is no liberty 
 like His service. If His holy Provi- 
 dence shall think fit to seat you on the 
 throne of your royal ancestors, govern 
 your peo])le with clemency aiul justice. 
 Remember, kings are not made for 
 themselves, but for the good of the 
 people. Set liefore their eyes in your own 
 actions a pattern of all manner of vir- 
 tues. Consider them as your children ; 
 
 — you are yourself the child of vows 
 and pravers : behave yourself accord- 
 ingly. Honour your mother, that your 
 days may be long; and be always a 
 kind brother to your dear sister, that 
 you may reap the blessings of unity 
 and concord." [Lord Somers's Tracts, 
 xi. p. 312.] 
 
 Louis XIV. afterwards promised to 
 recognize the young Prince as heir of 
 the three realms of (Jreat IJritain : how 
 little l)enefit tliis promise produced to 
 him in the course of events, the history 
 of the royal wanderer and exile relates. 
 Early in 1702, Lord Belhaven, (al- 
 though formerly secret agent for the 
 Prince of Orange,) came to S. Ger- 
 main's, on a mission from the Duke of 
 Hamilton and the Scottish Jacobites, 
 offering to proclaim the Prince as James 
 in. without waiting for the death of 
 William, or the consent of Parliament, 
 if he would renounce the Catholic 
 religion, — a proposal which was not 
 consented to.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 35 
 
 when a bill for the attainder of James Stuart was procured 
 to be passed, and the royal assent was willingly given to it, 
 on the 1st of March, 1702. Parliament now again assumed 
 to limit the succession to the Crown. The reader docs not 
 need to be reminded, that in many instances, and through 
 a long course of years extending back to early ages of the 
 English monarchy. Parliament had declared the law of the 
 Crown to be, and always to have been, that the children of 
 the King should succeed to the inheritance after the death 
 of their ancestor ; and recognized the principle that the 
 Crown, by inherent birthright, and lawful and undoubted 
 succession, devolved on the lineal, just, and lawful next heir 
 of the blood royal of the realm.* Even after the fearful 
 confusion, fanaticism, and outrage, which followed the fatal 
 catastrophe of the pious and unfortunate Charles I,, a 
 solemn Parliamentary convention recognized indefeasible he- 
 reditary right as the basis of the title of the next heir. One 
 of the first acts of William, had nevertheless been to obtain a 
 statute disqualifying any person in communion with the 
 See of Rome, from inheriting or possessing the Crown, and 
 declaring that it should descend to such persons, being 
 Protestants, as would have inherited, in case the disqualified 
 person were dead. By the aid of Protestant lenses, the 
 telescope of the British Parliament in search of a monarch 
 to succeed after the death of Anne, discovered, among the 
 forests of Bohemia, a successor to the Cro^Mi ; and accord- 
 ingly, towards the close of the reign of William III., who, 
 by the previous statute, was to be succeeded by the Princess 
 Anne, Parliament settled the right to the Crown, expectant 
 on her decease, on the Princess Sophia, Electress of Hanover, 
 (the youngest daughter of Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, 
 daughter of James I.), and her heirs. 
 
 The Princess Anne had, accordingly, succeeded to the 
 throne of her departed father, and the succession to the 
 Crown stood thus limited, when the youthful heir to the 
 earldom of Derwentwater, on attaining his majority, returned 
 to the land of his ancestors, after a sojourn of some time 
 in Holland. It cannot be doubted that the restoration 
 of the prince, whom his family regarded as their lawful 
 
 ' Not to go back to earliei- times, it c. i., and the Stat, on the Restoration 
 is sufficient to cite the Declaration in 25 of Charles II. 
 Edw. III. St. 2.; the Statute 1 .Tac. I. 
 
 D 2
 
 36 A VISIT TO 
 
 Sovereiii'n, would have been welcome to the second Earl 
 of Derwentwater ; but it does not appear that tiiis noble- 
 man in his life-time, which terminated in 1705, or his 
 son, the noble subject of this memoir, who in that year 
 succeeded to his honours and estates, exhibited any disalFec- 
 tion to the established Government during the reign of the 
 younger daughter of James II, The disinherited Prince was 
 an exile and a w^anderer; but the time for action in his 
 behalf had not yet arrived.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 37 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 " Now that the years a numerous train liave ran, 
 The blooming boy is ripened into man." 
 
 We may now revert to the personal history of the Earl, in 
 that tranquil, bright, and hopeful period of his life, in which 
 the dawn of manhood was succeeded by the sunshine of 
 prosperous fortune, love and friendship, and the enjoyment 
 of all those advantages of birth and position which he was 
 so well qualified to improve and adorn. In person, he is 
 described to have been rather under the middle size, slender 
 and delicate in figure, but of active habits. His hair was 
 light, his eyes gray, his countenance handsome and prepos- 
 sessing, and indicative of mild benignity of disposition. 
 In the portraits of the Earl which have fortunately come 
 down to us, his countenance is noble, and expressive of 
 openness and benevolence of character. These qualities 
 are particularly manifest in a portrait of him which is pre- 
 served at Thorndon in Essex, the seat of Lord Petre, wherein 
 he is represented robed as a peer, and wearing the flowing 
 and curly flaxen wig, in those days the fashion.'' Patten, a 
 contemporary, who was well acquainted with him, says — 
 
 " The sweetness of his temper and disposition, in which [quality] 
 he had few equals, had so secured to him the affection of all his 
 tenants, neighbours, and dependents, that multitudes would have 
 lived and died for him : he was a man formed by nature to be 
 generally beloved ; and he had a beneficence so universal, that he 
 seemed to live for others." 
 
 And Smollett records of him, that he was — 
 
 " An amiable youth, brave, open hearted, generous, hospitable, 
 and humane. He gave support," adds the' historian, " to multi- 
 tudes of people whom he employed on his estates ; and the poor, 
 the widow, and the orphan, rejoiced in his bounty." 
 
 '' Near to the Earl's figure is a small portrait is a full length ; the shoes are 
 brown and white spaniel, and in the high over the instep and at the heels, 
 distance a view of Dilston Hall. This
 
 38 A VISIT TO 
 
 It would seem that the whole })eriocl of his minority was 
 spent upon the Continent ; at all events that he had not seen 
 his ancestral home in Northumberland before he visited 
 it in 1710, when he was in his twenty-first year. Dr. 
 Radcliffe, the celebrated physician to Queen Anne, and 
 founder of the Radcliffe Library at Oxford, wi'ites to Sir 
 ANiUiam Swinburne, under date the Gth December 1709, a 
 letter, in which he mentions, that the young Earl and his 
 brother, meaning Francis, with Mr. Fenwick, had all arrived 
 safely from Holland, and were very well ; and adds — 
 
 " Lord Derwentwater intends to be with you very speedily in 
 the country. I do not doubt but you will extremely like his con- 
 versation ; for he has a <>Teat many extraordinary good qualities, 
 and I do not doubt that he will be as well beloved as his uncle."' 
 
 Li another letter, Dr. Radcliffe mentions that he has 
 received the Earl's guns from France ; a circumstance 
 which affords one of many proofs of his fondness for field 
 sports."" 
 
 Sir William Swinburne," Dr. Radcliffe 's correspondent, 
 writes from Beaufront, on the 7th February 1710, to Lady 
 Swinburne," at Capheaton, a letter in which he says — 
 
 " My Lord [Derwentwater] is very well pleased with Dilston, 
 and says it answers all that he has heard of it ; but is resolved to 
 build a new house, though Roger Fenwick told him, he thought 
 his lordship need not alter a stone of it.' p 
 
 ' The micle was tlie Hon, Thomas " The motlicr of this Sir William 
 Radclifle, younger brother of Edward, was Isabel, sole daughter and heiress of 
 the second Karl, and a colonel in the Henry Lawson, of Brougli Hall, Esq. by 
 British service. In consequence of a Katherine, daughter and co-heiress of 
 severe fever, he had been labouring for Sir William Fenwick. After her father 
 some time under a mental delusion, was slain at Melton Mowbray, in the 
 which was, that ])eople constantly fol- service of Charles I., her mother mar- 
 lowed and disturbed him ; and as he ried the Sir Francis Radcliffe, who 
 fancied he would get rid of these ima- was created Earl of Derwentwater, as 
 ginary attendants if at sea, it was re- already mentioned, the grandfather of 
 commended that he should travel down James, third and last Earl of Derwent- 
 to Newcastle by sliip, wliich be did water, who was therefore a cousin of 
 accordingly. Dr. Radclifle, in his letter Sir William Swinburne. Sir William's 
 of the Gth Dec. 1709, mentions Col. Rad- father was Sir John Swinburne of Cap- 
 cliffe's recovery from the fever itself. heaton ; who, in consideration of his 
 
 '" Probably it is one of these very loyalty and zeal for the Restoration, 
 
 guns which was recovered a few years was advanced by Charles II. to the 
 
 ago by George Rippon, Esq. of Tyne- dignity of a baronet ; and who rebuilt 
 
 mouth, and is now in that gentleman's the hcmse at Capheaton. He died on 
 
 possession. The giui is ornamented the liHhofJune, 170G. Sir William 
 
 near the stock with chasing, and tlie was one of twenty-four children. 
 
 Earl's crest. There is some fine and " She was the daughter of Anthony 
 
 elegant brass work inlaid in the Englelield, of White Knights', Esq. 
 
 shoulder. i' Sir William adds — "On Thursday,
 
 DILSTON HALL. 39 
 
 The Earl began to carry his resolution into effect, and 
 building works had been in progress for some time, when 
 events occurred which terminated them for ever, and he did 
 not live to see his new house completed. No portion now 
 remains, either of the new fabric or of the house to which 
 the Earl succeeded : let us hope that he was translated to 
 an abiding mansion in heaven ! 
 
 But, to return to our narrative. In the spring of 1710, 
 the Earl visited his estates in Cumberland, and we have a 
 letter from Sir William Swinburne, without date, but written 
 about this time,q in which he says — 
 
 " We are all in great concern for my lord's leaving us ; but 
 please ourselves with the hopes of seeing him again soon ; and 
 nothing," says the writer, " will add more to that satisfaction than 
 seeing my uncle and yourself here with him." 
 
 The Earl appears to have spent some time on the Isle of 
 Derwent when he made this visit to his paternal inheritance 
 in Cumberland ; and the antient mansion of the Radcliffes 
 was then standing. He enjoyed, during some months, the 
 tranquil and varied beauties of that lovely scene — 
 
 " Where tlie Derwent awakes 
 The stillest of lakes, 
 
 With a rippling and tremulous sound ; 
 Where the lowlands are blest 
 With beauty and rest, 
 
 And the mountains like warders watch round." 
 
 And remembering his attachment to the pleasures of the 
 chase, we can imagine 
 
 " How blithely might his bugle horn 
 
 Chide, on the lake, the ling'ring morn ! " 
 
 Nor were these his only pursuits. It seems that when 
 in this part of the country, the Earl visited that singular 
 society which had been set on foot in 1701, by his father, 
 together with the Duke of Norfolk, Sir Thomas Sherburne, 
 
 my lord dines at Dllston. He intends or two, and myself one, this morning." 
 
 to be at Capheaton on Saturday, and [Hodgson, Capheaton Evidences in 
 
 then on Tuesday at Whitton, and so Hist. Northd. vol. i. part II. 225.] 
 
 for Widdrington ; and although his leg ^i To Dr. RadclifFe, in reply to a letter 
 
 is a little troublesome, he intends to from the Doctor, who wrote from Lon- 
 
 hunt the fox to-morrow, and it is the don, stating, that he had no horses to 
 
 rule for all to be in bed at ten the night ride upon, and desired one of Sir 
 
 before. My lord killed a squirrel, and William's horses. 
 Sir Marmaduke [Constable] a pheasant
 
 40 
 
 A VISIT TO 
 
 Sir Willumi Pennington, imd other noblemen and gentlemen 
 of the Jacobite party connected with Lancashire, and which 
 was held under the designation of " The Mayor and Cor- 
 poration of the ancient J^orough of ^Yalton le Dale." In 
 1711, James, Earl of Derwentwater, w^as mayor of this 
 whimsical corporation, which concealed a political purpose 
 under the api)carance of a convivial association. All their 
 proceedings were conducted with mystery, but ludicrous 
 foi'mality ; they had a register, which Whitaker tlie historian 
 has described, together with a mace, a sw^ord of state, and 
 four staves adorned wdth silver, and inscribed with names 
 of officers of the society. Whitaker thinks that in the 
 obscure hostelry, where this corporation met from the be- 
 ginning of the last centuiy down to 1740, the antient 
 Catholic and Jacobite nobility and gentry concei'ted their 
 plans for the restoration of the exiled family. "■ After this 
 digression, we may again pursue the history of the Earl in 
 the mox c pleasing relations of domestic life. 
 
 The Earl whites to Lady Swinburne on the 1 5tli June, 
 (1710,) thus— 
 
 " Dear Cousin — I had not been so long silent, if I had anj^thing 
 worth the pains of troubling you with ; for though I am naturally 
 lazy in Avriting, without I liave particular business, yet I shoidd 
 not liave been so to your ladyship, for whom I have all the esteem 
 imaginable, and acknowledgments due for the favours received at 
 Capheaton. I hope my dear aunt and uncle Sir William, and, to 
 be short, tliat ]ny great cousins and little cousins, are in perfect 
 health, and think sometimes of him who thinks very often of them, 
 and would all that lays in his power to serve them. Believe, dear 
 cousin, that this is as true as that I am your ladyship's most 
 humble and most obedient servant." ' 
 
 'fPija^ 
 
 Barnes, sometime merchant and alder- 
 man of Newcastle, that there was an 
 invinlahle friendship hetween him and 
 Col. Radcliffo, who was accustomed to 
 repose in tlic wisdom and iidelity of his 
 counsel. When the Karl himself was 
 in town, having then newly come to 
 the honours and estates of his family, 
 Barnes went " on a Saturday to wait 
 uj)()n liini." 'I'he date is not recorded. 
 
 r Whitaker's Richmondshire, ii. 429. 
 
 ^ Capheaton Evidences, Ilodgs. Hist. 
 Northd. Vol. i. Part ii. 2120. The or- 
 tliography is here modernized. From 
 a j)ostseript, it appears the Earl liad just 
 been with his uncle, who was still un- 
 easy about the people that disturbed 
 him, and declared he should not get 
 rid of tlieni unless he took a voyage by 
 sea. It is said in the Life of Ambrose
 
 DILSTON HALL. 41 
 
 Probably the Earl resided at Dilston during a considerable 
 l)ortion of the two next succeeding years. It appears to 
 have been his chief residence, for indeed 
 
 " The haughtiest breast its wish might bound 
 Through life to dwell delighted here ;" — 
 
 and at Dilston he lived in the constant exercise of hospi- 
 tality, and in the practice of active benevolence towards 
 not only the peasantry on his wide estates, but all who 
 needed his assistance. It is said that he was in the habit 
 of personally visiting the poor, that he might discover and 
 relieve their wants. " As the Earl lived," says Patten, 
 " among his own people, there he spent his estate ; and 
 continually did offices of kindness and good neighbourhood 
 to everybody, as opportunity offered. He kept a house of 
 generous hospitality and noble entertainment, which few in 
 that country do, and none come up to. He was very cha- 
 ritable to poor and distressed families on all occasions, 
 whether known to him or not, and whether Papist or Pro- 
 testant.'" It is no wonder, therefore, that he was regarded 
 with the affectionate homage of men of every rank and 
 creed — a homage of the heart, far before the blind respect 
 which the vulgar of all ranks too commonly pay to wealth 
 and power. He appears to have taken great delight in 
 rural pursuits, in the pleasures of the chase, and in the 
 charms of Nature by which he was surrounded, and could 
 have said with Horace — 
 
 * * * " Ego laudo ruris amseni 
 Rivos, et musco circumlita saxa nemusque." 
 
 But other charms soon cast their spell upon the youth- 
 ful Earl, and he found his happiness incomplete without 
 "woman's love." Accordingly, on the 10th July, 1712, 
 wdien he had completed his 23rd year, he espoused Anna 
 Maria, eldest daughter of Sir John Webb, of Canford, in 
 the county of Dorset, Baronet," and Barbara his wife, sole 
 heiress of her [father, John Bellasyse, baron of Worlaby, in 
 Lincolnshire, l3y the Lady Anne, daughter of John, late 
 Marquis of Winchester. It appears that the " charming 
 
 ' Patten's Hist, of Rebell. 3rd edit. cross between four falcons, or. Crest, 
 
 It is a tradition, that all tlie meat and Out of a ducal coronet a demi-eagle 
 
 game in the larder were distributed displayed, or. [For pedigree, see 
 
 every Thursday evening to the poor. Hutchins's History of Dorsetshire.] 
 
 " His armorial bearing was, Gulen, a
 
 42 A VISIT TO 
 
 daughter" of Sir John and Lady Wehb, (she was so spoken 
 of by the Earl liimself in the last hours of his existence), 
 liad been jjh^ccd in the Convent of UrsuHne Nuns at Paris, 
 for her education ; and that the ac(juaintance between the 
 young lady and the youthiul heir of Dcrwcntwater began 
 in the early spiinii-tinic of their lives, when they were both 
 receiving education in the French ca})ital. They had fre- 
 quent opportunities of seeing each other at the chateau of 
 S. Germain's, where the exiled monarch took pleasure in 
 being surrounded by the scions of his noble English and 
 Scottish adherents who were then living at Paris. Such was 
 the locality, and such were the circumstances, under which 
 an attachment began between two youthful hearts, that had 
 " less of earth in them than heaven ;" which, growing with 
 their growth, ripened into ardent devotion, and rendered 
 bright and happy to each, the years — alas ! how few they 
 were — that remained of the life-period of the noble Earl. 
 By the articles entered into between the Earl and Sir 
 John, the latter was to give with his daughter £12,000 as 
 her portion, of which sum £5000 were to be paid on the 
 marriage, £5000 five years afterwards, and £2000 upon the 
 death of Sir John, or of his lady. The Earl, on his part, 
 promised £1000 jointure rent-charge to the lady, to which 
 sum £100 a year was to be added on the death of either of 
 her parents, and she was to have £300 a year for pin- 
 money. His estates were to be charged with £12,000 for 
 the portions of daughter or daughters, or with £20,000 in 
 the event of there being no male issue'' His marriage 
 
 " The marriage settlement is dated East Westwood, and Thornbnrgli, all 
 
 2lth June, 1712. It is made between in the county of Northumberland, with 
 
 the Earl of the first part, — Sir John the advowson of Simonburn, and the 
 
 Webb, Dame Barbara, and their daugh- Castles, &c. of Castle Uigg, Derwent- 
 
 tcr, of the second part, — Other, Earl of water, otherwise Keswick, and/riiorn- 
 
 Plyniouth, and Riciiard, Earl of Scar- thwaite in Cumberland, with the manor 
 
 borough of the third part, — Thomas, of Scrcmerston, Durham, to trustees for 
 
 Viscount Falconberg, and John Rad- raising tlie £'20,000. yjprojjos of Scr e- 
 
 cliff'e, of the fourth part, — William, Lord mcrston, there is a lease dated^ 3rd 
 
 Widdrington, and Neville Ridley, of March, 10 Anne, A. D. 1711, from the 
 
 the fifth part, — and Francis and diaries Earl, (therein described as the Right 
 
 Radcliffe, the Earl's brothers, of the Hon. James Earl of Darwentwater, 
 
 sixth part. The Earl, on this occasion, Viscovmt Radcliffe and Langley, and 
 
 limited the barony of Langley, and Baron of Tindale,) to William Claver- 
 
 the manors of Wliittonstall, Newlands, ing, of Scremerston, gentleman, of the 
 
 Dilston, Aydon-Sheles, Wark, Ering- coal mines at Scremerston, for If) years, 
 
 ton, Meldon, Spindleston, Utchester, with way-leave and liberty of building 
 
 Throckley, Coastley, Middleton Hall, salt-pans, at the annual rent of £80.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 43 
 
 was announced by the Ear] to Lady Swinburne, in the fol- 
 lowing letter, dated the 13th July : — 
 
 *' Dear Cousin, — I was married to my great content in every 
 respect on Thursday last. My dear wife, her father and mother, 
 charm me more and more every day. I could wish with all my 
 heart you were a witness of my happiness, and that I had your 
 opinion upon my choice, which, if approved of by so good a judge, 
 would double my pleasure."" 
 
 This letter was written from Hatherhope, a place near 
 the village of Fairford, in Gloucestershire, the parish church 
 of which is celebrated for some remarkably fine stained 
 glass J It was a stipulation, to which the bride's father 
 bound himself in the articles already mentioned, that the 
 residence and table of the noble pair should, for two years 
 next following the marriage, be provided by Sir John Webb, 
 and their residence appears to have been fixed at Hather- 
 hope accordingly, which was a seat of the Webb family. 
 Probably, during this period, the new house which the Earl 
 had resolved to build at Dilston was in course of erection. 
 The Earl and Countess seem to have resided at Hatherhope 
 during the two years, excepting when they visited London. 
 
 On the 17th August, when the "honey-moon" had 
 barely passed, Lady Derwentwater herself wrote as follows 
 to Lady Swinburne : — 
 
 " I have many thanks to return your ladyship for the favour of 
 your letter and obliging congratulations. My Lord Derwentwater's 
 great merit and agreeable temper makes me think I have all the 
 prospect imaginable of being entirely happy. I desire the favour 
 your ladyship will present my humble service to Sir William. 
 My father and mother join with me in this, and desire their com- 
 pliments to your ladyship. I beg you will be assured/' &c. 
 
 / 
 
 r/vo/i/^d/or 
 
 " Hodgs. Hist. Northd. vol. i. part 2. stained glass in the way that the famous 
 
 p. 226, Capheaton Evidences. glass of St. Maiy's of Fairford was 
 
 y An account of this parish, with a acquired. About 1492, a vessel bound 
 
 particular description of the stained to Rome, from the Low Countries, 
 
 glass, was published at London, in 4to, and freighted with elaborately- executed 
 
 in 179L Perhaps there is not another glass, was taken at sea by John Thame, 
 
 church in England, which acquired its a merchant, members of whose family
 
 44 A VISIT TO 
 
 Tlicre are letters of Lord Dcrwentwater to Lady Swin- 
 burne, dated from Hatherhope the 7th February, 18th 
 March, and 6th May, 1714/ In the letter of 18th March, 
 the Earl mentions his "dear uncle's recoveiy," at which 
 he rejoices the more as his uncle had " given for so many 
 years the solid marks of true sense by leading so good a 
 life, and by being so true and serviceable a friend." Sir 
 William Swinburne appears to have been with him abroad.* 
 The Earl expresses his fear that his brother Francis will 
 soon be in town, "as he has a horse-match for twenty 
 guineas.'" ^ The letter of the 6th May is as follows : — 
 
 " Now I write widi pleasure to your ladyship, since I hope to be 
 so happy as to enjoy your good company in a lew months, I mean 
 immediately after York races, for my two years will be out here 
 the lOtli of July. Indeed, Sir John has behaved himself wonder- 
 fully well to us quite through the whole time, really performing 
 in everything more than I could have expected froju a man of 
 honour, as indeed I had reason to believe him. My lady is not 
 of so steady a temper, but, however, we agree very well ; and she 
 is mighty fond of my wife, whicli I take very kindly, since as yet 
 we are but one. Never anybody could be so desirous to go to the 
 north as my wife is, especially just coming from the diversions of 
 London, except your ladyship or myself, who long to be established 
 there, that we may at least be out of the way of such inhvunan 
 proceedings as we saw upon all accounts this year at London. 
 * * * * Brother Frank is recovered, but is the very same 
 man. Brother Charles is mighty uneasy he is no richer, though 
 1 do wluit I can to help him in his pleasures. Pray, my duty to 
 my uncle and aunt, to whom I will write soon, and kind services to 
 ail other relations. * * * My dear wife presents her humble 
 service to your ladyship, and desires the same may be made accept- 
 able to all with you." * 
 
 had filled civic offices in London ; and dear uncle, and mentions his bi'other 
 
 lie being connected by piojjerty with Charles as having been at Sir Marnia- 
 
 Fairford, determined on building a duke Constable's, and designing to go 
 
 ciiurcli in this remote village, for the to London. The letter is addressed 
 
 reception of his prize. In 1G12, when to Lady Swinburne, at the Blue Ball, 
 
 the republican army was marching in St. James's Place, London, 
 
 towards Cirencester, the whole was ^ The Karl's uncle seems to have 
 
 prudently taken down, and saved from been at Douay, in Ahiy, 1714. 
 
 destruction by concealment. A few ^ In this letter, (18th March, 1714) 
 
 years previously, Vandyke had affirmed Lady Webb and " Mr. Petre " are 
 
 many of the figures to be inimitable mentioned as presenting their humble 
 
 by the best pencil. The glass is in service. 
 
 remarkably good preservation. *= In a postscript the Earl adds, "We 
 
 ^ Modgs. Hist. North, as above. In expect Lord Wald. and my lady, to 
 
 the letter of 7th February, the Earl make my sister happy, who will do the 
 
 refers to the reported recovery of his same by them."
 
 DILSTON HALL. 45 
 
 And so, early in the autumn of 1714, the noble pair 
 took up their residence at Dilston. They had gone to the 
 metropolis — 
 
 " Well pleased, to seek their city home, 
 For converse, and for books to change 
 The forest's melancholy range ; 
 And welcome with renew'd delight, 
 The busy day and social night." 
 
 But they did not exchange town-life for complete retire- 
 ment at sylvan Dilston ; and there, diffusing benefits among 
 the tenantry, surrounded by social enjoyments, and the 
 endearments of domestic affection, and practising constant 
 hospitality, we may picture to our fancy, the noble in- 
 mates of Dilston Hall, with their visitors and dependents, at 
 the season, 
 
 *' When fires were bright, and lamps beam'd gay, 
 And ladies tuned the lovely lay ; 
 And he was held a laggard soul, 
 Who shunn'd to quaff the sparkling bowl." 
 
 And thus, 
 
 " In virtue rich, in blessing others, blest " 
 
 this period of the Earl's life seems to have passed in tran- 
 quil happiness ; and the brief space of some five years which 
 elapsed, between the time of his first coming to reside on 
 his ancestral estates, and the time of his quitting them — 
 never to return, does not afford any further materials for 
 biography. We know no more than that his goodness and 
 generosity, and the amiability of his private character, won 
 the affections of the people, and gained for him unbounded 
 esteem and popularity wherever he was known. "^ 
 
 ^ Amongst the letters of the Earl for his wife's diversion. The Earl 
 
 which are extant in private hands, is a wishes Mr. Gibson success in winning 
 
 letter dated at Dilston, 29th March, a colliery on some part of the Radcliffe 
 
 1715, addressed to " Mr. Gibson, Stone- estates. He is to have two years for 
 
 croft," whom the noble Avriter thanks the experiment, at the end of which 
 
 for the present of a very pretty beagle, time, or sooner, they will agree on a 
 
 from which he designs to breed a pack fair rent.
 
 46 A VISIT TO 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 " For foray and fray, 
 
 And battle array, 
 There are borderers arming once more ; 
 
 And, farther yet north, 
 
 The pibroch calls forth 
 The tartan, and plaid, and claymore." 
 
 Late in August, 1715, the Earl of Mar and other Scottish 
 noblemen, adherents of the house of Stuart, concerted 
 measures for a rising in favour of the exiled Prince. By 
 remittances from France, or other means. Lord Mar re- 
 ceived, we are told, £100,000 ; and the exiled King de jure 
 constituted him Commander-in-Chief. It is said, that 
 although he ap])earcd at the Court of St. James's on the 
 1st of August, the anniversary of the Elector of Hanover's 
 accession, he had even then resolved on aiding the Stuart 
 cause, and departed that very night for Scotland, proceeding 
 by sea, in disguise, to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and thence to 
 the shores of Fife and the braes of Mar. On the 1 6th of 
 August he held a council of his friends, at which Lord Carn- 
 watli and Lord Kenmure assisted, when a general rising in 
 England was relied on, together with powerful aid from 
 France, and the presence of James himself with ships, 
 arms, and amnumition. On the same day, the Prince was 
 proclaimed in Scotland as James VIII. 
 
 These designs were communicated to the gentry of Nor- 
 thumberland who were favourable to his cause, with a view 
 to their collective ai)pearancc in arms on an early oppor- 
 tunity.'' But the adherents of the Scottish leaders were not 
 called to this enterprise by any such public or rapid means, 
 as those which Sir Walter Scott so Avell describes to have 
 been adopted for gathering the followers of the dark chief- 
 
 e The 9th September, 1715, is the them to muster in arms. [Lond. Gaz. 
 date of a letter from Lord Mar to his September 20th, 1715.] 
 tenants at Kildnunmy, calling upon
 
 DILSTON HALL. 47 
 
 tain of Clan Alpine. Instead of eager clansmen transmitting 
 the Fiery Cross, inoftensive-looking gentlemen, in the guise 
 of travellers, pretending a curiosity to view the country, 
 and attended by their servants, conveyed intelligence to the 
 friends of the (so called) Pretender ; and near Fourstones, 
 a place westward of Hexham, an old Roman altar was 
 the unconscious receptacle of correspondence, and did the 
 duty of a post-office, with more secrecy than has been 
 always practised in that great department in modern times. 
 Superstition even enlisted in the Prince's cause the sup- 
 posed agency of the fairies ; and the old Roman altar, at 
 the village above mentioned, was denominated " the Fairy 
 Stone," because the bason, on this altar, was hollowed into 
 a recess, from whence a little boy, clad in fairy livery of 
 green, came in the twilight every evening to receive the 
 letters which had been deposited, and leave others, which 
 were in like manner, " spirited " away for the correspond- 
 ents. Tradition says, that Lord Derwentwater's corres- 
 pondence was thus conveyed; but it is very doubtful whether 
 he was in the original secret of the Rebellion. Whether the 
 fact was, that no scheme had been really formed abroad for 
 an insurrection in England, or that the Northumbrian 
 friends of the Prince reckoned upon the Earl's assistance 
 without consulting him, is not ascertained ; but we know 
 that when he did join the adherents of the Stuart cause, on 
 their ill-advised and inauspicious gathering, he was very 
 imperfectly prepared for such an enterprise. This, however, 
 is certain, that the Earl's religion, his affections, and sym- 
 pathies, were all on the side of the exiled heir of the right 
 and the misfortunes of the royal house of Stuart, and that 
 his influence in the north of England was not less than his 
 constancy and devotion ; and these circumstances being 
 very well known to the ministry of George I., a warrant for 
 the apprehension of the Earl and his brother Charles was 
 issued, the Government hoping, by thus gaining the move 
 in the game, to prevent the exercise of the Earl's influence 
 against King George. 
 
 But the Earl had a friendly warning of the attentions 
 which were being paid to him at Whitehall ; and on hearing 
 that the Government messengers had arrived at Durham, on 
 their way to arrest him and his brother, they withdrew from 
 their ancestral home, and proceeded to the house of Sir
 
 48 A VISIT TO 
 
 Marmaduke Constable, where they stayed some days/ 
 Sir Mariiiaduke himself was apprehended in Northumber- 
 land, on the charge of being engaged in a design for the 
 invasion of the realm by James. The Earl, it would seem, 
 afterwards took refuge, like King Charles II., in the home 
 of a humble cottager. A cottage near Newbiggen-house, 
 the retired and tasteful residence of Mr. Atkinson, was 
 lately standing, in which the Earl is said to have been con- 
 cealed when the Government messengers w^ere expected at 
 his mansion of Dilston. It is related that before he de- 
 parted from home, on hearing that a w^arrant w^as likely to 
 be issued for his apprehension, he went to a neighbouring 
 justice of the peace, and presuming that some informations 
 had been secretly taken, boldly demanded to know what 
 charges were made against him, but his enquiries were not 
 satisfied. 
 
 The following letter was written by the Earl shortly 
 before this period — the spelling is here modernised: — 
 
 " ])i]ston, July 27th, 1715. 
 " Mr. Hunter, 
 " As I know nobody is more ready to serve a friend than yourself, 
 I desire the favor you will keep my gray horse for me, till we sec 
 what will be done relating to horses. s I believe they"* will be 
 troublesome, for it is said the D. of Ormond is gone from his 
 house. God send us peace and good neighbourhood, — unknown 
 blessings since I was born. Pray ride my horse about the fields, 
 or any where you think he will not be known, and you will oblige, 
 Sir, yoiu- humble servant, Darwentwater." ^ 
 
 " He is at grass." 
 
 From tradition preserved in the family of Mr, Hunter of 
 Medomsley, the person addressed, there is every reason to 
 believe that the gray horse mentioned in the above letter, 
 was the identical steed wdiich was brought by the son of 
 Mr. Hunter to By well, and taken thence by Lord Derwent- 
 water's servant to Hexham for his lordship's use ; and upon 
 which the devoted Earl rode from Hexham, with the gallant 
 
 f " Sketch of the Life and Character animal of height and qualities suited 
 
 of Mr. IladcliflTo," printed hy T. Gard- to niilitarjr eiiuipmcnt. 
 ner, " Cowley's Head, opposite St. '' The government. 
 
 Clement's Church, Strand." 171G. ' Mr. Hunter was an ancestor of 
 
 e The nohle writer here refers to the the lady of Stamp Brookshank, Esq. 
 
 jealous penal regulation, which forbade of the Hermitage, near Hexham, in 
 
 a Roman Catholic to possess a noble whose possession this letter is preserved.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 49 
 
 champions of the Prince's right, on the 19th of October 
 following. In a Ballad relating to that fatal expedition, 
 it is said — 
 
 " Lord Derwentwater rode away, 
 Well mounted on his dapple gray ;" 
 
 and in the touching verses known as " Derwentwater's 
 Farewell," his " bonny gray steed" is one of the earthly 
 objects of his regard to which he is supposed to bid adieu. 
 But, to return to our narrative. 
 
 He remained in concealment through the latter part of 
 August, the whole of September, and at the beginning of the 
 ensuing month, during which period, the gentry of the 
 county favourable to the right of James III. meditated a 
 collective rising to maintain his cause. It may have been, 
 that the arrests of noblemen and gentlemen known to be 
 favourable to the claims of the Prince, disconcerted the 
 plans for a general insurrection in England simultaneous 
 with that of the Earl of Mar in Scotland, and that many 
 resolved to 'bide their time ; but it was not until the 6th of 
 October, that others, with more daring and less judgment, 
 showed themselves openly in rebellion.'' Tradition points 
 out Shafto Crags, as a place of the Earl's concealment ; — 
 a spot in that wild district, which is called " Sawter's 
 [soldier's] Nick," is said to be the place where, by descend- 
 ing a precipitous cliff, he escaped from the sentries who 
 had tracked the noble fugitive to his quarry. It may 
 have been during the period of his concealment, after 
 he quitted home, that the services of the fairy-postman 
 were employed ; at all events, before the 6th of October, 
 the Earl was acquainted of the intended rising of his friends. 
 During this time of anxiety and surveillance, all the money, 
 and even all the jewels of the Countess, are said by local 
 tradition to have become exhausted ; and the writer has 
 seen' a silver medal of Pope Clement XL, struck in the 
 fourteenth year of his pontificate (1713), which, for want of 
 money, is said to have been given by the Countess, when 
 encompassed by the Earl's enemies, to a peasant girl, for 
 selling poultry, or rendering some such service. 
 
 But early in October, the Earl's neighbours and friends, 
 
 ■^ Annals of the Second year of King Fenwick, of Tynemouth ; — in whose 
 
 George, 8vo. Lond. 1717, p. 72. family the relique has remained ever 
 
 ' In the possession of Mr. John W. since the event described. 
 
 E
 
 50 A VISIT TO 
 
 who were adherents to the cause of the exiled Prince, were 
 represented to him to be ready to appear in arms, and to 
 be only waiting for him and his brother to join them. The 
 Earl was at this time about twentv-six, in the flower of his 
 age : his brother Charles was about four years younger. The 
 Earl's character and qualities were not such as to incline 
 him to warfare ; but his strong personal attachment to the 
 Prince, than whom he acknowledged no other rightful sove- 
 reign, and a conscientious feeling of duty, no doubt pre- 
 pared him chivalrously to devote ease, fortune, possessions, 
 and even life, 
 
 "Ere the right should starve, and the wrong should stand." 
 
 But we have every reason to believe that the Earl would not 
 have joined a hostile array against the government of the 
 newly-arrived Hanoverian, at the particular time he did, if 
 he had not been hastily and suddenly impelled to do so by 
 an unforeseen combination of circumstances. If the gene- 
 rous young nobleman had advisedly taken such a step, he 
 could, no doubt, have augmented an array that might have 
 borne King James III. in triumph to his ancestral throne ; 
 and when he did resolve to join the friends who were count- 
 ing on his assistance, in actually levying war against the 
 existing dynasty, the harsh measure which the Government 
 had adopted against himself, placed him in circumstances in 
 which he could not have those advantages which his wealth 
 and influence would have commanded, if deliberately 
 exerted at an earlier time. His stake was heavier than that 
 of any of his neighbours. He was not only surrounded 
 by the tenderest domestic ties, and looked up to as the 
 good lord of numerous dependents, but he enjoyed hereditary 
 honours, and large possessions, all of which, as well his 
 life, were sure to be forfeited, if the enterprise which he 
 generously and imi)ulsively joined, should i)rove unsuccess- 
 ful. If the Earl, influenced by his natural disposition, and 
 by these considerations, did waver between contending influ- 
 ences, tradition avers, that, on stealthily revisiting Dilston 
 Hall, his lady reproached him for continuing to hide his 
 head in hovels from the light of day, when the gentry 
 were in arms for the cause of their rightful sovereign, and, 
 throwing down her fan before her lord, told him in cruel 
 raillery to take it, and give his sword to her. But the
 
 DILSTON HALL. 51 
 
 amiable and gentle character of the Countess, whom the 
 Earl, m his latest moments, declared to be all tenderness 
 and virtue, and to have loved him constantly, renders it very 
 improbable that such a domestic tableau really occurred. 
 But even supernatural influence is said by local tradition to 
 have determined the Earl to espouse in arms the cause of 
 James III. It was a belief in his family, we are told, as in 
 many other antient families, that a mysterious visitant — 
 bound to its fortunes by some fatal tie, appeared to its lords 
 either to warn them of danger, or to announce impending 
 calamity, — a harbinger of ill, rather than a manifestation 
 of the guardian spirit which has been supposed to attend 
 the individual in his earthly course, for 
 
 " When auffht was to befall 
 
 That antient line, in the pale moonshine 
 It walked from hall to hall." 
 
 On an evening shortly before his rising in the Stuart cause, 
 the young Earl, sad and pensive, is said to have roamed in 
 solitude through the wooded banks of the Divel's Water, 
 now pursuing his way through deep forest shadows, and 
 now emerging into green and moonlit glades, across which 
 the startled deer fled before him ; and, having passed the 
 Linnel's Bridge," and the site of the old ruined nunnery," 
 reached the Maiden's Walk — a terrace on the margin of a 
 cliff overhung with copsewood, looking down upon the vale 
 of Nunsburgh : that valley lay below, embosomed in deep 
 woods, over which the moon threw an unclouded lustre, 
 and almost insulated by the circling silvery current of the 
 river, which, issuing from umbrageous depths, was glitter- 
 ing over its shallow bed. The Earl was reclining beneath 
 a tree on this cliff", and, listening to the low soft voice 
 of the stream, was, perhaps, contrasting the repose of 
 nature with the agitations of the human breast, and the 
 
 " This still remains. An inscription river is nearly obliterated, partly from 
 
 on both sides of a Roman looking stone, passers by, and partly from the disin- 
 
 with Romanesque ornaments, erected tegrating action of the sun ; but the in- 
 
 on the centre of the bridge, begins — scription facing to the north, or down 
 
 " God preserve Wilfrid Erengton, the I'iver, is perfect, excepting in the 
 
 WHO BUiLDED THIS Bridge." The date, having been pi-eserved by thick 
 
 date, except the figures standing for ivy which mantled over it. 
 
 One thousand five hundred, is obliter- ° Dotland Park is the site of the old 
 
 ated, but is said to be 1530. The in- house of the Nuns, 
 scription on the side facing up the 
 
 E 2
 
 52 A VISIT TO 
 
 l)hantoms whicli disturb ambitious man, when a figure 
 stood before him in robe and hood of gray : — 
 
 " The form he might trace, but not the face — 
 
 'Twas shadow'd by a cowl : 
 But eyes might be seen from the folds between, 
 
 And they seemed of a 'parted soul." 
 
 The figure spoke to the astonished Earl, and warning him 
 that he should be riding for his King, gave him a crucifix, 
 which she declared (for the tones were those of a woman,) 
 should render sword or bullet harmless to him ; and so 
 saying, disappeared as the shadow that departeth, leaving 
 the agitated young nohleman to retrace his steps under the 
 influences of that strange awe, which a communication 
 from the world of spirits may he supposed to have induced. 
 Such is the legendary tale ; but the Earl's resolve belongs 
 not to the regions of tradition. 
 
 Whether his own principles and inclination, which led 
 him to csj)ouse the cause of his kinsman and his king, were 
 spurred by the supposed warnings of the phantom or the 
 persuasions of his lady, there is historical reason for he- 
 lieving that the Earl did suddenly decide on joining the 
 Prince's friends who were then in arms ; and his lady's 
 persuasions may have contrihuted to that fatal precipitation ; 
 for the feminine spirit is ever ardent in the cause it espouses, 
 and the feelings of the Jacohite ladies are said to have heen 
 peculiarly strong. Ray, the volunteer, remarked, " I found 
 always the ladies the most violent ; they would listen to no 
 manner of reason!" Ladies are often the first to suggest a 
 decided step where motives connected with politics, loyalty, 
 or religion, are in question ; and are the last to imagine 
 the possibility of failure. 
 
 The late Mr. Errington, who was popularly called the 
 chief of Beaufront, related" that Lord Derwentwater, the 
 day before he rose, came over to Mr. Errington's ancestor, 
 at the old mansion of Beaufront, to sound him, and if pos- 
 sible induce him to join ; and that the latter led the Earl in 
 conversation to the top of the hill, commanding a view of 
 Dilston Hall and its sylvan demesne, and besought him, 
 pointing to that residence, to pause before he left his 
 princely property for ever. The Earl pensively and mourn- 
 fully replied that it was now too late. 
 
 ° To Dr. Lingaid, tlie eminent historian.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 53 
 
 But, liis resolve once taken, the noble RadclifFe em- 
 braced his enterprise with heart and soul ; and all he said 
 and did from this time, evince constancy and firmness of 
 resolution. Having sent to a few neighbouring friends to 
 aiTange with them the time and place of meeting on the 
 morrow, and ordered every retainer about the Castle to be 
 then in readiness to follow him, he devoted the last evening 
 that he might ever pass on his paternal domains, to invo- 
 cation of the Divine blessing on his enterprise ; and there, 
 at the 
 
 " Soft hour which wakes the wish and melts the heart," 
 
 the Earl of Derwentwater, surrounded by his household in 
 his domestic chapel, addressed his orisons to the Throne of 
 
 Grace : — 
 
 " Ave Maria ! 'tis the hovir of prayer ! 
 
 Ave Maria ! 'tis the hour of love ! 
 Ave Maria ! may our spirits dare 
 
 Look up to thine, and to thy Son's above !" 
 
 On the morning of the 6th of October, 1715, as soon as 
 Aurora's 
 
 " dawning beam 
 
 Purpled the mountain and the stream," 
 
 the domestic levy was assembled in the court-yard of the 
 castle, arms were supplied to them, and every horse was 
 put in requisition ; and although the little force thus mus- 
 tered may not have been much like a fencible troop, the 
 Earl and his brother Charles, who was spirited, courageous, 
 and daring, even to rashness, hastily set out, thus attended, 
 from their paternal home : — 
 
 " For the RadclifFe hath spoken, — 
 The RadclifFe hath broken 
 
 The chains the usurper had made : 
 And never was seen 
 So gallant a mien 
 
 As he mounted the Stuart's cockade." 
 
 The Earl, his brother, and their company crossed the Divel's 
 Water at the Nunsburgh Ford, on their way to meet a 
 small but ardent band, which had gathered in the vicinity. 
 That little band assembled under circumstances thus nar- 
 rated by Patten,'' a confederate of the enterprise, who was 
 chaplain of the Prince's friends on this their expedition. 
 
 P In his Account of the Rebellion, 8vo. 1717, p. 23.
 
 54 A VISIT TO 
 
 After stating that Mr. Forster (who was a Northumbrian 
 member of Parhament and Church-of-England man) '^ had 
 received notice, that messengers were coming to arrest him 
 and other of the Prince's friends, and that, being thus driven 
 to extremity, " they determined to precipitate the intended 
 insurrection," Patten says — 
 
 " Upon this news, they had a full meeting of the parties con- 
 cerned in Northumberland, when, consultinj^ all the circumstances 
 of their friends, and of the interest they were embarked in, they 
 boldly resolved that there was no safety any longer in shifting from 
 place to place ; that in a few days they would be all secured and 
 cla])ped up in several prisons, or hurried away to London ; that as 
 they would be severally examined, none could say what the other 
 should answer, so that for fear of betraying one another, tliey would 
 be really brought to do it ; that now was the time to show their 
 loyalty to their King, and that if this opportunity were lost, they 
 had no room to hope for another ; and that, therefore, they would 
 innnediately appear in arms. Pursuant to tliis resolution, appoint- 
 ment was made, and notice of it sent to all their friends to meet 
 the next morning, which was the 6th of October, at a place called 
 Greenriggs, which was done accordingly." 
 
 Old ladies of the last century used to tell of occurrences 
 of evil omen, which marked the departure of the devoted 
 young nobleman from the home of his fathers, to which he 
 was destined never to return ; how% on his quitting the 
 court-yard, his favourite dog howled lamentably ; how his 
 horse became restive, and could, with difficulty, be urged 
 forward; and how he soon afterwards found that he had 
 lost from his finger a highly prized ring, the gift of his 
 revered grandmother, which he constantly wore. Meantime, 
 the friends to whom he was advancing, in number, says 
 Patten, at first about twenty, met at the rendezvous, but 
 made no stay there, thinking the place inconvenient. 
 Grccnridge is a hill still so called. It is situated not far 
 fi-om Hexham, to the south west. 
 
 " They rode," he continues, " to the top of a hill called the 
 Waterfalls,' from whence they might discover any that came cither 
 to join them or to oppose them. They had not been long here 
 
 P Further mention of ^rr. Forster hor ])rotlicr. It is a hill popularly 
 
 will be made presently, and also of an called the Waterfalls, because, being 
 
 act of heroic devotion performed by Mr. the most elevated land, the water, rain, 
 
 Forster 's sister in his behalf. or springs divide and fall thence on all 
 
 ' Now the property of Miss Shafto, sides, 
 as heiress of the late Colonel Shafto,
 
 DILSTON HALL. 55 
 
 when they discovered the Earl of Derwentwater, who came tliat 
 morning from his seat at Dilston, with some friends and all his 
 servants, mounted, some upon his coach horses and others upon 
 very good useful horses, and all very well armed." 
 
 Having crossed the Tyne near Hexham, they halted at 
 the seat of Mr. Errington,^ where several other gentlemen 
 had been appointed to meet, who joined the Earl, and then 
 advanced all together to the place appointed. Their party 
 now numbered nearly sixty horse, mostly gentlemen and 
 their attendants ; a short council being held, a march 
 towards the river Coquet was decided upon ; and to the 
 small town of Rothbury, they rode aw^ay the same night 
 accordingly. Charles RadclifFe, who possessed boldness and 
 intrepidity in danger, led his noble brother's company ; and 
 it was he, who, like a good tactitian, secured the bridge at 
 Felton. And now — 
 
 " Beneath Widdrington's walls 
 A lone trumpet calls 
 
 The valiant to rise for King James." 
 
 So on the morning of the 7th, when they marched to 
 
 " Warkworth, proud of Percy's name," 
 
 they were there joined by Lord Widdrington,' another 
 Catholic peer, with his two brothers, and Mr. Ord and 
 other friends and follow^ers, to the number of thirty. On 
 their march thither, the friends of the Prince appear to have 
 pressed into their army Mr. John Hall, a Northumbrian 
 magistrate; for among the State Papers is his petition, when 
 under sentence of death for high treason, in which he states 
 that, on the 7th of October he was surrounded by two 
 hundred men in arms, at a spot about half a mile from the 
 
 * The old mansion at Beaufront, on clifFe family, found a place of safety in 
 
 the northern side of the river, from the the Erringtons' friendly care, but were 
 
 elevated site of which its inhabitants dispersed after the death of John Er- 
 
 saw all the changing aspects of Dil- rington, Esq., who was called the Chief 
 
 ston Hall, was demolished some twelve of Beaufront, which happened about 
 
 or fourteen years ago. It is described to 1826. 
 
 have been an antient manor-house, and ' This nobleman was the fourth Lord 
 there was a place imder the oak stair- Widdrington, great grandson of the lord 
 case of the old hall where the Earl lay who was killed on the side of the King 
 concealed from the Government mes- in 1651, as related by Clarendon. Ac- 
 sengers. When the noble owner of cording to Patten, the account of his 
 Dilston Hall was no more, several descendant, who took a part in the 
 family pictures, that had adorned its events of 1715, is much less favour- 
 walls, and other heir-looms of the Rad- able.
 
 56 A VISIT TO 
 
 post road between Alnwick and Fclton, and six miles from 
 Rothbury, and was by them forcibly carried away and kept 
 under restraint, although provided with only six or seven 
 shillings and a small sword. 
 
 They chose Mr. Forster to be their general, not on account 
 of any superior influence or station enjoyed by him, still 
 less from any attributes of great ability or military know- 
 ledge, but simply because he was a Protestant, and because 
 it was thought that popular animosity would be aroused if a 
 Papist were at their head. Mr. Forster was the eldest son 
 of Thomas Forster, of Etherstone (now Adderstone), Esq., 
 descended from an old and respectable family. He was 
 baptised on the 29th March, 1683, and had therefore at 
 this time conn)letcd only the thirty-second year of his age. 
 In 1710, he was chosen a representative for his native 
 county. Although he was a Protestant, his view^s as to the 
 right to the succession were such, that the partizans of 
 King James easily attached him to their cause ; and his 
 house became for a time the rendezvous of the party. His 
 family were owners of the once-renowned castle and manor 
 of Bamburgh, which was forfeited by him in this (so called) 
 Rebellion ; but it does not appear whether the old manor- 
 house, which w^as then standing on the land of the Monks 
 at Bamburgh, was the mansion within which the Prince's 
 friends assembled. When he heard that a warrant w^as out 
 against him, he fled in disguise to the house of Mr. Fenwick, 
 of Bywell ; and from there he proceeded to meet Lord 
 Derwentwater on the morning of tlie 6th of October. But, 
 to resume our narrative. Mr. Forster himself, in disguise, 
 proclaimed James HI. at Warkworth with sound of trumpet, 
 and such other formalities as a remote villafre could admit. 
 On the Sunday morning the incumbent was directed to pray 
 for the Prince as King, for Mary, Queen mother, and all 
 the dutilul branches of the royal family ; but as he declined 
 to do so, Mr. Buxton, a chaplain of the Prince's army, 
 relieved the incumbent of his duties, who withdrew to New- 
 castle to give information of these doings. From Warkworth 
 the whole party marched to Alnwick, the castle of which, 
 in a contemporary history of the events we are narrating, 
 is described as an old dila])idated house of the Duke of 
 Somerset's. At Alnwick, James III. was proclaimed, and 
 the army marched from thence to Morpeth, which town
 
 DILSTON HALL. 57 
 
 they entered three hundred strong, a large number of 
 volunteers having joined from the borders, who were 
 mounted, but not provided with arms. It seems probable, 
 says a noble writer," that a rapid advance might have given 
 the insurgents possession of Newcastle, where several lead- 
 ing gentlemen, including Sir William Blackett,^ were eager 
 to receive and aid them ; but their delay enabled the inhabit- 
 ants, the majority of whom were warmly in favour of the 
 Protestant succession, to prepare for defence. It seems 
 to have been intended to surprise this antient borough; 
 but Newcastle was not then " a place," in Patten's language, 
 '' to be entered as an open village, but had an old and very 
 strong stone wall about it, and very good gates ; " and the 
 alarm having been given, the governors of the town " kept 
 strong guard there." In a letter dated at Durham, the 9th 
 of October,* the writer says — 
 
 " You will be surprised, no doubt, to hear of an insurrection in 
 Northumberland, as we are much more here ; and at Newcastle, 
 the confusion is so great that, though it began six miles beyond 
 Alnwick, yet we have no certain account of the leaders of the 
 rebels : only in general we learn, that their chief leaders are the 
 two popish Lords, Derwentwater and Widdrington, and Sir William 
 Blackett and Mr. Forster are said to be with them. The maeis- 
 trates of Newcastle show great loyalty to King George, and are 
 resolved to defend their town with all their might : they have 
 secured all the Papists there, both poor and rich, and barricaded 
 all the gates to the north. This afternoon, two hundred and fifty 
 men of Hotham's regiment, were sent from Darlington hither by 
 Government." 
 
 The worthy magistrates of Newcastle may have been very 
 " loyal to King George," but they were also very much 
 frightened, for another letter from Newcastle says — 
 
 " The gates are all bricked up except two, viz., the Bridge and 
 Pandon Gate ; there are two pieces of cannon planted at the 
 latter." 
 
 But General Carpenter y commanding the detachment above 
 
 " Lord Malion, in his History of already quoted, that the Prince's army 
 
 England, vol. i. p. 238. had some assurances that their friends 
 
 "■" Among the State Papers is a letter would secure Newcastle for them ; 
 
 from Townshend, secretary of state, to and Sir William's influence was relied 
 
 Sir William Blackett, requiring him to on, hut failed them, 
 come to town and answer for his con- " Daily Courant, " 13th October, 
 
 duct. It is dated the 4th February, 1715. 
 1716. It is said in the " Annals " ^ He is described as an officer of
 
 58 A VISIT TO 
 
 mentioned, came totlicir relief; and, finding this important 
 post secured, marched for Moi'peth, followed by Molesworth's 
 di'agoons. The Prince's army, meantime, turning aside, 
 proceeded to Hexham, from whence they hoped to commu- 
 nicate with their friends in Lancashire ; and they had already 
 sent an express to Lord Mar, to state their want of foot 
 soldiers, and request aid in that respect. 
 
 It was reported that they designed to fortify Hexham, 
 " it being a very important post, having a ford over the 
 Tyne,'' (for Smeaton's fine bridge did not then exist,) " and 
 oi)ening a comnumication with Lancashire on the one side, 
 and Scotland on the other." ^ 
 
 We may here pause to think of the feelings w^hich proba- 
 bly agitated the breast of Lord Denvcntwater and his gallant 
 brother, on their first bivouac among the friends and fol- 
 lowers of the Stuart cause, reposing on their arms in the 
 quaint old market place of Hexham, all committed, in-evo- 
 cably, to open war against the existing dynasty and govern- 
 ment. We can imagine their thoughts, on \aewing from a 
 distance their deserted home, and all its familiar scenes ; — 
 
 " And thinking on their own grey tower, 
 Their waving woods, their feudal power," — 
 
 exchanged for the hardships of a military campaign, and 
 the anxieties of a doubtful contest. 
 
 In the old mansion of Staward, a farm-house about 
 half a-mile from Staward Peel, and eleven miles from Dil- 
 ston, the Earl of Derwent water is said to have spent the 
 last night that he passed in this part of Northumberland, 
 before he set out with the Prince's army ; and there is 
 reason to believe, that it was during the occupation of 
 Hexham by the adherents of the Stuart cause, that the 
 Earl slept at Staward. This house is still standing, and 
 possessed a very antique and picturesque aspect, before it 
 w^as altered and repaired. The Prince's friends made no 
 long tarrying at Hexham ; for while they had been ineffec- 
 tually marching about the county, another insurrection was 
 in course of organization in the south-w^est of Scotland ; 
 
 great merit, who was second in com- luiega, and liigh in the confidence of 
 mand at the battles of Almenara and Stanliope. 
 
 Saragoza, and at the defence of Bri- > Annals of the Second Year of King 
 
 Cleorge's Keign, p. 76.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 59 
 
 and the leader, Lord Kenmure, determined to unite his 
 forces with the army commanded by Mr. Forster.^ 
 
 " Kenmure's on and awa, Willie, 
 
 Kenmure's on and awa' ; 
 And Kenmure's lord is the bonniest lord 
 
 That Galloway e'er saw. 
 
 There's a rose in Kenmure's cap, Willie, 
 There's a rose in Kenmure's cap ; 
 
 He'll steep it red in foemen's blood 
 Afore the battle drap." 
 
 Lord Kenmure was an attached member of the Protes- 
 tant church. He was a virtuous nobleman, sensible, 
 resolute, and calm ; and he was much beloved by the 
 peasantry of Nithsdale and Galloway. When he departed 
 from his paternal domains of Kenmure, he was at the 
 head of about two hundred horsemen, and these he led 
 into England. 
 
 To effect this junction with the English, Lord Kenmure's 
 followers proceeded through Hawick and Jedburgh, across 
 the border, to Rothbury, where they were joined by the 
 English champions of the Prince's right, who, after remaining 
 three days at Hexham, where their forces were augmented by 
 volunteers with horses and arms, and where James 111. was 
 proclaimed, had proceeded on the 19th to Rothbuiy. Tlie 
 combined body, being informed that Lord Mar had sent 
 Brigadier Macintosh and a reinforcement to their aid, and 
 that he was approaching Kelso as the place of junction, 
 marched to that town accordingly, where on the 22nd they 
 joined the forces led by MacLitosh, which numbered 1400 
 foot ; the Northumbrian and Dumfriesshire horsemen under 
 Forster and Lord Kenmure respectively, being about 600 in 
 in number. William Macintosh, of Borlum, Esquire, was 
 a gentleman of gi-eat natural endowments, improved by a 
 liberal education. His manners were marked by gentleness 
 and amenity. He was of a friendly disposition, and warm 
 in his attachments. Yet he seems to have had no difficulty 
 in putting on the character required in camps, where his 
 deportment was that of the austere disciplinarian — a cha- 
 
 * Lord Kenmure proclaimed James was joined by the Earls of Nithsdale, 
 
 in. at Moffat, on the 12th of October ; Wintown, and Carnwath, and other 
 
 and attempted, unsuccessfully, to sur- persons of note, but tlie chief command 
 
 prise Dumfries. Within a few days he remained with himself.
 
 60 A VISIT TO 
 
 racter quite needful to tlie control of raw English recruits 
 and uiKuitivated lligliland clansmen. Macintosh was, 
 moreover, in every sense of the word, a patriot, as anxious 
 to secure, by the success of Scottish arms, the glory and 
 inde})endence of his country — objects which he conceived 
 to be attainable only by the restoration of her antient line 
 of monarchs, — as to advance her tranquil prosperity, by 
 the improvement of her soil and the extension of her 
 natural resources. He held a captain's commission in the 
 army of James II. before the Revolution, at which period 
 he went abroad and followed the fate of his royal master 
 for several years ; and faithful to the Stuart cause, we now 
 find him the champion of that monarch's exiled heir. 
 
 We left the Prince's friends at Kelso, where, in the 
 great abbey church, on Sunday, the 23rd, Patten himself 
 preached on the text, " The right of the first born is his." 
 And the Scottish muse, ever sympathizing with the exiled 
 Stuarts, had not failed to prepare the gentle sex to echo 
 Avith devotion in the cottage — 
 
 " His right tliese hills, his right these plains, 
 O'er Highland hearts secure he reigns ; 
 What lads e'er did, our lads will do ; — 
 Were I a lad, I'd join him too !"
 
 DILSTON HALL. 61 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 He trusted 
 
 The fickle reek of popular breath, the tongue 
 Of hollow counsel, — the false oracle 
 Which, from the birth of monarchy, hath rung 
 Its knell in princely ears." 
 
 On hearing that Lieut. -General Carpenter was advancing 
 from Newcastle, at the head of a force 900 in number to 
 attack them, a council of war was held at Kelso. Two 
 plans were open for the adoption of the Prince's army: 
 First, to march southwards and engage Carpenter's forces, 
 which there was a prospect of defeating even by irregular 
 troops, for the General's forces were newly levied, and 
 were very raw soldiers. The second plan was to march 
 northwards, to take the army of Argyle in the rear, and so 
 co-operate with Lord Mar's attack in front. Either of these 
 plans, but especially a junction with Lord Mar's forces in 
 the west of Scotland, promised great advantages, but diffe- 
 rence of opinion prevented either plan from being adopted. 
 The Scottish officers refused to enter England, and the 
 English would advance no further in Scotland ; so a sense- 
 less half-measure was decided upon, namely, to proceed 
 along the range of the Cheviots. As Carpenter was 
 advancing, the Northumbrians and Highlanders marched 
 from Kelso to Jedburgh, where they remained two days, 
 and marched from thence to Hawick. At Jedburgh, on 
 the 30th of October, they were followed by the troops of 
 King George, who are described to have been so wearied as 
 to be incapable of resistance if they had been then attacked. 
 While the Prince's friends were at Hawick, the Earl and 
 his brother and several of the other chiefs were lodged 
 at the house of the Duchess of Buccleuch. The Earl of 
 Derwentwater conceived it wise policy to strike a bold 
 stroke in Scotland, and endeavour to complete the conquest 
 of that country, which would enable them to march upon 
 England with an overwhelming force, commanding at the
 
 62 A VISIT TO 
 
 same time resources and a place for retreat. Charles Rad- 
 cliffe also \Yislied to attack the army of Argyle ; but their 
 counsel was oveiTuled by the rest of their English colleagues. 
 The consequence was, that General Carpenter and his 
 dragoons falling into their track, gave to their march the 
 a})})earance of a flight ; their disputes, too, were kept alive 
 by the want of a final decision ; at length, having reached 
 Langholm, in the wooded dale of the Esk, and near the Bor- 
 ders, they, after a long altercation, finally resolved upon an 
 invasion of Lancashire, several of the Northumbrian gentry 
 declaring that they had assurances from that county that 
 20,000 men would there join the Prince's standard. The 
 Earl of Derwentwater is said to have warmly protested 
 against this course, as likely to end in their ruin ; but the 
 advocates of the invasion of Lancashire vehemently over- 
 bore opposition ; Macintosh himself entered heartily into 
 this plan, but was unable to prevail upon all his followers, 
 a body of whom, 500 in number, disregarding his orders, 
 marched to the northward by themselves, leaving the 
 Prince's army to proceed by rapid marches into England. 
 The main body arrived at Longtown on the night of the 
 31st October. On the 1 st of November, they took up their 
 quarters for the night at the small town of Brampton, w^here 
 Mr. Forster produced a commission, which he had received 
 during the march, from the Earl of Mar, authorizing him to 
 act as general in England. 
 
 But before we trace their further course, w^e may relieve 
 the detail of mihtary campaigning by something of a gentler 
 kind, and here refer to a pretty ballad called " Derwent- 
 w^ater," which is preserved in the Reliques of Jacobite 
 Poetr}^ and seems to relate to an incident that occurred 
 before the Earl had recrosscd the Scottish border.^ The 
 poetry of the ballad possesses some beauty, but it seems to 
 insinuate a tender sentiment on the part of the Scottish 
 lady towards Lord Dei-wentwater, which, as she was a 
 married woman, is no doubt in dereliction of moral propriety. 
 However, it runs as follows : — 
 
 " O Dcrwentwater's a bonny lord, 
 And golden la his hair, 
 
 ^ Hogg, the editor of the ' Reliques,' of a young girl in the parish of Kirk- 
 says, the ballad was taken from the lips bean, Galloway.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 03 
 
 And glenting is his hawking e'e, 
 
 With kind love dwelling there. 
 Yest're'en he came to our lord's gate, 
 
 And loud, loud did he ca,' 
 ' Rise up, rise up for good King James, 
 
 And buckle and come awa'. ' 
 
 " Our ladie held by her gude lord 
 
 Wi' weel love-locked hands, 
 But when young Derwentwater came. 
 
 She loosed the snowy bands ; 
 And when young Derwentwater kneeled — 
 
 ' My gentle, fair ladie,' 
 The tears gave way to the glow of love 
 
 In our gude ladle's e'e. 
 
 " ' I will think,' he said, ' on those e'en of blue, 
 
 And on this snowy hand. 
 When on the helmy ridge of war 
 
 Comes down my trusty brand.' 
 O not a word our ladie spake, 
 
 As he pressed her snawy hand. 
 But, ' Ah, my Derwentwater,' she sighed, 
 
 When his glowing lips she fand. 
 
 " His hand has dropped the tassel of gold 
 
 Which knots his gude war-glove, 
 And he has dropped a spark from his e'en, 
 
 Which gars our ladie love. 
 ' Come down, come down,' our gude lord cried, 
 
 * Come down, my fair ladie ; 
 * O dinna young Lord Derwent stop, 
 
 ' The morning sun is hie.' 
 
 " And high, high rose the morning sun, 
 
 Wi' front o' ruddie blude, — 
 ' Thy ruddie front frae thy white curtain 
 
 Betokens naething gude.' 
 Our ladie looked frae the turret top 
 
 As long as she could see, 
 And for every sigh for her gude lord. 
 
 For Derwent there were three." 
 
 This ballad certainly represents the lady as having 
 forgotten herself, but the gallant Derwentwater's marital 
 fidelity rests on proof too good to be displaced by tliis 
 poetical story of his flirtation. 
 
 But we must turn fi'om ballad-romance to historic reality. 
 The brave and resolute band seems, on entering England, 
 to have numbered less than one thousand, only seven
 
 64 A VISIT TO 
 
 hundred being mounted. Tlie English wore red and white 
 coekades ; those of the Scoteh were hkie and white. From 
 Brampton they proceeded towards the south ; 
 
 " And many a smile 
 In merry Carlisle, 
 
 As the young Ivirl bowed lowly, attests 
 That the hearts of the fair, 
 With vow and with prayer, 
 
 Took the field with the Stuart's white crests." 
 
 While the gallant English noblemen and their followers 
 were advancing towards Penrith, the militia, aided by all 
 the fencible rustics who could be arrayed by the sheriff, 
 were assembled on Penrith Fell, in the line of march of the 
 Prince's army. A writer in a newspaper of the time, says, 
 they wTre 10,000 strong ; while a person who seems to 
 have been with the army in its progress, has narrated that 
 the posse comitcdus numbered 1^5,000 men. They were 
 armed, or rather provided with rustic implements to supply 
 the place of weapons, but were headed by the Earl of 
 Carlisle and Lord Lonsdale. At eleven in the forenoon, 
 the Prince's army was reported to be within six miles of 
 this rustic militia, and the dreadful idea which was spread 
 among them of the force and ])rowess of the advancing 
 army gaining strength as the intervening distance di- 
 minished, the Cumbrian ploughmen and militia deserted 
 before the hour when the Earl of Derwentwater, at the head 
 of the Northumbrian troops, appeared in sight, accompanied 
 by their gallant companions, and by the Highland forces 
 under MacLitosh, although the Stuart host can hardly be 
 supposed to have moved, 
 
 like a deep-sea wave 
 
 Where rise no rocks its pride to brave, 
 High swelling, dark and slow." 
 
 The posse comitatiis, however, left Lord Lonsdale sup- 
 ported by only some twenty men, who, with his Lordship, 
 veiy prudently retired likewise on seeing the force opposed 
 to them. The flight of the fencibles is alluded to as fol- 
 lows, in " An excellent New Song on the Rebellion," 
 which is preserved in the Jacobite Rcliques : 
 
 " Macintosh was a soldier brave, and did most gallantly behave, 
 When into Cumberland he came, with gallant men of his own name ;
 
 DILSTON HALL. 65 
 
 Then Derwentwater he did say, ' That five hundred guineas he would 
 
 lay, 
 They'd beat the militia, man to man ; and cowards they proved — for 
 
 off they ran." 
 
 And on the deserted field, several useful keepsakes were 
 left to General Forster, in the shape of horses and arms. 
 The writer of a letter dated the 5th November, 1715,'' 
 thus jocosely describes the conduct of the Cumbrian plough- 
 men, which, however, he attributes to hunger rather than 
 to fear : — 
 
 " They appeared with their pitchforks on the very ground 
 through which the rebels were to march, and most of their parsons 
 were with them, applauding their zeal and [sustaining their] cou- 
 rage. This unanimity and good understanding between priests 
 and people continued till about one o'clock, when no enemy 
 appearing abroad, and great gnawings being felt within, and no 
 opportunity of refreshment in view, the infantry began to drop 
 off, and continued so to do until (about three in the afternoon) we 
 had advice that the rebels were coming towards us. I cannot say 
 that this raised our spirits — they were so much sunk, and our 
 enemies knew it. In short ; they marched on, and we marched 
 off; the very sheriff, though a gentleman of good personal courage 
 and undoubted loyalty, was beaten down with the universal deluge 
 of despair ; and Lord Lonsdale had not above twenty besides his 
 own servants who continued with him, till the triumphant Lord 
 Derwentwater, Lord Nithsdale, &c. appeared in sight ; and then, 
 in imitation of the great example of a very good lord, we wisely 
 retreated. . . . Lord Lonsdale was- denied entrance into the 
 Castle at Appleby, until it was demanded in the King's name ; 
 and even that would hardly do, until somewhat warmer discourse 
 
 had passed Whether sufficient force can anywhere 
 
 be had to stem the present torrent, is extremely doubtful. The 
 only promising hope is from the narrow passes among the moun- 
 tains, through which the rebels were to march yesterday [the 4th], 
 in some of which, twenty men may for some time maintain their 
 ground against a thousand." 
 
 At three o'clock in the afternoon of the 2nd, the Prince's 
 army, 1 700 strong, entered Penrith, where Mr. Forster pro- 
 claimed James to be King ; and told the listening group, 
 that the appearance of himself and his friends there was 
 " for the security of the true High Church of England." 
 
 The excise dues in the hands of the collectors were de- 
 manded and received in the name of James IIL, and the 
 
 " Published in the " London Flying Post," of 22nd November, 1715. 
 
 F
 
 66 A VJSIT TO 
 
 contributions levied on the town arc said to have amounted 
 to £500. 
 
 The newspaper con-espondent already quoted, describes, 
 in a subsequent letter, a more trying humiliation of the 
 hungry militia on their inglorious campaign, for he says — 
 
 " The rebels supped on the provisions we had bespoken for 
 ourselves, and their commanders rested quietly in our beds — as 
 well they might, seeing how modest we were in resigning every- 
 thing intp their hands." 
 
 A supper seems to have been provided for persons of no 
 less importance than the Bishop of Carlisle and the officers 
 of the militia, but it was eaten by their invaders. 
 
 Early on the succeeding morning (3rd November), the 
 Pi'ince's army marched for Appleby, and completed the 
 miseries of the Government men, by intercepting their 
 letters, by way of breakfast, and ascertaining the tactics of 
 Whitehall, in relation to " the Rebels." A portion of the 
 Prince's army encamped at Shap ; and a visit was made to 
 the seat of Lord Lonsdale, where they consumed an abund- 
 ance of his Lordship's wine and ale, the former of which 
 was gratefully pronounced to be of excellent quality, and 
 the latter exceedingly strong. The things portable, how- 
 ever, were of less value than those potable, consisting 
 chiefly of harness, with boots and Kidderminster stuffs, 
 wdiich were useful (says the narrator) to " their bare- 
 shanked Highlanders ; " and the rest of the booty consisted 
 of husbandly horses, which w^e may suppose to have been 
 somewhat heavy and reluctant followers of the Prince's 
 army. 
 
 But although the gallant adherents of Prince James 
 sustained no injury from the valiant militia, they suffered 
 from the fears of some of their own followers. At Appleby 
 they were deserted by Mr. Ainslie, who had joined them at 
 Jedburgh, and by sixteen gentlemen of Teviotdale, who 
 did not like their prospects in England, and remembered 
 probably, that their ancestors in earlier reigns had seldom 
 advanced far on the English territory wdth impunity.' The 
 Government, who seem to have been " wise in their genera- 
 
 *= A contemporary journal states that hirelings on their return northward 
 
 between 400 and 500 Scottish merce- were selling tlieir firelocks, swords, 
 
 naries also deserted the army on the targets, and pistols, to procure food 
 
 march towards Liverpool, and that these upon the road.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 67 
 
 tion," had managed to arrest many of the leading CathoHc 
 gentry in Cumberland and Westmoreland, before the 
 Prince's friends appeared in arms in those counties ; "^ and 
 hence his volunteers were deprived of material support, on 
 which they had relied — a consequence probably of then* 
 fatal hesitation and delay in Scotland. The English gentle- 
 men, before they invaded England, reckoned on a force of 
 20,000 men flocking to their banner in their route to Lan- 
 caster ; but a very small number of the men of promise 
 joined their ranks in their march thither ; and save that 
 the Prince's army, when arrived at that city, was joined, 
 as it had been at Kirkby Lonsdale, by several gentlemen of 
 antient families in the neighbourhood, accompanied by 
 their followers, the reinforcements which the Prince's 
 army received were for the most part from persons of the 
 lower order. The disaffection of the commonalty is de- 
 scribed, in contemporary annals, to have been great ; the 
 people thought favourably of the Prince in exile, but unfa- 
 vourably of the person and government of King George ; 
 and several of the clergy fomented these sentiments. So 
 it was, that in the progress of the Prince's little band of 
 devoted adherents, many of those clergymen, who were not 
 attached to the existing order of things by opulent bene- 
 fices or hopes of promotion, rallied round the standard of 
 the exiled claimant to the throne. Still, the Prince's friends 
 did not receive the promised reinforcements ; and it is, 
 probably, this disappointment which is alluded to in the 
 following verse of an old Jacobite song : — 
 
 " Lord Derwentwater rode away, 
 Well mounted on his dapple gray, 
 But soon he wished him home with speed, 
 Fearing they were betrayed indeed." 
 
 The Eaa'l had now accompanied his fi^iends on their rash 
 impulsive entei'prise to the vicinity of his peaceful moun- 
 tain-home. Their footsteps echoed through naiTow ravines, 
 or over sterile and lonely fells, whose stillness perhaps had 
 never before been broken by martial sounds : the array and 
 accoutrements of war glittered in the cold wintry sunlight, 
 as they crossed the mountain side ; and were reflected in 
 
 •i Mr. Howard of Corby, Mr. Cur- Catholic gentry, had been secured in 
 wen of Workington, and others of the Carlisle Castle. 
 
 F 2
 
 68 A VISIT TO 
 
 the margin of the tranquil lakes ; or were shrouded, at 
 " dewT^ eve," in the deep mists tliat ascended from the 
 vale. But gallantly as his adventurous hand rode on 
 through these familiar scenes, the Earl listened mournfully 
 to the rippling of those deep cold waters on the weedy shore, 
 and to the hollow murmurs of the wind as it swept through 
 many a mile of leafless wood upon their dark decli^^ties : 
 his heart was heavy when he hade " Good Night" to 
 the majestic al})ine forms that towered around him, and 
 seemed to mock, in their enduring repose, the transient 
 dominion, the ephemeral and disquieting pursuits of man. 
 It might be, that, like the shadow which departeth, he was 
 passing for the last time these changeless hills and peaceful 
 dales ; and though Lord Derwentwater's bearing 
 
 " Was martial and high, 
 Yet were tears in his eye, 
 
 As he turned to see Skiddaw again ; 
 And well might he sorrow, 
 For far on the morrow 
 
 Would he be from his mountain domain."
 
 DILSTON HALL. 69 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 " From St. John to Helvellyn, 
 
 Wild war-notes are swelling, 
 From Blencathra and Glendaratar ; 
 
 Upon steep and on crag, 
 
 Stream banner and flag, 
 And the pennons and plumage of war. 
 
 " The winds as they rise, 
 
 Bear onward the cries 
 Of gentle, and simple, and churl; 
 
 As the rally- cry ran 
 
 From man unto man, 
 For the King, and the Cause, and the Earl !" 
 
 The Prince's army having remained on the 4th and part of 
 Saturday the 5th November at Appleby, marched early on 
 that day to Kendal, where the Earl of Derwentwater and his 
 servants were lodged at a hostelry called the White Lion, in 
 Strickland-gate ; the other lords found quarters at the King's 
 Arms, an old inn kept by Mr. Rawlinson, then mayor of 
 the town. General Forster w^as lodged in the house of Mr. 
 Simpson, an alderman ; w^here his godmother, Mrs. Belling- 
 ham, was staying, who however refused to see her " rebel" 
 godson. It was still raining heavily when the army entered 
 Kendal, so that no swords were di'awn, nor colours shown, 
 nor di'ums beat, — the bagpipes only were played at the 
 head of the troops. The wTiter already quoted, who was 
 probably a valet of the Earl's, has recorded that Brigadier 
 Macintosh " looked w4th a grim countenance," when he 
 entered this antient town ; and that he W'Ore his plaid, his 
 target on his shoulder, and his sword and pistols by his 
 side. At the Cross, a Scotsman, in good English, pro- 
 claimed James III. His proclamation began thus : — 
 " Whereas George, Elector of Brunswick, has usurped and 
 taken upon him the style of King of these realms ;" and, it
 
 70 A VISIT TO 
 
 went on to aver that the Piince " did immediately after his 
 father's decease hecome our onlv and lawfiil liege. " = 
 
 Fortunately ibr his army, excise dues to the amount of 
 £80 were payable by innkeepers at Kendal, which were 
 forthwith levied " for his Majesty's use." This was not 
 the only instance in which the laws of excise and customs 
 were serviceable to the adventurous band : a few days before 
 the Prince's followers entered Lancaster, the custom-house 
 officers had seized a large quantity of brandy, which had 
 been " mn" from the Isle of Man. This seasonable supply 
 was partly consumed in the town by the Prince's adherents; 
 and the rest was dispatched in a cart towards Garstang, 
 whither they were going, hut, as might have been expected, 
 it was destined never to arrive there, " for they made an 
 end of it upon the road." But they were not so fortunate 
 in regard to the two barrels of gunpowder which constituted 
 the ammunition of Lancaster ; for the inhabitants, two days 
 before, pubhcly threw it into the well in the market-place — 
 a proceeding which desei'ves the notice of the peace agitators 
 of the present day. 
 
 But the Prince's champions did not remain long in 
 Kendal. On the 7th they entered Lancaster in military 
 array ; with swords drawn and colours flying, the drums 
 beating accompaniment to the noisy strains of the bag- 
 pipes ; ^ — 
 
 " for loud 
 
 And louder rang the pibroch proud." 
 
 First came 200 English noblemen and gentlemen, and 
 followers, mounted ; next, the Highlanders on foot, 
 then 200 Lowland Scottish, followed by the Scottish 
 horse. ^ The notorious Colonel Chartres, who had oc- 
 cupied Lancaster for King George, retired on hearing of 
 the approach of the Prince's army ; and so the Stuart 
 
 e At the end, a loud shout was given, rencesfrom 2d Novcmher, 1715. [See 
 
 all persons uncovering their heads, save Ur. Hibhert-Ware's Lancashire Re- 
 
 a (Quaker, who was among the by- cords.] 
 
 standers, whereupon a lliglilander s Christopher Hopkins, a Lancas- 
 
 thrust a halbert at him, but the wea- ter stationer, was taking account of the 
 
 pon passed between the Qnaker and number of the invaders, when he was 
 
 the narrator of these ])roccedings. seized and confined, but not before he 
 
 Some particulars of what took place had conti-ived to dispatch intelligence to 
 
 at this town may be seen in Nicholson's General Carpenter at Newcastle, by a 
 
 Annals of Kendal. messenger for whose capture the Prince's 
 
 ' Peter Clarke's Journal of Occur- friends oflered a reward of £30.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 71 
 
 banner was borne without opposition to the historic towers 
 of Lancaster. The exiled Prince was immediately pro- 
 claimed to be King. His birthiight was declared, by the 
 herald, to have been withheld from him by foreigners and 
 usurpers ; and at the end of the proclamation, two thousand 
 voices cried aloud in the royal and ducal capital of the county 
 palatine, "God save the King!" At Lancaster, several 
 neighbouring 'squires, with their servants, joined the North- 
 umbrian and Scottish volunteers.'' The invaders obliged 
 Mr. Parkinson, the mayor, to accompany them from house 
 to house in search of arms, and they kept the gunsmiths 
 well employed.' In the possession of a clergyman whose 
 name was James Fenton, where only spiritual arms might 
 have been expected, they found divers weapons. On board 
 the Robert, from Sunderland, which was in the bay, they 
 seized six pieces of cannon ; and they secured all the horses 
 in the town.*^ In the evening, they had the satisfaction of 
 liberating several adherents of their cause who had been 
 confined in the castle. During these proceedings, Lord 
 Derwentwater, with several of his colleagues, were enter- 
 tained at Thurnham Hall, the seat of the Dalton family. 
 They seem to have spent there the whole of the Tuesday, 
 previous to the march for Preston, and they induced Mr. 
 Dalton to accompany them from his home. Witnesses said, 
 however, that he went unwillingly, and looked melancholy ; 
 while one witness declared his eyes were suffused with tears 
 when he rode forth with "The Rebels;" yet these might 
 be attributed to parting from his wife. But to resume our 
 narrative of the doings of the Prince's friends at Lancaster : 
 The Rev, William Paul, a clergyman of the Church of 
 England, who had joined the Prince's friends, read prayers 
 on the 8th in the parish church. While the bell was rung 
 to call the people, he substituted in the Prayer Book the 
 name of James III. for that of the statute-made sovereign, 
 and a large concourse of persons attended. The clergyman 
 of the parish, on venturing out after the departure of the 
 
 ^ Mr. Hodgson of Leigliton Hall, Clarke's Journal.] The followers of 
 
 Mr. Jolin Dalton of Thurnliam Hall, these gentlemen numbered about 100. 
 
 (where Lord Derwentwater had been a ' It is recorded that they " behaved 
 
 guest while in the neighbourhood of civilly," and paid for all they consumed 
 
 Lancaster,) Mr. John Tyldesley of the in the town. 
 
 Lodge, Mr.Butler of Rowcliite, and Mr. '' Historical and Descriptive Account 
 
 Hilton of Cartmel, are named. [Peter of the Town of Lancaster, 1811, p. 90.
 
 72 
 
 A VISIT TO 
 
 invaders, was afraid to make any fiirther use of the book 
 which the rebel cliaplaiii had tlms altered ; and having the 
 fear of King George before his eyes, he laid it aside in the 
 vestry, where it long remained. 
 
 In the afternoon, the noblemen and gentlemen in com- 
 mand of the army or of its ranks, prepared for the only 
 gentle episode in their campaign, for they "dressed and 
 trimmed themselves up," (says the observant Peter Clarke, 
 who seems to have accompanied Lord Derwentwater fi-om 
 Kendal, as a sei-vant), "and went to drink tea with the ladies 
 of Lancaster, who also appeared in their best rigging, and 
 had their tea-tables richly furnished to entertain their new 
 suitors." Tea was then a novel and expensive luxury that 
 was still but little used among even the higher classes. 
 
 At length, on the morning of Wednesday the 9th, came 
 that sad incident of military life — the parting. The gentle- 
 men seem to have made themselves acceptable to these 
 Lancashire v^^tches, who were, perhaps, more dangerous 
 than any of the foes they had yet encountered ; and all 
 were sorrowful on the termination of so pleasant an incident 
 in their career. The ver}^ tradesmen looked on them with 
 good will, for the officers had " paid their way," and no 
 inhabitant had sustained bodily damage. But too much 
 time had been lost already ; so the foot marched early to 
 Garstang,' and the Northumbrian horse to Preston, where 
 they anived at eleven o'clock the same night, and were 
 quartered, some in the numerous inns, and others in private 
 houses."" The foot entered Preston on the morning of the 
 
 ' Mr. Muncaster, a Protestant, who many streets, which the writer now 
 
 was an attorney in Garstang, joined quoted describes as being clean, well 
 
 the Prince's friends. paved, and handsome ; the houses were 
 
 '" In an old History of Cumberland built of brick, and the town could boast 
 (1715) the writer, after adverting to a variety of company attracted by the 
 the derivation of the name of Preston, agreeable situation of this pleasant re- 
 or Priests-Town, from the roligio\is who tirement, and by the ])oliteness of its 
 occupied it in a former age, remarks, inhabitants. Its corporate dignity was 
 that as it was once famed for the beauty derived from the grant of an Anglo- 
 of holiness, so it was then eminent for Norman King, Henry II. ; and it en- 
 female beauty, and was the pleasant joyed considerable trade and many pri- 
 residence of a great munber of gentry, vilcges. It had seen some important 
 who were so fashionable that it was events ; and here the royalist garrison 
 vulgarly called " Proud Preston." The stood out manfully for their sovereign 
 town, which is situated on what was in the great rebellion. Early in Febru- 
 once the Great North Road, and occu- ary, 1G13, Seaton, a major-general of 
 pies a delightful eminence, the selec- the rebels, marched from Manchester, 
 tion of which is creditable to the taste then the centre of the disloyalty of the 
 of St. Wilfrid, its patron, consists of county, as it is now the focus of every
 
 
 F JR E S ir ® i^'
 
 DILSTON HALL. 
 
 73 
 
 lOth. No opposition was offered to their entrance ; for a 
 regiment of dragoons besides the militia, had retired in the 
 night of the 7th, on hearing of the approach of the Prince's 
 fi'iends to Lancaster." 
 
 On arriving at Preston, they were joined by nearly all 
 the Roman Catholic gentry of the district," with their 
 servants and tenants, to the number of 1200. Bat most of 
 these new followers were very imperfectly armed. Some 
 had swords but no muskets, others had muskets but no 
 swords, while some had no better weapons than pitchforks, 
 and none had any idea of discipline ; so this rabble formed 
 an incumbrance rather than a succour. The Prince's army 
 was previously about 2000 strong. 
 
 The honest journalist already quoted, records, that in 
 Preston, as well as in Lancaster, the smiles of beauty cheered 
 the Prince's friends : — 
 
 " The ladies of the town," says the discerning valet, " are so 
 very beautiful and so richly attired, that the gentlemen-soldiers, 
 from Wednesday to Saturday, minded nothing but courting and 
 feasting." 
 
 But far different scenes awaited that devoted band. 
 They had hitherto indulged and were still indulging a fatal 
 confidence that King George's troops could not face them ; 
 but preparations, of which they were ignorant, were then 
 making, with unwearied diligence, to crush the adherents of 
 the House of Stuart. While they were wasting valuable 
 hours in Preston, and meditating a march to the south, with 
 a view to secure Warrington Bridge, and the towns of Liver- 
 pool and Manchester,? the Government troops were advanc- 
 
 pestilent and selfish agitation, — to at- 
 tack loyal Preston ; and after an obsti- 
 nate resistance, the town was lost and 
 won. At the time of which we are now 
 writing (November, 1715,) it was at 
 Preston that the cause of the Royal 
 Stuarts again sustained defeat. 
 
 This account describes, that traces 
 were visible of the Roman military way 
 over the common from Ribchester to 
 the movith of the Ribble. 
 
 " On the 7th, an express arrived at 
 Preston from Lancaster, stating that 
 tlie insurgents were then quartered at 
 Hornby, Kirkby Lonsdale and Burton, 
 intending to proceed to Lancaster that 
 night, and thence to Preston. [See Mr. 
 
 Assheton's Narrative, in Whitaker's 
 History.] 
 
 ° Mr. Richard Towneley of Towne- 
 ley, who had married Mary, a daughter 
 of Lord Widdrington, was among the 
 neighbouring gentry who came to the 
 standard of the Prince. 
 
 P They seem to have been e::pecting 
 that the Duke of Ormond would join 
 them with 3000 men. This expecta- 
 tion was announced at Preston, at the 
 time when James HL was proclaimed 
 King. At Manchester there was a strong 
 feeling in favour of the Prince. It is 
 said in a book entitled, " Annals of 
 the Second Year of King George," p. 
 133, that the Earl of Derwentwater
 
 74 A VISIT TO 
 
 ing upon them from several quarters, and ultimately took 
 them completely hy surprise. General Carpenter, on learn- 
 ing that the Prince's army was marching into England, had 
 also crossed the border, and hastened, by forced marches to 
 Newcastle and Durham, from whence he combined his 
 movements with those of General Willes, an officer who 
 had likewise served with distinction in the Spanish cam- 
 paigns, and who had now been sent by the Government to 
 command'' in the north-west of England, which district had 
 been lately much agitated by insurrections of the Jacobite 
 adherents. To Wigan General Willes marched on the 
 11th; and hearing there that Carpenter was advancing to 
 Preston, he determined to set his own troops in motion the 
 next morning ; and accordingly, by break of day on Satur- 
 day the 12th, they marched from Wigan,' while the Prince's 
 army was preparing to march on Liverpool. The traders 
 of that place, whose loyalty was determined by self-interest, 
 in anticipation of the visit, planted seventy pieces of cannon 
 about their town, and threw up barricades ; and one- third 
 of the avenues were laid under water. ' General Willes 
 while at Wigan, consulted with Sir Henry Houghton as to 
 inviting the aid of the peasantry, esjjccially those whose 
 sectarian prejudices disposed them towards the Government. 
 Sir Henry wrote accordingly to Mr. James Wood, a Pres- 
 byterian teacher of Chowbent, requesting his influence; and 
 his congregation of dissenters, then, as now, animated by 
 dislike of the ancient constitution of the country and of the 
 hierarchy of the Church, actually marched to Walton, where 
 they were drawn up to dispute with " the rebels" the pas- 
 sage of the Ribble. The Puritan heroes were armed with 
 implements of husbandry ; and, reversing the antient pre- 
 
 accompanied some gentlemen of the by Willes, first at Manchester, and 
 
 county to Manchester, and in a private more completely at Wigan, to which 
 
 way endeavoured to arrange for an in- Stanhope's regiment had retired from 
 
 surrection there. The period of this Preston. 
 
 alleged visit is not mentioned, and lias ■■ Political State of Great Britain for 
 
 not been ascertained from any other 17li), Lond. 8vo. p. 497. 
 
 source. " A ditch and breastwork were 
 
 '1 This officer had at his disposal, formed round the town, to which seve- 
 
 Wynn's, Pitt's, Stanliope's, Ilony- ral inhabitants of the ncif;:libom-ing 
 
 wood's, Munden's, and Dormer's regi- country fled with the more valuable of 
 
 ments of cavalry — forces which con- their efl'ects, for safety. [Worcester 
 
 sisted for the most part of newly levied Postman Newspaper, November 11 — 
 
 men, but were led by good and expe- 18, 1715.] 
 rienced officers. They were assembled
 
 DILSTON HALL. 75 
 
 diction, they made swords of their ploughshares and spears 
 of their pruning-hooks.' 
 
 But the brave and devoted friends of the royal exile were 
 destined to be sacrificed, not so much by hostile force, 
 or even by want of the aid on which they had imprudently 
 reckoned, as by bad generalship, false counsels, and ground- 
 less fears. There is reason to believe that the generous 
 young Earl now regretted, when too late, his misplaced 
 confidence, and foresaw with dismay, in the divided counsels 
 of his comrades, and the incapacity of Forster, their general, 
 the downfal of the Prince's cause, and with it of his own 
 liberty and fortunes. His thoughts must have then reverted 
 with unavailing regret to the ancestral home which he had 
 left far beyond the pui'ple hills, to the beloved partner, the 
 family endearments, and the broad lands, from which, if 
 his enterprise should fail, he would probably be for ever 
 torn. But whatever presentiment of coming evil may have 
 overshadowed the Earl's trusting spirit, it was then too late 
 to retire from his enterprise ; besides, he was not of a dis- 
 position to shrink from danger, or abandon the friends with 
 whom he was associated in peril : and he was soon called 
 upon for active exertions. On the evening of the 1 1th, the 
 Earl received a letter from a friend, in which he was warned 
 of the advance of the Government troops towards Preston. 
 This news fell like a thunderbolt on the commander of the 
 Prince's array. He probably knew, that scarcely a man 
 among his followers was acquainted with military discipline ; 
 and he seemed incapable of giving directions for defence. 
 It was not until aroused by Lord Kenmure to the exigency 
 of the situation, that a council of war was convened, and 
 measures for resistance determined on. 
 
 Preston (as Lord Mahon remarks,) was a place whose na- 
 tural advantages might have seemed to insure an obstinate 
 and effectual resistance, did not resistance, as all history 
 shows, depend more on the spirit of the defenders than on 
 the strength of the ground. Even an open town like 
 Saragoza becomes a citadel when garrisoned by Aragonese ; 
 even the triple ramparts of Gaeta are of no avail when manned 
 by Neapolitans ! In front of Preston was the bridge over 
 the Ribble, where a few resolute men might have stood 
 their ground against an army. From this bridge to the 
 
 ' Raines's Hist, of Lancashire, vol. ii. p. 65.
 
 76 A VISIT TO 
 
 town, a distance of about half a mile, the road ran through 
 a hollow " between two steep banks ; but Forster, with a 
 lamentable infatuation, took no advantage of this pass. 
 When, on the morning of Saturday the 12th November, 
 his advance guard reported that the Brunswick forces were 
 in full march on Preston, he confined his measures of de- 
 fence to the town itself ; and when the troops came in sight 
 at the bridge, withdrew his men to the centre of Preston. 
 Probably, if he had contested the passage of the bridge, and 
 rendered (as he could easily have done) two adjacent fords 
 impassable, his forces might have even destroyed King 
 George's army : they could at least have made an effectual 
 resistance. Within the town, however, defensive means 
 w^ere planned by Macintosh : barricades were raised across 
 the four principal ways, and men were posted, well sup- 
 plied with ammunition, in all the houses near the barri- 
 cades, and in others which commanded the approaches of 
 the expected assailants ; — a strange vicissitude for peaceful 
 Preston ! The formation of the barricades was accomplished 
 speedily. The Earl of Derwentwater, throwing off his coat, 
 encouraged the men to labour, by example, exhortation, 
 and presents of money. The defence of one of the barri- 
 cades, which was a little below the church, was intrusted to 
 Brigadier Macintosh, who was supported by the gentlemen 
 volunteers posted in the churchyard under the command of 
 the Earls of Derwentwater, Nitlisdale, Wintoun, and Lord 
 Kenmure. The second barrier was defended by a party of 
 Highlanders under Lord Charles Murray, third son of the 
 Duke of Athol. The third, at the windmill on the Lancaster 
 road, was defended by the Chief of Macintosh and his clan ; 
 while the fourth was defended by Hunter with his moss- 
 troopers, and gentlemen of Teviotdale and Berwickshire, 
 with some of the Earl of Strathmore's regiment, under the 
 conunand of Major Miller and Mr. Douglas. Each barri- 
 cade was protected by two pieces of cannon. So evident 
 to a military eye was the importance of the bridge, that 
 when Willes, on arriving there about one o'clock in the 
 afternoon, found it undefended, he supposed the Prince's 
 
 " This was the place where, in lowers, one of which stones came very 
 
 1G48, Oliver Cromwell was bravely re- near to himself, but, mifortunately, he 
 
 sisted by the Royalists, and they arc was able to escape by making his horse 
 
 said to have rolled down large stones leap into a quicksand. 
 from the heights upon him and his fol-
 
 DILSTON HALL. 77 
 
 army had left Preston and were on their return to Scotland. 
 As he approached the town, however, he found the real 
 state of the case, and having surveyed the defences, decided 
 on attacking two of the barricades simultaneously. His 
 troops were accordingly divided into two parties, one under 
 Honey man, the other under Dormer. The two barricades 
 were gallantly charged, but as gallantly defended ; while a 
 destructive fire was poured upon the attacking parties, not 
 only from the barricades but from inaccessible adversaries 
 in the houses. In ten minutes, 120 men of the advanc- 
 ing party were killed, and 140 more fell in an attempt to 
 enter the town by the Back Wynd. The engagement con- 
 tinued until after midnight, and is described by one who 
 seems to have been an eye-witness, to have been fought 
 with determined resolution on both sides. Tlie roar of the 
 engagement was heard twenty-five miles off, as a woman 
 in her 108th year, related to Dr. Whitaker in 1818. At 
 length, King George's troops withdrew, having sustained 
 considerable loss and made little impression.* This result 
 was greatly attributable to the braveiy and example of the 
 Earl of Derwentwater and of his brother, wdio animated 
 their men by words and example, to maintain their ground 
 resolutely. His lordship not only maintained his own post, 
 but sent a timely aid of fifty men to enable the Highlanders 
 under Lord Charles Murray, to support their difficult 
 struggle — 
 
 " None turned their backs in mean ignoble flight." 
 
 When the Government troops retired, they set fire to 
 the houses between them and the barricades, so that if the 
 weather had not been unusually serene, the whole town 
 would probably have been burned down. An eye-witness 
 describes, that at the Friargate end of the town, the houses 
 were burned up to the barricades. Fearful was the confla- 
 gration by which the Government troops made known to 
 the terrified country the place of sanguinary warfare. A 
 lurid glare reddened the dark flowing stream, and spread 
 over the distant hills a fiery signal to the troops under 
 Lieutenant-General Carpenter, who were hastily advancing 
 to join their colleagues. 
 
 ^^ The loss of the attacking parties is but we read that to keep it secret was 
 said to have been extremely heavy ; deemed expedient.
 
 78 A VISIT TO 
 
 Before noon on the following day (Sunday) Carpenter, 
 with a large portion of his forces, had arrived, and the town 
 was soon invested on all sides ; but even now, it would 
 seem, the Government troops did not number more than a 
 thousand men. With this force, however, General Willes, 
 who continued in command, i)i"epared to renew the attack 
 upon the besieged army, severed as it was from all assist- 
 ance, confined within a circle of burning outposts, and 
 unable to extend its defences : — 
 
 " Watchful he wheels, and guards it every way, 
 As the grim lion stalks around his prey." 
 
 And, therefore, although the Government troops thus com- 
 bined and reinforced would liave been insufficient to over- 
 power the Prince's army in an equal combat, the situ;ition 
 of the latter had become desperate : — 
 
 " And Derwentwater soon he found, that they were all inclosed around ; 
 Alas ! he cried, for this cowardly strife, how many men shall lose 
 their life ! " 
 
 They could obtain no succour from without, and their 
 escape could be achieved only by cutting their way through 
 the enemy. And yet the Prince's gallant friends were brave 
 and resolute. The advantage had been on their side in the 
 attack of the previous day ; and even the common men, 
 encouraged by that repulse of their enemies, were ready, 
 willing, and able to attack them in return. The Highlanders 
 desired to cut their Vvay through King George's troops, but 
 Forster, if not other leaders of the Prince's friends, insisted 
 that it was too late for such an attack. 
 
 In this " scene of unavoidable destruction," says Sir 
 Walter Scott, "the Enghsh gentlemen began to think on the 
 means of saving their lives and returning to their homes and 
 estates, while most of their Scottish allies were in favour of 
 sallying out, sword in hand, and preferred death to a base 
 submission." The only English leader who is recorded to 
 have concurred in this course was Lord Derwentwater 's 
 gallant brother. Gen. Forster, however, was disheartened ; 
 and, without the knowledge of his principal colleagues, sent 
 his adviser, Colonel Oxburgh, to propose a capitulation. 
 General Willes yielded to the overtures addressed to him 
 so far as to engage that, if the besieged would surrender at 
 discretion, he would protect them from being cut to pieces
 
 DILSTON HALL. 79 
 
 by the soldiers, and await further orders from Government. 
 On these terms being proposed to the devoted army of 
 Prince James, the highest indignation was expressed ; and 
 we are assured by an eye-witness, that if Forster had then 
 appeared, his hfe would have been sacrificed to that resent- 
 ment. Mr. John Hall, a Northumbrian magistrate, who 
 was with them, thus described their situation : 
 
 " We had repulsed our enemies," he said, " at every attack. 
 * * * Even our common men were brave, courageous, and 
 resolute. On the other hand, their's were directly the contrary, 
 insomuch that after they had run away from our first fire, they 
 could never be brought so much as to endeavour to stand a second. 
 I think myself," he adds, " obliged in justice to mention this, that 
 Mr. Willes may not impose upon the world, as if he and his troops 
 had conquered us, and gained the victory; for the truth is, after we 
 had conquered them, our superiors thought fit to capitulate and 
 ruin us." 
 
 It is said, in a contemporary narrative of these events 
 which is preserved in the State-Paper Office, that the Earl 
 of Derwentwater, as well as his brother, objected to capitula- 
 tion ; but of this there can be no doubt, that when he found 
 it was not expedient to adopt a course which required for 
 its success hearty and unanimous determination, he preferred 
 a capitulation v>fhich would have the effect of saving further 
 bloodshed, and which held out to his colleagues the hope of 
 clemency in reward for surrendering without further con- 
 test, and for throwing themselves upon the King's mercy. 
 General Willes had required the delivery of hostages, as the 
 condition of aflfording time for dehberation ; and the Earl of 
 Derwentwater himself declared, afterwards, that the capitu- 
 lation might have proved ineffectual, if he had not become 
 a hostage for the cessation ; wherefore, he voluntarily 
 offered himself as such, and accompanied Colonel (not Bri- 
 gadier) Macintosh, the hostage on the part of the Scots, 
 to the tent of the Government commander, to whom the 
 Earl is said to have declared, that he would rather throw 
 himself upon King George's mercy, than be longer asso- 
 ciated with those who were his colleagues in this fatal en- 
 terprise. Whether justly or not, several of the Roman 
 Catholic lords and gentlemen complained bitterly of their 
 professed " High-Church" ally; and accused him of having 
 cruelly misled and disappointed them," There is a ballad, 
 
 " See London Flying Post, November 15 — 17, 1715.
 
 80 A VISIT TO 
 
 preserved in tlie Rcliques of Jacobite Poetry, in which the 
 following verses occur, in allusion to the calamity at Preston : 
 
 " Lord Derwentvvater to Forster said, 
 
 ' Tliou hast ruined the cause and all betrayed, 
 For thou didst vow to stand our friend, 
 
 But hast proved traitor in the end. 
 Thou brought us from our own country — 
 
 We left our homes and came with thee ; 
 But thou art a rogue and a traitor both, 
 
 And hast broke thy honour and thy oath.' " 
 
 Early on the following morning (Monday), Forster sent 
 to inform General Willes that his forces would surrender at 
 discretion, for his comrades had now resolved to yield to 
 that humiliating course; for " thus helpless,'' as a noble his- 
 torian remarks, " are the bravest men without an able 
 leader." At seven o'clock on the morning of Monday, the 
 Government troops accordingly entered Preston, and the 
 whole of the Prince's friends being assembled in the market- 
 place, they delivered up their arms and became prisoners. 
 The noble subject of this memoir and six other lords were 
 arrested at the Mitre Tavern ; and their colleagues already 
 named in this chapter, with members of several antient 
 northern families, whose fate will be mentioned in a subse- 
 quent chapter, were also made prisoners. Seventeen hundred 
 of the Prince's devoted band were reported to the Govern- 
 ment to have been thus captured, and found well armed — 
 a number so unequal to the computation of their former 
 strength, as to indicate that many of their recent recruits 
 must have contrived to escape or conceal themselves. 
 After the men of the Brunswick army took possession of 
 Preston, they forcibly broke open doors, and seized the 
 money, plate, goods, and chattels of the unoffending inha- 
 bitants. Of the destination of the prisoners of war some 
 account will be found in the ensuing chapter, and thus 
 ended in England the calamitous rebellion of 1715 ! The 
 1 2th and 1 3th of November were dies infelix to the Stuart 
 cause, for on the same days occurred the defeat at Dumblane, 
 and the recapture of Inverness.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 81 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ** A safe return was promised to their toils, 
 
 Renowned, triumphant, and enriched with spoils ; 
 Surrendered now, behold the captive host — 
 Their blood, their treasure, and their glory lost !" 
 
 Seventy-five noblemen and gentlemen, mostly Northum- 
 brians, were made prisoners on the morning of surrender, 
 besides about four hundred other Englishmen of humbler 
 grade. The Scottish prisoners numbered somewhat more 
 than a thousand, with a hundred and forty-three Scottish 
 noblemen and gentlemen.^ A large number of the captives 
 of Preston were confined in one of the churches, pending 
 orders from the Government as to their disposal. They 
 were treated with cruel rigour, and the humbler followers 
 were exposed in the cold edifice, without needful clothing, to 
 the inclemency of the weather, which had now become very 
 severe. Winter had set in with the most violent frost, and 
 the deepest snows that had happened in England for thirty 
 years;* and the snow was a yard deep on the roads, when 
 the unhappy prisoners were taken to their several destina- 
 tions. Lord Charles Murray, with several gentlemen and 
 inferior followers, to the number of nearly five hundred, were 
 taken to Chester Castle, where they arrived on the evening 
 of the 27th of November, guarded by the regiment known 
 as the Prince of Wales's Fusileers, and were marched igno- 
 miniously through a large concourse of people to the castle.* 
 Other prisoners were conducted to different places of con- 
 finement in the county of Lancaster, and two hundred and 
 thirty men of humble class were sent to Lancaster Castle. 
 Many died from the rigour of their treatment ; others from 
 a malignant fever ; some were executed ; several of the 
 Higlilanders were destined to the fate they had most 
 
 y See Catholic Miscellany for Au- cember, 1715. Many of the unhappy 
 
 gust, 1824. prisoners in Chester Castle, at a later 
 
 ^ Annals of the second year of King period, signed a petition for life, which 
 
 George, p. 157, document remains among the State 
 
 ^ Daily Courant Newspaper, 1 De- Papers in the office at Westminster. 
 
 G
 
 82 
 
 A VISIT TO 
 
 dreaded — namely, transportation to the American planta- 
 tions •,^ and six gentlemen among the prisoners, having 
 formerly borne commissions in the service of King George, 
 were sentenced by court martial to be shot for their deser- 
 tion, which sentences were executed within a month from 
 their capture. 
 
 The Earl of Derwentwater, whom the calamitous issue of 
 the day had made a prisoner on the formidable accusation of 
 high treason, was escorted to London, with many of the noble- 
 men and gentlemen who had been his associates in this ill- 
 fated enterprise. The sense of duty, and the noble impulses of 
 loyalty and friendship, consecrated their undertaking: pru- 
 dence and due preparation alone were wanting to have made 
 them arbiters of the crown of England. Had they succeeded 
 in the enterprise into which they were drawn, these unfor- 
 tunate noblemen would have received the praise of future 
 ages as the most chivalrous and loyal of subjects ; but being 
 unsuccessful, failure had made them rebels and traitors ; 
 and they experienced the treatment of criminals at the hands 
 of their captors. They underwent many miseries on their 
 journey; they rode strictly guarded by day, and were closely 
 confined by night. It was about the beginning of December, 
 when King George's officers proceeded with their noble 
 captives from Preston. There is a tradition, = that the Earl 
 of Derwentwater and his comrades were conducted through 
 Warrington, and that crowds of persons flocked to see them 
 enter that town over Longford Bridge : the Earl was 
 mounted on a white horse* In an old ballad among the 
 Jacobite Reliques, the noble prisoner is mentioned in the 
 following couplets : — 
 
 " Lord Derwentwater to Lichfield did ride 
 With armed men on every side, 
 But still he swore on his cross-hilted sword 
 To drink a health to his rightful lord." 
 
 •' Ormerod's Cheshire, p. 211, 
 <^ It is mentioned by William Bea- 
 mont, Esq. of Warrington, ex relatione 
 Margaret Boardman, a very old person, 
 who lived at that place when he was a 
 youth. 
 
 ** The author has been informed by 
 a correspondent, that when he was a 
 youtli, a man named Cuthbcrt Swin- 
 burn, then 90 years of age, who was 
 born at Upper Dilston, and whose fa- 
 
 mily had resided there for some gene- 
 rations, related to him, that he remem- 
 bered the young Earl, and saw him pass 
 their house riding upon a white horse, 
 and accompanied by several retainers, 
 on tlie morning w'hen he joined his 
 neighbours in the Prince's cause. 
 
 Longford Bridge is adjacent to Or- 
 ford ; the owner of which, Jonathan 
 Blackbourne, Esq. was high- sherifl" that 
 year.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 83 
 
 At length the cavalcade reached Barnet in Hertfordshh'e, 
 on the gi'eat road from the north, where the Earl is said to 
 have enquired of Brigadier Panton, the officer commanding 
 the escort, (Lumley's regiment of horse,) whether he knew 
 how they were to be disposed of ? To which question the 
 officer replied, that his Lordship and the other noblemen 
 would probably be sent to the Tower, and that the rest of 
 the prisoners would be distributed in the Marshalsea, the 
 Fleet, and Newgate. Lord Derwentwater is said to have 
 rejoined, that there was one house which would hold them 
 all, and they had the best title to it of any people in 
 Britain. Being asked what house that was, the Earl replied, 
 *^ Bedlam Hospital." 
 
 The young Earl, with upwards of two hundred other 
 prisoners, reached the metropolis on the 9th of December. 
 At Highgate, the cavalcade was met by a detachment of 
 guards, commanded by Major-General Tatton. His force 
 numbered three hundred foot and one hundred and twenty 
 horse grenadier guards. Upon entering town, the arms of 
 each prisoner were pinioned, and his horse was led by a 
 foot soldier, with fixed bayonet. The captive lords and 
 gentlemen rode two abreast, in four divisions, each of which 
 was preceded by a party of horse with drawn swords, and 
 the drums of the escort beat a triumphal march. The way 
 fi'om Highgate was lined by spectators, large numbers of 
 whom seem to have been employed by the Government to 
 vociferate in favour of King George and to insult the fallen. 
 The Government was guilty of an outrage on humanity 
 in this despicable treatment, which (as it has been justly 
 remarked) was less dishonourable to the suffering captives, 
 than to the ignoble officials by whom it was planned. At 
 the head of the fourth division rode the Earl of Derwent- 
 water and the other English noblemen, with a priest, 
 accompanied by Mr. Forster and a chaplain. At the head 
 of another division rode the Scottish Lords and the chief 
 of Macintosh. A company of dragoons brought up the 
 rear. 
 
 Past S. Giles's Pound, and S. Giles's Church, at that 
 time still in the Fields ; " from Great Russell-street and 
 Bloomsbury ; " through Holborn to Newgate, and through 
 the chief streets of the City, to the more distant Tower, 
 the cavalcade advanced, attended by crowds of persons, 
 
 G 2
 
 84 A VISIT TO 
 
 some mounted, others in coaches, but the bulk on foot, " so 
 that the road,"' says a writer who describes this strange 
 spectacle, " was scarcely passable, and the windows and 
 balconies were tilled by people. This glorious sight," says 
 the hired scribe for Government, " gave a very lively idea 
 of the triumphs of the antient Romans when they led their 
 captives to Rome. It was observable," he continues, "that 
 the mob showed a particular indignation against all the 
 rebels, but more especially against Forster the High-Church 
 General, and his traitorous chaplain. It was a particular 
 mortification," he proceeds, " to the Man under the Rose, 
 to hear himself justly upbraided with perjury, in joining with 
 rebels against the Protestant succession, which he had not 
 only himself sworn to, but bound others to, by the holy 
 sacrament."* Another journalist of the time, remarks of 
 the unfortunate " Parliament-man," that " he looked as 
 simple as his High Church rabble." '^ 
 
 Lord Derwentwater with the other noblemen were con- 
 ducted to the Tower ; Charles RadclifFe, brave, young, and 
 undaunted in his bearing, the mortified and fallen General 
 Forster, the politic and resolute Macintosh, and about seventy 
 other prisoners, were conveyed to Newgate ; sixty others of 
 inferior note, to the Marshalsea prison; and seventy-two to 
 the Fleet. The Earl was probably lodged in that very 
 apartment in the Beauchamp Tower which was antiently 
 the place of confinement for state prisoners. If so, he 
 succeeded a noble scion of the Radcliffes, Earls of Sussex, 
 in the occupation of this chamber. Its walls are incised 
 with a large number of inscriptions, the undoubted auto- 
 graphs of illustrious and unfortunate jDrisoners through a 
 long series of years, for the most part in the persecuting 
 reign of Elizabeth ; s and amongst these touching memorials 
 is the name of Egremont Radcliffe, who was the son of 
 Henry Earl of Sussex ; half-brother to Thomas RadclifFe, 
 who, in 1.576, was Earl of Sussex, and Lord High Cham- 
 berlain of the Queen "s household. This noble scion of a 
 noble race, engaged, when young, like Lord Derwentwater, 
 
 e Flying Post, Dec. 8 — 10, 1715. the Society of Antiquaries of London, 
 
 f Weekly Journal, Dec. 10, 1715. by the Rev. John Brand, and published 
 
 s These inscriptions were discovered in the Xlllth. volume of the Archseo- 
 
 towards the close of the last century, logia, p. 68, et seq. 
 
 and an account of them was given to
 
 DILSTON HALL. 85 
 
 in the rising of the north which occurred in 15C9 ; he 
 escaped to Spain and Flanders, but ventured to Calais in 
 1575, and we soon afterwards find him committed to the 
 Tower, where he remained until May 1577, when he was 
 exiled by the Queen, only that he might fall into the hands 
 of another tyrant ; for in the year following, he was e?:ecuted 
 on some pretence of a conspiracy against John of Austria, 
 Governor of Flanders. "^ But, to return to the history of 
 the unhappy Earl, who had now succeeded to the occupation 
 of this ominous and gloomy chamber. 
 
 After the fatal submission at Preston, which closed the 
 premature and ill-conducted enterprise of the Prince's adhe- 
 rents in the north, the Earl of Derwentwater had either con- 
 trived to forward intelligence of his disaster to his friends in 
 Northumberland, or some retainer had escaped with tidings of 
 the calamity. It would seem that the title deeds and other 
 valuable papers were hastily packed in a box, and removed 
 for safety to the humble roof of old Cuthbert Swinbufn's 
 father, in his cottage at Upper Dilston, w here they remained 
 until taken to the mansion of Capheaton for better conceal- 
 ment. It does not appear whether the Countess had 
 remained at Dilston, since the morning when, in the energy 
 of grief, she had restrained him as he was in the act of mount- 
 ing his horse, in the court yard of his ancestral hall, to ride 
 forth on his fatal expedition, and had entreated him to forbear 
 from a step which would bring degi'adation on his house and 
 family. But whether she continued to live at Dilston, or 
 had taken refuge with her family at Canford, in the absence 
 of her Lord, does not appear; often, we may be sure, had she 
 " wept and prayed for him ;" and if she ever cheered her 
 loneliness in song, her thoughts may have found expression 
 in that beautiful effusion of the Scottish muse — 
 
 •• He's o'er the hills that I loe weel ; " 
 
 but, alas ! she was never again to welcome him to his 
 home, neither was that muse to celebrate the return of her 
 native Prince to his ancestral throne. 
 
 The Countess lost no time in proceeding to the Earl. If 
 
 ** Dugdale, (Baronage, ii. 286) says, teresting notice of four RadclifFes, Earls 
 
 he was for this end freed by Secretary of Sussex, /emp. Henry VIII. and Eliza- 
 
 Walsingham from his imprisonment in beth, in the Antiquarian Repertory, iii. 
 
 England. The reader will find an in- 170, et seq.
 
 86 A VISIT TO 
 
 she rode to London from the north, she encountered the 
 same appaUing hardships which were endured by Lady 
 Nithsdaie, that noble example of conjugal love and feminine 
 heroism, on her journey to London, supported only by a 
 firm reliance on the aid of Divine Providence. Lady 
 Nithsdaie rode to Newcastle, and from thence took the 
 coach to York ; when she arrived there, such was the 
 depth of the snow that the coach could not set out for the 
 metropolis. It was in this dreadful winter that the Thames 
 itself was frozen over for a considerable time. " The season 
 was so severe, and the roads were so extremely bad," she 
 wi'ites, " that the post itself was stopped ; however, I took 
 horses and rode to London through the snow, which w^as 
 generally above the horse's girth." Whether or not the 
 young and charming Countess of Derwentwater endured 
 similar hardships, is not recorded ; but we know that the 
 Earl in his confinement was ere long solaced by her society 
 and tender care : — 
 
 " Oh woman ! in our hours of ease 
 Uncertain, coy, and hard to please, 
 And variable as the shade 
 By the light quivering aspen made ; 
 When pain and anguish wring the brow, 
 A ministering angel thou ! " 
 
 The Government proceeded expeditiously against their 
 unhappy captives. An impeachment was agreed to by the 
 House of Commons; and on the 9th of January, 1716, 
 James Earl of Derwentwater, with William Lord Widdring- 
 ton, William Earl of Nithsdaie, Robert Earl of Carnwath, 
 George Earl of Wintoun, William Viscount Kenmure, and 
 William Lord Nairn, w'cre taken from the Tower to the bar 
 of the House of Lords, to hear themselves impeachedof " high 
 treason, in levying war against His Majesty, and proclaiming 
 a pretender to his Crown to be the King of these realms." ' 
 Time being given to the arraigned peers for pleading, they 
 were conducted back to the Tower, and on their way thither 
 dined at the Fountain Tavern, then a famous hostelry of 
 
 ' The confederates named in the im- Ralph Standish, Richard Towncley, 
 
 peachmcnt of tlie seven lords, are, — 'J"hoinaslJutler,ThomasWalton, Gabriel 
 
 Thomas Forster the younger, Lord Hesket, and Richard Gascoigne. Their 
 
 Charles MuiTay, Edward Howard, various fate will be noticed in a subse- 
 
 Tliomas Errington, .John Clavering quent chapter. 
 William Shaftoc, Sir Francis Andcrton,
 
 DILSTON HALL. 
 
 87 
 
 the Strand, guarded by twelve warders of the Tower. ^ On 
 the 1 6th of the same month, the Earl of Derwentwater and 
 the other noble prisoners impeached, were taken to the 
 House of Peers to answer the articles of impeachment, to 
 which all but Lord Wintoun pleaded guilty. Lord Derwent- 
 water accompanied his plea with an argumentative answer, 
 in the course of which he urges, that " he did not engage 
 in this unhappy undertaking upon any previous concert or 
 contrivance, but being young and inexperienced, he rashly 
 and without any deliberation engaged himself to meet his 
 relations and acquaintances.'' So Lord Widdrington in his 
 answer declared, that he had heard of the rising in North- 
 umberland only the night before it happened ; and that 
 being soon afterwards informed that all his neighbours and 
 acquaintances had met in arms, a crowd of confused and 
 mistaken notions hurried him at once into a precipitate 
 resolution of joining them, and he acknowledged that he 
 had thus plunged out of his depth as unprepared for such 
 an enterprise as the action itself was unpremeditated.' 
 
 On the 2 1 st of January, the Commons by their Speaker 
 demanded, at the bar of the House of Peers, that judgment 
 should be pronounced on the noble prisoners. On Thurs- 
 day the 9th of February, they were accordingly brought 
 before the High Commission Court, sitting in Westminster 
 Hall for the occasion ; the court being constituted of the 
 Peers, the Lord Chancellor (Cowper) presiding as Lord 
 High Steward, and King George and the Prince of Wales 
 being present. When the Earl of Derwentwater was asked 
 whether he had any cause to show why judgment should 
 not be passed upon him, his lordship spoke as follows : — 
 
 " I only humbly beg leave of my noble peers to repeat a few cir- 
 cumstances mentioned in my answer to the articles of impeach- 
 ment exhibited against me by the Honoiu'able House of Commons. 
 But the terrors of your lordships' just sentence, which at once 
 deprives me of my life and estate, and completes the misfortunes 
 
 k Strype (B. iv. p. 119), says " The 
 front houses in the Strand, which are 
 lofty and well-built, are inhabited by 
 tradesmen, with one very fine tavern, 
 which hath the sign of the Fountain, 
 very conveniently built for that pur- 
 pose, with excellent vaults, good rooms 
 of entertainment, and a curious kitchen 
 
 for dressing of meat, which, with the 
 good wine there sold, makes it to be 
 well resorted unto : close by this tavern 
 is an alley that leadeth to Fountain- 
 court, a very handsome place, with a 
 freestone pavement, and good buildings 
 which are well inhabited." 
 ' State Trials, vol. vi. p. 6.
 
 88 
 
 A VISIT TO 
 
 of my wife and innocent children,'" are so heavy upon my mind, 
 together with my inexperience, that I am scarce able to allege 
 what may extenuate my offence, if anything can do it. I have 
 confessed myself guilty ; hut, my lords, that guilt was rashly 
 incurred witliout any premeditation, as 1 hope your lordships will 
 be convinced by one particular. 1 beg leave to observe, I was 
 wholly unprovided w-ith men, horses, arms, and other necessaries, 
 which, in my situation, I could not have wanted, had I been party 
 to any matured design. No; my offence was sudden, and my 
 submission was early. When His Majesty's Generals thought fit to 
 demand hostages for securing the terms of the cessation, I volun- 
 tarily offered myself, witliout which the cessation might possibly 
 have proved ineffectual ; and whilst I continued hostage, the great 
 character of His Majesty's clemency, and the repeated encourage- 
 ment I had to hope for mercy by surrendering to it, soon determined 
 me, and I accordingly declared my resolution to remain with His 
 Majesty's forces ; and from that time submitted myself to his 
 goodness, on which I still entirely depend. 
 
 ** I humbly hope to obtain the mediation of your lordships, and 
 of the Honourable House of Commons, in my behalf; solenuily 
 protesting my future conduct shall shoAV me not altogether un- 
 worthy your generous compassion for my life, which is all I can 
 beg of His Majesty."" 
 
 This touching appeal vibrated on many sympathetic 
 hearts ; and the lapse of time in no ^\ise lessens om* sym- 
 pathy for the young and amiable nobleman, thus a suppliant 
 for his life : — a peer of England, — the representative of an 
 antient hne, — the lord of vast possessions, — happy in the 
 enjoyment of domestic felicity, and in the homage of 
 hundreds of grateful hearts, — stood there, at once deprived 
 of all he held most dear ; his generous but imprudent 
 enterprise in behalf of the Prince whom he deemed his 
 rightful sovereign had failed ; ° friends whom he had trusted 
 had betrayed him by their incompetence, perverseness, and 
 disunion ; and in the humiliation of asking his life from 
 King George, whom he looked upon as the usurper of that 
 Prince's throne, the unhappy Earl was expiating his fatal 
 
 "' The Earl's son was then not two the anniversary of the day that the 
 
 years old ; his daughter was an in- royal martyr, his grandfather, was mur- 
 
 fant. dercd hy his rebellious subjects ; and 
 
 " Register of the Rebellion. Lond. on the 4th of February he escaped 
 
 8vo. 1718, p. 68. on board a French ship from the Mon- 
 
 ° The exiled Prince was at this time trose roads on his flight to France, 
 
 on his return to France, after his un- Only a fortnight before this time, he 
 
 successful expedition to Scotland. He was heading his friends in' Scotland, in 
 
 abandoned Perth on the 30tli Januaiy, their brave but unsuccessful campaign.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 89 
 
 rashness. Having previously pleaded guilty, and now 
 thrown himself upon the mercy of the Crown, the Earl had 
 nothing to urge in arrest of judgment ; and accordingly, the 
 other formalities being gone through, the High Steward 
 (Lord Chancellor Cowper) pronounced the usual sentence ; 
 during the delivery of which, the edge of the axe turned 
 ominously towards the noble prisoners arraigned at the bar. 
 The sentence was prefaced by a long lecture, setting forth 
 the wickedness of the rebellion, and the blessing enjoyed by 
 the country in the advent of King George. This address 
 is described, in a time-serving daily journal, as being full 
 of tenderness and compassion ; but a part of it at least 
 betrayed a bigotry worthy of the age of penal statutes ; for 
 his lordship said — 
 
 " If I could have the least hopes that the prejudices of habit 
 and education would not be too strong for the most earnest and 
 charitable entreaties, I would beg you not to rely any longer on 
 those directors of your consciences, by whose advice you have very 
 probably been led into this miserable condition ; but that your 
 lordships would be assisted by some of those pious and learned 
 divines of the Church of England, who have constantly borne that 
 infallible mark of sincere Christians — universal charity." 
 
 It has been justly remarked, that, in the present age, we 
 should be astonished to hear a judge, on sentencing a 
 Roman Catholic to death, advise him to prepare for the 
 coming change by renouncing the spiritual aid, in the 
 efficacy of which he had been taught to trust ! 
 
 The sentence passed, the unhappy lords, for the last time, 
 re-entered the gloomy fortress of the Tower. But their 
 fidelity to the only sovereign whom they acknowledged, 
 their gallantry and devotion to his cause, their misfortunes, 
 and their personal claims to regard and sympathy, gained 
 for them many an advocate in high places, and a deep 
 aspiration from the ranks of the people. Members of the 
 legislature, of the Tory party, were in their favour from 
 antient predilections, sympathies, and friendships; and many 
 members even of the opposite side, whose honourable minds 
 and feelings of magnanimity were not warped by faction 
 and party, endeavoured to save the noble prisoners, although 
 disapproving of the insurrection. Lord Cowper had an 
 arduous task in resisting the applications for mercy which 
 were urged on their behalf.
 
 90 A VISIT TO 
 
 We read in the contemporary Annals of the Second Year 
 of King George's Reign, theit — 
 
 " When it was known that tlic lords in the Tower were to be 
 executed, the town was exceedingly agitated. As the prisoners 
 were of rank, so the intercession for them was powerful, especially 
 for the Earl of Derwentwater, whose case seemed the most dan- 
 gerous, lie was a young nobleman of a very antient family, and 
 he had a very noble and ilourishing estate, and therefore great 
 interest was made for his life, insomuch that the House of Lords 
 was brought to take part in the intercession, and to address His 
 Majesty for mercy." 
 
 Attempts were also made upon feelings less noble than 
 those of compassion ; and Walpolc, the first Lord of the 
 Treasury, declared in the House of Commons, whether truly 
 or not we cannot tell, that £60,000 had been offered to 
 him if he would obtain the pardon of the Earl of Derwent- 
 water. 
 
 But influences of a more legitimate kind were not 
 neglected. The Duchesses of Cleveland, ^ Bolton, and 
 Buccleuch, and other ladies of the first rank, accompanied 
 the young Countess of Deiwentwater'^ to S. James's Palace, 
 on Sunday the 1 9th of February, in order that, as the King 
 was returning from chapel, the Countess, kneeling before 
 him, might implore mercy for his noble captive. In this 
 intercession she was joined by the ladies who accompanied 
 her. We read in the " Annals" already quoted, that — 
 
 " The Lady Derwentwater, being introduced into the King's 
 chamber, applied very handsomely and in so moving a manner to 
 the King, that His Majesty seemed inclined to show the Earl 
 some mercy ; and had he not shown himself unwilling to give the 
 satisfaction in some points " [viz. : bi/ adoptiny the Church of 
 England, and achnoioledging the title of George I.] *' which there 
 
 p A writer of the day, in the " St. lady of exceeding beauty and personal 
 
 James's Post," speaks of one of the ad- accomplishments, dauj^hter of a natural 
 
 %'ocates of the condemned lords under son of King Cliarles II., and who was 
 
 the title of Countess of Dorkotsky, as in great favour with King (xeorge. 
 a lady more dreaded than loved at the i The Countess shared her lord's 
 
 Court of George I., by reason of her imprisonment until the 19th January, 
 
 sarcastic poignant wit ; and who, having when slie obtained from the House of 
 
 free egress and regress at Court, and a Lords permission to remove out of the 
 
 bold masculine air, obtained access to Tower, being in fear of the small-pox, 
 
 the King, while ladies of greater merit of which disease the Lady Catherine 
 
 but less assurance remained at a dis- Wyndham was lying a sufferer in the 
 
 tance. The Coimtess of Derwentwater next apartment. Some notice of Sir 
 
 and her noble friends arc said, by the William Wyndliam will be found in a 
 
 same writer, to have gained another future page.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 91 
 
 was just reason to expect from him, it was believed he would have 
 found the effects of the King's clemency." 
 
 But we read in the " St. James's Post," that the King 
 " declared his concern for the natural affliction of the 
 Countess, but professed, that the contract by which he was 
 called to the succession opposed an invincible bar to his 
 clemency." It is tolerably certain that the prayer of the 
 Earl's gentle advocates was heard with aversion by King 
 George. The Earl's consanguinity to the exiled House of 
 Stuart was of itself an offence, which the occupier of the 
 Stuart's throne could not forgive ; besides, the historic 
 page on which his dark and portentous shadow is cast, 
 records that he was incapable of generosity towards any 
 but favourites and mistresses ; that he was arrogant and 
 imperious, as he was ignorant, ' immoral and depraved. 
 The peers who, on the following Wednesday, ventured to 
 advocate mercy to the Earl, incurred King George's marked 
 displeasure ; and on the 23rd, when the House of Lords had 
 humanely interfered on their behalf, he showed his resent- 
 ment and implacable disposition, by ordering the speedy 
 execution of the Earl of Derwentwater and two of his noble 
 companions — Lord Nithsdale and Lord Kenmure. But in 
 the meantime, and on Monday the 20th of February, two 
 noblemen came to Lord Derwentwater in the Tower, and 
 in the name of the King offered to him his life, if he would 
 acknowledge the Hanoverian title and conform to the 
 Protestant Rehgion. The Earl, without hesitation, refused 
 those terms, and with firmness and constancy inspired by 
 religious zeal declared, that he would sooner part with his 
 life than renounce his faith. From this offer, and other 
 circumstances, it would seem that the Government di'eaded 
 the consequences of carrying into effect the fatal sentence. 
 
 On the following day, two Protestant divines came to 
 the Earl, probably at the request of some of his zealous 
 friends, and intreated that he would send for a minister of 
 the Church of England, according to the Lord Chancellor's 
 advice, to talk even of indifferent things, if he refused to 
 
 ■■ He was so exclusively Hanoverian testantsuccession,he was called to reign. 
 
 in his tastes, that he never acquired Burke declared it was to Walpole, 
 
 even the language of the people, over the Hanoverian family were indebted 
 
 whom, by the infatuation of Pai'lia- for the preservation of their Crown, 
 meat intent only on securing the Pro-
 
 92 
 
 A VISIT TO 
 
 change his religion ; as, on the strength of that dissimulation, 
 a reprieve could be obtained ; but the Earl, courteously- 
 thanking them, declined, saying he would not give people 
 any grounds to suppose that he had doubts in his religion. 
 
 On the same Tuesday, the Countess of Derwentwater, 
 accompanied by several other ladies of high rank, to the 
 number of from twenty to thirty, went to the House of 
 Lords to entreat their intercession in favour of the noble 
 captives. The Duke of Richmond, a Lord of the Bed- 
 chamber to King George,' undertook to present the pe- 
 tition. ' 
 
 On behalf of Lord Nithsdale and Lord Nairn, another 
 personal appeal to King George was made by the consorts 
 of those unfortunate noblemen, who, concealing themselves 
 behind a window-curtain in an ante-room of the palace, and 
 waiting until the King passed through, suddenly came for- 
 w^ard and threw themselves at his feet ; but their suit was 
 rudely repulsed. Lady Nithsdale had been assured, that, 
 although the royal clemency would probably be extended 
 to Lord Carnwath and some other of the condemned lords, 
 the Earl of Nithsdale would certainly not be included in the 
 number of those whose lives were to be spared ; and it soon 
 became apparent that the Earl, as a Roman Catholic, whose 
 estates w^ere on the frontiers of Scotland, who headed a very 
 considerable party, whose family had been always conspicu- 
 ous for loyalty to the royal house of Stuart, and who was 
 in his neighbourhood the only support of the Catholics 
 against the inveteracy of the Hanoverian party — a numerous 
 party in that district of Scotland, would become an agreeable 
 sacrifice to his political foes. Similar motives prevailed 
 against Lord Derwentwater. When petitions in favour of 
 the Earl and of Lords Nithsdale and Kenmure were pre- 
 sented to both Houses of Parliament, they were urged with 
 so much vehemence, and so warmly supported in the House 
 
 » Tliis was Charles, natural son of 
 King Charles II., by whom he was 
 created, when an infant, I)\ike of Rich- 
 mond, the titles of the antient and 
 noble house of Lenox having merged 
 in the Crown. He is described as good- 
 natured to a fault; very well-shaped 
 and bred ; possessed of some valuable 
 qualities ; but having a great antipathy 
 
 to business. His complexion was dark, 
 and he much resembled bis father. 
 
 ' The Duke of S. Alban's had pro- 
 mised liudy Derwentwater to present 
 the petition to the Lords, praying their 
 intercession to obtain the King's pardon 
 for the prisoners ; but when it came to 
 the point, he failed.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 93 
 
 of Commons, that, Walpole, whose efforts to crush the 
 rebelhon had been unremitting, declared he was moved with 
 indignation to see that there were unworthy members of 
 that great body who could, without blushing, open their 
 mouths in favour of rebels. " The Earl of Dei'wentwater," 
 he said, " had pretended that he went unprepared, and was 
 drawn unawares into the rebellion ; yet to his (Walpole's) 
 knowledge, he had been tampering with several people to 
 induce them to rise in favour of the Pretender six months 
 before he appeared in arms." " Sir Robert Walpole accord- 
 ingly took the lead with vehemence in repressing attempts 
 to save the condemned lords, and prevailed in his motion 
 for the adjournment of the House until the 1st of March, be- 
 fore which time the noble prisoners were to be beheaded. ^ 
 
 In the House of Lords, however, the friends of the unfor- 
 tunate noblemen overruled the resistance of the Govern- 
 ment, and carried an address to the King " for a reprieve to 
 such of the condemned lords as should deserve his mercy," 
 by a majority of five." 
 
 The address thus agreed to was presented to the King on 
 the evening of the 22nd of Februaiy . Ministers meantime, 
 alarmed at their defeat, met in council, and dictated the 
 King's answer to the address, which was, " that on this and 
 on all other occasions he would do what he thought most 
 consistent with the dignity of his Crown and the safety of 
 his people." 
 
 Early on the morning of the following day, the 23rd, the 
 Countess of Derwentwater and Lady Nithsdale, with a still 
 larger number of ladies of rank, again repaired to the 
 palace, but they were refused an audience by the King, who 
 on the same day ordered the execution of Lords Derwent- 
 water, Nithsdale, and Kenmure. The ministry, however, so 
 far complied with the declared wish of the House of Peers, 
 as to respite the Earl of Carnwath and Lord Widdrington. 
 
 " Coxe's Life of Walpole, vol. i. p. ^ In the debate on the presentation 
 
 72, citing Oldmixon, p. 631. of the petition of the condemned lords, 
 
 ^ The Minister prevailed in the one member of the Cabinet, the Earl 
 
 House of Commons by a majority of of Nottingham, honourably mindful of 
 
 only seven, the numbers being 162 his former Tory principles and friend- 
 
 against 155. Several of the stanchest ships, disconcerted his colleagues by 
 
 Whigs in the House, amongst others, suddenly declaring in favour of the 
 
 Sir Richard Steele, with his character- noble prisoners. His unexpected de- 
 
 istic good nature, were in favour of fection threw confusion and discord 
 
 mercy being shewn. into the ministerial ranks.
 
 94 A VISIT TO 
 
 Lord Nairn had been previously saved by the interposition 
 of Stanhope, a member of the cabinet. They had been 
 educated together at Eton, and though they had scarcely 
 met since that time. Lord Nairn being a sailor, yet Stan- 
 hope retained so much friendship for his school-fellow, that 
 he pleaded earnestly for his life to be spared, and his request 
 being at first refused by his colleagues, he prevailed by 
 threatening his own resignation as the alternative/ And 
 so, to forestal any further efforts in favour of the remaining 
 captives, Lord Chancellor Cowper, on the 23rd, signed a 
 warrant for the execution on the morrow of the Earls of 
 Derwcntwater and Nithsdalc, and Lord Kenmure. But 
 Lady Nithsdalc, "that noble conjugal heroine," as she has 
 been justly called, though she could not prevail with the 
 implacable Hanoverian, contrived to liberate his intended 
 victim, by that admirable stratagem which forms a bright 
 and memorable episode in the annals of feminine devotion. 
 On the night of the 23rd, she effected his escape from the 
 Tower in a woman's dress. "" When the news of Lord 
 Nithsdale's escape was brought to King George, " he 
 flew," says the Countess, " into an excess of passion, and 
 said he was betrayed, for it could not have been done witii- 
 out some confederacy;" and he instantly dispatched two 
 trusty persons to the Tower to see that the other prisoners 
 were well secured. The King is said to have nevertheless 
 observed, that "Lord Nithsdalc had done the best thing 
 that a man in his situation could do." 
 
 y Lord Mahon's Hist, of England, The author has been favored by the 
 
 who cites Seward's Anecdotes, vol. ii. lady-superior of the sisterhood of Bru- 
 
 252, edit. 1804. ges, with the following extract from 
 
 ^ A ciiTumstantial account of her their annals, relatinp^ to Lady Niths- 
 noblc and successful enterprise is given dale's sister, who was for many years 
 in a letter from the Countess to her superior of the convent. — " Lady Lucy 
 sister, Lady Lucy Herbert, Abbess of Herbert, daughter of William Duke of 
 the Augustine Nuns, (the English con- Powis, Lord Chamberlain of the house- 
 vent) at Ihugcs, dated Palais Royale hold of his Majesty James IL, entered 
 de Home, IGtli April, 1718, and signed our monastery, 22nd February, 1692, 
 " Winifred Nithisdale." It has been conducted by Father Louis Sabian, of 
 reprinted in Cromek's Remains. A the Society of Jesus, the Queen's chap- 
 search has been made among the lain. She made her holy profession, 
 papers of that convent for this letter, June 1st, 1093. Was chosen superior 
 and any other correspondence of tlie in March 1709, died 1744. — Her father, 
 time, but without success. On the the Duke of Powis, was in France 
 French Revolution, the nuns of the with Jaines IL after his abdication : 
 house were obliged to Hy into Englaiul, her mother, the lady duchess, was 
 at which time many papers belonging to governess to the then Prince of Wales, 
 the community were lost or destroyed. afterwards King James III."
 
 DILSTON HALL. 95 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 " Large were his aims ; yet in no human breast 
 Could gentle virtues find a holier nest. 
 
 His joys, his griefs, have vanish'd like a cloud . - 
 
 From Skiddaw's top ; but he to Heaven was vow'd." 
 
 It is now time to fix the reader's attention on the Earl 
 of Derwentwater, and to describe the manner in which 
 the last fortnight of his life was passed within the Tower, 
 while his devoted wife and friends were making their 
 unavailing efforts for his deliverance. 
 
 Of the edifying manner in which the Earl of Derwentwater 
 passed the few days which intervened between his receiving 
 sentence of death, and exchanging time for eternity, a most 
 interesting account has been given by an eye-witness — the 
 Rev. George Pippard, the chaplain who attended the noble 
 captive during the last fifteen days of his life. It is con- 
 tained in a letter which he wrote to the Countess, by her 
 desire, and which is preserved in the family of Lord Petre, 
 whose gi'andfather, Robert Edward, ninth Lord Petre, was 
 the only son of Robert James, eighth lord, by his marriage 
 with Anna Maria, the Earl's only daughter. The Rev. 
 writer, after referring to the occupation of his time by 
 clerical duties, and stating that, if he had ever so much time 
 and leisure he could not add much to what he had already 
 repeated to the Countess, and to Mr. Petre, proceeds to say: 
 
 " I will send your ladyship in this letter a short account of what 
 occurs to me, from the day I had the honour of waiting on you in 
 the Tower. It was, as I take it, on Friday the 10th of February, 
 fifteen days before he died : he every day during that time, read a 
 chapter or two in the New Testament, the like in The Folloioing 
 of Christ, and as much time as he could spare he employed in 
 reading the Co7ifessions of St. Augustine and other good books ; in 
 meditating and talking of the passion of our Saviour, and other 
 pious subjects, in order to prepare himself for a happy death. His 
 expressions were very extraordinary on some of these occasions ; 
 insomuch that, although I have often heard the most spiritual men
 
 96 A VISIT TO 
 
 talk on those subjects, I never felt an3'tliing that moved me so 
 much as wliat he often said. He prepared himself for his general 
 confession from the first day he saw me, and finished it with won- 
 derful composure the Friday, eight days before his deatli, [viz. ; 
 Friday, 17th February] which he partly renewed the Monday 
 following ; when he received, with wonderful satisfaction, a little 
 book, giving an account of the penitent behaviour of a man of 
 quality, called Signor Troilo Savelli, who was beheaded in the 
 flower of his youth, in the Castle of St. Angelo at Rome, which 
 was recommended to his perusal. There was one passage in this 
 book which mightily pk'ased him : Tlie person who assisted this 
 young nobleman at his death, showed him how the death which he 
 could not avoid, might nevertheless be made a voluntary sacrifice 
 by a voluntary acceptance of it ; and that it w^ould be so much the 
 more meritorious, the more willingly it were embraced ; that though 
 our Saviour was ordained by His heavenly Father to drink of the 
 chalice, he did it, however, voluntarily, which doctrine was con- 
 firmed by many examples — particularly out of S. Chrysostom ; 
 and his lordship was resolved to practice it the best he could ; but 
 when, on the Monday before he died, his life was assured him if he 
 would change his religion, he told it me with the greatest trans- 
 port of joy, that having refused his life on such terms, he hoped it 
 was not now making a virtue of necessity ; that had he a thousand 
 lives he would sooner part with them than renounce his faith ; 
 and with tears of joy in his eyes, he humbly thanked God for 
 giving him this opportunity of testifying his love for Him. It was 
 better than a quarter of an hour before he could speak of anything 
 else ; and, indeed, one would take him to be in a kind of rapture 
 while he spoke upon that subject. From this time forward, 1 own 
 I took him to be another man, disengaged, in a wonderful manner, 
 from what ties us down to this world ; and alienated by an invisible 
 hand above himself and everything that is worldly. His sentiments 
 were sublime, and his words were attended wdth something that 
 cannot be described. The Holy Ghost appeared to have taken 
 full possession of his heart, and by choice he would have em- 
 ployed the remainder of his days in nothing but spiritual concerns, 
 had not decency and even duty obliged him sometimes to attend a 
 little to other things. The Tuesday following, some others came 
 to him advising him to send for some minister of the Church of 
 England, according to my Lord Chancellor's advice, with whom he 
 might talk of indifferent things, since he did not intend to change 
 his religion ; and upon the strength of this, they would at least get 
 a reprieve for him, and that this once got, his life was safe. He 
 told them he did not doubt but they meant well by this advice, and 
 therefore, after his very obliging manner, he thanked them for their 
 kind intentions towards him ; but desired to be excused, because 
 he would not give any handle for people to suspect that he had 
 any doubts in his religion. On the Wednesday he was prayed to
 
 DIL9TON HALL. 97 
 
 read a Protestant book for much the same motives, and he made 
 much the same answer as the day before; all which contributed 
 not a little to augment that interior satisfaction which he felt from 
 the time when he refused to have life upon the terms of forsaking 
 his religion and principles. The person that came to him with this 
 first message, was likewise to see him the night before he suffered, 
 upon his lordship's request, for the latter wanted to speak home 
 to him upon the delusion he lay under of fo]-saking his religion ; 
 and he did it with so much charity and good nature, that had he 
 not entirely preferred this world to the next, it must have made a 
 great impression upon him ; for, as his lordship attributed this 
 proposal to a mistaken good-will, so he was resolved to return it 
 by a real good-will ; and, therefore, as he infinitely preferred the 
 good of his soul to that of his body, he endeavoured to make his 
 relation sensible of the danger he was in, that he might timely 
 withdraw and prepare for etcrnit}^ which his lordship had for some 
 time so much, or rather solely, at heart. The only thing that caused 
 him some uneasiness was the thought of parting with your lady- 
 ship ; and he often told me that he wished somebody would prevail 
 upon you not to come to him for the last week, which request he 
 thought too harsh from himself, so that my Lord Widdrington was 
 desired to speak to your ladyship. No man could have a greater 
 regard and tenderness for his wife than he had for you, and I 
 think there could not be a greater argument of it than this, 
 that when he seemed to be raised above the sentiments of the 
 world in everything else, he had not quite got the better of himself 
 in regard to your ladyship, though even here he appeared wonder- 
 ful to me. For, the last morning your ladyship parted from him, 
 I was surprised to find him so composed ; and, congratulating 
 his lordship upon the victory he had gained over his affections, 
 he answered, that you had been, both of you, upon your knees 
 begging that favour of God, for nigh a quarter of an hour before 
 you took leave of each other." 
 
 From the hour of their last farewell, all the Earl's 
 thoughts were given to religion and to preparation for the 
 approaching change. He saw Lady Derwentwater for the 
 last time on the morning of Thursday, the 23rd ; on the 
 same morning, he received from the Right Rev. Bona- 
 venture GifFard, vicar apostolic of the Church of Rome in 
 the London district, who had not been allowed access to 
 the Earl, a beautiful and touching letter, of which the 
 following is a copy ; and it may be appropriately given in 
 this place, as in the next sentence of the confessor's letter, 
 he refers to its receipt by the Earl : — 
 
 " My Lord, — I should most willingly have attended your lord- 
 ship in person, but since that has not been thought convenient, I 
 
 H
 
 98 A VISIT TO 
 
 send this to assure your lordship, that front the first moment of 
 your imprisonment, 1 have had you constantly in my thoughts, and 
 I have daily offered up the holy sacrifice for you. 
 
 " 1 question not, my Lord, but as you have (at least since your 
 trial) had death continually before your eyes, so you have taken 
 the best method to prepare for it. 
 
 " Our blessed Saviour, as he taught us to live, so has he instructed 
 us how to die. From his example, therefore, you must learn how 
 to make your death an acceptable sacrifice to God, and the means 
 of eternal happiness. His whole life was a preparation for death ; 
 yet, when he diew near to it, his behaviour was very extraordinary ; 
 and all the circumstances of it serve much for our instruction and 
 comfort. The holy evangelists tell us, that the evening before his 
 passion, he retired into a solitary garden : that he was oppressed 
 with grief, fear, and all the anguishes of an afflicted mind. Being 
 under this terrible agony, he fell prostrate on the ground — ad- 
 dressed himself to his Divine Father by a long and most fervent 
 prayer; and then, notwithstanding all the repugnance of a sensible 
 nature, he most perfectly submitted to his will. Now, my Lord, 
 our Saviour took upon himself these infirmities of human nature, 
 fear, grief, anguish, &c. and made them known tons, that he might 
 comfort us, and support our weakness under the like trials. His 
 fear merited all that courage which appeared in the martyrs, and 
 will obtain for you that firmness and fortitude of mind which wdll 
 accompany you to the scaffold. Y\h sadness vf\[\ cause a holy grief 
 and sorrow^ in you for your sins, and at the same time \vill settle a 
 most solid joy in your heart. In fine, all the circumstances of his 
 most bitter agony, will sweeten to you, all that is most terrible in 
 death. Go, therefore, my dear lord, go to your Saviour in his 
 dolorous garden — kneel down by hi'm ; join in prayers with him ; 
 and, shutting your heart up in his, pronounce with him the 
 great words, ' Father, thy will he done. Great God ! most wise 
 and most merciful Father ! thou hast appointed this death for me ; 
 I adore that ordination of thy ]irovidence ; and most humbly submit 
 to it : Fiat ; fiat! Tlnj will be done.'' 
 
 ** Having thus accompanied your Saviour in the garden, you must 
 also in like manner attend him throughout all the various circum- 
 stances of his passion, and everj^vhere join with him in offering 
 up to God all his suffeiings, in satisfaction for all your sins ; his 
 prodigious humiliations, for all pride, VcUiity, desires of esteem, 
 &c. ; his patience and silence under the most outrageous provo- 
 cations, for all anger, impatience, curses, or idle talk ; the ca- 
 lumnies and false accusations raised against him, for all detrac- 
 tions and uncharitableness in discourse against your neighbour ; 
 the cruel scourges he suffered, for all impurities you have ever 
 been guilty of; the purple garment, the fool's coat he was clothed 
 withall, the mockings and derisions which were cast upon him, 
 you will offer up for all vanity in clothes, dressing, equipage, 
 &c. ; the vinegar and gall he was drenched with, for all excesses
 
 DILSTON HALL. 99 
 
 in meat and drink ; the scornful mockeries with which he was 
 saluted King of the Jews, for all irreverences in the church, and 
 wilful distractions in the time of prayer. In fine, all the racking, 
 tormenting pains he suffered on the cross, for all unlawful pleasures 
 of what kind soever. 
 
 " Having thus gathered together all the sins of your whole life, 
 lay them down at the foot of the cross, that the blood which streams 
 from the wounds of your dying Saviour may wash and purify 
 your soul from all those stains and defilements. Beg of him 
 that he will nail to his cross, that black and frightful scroll of 
 your sins, there to be cancelled by his all-saving blood. Behold 
 him, amidst all the torments and anguishes of a most cruel death, 
 looking down on you with eyes of love — with a heart full of com- 
 passion and tenderness. Look you up to Him, with an humble 
 confidence in his mercy ; and with a heart full of love, grief, and 
 gratitude. He died for you ; die you for him, and with him, 
 and in him unite your death with his; that thus sanctified, it may 
 be an acceptable sacrifice to the Eternal Father ; tJiat your deatli, thus 
 rendered precious in the sight of heaven, may be the source of an 
 eternal life. Remember well his last words, and let his last prayer 
 be also yours. Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit, OIi 
 Jesus ! My God ! My Saviour ! My Life ! My only hope ! and 
 all my comfort ! into thy merciful hands I commend my spirit. 
 Sweet Jesus ! receive my soul. 
 
 " Our blessed Lady stood by her dying son vntli a heart pierced 
 with grief and anguish. She will stand by you with a heart 
 of motherly love and tenderness. She will help you to make your 
 prayers acceptable to her Divine Son. With great confidence, 
 therefore, address to her, in the spirit of the Church : * Holy 
 Mary, mother of God, pray for me, stand by me, assist me in 
 this hour of my death !' In fine, my Lord, with your last breath, 
 pronounce the most sacred and most comfortable name of Jesus ! 
 Jesus ! Jesus ! 
 
 " These are the poor thoughts of me, that truly loves you ; who 
 is continually with you in liis prayers, and who hopes to join with 
 you for all eternity in a canticle of praise to the infinite mercies 
 of our great God ! 
 
 " Misericordias Domini in eeternum cantabo. 
 Monday, the 20th of February, 1715-6. " B. G." 
 
 The original of the Bishop's letter is in the possession of 
 Lord Petre. It came to bear the impress of the hand, and 
 doubtless of the tears, of Lady Derwentwater, for it is 
 endorsed in her epigraph — " The Bishop's letter to my clear, 
 dear Lord.'' Time has not effaced the written memorial 
 which has thus told of her sorrows to many generations ; 
 but we may hope that, while years have obliterated the tear- 
 drop which affection shed from the mortal eye, the King 
 
 H 2
 
 100 A VISIT TO 
 
 of Endless Time has gifted the pure spirit with bliss and 
 immortality ; and that the Saviour's love has for ever 
 reunited the parted souls, dispelled the widow's tears, and 
 bade her weep no more ! Our extract may now be con- 
 tinued from Father Pippard's interesting journal of the 
 Earl's last moments : — 
 
 *' The letter lie got from Bishop Giffard on Thursday, gave him 
 more comfort than ordinary. Your ladyship has seen the original, 
 and I think I gave you a copy oi" it, at least you may have it from 
 the party that sent it, ^vhcn you please. He intended to write 
 him a letter of thanks, hut I believe he had so many letters to 
 write that night, whereof your ladyship has the copies, that 1 
 conceive he had not time to do so, for I could hear nothing of it. 
 He renewed his devotions the day before he died — confessed, com- 
 municated, and heard mass, with singular piety and edification. 
 My Lord Widdrington and his servant who were present could not 
 hut take notice of it. He o^^^led, with the deepest sense of grati- 
 tude, and pid)lis]ied the infinite goodness of God to him, in having 
 preserved him amidst tlie dangers he had l)een in, when he liad little 
 thoughts but what were wide from the chief business, such as natu- 
 rally occur to men warm in action, not such as offer themselves to 
 good christians, when they resolve to make their salvation the chief 
 business of their life. He acknowledged it was God alone wl'O 
 could make him so easy in the circumstances he was in; when, 
 instead of coveting, he even despised this life, and in some manner 
 wished with St. Paul to be dissolved, and live for ever with Christ. 
 He could not be prevailed upon to eat meat those days before he 
 suffered on which leave was given to all the faitliful, even though 
 he had a great cough upon him. He said, why need we be so careful 
 of this carcase, which is to be soon the food of worms ? Must I do 
 nothing more than I am ol)liged to do, though I have been an 
 offender in many things? With these and many more pious sayings 
 did he avoid the importunity of some friends who pressed him 
 upon that head ; nay, the very morning he died, he would not take 
 a glass of wine, which was thought not improper to give him spirits, 
 because of his lasting for several days before. But the trutli is, he 
 wanted none of these helps, for he was visibly helped with an extra- 
 ordinai'y grace, which appeared in his countenance and in all his 
 behaviour, to the adjniration of all that beheld him." 
 
 We may here again suspend our extracts from this inte- 
 resting narrative, to subjoin copies of five letters which the 
 Earl w rote on the night before he was beheaded. The first 
 is a letter to Lady Derwentwater herself It is as follows : 
 
 " My dearest worldly treasure, 
 " I have sent you the enclosed, in which is contained all I know, 
 but God knows I have as yet found little advantage by being a
 
 DILSTON HALL. 101 
 
 plain dealer, but on the contrary, have always suffered for it, ex- 
 cept by my sincerity to you my dear, for which you made me as 
 happy as this world can afford ; and now I offer up the loss I am 
 likely to have of you as a means to procure me eternal happiness, 
 where I pray God we may meet, after you have some years exer- 
 cised your great virtues, to the edification of all that know you. 
 I have corrected a few faults in Croft's accounts, but I leave it to 
 you to order every thing as you please, for I am morally sure, 
 with the grace of God, you will keep your promise. Somebody 
 must take care of my poor brother Charles, to save him, if possible. 
 1 will recommend him, however, by a few circular lines to my 
 acquaintance. Lord Nithsdale has made his escape, upon which 
 our unreasonable governor locked up the gates, and would not let 
 me send the enclosed to you, and immediately locked us all up, 
 though it was not eight of the clock, and could not be my fault, 
 though it may prove my misfortune, by his management. If you 
 do not think the enclosed signifies, make what use you will of it. 
 " Adieu, my dear, dear comfort !" ^ 
 
 The next is a letter addressed to Sir John Webb and his 
 lady. It is as follows : — 
 
 " The niglit before execution. 
 " Dear father and mother, 
 " By giving me your charming daughter, you made me the 
 happiest of men. For she loves me tenderly and constantly ; she 
 is honour itself, and has had my honour for this world very 
 much at heart, but my happiness in the next is what has made her 
 very vigilant to support all her misfortunes and mine. This morn- 
 ing we parted — my heart and hers were ready to break ; but thank 
 God, we gave one another the best advice we could, and so in 
 parting, I offered up the loss of the greatest worldly treasure. I 
 beg your pardon for having been the occasion of her unhappiness ; 
 but as you are both very good, I am persuaded you will think her 
 dear soul in a good safe way ; in short, she is virtue itself, and I 
 all frailty, who am, 
 
 " Dear father and mother, 
 
 " Your dutiful and loving Son, 
 
 " Derwentwater." 
 
 This letter bears the following postscript : — 
 
 ** Execution dav at 5 o'clock in the morning, 
 February 23"^ [24'*^]. 
 " I wish your family, and all under your care, may do well, and 
 that my poor little ones, — being under my dear wife's management, 
 and then if she fails, to Sir John, — may follow the like good ex- 
 ample, and be comfort to my dear, dear wife's friends." 
 
 ^ This letter is addressed to " The Countess of Derwentwater. To be left at the 
 Duchess of Clevehxnd's."
 
 102 
 
 A VISIT TO 
 
 There is another letter to Lady Derwent\Yater, which is 
 as follows : it seems to be unfinished : — 
 
 " My dearest worldly treasure, 
 '• Take courage, and call upon God Almiglity. Do not let any 
 melancholy tliought get the better of your virtues and your 
 courage, which have heen sucli an example to me. I deliver up my 
 soul to God Almighty, and thus, through the merits of my dear 
 Saviour's passion, 1 hope to ohtain everlasting happiness. Tell 
 Lord Scarborough, and Lord Lumley, and shew them this, by which 
 as a man dying, 1 desire them to be true to tlieir trust, by assisting 
 you, my dear wife, or Sir John Webb, against anything that may 
 happen to disturb the bringing up of my children in my religion, 
 and after the way you or Sir John shall think fit. This service is 
 in their power, and I do not doubt of their being true to their trust." 
 
 Shortly bcfoic this time, the Eai I's infant son was brought 
 to him for a last caress ; — the feelings it awoke may be 
 imagined better than described : — 
 
 " Tliose flaxen locks, those eyes of blue, 
 Blight as thy mother's in their hue ; 
 Those rosy hps, Avhose dimples play 
 And smile to steal the heart away. 
 Recall a scene of former joy, 
 And touch thy father's heart, my boy !" 
 
 The last of the five letters is one from the Earl to his 
 mother, who had then married James Rooke, Esq., her 
 third husband. It is as follows : — 
 
 " Dear Mother, 
 
 " Within five hours of the time of execution, I write these 
 lines to ask your blessing ; to assm'e you, that though I have not 
 been brought up with you, I have all the natural love and duty 
 that is owing to a mother, who has shewn her tenderness particu- 
 larly in my last misfortune, and it is in necessity that one should 
 find one's friends. I thank God, I forgive my greatest enemies, 
 recommending my soul to Almighty God. I hope, if you are in- 
 clined to think my religion the best, that you will consider one 
 must not trille with our Saviour, for fear of a surprise; in short, I 
 wish you as well as myself, and remain, dear, dear Mother, 
 
 " Your dutiful Son to the last moment, 
 
 " James Derwentwater." 
 
 " I wish Mr. Rooke very well ; he is a man of great honour, and 
 I hope you will bear with one another, as married people must 
 make each other happy." 
 
 The Earl wrote a very interesting and remarkable letter
 
 DILSTON HALL. 103 
 
 to his brother Charles, then a prisoner in Newgate, (which 
 will be found in the memoir of that chivalrous young noble- 
 man in a subsequent page) , and the following letter to the 
 Lady Mary Radclitfe, his aunt, then at Durham : — 
 
 " These few lines are [written] within a few hours of my execu- 
 tion, to let you know I have a great love and duty for you, and 
 thank you for all favours. 
 
 *' I recommend my dear son, [and] poor brother Charles, if he 
 come off, to your care. He has behaved himself nobly, and I hope 
 he will take care of the main point. 
 
 " I also beg your good prayers ; and recommending my soul to 
 God, hope to find forgiveness of the many great sins of my life 
 through the merits of our Saviour Jesus Christ ; and that we may 
 meet one day in everlasting happiness, is the hearty prayer of 
 
 " Your dutiful and well-meaning Nephew, 
 
 " Derwentwater." 
 
 The few short hours which remained to the Earl after 
 fulfilhng these demands of tilial and marital duty and affec- 
 tion, were given to devotional ji reparation for eternity. 
 He had hitherto been wonderfully sustained, as if deriving 
 divine strength from the spheie to which he was departing, 
 in humble reliance on the rod and staff of his JMaker, to 
 support and comfort him through the valley of the Shadow 
 of Death. But the world still claimed some last thoughts. 
 The Earl is said to have sent for an undertaker for funerals, 
 and discoursing with him about his own, expressed his wish 
 to be interred at Dilston, and his anxiety that his coffin 
 should bear on a silver plate an inscription importing that 
 He died a sacrifice for his laiuful Sovereign. 
 
 " Oh ! suffer not the foe to bear away 
 My helpless corpse — an unresisting prey : 
 If I, unblest, must see my son no more, 
 My much-lov'd consort, and my native shore, 
 Yet let me sleep 'neath Dilsion's sacred wall : — 
 He in whose cause I fell, shall mourn my fall." 
 
 The gloomy functionary, however, dared not comply with 
 the Earl's desire, and was accordingly dismissed, wherefore 
 no hearse was provided on the morrow after the last act of 
 this sad eventful history. Meantime, the last thoughts 
 which the dying young nobleman bestowed upon the world, 
 may perhaps be not inaptly expressed in the touching verses, 
 known as
 
 104 A VISIT TO 
 
 Lord Derwentwater's Farewell. 
 
 " Farewell to pleasant Dilston Hall, 
 
 My lather's antient seat ; 
 A strani^er now must call thee his 
 
 Which makes my heart to greet. 
 Farewell each kindly, well-known face, 
 
 My heart has held so dear ; 
 My tenants now must leave their lands, 
 
 Or hold their lives in fear. 
 
 No more along the banks of Tyne 
 
 ril rove in autumn gray ; 
 No more FU hear at early dawn 
 
 The lav'rocks wake the day. 
 And who shall deck the hawthorn bower, 
 
 Where my fond childhood strayed ? 
 And who, when Spring shall bid it flower, 
 
 Shall sit beneath the shade ? 
 
 With me, the Radcliffe's name must end, 
 
 And seek the silent tomb ; 
 And many a kinsman, many a friend. 
 
 With me must meet their doom. 
 But 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 ! farewell, my lady dear ; 
 
 III, ill thou counsclled'st me : '' 
 I never more may see the babe 
 
 That smiles upon thy knee. 
 And fare thee well, brave Widdrington, 
 
 And brother ever true ; 
 Dear Nitiisdale, Siiafto, Errington, 
 
 Receive my last adieu ! 
 
 And fare thee well, my own gray steed, 
 
 That carried me aye so free ; 
 1 wish I had been asleep indeed 
 
 Last time I mounted thee ! 
 The warning bell now bids me cease, 
 
 My troul)le's nearly o'er ; 
 Yon sun (hat rises o'er the tide, 
 
 Shall rise on me no more. 
 
 b The popular notion that tlie Earl mentioned, the reader, it is hoped, will 
 
 was driven into his fatal enterprise by iiiul suliicient refutation of the popular 
 
 the persuasions of his lady is evidently oi)inion, which does so much injustice 
 
 here referred to, but in the cliaractcr to her memory. The author of the 
 
 of that devoted and affectionate wife, verses is unknown, 
 and in the other circumstances already
 
 DILSTON HALL. 105 
 
 And although here, in London Tower, 
 
 It is my fate to die ; 
 O carry me to Northumberland, 
 
 In my father's grave to lie. 
 And chant my solemn requiem 
 
 In Hexham's holy towers ; 
 And let six maids of fair Tynedale 
 
 Scatter my grave with flowers ! " 
 
 The fatal morning of Friday, the 24th of February, 
 dawned through the murky atmosphere on the grim fortress 
 of the Tower, and on troops gathering round the scaffold 
 that had been erected ; and the events of that morning are 
 depicted in a vivid and touching manner by Father Pippard, 
 whose letter to the Countess we may now resume. The 
 confessor, after stating, as above, that the Earl seemed 
 gifted with an extraordinary grace, which was visible in his 
 countenance and in his behaviour, to the admiration of 
 all who beheld him, proceeds : — 
 
 " When I came to liim that morning, I found both his lordship 
 and Lord Widdrington on their knees at prayers : his lordship read 
 the prayers aloud, with a sedate and audible voice, whereto Lord 
 Widdriugton could scarce answer for concern, which made me 
 tliink Lord Derwentwater was reprieved, and that lie acted this part 
 as a friend to Lord Widdrington, for they concluded nobody would 
 be suffered to come there. And indeed it was by a special provi- 
 dence I got in: my lord acknowledged it as sucb, for when they 
 had done their prayers, my Lord Derwentwater turned about and 
 embraced me, thanking God very heartily that he saw me once more 
 before he died. Then he said he was glad ho could tell me that Lord 
 Widdrington was reprieved ; that it was his lordship himself who 
 brought him the joyful news that he was to die ; that he could 
 truly say he rejoiced at it, which he owned to be a great blessing 
 from heaven. Plere Lord Widd) ington was upon speaking to him, 
 when I humbly entreated his lordship to be as short as he could, 
 because I saw the coaches come in for the dying lord, and that I 
 supposed my Lord Derwentwater would have something to say to 
 me before he went out. Then my Lord Widdrington said, — ' My 
 Lord Derwentwater, were I to live a thousand years, I should never 
 forget you : so much courage, and so much resignation, in so much 
 youth !' and could speak no more for trouble, but withdrew ; and 
 his lordship was scarce out of the room, when my Lord Derwent- 
 water told me he was glad it was rather my Lord Widdrington who 
 was reprieved than Idmself ; which expression having startled me a 
 little, I begged his lordship would be pleased to inform me what 
 could move him to say it ? and he said, my Lord Widdi'ington was a 
 man of greater experience than himself, and thought a wise man by
 
 106 A VISIT TO 
 
 most people, therefore could serve his King and country better than 
 he [Lord Derwcntwater] could. This great humility did not only 
 appear on this occasion, but on many others that morning. After 
 this he went to confession, and did so more like a perfect religious 
 man than one who had lived in the world. Whilst he was on his 
 knees. Major Sole bolted into the room, to tell him the coach 
 waited for him. He asked, with much sedateness, if he might be 
 allowed a few minutes more, to which he was civilly answered he 
 might. Then he iinished what he had begun, with all the moving 
 sentiments imaginable. This being over, he walked down to the 
 coach. One of the keepers and 1 went in with him, and going 
 along, the buffetiers, and guards, and most of the company w'ere 
 weeping, whilst his lordship, with a composed countenance, was 
 devoutly praying." 
 
 They left the Tower about the hour of ten in the morn- 
 ing. The Earl of Derwcntwater and Lord Kenmure were 
 carried in two hackney coaches from the Tower Gate, and 
 received by the Sheriffs of London at the City Bar, where 
 they came in sight of the scaffold, which w^as surrounded by 
 three strong detachments of the Life Guards, Horse Grena- 
 diers, and Foot Guai'ds. Alighting at some distance from it, 
 they were conducted to the Transport- Office on Tower Hill, 
 from wdience a passage was formed that led on to the scaf- 
 fold. Let us again resume the w^orthy chaplain's narrative : 
 
 '* When we came," he continues, " to the City Bars, the Sheriffs 
 very civilly told his lovdship they had prepared a room for him 
 near the scaffold, in case he desired to retire there for a little while. 
 His lordship thankfully accepted their civility, and spent about 
 half an hour there in prayer." 
 
 Another contemporary account" states that the Earl, 
 after having been about an hour in this room, with 
 his friends who had been admitted to his presence, sent 
 notice to the sheriffs that he w^as ready ; and of his 
 own accord, advanced, preceded by Sir John Fryer, to the 
 scaffold. Lord Kennmrc, his noble fellows-sufferer, remained 
 below. " The Earl walked majestically," says Father 
 Pippard, " to the place of execution." It was observed 
 that paleness for a few moments overspread his features as 
 he ascended the steps, and, mounting the scaffold, wdiich, 
 with the fatal block, w^re wrapped in dismal covering of black 
 cloth, came in sight of the assembled crowd, which is de- 
 scribed to have numbered many thousands of people. But 
 
 *^ Register of the Rebellion, p. 87.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 
 
 107 
 
 the Earl soon regained his firmness and composure, and 
 " his behaviour was resolute and sedate."** He was attired 
 in a complete suit of black velvet; suspended from bis neck 
 was a small crucifix in gold — treasured symbol of the love, 
 the resignation, and the sufferings of his Saviour ! " He 
 wore a broad-brimmed beaver hat, turned up on one side, 
 and attached with loop and button to the low round crown, 
 adorned with a black drooping plume. Below this black 
 hat, the light flaxen curls of a flowing wig, worn according 
 to the fashion of the time, fell upon the shoulders of the 
 noble and youthful victim. He wore long black hose of 
 knitted worsted, drawn above the knee ; his small feet were 
 inclosed in shoes of black leather high over the instep, and 
 with high heels ; and he wore silver buckles. Such was 
 the Earl's attire ; and in his hand he cariied two small books 
 of devotion. Having arrived on the scaffold, whither he 
 was attended by the father of Dr. Gibson, the late Roman 
 Catholic bishop, by Father Pippard and others, the loyal 
 nobleman was then and there again offei'ed his life and for- 
 tune if he would conform to the established church and the 
 house of Hanover, but he answered that those terms " would 
 be too dear a purchase."^ Sir John Fryer offered to the 
 dying Earl all the time he might desire for preparation. He 
 answered^ that he should only jead some prayers, and 
 desired leave then to read a paj^jer which he had drawn up ; 
 and this done, he should be ready. Accordingly, kneehng 
 down, he passed about a quarter of an hour in devotion. 
 Then, rising up from prayer, the Earl, according to another 
 account, ^ turned to the sheriff, [who was probably Sir John 
 Ward] and told him he had a favour to ask. The sheriff 
 replying that it should be readily granted, his lordship said 
 it was that he might have liberty to read the paper which 
 he had drawn up ; and then going towards the rails of the 
 scaffold, he began to read with distinctness, and in a firm 
 
 ^ Annals of King George's Second 
 Year. Lond. 1717, p. 251. 
 
 * This crucifix is preserved in the 
 family of Lord Petre. It is sculptured 
 on a cross of the same metal, about 
 three inches in length. It incloses se- 
 vei'al reliques covered with crystal, 
 and witliin there is a short description 
 of each relique. 
 
 ' This anecdote is not mentioned in 
 
 any contemporary account that is known 
 to the writer, but was related by Bishop 
 Gibson himself to the Rev. Dr. Oliver, 
 at Durham, in 1806. It was a repeti- 
 tion of the offer related by Father Pip- 
 pard to have been made to the Earl in 
 the Tower, which, it will be seen, is al- 
 luded to in his speech on the scaffold. 
 
 « Register of the Rebellion, p. 87. 
 
 •' Weekly Journal, Feb. 25, 1716,
 
 108 A VISIT TO 
 
 voice, as follows ; bis (lenicanour being steady and composed, 
 and expressive of dignity and resolution : — 
 
 " Being- in a few minutes to appear before the tribunal of God, 
 where, though most unworthy, i hope to iind mercy, wliicli I have 
 not found I'rom men now in power ; I have endeavoured to make 
 my peace with His Divine Majesty, by most liumbly begging 
 pardon for all the sins of" my life ; and I doubt not of a merciful 
 forgiveness, through the merits of the passion and death of my 
 Saviour Jesus Christ, for which end I earnestly desire the prayers 
 of all good Christians. 
 
 " After this, I am to ask pardon of those whom I might have 
 scandalized by pleading guilty at my trial. Such as were per- 
 mitted to come to me, told me, that, having been undeniably in 
 arms, pleading guilty was but the C(nisequence of having sub- 
 mitted to mercy ; and many arguments were used to prove there 
 was nothing of moment in so doing ; among others, the universal 
 practice in signing leases, whereof the preambles run in the name 
 of the person in possession. But I am sensible that in this I have 
 made bold with my loyalty, having never any other but King 
 James the Third for my rightful and lawful sovereign : him [ had 
 an inclination to serve from my infancy, and was moved thereto by 
 a natural love I had to his person, knowing him to be capable of 
 making his people happy. And though he had been of a different 
 religion from mine, I should have done for him all that lay in my 
 power, as my ancestors have done for his predecessors, being there- 
 unto bound by the laws of God and man. 
 
 " Wherefore, if in this affair I have acted rashly, it ought not to 
 affect the innocent. I intended to wrong nobody, but to serve my 
 King and country, and that without self-interest, hoping, by the 
 example I gave, to have induced others to their duty; and God, 
 who sees the secrets of my heart, knows I speak truth ! 
 
 " Some means have been proposed to n)e f(n' saving my life, 
 which I looked upon as inconsistent with honour and conscience, 
 and therefore I rejected them ; for, with God's assistance, I shall 
 j)refer any death to the doing a base unworthy action. I only 
 wish now, that the laying down my life iniglit contribute to the 
 service of my King and country, and the rc-cstablishment of the 
 ancient and fundamental constitution of these kingdoms, without 
 which no lasting peace or true happiness can attend them ; then, 
 I should indeed part with life even with pleasure. As it is, I 
 can only pray that these blessings may be bestowed upon my dear 
 country ; and since / can do no more, I beseech God to accept of 
 iny life as a small sacriiice towards it. 
 
 " I die a Roman Catholic : I am in perfect charity with all the 
 world — I thank God for it ! even with those of the present Govern- 
 ment who arc most instrumental in my death. I freely forgive 
 such as ungenerously reported false things of me ; and I hope to
 
 DILSTON HALL. 109 
 
 be forgiven the trespasses of my youth, by the Father of infinite 
 Mercy, into whose hand I commend my soul. 
 
 '* James Deuwentwater." 
 
 " P.S. If that Prince who now governs, had given me my life, I 
 should have thouglit myself obliged never more to have taken up 
 arms against him." 
 
 *»"• 
 
 Sir John Fryer having requested this paper of his Lord- 
 ship, which is said to have been written in his own hand, 
 the Earl dehvered it to him, saying, " I have sent a copy 
 of it to my friends." After this, he repeated several peni- 
 tential psalms, and the following ejaculations : — 
 
 " Have mercy upon me, O God ! according to Thy loving-kind- 
 ness: according to the multitude of Tliy tender mercies blot out 
 my transgressions. O Lord ! Thy will be done. The Lord giveth 
 and the Lord taketh away ; and blessed be His Name. Lord ! 
 Thy will be done in earth as it is done in heaven. Give me pa- 
 tience, that I may suffer as becomes a Christian, and Thy disciple ! " 
 
 " He prayed a second time," [continues Father Pippard,] " so 
 movingly, that everybody there, and there were about thirty-five 
 persons, seemed more concerned than himself. The very exe- 
 cutioner knelt down and prayed and wept like a child, and so 
 did many more, — many at the same time praising and extolling 
 his courage. For I heard some say, no Caesar could die greater ; 
 others commended his piety and truly Christian behaviour ; and, 
 though I have assisted many dying, I never was with any who gave 
 such visible signs of a predestinate happy soul !" 
 
 The Earl having now taken off his wig and coat, — 
 
 " A strife arose," continues the narrator, " about his wig, be- 
 tween the keeper from the Tower who came with him, and the 
 executicmer ; the like contest arose about his velvet clothes, 
 during which he gave me a whisper to beg your ladyship to be in 
 no concern about his burial, for he did not care what they did with 
 his corpse. This he said, because he saw the sherifi" did not inter- 
 pose, when the executioner took his clothes, though the keeper 
 made his complaint to him that they had been given to himself by 
 his lordship, and he thought that what he desired about his burial 
 might be likewise contradicted. This sort of scufile was no sooner 
 over, which grated others more than his lordsliip, when he prepared 
 to kneel down." 
 
 Finding in the block, a rough place that might hml; his 
 neck, he bade the executioner make it smooth, which was 
 done, and his presence of mind and coolness astonished the 
 spectators.
 
 110 A VISIT TO 
 
 The following short dialogue ensued : — 
 
 Lord Dcrwentwafor. — " I forqive all that arc concerned in my 
 execution, and 1 forgive all the world ! " 
 
 Executioner. — " I ask your lordship's forgiveness." 
 Lord Derwentumter. — " With all my heart ; I forgive all my 
 enemies ; I forgive the most malicious of them ; and I do for- 
 give you." * 
 
 The Earl then made a gift of two half broad pieces to the 
 executioner, and told him he would receive an additional 
 present from the gentleman wdio held his hat and wig. 
 
 *' He bade the executioner," says Father Pippard, " not to 
 strike till he had made a short prayer, and pronounced the name 
 of Jesus three times loudly. He then knelt down and placed his 
 head on the block, and I stooped to him and gave him the last ab- 
 solution, after which he made a short low prayer ; then, with a loud 
 voice, he said, * Dear Jesus, be merciful to me ! ' after which he made 
 a short pause, then repeated the same words still louder; and 
 stopping a little moment, he*" repeated them a third time, louder, 
 and his head was in the instant severed from his body. It is im- 
 possible to describe the consternation that appeared in the faces 
 of all that were there ; that vast multitude really seemed to give a 
 groan not unlike the hollow noise of the sea at a distance." 
 
 Thus closed, by a " violent and 'vengeful infliction," the 
 brief career on earth of the beloved, devoted, and generous 
 Earl of Derwentwater ! The lamentations which his tragic 
 fate drew from the assembled multitude were echoed through 
 the valleys of Noi-thumbria by a bereaved and sorrowing 
 people, when the tidings came gloomily north — 
 
 " How the young Earl had given 
 His soul up to Heaven, 
 
 Still fresh with the brightness of youth : 
 How his last prayer was made 
 'Neath his murderers' blade, 
 
 For his Country, his King, and the Truth ! " 
 
 ' Register of the Rebellion, p. 90. titiide of supplication, on repeating this 
 
 •' It is elsewhere added, that the prayer. 
 Earl stretched out his arms in the at-
 
 DILSTON HALL. Ill 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 " Scion of chiefs and monarchs ! where art thou 1 
 * * » « * 
 
 Could not the grave forget thee, and lay low 
 Some less majestic, less beloved head ?" 
 
 The Northumbrian peasantry firmly believed that miracu- 
 lous appearances marked the fatal day on which the Earl of 
 Derwentwater was beheaded. It was affirmed, that the 
 current of the Divelswater acquired a crimson hue, as if his 
 fair domains were sprinkled with the blood of their gallant 
 possessor ; and that at night, the sky glowed ominously 
 with ensanguined streams. " The red streamers of the 
 north" are recorded to have been seen for the first time in 
 this part of England, on the night of the fatal 24th of 
 February 1716; and in the meteor's fiery hue, the astonished 
 spectators beheld a dreadful omen of the vengeance of 
 heaven. As " Lord Derwentwater's Lights," the phenome- 
 non has ever since been known.' Like the after-glow of 
 Egyptian skies, where, when the sun has disappeared, and 
 evening has advanced with a dark shadowy veil, the land 
 he has shone upon becomes for a while lighted up, the 
 trees regaining their verdant hue, the sands their yellow 
 colour, and the sky its roseate tints, before all those objects 
 are finally wi^apped in darkness ; the "lights" of the 
 northern sky seemed to proclaim, amid the scenes which, in 
 life, the Earl's bright and virtuous spirit had irradiated, its 
 translation from an earthly sphere to realms beyond the stars. 
 The tablets of history glow with a more permanent reflection 
 
 ' On the 18th Oct. 1848, a magnifi- where said at the time, that nothing 
 
 cent and veiy remarkable display of like this display had been seen since 
 
 aurora borealis was witnessed in the the appearance of " Lord Derwentwa- 
 
 northern counties. The crimson stream- ter's Lights," in February 1716, which 
 
 ers rose and spread from the horizon, may therefore be presumed to have 
 
 in the form of an expanded fan ; and been of a crimson or rosy hue. 
 the peasantry in Cumberland and else-
 
 112 A VISIT TO 
 
 of the shining virtues of his life and character, as of an image 
 about to be gifted with the radiance of heaven. 
 
 Let us, however, return to the fatal locality of that la- 
 mentable and tragic scene which closed the gallant Der- 
 wentwater's career, for the purpose of tracing the disposal 
 of his moi-tal remains. His last request in the Tower, 
 was, that his body might be interred with his ancestors 
 at Dilston. This request was refused, from a fear, as it 
 has been supposed, of exciting any popular movement 
 in the north. From the scaffold, the decapitated body" 
 wrapped in black cloth, was conveyed in a hired coach to 
 the Tower, where it would have been interred, if the Earl's 
 friends had not contrived to obtain possession of his remains 
 by leave or by stratagem. The head was received in a red 
 velvet cloth," by a trusty attendant," and borne away by 
 the friends of the noble victim. On the following Tuesday 
 morning, as early as three o'clock, the body was conveyed 
 from the Tower, '' in a hearse, to the surgery of a Mr.Metcalf, 
 in J3rownlow Street, where the head and the body were 
 embalmed; and the remains'! were thence conveyed to the 
 house of one King, an undertaker for funerals, in Great 
 Wilde Street.' The outer coffin in which they w^ere inclosed 
 was covered with crimson velvet, studded with gilt nails, 
 and bore a gilt plate, thus inscribed — 
 
 "THE RIGHT HON. JAMES LATE EARL OF DERWENTWATER, 
 
 DIED FEBRUARY 24Tn, 1715,8 AGED 27 YEARS." 
 
 It appears that the Countess of Dcrwentwater, during her 
 lord's imprisonment, rented Dagcnham Park, near Romford, 
 where she continued to reside for a time after his death. 
 In this house there was a chapel, wainscotted in oak, and 
 
 ■" Tlie Earl of Derwentwater was served with great care, a handkerchief, 
 
 merely beheaded ; tlie other bavharoxis in which he wrajjjied the head of the 
 
 portions of the sentence usual in cases Earl, and a pair of silver buckles which 
 
 of liigli treason, havin<>- been remitted. his noble master wore. He probably 
 
 " Tliis same clolli was presented by assisted in procuring the removal of 
 
 the late Rev. C. Plowden, to Francis the Earl's remains to Dilston. 
 Eyre, of Warkworth, in Northampton- •" London Gazette, March 3-G, 1716. 
 
 shire, Esq. i Register of the Rebellion, p. 93. 
 
 ° The servant of the Earl, who was ■■ See pamphlet entitled, " The Case 
 
 present at his death, was named Francis of the Condemned Lords, 8vo. London. 
 
 Wilson. lie sliorfly afterwnrds ciinie James Roberts, near the Oxford Arms, 
 
 to reside at Nafi'erton, a small village in Warwick-lane." 
 about iive miles eastward from Dilston, ^ The year, according to the ecclcsi- 
 
 on the opposite side of the Tyne, where astical style of computation, beginning 
 
 he lived until about 177.3. He pre- on the 25th March.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 113 
 
 fitted up for the Roman Catholic rites, and to this chapel 
 the remains of the Earl were brought from London. They 
 rested there for some days, until the friends of the Earl 
 contrived to give effect to his wish, and conveyed his 
 remains to Dilston. Thither they travelled, resting by day 
 and moving by night, towards his distant native hills. It 
 is said that the Whig Duke of Argyle, as he was returning 
 from Scotland, victorious over the Stuart cause, met the 
 funeral procession of the Earl on its sad northern pilgrim- 
 age, whereupon he stopped his retinue ; and, uncovering, 
 paid tokens of profound sorrow for the noble Derwentwater's 
 untimely end. The carriage containing his remains was 
 driven from London by a servant whose name w^as Dunn.' 
 He said, that they generally avoided the high roads ; and, 
 when arrived in the bishoprick, they rested a night at 
 Whitesmocks, " (thus avoiding the city of Durham,) and 
 proceeded across the country to Dilston, where they arrived 
 on a Wednesday in the evening, — 
 
 " With viewless steps the bearers pass ; 
 By day a silent vigil keep : 
 No priest to chaunt the holy mass,-— 
 But Tynedale peasants wake and weep." 
 
 *' Thousands of all sexes," says a contemporary, (who 
 wrote in the interest of the Hanoverian family,) " subsisted 
 by his charity ; and if the King and the best part of the 
 nation have, by his execution, lost an enemy, the fatherless, 
 the widows, and objects of compassion for many miles round 
 his seat, have in him lost the best of friends and supporters." 
 It was, therefore, very natural that he should be almost 
 adored by his numerous tenantry, and that his loss was felt 
 with profound sorrow by all classes of people. 
 
 Loving and beloved, in youthful ardour and in manly 
 pride, James Radcliffe, Earl of Derwentwater, the lord 
 of princely possessions, the inheritor of an honoured name, 
 and the benefactor of a widely-spreading population, had 
 ere while rode forth from his ancestral halls, a champion of 
 his Prince's right, — 
 
 " So noble his look, so princely his air. 
 
 So gallant and bold, so young and so fair." 
 
 • Dunn afterwards resided and died History of Durham, a porch before the 
 at the Bui'nt House, near Netherton, farm-house so called was pointed out 
 where his brother farmed. as tlie spot where the coffin of the noble 
 
 " When Mr. Surtees wrote his great sufferer rested.
 
 114 A VISIT TO 
 
 Tiic tumultuous array, the rapid march, the sanguinary 
 encounter, the clash of arms, were done ; and the uxc had 
 ministered to the utmost vengeance of the possessor of the 
 Stuart's throne. And now, his name attainted, and his 
 estates and honours foifeited to the Crown, the fair and noble 
 form that had been once animated by bright hopes, warm 
 affections, and all the generous impulses of youth, was 
 brought back — a cold and silent tenement, deserted by the 
 animating soul ; the countenance that had beamed alike in 
 the social circle, in the august assembly, or in the peasant's 
 home, was now to be committed to the obscurity of the 
 devouring tomb ; the heart that had ever warmed with love, 
 benevolence, and loyalty, was to pour no more its bounding 
 purple tide ; and the relics of mortality were now to be 
 committed to the grave, unconscious of the perfumed springs, 
 the glowing summers, and the gray autumns, which time 
 should renew above them until the morning of the resur- 
 rection. And so his remains were borne to their last rest- 
 ing place, in the peaceful chapel, where, in life, he had so 
 often knelt — a fit place for their enduring repose ! There 
 might be heard, amid the melancholy sighing of the wind, 
 the solemn accents of the chaunting priest, as the mournful 
 ])rocession moved onward to the chapel, and the impressive 
 words which the ritual of the Roman Catholic Church has 
 consecrated to the sad occasion. No cardinal, enrobed in 
 the deep purple vestments of mourning, intoned the prayers 
 with which the Church committed dust to dust; — no array 
 of priests in robes of black was gathered near the altar ; — 
 nor were members of religious fraternities seen to throng the 
 space around. No glittering line of yellow tapers threw their 
 light upon a gorgeous altar, or an embroidered pall ; nor 
 did the solemn tones of the De pj^ofundis resound beneath 
 an emblazoned roof, and through the shadoA\y \dstas of long 
 fretted aisles. Only the mourners, a few faithful attendants, 
 and a humble band of sorrowing poor, wdiose broken ejacula- 
 tions testified their affectionate remembrance of him who 
 had been their constant benefactor, assembled round the 
 little domestic chapel, within which the remains of the noble 
 Derwentwater were hastily committed, in the flower of his 
 age, to the oblivious tomb, 
 
 " Where darkness and light, and day and night, 
 And summer and spring, are one."
 
 DILSTON HALL. 115 
 
 His heai-t was conveyed in a casket to Angers, and 
 preserved for some time by the English Nuns, who formed 
 one of the many religious communities that once flourished 
 there. The son of the Earl passed some portion of his 
 youth in the Academie of this antient and important city, 
 once the capital of the province of Anjou, in whose cathedral 
 were deposited the remains of Margaret of Anjou, Queen 
 of England's Henry VI. ; and it may have been on this ac- 
 count that the Earfs heart rested awhile among the holy 
 sisterhood of Angers. But it seems to have been in the 
 chapel of the Augustine Nuns at Paris, at the time of the 
 French Revolution ; and may have been translated thither 
 in conformity with the wishes of the Earl himself, ^ 
 whose youth and manhood's dawn had been passed, as the 
 reader will remember, in the capital of France. The place 
 in the wall, where the Earl's heart was deposited, is still 
 pointed out. What a pang must the exiled Prince have 
 felt if he ever embraced that casket, holding as it did the 
 motionless heart of the noble and devoted friend of his 
 youth, who had been sacrificed in his cause — a heart which 
 had beat to the last with love and loyalty towards himself ! 
 
 The Prince was a fugitive at the time of the tragical fate 
 of his devoted friends. The hopeless position of the Stuart 
 cause in Scotland had driven him from Perth to regain his 
 asylum in France, and he landed at Gravelines on the 22nd 
 of February — two days before the sacrifice of the Earl of 
 Derwentwater. He went thence secretly and in disguise to 
 S. Germain's, to visit Queen Maiy, his widowed mother, 
 and remained with her for several days, but was then pro- 
 bably ignorant of the dreadful penalty which had been 
 suffered by the devoted adherents of his cause in England, 
 who in evil hour had rashly attempted his restoration. The 
 sad tidings of their fate, and of the overthrow of his own 
 hopes, were not long, however, in reaching the exiled 
 Prince. 
 
 It seems to have been before the middle of the month 
 of March in this fatal year, that the Earl's remains were 
 
 "■ This is merely a supposition. It is probable that the heart was sent to the 
 
 not positively known why the heart religious community in question by the 
 
 was removed to J'rance. The process wish, either of the Earl or of his sur- 
 
 of embalming rendered its removal viving relations. Its subsequent desti- 
 
 from the body necessary ; but it is very nation is noticed in a future page. 
 
 I 2
 
 116 
 
 A VISIT TO 
 
 conveyed to Dilston. The tradition at Dagenham Park, 
 near Koinlbrd, in Essex, the seat ot" the hrother of the late 
 Mrs. Howard of Corby Castle, is, that the Earl's body was 
 deposited in a chapel, which she remembered, in the house, 
 and was kept for three days there previously to its removal 
 for Dilston. A Tynedale tradition avers, that the sorrowing 
 widow accompanied the mute relics of the loved and lost on 
 the journey from Dagenham Park, where, until that time, 
 she had continued to reside ; and that she made a short 
 sojourn at Dilston before she took leave of it for ever : — 
 
 " The Countess wails in Dilston Hall 
 But Iladcliffe is not there."" 
 
 Ere long, she repaired with her little son and daughter to 
 Canford ; but before leaving the north, the Countess visited 
 the house and estates at Derwentwater ; and while there, 
 her life seems to have been in some danger, for the rude 
 peasantry of the neighbourhood, to whom her southern birth 
 and foreign education, as well as the principles and attach- 
 ments in which she had been brought up, were doubtless 
 uncongenial, blamed her, in the unreasoning vehemence of 
 their grief, for the tragic fate of their beloved lord and 
 benefactor. Accordingly, not far from the fall of Lodore, a 
 hollow in the wild heights of Wallow Crag, is pointed out 
 by the name of Lady's Rake, in which the noble widow is 
 said to have escaped from their vengeance. Her misfor- 
 tunes needed not to be thus undeservedly augmented. 
 
 On the 10th of June in the same year (1716), the Coun- 
 tess was living at Kensington Gravel-pits, near London, 
 for Bishop Giffard then addressed a letter to her there ; but 
 she soon afterwards went to Hatherhope, and subsequently 
 made a brief sojourn under the roof of her parents at Canford 
 Manor -J after which she took up her residence at Louvaine, 
 where she died on the 30tli August 1 723, at the early age 
 of thirty, having survived her noble husband little more 
 than seven years ; and was inteiTcd there in the church of 
 the English regular Canonesses of S. Augustine. 
 
 Poi)ular belief avers that the disembodied spirit of the 
 
 " Ballad, " Young RadHiffe," pub- Pancras, Middlesex, where there was a 
 
 lished in Sheldon's IJorder Minstrelsy. monument and inscription to her me- 
 
 y The mother of tlie Countess of niory, which perhaps still remains. Sir 
 
 Derwentwater lived until 1710. She John Webb survived his lady five years, 
 
 was interred in the churchyard of S. and died in 1745.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 117 
 
 widowed wanderer has come to visit the deserted ruins of 
 Dilston Hall,— 
 
 " When o'er the woods that bound the distant view, 
 Crown'd with night's stars and lost in ambient blue," 
 
 the moonbeams shed a flood of mystic silvery light, glance 
 upon the cui'rent of the river, which murmuring far below 
 is flowing onward through its deep shadowy dell, and shine 
 upon the ruined tower with the same unfaded lustre that 
 fell of yore on festive and lighted chambers — a lustre which 
 now only serves to deepen the shadows of the roofless and 
 deserted ruin. Through those haunted shades, the form of 
 Lady Derwentwater has been declared to glide in the moon- 
 beams ; and wondering rustics are said to have beheld the 
 rays of her cresset glancing from the ruined tower, as they 
 were wont to shine when in life she was watching there 
 for her lord's return. And as, in the adjacent chapel, his 
 mortal remains were laid in the long, cold sleep of death, 
 it is perhaps very natural, that in a vicinity where his 
 memory is so fondly cherished, legendary shadows should 
 be brought to fill the vacant places, and that on this spot 
 popular superstition has 
 
 " seemed to hear at evening hour 
 
 The lady sighing in that roofless tower ; 
 Followed her form, revisiting the gloom, 
 And gliding pensive to the moulder'd tomb." 
 
 The Countess was ere long followed from the world by 
 her only son, the Hon. John Radcliffe,^ popularly called 
 Earl of Derwentwater, who, on the 31st December 1731, 
 when he had attained the 19th year of his age, departed 
 this life, at the house of Sir John Webb, in Great Marl- 
 borough-street, London, and was interred with the remains 
 of his mother at Louvaine. Tradition says, that he met his 
 death from accident, and was residing in France at the time 
 it occurred. He is said to have been returning on horse- 
 
 ^ He was in the tutelage and guardi- of Dilston, yeoman, for fourteen years, 
 
 anship of the Countess, his mother, who at the annual rent of jg2oO ; all corn, 
 
 granted leases on his behalf. In one &c. to be ground at the lord's mill, 
 
 of these, which is dated 25 July, 1721, and a number (not specified in the 
 
 all the messuages and lands " called counterpart) of good fat hens to be 
 
 Dilston East Side, or Dilston New rendered at Christmas. 
 
 Town," are demised to John Lead- His will is dated 11th November, 
 
 bitter and Matthew Leadbitter, both of 1731, and it was proved at London in 
 
 Wharnley, yeomen, and Chr. Dickinson, 1 739.
 
 118 A VISIT TO 
 
 back to his residence, which was situate within a quadrangle 
 entered I'roni a h)w archway, when his horse suddenly car- 
 ried liini under the portal before he could stoop his head, 
 which thus came so violently in contact with the arch that 
 he was taken up insensible, and never recovered. As it is 
 stated in a contemporary journal,'' that he died in London, 
 and as the injury described was one which, if it was the 
 cause of death, probably soon proved fatal, it might be 
 presumed that he was in London at the time. He was 
 tenant in tail male of the settled estates under the limita- 
 tions of the settlement made in the year 1712, and U})on 
 his death, under age and umnarried, Charles Radclifte, his 
 uncle, became entitled to his estate for life in the settled 
 property, and to an estate as tenant in tail in possession 
 of other portions of the Radcliffc property under the settle- 
 ment of 1691.' 
 
 The only daughter of the Earl and Countess was baptized 
 in the names of her mother, Anna Maria, with the addi- 
 tion of the name of her maternal grandmother — Barbara.'' 
 On the 2nd May 1732, being then in the 17th year of 
 her age, she espoused Robert James, eighth Lord Petre, 
 who was born in June 1713.'' At Thorndon, the seat 
 of Lord Petre 's family, there is a pretty and sprightly 
 
 a Gentleman's Magazine. assures Mis. Busby of her confidence 
 
 '' By the marriage settlement of and friendship to her and her liusband. 
 
 1712, a remainder, in tlie event of the Lady Webb says, " I know, by experi- 
 
 heir's deatii without issue male, was cncc, liow much grief breaks people." 
 limited to Other Earl of Plymouth, and '^ The following letter was written by 
 
 William Lord Widdrington, in trust, her to Mrs. Busby, at Dilston, on the 
 
 for raising portions for daugliter or Gth of July following. It is dated 
 
 daughters; and on 6th July, 1721, a from Ingatestone, and signed "A. 
 
 claim to sell the estates, for raising the Petke." 
 
 portion of the daughter, was heard be- " Dear Mrs. Busby, — I am much 
 fore the Connnissioners for Forfeited obliged to you and Mr. Busby, for 
 Estates, in their court at Essex House, having taken so good care of the mare, 
 London, to which claim Richard Earl of but, indeed, I do not remember to have 
 Scarl>orough was a party ; and it seems entjuired after it, for I did not doubt 
 to have been made for giving effect to that it was vei-y well taken care of, as 
 the interests of the widow aiid daugliter, everything else has been that you ever 
 but was disallowed. The Hon. John had in your hands belonging to my fa- 
 Radclifl'e, the Earl's brother, a co- mily ; and I hope you are persuaded 
 trustee of the settlement, was then that I am very sensible how affection- 
 dead, ate a servant you have always been ; 
 f The young lady and her ill-fated and I do assure you that I shall always 
 brotlier are mentioned by Lady Wel)b, retain a great affection for you. As for 
 tlieir maternal grandmother, as "charin- the horse that you desired me to men- 
 ing children," in a letter dated 24 No- tion to my Lord, he has no occasion 
 vember, 1729, written by her to " Mrs. for it, so hope you will dispose of it well 
 Busby, at Dilston," in which the writer somewhere else."
 
 DILSTON HALL. 119 
 
 portraiture of this young lady, whose features and hair are 
 represented as bearing great resemblance to the Princess 
 Mary, sister of the exiled heir of James II. In this portrait, 
 Lady Anna Maria Radcliffe is represented as of the age of 
 fifteen or sixteen. Her hair is dark. She wears a tight- 
 bodied and smartly-fitting blue silk dress, with a long and 
 rather gaudy necklace of white and red cornelian beads. 
 The youngest child and only son of the noble pair was 
 Robert Edward, ninth Lord Petre, grandfather of the noble 
 lord who now bears that title. There is also at Thorndon, a 
 small picture of this lady when a widow (which she became 
 on the 2d July 1742), with her four children. The ninth 
 Lord Petre is represented as a baby on her knee ; ^ the three 
 little girls have large frilled caps and stiff bodies. Their 
 doleful looking mother is dressed in the same stiff manner. ^ 
 Her affection for the memory of her martyred father was 
 intense. She did not long survive her noble husband, and 
 her remains were interred, as were those of his lordship, at 
 Ingatestone. 
 
 « He was only six months old at his Heneage of Hainton, the second a 
 father's death. GiiFard of Chillington, and the young- 
 
 f The eldest daughter married a est a Weld.
 
 120 A VISIT TO 
 
 CHAPTER XIL 
 
 " Now all is done that men can do. 
 And all is done in vain ; 
 My love and native land adieu, 
 For I must cross the main ! " 
 * * * * 
 
 •' And cruel Brunswick, leal men's dread. 
 Doth hunt and cry for Scottish blude, 
 To hack and head, and hang and draw, 
 And all for the lad that's far awa'." 
 
 During the melancholy spring of the same year, every 
 post from England brought sad tidmgs to the exiled Queen 
 and her ladies. ^ Lady Sophia Bulkeley, in a letter to one 
 of the sisters of Chaillot, dated the 20th of March, sa} s, 
 alluding to her Majesty : — 
 
 " The deaths of the Earl of Denventwater and Kenraure have 
 grieved her deeply. Nothing can he more heautifvd than ;the 
 speech of the first ; if it were translated into French, I would send 
 it to you. The other (Lord Kenniure) said notliing then, but 
 merely delivered a letter addressed to our King, whicli he begged 
 nn'jrht be sent to him." 
 
 'o' 
 
 Lord Kenmure, companion of the Earl's enterprise and 
 death, immediately followed to the scaftbld his youthful and 
 devoted friend, and met his fate with serene resignation. 
 His remains were conveyed to the north, to be buried with 
 his ancestors in Scotland ; and the peasantry of Nithsdale 
 and Galloway, who had fondly looked for his return in 
 triumph, received his lifeless corpse with tokens of affection 
 and grief. It is stated '^ in two contemporary pubhcations 
 of authority, besides Lady Sophia's letter, that Lord Ken- 
 mure did not deliver any speech on the scaffold ; and none 
 
 KMissStrickland'sLivesofthoQueens at Avignon, 
 
 of England, x. 215, The exiled Queen >• Rcgist. of the Rebell. p. 93; and 
 
 breathed her last at S. Germain's, on Annals of the Second Year of King 
 
 the 7th May 1716. Her son was then George. Lond. 1717, p. 255.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 121 
 
 is to be found in the printed collection of papers relating 
 to the rebellion ; but a contemporary tract has been pre- 
 served * which contains the following — 
 
 " True Copy of the Paper left by tJie Lord Viscount Kenmure. 
 
 " It having pleased Almighty God to call me now to suffer a 
 violent death, I adore the Divine decree, and cheerfully resign my 
 soul and hody into His hands, whose mercy is over all his works. 
 
 " It is my very great comfort that he has enabled me to hope, 
 through the merits and by the blood of Jesus Christ, that he wiU 
 purify me here that I perish not eternally. 
 
 " I die a Protestant of the Church of England ; and I do from 
 my heart forgive all my enemies. 
 
 *' I thank God I cannot accuse myself of the sin of rebellion, 
 however some people, by a mistaken notion, may think me guilty 
 of it ; for all I did upon a late occasion, and my only design ever 
 was, to contribute my small endeavours towards the re-estahlishing 
 my rightful sovereign, and the constitution of my country, in their 
 Divine rights and legal settlement ; and by pleading guilty, I 
 meant no more than an acknowledgment of my having been in 
 arms ; and not being bred to the law, had no notion of my thereby 
 giving any assent to any other thing contained in the charge. 
 
 " I take God to witness, before whom I am very soon to appear, 
 that I never had any design to favour or to introduce Poj)ery, and 
 I have been all along fully satisfied that the King has given all the 
 moral security for the Church of England that is possible for him 
 in his present circumstances. 
 
 " I own I suhmitted myself very early to the Duke of Bruns- 
 wick, justly expecting that humanity would have induced him to 
 give me my life, which, if he had done, I was resolved for the future 
 to have lived peaceahly and to have still retained a grateful remem- 
 brance of so great a favour ; and I am satisfied the King would 
 never have desired me to have been active for him after. But 
 the case is otherwise ; I pray God to forgive those who thirst after 
 blood ! Had we heen all put to the sword immediately upon our 
 surrender, that might have borne the construction of being done in 
 the heat and fury of passion ; but now that I am to die in cold 
 blood, I pray God it be not imputed to them. May Almighty 
 God restore injured right, and peace, and truth ; and may He in 
 mercy receive my soul ! 
 
 February 24, 1715-16. " Kenmure." 
 
 The fate of many other of Lord Derwentwater's gallant 
 companions, furnished, indeed, a melancholy theme for the 
 
 ' In a volume of Miscellaneous several Papers delivered by Mr. S. 
 
 Tracts, in the library of the Dean and Gordon, the Earl of Derwentwater, 
 
 Chapter of Durham, Press O. ix. 27, Viscount Kenmure," &c. 
 Tenth Tract—" A Collection of the
 
 122 
 
 A VISIT TO 
 
 tidings whicli were conveyed to exiled royalty. Whole 
 liccatomi)s of prisoners were cruelly sacrificed to the Moloch 
 which the Parliament had set up. Of those who were tried 
 at Liverpool and condenuied to die, thirty-four met their 
 death at that place hy the hands of the executioner. Ralph 
 Widdrington, Esq. of Cheseburn Grange, would have been 
 their fellow-sufferer, if he had not, after condemnation, 
 escaped from prison by means of a rope which was thrown 
 across the ditch or fosse. ^ As to the rest of the un- 
 fortunate adherents of the House of Stuart, we have a 
 melancholy epilogue to the calamity of the 13th Novem- 
 ber, in the form of the bill of charges of the high sheriff, 
 incident to their trial and execution ; and the total of 
 the items for the proceedings of sanguinary vengeance 
 at Liverpool alone is the large sum of £515. 5^. lOd. 
 Among these victims were George Collingwood, of Esling- 
 ton, a Northumbrian gentleman, who was much beloved 
 in his county; and John Hunter, also a Northumbrian.' 
 They suffered on the 25th of February. At Preston, Capt. 
 John Shaftoe, who held a commission from King George,"" 
 
 ■' It is said that in grasping the rope 
 by which he escaped, he h)st all the 
 nails off one of his liands. He lived 
 until after the Rebellion of 1745, but 
 was never molested. 
 
 ' It is not clear whether he was 
 identical with a substantial fanner so 
 named, or with John Hunter, a native 
 of the valley of North Tyne, who com- 
 manded the third troop which followed 
 the Earl of Derwentwater, and who, 
 in the reign of Queen Anne, had been 
 commissioned to raise a company for 
 the public service, which commission 
 he did not exercise otherwise than by 
 collecting some border troopers on this 
 occasion for the service of the Stuart 
 cause. Their proficiency in horse-steal- 
 ing led a colleague of the enterjirise to 
 remark, that if Hunter's men could only 
 be quartered near General Carpenter's 
 forces, they would not leave to the lat- 
 ter a horse to mount upon ! Patten also 
 records of Hunter, that " he was famous 
 for running uncustomed goods out of 
 Scotland into England." He is said, 
 however, to have behaved with great 
 valour and obstinacy in the action at 
 Preston. The Hunter of whom Patten 
 relates these particulars, is said hy him 
 
 to have escaped from Chester Castle. 
 The Register of the Rebellion mentions 
 two pei'sons of liis name, and a John 
 Hunter certainly suffered among the 
 victims at Liverpool. [See Patten, p. 
 151.] 
 
 "' William Shaftoe, Esq. of Baving- 
 ton, formerly a Northinnbrian magis- 
 trate, and a gentleman of large estate, 
 was brought into tlie Rebellion through 
 the instigation of liis lady ; and of this 
 Mr. John Shaftoe, Patten relates, 
 that when in Newgate with Mr. John 
 Hall, he said, " Cousin Jack ! I 
 am thinking on what is told us, that 
 God will visit the sins of the fathers 
 unto the third and fourth generation : 
 I am of opinion that it is so with us ; 
 for your grandfather and mine got most 
 of their estates as sequestrators, and 
 now we must lose them again for being 
 rebels." The Shaftoes of Bavington 
 forfeited their estate, but it was pur- 
 chased of the Crown by Admiral Dela- 
 val, and restored to the family. One 
 of the Sliaftoe family is interred in the 
 Great Church at Brussels, with an epi- 
 taph, expressing his loyalty to James 
 
 in.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 
 
 123 
 
 and several prisoners of note, suffered before the death of 
 the Earl of Derwentwater ; " others at Lancaster, ° Wigan, 
 Garstang, and Manchester ; and more at Tyburn ; the privi- 
 lege of decapitation having been conferred on Lords Der- 
 wentwater and Kenmure only. The inferior prisoners in 
 Chester Castle, and other places of confinement, were sent 
 off by ship loads to the dreaded transatlantic plantations, p 
 The unhappy prisoners who suffered at Tyburn were four 
 in number, and were all persons of note. One was the 
 Rev. William Paul, a graduate of S. John's College, Cam- 
 bridge, incumbent of Horton-on-the Hill, Leicestershire. 
 He joined the Rebels at Lancaster and at Preston ; and, 
 though attired in the lay-costume of a blue coat, with a 
 sword and a flowing wig, he there thrice read prayers for 
 James, as King ; but just before the Hanoverian's troops 
 arrived, he withdrew from the town and proceeded to Lon- 
 don, where, again discarding clerical costume, he appeared 
 
 " On cutting through what is called 
 the Gallows Hill, a century afterwards, 
 two coffins were found, which contained 
 the headless bodies of two of the un- 
 happy victims, whose heads had been 
 mounted in front of the town-hall. — 
 [Taylor's Brief Description of Preston.] 
 
 ° Among the victims who suffered at 
 Lancaster, were Crow, (an Aberdeen- 
 shire mathematician), and George Mac- 
 intosh, whose heads were fixed on the 
 Castle gates, as related by Dr. Whitaker. 
 
 P Several of the humbler followers 
 were confined in Norwich Castle ; 
 amongst them was a servant of the Earl 
 of Derwentwater, who was apprehended 
 at Preston, and after being confined for 
 some months in London, was transferred 
 to Norwich gaol, where he was im- 
 prisoned for twelve months, with seve- 
 ral other followers of the Prince's friends, 
 who were then sent away to the colo- 
 nies, but he remained in confinement 
 for nine months longer, at the end of 
 which time he received a pass for safe 
 conduct, signed by two magistrates, 
 with which he reached Northumber- 
 land. His grandson, a person of the 
 name of Bearpark, who died early in 
 the year 1849, and who had been in 
 possession of many things that be- 
 longed to the Earl, related these 
 circumstances to Geoi-ge Rippon, Esq. 
 of Tynemouth, to whom the writer is 
 
 indebted for the commimication of the 
 fact. 
 
 Among the prisoners confined at Lan- 
 caster, was Oliver Hamilton, huntsman 
 to Thomas Howard, of Corby Castle, 
 Esq. a gentleman whose family, ever 
 distinguished for faithfulness and con- 
 stancy, had fought and bled for Charles 
 L, and who, before the rising of 1715, 
 was suspected by the Government of 
 " treasonable" intentions, and fortu- 
 nately for himself, was secured in Car- 
 lisle Castle. Hamilton, however, was out 
 with Lord Derwentwater ; was taken 
 with the rest, and confined in Lancaster 
 Castle for six years, and it was sup- 
 posed that he could have implicated 
 his master, but he faithfully resisted 
 all solicitations to turn King's evidence. 
 Mrs. Warwick, lady of the squire of 
 Warwick Hall, near Carlisle, who cor- 
 dially hailed Prince Charles Edward in 
 the oak parlour of that mansion (Moun- 
 sey's Carlisle in 1745, p. 46) was the 
 daughter of Mr. Howard, and inherited 
 her father's principles, religious and 
 political. 
 
 One hundred prisoners were sent 
 from Lancaster to Liverpool for trans- 
 portation, and afterwards 638 more 
 were transported thence to several co- 
 lonies in the VVest Indies. [Register of 
 the Rebell. p. 403, where the names of 
 the 100 are given.]
 
 124 
 
 A VISIT TO 
 
 in a coloured suit, laced hat, long wij^, and sword ; but was 
 met, on the 12th December, near Alontague-house, by a 
 Leicestershire magistrate, who knew him and took him 
 prisoner ; he, though a lusty man, not offering any resist- 
 ance. He was accused of exciting to sedition, and on the 
 31st of J\'lay pleaded guilty. He threw himself on the mercy 
 of King George, but was executed, in the clerical habit, on 
 the 13tli July, declaring himself a member of the non-juring 
 Church of England, and a martyr for loyalty to his King, 
 and exhorting his hearers to return to their allegiance to 
 James III. Another of the victims was John Hall, Esq. a 
 Northumbrian magistrate, who left his brethren on the 
 bench in the court of quarter sessions at Alnwick, when he 
 went out for the purpose, as his accusers said, of joining the 
 Rebels ; though this unfortunate gentleman endeavoured 
 to make it appear that he was riding homeward, stooping 
 over his horse's neck in facing the high wind, when he 
 suddcnlv found himself in the midst of James's adherents. 
 He was found guilty of high treason, and sentenced on the 
 16th ]\Iay, but was five times reprieved, his life being 
 offered to him if he would disown his King and principles ; 
 but refusing to do so, he suffered on the 13tli July, declar- 
 ing himself a sacrifice for his rightful sovereign. Another 
 was Richard Gascoignc, an Irish Roman Catholic gentleman 
 of good family, whose ancestors had faithfully seiTcd the 
 Crown in the Great Rebellion. He was a tall handsome 
 man, of engaging conversation, and gi'cat natural abilities, 
 which procured for him the friendship, (says Patten) " of the 
 best quality among the Tories." He had served as volun- 
 teer in the army in Spain, but resided at Bath at the time of 
 this so-called rebeUion, and was falsely said to be implicated 
 in the intended rising in the west of England, which was to 
 be headed by Sir William Wyndhani** with eight or nine 
 
 1 Sir William was a Knight of the 
 sliirc for the representation of Somer- 
 set in Parliament. It was suspceted by 
 the Government, that he was forming a 
 party to arm in favour of James, where- 
 fore, on 21st Sept. 1715, a warrant 
 for his apprehension was issued — a 
 most untowai'd event for the Stuart 
 cause, since it disconcerted the Prince's 
 friends throughout England. Col. Hask 
 of tlie Foot Guards, and a messenger, 
 
 arrived at his seat, Orchard Wyndham, 
 before he had risen, and telling the 
 porter they had come express with 
 letters of such consequence tliat tlie 
 baronet must be innnediately aroused, 
 he came in his gown to the disturbers, 
 who, thereupon told liim he was their 
 prisoner. Sir William was allowed to 
 return to his bedchamber to dress, and 
 take leave of his lady, having told the 
 Colonel that his own coach and six
 
 DILSTON HALL. 125 
 
 thousand men. He was found guilty of being with the 
 rebels at Preston, and on the 25th of May 1716, was exe- 
 cuted. He devoted his last hours to prayer and meditation 
 in a most edifying manner, and left letters full of affection 
 to his mother and sisters, and friends, and of gratitude to 
 his spiritual adviser. He delivered to the sheriff a last de- 
 claration, which contains the following passages : — 
 
 " That I have had an uncommon ardour or zeal in my duty and 
 loyalty for my most injured sovereign King James III., I own at my 
 death, as I did to every one that knew me whilst I lived ; and I 
 affirm that it was * * * from a true sense of my duty, as I 
 took myself to be bound by the laws of God and my country ; and 
 because his succeeding to the throne of his ancestors, would alone 
 make these three kingdoms happy ; for impartial accounts of his 
 royal person and qualities make him one of the most meritorious 
 princes in the world. My loyalty descended to me from my an- 
 cestors, my father and grandfather liaving had the honour to be 
 sacrificed in doing their duty to their Kings, Charles I. and James 
 
 n."r 
 
 The other unfortunate gentleman who suffered at Tyburn, 
 was Henry Oxburgh, also an Irishman, described by Patten 
 as " better at his beads and prayers than at his business as 
 a soldier." He was nevertheless the military adviser of 
 the still more incompetent Gen. Forster, in his calamitous 
 course ; and being found guilty of high treason, was exe- 
 cuted on the 14th May, after an edifying preparation for 
 eternity. His head was displayed on Temple Bar, 
 
 horses should be got ready by seven tlie 3rd October, put himself in the 
 o'clock to convey the party ; but it hands of the Earl of Hertford, liis 
 was soon foinid that Sir William had brother-in-law, Captain of one of the 
 availed himself of the opportunity to troops of Life Guards. Although deny- 
 escape through a door which had not ing any participation in a plot, he re- 
 been secured. A reward of £1000 was mained a prisoner until the 18th June, 
 offered by the council for his apprehen- 1716, when he was admitted to bail ; 
 sion ; and being pursued by messen- but his bail was dismissed soon after- 
 gers, he assumed tlie habit of a clergy- wards, and he was set at liberty. His 
 man, and sent a letter to a friend in confinement (says Patten) occasioned 
 Surrey, intimating that he would take another Knight to play the skulker with 
 refuge in his house ; but in his friend's the Northumbrian gentlemen, notwith- 
 absence his lady opened the letter, and standing his solemn engagements, who, 
 sent it to a nobleman of her acquain- if Mr. Forster had betrayed him, would 
 tance, who communicated the secret to have gone out of the world without his 
 Government. Sir William, learning his head. Sir William Blackett is no doubt 
 danger, surrendered, and crossing the the gentleman referred to 
 Thames at Isleworth, went to Sion '' Register of the Rebell. 298 ; An- 
 House, then the residence of the Duke nals of the 2nd Year of King George, 
 of Somerset, his father-in-law ; and on 319 ; and Patten's Hist. p. 150.
 
 126 , A VISIT TO 
 
 Hanoverian vcnG:eancc was not satiated for some time 
 after these executions, but the last victims who suffered in 
 England, were John Bruce of Preston, and four other pri- 
 soners, who suffered at Lancaster on the 2nd of October ; 
 while in Scotland, many noblemen, gentlemen, and prisoners 
 of humble station lost life and estate, before the curtain fell 
 on the closing scenes of this sad tragedy. JNlany gentlemen 
 died during their confinement in Newgate and other prisons, 
 amongst whom were Richard Butler of Rowcliffe, Esq. head 
 of the Lancashire family of his name ; Edward Swinburn, 
 Esq.," Charles Chorley, Esq., Mr. Edward Ord, and Mr. 
 George Gibson of Stonecroft. 
 
 But as we are not now writing a history of " the Rebel- 
 lion of 1715," or of all its victims, we will sadden our page 
 no more with their gory shadows, but turn to the less 
 tragical fate of some of the devoted adherents of exiled 
 royalty who were fortunate enough to effect their escape. 
 
 The eventful and romantic history of the gallant and 
 daring Charles Radcliffe, the Earl's brother, who escaped 
 from Newgate some months after the Earl's death, demands 
 a separate chapter. 
 
 Mr. Forster, the leader of this premature and ill-con- 
 ducted enterprise, was indebted, like Lord Nithsdale, to the 
 heroism of woman's devotion, for his deliverance from 
 prison. He had been long confined in Newgate, and was 
 about to be put upon his trial, when Dorothea Forster, his 
 sister, then in the 29th year of her age, rode from Bamburgh 
 to London " on double horse," behind an Adderstone 
 blacksmith, ' disg-uised as a servant ; and procuring an im- 
 pression of the key of the strong room in the keeper's house 
 
 » This gentleman and his hrother, and where several Northumhrian gen- 
 James Swinhurn, were brothers of Sir tlcmen, liis companions in arms and in 
 William Swinburn, and engaged with misfortune, were actuallj' interred at the 
 their noble cousin, the Earl of Der- closeof'life'sfitfid fever." JamesSwin- 
 wentwatcv, in tlie rising of 171.5. They burn lived until the 8th July 1728, but 
 were captured at Preston, and on the through long conhnement or disease, 
 4th of June 1716, were tried and con- had' become afflicted by settled me- 
 demned. Edward, who is described to lancholy. [See Patten, p. 140, and 
 have been a very handsome gentleman, Genuine and Impartial Account, &c. 
 and of good parts, died in prison on of Charles lladclifle, by G. Penrice, 
 the Gth December following, and was 1 747.] 
 
 probably (says Hodgson,) interred in ' The smith's name was Purdy, and 
 
 tlie churchyard of St. (Jiles-in-the- his descendants of that name, still are, 
 
 Fields, where a mock interment of the or lately were, following his trade at 
 
 body of Lord Derwentwater took place, Adderstone.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 
 
 127 
 
 wherein her brother was confined, effected his hberation. 
 It is related, that Mr. Forster was partaking of a flask of 
 wine with his fellow prisoner, Mr. Anderton, of Lostoek, a 
 Roman Catholic gentleman of Lancashire, when the keeper 
 of Newgate entered the chamber, and after a few minutes, 
 Mr. Forster left the room to go, as the keeper supposed, up 
 stairs ; but he had not long gone when the keeper felt a 
 misgiving that he would not return, and, going to look for 
 his prisoner, found that he was not where he had supposed. 
 In great alarm, he descended to the kitchen, where he found 
 that he and his assistant keeper had themselves become 
 captives, the door being double-locked by a false key on the 
 other side of the lock. The dismayed keeper then found 
 that, at the moment when Mr. Forster had stepped out of 
 the room, one Thomas Lee, his man servant, had requested 
 the keeper's assistant to draw him some beer, and while he 
 was obligingly doing so, Lee secured him in the beer- 
 cellar, leaving the way clear for his own and his master's 
 escape. This was on Tuesday the 10th of April, near mid- 
 night. The escape was so well concerted, that, as soon as 
 he was out of the prison, horses were in readiness to convey 
 him away directly to Leigh, near Rochford, in Essex, where a 
 vessel was lying, on board of which he arrived on the French 
 coast the very same day ; so that within twenty-four hours 
 he was a prisoner in Newgate and a refugee in Calais," 
 The disappointed Government was obliged to be content 
 with an attainder by act of Parliament — an unconstitutional 
 and illegal piece of vengeance ; and Mr. Forster himself 
 resided abroad until his death ; — 
 
 " The simple 'squire could only boast, 
 That he was loyal to his cost ; 
 The banish'd race of Kings rever'd, 
 And lost his land, but kept his beard ! " 
 
 A mock interment took place in the parish church of his 
 remote native county ; for, some twenty years ago, a coffin 
 
 the keeper, was put under arrest im- 
 mediately on Forster's escape, and 
 presented by the grand jury for high 
 neglect and misdemeanor, but he was 
 acquitted. The news of the escape is 
 said to have taken London by surprise. 
 [Annals of the Second Year of King 
 George, p. 280.] Mr. Errington of 
 Sandhoe, has a portrait of Forster. 
 
 " One thousand pounds were offered 
 as a reward for his recapture, with a 
 description of his person, as one of mid- 
 dle stature, inclining to corpulency, 
 well shaped, though stooping in the 
 shoulders, of fair complexion, with wide 
 mouth, large nose, gray eyes, and speak- 
 ing the northern dialect. But he was 
 beyond reach by his enemies. Pitts,
 
 128 A VISIT TO 
 
 filled only with sawdust, and whicli had never held a human 
 tenant, was discovered in tlic chancel in the place where he 
 w^as supposed to be buried; but in 1738, his body w^as 
 actually brought from France, and conveyed in a hearse 
 with one horse and a single attendant to Bamburgh, and 
 was privately deposited in the very curious crypt or sub- 
 terranean chapel beneath the chancel, which is known as 
 the Forsters' vault; and there, when a hundred years had 
 elapsed, the coffin, containing the body of its tenant in 
 remarkable preservation, "^ was found ; and lying by his 
 side, in another coffin, were the remains of his affectionate 
 sister, wdio did not long survive him, for she departed this 
 hfein 1739. 
 
 It is a circumstance worthv of remark, that Mr. Forster's 
 escape from Newgate was preceded by a very narrow escape 
 fi'om assassination at Preston, by the hands of one of his 
 ow^n colleagues, whom Patten designates as Mr. Murray. 
 He describes the indignation which was excited by the mere 
 mention of a surrender ; that many exclaimed against 
 Forster, and that had he appeared in the street he w^ould 
 certainly have been cut to pieces ; " and he would have 
 been actually killed in his chamber (says Patten,) by Mr. 
 Murray, had not I with my ow^n hand struck up the pistol 
 with which he fired at him, so that the bullet w^ent through 
 the wainscot into the wall of the room." 
 
 Brigadier Macintosh and fifteen of his companions had 
 effected their escape a few days previously, but by other 
 means. On the evening of the 4th of April, and on the 
 eve of being arraigned for the mockery of a trial, the 
 Brigadier and fifteen other state prisoners broke out of 
 Newgate, and made their escape in a manner not only 
 unexpected but unexampled ; for, overturning keepers 
 and guards, they made their way over the prostrate func- 
 tionaries to the outside of the doors. This feat was said 
 to have been accomplished, not so much by force of arms 
 as by bribery ; however, the fugitives succeeded in eluding 
 
 w It was one of five coffins, vesting to ascertain tlic presence of the body, 
 
 upon a rude stone platform at tlie eastern which had been questioned. It was 
 
 endof the crypt or subterranean cliapel; surrounded by saw-dust; the linen 
 
 the outer coffin of elm, was entire and clothes were there, and the leg, the only 
 
 strong. It was said, upon this exami- part examined, was fleshy and unde- 
 
 nation, that thirty years before, an cayed. 
 opening had been made near the foot,
 
 DILSTON HALL. 129 
 
 pursuit. A thousand pounds were offered for the recapture 
 of Macintosh, but the gallant fellow was then safe from his 
 enemies, and on the friendly shore of France, where, in a 
 few days, he was joined by his quondam colleague, the ex- 
 General Forster. He was honoured by being included in a 
 special Act of Parliament for attainder and outlawry ; but 
 at some period, the particular date of which does not tran- 
 spire, he was induced, by his great attachment to his father- 
 land, to revisit his Scottish hills. Perhaps the experiment 
 was made on the death of George I., and in rehance on the 
 tender mercies of his successor on the throne ; but the 
 patriotic fugitive experienced the implacable disposition of 
 the King, and was obliged to compound (as it were) for his 
 existence, by exchanging a capital sentence, for imprisonment 
 during the rest of his life, within the fortress of Edinburgh 
 Castle. 
 
 In course of time, however, the rigour of his confinement 
 was so far ameliorated, that he was allowed to mix in the 
 intelligent society of the Scottish metropolis ; and he be- 
 guiled the long hours of imprisonment by study, and by 
 devoting his acquirements to the service of his country in 
 the only mode now left to him, viz. by the composition of 
 works ^ designed to improve the system of agriculture and 
 the developement of the natural resources of Scotland ; and 
 he perhaps thus gave the earliest impulse to that national 
 spiritwhich organized the Highland and Agricultural Society. 
 Having thus earned, in long years of peace, a lasting title 
 to the honourable character of a patriot, the old Chieftain, 
 whose Jacobite enthusiasm had once been so ardent, died on 
 Friday the 6th of January 1743, in the Castle of Edinburgh, 
 at the age of 85 ; being thus spared the grief of witnessing 
 the final overthrow of the Stuart cause in 1745, amid the 
 tears and desolation of his country. 
 
 Other prisoners, who were of the number confined in 
 Chester Castle, effected their escape. Among these was 
 John Talbot of Cartington, a young gentleman who in- 
 herited the courage and valour of his father, an officer who 
 fell at the siege of Buda ; Roger, son of Sir Richard Salkeld 
 of Whitehall, Cumberland; and William Sanderson of High 
 
 ^ One of these was published at the then sterile and uncidtivated wastes 
 Edinburgh in 1729, and advocated the and valleys of his native country, 
 inclosing, fallowing, and planting of 
 
 K
 
 130 A VISIT TO 
 
 Lee, Nortliumberland, a Roman Catholic gentleman, to 
 whom Patten ^ ascribes " many valuable and endearing 
 accomplishments." 
 
 A Roman Catholic priest named Littleton, who was 
 among the rebels at Preston, escaped by what Patten "^ 
 calls an excellent disguise. He put on a blue apron, and 
 went behind an apothecary's counter, where he passed for 
 an assistant to the apothecary, and so got off. Dr. Walker 
 of Alnwick, who is described by Patten as a person of frank 
 and jocose disposition, and Richard Stokoe, formerly of 
 the Scots Grays, a Northumbrian, who acted as quarter- 
 master in the Earl of Derwentwater's troop, also escaped 
 from Preston ; as did likewise Francis Simpson, a servant 
 of the Earl's, who, however, w^as afterwards recognized, and 
 confined for some time in York Castle.^ 
 
 The escape of Launcelot Erringion, Esq. and Mark 
 Errington, his nephew, w^as perilous and extraordinary. 
 Alone and unaided, they had secured the Castle of Holy 
 Island, but being obliged to escape by sea, w^ere wounded 
 by shot while swimming for their lives, and were captured. 
 They contrived to burrow out of their cell at Berwick, and 
 were concealed for nine days in a peat-stack near Bamburgh 
 Castle ; they sailed from Sunderland for France, but re- 
 turned to England, and one of them lived in Newcastle, 
 until grief for the unsuccessful issue of the rising of 1745, 
 put a period to his life. Mr. Thomas Errington of Beaufi'ont, 
 obtained his fi'cedom, and more easily. He was a younger 
 scion of the antient Northumbrian fiimily of Errington, was 
 a gentleman of great natural abilities, and had borne arms 
 in France, where he acquired the reputation of being a good 
 soldier. In the calamitous enterprise of 1715, he com- 
 manded Lord Widdring-ton's troop ; but Patten says that Mr. 
 Errington would not have engaged in it, had not his many 
 obligations to the Earl of Denventwater prevailed Avith him. 
 
 The Earl of Nithsdale was not the only one of Lord 
 Derwentwater's noble fellow-prisoners in the Tower who 
 escaped. The Earl of Wintoun, after being sentenced to 
 death at a later period of the year, followed his example. In 
 
 y Hist, of the late Rebellion, p. 152. water," was captured at Preston; and 
 
 ^ Ibid, i;32. among the forty-four pi-isoners wlio 
 
 * Two other retainers of the Earl died in gaol at Lancaster, was Matthew 
 
 were less fortunate : *' Mr. Wesby, Jenkinson, his lordship's coachman. 
 
 gentleman to the Earl of Dcrwcnt-
 
 DILSTON HALL. 
 
 131 
 
 his early years this nobleman seems to have led an adventm*- 
 ous and wandering life. Patten relates, that while accom- 
 panying the Prince's friends, Lord Wintoun would associate 
 with any company that afforded him diversion, and was 
 accustomed to relate many pleasant stories of his travels, 
 and of his ha\dng lived, unknown, with a blacksmith in 
 France, whom he served for a length of time at the forge. 
 On hearing of the death of his father, and that his former 
 tutor had reported him (Lord Wintoun) to be dead also, 
 he returned home, but was received coldly. It is to be 
 hoped that, when returned to his native country, his conduct 
 became more suitable to his rank and position. Patten 
 relates that when Lord Wintoun was a prisoner in the 
 Tower, he showed that he had profited by his apprenticeship 
 to the blacksmith, for '' he cut asunder with neatness, one 
 of the iron bars in his window, using some small instru- 
 ment scarcely perceivable." 
 
 The life of Lord Widdrington was spared, as were the 
 lives of the Earl of Carnwath and Lord Nairn, who was 
 brother to the Duke of Athol. But the attainder was en- 
 forced, and Lord Widdrington's estate and peerage honours 
 were forfeited. '' 
 
 Of the gentlemen already named as having been made 
 prisoners at Preston, the following were pardoned : — Charles 
 Widdrington and Peregrine Widdrington ; John Dalton of 
 Thurnham Hall, and Ralph Standish of Standish, " Lancas- 
 trian gentlemen of fortune; Thomas Errington of Beaufront ; 
 Philip Hodgson of Sandhoe, uncle to Lord Widdrington by 
 marriage ; and William Tunstall of Wycliff, Yorkshire, a 
 Roman Catholic gentleman of generous education and large 
 estate, whose family were alUed by marriage to the ancestors 
 of the Earl, and who, Patten tells us, wi'ote several pieces of 
 
 *" In 1714, the year before this ill- 
 conducted enterprise, William, fourth 
 Lord Widdrington, lost his wife, who 
 was the only surviving daughter of Sir 
 Thomas Tempest, Bart, and heir to Sir 
 Thomas, her brother. She married his 
 lordship in 1700, and at her decease he 
 had five children living. Lord Wid- 
 drington lived imtil 1745, when he 
 departed this life at Bath ; and there- 
 upon his son, who was called Henry 
 Francis Widdrington, Esq. succeeded 
 to Stella and Stanley, his mother's in- 
 
 heritance. After a long life of peace 
 and obscurity, he died in 1774, and was 
 interred in the churchyard of St. Pan- 
 eras, Middlesex. He bequeathed his 
 inheritance to his nephew, Thomas 
 Eyre, with remainder to his cousin 
 Edward Standish, under which limita- 
 tion the Towneley family succeeded. 
 
 ' It seems from the Worcester Post- 
 man newspaper, June 15-22, 1716, that 
 this gentleman had been sentenced to 
 death. 
 
 K 2
 
 132 A VISIT TO 
 
 poetry while in prison, which gained approbation. John 
 Clavering, Esq. a Northumbrian gentleman, was not prose- 
 cuted — a favour which he owed to the interest of the Lord 
 Chancellor's lady, his kinswoman, •* — another example of the 
 influence which the ladies exerted on the destiny of the chief 
 actors in this calamitous rising. Edward Howard, Esq. 
 brother of the Duke of Norfolk, and Richard Towneley of 
 Towneley, Esq. brother-in-law of Lord Widdrington, were 
 acquitted. 
 
 Apropos of Errington and the other Northumbrian 
 neighbours of the Earl of Derwentwater, we may mention 
 here that they were among the neighbours of that nobleman 
 who, intending to join the rising, met at a race which (the 
 better to conceal their intentions) they caused to be run on 
 Widehaugh, then a large plain adjoining the park wall of 
 Dilston, and extending to the Tyne opposite to Beaufi'ont. 
 
 Patten, the renegade chaplain, secured his own safety by 
 turning king's evidence against his friends and quondam 
 associates, to his endless disgrace ; and with his name we 
 end this portion of our " strange, eventful history." 
 
 ^ Hist, of the late Rebell. p. 141.
 
 DILSTON HALL. . 133 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 " On his bold visage middle age 
 Had slightly press'd its signet sage, 
 Yet had not quench'd the open truth 
 And fiery vehemence of youth : 
 Forward and frolic glee was there — 
 The will to do, the soul to dare ; 
 The sparkling glance soon blown to fire 
 Of hasty love or headlong ire. 
 His stately mien full well implied 
 A high-born heart, a martial pride." 
 
 Charles Radcliffe, the youngest son of the second Earl of 
 Derwentwater,^ and brother of the amiable young nobleman 
 whose melancholy fate we have described, was born in Eng- 
 land on the 3rd Sept. 1693. Of his early life, Httle more is 
 known than has been incidentally noticed in preceding pages, 
 whilst tracing the brief career of his noble brother and 
 the progress of the bold enterprise which terminated so 
 fatally. We may therefore commence our memoir of this 
 brave and adventurous scion of the noble house of Radcliife, 
 from the time when he had become a prisoner of war, only 
 prefacing our short narrative with the notices which a con- 
 temporary writer has left to us of the qualities and character 
 of Charles Radcliffe, so far as they were exhibited on the 
 memorable occasion of the enterprise of 1715. 
 
 The chief part of his youth seems to have been passed in 
 France. Of his education, we have very few particulars, but 
 he does not seem to have manifested any fondness for 
 reading or study. He was brought up in the tenets of 
 the Church of Rome, and became attached from his boyhood 
 to the cause of the House of Stuart, among whose adhe- 
 rents his warmest friendships were formed. He appears to 
 have continued to reside abroad until a short time before 
 
 •^ See p. 29, ante.
 
 134 A VISIT TO 
 
 the rising in October 1715, when he returned to his paternal 
 home for the purpose (as he pleaded on his trial/) of 
 visiting- his brother the Earl; but, unfortunately for himself, 
 in time to aid in that attemj^t to restore the exiled Prince 
 to his throne. He had then completed the 22nd year of 
 his age ; he was possessed of considerable abilities and many 
 generous and heroic virtues, ^ and had given earnest of that 
 daring spirit which so greatly distinguished him in after 
 life. His character was marked by gallant brave ly, and 
 he was foremost in eveiy feat of daring. A writer well 
 acquainted with him, records that he was — 
 
 *' Full of spirit and courage, bold and daring, even to rashness, 
 and was generally the first to offer himself to go upon the most 
 hazardous enterprises. He seemed to set no value upon his life 
 where honour was to be won, or service to be performed. This 
 intrepid behaviour, which he was forward to manifest upon all 
 occasions, endeared liini very much to the chiefs of the rebels, 
 and therefore the Earl gave him the command of his troop, and 
 Captain Shaftoe conunanded under him. Mr. Radcliffe had never 
 been in an army before, and consequently knew nothing of 
 military discipline ; but what he wanted in experience and kno v- 
 ledge he made good in bravery, and in animating his men to great 
 exploits."*^ 
 
 The wTiter of these remarks then describes the gallant 
 young leader riding in his scarlet cloak at the head of his 
 troop on their rapid journeys on the Scottish border, and 
 continues, — 
 
 " Mr. Radcliffe, who had never seen much of the world before, 
 fancied himself now upon his travels ; and accordingly it was a great 
 part of his amusement to make observations on whatever he met 
 with that deserved his notice; at every town he came to he enquired 
 what were the most remarkable customs ar.d curiosities of the 
 place ; what monuments of famous men, or actions, or other noted 
 pieces of antiquity, were remaining among them ; and whatever 
 information lie could get of this kind he took down in his book. 
 Nor was he less curious in observing the various tempers and pas- 
 sions of men, as well in council as in the field, in action as in 
 conversation. When any false alarm was given that the King's 
 forces were at hand and ready to fall upon them, he was sure to 
 take particular notice of the countenances of the officers about him, 
 
 f Reg. of the Rebell. Lond. 1718, p. Family. Loncl. 1716, 2n(l edit. p. 8. 
 
 269. '' (jciuiiuo and Impartial Account of 
 
 s Genuine and Impartial Memoirs of the Remarkable Life and Vicissitudes 
 
 the Life and Character of Charles Rad- of Fortune of Charles Radcliffe, Esq. 
 
 cliffe, Esq. By a Gentleman of the By Gerard Penricc. Lond. 1747, p. 26.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 135 
 
 when they were ordered to head their troops and march against 
 the enemy. Some of them, he observed, were covered with pale- 
 ness, and looked as if the men were already half-dead ; while 
 others he saw flushing with fire and fury, or settled in a composed 
 sternness, — these he always found to be the best soldiers in the 
 time of real action." 
 
 Then, after describing their marches on the borders of 
 the Tweed, the narrator proceeds, — 
 
 " Mr. Radcliffe then proposed to re-pass the Tweed and attack 
 the King's forces, since at that juncture they had a manifest advan- 
 tage. * * * * This advice was bold, and agreeable to Mr. 
 Radcliife's fiery and spirited temper ; and if it had been followed, 
 it is very probable the King's troops would have been worsted." 
 
 ^ ^ ^ ^ '5p 
 
 " Being arrived at Jedburgh, word was brought them that Ge- 
 neral Carpenter had fallen upon their infantry, which had not yet 
 reached the town. This put them into the utmost consternation ; 
 however, Mr. Radcliffe mounted his horse, and bid those who had 
 any courage left, to follow him. Upon which they all mounted 
 likewise, and galloped away to relieve their friends ; but as it 
 happened, there was no occasion, it being a mistake." 
 
 The writer afterwards describes how warmly Charles 
 Radcliffe opposed the infatuated determination of his 
 English colleagues to march into England, although their 
 Scottish allies had refused to accompany them across the 
 border, and gives this further trait of Mr. RadclifFe's cha- 
 racter : — 
 
 '* When he found that whatever he could say would be to no 
 purpose, he begged of them to give him only a hundred horse, and 
 with them he would take his fortune along with the Highlanders." 
 
 And when put to their defence at Preston, — 
 
 " The gentlemen volunteers were drawn up in the churchyard 
 under the command of the Lord Derwentwater, and his brother Mr. 
 Radcliffe. Both of them behaved with the greatest intrepidity, 
 animating their men, both by words and example, to behave with 
 courage suitable to the emergent occasion, and they maintained 
 their ground a great while with the utmost bravery ; and indeed 
 they behaved so well that they obliged the King's forces to retire. 
 During the whole action, Mr. Radcliffe was in the midst of the 
 fire, and exposed to as much danger as the meanest soldier then 
 upon duty. . . Mr. Radcliffe protested against the capitulation, 
 and said he had rather die with his sword in his hand like a man 
 of honour, than be dragged like a felon to the gallows ; but the
 
 136 A VISIT TO 
 
 majority being against him, lie was obliged to submit with the 
 rest." * 
 
 He was undoubtedly a man of more capacity for com- 
 mand than any of his associates in the enterprise of whose 
 qualities we possess any information : 
 
 " But all was done that men could do, 
 And all was done in vain ;" — 
 
 and accordingly he suffered a miserable confinement of some 
 months in Ne^Ygate. AYhile awaiting his trial, he heard of all 
 the vindictive proceedings of the Government against his 
 noble brother, then captive in the Tower ; received letters 
 from him, in which the Earl, as with his last breath, 
 cautioned him against future rashness in the event of his 
 liberation ; and ere long there came to him the sad tidings 
 of the tragic scene which closed his brother's bright and 
 brief career. 
 
 The following letter was written to Charles Radcliffc by 
 the Earl a few" hours before the time wdien he suffered. The 
 piety and fraternal love wdiich inspire this touching letter 
 arc veiy remarkable : — 
 
 " Dear Brother, — You have behaved yourself like a man of true 
 honour and bravery ; but, dear brother, depend upon it, that with- 
 out hearty sorrow for your sins, and such resolutions (in case you 
 live) as you firmly hope to keep, all the rest has more of pride 
 and vanity than the love of God, who has been so prodigiously 
 good to us both by giving us time to repent, and sending such 
 afilictions, that if we pardon our enemies, and offer up our suffer- 
 ings towards obtaining heaven, 1 have great confidence in Ilis 
 goodness for a merciful forgiveness to us both. 
 
 " You know, dear brother, we have sometimes disputed together, 
 but my dear wife and others know how kindly I have spoken of 
 you on all occasions ; and I believe few brothers would have done 
 more than I would have done to serve you. I have reconnnended 
 your lite to those I know ; — it may be they will be more success- 
 ful in your behalf. Pray, behave yourself decently and honour- 
 ably, without pride ; bear my death with patience, forgive my 
 enemies, as 1 do ; and if ever you are free, live as devoutly as ever 
 you can ; — it is the happiest life to be devoutly retired. I dare 
 say you will love reading if you once begin. I hope you will (if 
 ever in your power) comfort my dear wife, who has been so good 
 to me, and really would have done anything for the real good of 
 our family. 
 
 ' Genuine and Impartial Account of Charles RadclifFe, Esq. Lond. 1747, 
 the Life and Vicissitudes of Fortune of 8vo. pp. 32, 36, 38.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 
 
 137 
 
 " It is now, dear brother, near the time of execution : — God grant 
 me courage to the last ! and that we may meet one day in eternal 
 bliss, is the hearty prayer of 
 
 " Your constant, loving Brother, 
 
 " Darwentwater." 
 
 " I have longed to see you, but was put off by the hopes of a 
 reprieve, and the constant hurry of my friends. God's will be 
 done on earth as it is in heaven ; and may He give you, my dear 
 friends and relations with you, true repentance and forgiveness of 
 the sins of your life ! 
 
 *' Dear Brother, adieu ! " 
 
 "Feb. 23, 1715-16."" 
 
 Mr. Roger Metcalf, the person who was employed by 
 desire of Lady Mary RadclifFe to embalm the remains of her 
 unfortunate nephew, has recorded that he was informed by 
 the confessor who assisted the Earl of Derwentwater, that 
 both his lordship and his brother Charles, wrote to Lord 
 Townshend, the secretary of state, requesting permission to 
 meet once more, but their petition was refused. 
 
 It was not until the 18th May following, that Charles 
 RadclifFe was put upon his trial for high treason, at West- 
 minster, when, having little to urge in his defence, he was 
 found guilty ; and in a few days afterwards he and eleven 
 more of the chiefs were conveyed in six coaches to West- 
 minster, to receive sentence of death. It was remarkable, 
 that when the coach in which he was conveyed arrived in 
 Fleet-street, the cavalcade met that of King George, who 
 was proceeding through the City on his way to embark 
 for Hanover. Charles Radcliffe's coach being stopped 
 before the door of a distiller near Temple Bar, he called for 
 some aniseed, which he, his fellow-prisoners, and a ser- 
 vant of Newgate, drank, and then proceeded to the Court of 
 Exchequer, where sentence of death was passed. He was 
 reprieved, with others, until July, and then further reprieved; 
 but distrusting the prospect of ultimate pardon, he began 
 to plan his escape from Newgate. 
 
 On the 11th December 1716, "'he, with thirteen of his 
 fellow-prisoners, had a grand entertainment in a room 
 
 ■'This very interesting letter has been 'Annals of King Geoi-ge's Second 
 
 preserved among the letters and reliques Year, p. 318, and Reg. of the Rebell. 
 
 of the Eai'l of Derwentwater, in the pos- p. 269. 
 session of Lord Petre at Thorndon. '" Patten, p. 140.
 
 138 A VISIT TO 
 
 called the Castle, in the upper part of the prison. Mr. 
 RadclifFc was attired in a full suit of black. When the 
 com})any were in the height of their conviviality, a little 
 door in the corner of the room was observed to be open ; 
 he went through it, followed by all his friends. The pas- 
 sage from this door was found to lead to the ward of the 
 debtors on the master's side, where the turnkey, not know- 
 ing Mr. RadcHffe or his companions, and supposing them 
 to have been visiting their friends, very obligingly let them 
 out. The fugitives had no sooner passed the gloomy portals 
 of Newgate than they hastened to various places of conceal- 
 ment ; and Mr. RadclifTe, after remaining for some time in 
 the house of a lady of his family in London, who nobly 
 protected her gallant relation from the emissaries of the 
 Government, was ultimately provided with an opportunity 
 for escaping to France." 
 
 " Tlie sails were fill'd, and fair the light winds blew, 
 As glad to waft him from his native home ; 
 And fast the white cliffs faded from his view, 
 And soon were lost in circumambient foam," 
 
 as the fugitive took leave of his country to seek an asylum 
 in France. He remained for some years at Paris and else- 
 where, following the fortunes of the wandering and exiled 
 Prince, and endeavouring to promote his restoration. During 
 all this time Charles Radcliffe's only means of subsistence 
 were a miserable pension allowed to him by his more unfor- 
 tunate royal master, and such remittances as his youthful 
 nephew could manage to send to him. But the penalties of 
 forfeiture, attainder, and exile could not break his gallant 
 spirit ; and 'ere many years had passed we find him the 
 hero of a somewhat ambitious courtship, which was marked 
 by a most amusing and romantic though prudent degree 
 of perseverance. 
 
 The lady of his choice was Charlotte Mary, only daughter 
 and heir of Charles Levingstone, Earl of Newburgh, in the 
 Scottish peerage, widow of Thomas Clifford, second son of 
 Hugh, third Lord Clifford, Baron of Chudleigh, and in her 
 own right Baroness Levingstone, Viscountess Kinnaird, and 
 Countess of Newburgh. She had married this scion of the 
 house of Clifford in December 1713, with a portion 
 amounting to £10,000,° and became a widow on the 21st 
 
 " Gen. and Impartial Mem. p. 23. Ugbrooke, the family seat. It is dated 
 
 " 'riie marriage settlement remains at 22d December 1713.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 
 
 139 
 
 Feb. 1 7 1 9 . P Between that time and 1 724, Charles RadclifFe 
 became her suitor, and is said to have urged his suit no less 
 than sixteen times. His sixteenth proposal was (as it 
 deserved to be) successful ; for, after having obtained access 
 to the lady's apartments in other w^ays but in vain, he 
 at last adopted the very novel expedient of coming down 
 the chimney, when the Countess, half alarmed and partly 
 pleased at his perseverance, received her daring suitor gra- 
 ciously. This scene is represented in a curious picture in 
 the possession of Lord Petre, at Thorndon, in which the 
 lady, whose attire is somewhat of Dutch fashion, with her 
 hair drawn off her forehead, '^ is represented in the act of 
 curtseying to her handsome and persevering suitor, who, 
 notwithstanding that he is supposed to have just completed 
 his journey through the soot, is attired in a rich white satin 
 dress slashed with pink, and neat chaussure ! His dress 
 seems to be Spanish ; he wears large pink bows at the 
 knee and on the shoes, which are of singular shape, and 
 on the floor is a Spanish hat adorned by a white plume 
 tipped with pink. It is not improbable that the proposal 
 took place at Louvaine, where the Countess of Derwent- 
 water and his nephew resided. However, it was at the gay 
 and renowned city of Brussells that Lady Newburgh took 
 Charles Radcliftb for her second husband. He thus acquired 
 a considerable income, and it enabled him to maintain the 
 title of Count de Derewent, which he assumed on the death 
 of his youthful nephew. And by his marriage he had issue, 
 three sons, namely, James Bartholomew Radcliffe, born in 
 France 23rd August 1725, who became third Earl of New- 
 burgh, and departed this life on the 2nd January 1 786 ; ' 
 Clement Radcliffe and Charles Radcliffe ; and four daughters. 
 
 p Thomas CliiFord was born in 1G87. 
 He died at Cannington, and his remains 
 were interred in the parish church there. 
 By his lady he left two daughters ; viz. 
 Frances, who died 7th Jidy 177i and 
 whose remains were interred in Chud- 
 leigh church ; and Anne, who married 
 Count Mahoney. Though eldest sur- 
 viving son at the time of his death, 
 Thomas Clifford never came to the title, 
 as his father did not depart this life 
 until the 12th October 1730. Collins's 
 Peerage (by Brydges,) vol. vii. p. 128. 
 
 1 This singular picture was painted 
 
 by a Dutch artist. Lady Newburgh 
 has at Slindon a copy in oils, which 
 was painted for her by the present 
 Lady Petre. 
 
 f On the death of his mother, which 
 took place on the 4th of August 1755, 
 he became third Earl of Newburgh. 
 On his death on 2nd January 1786, he 
 left Anthony James Radcliile Leving- 
 stone, his only son and heir, who was 
 born 20th June 1757, and became 
 fourth Earl of Newburgh. The lady of 
 the third Earl died on the 12th Sep- 
 tember 1797, aged 77.
 
 140 A VISIT TO 
 
 namely, Charlotte, Barbara, Thomasina, and Mary. His 
 eldest son was thought to bear a great resemblance to the 
 exiled heir of the house of Stuai-t, for whose service it 
 probably was that Charles Radclilie ventured, in 1733, to 
 visit his native country. It would seem that a life of 
 inactivity not chequered by peril and adventure, was in- 
 su})portable to him ; and accordingly, after the accession of 
 George II, he came to England and resided for some time 
 in Pall Mall, under the name of Mr. Johns, without being 
 at all molested. He returned to France, and again came to 
 England in 1 735, when he ventured into pubUc, and visited 
 several families in Essex and elsewhere, still without moles- 
 tation ; but his hopes of obtaining a pardon, for which object 
 he had the mediation of his friends, w^ere disappointed. 
 
 Charles Radcliffe took this opportunity to revisit Dilston. 
 His paternal hall was desolate ; the gardens were overgi'own 
 w^th weeds ; the walls and gates were broken down ; and 
 the old bridge (a relic of the past, which still remains,) was 
 in disrepair. There was nothing like itself but the old 
 chapel, where a clergyman of the Church of England was 
 officiating periodically, and beneath which the body of his 
 martyred brother was intombed beside their father's re- 
 mains ; but even these sad reliques he could not be allowed 
 to see. 
 
 The woods of Dilston were overspread with the tints of 
 autumn when Charles Radcliffe revisited the domains of 
 his family, whose " ample store" had then been seized 
 by strangers. The sylvan foliage that thickly overhung the 
 river glen, had assumed a mellowed richness; and though it 
 glowed in the golden sunset with a transient splendour, 
 falling leaves — the sport of every breeze that w^aved along 
 the dell — heralded the wintry tempests that w^ere soon to 
 scatter its leafy beauties, an emblem of the political agita- 
 tions which had laid low the beloved and noble owner of 
 that fair domain; while the wailing blast sighed like the 
 spirit of departed years througli the scenes where he once 
 bore sw^ay. Sadly did the wanderer gaze on the w^ell- 
 remembcred scene, until the cold moon threw her pensive 
 light over the desolation of his home, — 
 
 " When, silvered by tlie moonlight ray, 
 The antient hall before him lay."
 
 DILSTON HALL. 141 
 
 And on the morrow, how changed did he find the aspect of 
 the deserted mansion ! — 
 
 " For morning beam and wild bird's call 
 Awoke not Dllstons silent hall : 
 No porter, by the low-brow'd gate 
 Took, in the wonted niche, his seat ; 
 To the paved court no peasant drew ; 
 Waked to their toil no menial crew ; 
 The maiden's carol was not heard 
 As to her morning task she fared ; 
 In the void ofRces around 
 Rang not a hoof, bayed not a hound ; 
 All spoke the master's absent care, 
 All spoke neglect and disrepair." 
 
 It is said, that with a faithful follower, whose name was 
 Armstrong, he resided for some time in the neighbourhood of 
 Dilston, taking no pains to conceal himself. In the shades 
 of evening he was occasionally met by inhabitants of the 
 adjacent country, who took him for the ghost of the mur- 
 dered Earl, insomuch that the w^oods and river dell soon 
 gained the reputation of being haunted by the spirit of their 
 former owner — a belief to which the dress and family likeness 
 of the forgotten Charles RadclifFe in no small degi'ee con- 
 tributed. Of the terror which he thus caused, the following 
 legendary story is related in a little work called " The 
 Witch's Glen." 
 
 " On one occasion Charles met, face to face, in a narrow forest 
 walk, the bailiff who had been sent down from London by the 
 Commissioners. The man, terrified at encountering the supposed 
 ghost, turned his horse and galloped back, pursued by Charles, 
 who highly relished the panic he had created. The chase, however, 
 was short, for the bailiff striking his head against the branch of a 
 tree, was felled to the ground by the blow, where Charles left him 
 to recover at his leisui'e ; he was picked up by a woodman, and con- 
 veyed home, and ever afterwards persisted in asserting that the ghost 
 had thrown its head at him, and thus occasioned the plight in 
 which he was found. He soon afterwards petitioned for his recall, 
 and another was sent down in his stead, who declared that he had 
 no fear of ghosts, and was determined to fire at it the first opportunity. 
 This opportunity was not long wanting, for on a fine moonhght night 
 as he was riding through the river at Styford, he encountered Charles 
 in the very middle of the stream, who seized the bridle of the 
 bailiff's horse, causing it to rear and turn over upon its unfor- 
 tunate rider, and then left them to flounder out of the river as they 
 best might. These adventures occasioned so much sensation, that
 
 142 A VISIT TO 
 
 the Commissioners determined to send down a military force to 
 maintain the confidence of the peasants, wlio were beginning to 
 refuse to till the lands ; and as Cliarles at this time met with an 
 opportunity of passing over into Holland, from wdience he went 
 into France, the small party of soldiers gained all tlie credit of 
 having laid the ghost of the Earl." 
 
 And so, after a residence of two years in England, again 
 
 " The Childe departed from his father's hall," 
 
 and entered into the service of the French King. From 
 this time until 174G, little is known of his career, hut it is 
 not likely that a spirit so energetic remained during all this 
 period inactive. The Prince, in whose cause he had suffered 
 so deeply, after a vain pursuit of his shadowy crown in the 
 realm which 
 
 " Bestowed a kingdom, but denied him bread," 
 
 had departed from the troubled scene, and was succeeded 
 by his son, Charles Edward, the renowned hero of the civil 
 war of 1745, whose mother was granddaughter of John 
 Sobieski, the heroic King of Poland. Charles RadclifFe 
 received a commission in a regiment which was allotted a\ ith 
 other forces for the Chevalier's service in Scotland ; and 
 with his eldest son, James Bartholomew Radcliffe, then in 
 the 20th year of his age, Charles Radcliffe again sailed for 
 England, and entered on new and romantic scenes of his 
 checjuered career. It may be conjectured with some pro- 
 bability, that the Countess of Newburgh w^as at this time in 
 Scotland, and although Mr, Radcliffe may have joined her 
 there, he did not appear in arms among the friends of the 
 gallant and adventurous young Prince in their ill-fated 
 Scottish campaign, but is represented by the legend which 
 will be found in the ensuing chapter to have given his 
 services to the cause in another way, and to have been 
 employed in England. At all events, no part of his time was 
 devoted to inglorious ease, and we may suppose him to have 
 taken leave of his lady in the sentiments of the ballad — 
 
 " Farewell to Lochaber, and farewell my Jean, 
 Where heartsome with thee I have many days been ; 
 For, borne on rough seas to a far hostile shore, 
 May be I'll return to Lochaber no more. 
 
 But glory, my Jeany, must plead my excuse, 
 Since honour commands me, liow can I refuse ? 
 But should I come back, then, with love running o'er, 
 Oh ! Jean, I'll leave thee and Lochaber no more."
 
 DILSTON HALL. 143 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 " Farewell ! farewell ; the voice you hear, 
 Has left its last soft tone with you, — 
 Its next iBust join the seaward cheer. 
 And shout among the shouting crew. 
 
 " The timid eye I dared not raise, — 
 
 The hand that shook when press'd to thine, 
 Must point the guns upon the chase, — 
 Must bid the deadly cutlass shine. 
 
 " To all I love, or hope, or fear, — 
 Honour, or own, — a long adieu ! 
 To all that life has soft and dear. 
 Farewell ! save memory of you ! " 
 
 The traditions of Lancashire preserve' a romantic tale 
 connected with the rising of 1745, of which the following 
 is an outline : — In and before that year, an honest yeoman 
 — half farmer and half fisherman, tenanted a lonely farm 
 on that part of the Lancashire coast, where the frequented 
 South Port has since arisen. At the period of the story, 
 his household consisted of a buxom wife, an only daughter 
 named Katherine, the cynosure of her rustic clime, and a 
 tall high-cheeked farm servant, whose coarse habiliments 
 clothed a symmetrical form, and shoulders of athletic 
 width. He had not long been the inmate of the family, to 
 whom he came recommended by a Catholic gentleman in 
 the neighbourhood. He was at first sadly inexpert at farming 
 and fishing operations, and though quick of apprehension, 
 seemed to want the gift of speech. He therefore communi- 
 cated his thoughts and wishes by writing, or by drawing 
 sketches with chalk — a method which did not tend to unravel 
 the mystery that attached to him. With Katherine he 
 conversed by these means without difficulty; she taught him 
 many useful things ; and with his gentle instructress he 
 would sit upon the hills of sand which bordered the long, 
 
 s Roby's Trad, of Lane. 2nd series, vol. ii. 213, et seq.
 
 144 A VISIT TO 
 
 flat unbroken shore, and look upon the blue expanse of sea 
 and sky, now serenely smiling in their azure depths ; at 
 other times agitated and darkened by " the flying couriers 
 of the storm," or watch the orb of day sink down beyond 
 the ocean's verge. On one occasion, when he accom- 
 panied his employer who intended to embark on a Ashing 
 excursion, the fisherman's boat, which was intrusted to 
 the care of his mute attendant, was not at her moorings. 
 Presently, however, it was seen riding over the crested 
 waves, and bearing to the shore the dark figure of a 
 frieze-clad man, w4io seemed to have come from some 
 ship too far in the ofiing to be descried. The stranger, 
 between whom and the mute inmate of the farm, there were 
 marks of recognition, after guiding their little bark with 
 seamanlike skill and composure through the rising sea, 
 sprang to the beach, and, giving the fisherman a piece of 
 gold, but declining to satisfy his curiosity, proceeded on 
 his way, and was soon lost bcliind a i)rojecting sand-hill. 
 The fisherman and his attendant i)ut to sea, and ere long 
 inclosed in their net a sealed casket of antique form, but as 
 a storm was rising, they hastily returned. On landing, the 
 fisherman was too nmch occupied by his treasure to obsen^e 
 that his attendant pursued another route. He had not 
 long regained his farm when the storm increased fearfully. 
 In the intervals of its raging, a mysterious whispering was 
 heard in the adjoining bedchamber. But as all was dark 
 and no person visible, the fisherman in his terror ascribed 
 the sounds to the mysterious casket of the sea. Pre- 
 sently the door opened, and the dumb retainer of the 
 family stood before them. He was supposed to have entered 
 the house by the window of the sleeping room. On being 
 questioned, he fell into one of his vexatious fits of abstrac- 
 tion, from which tiie farmer was endeavouring to rouse 
 him, when the thatch of the cottage was seen to be on fire, 
 — kindled, apparently, by the lightning. The old man and 
 his wife went to extinguish the fire, and having done so, 
 returned, but Katherine and the mysterious attendant had 
 meanwhile vanished. Days and weeks passed on, but they 
 did not return, nor were any tidings of them heard ; and 
 at length the disconsolate father set forth in quest of intel- 
 ligence of his lost child. At Church Town, he heard for 
 the first time, how Prince Charles had made a gallant and
 
 DILSTON HALL. 145 
 
 romantic attempt to regain the throne ; how he had passed 
 through Preston at the head of his army, the pipers playing 
 " The King shall have his own again;" how disturbances 
 had agitated the country ; how several adventurous and 
 ardent partisans of the Stuart cause had suffered death ; 
 and how Charles Radcliffe, titular Earl of Derwentwater, 
 was supposed to have embarked in the cause, and to 
 have escaped, with several colleagues, in a ship bound for 
 Scotland. Impelled by curiosity, he proceeded to Preston, 
 for he now began to connect his daughter's disappearance 
 with the march of the rebel forces. On his way to Fisher- 
 gate, he encountered a dense crowd. He was told that a 
 prisoner of some note was being conveyed before the authori- 
 ties ; and soon a man of tall muscular hgure, in ragged attire, 
 advanced, guarded by soldiery and constables, through the 
 crowd. His pale features wore a stern expression, and he 
 looked dejected, as if by suffering and fatigue ; but nobility of 
 mien was apparent beneath his rough disguise. In this pri- 
 soner, the old man, to his amazement, recognized his former 
 servant. Thinking the officers had made a mistake, he eagerly 
 stepped forward to claim his runaway retainer, and ascertain 
 from him the whereabouts of the lost Katharine ; but was 
 threatened and repulsed by the guards, who pursued their 
 way with their prisoner. The bystanders said that a great 
 man had been taken, and that a large sum would reward 
 his apprehension ; but the fisherman, who knew (as he 
 thought) so much better, only smiled at their ignorance and 
 mistake. Being thus baffled, he sought refreshment and 
 rest in an obscure inn ; and midnight being near, was lying 
 in a dreamy restless state, when his own Katherine, smiling 
 as she was wont, but disguised in male attire, entered the 
 room, she having been with the prisoner and seen her father 
 in the crowd. She softly whispered to him as follows : — 
 
 " Be silent, for your own Hfe and mine. You shall know all, 
 but not now. Fear not for me : I am safe ; but I will not abandon 
 him, my companion, — yonder unfortunate captive whom you saw. 
 Help me, and I will contrive his rescue. He is honest and true, 
 as he is faithful. We may yet be happy at home, as we once 
 were ; but this fearful extremity must have passed. Now, aid 
 me ! for without our help, he is lost." After a brief explanation, 
 she thus enjoined him, — " To-morrow night bring a boat with four 
 stout rowers to the quay at Preston Marsh, and wait there till I 
 come. There is a life depending on my endeavours ! " 
 
 L
 
 146 
 
 A VISIT TO 
 
 The father, wondering and l)c\vildcrcd, promised tlie required 
 aid, and would have detained her ; hut she, with a hght 
 step, departed, repeating that she would return home as soon 
 as the captive should he safely liberated. In the morning, a 
 stranger waited on the mayor, who was a vain and self-impor- 
 tant functionary, and professing zeal for the interests of King 
 George, informed him that a ])lot was laid for the escape 
 of his prisoner on his removal to London, and advised 
 that the captive should be conveyed on board the King's 
 ship then lying in the Channel, and that the embarkation 
 should be managed privately, because the captive's friends 
 had long had a ship waiting for him on that coast. The 
 mayor embraced the stranger's advice, and sent the latter 
 with the town-clerk to the inn where the prisoner was con- 
 fined, in order to arrange his removal to the gaol, prepara- 
 tory to his embarkation. The prisoner being required to 
 doff the peasant's habiliments, was found to be attired in 
 feminine dress, — the very clothes, as they proved to be, 
 which Katherine had worn at the time of her disappearance. 
 Being insolently addressed by the minion of the law, the 
 prisoner, no longer dumb, answered, with dignity, — 
 
 " Sir knave ! I own no nicknames, and I answer to none. My 
 NAME IS Derwentwater ! I own it was my purpose to escape, 
 but there is treachery in the camp — treachery (glancing at the 
 stranger) where our best feelings were cherished. 1 have leaned on 
 a spear, and it hath pierced me deeper than I thought." 
 
 Strong and painful emotion agitated his features as 
 he proudly said, " Now I am ready ! make my fetters 
 tight, if I may not be spared that indignity." We know 
 not in what way Charles Radcliffe had been employed in 
 the cause of Prince Charles since he left France, or what 
 were the circumstances which led him to adopt so singular 
 and ignoble a concealment as he is described to have done 
 in becoming the servant of the fisherman. However, he was 
 removed to the gaol, then situated to the west of Friargate ; 
 and the mayor ordered that a boat should be ready an hour 
 before midnight, at which time the stranger promised to 
 accompany them, and see the prisoner safely received on 
 board the King's cruiser. At the time prescribed, the mayor, 
 rejoicing that he had had the good fortune to secure a prisoner 
 of such rank and importance, and to circumvent the con- 
 trivances of his friends, came with his clerk and a sufficient
 
 DILSTON HALL. 147 
 
 force to the gaol, and thence rode with the gallant captive, 
 duly fettered, to the place of embarkation. Beneath the 
 pier, a tishing-boat was lying, and the dark waves were heard 
 flapping heavily on her sides, while four rowers were silently 
 awaiting their charge. The noble prisoner was deposited in 
 the boat, accompanied by the gaoler, three of his myi'midons, 
 and the officious stranger, the fishermen complaining of 
 their ill-luck in having been pressed into so disagreeable a 
 service. The gale was fresh, and filled the hoisted sail, and 
 speeding onward through the dashing and furrowed waves, 
 the boat swept rapidly down the river. The gallant RadclifFe 
 sought not repose ; he sat in moody silence, as if absorbed 
 in his own untoward fate — a fate as dark and troubled as 
 the sunless waters on which he was tossed. Presently the 
 lights of the fishing hamlet of Lytham were passed, and the 
 boat had not long entered the open sea, when a light 
 flickered on the waves ; it disappeared, and again it seemed 
 to rise from the watery waste. Running up their lantern 
 to the mast-head, a similar movement of the light they were 
 approaching answered the signal. " Friends," said the 
 stranger, " hold on your course." In the misty dawn they 
 ere long neared the dark hull of a ship, and soon the dash 
 of the waters on her side and voices on board, guided them 
 to the vessel. With difficulty, the gaoler, his assistants, and 
 their charge, for whom the captain enquired as the Earl, were 
 hoisted on board a ship, which the former (too late,) found 
 to be no well-garrisoned vessel of war, but a trading craft, 
 redolent of fish and tar, bound for merry Scotland. The 
 bewildered officer produced his warrant to commit his rebel 
 prisoner to the safe-keeping of the captain of his Majesty's 
 cutter Dart. The crew, who had been expecting him for 
 three days, as a fugitive, were at a loss to account for the 
 proceedings of the officers of justice, and Charles Radcliffe 
 himself was as much surprised as any of the group. At length 
 the stranger cleared up the mystery by saying, — 
 
 " My Lord, I am no traitor, although until now labouring- under 
 imputation of treachery. You are amongst friends. Thanks to a 
 woman's wits, we are, despite guards, bolts, and fetters, on the 
 vessel which was waiting for us when you were surprised and 
 seized, as we were trying to escape towards the coast. With the 
 aid of my father I have been at last successful, and you. are free ! " 
 
 It need not be added that the speaker was Katherine 
 
 L 2
 
 148 A VISIT TO 
 
 herself, who, now resuming her proper voice and character, 
 with great glee committed the gaoler and his companions to 
 the captain's care, and took leave of the grateful Radclifte, 
 in these words : — 
 
 " My Lord, through weal and woe I have heen your counsellor 
 and friend ; hut 'tis fitting we now should part. Your danger alone 
 could excuse my flight. Father! take me again to your home — 
 1 will be all to you and to my mother, now tluit he is safe. Should 
 better times come," — 
 
 hut emotion checked the utterance of the innocent and 
 devoted girl. She descended to her father's hoat, and the 
 2;allant Radclitfe had hardlv received her 
 
 " Simple, mute farewell," 
 
 when the morning haze interposed its veil, and neither saw 
 the other more. But her generous efforts were not destined 
 to secure the safety of the nohle and unfortunate fugitive. 
 
 At what time the action of this story took place, or 
 whither the ship in which it describes him to have em- 
 barked, conveyed him, we know not ; but turning to the 
 annals of authentic history, we next find Charles Radcliffe 
 at sea on the opposite coast of England. On the 22nd 
 November 1745, a French privateer, called Le Soleil, ' 
 which had sailed from Dunkcrque with stores, ammunition, 
 and volunteers for the service of Prince Charles, and was 
 bound to Montrose, in Scotland, was captured by King 
 George's war frigate, the Sheerness, off the Dogger Bank ; 
 and on board the vessel were found Charles Radcliffe (who, 
 says the narrator, styles himself Earl of Derwcntwater,) his 
 son, and twenty officers, Scotch, Irish, and F>cnch, besides 
 about sixty men. Mr. Radcliffe and his son were brought 
 to London, with their fellow-passengers, who were accused 
 of treasonable intentions in favour of Pi'ince Charles. The 
 captors, seeing the resemblance of young Mr. Radcliffe to 
 the exiled Prince, took him for the Chevalier's younger son, 
 and fancied that Mr. Radcliffe was the Pretender himself. 
 His arrival in London and safe lodgment in the Tower, 
 created no little sensation, but the public ere long found 
 that the report was without foundation. On the 27th 
 March following, young Mr. Radcliffe and four officers who 
 
 « So says an account in tlic Gentle- called the Eaperance in the " Genuine 
 man's Magazine ; but the vessel is and Impartial Memoirs," p. 24.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 149 
 
 were French subjects, were liberated from the Tower upon 
 their parole ; for they could not be indicted for treason to 
 the King of Great Britain. The spring, the summer, and 
 the autumn of that fatal and eventful year passed over the 
 head of Charles Radclifte, but left him still an untried 
 prisoner in the Tower ! The Government, 
 
 " Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike," 
 
 seems to have been at a loss to know what proceedings to 
 take against him, and was probably occupied during all that 
 time in endeavouring to find witnesses who would prove 
 him to be the same Charles RadcHfFe who had been con- 
 demned for high treason thirty years before. 
 
 On Friday the 21st November 1746, the gallant prisoner 
 was taken in a coach from the Tower, strongly guarded, to 
 the Court of King's Bench in Westminster Hall, to be 
 arraigned on the conviction for high treason which had been 
 recorded against him in 171 6. He is described as appearing 
 about five feet ten inches in height, and to have been dressed 
 on this occasion in a scarlet regimental suit, faced with 
 black velvet, and gilt buttons, a gold-laced waistcoat, bag- 
 wig, and hat of Spanish fashion with a white plume. Being 
 called upon to plead as Charles Radcliffe, he said that this 
 was not his name ; that he was the Count de Derwentwater, 
 and a commissioned officer and subject of the King of 
 France, in whose realm he had resided for nearly thirty 
 years. It was ordered that a jury should be impanelled 
 to try his identity, and this trial was appointed for the fol- 
 lowing Monday. On that day he was again arraigned, but 
 he treated the court with contumacy, and refused to acknow- 
 ledge its jurisdiction to try him, reiterating his claim to be 
 treated as a subject of the King of France, whose commis- 
 sion he produced, for the authenticity of which he appealed 
 to the minister of his Sicilian Majesty, then in court. This 
 claim was of course disallowed, and the indictment founded 
 on the conviction which had been recorded in 1716 was 
 then read to him in English. He merely repeated that he 
 was the Count de Derwentwater, and persisted in refusing 
 to hold up his hand and to plead in the usual form. His 
 counsel however took issue upon this allegation, and moved 
 the postponement of the trial, on the ground that two mate- 
 rial witnesses were absent. But the court held that no
 
 150 
 
 A VISIT TO 
 
 SLirticicnt ground was shown for a postponement, and pro- 
 ceeded to hear the evidence of the witnesses whom the 
 Crown had at length found to prove the identity of the 
 prisoner with the Charles Radclitfe who had heen convicted 
 in 1716. Two Hexham men" swore to his identity from 
 a scar on his face, ^ and declared that they had seen him 
 march out of Hexham at the head of the Earl of Derwent- 
 water's tenantry, in October 1715. One witness swore 
 that he had seen the prisoner at Dilston ten years before, 
 and had shown him a trap door leading to a vaulted chamber 
 belo\v the floor of Dilston Hall : — 
 
 " But none of them," says the writer of Genuine and Impartial 
 Memoirs, " could come up to the point, until a great officer was 
 sworn, who deposed that Mr. Radchlie since his confinement in 
 the Tower, had acknowledged to him, when they had been drink- 
 ing a glass of wine together, that he was the same person. But 
 
 " Tlieir names were Abraham Bunt- 
 ing and Tliumas Moslcy. 
 
 " It i>: stated in a periodical of 1823, 
 called the " Newcastle Magazine," upon 
 the alleged authority of ]\1S. notes of 
 the late Mr. Spearman of Eachwick, 
 
 that " Mr. R of A—," (by which 
 
 initials Mr. Thomas Reed of Aydon, 
 an early associate of Charles Raddili'e, 
 is understood to be referred to,) identi- 
 fied liim on the trial, by the scar on his 
 forehead, which mark the witness is 
 there described to have attributed to 
 an injury which tlie youthful Kadclifie 
 received while in his company, by be- 
 ing thrown from his horse, when riding 
 near Corbridge ; and tlie statement goes 
 
 en to say, that about 1774, Mr. R 
 
 was himself thrown from his horse and 
 mortally injured, near the very place 
 be had indicated to the jury. Now, the 
 fact is, tluit Mr. Reed was not examined 
 on tlie trial at all. He was known to have 
 been the near neighboin- and friend of 
 both the noble brotliers ; and in 1715 
 or early in MM), wlicn diaries Rad- 
 clifi'e was in the Tower, Mr. Reed was 
 summoned from Northumberland to 
 London, (upon the suggestion jjrobably 
 of his friend and hunting eoni])anion, 
 Sir William Middleton, deputy for the 
 Duke of Somerset,) to identify the 
 prisoner. Mr. Reed, after settling his 
 aflairs — a necessary precaution in those 
 days before conunencing so formidable 
 a journey — was taken, on ins arrival in 
 London, to the Tower, and placed at a 
 
 window commanding a paved court, to 
 which a gentleman, wrapped in a cloak, 
 presently entered, and where he walked 
 for the space of twenty minutes. ]Mr. 
 Reed was then conducted before ex- 
 aminers in an adjacent room, and asked 
 whether he knew the person whom he 
 had seen in the yard? to which he replied 
 in the negative ; and upon being asked 
 whether he did not know that person 
 to be Ciiarles Radcliffe, he declared that 
 if the j)erson he had seen was Charles 
 RadcliH'e, he was so nuieh altered, that 
 he could not take upon himself to speak 
 to his identity. We find that Mr. Reed, 
 being of no use to the (iovernment, was 
 unceremoniously dismissed without his 
 expenses being paid, and returned to 
 Northumberland. The church bells 
 pealed forth when his neighbours found 
 that lie had not identified the gallant 
 and unfortunate Radclifi'e. Mr. Reed 
 was at home with his family during the 
 later proceedings against Mr. Kadeliffc, 
 when his person was sworn to by Bunt- 
 ing and Mosley, and died suddenly in 
 Iiis own house, not from any accident, 
 but from aneurism of the heart, a com- 
 ])laint he had been long subject to. 
 The materials for this note have been 
 derived from the relation made to the 
 writer by Mr. Stephen Reed of New- 
 castle, the respected coroner for North- 
 umberland, who is a grandson of the 
 gentleman in cpicstion, and whose fa- 
 ther was born in Dilston Hall.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 151 
 
 Mr. RadcHffe objected to [the credibility of] this witness, because 
 he had confessed to him that he believed there was neither God 
 nor devil." 
 
 This objection was, however, overruled, and no other 
 defence was offered than the allegation of the noble prisoner 
 against which these witnesses had been examined ; so, after 
 a trial of seven hours' duration, in the course of which 
 several points of law were argued," the jury, having con- 
 sulted for ten minutes, found their verdict, that the prison- 
 er was the same Charles Radcliffe who had been convicted 
 of high treason in 1716. It was then ordered that he 
 should be beheaded on the 8th of December. On hearing 
 this sentence, he merely remarked that he wished a later 
 day had been appointed, to afford time for his acquaint- 
 ing some friends in France ; "so that his brother, the Earl 
 of Morton, and he, might have set out on their journey at 
 the same time."^ 
 
 His demeanour in the Tower is said to have been marked 
 by a sullen haughtiness, which contrasted unfavourably 
 with the meek resignation of his noble brother in similar 
 circumstances ; but, like the mart^^ed Earl, Charles 
 Radcliffe behaved with courage, constancy, and lofty firm- 
 ness ; and his manly bearing — as free from bravado as it 
 was from weakness, well became the scion of a noble line. 
 But of the last days of his eventful life no particulars have 
 come down to us, save that it is said in a contemporary peri- 
 odical that he seemed to disregard the duties of a devotional 
 preparation for eternity, until the 4th of December, when 
 he received a letter from his niece Lady Petre, which may 
 be supposed to have recalled his attention to the necessity 
 of preparing for the change that awaited him, for thence- 
 forth he evinced a more religious deportment. On the night 
 preceding his execution, he w rote the following letter to the 
 Countess of Newburgh, his wife : — 
 
 " From the Tower, 7th of December 1746. 
 " The best of friends takes his leave of you : He has made his 
 will — He is resigned — to-morrow is the day. Love his memory. 
 Let his friends join with you in prayer : 'tis no misfortune to die 
 prepared. Let us love our enemies and pray for them. Let my 
 sons be men like me. Let my daughters be virtuous women like 
 
 ^ State Trials, vol. xviii. p. 429. ^ Gen. and Impart. Mem. London, 
 
 1746, 2nd edit. p. 26.
 
 152 A VISIT TO 
 
 you. My blessinj^r to them all ; my kind love to Famiy/ that other 
 tender mother of my dear children. 
 
 " Adieu ! dear friend. 
 
 " Derwentvvater."" 
 
 It would seem tliat the Government at one time hesitated 
 in their sanguinary purpose, for orders to erect the scaffold 
 were not given until so near the day appointed for the 
 gallant Radcliffe's execution, that the carpenters worked 
 the whole of the day and night of Sunday in order to be 
 ready before noon on the fatal morrow, namely, Monday the 
 8th of December. About eight o'clock in the morning two 
 troops of Life Guards, a troop of Horse Grenadier Guards, 
 and a battalion of Foot Guards marched to Little Tower 
 Hill ; the Horse Guards lining the way from the scaffold to 
 the Iron Gate, while the rest of the forces surrounded the 
 scaffold. Four months had not elapsed since, upon the 
 same spot, a vast concourse of persons had witnessed the 
 decollation of Lord Kilmarnock and the accomplished Bal- 
 merino, two of the noble captives of Culloden— that fiital 
 and sanguinary contest which, in the previous April, while 
 Charles Radcliffe was lying a helpless prisoner in the Tower, 
 had ended for ever the hopes of the house of Stuart. The 
 scaffold on which its brave and noble adherent, Charles 
 Radcliffe, was now to suffer, was w^rappcd in black serge, as 
 was the fatal block ; and upon the scaffold was placed the 
 cofhn destined to receive his remains. It was covered wuth 
 black velvet, and had costly gilt handles and nails, but bore 
 no inscription. In the meantime, the sheriffs'' proceeded in 
 their chariots from the Mitre Tavern, Fenchurch-street, to 
 the low^er end of the Minories, from whence, preceded by 
 their officers, they went to the Victualling Ofhce, where the 
 sheriffs remained, the under-sheriffs proceeding with a party 
 of the Foot Guards to the east gate of the Tower, next 
 the Iron Gate, to demand from General WiUiainson, deputy 
 governor, the surrender of his noble prisoner. He was 
 brought, riding in a landau, through the east gate of the 
 Tower, whence a procession moved slowly in the following 
 order :— First, the officers, then a mourning coach convey- 
 ing the under-sheriffs with their wands, then the prisoner, 
 
 ^TheHon. Frances Clifford, daughter served at Slindon, Sussex, the seat of 
 
 of his wife Lady Newburgh, l)y her first Lady Nowhurgh. 
 
 marriage. "* ^^^'- Alderman Winterbottom and 
 
 •• The original of this letter is pre- Mr. Alderman Alsop.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 153 
 
 whose carriage was surrounded by a detachment of Foot 
 Guards, and followed by officers of the Tower. Proceeding 
 thus up Little Tower Hill, Mr. Radcliffe alighted opposite 
 the Victualling Office, and happening to see among the 
 crowd some gentlemen whom he knew, he saluted them 
 with cheerful courtesy ; and coming to the side of the 
 mourning coach, which had stopped about a hundred yards 
 fi'om the scaffold, he asked whether he was to go in that 
 vehicle, and on being answered in the affirmative, said " It 
 is well," and stepped in directly. A little booth, lined with 
 black cloth, was erected at the foot of the stairs leading to 
 the scaffold, wherein he spent a short time in his devotions, 
 speaking but few words to any person. He then, with 
 great composure, ascended the scaffold, attended by a priest 
 and a few of his friends, and by the sheriffs. 
 
 The chivalrous and gallant Radcliffe was attired in a 
 scarlet regimental suit ; the coat made with short tight 
 sleeves, and long wide cuffs, with gold buttons and lace ; a 
 long flapped waistcoat, brocaded with flowers, quilted ; as 
 was the coat, with black velvet worked with gold ; white 
 silk stockings, which rolled over the knee, and diamond 
 buckles at his shoes and garters. His hat was decked with 
 a white plume, and a perruque made of his own bright 
 hair fell in fiill curls upon his shoulders. The collar of 
 his shirt was fastened by a black ribbon, and he bore a 
 silver crucifix and rosary of beads. When he came upon 
 the scaftbld, he first took leave of his friends " with great 
 serenity and calmness of mind." He then spoke as follows: 
 
 " I die a true, obedient, and humble son of the Catholic Apostolic 
 Church, in perfect charity with all mankind ; and a true well-wisher 
 to ray dear country, that never can he happy without doing justice 
 to the best and most injured King. 
 
 " I die with all the sentiments of gratitude, respect, and love 
 for the King of France, Louis the well-beloved — a glorious name ! 
 I recommend to his Majesty my dear family. I heartily repent 
 of all my sins, and have a firm confidence to obtain pardon from 
 Almighty God through the merits of his blessed Son Christ Jesus 
 our Lord, to whom I recommend my soul." 
 
 Having assured the executioner of his forgiveness, he put 
 some gold pieces into his hands, saying, '* I am but a poor 
 man ; there's ten guineas for you ; if I had more, I would 
 give it you ; I desire you to do your office so as to put me 
 to the least misery you can." He then kneeled down by
 
 154 A VISIT TO 
 
 the block, and was occupied in prayer for about six minutes, 
 all the persons on the scaffold kneeling with him. His 
 devotions finished, he divested himself of his wig, his coat 
 and waistcoat ; and then, turning to the sheriffs, took leave 
 of them, after which, reciting " a short prayer, and crossing 
 himself several times," belaid his head upon the block, and 
 told the executioner that he was to do his office when he 
 shoukl see him stretch forth his hands. In less than half a 
 minute he gave the signal, wdiich was instantly followed by 
 the stroke of the axe. — It almost severed the head from the 
 body at one blow% which was given with such force that the 
 axe became fixed in the block. The noble victim " behaved 
 to the last," says a contemporary account, " with the great- 
 est coolness, fortitude, and manly courage, and w-as in no 
 w^ay shocked at the approach of death." So died Charles 
 Radcliffe, in the fifty-third year of his age ; — constant to the 
 last in his faith, and in his attachment to the exiled house 
 of Stuart. Such w^as the sanguinary vengeance of George 
 II. for a treasonable act committed in the previous reign, 
 at a distance of time of no less than thirty years ! His 
 head, w rapped in the scarlet cloth into which it fell, and 
 the body w^rapped in another covering, w^re placed in the 
 coffin, which was conveyed in a hearse to an inn called the 
 Nag's Head in Gray's Inn Lane, and from thence removed 
 *' in the dead of the night" to a Mr. Walmsley's, near Red 
 Lion-square. An old carpenter, whose name was Thretfall, 
 w'hen employed at Ingatestone Hall, told the present Lord 
 Petre, that he recollected seeing his mother, when he was a 
 very young child, unite the head to the body of Charles 
 Radcliffe. His heart is said to have been embalmed and 
 placed in a leaden casket, wdiich was afterwards deposited, 
 by his own desire, near the remains of his noble brother and 
 ancestors at Dilston ; and from Mr. Walmsley's, the body 
 was taken, two nights afterwards, to be interred, as the 
 public supposed, in the churchyard of St. Giles in the 
 Fields, but (according to tradition) in reality at Abbot's 
 Stanstcad, in Hertfordshire, the funeral being conducted 
 with all possible secrecy. The following inscription in his 
 memory was erected in the churchyard of St. Giles : — 
 
 CAUOLUS RADCLIFFE, CO^fES DE DERWENTWATER, 
 
 UECOLLATUS DIE 8 DtCEMlllilS 171G, .t TATIS 53. 
 UEQUIESCAT IN PACE !
 
 DILSTON HALL. 
 
 155 
 
 CHAPTER XY. 
 
 " Oft, gazing on those crumbling walls, 
 We muse on glories gone ; 
 On RadclifFe and his festive halls, 
 Now lowly and forlorn. 
 
 " Unlike when ruled by Derwent's lord, 
 They shone in stately pride ; 
 When he, as Tynedale hearts record, 
 His bounties scatter'd wide." 
 
 It will be in the reader's recollection, that by the settlement 
 made on the marriage of James Earl of Derwentwater, the 
 noble settlor took an estate for life in the family property, 
 which was thereby entailed upon his first and other sons, 
 with remainder, after the determination of his or their estate, 
 to his brother Charles Radcliffe for life ; on whose first and 
 other sons the estates were in like manner entailed. By 
 the act for attainder, the property of forfeiting persons was 
 vested in the Crown, according to their estates, rights, and 
 interests ; and the Earl, having only an estate for life in his 
 family property, could forfeit no gi'eater interest. His only 
 son, although he lost his title of nobiUty by the attainder 
 of his father, was by solemn adjudication of law admitted 
 tenant in tail in possession of all the settled estates ; and 
 the fortune of the Earl's daughter was moreover raised and
 
 156 A VISIT TO 
 
 paid thereout. The Earl's son was in possession of the 
 estates during sixteen years, and had he Hvcd to attain 
 twenty-one, he might have effectually dealt with them"= so 
 that they could not at any future time have been affected 
 by the attainder of liis noble father, or of his uncle Charles 
 Radcliff'e. Upon his death in 1731, without issue, the life 
 estate of Charles Radcliffb commenced, but it vested in the 
 Crown by reason of his attainder. Not so, however, the 
 estate in tail, of his eldest son, James Bartholomew, to whom 
 the settled })roperty stood limited by a limitation similar to 
 that in virtue of which his cousin Mr. John Radcliffe had 
 been admitted tenant. James Bartholomew was born on 
 the 23rd of August, 1725, at Vincennes ; but, the statute 
 passed in the 7th year of the reign of Anne (1708,) gave 
 him all the rights of a British subject born within the realm. 
 He therefore became legally entitled, on his birth, to an 
 estate in tail male expectant on his father's decease, in all 
 the lands comprised in the settlement of 1712. He was, 
 nevertheless, excluded while an infant, and remained ex- 
 cluded through his life, from his inheritance, by a cruel, 
 severe, and unprecedented expedient, which must ever 
 reflect indelible disgrace upon the Government and Legisla- 
 ture of the time ; for in 1731, immediately on the death of 
 Mr. John Radcliffe, and when James Bartholomew, his 
 cousin, was an infant of the age of five years, the Govern- 
 ment devised and procured a statute^ whereby it is in effect 
 declared that nothing contained in the declaratory law of 
 Queen Anne, did or should extend to give the privileges of 
 a natural-born subject to any child or children born or to 
 be born abroad, whose father, at the time of his or their 
 birth, either stood attainted of high treason, or was in the 
 actual service of a foreign state in enmity to the Crown of 
 Great Britain — an outrage of legislative tyranny which was 
 full of the injustice of ex post facto laws generally, and 
 designed with peculiar cruelty towards the heir of Radcliffe, 
 being passed for no other purpose than to secure to Go- 
 vernment the confiscation of the great estates of the Derwent- 
 water family. These must, otherwise, have descended to the 
 
 = By fine and recovery, — a mode of tlie great settled estates of his family, 
 
 assurance then and until recently com- Tlie daughter's fortune was not paid to 
 
 mon — the Earl's son, upon attaining Lord Petre until after 17.35. 
 
 21, could have prevented the public '' 1th (Jeo. 11. c. 21. 
 from ever appropriating any part of
 
 DILSTON HALL. 157 
 
 eldest son of Charles RadclifFe, in the same way that they 
 had descended upon the son of his noble brother, whose 
 possession re-vested the estates to the uses of the settlement. 
 The determination of the Government was to effectuate 
 their hold, in the name of the public, on the Radcliffe estates, 
 and to crush the scions of a loyal house. To give the colour 
 of legality to a vindictive spoliation, the ministry obtained 
 the statute to which allusion has been made. But even 
 after the commission of that act of unprecedented severity 
 and wrong, it still remained doubtful, whether by common 
 law, if not by statute, James Bartholomew Radcliffe was not 
 entitled to the rights of a natural-born subject. The Go- 
 vernment, however, was determined to exclude him from 
 those rights, whatever they might be ; and relying on the 
 act referred to, the Crown proceeded, while he was yet a 
 child, to gi^ant leases of his estates. When the eldest son 
 of Charles Radcliffe and the Countess of Newburgh was 
 about eleven years of age, the following letter was written 
 by her ladyship, in order to give notice to all tenants on the 
 Derwentwater estates, of the title of the Radcliffe family : — 
 
 " London, Sept. 20, 1736. 
 " Sir, — Knowing you to be a friend to a family whose interest I 
 espouse very much, I beg you will let the tenants know, who I 
 hear are now taking leases upon lives, that there is three sons 
 belonging to that family ; and though their father cannot now 
 possess the estate, his sons' right is undoubted after his death, so 
 that it will be at their peril. 1 am come over on purpose to serve 
 the family what I can, and I have a great many relations who have 
 interest, and are so kind to have a will to serve me. I beg you'll 
 excuse thfs trouble, and believe me. Sir, 
 
 " Your most humble servant, 
 
 " C. Newburgh." 
 " To Mr. Charles Busby, at Corbridge, near Hexham, 
 in Northumberland, by Newcastle-upon-Tyne." 
 
 However "undoubted the right" of the eldest son of Charles 
 Radcliffe after the death of his adventurous and gallant but 
 ill-fated father, he was, and continued to be during the rest 
 of his life, as effectually disseised of his freehold and inherit- 
 ance as if he had himself been guilty of high treason. The 
 calamities of his family were increased by the execution of 
 his father for a treasonable act committed no less than 
 thirty years before ; and against his family alone, of all the 
 champions and victims of the Stuart cause, the full rigour
 
 158 A VISIT TO 
 
 of the law of forfeiture was enforced, and strained even 
 beyond the law. 
 
 After the Crown had been in possession of the Dcrwent- 
 watcr estates for about eighteen years, the Government 
 found it expedient to endow the Royal Hospital for Seamen 
 at Greenwich, out of the splendid fortune of the Radcliffe 
 family ; and accordingly, on the 13th June 1749, the King 
 went down to Parliament and gave his assent to an Act, 
 " For vesting the forfeited estates of James, late Earl of 
 Derwentwater, and Charles Radcliffe, deceased, comprised 
 in certain settlements, in trustees, for an absolute estate of 
 inheritance, for the benefit of Greenwich Hospital ; and for 
 raising certain sums of money out of the said estates for the 
 relief of the children of the said Charles Radcliffe." 
 
 From the preamble of this statute it evidently appears, 
 that whatever interest was at that time vested in the Crown, 
 was intended to be conveyed by the Act to the trustees of 
 the Hospital. But if a freehold estate in tail was then 
 subsisting in the eldest son of Charles Radcliffe, under the 
 limitations of the settlement of 1712, this Act of the 22nd 
 Geo. n. did not divest it. The Legislature seems to have 
 intended no more than to vest in the trustees, the estate 
 theretofore vested in the Crown by the forfeitures of the Earl 
 of Derw^entwater and his ill-fated brother. The Government 
 on obtaining (in 1731) the statute by which they precluded 
 James Bartholomew Radcliffe, afterwards Earl of Ncwburgh, 
 from asserting the right given by the 7th of Queen Anne to 
 the children of natural-born subjects, had caused the Der- 
 wentwater revenues to be transferred to the trustees of Green- 
 wich Hospital, who had entered into possession before 1736. 
 At that time the reversion in fee had not become vested in 
 the eldest son of Charles Radcliffe, who, in 1749, being 
 deprived of his patrimony, and having no other means of 
 subsistence, accepted £24,000, — a sum scarcely exceeding 
 one year's net income of his family estates, — as a relief for 
 his supj)ort, and consented that his title under the settlement 
 should be extinguished. If he was under the disabilities of an 
 alien and could not hold the estate, the Act of 1 749 could 
 confer no valid title on the trustees of the Hospital, still less 
 could it operate in law to deprive his only son Anthony James, 
 who was born in England in 1757, and succeeded him as 
 Earl of Newburgh in 1786, of his rights of inheritance.
 
 DIL6T0N HALL. 
 
 159 
 
 The estates which were transferred to Greenwich Hospital, 
 comprised the manor, demesne and lands of Dilston ; « the 
 lands and royalties of the barony of Langley ; ^ the manor 
 and lands of Meldon, with its appurtenances;^ the lands of 
 the barony of Wark ; ^ the manor of Throckley ; * the manor 
 of Newlands ; the manor of Whittonstall ; ^ the estates of 
 Thornborough, ' Coastley, and Westwood,"" Middleton Hall, " 
 Spindleston, and Utchester ; ° the manor of Scremerston ; ^ 
 estates in Hexhamshire ; "^ the manor of Aldston Moor ; >■ and 
 detached properties of less importance in Northumberland ; * 
 together with the manors of Castlerigg, Derwentwater, and 
 Thornthwaite, and the rest of the property near Keswick. ' 
 The surface rental of the above-mentioned estates, with the 
 lesser properties, comprising in all about 41,000 acres, 
 produced a gross income of £43,487 in 1816; the gi'oss 
 annual produce of the mines was returned in 1818, at the 
 large sum of £15,374 in addition ; and in one year (1823), 
 it reached the sum of £37,000. The net balances of income 
 derived by the Hospital, from the lands, woods, and mines 
 
 ^ The rent received in Dilston manor 
 in 1715 was £431. From an account 
 showing the rental of the several estates 
 in Northumberland, Cumberland, and 
 Durham, belonging to Greenwich Hos- 
 pital, in 1816, (ordered by the House 
 of Commons to be printed 23rd May 
 1816), it appears that the rental of 
 the Dilston estates was, in that year, 
 £3515. 
 
 ^ And of the lands of Langley 
 barony, £10,806. 
 
 « And of Meldon, £4,393. At the 
 time of the sale by the Hospital, some 
 years ago, the estates of Meldon, com- 
 prising 2070 acres, with a rental of 
 £2119, were sold for £56,900. 
 
 h The rental in 1819 was £1967, as 
 appears by the above-mentioned ac- 
 count. Wark has become the Duke 
 of Northumberland's, by exchange, in 
 modern times. 
 
 ' The rental in 1816 was £1001. 
 
 ^ And of Newlands and Whittonstall, 
 £2463. 
 
 ' The rental in 1816 was £1826. 
 
 ™ The rental in 1816 was £2086, 
 
 " The rental in 1816 was £1100. 
 
 " The rental in 1816 was £4062. 
 
 '' The rental in 1816 was £3681. 
 
 t The rental in 1816 was £1570. 
 
 "■ The manor of Aldston, with its rights, 
 members, and appurtenances, had been 
 acquired by Sir Edward RadcliiFe, in 
 October 1629, by purchase from Henry 
 Hilton, Esq. for £2500. The other 
 estates of the Royal Hospital in Aldston 
 Moor were acquired subsequently, either 
 by purchase or by allotments of com- 
 mon ; and the rental of these is stated at 
 £1463 in 1816. 
 
 ^ The Derwentwater estates were 
 situated in about thirty-eight different 
 localities in this county. Those in the 
 nortliern part were at Scremerston, Holy 
 Island, Ancroft, Tweedmouth, Norhani, 
 and Lowick. 
 
 ' The Keswick property is returned 
 at 646 acres, in 1816, producing a rental 
 of £1395. The whole of the Cumber- 
 land estates, at the time of the sale to 
 Mr. Marshall, comprised 2376 acres 
 of woodland, meadow, crag, and island. 
 Many years ago, and before Mr. John 
 Grey became the agent and receiver 
 for the Greenwich Hospital estates, this 
 Cumberland property was improvident- 
 ly and unadvisedly sold. The purchaser 
 was Mr. Marshall of Leeds ; and the 
 sum bargained for, is said to have been 
 £20,000 below the value of the land 
 and timber.
 
 160 A VISIT TO 
 
 of the Dcrwcntwater family, appear from a parliamentary 
 paper to have been — 
 
 In 1T88 - - - - £2G,0\6 
 
 1798 - - - - 34,279 
 
 1808 - - - - 27,593 
 
 1818 - - - - 39,913 
 
 1828 - - - - 49,421 
 
 1831 - - - - 38,286 
 
 After the last-mentioned period, the Cumberland estates, 
 the Meldon property, and the Hartburn-Grange property, 
 were sold, and yet the present net annual income is the 
 enormous sum of £44,000, or thereabouts. 
 
 The Cumberland property had nearly passed into private 
 hands only a few years after it was torn by the Government 
 from its rightful inheritors, for it was sold by authority of 
 the then Connnissioners for Forfeited Estates, and bought 
 by Sir William Smith ; but the ministry, on finding that it 
 would be a popular and politic measure to endow the Royal 
 Hospital for Seamen with the broad lands of the murdered 
 Earl, caused the sale to be annulled by Act of Pai'liament, 
 on the gi'ound that all the Commissioners had not signed 
 the deed. The whole property was soon afterwards con- 
 ferred on Greenwich Hospital ; and the Cumberland es- 
 tates remained in the control of the Commissioners of that 
 national charity, until the sale already stated to have been 
 made in very modern times, when the mountain domain of 
 the noble and time-honoured Radcliffes passed to the hands 
 of a wealthy purchaser — Mr. Marshall, of Leeds. 
 
 The princely possessions of the gallant Dcrwcntwater 
 were no sooner under the controul of the Commissioners, 
 than measures were taken to obliterate as far as possible all 
 things that could serve to remind the people of their loss. 
 The hall was destined to demolition ; its materials were 
 valued, and the deer were to be sold. After the hall had 
 been dismantled, and its contents and enrichments dispersed," 
 the walls were demolished i)iccemeal, for building purposes ; 
 
 u In August 17.3G, the furniture late perscd from Dilston Hall, some un- 
 
 belonging to the Earl's only son, was doubted reliques remain, which will be 
 
 demanded and received, with some ex- noticed presently ; but there are few 
 
 ceptions, by Mr. Strickland, for Sir houses in the neiglibouring country, 
 
 John Webb and Counsellor Pigott, whatever the condition of the tenants, 
 
 executors of his will. whose inmates do not persuade them- 
 
 Of the pictures, "heir looms," and selves that they possess some article 
 
 moveable property which were dis- that " came out of Dilston Hall."
 
 DILSTON HALL. 
 
 161 
 
 and at length in 1765, the Board of Commissioners ordered 
 that the house be entirely taken down, and the remain 
 ing materials sold.^^ Ten years later, it was directed that 
 the grounds surrounding the house should be levelled, 
 but that what remained of the old castle should be 
 preserved, and that some trees be planted round the 
 chapel. That little edifice had been repaired in 1736, 
 and in it, a clergyman of the Church of England had been 
 for some years officiating for the benefit of the neigh- 
 bours. The Rev. J. Walton, who in October 1733, had 
 been licensed by the bishop, on the recommendation of Dr. 
 Sharp, the archdeacon, to officiate in this chapel, officiated 
 gratuitously, and experienced anything but liberal treatment, 
 notwithstanding the vast amount of the confiscated property 
 with which the spoilers were enriched ; for he complained, 
 in 1735,'' that although he had bought a surplice and books, 
 he could not obtain repayment from the Lords of the 
 Treasury ; and that he was much in need of an allowance 
 for a clerk, " so that he might have the relief of a Psalm ! " 
 Possibly the worthy chaplain was driven to raise funds by 
 making an exhibition of the remains of the Derwentwater 
 family in the ancient vault — the narrow house in which the 
 Government had condescended to allow them to repose ; 
 for in 1775, the desecration had become too flagrant to be 
 countenanced even by the then Commissioners of Greenwich 
 Hospital, who ordered " that the entrance to the vault 
 should be closed, so as to prevent the bodies of the dead 
 from being made a show of." So this little domestic chapel, 
 which still stands amid sheltering trees and the adjacent 
 ruins of the old castle, alone remain — 
 
 " Where the RadcHfFe, alas ! rules no more ; 
 But that time hallowed wall 
 And the old trees recall 
 His goodness and grandeur of yore." 
 
 * The bell and the clock were given of the bell and clock to Aldstone church, 
 
 to the chiu-ch of St. Augustine at Aid- is dated 28 August 1767. The church 
 
 stone. The former bore the date of was rebuilt about 17G9. 
 
 1714, and therefore had not long been In 1740, the materials of the house 
 
 in the possession of the Earl. The bell were valued at £751. 
 
 having been cracked in 1845, it was '^ In a letter dated 7 July, wherein 
 
 re-cast, with some additional metal, so he says, that Sir Charles Wager encou- 
 
 that its tone is no longer that which rages him to continue to officiate. Sir 
 
 sounded through the gallant Derwent- Charles was a Commissioner of the 
 
 water's festive halls. The board minute Hospital. 
 
 of the Commissioners, for the donation It would seem that about this period 
 
 M
 
 162 
 
 A VISIT TO 
 
 Dilston Hall, as it stood in the lifetime of James Earl of 
 Derweiitwater, was a })lain extensive building, two stories 
 in height, which occupied three sides of an oblong rect- 
 angular figure, inclosing a court-yard, paved with dark 
 veined limestone, in diamond-shaped slabs, and entered by 
 the great gatew^ay already mentioned, which was built late 
 in the reign of James I , and is still standing. The longest 
 range of building occupied the northern side ; in the centre 
 was a large entrance hall, which was built of stone, and 
 approached from the paved court-yard by a few steps. The 
 court-yard was bounded on its western side by the old 
 tower or castle, which still remains ; and against the western 
 front of that structure, a range of building, comprising 
 several rooms, was added by Lord Derwentwater, but those 
 rooms were never finished in the interior. Mr. Fairless 
 of Hexham, preserves a fragment of carved work that came 
 from Dilston Hall, and probably ornamented the panels of 
 one of these rooms. The following is a representation of 
 this fragment : — 
 
 The western facade presented in the upper story a range 
 of nine windoW'S, which commanded a fine view of the vale 
 of Hexham.*' This front was raised on a sort of terrace 
 or embankment, above a formal garden, extending further 
 westward, and to the edge of the river cliff, which is there 
 a prccii)itous declivity of a hundred feet. The intended 
 state apartments were on this facade of the building. There 
 was a large hall, entered from the garden, with a drawing- 
 room and a dining-room on the northern side, and other 
 rooms on the southern side. After dry weather in the 
 sunmier, it is not difficult to trace the broad straight walks 
 of the garden, w^hich intersected in the centre : there was 
 probably a fountain in the middle, ^ and flower beds seem 
 to have occupied the spaces between the walks. 
 
 divine offices, according to the ritual 
 of tlie C'luirch of Rome, were said at 
 Dilston, in " Swinburne's House." 
 
 > It is so represented in the large 
 print published in 1760. 
 
 ^ In digging a hill to the south-east 
 of the mansion, leaden pipes have been 
 found, wliich probably conducted water 
 for tlie jet d'eau. A slightly hollowed 
 space in the centre seems to mark its site.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 163 
 
 " The spot where once the garden smiled," 
 
 was separated by a wall on the south side, from the avenue 
 of chestnut trees which still remains ; but at the end of the 
 straight walk opposite to the garden entrance of the mansion, 
 there was a stone gateway, through which a path, or per- 
 haps a drive, was carried round the margin of the river 
 clilf, curving to the south, which seems to have communi- 
 cated with the avenue formed by the chestnut trees already 
 mentioned : that avenue led to the old gateway which gave 
 access to the great court of the mansion ; and opposite to 
 that gateway was the flight of steps leading to the entrance 
 hall of the range of building on the north. The old domestic 
 chapel adjoined this gateway ; but these, and the ruins of 
 the old stone tower to the west, are all that remain of the 
 buildings that once occupied the now level greensward : — 
 
 " The star oi Dilston Hall has set; 
 
 And in its chambers, weeds and grass 
 Have sprung through marble, green and wet, 
 Unshelter'd from the storms of Heaven 
 By roofs that Time's neglect has riven ; 
 Wliile owls and bats and unclean things 
 O'er long-quench'd hearths may fold their wings." 
 
 There is a vault or dungeon below the entrance floor of 
 the old castle, within its walls ; and a low subterranean 
 passage, which extends beneath the site of the demolished 
 house, has been said to lead to a vaulted chamber beneath 
 the ruins of this antient tower — a chamber which popular 
 superstition attributed to goblin structure, like the hall 
 beneath the old castle of the GifFards of Yester, the ruins of 
 which stand upon Hope's Water, in Scotland;* and it is 
 said that there was a communication by a stair of many 
 steps in a vaulted way, cut through the rock, fi'om this 
 chamber to the Divelswater, where there certainly are 
 apertures in the rock that may have led to such a passage. 
 
 The reader will recollect, that in 1735, the rents of the 
 settled estates had been conferred by Act of Parliament 
 (8 Geo. II. c. 29) on Greenwich Hospital, the building of 
 which was then in progress ; and that in 1 749, the fee-simple 
 of the estates themselves was assumed to be vested by Act of 
 Parliament (22 Geo. II. c. 52) upon that great national charity. 
 For some time after the family property had been so acquired 
 
 » See Note to Marmion, Canto iii., " The Host's Tale." 
 
 M 2
 
 164 A VISIT TO 
 
 by Greenwich Hospital, the Commissioners sustained defeats 
 and difficulties at law from the want of the title deeds, which 
 w^re supposed to he lost ; at all events they had not been 
 found. It has already been stated, that in 1715 or early in 
 1716, the deeds and writings wxre hastily removed from 
 Dilston Hall to the neighbouring cottage of a faithful 
 dependent of the Derwcntwater family. As soon as oppor- 
 tunity offered, these important evidences were secretly 
 transferred from thence to Capheaton House, for better 
 security ; and in the friendly care of the ancestors of Sir 
 John Swinburne they remained, concealed between two walls, 
 for the chief part of half a century. While the title deeds 
 were thus resting in their obscure hiding-place, lamentable 
 changes were seen on the broad lands to which they related; 
 through tragic scenes their noble owners passed, and by 
 vindictive acts of the most outrageous injustice, the Govern- 
 ment withheld the princely inheritance of the RadclifFes 
 from its rightful owners, and conferred it upon strangers. 
 At length, the boxes containing the title-deeds were dis- 
 covered by a prying mason, who, in hopes of a reward, gave 
 notice of his discovery to Sir Ambrose Middleton of Belsay, 
 by whose authority, as deputy-lieutenant of the county, 
 officers came to Capheaton, under pretence of searching for 
 arms, and obtained possession of the long-lost deeds, which 
 were thereupon taken to London, and in the possession of 
 the Commissioners of Greenwich Hospital these multitudin- 
 ous and valuable documents have ever since continued. 
 
 It now" remains to describe the state in which the body of 
 James Earl of Derwcntwater was found, when the coffin, 
 resting in the family vault beneath his chapel at Dilston, 
 was first violated in 1805, and again opened on a subsequent 
 occasion. A brief notice will be added of such ])ersonal 
 reliques of the noble victim, preserved in different hands, as 
 are known by the writer. 
 
 The last member of the RadclifFe family whose remains 
 were deposited in this vault, was the Lady Mary RadclifFe, 
 (daughter of Francis, first Earl,) who departed this life on 
 the 3rd March 1724, in the 59th year of her age, having 
 survived her unfortunate nephew little more than eight 
 years, and her ow^n coffin w^as here placed by his side. The 
 names of their ancestors, by whose bones their own were 
 laid, were no longer conmiemorated in the chapel above ;
 
 DILSTON HALL. 165 
 
 and during the many years that succeeded, all partook the 
 silence and desolation of the land where all things are 
 forgotten. Time rolled on, and one by one the members 
 of the family disappeared from amongst the living, and many 
 found a place of last repose in foreign lands ; — the stranger 
 had usurped the inheritance of the RadclifFes ; the hall that 
 was once their home was at length demolished ; and during 
 the sixty years which next succeeded the sepulture of the 
 Lady Mary at Dilston, the dread stillness of death was at 
 least undisturbed, for the vault remained closed and pro- 
 bably undiscovered. In 1784, however, when the father of 
 the present Mr. Howard of Corby Castle visited this touch- 
 ing spot, the vault was open, and he saw the coffin of the 
 last Lord Derwentwater, which he found uninjured either by 
 sacrilegious hands or by decay. Its covering of crimson 
 velvet, its brass inscription-plate and gilt ornaments, looked 
 quite new and fresh, and it had not then been opened. But 
 in 1805,^ a deputation of the Greenwich Hospital Commis- 
 sioners, accompanied by Mr. Dyer, their secretary, visiting 
 Dilston, upon their official tour of inspection, conceived a 
 curiosity to inspect the remains of the murdered Earl ; and 
 so, pretending that it was an historical doubt whether the 
 head had been restored to the body ere it was placed under 
 the seal of the tomb, an inspection was accordingly made. 
 The outer coffins were opened with difficulty, and within the 
 inner shell, on raising the waxed cloth from the face of its 
 passive tenant, the bystanders viewed with amazement the 
 features of the Earl of Derwentwater undecayed ! The body 
 was found in a state of complete preservation ; the suture 
 round the neck marked the violence which, ninety years 
 before, had prematurely wrapped those features in the gloom 
 of night, and dismissed the soul to join the white-robed 
 army ; but the sweet amenity of expression w^hich had 
 beamed on all who beheld the Earl's countenance in life, 
 had not been effaced in the tomb ; even through the rigidity 
 of death his features presented a youthful appearance and 
 pleasing regularity ; the pearly teeth were perfect, and the 
 hair was undecayed. 
 
 Their curiosity gi-atified, the disturbers of the tomb had 
 not the decency to cause it to be again closed ; they abso- 
 
 *" The year is given as 1807, in Sur- from a newspaper of the time, to be 
 tees's History of Durham, but it appears 1805.
 
 166 
 
 A VISIT TO 
 
 lately suffered the remains of the noble victim to be left 
 exposed to vulgar gaze, and a miscreant blacksmith dared 
 to draw several of the teeth, which were sold in the neigh- 
 bourhood for half-a-crown a piece. At length, even the 
 then Commissioners or their agent were scandalized by such 
 desecration, and the vault was ordered to be again closed. 
 In this state it was found by Mr. Howard in 1828. "■ Ten 
 years afterwards, in consequence of the accidental loosening 
 of some of the stones, the family vault was again opened 
 and inspected, under the care of Mr. Grey, then and now 
 receiver of the Greenwich Hospital estates ; and though the 
 Earl's coffin was not re-opened, an interesting discovery 
 was made. A square leaden box, apparently more than a 
 century old, was found below the Earl's coffin, sunk in the 
 soft spongy earth of the floor, until nearly covered. On 
 this box being partly opened, a human heart and viscera were 
 found. The box is stated to be without inscription; and 
 there is not any trace, written or oral, of such a casket having 
 been brought to Dilston. It may have been secretly de- 
 posited where it was found. There is great reason to believe, 
 that the frame to which this now motionless relic once gave 
 animation was that of Charles Radcliffb, whose heart 
 tradition declares to have been taken by two servants of 
 Lord Newburgh to Dilston. As to the heart of the Earl, 
 his brother, we know that when the royal lily of Bourbon 
 liad been involved in a like ruin with that of the white rose 
 of Stuart, in the fearful atrocities of the French revolution, 
 that relic was torn from its niche in the wall of the nunnery 
 at Paris, where it had so long rested ; and Robespierre, or 
 perhaps some myrmidons in the name of that sanguinary 
 monster, caused the heart of the loyal nobleman to be 
 thrown from its recess into a neighbouring cemetery.'' 
 
 •^ A few years afterwards, viz. on 
 15th September IS.'JG, the Countess of 
 Newburgh, widow of Anthony James 
 Radcliii'e, grandson of Charles Radclifle, 
 and last heir male of the Derwentwater 
 familj', visited Dilston. She remained 
 long in the chapel, and viewed the 
 ruins ; and it was believed that no 
 other member of the family had visited 
 the spot for a hundred years. This 
 lady, Anne, only daughter of .Joseph 
 Webb, Esq. and grand-niece of Anna 
 Maria, Countess of Derwentwater, mar- 
 
 ried Anthony James RadclifTe, after- 
 wards Earl of Newburgh, on the .'50th 
 June 1789. He died in December 1814, 
 without issue. 
 
 *> The place in the wall is still pointed 
 out, as Miss Strickland has been so 
 good as to inform the writer. The 
 circumstance is mentioned in a History 
 of Paris, written soon after the Re- 
 storation, which work, translated into 
 English, was published in 1824, in three 
 volumes.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 167 
 
 The entrance to the vault at Dilston was carefully closed 
 after the private mspection in 1838. On this opportunity, 
 a drawing was made of the coffins ranged in the vault ; 
 which are all of lead, the outer coffins having now decayed, 
 excepting that of James, last Earl, of which the sides and 
 gilt ornaments are in some preservation. They are six in 
 number, and res't in the undermentioned order, upon two 
 low brick walls which are built across the vault. The 
 inscriptions are as follow : — 
 
 Edward Earl of Derwentwater, died 20 April 1705, in the 50th 
 
 year of his age. 
 B. R. 24 August 1696. 
 F. R. Com. Dar. 21 April 1696, aged 72. 
 F. R. 28 Sep. 1704, aged 48. 
 The Right Hon. James, late Earl of Derwentwater, died Feb. 24, 
 
 1715, aged 27 years. 
 Lady Mary Radclyffe, daughter of Francis, Earl of Derwentwater, 
 
 died 3rd March 1 724, in the 59th year of her age. 
 
 A large mahogany chest, which is preserved at Thorndon 
 Hall, contains the complete suit of black velvet, the black 
 knit worsted hose and shoes, the wig of light coloured 
 hair, and the beaver hat, which the last Earl wore upon 
 the scaffi)ld. His apparel on that day has been already 
 described. This chest contains also the black cloth which 
 covered the fatal block. It is incised by the axe, and 
 part of it has been saturated by blood. The linen that 
 the Earl wore bears the same gory traces. Among the 
 treasured reliques in the chest is a mask, taken from the 
 face of the noble victim after death, and which is modelled 
 in alabaster. It bears a strong resemblance to the features 
 of the Earl, as pourtrayed in a half-length portrait, repre- 
 senting him in armour, which is also preserved at Thorndon. 
 A paper, attesting the contents of the chest, is signed by 
 the Earl's daughter, Lady Petre; and there is a request by 
 the Countess, his widow, in her own handwriting, that the 
 chest may never be used for any other purpose unless it be 
 replaced by one of greater value. Lady Derwentwater 
 preserved with care, and made a velvet cover for the prayer- 
 book which her lord used while in the Tower. It is a 
 collection of prayers compiled by Gother, in 1707, and 
 seems to have been entitled " The Sinner's Complaints to 
 God." There are two leaves much torn by use at the
 
 1G8 A VISIT TO 
 
 prayers for blessings to cliiklrcn, and some leaves beai* 
 marks of having been blotted and stained by tears. •= 
 
 On the death of Anthony James, Earl of Newburgh, 
 (whose title thereupon devolved on Mr, Francis Eyre^ of 
 Hassop,) Lady Newburgh, liis widow, sent to Sir John Swin- 
 burne of Ca})heaton, a lock of Lord Derwentwater's hair, a 
 piece of his linen shirt stained by his blood, and the wedding 
 ring of the Countess of Derwentwater; all which reliques the 
 Avoi'thy baronet preserves carefully, together with the letters 
 already referred to, and in part extracted, and some family 
 letters from Lady Swinburne, wife of Sir William, written 
 about the time when Lord Denventwater suffered, and many 
 of which refer to the noble victim. 
 
 There are four portraits of the Earl, at Thorndon. One 
 has been described at p. 37 of this memoir, being a full- 
 length portrait, in which he is represented in the robes of a 
 peer, as in the portrait which is placed at the beginning of 
 the present work. Another is a half-length in armour. A 
 third is a three-quarter length, also in robes; and the fourth 
 is a miniature in the same attire. Mr. Cole, in his MS. 
 Collections,^ mentions a half-length portrait of the Earl by 
 Sir Godfrey Kneller, as existing when he wrote, in the saloon 
 of Horseheath Hall, Cambridgeshire. 
 
 In the hall at Slindon, the beautiful seat of Lady New- 
 burgh, there is a family picture, representing the Earl in 
 his robes, and bis lady, who holds on her knee their child, 
 a})parently aged about six months. The lady is attired in 
 crimson and ermine. 
 
 The author has recently obtained a half-length portrait 
 of a lady, which was saved fro^ the fire in the manor- 
 house at Hexham, and which is l)elieved to be a contem- 
 l)orary portrait of the Countess of Denventwater. The 
 form of the face is oval, the eyes and hair dark, and the 
 complexion warm. The features are small, and the coun- 
 tenance, which is youthful, has a sweet and most pleasing 
 expression. 
 
 A portrait in oval form was found at Thorndon some 
 years ago, of Mary Davis, mother of Lady Mary Tudor 
 
 ^ There are other prayer-books at Maria Barbara, afterwards Lady Petre. 
 
 Thorndon, with the autographs of Anna ' As to this honourable famih', see 
 
 Maria, Countess of Oeiwcntwater ; her Annual Register ISOl, j). 50o. 
 
 son John ; and her daughter Anna s In Mus. Brit. vol. vii. p. 224.
 
 DILSTON HALL. 169 
 
 RadclifFe, the Earl's mother, of whom there is a* three- 
 quarter length portrait at Slindon. Mrs. Mary Davis is 
 represented in a close fitting dress, embroidered in an Indian 
 pattern ; her hair is worn flat. The face is not thought 
 very handsome. Lady Mary Tudor resembles Charles II. 
 
 Mention has been already made (at p. 107) of the crucifix 
 which the Earl wore on the morning of his decollation ; and 
 a gold cross which belonged to him was shown a few years 
 ago, to a correspondent of the wi'iter, by the Rev. Henry 
 Phillips, then chaplain of the convent at Hammersmith. 
 An elaborately finished gun which was used by the Earl, 
 and is preserved by Mr. Rippon of Tynemouth, has been 
 mentioned at p. 38 ; and an elegant dress sword or rapier, 
 worn by the noble Derwentwater, is in the possession of 
 Mr. Robert Leadbitter of Ryton Grove. 
 
 Many documentary reliques of the Earl have been men- 
 tioned in the course of this memoir ; several letters written 
 by him are preserved at Thorndon, and some are in the 
 possession of Lady Newburgh at Slindon. Mr. James Reed 
 of Sunderland, Consul for France at that port, has a book 
 (a French peerage) which contains an inscription in the 
 Earl's autograph. 
 
 A very beautiful covering for the altar, made of primrose- 
 coloured satin, quilted and richly embroidered, which came 
 from the chapel of Dilston Hall, is preserved with great 
 care, at Durham, by the lady of the Rev. Henry Douglas, 
 one of the canons of the cathedral church of Durham. The 
 father of Mrs. Douglas married, for his first wife, a daughter 
 of General Rooke, whose ancestor was James Rooke, third 
 husband of the Lady Mary, mother of the Earl of Derwent- 
 water. Mr. Rooke 's family resided in the antient parish of 
 St. Briavel's, in the county of Gloucester. With this rich 
 altar-covering are preserved two small cushions, similarly 
 embroidered ; and a very beautiful cloth, perhaps used as 
 a frontal or antependium, the material of which is white 
 silk, embroidered with a flowing pattern in silk thread, of 
 crimson, green, and gold. All these were likewise used for 
 the service of the altar of Dilston chapel. 
 
 The carved oak chest in which these ornaments and the 
 sacramental plate, and probably also the vestments, were 
 kept at Dilston chapel, has found its way from thence into 
 the hands of Mr. Colbeck of Walwick Grange, near Four-
 
 170 A VISIT TO 
 
 stones. Many years ago, this chest was made a receptacle 
 for flour, but it is now respectfully preserved. It is between 
 four and five feet in length, is elaborately carved, and is 
 altogether one of the finest things of its kind that has come 
 down to us. The annexed plate conveys a very accurate 
 representation of this chest. 
 
 Many articles of furniture, some few family portraits, 
 and other property, that once belonged to Dilston Hall, still 
 linger in the vicinity, where they are greatly treasured. In 
 the old mansion of Beaufront, and in the manor-house of 
 Hexham, which have ceased to exist, much valuable pro- 
 perty was accumulated that had enriched the chambers of 
 Dilston Hall, before the happening of those melancholy 
 events which scattered its contents among strangers. But 
 the furniture of those houses having been subsequently 
 dispersed by public sale, the traditional link has been 
 broken, and the things themselves have for the most part 
 disappeared. The memoiy of the young Earl of Derwent- 
 water is so fondly cherished, that furniture is often pointed 
 out as having once been his, although the evidence of its 
 authenticity is quite insufficient, except in the opinion of 
 the owners, who are content on slight grounds to flatter 
 themselves that they possess what was once in Dilston 
 Hall :— 
 
 " Be it a weakness, it deserves some praise." 
 
 Still some veritable reliques of the household property of 
 the Derwentwater family may be pointed out. Foremost 
 amongst these, let us mention the fine old carved chair 
 preserved by Philip Henry Howard, Esq. M.P., in the 
 RadclifFe Room at Corby Castle, and known as " My Lady's 
 Chair." It was long reverentially handed down by the 
 descendants of a faithful servant of the Countess of Der- 
 wentwater, of whose representative it was recently purchased 
 for its present possessor. ^ The opposite plate conveys an 
 accurate representation of this old chair, which, it will be 
 
 '' Tlie families of RadclifTe and present Lord Pctrc,) to Emma Agnes, 
 
 Howard are doubly connected, first daughter of Henry Howard, Esq. of 
 
 by the marriage, in 1762, of Robert Corby Castle. 
 
 Edward, ninth Iiord Petre, to Anne, The chair above-mentioned was 
 
 heiress of Philip Howard, who was bought of Ann Hewer, whose great 
 
 brother of Edward, ninth Duke of grandmother lived with the Countess. 
 
 Norfolk; and secondly, by the mar- She married A. Cockbain of Keswick, 
 riage of Henry, eleventh Lord (the
 
 mkm formerlv belonging to LkB^ iSiaWEi^TWAT Cfe 
 n(7w in ik&voC'session ofFSKowccrd, Escj. of Corby '" " / '
 
 DILSTON HALL. 171 
 
 seen, bears the Radcliffe arms. Another relique, also pre- 
 served in Cumberland, is a stately and most elaborately 
 carved oak bedstead which belonged to Lord Derwentwater, 
 and was purchased at the sale of the contents of his house 
 on Lord's Island, by an ancestor of Mr. Wood, the solicitor, 
 of Cockermouth, in whose family it has remained, highly 
 valued, ever since 1716. In Crosthwaite's museum at Kes- 
 wick, is preserved an ancient arm chair of oak, which likewise 
 came from Lord Derwentwater's house, and has the Radcliffe 
 arms carved upon it. A large chair of ash, beautifully carved, 
 which came from the same place, was sold to the late Earl of 
 Newburgh by Mr. Crosthwaite, who preserves the lock and 
 key of the ponderous outer door of the Radcliffe 's mansion. ' 
 A bell, probably the dinner bell of their mansion, is in the 
 town-hall of Keswick, and is of fine tone. A treasure of 
 greater value is said to remain submerged in the lake of 
 Derwentwater, being no less than a chest full of the Rad- 
 cliffe's plate, which tradition avers to have fallen into the 
 lake. It is very provoking that neither time or place are 
 specified, so that there is no better hope of ever touching 
 this treasure than there is of seizing the raven-guarded 
 hoard which is alleged to glitter spell-bound in the souter- 
 raines of Dilston Castle. Of the house on Lord's Island, 
 itself, only some low walls remain. 
 
 Near Aldstone, there is a very old house, with thick 
 stone walls, called Lowbyer manor-house, which is pointed 
 out as the place where the Earl used to stay on his 
 journeys to his Derwentwater property. It was probably 
 the residence of his agent, and there is a room in it which 
 is called " The Earl's Bedroom." Down to about fifteen 
 years ago, that house was inhabited by Mr. John Dickenson, 
 then agent there for Greenwich Hospital. 
 
 At Haughton Castle, on the North Tyne, a very fine 
 antient cabinet, ornamented with inlaid work, is preserved 
 by William Smith, Esq. It came from an old cottage on 
 Corbridge Fell, to which it is believed to have been removed 
 from Dilston Hall. 
 
 Another fine cabinet of larger dimensions but less antiquity, 
 which is believed to have come from Dilston Hall to the 
 
 ' The door itself was of oak, studded Under Mozzer, a place 13 miles from 
 with wooden knobs and rivets. It was Keswick. The lock weighs eleven 
 sold to a person named Wilson, of pounds.
 
 172 DILSTON HALL. 
 
 manor-house at Ilexliani, is })rescrved by Miss Barrow, a 
 lady who resides in that town. An escritoire fitted to the 
 angle of a wall, and provided with secret drawers, is pre- 
 served by the hostess of the Bull Inn at Hexham, as the 
 writinL,^ desk of Lord Derwentwatcr. And Mr. Fairlcss, of 
 that aneient town, a diligent student and collector of an- 
 tiquities, possesses a small chest of drawers carved in oak, 
 which came into his family from Dilston Hall. We may 
 close this list by mentioning a fine oak table, preserved in 
 the Angel Inn at Corbridgc ; around which the household 
 retainers, or perhaps guests of a higher grade, were wont to 
 partake of the noble Radchffe's hospitality ; and a carved 
 chair, bearing the Earl's coronet, which is in the possession 
 of Mr. llippon of Tynemouth. 
 
 The house of the Earls of Derwentwatcr in the town of 
 Newcastle, has disappeared. It was situated on the west 
 side of Newgate-street, and Bell's-court stands on part of 
 its court-yard, Messrs. Burnup's factory occupying its site. 
 It was a house of two stories, and stood in a garden. It had 
 a chapel, in which there was some stained glass, bearing 
 the Radcliffe arms, and the chapel was used by the Roman 
 Catholic congregation '' for some time after the house had 
 yielded to ignoble tenants. The last portion of the mansion 
 was recently demolished. 
 
 f 
 
 it trniisit. glnrin nmiibi 
 
 '' Tlic author is informed, that the to content himself with £10." Tlie 
 Vicar Apostolic of the Northern Dis- letter seems to be addressed to a noble- 
 trict is ofHcial trustee of a " Der- man connected with the family ; and 
 wentvvater Fund " for weekly masses the writer of it expresses his hope that 
 for the deceased members of the family. the children of that nobleman "may 
 'I'his lund alibrds £20 per annum. The live to perpetuate, by an inheritance of 
 author lias seen a letter, which was which no revolutions can ever deprive 
 written in January 1782, by the Rev. them, every virtue that has ever adorned 
 Charles Cordell, tlien priest at New- the glorious name of Radcliife." 
 castle, (known in the literary world as It should have been added in a for- 
 translator of the Letters of Pope Gan- mer page, that the Lady Katherine, 
 ganelli, andeditor of some other works) daughter of the first and aunt of the 
 in wliich the Rev. writer refers to the third Earl of Derwentwatcr died, im- 
 masses which he said twice a week, married, at Brussells or Louvain, in 
 " for increase of happiness to the soul 174G ; and that the Hon. William 
 of Lady Mary Radcliffe ; from whose Radcliffe, her brother, uncle of the 
 charitable becjuealhment " he formerly unfortunate Earl, died at Rome in No- 
 received £20 per annum, b)it at that vember 1732, and was said to have left 
 time, " by the pleasure of the admini- a curious collection of gold medals to 
 strators of the fund," he was " forced the Chevalier.
 
 A VISIT TO 
 
 BAMBURGH CASTLE.

 
 V VISIT TO BAMBURGII CASTLE. 
 
 " Ye holy towers that shade the wave-worn steep, 
 Long may ye rear your aged brows sublime, 
 Though, hurrying silent by, relentless Time 
 
 Assail you, and the winter whirlwinds sweep ! 
 
 For, far from grandeur's blazing crowded haUs, 
 Here Charity hath fix'd her chosen seat. 
 Oft list'ning tearful when the wild winds beat 
 
 With hollow bodings round yon ancient walls : 
 
 And Pity, at the dark and stormy hour 
 
 Of midnight, when the moon is hid on high, 
 
 Keeps her lone watch upon the topmost tower. 
 And turns her ear to each expiring cry ; 
 
 Blest if her aid some fainting wretch might save. 
 
 And snatch him cold and speechless from the wave." ' 
 
 The fortress of Bamburgh is situated towards the north- 
 eastern extremity of the Northumbrian coast ; and its broad 
 towers and massive ramparts, which seem to defy the hand 
 of Time and the wings of the tempest, crown a lofty mass 
 of basaltic rock, which rises precipitously from the wild but 
 comparatively level shore, and look in isolated grandeur 
 over the wide and restless waters of the Northern Sea. To 
 the Romans this picturesque eminence must have seemed 
 the appointed site for a Temple of the Winds ; and Bam- 
 burgh Castle is said to have originated in one of the castella 
 built by Agricola on his third campaign. But in later time, 
 yet thirteen hundred years ago, it became the citadel of a 
 Saxon monarch ; and in the very dawn of Christianity in 
 
 ' The verses prefixed are from the L. Bowles, who was at Bamburgh in 
 pen of that elegant poet, the Rev. W. October 1827.
 
 176 A VISIT TO 
 
 Northunihcrland, was dignified as the Pharos from which 
 the Hght of the Gospel, cherished by a regal convert, first 
 irradiated her dark valleys and uncultivated hills. Then, 
 as now, "the rude imperious" waves were surging con- 
 tinually at its rocky base ; but in that mighty wall of 
 volcanic masonry, Nature upraised an enduring barrier to 
 their powder, and decreed that the proud billows should 
 be for ever stayed at the foot of S. Oswald's adamantine 
 throne. 
 
 Grand and impressive as are the features of the mighty 
 castle raised by human hands, they are rendered more 
 conspicuous and imposing by it being placed upon so 
 remarkable a foundation, — a rock which is itself a gigantic 
 fortress, fashioned by a mightier hand. An overlying mass 
 of basaltic rock — attributable possibly to lava that flowed 
 from craters of the ancient globe during the deposition of 
 the limestone group, occurs in the general form of a long 
 range, crossing the country in the direction of north-east and 
 south-west, on the north of the lead mines. Close to the 
 edge of this range, the Romans constructed their wall, and 
 upon many of its eminences built their military castles. 
 It may be traced along the escarpment of the carboniferous 
 limestone in the direction above-mentioned ; here and there 
 it swells into dome-shaped masses ; and its eminences form 
 a striking feature in the country between Alnwick and 
 Berwick. They occur in a series of overlying masses on 
 the coast from the Aln to Bamburgh Castle, wdiich occupies 
 certainly the most remarkable of these rocks ; the basalt 
 rises abruptly from the sea, in that dangerous group known 
 as the Fern Islands, which are opposite to Bamburgh Castle; 
 and it forms the neighbouring peninsula of Holy Isle, which 
 is seen seven miles to the north of Bamburgh. The rock 
 is stratiform ; but at Dunstanburgh, the cliff is partly com- 
 posed of columnar basalt. Of its thickness, an astonishing 
 example is presented, on lowering a light down that hercu- 
 lean shaft — the draw-well within the keep of Bamburgh 
 Castle, which has been sunk to the depth of 1 50 feet. To 
 the depth of 75 feet, the well is excavated through the 
 basaltic rock, which rests upon a red and white sandstone 
 of fine grain. "> 
 
 " This sandstone has been quarried castle, and has yielded material for a 
 near the south-eastern portion of the great part of the restorations.
 
 HAMBURGH CASTLE. 177 
 
 Whether viewed from the coast, or from the adjacent 
 country, nothing can be more grand than the aspect of 
 Bamburgh Castle. It bears a striking resemblance in its 
 plan and period of construction to the fortress of Dover. 
 Its principal feature is the keep, a massive square tower, 
 with turrets at the angles^ rising in Norman strength above 
 circumvallations which crown the precipitous escarpment 
 of the rock, and are strengthened by angular towers and 
 circular bastions of gigantic proportions ; and the long 
 range of surrounding battlements present an imposing, 
 varied outline ; but in this peaceful age — 
 
 " No warriors on the turrets high, 
 Moving athwart the evening sky 
 Seem forms of giant height." 
 
 The natural advantages of the position have been so aided 
 by the arts of fortification, that the rock-built Castle of 
 Bamburgh must have possessed amazing strength. On the 
 land side, some parts of the fortifications have fallen, and 
 the curtain walls are chiefly restored work ; but some 
 portions of the outworks of early Norman masonry remain. 
 A large square tower and a circular bastion tower are the 
 most striking of the antient buildings on the south-eastern 
 side. The Castle was accessible only by an acclivity 
 winding under the south-east front, through an antient 
 gateway with portcullis, flanked on either side by a circular 
 tower ; and formerly it was defended also by a ditch, cut 
 through a narrow isthmus communicating with the main- 
 land. Within the first bailey, there is another antient 
 gateway ; and beyond, proceeding between walls partly of 
 artificial masonry and partly formed by the precipitous cliff, 
 we pass below a massive Norman round tower, which 
 commanded the critical pass. The inner bailey, in which 
 the keep is situated, is a level space of gi'cat area, sur- 
 rounded by various buildings, now no longer devoted to 
 military occupation, but appropriated to ministers of charity 
 and peace. The space covered by the walls of the castle 
 measures eight acres, and not less than fifty-six acres of rock, 
 warren, and sand-hills, are included within its domain. 
 
 The view from the summit of the keep is extensive and 
 magnificent. If it may not be compared with the vast 
 panorama of land and ocean beheld from Dover Castle, and 
 if it wants those features of sylvan richness, river beauty, 
 
 N
 
 178 A VISIT TO 
 
 and palatial grandeur, which lay extended bencatli the 
 castled steep of Windsor, the view from this fortress of the 
 north embraces some of the finest scenery of " mountainous 
 Northumberland." Eastward, the eye wanders over the 
 wide expanse of ocean, bright beneath " the summer sky's 
 cerulean hue;" and to the north and south embraces a 
 long indented line of coast, upon whose yellow sands the 
 blue waves are spreading a snowy fringe, and 
 
 " Amid whose rocks we hear the hollow roar 
 Of murmuring surges breaking on the shore." 
 
 To the south are the cliffs of Dunstanburgh ; to the north 
 the Isle of Lindisfarn, with all its saintly memories and 
 touching ruins ; to the north-west, looking over Berwick 
 and Tweedmouth, are the gray hills of Scotland ; and in 
 the south-west, the majestic outline of the hills of Cheviot 
 bounds the landscape, while a vast extent of sunny and 
 fertile countiy is spread below ; — 
 
 " Far to the south and west there lay 
 Extended in succession gay, 
 Deep waving fields and pastures green, 
 With gentle slopes and groves between." 
 
 From the lofty towers of Bamburgh Castle varied scenes 
 of natural beauty are beheld, whether when the fresh blush 
 of morning is spread upon the mountains and purples the 
 distant main ; or when the eye ranges over a wide land- 
 scape of green and cultivated country brightening in the 
 sunlight, and glowing wdien the " noontide is sleeping on 
 the hills ;" or when the golden orb has run its course and 
 is declining beyond the mountains, while 
 
 " The western waves of ebbing day 
 Roll o'er the plain their level way, 
 And bathe each peak, each village spire 
 In purple floods of living fire." 
 
 Or later, when the roseate clouds that have attended the 
 sun to his setting, fade into gray silvery haze, and 
 
 " The evening star's bright beams are trembling 
 Far in the distance of the blue serene, 
 The memories of the past will rise assembling, 
 To tell the soul of all that once hath been"- — 
 
 And then we call to mind the distant age when the heaven- 
 ward footprints of Anglo Saxon piety WTre traced from 
 Bamburgh, as the first citadel of the Christian faith in this 
 remote part of England ; and the time when, within this
 
 BAMBURGH CASTLE. 179 
 
 fortress, the Chapel of S. Peter was dedicated by S. Aidan 
 and S. Oswald, and the royal martyr's own silver shrine 
 was raised by his successor ; we may then revive in imagi- 
 nation the knightly forms and martial followers, which in 
 the feudal age of bow and spear, were wont to issue from 
 the portals of this castle, for deeds which live in mediaeval 
 tale ; and then too, we may remember that in the days of 
 chivalry, kings and nobles held their state within that 
 massive keep. We may think, how many sieges and 
 contests have raged beneath those walls of silent stone ; 
 and rejoice that, after ages of turbulence and warfare, 
 arms at length yielded to the gown, and Bamburgh, after 
 passing into the hands of a noble prelate, became the 
 chosen seat of beneficence and charity. But many cen- 
 turies before that time arrived, and in the darkest age 
 of turbulence and contest, ministers of peace had spread 
 some humanizing influence around, sheltered by religion's 
 charter, and protected by the antient lords of Bamburgh 
 Castle. "The turrets of their cloisters gray" were seen 
 for ages from the neighbouring heights, but they have long 
 been overthrown by enemies more destructive than Time, 
 and more malignant than the border robber. Nearly three 
 centuries liaA^e passed away since the " pale radiance" of 
 the moon beams, that glance upon the changeless ocean and 
 silver the peaceful landscape, fell on antique towers and 
 cloisters in the neighbouring village ; from whose church 
 when they were tenanted, and 
 
 " The midnight moon should lave 
 
 Her forehead in the silver wave, 
 How solemn on the ear would float 
 The holy matins' distant note ! " 
 
 But it is time that we should turn from this sort of 
 retrospect to written annals. The lamp of history throws 
 upon the remote distance of bygone time an uncertain 
 and a flickering light, which serves to detach only a few 
 faint traces from the shadowy depths. Here and there, 
 some antique portraiture starts into living form ; but as we 
 come down to the less remote periods of mediseval time, 
 our page becomes crowded with illustrious persons and 
 events, whose memory gives to Bamburgh Castle an historic 
 dignity quite in keeping with the grandeur of its imposing 
 architecture and position. 
 
 N 2
 
 180 A VISIT TO 
 
 The earliest lords of the coiintiy were not likely to over- 
 look the advantage of fortifying such a situation as this. 
 AcconHngly we find, that Ida, first Anglo-Saxon King of 
 Northunil)ria, strengthened this position after the rude man- 
 ner of his nation, so early as the year 550. Its earliest de- 
 fences were of wood, hut these ere long yielded to stone ;" still 
 the Banihurgh Castle of that early age was very unlike the 
 gigantic structure afterwards raised by Norman might, and 
 owed its strength to natural situation and the bravery of a 
 garrison rather than to defences of stone. The Venerable 
 Bede tells us that about the year 625,° the nation of the 
 Angles, living on the lands northward of the Ilumber, with 
 their King, Edwin, received the Christian faith through the 
 mission of Paulinus, by whom the royal convert, with the 
 nobility of his nation, and many people, were baptized at 
 York, on the 12th April G27. The holy bishop afterwards 
 tarried more than a month with Edwin " in Banburh," 
 intent on converting the people and receiving them to the 
 divine grace in baptism, p So that in the very morning of 
 Northumbrian Christianity the darkness of Saxon heathenism 
 was first irradiated by the light that shone from Bamburgh 
 Castle. We may here enqun'c whether, as " 15aenburc" is 
 the form of its name in very early records, this appellation 
 can have been derived from the Saxon words Ba-cnc-bujij, 
 which signify the city, castle, or burgh of the bishop's gigantic 
 seat? On the authority of Venerable ]3ede, however, this 
 place has been said to take its name from ]5ebba, one of 
 the early queens ; but in the Saxon version, it occurs only 
 as " the royal burgh which is called Bebban-burh." We 
 will not, however, get entangled in etymological specu- 
 lation. The name of Aidan next gives saintly lustre to 
 the early annals of Bamburgh. He was a man of singular 
 piety, meekness, and zeal in the cause of God. Edwin's 
 royal nephew, Oswald, had succeeded to his kingdom when 
 Aidan arrived in Northumberland, and the King appointed 
 him his episcopal see in the neighbouring isle of Lindisfarn. 
 The Venerable Bede narrates this characteristic anecdote : 
 
 " Oswald was sitting at dinner on Easter-day with tlie bishop, 
 who was about to bless the feast, when the king was suddenly 
 
 " Lcl. Coll. torn. ii. p. 385 ; and the " Hist. Eccles. lib. ii. cap. 2. 
 
 same fact is also mentioned in Scala ■' Chron. Tho. Kiulbouin, (Monach. 
 
 Cronica. Winton.,) Lei. Coll. torn. i. p. 411.
 
 BAMBURGH CASTLE. 
 
 181 
 
 informed by his almoner, that many needy and hungry persons 
 were without, begging ahns. Thereupon the king ordered the 
 meat which had been set before him, and the silver dish on which 
 it was served, 1 to be distributed among the multitude. At this 
 sight, the bishop took liis right hand, with the invocation, ' May 
 this hand never perish ! ' which, (adds the venerable narrator) came 
 to pass according to his prayer ; for Oswald's arm and hand being 
 severed from his body when he was slain in battle, remain entire 
 and unperished to this day, and are kept in a silver casket, as 
 revered reliques, in the church of St, Peter, in the royal city of 
 Bebbanburh." ' 
 
 Until King Oswald's time, there was not a church or 
 altar erected throughout Northumberland ; ' but that sove- 
 reign, doubtless at Aidan's suggestion, built a chapel within 
 the walls of his royal city, and therein decorated a shrine ; ' 
 and in this little edifice, his own silver shrine, containing 
 his hand and arm, soon came to be exalted," for his zeal 
 for the conversion of his subjects, his donations to the 
 church, and his death at the hands of a Pagan conqueror, 
 procured him to be honoured among men as a saint and 
 martyr. The holy Aidan, his friend and bishop, survived 
 Oswald nine years; and Bede relates that, when (in a.d. 
 651) the Mercian army under Penda, after cruelly ravaging 
 Northumberland, came to the royal city of Bamburgh, he 
 endeavoured to take it by force; but finding this attempt 
 in vain, he encompassed it on the land side with wood and 
 thatch, which he caused to be set on fire, and the flames 
 soon rose above the walls of the citadel. Aidan was at 
 this time on the Farn Island, two miles from the mainland; 
 and seeing the danger of the garrison, invoked the Divine 
 aid to defeat the machinations of the enemy. Bede relates 
 
 1 It was King Oswald, who at his 
 feasts was first sejved in silver dishes, 
 imported probably by the companions 
 of Augustine. 
 
 ■■ Bede's Hist. Eccles. lib. iii. cap. 6. 
 
 ^ Ibid, lib. iii. cap. 2. a.d. 636. 
 
 « In A.D. 634 ; Alcuin, ver. 275. 
 
 " S. Oswald the King was slain 5 
 August 642. His successor, Oswy, 
 coming to the monastery of Bardney, 
 took, thence S. Oswald's head, and 
 interred it in the church of Lindisfarn, 
 and the hand and arm were enshrined 
 in his own royal city. [See Bede's 
 Eccles. Hist., Stevenson's edit. p. 184, 
 note 7.] Oswald's shrine was in this, 
 
 (the seventh) centui-y, thus ornamented : 
 [Alcuin, V. 389.] 
 
 Postea Rex felix amaverat Oifa sepulchrum 
 Argento, gemmis, auro multoqiie decore, 
 Ut decus et specimen tumbas per secla, mane- 
 ret, &c. 
 
 The head only of S. Oswald remained 
 to his faithful monks of Lindisfarn. It 
 attended them in prosperity and in ad- 
 versity, and at length found a safe 
 resting-place on the bosom of S. Cuth- 
 bert, where it remained until the out- 
 rages of Lee and other malefactoi's of 
 evil memory. For an account of the 
 peregrinations of S. Oswald's reliques, 
 see Acta Sanctorum, (August,) ii. p. 86.
 
 182 A VISIT TO 
 
 that thereupon the wind, suddenly changing, bore the flames 
 upon the canij) of the besiegers, who desisted from further 
 assaidt : — a dcliv^eranee and raising of the siege which were 
 naturally ascribed to a miraculous intervention. Aidan 
 was in the King's vill, not lar from the citadel ol" Bamburgh, 
 when death sei)arated his soul from the body. A church 
 had even then been founded in the village, to w^hich the 
 holy bislio}) was w^ont to resort ; and in a little chamber 
 erected for him on the outside of the western wall of the 
 church, he was reclining, when his spirit passed to immor- 
 tahty. The sacred edihce and the village were ere long 
 burned by the spoiler, but were rebuilt in the same place. 
 The new buildings again fell a prey to the enemy, and again 
 they rose from their ashes ; and it was, no doubt, upon the 
 spot hallowed by these edifices of Saxon piety that the more 
 stately structure of the present parish church of Bamburgh 
 came to be erected in later time. Many were the vicissi- 
 tudes through wdiicli Bamburgh passed in the early ages of 
 its annals ; and at length the Danes, those terrible piratical 
 invaders, who so often devastated the eastern shores, captured 
 the Saxon fortress and all its treasure. It was afterwards 
 again fortified by the Saxon successors of its earlier lords. 
 
 Bamburgh Castle was certainly a fortress of considerable 
 strength soon after, if not at the time, w hen the Norman 
 power was established in England, and was probably an 
 efficient fortress of the potent Siward, during his earldom. 
 In 1091 and 1092, Malcolm, King of Scotland, was 
 ravaging the border, and William Rufus was with his army 
 in the northern parts of England. Robert de Mowbray, 
 the great Earl of Noilhumberland, refused allegiance to 
 William, and was deprived of his earldom. He thereupon 
 withdrew to J5amburgh Castle, which probably owes to his 
 magnificence and martial spirit the foundation of the Norman 
 keep (which seems to have been completed in the reign of 
 Henry II.) and some other portions of the fortress. Among 
 these probably was the castle chapel, which stood in the 
 south-east angle of the citadel, and was formed with a semi- 
 circular apse, like the chapel in the White Tower of 
 London, and the chapel in Colchester Castle. The great 
 draw-w^ell — a dark and rugged shaft excavated within the 
 keep, through the rock of stone, to the amazing depth of 
 a hundred and fifty feet, is equalled only by the draw-well
 
 HAMBURGH CASTLE. 183 
 
 of Beeston Castle ; and this stupendous work is probably due 
 to Norman lords of Bamburgh. It is mentioned by Roger de 
 Hoveden," (the chaplain of Henry II.) as a well of sweet 
 and clear water, " in occidente et in summitate ipsius civita- 
 tis," yet we have no record of the time of its construction."^ 
 But, to resume our narrative. Mowbray, hoping to make 
 himself master of the Newcastle upon Tyne by surprise, 
 proceeded thither, leaving his Countess at Bamburgh, with 
 a sufficient force for its defence. But he found Newcastle 
 so strongly defended, that he turned aside to his castle of 
 Tynemouth, within the circuit of which he had refounded 
 and endowed the Church of S. Oswin, and in that sacred 
 edifice he took refuge from the vengeance of William. But 
 the King dragged him from the sanctuary ; and returning 
 with his noble captive before the walls of Bamburgh, 
 whose faithful and devoted garrison still gallantly repulsed 
 the besiegers, he summoned the Countess to surrender, 
 upon pain of the Earl being put to torture, and by this 
 threat obtained possession of the fortress. On the grant 
 of the earldom, some years afterwards, to Henry, son of 
 David the Scottish King, Bamburgh was reserved to the 
 Crown ; and in the possession of the English Kings it 
 thenceforward continued for centuries, being governed 
 
 X 
 
 by a constable or lieutenant appointed by the Crown. 
 
 " Script, post Bedam, ed. Savile, p. ^ The " constable of Banburg" is 
 
 403. Hoveden here mentions an event mentioned as early as 1202, [Rot. Pat. 4 
 
 which happened in 774 at Bamburgh, Joh. m. 5.] And on the 5th Jmie 121G, 
 
 the royal city of Alcred, but the de- the King granted the custody of this 
 
 sci-iption of Bamburgh which he there castle to Hugh de Baillol. 
 
 gives, applies to his own time : he Heniy III. in the 20th year of his 
 
 speaks of its beautiful chapel, its pre- reign, gave to Hugh de Bolebec the 
 
 cious shrine containing the unperished Earldom of Northumberland and the 
 
 hand of Oswald, and " fons miro cava- custody of Bamburgh Castle and the 
 
 tus opere, dulcis ad potandum, et Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 
 
 purissimus ad videndum." In 32 Henry III. the custody of 
 
 "' For providing the gan-ison with a Bamburgh was given to William Heron, 
 
 supply of water which besiegers could who paid a fine of eighty marks. In 
 
 not cut off, there was in most castles a the 40th year, he occurs as sheriff of 
 
 well, which was sometimes curiously Northumberland, 
 concealed within the thickness of the 
 
 walls. There are draw-wells in the Cas- The following notes are from the 
 
 ties of Dover, Canterbury, Rochester, Orig'malia : — 
 
 Colchester, Carisbrook, &c. In the old In 4 Edward I. Tho. de Normanvill, 
 Norman tower of Newcastle, the well steward of the King, had the custody, 
 is very curiously concealed within the In 10 Edward I. the castle was corn- 
 wall. The great well of Bamburgh rnitted to farm for a term, 
 had long been forgotten, when in De- Walter deCambhowe in 21 Edward I, 
 cember 1770, it was accidentally dis- was ordered to deliver up the castle 
 covered in lowering the floor. with all its munitions. [over.
 
 184 
 
 A VISIT TO 
 
 King John was at Bamburgh on Tuesday the 13th, and on 
 the 14th and 15th of February 1201 ; and again on Mon- 
 day the 28th January 1213. In this year, the then consi- 
 derable sum of £117 85. 4d. was expended in works at the 
 castle of " Baenburc, " by the King's writ j^ besides £18 
 6s. lid. for the expenses of eighteen men, who were main- 
 tained during 176 days in guard of the castle. 
 
 Banibiu'gh Castle enjoyed the privileged jurisdiction of a 
 royal liberty, and the town beneath its walls had acquired a 
 market and attained importance in the warlike reign of 
 Edward I., for John de Graystans and William the Coroner, 
 were returned members for the borough, to the Parliament 
 held at Westminster on the 13th November, in the 23rd 
 Edward I. (1295,) and by prorogation, on the 27th of the 
 same month, pursuant to the King's writs. 
 
 It was to Bamburgh that Edward I. in 1296, summoned 
 Baliol to come and renew his homage for the crown of 
 Scotland ; and during the long course of that great mo- 
 narch's Scottish wars, Bamburgh was more than once the 
 scene of royal visits, of warlike armaments, and diplomatic 
 negociations. 
 
 It was while Isabel de Beaumont enjoyed the life-grant of 
 Bamburgh Castle, which had been made to her by Edward I. 
 that she there for a time sheltered Piers Gaveston, the 
 favourite of Edward II. from the vengeance of the nobles ; 
 but it would seem that Henry do Percy, one of the asso- 
 ciated lords, was able to induce the King, in the same year 
 
 In 23 Edward I. John Earl of Wa- 
 renne had a grant of tlie custody. 
 
 In 33 Edward I. the Lady Isabella, 
 widow of Jolmde Vescy, and a relation 
 of Queen Eleanor, liad a grant of tlie 
 castle and its revenues for life, for whicli 
 she was to pay £\\0 per annum. This 
 grant was renewed in 1 Edward II. 
 when she is named de I>eauniont. 
 
 In 5 Edward II. Henry de Percy had 
 a grant of the custody during the royal 
 pleasure, at tlie like rent. It was after- 
 wards granted to Joiiii de Esslington. 
 
 In 9 Edward II. William dc Felton 
 succeeded; in the following year Roger 
 Heron had his office; and in 12 Edward 
 II. Roger de Ilorsley is mentioned as 
 constable of Bamburgh, in a commission 
 dated 15 September 1322, relating to 
 wardship of the marches. 
 
 In 1 Edward III. Robert de Horn- 
 clifl' had the grant of custody ; and in 
 8 Edward III. Walter Creyk succeeded. 
 
 In IG Edward III. William de 
 Wyndesore was deprived of the cus- 
 tody of the castle, and the receipt of 
 the fee farm paid l)y the King's tenants 
 in tlie vill. " The King's men of 
 15amburgh," occur as tenants of the 
 vill in fee farm of the Crown in 40 
 Henry III. 
 
 y 'i'he monies were expended " on 
 the view of Laurence Taillatoris, John 
 FitzRalph, and Martin liis brother." 
 [See Great Roll of the Pipe, Tl John, 
 rot. 5, memb. secunda.] The items 
 occur in an account for the bishopric, 
 rendered by Eimeric, Archdeacon of 
 Durham, and Philip de Ulecote.
 
 BAMBURGH CASTLE. 
 
 185 
 
 (1312,) to confer the custody of Bamburgh upon that 
 powerful nobleman himself. 
 
 The wardrobe account of the 11th Edward II. (a.d. 1318) 
 contains a payment of £60 for the expenses of Master 
 Rob. de Baldock, Archdeacon of Middlesex, who had been 
 sent by the King and his council, accompanied by other 
 grave envoys, to treat at Bamburgh with the Scottish 
 envoys, touching peace ; in which embassy he was engaged 
 during the months of January, February, March, and April.^ 
 
 From a record in the 1st year of Edward III. it appears 
 that certain tenants of the vill of Bamburgh performed the 
 service of ward of the castle gates, and provided a watch- 
 man by night on the gate called Smithyate.* 
 
 King David Bruce, after he was captured at the battle of 
 Durham, was confined in the Castle of Bamburgh, before he 
 w^as conducted to the Tower of London, as appears from 
 the King s writ to the Barons of the Exchequer, dated 1 
 March 1 347 ; and Bamburgh was one of the King's castles 
 where, in 1358, his ransom was appointed to be paid to the 
 English Crown. And this was not the only occasion upon 
 which a Scottish prisoner of note was confined there, for on 
 17 August 1335, John de Denton of Newcastle, obtained 
 the King's writ for repayment of £32 expended by him in 
 the safe custody of the Earl of Murray, " prisoner of war, 
 in the King's prison in his castle of Bamburgh." 
 
 The great convention between the King of England and 
 Edward de Balliol, King of Scots, in 1356, was entered into 
 at Bamburgh. Its date is the 20th January, on which day, 
 and on the 30th Januaiy and 8th February, Edward III. 
 dates from that castle. 
 
 In the 41st Edward III. the fortress was much in need 
 of repair, and in that year the King's mandate to authorise 
 the necessaiy reparation was issued. In the following year 
 several Commissioners (amongst whom were Robert de 
 Haggerston and John de Langton of York) were appointed 
 to superintend the due repair of the defects in the gi-eat 
 tower, and other towers and buildings of the castle. 
 
 ^ Stapleton's Extracts from Ward. a " Robert the Porter," held lands in 
 
 Ace. 11 Edw. II. Archaiol. xxvi. 334. Bamburgh by the service of the custody 
 
 Early in 1318 the Scots took Berwick of a particular gate, and received 2c?. 
 
 by surprise, and its fall was followed per day. — [Originalia, 1 Edw. III.] 
 by that of some other English castles. The postern and sally-port on the 
 
 but not of Bamburgh. n.w. side are probably of this period.
 
 186 A VISIT TO 
 
 Gilbert de Midelton, the Nortliuinbrian freebooter, who 
 robbed the Cardinals and had the audacity to seize Louis 
 Beaumont, Bishop and Count Palatine of Durham, is said 
 to have taken all the castles in Northumberland, except 
 Bamburgh, Almvick and Norham.'' 
 
 At length the continued contests occasioned by border 
 warfare and Scottish invasion, were changed for the more 
 sanguinary wars of the Houses of York and Lancaster. 
 After a tedious conflict, the fatal battle of Towton, on 29 
 March 1461, gave the victory to Edward of York; and 
 Henry VI. and Queen Margaret flying to the Scottish 
 regent, w^ere honourably received as fugitives in the kingdom 
 with which their royal predecessors had been so long at 
 war. Bamburgh Castle was among the northern fortresses 
 which nevertheless remained in the hands of Henry's forces. 
 In October 14G3, Margaret landed near Bamburgh, on her 
 return from seeking aid in France ; but as Edw^ard was 
 approaching with a large army, she again took refuge in 
 Scotland. The Duke of Somerset, the Earl of Pembroke, 
 the Lord Roos, and Sir Ralph Percy, at this time held 
 Bamburgh with a garrison of 300 men for King Henry. 
 It was besieged by Edward, on his arrival in Northumber- 
 land. The besieging force, which is said to have numbered 
 10,000 men, was commanded by the Earls of Worcester 
 and Arundel, the Lord Ogle, and the Lord Montacute. On 
 Christmas eve, the defenders capitulated for its surrender, 
 and Somerset and Percy were taken into the grace of 
 Edward, the Earl of Pembroke and Lord Roos having 
 escaped. Early in 1464, Queen Margaret again entered 
 Noi'thumberland with a considerable army, and Sir Ralph 
 Grey by surprise regained for the Queen the important 
 fortress of Bamburgh, it being then in the custody of Sir 
 John Astley. Somerset and Percy, true to their allegiance, 
 again joined the heroine of the Red Rose. Edward, alarmed 
 by these events, disi)atclicd a fleet to the northern coast, 
 and marched with a large army to York. Sir Ral})h Percy, 
 deserted by his companions in arms, fell, fighting bravely 
 for his sovereign, on the held of Pledgley-moor ; and on the 
 15th May, Queen Margaret's army was finally defeated at 
 the fatal battle of Hexham, and the royal heroine, after 
 romantic adventures, with ditficulty escaped. Sir Ralph 
 
 ^ Lei. Coll, torn i. TilS, from Scala Cronica.
 
 BAMBURGH CASTLE. 187 
 
 Grey still held Bamburgh, then besieged anew by Edward, 
 and defended it gallantly until the end of July, when he 
 was so severely injured by the fall of a tower,'' that the 
 garrison surrendered it to Edward's generals, the Earl of 
 Warwick and Montacute, on whom the title and estate of 
 the noble Percy had been conferred. ^ 
 
 Camden has recorded that, in these wars, Bamburgh 
 Castle was much defaced ; and probably the injuries were 
 not repaired, for in the reign of Henry VII. it had become 
 greatly dilapidated. Sir John Forster, warden of the 
 marches, was governor of the fortress during part of the reign 
 of Elizabeth, and to Claudius Forster a grant of the castle 
 and manor was made in the reign of James I. when the 
 Forster family had become grantees of the adjacent monastic 
 lands. From the time of the wars of the Roses, Bamburgh 
 Castle lost its martial dignity ; and its annals record few 
 events of striking interest during the two centuries and a 
 half which intervened between that age of vicissitude and 
 bloodshed, and the time when, by forfeiture of Thomas 
 Forster, the grantee's successor, and by purchase fi^om the 
 Crown, this once important and oft-contested fortress became 
 the private property of Bishop Crewe. But from that time 
 it was destined to scenes and purposes widely different from 
 those which marked its earlier history, and its future was 
 to become not less conspicuous in the annals of charity 
 and beneficence, than its past had been eminent in those of 
 feudal dignity and warlike valour. 
 
 After this rapid view of the eventful history of Bamburgh 
 as a fortress, it is refreshing to turn to the history of those 
 ecclesiastical foundations, which, during these long ages of 
 warfare, exerted the only humanizing influence on the people. 
 One of these, the parish church of S. Aidan of Bamburgh, 
 is a venerable monument of medieeval piety which has 
 withstood the long ages of convulsion that overthrew even 
 the proud walls of the neighbouring fortress ; and it is the 
 sole survivor of the antient ecclesiastical foundations of 
 
 "^ This gallant champion recovered, Tynemouth during a considerable part 
 
 but was executed as a traitor at York. of Henry's reign. See MS. 144 in 
 
 *> We ought not to pass from the Bibl. Corp. Chr. Coll. Oxford. In 
 
 reign of Henry VI. without mentioning 1438 and 1447, he gave books to his 
 
 John of Bamburgh, a monk who was monastery, — acts then deemed highly 
 
 born at that place in 1400, and was praiseworthy. John of Bamburgh was 
 
 sub-prior of the great monastery at a very literary monk.
 
 188 A VISIT TO 
 
 Bamburgh, wliich once possessed an Augustinian Friary, a 
 monastery of Friars' Preachers (a collegiate foundation,) and 
 the Hospital of S. Mary Magdalene. To the canons regular 
 of S, Augustine we are indebted for the fine structure now 
 the parish church of Band)urgh. We learn' that the tithes 
 of the mother chui'ch of S. Aidan of Bamburgh and of the 
 Church of S. Oswald, '^ were conferred by King Henry I. 
 on the Priory of Nostell, near Pontefract ; and that there- 
 u])on a colony of canons migrated from thence to Bam- 
 burgh, and there founded a cell to that religious house. ^ 
 The revenues of the Augustine Friary of Bamburgh, were 
 valued, on the suppression in 2Gth Henry VHI., at 
 £116 126'. 3d. Their possessions, as part of S. Oswald's 
 of Nostell, were conferred on John Forster, in the 37 Henry 
 Vni. Of the monastic buildings of tlie Augustine Canons, 
 no portion remains save some garden wall. 
 
 Henry HI. in the latter part of his reign, founded at 
 Bamburgh a house of Friars Preachers, to whom he gave 
 ten acres of land, to enable them to build their oratory.'' 
 After the suppression, the property of the house remained 
 in the Crown, until the 2nd Elizabeth, when it was gi-anted 
 away.* 
 
 Of their collegiate foundation, no portions are known. 
 Leland, in his Itineraiy {tempore Henry VHI.) says, 
 " there was a fair college in the Earl of Lancaster's time, 
 a little without Bamburrow, in Northumberland, now clean 
 down." 
 
 The hospital founded in honour of S. Mary Magdalene 
 was of antient date. It was the subject of charters from 
 Edward I and Edward II., but we have no information 
 illustrative of its history. 
 
 The Saxon Castle of Bamburgh having been destroyed in 
 the year 993,'' it is probable that the church shai'cd the 
 
 <^ Tanner's Notitia Monastica, page of the castle, which Ven. Bede says 
 
 .3l)2. was (ledicated to S. Peter. 
 
 f From Tanner's note, under the e In 17 Jolin, tlie advowson of the 
 
 head of Bamburgh, it wouUl a])pear church of " Banburg" is conferred on S. 
 
 that tliis cluux'h of S. Oswakl was at OswaUl's of Nostell. [Cart. p. l.m.iii.] 
 
 Bamburgh. But it was the churcli '' Cart. .'31 Hen. III. 
 
 which Robert de Lacy had founded at ' To Thomas Reeve and Nicholas 
 
 Nostell, in honour of S. Oswald, that Finder, [Tanner, 396,] where some 
 
 was given with the mother church of charters relating to this foimdation are 
 
 Bamburgh, to Nostell Priory. Tlie referred to. 
 
 shrine of S. Oswald was in the chapel ** Saxon Chron. 127.
 
 HAMBURGH CASTLE. 189 
 
 same fate, and remained in ruin through the chief part, if 
 not the whole, of the dark and turbulent century which 
 succeeded. Neither the church nor the castle is mentioned 
 again until the reign of William Rufus ; but before that 
 period, the castle, at all events, had been rebuilt; and under 
 the early Anglo-Norman Kings, the vill of Bamburgh rose 
 into existence. History does not afford information as to 
 the state of the edilice of the church of S. Aidan at the 
 time when it was given by Henry I. to the Augustine Friars 
 of Nostell, nor are there any traces of the Norman structure 
 that yielded to the present beautiful church, which is wholly 
 of Early English (First Pointed) character. The church of 
 Bamburgh is only once mentioned between the reign of 
 Hen. I. and John, and that solitary instance occurs in 1 197 ; 
 when, at the exchequer of Richard Coeur de Lion, five 
 marks were contributed to the aid, from the Church of 
 " Banburc." 
 
 The plan of the church is cruciform, with the tower at 
 the western end, engaged (to use architectural language) 
 with the aisles. The tower opens to the nave and aisles 
 by three lofty arches, springing from massive abutments. It 
 is low, and antient in the lower part only. There are four 
 arches between the nave and aisles, and a wide arch opens 
 to the transepts. The arches are supported by circular 
 pillars with moulded capitals, which are plain, except one 
 on the north side, which is sculptured with a remarkable 
 pattern. The south aisle is much wider than the north 
 aisle ; and the eastern arch opening from it to the transept 
 is lower than any of the other arches, and rests on an elegant 
 bracket. The chancel arch is narrow, but well proportioned. 
 It is plain, without mouldings ; and the chancel, which is 
 of unusual length, is extremely fine and interesting. Its 
 architecture is more elaborate than that of the rest of the 
 church. The east window is a triple lancet, forming part 
 of an elegant arcade of five ; and the whole of the chancel 
 has internally in the walls an arcade of lancet arches 
 springing from shafts, the arches being at intervals pierced 
 for windows, the inner arches of which are trefoiled. 
 Eleven of the fifteen lights of the chancel have been 
 recently filled with effective stained glass, pourtraying 
 figures of the apostles, of some of which glass in particular, 
 the drawing and colouring are very good. The long arcade.
 
 190 A VISIT TO 
 
 thus lighted and enriched, has a character of most solemn 
 and imi)ressive beauty. On the north side of the chancel 
 there is a corresponding arcade. This chancel is remarkable 
 in having a piscina on the north as well as on the south of 
 the altar, the former being placed near the north-east angle, 
 and having a projecting slab (in which is the drain,) and a 
 ])ointed arch over the recess. The piscina on the south 
 has a trefoiled arch with stone shelf, and on the northern 
 side there is a large aumbrye. There are three ascending 
 sedilia with trefoiled heads ; and westward of these is a low 
 sepulchral recess, with a recumbent effigy in armour, the 
 legs crossed. The person intended to be commemorated 
 is forgotten, but the worthy sexton had no hesitation in 
 ascribing the effigy to that renowned knight Sir Lancelot Du 
 Lake. On each side of the chancel is a recess which has 
 the appearance of a lychnoscope ; the one on the north side 
 has externally a narrow square-headed opening, trefoiled 
 and headed by a transom. In the wall on the south side of 
 the chancel arch, there is a singular hagioscope, formed by 
 a square aperture filled with pierced stone panelling of third 
 pointed work. The chancel has been fitted with kneelings 
 in oak, the finials of which are well carved, and the whole 
 church presents marks of restoration and reverent care, 
 which reflect honour on the trustees of Lord Crewe's 
 charities, and upon the worthy incumbent. 
 
 There is a late but good timber roof over the whole 
 church, yet until recently it was hid by a barbarous plaster 
 ceiling. Plaster still covers the walls of the transepts, the 
 windows in which, as in the aisles, with the exception of 
 a lancet in the north transept, are late. Powell's stained 
 glass has been added to the western lights. 
 
 A decorous solemnity pervades the interior of Bamburgh 
 Church, and a sense of ecclesiastical propriety has guided 
 the restorations already made. The nave and transepts 
 continue to be defaced by pues, but it is to be hoped that 
 the parishioners will see the propriety of substituting open 
 benches for those unsightly innovations, which are suitable 
 only to the meeting-house or the proprietary chapel. 
 
 With the exception of the recumbent effigy, there are 
 not many curious monuments in the church, though there 
 are some interesting sepulchral inscriptions. The most 
 touching is that inscribed in 1 71 1 , by Dorothea Lady Crewe,
 
 HAMBURGH CASTLE. 191 
 
 daughter of Sir William Forster of Bamburgh, to the memory 
 of " her dear brothers," William, John, and Ferdinand, 
 " as the last respect that could be paid them for their true 
 affection to the church, the monarchy, their country, and 
 their sister!" The epitaph copied below is the oldest 
 inscription ; it is on a tablet in the north wall of the 
 chancel : — 
 
 Claudius Forsterus Eques Aurat -^ et Baronettus antiqua 
 nunierosa. et nobile Forsteroru' familia in Com. Northumb. 
 oriundus ; Dno Nicliolao Forstero Fortiss. illi -^ Viri Filio, Dili 
 Joliaiiis Forsteri, qui 37 Aiios Mediar Marchiar Scotar Vers*^ 
 Dns Guardian -^ Extitit Fili -^ et Hasres f Honoratiss. etiam 
 Dnis, Cumbrise et Bedf. [?] Comitibus nee non insigni et illus- 
 tri Fenwicoru Progenie, totiq^ Generosorii Genti, inter Tinam 
 et Tweda celeberr: sanguine conjunct -^ ; Castri deniq^ Bamburg 
 Dhs Senescal "^ et Summ -^ Constabulari -^ : Obiit in Manerio 
 suo de Alba-Terra in Comit : Northumb : Ann° : Sal : Nost : 
 1623. 
 
 Memoriae sacrum lugens posuit uxor ejus Dna Elizabetha 
 Gulielmi Fenwici de Wallingtonia Equitis Aurati filia. 
 
 Under the eastern end of the chancel there is a fine 
 crv^pt in two divisions, lighted by small lancets, and of very 
 beautiful (Early English) architecture. It was evidently 
 used as a chapel in former times ; there are traces of the 
 altar ; there is the staple in the groined roof which sus- 
 tained the light that burned before it, and there is the 
 piscina. The south wall is pierced by a lancet window, 
 and there is a large and handsome first pointed doorway 
 which now gives access to the crj^pt from the outside, but 
 which was blocked up until within the last five years. The 
 coffins of several members of the Forster family were 
 deposited on a rude platform in this vaulted chamber ; and 
 from 1765, or some later year, it seems to have been closed 
 up as if it were a private vault. In 1837, a passage from the 
 church to this neglected chamber of the dead was acci- 
 dentally discovered. On removing the oak supports of the 
 floor, which were decayed, a flight of stone steps, passing 
 through the original wall of the vaults, was found to descend 
 into a long arched chamber, having a lancet window at the 
 east end ; and from this chamber a square aperture on the 
 right, roughly broken through the wall, opened at the foot
 
 192 A VISIT TO 
 
 of the steps into the chapel already mentioned. On prohing 
 the floor at the eastern end of the long chamber, it seemed 
 to be filled up by light rubbish ; and a tradition is cmTent 
 at Bamburgh, that a subterranean passage led to the church 
 from tlie monastery, which stood directly opposite to the 
 east end of the chancel. The only access to the crypt at 
 this time is through the Early English doorway already 
 mentioned, which is entered from a dry area or passage 
 round the exterior wall of the crypt and below the level of 
 the churchyard from which a flight of steps leads down to 
 this passage, which w-as disinterred five years ago. 
 
 The coffins which were found on the stone shelf in this 
 very curious crypt, wTre five in number. One contained the 
 remains of William Forster, who died 1st September 1700; 
 another the remains of Ferdinand Forster, m.p for Northum- 
 berland, youngest son of Sir William Forster of Bamburgh, 
 who w^as assassinated near the Black Horse Inn, in Newgate- 
 street, Newcastle, then the principal hostelry of that town, 
 by John Fenwick of Rock. The latter had long cherished 
 an inveterate enmity against his victim ; and at length, on 
 the 22nd August 1701, during the assize week, when the 
 principal gentry of the county were assembled at Newcastle, 
 Forster and Fenwick met ; Forster was at supper wdth friends 
 at that inn when he was challenged by Fenwick to combat, 
 and he went out, followed by the company, who, by the 
 light of the moon, saw Fenwick standing between the White 
 Cross and a thorn tree which gTcw^ in the street. As they 
 approached, Fenwick drew his sword, and Forster did the 
 same, but slipping, fell on his back, and while lying on the 
 ground, his adversary ran up and stabbed him through the 
 heart. Vengeance was speedy, for Fenwick w^as executed 
 at the White Cross on the 2.'3tli September following. 
 Another of the coffins contained the remains of Thomas 
 Forster, of the Etherstone family, the leader w hose militaiy 
 incompetence w^as so fatal to Lord Derwentwater and his 
 colleagues, and whose body was brought from France in 1 738, 
 as mentioned at p. 128 of the present work. Next to his 
 remains, was the coffin of Dorothea his sister, who died in 
 1739, (not Dorothea Lady Crewe) ; and the latest in date 
 w^as the coffin of Mr, B. Forster of Etherstone, who died in 
 1765; to make room for whose coffin that of William Forster 
 had been removed. The coffins of Ferdinand Forster,
 
 HAMBURGH CASTLE. 193 
 
 William Forster, and Dorothea, were in decay; and the whole 
 series were soon afterwards decently interred below the spot 
 where they had rested ; inscribed stones were laid above 
 the graves, and the whole chapel was paved. It is airy and 
 dry, and is in the state of decent preservation in which 
 an architectural relic of so much interest deserves to be 
 kept. There were two chantries in the church of Bam- 
 burgh. One was endowed or augmented by the ancestors 
 of the Earls of Derwentwater, of whose property at Spindles- 
 ton, a part was assigned to one of these foundations. 
 
 In describing the church, it should have been added, that 
 externally the chancel is plain, and has a corbel table under 
 the parapet. Between the eastern lancets there are but- 
 tresses with triangular heads. The entrance to the church 
 is through a porch on the south side ; there are door-ways 
 also to the tower and chancel. The font is modern.' 
 
 The parish registers begin a.d. 1638, but until 1652 
 they seem to contain only the births of the Forster family. 
 
 The old hall of that family, once the religious house, is 
 now, or was lately, a farmstead occupied by Mr. Gray. It 
 once contained many family pictures, which, after the 
 forfeiture, were removed, in the presence of Lord Crewe, 
 who had then purchased the property at Bamburgh. 
 
 And now, it being time to speak of that distinguished 
 prelate, we have anived at the most agreeable part of our 
 history, not only because the lives of great men form the 
 most instructive and delightful episodes in the chronicle of 
 bygone time, but because the noble charities by which Lord 
 Crewe has perpetuated his name to future ages, give to 
 Bamburgh Castle an interest dear to humanity ; for from 
 thence the revenues of the neighbouring lands, collected 
 and distributed by the judicious benevolence of his trus- 
 tees, perenially flow " in various channels of public and 
 private bounty." 
 
 Nathaniel Crewe w^as the fifth son of John Crewe of 
 Stene, near Brackley, in the county of Northampton, a 
 gentleman who, for his instrumentality in the restoration 
 of Charles II. was, in 1661, created a peer, by the title of 
 
 ' It may be mentioned here, that the It is Norman, but of a rude chai-acter. 
 
 font of the antient chapel within the Woukl it not be proper to preserve this 
 
 castle, was found about the year 1773, relic in the neighbouring church ? The 
 
 beneath the sand and debris which liad stone altar of the chapel was found at 
 
 filled and buried that venerable edifice. the same time. 
 
 O
 
 194 A VISIT TO 
 
 Lord Crewe. Natlicxnicl was born at Stene on the 31st 
 January 1633, and is recorded to have shown at a very 
 early age, a nice ear for musical harmony. He was gifted 
 with quickness of apprehension and dihgcnce in learning, 
 and of a disposition so studious that, when at school at 
 Chenies, he was accustomed to withdraw from the society 
 and sports of other boys to read in the adjacent groves. In 
 16r)2 he was transplanted to the academic meads of Oxford, 
 and was admitted Commoner of Lincoln College, where he 
 took his first degree in 1655. He soon afterwards became 
 a Fellow of his College ; and, on the Restoration, heartily 
 joined in the general declaration in favour of the antient 
 kingly and hierarchical government. His biographer has 
 recorded of Lord Crewe, that his sprightly genius in his 
 youth always carried him before others of his years ; and 
 that his study in the University soon brought him into 
 all college duties and offices. In August 1663, when 
 serving the office of Proctor, he received his restored Sove- 
 reign and Court, and addressed the King in the public 
 library. In July of the following year, he took his Doctor's 
 degree, and soon afterwards received holy orders at the 
 hands of Morley, Bishop of Winchester. It seems that 
 Dr. Crewe was indebted for some preferment in the church 
 in the early part of his career to Bishop Gibson, himself 
 one of the most learned and discerning prelates that ever 
 adorned the See of London. On his jiresentation to 
 the King, Charles seems to have been much pleased by 
 the agreeable manners and conversation of the young 
 ecclesiastic, by whose recoilimendatory countenance and 
 handsome person he had been prepossessed when listening 
 to his oration at the university; and the monarch expressed 
 his satisfaction in seeing a gentleman undertake the service 
 of the Church, (for it was not then common for men of 
 good family to do so,) and promised him his particular care. 
 In August 1668, Crewe was elected Rector of Lincoln 
 College, and about the same time experienced the first 
 fruits of royal favour, in being appointed Clerk of the Closet. 
 We are told of his " remarkable diligence," and of the 
 " exactness and nicety" of his behaviour ; and no doubt 
 the other recommendations of the young and graceful 
 courtier were aided by his skill in music. 
 
 " His court behaviour," says his contemporary biographer, " was
 
 BAMBURGII CASTLE. 195 
 
 such as won the surprise and admiration of all ; and soon, with his 
 extraordinary diligence, introduced him into the favour of the 
 King and his Royal brother. As my Lord was in himself agreeable 
 and comely, so his duty and behaviour were so acceptable to his 
 Majesty, that he kept him constantly near his Royal person. Their 
 affections seemed mutual, for he was not only admitted to public 
 councils, but in many private consultations and recesses. For 
 some time, none was regarded there but my Lord. His family, 
 honourable before, was by him, if possible, more ennobled." 
 
 In April 1669, Dr. Crewe was appointed Dean and also 
 Precentor of Chichester; and some considerable fines on 
 renewals shortly afterwards fell into his hands, a great 
 part of which he gave to public uses. In the following 
 year, he refused the office of Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, 
 on the ground that it w^ould interfere too much with his 
 attendance at Court; and on the 16th June 1671, he 
 was promoted to the See of Oxford," and seems to have 
 been the first person of a noble family who was made 
 a Bishop since the Reformation." In the following year, 
 he resigned the Headship of Lincoln College, but held 
 the rectory of Whitney in commendam. Greater promotion 
 was in store for him. He enjoyed the friendship of James, 
 Duke of York ;° and in 1673, acquired an additional claim 
 to it, by solemnizing the marriage of that Prince, to Mary 
 d'Este, daughter of the Duke of Modena — a marriage that 
 was authorized only by an order under the King's signet, 
 and celebrated in opposition to the protests of the House of 
 Commons. Mr. Surtees says, that " The Duke's interest, 
 which was secured by this transaction, and perhaps some 
 more secret influence, soon afterwards procured Crewe's 
 translation to the vacant See of Durham." Now, that 
 
 ™ He was confirmed on the 27th June, " Di*. Compton was not consecrated 
 
 in the church of the Savoy, Bishop Bishop until 1674, when he succeeded 
 
 Cosin officiating, and was consecrated Bishop Crewe in the See of Oxford, 
 on the 2nd July following, when he " In the memoir of the time of his 
 
 gave an installation feast, at which the chaplaincy, we find, from his own au- 
 
 Duke of Ormond and Lord Sandwich, thority, that he remonstrated with the 
 
 the admiral, who had married a sister Duke of York on his marked absence 
 
 of Bishop Crewe's, were present. Im- from the Royal chapel on the principal 
 
 mediately after narrating this circum- festivals in the year 1671 or 1672; 
 
 stance, the writer of the contemporary and that upon the Prince acknowledg- 
 
 Memoir of Crewe, adds, that Bishop ing to him his conversion to the Church 
 
 Cosin told him he would succeed him of Rome, Crewe said, that " Whoever 
 
 as Bishop of Durham, though he would had advised him thereto was not his 
 
 be thought too young. Grace's friend." 
 
 o 2
 
 19G A VISIT TO 
 
 learned historiiin has himself stated" that it was in the 
 month of Octoher 1673, that Crewe was translated to the 
 rich northern hishopric ; whereas the marriage of his Royal 
 friend to Mary of Modena was not celebrated until the 
 following November; on the 21st of which month, the 
 youthl'ul bride arrived at Dover, with her mother and an 
 honourable retinue, and the marriage was there solemnized, 
 as we read in Sandford, " by Doctor Nathaniel Crewe, 
 Bishop of Durham." Hutchinson, however, says he was 
 translated 22nd October 1674. 
 
 Bishop Cosin had departed this life so long before as 
 the 15th January 1672,'' and during the vacancy of the 
 See, the Duke of York told Crewe, who was the youngest 
 prelate on the bench, and whose preferments by the Royal 
 favour had brought down upon him the enmity of many 
 rivals, — that "the bishopric of Durham was a great gift, 
 and that he had a great many enemies ; " to which he 
 replied, that " He valued them not, whilst His Royal 
 Highness remained his friend." " My Lord," rejoined the 
 Duke, " I promise you I'll stick by you." From the 
 dates, as given by the historian of Durham, it does not 
 appear that Crewe's j)roinotion to that bishopric w^as to 
 be attributed to his compliance with the Royal will in 
 regard to the Duke's marriage. But from the contem- 
 porary Memoirs of Bishop Crewe, already quoted,^ it 
 appears, that in or after April 1674, he was sent for from 
 the chaplain's table by the King, who, while he was at 
 dinner, gave Crewe the bishopric of Durham — "the best 
 preferment in his gift."' On the 9tli of June, in the 
 
 p Surtees' Hist, of Durham, vol. i. ])leasantly to her, ' Wliat will the Pope 
 
 " General History," p. cxiv. think when I make Bisliops of such as 
 
 1 Not I G71, as stated in Surtees' His- please you?' When Bishop Crewe's 
 
 tory, apparently according to the ec- youth had heen urged to the King as 
 
 clesiastical conij)utation. an ohjection to his a])pointment to 
 
 ■■ Extracts from this MS. note hook Durham, Charles replied, ' He would 
 
 are printed in a work entitled " Exa- mend of that fault every day.' Bishop 
 
 mination of the Eife and Cliaractcr Crewe's higli promotion and great am- 
 
 of Nathaniel Eord Crewe," 8vo. Lond. hition seem to have occasioned alarm 
 
 1790. Neither the writer of the MS. Life, and grief to his aged father, who, when 
 
 or of the ' Examination, " has added the Bishop was a candidate for the 
 
 his name, hut the writer of the latter did primacy, prayed earnestly against his 
 
 wisely to suppress his own, for nearly removal, from a sense, probably, of 
 
 every remark or annotation cxliibits his the difiiculties in which not only his 
 
 unfitness for the task, from party pre- son, but the Church of England might 
 
 judice, malignance, and illibcralit}'. have been involved by such an ap- 
 
 * " Queen Catherine was rejoiced at pointment." [Surtees* Gen. Hist, cxvi.] 
 
 my Lord's promotion. Tlie King said The primacy was conferred on Bancroft.
 
 BAMBURGH CASTLE. 197 
 
 following year (1675), he made " a triumphant" entry 
 into his diocese. 
 
 In the beginning of the year 1675, Bishop Crewe baptized 
 Katherine Laura, the first-born child of the Duke and 
 Duchess of York. In the October of the same year, he 
 read prayers for the departing soul of Jemima, Lady Crewe, 
 his mother, by her deathbed in London. In April 1676, 
 he was sworn a Privy Councillor ; and in the same year he 
 made a visitation through his diocese, with much pomp. 
 
 On the 8th November 1677, at St. James's Palace, he 
 baptized Charles, the first but short-lived son of his Royal 
 patron, the Duke of York ;' and in the same year, when 
 the Duke of Monmouth was sent as General against the 
 Scottish Covenanters, Bishop Crewe posted to his diocese, 
 zealously raised the well-disciplined militia of the county 
 with great promptitude, and at Durham, entertained the 
 Duke on his progress and on his return. In November 
 1679, the Duke and Duchess of York were themselves the 
 guests of Bishop Crewe, in his palatial castle of Durham." 
 
 On the 12th December in the same year, the Bishop's 
 father departed this life, but he did not succeed to the 
 peerage honours for a period of twenty years afterwards. 
 
 On the accession of the Duke of York, (February 1685,) 
 Crewe was sworn of his Privy Council ; and as Bishop of 
 Durham, supported the King's right hand at the coronation. 
 The King displaced Bishop Compton from his office of Dean 
 of the Chapel Royal, and appointed Crewe in his room. 
 The open adherence of James II. to the tenets of the Church 
 of Rome prevented Crewe from officiating as chaplain to 
 the monarch ; but the Bishop was not the less in favour 
 at Court, and retained all his personal influence with the 
 King, of whose policy he is said to have been the willing 
 coac^utor. He was appointed a Commissioner of the 
 High Commission Court, but without being consulted ; and 
 exercising that office, was, unfortunately for himself, the 
 only prelate besides the Bishop of Rochester who sat on the 
 proceedings which ended in the suspension of Compton from 
 episcopal functions."' It must be recorded, that he also acted 
 
 ' Sandf. Geneal. Hist. p. 569. Rochester and Peterborough, were ap- 
 
 " " The Duke kissed my Lord at his pointed commissioners to exercise eccle- 
 
 coming ; a particular mark of favour." siastical jurisdiction within the diocese 
 
 Memoir, p. 42. of London, during the suspension of 
 
 ™ Bishop Crewe, with the Bishops of Bishop Compton.
 
 198 A VISIT TO 
 
 at the degradation of the Rev. Samuel Johnson, and in the 
 proceedings against the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge,'' 
 and discharged the functions of Ecclesiastical Commissioner 
 until the abolition of the court in October 1688 ; but a bio- 
 grapher who was well acquainted with Bishop Crewe declares, 
 that he took no part in other oppressive proceedings of this 
 obnoxious tribunal. Smollett says, that Crewe gave every 
 effect in his power to the King's famous Declaration, and 
 suspended thirty clergymen in his diocese who refused to 
 read it to their flocks. From the time that Father Petre 
 was sworn of the Privy Council, Crewe withdrew^ from its 
 deliberations ; and although (according to Burnet) Father 
 Petre had gained an ascendancy over the King, James 
 relin(|uished him in order to obtain the return of Crewe to 
 his councils. 
 
 But the influence of the Bishop in affairs of state ended 
 at the Revolution. In the convocation which met in Janu- 
 ary 1689, he joined in the vote that James had abdicated 
 the kingdom ; but he was excepted by name out of the 
 pardon granted by William Prince of Orange and Mary. 
 He said that he would inscribe the exception upon his 
 tombstone/ He soon afterwards fled to Holland,'' and 
 remained in the Low Countries from February to the month 
 of July ; when he returned to England, after a tour which 
 seems to have yielded him gi-eat satisfaction, for he was a 
 shrewd observer of men and manners. He arrived in 
 London the day before the expiration of the period limited 
 for taking the oaths to the Revolution Government ; and it 
 seems that his return and compliance greatly disappointed 
 Burnet, who looked on the bishopric of Durham as 
 already in his grasp. It seems, however, that he was 
 obliged to place no small part of his patronage in the dis- 
 posal of the Crown, as the terms of obtaining the King's 
 peace. Having taken the oaths to William and Mary, he 
 was aftci-wards graciously received by the Princess, by 
 whose mediation, and because it was near Christmas, he 
 
 ^ For refusing to admit a Benedictine servant named Carter, who understood 
 
 to a degree upon a Royal dispensation the Dutch language ; and by one Mr. 
 
 for the oaths. JohnTiu-ner, a facetious man, a Fellow 
 
 y Examination of the Life of Lord of King's College, Cambridge. After 
 
 Crewe, p. 81. they had been tossed for five days in a 
 
 '- He was accompanied by Mr. James storm, the sailors lost their reckoning, 
 
 Montague, his nephew, who was master and it was Crewe who took the compass 
 
 of the French language ; by his own and steered the vessel into the Brill.
 
 HAMBURGH CASTLE. 199 
 
 was admitted to an audience of King William. Let us now 
 turn to more agreeable features in his history. 
 
 Bishop Crewe, still unmarried, and now arrived at the 
 age of 58, seems to have required in this his altered fortune, 
 the consolations of domestic felicity. To these, it seems, he 
 had not been indifferent in earlier years, for in his youth, the 
 daughter of Dr. Crofts, Bishop of Hereford, was his " first 
 love ;" and her portion (£3000,) was fixed, but she died 
 ere the nuptials could be celebrated. This disappointment, 
 and the active cares of his preferments and public duties, 
 seem to have thenceforth banished any thoughts of marry- 
 ing, until 1684 ; and in that year, when he had attained 5] , 
 we find a note that " he courted Lady Johanna Thornhill." 
 The result is not stated, but Crewe remained unmarried ; 
 and in 1691 he was paying his addresses to another lady. 
 The then object of his choice, was a fair native of his own 
 diocese, Dorothea, daughter of Sir William Forster of 
 Bamburgh, and sister of Mr. John Forster, m. p. for the 
 county ; a young lady who was reputed a beauty, and (as 
 Mr. Surtees remarks,) not without justice, if we may trust 
 her portrait at Bamburgh, which represents her with deli- 
 cate features, blue eyes, light hair, a complexion beautifully 
 fair, and a sweet, good-tempered countenance. The suit, 
 " however, went off to the public view, as if she refused, 
 being too young."* But it would seem that the suitor was 
 neither disheartened, nor tired of wooing, and had resolved 
 on entering the marriage state, into which he is said to 
 have been urged by the importunities of his friends. And 
 so, on the 21st December in the same year, (1691,) he was 
 at length married, though not to any of the ladies above 
 named, for his bride was Penelope Lady Tynte, widow of 
 Sir Hugh Tynte, and daughter of Sir Philip Trowde, " a 
 known loyalist." But their union was not destined to be 
 of long duration. 
 
 As a statesman. Bishop Crewe remained in obscurity 
 during the reign of William, but his private fortunes 
 prospered ; and if he was deprived of political power and 
 influence at Court, he had abundant occupation in the 
 affairs of his diocese, and possessed every domestic conso- 
 lation that could be afforded by his splendid establishments 
 
 * Examination of the Life of Loid Crewe, p. 88.
 
 200 A VISIT TO 
 
 and his ample income, a large portion of which he dispersed 
 in hospitality and for charitahle purposes. 
 
 On the 36th November 1G97, on the death of Thomas 
 Lord Crewe, his last surviving brother, he succeeded to 
 the paternal honours and estates ; and was summoned to 
 ParUament both as Baron and Bishop, this being the first 
 instance in England of such a union of spiritual and 
 temporal peerages, and he voted in either capacity, as he 
 thought proper. He became heir to the old mansion-house 
 and lands of Stene, the place of his birth, and he resided 
 there during a part of every succeeding year, maintaining 
 also a hospitable establishment at his other private property 
 of Ncwbold Verdon, as well as at his episcopal palaces of 
 Auckland and Durham. 
 
 On the 9th March 1700, Penelope Lady Crewe died at 
 Stene. He lost no time in renewing his addresses to the 
 object of his former courtship, the fair daughter of Sir 
 William Forster; for, in four months afterwards, viz., on 
 the 23rd of July, he was united to this lady. 
 
 On the death of William (8th March 1701,) Bishop 
 Crewe was at Durham.'' He there proclaimed Anne as 
 Queen, and appeared in his place as supporter at the right 
 hand of that Princess on her coronation, in which solemnity 
 Lady Crewe assisted as a peeress. The writer of the con- 
 temporary memoir already quoted says, " The Queen 
 expressed a particular regard for Lady Crewe, and said 
 she had an honest face ! " With Anne's accession, the Royal 
 favour again shone upon Lord Crewe. The Queen, with 
 her own hand, appointed him Lent Preacher, though against 
 his will, and thanked him for the sermon that he preached 
 before the Court. We arc told, by his biographer, that 
 " None met with more applause than Lord Crewe as a 
 preacher, and never had any one a more graceful manner 
 and delivery." And here let us transcribe an honourable 
 testimony to his conduct in the more important functions 
 of a IMshop. After stating that he was generous in the 
 disposal of his preferments, and independent of the requests 
 which great men made on behalf of their friends, the 
 biographer proceeds : — 
 
 '* My Lord's clergy were great benefactors in the diocese ; 
 
 t" " A velalioii of my Lord's was de- wlicii iny Lord said, ' (Jood truly, I 
 l>loring King William's short reign, thought it a long one !' ' 
 
 i> ))
 
 BAMBURGH CASTLE. 201 
 
 their houses and churches were all repaired, and many or most 
 of them beautified and adorned. My Lord was a constant visitor 
 of his diocese for forty years ; his visitations regular, and consult- 
 ations annual. He was a great promoter of church music, and 
 brought up many in that way. He sent the Queen a boy out of 
 Durham Cathedral. He was a benefactor of organs to his two 
 chapels. He was a constant builder, and was always employed 
 in some useful work or other about his Castles of Durham and 
 Auckland." «= 
 
 In 1710, he voted in favour of Dr. Sacheverell ; and 
 
 " When he went into his diocese that summer, all the gentry 
 and clergy met him, and speeches were made, with the thanks of 
 the county for his good services to the Church. Sir Henry 
 Belasyse said there were at least five thousand horse in the 
 cavalcade." 
 
 In 1712, he was restored to the lieutenancy of his county 
 — a temporal honour to which he seems to have attached 
 great consequence. When he kissed the Queen's hand, 
 he told her Majesty that " as a bishop he prayed for her, 
 and as her lieutenant he would fight for her." 
 
 But the death of the Queen again withdrew the transient 
 sunshine of Royal favour, and the star of the house of Stuart 
 had for ever set. He, however, officiated in his place (for 
 the third time) at the coronation of the Elector of Bruns- 
 wick,** and hazarded his health by that unwelcome exer- 
 tion. His power and influence at Court ceased with the 
 commencement of the reign of King George, and " if he 
 received any attention from the Crown, it was only (says 
 Mr. Surtees,) such as might, without any compromise 
 of principle, be paid to his age and reverend appearance. "« 
 But the short remainder of his life was spent in comparative 
 retirement. 
 
 Bishop Crewe has been accused of obtaining his high 
 preferment from Charles II. by servility ; of practising a 
 time-serving compliance towards the Royal will in the reign 
 of Charles's successor \ and of descending to a career of 
 
 = Examination of the Life of Lord gaping for his See above thirty years. 
 
 Crewe, p. 94. " My Lord told the King he had buried 
 
 ^ At King William's coronation, his expected successor. The King said, 
 
 Crewe was in the Low Countries. Durham was a good air, and laughed 
 
 * The King promised the bishopric heartily, adding, he hoped it would be 
 
 of Durham to Burnet, Bishop of Salis- many years before he named his suc- 
 
 bury, who (to use the expression of cessor." 
 Lord Crewe's biographer,) had been
 
 202 A VISIT TO 
 
 political tergiversation. The charge is not proved. That 
 he was indehted to the personal regard of his Royal patrons 
 for his nomination to the hishopric, cannot justly form 
 matter of accusation against him ; and that he discliarged 
 his high duties zealously, ably, and conscientiously, we have 
 abundant proof. That, when the patron of his earlier years 
 became James II. he aided him in measures which were 
 inimical to the liberties of tlie Church and the kingdom, 
 and continued to adhere to the King, even through a course 
 as arbitrary as it was fatal to his dynasty, are circumstances 
 which the biographer records of Bishop Crewe with grief. 
 But are modern times so lost to " gratitude, antient at- 
 tachment, and loyal feeling to the wearer of the Crown," 
 that no allowance is to be made for the force of those noble 
 motives ? It must be remembered, that the prelate loyalist 
 was attached by ties of gratitude to the House of Stuart, as 
 well as by his principles to the cause of royalty ; that he 
 was no favourer of Puritan domination, and looked with the 
 honest aversion of an ecclesiastic and a gentleman upon the 
 heretical and democratic tendencies of ultra-Protestantism. 
 The accusation is made with ill grace in an age which 
 cannot point to the unworldly character of all its Bishops, 
 or to their constant readiness to asseit the privileges and 
 liberties of the Church of England against the incroaching 
 powers of the State. Instances of obsequious and tempo- 
 rising conduct on the part of men of " palaces and prefer- 
 ment" towards men in power, are not altogether uncommon 
 in more modern times than those of Bishop Crew^e ; wdiile 
 modern instances have not been wanting, of Bishops who, 
 owang their preferments to the favour of a minister, and 
 valuing " the estabhshment" for its temporal dignities, 
 are content, provided they can enjoy their incomes in i)eace, 
 to sink the mitre before the rampant heresies of evan- 
 gelicalism and the insolent encroachments of the State ; — 
 Bishops, who prefer the couch of ease to the perilous 
 contests of principle ; who are shining lights in classical 
 learning, but are too often looked to in vain for the asser- 
 tion of ecclesiastical doctrine and discipline ; — Bishops, who 
 are easily aroused by the " Tractarian" zeal of a humble 
 curate, but are unmoved by the growing heathenism of the 
 people ; — Bishops, who, if they are covetous of ecclesiastical 
 revenues and episcopal distinctions, at all events seldom
 
 HAMBURGH CASTLE. 203 
 
 desire to divide with " the inferior clergy" one privilege, 
 namely, that of doing the Church's work ; — Bishops, who, 
 secure in their unfruitful opulence, are never found cham- 
 pions of the rights of the poor, or their shield against the 
 physical and social oppressions to which they are subject ; 
 whose duty it is to check the tyranny of the powers of mam- 
 mon, but whose interest leads them to sanction it ; — Bishops, 
 in fine, of whom it has been truly said, that not a charitable 
 foundation has survived themselves, and " not a phrase has 
 escaped their lips or their pens that ever influenced public 
 opinion, touched the heart of nations, or guided the conscience 
 of a perplexed people." That Bishop Crewe should have 
 gone so far as he did in compliance with the will of James 
 II. and that he, bound as he was by principle and affection 
 to the House of Stuart, should have condescended to court 
 the favour of the Prince of Orange, to officiate at the 
 coronation of the Elector of Brunswick to All the Stuart's 
 throne, and to seek his favour, are circumstances from 
 which Lord Crewe's biographer would willingly turn away. 
 But we may well lose sight of these imputed faults, in the 
 effulgence of his charity and his virtues. It has been 
 justly said, that many men have been canonized for works 
 of beneficence gi'eatly inferior to those of Bishop Crewe. 
 The warm and active benevolence which distinguished him 
 in life have been perpetuated, through his munificent 
 charities, to all future time ; and his goodness, still flowing 
 as from a perennial spring, and descending through various 
 channels of beneficence, marking, as it were, his " foot- 
 prints, on the sands of time," aftbrds a happy and conspicu- 
 ous example, that after the heart has ceased to beat, its 
 noblest emotions can be made immortal even amongst 
 men ; and that the sweet incense of charity and good 
 works, which, through life, arose from that heart to the 
 Creator's throne, can be made perpetually to ascend to 
 heaven with the blessings of a grateful posterity. 
 
 (( 
 
 As his stronger years,'* says his biographer, " were active for 
 the public, so his later time was well spent in pious and charitable 
 benefactions. His riches, honours, parks, houses, and all worldly 
 advantages, as tliey were derived from his friends, so did he no 
 less esteem their names, and constantly and gratefully remembered 
 them with an affectionate veneration. Many were the families he 
 raised, and greatly God preserved him ! "
 
 204 A VISIT TO 
 
 Nor did Bisliop Crewe in life do good only to his friends. 
 " God has often, in the course of my Lord's Hfe," says 
 his biogi-aplier, " given him opportunities to exercise his 
 goodness towards his enemies, which he often practised on 
 the merciful side. Dr. Morton and Dr. Dolben, whom he 
 made prebendaries of Durham, w^ere instances." 
 
 His public works in his diocese have been already adverted 
 to ; and near the close of his life, the grant of " handsome 
 augmentations to Brackley Hospital ; Hinton Hospital, 
 and Durham and Auckland Hospitals," were among his 
 works of muniticence. He founded a free school at New- 
 bold Verdon; and (after he had purchased the extensive 
 property of the Forstcr family, which had been forfeited in 
 the rebelhon of 1715,) a fi-ee school at Bamburgh also ; and 
 he founded a bounty for the widows and orphans of poor 
 clergymen in the hundred in which his manor of Ncwbold- 
 Verdon is situate — a kind of charity wdiich the contempo- 
 rary biographer already quoted, characterises as " new and 
 worthy of imitation." But the charitable uses to which 
 the revenues of the Bamburgh property w^ere settled by his 
 last W'ill, are those which more especially hand down his 
 name to the grateful homage of future time : — 
 
 " He felt the triumph of a generous breast, 
 In virtue rich, in blessing others blest." 
 
 But before stating the charitable provisions of Bishop 
 Crew^e's will, we may notice a few events which hai)pened 
 between his retirement from the Court, and the close of his 
 long career. The shocks of the political earthquake of the 
 year 1715, which spilled so much generous blood, alienated 
 so many hereditary fortunes, and overthrew^ so many families, 
 were less felt in the county of Durham than in any of the 
 other northern counties ; but among its consequences was 
 the forfeiture of the Bamburgh estates, the property of his 
 wife's unfortunate nephew, General Forster. We are not 
 informed the cause of the death of Lady Crew^e, *" but she 
 did not witness the ruin of her family, for she died on 
 the 1 6th October 1715, and was interred in the chapel at 
 Stene, where, at the foot of her monument the Bishop 
 
 ' In 1711, she, being tlic only sur- churcli, to the memory of " her dear 
 vivor of nine children, erected the mo- brother," of which mention has been 
 nument in the chancel of Bamburgh made in a former page.
 
 BAMBURGH CASTLE. 205 
 
 was wont, during the rest of his Ufe, to pass hours in 
 contemplation. 
 
 Soon after these events, he purchased from the Govern- 
 ment Commissioners for Forfeited Estates, the Forsters' 
 property, of which Bamburgh was the principal seat. It 
 appears that he was charged with various mortgage and 
 jointure encumbrances that were upon the estates, and was 
 ordered to pay into Chancery £20,000, at which large sum 
 he was declared the best bidder for the property. This 
 price is thought to have been beyond the value at that day, 
 though the family possessions were then valued at £1314 
 per annum, as appears from his will. 
 
 Bishop Crewe had now become almost too infirm to 
 travel; but on the 12th August 1717, (the anniversary of 
 the day on which in the year 1668, he was chosen Rector of 
 Lincoln College,) he made a last visit to his Alma Mater, 
 and had a kind and honourable reception. Upon this 
 occasion, he made benefactions to that college, and to the 
 colleges of Christ Church, All Saints, Queen's, and Wor- 
 cester, as well as to the public library. In 1719, he granted 
 the augmentations of hospitals already mentioned ; and in 
 the following year, feeling his end approaching, he set up 
 his own monument in the chapel at Stene ; and on the 24th 
 June 1720,^ executed his will — that beneficent memorial 
 
 ? By a codicil, dated the 17th Sep- he did not forget his patron, for he left 
 
 tember 1721, he made certain specific a legacy to that prelate, which amounted 
 
 bequests which are worth mentioning. to between £3000 and £4000. This 
 
 He gave to Mr. Edward Wortley, late legacy reflected honour on the testator 
 
 ambassador to Constantinople, his silver and the legatee, for Bishop Gibson gave 
 
 cistern ; to Mr. James Montague, his it among Lord Crewe's relations. The 
 
 youngest nephew, his gilt tankard ; to circumstance is mentioned in Cole's 
 
 Mr. Ralph Trotter, probably his steward, MSS. v. 30. 
 
 the portrait of Dorothea Lady Crewe ; What became of the noble testator's 
 to Dr. William Lupton, prebendary of books and papers is not known ; pro- 
 Durham, one of the trustees of his will, bably they shared the fate of his plate, 
 his portrait, drawn by Sir Godfrey carriages, &c. which are described in 
 Kneller, in his baron's robes ; to the his will as being left to his trustees, but 
 mayor and aldermen of the city of Ox- of which no vestiges remain, 
 ford, a dozen silver plates, for the use After the accession of William III., 
 of the corporation ; silver plate for the and when Lord Crewe was about to go 
 altar of the chapel of Newbold Verdon, abroad, he committed the trust of his 
 besides £30 towards the altar piece; library, MSS. and other valuable things, 
 and to his secretary, Mr. Richard Grey, to his chaplain, Dr. Ayres, who lodged 
 his palatine and episcopal silver seals, them in the house of his tailor for safety 
 and his seal manual. from inquisitors ; but the creditors of 
 
 It has been already stated that Dr. the latter seized all he had, unknown 
 
 Crewe, in the earlier part of his careei-, to Dr. Ayres, who soon afterwards died, 
 
 was preferred in the church by Bishop and so there was an end of all Lord 
 
 Gibson, and at the close of his long life, Crewe's books.
 
 20G 
 
 A VISIT TO 
 
 by wliich his name was to be more happily and efficiently 
 perpetuated than it could be by any monumental marble. At 
 length, on the 18th September 1722, at Stene, the place of 
 his birth, he died in the 89th year of his age, and 51st of his 
 pontificate, having lived in six reigns, besides the long rebel- 
 lious years of the (so called) Commonwealth, for he passed 
 his boyhood in the reign of the Royal martyr, prosecuted his 
 academical stucUes during the interregmim, rose to prefer- 
 ment and honours in the reign of Charles II., passed his 
 happiest days in the courts of that monarch and of his Royal 
 brother and successor, sundved the reign of WilHam and 
 Maiy, and Queen Anne, and lived several years after the 
 accession of George I.'' His early and long attachment to 
 the Royal house of Stuart w^as not weakened by age, nor 
 were the powerful associations connected with it, or his 
 natural bias against the House of Hanover, forgotten in the 
 hour of death ; for it is said that almost in his last moments 
 he cried out to Dr. Grey, his chaplain, " Dick, Dick ! don't 
 go over to them!" He was interred on the 30th of 
 September, near the remains of several of his ancestors, in 
 the beautiful little chapel at Stene, beneath the monument of 
 variegated marble which he had erected.' He died without 
 issue, and with him the peerage honours became extinct. 
 His nearest relations were the children of his sister, the 
 Countess of Sandwich, one of whom, the Hon. John 
 Montague, Dean of Durham, he appointed a trustee of his 
 will ; and to his youngest nephew, the Honourable James 
 Montague, he bequeathed the manor of Newbold-Verdon, 
 which afterwards became the property of the eccentric 
 Edward Wortley Montague, Esq., who alienated it in 1764. 
 
 '' In the gallery of the Bodleian H- at an earlier age, habited in his black 
 brary there is a fine portrait of Bishop robe ; and there is another portrait at 
 Crewe, robed as a peer, which was Blanchland ; and a mezzotint was en- 
 painted by Sir G, Kneller in 1G98, graved by Francis Place, which is more 
 when Crewe was aged G.'). It was en- rare than the other engravings, 
 graved by Fabcr. The conntcnance is ' The chapel closely adjoined the 
 venerable, dignified, and jjleasing. In manor-honse, in which Lord Crewe re- 
 " the Com-t Room" at Bamburgh, there sided. This mansion— formerly a house 
 is a good copy of an earlier jjortrait of of so much liospitality, has scarcely left 
 liis lordship habited as a Bishop, pro- a wreck behind for many years ; even 
 bably from an original by Kneller, the chapel was frequented only by rooks 
 which was engraved by Loggan. The and daws, who built their nests among 
 expression is fine. Another original the monuments. But the chapel has 
 portrait was lately recovered, and is in since been repaired, and (with an aug- 
 Durham Castle. There is at Bam- mentation from Queen Anne's Bounty,) 
 burgh a contemporary portrait of Crewe united to the rectory of Hinton.
 
 BAMBURGII CASTLE. 207 
 
 Lord Crewe seems to have imitated the example of early 
 bishops, and forborne to accumulate in his own hands the 
 goods of the Church, for his personal property did not 
 amount to £400 in value. 
 
 Although his princely charities constitute a visible and 
 perpetual monument in his diocese of Durham, it is to be 
 regretted that his name and effigy have not been enshrined 
 in his cathedral church : his mortal remains were not, it is 
 true, laid among those of the illustrious bishops by whom 
 he was there preceded, but in that glorious temple of the 
 Eternal, his name should be reverently inscribed with those 
 of the greatest prelates and benefactors of the See. 
 
 It is now time to describe the charities founded by his 
 will. He devised the manors, lands, and hereditaments 
 therein mentioned'' to five trustees ^ and their successors, 
 and directed his trustees for the tmie being, to pay and 
 apply out of the rents thereof — 1st, Certain yearly sums 
 therein mentioned, towards the support of twelve exhibi- 
 tioners," eight scholars of the Trapp and Marshall founda- 
 tions, and fifteen fellows of Lincoln College ; and the 
 augmentation of the livings of All Saints and S. Michael's, 
 Oxford, Twyford and Combe, in the county of Oxford, to 
 the same college belonging : — 2nd, Certain yearly sums in 
 augmentation of the benefices of Bamburgh, S. Andrew's, 
 
 '' Being his manor of Bamburgh, in rudely-ornamented sun-baked lu-ns in 
 
 the county of Northumberland, and his other cells, in which human ashes had 
 
 manor of Blanchland, in the county of been collected. Other bones found 
 
 Durham, the advowson of the churches nearer the surface, were, perhaps, those 
 
 of Bamburgh and Shotley, and the of the unhappy prisoners who had 
 
 lands, &c., in Bamburgh and twenty- been executed on this spot in after ages, 
 
 six other places enumerated in his will, bvit in times when (as Mr. Raine re- 
 
 which he had lately purchased. One marks,) the Lords of Bamburgh were 
 
 of these places — Bradford, is connected as much versed in the arts of destroying 
 
 with the earlier history of Bamburgh life as their successors now are in those 
 
 Castle. It derives its name from the of saving it. 
 
 broad shallow ford across the adjacent ' Dr. Montague, Dean of Durham, 
 
 warren. The old mansion house ex- Dr. Mosley, Rector of Lincoln, and 
 
 hibits traces of great antiquity, and has Dr. Dolben, Dr. Lupton, and Dr. Eden, 
 
 been the means of preserving a pa- Prebendaries of Durham. Every new 
 
 nelled stone which is a relic of a still trustee was to be in holy orders, 
 more distant age, and is pronounced by ™ Being imder-graduate commoners 
 
 Mr. Raine to be Roman. A barrow, of Lincoln College, natives of the 
 
 hard by, upon an eminence, which is diocese of Durham, or in defaiilt of 
 
 said to have been a place of execution such, natives of Northallertonshire, 
 
 for Bamburgh Castle, was found (in Howdenshire, or Leicestershire, and 
 
 1817) to contain graves of the British particularly of Newbold Verdon, or 
 
 or unconverted Saxon times. There else of the diocese of Oxford, or county 
 
 were skeletons stretched at length in of Northampton. The exhibitions were 
 
 cells of thin stones, and there were to be tenable for eight years.
 
 208 
 
 A VISIT TO 
 
 Auckland, and such twelve poor rectories, vicarages, small 
 livings or curacies, in the diocese of Durham, as the trustees 
 for the time being should appoint : — 3rd, A yearly sum for 
 relief of widows and children of poor clergymen deceased 
 within the Hundred of Sparkenhoe, (in which his manor 
 of Ncwbold Verdon is situate) :— 4th, A yearly sum to the 
 schoolmaster of Newbold Verdon :~5th, A yearly sum 
 for the maintenance of a charity school in the parish of 
 Daventry : — 6th, Certain yearly sums to the almsmen and 
 almswomen in Bishop Cosin's almshouses at Durham and 
 Bishop Auckland, and in the hospital at Brackley," and the 
 hospital at Hinton, both in the county of Northampton ; 
 and, after the decease of Lady Stawell, (neice of the second 
 Lady Crewe,) who had a rent-charge of £350 for life out 
 of the said estates, the surplus rents were to be applied as 
 follows ; viz., £200 a year for public uses in the University 
 of Oxford ; £100 a year to the mayor and aldermen of 
 Durham, for apprenticing as many poor children of the 
 city and suburbs as they should appoint ; £20 a year for 
 the education of thirty poor boys of the parish of Bishop 
 Auckland, in writing, and £30 a year to clothe the same boys ; 
 and all the residue to be disposed of by his trustees for such 
 charitable uses as he should by deed appoint, and in de- 
 fault of appointment, to and for such charitable uses as they 
 should from time to time direct ;° and it is under this clause 
 in the noble testator's will, that the " princely establishment 
 of Bamburgh," and other charitable and educational pro- 
 visions which direct " Lord Crewe's charity " through 
 various channels of beneficence, chiefly arising within the 
 diocese of Durham, have been founded. He made no 
 appointment as to the surplus income, wisely leaving its 
 application to the trustees, unfettered by any positive regu- 
 lations. The income of the devised estates has so greatly 
 increased, by judicious management, that its total amount 
 is now about £9,000 per annum. 
 
 Nearly a hundi'cd years have elapsed since the noble 
 charities of Bamburgh were first established. The Rev. Dr. 
 Sharp, Archdeacon of Northumberland, one of the new 
 
 " Fonnclcd by the noble testator's crease of any of the benefactions by 
 
 grandfatlier, Sir Tliomas Crewe. liini before given to the University, to 
 
 " With proviso that no part of such Lincohi College, or to the City of Dur- 
 
 siirplus should be applied for the in- ham.
 
 BAMBURGH CASTLE. 209 
 
 trustees appointed under the provisions of Lord Crewe's 
 will/ conceived the application of part of the surplus income, 
 which the prelate had generously left to be applied as his 
 trustees should direct, to the relief and assistance of the poor 
 in the adjacent territory, the estabUshment and maintenance 
 of schools, and of provisions for the aid and relief of seamen, 
 which were and are without a parallel in England. It would 
 seem that the castle, once so strong and so renowned, had 
 fallen into a ruinous condition before Dr. Sharp projected 
 the Bamburgh charities, and that he commenced the resto- 
 ration of the castle for the purpose of giving effect to theme 
 Probably, the buildings and the surrounding fortifications 
 had been falling more and more into decay since the time 
 of Queen Elizabeth, in whose reign, as appears from an 
 inquisition taken at Bamburgh in 1574,*^ it was "in ruin 
 and decav ;" — a state from which it does not seem to have 
 been rescued after it became the property of the Forster 
 family, under the grant of her Royal successor. Dr. Sharp, 
 by a large expenditure from his own purse, between 1758 and 
 1792, repaired and rendered habitable the great tower, and 
 put the approaches and outworks into a condition to give 
 effect to his judicious and humane designs. "^ Hutchinson, the 
 historian of Northumberland, who wi'otein 1776, attributes 
 to the benevolent heart of Dr. Sharp, the chief part of the 
 
 P Di'. Sharp was appointed a trustee buried in the sand, which had also pe- 
 
 in 1758, on the death of his father. He neti-ated the chambers of the Castle, 
 
 was perpetual curate of Bamburgh, and The works of restoration comprised the 
 
 a prebendary of Durham. adaptation of the keep to the purposes 
 
 1 The drawbridge and gates were of an official residence, for the due 
 then broken down, and the castle was superintendence of the Bamburgh Cha- 
 accessible only through a breach ; such rities ; also the completion of buildings 
 of the walls as were standing were for the schools and the other benevolent 
 decayed, and the buildings within the institutions there; the renewal and pre- 
 ramparts were for the most part in servation of the square and circular 
 ruin, except the great tower ; and the towers, and the other buildings which 
 walls of that massive structure were form the south-eastern front of the 
 suffering from the lead having been Castle ; and of the curtain walls, bat- 
 torn from the roof. Since the time of tlements, and ramparts, around the 
 Sir John Horsley, the then last go- Castle, the gate tower, and the passage 
 vernor, the chapel and some turrets beyond ; and the erection of the battery 
 had become roofless and ruined. Such platform towards the sea. These por- 
 was the state of Bamburgh, once the tions are almost entirely new work, 
 royal citadel and the seat of Kings ! There are remains on the north and 
 Some customs, tenants' services, and north-west of very old outwoi'ks which 
 rents, which are curious, are mentioned ran round the ridge of the precipitous 
 in the inquisition. [Hutchinson, v. ii. cliff; there are also a postern and sally 
 p. 168.] port on the same side defended by a 
 
 ■■ Wlien Di'. Sharp commenced his double wall. It was not necessary to 
 
 restorations, the inner bailey was nearly renew these outworks and defences.
 
 210 A VISIT TO 
 
 blessings derived from T^ord Crewe's will. " He resides (adds 
 the historiciii) many months in each year in the Castle of 
 Bamburgh, superintends the works of charity, and has his 
 eye upon every new channel by which he may give relief 
 or consolation to his suffering fellow-creatures. The ship- 
 wrecked, and the diseased, are comforted by his visitation, 
 and the calamities of Hfc are alleviated by his care, and his 
 residence there diffuses blessings over the neighbouring 
 
 coast." 
 
 Dr. Sharp, in order to provide for the continued ad- 
 ministration of the Bamburgh charities under the super- 
 intendence of Lord Crewe's trustees, and to save the 
 income of the charity estates from being charged with the 
 cost of maintaining in repair the great tower where the 
 trustees' ai)artments arc, conveyed, on the 18th November 
 1778, to the trustees acting under the will of Lord Crewe, 
 certain lands and tenements in and near Bamburgh, his 
 own property, upon certain trusts, expressed with great 
 minuteness, the substance and order of which is — 
 
 1. To keep in repair the conductor, from the gold point above 
 
 the tower to the bottom of the well, and the chain which 
 hung down into the well. 
 
 2. The roof and chimnies of the great tower. 
 
 3. The windows of the tower. 
 
 4. Tlie fire-proof work in the ceilings of the tower. 
 
 5. The great clock in the south turret. 
 
 6. The well machine, bath, pumps, troughs, cisterns, water-pipes, 
 
 and drains. 
 
 7. To apply yearly the residue of the rents towards the repara- 
 
 tions of the fabric of the great tower, and of such furniture 
 as then was or should be affixed thereto. 
 
 And the grantor provided, that no part of the premises 
 should at any time be alienated from the Castle of J5am- 
 burgli. Pursuant to the provisions of his will, a sum 
 invested in consols, now amounting to upwards of £2000, 
 was assigned in February 1798, to the trustees, as a further 
 provision towards the reparation and support of the great 
 tower ; and the rents, together with the dividends, produced 
 in 1830, £110 per annum, of which income a separate 
 account is kc])t. At one time it was more than exhausted 
 by the cost of the repairs and works. 
 
 In the time of this worthy divine, the library also was
 
 HAMBURGH CASTLE. 
 
 211 
 
 founded at Bamburgh Castle. It was first established in 
 1778, by the trustees of Lord Crewe's estates, who pur- 
 chased the collection made by the Rev. Thomas Sharp, 
 incumbent of Bamburgh, (who died in 1772) which is de- 
 scribed as having comprised excellent books in all depart- 
 ments. Dr. John Sharp, whose liberal philanthropy and 
 judicious zeal first directed the unappropriated revenues of 
 Lord Crewe's trust estate to the foundation of the charitable 
 institutions which flourish at Bamburgh Castle, made in 
 subsequent years occasional additions to the library which 
 had been thus acquired ; but under his will, dated the 
 17th April 1792, the largest and best part of the literary 
 treasure now collected at Bamburgh Castle was derived. 
 His bequest comprised the most valuable part of the 
 collection of that worthy and learned prelate, Dr. John 
 Sharp, Archbishop of York, his grandfather." On the 
 death of the Archbishop, the principal part of his library 
 had descended to his son. Dr. Thomas Sharp, who was a 
 prebendary of Durham.^ It was formed towards the close 
 of the seventeenth and early in the eighteenth centuiy ; 
 and, besides a comprehensive collection of books in theology 
 and ecclesiastical history, ritual books, the best editions of 
 classic authors and British historians, contains what appears 
 to be a most curious collection of historical, political, and 
 controversial tracts and pamphlets. During these succes- 
 sions, the original collection was enriched by valuable 
 additions ; and Dr. John Sharp's library included many 
 books on music. ** By the will of this most worthy donor, 
 the whole collection is to be kept at Bamburgh Castle, and 
 many books have been subsequently added. This noble 
 collection, too, is made subservient to public benefit. It is 
 deposited in the upper of the two great rooms of the keep, 
 and is not only made accessible to persons engaged in 
 
 ' In the court-room of Bamburgh 
 Castle, there is a good original portrait 
 of this prelate, who died on the 2nd 
 Feb. 1714, on the 70th anniversary of 
 his birth-day. 
 
 ' He was also archdeacon of North- 
 umberland, and rector of llotlibury. 
 He was appointed a trustee in 1737, 
 and died in 1758. There is at Bam- 
 burgh a good original portrait of this 
 worthy divine. 
 
 » He died 28 April 1792. A monu- 
 ment by Chantrey, in the church of 
 Bamburgh, was erected by Catherine, 
 grand daughter of Dr. Thomas Sharp, 
 in memory of her grandfather, two 
 uncles, and husband, the Rev. Andrew 
 Bowlt, who took the name of Sharp on 
 his marriage, and was for 43 years in- 
 cumbent of Bamburgh. This mural mo- 
 nument has been very properly removed 
 from the chancel to the north transept.
 
 212 A VISIT TO 
 
 literary pursuits, but books are lent to respectable persons 
 residing within ten miles of Baniburgh. The library is well 
 arranged and preserved, under the care of the worthy 
 incumbent of the parish. A new and more comprehensive 
 catalogue is a desideratum , but is in course of preparation. 
 The visitor who pursues any literaiy research in this admir- 
 able library, has only to regret his distance from Bamburgh, 
 and to wish that the treasure were to be found nearer to the 
 haunts of men. 
 
 The payments made out of the income of Lord Crewe's 
 estates for the purposes specifically mentioned by the noble 
 testator, amount to about £1120 per annum. The total 
 income being now about £9000 a year, a large surplus 
 remains after defraying all outgoings, which surplus the 
 trustees are by the will directed to apply, and do apply, as 
 already stated, for such charitable purposes as they think 
 most beneficial. Charitable purposes connected with the 
 diocese of Durham have (at least since 1825) been more 
 particularly, though not exclusively, the objects of this 
 bounty. Sums, amounting in all to between £4000 and 
 £5000 a year (upon an average) are applied out of the 
 surplus as follows ; viz. — 
 
 To the augmentation of small livings in the diocese. 
 
 To contributions towards the building or enlarging churches 
 
 and chapels. 
 To contributions towards the foundation of schools and the 
 
 support of schools, besides the sums paid to the schools 
 
 and educational purposes mentioned in tlie will. 
 To exhibitions for young students proceeding to either of the 
 
 Universities. 
 To the binding out poor children as apprentices. 
 To the payment of annuities, and the occasional donation of 
 
 sums of money to deserving and distressed persons. 
 To subscriptions in aid of the funds of different charitable 
 
 institutions.'*' 
 
 And, — though last, not least, — 
 To the maintenance of the Bamburgh charities. 
 
 And large sums have been judiciously bestowed in main- 
 taining and improving the harbour belonging to the charity 
 estate at North Sunderland — the only one on the Northum- 
 
 ™ ConsideraLle sums in stock have voted to some of these purposes, and to 
 been purcliased, in tliu names of tlic otlicr of the highly useful, praiseworthy, 
 trustees, to supply the annual payments and charitable objects of the will.
 
 BAMBURGH CASTLE. 213 
 
 brian coast between Tynemouth and the Frith of Forth, 
 in which vessels can be sheltered from the north-east wind. 
 In some years, also, large sums have been expended in 
 draining, and in buildings and repairs on the farms — works 
 which reflect honour on the trustees as landlords, and 
 yearly require a larger expenditure than would be necessary 
 in a less exposed country. 
 
 But the charities at Bamburgh are those which it falls 
 more especially within the scope of the present memoir to 
 describe. Their blessings are extended over sea as well as 
 land. The chief object of those connected with the land, 
 are the benefit of families in humble circumstances, and the 
 relief of the poor on the Bamburgh, Blanchland, and other 
 estates of the charity, by various provisions for their wants. 
 There is a dispensary and surgery in the Castle open to 
 poor apphcants, on recommendation from any respectable 
 neighbour, and medicine and surgical advice are given free.'' 
 A midwife also is engaged, and linen is provided. Meat, 
 milk, and coals, are distributed to poor families in the vici- 
 nity, and weekly or quarterly pensions are paid to aid 
 deserving poor persons. For the assistance of humble 
 families in the neighbourhood, barley, oats, and peas, which 
 are purchased by the trustees from tenants, are gTound at 
 the castle windmill, and sold in meal, under proper regulations 
 as to quantity, at a shop in the village, at little more than 
 the market price of the grain ; and cheese and grocery goods 
 are brought by sea and distributed in the same manner.' 
 Corn has also been stored in the castle-yard for the benefit 
 of the poor in the time of scarcity. 
 
 In the Castle, there are separate schools for boys and 
 girls, to which the children of all poor parishioners are 
 admitted, and taught on " the national system," and sup- 
 plied with books and stationary, free of charge. The 
 number of scholars has been in some years 200, and is 
 always considerable. And, besides this admirable charity, 
 at least 30 poor girls, selected by the trustees, between the 
 ages of seven and nine, are received into the Castle, provided 
 
 ^ In the infirmary, multitudes have 1775, there were 7G3 patients on the 
 
 received relief; the in-door patients books of this charitable institution, 
 average between thirty and forty annu- y The value of all these articles of 
 
 ally, and the out-door patients on the household consumption sold, has been 
 
 books exceed a thousand. Hutchinson in many years nearly £2000 a year, 
 says, that in the year ending 17 October
 
 214 A VISIT TO 
 
 with board, lodging, and clothing, educated in the principles 
 of the Church of England, and instructed in reading, writing, 
 accounts, sewing, spinning, and domestic business, remain- 
 ing until they attain the age of sixteen, or are fit to go out 
 to service, when they are supplied with clothes and a 
 bounty, and if at the end of a year, they are found to have 
 continued in service and gained a good character, they 
 receive a further reward. The annual expense of the 
 schools, and of thus maintaining and providing for the 
 girls, is between £400 and £500 per annum. At Blanchland 
 also, schools for boys and girls are supported. 
 
 The mariners who brave the dangers of the stormy ocean 
 that surges beneath the walls of Bamburgli Castle, are not 
 less considered than the peasantry of its fertile lands. That 
 branch of the charity, which is connected with the navigation 
 of the adjacent seas, accordingly provides for the benefit of 
 seafaring men, by means calculated to prevent shipwreck 
 on the neighbouring coast ; to alleviate human suftering 
 and loss when shipwrecks do occur; and to save life, protect 
 property, and minister to the wants of the unfortunate. 
 The vicinity of Bamburgli Castle to the Farn Islands, that 
 desolate group of rocky islets so dangerous to the naviga- 
 tion of these seas, and tenanted only by 
 
 " The fowl that screaming haunt the watery way," 
 
 has made the preservation of mariners and the relief of 
 sufferers prominent among its " Samaritan cares." 
 
 The Farn and Staples group darkly stud the expanse of 
 open sea at varying distances, from two to seven or eight 
 miles from the shore; and at low water, twenty-five of these 
 barren seabeaten rocks or islands may be seen above the 
 eddying waves. 
 
 " No peaceful port is there, nor winding bay 
 To shield the vessel from the rolling sea, 
 But cliffs and rugged shores ; " — 
 
 and, on stormy nights, 
 
 '* When tempests rage, when rolls the swelling main," 
 
 their terrors must defy description. During fogs, a signal 
 gun is fired at intervals from the Castle, and a bell is iinig 
 from the turret of the keep, to warn mariners from the 
 rocks ; on every stormy night, men are sent from the Castle 
 to i)atrol the coast for eight miles, (the length of the
 
 HAMBURGH CASTLE. 215 
 
 manor,) to discover shipwrecked persons, and conduct them 
 to the Castle. Beds and clothing are provided for the 
 unfortunate seamen, and every man is supplied with the 
 means of returning to his home ; for the salvors 
 
 " Proper means explore 
 
 Safe to transport him to the wished-for shore ; 
 How distant his, imports not them to know, 
 They weigh no labour, but relieve the woe." 
 
 A look-out is kept fi'om the east tuiTct, for vessels in dis- 
 tress. When any ship is seen disabled on the islands, a 
 flag is hoisted, and guns are fired, according to a known 
 code of signals, to announce her danger to the North 
 Sunderland and Holy Island fishermen. A life-boat is 
 also kept there, for at times no boat from the main 
 land can get over the breakers ; rewards are given for the 
 use of it in cases of distress, and premiums to the men who 
 are foremost in attempting to rescue those in peril, and to 
 the person who first brings notice from a distance of a vessel 
 in distress. The trustees have ready in the Castle, machines 
 and implements for giving assistance to stranded vessels, 
 and places for the deposit of property that may be saved ; 
 and the tenants are bound to furnish aid in proportion to 
 their farms, for its protection and removal thither. And 
 when the struggle for life is past before " the Watching 
 Spirit" of these perilous seas can aid the mariner, and his 
 remains are washed upon the surf-beaten strand, they are 
 decently interred at the expense of the charity. 
 
 " And thus," as a popular writer well observes, " this noble 
 castle, like a mighty guardian angel, stands aloft ; and this godlike 
 charity lives, a glorious example of what good a man may continue 
 to do upon earth for ages after he has quitted it. When any one 
 sees at a distance the soaring turrets of this truly sacred fabric, 
 which stands on high — majestic in its aspect as it is divine in its 
 office, dispensing daily benefits over both land and sea — let him 
 bless the memory of Lord Crewe, as thousands and tens of thou- 
 sands in the depths of poverty, and the horrors of midnight 
 darkness and affright, have had occasion to do. Year after year 
 shall be heard by sufferers, and by many yet unborn, the welcome 
 peal of his warning guns ; still shall they lift up their eager eyes 
 from amidst the wilderness of howling waters, * * * * and 
 see the signal-pennon rise on the lofty flag-staff, and wave like the 
 gracious wdng of an angel. Still shall they hear the chiming 
 forth of his bells, that call every soul from field and hamlet to 
 their aid, and the hope of life shall again rush into their despairing
 
 216 
 
 A VISIT TO 
 
 hearts. * * * * And all this shall go on from the fiat of 
 one man, who, himself passing away long ago under the pressure 
 of mortality, has given an immortal mission to heneficence and 
 brotherly love ! What a gift is fortune when well used — what 
 a gift a soul that knows how to use it ! What is the fame of 
 genius, the splendour of station, the gathering or the holding 
 of millions of money or of acres, to the one heaven-horn thought 
 w^hich dictated * * this means of human rescue and comfort ? " 
 
 There are two events connected with the Farn Islands 
 and the Staple Islands, of which mention must be made 
 before concluding the present memoir. They were events 
 of very difierent kind ; and the one happened soon after the 
 year 676, the other in the year 1838, but each has given 
 an undying celebrity to the remote and storm-swept isle of 
 which it was the scene. Farn Island, the largest of the 
 group and the island nearest to the main land, is the spot 
 to which S. Cuthbert retired after he had borne the charge 
 of the priorate of Lindisfarn, that " he might more effect- 
 ually contend with the invisible adversary, by prayer and 
 fasting, in that solitude remote fi'om the eyes of men."* 
 It contains little more than eleven acres, is bordered with 
 basaltic rocks, which rise abruptly on the south-west side 
 to a height of eighty feet above the sea, and is exposed on 
 the north to the whole force of the waves and storms. On 
 this spot, S. Cuthbert spent nine years, and mnnbers came 
 to him for edification. The exact situation of the buildings 
 erected by the Saint, of his oratory, his cell, his hospitium, 
 and his fountain, has been ascertained, and the chapel, which 
 had lallen into decay, was lately restored and roofed by 
 Archdeacon Thorp, who preserves with care all the remains 
 upon this island, which is so hallowed by its past associations. 
 There are now two lighthouses upon it. These lights are 
 fixed : the light on the Longstone rock revolves. 
 
 Nearly three miles further in the ocean, to the north- 
 cast, is the island called Longstone, from which, in 1838, a 
 simple but heroic girl, the famed Grace Darling, adventur- 
 ously went off with her father, to rescue the surviving 
 passengers of the Forfarshire steamer. The story of the 
 shipwreck, and of her bold and generous deed, are fresh in 
 pubhc recollection. Sutfice it therefore to say, that she 
 
 ' History of S. Cuthbert, by Mon- the apostle of Northumbria have been 
 signer C. Eyre, p. 31, in whicli work collected with devout feeling and am- 
 the historic and legendary memorials of pie research.
 
 BAMBURGH CASTLE. 217 
 
 was born at Bamburgh on the 24th November 1815; and 
 from 1826, when her father was appointed keeper of the 
 Longstone lighthouse, resided in that dreary and isolated 
 spot. In the night of the 6th September 1838, the Forfar- 
 shire steamer, on her passage from Hull to Dundee, while 
 attempting to steer through the islands, was borne upon a 
 reef of rocks, and parted in two ; the after portion of the 
 ill-fated ship, with most of the passengers, was instantly 
 engulphed by the foaming waves, for the rock where she 
 struck descends perpendicularly a hundred fathoms into 
 the deep ; and at daybreak, through the stormy mist which 
 overhung the island, the miserable survivors were descried 
 from the lighthouse, clinging to a reef of low black rocks, 
 surrounded by the raging billows. Their distance was more 
 than a mile, and the fury of the waves was such that the 
 boats manned from the main land were compelled to put 
 back. Grace Darling, and her parents, were the only 
 persons at the lighthouse, and when she proposed to take 
 the boat and attempt the rescue of the shipwrecked passen- 
 gers, her father deemed it not only a desperate and hopeless 
 adventure, but one which seemed likely to be fatal to 
 themselves. The boat, however, was launched, and father 
 and daughter, each taking an oar, and nerved by her loving 
 enthusiasm, proceeded on their perilous enterprise, reached 
 the helpless and perishing survivors of the wi'eck, and 
 embarked and conveyed them from the rock in safety to 
 the lighthouse, where they were detained three days by the 
 tempestuous weather. The sympathy and admiration of 
 the English public was warmly expressed, but the heroine 
 of the Farn Islands was not destined long to enjoy the meed 
 of her generous devotion, for symptoms of consumption 
 ended in her death on the 20th of October 1 842 ; and she 
 was buried with every mark of sympathy in the churchyard 
 of her native village, near the element on which her heroism 
 had been so nobly displayed, and leaving " a name and 
 memory that will not perish from a land which enshrines 
 the noble deeds of its women among the proudest of its 
 glories." ^ 
 
 Many a visitor from afar comes to look upon her calm cold 
 
 " Darling, and his son and anothei- the Pega.nts steam ship more recently 
 daughter, are still, or were very lately, and fatally followed the sad doom of 
 living on the rock. Near the same spot, the Forforsh'irc. 
 
 Q
 
 218 A VISIT TO 
 
 effigy, recumbent beneath a canopied tomb of tasteful design, 
 around which lonely sculpture the rushing wintry tempest 
 beats, and the perpetual music of " the billows' melancholy 
 flow" resounds ; but the being whose ear is now alike insen- 
 sible to winds and waves, to the winged heralds of the storm, 
 to the airy voices of the spring, and the accents of admiration, 
 has, we hope, exchanged those sounds for the harmonies 
 and the ever-vernal glories of a bright and peaceful shore. 
 
 It has been already mentioned, that some evil doings 
 of the dark ages of Puritanism, Pues and Plaster, have yet 
 to be remedied ere we can behold the fine old church of 
 Bamburgh in its pristine beauty. Besides those above 
 specified, was the walling-up, at some period of barbarism, 
 of the northern arch of the tower, and the arch opening 
 into the north aisle, which was jDcrpetrated for the purpose 
 of forming the vestiT. These walls should give place to a 
 light screen, for they destroy the fine ensemble of the mussive 
 piers and well-proportioned arches which carry the broad 
 tower. The stained glass, which has been recently inserted 
 in all but two of the chancel lights, has been already com- 
 mended. Now the large window in the gable of the south 
 transept has three lights, in which stained glass might be 
 inserted with excellent efiect. That transept (otherwise 
 called the Spindleston Porch ^) seems to have been a chantry 
 chapel, sustained by property at that place of the Radclifies, 
 ancestors of James Earl of Derwentwatcr ; and the writer 
 cannot forbear from suggesting, that this w^indow should be 
 filled with designs in coloured glass, as a memorial to that 
 nobleman and to Bishop Crewe, in a place where such a 
 memorial will probably be thought very a})])ropriate. They 
 might be represented, kneeling on either side of our Lord, 
 whose figure might occupy the central light ; while in the 
 upper compartments, S. Aidan (as the saint in whose 
 honour the church was dedicated,) and S. James and S. 
 Bartholomew, might be introduced ; — but matters of design 
 and arrangement will be better treated by others ; the 
 writer only suggests such a memorial-window, and would 
 gladly see it sanctioned by the trustees and incumbent. 
 
 '■ It is the place ofiiiteniicnt of many members of the family of Grey, formerly 
 of Shorcston Hall. 
 
 THE END.
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 102. For The last of the five letters, read Another of the five 
 
 letters. 
 ,, 120. First line. For spring of the same year, read spring of the 
 
 year 1716. 
 ,, 127. Add to the note these words, — And there are portraits of the 
 
 General, of his mother and sister, in Bamburgh Castle. 
 ,, 190. Line 13. For worthy, read trustworthy.
 
 W. J. I'EKRV, 20i, WARWICK LANE, !• ATIRNOSTER ROW.

 
 ^1 L 
 
 DESCRIPTIVE AND HISTORICAL 
 
 NOTICES 
 
 OF 
 
 J^ORTIIUMBRIAN CASTLES, CHURCHES, 
 
 AND ANTIQUITIES: 
 
 THIRD SERIES, 
 
 COMPRISING VISITS TO 
 
 NAWORTH CASTLE, LANEECOST PRIORY, AND CORBY 
 CASTLE, IN CUMBERLAND; 
 
 THE RUINED MONASTERIES OF 
 
 BRINKBURN, JARROW, AND TYNEMOUTH; 
 
 BISHOP MIDDLEHAM AND THE TOWN OF HARTLEPOOL; 
 
 NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE AND DURHAM CATHEDRAL. 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM SIDNEY GIBSON, ESQ. F.S.A.Lond. 
 
 BARRTSTER-AT-LAW, ONE OF THE REGISTRARS OF THE COURT OF BANKRUPTCY, 
 
 FELLOW OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, HONORARY 
 
 MEMBER OF THE ACADEMIE DES SCIENCES, ARTS, ET BELLES 
 
 LETTRES DE DIJON, AND OF THE ST. ALBAN'S 
 
 ARCHITECTURAL SOCIETY, ETC. 
 
 EMBELLISHED WITH VIEWS OF NA WORTH CASTLE, AS RESTORED, 
 AND OF CORBY CASTLE, NEAR CARLISLE. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS. 
 
 NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE: ROBERT ROBINSON. 
 
 MDCCCI.IV.
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BY J. B. NICHOLS AND SONS, 
 
 2.5, PARLJAMK.NT STREET.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The article on Naworth Castle, with wliicli the 
 present work commences, was originally written for a 
 lecture which the author had the pleasure of giving 
 to the "Morpeth Church Institute;" he suhsequently 
 read it before the Mechanics' Institute of Carlisle ; and 
 now, revised and enlarged, he is induced to submit the 
 essay to a wider but he hopes not less indulgent circle. 
 
 The article on Brinkburn Priory contains the 
 substance of a paper which he read before the Arch- 
 aeological Institute during the meeting at Newcastle in 
 1852, and which was published in a very complimentary 
 manner by The Morning Chronicle at the time. 
 
 The article on the Priory of Tynemouth — another 
 and more conspicuous monument of Northumbrian piety 
 — was written as a lecture, and read by the author in 
 the summer of 1853 at Tynemouth, in aid of the fund for 
 the preservation of the ruins of the Priory Church . The 
 circumstances which led to that step are described in a 
 paragraph which appeared in London morning papers 
 and in local journals in June 1853, and which the author 
 can not forbear from reprinting in this place : 
 
 " Tynemouth Peiory Church. — The well known ruins of this 
 venerable foundation have been recently cleared from the earth and 
 rubbish which had been sullercd to accumulate around them, and
 
 IV PREFACE. 
 
 their picturesque beauty as well as their architectural interest have 
 been surprisingly augmented. Tynemouth Priory, as our readers 
 may remember, was one of" the most eminent and wealthy of the 
 religious houses of England, and occupied a prominent place in the 
 history of the North Country, especially in the eventful times of 
 Scotish warfare. It was remarkable among monasteries for being 
 inclosed in the fortifications of a castle that was maintained anciently 
 by the monks, and since the Dissolution by the Crown, while its 
 situation, upon a bold promontory at the mouth of the Tyne, rendered 
 it one of the most conspicuous objects of the Northumbrian coast. 
 Only the ruins of the Priory Church remain. They are justly valued 
 by the antiquary and the architect for the examples they afford of 
 Norman and early- English architecture ; and to lovers of the pictu- 
 resque are well known for their beauty and the grandeur of their 
 situation. When Tynemouth Priory* was in its glory, the site of the 
 now populous adjacent town of North Shields was covered by only a 
 few fishing huts ; but that town seems to have been rising in the 
 later half of the 17th century ; and the ancient edifice having fallen 
 into a ruinous state during the time of the Great Kebellion, a new 
 church for the parish (which includes the whole of North Shields) 
 was built about the time of the Eestoration. From that period, the 
 fine old church has fallen more and more into ruin, the military 
 Avorks and defences alone being maintained and preserved. Being 
 roofless, it is said to have been resorted to as a stone-quarry for the 
 neighbourhood, and several bays of the stately choir have accordingly 
 disappeared even since the year 1780. The Ordnance authorities 
 appropriated for a powder-magazine a very remarkable chapel, pro- 
 jecting beyond the eastern gable of the choir, supposed to have been 
 built as a mortuary chapel by some friendly lord of the noble house 
 of Percy. A barrack-canteen occupied the site of the chapter-house ; 
 and the ruins of the chiu'ch from the floor upwards were imbedded 
 in earth to a thickness of two and three feet. This seems to have 
 been the state of Tynemouth Priory in 1847, when Mr. Sidney 
 Gibson, a gentleman of antiquarian taste, who is officially connected 
 with the locality, published a sumptuous and elaborate work on the 
 liistory of the Priory, which first called attention to the subject and 
 to the scandalous neglect and desecration of the ruins. In 1850, at
 
 PREFACE. y 
 
 the instance of the Honourable Henry Thomas Liddell, whose efforts 
 were seconded by other distinguished members of the Newcastle 
 Antiquarian Society, the Ordnance authorities were ordered to re- 
 linquish the chapel to the parish. This little edifice being found 
 nearly entire, and being of most interesting architecture, a subscrip- 
 tion was therefore set on foot by the worthy Vicar of Tynemouth 
 (the Eev. Christopher Eeed) for its restoration, under the care of 
 Mr. Dobson, the eminent architect of the Central Railway Station 
 at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. This work is now nearly completed ; and, 
 as the dead are occasionally interred in the ancient churchyard, the 
 chapel will be used, as we understand, at the office of burial. In 
 the spring of 1852 came a new phase in the fortunes of the old 
 Priory Church. Captain Mottram Andrews, of the 28th Regiment, 
 the officer commanding the detachment in garrison at Tynemouth 
 Castle, began to excavate around the ruins, and by his own exertions 
 and those of his men, he has now cleared the building from the 
 rubbish by which it was incumbered; has disinterred in the spacious 
 choir the basements of its clustered piers; and, the walls being now 
 uncovered down to the basement line, the august ruins stand in their 
 fair proportions, and with a picturesque beauty very greatly in- 
 creased. The men came upon many interesting portions of the 
 earlier church that gave place to the existing fabric, and brought to 
 light some few monumental slabs; but the pavement of the ancient 
 church as it existed at the suppression seems to have been destroyed 
 long ago, and, many modern graves having been inclosed within the 
 body of the church subsequently to that period, the gallant officer 
 has been unable to level the whole area of the extensive fabric. 
 The taste displayed by Captain Andrews has just received an ap- 
 propriate testimonial from several inhabitants of the district, in the 
 presentation to him of a silver tea-service ; and it is to be hoped that 
 his successors in command at the castle will evince the same dis- 
 position to preserve, and will be as liberally aided by the inhabitants 
 in preserving, the ruins of an ecclesiastical edifice so interesting to 
 the architect, the historian, and the artist. We have pleasure in 
 recording these particulars, as they afford a fresh instance of that 
 reviving care for historical monuments of which examples are pre- 
 served in so many directions, and which is leading to so many
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 intercstinrr discoveries. When frcntlcmen arc Ibund like Mr. 
 Gibson, to devote their time, research, and money to the production 
 of costly works on the history uf ancient ibundations, and when 
 military officers are found like Captain Andrews with sufficient taste 
 to labour in the cause of the archaeologist, there is good hope for the 
 historical monuments of Eno;land." 
 
 The article on IIaiitlepool is reprinted from the Neio- 
 castle Journal, in which the author allowed it originally 
 to appear. It is an attempt to comprise in a hrief essay 
 historical particulars that would fill a volume, and to 
 convey some information to persons at a distance, with 
 regard to a very remarkable and interesting place which 
 seems destined to regain speedily its ancient importance, 
 and to its nohle and ancient parish church. 
 
 In the article on Newcasi'LE and Durham the autlior 
 has not aimed at giving even an outline of the history of 
 either of those remarkable and very dissimilar places. 
 He has preferred to contrast the past with the present 
 in his account of Newcastle, and has endeavoured to 
 compress into a few pag(^s those historical features, with 
 regard as well to that town as to Durham, aa hicli are 
 the most striking in their nature, and the most in- 
 teresting to the sojourner or passing stranger. The 
 substance of this article appeared in The Ecclesiologisl 
 for Oct. 1852. 
 
 The author will be truly glad if those who naay do him 
 the honour to read the following pages shall find in liis 
 essays on the " Historic Scenes " described any of the 
 pleasure he has felt in visiting them and tracing their 
 ancient state. 
 
 It is so much of course for the author to feel gratified 
 by the encouragement wdiich has induced him to lay 
 before the public a Third Series of his Northumbrian
 
 PREFACE. Vll 
 
 Visits, that he need not make any remarks upon this 
 head. As the present work may fall into the hands of 
 persons who do not know him, he only wishes to say 
 further, that, as an amateur author, he has not had for 
 his motives in writing about any places comprised in the 
 present work a desire to flatter individuals or an expect- 
 ation of realising profit ; and that he is not accustomed 
 to dissemble his views on ecclesiological matters, from 
 any deference to Low-Church prejudices : — 
 
 " Careless of censure, nor too fond of fame; 
 Still pleased to praise, yet not afraid to blame." 
 
 Newcastle-on- Tyne^ 
 March, 1854.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Na WORTH Castle, and the Ancient Lords of Gillesland 
 Brinkburn Priory .... 
 
 Bishop Middleham and Mainsforth, near Durham 
 Tynemoutii Priory .... 
 
 Hartlepool ..... 
 
 Church and Monastery of Jarrow 
 Newcastle-on-Tyne, and Durham Cathedral and Castle 
 Corby Castle, Cumberland 
 
 page 
 1—42 
 
 43—52 
 
 53—58 
 
 59—96 
 
 97—132 
 
 133—139 
 
 140—159 
 
 160—168 
 
 \* The binder will place the view of Corby Castle as frontispiece, an 
 the view in tlie (juadrangle of Naworth Castle to face page 39.
 
 NAWORTH CASTLE 
 
 AND THE FORMER LORDS OF GILLESLAND. 
 
 Naworth Castle is situated amidst very picturesque 
 scenery, about twelve miles to the nortli-east of Carlisle, 
 in what was an almost roadless country when Wardens 
 of the Marches lived at Naworth, but is now within sight 
 from the railway between Newcastle and Carlisle. Other 
 parts of rocky Cumberland can boast the grandeur of 
 mountain, lake, and flood ; but the gentler beauties of 
 woodland scenery surround the ancient towers of Na- 
 worth. Its battlements rise gray with age, and in full 
 harmony with the scene around them, islanded by dark 
 woods, amidst the wide sweep of an ancient park and 
 chase. The view is especially striking on the approach 
 through the park from the adjacent town of Brampton, 
 and the road in some parts borders a deep dell, traversed 
 by a murmuring stream, and clothed by ancient oaks. 
 Prom these heights the gray abbey of Lanercost is seen 
 embosomed by wooded hills beyond the park, and the 
 river Irthing flows by the green holms of the Abbey 
 Church. On the south-east of the Castle the picturesque 
 undulations of the park are crowned by bands of trees 
 that rise against the sky ; on the south the land, partly 
 covered by plantations, slopes upward to the distant 
 ridges of Cross-Pell ; on the north and west a country 
 diversified by wood, pasture, and tillage, stretches to the 
 purple hills ; and on the north-west the landscape melts 
 in the distant tide of Solway. 
 
 B
 
 2 NAWORTII CASTLE 
 
 The western, nortlicrn, and eastern sides of the Castle 
 rise from the steep declivities of a Avild and wooded ravine. 
 Two streamlets, descending from lonely glens, floA\' from 
 opposite directions on the eastern and western sides, and 
 nnite in a rocky dell at a short distance under the 
 northern ramparts of the Castle, flowing thence to the 
 Irthing through a deep and winding glen, the channel 
 of the stream overhung by mossy rocks and wooded 
 banks. A footpath descends through the woods, which 
 enables the visitor to enjoy the romantic scenery of the 
 glen and the low wild music of the gushing stream, in 
 his walk from Naworth to Lanercost. This path joins a 
 road which is carried over the Irthing by an old bridge 
 of two wide elliptical arches. A carriage road, which 
 makes a circuit through the park on the western and 
 northern sides of the Castle, also conducts from its gates 
 to the river. Standing on that bridge, the spectator sur- 
 veys a coimtry that has many historic memories. On the 
 north-east are the footsteps of the Komans ; for, on the 
 high moorland Avastes towards Bewcastle are remains of 
 the paved lloman road, and the country on the south, 
 within a short distance from Xaworth, Avas traversed by 
 the Roman Avail. * LoAver doAvn the river, and about 
 three miles distant from NaAvorth, is the site of a Roman 
 station, Avithin the fortifications of Avhich the Norman 
 lords of Gillesland afterwards held their place of strength. 
 The secluded valley Avhich uoav hears 
 
 " No sound but Irthing's rushing tide," 
 
 Avas often the scene of martial gatherings when it OAvned 
 their iron SAvay. Yonder, on the green holms of St. 
 Mary, the gray pile and cloister of Lanercost is a vene- 
 raljle monument of the poAver that civilized a turbulent 
 and A^arlike age ; and beneath the anti(pie gatcAvay, now 
 so attractiA^e to the tourist, the early benefactors of 
 Lanercost, and many lords of the adjacent hills, passed 
 to a holy peace Avhicli the Avorld could not bestow. Under 
 that gatcAvay, and on the bridge that noAV spans the 
 
 * The Roman " Maiden-way" takes a course nearly north and south, 
 and comes within ;i mile of Naworth. It is there a road twelve feet broad, 
 paved with stones.
 
 AND THE FOKMER LOUDS OF GILLESLAND. 8 
 
 broad stream of Irthing, Edward I. was frequently seen 
 when his Scotish campaigns brought him to reside at 
 Lanercost ; and the martial followers arrayed in his train 
 mingled on this road with the white-robed monks, for 
 theu' seclusion was invaded during months together by 
 the rude sounds of military array, 
 
 " When on steep and on crag 
 
 Streamed banner and flag, v. 
 
 And the pennons and phimage of Avar." 
 
 Passing from these scenes and their associations to 
 Naworth Castle itself, we find its aspect worthy of its 
 situation. 
 
 Cumberland is not peculiar in regarding Naworth Castle 
 as one of the most interesting monuments of the feudal 
 age that can be found in England ; and, although consi- 
 derable portions of the fortress have been lately rebuilt, 
 it presents a most characteristic specimen of the strong- 
 hold of a great Border warden in days 
 
 " When EngHsh lords and Scotish chiefs were foes." 
 
 But 
 
 The martial terrors long have fled 
 That frown d of old around its head ; '' 
 
 for, no longer paced by armed defenders, and maintained 
 wdtli barbican and moat in stern defiance of the foe, it 
 has become the peaceful residence of an amiable and 
 accomplished nobleman eminent in the arts of peace. 
 This stronghold of a martial race passed to the great 
 historical house of Howard by the marriage of the famous 
 " Belted Will," of Border story, to Lady Elizabeth Dacre, 
 the heiress of Naworth and Gillesland, in the reign of 
 Queen Elizabeth, and became the inheritance of "the 
 Carlisle branch" of that illustrious house. 
 
 Lord Carlisle generally passes some part of every year 
 in this ancient Castle, and the influences by which he 
 detains his visitors who come to Naworth are of a very 
 different kind from those which were employed by his 
 ancestors in the days of Border fray. 
 
 Naworth Castle has features of interest peculiar to 
 itself. We may see in many parts of England monu- 
 
 B 2
 
 4 NAWORTH CASTLE 
 
 ments of former power as ancient, but none so cliarac- 
 teristic of the times of Border warfare. We may see in 
 many counties feudal castles, l)ut how many of tliem 
 liave descended to strangers, and have ceased to stand in 
 castellated ])ride ! Such monuments, when falling to 
 ruin under the slow siege of tinw, not only exemplify the 
 change of manners, but proclaim the transitory state of 
 man's dominion. At NaAvorth Castle, on the contrary, 
 we see the fortress of the Border chieftain not only inhe- 
 rited by his lineal descendant, but maintained, with a 
 just pride, in that stern character of architecture which 
 is in keeping with the memories of its ancient walls. 
 Naworth Castle, though adapted for a residence in modern 
 comfort, lia})])ily has not undergone the destructive pro- 
 cess of modernization, for in his restorations Lord Carlisle 
 has carefully cherished the features of ancestral age that 
 have here been " sheltered under the wings of Time." 
 But while the scene of the Lord Warden's martial rule 
 and the very towers in which he dwelt, are preserved as 
 far as is now possible, in their ancient state, marked by 
 the scars of olden warfare, the features of the stern old 
 time are on the walls alone. Modern comforts and refine- 
 ments pervade the chambers of Naworth Castle ; and its 
 noljle owner's care has been, — 
 
 "All to improve and notliing to destroy." 
 
 At Naworth Castle, therefore, we see in the outer 
 walls, and the massive towers that rise at the angles of 
 its southern front, the stronghold of the Dacres of Gilles- 
 land. It was in the reign of Edward III. that the 
 inheritor of the ancient barony of Gillesland, forsaking 
 the old castle of its former lords, determined on buildini? 
 a stronger and more stately fortress, and came to NaAvorth 
 to raise its " Avood-environed towers." 
 
 It may be interesting noAV to glance briefly at the his- 
 tory of Gillesland from the days of its Norman lords, 
 in Avhose time no walls of stone were seen amidst the 
 forest slopes and on the rocky dells of Naworth. At a 
 period soon after the Norman Conquest, Naworth and 
 the rest of the hills and vales of Gillesland were the 
 inheritance of a thane Avhose stronghold was in the
 
 AND THE FORMER LORDS OF GILLESLAND. 5 
 
 E/oman ' station already mentioned, known in modern 
 times as Castle Steads, and situated about three miles 
 from Naworth. The rude keep-tower in which the Cum- 
 brian chieftam resisted the Norman grantee was probably 
 not unlike Thirlwall Castle, the ruins of wliich crown a 
 steep bank* by the road called the Maiden Way which 
 led to Castle-town, and was guarded near Thirlwall by a 
 square Etonian watch-tower, the lower courses of the 
 masonry of which can still be traced. Thirlwall Castle 
 seems to have been partly built with Homan masonry, 
 and so, no doubt, was the stronghold of this early lord 
 of Gillesland, which stood within what had been a mili- 
 tary camp of the Eomans. It overlooked the vale of 
 Irthing, at that time a wild, im.cLiltivated, and very 
 thinly peopled tract of country. In the reigns of the 
 Anglo-Norman kings, and for a long period after, a great 
 part of Cumberland was still covered by the primaeval 
 forest. Erom the lonely towers on Irthing the howl of 
 the wolf was no doubt frequently heard ; the eagle had 
 not forsaken the crags that were still crested by the 
 Eoman watch-towers; through the unfrequented thickets 
 of the neighbouring country the wild boar and the red 
 deer roamed undisturbed bv man : and the wild cattle 
 might be seen in the patliless woods and on the adjacent 
 wastes. 
 
 Cumberland, it will be remembered, was a part of the 
 kiugdom of Scotland when William the Conqueror made 
 it subject to the Norman arms. It Avas then bestowed 
 on Eanulph de Meschines, a valiant follower of the King, 
 who dispossessed the native owner of Gillesland, and 
 conferred his lands on Hubert, a companion in arms, 
 who took the name De Vaux — in history De Vallibus — ■ 
 from the possessions of his family in Normandy. The 
 time of Hubert de Vallibus was a time of turbulence and 
 warfare, and the Norman grantee could with difficulty 
 hold what the sword had won. The country was invaded 
 and wasted by Malcolm King of Scotland in 1070, and a 
 period of eighty years from that time elapsed before 
 Cumberland was finally wrested from the Scotish power. 
 
 * Close to the railway, at a little distance to tlie west of the Greenhead 
 station.
 
 6 NAWOllTH CASTLE 
 
 The English, meantime, endeavoured to make good their 
 con([uests hy fort i lying the positions they had gained. 
 As early as 1072 King William had occupied Carlisle, 
 and began to fortify that ancient city of the Britons. In 
 1092 — the period which saw the rise of the Norman keej) 
 called the New Castle upon Tyne — "William had built 
 the Castle at Carlisle, and, " as colonist rather than 
 conqueror," he sent a great number of the Saxon popu- 
 lation from the south to inhabit and cultivate the neigh- 
 bouring country ; but in the succeeding thirty years, 
 such were the irruptions of the Scots, it had become 
 necessary to rebuild the Avails and Castle of Carlisle. In 
 the reign of Stephen, David the Scotish King seized Car- 
 lisle, when he invaded England to espouse the cause of 
 the Empress Maud; and the Castle of Carlisle was 
 allowed to remain, by treaty, in the government of Scotish 
 princes until 1157, during Avhich period the title of the 
 ancient OAvner of Gillesland, or rather of his successor, 
 seems to have been maintained by his Scotish allies, as 
 long as they had the power, against the successors of 
 Hubert de Vallil)us. 
 
 One of the first acts of Henry 11. on regaining Cum- 
 berland Avas to confirm to Hubert de Vaux " all the land 
 Avhicli Gilbert, son of Buetli, had held on the day of his 
 death :" this comprised the lordship of Gillesland. 
 
 In the 11th Henry II. Hubert de Vallibus w^as suc- 
 ceeded by Robert his son, and this new " lord of the 
 hills" Avas a person of no small power and eminence in 
 that reign. He bore the SAVord of justice as a judge- 
 itinerant, and also served the state in martial capacities. 
 As governor of Carlisle, he defended tlie Castle against 
 the long siege of William the Lion of Scotland in 1171. 
 He rendered more lasting service to posterity by founding 
 the Priory Church of Lanercost. Thus, it may be said 
 of Robert de Vallil)us, that he consolidated the realm of 
 liis Sovereign, and opened a new one for his Saviour. 
 
 Of the circumstances that led him to found the Priory 
 of Lanercost, a story has been giA^en by county historians 
 Avhich stains the character of De Vallibus, but seems to 
 have no sufficient foundation. Probably it Avas he Avho, 
 before that event, built at Irthington the Castle Avhich
 
 AND THE FORMER LORDS OF GILLESLAND. 7 
 
 became the stroni^liold of the lords of Gilleslaiid, the old 
 tower at Castle Steads having, as it would seem, become 
 unfit for the residence of a powerful baron, in a country 
 so frequently invaded by the Scots. 
 
 But a dark tale of murder has been connected with 
 the desertion of Castle Steads, and the foundation of 
 Lanercost. It is said that Robert de Vallibus treacher- 
 ously invited the rival lord of Gillesland to Castle Steads, 
 and there slew him, and that l3y way of expiation he 
 founded the Priory of Lanercost, and endowed it in part 
 with the very patrimony which had been the occasion of 
 the murder. It is further alleged that, after committing 
 outrage on the laAVS, he devoted himself to the study of 
 them, and forsook the sword. Now it is unquestionable 
 that the tower of Castle Steads was conferred on the 
 monks of Lanercost, and the tradition is that the walls 
 were razed to the ground, and the site (wiiich was not 
 to be again built upon) sown with salt, according to the 
 old ecclesiastical usage in cases of blood-shedding. But, 
 although the rival claimant's blood may have been shed 
 at Castle Steads, the Norman judge seems guiltless of it. 
 The Priory of Lanercost was founded not later than 
 1169 ; but for years after as well as before that event 
 he occurs in offices of trust and dignity, and in 1174 had 
 not forsaken arms, for the city of Carlisle in that year 
 witnessed his military prowess, as already mentioned. 
 
 In 1176, when justices itinerant were for the first time 
 appointed to go through England, he was associated in 
 the office of judge for northern counties, with the great 
 Banulph de Glanville, Henry's Chief Justiciary, but in 
 his case arms never yielded to the gown. His wealth 
 and possessions were great, and he made a noble use of 
 them in founding Lanercost Priory, and rearing the Cross 
 in his native vales of Gillesland, amongst a turbulent 
 population who lived amidst the dark shadows of pagan 
 superstition. In that act of piety, he designed that the 
 light of the Christian faith should for ever shine over his 
 Cumbrian hills, and light all future generations to the 
 life of the world to come. The monastery has shared 
 the fate of the other monasteries of England ; but such 
 permanence God has gifted even here to works done for
 
 8 NAWOKTII CASiLIi 
 
 the lionoiir of His name that Christian rites have been 
 maintained in the vales of Gillcshmd from the reign of 
 Henvy II. to the present time. The temporal hononrs 
 and possessions of the founder have meantime descended 
 on strangers, his castle has vanished, his martial deeds 
 that stirred the hearts and tongues of his contemporaries 
 have passed into oblivion, and all things have so changed, 
 that the soldier-judge, attired in mail and speaking 
 Norman-French and attended bv a retinue uncouth in 
 aspect, would inspire astonishment could he ascend the 
 seat of justice in the courts of Queen Victoria ; but the 
 brief charters of donation, given under his seal to a little 
 colony of Augustine monks transplanted from Hexham 
 to Lanercost, have maintained the church he founded 
 for a period of nearly seven hundred years. As the 
 church of the parish of Abbey Lanercost it happily still 
 exists, but its once glorious choir is roofless and shat- 
 tered, the high tombs of its benefactors are swept by 
 the winter's storms, and the edifice presents a dull 
 and mournful contrast in the closed doors of its spacious 
 nave — the only portion of the church preserved — and 
 the ruined architecture of its choir, to the animated and 
 solemn scene that was witnessed at Lanercost when it 
 saw the daily worship of a large monastic fraternity, and 
 was the place of resort of the adjacent country, when 
 sovereigns and nobles bowed before its altars, and perhaps 
 acknowledged that the world had not anything to offer 
 that could compare with its heavcnAvard devotions and 
 its holy peace. 
 
 About the period of King John's accession, Hobert de 
 Vallilms, after a life passed in the turl)ulent scenes of 
 three warlike reigns, Avas laid for his final rest before the 
 altar he had " gifted for his soul's repose." Ilis brother 
 Ranulph succeeded to the barony of Gillesland, and died 
 in the 1st of John's reign, leaving Hobert his son and 
 heir, who joined a crusade in the Gtli Henry III., but 
 lived to return from the spirit-stirring scenes of the Holy 
 Land to the sequestered valleys of his native county, and 
 to marry Margaret, daughter of William de Greystoke 
 by Mary de Merlay, heiress of Morpeth. He was suc- 
 ceeded by his son Hubert, who died leaving only a
 
 xVND THE rOllMEll LORDS OF GILLESLAND. 9 
 
 daughter, Maud, by whose marriage to Thomas de Mut- 
 ton, lord of Burgli on Solway, the barony of Gillesland 
 became vested in that family. Thomas de Multon, who 
 thus became lord of Gillesland, was eldest son of Thomas 
 de Multon, justiciar of Henry III., and through his 
 mother, the daughter and coheiress of Hugh de Morville, 
 inherited the great possessions of the De Morville family, 
 whose chief seat was Kirk Oswald Castle. Thomas de 
 Multon, husband of the heiress of He Vaux, died in 1270, 
 and his great-grandson, also a Thomas de Multon, suc- 
 ceeded, in whose time occurred those ravages by the Scots 
 in which, after burning Hexham Abbey in 1296, they 
 returned througli Gillesland and destroyed a great por- 
 tion of Lanercost Priory. This Thomas de Multon died 
 in 1313, and Margaret, his only child, inherited his great 
 possessions, — 
 
 " Herself the solitary scion left 
 Of a time-honour'd race." 
 
 It was by an alliance with this heiress that the noble 
 family of Hacre acquired the barony of Gillesland, and 
 the alliance was effected in a manner worthy of that 
 chivalrous race. Margaret de Multon was only thirteen 
 years of age Avhen, hj her father's death, she became his 
 heiress. She had been betrothed by him to Ralph de 
 Hacre, by a contract made between her father and Wil- 
 liam de Hacre, the father of Halph. The wardship of 
 the young lady was prudently claimed by Edward II., 
 and she was entrusted to the care of Beauchamp Earl of 
 Warwick. We are not told whether the flower of Gilles- 
 land preferred her suitor and her native luountains to 
 the alliance destined for her by the King ; but certain it 
 is that, when she was in her seventeenth year, the young 
 heiress was carried off in the night-time from Warwick 
 Castle by her adventurous suitor Halph de Hacre, who 
 was rewarded for his chivalrous exploit by marrying her, 
 and acquiring her great possessions. This was in 1317. 
 Naworth is mentioned in historical documents for the 
 first time in the reign of Edward II., and in connection 
 with the name of Hacre. The successors of He Vaux 
 had probably made Kirk Oswald their principal abode, 
 the Castle at that place having been the chief seat of the
 
 10 NAWORTH CASTLE 
 
 De Multon familv, to whom it had descended from the 
 De Moi'villes, its original o^nlC^s. Until some time in the 
 reign of Edward III., the old Castle of Irthington was, 
 however, maintained as chief mansion of the barony of 
 Gillesland. Some kind of residence a]:)pears to have 
 existed at Naworth before 1335, when llalph de Dacre 
 obtained the King's permission to convert it into a Castle, 
 A^■hich he was probably led to do by finding Naworth a 
 more suitable situation than Irthiniijton for the stron"; 
 and stately fortress which the baron of Gillesland had 
 resolved to bnild. 
 
 In the summer of 1335 the vouthful Edward III. was 
 in these parts with a great army collected against the 
 Scots ; and there is reason to believe that he was the 
 guest of Halph de Dacre at Irthiugton on the 27th July, 
 1335. He there granted to him a license of that date, 
 Avliich we find on the Patent Ilolls,* by which the King 
 authorised him to fortify and castellate "his mansion of 
 Naward [it is so described in the patent] with walls of 
 stone and lime, and to hold the same so fortified to him- 
 self and his heirs for ever." Erom this time Irthington 
 Castle was abandoned, and its materials are said to have 
 been used for the new structure then in course of erection 
 at Naworth ; and the mound, on which in Norman lashion 
 the keep was built, is all that has remained of Irthington 
 Castle in the memory of man. 
 
 The character of the new stronghold at Naworth was 
 in keeping with its purpose as well as with its situation ; 
 and in its form Ralph de Dacre seems to have followed 
 the plan of his paternal Castle on the river Dacre — the 
 place from which his ancient line had sprung. Built 
 
 " In tlie antiq^io age of bow and spear, 
 And feudal rapine clothed in iron mail," 
 
 Naworth Castle needed capacity to receive a garrison, 
 and strength to resist the malice of their foes. The 
 country around was in those days frequently the scene of 
 international A^'ar, and was constantly subject to invasion 
 by predatory hordes living north of the English Border, 
 descended, indeed, from the same Saxons and Scandina- 
 
 * Kot. Pat. •) Edw. III. n. 20.
 
 AND THE FOUMEU LORDS OF GILLESLAND. 11 
 
 vians who had inhabited Cumberland, but who were 
 accustomed to plunder the pastoral inhabitants of the 
 vales. The proprietors of the land were a warlike and 
 unlettered aristocracy, who found it necessary to intrench 
 themselves in fortresses ; and it was only under protec- 
 tion of the Castle that their tenants could cultivate the 
 neighbouring country. The structure and defences of 
 Naworth bore testimony to a state of things and to modes 
 of life totally unlike those amidst which we live ; and 
 times of turbulence and insecurity have left their impress 
 on its walls. Lord Dacre built his Castle in quadrangu- 
 lar form, inclosing an extensive court-yard ; he defended 
 it on the south — the only side on which it was accessible, 
 — by a double moat, and a barbican guarded the draw- 
 bridge. He raised at the angles of the south front mas- 
 sive and lofty battlemented towers, from which the red 
 beacon-fire may have often blazed, a signal to the neigh- 
 bouring hills. He built a strong curtain-wall which 
 inclosed the outer court ; and a lofty archway opening 
 from the path on the edge of the deep ravine gave access 
 to the interior quadrangle, which, with its massive walls 
 of red freestone, pierced by a number of narrow, pointed 
 windows, and two or three low-arched doorways, was full 
 of the stern yet picturesque features of the Edwardian 
 fortress, moulded by the situation of the Border Castle. 
 And so, — 
 
 " When English lords and Scotish chiefs were foes, 
 Stern on the angry confines Naworth rose; 
 In dark woods islanded its towers looked forth, 
 And frown'd defiance on the growling North." 
 
 Its interior arrangements — its long warder's gallery, 
 through which was the only access to the chieftain's 
 tower — its many staircases — its mural chambers — the 
 few and narrow windows of its outer walls — and its 
 gloomy prison-vaults — all proclaimed the feudal age, 
 and their adaptation to the martial manners and rude 
 chivalry of the Border five hundred years ago, when — 
 
 " Dacre's bill-men Avere at hand; 
 
 A hardy race on Irthing bred, 
 
 With kirtles white and crosses red; 
 
 Arrayed beneath the banner tall 
 
 That streani'd o'er Acre's conquer "d wail."
 
 12 NAWOHTH CASTLE 
 
 Nawortli Castle was marked by all the features of the 
 time -wlien Lords of ]\Iarclies there held swav, surrounded 
 by armed retainers, and were wont to issue forth for the 
 eliastisement of some lawless forav, or the defence of the 
 neii-'hbourino' country : — 
 
 " WTien, as the portals Avide were flung, 
 With stanq)ing hoofs the pavement rnng; 
 And glistening through the hawthorn green, 
 Shone helm, and shield, and spear." 
 
 Erom the time of the Plantagenets down to the dynasty 
 of the StuartSj the inhabitants of the country were ex- 
 posed to an almost constant defensive warfare against the 
 predatory Scots and against the ro1)l)ers who inhabited 
 the Border lands, and were continually organized in a 
 sort of militia for defence, originally against the Scots, 
 and afterwards against the moss-troopers. When Na- 
 worth Castle was built, and for centuries after that time, 
 the country around was most uncivilised. The land 
 was cultivated with difficulty, and a lawlessness of man- 
 ners prevailed. Even on the English side, there were 
 clans and families whose occupation it was to plunder 
 their neighbours ; and the native peasantry of Tynedale, 
 and of the more remote A\'ild dales of the Border, were a 
 race almost barbarous in manners. Yet we are told tliat, 
 with habits of constant depredation, the borderers com- 
 bined a rude spirit of chivalry, and were inured to hard- 
 ship and to danger. Two centuries after Naworth Castle 
 was built, we find ordinances for pu1)lic safety, which 
 I'cquired that many hundreds of persons should be con- 
 tinually employed in the night-watches, and form a sort 
 of cordon of defensive militia. The rest of the neigh- 
 bourhood was obliged to sally forth at any hour upon 
 occasion, and follow the fray, on ])ain of death. Such 
 was the state of things from before the reign of Edward I. 
 down to the middle of the seventeenth century ; and 
 at no period were the inhabitants of the Marches in a 
 worse state of insecurity and lawlessness than at the close 
 of the sixteenth century — the time when Naworth became 
 the property of Lord William Howard — that politic and 
 martial chieftain, both scholar and soldier, a\ hose name 
 has given an undying celebrity to Xa worth Castle, and
 
 AND THE FOUMER LOUDS OF GILLESLAND. 13 
 
 who lias justly received the honourable distmction of 
 " The Civilizer of the English Borders." Happily 
 for us — 
 
 " Long rolling years have swept those scenes away, 
 And peace is on the mountain and the fell; 
 And rosy dawn and closing twilight gray 
 Hear but the distant sheepwalks' tinkling bell." 
 
 And if the condition of the people and the country beyond 
 the walls of Naworth was in ancient times so different 
 from what it is at present, the life of the feudal nobles 
 themselves was equally unlike that of Avhich their succes- 
 sors have any experience. The great lords resided chiefly 
 in their castles, leaving them only when required (which 
 in former times was very often) to attend the King in 
 his wars or his parliaments. 
 
 In these days of rapid commnnication we think with 
 astonishment of times when the ancient forest yet over- 
 spread much of the country between here and London ; 
 when there were few roads, no coaches, and no posts ; 
 when inns were unknown, and the guest-houses of the 
 hospitable monasteries, or the castles and the mansions 
 of the great, were the wayfarer's only refuge; when a 
 journey from Naworth to London often occupied as long 
 a time as is now required to go to Rome, and when (as 
 an historian remarks) the traveller might encounter be- 
 tween Carlisle and London as many perils by floods and 
 robbers as he could now find on a journey across the 
 Alps. The feudal tenures and services were maintained 
 around the ancient lords of Naworth ; upon their walls 
 
 " Was frequent heard the changing guard, 
 And watchword from the sleepless ward;" 
 
 they handled the sword constantly — the pen, we may 
 believe, but seldom if ever in their lives ; their leisure 
 was much occupied in the sports of wood and field ; and 
 they were liberal in all that pertained to hawks and 
 hounds. Their tastes in this respect seem to have been 
 shared by not only the dignified secular clergy of their 
 day, but also by the abbats and priors of some of the 
 monasteries.* 
 
 * The history of Lanercost, as related by Hutchinson, affords an ex- 
 ample. In the reign of Edw. HI., Thomas, a Canon of Hexham, was
 
 li NAWORTH CASTLE 
 
 But it is in their military character of Wardens of the 
 Marclies that the Lords Dacre of Naworth and Gillcsland 
 liavc left their names in Border history. 
 
 The succession of these martial lords from the time 
 "VA'hcn they acquired the barony of Gillcsland, may now 
 he l)riefly stated. The limits of this article do not admit 
 of any description of their paternal Castle at Dacre, or 
 of their history from the time of that shadowy ancestor 
 in commemoration of whose visit to the Holy Land the 
 pilgrim's scallop-shell still borne in the arms of Howard 
 was assumed as the cognizance of their lordly and long- 
 descended race. Suffice it, then, to say, that Margaret, 
 the heiress already mentioned, survived her husband 
 Ralph, first Lord Dacre of Gillcsland, until 1362, having, 
 after his death, defended the Castle of Naworth, and 
 managed the estates, with a masculine energy. Thirteen 
 years after her death, Edward III. committed to Boger 
 Lord Clifford, whose family it Avill l)e remembered had 
 large possessions in Westmoreland, the custody of Na- 
 worth, a grant which was probably made pending only 
 the minority of William de Dacre, who ere long suc- 
 ceeded, and in whose time (it is related) the Scots again 
 appeared, and drove all the defenceless persons in Gillcs- 
 land into houses, to which they set fire, leaving the vic- 
 tims of their cruelty to be consumed. During all the 
 tm'])ulent period which extended from the reign of Bicli- 
 ard II. to the year 1461, we do not find any mention of 
 Naworth ; l)ut in that year Balph, son of Thomas Lord 
 Dacre, an adherent of the Bed Bose of Lancaster, fell 
 fighting for Henry VI. on the ensanguined field of Tow- 
 ton, and Naworth Castle, -with all his other estates, were 
 seized by the victorious Edward of York. His brother 
 Humphrey, however, submitted to the dynasty of Edward 
 IV. ; he was restored to the family estates, and appointed 
 AVarden of the West Marches, and he received summons 
 as Lord Dacre of Gillcsland. He died in 1485, and was 
 buried with Mabel his wife beneath one of the well-known 
 richly sculptured altar-tombs in the north aisle of the 
 
 elected Prior of Lanercost, and pi-omised llie Bishop of Carlisle "not to 
 frequent public huntings, or to keep so large a pack of hounds as he had 
 formerly done."
 
 AND THE FORMER LOllDS OF GILLESLAND. 15 
 
 Priory Church of Lanercost. He was succeeded by 
 Thomas Lord Dacre, who in 1487 imitated the example 
 of his ancestor in the reign of Edward II. by carrying 
 off in the night-time from Brougham Castle Elizabeth, 
 the heiress of Greystoke, then a ward of the King, in 
 the custody of Henry de Clifford Earl of Cumberland, 
 who probably intended to marry her. By his marriage 
 with this young lady, who was cousin and heir of Halph 
 Lord Greystoke, Thomas Lord Dacre added the nolile 
 domain of Greystoke to his own inheritance, and the 
 united estates were possessed by his descendants until 
 1569, when a partition took place. His spirited bearing 
 was afterwards exhibited in the battle of Elodden Eield,* 
 where he commanded the right wing of the English forces, 
 and is said to have contributed greatly to the success of 
 the English arms. His services were continued through 
 many succeeding years. He was appointed a Knight of 
 the Garter, and Lord Warden of the West Marches. 
 
 It was this martial nobleman who built the curtain- 
 wall and massive gate-tower under which Nav/orth Castle 
 is entered, and some portions of the main bidlding seen 
 before the fire were the work of his time. The gate- 
 tower gives access to the outer court of the Castle. The 
 inner quadrangle was in his time still entered only through 
 the original archway on the western side of the main 
 building. On the 24tli Oct. 1525, after a hfe of martial 
 activity, Thomas Lord Dacre was called to " the fading 
 honours of the dead," and was interred, with his wife, 
 beneath a richly decorated altar tomb, in the south aisle 
 of the choir of Lanercost. 
 
 He was succeeded by his eldest son William, who was 
 appointed Warden of the Western Marches by Henry 
 VIII. on 2nd Dec. 1527, and his name was a name of 
 terror to the outlaws and marauders of the Border lands, f 
 
 * Fought on the 9th Sept. 1514. 
 
 •j" In 1534 William Lord Dacre was accused of treasonable communica- 
 tions, and (strange to say) alliances with the Scots. Being committed to 
 the Tower, he was brought to trial before Thomas Duke of Norfolk, Trea- 
 surer and Earl Marshal of England, appointed Lord High Steward, and 
 his peers. Probably these accusations arose out of enmity, or some jea- 
 lousy on the part of Plenry Earl of Northumberland, Warden of the East 
 Marches. The indictment is amongst the records of this curious state trial
 
 I() NAWOllTII CASTLE 
 
 He must have been a man of amazing energy and martial 
 spirit, and he took a part in most of the piiljlic agitations 
 and many of the warlike campaigns of his day.* The 
 Lords Dacre were all men of higli spirit and enterprise, 
 and many of them seem to have been favourit(^s of the 
 ladies. It is remarkal)le that one of them should have 
 carried off his betrothed l)ride, the heiress of (iillesland, 
 from the wardship of King Edward II., and that another, 
 Thomas Lord Dacre, dashingly followed, 170 years after- 
 wards, the example of his ancestor, by cai'rying off Eliza- 
 beth, the heiress of Greystoke, who was liket\dse in ward 
 to the King. William Lord Dacre, after a long and 
 vigorous reign, died in 15G4, leaving Thomas, his eldest 
 son, Avho followed him in 1565, and three other sons, 
 named Leonard, Edward, and Erancis, all of Avhom were 
 overtaken l^y misfortune. George, son of the eldest of 
 his brothers, survived his father, and was the last male 
 heir of the Lords Dacre of the North. By his untimely 
 death, on I7th May, 15G9, from accident at Thetford, 
 when a child in the wardship of the Duke of Norfolk, 
 the estates and baronies of Gillesland and Greystoke, and 
 the rest of the great possessions of his ancestors, were 
 parted among his three sisters and coheirs. The youngest 
 of these ladies was the Lady Elizabeth Dacre, to whose 
 share fell Naworth Castle and the barony of Gillesland, 
 and of this portion she became heiress before she was 
 seven years of age. By her marriage, these fair domains 
 were transferred to a l)rancli of the noble house of 
 Howard, after having been possessed by the Dacres during 
 260 years. 
 
 It is i'emarkal)le that by an heiress —the heiress of De 
 Yaux — NaAvorth passed to the family of De Multon ; 
 that by the heiress of Thomas De Multon it came to the 
 family of Dacre ; and that by another heiress — the co- 
 heiress of Thomas Lord Dacre — it was carried to Lord 
 William HoAvard. 
 
 which are preserved in the Tower of London, and it shows Lord Dacre to 
 have been accused of treacherous agreements for the protection of Scotish 
 offenders. The things alleged against him are hardly credible: at all 
 events he was acquitted. 
 
 * See in Arch. vEliana, i. 213, a repres(>ntntion of his seal.
 
 AND THE FORMER LORDS OP GILLESLAND. 17 
 
 Of the state of Naworth Castle during' the childhood of 
 the young heiress, we have some proof in the fact that 
 wlien Mary Queen of Scots was a prisoner at Carlisle 
 Castle (which was in 1568), Sir Erancis KnoUys recom- 
 mended to Elizaheth that Naworth Castle should he 
 selected for the detention of her royal captive as a place 
 then affording greater security than the Castle of Carlisle. 
 
 Mary however was removed to the south, and therefore 
 we cannot add to the historical attractions of Naworth 
 " the romantic and fascinating, mysterious and sorrowful 
 associations " which hang round the memory of Mary 
 Stuart. In the following year (1569) occurred the memo- 
 rahle Hehellion for the deliverance of the Scotish Queen 
 and the restoration of the Church of England to the 
 Roman communion ; and it was to Naworth Castle that 
 the great Northern Lords — the Earl of Westmoreland 
 and the Earl of Northumberland — retired ; and they 
 there dispersed their followers and abandoned their 
 chivalrous enterprise. At that time the barony of 
 Gillesland and the possessions of the house of Dacre 
 were in abeyance between the co-heiresses. Naworth 
 Castle was again in the occupation of insurgent forces 
 in a few months from that time ; but the forces then 
 collected had been levied for a less generous purpose. 
 Leonard Dacre, uncle of the youthful orphan and heiress, 
 claimed the estates of the Dacres of Gillesland, and, being 
 unsuccessful at law, assembled 3,000 men, chiefly levied 
 among the freebooters of the border lands, to enforce his 
 claim by arms. He actually seized Naworth Castle, and 
 was in possession of it for a time early in 1570. Lord 
 Hunsdon the governor of Berwick, and Sir John Eorster, 
 warden of the Middle Marches, were speedily sent against 
 his band of desperadoes. They advanced from Hexham at 
 the head of 1,500 men, and arrived on the 20th Eebruary, 
 by daylight, before Naworth. The beacons had burned 
 all night, and they found every hill covered by men on 
 horse, and on foot, who rent the air with their cries and 
 shouting. Passing Naworth, they were followed and 
 challenged by Leonard Dacre on a high moor near the 
 Gelt. He mustered a force of 1,500 foot and 600 horse. 
 A sanguinary engagement ensued, which ended in the 
 
 c
 
 18 NAWORTH CASTLE 
 
 defeat of Dacre, avIio fled into Scotland, and, Ijeini? after- 
 wards attainted of treason, lie escaped into Lonvain, and 
 died in exile in 1581. It is now time to pursne the 
 history of the yonthful heiress. Lady Elizaheth Dacre. 
 
 In 'l5GG Thomas Howard, fourth Duke of Norfolk, 
 who had tAvice hefore entered into wedlock, married 
 Elizaheth, widow of Thomas Lord Dacre of Gillesland 
 and Greystoke. Their imion was hrief, for she died in 
 the following year, leaving George Lord Dacre and his 
 three sisters^ already mentioned, her children hy Thomas 
 Lord Dacre, her only issue. George was killed in his 
 childhood, as already stated, in 15G9, and his youthful 
 sisters remained in ward to their step-father, the Duke. 
 He seems to have followed the example of Thomas De 
 Multon, the Justiciar in the reign of Henry III. who 
 ohtained a grant of the custody of the daughters and 
 heu's of Richard De Lucy of Egremont, with their lands 
 and marriaa:e, reservinc: thereout a reasonahle dower for 
 Ada, the widow of De Lucy — herself the daughter of 
 Hugh De Morvillc and coheiress of his large possessions. 
 De Multon, not content with marrying his own sons to 
 his wards, the daughters of Uichard De Lucy, secured to 
 his own family the property hoth of the father and 
 the hushand hy marrying the widow herself. 
 
 The Duke of Norfolk by his first marriage, on which 
 he espoused Mary daughter and heir of Henry Eitz- 
 Alan, Earl of Arundel, had issue Philip Earl of Arundel, 
 ancestor of the celebrated Earl. The Duke's second wife 
 was Margaret, daughter and sole heir of Thomas Lord 
 Avidley of AValdcn, Lord Chancellor of England, who, at 
 the time of her marriage to the Duke, was a widow. 
 By this marriage Thomas fourth Duke of Norfolk had 
 three sons, namely, Thomas, afterwards Earl of Suffolk, 
 heir to his mother's estate, Henry, who died young, and 
 William, afterwards celebrated as Lord William Howard 
 of Naworth, who was born on the 19th Dec. 1563. 
 Their mother died Avithin a fcAv Aveeks from that time. 
 We may here 1)riefly glance at the ancestry of the last- 
 mentioned nobleman. 
 
 The Duke of Norfolk, his father, Avas the eldest son of 
 that Henry HoAvard, Earl of Surrey, who is the great
 
 AND THE FORMER LORDS OF GILLESLAND. 19 
 
 ornament of his family — " a nobleman," says Mr. Lodge, 
 " whose character reflects splendour even on the name of 
 Howard." Excelling in arts and in arms, a man of 
 learning in an unlearned age, a genius and a hero, of a 
 generous temper and a refined nature, uniting all the 
 gallantry and unbroken spirit of a rude period with the 
 elegancies and graces of a polished sera, enjoying 
 splendour of descent, possessing the highest honours 
 and ample wealth, and never relaxing his endeavours 
 to add the distinction of personal worth to his ancestral 
 honours — 
 
 " Who has not heard of Surrey's fame ? " 
 
 Yet neither his devotion to poetry and letters, nor his 
 eminence in all the accomplishments of that martial age, 
 could save him from the vengeance of his jealous and 
 fickle sovereign when he was arraigned on some frivolous 
 accusations of treason. The accomplished Surrey was 
 beheaded on Tower Hill in Jan. 1517, in the thirty-first 
 year of his age. Soon afterwards the sanguinary tyrant 
 himself died, and by the accident of his death the Duke 
 of Norfolk, Surrey's father, who was then a prisoner in 
 the Tower under a like sentence, escaped its execution. 
 The son of the ill-fated Surrey, who became fourth 
 Duke of Norfolk, on the death of his grandfather in 
 1551, was then about eighteen years of age. Surrey's 
 eldest daughter, the Lady Jane, who married the last 
 Earl of Westmoreland of the noble house of Neville, is 
 described as one of the most learned ladies of her time, 
 whose scholastic acquirements had the rare accompani- 
 ments of gentle feminine manners, good sense, and 
 affection for her family and her duties. Erom the 
 disastrous end of the Hebellion of 1569 to the close of 
 his life the Earl of Westmoreland, her husband, lingered 
 in hopeless exile. The Countess spent the remainder of 
 her days in retirement, lamenting the sad fate which 
 had bereaved her of a father and brother, who both died 
 on the scaffold, and of a husband exiled for life from his 
 honours and his country. The Earl languished till 1601 ; 
 she died in 1593. 
 
 Her brother, Thomas Howard fourth Duke of Nor- 
 
 c 2
 
 20 NAAVORTn CASTLE 
 
 folk, father of Lord William, was "the most powerful 
 and most po]iidar man in Eni^land ;" hut, allured l)y 
 ambition and animat(Ml hy a chivalrous feelini]^ towards 
 the accomplished and ill-iated Queen of Scots, the Duke 
 in 1568, when a year had not elapsed from his be- 
 coming for a third time a widower, formed or assented 
 to a project for his marriage witli that Princess, then 
 the captive of the implacal)le Elizabeth. The story 
 of this perilous intrigue forms a romantic and me- 
 morable feature in the sad history of the time, and it 
 speedily conducted him to the fatal end of his father. 
 He was sacrificed to the animosity of the jealous and 
 artful Elizabeth on the 2nd June, 1572, being the first 
 of her victims who suffered death on Tower Hill. By 
 this tragical event Lord William Howard was made an 
 orphan in the ninth year of his age. 
 
 The iniquitous sacrifice of the Duke deprived Lord 
 William of title, dignity, and estate, and reduced him to 
 the condition described by his father on committing: him, 
 while himself undin' sentence of death, to the care of his 
 eldest brother, Phili}) Earl of Arundel, namely, that he 
 had " nothing to feed the cormorants witlial." ThaDuke, 
 after his alliance to the Dacre famity, had, however, very 
 wisely and prudently destined his three sons for his three 
 youthful wards, the heiresses of the great baronies and 
 estates of Thomas Lord Dacre, and his design was fulfilled 
 as to the two heiresses who survived, but not in his own 
 lifetime. The youthful Lady Elizabeth Dacre was in 
 ward to the Queen after the execution of the Duke of 
 Norfolk ; and it Avas well for Lord William Howard that 
 her hand was not disposed of to some minion of the 
 court. Accordingly, ^vhen arrived at marriageable age, 
 Anne, the eldest daughter of Thomas Lord Dacre, was 
 married to Pliilip Earl of Arundel, and Elizal)cth, the 
 youngest, to Lord William Howard. Mary, the second 
 daughter, had been betrothed to Thomas, afterwards Lord 
 Howard of Waldcn, first Earl of Suffolk, but died before 
 marriage. Lord William and his youthful bride were 
 born in the same year ; she had been left an orphan in 
 her seventh year. Lord William in his ninth. Brought 
 up together, and destined for each other from childhood,
 
 AND THE FORMER LORDS OF GILLESLAND. 21 
 
 it is a remarkable circumstance that, after a union of 
 more than sixty years, he died, in little more than twelve 
 months from her death. "Their long union appears," 
 says the late Mr. Henrv Howard of Corby, in his He- 
 morials of the Hoxoard FariiUy, "to have been one of the 
 truest aifection, and his regard for her seems not ever to 
 have suffered variation or abatement." His accounts 
 contain entries for many presents to her; and he had 
 her portrait taken at seventy-three by Jansen, the best 
 painter of the time. 
 
 To return, however, to the story of their early life. 
 They were married on the 28th October, 1577, at Audley 
 End, near Saffron Walden, Essex (the maternal estate 
 of Thomas Howard, elder brother of Lord AVilliam), 
 when he was about fourteen years of age, the Lady 
 Elizabeth being some months younger ; and they appear 
 to have resided for some time on an estate called Mount 
 Pleasant, in Enfield Chase. But they were destined ere 
 long to experience the rancour of persecution for re- 
 ligion's sake. The sons of the Duke of Norfolk, who 
 was a Protestant, were intended to be educated in that 
 communion ; but they appear to have been influenced 
 by the tutor whom he selected to attend them at the 
 University of Cambridge with his own convictions in 
 favour of the Poman Catholic Church ; and Allien the 
 Earl of Arundel (Lord William's eldest brother), about 
 1583, decided on joining that communion, and imparted 
 his resolve to Lord William, who was then about twenty- 
 one years of age, the latter readily agreed with him to 
 adopt the same course, although such a step, in those 
 dreadful days of persecution, rendered it necessary that 
 they should leave their native land, whose councils were 
 swayed by the enemies of their family and faith. In 
 1582 the young Earl of Arundel attempted to put in 
 practice his design for escaping to the continent, and 
 j^repared a letter for the Queen, in which he explained 
 his reasons for that resolution, and declared his undi- 
 minished allegiance to her as his sovereign ; but, being 
 jealously watched in all his movements, he was intercepted 
 when about to embark on the Sussex coast, and was 
 brought a close prisoner to the Tower of London. Lord
 
 22 NAAVOllTll CASTLE 
 
 ^^illiam, who had now three chikh*en to engage liis 
 solicitude, was made to share his Ijrother's captivity. 
 This was about Easter 1585. 
 
 A few mouths h(>l'ore the noble brothers were thus 
 dejDrived of their liljcrty, a new claimant to the Dacre 
 estates appeared, in the person of Prancis Dacre, the 
 yoimger brother of Leonard and of Edward Dacre, both 
 of whom were then dead ; and he claimed as tenant in 
 tail, under colour of an attempted limitation of the 
 estates by Thomas Lord Dacre, their father. The Lady 
 Elizabeth, on attaining full age, had received restitution 
 of her paternal lands of Naworth and Gillesland, which 
 she enjoyed down to the time of the imprisonment of 
 Lord A\^illiam and his brother ; but they were no sooner 
 disabled from defending their lands than, at the suit of 
 Francis Dacre, the estates were sequestered from the 
 heiresses, and they were involved in a costly litigation. 
 Lord William has himself related that " Mr. Erancis 
 Dacre, not omitting his advantage of time, prosecuted 
 his cause with great violence, when both his adversaries 
 were close prisoners in danger of their lives, and in so 
 deep disgrace of the time, that scarce any friend or 
 servant durst adventure to show themselves in their 
 cause ; nay, the counsellors refused to plead their title 
 when they had been formally retained." 
 
 At length Lord William and the Earl his brother, 
 after having been lined by the Star Chamber, were 
 released from imprisonment ; and on Saint Peter's Day, 
 1586, obtained judgment in their favour in the suit, 
 notwithstanding which, their lands continued to be with- 
 held, under a variety of pretexts.* In 1588 the Earl of 
 Arundel was again arrested on a charge of treason, and 
 Lord William, fallini;' under the weii>'ht of hostile sus- 
 picion, was also again arrested and committed to custody, 
 but was shortly after^\'ards liberated for want of any 
 evidence against him. vVll the charges that the myi'midons 
 of persecution could bring forward were, that the Earl 
 had harboured and sustained priests, had corresponded 
 with Allen and Parsons, and had intended to depart from 
 
 * !MS. Lausd. No. 1 06, art. 25, contains an account of tlif trial relating to 
 tlic title of the coheiresses to their land,';.
 
 AND THE EOEMEU LORDS OF GILLESLAND. 23 
 
 the realm mtliout licence. Yet on these accusations he 
 was, after a lingering- dela.y, brought to trial before his 
 peers in 1589, and condemned to die. Elizabeth perhaps 
 trembled when she thought of the noble blood she had 
 already shed upon the scaffold, and did not msh to charge 
 her soul with his. She therefore thought fit to extend 
 what was called " her clemency " towards him, and, 
 accordingly, he never felt the edge of the axe, but was 
 suffered to await the termination of his life immured in 
 the Tower. The room in which the Earl was confined 
 has recently received a good deal of public notice. It is 
 a large chamber in Beauchamp's Tower, anciently the 
 place of confinement for state prisoners. A number of 
 inscriptions exist on the walls, the undoubted autographs 
 of several illustrious and unfortunate tenants of this once 
 dreary mansion. Among them, in a fine bold character, 
 is a touching sentence with the signature of the Earl, 
 dated 22 June, 1587. He languished in the Tower until 
 Nov. 1595, when death released him, in the fortieth year 
 of his age. In person the Earl is described to have been 
 very tall, of a dark complexion, with an agreeable mix- 
 ture of sweetness and dignity in his countenance. Before 
 his imprisonment, and in his happier days, he and his wife, 
 the Lady Anne, had settled on the Dacre estate at Grey- 
 stoke, the noble castle, barony, and domains of that 
 lordship being her portion on the division of the paternal 
 estates. By his attainder his half of the Dacre estates 
 was forfeited to the cro^m, and many years elapsed before 
 restitution to his successor. He was sui'vived by his son, 
 the celebrated antiquary and collector, and by the Lady 
 Anne his mdow, who lived until the 13th April, 1630, 
 when she had attained the age of seventy -two. She was 
 a woman of genius, and her letters evince an unaffected 
 piety and tenderness of character. 
 
 This digression from the principal subject of the pre- 
 sent article has been occasioned by the feeling that the 
 noble and unfortunate brother of Lord William Howard 
 shares in the interest with which we regard all that relates 
 to himself. To return to the history of Lord "William: — 
 
 The estates of the heiress of Naworth and Gillesland 
 were still withheld ; and finally Lord William Howard,
 
 24 NAWORTll CASTLE 
 
 and the widow of his hrotlier, were compelled in the 
 year IGOl to purchase their own lands of the Queen, for 
 tlie sum of 10,000/. Ladv Elizal)eth had attained her 
 37th year hefore sliewas ])ermitted to enjoy her patrimony. 
 Mr. Howard, father of the present lord of Corl)y, in his 
 Ilcmoriah of the Iloicard han'ih/, remarks that it does 
 not ap[)ear how she and Lord A\'illiam managed to subsist, 
 and meet the high charges and exactions to which they 
 were subjected ; and his accounts from 1019 to 1628, in- 
 clusive, shoAV that he was still in debt, and paid ten per 
 cent, interest for borrowed money. The accession of King 
 James opened fairer prospects to the house of Howard, 
 which had suffered so much, and lain so long under spo- 
 liation and forfeiture, for the attachment of the Duke of 
 Norfolk to the ill-fated mother of that monarch. On the 
 accession of James, Lord AYilliam was restored in blood ; 
 and, in company with his uncle Henry Howard, after- 
 wards Earl of Northampton, went into Cumberland in 
 1603, and met James on his entry into the kingdom. Pro- 
 bably Lord William was first invested by the new mo- 
 narch with the office of King's Lieutenant and Warden 
 of the Marches in 1605. 
 
 It seems that while he was deprived of his wife's patri- 
 mony the chief part of the tim1)er in the parks was cut 
 down. By an Inquisition taken in 1589 it was found 
 that " Naworth park" contained 200 acres, " Avith great 
 store of old oak wood, Avorth to sell 200/.;" and a chase 
 called Brid"'Wood is mentioned as containini»' the like 
 ([uantity of Avoodland, and another 200/. AAorth of tim- 
 ber. In the same Inquisition, the Commissioners report 
 to the CroAvn that "the faire Castle is in very great decay 
 in all ])arts." 
 
 Lord William Avas no sooner reinstated in his property 
 tlian he began to contemplate the repair of the old baro- 
 nial stronghold, Avhich during the long years of persecu- 
 tion had been neglected and deserted. The re]iairs seem 
 to liaA'e been commenced some time before 1607, and to 
 haA^e been then in actiA^e progress. At that time Camden, 
 the great antiquary, visit(Hl NaA\orth, Avhere he found its 
 noble OAvner living the life of a scholar as well as a sol- 
 dier. His private tastes and his public occupations so
 
 AND THE FORMER LORDS OF GILLESLAND. 25 
 
 blended these characters, that it might he said of him as 
 poets feigned of Sir Philip Sidney, that Mars and Mer- 
 cury fell at variance whose servant he should be. Camden 
 speaks of him as " an attentive and learned searcher 
 into venerable antiquity;" and in another passage says, 
 " He copied for me "with his own hand the inscriptions 
 found at Castle Steads :" alluding to the inscriptions 
 on Roman altars and tablets collected from the vicinity, 
 and brought together by Lord William, in the gardens 
 of Naworth Castle.* 
 
 "While the repairs were in progress he resided, with 
 his family, chiefly at his favourite hunting- seat of Thorn- 
 thw^aite in Westmoreland. Of his income about this time 
 we have interesting particulars in an account-book in his 
 o^vn handwriting, which was at Naworth Castle when the 
 late Mr. Howard of Corby wrote his Hoivard Memo- 
 rials. On the 14th Dec. 1611, the auditor delivered in at 
 Naworth Castle an account of the "true clere valines" 
 of my lord's estates for the year, to the Martinmas 
 preceding. They are returned in the Counties of Middle- 
 sex, Hertford, York, Durham, Northumberland, West- 
 moreland and Cumberland. Eirst there is the princely 
 domain of Castle Howard, then known by its ancient 
 name of Hinderskelf,t the yearly value of which is set 
 down at 420^. 10s. Vd\d. Then there is the Morpeth 
 property — which Mary de Merley had carried, four 
 centuries liefore, to William de Greystoke — this is set 
 doAvn at 741^. Ws.% The Cumberland estates produced 
 1,173Z. V^s. 2^cZ.;and the total income from all the counties 
 is the sum of 3,884/. Ws. \\d. The yearly income varied, 
 but may be taken to have been on an average equivalent 
 
 * See Horsley as to the Roman antiquities formerly at Naworth, pp. 182, 
 254, 255, 257, 258, 270, 277. 
 
 ■f" This property occurs, in 1195, in the possession of the Basset family, 
 and it was brought by the heiress of their estate into the families of Grim- 
 thorp, and Greystoke, and on the partition fell to the youthful heiress of 
 Naworth, Lady Elizabeth Dacre. 
 
 I Of Lord Wilham Howard's connection with Morpeth, an interesting 
 memorial is preser\'ed by the Corporation, in the form of a silver mace 
 which he gave to his Burgesses of Morpeth in 1604. It bears the arms of 
 James I. and of the several families whose inheritance had centred in the 
 noble donor, and it is perhaps unique amongst relics of this kind.
 
 26 NAWORTll CASTLE 
 
 to at least 10,000/. a-year of money of the present day. 
 Lord William himself declared, twenty years later, that 
 " his parks, liberties, and forests, in the compass of his 
 own territories, were as great a quantity in one place as 
 any nobleman in England possessed." The demesne lands 
 described in the above-mentioned account as "in the 
 Lord's hand," at Naworth and Brampton, are set down 
 as containing 2,178 acres, and there were then remainmg 
 on them 1,110 cattle of all sorts, and 3,000 sheep. In 
 these rural districts, as might have been expected, a large 
 portion of the available w^ealth of the owner was com- 
 monly invested in live stock. Thus fex. gr.J a York- 
 shire testator in the sixteenth century, the inventory 
 of whose effects is amongst the wills proved at Hich- 
 mond, died possessed of 3,391 sheep, which were valued 
 at 506Z. 7a*. Qd. 
 
 But, considerable as was Lord William's income from 
 his broad lands in so many parts of the country, his ex- 
 tensive alterations and repairs at Naworth, which A\ere 
 in progress during a period of twenty years, must have 
 absorbed a great part of it. 
 
 Lord AVilliam's alterations and repairs greatly changed 
 the aspect of the Castle in the inner court, and in its in- 
 terior arrangements, and the work of his time forms the 
 third of the four divisions or periods now marked in 
 its architecture. Lord William heightened the great 
 hall, and enlarged the windows which light it. He 
 altered the interior of the principal tower which forms 
 the soutli-western angle of the fortress, by adapting 
 its upper floors for dwelling-rooms. He repaired the 
 Warders' Gallery, enlarged its long range of windows, 
 and adapted for the purposes of his own habitation 
 the very remarkable chambers in the tower at the south- 
 eastern angle of the fortress, whicli is still called " Lord 
 William's Tower." He made the present entrance in the 
 southern part of the Castle under the gallery and 
 chapel, and built walls in the vaulted chambers or crypt 
 below the chapel and the hall, l)y which passages and 
 servants' rooms were formed on the basement. The 
 domestic chambers on the western and the northern side 
 were also repaired and altered in his time. The fire in
 
 AND THE FORMER LORDS OF GILLESLAND. 27 
 
 1844 destroyed some buildings on the western side of 
 the inner court, which had blocked up the fine pointed 
 archway that formerly gave access to the Castle, and was 
 probably disused from the time when Lord William 
 effected these repairs.* The late restorations have been 
 so judiciously made that the character has been preserved 
 of the original architecture, and also of the work of Lord 
 William's time, as each stood at the period of the fire. 
 Some of the interior fittings placed by Lord William in 
 his Castle, thus altered and repaired, are still preserved. 
 They may now be mentioned briefly. 
 
 Shortly before the time when he began these repairs, 
 the dismantlino' and destruction of the castle of Kirk 
 Oswald, (which, by the marriage of the only daughter of 
 the Thomas Lord Dacre who died in 1457, had fallen to 
 the family of " Lord Dacre of the South,") gave Lord 
 William the opportunity of acquiring for his Castle the 
 oak-ceilings and wainscot-work which had been placed 
 in the ancient hall and chapel of Kirk Oswald, and he 
 obtained these, and applied them to the same uses at 
 Naworth. These roofs were divided into panels, and a 
 grim old portrait of some historical personage was painted 
 in every panel. In the castle chapel at Naworth, as 
 well as in the hall, there was one of these curious oak 
 ceilings, and the altar end was also fitted up with wains- 
 cot in panels filled with portraits of patriarchs and 
 ecclesiastics. All this antique oak-work, in both hall 
 and chapel, perished in the conflagration ; but in the 
 chamber which Lord William used as his library there 
 is still the fine oak-roof, in panels, elaborately carved, 
 with bold heraldic bosses, enriched formerly by gold and 
 colours, which is said to have been brought hither from 
 Kirk Oswald by Lord William. Some other relics of 
 Kirk Oswald Castle escaped the fire. The most remark- 
 able of these are four heraldic figures in oak, the size of 
 life, which were brought by Lord William to his hall at 
 Naworth to bear banners, and they now do duty in the 
 
 * On the recent repairs, a painted window of two lights, which had been 
 walled up, was disclosed on the north side of the great tower at the south - 
 Avestern angle of the fortress.
 
 28 NAWORTH CASTLE 
 
 same capacity. One of them represents the Grmithorp 
 Dolphin, with a hcacon upon its head — the cognizance 
 hornc l)y llalph do Greystoke ; another is the Multon 
 Stag ; the third is the sahle Griffin of De Vanx ; and the 
 fourth is the Dacre EulL They have looked doAvn on 
 many a feast where fish and l)eef and venison smoked 
 before the successors of those great families ; and no\v, 
 imscathcd hy time and fire, and with their proper colours 
 restored, they seem to belong to the la7^es and penates 
 of this nohle hall. 
 
 Lord William enriched his oratory (which adjoined his 
 library) with some sculptured figures in alabaster, Avhicli 
 likewise came from Kirk OsAvald, and l)y some curious 
 paintings on panel, which probably the reforming Commis- 
 sioners had ejected from the neighbouring priory church 
 of Lanercost. These also have escaped, and have been 
 lately renovated. The old oak wainscot of the library 
 likewise remains,* and the original wainscot of Lord 
 William's bed-room below has also been preserved, 
 and still lines its walls. The bedstead and furniture 
 (which arc used by Lord Carlisle on his visits) are new, 
 bavins: been made lately, on the model of those which had 
 been preserved in this chamber from Lord William's 
 time. To these chambers, when he inhabited them, 
 the only approach Avas through the warders' gallery, 
 and this seems to have been reached only by the ancient 
 winding stairs in the principal tower. 
 
 In tlie Castle, thus altered and furnished for habitation. 
 Lord William was residing in (and probably for some 
 time before) 1620. A few years later, when all his family, 
 sons, daughters, and their wives and husl)ands, surround- 
 ed their nol)le parents at Naworth, they are said to have 
 numbered 52 in family. How merrily they must have 
 celebrated Christmas in their paternal hall ! It appears 
 from the StcAvard's account f that in 1625 the household 
 charges for fourteen days at Naworth amounted to 
 16Z. \ls. Id. Lord AVilli;un necessarily maintained a large 
 
 * It stands detached from tlie wall, the restoration of this apartment 
 not being completed. 
 
 f Edited by the late INIr Howard, of Corby Castle, in his " Memorials 
 of the HoAvard Family " (privately printed).
 
 AND THE FOUMER LOUDS OF GILLESLAND. 29 
 
 number of followers and domestics, and he was accus- 
 tomed to move about with many retainers. 
 
 In 1617 he met King James I. at Carlisle with a large 
 body of his armed servants ; and when he came from 
 Naworth to visit Lord Scrope, Governor of Carlisle, he 
 marched into the Castle at the head of a body of armed 
 followers.* The visitor at Naworth in the present day 
 finds no difficulty in imagining the scene that was 
 presented there — 
 
 " Wlaen, from beneath tlie greenwood tree, 
 Rode forth Lord Howard's chivalry; 
 And men at arms, with glaive and spear, 
 Brought up the chieftain's glitt'ring rear." 
 
 In 1621 mention occurs of a house in St. Martin's 
 Lane, London, to which Lord "William had frequently 
 occasion to repair — not, however for the purpose of fre- 
 quenting the dangerous precincts of a court, or going 
 within the vortex of political strife ; for, warned by the 
 fate of his ancestors, he had at an early age retired to 
 his estates in the North, and renounced the ^^erilous 
 honours that might have rewarded a contrary and more 
 ambitious course. The cost of each of his journeys to 
 London, with from 18 to 24 attendants and 12 horses, 
 going and returning, varied from 161. to 21/., but was 
 sometimes more. In the year last mentioned (1621) he 
 was absent on his journey to London from 25 May to 20 
 June, and the charges amounted to 38/. lis. 8cl. In the 
 following year his riding charges from London only, 
 beginning 28 May, were 12/. 12^. 'Sd. He seems to have 
 passed little more time in London than he was obliged to 
 do, and to have 
 
 " Long'd for rough glades and forest free." 
 
 In 1623 he went to Spa, for the benefit of his health, 
 accompanied by Lady Elizabeth. They proceeded by way 
 of London and Calais, and on their return came from 
 Dunquerque to Newcastle by ship. The total cost of 
 this journey was the large sum of 212/. lOs. Sd. 
 
 Of his pecuniary circumstances in this and preceding 
 years his accounts afi'ord some curious traces. In 1619 
 he was still so straitened, from the plunder he had suffered 
 
 * Jefferson, Hist, of Carlisle.
 
 30 NAWOllTII CASTLE 
 
 by Queen Elizabeth and from tlic cost of the repairs he 
 was making", that he allowed himself for pocket money 
 only twenty shillini^s a month, which scanty sum he had 
 increased in 1G27 to the magnificent allowance of 36/. a 
 year ! From that period, ho^Acyer, he bought more costly 
 furniture and books ; planted his estates ; and was paying 
 marriage portions for his daughters, but still by instal- 
 ments only. The termination of his Steward's accounts 
 in the following year (1G28) unfortunately destroys from 
 that time the clue to these curious particulars of his 
 priyate life. 
 
 It may be interesting to mention here a few of the 
 items of expenditure that are set do^^'n in the Steward's 
 account. 
 
 There are several payments of 5s. to the barber for 
 cutting hair and trimming my lord's beard. A pair of 
 silk hose cost 355., another, 38s. ; this was in 1619. A 
 pair of gloyes for my lord 5s., a ])lack frieze jerkin for 
 my lord 16s. ; a pair of boots 10s., and a pair of spurs 
 2s. ; a silk belt for the sword 4s. ; and a scarf for my 
 lord to wear in riding 6s., shirts, bands (probably of lace,) 
 and handkerchief, for my lord, 6/. 8s., and every year at 
 least two pairs of spectacles : one pair is set do^\Ti at 
 the modest price of eighteen pence. 
 
 Some articles of luxury occur. Amongst these are, 
 to Mr. Leonard Milborn, for a coach and four horses, 30/., 
 (surely this can have been only a part of the price?) two 
 saddle-cloths, bridles, reins and furnitvu'c for my lord, 
 3Z. 18s.; two silver candlesticks 101. I7s.; and two silver 
 flagons, bought in 1628, cost 5s. del. an ounce; a silver 
 hand l)ell for my lord 38s.; six Turkey carpets, in 1619, 
 Ql. 3s.; three yards of crimson velvet to make a carj)et, 
 42s. : the carpet, with gold and silk fringe, cost altoge- 
 ther 4/. 16s. 
 
 He frequently made presents "to my lady." The cost 
 of some of these is recorded in the accounts. Por exam- 
 ple, a watch for my lady, in 1621, cost 4Z.; a gown for 
 my lady in " Somer " 6Z.; a black fan, Avith silver handle, 
 6s. 6c/.; and two fine felt hats for my lady 14s. 
 
 The St(nvard's accounts for the few years preserved 
 unfortunately do not contain jiaymcnts for l)ooks or
 
 AND THE FOUMER LORDS OF GILLESLAND. 31 
 
 works of art. Porensic eloquence was wofuUy underpaid 
 if we are to take as an example wliat Mr. Banks received 
 "for arguing the cause" respecting Corby, viz. lis. 
 
 The many evidences of Lord William. Howard's pru- 
 dent economy and careful management that might he 
 brought forward, show that the formidable chieftain was 
 not one of those who kept in order (as Lord Byron said) 
 everything and everybody except himself. 
 
 Books which have come down to his successors in the 
 state in which he used them, and many memorials of his 
 devotion to literary tastes and pursuits, testify the way 
 in which this great man was accustomed to occupy his 
 leisure hours.* Books appear to have afforded solace 
 in the troubles of his early life, and to have remained 
 dear to him in the prosperity of his age. History, 
 especially ecclesiastical history, seems to have been his 
 favourite reading ; he also took much interest in the an- 
 tiquities of his county, and in heraldry and genealogy. 
 
 He collected many valuable MSS., probably, for the 
 most part, from the spoils of the monasteries scattered in 
 the preceding century, and some of these, inscribed by 
 his own hand, are preserved in the Arundel Collection and 
 in the Boyal Society's Library. 
 
 The register of St. Alban's Abbey during the govern- 
 ment of Abbat Whethamstede — which is now preserved 
 amongst the Arundel Collection in the Heralds' College, 
 and is one of the most remarkable of its class of his- 
 torical MSS. — belonged to Lord William Howard, and 
 may perhaps be taken as an example of the kind of 
 manuscripts he collected. It was commenced in the 
 reign of Henry VI. and is chiefly in the handwriting of 
 the venerable abbat, and it is adorned with some rich 
 and elaborate illuminations. This MS. bears Lord Wil- 
 liam Howard's autograph. He was a warm friend of 
 the illustrious antiquary Sir Bobert Cotton, to whose 
 diligence it is well known that we owe the preservation 
 at this day of many valuable MSS. that had been once 
 
 * The quantity of papers that he wrote on the litigation Avith regard to 
 the rights of the co-heiresses of Lord .Dacre, indicate the active part he 
 took in tliese questions, and his power of patient labour.
 
 32 NAWORTU CASTLE 
 
 treasured in the monasteries, a large nnmber of which 
 enrich the celebrated collection in the British Museum 
 that bears his name. Lord AVilliam gave one of his 
 daughters to Sir llobert Cotton's son, Avitli a portion 
 amounting to 500/. Lord William and his distinguished 
 friend seem to have been animated by kindred zeal for 
 the preservation of learning; and the same hand that 
 drew up a list of sixty-eight felons taken by him, and for 
 the most part executed for felonies in Gillcsland and 
 elsewhere, and that bore the Lord Marcher's SAVord to the 
 terror of moss-troopers, edited the Chronicle of Elorence 
 of AVorcester, one of the old monastic historians of 
 England. llis collection of printed books, a large 
 numl)er of wliicli remain in his tower at Naworth, in- 
 cluded many works on history— ecclesiastical, ancient, 
 and medicDval — and amongst them are some black and 
 ponderous tomes and books of rarity and value. A 
 cataloG^ue of his books was indorsed in his own hand, and 
 tlie notes on the margins of several bear witness to his 
 attentive reading. One is not surprised to find that 
 " Shakespeare's Plays " were (and may still be) amongst 
 his l)ooks. He was accustomed to contemplate the ex- 
 amples of heroic and generous actions recorded in his- 
 tory, and he kncAV how potent is the tragic muse — 
 
 *' To wake the soul by tender strokes of art; 
 To raise tlie genius and to mend the heart; 
 To malce mankind in conscious virtue bold, 
 Live o'er each scene, and be what they behold." 
 
 Were it not for the subjects of the books preserved in his 
 well guarded tower, and for what is knoAvn of his character, 
 it might have been supposed tliat the mystic projects of 
 the alchemists, or the dreams of judicial astrology, were 
 his pursidts in this place of seclusion. His library was 
 to him the domain of the tranquil ])ast, where the battle- 
 fields of actual life gave place to the scenes of history, 
 where the helmet could be exchanged for her immortal 
 garlands, and conquests be achieved that in the turmoil 
 of })ublic life could not be won. It is very honourable to 
 his descendants that they preserved these, and all other 
 memorials of his life, as nearly as possil)le in the state in 
 which he left them. It has l^een already mentioned that
 
 AND THE FORMER LORDS OF GILLESLAND. 33 
 
 "Lord William's Tower" was in his time accessible 
 only tliroiigli the long gallery paced by his armed 
 warders ; and his chambers were reached by a narrow 
 winding stair and were guarded by two doors of great 
 strength at and near the entrance from the gallery.* 
 The lower chamber was his bed-room ; above it was his 
 library, and beside the place of study was his private 
 oratory, t All these apartments, the very furniture he 
 used, the books he read, the trusty blade he wielded for 
 his sovereign, and the altar at which he knelt l^efore the 
 King of Kings, were preserved so completely in their 
 original state down to the time of the fire, that, as Sir 
 Walter Scott remarked, they carried back the visitor to 
 the hour when the warden in person might be heard 
 ascending his turret-stair, and almost led you to expect 
 his arrival. 
 
 Of Lord William Howard in his more important yet 
 less pleasing public character little has yet been said, for 
 one is tempted to dwell on all the traces that exhibit the 
 noble chieftain surrounded by family endearments, and 
 devoting his leisure to his much loved-books. His public 
 life, though of great and permanent utility to the country, 
 by establishing within the borders habits of obedience to 
 the laws and respect for life and property, does not, 
 however, furnish much of historical incident. But we 
 know that he was diligent and successful in the discharge 
 of his official duties, that he maintained at Naworth a 
 garrison of 140 men, that his name was a name of terror 
 to the lawless and disobedient, "who," says EuUer, "had 
 two enemies — the laws of the land and Lord William 
 Howard of Na worth," and that by his vigilance and 
 firmness, his uncompromising justice, and, when neces- 
 sary, his severity, he restored peace and order to those 
 
 * Lord William's ToAver seems to have owed its preservation to the 
 enormous thickness of its walls. The lower chamber is very interesting, 
 as the massive arches or ribs of stone, on which the upper stories of the 
 tower are carried, cross its roof diagonally, and are in admirable pre- 
 servation, although the fire raged fiercely in this part of the castle. 
 
 f A secret chamber has been contrived between the level of the oratory 
 and the floor below. The descent to it was behind the wainscot of the 
 altar, and in the dark days of persecution it probably more than once 
 formed a hiding-place for priests. 
 
 D
 
 34 XAWOUTH CASTLE 
 
 parts of the realm, and gained the honourable title of 
 " The Civilizer of orii Borders." The dark and 
 g'looniy prison-vault which is situated at the basement of 
 the south-western or principal tower of the Castle, is a 
 terrible monument of the severity experienced by pri- 
 soners, 
 
 " Doom'd in sad durance pining to abide 
 
 Tlie long delay of hope from Solway's further side." 
 
 Some rings remain on the walls of this dungeon. Its 
 roof is vaulted with massive elliptical ribs, similar to 
 those which are better seen in the lower apartment of 
 LordAVilliam's Tower, which is now opened to the staircase 
 at the south end of the hall. 
 
 Tlie portraits of Lord William represent a tall person, 
 with sharp features, and a countenance marked by charac- 
 ter and energy ; and to these pictorial representations 
 Sir Walter Scott has added a chivalric portrait of the 
 noble chieftain's appearance in the well-known lines — 
 
 " Costly his garb, — his Flemish ruff 
 Fell o'er his doublet shaped, of buff. 
 
 With satin slash'd aud lined ; 
 Tawny his boot and gold his spur, 
 His cloak was all of Poland fur, 
 
 His hose with silver tAvined ; 
 His Bilboa blade, by March-men felt. 
 Hung in a broad and studded belt." 
 
 By the epithet "Belted WiU " Lord William Howard is 
 commonly known. A belt said to have been worn by 
 him used to be shown at Naworth, and a "broad and 
 studded belt " it was, it being of leather, three or four 
 inches broad, and covered with a cou]ilet in German, the 
 letters on metal studs, from which circumstance it has 
 been imagined that some charm was attriljuted to this 
 belt. The baldrick or l:)road belt was however in former 
 times commonly worn as a distinguishing badge by 
 persons in high station, and therefore does not seem likely 
 to have furnished a distinguishing epithet : moreover, in 
 his portraits. Lord William's belt is not prominent, and 
 indeed is represented as remarkably narrow. In Cum- 
 berland the characteristic epithet attached to his name 
 was " Bauld Willie" — meaning "Bold William" — a 
 just description, certainly, of the noble
 
 AND THE FORMER LORDS OF GILLESLAND. 35 
 
 " Ploward, than whom knight 
 Was never dubb'd, more bold in fight; 
 Nor, when from war and armour free, 
 More famed for stately courtesy." 
 
 To tliis gracious quality, testimouy has beeu borue in 
 the very interesting narrative of an excursion by three 
 military officers, who were quartered at Norwich, and 
 started from that place on Monday, 11th August, 1634, 
 and who, after an absence of seven weeks, returned to 
 Norwich, having in that time, visited the northern and 
 some other counties of England. Their narrative is pre- 
 served in the Lansdowne MSS. The portion relating to 
 Lord William Howard is short. The travellers had been 
 at Hexham, and, continuing their journey westward, 
 passed by Langley Castle, Thirlwall, and Gelt Porest, 
 to visit Naworth. Being prevented by Lord William's 
 absence from paying their respects to him on their 
 arrival, they " met with lucky entertainment in a little 
 poore cottage in his liberties, driven in thither by very ill 
 weather, (to wit,) a cup of nappy ale, and a peece of red 
 deer pye — more than we thought fit (said the cottagers) 
 to acquaint his Lordship withal." The travellers pro- 
 ceeded to Carlisle, and arrived at the inn called the Angel, 
 in the market-place. In the morning, they went to the 
 cathedral, which they thought Uke a "great, wild country 
 church," and they give an account, by no means flattering, 
 of the organ and the singing. 
 
 " Whilst we were perambulating (they continue) in 
 this strong garison towne, we heard of a messenger 
 from that trulv noble Lord we the last dav missed on at 
 Naworth, with a curteous invitation to dinner the next 
 day at Corl^y Castle (for there his Lp. then was), which 
 we accompted (as it was indeed) a mighty favour from soe 
 noble a person. The next day we went thither, and were 
 by that generous brave Lord curteously and nobly enter- 
 tayned, and sorry he said he was that hee was not at 
 Naworth to give us there the like. His Lp's. coniaunds 
 made us to transgresse good manners, for neither would 
 he suffer us to speak uncover' d, nor to stand up (although 
 our duty required another posture), but plac'd us by his 
 Lp. himselfe to discourse with him untill dinner time. 
 
 D 2
 
 80 NAWOIITII CAS'J'LE 
 
 Anon appeared a graAC and virtuous matron, his lionble. 
 lady, who tokl us indeed we were heartily welcome, and, 
 whilst our ancient and myself addressed ourselves to 
 satisfy his Lordship in such occurrents of Norfolke as 
 he pleased to aske and desired to know, wee left our 
 modest captaine to relate to his nohle lady what she 
 desired to know. These noljle twain, as it pleased them 
 to tell us themselves, could not make ahove 25 veeres 
 both togeather when first they were marry' d, that now 
 can make ahove liO yeeres, and are very hearty, well, 
 and merry. And long may they continue soe, for soe 
 have they all just cause to pray that live neere them, for 
 their hospitality and fre entertainment agrees with their 
 generous and nohle extraction, and their yeares retaine 
 the memory of their honble. predecessors' bountifull 
 housekeeping." 
 
 This was in 1634, and the course of the noble pair was 
 then nearly run. Lord William had 1)ecome — 
 
 " A bearded knight iu arms grown old." 
 
 He had given peace to the borders, and substituted 
 obedience for anarchy. The whole vale from the walls 
 of Naworth to the distant border, once 
 
 " Familiar with bloodshed as the morn with dew,'' 
 
 owned the authority of law, and began to respect the 
 rights of property. His life had been passed in acts 
 worthy of the heroism of his ancestors. He had by his 
 prudence and just dealing surmounted the difficulties 
 under which he came to the barony, and he liad consoli- 
 dated a noble inheritance lor his posterity. He had seen 
 his chiklren grow to be tlie comfort and pride of his age, 
 and he had formed for them many honoural)le alliances. 
 We may l)e allowed to believe that, after a life passed, as 
 his was passed, he could meet death, as he had been 
 accustomed to meet his enemies, without fear, 
 
 '* Nor shrink to hear Eternity's long surge 
 Break on the shores of Time." 
 
 He departed this life on the 20th Oct. 1G40, at Nawortli, 
 in the seventy- seventh year of his age, having survived 
 Lady Elizabeth little more than twelve months, she 
 having died on the 18th Oct. 1G39. Of the place or places
 
 AND THE FORMER LORDS OF GILLESLAND. 37 
 
 of their interment no register lias been preserved, in 
 consequence, prol3al)ly, of the ravages of the plague at 
 that time. The late'^Mr. Howard thought it most pro- 
 bable that she was buried with her ancestors at Laner- 
 cost, and he had seen a copy of a steward's account in 
 which it was stated that Lord William was buried in 
 Greystoke church, under the "great blue stone." It was 
 raised some years back, and bones were found below, but 
 it bore no inscription. In the now roofless and grass - 
 grown choir of the abbey church of Lanercost, and among 
 its mossy tombs, we look in vain for any sepulchral 
 monument of the noble pair; but the character and 
 feelings of the present Earl of Carlisle, and the spirit 
 evinced in his restorations at Naworth, induce the belief 
 that a monument will ere long be erected to Lord 
 WiUiam and Lady Elizabeth Howard. As already men- 
 tioned. Lord William caused a full-length portrait of 
 Lady Elizabeth to be painted by Cornelius Jansen, in 
 the year 1637, when she had attained her seventy-third 
 year. This, and a full-length companion portrait of 
 Lord William himself by the same eminent artist, are 
 preserved at Castle Howard, and copies of them decorate 
 the upper end of the great hall of Kaworth Castle.* 
 
 * These escaped tlie fire by a remarkable accident ; they were at the 
 time in the hands of a picture-frame maker at Newcastle. At the time of 
 the fire there was at Naworth a portrait of Lady Elizabeth, taken when she 
 was fourteen years of age. It is known to have been carried out of the 
 Castle at the time of the fire, and has been lost. Some description of 
 it is given in the following letter addressed to Lord Carlisle by the late 
 Mr. Henry Howard, of Corby Castle, dated 14 March, 1825. 
 
 " I have sent back the Lady Eliz*'^ Dacre's portrait to Naworth Castle, 
 carefully packed, and return your Lordship thanks for the permission to 
 my daughter to copy it. The character given to the face makes it 
 probable that it was a true likeness ; and considering the personage, I 
 think y'* Lordship will be inclined to pay some attention to its preserva- 
 tion. The dress of the lady is much ornamented; she wears a cap in the 
 form of those given to Mary Queen of Scots, which has a peak in front 
 coming on to the forehead, with the letters D. G. which I apprehend is 
 either Dacre and Greystoke, or Dacre of Gillesland. The inscription on 
 the picture is — 
 
 Anno D!!i 1578, 
 setatis suse 14. 
 
 She wears her wedding ring on the middle joint of the finger, which I 
 have understood indicates a person betrothed, or married, but not yet
 
 38 NAWOllTIl CASTLE 
 
 The very attire in which Lord William is represented is 
 mentioned in his steward's account, and the several 
 items aj)i)ear to have cost altogether 17/. Is. ChI. Ilis 
 dress is a close jacket of black figured thick silk, with 
 rounded skirts to mid-thigh, and many small buttons. 
 The hose, of black silk, and black silk stockings come 
 above the knee, and are tied with silk garters and bows. 
 He wears a plain, falling shirt-collar ; the sleeves are 
 turned up at the wrist. His dress-rajiier has a gilt 
 basket-hilt, and hangs by a narrow belt of black velvet 
 with oilt hooks. 
 
 Lord William Howard had five sons and three daugh- 
 ters. His eldest son, Philip, born in 1583, died in his 
 lifetime, leaving a son and heir named William, the 
 ancestor of the Earls of Carlisle. Lord William's second 
 son was Sir Francis Howard, for whom he purchased in 
 1624 the fair estates of Corbv, and who was ancestor of 
 the line now represented by Mr. Philip Howard. Charles 
 Howard, a great-grandson of Lord William, succeeded 
 to the barony as early as 1612 by the speedy deaths of 
 his intermediate ancestors, and, preserving their tra- 
 ditional attachment to the house of Stuart, he became 
 instrumental in the restoration of Charles II., and was 
 better rewarded than some other noble Hovalists aaIio 
 had suffered for their master. In 1661 he was created 
 Earl of Carlisle, Viscount Howard of Morpeth, and 
 Baron Dacre of Gillesland — honours borne by the })resent 
 Earl. The talents of Charles first Earl of Carlisle led 
 to his emplo^Tiient in diplomatic missions, in which 
 capacity, as weU as in arms, several of his descendants 
 likewise served their country ; and they have adorned their 
 high lineage by mental attainments and personal worth. 
 
 Of the fortunes of Naworth Castle durin"- the £>reat 
 Hebollion (wliich intervened between the death of Lord 
 William and the accession of the first Earl) we have not 
 
 living with her hiisband. Mr. Lysons, in his Cumberland, (I am not 
 aware on what authority,) states that she was married in 1577. In the 
 genealogy, painted in the chapel at Naworth, her eldest son, Philip, y' 
 Lordship's ancestor, appears to have been born in 1583, when she was 
 19 years of age; then follow two daughters; and the birth of my ancestor 
 Sir Francis Howard, is dated 1588, and there are several other sons and 
 daughters."
 
 ■"■^•1 
 
 ;a-=' #- 
 
 
 ■WUHMKKt^: 
 
 ^•• 
 
 r-^^J^ 
 
 
 
 -,\; 
 
 \ 
 
 
 4-- 
 
 r 
 
 ,1L^--' 
 
 S": '& 'ISsi'ii 
 
 
 ig '. «Wl iWinj r-i 
 
 ''- J- 
 

 
 AND THE FOllMER LORDS OF GILLESLAND. 89 
 
 any information ; but we may suppose that it sustained 
 some serious injury, as Bishop Gibson mentions that it 
 was again repaired by that nobleman and made fit for 
 residence. The buikling, as left by those repairs, seems 
 to have remained, internally and externally, without 
 material alterations down to the time of the lamentable 
 conflagration in 1844. 
 
 It was in the walls of the inner quadrangle more 
 especially, that the building suffered. The hall, the 
 chapel, the gallery, and the domestic apartments were so 
 extensively injured that the fa9ades are for the most part 
 of restored work. Still, these portions have been rebuilt 
 in such correct taste that they harmonise well with the 
 portions that escaped the fire, and wear the hues of time. 
 The rejiairs in the chapel of the castle and the chief 
 tower are not yet (1853) completed.* 
 
 A more striking contrast can hardly be witnessed, 
 than in passing from warm light chambers, adapted for 
 modern comfort, to the vaulted dungeon at the basement 
 of the keep-tower and the chamber above it. This was 
 the prison of the Castle, and it remains in all its ancient 
 gloom and terror. But there is a relique of a very 
 opposite kind on the other side of the coiu't of Naworth, 
 an old jasmine tree, which spreads its fresh verdure and 
 sparkling modest flowerets over the doorway of the great 
 hall, and it must not be passed without mention. There 
 is a something poetical in its aspect and situation, and 
 one does not wonder to find that it induced two previous 
 Earls to invoke the Muse in its favour, and the present 
 Earl to write the following appropriate lines : — 
 
 My slight and slender Jasmine Tree, 
 That bloomest on my Border Tower, 
 
 Thou art more dearly loved by me 
 Than all the wreaths of fairy bower. 
 
 I ask not while I near thee dwell 
 
 Arabia's spice or Syria's rose; 
 Thy light festoons more freshly smell — 
 
 Thy virgin white more purely glows. 
 
 * The chambers in the tower are modernised, but the ancient winding- 
 stairs have been preserved. The repairs made necessary by the fire 
 disclosed in this tower some hiding-places in the wall — the contrivances of 
 a dark age of insecurity.
 
 'iO NAWOKTH CASTLE 
 
 My wild and winsome Jasmine Tree, 
 That climbest up the dark grey wall, 
 
 Thy tiny flow'rets seeiu in glee 
 
 Like silver spray-drops as they fall. 
 
 Say, did they from their leaves thus peep 
 AVhen mail'd moss-troopers rode the hill, 
 
 When helmed warders paced the keep. 
 And bugles blew for Belted Will? 
 
 My free and feathery Jasmine Tree, 
 
 Within the fragrance of thy breath. 
 Yon dungeon grated to its key 
 
 And the chain'd captive sigh'd for death. 
 
 On border fray or feudal crime 
 
 I muse not while I gaze on thee; 
 The chieftains of that stern old time 
 
 Could ne'er have loved a Jasmine Tree.* 
 
 The noble hall of Naworth Castle is now perhaps 
 iinique of its kind. Tlie fine open timber roof it has 
 received (from the design of Mr. Salvin, the eminent 
 architect, who has directed the restorations at the 
 castle,) contributes greatly to the antique and impres- 
 sive character of the hall. Over the spacious fire- 
 place the following appropriate verses have been in- 
 scribed : on a scroll bearing the date 1844 — 
 
 " OUR BEAUTIFUL HOUSE, WHERE OUR FATHERS PRAISED THEE, IS BURNED UP 
 WITH FIRE." 
 
 On a scroll bearing date 1849 — 
 
 " THOU SHALT BE CALLED THE KEPAmER OF THE BREACH: THE RESTOIIEK OF 
 PATHS TO DWELL IN." 
 
 Along the whole length of the liall, on each side, 
 heraldic shields are displayed on the corbels supporting 
 the ribs of the roof. Beginning at the upper (the 
 south) end, there are on the eastern side the shields of 
 Howard, Mowbray, Braose, Segrave, De Brotherton,t 
 
 * On the walk outside the eastern wall of the castle, and near " Lord 
 William's Tower," a noble old yew-tree stands on the edge of the declivity — 
 a venerable contemporary of the founders of Naworth Castle — whose dark 
 foliage was stirred by the free winds, while in tlie course of three centuries 
 many a captive in the adjacent dungeon was pining in sad durance. 
 
 f Sir Robert Howard, who succeeded his father in 143G, married 
 Margaret, elder daughter of Thomas De ]\Iowbray, Duke of Norfolk, by 
 Elizabeth his wife, the daughter and coheir of John Mowbray, Duke of 
 Norfolk. This Thomas De I\Iowbray was son and heir of John Lord
 
 AND THE FOllMER LORDS OF GILLESLAND. 41 
 
 Pitzalan, Warren, Tilney, Audley, Uvedale, Cavendish: 
 on the western side, Dacre, De Multon, De Morville, 
 Vanx, Engaine, Estravers, Greystoke, Grimthorp, Bole- 
 bee, De Merlay, Boteler — a 
 
 " Long array of mighty shadows." 
 
 The hall contains many family portraits, some fine 
 tapestry, and several pieces of armour. Of the portraits, 
 seven are on panel, half-length size ; one represents 
 Thomas Duke of Norfolk, celebrated as Lord Surrey, the 
 hero of Elodden Eield, who died in 1524 ; another, Philip 
 Earl of Arundel, Avho died in the Tower in 1595 ; 
 another. Queen Katharine Parr. There is a full-length 
 portrait of King Charles I. by Vandyck hung on the 
 north wall ; a full-length portrait said to represent Queen 
 Mary of England — she holds in her right hand a crucifix, 
 in her left a candle, lighted, wreathed with flowers, and 
 wears a dress of rich embroidered tissue. There is a 
 portrait of that famous Lady, Anne, Countess of Pem- 
 broke, Dorset, and Montgomery, who was born 1590 and 
 died 1675. 
 
 In the drawing-room, which adjoins the hall, there 
 is a fine portrait on panel of the Duke, Lord William's 
 father; a portrait on canvas of Thomas Howard, Earl 
 of Arundel, the reno^vned collector of the marbles, 
 Lord William's nephew ; a portrait of Philip, brother of 
 the first Earl of Carlisle, who fell at Eowton Heath 
 1645 ; one of Theophilus Earl of Suff'olk 1630 ; and a 
 portrait of Lady Mary, daughter of the first Earl of 
 Carlisle, who married Sir John Eenwick. She is repre- 
 sented in the attire of a widow, and holds his miniature. 
 He was beheaded in 1696. This portrait was brought 
 from Castle Howard. The Warders' Gallery, instead of 
 being paced by living guards, is now also lined with 
 portraits of buried ancestry, some of which have been 
 
 Mowbray, by Elizabeth, daughter and heir of John Lord Segrave, and of 
 Margaret Plantagenet his wife, who was daughter and heir of Thomas De 
 Brotherton Earl of Norfolk, the eldest son of King Edward I-, who was 
 invested with the office of Earl Marshal of England 12 Feb. 1386. By 
 this illustrious alliance, Sir Robert had an only son John Howard, who 
 was created Earl Marshal, and Earl and Duke of Norfolk, on 28 June 
 1483, and was ancestor of Lord William Howard of Naworth.
 
 42 NAWORTII CASTLE. 
 
 brought from Castle Howard. The five noble pieces of 
 tapestry in the hall likewise came from Castle IIoAAarcl. 
 They are said to have been made as a marriage present 
 to Henry IV. of France and Mary de Medicis. All the 
 armour that was kept in the gallery at the time of the 
 fire i:)erished, but that which was in the hall escaped. A 
 complete suit, now in the gallery, is of elaborate work- 
 manship. It need not be said that all these reliques add 
 greatly to the antique character and interest of the 
 venerable walls, and aid to place the visitor in presence 
 of " the spirit of the olden time." 
 
 " So Nawortli stands, still rugged as of old, 
 Arm'd like a knight witliout, austere and bold. 
 But all "witliin bespeaks the better day. 
 And the bland influence of a Caklisle's sway."
 
 BRINKBURN PRIORY, NORTHUMBERLAND. 
 
 The Priory Church of St. Peter, at Brinkburn, is 
 situated on the river Coquet, about five miles from the 
 ancient town of Rothbury. Tlie church only remains. 
 It is roofless, but almost entire, and stands on a sort of 
 peninsula formed by the river, beneath deep embowering 
 woods, and amidst scenery of great beauty. The locality 
 is one of such deep seclusion that the traveller would 
 have little chance of finding it without a guide. It was 
 far from the line of march of armies, and from the 
 highways of men ; and in the times of border warfare the 
 monks are believed to have been often indebted to their 
 seclusion for their safety. 
 
 The surrounding country is varied and romantic. On 
 the approach to Brinkburn from Weldon Bridge, which 
 is a station on the great road to Wooler, well-known to 
 anglers and tourists, the mountainous range of Cheviot 
 is seen far in the north-west soaring in the blue distance, 
 and a moorland country spreads between those distant 
 hills and the pastoral scenery of Coquet Dale. The 
 winding vaUey of the river may be traced for a con- 
 siderable space. In some parts it flows under fells ; in 
 others it is confined between high banks, wooded from 
 the water's edge ; elsewhere it expands brightly through 
 meadows and corn-fields. But the beauty of the river 
 seems to culminate around the priory. The monks are 
 found, generally, to have had an unerring taste and 
 judgment in selecting the sites for abbeys ; and certainly 
 the little brotherhood who came to Brinkbmm in the 
 days of Anglo-Norman kings to build their monastery, 
 selected for it the most favourable spot on one of the 
 most beautiful of Northumbrian rivers.
 
 44 BllINKBURN PRIOllY. 
 
 The Coquet partly encircles the green level haug-h on 
 which the ruins stand ; and the clitfs on the opposite side 
 rise to a considera1)le height, clothed to the summit with 
 native wood. The descent to tlie priory is long and 
 highly picturesque, the road being cut through tlie cliffs 
 of the river. The rock, tinted by mosses and shadowed 
 by verdure, forms a wall on one side of the road, and on 
 the other the bank slopes precipitously, covered with 
 wood to the edare of the water. The stream is seen far 
 below, througli the foliage, sweeping silently on, yet in 
 some parts of its course forming a tranquil mirror to the 
 overhanging woods and sky — fit scene to island tlic mo- 
 nastic walls, for to the monks it as brightly reflected 
 heaven, and imaged the tide of life flowing on its way. 
 A situation more favourable to study and de\"otion can 
 hardly be found. And here, day by day, amidst deep 
 seclusion, and all the " solemn stillness " of natural 
 repose, the voice of devotion was raised through cen- 
 turies to Nature's God, and a monastic fraternity cele- 
 brated their impressive rites in isolated splendour, but in 
 peace which the world beyond could not bestow. 
 
 But some hundreds of years before the wlute-robed 
 canons came to Erinkburn and raised these solid ivy- 
 vested walls, the hill above Erinkburn was occupied by 
 some work of the martial Romans. It was on the 
 eastern branch of AVatling-street, and the military way 
 crossed the river a little below the site of Erinkl)urn 
 priory. The reader will remember that there were " sta- 
 tions beyond the wall " in the Roman province of Valentia 
 or Northumberland, and this may have been one of them, 
 but we have no means for forming an opinion as to its 
 extent or strength. Perhaps some remains of Roman 
 Avork might have led the first Saxon possessors to fix 
 their dwellings among these inclosures ; but there is no 
 mention of habitations at tliis spot at the period when 
 a little colony of Augustine canons was brought by 
 William de Bertram, who was baron of Mitford in the 
 reign of Henry I. to ])uild a monastery at Erinkl)urn. 
 AVilliam de Bertram, the donor, had received from 
 Henrv I. a iji:rant of the baronv of Mitford, which 
 included Eclton and a large portion of Coquet Dale.
 
 BRINKBURN PRIORY. 45 
 
 We have no information as to the state of the country, 
 or of its thin and scattered Saxon population, at this 
 time ; but proha1)ly the ancient forest still overspread 
 great part of the lands which William de Bertram added 
 to his grant of Brinkhurn; and he gave to the monks 
 liberty to cut timber in his own woods, to take animals 
 of chase, and, what was still more valuable to them, fish 
 from his fishery in the Coquet. 
 
 Soon therefore a church began to rise in this secluded 
 vale, and bells sounded over the neighbouring woods, 
 telling that religion had come to hallow that sylvan 
 solitude. We know that the monks, wherever they were 
 established, soon began to clear the woodlands and culti- 
 vate the soil ; but no doubt there long remained a 
 contmued forest over miles of the country between Hoth- 
 bury and Morpeth, and beyond those lands of Brinkburn 
 which were brous-ht into cultivation. But the hio^h 
 pastures above the priory soon came to be ranged by the 
 flocks and herds of the monks ; roads, or rather paths, 
 were formed ; lands were brought into cultivation ; and, 
 aided by the feudal services of their tenants, the monks 
 upreared those massive walls, which time has not de- 
 prived of their solemn and impressive beauty, and has 
 invested with garlands of its own. 
 
 Some portions of the existing edifice seem old enough 
 to be the work of the little colony of canons who 0I3- 
 tained the grants from William de Bertram, especially 
 the Norman doorways on the north and the south sides 
 of the nave, which are enriched with sculpture of an 
 early character in the mouldings and the capitals of the 
 columns. But the edifice is, for the most part, of the 
 transition period ; and its architecture, generally, belongs 
 to the later part of this (the tvv^elfth) century, and 
 presents many peculiarities, which, however, are not 
 easily to be described without drawings. The church is 
 cruciform, with a low square tower at the intersection of 
 the cross, carried by pointed arches, which rest on 
 brackets, and are of noble- height and well-proportioned, 
 and spring from massive piers with clustered columns 
 and square capitals. The choir is without aisles ; there 
 is a north aisle to the nave, and the transepts have
 
 46 BllINKBURN PTIIORY. 
 
 eastern aisles. In the eastern "-able the ori^rinal lancets 
 have disappeared, and liave been replaced by three uni- 
 form tiers of lii>'hts with transoms, three li£>'lits in each 
 tier ; at the western end were three tall lancets, of which 
 onlv two remain — the lancet window on the southern 
 side, with the wall of that angle, and all the turret save 
 a few stairs from the ground, having fallen. The arcades 
 of the triforia and the clerestory are nearly perfect ; and, 
 indeed, there are few abbey churches of a\ hich so large a 
 portion remains iii good preservation, and the whole 
 fabric of which could be so easily restored. " The shell 
 of the church " (says Gough, the indefatigable con- 
 tinuator of Camden,) " is so entire that it was not long 
 ago proposed to fit it up for diA'ine service, and a brief 
 (for collections) was obtained." 
 
 The style being (as already mentioned) for the most part 
 transition to Early-English, and the church being narrow, 
 its general character is of a sombre massiveness, and, 
 though very plain, the church must have possessed an 
 imj^ressive solemnity. It was well suited to its secluded 
 situation and its purpose. No picturesque processions 
 were to sweep over its floor, nor was there a teeming 
 population around Brinkburn priory to croAvd its aisles 
 with worshippers. Its stern solemnity harmonised with 
 the rule of its monastic builders, who were content '\\'ith 
 a fabric formed for duration, and proclaiming in its 
 structure the faith of its founders and the doctrine of 
 the cross : — 
 
 " Mindful of Him who in the Orient born 
 
 There lived, and on the cross His life resigned, 
 
 And who from out the regions of the morn, 
 
 Issuing in pomp, shall come to judge mankind." 
 
 There are six bays on the north side of the nave, and 
 on that side are triforia and clerestory; on the south 
 side are four tall lancet windows extending from near 
 the string-course to the roof, and on the exterior south 
 wall of the nave, below the string-course, is a fine arcade 
 of uniform arches on corbels. The few lights of the 
 church are deeply splayed. The triforia arches in the 
 nave and in the east walls of the transepts are pointed, 
 and coupled under a circular arch. There are three
 
 BRINKBURN PRIORY. 47 
 
 lancet lights in the clerestory of the chancel, on the 
 north and south sides ; the clerestory windows in the 
 nave are circular-headed. There is a magnificent and 
 highly elahorate north porch, a fine and perfect specimen 
 of transition work. The mouldings are deep, orna- 
 mented with grotesque heads and figures. The capitals 
 are of Norman character. Of the chevron ornament 
 there is a triple row, as in many Norman doorways, hut 
 the moulding is that which came to prevail in Early- 
 English architecture, while the hillet ornament is sculp- 
 tured on the exterior round. The whole doorway is very 
 rich and fine. On the southern side of the nave, near 
 the western angle, is another doorway of Norman cha- 
 racter. On the same side of the church, and near the 
 transept, is a third enriched doorway, hy which the 
 monks entered from their cloister-garth ; and on the 
 right of it, a fourth doorway, of transition style, which 
 leads into the south transept. The capitals of the door- 
 way into the nave are entirely sculptured with the 
 Norman knot-work, and the moulding is ornamented at 
 intervals with large knohs or bosses. The mouldings are 
 generally marked with the nail-head ornament. 
 
 Abutting on the south transept is a square building 
 with a Norman arch. The roof is groined. This build- 
 ing is overgrown with ivy, and has been adapted to some 
 modern use, so that it is difficult to decide which of the 
 monastic buildings it was. There are two lights in the 
 eastern wall of the north and south transepts, and 
 between them, on the outside of the north transept, are 
 the remains of a staircase, opposite to which is a doorway 
 into the chancel. A turret-stair appears to wind in the 
 angle of the north transept wall, as slits for light are 
 seen in the whole height of that wall ; and there has 
 been a staircase in the north turret-angle at the western 
 end of the church, which seems to have led into a chamber 
 above the porch. The narrow lancet by which it was 
 lighted remains. There are two lights in the south 
 wall of the transept, clear of the building that pro- 
 bably was the chapter-house. The timber roof, as appears 
 from the angle visible on the tower, was originally 
 of very high pitch; it was replaced by one of obtuse
 
 48 BRINKBURN PRIORY. 
 
 angle ; but now the whole church is roofless. A gahle- 
 turret at the north-western angle of the sacred edifice 
 remains. There is a double ])iscina under a canopy of 
 tAvo pointed arches. There are no traces of sedilia. The 
 font is low, and without ornament : it remains entire. 
 How early Brinkburn Priory Church became parochial 
 does not appear, l)ut pro1)ably the sacraments were admi- 
 nistered for the benefit of the surrounding country from 
 an early time ; and interments took place here at a com- 
 paratively recent period, for there are many flat tom])- 
 stones in the church, inscriljed Avith names and dates in 
 the seventeenth and early in the eighteenth centuries. 
 But the only ancient sepulchral memorials visil)le are, a 
 somewhat elegant monumental floor-cross bearing a pas- 
 toral staff and a mitre, and surrounded by an inscription 
 dated 1484, in memory of a Prior of Brinkburn, who be- 
 came a suffragan bishop, and was probably brought back 
 to his beloved monastery for his final rest ; another se- 
 pulchral slab sculptured with a SAVord, but witliout 
 inscription ; these have been reared against the Avail of 
 the church. Tavo stone coffins from the Monks' Ceme- 
 tery have been disinterred. But a mossy coverins: has 
 OA'crspread the monumental stones, and thick grass covers 
 the Avhole area of the church, and hides the lowly memo- 
 rials of the dead Avho were coinmended to rest in Brinlc- 
 burn. 
 
 Such, then, is this priory church in its ruin. But its 
 condition is more interesting to the antiquary, and in 
 some respects less painful than that of many ancient 
 churches still used for parochial purposes. Its ela])orate 
 mouldings and architraves are not defaced by AA'hiteAvasli ; 
 its massive piers and columns have not been mutilated 
 for pcAvs and galleries ; its lights have not l)een squared 
 for sash windoAVS ; A^ulgarities have not defaced its 
 venerable features, nor have the hands of modern church- 
 wardens been ignorantly raised against the Avork of 
 media3val architects ; but it stands undefaced by modern- 
 isms, and unsubdued by time, a touching monument of 
 bygone years. 
 
 Before the completion of the edifice, tlie monks ol> 
 tained many grants. They appear to have had liberal
 
 BRINKBURN PRIORY. 49 
 
 friends in all adjacent parts of the county, and both no- 
 bles and yeomen made them gifts. One of their earliest 
 donors was Henry Prince of Scotland, the son of David, 
 who, as Earl of Northumberland, confirmed to them the 
 lands of Brinkburn, and gave them salt-works at the 
 mouth of the Coquet at AVarkworth, which seem to have 
 proved a source of considerable revenue, although 70,000 
 tons of salt were not then as now consumed annually 
 in Newcastle alone. 
 
 The chartulary, or register of the possessions granted 
 to the priory of Brinkburn, was rescued and long pre- 
 served by the famous Lord William Howard. It was in 
 his possession in 1638, when Boger Dodsworth made his 
 extracts from it. The register, however, disappeard from 
 Naworth, and by some means passed into the hands of 
 Mr. Astle, who knew its value and preserved it carefully. 
 Whether both parts of the register were in his possession 
 does not appear, but one volume of it afterwards came 
 into the possession of the Duke of Buckingham, and from 
 it an index of the contents was made by Mr. Caley, for 
 the Bev. John Hodgson, by whom it was communicated 
 to the Newcastle Antiquarian Society, and it has been 
 printed in the second volume of the " Archseologia 
 ^liana." It is to be lamented that the chartulary is 
 now made inaccessible to all inquirers, it having passed 
 into private hands with the rest of the MSS. that were 
 at Stowe. But even by the index in question some infor- 
 mation on county and ecclesiastical history is given. It 
 appears that the earliest deed entered in this register is 
 Boger de Bertram's confirmation of the grant of his 
 father, the founder. Succeeding lords of Mitford and 
 neighbouring landowners greatly enriched the monks, 
 and the first lords of Alnwick were amongst their benefac- 
 tors ; for William de Vesey gave " to the poor canons of 
 Brinkburn" a licence to buy and sell freely within his 
 town of Alnwick. 
 
 The monks of Brinkl)urn afterwards enjoyed manorial 
 rights and privileges of their own ; and the charter of 
 confirmation which they obtained (or rather purchased) 
 from Kmg John, in the second year of his reign, shows 
 
 E
 
 50 BRINKBUllN PRIOllY. 
 
 that they liaci even them acquired considerable posses- 
 sions. 
 
 Of themselves Ave know nothing. Even of the monks 
 who converted the fugitive riches of the Avoiid into these 
 beautiful forms of endurinj^ stone, and who designed and 
 built this priory church, Ave knoAV scarcely a name; and 
 time has spared to us the names of few of its priors. 
 The earliest named is Nicholas, Avho occurs under the 
 year 1154, in Leland's Collectanea. The first superior 
 named in the Register (according to the catalogue of its 
 contents, already referred to) is Alan, aaIio occurs in 124G, 
 Avhen he received a confirmation bA'^ Maru^aret de Pram- 
 lington, Avho had survived three husl)ands, of the grants 
 they had made to the canons. The fraternity w^as not 
 A^ery rich Avhen Hugh de Bolebec was sheriff of Northum- 
 berland, for in the " Testa de Nevill " it is stated that he 
 renders account of 20^. from the Prior of Brinkburn for 
 an aid granted towards the doAvry of the king's sister, 
 while he accounted for 100s. from the Prior of Tyne- 
 moutli for the same. They occasionally suffered in com- 
 mon Avith the rest of the Northumbrian monasteries from 
 the wars Avith Scotland and invasions by the Scots and 
 the freebooters of the border.* The ferocious manners 
 and hiAvless habits of the borderers must have subjected 
 the monks to continual injury and plunder. Yet we 
 may believe that the monks ncA'crtheless contrived to 
 make even the fierce borderers do them some service, 
 like those CAdl spirits of the Avorld said to be syml)olised 
 in the grotesque figiu'es on the outside of churches, 
 " Avhich the Church held Avithouther Avails, and A^et com- 
 polled to do licr service." But Ave may be sure that 
 however deeply the monks suffered from the turbulence 
 of the times, and the uncivilised manners and predatory 
 lives of the border people, the canons of Brink])urn Avere 
 the first civilizers of the country that OAvned their SAvay. 
 Tliey, only, made the Avild inliabitants feel the influence 
 of the Church — that mighty poAver Avhich stirred the 
 
 * A deep pool of the river, on which the western turrets of the church 
 look down, is called tlie Boll Pool, and is said to have derived that name 
 from the Bells havinpf been thrown into it bv the Scots.
 
 BRINKBURN PRIORY. 51 
 
 minds of the people in the middle ages ; they alone 
 maintained the light of the Christian faith and the 
 impressive solemnities of Christian rites through years 
 of turhulence and warfare, in the remote wild dales of 
 Coquet; and we may hope that the light which they 
 cherished at Brinkhurn has lighted many to the life of 
 the world to come. But Ave know nothing of the events 
 which brought joy or sorrow to the monastery, from the 
 time when the Augustine canons reared this church, to 
 the day when their possessions were sacrilegiously torn 
 from them hy King Henry VIII. The canons Avere 
 always noble hosts ; but probably few visitors came to 
 this remote monastery ; and it does not appear that from 
 their fraternity any monk, save him who became a 
 suffragan bishop, as recorded on his tombstone, made 
 his way to conspicuous dignities and employments. At 
 the dissolution of the lesser houses, ten canons consti- 
 tuted the fraternity, and their annual revenues were 
 valued at 98/. of the money of those days. 
 
 The monastic buildings haA^e disappeard, their site 
 being in part occupied by the modern clAvelling-house and 
 elegant pleasure grounds of Major Hodgson Cadogan, 
 the owner of the Priory. They probably stood on the 
 chief part of the IcA^el space to the south and east of the 
 church, round which the river flows in its circling sweep. 
 The ncAv masonry of the house stands in a most inhar- 
 monious proximity to the ancient monastic church, yet 
 its architecture is of a less incono'ruous character than 
 might be supposed. 
 
 But when, facing the shady river terrace, AAliich is 
 inclosed by what Surtees would have called " Avails of 
 beauty and peace," you lose sight of this modern intru- 
 sion, and see only a mass of gray antique masonry, richly 
 coloured with the tints of time, rising aboA^e the trees of 
 the abbey garden, against a background of fine Avoods, 
 suffused in the Avarm lustre of a September sunset, the 
 poetry of such a scene adds its OAvn charm to the memo- 
 ries associated with the spot, and you feel that about 
 these ancient walls a spell remains which time and dese- 
 cration have not been able to destroy. It Avas late on a 
 September day, and the sun had far declined, Avhen the 
 
 E 2
 
 52 BRINKBURN PRIORY. 
 
 writer took leave oi' Bi'inkl)urn. Tlie level rays fell on 
 the massive tower and the pointed gables of the ruined 
 church, and lighted up with golden gloAv the woods that 
 rose hio-h bevond them on the southern bend of the 
 river, fringing the ridges of the cliff. The gentle rip- 
 pling of the current and the voices of the woods alone 
 broke the stillness of the scene ; and the transient lustre 
 of a de})arting sun was thrown over the monuments of 
 a departed glory.
 
 A VISIT TO MIDDLEHAM, 
 
 ANCIENTLY A RESIDENCE OF THE BISHOPS OF DURHAM. 
 
 This rural \illage is pleasantly situated on the slope 
 of two limestone hills, in a picturesque part of the 
 county of Durham, and alDOut eight miles to the south- 
 east of the Cathedral City. Its situation is secluded, 
 for it lies over wooded hills, traversed by green lanes, 
 tlrree miles from the railway station at Eerryhill, and 
 is further from the great high road to the north, hut 
 the old road from Durham to Stockton-upon-Tees, 
 through Sedgefield, passes near the viUage, on the east ; 
 and the adjacent roads are, in many parts, shaded by 
 avenues of trees, which are all the more welcome to the 
 traveller who has passed through the black and barren 
 districts into which coUiery enterprise has converted so 
 many once sylvan localities. 
 
 The loftiest eminence of Middleham — the height 
 formerly crowned by the fortified residence of its mitred 
 lords, slopes to the marshy level of the Skerne, here a 
 little stream, and overlooks a flat, and in many parts an 
 uncultivated, country, as far as the course of the distant 
 Tees. On the east and south sides, the declivity below 
 the site of the Castle is almost precipitous, and at the 
 foot of the crag is a deep morass, which seems to be still 
 imperfectly drained, and through which, on the south- 
 eastern side of the Castle hill, there was probably a fosse. 
 Indeed it would seem that upon occasion the whole site 
 of the Castle could be insulated. If history were silent 
 as to Middleham, and if there were no visible founda- 
 tions of ancient 1)uildings upon the brow of this lofty
 
 51 A VISIT TO MIDDLE 11 A:^r. 
 
 liill, its whole aspect would nevertlieless suggest its 
 foriuei- occupation as a place of strength ; and it is 
 prol)al)le that in those early times A^'hen the now tower- 
 crowned hills of Durham were still forest solitudes, this 
 lofty eminence formed one of a chain of encampments or 
 fortresses, another of.Avhich Avas very prohably the re- 
 markable circular hill that forms part of the Mainsforth 
 estate, in the parish of Bishop's Middleham.* 
 
 Erom the Norman Conquest until the end of the 
 fourteenth century, Middleham was the principal re- 
 sidence of the Bishops of Durham, Avho in those days 
 resided chiefly at the Castle of Durham, and had not 
 learned to forsake their chief seat of duty for ])alatial 
 seclusion far from their cleri^v and Cathedi'al Church. 
 At Middleham thev maintained, if not a castle, at least 
 a strong, well-guarded manor-house, surrounded by an 
 extensive demesne, which was retained wholly in the 
 lord's hands. The manor occurs in a.d. IIIG as the 
 property of Osbert, nephew of Balph Plambard, Bislu>p 
 of Durham ; but it was previously the property of the 
 See, and afterwards reverted to the Bishops. It is not 
 descril)ed in historical documents earlier than Bichard I. 
 nor by any writer of English annals, or in any record of 
 Scotish invasion. But, from the survey called Boldon 
 Book, which was compiled late in the twelfth century, 
 it appears that in the life-time of Bishop Hugh de 
 Pudsey, the Castle and demesne were in the occupation 
 of that magnificent prelate ; and (as Mr. Surtees re- 
 marks) numerous charters dated here attest the re- 
 sidence of his successors. The episcopal charters do not 
 mention it as "the Castle of Middleham;" they are 
 uniformly dated " apud Manerium de Midelham." 
 
 Bishop Bobert do Insula died here in 1283 ; and here, 
 "in the lesser chamber," expired, in 1310, the pious 
 Bishop Kellaw. It was an episcopal residence towards 
 
 * It was contended by Mr. Cade, a noted antiquary of the county, that 
 this sinirulnrly fonned iiill was a Danisli camp (Archasologia, vii. 74); but 
 Hutchinson (llist. of Durh. iii. 8^) docs not adopt that view, nor was it 
 thought tenable by Mr. Surtees, the eminent historian, who would no 
 doubt jrladly have connected his favorite Mainsforth with such an associa- 
 tion.
 
 A VISIT TO MIDDLE II AM. 55 
 
 the middle of the fourteenth century. Bishop Richard 
 de Bury is recorded to have distriljuted one hundred 
 shillings amongst the poor as often as he journeyed from 
 thence to Durham. But in the time of his successor 
 Bishop Hatfield (consecrated 134.5), the demesne was 
 leased, and it is probahle that the buildings of the 
 Bishop's castle or manor-house thenceforth fell into 
 decay, but the manor has continued to be attached to 
 the See. 
 
 All that remains of the Castle of Middleham are deep 
 indented lines of foundation and mossy fragments of 
 masonry, as hard as the crag on which they stand. Mr. 
 Surtees, the historian of Durham, writing about 1820, 
 says, " the last remaining portion of building, a low, 
 oblong, arched room, was removed several years ago. 
 Erom its north-eastern angle, a narrow, subterranean 
 passage was traced, paved with broad flags, and de- 
 scending rapidly towards the north. Of carved or 
 sculptured stone," (he continues) " nothing remains. 
 The old barn across the road, to the north, has perhaps 
 formed part of the offices of the Castle, and the farm- 
 buildings on what is called the Island Hill, appear to 
 have been built with the squared stones brought from 
 the ruin." No one living when Mr. Surtees wrote 
 remembered any buildings standing on the site of the 
 Castle, nor is a tradition preserved of the period of its 
 final destruction. 
 
 But the great prelates who adorned the See of Durham 
 in ancient days, and who have marked their county- 
 palatine with so many enduring monuments of their 
 munificence and piety, raised edifices of religion that 
 have survived the changes of time ; and to the great 
 Bishop Anthony Beke, contemporary of Edward I. 
 tradition attributes the present structure of Middleham 
 Church. A church, however, had been founded here 
 under one of the earlier prelates of the See of Durham ; 
 for in 1146 it was given by Osbert to the Prior and 
 Convent, with the consent of William, then Bishop of 
 Durham. This appropriation of the great tithes was 
 disregarded by succeeding bishops, and the church con- 
 tinued to 1)0 rectorial. However, in a.d. 1278, Bishop
 
 56 A VISIT TO MIDDLEHAM. 
 
 Robert cle Insula gave the rectorial church to the Prior 
 and IVIonks of Finchale, ordaining at the same time the 
 institution of a vicarage, to Avhich the Priors of Pinchale 
 presented down to the time of the Dissolution. 
 
 The church, Avhich is dedicated under the invocation 
 of St. Michael, is an interesting and venerable structure, 
 marked by the graceful simplicity of the Early English 
 style. It consists of a chancel, and nave of four bays, 
 with north and south aisles opening under pointed 
 arches. The interior is impressive and well propor- 
 tioned. Its architecture has all the chaste simplicity 
 that marks tlie transition period, when the Early 
 English (or first jiointed) style became predominant over 
 the massive grandeur of Norman Avork. The pier arches 
 have roll-mouldings ; the chancel arch springs from 
 cor1)els ; there are three lancets in the chancel walls, 
 and a ransje of clerestorv Avindows on the south side of 
 the church ; the other lights are restorations. There is a 
 spacious north porch, which seems to have been in a 
 great measure rebuilt ; and many portions of monu- 
 mental slabs, sculptured with crosses, apparently reliques 
 of an even earlier f;d)ric, are preserved by being built 
 into the walls. The bells hang in a campanile. 
 
 This venerable edifice is described to have been in a 
 deplorable state before Mrs. Surtees, of Mainsforth, 
 widow of the lamented historian (who died in 1831), 
 undertook its restoration as a monument to his memory. 
 He was commended to rest in the adjacent church-yard. 
 At that time, its roof was in decay ; whitewash filled up 
 the mouldings of its arches, and lay deep in many coats 
 over the whole fabric — the snows of many winters of 
 churchwarden rule. The original lancet windows (Avhich, 
 in the eastern end, were existing only a few years before 
 Mr. Surtees wrote his great work), had given place to 
 the mean, flat-headed sashes l)y Avhich our churches Avere 
 so commonly disfigured in the last century; the side 
 lancets in the chancel had been blocked up ; damp and 
 moss overspread the fabric, and pools stood in the 
 holloAYS of the floor. All these iniquities were reformed 
 at the expense of Mrs. Surtees, who seems to have set 
 herself to do honour to her lamented husband's. name in
 
 A VISIT TO MIDDLEIIAM. 57 
 
 a manner which (as the E^ev. James Haine remarks) Mr. 
 Surtees himself woukl have preferred to tablet or euloi^y, 
 and to carry out a design of which he had often spoken, 
 viz. the perfect restoration of the whole fabric. Her 
 liberality was of no ordinary kind ; she determined that 
 no expense should fall upon the parishioners, the persons 
 liable, of course, to repair the nave and aisles ; and the 
 other impropriator of the great tithes, liable with herself 
 to repair the chancel, not contributing to the cost, Mrs. 
 Surtees willingly undertook the restoration of the whole 
 fabric. Memorial glass was placed in the new eastern 
 lancets, and some other windows were given by private 
 friends. And thus (as Mr. E-aine in his excellent edition 
 of the Memoir of Mr. Surtees remarks) honour has been 
 conferred in the most grateful and affectionate way, in 
 conjunction with a work of devotional feeling and public 
 benefit. 
 
 The Eont — a fine Early English font of Erosterley 
 mar1)le, now restored to its proper place — was in the 
 adjacent "Hall" garden when the work of restoration 
 was commenced in 1842, where it had become a pic- 
 turesque, moss-covered ornament ! 
 
 This hall or mansion-house is a spacious old-fashioned 
 building, closely adjoining the church-yard on the eastern 
 part of the hill or ridge, and it ]n"obably occupies the site 
 of the old rectorial house. The vicarage house stands 
 at the foot of the Church-hill. It was almost rebuilt 
 about the close of. the last century. The fact that the 
 present Bishop of Exeter was Vicar of Bishop's Middle- 
 ham from 1806 to 1813, will not be forgotten amongst 
 its associations. 
 
 Though time has overthrown the Castle of the mitred 
 lords of Middleham, the Muse of History has dignified 
 by an especial interest a more modern residence near the 
 village — a residence which is alone sufiicient to give 
 celebrity to the parish of Bishop's Middleham — the 
 mansion house, viz. of the Surtees family at Mainsforth. 
 This house was long the favorite residence ot the late 
 Robert Surtees, Esq. who, in the sylvan seclusion of his 
 pleasant demesnes at Mainsforth, composed the History 
 of Durham, that historical work which will transmit his
 
 58 A VISIT TO MIDDLEHAM. 
 
 name witli honour to posterity, and liere passed several 
 hours of every day in phmting- and adorning his grounds 
 and in the pleasures of hospitahle intercourse. His 
 library is a rather sombre room opening on the lawn, the 
 wall overgroAvn by creeping and flowering shrubs, and 
 hard ])y is a rookery in a group of tall sycamore trees. 
 While, therefore, the northern diocese can boast many 
 a place of greater name in story, the antiquarian visitor 
 can hardly spend a few hours in the bright days of 
 summer more agreeably than in a visit to Bishop's 
 Middleham.
 
 TYNEMOUTH PRIOUY. 
 
 Twelve liundred years have elapsed since an abbey- 
 was first founded on the lofty promontory at the mouth 
 of the river Tyne — since first at Tynemouth (to adopt 
 E-uskin's language in speaking of Torcello), " amid the 
 murmur of the waves and the beating of the wings of the 
 sea-birds against the rock that was strange to them, rose 
 the ancient hymn — 
 
 " The sea is His and He made it, 
 And His hands prepared the dry land." 
 
 And here, surviving the change of dynasties, of language, 
 and of laws, a religious foundation flourished, with little 
 interruption, from the times of Northumbrian kings 
 down to the middle of the sixteenth century. Por its 
 present attractions to the visitor Tynemouth is in no 
 small degree indebted to the fading Past. Its wave- 
 beaten shores, its prospect of the mighty ocean, and the 
 natural grandeur of its situation, must indeed always 
 invest Tynemouth with a charm for lovers of the pic- 
 turesque ; but historical associations, and the ruins of its 
 once stately chui-ch, give to this spot a dignity and an 
 interest all their own. These ruins form some of the 
 finest fragments of Christian art that yet linger upon 
 our English abbey-lands, and are the only remains of a 
 foundation that was one of the most celebrated of " that 
 long chain of stately monasteries upon which Pome 
 looked forth — the distant bulwarks of her power." 
 
 Before pursuing the history of the edifices and the 
 fraternity that were fostered here by papal Pome, we 
 may carry back our thoughts to the condition of Tyne- 
 mouth at the time when Imperial Pome had sway in 
 Britain ; for the site of the monastery appears to have
 
 60 TYNEMOUXn PllIOllY. 
 
 had some distinction long- l)efore the shadows of heathen- 
 ism fled from tlie light of Christianity, and to have heen 
 a military station of the Romans and the place of a 
 temple. These facts are inferred from inscrihed stones 
 that were found under the walls of the priory church. 
 The "wrecks" thus "cast upon this distant shore of 
 Time" consist of a votive tahlet and an altar; hut these 
 are the onlv traces that have heen found at Tvnemouth 
 of the footsteps of the Romans, unless indeed a low 
 chamher and passage excavated within the cliff upon 
 the north side he of Roman work. To their temple of 
 imaginary deities a sanctuary of the one true God suc- 
 ceeded ; and the '^dctorious legions of Rome, their arms, 
 their altars, and their gods, gave place to a long succes- 
 sion of peaceful monks united under the Benedictine 
 rule, that had likewise heen transplanted from the sunny 
 skies of Italy. 
 
 We may now proceed to the history of Tynemouth 
 during the Saxon period. 
 
 In the reign of Edwin, King of Northumhria, (whose 
 sway extended over the vast territory of Yorkshire, as 
 well as Nortliumherland and Durham,) an edifice was 
 dedicated at Tynemouth (prohahly not long after the 
 year 627) to the worship of that God who in Edwin's 
 court and realm had r(?cently heen acknowledged the 
 Great King ahove all gods. This simple structure, like 
 Aidan's church of Lindisfarne, was of wood, and gave 
 place to an edifice huilt of stone hy Edwin's successor 
 St. Oswald, who hegan to reign in a.d. 063, and a colony 
 of monks was estahlished adjacent to it for the service of 
 religion. A few years before Oswald's church was huilt, 
 the body of St. Oswin, King of Deira, who joined the 
 nohle arniA^ of niartvrs in a.u. 051, Avas interred in the 
 oratory at Tynemouth that had heen recently founded hy 
 his ancestor King Edwin, and this event became of great 
 importance to the future prosperity of the monastery of 
 Tynemouth. Many a lecture was given by the good 
 monks of Tynemouth in after ages on the virtues and 
 glory of the royal martyr who had become their patron 
 saint, and devoutly was his legend read at Tynemouth. 
 He is described to have been as an eye to the blind, a
 
 TYNEMOUTH PEIORY. 0)1 
 
 staff to the lame, a father to the orphan, and a friend to 
 the desolate. His meekness, charity, and humility were 
 the delight of the holy prelate St. Aidan, his companion 
 and friend ; and he was devoted to works of mercv and 
 of justice. Por nine years he had ruled the province of 
 Deira, his brotlier Oswy reigning in Northumberland, 
 when the latter, envious, as it is said, of the greater 
 authority and the personal worship enjoyed by Oswin, 
 sought to take his Idngdom from him, and at length led 
 an army against him to a place called Wilfaresdune, 
 which is situated not far from Gilling, in E-ichmondshire. 
 Oswin, knowing that he alone was the object of contest, 
 sacriiiced his crown and life to save the lives of his 
 subjects, and he died by the sword. Something like 
 King Oswin's self-sacrifice occurs (it will be remembered) 
 in the Athenian history. The seventeenth and last king 
 of Athens, preferring his country's safety to his own life, 
 died to save his people, and by so doing put an end to 
 the war that threatened them. So died the royal Oswin, 
 on the 20th August, 651 ; and it may be taken as some 
 evidence of the reputation for sanctity which had even 
 then been acquired by St. Mary's Abbey at Tynemouth, 
 that the body of the King was brought from so great a 
 distance to l)e there interred. At all events, the holi- 
 ness of his life was long held in affectionate remembrance 
 at Tynemouth. It was believed that he was gifted with 
 glory among the saints of heaven, and that he continued 
 to intercede at the Throne of Grace for miracles of bene- 
 ficence and compassion towards men. 
 
 The church in which his body was interred Avas de- 
 stroyed, probably by the Danes, in the reign of Ecgfrid, 
 and restored l)y his pious care. In the fifteenth year of 
 that monarch's reign the neighbouring church of Jarrow 
 was dedicated ; the fleet of Ecgfrid rode in the bay now 
 called Jarrow Slake, and the church towers of Jarrow 
 and of Weremouth were the only edifices of religion then 
 reared in the wide landscape that the monks of Tyne- 
 mouth might survey. Their monastery and the monas- 
 teries of Jarrow and of Weremouth were in the diocese 
 of Hexham (to which place what became the See of 
 Durham had been transferred from Lindisfarne), and
 
 G2 TYNEMOUTH PRIORY. 
 
 there tlie renowned St. John of Beverley sat as Bishop 
 Avhen the chureli of Tynemonth Avas rehuilt. At Jarrow, 
 from whence the lif>'lit of relio-ion and Icarnini? was soon 
 to shmc tln-oujT;h Christendom, Bede, tlic ever-venerahle, 
 Avas at that time advancing to the years of manhood 
 Avhich he employed in the composition of his imperish- 
 ahle works. 
 
 Prohahly the neAv church of Tynemouth of that period 
 (Avhen the Roman manner of hnilding had heen recently 
 introduced) partook of the adornment which the pious 
 Saxons of Nortlumihria loved to bestow upon their reli- 
 gious edifices. No towns had then arisen at the mouth 
 of the Wear or of the Tyne ; there were no merchants 
 of New Castle to dispute Avith the monks for the right to 
 quay and harl)our, and the King breathed an atmosphere 
 uni)olluted by smoke upon the slopes of Pandon-Dean, 
 sheltered bv the 2-reat Avail that had defended the Roman 
 station of Pons ^Elii. But Religion had extended her 
 kins-dom, and the fervent votaries Avho filled her monas- 
 teries were the noblest of their race. At that period the 
 Abl)at of the united monasteries of AVeremouth and 
 Jarrow presided over six hundred monks, and was lord 
 of fifteen thousand acres, and the Abbat of Tvnemouth 
 governed a A^ery considerable and ])opulous monastery. 
 It appears to have embraced a sisterhood of nuns as Avell 
 as a fraternity of monks, for there is little doubt that the 
 monastery at the mouth of the Korthuml)rian Tjne is 
 the monastery to which the Venerable Bede refers Avhen 
 he tells us, in his biography of the renoAvned St. Cuth- 
 bert, that he, as Bishop of Lindisfarne, came to Tyne- 
 mouth and found Verca, a lady of noble birth, presiding 
 over the nuns aa ho Avere there assembled in the ser\'ice 
 of Christ. 
 
 In 792, more than a century after King Ecgfrid's 
 death, anotlier monarch, Osric, King of Northumber- 
 land, Avas interred at Tynemouth. But, while the repu- 
 tation of this monastery, reared by sovereigns and visited 
 by saints, Avas such that Christian princes sought inter- 
 ment Avithin its holy shade, the possessions of the house 
 tempted the Danes so frequently to plunder the peaceful 
 inmates of the cloister, that the history of Tvnemouth
 
 TYNEMOTJTH PRIORY. 63 
 
 through the eighth and ninth centuries records only a 
 series of ravages. We know not whether 
 
 " On the deep walls the heathen Dane 
 Had poured his impious rage in vain," 
 
 when he visited the servants of God assembled at Tyne- 
 moutli ; hut we read that, on the invasion in 865, '' the 
 noble edifice " (as it is described) was burned, and the 
 nuns of St. Hilda, who had fled from Hartlepool to 
 Tynemouth for refuge, were " translated by martyrdom 
 to Heaven." In a.d. 870, the monastery had been par- 
 tially rebuilt ; in 876 it was again the scene of devasta- 
 tion ; but its enemies could not quench the holy flame 
 which shone " from St. Oswin's house of Tynemouth far 
 to the Cleveland Hills, and northward to the Tweed," 
 nor was it until the early part of the eleventh century 
 that a monastic community was driven by the Danes for 
 any long period from Tynemouth. It remained for a 
 royal roljber who was a Christian Prince, the first who 
 wrote himself Defender of the Eaith, the Ts'ero of the 
 Tudor race, to accompKsh the monstrous outrage of its 
 permanent destruction. 
 
 It was near the close of the tenth century, namely, in 
 995, that, on an invasion by the Danes, the bishop of 
 the diocese and his monks fled forth from Chester-le- 
 Street, then the place of the bishop's seat, and became 
 wanderers with the body of St. Cuthbert. The natural 
 advantages of Durham at length induced them to select 
 its then woodland solitudes for their final abode ; and in 
 999 a cathedral church was first raised at Durham. Of 
 the state of Tynemouth during the first half of the suc- 
 ceeding century history aff'ords no information. We may 
 presume, however, that, even in the reign of St. Edward 
 the Confessor, it was no longer tenanted by monks. 
 
 We now come to the period of the Norman Conquest, 
 which formed a new era in its history. Shortly before 
 that time, three monks of the Benedictine order came 
 from Winchelcombe, in Gloucestershire, for the purpose, 
 as the historian Simeon tells us, of restoring to the pro- 
 vince of Northumberland the choirs of monks who had 
 formerly flourished in it. They came to the place then
 
 (31 TYNEMOUTII PRIOEY. 
 
 called jVIunecaccster, afterwards covered by the town of 
 Newcastle, but the mouks liad all departed : they went 
 to JaiTOw, but they found that monastery also deserted, 
 aiul the then Bishop of Durham gave it to them for their 
 al3ode, the lands of Jarrow ])eing confirmed to the church 
 of Durliam. 
 
 At this time the remembrance of St. Oswin had become 
 for a while obliterated from the minds of men ; and when, 
 about 1075, Waltheof, Earl of Northumberland, son of 
 the gallant Siward, gave the church of Tynemouth to 
 the monks of Jarrow — a gift confirmed in 1085 by the 
 Bishop of Durliam, — the monastic church of Tvnemouth 
 had remained for fifteen vears without a roof, and the 
 ancient glories of the monastery liad departed. The 
 object of the grant to the monks at Jarrow (who were 
 soon afterwards removed to Durham itself) was to pro- 
 vide for the due celebration of the holy oflices in the 
 church of Tynemouth as the church of a parish, and the 
 re-foundation of a monastery does not seem to have been 
 at that time contemplated. It was a grant made with 
 all the solemnities of a religious off'ering, in the presence 
 of a long array of Saxon ecclesiastics — the bishoj^ and 
 his svnod at Durham ; and to the earl's charter the 
 assembled piiests and nobles set their marks (for seals 
 had not then come into general use), the synod impre- 
 cating eternal tortures to all who should presume to 
 withdraw from the church of Durham the gift of the 
 pious earl. The churcli of Tynemouth appears to have 
 l)een sheltered l)v the Saxon Earls of Northumberland 
 
 ft' 
 
 within their castle upon this promontory, but their power 
 could not extend to revive monastic zeal from its slumber. 
 The site so long hallowed l^y ancient piety Avas, howcAcr, 
 soon to know again the daily footsteps of a monastic fra- 
 ternity; and the event which hastened its restoration 
 was the discovery of the body of the holy king and 
 martyr, Oswin. More than four hundred years had 
 elapsed from the time of the sepulture of St. Oswin, 
 when (according to the legend written by his biographer 
 early in the twelfth century) the sceptred shade appeared 
 one evening, after the nocturnal office, to Edmund, the 
 sacrist of the church, in a radiant human form, of mild
 
 TYNEMOUTH PRIORY. 65 
 
 and pleasing aspect and no])le presence ; and the sacrist 
 declared that the apparition of the holy king had directed 
 hini to search for his grave, and restore him to memory 
 in the place where he had once held sway. The vision 
 was readily helieved. At that period the shades of royal 
 saints of England were said to traverse the ruined walls 
 of monastic churches, and to warn a new generation to 
 restore religious edifices, and to stand upon the ancient 
 ways. The Lady Judith, wife of Tosti, at that time Earl 
 of Xorthumherland, came with the Bishop of Durham to 
 search for St. Oswin's place of sepulture. The relics of 
 the saint were hrought to light, and, in the presence of 
 a devout company, were raised joyfully to a place of 
 honour; and the earl commenced the foundation of a 
 monastery to be attached to the church that held remains 
 so precious. 
 
 Shortly after these events, Robert de Mowbray, a 
 noble Norman, succeeded to the great earldom of North- 
 umberland, and the custody of this castle of its Saxon 
 earls. At this time William de Carilefe, a noble native 
 of Bayeux, who had been Justiciary of England to Wil- 
 liam the Conqueror, was Bishop of Durham ; he was 
 then beginning the present stately fabric of his cathedral 
 church, and he had confirmed Earl Waltheof's gift of 
 Tynemouth to the little fraternity of Jarrow, then trans- 
 ferred to his own church — the zealous fathers of the 
 subsequently renowned and powerful monastery of Dur- 
 ham. Bobert de Mowbray, nevertheless, destined the 
 church of Tynemouth and the possessions which it then 
 retained for tlie Norman Benedictine abbey of St. Alban, 
 and determined that a colony of monks of St. Alban's 
 should restore the church of St. Oswin, and be there esta- 
 blished in the service of God. Accordingly, several 
 monks of St. Alban's came to rebuild and to occupy the 
 old waste places, and we may picture in imagination 
 these " pilgrim fathers " of the monastery of Tynemouth 
 setting forth upon their palfreys to found this distant 
 colony. The detachment froni St. Alban's formed no 
 such "joyous company as the Canterbury Pilgrims ; yet, 
 onward they came, bearing their staves and service-books, 
 but no riches of the world ; unarmed and barely attended,
 
 66 TYNEMOUTH PRIORY. 
 
 thouglitful, but eager and resolved. They were coming 
 to possess a remote inliei'itance near a hostile, disturbed, 
 and halt-l)arl)arous kingdom, and to cultivate lands d(^so- 
 lated and wasted l)v war, and thev were to cast out the 
 heathen, and to plant a vine that should bear fruit for 
 Heaven. Their founder had enriched them with churches, 
 manors, mills, and fisheries, and also bestowed upon the 
 parent house of St. Alban the church of Tynemouth, and 
 under his auspices the buildings of his predecessor were 
 completed. In 1110 the relics of St. OsAvin were trans- 
 lated with great honour to the new monastic church in 
 the presence of a number of eminent ecclesiastics and 
 laymen, who came from far and near to attend the so- 
 lemnity. But, four years previously, llobert de Mowbray 
 had dejiarted this life, and he had for some time before 
 renounced its fleeting honours, after experiencing its 
 utmost vicissitudes. The castle of Tvnemouth was, not 
 long after his donation to St. Alban' s, the scene of a 
 memorable incident of his eventful life. He there sus- 
 tained the siege of King William llufus, to ^vhoni his 
 power had become dangerous ; aiul, when he could no 
 longer defend Tynemoutli, he withdrew to Baml)urgh, 
 and was proceeding from thence as a fugitive to join his 
 allies in the then recently-built fortress of Newcastle, 
 when, being pursued by the forces of his enraged sove- 
 reign, he had to rely on spiritual arms for succour, and 
 flew to the sanctuary in the church of Tynemouth, but 
 he was violently dragged from thence, and remained in 
 captivity until the coronation of Henry I. At that 
 period he is said to have 1)ecomc aged and sightless, and, 
 tired of war's alarms, he then entered his beloved monas- 
 tery of St. Alljan, to pass there the residue of his days. 
 This time he did not come as the powerful chieftain to 
 enrich the fraternity by gifts, but to supplicate the 
 spiritual treasures of the Church and the peace of that 
 holy cloister. And so the noble Norman, once the martial 
 representative of his sovereign and the lord of territorial 
 wealth, assumed the monastic habit, and devoted to reli- 
 gion the serene evening of a life whose noon had been 
 passed amid the shadows of feudal strife. So died, in 
 1106, Ptobert de Mowbray, earl and monk, the re-founder
 
 TYNEMOUTH PRIOUY. 67 
 
 of Tynemoutli Priory, and lie was interred in the final 
 sanctuary of St. Alban's Aljbey Church. 
 
 Of the new church of Tyneniouth, completed in 1110, as 
 already mentioned, considerable portions remain. They 
 indicate the limited extent of the Norman building, and 
 its plain and massive character. After the Conquest, 
 and when almost every great benefice was filled by a 
 Norman, the ecclesiastical structures of the Anglo-Saxons 
 were generally replaced by larger buildings, which, how- 
 ever, retained their original Romanesque character. Of 
 this we have an example at Tynemouth. Portions of the 
 existing ruins Avere formerly ascribed (erroneously) to 
 the Saxons ; and so rude are the ancient circular-headed 
 doorway on the south side (which was an entrance from 
 the cloister) and the cylindrical pillar remaining in the 
 nave, that they were supposed to be of ante-Norman 
 date. The basements of several of the massive circular 
 pillars have been recently disinterred, but the cylindrical 
 pillar is the only one standing. 
 
 The edifice consisted of nave, aisles, and transepts, 
 the eastern end of the chancel being terminated by a 
 semicircular apse, and a low tower rose above the inter- 
 section of the cross*; considerable portions remain of the 
 clustered piers from which the tower-arches sprung. Of 
 the western entrance to this Norman church no part 
 remains, it having been removed when the edifice was 
 prolonged westward in the following century. The 
 length of the Norman building to the semicircular 
 eastern end was one hundred and forty-five feet, and its 
 breadth between the walls only thirty-six feet. Yet this 
 was the church of the whole parish of Tynemouth, and, 
 until about the middle of the reign of Henry IIL, of the 
 monastery also. 
 
 A period of twenty years, in the reigns of William 
 Hufus and Henry I., was therefore a memorable period 
 to the monks of Tynemouth. It saw the refoundation of 
 the ancient monastery, shorn indeed of the dignity of an 
 independent abbey which it enjoyed in the Saxon days, 
 but, under its renewed charter, a flourishing offshoot of 
 the parent tree of St. Alban's ; it saw the acquisition of 
 
 f2
 
 08 TYNEMOUTII PRIORY. 
 
 royal protection and privileges and possessions, granted 
 by Ileniy, and procured l)y tlu^ favour of Matilda, his 
 gentle Saxon queen, whose -warlike father. King Malcolm 
 Canmore, had been lately interred in their chapter- 
 house ; it saw the completion of a new churcli and mo- 
 nastery ; the translation of the relics of their tutelar saint 
 to the shrine in Avhicli they were to be for centuries 
 honoured by a long line of spiritual fathers and temporal 
 nobles ; and, as if the walls with which the warlike jire- 
 decessors of their founder liad surrounded their castle 
 were an insufficient defence in those days of tur])ulence 
 and warfare, the highly-honoured privilege of sanctuary 
 drew the circle of " St. Oswin's Peace" for more than a 
 mile around his shrine.* 
 
 Although William the Conqueror gave the custody of 
 the Castle of Tynemouth, Avith the earldom of Xorth- 
 umberland, to his Norman adherents, it would seem that 
 arms so far yicdded to the gown after the time of llobert 
 de Mowbray that the grant from the croAvn to the monks 
 of all the possessions of the great Norman earl their 
 founder vested in the prior and convent the site and for- 
 tifications of the castle — no unimportant addition to the 
 power of the Priors of Tynemouth. They enjoyed all the 
 judicial liberties in their manors that feudal ages gave 
 the Norman nobles ; and the priory possessed at this 
 early time not only the lands on which the to\Mi of North 
 Shields afterwards rose, and those adjacent lands and 
 villages to the north and west which to the present day 
 form Tynemouthshire, but also villages and lands in 
 various parts of the county, and some beyond the 
 Coquet' s wild and wooded shore. The rectorial tithes of 
 churches in various parts of the diocese were also appro- 
 priated to the monks of Tynemouth. The prior ap- 
 pointed his own sheriff for his shire of Tynemouth, and 
 had such an exclusive jurisdiction in this his liberty as 
 made it a sort of regal province. 
 
 * Of the extent of this circuit probably " The Monk's Stone," at Seton, 
 which is the subject of a groundless legend about a monk and a roast-pig's 
 head, was one of the landmarks ; or it may have been erected as a way- 
 side cross, for it stood where the highway anciently branched off.
 
 TYNEMOUTli PlllOPvY. 09 
 
 The money value of some of their possessions in those 
 remote days may at this time excite a smile. It was 
 agreed hetween them and the parent house of St. Alhan, 
 in the lifetime of Abhat Richard de All)ini (who died in 
 1129), that the monks of Tynemouth should pay 30^. a 
 year to St. Alhan' s in respect of the church of Tynemouth, 
 the fruits of which were to be retahied in their own 
 hands, and they relinquished the patronage of the church 
 of Bvwell and the church of Woodhorn, the tithes of 
 Ambell, and the Isle of Coquet, to the parent house — 
 the consideration, as it ayouIcI seem, for retaining in their 
 own hands the rest of their possessions without account- 
 ing to St. Alban's. The abbat, with twenty attendants, 
 was to be entertained for fifteen days at Tynemouth 
 when he should come on his visitation, xls to the 
 church of Tynemouth, the right, namely, to the great 
 tithes and patronage of the parochial cliurch, the monks 
 of Durham, as might be expected, did not acquiesce in 
 the gift to St. Alban's. In a chapter held at York in 
 1171 they urged their prior title to it, but they were not 
 successful, and their claim was renewed from time to 
 time until 1171^, when it was compromised, Avith the 
 sanction of the Pope. 
 
 On the invasion of England in 1138 by David King of 
 Scots, the monks of Tynemouth had to pay a heavy ransom 
 in silver to save their possessions from being ravaged 
 by the Scotish army, and thereupon the King granted to 
 them a charter of peace and protection. The earldom of 
 Northumberland being subsequently ceded to his son, 
 that prince in 1117 acquitted them and their tenants 
 from the work of erecting castles, which was prosecuted 
 so vigorously in that reign. In 1148 King Stephen 
 granted a similar exemption, and confirmed to the monks 
 their manor of Edlingham. As to this property, it is 
 worth mentioning, as ilkistrative of the ancient value of 
 money, that in 1170 Edgar, son of Earl Cospatric, agreed 
 with the Abbat of St. Alban's to pay 4/. a-year for the 
 lands to the monls:s of Tynemouth, and 20s. a-year, or at 
 his option seven oxen each worth three shillings, to the 
 Abbat of St. Alban's. The noble Edgar also granted to 
 the monastery of St. Oswin the church of Edlingham ;
 
 70 TYNEMOUTH PRIORY. 
 
 and the charter, fair and legnl)le as when the kneclini^' 
 donor Uiid it on the altar at St. Alban's seven hundred 
 years ago, remains in the treasury at Durham, to which 
 phice it came in consequence of the churches of Bywell 
 St. Peter's and Edlingham having been exchanged by St. 
 Alban's with the prior and convent of Durham in 117i, 
 for the relinquishment of all claims to the church of 
 Tynemouth. On this occasion deeds and contracts were 
 executed and exchanged with a precision and formality 
 very creditable to the monastic conveyancers. And so 
 peace was restored between the Benedictine fraternities 
 respectively assembled under the invocation of St. Cuth- 
 bert and St. Alban. 
 
 In the reign of Henry II. the liberties of the monastery 
 were extended by many royal grants. Amongst the 
 liberties accorded, is the right of free-warren in their 
 manors, from which we may infer, not that they enjoyed 
 the chase in person, for that pastime their rule forbade, 
 but that they knew how to appreciate venison and to 
 secure their manorial rights. The Abbat of St. Alban's 
 and his retinue seem to have staved a most unreasonable 
 time on the abbat's visitations, and to have eaten up, not 
 only their venison, but all the live stock and provisions 
 that the monks possessed. Eor their future protection, 
 a subsequent abbat limited the stay and the number of 
 followers of the abbats on their pastoral visits to this 
 distant cell. 
 
 Shortly l)efore Bichard Coeur de Lion departed on the 
 Third Crusade, he granted to the monks of Tynemouth 
 a general confirmation of their possessions, franchises, 
 and privileges. The charter specifies all their then 
 extensive possessions, and confirms, by the grim and 
 antique-looking terms so long familiar to the Anglo- 
 Saxons, sundry franchises that were essential to their 
 independent rule. The charter proved a Magna Charta 
 of lil)erties to the convent, and a ])rotccting shield under 
 whicli the monks were wont to shelter themselves when, 
 in after years, contests arose with the crown or any other 
 potentate jealous of their power. But from King John 
 the monks were o1)liged to purchase the usual confirma- 
 tion of their liberties by payment of sums of money
 
 TYNEMOUTH PRIOHY. 71 
 
 which they must have foimd it difficult to raise, and of 
 goodly palfreys.* In King John's reign Tynemouth is 
 mentioned on the Public Records as a sea-port. A writ 
 was granted to authorise what in these days affords a 
 curious instance of restrictive policy — the exportation of 
 a ship-load of wheat ; another to buy for the King all the 
 frieze cloth brought there by a vessel from Norway. 
 
 We have an account of a pastoral visitation by the 
 Abbat of St. Alban's in King John's reign which presents 
 an interesting picture of the times. The mitred father 
 could not endanger himself l3y coming so near to Scot- 
 land without the King's leave, and when he came was 
 attended by a considerable number of armed retainers. 
 The prior and his convent, at the head of their tenants, 
 and accompanied by the neighbouring nobles and pea- 
 santry, travelled forth to meet the abbat and escort him 
 to Tynemouth, and a goodly company entered Avith him 
 the portals of the hospitable convent. In the great hall 
 of the prior they all partook of the feast known as " The 
 Abbat' s Welcome," and the tenants of the manor of 
 Tynemouth contributed by ancient custom an " aid" of 
 forty shillings towards the expenses of the first visit of a 
 new abbat. By the ordinance of that wise and politic 
 father Abbat William de Trumpington, made early in the 
 reign of Henry III., the abbats when they came to 
 Tynemouth were to be attended by six esquires (who 
 held lands of the monastery by this service), and who 
 were bound to provide horses also for the abbat' s visita- 
 tions, the abbat maintaining them on the journey. The 
 abbats were enjoined to act with moderation towards 
 Tynemouth and the other cells, and not as tyrants and 
 squanderers of their goods, and were to see to the refor- 
 mation of manners where needful, and as a good shepherd 
 to visit the flock. 
 
 We have now arrived at the period (the early part of 
 the reign of Henry III.) in which the monks raised their 
 ncAv conventual church — that masterpiece of architec- 
 tural skill, that noble monument of their cloistered life. 
 
 The reader may here be reminded briefly of the state 
 
 * At that time, two palfreys often occur as valued at ten marks.
 
 72 TYNEMOUTII PRIORY. 
 
 of chiircli architecture a])ovit the year 1220, the tmie 
 when the monks ot* Tvneniouth saw their stately church 
 completed. About thirty years l)eibre, piers began to be 
 built taller and of a more slender form, the capitals to be 
 rounded, floriated, or moulded into fillets, shafts to be 
 banded midway, arches to be pointed with bold, semi- 
 cylindrical mouldiugs, and the general character of eccle- 
 siastical architecture assumed a lighter and more graceful 
 appearance. The round arcli and the chevron moulding 
 were nevertheless Acry prevalent for a long time after- 
 wards. This was the age of transitional Norman work, 
 and it was prolific in ecclesiastical edifices in all parts of 
 this kingdom. One fine example in this county is Brink- 
 burn Priory Church, the ruins of which are secluded in 
 the deep woods of the Coquet, as described in the present 
 volume. The Early English style thus prefigured com- 
 menced about 1190, and the capaljility of its principles 
 was no sooner felt than it attained rapidly an extraor- 
 dinary degree of perfection. The notion of vertical 
 ascendant lines led to the developement of spires, pin- 
 nacles, long slender shafts, arches surmounting piers of 
 great height, and lofty roofs and vaulting ; the appear- 
 ance of lightness was ^combined Avith strength ; and 
 elaborate workmanship, grace, variety of device, and 
 perfect knowledge of effect, are characteristics of the 
 Early English style. At Hexham Abbey Church, Avhich 
 was begun late in the transitional period, the monks of 
 Tynemouth appear to have seen the model on which 
 they resolved to build ; and Salisbury Cathedral — that 
 noble specimen of the Early English style, — the choir 
 of Rochester, and the magnificent eastern transept of 
 Durham Cathedral, were rising when the Tynemouth 
 Benedictines shared the spreading admiration of that 
 style. Their wealth does not seem to have been com- 
 mensurate Avith their piety and their taste, for the plan 
 they ado[)ted Avas to l3uild a sj^acious couA^entual church 
 eastAvard of the Noruian fabric, and to incorporate the 
 latter in the one edifice, making the nave of the old 
 Norman church, that rose 
 
 " On pouderous columns, short and low,"
 
 TYNEMOUTH PRIOUY. 73 
 
 the nave of the expanded and loftier structure, but add- 
 ing to it a new western front of pointed work, and 
 increasing its length by two bays. Accordingly, all that 
 stood above ground of the Norman chancel with its 
 semi-circular termination was destroyed ; a spacious 
 choir and transepts were added eastward of the central 
 tower, and the choir was terminated by a noble chancel 
 or presbytery, forty -three feet in length and thirty-one 
 feet in breadth, the eastern and southern walls of which 
 are still standing, and constitute the finest portions of 
 the existing ruins. A stone seat ran round this chancel, 
 and Svas divided into stalls for the monks by the detached 
 single shafts of an arcade; the principal sedilia, which have 
 trefoiled heads, remain in good preservation, and the high 
 altar stood in the centre nearly opposite to these canopied 
 recesses. The chapel called " The Lady Chapel " had not 
 then been projected. The choir thus added was one 
 hundred and thirty-five feet in length, and sixty- six feet 
 in width, and formed the conventual church, as distin- 
 guished from the church of the parish for which the 
 nave was thenceforward appropriated, and a stone screen 
 was carried at the same time across the nave at its 
 eastern end. The new western entrance was through 
 the enriched and deeply-recessed doorway which has 
 now been uncovered to its basement ; and above it pro- 
 bably were three lancet windows, which at a later period 
 gave place to a broad window with muUions and tran- 
 soms. The light and beautiful arch in the south transept 
 that has so long formed a favourite subject to the archi- 
 tect and the artist seems to have been opened through 
 what was the eastero wall of the Norman transept, to 
 give access to the new choir. Some of the basements of 
 the clustered piers in this stately fabric have been 
 recently disinterred ; from their capitals sprang arches 
 similar in character to the beautiful pointed arch in the 
 transept ; they opened into a northern and a southern 
 aisle, and supported a triforium, above which rose a row 
 of clerestory windows. The arcade of the triforia opened 
 into a gallery that was carried round the Early English 
 church. The arches were arranged in triplets, the whole 
 lacing united under a continuous arcade, and supported
 
 74 TTNEMOUTH PllIOIlY. 
 
 by slender clustered columns. The clerestory windows 
 Avere tall, with elal)orate moulding-s, arranged in triplets, 
 and on this tier of openings, also, a gallery surrounded 
 the church. It seems requisite to mention these parti- 
 culars, as the portions just described unhappily exist no 
 longer. The graceful character of the eastern portion 
 that still remains is justly a theme of adiniration. The 
 preservation of its elaborate mouldings and ornaments is 
 extraordinary, seeing that it has been so long without a 
 roof; and it affords a good specimen of the richness and 
 splendour of the edifice of which it formed a part. On 
 the loAver tier of lights are three tall lancets ; above these 
 are three smaller lights, the centre one in the eastern 
 galjle being in oval form ; and the series is crowned by 
 a third tall, narrow window. The whole was covered by 
 a vaulted roof. The vaulting ribs sprang from columns 
 the capitals of which are foliated, in great variety of 
 pattern, and much resemble some beautiful examples in 
 York Minster. 
 
 These sumptuous additions to their ancient church 
 must have engaged the energies and resources of the 
 monks of Tynemouth during several years, and their 
 completion forms the principal event in the annals of the 
 monastery during the reign of Henry III. A discovery 
 of some interest to their house was made in 1257, which 
 may be shortly mentioned. In that year, in rebuilding 
 the chapter house, (which adjoined the transejit, on the 
 east side of the cloister,) the skeletons of a man of unusual 
 stature and of a man of ordinary height, lying beside 
 eacli otlier, were found, and the tradition in the convent 
 led to the conjecture that they were the remains of Mal- 
 colm, King of Scotland, Avho was slain at the siege of 
 Alnwick in 1093, and of his son. Prince Edward. But 
 the time and manner of their death appear to have been 
 then forgotten, llobert of Durham, a literate monk of 
 Kelso, (which was a monastery founded by David, King 
 Malcolm's son,) at this time opportunely arrived at Tyne- 
 mouth, and he promised on his return to search for the 
 information wanted by the prior, and communicate the 
 result. He found, and accordingly wrote a letter to 
 inform the Prior of Tynemouth, that Malcolm, who had
 
 TYNEMOUTH PRIORY. 75 
 
 invaded England in the hope of restoring the Saxon line 
 of princes, Avas slain, with his son, on the 13th November, 
 1098, in besieging Alnwick Castle, then held by Hobert 
 de Mowbray for the King, and that their remains were 
 bronght in haste, by Mowbray's desire, to be honourably 
 interred in the monastery that he had so recently founded. 
 The Scotish army had fled, and the royal remains seem 
 to have been left, like the body of the last of the Saxon 
 kings, unburied on the field, until the noble Norman 
 directed their sepulture at Tynemouth. Probably, there- 
 fore, the prior and his brethren looked on the mute, 
 inglorious remains of princes whose approach at the head 
 of invading armies had in a former age spread alarm 
 through the monasteries ; and it appears the jorior had 
 intimated to the monks of Kelso his intention of deposit- 
 ing the remains in a place of honour, on finding them to 
 be indeed those of King Malcolm, the husband of St. 
 Margaret of Scotland, and of his son. He little sup- 
 posed that in less than three centuries the jewelled 
 shrine, and the honoured tombs, and the holy altars 
 would be overthrown in the ruins of his stately church ! 
 A few years previously to this discovery, the body of 
 Cospatric Earl of Dunbar, whose family had long been 
 connected with the monastery, and who had taken the 
 cross and gone to Palestine that he might be reconciled 
 to St. Oswin, was brought to Tynemouth for sepulture. 
 
 During ten years prior to 1258 the prior and monks 
 were engaged, not in resisting any Scotish invasion, l)ut 
 in maintaining their feudal liberties, which the bishop, 
 as Count Palatine, sought to abridge. A long series 
 of papal bulls, charters, and pleadings, and of royal 
 mandates and remonstrances addressed to the bishop, 
 attests the perseverance of the monks in defending their 
 privileges, and affords curious examples of the legal 
 weapons used six hundred years ago, and of the power 
 which the regal prelates of Durham enjoyed. But the 
 then Prior of Tynemouth, if experienced in legal con- 
 tention, was also instrumental in pacific negociation, for 
 he took an active part in eff'ecting the compromise of the 
 claim of Alexander King of Scotland, which was made 
 in 1214. A numerous army had been assembled at New-
 
 76 TYNEMOUTH PRIORY. 
 
 castle bv ITenrv, but tlie substance of his demand was 
 conceded without an a])|)eal to arms ; and the treaty, 
 witnessed l)y the assembled nol)les of both countries, was 
 transmitted to the Kins' of England bv the Prior of Tvne- 
 mouth, Avhose fidelity and diligence in the negociation, 
 we are told, gained the applause of both parties. This 
 circumstance seems worthy of jnention as illustrative of 
 the political importance of the priors of Tynemouth. 
 
 The year 1247 saw the close of another dispute with 
 the Bishop of Durham that had been long a subject of 
 litigation. The questions were, whether the bishop was 
 entitled to visit the churches w hich were appropriated to 
 Tynemouth, and "v^hether the priors were to receive in- 
 stitution from the bishop and promise canonical obedi- 
 ence ; all which they resisted, because the parent abbey 
 was immediately subject to the Holy See alone. The 
 bishop's claims, however, were ultimately conceded. 
 
 Before the end of Henry III.'s reign, the monks were 
 again engaged in litigation Avith the Bishop of Durham, 
 and the jurisdiction of the King's Court seems to have 
 come in conflict with the supreme independent jurisdiction 
 of the bishop. No lay corporation could have been more 
 unwearied in maintaining their liberties than were the 
 monks of Tynemouth ; and at length the prior was suc- 
 cessful, and was left free to administer justice among his 
 homagers and tenants, and to maintain within the 
 cloister the discipline of his order, which had been then 
 lately reformed hy Pope Gregory IX. 
 
 At the close of the reign of Henry III. the convent 
 received some valuable donations. The "^reat tithes of 
 the parochial churches ai)propriated to the monks were 
 flowing into their granaries, but the demands upon their 
 resources for their new buildings, and for charity and 
 hos2)itality, were so great, that the bishop made appro- 
 priate to them, in augmentation of bospitality, the church 
 of llorton and two-tbirds of the fruits of the church of 
 Hart])urn, worth 153 marks ; and the church of I'^gling- 
 liam had been appropriated to the convent for the same 
 purpose. In respect of these benefices, however, they 
 paid to tlie parent house 210 marks. 
 
 We now arrive at the reign of Edward I. — an eventful
 
 TYNEMOUTH PRIORY. 77 
 
 period to the monastery at Tynemoutli. During the 
 early part of it, the monks were involved in a dispute 
 with the hurgesses of Newcastle, which town had then 
 attained considerahle commercial importance. Before 
 the time of the Anglo-Norman kings, and even in the 
 reign of Henry III., the territory which is now so thickly 
 covered hy the streets of North Shields, and is inhahited 
 hy more than 30,000 people chiefly engaged in mercan- 
 tile and manufacturing pursuits, was a wild and unin- 
 hahited place. The earliest notice of this part of the 
 parish of Tynemoutli occurs in the proceedings in the 
 reign of Edward I. relating to the dispute with the town 
 of Newcastle, whose hurgesses claimed the exclusive 
 trade of the Tyne. This dispute arose from the loss 
 which the port of Newcastle sustained by the resort of 
 ships and merchandise to the prior's quays at North 
 Shields, which seems to have been at that time a rising 
 place, no longer consisting of a few primitive sheles or 
 dwellings scattered over its site. The prudent monks of 
 TAmemouth were there fostering trade, to the no small 
 profit of their monastery, and the great detriment of the 
 king's customs and the king's lieges in Newcastle. The 
 Prior of Durham on the south side of the river, and the 
 Prior of Tynemoutli on the northern side, contrived, by 
 the erection of quays and encouraging the resort of people 
 to the towns that were rising where North Shields and 
 South Shields, obscured by smoke, now overspread the 
 land, to intercept a great part of the merchandise that 
 would otherwise have proceeded to Newcastle. The bur- 
 gesses of that town complained to the king in parliament 
 of the loss they sustained by the doings of the great mo- 
 nastic merchants on either side of the river, which were 
 certainly inimical to the rising prosperity of Newcastle. 
 But in 1292 judgment was given for the crown in favour 
 of the right of Newcastle to free port beyond the mouth 
 of the Tyne. It has been thought that the haven called 
 Prior's Haven was thereupon formed by some prior for 
 the loading and discharge of cargoes when he lost his 
 quay at North Shields ; but it is a formation of much 
 earlier date, and seems to have been a landing-place for 
 the monastery. This was not the only litigation in which
 
 78 TYNEMOUTU PIIIORY. 
 
 tho monks of T^nicmoutli were involved. The judicial 
 privileges of the prior were attacked, for the king's 
 judges claimed, for the first time, to hold the king's pleas 
 within the lil)ertv of Tvnemouth. Thev entered the 
 priors great hall, and commanded that his prisoners be 
 arraigned before them. But the officers of the prior re- 
 sisted the demand. The question, however, soon came on 
 for decision in parliament, and both at Norham Castle 
 and at Westminster before the King in his great council 
 the Prior of Tynemouth had to appear and produce his 
 rolls of pleas, and to defend the rights of his convent 
 under protection of King Kicliard's charter. But he was 
 unsuccessful, for it was adjudged that the king's justices 
 should hold pleas within his liberties. In pursuance of 
 this judgment the prior lost his judicial privileges for a 
 period of eight years, after which, however, they were 
 restored to him by the king, and were freely exercised by 
 all the succeeding priors of Tynemoutli. What sort of 
 law the suitors and prisoners heard in the prior's court it 
 would be difficult to say, or how he was aided in giving 
 judgment according to the laws and customs of the realm. 
 
 The Abbat of St. xVlban's and Prior of Tvnemouth Avere 
 also cited before the King in parliament to show by what 
 warrant thev claimed to receive the amerciaments of their 
 natives and tenants, and to harbour fugitiA'cs in the sanc- 
 tuary of Tynemoutli, and to exercise manorial liberties. 
 Of these, however, they were not deprived. 
 
 It was the ancient custom for the prior's officers of 
 justice to meet the grave dignitaries of the common law 
 on the hill of Gateshead, or at a place in Northumber- 
 land, beneath a spreading oak, when they came to hold 
 assizes at Newcastle, and to claim and receive from the 
 king's judges the recognition of the prior's liberty to liold 
 the pleas of the crown tliat arose within it, and to have 
 what was called the return of writs, that is to say, the 
 right to execute the king's writs in the liberty of Tyne- 
 moutli exclusive of the sheriff of Northumberland. 
 
 LitiiA'ation was not conducted without cost in those 
 days any more than in our own ; but the convent seems 
 to have been at this time in the plenitude of its prosperity. 
 Its revenues derived from spiritual benefices held in ap-
 
 TYNEMOUTIl PRIORY. 79 
 
 propriation by the monks amounted to the then large sum 
 of 281^. 8s. Id. yearly, and those derived from the tem- 
 poral possessions of the convent to the sum of 200/. 
 yearly — constituting an income worth considerably more 
 than 5,000/. a-year in the money of the present time. 
 The first fruits and tenths of ecclesiastical possessions 
 being granted by the Pope to Edward I. for six years 
 towards the cost of his expedition to the Holy Land, a 
 valuation was made, from Avhich these facts appear. The 
 great tithes of the parish of Tynemouth, appropriate 
 to the convent, were alone valued at 111. 12s. lOd. a-year. 
 
 The prior and convent were no doubt obliged to main- 
 tain a most extensive hospitality, and during the Scotish 
 wars the mighty Edward himself was frequently their 
 guest. He was at Tynemouth in November and Decem- 
 ber, 1292, in 1298, 1299, and in April, 1300, at which 
 time he was accompanied by his youthful bride Margue- 
 rite, " the Elower of Erance." We have notices of some 
 of the king's offerings at St. Oswin's shrine. A clasp of 
 gold, worth six marks, was a usual offering. On 20th 
 June, 1300, and six following days, seven shillings each 
 day were offered, and an offering was made at the altar of 
 St. Alban in the priory church on the 25th, *' because of 
 the good news which he had heard from Scotland." On 
 several of these visits, the monks appear to have availed 
 themselves of the presence of the mighty Edward within 
 the "Peace of St. Oswin," to obtain from him simdry 
 confirmations and favours ; and amongst these was the 
 charter by which the king restored the judicial franchise 
 of the prior — a grant dated 27th Eebruary, 1299, in which 
 the royal grantor professes his devotion to St. Alban and 
 to St. Oswin, "whose body," says the grant, "rests in a 
 shrine within the church of Tvnemouth," and his favour 
 towards the prior and the monks there assembled in the 
 service of God. 
 
 In 1303, the Queen resided in Tynemouth Monastery ; 
 and this royal visit resulted in the grant of a fair to be 
 held once a year round the Market Cross in the village 
 of Tynemouth, and to last for fourteen days. But 
 again the jealous burgesses of Newcastle interposed ; 
 complaint was made to the King in Parliament, at
 
 80 TYNEMOUTH PRIORY. 
 
 Carlisle, that the fair was greatly to the prejudice of 
 Newcastle, and an invasion of the monopoly it claimed 
 under its eliarters, and so the fair was suppressed 
 in 1305. Pairs were of an importance in those days 
 which they do not now possess, for the great periodical 
 fairs were resorted to l)y })eople of all ranks and con- 
 ditions, who there purchased the manufactured and 
 imported goods which were not produced within their 
 own domains. Of the niea2:re manner in whicli the 
 shops of those days to he found in the walled towns like 
 KcAvcastle were supplied, we have some illustration in 
 the fact that when Kini;' Edward II. visited Battle 
 Ahhey in 1324, so lahorious was travelling, and so 
 rare were the means of hospitality, and of purchasing 
 articles of merchandize, that the King had to hring his 
 OAvn rice, ginger, cloves, and almonds, while hread, pork, 
 mutton, capons, and peacocks were contrihuted hy the 
 ahhat and neighhouring landholders. Apropos of hread : 
 it may he mentioned tliat in 1307 the prior erected a 
 pillory at Tynemouth for the punishment of dishonest 
 hakers. So much for the short-lived franchise of a fair 
 at Tynemouth. The henetit of the other royal grants 
 was more enduring. 
 
 But these visits of their martial Sovereign sadly 
 invaded the holy peace of Tynemouth' s Cloister, if, 
 indeed, a monastery which from its very situation was 
 so militant could enjoy peace for any lengthened period. 
 It was not only Border warfare and Scotish aggression 
 that frequently overran their lands and hrought enemies 
 to their very gates : in the reign of Edward I. we tind 
 that the houses of their tenants had heen hurned and 
 their croods stolen hv some men of Newcastle, who are 
 politely designated as " sons of iniquity and satellites of 
 Satan." If captured, they prohahly made their ap- 
 pearance under the prior's gallows. And frequently, 
 during the Scotish wars, the tenants of the convent were 
 raising men, horses, carriages, and numitions for the 
 King's use; — frequently the armed followers of their 
 warlike Sovereign were arrayed for his campaigns upon 
 their territory, mingling with the hlack-robed monks 
 beneath their abbey gateway, —
 
 TYNEMOUTII PRTOTIY. 81 
 
 " And Inigle notes to battle rang 
 Tlirough their resounding halls." 
 
 Some events of the succeeding reign that are com- 
 memorated in English history occurred at TjTiemouth. 
 In 1312, during the contest of Edward II. with the 
 barons who confederated to compel the dismissal of his 
 favourite, Gaveston, Queen Isabella retired from York to 
 the monastery at Tynemouth, and there, on the 26th 
 April, offered a cloth of gold at the great altar. On the 
 same day, brother Robert de Bernyngham, a monk of 
 Tynemouth, who seems to have been skilled in the prac- 
 tice of physic, received from the King's hands for his 
 care of Gaveston in his illness at Newcastle, the not con- 
 temptible fee of 61. 13s. 4<d. Edward was at that time 
 lodged in the priory at Tynemouth, and seems to have 
 moved about l:)etween that place and Newcastle, wdiile 
 the associated nobles were advancing from York. On 
 the 4th May, which was the feast of the Ascension, the 
 King, on their approach to Newcastle, fled swiftly to 
 Tynemouth, accompanied by his unhappy favourite. On 
 the following day they escaped by sea, descending pro- 
 bably the stairs that still remain on the north side of the 
 Prior's Haven, and took refuge in Scarborough Castle, 
 leaving the Queen at Tynemouth, who, during her resi- 
 dence there, Avas employed in deeds of charity and offices 
 of devotion. 
 
 In 1322 the priory was again the residence of royalty. 
 When Edward was on his campaign against the Scots, 
 he pursued the invaders across the border with a large 
 army, augmented by reinforcements raised upon the 
 convent-lands, to the no small damage of their flocks and 
 farms. In consideration of the impoverishment of their 
 territories, the King licensed the monks — already patri- 
 cians in broad acres — to increase their possessions in land. 
 
 At this time a monk of St. Alban's, named Richard 
 de Tewing, was appointed Prior of Tynemouth. He is 
 recorded to have become prior in a season of peril which 
 demanded all the administrative abilities that have been 
 ascribed to him by the monks who knew him. They tell 
 us that during the space of four years no husbandman 
 could plough or sow his land from fear of the Scotish in- 
 
 G
 
 82 TYNEMOUTH PRIORY. 
 
 vaders and of tlic lawless hands by whom Nortlmmbcr- 
 land was traversed ; and that Prior lliehard maintained 
 eio'htv armed men for the defence of his monastery of 
 Tynemouth. For, peaceful men as they Avere, the monks 
 of Tynemouth had to resist Scotish as well as spiritual 
 foes, and were obliged to fortify their great monastery in 
 the manner of a castle. 
 
 Although the monks received Sovereigns for their 
 guests, they did not forget their dependants and the 
 poor. At Whitley, for example, there Avas an entertain- 
 ment annually given during the Christmas festival to the 
 servants of the monastery, the homagers, the farm- 
 labourers, and the men called "kelers," who served in 
 their barges. The regulations for this feast are curiously 
 minute. They prescribe that every two persons of the 
 rank of esquire were to be alloAA ed a Avhole fowl at 
 supper, every two of inferior rank Avere to liaA'e half a 
 fowl, but they Averc considerately allowed to satisfy Avitli 
 fresh meat appetites that Avere probably quite equal ; 
 and all Avere to have good ale, and even the horses and 
 dogs of the homagers Avere not forgotten. The lands of 
 Whitley appear to liaA^e been held l)y the service of pro- 
 viding this entertainment. 
 
 We may noAV glance at the history of the couA^ent 
 during the reign of Edward III. It was on the 20th of 
 November, 1327, that a truce Avitli the Scotish king Avas 
 agreed on at NcAVcastle, and it left the monks once more 
 free to repair the injuries their temporal possessions 
 had recciA^ed from the recent agitations in the realm. 
 Kichard de TcAving Avas still prior, and seems to have 
 enjoyed the personal faA'our of the young king, Avho 
 granted the usual confirmation of the charter of his 
 royal ancestors, declaring his " especial aflPection to the 
 person of his beloAx^d in Christ Ilichard de Tewing the 
 prior, and his desire to relieve the condition of the 
 priory, Avhich, by the frequent invasions of Scotish ene- 
 mies and of rebels, had become much Avasted and op- 
 pressed." This grant Avas foUoAved by the acquisition of 
 lands in various places ; and, from documents that occur 
 in 1335, it appears that stone Avas being dug for the 
 monks in their quarry in Merdesfen, and that works of 
 building were in progress at Tynemouth.
 
 TYNEMOTJTH PRIORY. 83 
 
 Indeed the monks were engaged during a great part 
 of this (the fourteenth) century in restoring their walls 
 and monastic buildings ; and so late as the reign of 
 Kichard II. they were repairing then* fortified works, 
 aided by royal gifts and the liberality of private donors. 
 The position of their monastery, on cliflFs that have been 
 for ages slowly yielding to the waves, and its vicinity to 
 the Scotish border, rendered it needful that the walls 
 and defences of the convent should be maintained in 
 strength ; the domestic buildings, too, must have been 
 considerable in a monastery that was the daily resort of 
 nobles and persons of every degree for protection and 
 hospitality. A map or survey made at a later period 
 remains in the Cottonian Library, which throws some 
 light on the situation of the monastic buildings. It 
 shews the church, the monastery, and its various build- 
 ings, together with a ward house, to have been sur- 
 rounded by fortified walls. The entrance was not where 
 the present gateway stands, (the arched or lower portion 
 of which was built by Henry VIII. after the Dissolution,) 
 but was on a line with the houses on the south side of 
 Avhat is now called the Pront street ; and over a wide 
 moat a drawbridge gave access to the Gate House as it 
 was called, which stood near to the Ward House, where 
 we may suppose the armed defenders of the convent to 
 have been lodged. The Gate House opened into what 
 was called " The Great Court," and on the south side of 
 it, where the land now slopes to Prior's Haven, stood 
 "The Lord's Lodging," — the building appropriated to 
 royal and noble guests of the prior — the hall, buttery, 
 kitchen, bakehouse, and domestic offices of the convent — 
 buildings that spoke 
 
 " more of the baron than the monlv." 
 
 The cloister, which was quadrangular, was on the south 
 side of the parochial or older portion of the church. The 
 common-hall or refectory of the monks formed its 
 western side, on the side facing the Gate House, and to 
 the south of it ran the building marked as " The New 
 Hall." The chapter-house was on the eastern side of 
 the cloister, and adjoined the south transept. The prior's 
 
 G 2
 
 8Jj TTNEMOUTH PRIORY. 
 
 lodg'ing and the corn-liousc -were on the eastern side of 
 the Great Court, in Mbicli stood the lodging of a more 
 secuL'ir and militant funetionarv, the constahlc or warder 
 of the monastic castle. The grain kept within the walls 
 of the convent seems to ha^e been abundant, for "the 
 great barn," another barn, and a granary, are marked on 
 the plan. There was a space between these buildings 
 and the edge of the cliff facing towards Cullercoates, 
 which is marked as the North Walk. Eastward of the 
 abbey church was "The Garden Place," and beyond the 
 walls, to the south-Avest, looking towards North Shields, 
 the " old fish-ponds" are marked on the plan. So that 
 the monks commanded A\ithin the circuit of their own 
 walls ample provision for the hospitality which their 
 Rule required them to maintain. 
 
 But while the edifices were repaired and the temporal 
 prosperity of the convent maintained, the pursuit of 
 learning was not neglected in the cloister of Tynemouth 
 Priorv. In the reis-n of Edward III., John of T^ne- 
 mouth, a learned monk, whose name is eminent among 
 the worthies of England, flourished here, and served the 
 parochial church as vicar. He was a great collector of 
 English annals, a biographer of saints, and author of the 
 work celebrated as " The Golden History." Thomas de 
 la Mare, another • illustrious monk, succeeded to the 
 office of Prior of Tynemouth al)out 1341. He was of a 
 wealthy and ancient family in Hertfordshire ; his father 
 was Sir John de la Mare, his mother the daughter of Sir 
 John de Harpsfield. His j^aternal uncle was Al)l)at of 
 Missenden, his elder brother an Augustine monk of Thet- 
 ford, his younger brother a monk of St. Alban's, his only 
 sister a Benedictine nun of De la Pre ; and the history of 
 Thomas de la Mare and of his family affords a remarkable 
 example of the zeal and self-devotion with which the mo- 
 nastic life was anciently embraced. His brethren have re- 
 corded the benignity of his disposition ; they praise him 
 as the ever-watchful shepherd of his flock, the peace- 
 maker, and the encourager of merit ; they record his 
 munificence, and his hospitality toAvards strangers, the 
 dignity of his presence, and the fluency of his speech ; 
 and they tell us that he not only enjoyed the regard of
 
 TYNEMOUTH PRIORY. 85 
 
 princes, nobles, and peasants, bnt converted the very ene- 
 mies of the convent into his personal friends. It is 
 stated that Edward the Black Prince venerated De la 
 Mare as a faithful friend and father. A remarkable in- 
 stance of his friendship may be mentioned. Sir Gerard 
 de Widdrington seems to have been an imscrupulous 
 persecutor of the monks of Tynemouth ; he claimed some 
 part of their possessions, and, as if impatient of the law's 
 delay, he seized and put to the torture some poor un- 
 offending friars of Newminster Avhom he mistook for 
 brethren of Tynemoutli. Subsequently, the Black Prince, 
 on seeing Sir Gerard at his court in London, banished 
 him from his presence until he should have become re- 
 conciled to the monks, whereupon he was obliged to 
 repair to Tynemouth, and sue for pardon, and, being also 
 forgiven by De la Mare, he regained the prince's favour. 
 While the law-suit was pending, the prior was sustained 
 by the good-will of the generous Lady Mary de Percy, 
 sister of Henry Duke of Lancaster. She had chosen 
 Prior Thomas de la Mare to be her confessor, " and be- 
 cause," say the monks, " she had no great abundance of 
 gold," she sent her jewels to the prior to aid him in de- 
 fending his right, and accompanied the gift by a living 
 champion famed for his prow^ess in single combat. On 
 his coming into court and offering to maintain the prior's 
 right by battle — a mode of trial then known to the Eng- 
 lish law — Sir Gerard withdrew from the contest, and 
 left the convent masters of the field. 
 
 Thomas de la Mare was prior for nine years ; the first 
 three, we are told, w^ere employed in defeating the ene- 
 mies of his convent ; the last period of three years in 
 improving the revenues and the buildings of his monas- 
 tery; and all in extending the kingdom of God and 
 overthrowing the works of Satan. He expended 70^. 
 upon "the new work about the altar," 87^. upon the 
 dormitory, 90/. in rebuilding the malt-house of the bre- 
 thren, who appear to have brewed upon a most extensive 
 scale, and smaller sums on other works, amounting in 
 all to 864/. — a sum in his times so considerable as to 
 show that the monastic buildings and defences were 
 more extensive and mao^nificent than the visitor to their
 
 86 TYNEMOUTU I'RIOKV. 
 
 noAV desolated site can easily imagine. He was much 
 devoted to study, and to the encouragement of learning, 
 and was even diligent in preaching, which was tlien a 
 very charitable A\'ork, for it had not become degenerated 
 to the purposes of the Popular Preacher and the Pro- 
 prietary Chapel. 
 
 While he was prior, David King of Scots, captured 
 after the battle of Neville's Cross, was brouglit to Tyne- 
 moutli as a prisoner on his way to Bamburgh Castle, be- 
 fore his removal to the Tower ; l3ut was honourably 
 treated by the prior, with a chivalrous feeling worthy the 
 friend of Edward the Black Prince, Shortly before tlie 
 battle, the Scotish leader, calculating on victory, had sent 
 to warn the prior to prepare entertainment for him and 
 his followers for two days ; but the English army at 
 Durham altered the destination of the intending visitors 
 to the prior's larder. 
 
 In 1349 Thomas de la Mare became Abbat of St. 
 Alban's. The reader must not be asked to follow him 
 on his journey to Avignon — then the refuge of the Holy 
 See — whither he went to obtain investiture from the 
 Pope ; nor 1)efore the royal Edward, on his return, to do 
 homage for his temporalities ; nor on his pastoral visit to 
 Tynemouth, his former home, and his tour of reforma- 
 tion, as president of the Benedictine chapter of England, 
 to many of her fair and ancient abbeys ; nor in his daily 
 coiu'se of duty at St. Alban's, through its shadowy 
 cloisters and its princely halls. He died in 1396, at the 
 age of 88. Habited in his rich vestments, with the pas- 
 toral staff and mitre by his side that he had borne so 
 no])ly for eight-and-forty years, his remains were for se- 
 veral days looked upon by the hundreds who flocked 
 to his noble abbey ; and his countenance after death, 
 though he had sustained a Avasting illness, was observed 
 to recover the dignified aspect and benignity it wore in 
 manhood's prime. A most noble monumental brass, the 
 work of a Flemish brass-engraver, who has l)een not in- 
 aptly designated the Cellini of the fourteenth century, the 
 finest ecclesiastical brass that remains in England, com- 
 memorates the good De la Mare in his abbey church. 
 
 Ilude hands must at some time have torn up the mo-
 
 TYNEMOUTII PRIORY. 87 
 
 numental pavement of the conventual church at Tyne- 
 mouth, or we should have found, on the recent excava- 
 tions, some sepulchral memorials besides the two or three 
 early sculptured monumental crosses that have been 
 brought to light within the ruins, but we could not ex- 
 pect to find even the matrix of any brass half so sump- 
 tuous and elaborate as this. 
 
 The reader must not be detained by any notice of the 
 visits of the royal Edward, and of his offerings at the 
 shrine ; but mention may be made, as illustrative of the 
 then state of the monastery, of the amount it paid when 
 a grant was made to the king of the income of a tenth of 
 its possessions, spiritual and temporal, for two years. 
 The then large sum of 76/. 13s. Qcl. was the contribution 
 of Tynemoutli, and yet its possessions had become depre- 
 ciated (as we learn from an inquisition of the time) " by 
 the devastations of invading enemies and destructions by 
 the sea." This was in 1336. In 1347, two sacks of 
 wool, or their value, ten marks, were contributed towards 
 expenses of the king's wars in Erance ; and after the sur- 
 render of Calais, an urgent letter came in the king's 
 name, requesting that the value of two more sacks of 
 wool might be forwarded in gold or silver to the royal 
 treasury. 
 
 The continual demands upon them must have im- 
 poverished the monks if they had not acquired during 
 this period additional lands under royal license. The 
 monastery had lands to the westward of Newcastle, and 
 the prior had a manor-house at Benwell, from which he 
 could enjoy a wide and varied prospect. It embraced on 
 the west the cultivated lands sloping to the Tyne, the 
 antique church-tower and town of Newburn, the spire of 
 Hyton, and the distant heights of Heddon, once crested 
 by the Homan wall ; on the south, the hills of Durham, 
 the rich vale of SaltweU, and the ancient woods of Ba- 
 vensworth ; and towards the east — for a canopy of smoke 
 did not obscure the then fortified town of Newcastle — 
 the venerable church-tower of Jarrow, the rising towns 
 of North and South Shields, and his own great monas- 
 tery, beneath whose walls the Tyne flowed swiftly to the 
 ocean tides.
 
 88 TYNEMOUTll PKIORY. 
 
 On the accession of Ricliard II. the king confirmed 
 the charters of tlie monastery in the usual terms ; and in 
 one of the grants tlie priory is mentioned as " a place 
 from okl time Availed and fortilied to resist the enemies 
 of the realm, hut Avliose defences, weakened hy encroach- 
 ment of the sea, were then in danger of ruin." To aid 
 the monks in repairing the Avails and the condition of the 
 monastery, licences Avere granted under Avhich they ac- 
 quired 360 additional acres of land. The church of 
 HautAvysil A\^as also appropriated to the couA^ent, in con- 
 sideration, as the grant expresses, " of the depreciation 
 of their property hy the continued Avars, and of the 
 hurden of hospitality incumhent on the monks in their 
 priory, to Avhich nohlemen and other persons resorted 
 daily, according to the custom of those parts." 
 
 Of the state of the country at that time many instances 
 might he given ; one Avill suffice : an armed hand Avho had 
 plundered the neighhouring country came, in 1389, to 
 Tynemouth, and the celerar of the monastery Avent out 
 from the castle to saAC the village and inhahitants hy 
 payment of "ransom." Tynemouth having been con- 
 tinually subject to such visitation, and occupying such a 
 prominent and unsheltered eminence, we certainly cannot 
 apply to this priory Pope's description of some Cistercian 
 abbev secluded in a rich vallev of the south of Prance 
 as — 
 
 " A happy convent, bosom'd deep in vines, 
 Where skiniber'd abbots purple as their wines." 
 
 But there is no doubt that they maintained good store 
 of Avine, the vintage of more sunny lands, for, as Byron 
 says,— 
 
 " The very best of vineyards is the cellar." 
 
 The monks enjoyed the protection of Henry de Percy, 
 Earl of Northumberland, Avho was one of the most dis- 
 tinguished nobles of his day, and Avas father of the cele- 
 brated Hotspur. Amongst other benefits, he gave 100 
 marks toAAards the construction of the gate house, and 
 1000 oak-trees from the sylvan glades of AlnAvick to 
 repair the houses that had been destroyed by the Scots. 
 
 John of Ghent, " time-honoured Lancaster," Avas like-
 
 TYNEMOTJTH PRIOllY. 89 
 
 wise their friend, and loestowed on the monks the princely 
 i^ift of 100/. besides aid towards the structure of their 
 fortified and massive gate-house. They had another 
 royal friend in Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, 
 uncle of the king. 
 
 To this period we may probably refer the erection of 
 the unique little edifice called the Lady Chapel, but 
 wdiich was more probably a mortuary chapel of some 
 noljle Percy. This chapel projects Irom the eastern 
 gable of the choir, and is entered under a four-centred 
 arch springing from clustered columns, below the eastern 
 triplet window. Its floor is below the level of the 
 church, and its dimensions are small, being only 18 feet by 
 12 feet within the w^alls. Its great peculiarity is in the 
 vaulted roof, the ribs curiously intersecting, and the 
 intersections on three of the longitudinal ribs enriched 
 with circular bosses, on wdiich our Saviour and the 
 twelve Apostles are represented in roundlets, surrounded 
 with an invocation to each saint represented by name. 
 These, with the several heraldic cognizances which are 
 sculptured in this chapel, would of themselves occupy a 
 separate article to describe them properly ; the bearings 
 of Percy, and the bearings borne quarterly by that noble 
 family, indicate their connection with this edifice. Light 
 was admitted by a circular or wheel window in the eastern 
 wall, and by broad w indows divided by plain mullions on 
 the northern and southern sides. There are two canopied 
 recesses in the eastern wall for statues. When the win- 
 dows of this edifice glowed with various hues, and the 
 morning rays, streaming through them, lighted up its 
 architectural enrichments and gilded decorations, this 
 little chapel must have presented a scene of great rich- 
 ness and beauty. But down to a very recent period its 
 windows were blocked up, its roof and walls were covered 
 with whitewash, a wooden flooring was laid down that 
 concealed a third of its height, and it was converted into 
 a magazine for gunpowder, having found a new patron 
 in the Board of Ordnance! The chapel has been 
 recently restored ; and it must always be satisfactory to 
 the writer to reflect that remonstrances which he pub-
 
 90 TYNEMOUTH PKIORY. 
 
 lislicd on tlie subject of this desecration in his extended 
 History of Tvnemouth Priorv, and elsewliere, led to 
 the interference that has resulted in the relinquishment 
 of this very interesting little chapel to the parish. 
 
 Space does not admit of descril)ing in detail the sub- 
 jects on the bosses. It has been supposed that the 
 chapel contained the shrine of St. Oswin ; it was, 
 however, more probably exalted in the middle of the 
 choir. 
 
 The history of the monastery under the House of Lan- 
 caster need not detain the reader long, save that monastic 
 annals can hardly present a more interesting suliject for 
 biography than the good and learned monk, John de 
 Whethamstede, who governed the monastery as prior for 
 the first twenty years of the fifteenth century, and was 
 then called to the more conspicuous dignity of Abbat of 
 St. Alban's. He was illustrious for his encouragement 
 of learning, his own literary labours, his virtuous life, 
 and his wise and prudent rule. He appears to have 
 lived for more than a century, and he sustained the cares 
 of the al)bacv for more than forty years ; but it was not 
 until the infirmities of age disabled him from govern- 
 ment that he relinquished the care of his flock. He died 
 in 1464, having some time previously resigned the abbacy. 
 Some of his manuscripts, written in a character remark- 
 ably bold and distinct, have come down to us, and he 
 caused an immense number of MSS. to be transcribed 
 for the use of his monastery. On one of his pastoral 
 visitations to Tynemouth, he offered at the altar a massive 
 chalice of gold : on another visitation he gave a purple 
 cope which cost 20/. — so large an amount in money of 
 those days that the cope must have been very rich and 
 elaborate. He obtained a royal grant of liberties in such 
 terms that no other monastery in England possessed the 
 immunities and pri\ ileges of St. Alban's and its cells. 
 These services to his monastery, little as they aff'ect us 
 now, were of course accounted great virtues by his 
 monastic contemjioraries ; the claims of the good AVhet- 
 hamstede to the admiring remembrance of posterity 
 rest, however, upon more enduring grounds. 
 
 V
 
 TYNEMOUTH PKIORY. 91 
 
 The right of the prior and convent to free port at the 
 mouth of the Tyne was again the subject of some litiga- 
 tion early in the reign of Henry VI. And in 1447 there 
 was an inquisition taken, from which it appears that for 
 sixty years before, the prior had erected within the 
 demesnes of the i)riory, upon four acres of land which 
 had been gained from the tide, 200 houses, taverns for 
 common entertainment, shops, shambles, herring-houses, 
 iish-houses, staiths, and other buildings. Large quan- 
 tities of wheat-flour were annually brought to be baked 
 in his common ovens, 2000 quarters of malt were brought 
 to be brewed, and the rents amounted to 1500 marks, 
 from which we may infer that something beyond a mere 
 aggregation of humble cotes whose tenants were sup- 
 ported by fishing had then arisen on part of the laud 
 now covered by the busv, populous, and thriving port of 
 North Shields. 
 
 The fisliing vessels of the convent, Avhich were large 
 and very numerous (for the priors maintained a consi- 
 derable fishery), and English and foreign ships, whose 
 names and appearance would now create great astonish- 
 ment in the crowded harbour of North Shields, then 
 floated beside the prior's quays ; and the accounts of the 
 ministers or receivers for the crown after the dissolution 
 of the monastery in the reign of Henry VIII. afford 
 reason to believe that the proceedings renewed in the 
 reign of Henry VI. had not the effect of suppressing the 
 rising trade of North Shields. 
 
 The monastery suffered greatly when the north of Eng- 
 land was again agitated by strife during the w^ars of the 
 Hoses. The sword that in former years had been dra^vn 
 in foreign campaigns, or against enemies of the Christian 
 faith, was now turned by the nobles of England against 
 each other, and her fertile plains w^ere stained by the 
 sanguinary contests of her sons. 
 
 The history of Tynemouth during the reign of Edward 
 IV. and the usurpation of Hichard may be passed over, 
 for it shows little more than that intrigue and injustice 
 at that period deranged the regularity even of the 
 cloister.
 
 92 TYNEMOUTH PlllOlir. 
 
 " All felt the plunderer's cruel hand, 
 When civil rapine through the land 
 
 Stalked forth -with giant stride ; 
 When loyalty, successless, bled, 
 And truth and honour vainly sped 
 
 Against misfortune's tide." 
 
 AAHien Henry of Riclmiond obtained the crown, the 
 fatal wars that had so long- convulsed the realm were 
 happily ended, but the dynasty of the house of Tudor was 
 to be ere loni>' fatal to the monasteries of Enuland. 
 
 Jolm, Prior of Tynemouth, is mentioned in 1503, when 
 he rode forth attended by thirty horsemen and a company 
 of homagers, " his folks wearing his livery," to meet the 
 princess Margaret, eklest daughter of Henry VII., on her 
 progress to the court of James lY. of Scotland, her affi- 
 anced hus1)and. She rode on a palfrey, attended l)y three 
 serving men ; and a litter, or carriage drawn by two horses, 
 followed, in whicli she rode when passing through the 
 towns upon her journey. Erom York she was conducted 
 northward by the Earls of Surrey and Northumberland, 
 and was met bv the Prior of Tvnemouth between Durham 
 and Newcastle, Avhich town she reached on the 2 Ith July. 
 Henry gave mth his daughter 30,000 gold nobles (about 
 10,000/.), to be raised l)y his subjects — to Avhoni he consi- 
 derately allowed three years for the purpose, and the 
 prior was in July, 1505, appointed a commissioner for 
 raising the third instalment. 
 
 The condition of the priory was prosperous in the early 
 years of the reign of Henry VIII. The gross rent of 
 lands let to farm Avas returned at 225/. V6s. Irf. per 
 annum ; that of the demesne and other lands retained in 
 hand by the prior and convent, at 191/. 8^. 8^. ; tlie 
 tithes of parishes appropriate to the priory produced 
 70/. 85. ^d. ; and in one year, hides, wool, salt, coal, 
 malt, and fish were sold for 188/. 10«. 8f/. ; making a 
 total of 70c/. — a sum worth probably more than 6,000/. 
 a-year in our money. The coal mines yielded a conside- 
 rable income. A colliery at Elswick and other collieries 
 had been leased by the prior and convent in the reign of 
 Edward II., and the fines and reserved rents on these 
 
 \
 
 TTNEMOUTU PRIORY. 93 
 
 leases show tliat the working of coal was at that tmie very 
 profitable to the convent. 
 
 But a fatal change was now approaching. We have 
 seen this priory the object of royal solicitude and protec- 
 tion through a long course of time ; we have traced its 
 acquisition of worldly riches, and have seen it the secure 
 retreat of piety and learning through centuries of turbu- 
 lence and warfare ; but the monks were soon to be ex- 
 pelled from the ancient home which many sovereigns 
 had fenced round with all the privileges they could be- 
 stow : the charity and hospitality long dispensed at Tpie- 
 mouth were to be no more, the plate and jewels that had 
 been dedicated to God were to be seized by the crown, 
 the cherished acquisitions of learning were to be dis- 
 persed, and the venerable walls that pious men had 
 reared were to be desecrated and condemned to ruin. 
 
 In 1534 the lesser monasteries (those not possessing 
 200/. a-year) had been suppressed ; and the unhappy 
 monks of Tynemouth beheld the approaching dissolution 
 of their ancient home. To conceal the rapacity of the 
 king and his favourites, expectant of abbey lands, the 
 monks were everywhere accused by visitors aj^pointed by 
 the crown of unheard-of enormities. Charges of immo- 
 rality or of treason were sustained by means which out- 
 raged all legal procedure, and disgraced the name of jus- 
 tice. Had there been real occasion for a reformation of 
 monastic manners, a chapter of the Benedictine order 
 could easily have been summoned, and the interests of 
 religion would have been efficiently secured ; but the re- 
 forming zealots hungered for the fair lordships and the 
 dedicated riches of the Church. Befractory abbats and 
 monks were hung under their own gateways, or, when 
 very mercifully treated, were only turned forth destitute 
 and pensionless, while obsequious monks were tempted 
 by liberal grants from the revenues they had lately called 
 their own. At length the brethren of Tynemouth as- 
 sembled in their chapter-house to execute the humili- 
 ating deed of surrender, and sign their sentence of perpe- 
 tual banishment from the noble priory that had so long 
 known their pensive footsteps, and from the halls in 
 which they had dispensed a generous hospitality that was
 
 94 TYNEMOUTII PRIORY. 
 
 now to cease. On the 12tli January, 1589, the monas- 
 tery was suiTcnderecl to the crown hy llohert Blakeney, 
 last prior of Tynemouth, and eighteen monks. A life- 
 pension of 80/. was granted to the prior, and pensions of 
 smaller amount were allowed to each of the monks. The 
 common seal (which av as a beautiful work of ancient art, 
 as appears from an impression still existing) was broken; 
 the plate and jewels were taken for the king ; the move- 
 able property of the monastery was sold ; the monastic 
 buildings were dismantled ; the church and the prior's 
 house only were preserved, the former as a parochial 
 church, and the latter as a residence for the farmer or 
 purchaser of the demesne. The value of all the real pro- 
 perty of the convent was returned at 537/. 10*. lie?, 
 a-year ; the total revenue at 706/. 10s. Sd. The six bells, 
 that had sounded afar over land and ocean were taken 
 down and shipped for London. The lead was torn from all 
 the roofs. The church plate in gold seized 1)y the king's 
 visitors weighed 62 ounces ; in silver, 1827 ounces. 
 
 " Before them lay a glittering store — 
 
 The abbey's plundered Avealth ; 
 The garment of cost, and the bowl emboss'd, 
 
 And the wassail cup of health." 
 
 The manuscripts that were in the library seem to have 
 been gradually dispersed. Some few relics of its once 
 treasured contents have however come down to us. One 
 of them — a Latin psalter that was known as "The Book 
 of S. Oswin," and is in a handwriting old enough to have 
 been looked upon by the lioly king — was obtained by Sir 
 Robert Cotton when lie visited the North in the following: 
 century, and, after narrowly escaping total destruction 
 in the fire of liis house at Westminster, is now in the 
 British Museum. 
 
 So fell, by no gradual decay, but by sacrilege com- 
 mitted in the name of reformation, a religious house 
 secured by rights derived from every monarch that had 
 preceded Henry upon the throne; a conspicuous and 
 time-honoured monument of Northumbrian jiiety ; a 
 church founded upon a rock, from whose towers the light 
 of religion shone for centuries over stormy seas and lands 
 darkened by human turbulence ; a cluTrch fenced round
 
 TYNEMOUTH PRIORY. 95 
 
 not only by solid walls of stone, but by tlie incorporeal 
 yet enduring power of every legal sanction that sove- 
 reigns could bestow, and endowed with privileges to 
 which feudal might and " kneeling knighthood" bowed. 
 The Aviiter is tempted to play the advocate for the 
 monks, and can hardly close this article on the edifices of 
 Tynemouth Priory and the events that took place within 
 its walls, without saying a few words about the monks 
 themselves. It suited the purpose of Henry VIII. and 
 his Parliament to foster a popular belief that a monas- 
 tery was a place dedicated to idleness, gluttony, political 
 intrigue, hypocrisy, and superstition. But we now 
 believe that there never was truth in the foul abuse 
 heajied on the monastic order ; and we are disposed with 
 candour to estimate the monks by the monuments they 
 have bequeathed to posterity, and by what we know of 
 their lives. Even if they had fallen away and degenerated 
 before the time of the Dissolution, that cannot aifect our 
 opinion of an institution that was preserved, as if by the 
 hand of divine Providence, for so many hundred years 
 before, and to which we owe so many admirable works. 
 Those of the monks of Tynemouth are but imperfectly 
 represented in the ruined fragments of their once magni- 
 ficent cliurch ; and, though so many monuments in this 
 land of ecclesiastical ruins attest the j^iety and labours 
 and self-devotion of the monks, those visible monuments 
 are not their only claims to the veneration of posterity. 
 When in Durham Cathedral, let us remember it was the 
 monks who reared that vast and mighty fabric, and pro- 
 cured the means of celebrating divine service for ever in 
 that glorious temple of the Eternal ; let us remember 
 that the monks in the diocese of Durham were the mis- 
 sionary centres of a dark and barbarous land ; that it 
 was the monks who sent forth the founders of many of 
 our parish churches, and who first reared the cross in 
 many a lonely hill- side oratory in the barren moorlands 
 of Northumberland; that these, "the home-soldiers of 
 the Cross," as they have been not inaptly termed, were 
 the pioneers of civilisation as well as of piety ; that they 
 alone cherished learning in ages of turbulence and war- 
 fare, and helped on infant science in its early growth ;
 
 96 TYNEMOUTII PKTOllY. 
 
 and that they laid up for posterity the endowments which, 
 where they have escaped the sacrilegious hand of the 
 spoiler, dilfuse the hlessings of religious education to this 
 day amongst the people. 
 
 Not only, therefore, on account of their sacred cha- 
 racter and their heauty, hut also on account of their 
 authors and their associations, the ruins of Tvnemouth 
 priory church appeal to us for respectful preservation. It 
 Avould he difficult indeed to point out any monastic frag- 
 ments more solemn and impressive. That solemnity and 
 impressiveness are greatly heightened hy their situation 
 on the coast, for here we hehold huildings that have wit- 
 nessed all the grandeur that man could hring to the 
 worship of the Eternal, and that have seen striking scenes 
 of earthly power, hut are now only monuments of earthly 
 decay, crumhling on the horders of that " great deep " on 
 which man has left no trace at all, whose azure surface he 
 cannot mark with ruin, and com]^ared with Avhose exist- 
 ence the Avhole duration of tlie human race is hut as yes- 
 terday ; that great deep whose waters, as Byron nohly 
 sings, still roll unchanged on shores that are marked hy 
 the ruins of his ancient empires ; that mighty ocean hy 
 whose waves his hrief dominion ends. In looking on that 
 sea, the monks heheld an image of the eternity into ^\'hich 
 all who had ever lived were alreadv sunk, and in ^\'hich all 
 who had life were sinkini>: — a lit imaire of that dread un- 
 fathomed ocean in whose placid depths the petty anx- 
 ieties of human life could no longer agitate the soul, and 
 whose "long surge" they did not "shrink to hear — hreak 
 on the shores of Time." 
 
 Whatever trouhles or anxieties may have oversha- 
 dowed the contemplations of the monks of Tynemouth, 
 as they stood by the majestic sea whose waves roll 
 beneath their deserted cloister, they had not the anticipa- 
 tion that a time would come when England, though still 
 professing the same Christian faith which had reared her 
 abbey churches, would behold them involved in a like 
 ruin with " the shattered temples of Athens or the 
 gigantic fragments of Home."
 
 97 
 
 A VISIT TO HARTLEPOOL. 
 
 The port of Hartlepool— the most ancient and remark- 
 able harbour to be found on the coast of the North of 
 England— occupies a peninsula connected with the main- 
 land only by a narrow neck on the north, and assuming 
 on its western side the form of a crescent, so that the 
 bay or gulph which divides this peninsula from the main- 
 land to the west forms a natural harbour, secure from 
 the heavy sea which the ocean gales throw upon that open 
 coast. The cliffs of this semi-isle are bold and abruptly 
 precipitous on the ocean side, being worn by the restless 
 waves into wild, cavernous recesses. The cliffs for- 
 merly extended farther into the ocean, and at high water 
 some detached masses of rock stand insulated by the 
 waves. 
 
 The town and harbour were defended by walls on every 
 side except where the cliffs formed a natural defence. 
 Of the strons; w^all which defended the south-w^estern 
 curve of this peninsula, a considerable portion remains, 
 although it has rolled back the waters at every tide for 
 five hundred years. The basin or inner harbour formed 
 by the natural curve of tliis peninsula on its western side 
 was defended by strong flanking towers, and by the wall, 
 which, turning across the narrow neck of the isthmus 
 northwards, completed the circuit of defence. The build- 
 ings of the town were probably, in former times, extended 
 much beyond their present limits. The fishermen for- 
 merly lived without the walls, namely, in the Ear-field, 
 now a portion of the town moor, the walled portion 
 of the town being inhabited by the burgesses. In the 
 reign of Hichard de Bury, Bishop of Durham tempore 
 
 H
 
 98 A VISIT TO HARTLEPOOL. 
 
 Edward III. houses existed near the chapel of St. 
 Helen (the rums of Avliich stand lonely on the to^\Ti 
 moor), and there are few parts of Hartlepool where 
 extensive foundations of buildings are not to be met 
 with beneath the present surface. The borough at 
 present consists of a principal street called Southgate 
 (anciently St. Mary's Gate), of a back street parallel to 
 it, and of several cross streets ; and the first-mentioned 
 streets rise gradually from the Old Harbour to the higher 
 land which forms the north-eastern extremity of the pe- 
 ninsula, where, in a spacious inclosure, stands the vener- 
 able and magnificent church of St. Hilda. Eastwards, 
 the eye ranges over the wide ocean ; southwards, the 
 marine village of Seaton and the estuary of the Tees are 
 seen across the bay ; and beyond its waters, we behold 
 the varied coast of Yorkshire, the mountain heii^ht of 
 Rosebery (which rises 1,500 feet above the sea level), 
 a wide panorama of hill and dale, and a bold outline of 
 bays and headlands. Turning towards the to^A*n of 
 Hartlepool, the village and the antique church to"«'er of 
 Stranton were, until lately, the only noticeable objects on 
 the main-land, towards the west ; but now the extensive 
 docks and buildings of West Hartlepool overspread what 
 was open country only a few months ago. In the sur- 
 rounding waters of the spacious dock of Old Hartlepool, 
 Ave now see a forest of masts in the place of those primeval 
 woods tenanted by the Hart, amongst w^hich the holy 
 Hilda's Nunnery w^as here founded in the morning of 
 Northumbrian Christianity, — in days whea no ships ar- 
 rived here Avith the produce of distant shores, or departed 
 laden Avith the mineral a\ ealth draAATi bv human laloour 
 from the carboniferous formations in Avhich the forests of 
 the ancient globe have been stored for the use of man. 
 The promontory on which the church of St. Hilda is 
 built is the spot on Avhich she passed some portion of her 
 life, and many historical associations linger under the 
 antique shadoAV of this venerable pile. Within a few 
 paces of the present church, her convent flourished for 
 perhaps 150 years, or at all events until the Danes with 
 fire and SAVord expelled the peaceful inmates of its Saxon 
 cloister. The land occupied by Hartlepool, and the adja-
 
 A VISIT TO HARTLEPOOL. 99 
 
 cent territory, formed the fair lordship of the renowned 
 Norman family of Brus ; and, when Hartlepool had ac- 
 qnired distinct existence and a name, it was the port of 
 the wealthy bishopric and comity palatine of Durham. 
 In its waters were equipped costly vessels to bear to Pa- 
 lestine the devoted soldiers of the Cross, or to aid the 
 mightiest sovereigns of England in the warlike campaigns 
 whose story still arouses the feelings and warms the heart 
 of every Englishman. It witnessed the extensive arma- 
 ments of Edward I. and of his immediate successors, and 
 the arrival and departure as Avell of princes of the church 
 as of nobles of the land, and adventurous merchants on 
 the sea. Between its fortified haven and the cloistered 
 halls of lordly Durham — the ecclesiastical stronghold 
 of Northumbria — a constant communication was main- 
 tained, and the history of Hartlepool is characterized by 
 important and stirring events. But religion did not the 
 less hold her peaceful reign, for in mediaeval times she ex- 
 ercised an active and pervading influence in the affairs of 
 men. And so, within view of this grey and time-honoured 
 fabric, we trace the site of a once-flourishing monastery of 
 Franciscan Eriars, and may almost fancy that we see the 
 self-denying brethren sweeping forth on their daily mis- 
 sions of charity ; while, not far to the north, the remains 
 of the once-beautiful chapel of St. Helen mark another 
 spot which was for centuries dedicated to the service of 
 the Most High. But that which is the glory and ought 
 to be the pride of Hartlepool, is this fine church of St. 
 Hilda — the noble legacy transmitted by ancient piety to 
 the dwellers in that haven to^vn, the hallowed monument 
 of its former greatness. 
 
 Beared in a distant age, it witnessed the rise of 
 Hartlepool, and saw its prosperity and its proud mural 
 defences spring as it were from the ocean wave, under 
 the renowned and powerful family who inherited the 
 neighbouring lordship, and the politic and fostering care 
 of the mitred sovereigns of tlie Palatinate. It saw 
 Hartlepool the harbour of warlike armaments, and the 
 emporium of commerce; and, as "long rolling years" 
 swept on, it saw the ancient prosperity of Hartlepool 
 depart with the feudal age, and her bulwarks vield partly 
 
 h2
 
 100 A VISIT TO HARTLEPOOL. 
 
 to the ocean, hut cliiefly to the long siege of time. At 
 length it saw the day when, at the bidding of the spoiler, 
 its serving-priests — the canon brothers of Guisborough 
 — went forth to return no more. But there St. Hilda's 
 Church remains in all the majestic features of medireval 
 art. Generations have passed away bencnith its venerable 
 shadow, and Hartlepool, from a fishing-town, has become 
 an important borough with a noble harbour and capa- 
 cious docks, their quays laden with merchandise and 
 resounding to the labours of busy industry ; yet, while 
 all has changed around, the church of St. Hilda retains 
 its ancient features, and looks down upon the returning 
 prosperity of Hartlepool, inviting her people, as of old, 
 to return to Him of wliose bountv all thing's come. 
 
 The foundation of the church, formerly the parochial 
 chapelry of Hartlepool, dates from a period anterior to 
 the reign of Richard I., and the fine edifice which now 
 exists prol)ably occupies the site of a fabric more ancient 
 than the present structure. The doorway of its southern 
 porch is not unlikely to be a portion — and it is the only 
 portion remaining — of that earlier fabric, it l^eing re- 
 cessed, of late Norman or transition date, ornamented 
 chiefly witli the characteristic chevron mouklini? : while 
 the chief and oldest part of the ftibric, indeed the church 
 generally, is of the style of Pirst Pointed or early-English 
 architecture. 
 
 It consists of nave with aisles, a few feet of the chancel 
 and its aisles, and a very massive and lofty western 
 tower. In its original plan and in many of its features 
 this edifice deserves to be characterised as one of the 
 finest parish churches in England. The Avestern tower, 
 which may be of as early a date as 1230, has a remark- 
 able grandeur, and the long range of clerestory windows 
 beneath an enriched arcade, comliined in beautiful triplets, 
 gives a very majestic aspect to the structure ; but far 
 more grand it must have been when the original chancel 
 was standinGT, which was nearly five times the lenorth of 
 the now remaining portion. The buttresses of the tower 
 are good examples of early-English work of this kind, 
 and are otherwise remarkable, for those which are in a 
 line with the nave are each pierced ^y\ih a fine recessed
 
 A VISIT TO HARTLEPOOL. 101 
 
 early trcfoil-lieacled doorway, about the date of 1260, 
 whicli a])pears to have given access to an inclosure, pro- 
 bably a baptistery, with a groined roof, westward of the 
 tower. Beneath the tower was the grand entrance to 
 the church. Externally the tower is ornamented by two 
 tiers of Eirst Pointed arcades, there being four arches in 
 each compartment of the quadrangle in its upper story, 
 having a row of corbels al)ove. The tower has subse- 
 quently, perhaps about 1460, received embattled para- 
 pets, and there is a crocketed pinnacle in each angle. 
 The tower rests on four lofty clustered columns, from 
 whicli spring arches of remarkable lightness and beauty 
 of proportion, having early-English foliated capitals. 
 Beneath the tower a plain pointed arch opens into the 
 nave. It is inserted in the modern wall which fiUs up 
 the more lofty proportions of the original tower-arch on 
 this side, and which separates the quadrangle of the 
 tower from the nave. A considerable thickness of 
 masonry has been in like manner built up between the 
 piers of these tower-arches on all sides, apparently to 
 give support to the fabric, but it nearly conceals the 
 clustered columns and the arches already described. 
 This fine part of the original structure is therefore lost 
 to the church ; but, if the rough inserted masonry were 
 removed, and these four columns restored to view, they 
 would form one of its most mao'nificent features. Eor 
 the due effect of this desirable restoration, it would of 
 course be necessary to remove the cumbrous western 
 gallery which projects far into the church, concealing 
 the fair proportions of some of the beautiful pier- arches 
 eastward of the tower. In the space beneath this gallery 
 the font onlv stands, by the removal of which to an 
 appropriate place great additional room for worshippers 
 would be gained. The length of the nave is 85 feet, and 
 its width between the walls 44 feet. It is therefore well 
 proportioned. The aisles are formed by light and lofty 
 clustered pillars on either side, decorated with graceful 
 capitals surmounted by roll-mouldings, and enriched 
 with the nail-head ornament. There was a kind of 
 aisle or portico on the north and south sides of the 
 tower. That on the south side opens from the to\A'er,
 
 102 A VISIT TO nARTLEPOOL. 
 
 and would form a good baptistery or chapel ; at present 
 it only aifords access to the l)eirry, ^^'hich is reached by 
 an orii^inal ^^ indinii^ staircase in i^ood preservation. The 
 area of the church is still blocked up by pews, all)eit the 
 rising tide of better taste in church matters has indig- 
 nantly swept these innovations away from so many 
 churches. These wooden defacements, as well as the 
 cunil)rous gallery at the west end, seem to date from the 
 period (a.d. 1721) Avhen the structure was repaired. It 
 is stated to have been at that time in danger of falling 
 to ruin, the chancel being nearly unroofed, and the tower 
 swerving from the vertical line. But, though the repairs 
 then made effected needful preservations, some tasteless 
 and mischievous alterations were made. 
 
 The chancel was originally almost seventy feet in 
 length, covered by a high-pitched roof, the roof of the 
 nave being of the same picturesque angle. At the time 
 alluded to, the church was covered by a nearly flat 
 wooden roof, and about 15 feet of the chancel were 
 inclosed under another flat roof and with a modern 
 eastern wall, the walls of the rest of the chancel being 
 then taken doAVii, and the remaining portion of the 
 chancel aisles inclosed. The portion of this once noble 
 chancel which does remain, opens, however, under a fine 
 and perhaps unique specimen of ancient art — a lofty arch 
 of beautiful proportions springing from clustered pillars 
 ornamented with foliated capitals. One of these columns 
 on either side terminates in a graceful chaplet, short of 
 the capital of the rest of the columns. One Avhole bay 
 of the chancel, with the beautiful capitals of its arches, 
 has been happily preserved on both the north and the 
 south side. That on the south side now serves as a 
 vestry : that on the north side is or lately was desecrated 
 to the purpose of a coal cellar. The arches opening from 
 the nave are perfect, but have been filled up with 
 masonry which should be removed as speedily as possible. 
 There was an entrance from the chancel to the north, in 
 the bay which remains, and over it is a small decorated 
 window which has been filled up in the barbarous taste 
 of the last century. Where the sepulchral whitewash 
 has been removed, the magnesian limesto]ie is restored
 
 A VISIT TO HARTLEPOOL. 103 
 
 to view in all the beauty of its warm buff colour. The 
 rood scrv^en has vanished. There is not any stained 
 glass remaining in the church ; and the miserable style 
 in which all the windows have been glazed is painful to 
 behold, for the lights of the church, except the east 
 window, have all the dignity of their original propor- 
 tions, but have been defaced by the kind of glazing 
 appropriate to the conventicle. The clerestory windows 
 of the nave are of good height ; they are connected 
 under a beautiful arcade, and the mouldings are fine 
 and in good preservation. Externally, the arcade is 
 divided into triplets of early English-work; the pilas- 
 ters supporting it are detached. The fine Norman porch 
 was defaced by a roof and gable of intolerable meanness, 
 a mere hut of plaster and tiles, at the time the writer first 
 described Hartlepool (inl848); but the original walls, with 
 the stone bench on either side, and some of the pilasters 
 which supported the roof, being in good preservation, an 
 exterior more worthy of their ancient character has re- 
 cently been completed. The ancient features of this 
 church are so fine that a judicious restoration of the 
 whole fabric is most desirable, and the increasing popu- 
 lation of the parish affords another reason why this 
 should be undertaken immediately. Notwithstanding 
 the facility with which this fine church might be restored 
 to its original dimensions, and notwithstanding the capa- 
 city of even its existing walls to afford additional accom- 
 m.odation by more church-like arrangements, a new 
 church has been built in Hartlepool under colour of afford- 
 ing additional church accommodation in the parish : the 
 money would have been better bestowed in restoring the 
 long hallowed fabric of St. Hilda's church, capable as it is 
 of affording such greatly increased accommodation; and an 
 arrangement was much to be desired which should have 
 preserved the ancient church as the object of the undivided 
 affection and care of the parishioners. The substitution of 
 open benches throughout the nave and aisles would at once 
 afford room for a much larger number of worshippers. 
 
 Almost the only interesting sepulchral monument that 
 has escaped destruction is an altar-tomb, of unusually 
 large proportions, which formerly occupied a dignified
 
 10 t A VISIT TO HARTLEPOOL. 
 
 pi'omiuence in the middle of the choir, but, wliich, ])y 
 the amputation of this part of the edifice, is left in the 
 churchyard some feet outside the wall. This broad 
 monumental slab measures more than nine feet in length 
 by about six feet in breadth, and is of Stanhope or Pros- 
 terley marble. Any devices or inscriptions it may have 
 borne are obliterated ; but, in panels on each of the sides, 
 the lion bearing of Brus is repeated Avithout variation or 
 addition. This old *' giant tomb " covered, doubtless, the 
 ashes of an early lord of this great Norman race, who 
 lived probably before the arms of Annandale were as- 
 sumed. Two stone effigies, restored from the church- 
 yard to the interior of the church, stand in the north 
 aisle. They are defaced and mutilated, but the largest 
 is of early character, and may commemorate some warlike 
 lord of the ancient line of Brus. The feet rest on a 
 couchant dog. The ancient sepulchral brasses have all 
 disappeared ; but, beneath the chancel arch, a large slab 
 is inlaid with a brass bearing an effigy in the uncouth 
 taste which designed such memorials in the reign of 
 Elizal)eth, and which is curious only as affording a por- 
 traiture of costume. There is a small monumental slab 
 standing on the floor beneath the tower, which bears an 
 early incised cross, very similar in design to that upon 
 the monument known as the " Crusader's Tomb " in the 
 church of Brougham, and which family tradition assigns 
 to the Udard de Broham Avho flourished between 1140 
 and 1185. This small slab is perhaps a relic of the earlier 
 church of Hartlepool. Stone coffins have been frequently 
 discovered in the church-yard. The tenant of one of 
 these had been wrapped in a leathern shroud, in another 
 the deceased had been interred in boots — the monastic 
 custom. The foundations of ancient walls have been 
 found parallel to tlie walls of the nave, and extending 
 westward of the tower and (supposed) baptistery, about 
 twenty feet. 
 
 But this fine edifice, venerable as it is, was not the 
 first monument of ancient piety founded in Hartlepool. 
 An earlier ecclesiastical foundation gave celebrity to the 
 rocky peninsula four centuries before the Norman con- 
 quest : for in this semi-isle, girded by the majestic ocean,
 
 A VISIT TO HARTLEPOOL. 105 
 
 and surrounded towards the land by primeval woods, 
 Heiu, the first woman who took the veil in Northumber- 
 land,* founded under the auspices of St. Aidan, Bishop 
 of Lindisfarne, the monastery in this place to which the 
 venerable Bede refers by the name of Heorteu, w liich he 
 translates Insula Cervi — the isle of the hart. This event 
 took place at an early period after Edwin's conversion. 
 On her retirement from it, she was succeeded by Hilda 
 as Abbess. To this brief notice our knowledge of the 
 history of this place in Anglo-Saxon times is, unfortu- 
 nately, confined. Of Hilda little more is known on earth. 
 She was the daughter of Hereric, nephew of king Edwin, 
 and her sister Avas mother of Aldwulf king of the East 
 Angles. Hilda was at an early age devoted to a religious 
 life in that early day of Christianity when to live among 
 the deceits of the world was thought incompatible with 
 complete devotion towards God. She was baptised by 
 Paulinus in 627, when she was thirteen years of age ; 
 and, (in the language of Ven. Bede,) she preserved the 
 faith of Christ undefiled, till she attained to the sight of 
 Him in Heaven. Hilda, we are told, first founded a 
 small convent on the north of the Wear, whence she 
 removed to Heorteu, on the departure of Hieu, and after 
 governing for two years the little colony at that place, 
 with exemplary virtue and regularity, she migrated to 
 Whitby with ^Ifleda, the Northumbrian Princess, and 
 ten nuns, and obtaining the grant of ten hides of land, 
 founded there the Abbey which became of such high re- 
 nown, t Her piety and devotion carried her fame beyond 
 the Alps, and in order that her holy life and memory 
 might " shine as the stars for ever," the Church decreed 
 that she should be accounted one of the blessed company 
 
 * Bede, Hist. Eccles. Gentis Angl. Lib. iv. cap. xxiii. (p. 302 of the 
 Rev. Jos. Stevenson's edition). 
 
 I Ibid. Lib. iii. cap. xxiv. (p. 216 of Stevenson's edition), and Lib. iv. 
 cap. xxiii. (p 302) for tlie biography of St. Hilda. ^Ifleda, daughter of 
 Oswj, King of Northnmbria, was dedicated to religion when only a year 
 old. At the time she was placed in the monastery on the island of the 
 Hart, the abbess Hilda resided there. In the infant colony of Whitby, 
 the princess was first a learner and afterwards a teacher of the monastic 
 life. She (at the age of 60) and her parents, and her mother's father, 
 king Edwin, were interred in the Church of St. Peter in that monastery.
 
 106 A VISIT TO HARTLEPOOL. 
 
 of Ileaven, and she has ever since been taken as the 
 Patroness of Hartlepool. She departed this life in a.d. 
 680. To trace even the names of her successors in her 
 Convent is now impossible. But that foundation must 
 ever be regarded Avith interest, as it was one of the 
 earliest of the monastic institutions (then the only homes 
 of religion,) which sprang up in the footsteps of the 
 Christian Missionaries of E-ome. The monastery at 
 Heorteu is not again mentioned in history until a.d 800, 
 when the Danes are recorded to have laid waste Hertness, 
 and that devastation probably terminated the existence 
 of this early monument of Anglo-Saxon devotion. Tra- 
 dition does not point out even the site of St. Hilda's con- 
 vent, but it was probably on the spot where the priory 
 was afterwards built, or very near to it. In some of the 
 oldest records of the corporation of the town, the inclo- 
 sure (eastward of the church) in which the priory stood is 
 called Nunnery Close ; and several fragments of Saxon 
 art have been found amongst the foundations that are 
 occasionally discovered there. In the summer of 1833 
 several small inscril)ed sepulchral stones, which may be 
 pronounced veritable relics of St. Hilda's Convent, were 
 found in situ in lavino^ the foundations for a house in a 
 field called Cross Close, somewhat to the south of the 
 building called the Priory. These reliques of antiquity 
 were found at the depth of thr(;e feet and a half from the 
 surface, resting immediately upon the limestone rock, 
 and upon each of them, as upon a pillow, rested the skull 
 of a human skeleton, which lay extended in a direction 
 nearly north and south.* A long brass pin or brooch 
 with an oblong head, was the only other relic found, but 
 some vestiges of foundations and masonry were observed 
 near the spot. Tlui skeletons were found in order, close 
 to each other. Tlie incised stones in question mostly 
 resemble in dimensions a small thick quarto volume ; — 
 one was nearly twelve inches square. Some are incised 
 with brief inscriptions in which Punic characters occur, 
 
 * We learn from Bede (Hist. Eccl. lib. iv. c. xi.), that tlie Anglo- 
 Saxons buried the dead in stone, using cushions for the head, of which the 
 above-mentioned stones were a monastic imitation, but no other instances 
 of the use of such stones occur to the writer.
 
 A VISIT TO HARTLEPOOL. 107 
 
 and with crosses in relief, varying' in form. * Similar 
 inscribed stones have not been found elsewhere ; and it 
 is to be remembered that previously to that period 
 Northumberland was more advanced in civilization than 
 any other part of Teutonic Europe. The mixture of 
 E/unic with Saxon letters is found in several early in- 
 stances.! Fragments of two circular flat stones having 
 a figured pattern, and Latin words inscribed upon them, 
 with which liunic letters are mixed, were also found. 
 The word " E^equiescat " is distinctly legible upon one 
 of them. At the top of another of the square stones, 
 on one side of the cross, is the word OuA ; on the other 
 side the w ord Pro ; and, below, a name which Mr. Gage 
 reads Vertorht, and a word v hich is illegible. | In 
 more than one of these stones, the upper division is oc- 
 cupied by the Greek alpha and omega ; § they occur at 
 
 * Mr. Petrie, in his valuable work on the Round Towers in Ireland, gives 
 specimens of many early tomb-stones, some ornamented with crosses, 
 and with the interlaced work usually called the Runic knot, which he con- 
 siders to have been in use in Ireland long anterior to the invasion of the 
 Danes. He gives a representation of the tomb-stone of one of the three 
 Irishmen who visited Alfred the Great in a.d. 891, and the figure of the 
 cross upon it bears a striking resemblance in character and proportion to 
 that found upon some of these stones at Hartlepool ; but it has the addi- 
 tion of the ornamental work just described, Avhile these Northumbrian 
 crosses are plain. 
 
 f The use of Runic characters seems another illustration of the fact 
 that the Anglo-Saxons, even after the introduction of Christianity, shared 
 with the Northmen or Scandinavians the old belief in the magical proper- 
 ties of Runes, notwithstanding the hostility of the early Christian mission- 
 aries to the indigenous alphabet of the Pagans. 
 
 ^ One of these stones has a name inscribed in mixed Runic and Saxon, 
 which Mr. Kemble reads Hildithrith, and another in hke characters, Avhich 
 he reads Hildigith. These, together with the circular flat stones above- 
 mentioned, were exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries of London, by Sir 
 Cuthbert Sharp, and representations may be found in the 26th volume 
 of the Archffiologia. One of these, and the grave-stone of Vertorht are in 
 the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle, which Society 
 possesses drawings of the whole, and of a stone subsequently discovered 
 bearing the name of Berchtha, communicated by William Davidson, 
 Esq. of Hartlepool, a gentleman of antiquarian taste and varied acquire- 
 ments. 
 
 § It has been remarked by a gentleman to whom the last mentioned 
 device was submitted, that it illustrates characters found upon the Anglo- 
 Saxon coins called Stycas, which he considers to be identical with these 
 letters, one or other of which, or a cross, is found upon many of these
 
 108 A VISIT TO HARTLEPOOL. 
 
 E.onic, Verona, Milan, and other places, in some of the 
 earliest Christian inscrijitions, and in S])ain in sepulchral 
 inscriptions of the sixth century. * Of all the Anglo- 
 Saxon MSS. Avhich Mr. Gage had examined, he did not 
 find one where the characters so strongly resemble those 
 used in the Latin words inscribed on these stones, as the 
 celebrated Durham Book f a\ ritten by Eadfrith Bishop 
 of Lindisfarne before a.d. 721: these inscriptions are pro- 
 bably as old as that venerable manuscript. | Mr. Kemble, 
 in his learned paper on Anglo-Saxon llunes, refers to the 
 E;unic inscriptions on two of the stones found at this 
 ancient ]S'ortliuml3rian settlement, the reading of one of 
 which is HiLDiTHMTH, and of the other Hildigith — 
 the names most probably of nuns who moved within 
 the cloistered shade of St. Hilda's Convent, and who 
 departed this life probably before the middle of the 
 eighth century ; and of the same sisterhood doubtless 
 was Bertha, ayIiosc gravestone has also been discovered. 
 Their names, thus recovered and read by the inquisitive 
 antiquary, are all the memorial we possess of persons in 
 whom doubtless centered warm affections; who, lowlv as 
 was their final resting-place, were perhaps nobly born, 
 and endowed with titles to the homage of their kind. 
 Their examples may have long shone among associates 
 and successors ; their wealth may have raised edifices 
 through whose portals many followed to the joys of 
 heaven; but their memory is forgotten, and generations 
 have unconsciously traversed the place of their interment 
 during many centuries : — 
 
 " Perhaps, in this neglected spot was laid 
 
 Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire : 
 Hands that the rod of empire might have swayed 
 Or waked to ecstacy the living lyre." 
 
 It is at least highly probable that this last dormitory 
 
 coins ; and a doubt existed whether upon them the letters in question had 
 a religious import. 
 
 * Muratorii, Nov. Thesaur, Vet. Inscript. iv. pp. 1821, 1826, 1871, 
 1891, 190O, 1904, 1907, 1909, 1915, 1918, 1938. 
 
 t MS. C'ott. Nero, D. iv. 
 
 ;}: Archaiologia, vol. xxviii. p. 346.
 
 A VISIT TO nAllTLEPOOL. 109 
 
 was connected "snth the very convent over which St. 
 Hikia had here presided; and let the men of Hartlepool 
 rejoice that, although her monastery was overthrown, the 
 rememhrance of her virtues was preserved, and that not 
 long after the estahlishment of the Norman power in 
 England there was dedicated to God in her honour, in a 
 spot adjacent to her convent, the noble and more en- 
 durmg edifice already described, and which, restored and 
 cherished, it is their duty to hand down reverently to 
 posterity. 
 
 We may now advert briefly to the connection of the 
 great family of Brus with this locality. Robert de Brus, 
 a noble knight of Normandy, came into England with 
 the Conqueror. On the king's death this knight pos- 
 sessed sixtv-two manors : he had his chief residence at 
 Skelton, but possessed many other lordships in York- 
 shire, and the territory of Hert and Hertness in Durham. 
 Some of these possessions, including the churches of Hert 
 and of Stranton, in the territory of Hertness, his son, 
 the second Eobert de Brus, conferred upon the priory of 
 Guisboroudi, which he founded in 1129 for Canons 
 Regular of St. Augustin ; and, canopied by this enduring 
 monument of his piety, he was there interred in a.d. 1111. 
 Adam, his eldest son, who fought with him at the battle 
 of the Standard, was founder of the elder branch of this 
 family — the house of Skelton — which terminated in the 
 fifth descent. Bobert, the younger son, was founder of 
 the royal line of Scotland ; and to him his father gave 
 the Vale of Annan, to which donation he afterwards 
 added "the wheat-producing territory" of Hert and 
 Hertness. Thus enriched, he confirmed to the canons 
 of Guisborough the tithes of the mother churches of 
 Hert and Stranton, with "the chapel of St. Hilda at 
 Hartlepool pertaining to the former church," and lands 
 and rents in the adjacent territory. These gifts to the 
 monks Hugh de Puclsey, the bishop, confirmed to them. 
 In A.D. 1171, when an aid was levied for the marriage 
 of the daughter of Henry II. Pvobert de Brus paid 100^. 
 for scutage in respect of Hertness. He was succeeded 
 by a son of liis own Christian name, whose successor was 
 William de Brus, to whom King John granted a weekly
 
 110 A VISIT TO HARTLEPOOL. 
 
 market for his port of Ilartlepool, and afterwards the 
 further privilege of a yearly fair.* 
 
 Prohably to this William de Brus tlic monks of Dur- 
 ham were indebted for some of their property in Hartle- 
 pool ; and his charter of donation is very interesting as 
 mentioning' one of the foundations of ancient piety at 
 Hartlepool, the history of w liich is exceedingly oljscure 
 — the chapel, namely, of St. Helen, already alluded to. 
 William de Brus, by his charter, gives to the monks of 
 Durham, in free alms, the land which had belonged to 
 Ptoger de Wol vision in his (the donor's) vill of " Her- 
 terpol," described as "adjacent to the chapel of St. 
 Helen ; " and he confirmed the donations made by 
 Bobert de Brus, his father, to the same moiiks, of the 
 house (mansuram) in the same vill, which belonged to 
 Gilbert the Smith, with the houses and toft pertaining, 
 and two fishing-boats. A William de Brus, j)robahly 
 this very donor, gave the possessions of the chapel of 
 St. Helen itself to the priory of Guisborough, for the 
 support of lights before the great altar. This chapel of 
 St. Helen stood in the Warren, "probably," says Sur- 
 tees, " near St. Helen's Well in the Par-well fielcl, Avliere 
 the ground still appears considerably elevated, and hewn 
 stones are frequently discovered." This conjecture has 
 been verified by the recent discovery of the chapel itself 
 — not, indeed, the chapel which was contemporary with 
 the noble founder, but the remains of a chapel in a later 
 style of architecture, which doubtless succeeded to his 
 elder Norman edifice. These remains have been judi- 
 ciously freed from the superincuml)ent earth by which 
 thev continued to be encumbered when Surtees wrote : 
 the inclosure which they fill is carefully protected, to the 
 great honour of the corporation of Hartlej)Ool, and every 
 relic is preserved with the regard due to things which 
 
 * He had probably departed this life before 1215, for in that year the 
 king directed his "writ to Philip de Ulecote, commanding him to allow 
 liobert de Brus to have a fair yearly at " Ilertrepol," for three days in the 
 feast of St. Lawrence and two days following, and a market every Wednes- 
 day, according to the same king's grant to William de Brus, his father. 
 Cart. 17 Joh. m. 30, in the Tower of London. At this time, a.d. 1215, 
 three "ships of Hartlepool" were there loading with food. — Rot. Lit. 
 Claus. 11 Joh, m. 5.
 
 A VISIT TO HARTLEPOOL. Ill 
 
 have been consecrated by the faith and worship of ages 
 past.* But to resume our notice of deeds of the noble 
 family of Brus. William was succeeded by another 
 Robert de Brus, of Hart and Annandale, who married 
 Isabel, daughter of David Earl of Huntingdon, and 
 grandchild of Henry Prince of Scotland, the source of 
 the royal blood of Brus. During the minority of this 
 Bobert, he was in the wardship of his kinsman Peter de 
 Brus, of Skelton, whose name is thus connected with 
 one of the vexatious contests which occurred between 
 the lords of Hartness and the sovereign bishops of Dur- 
 ham, touching the manorial right to wreck of the sea, 
 and which are so illustrative of the times. Peter de 
 Brus, in right of his ward, opposed the bishop's claim to 
 the sea-wreck, and caused some of his vassals to seize a 
 ship that was cast ashore. Por doing this, they were 
 fined by the bishop's justices itinerant at Sadberge. 
 Gerard de Seton, a burgess of Hartlepool, had consented 
 to the bishop's claim, and by way of reprisal, as it would 
 seem, he was seized by the lord of the manor, and im- 
 prisoned in his castle of Skelton. The bishop retaliated 
 by using the yet more terrible spiritual weapons of the 
 Church, and thereupon pronounced the sentence — 
 
 " Avliicli, as canons tell, 
 
 Sliuts Paradise and opens Hell:" — 
 
 that is to say, excommunicated all who had presumed 
 to capture the burgess. In order to get this sentence 
 taken off, Peter de Brus was of course obliged to release 
 the captive and make him again a free burgess ; but he 
 did not himself escape with this humiliation, for he was 
 fined 20Z. The bishop, however, was induced to remit 
 the amercements, and an arrangement was come to by 
 which the bishops continued to take wreck of the sea 
 without opposition. In due time Bobert de Brus attained 
 man's estate ; and it was probably he who, before 
 A.D. 1258, t founded at Hartlepool a monastery of Grey 
 
 * The credit of their discovery and preservation is attributable in no 
 small degree to the good feeling and antiquarian taste of Mr. Thomas Belk, 
 a learned functionary of the corporation and a gentleman of great intelli- 
 gence and knowledge. 
 
 f The Monastery of Friars Minors, or Grey Friars of Hartlepool, is
 
 112 A VISIT TO IIARTLErOOL. 
 
 Friars, bound bv tlie rule of St. Erancis. It seems to 
 liave stood between the aneient dwellini^-house called 
 the Eriarv, (which is on the ]\[oor, to the eastward of 
 St. Hilda's Church,) and the buildinf^ known as the 
 Friarv Barn. The buildins^ called the Priarv has been 
 accurately described as the shell of a mansion l)iiilt bv 
 the lav oTantees after the Dissolution ; * but some older 
 masonrv was traced in the fra£?nients of walls around its 
 site, and they are the only remains of the l)uilding reared 
 by Hobert de Brus's pious care. 
 
 The next Bobert, sixth of this hereditarv name, 
 adhered to the cause of Henry III. in the barons' wars ; 
 he was captured at Lewes, but restored by the victory of 
 Evesham. Under the next valiant lord of Hart and 
 Annandale, Hartlepool became a ^\'alled town and regu- 
 larly defended haven. Tliis Bobert de Brus, son of the 
 sixth Bobert, and grandson of AVilliam, held the lordship 
 of Hertness for the chief part of liaK a century, and until 
 his death in a.d. 1295. He was competitor with Ealiol 
 and Hastings for the Scottish Crown in 1291. Bobert 
 de Brus is said to have built the haven and wall about 
 the town of Hartlepool, wdth ten toAvers on each side of 
 the haven, and a chain to be drawn between them, wliich 
 haven would hold a hundred sail. The architecture of 
 the few portions of the walls which time and Vandalism 
 have left to us are of the architecture of the life-period 
 of Brus, the competitor, and bear a strong resemblance 
 to those of Newcastle, wliich are known to have been 
 erected in the reign of Edward I. They presented a long 
 extended wall, strengthened at intervals by demi-bastions, 
 some rounded, others square, with gates and sally-ports, 
 secured by machicolations and the portcullis, and de- 
 fended l)v turrets. The chief entrance from Durham — 
 and beneath it what a succession of prelates and pilgrims, 
 monks and merchants, friars and fishermen, nobles and 
 
 mentioned among the foundations of tlie order in England •\vliich were 
 represented in the cliapter held at Narbonne in 1258. It was one of the 
 nine houses within the wardenship of the Grey Friars of Newcastle. 
 
 * This building is used as the poor house. The windows have stone 
 mullions. There is an excellent well belonging to it, of ancient masonry; 
 it is 43 feet in depth and 6 feet square.
 
 A VISIT TO HARTLEPOOL. 113 
 
 vassals must have passed — was under the great land-gate, 
 which stood thirtv feet in heisrht, but has now totallv 
 vanished. Mr, Surtees justly remarks, that the natural 
 advantages of the haven, and the shelter which it afforded 
 against the stormv east, must have been valued bv Saxon, 
 Dane, and jSorman long before Brus girded in his port 
 and l)orough with a mural circlet of ten gallant towers. 
 The inner harljour, within the range of the wall, is a deep 
 embayed basin, containing a surface of nearly twenty 
 acres. On the margin of the harbour, the remains of 
 quays have been traced, and of works of hewn stone ; but 
 times have greatly changed, and the defences which in 
 Brus's age were used to repel invaders have yielded to 
 the open quays and harbours, and other facilities by 
 which Scotishmen and foreigners are invited to resort to 
 this port of commerce. Those times, if they were more 
 stern than ours, were times of mighty deeds and mighty 
 men, whose churches and monasteries attest their devo- 
 tion and their v^dsdom, while their castles and mural de- 
 fences bear testimony to their policy and their valour. 
 Nor were those ages without romance. Bobert de Brus, 
 the competitor for that crown which Edward I., the sole 
 arbiter, justly awarded to Baliol, died at Lochmaben, in 
 Annandale, in 1295. His son Bobert, a young and gal- 
 lant knight, handsome and courteous, on his return from 
 visiting Palestine with Pi'ince Edward, inspired the 
 young Countess of Carrick, who saw him when hunting, 
 with such love towards him, that she invited him to her 
 chateau, and married him within fifteen days from their 
 first meeting. She lived his faithful consort for thirty 
 vears, and he remained all his life in the allegiance of 
 England. In 1304 his "chase was done," and he died 
 in his English government of Carlisle, and Avas interred 
 in Holm Cultram Al)bev, to which his earlv ancestors 
 were benefactors. 
 
 Bobert de Brus, ninth of that christian name, son of 
 the brave knight who won the lady of Carrick for his 
 bride, swore fealty to Edward L, but, fluctuating (in the 
 language of Surtees) upon an ocean of contending influ- 
 ences, was irresolute in his allegiance, and at length 
 boldly asserted his hereditary claim to the crown of Scot- 
 
 I
 
 Ill A VISIT TO IIAIITLEPOOL. 
 
 land ; and, supported 1)y a fcnv detorminod adherents, 
 Avas actually crowned at Scone on the 27th March, 130G.* 
 AA'ithin one short year he was an exile ; and his nearest 
 connections paid the Ibrieit of his amhition with their 
 blood. Yet lie survived to triumph at Bannockburn, to 
 reign the acknowledged sovereign of an independent 
 realm, and to contract for the marriage of his heir with 
 a daughter of that English Edward who had so lately 
 tram})led the crown of Scotland in the dust. Upon the 
 elevation of Uobert de Brus to the throne of Scotland, 
 Hart and Hartlepool were granted to Bobert de Clifford, 
 who had served the English king with fidelity through 
 tli(^ Scotish war. 
 
 Erom this digression we may now return to the history 
 of Hartlepool as a town and port. In the Norman times 
 the settlement on this peninsula acquired the api)ellation 
 of Le Pol — the pool, mere, or slake of Hart ; and to the 
 ancient forest Avhich probably had not then ceased to 
 exist on tbe adjacent main-land, the large oaks, hazel- 
 nuts, antlers of deer, teeth, and similar remains which 
 have l)een found in the slake and ( at low water) along 
 the coast from Hart to Seaton, bear sufficient testimony. 
 The name of Hartlepool first occurs in a. d. 1171, Avhen 
 a circumstance is recorded from which it may be inferred 
 that the haven had attained some reputation before that 
 year. A fleet bearing many hundred armed men was 
 then brought into St. Hilda's Bay,t the object of which 
 armament w^as to assist William (the Lion) King of 
 Scotland in his invasion of England. But as a town, 
 Hartlepool probal)ly did not at this early time possess 
 importance ; and this conjecture derives some additional 
 sanction from the circumstance that it is not mentioned 
 among the list of towns paying tallage in the 8th of 
 Bichard I., when the king's officers collected the reve- 
 
 * Two clays afterwards he was again crowned by Isabel Countess 
 of Buclian, who, m the absence of her brother, a lord of the English 
 pale, asserted by this ceremonial the ancient right of the house of 
 INIacdufF. 
 
 f It was commanded by the Comte de Bar, and in it were embarked 
 forty knights, wilh thcii- retainers, and a large party of Flemish aux- 
 iliaries.
 
 A VISIT TO HARTLEPOOL. 115 
 
 niies of the bishopric, which are entered on the great 
 roll of the Exchequer. 
 
 But at Hartlepool — the only port of the palatinate of 
 Durham — a remarkable vessel was equipped at this early 
 time, of which some notices are preserved in that ancient 
 record. When King Hichard purposed to proceed to the 
 Holy Land, Hugh de Pudsey, Bishop of Durham, made 
 sumptuous preparations for the purpose of accompanying 
 his sovereign. Besides other vessels to convey his at- 
 tendants, a large galley of great beauty and costliness 
 was built for the reception of the prelate ; a throne of 
 silver was erected in it, and even household implements 
 were provided of the same costly material.* The lion- 
 hearted king, who wanted the money wdiich the wealthy 
 and magnificent bishop was bestowing on these prepara- 
 tions more than his company, induced him to accept 
 trusts of honour at home, and to lend to the crown the 
 accumulated treasures which w^ere no longer required by 
 him for the expedition. In the eighth year of this reign, 
 121. 15s. 3^tZ. were expended on repairs of " the great 
 ship which was of the Bishop of Durham," and 13s. 4<cL 
 were paid to her captain for navigating the vessel to 
 London. These payments were allow^ed at the king's 
 exchequer. In the accounts of revenues of the bishopric 
 rendered in the 13th of John (a. d. 1211), by Aimeric 
 Archdeacon of Durham and Philip de Ulecote, we find 
 11. 4a'. 8Jr/. paid for repairs of a ship at Hartlepool, pro- 
 bably the same vessel. 
 
 But in the second year of this reign, Hartlepool first 
 appears "in old historic rolls" with the municipal dig- 
 nity of a free borough ; f and the king granted that the 
 men of the borough should be free burgesses, and have 
 the same laws and hberties as his burgesses of Newcastle- 
 upon-Tyne. The burgesses of Newcastle then enjoyed 
 various liberties and immunities under the grant of 
 Henry I. to this then infant coDimunity. 
 
 In a later year of this reign the privileges of holding 
 a yearly fair and a weekly market in his town and port of 
 
 * Madox, Hist. Excheq. p. 493. 
 
 f Cart. 2 Joh. par. 1 m. 13, the town is spoken of as " liber biirgus." 
 
 i2
 
 110 A VISJT TO HARTLEPOOL. 
 
 IIai'tlci)ool were granted to William de Brus by the 
 King, as already mentioned ; and in 1215 we find a 
 notiee of ships resorting to it for cargoes of wheat. Such 
 was tlie beginning from which Hartlepool advanced to the 
 culminating j)oint of its prosperity under the sovereigns 
 of the house of Pknitagenet; ])ut until the reign of Edward 
 I. history is silent as to the progress of the town and the 
 events of which it was the scene. We may however look 
 to its ecclesiastical revenues in that reign as illustrative 
 of its progress in the meantime. The canons of Guis- 
 borough, it will be recollected, had obtained from William 
 de Brus and llobert de Brus, with the assent of Bishop 
 Hugh de Pudsey, the appro])riation and patronage of the 
 mother church of Hart and of the chapel of St. Hilda 
 thereto appurtenant, and succeeding 1)ishops confirmed 
 that appropriation, for the monastery of Guisborough, 
 like the other great monastic establishments which held 
 the tithes of so many parish churches, devoted them to 
 purposes far different from those for which such revenues 
 are employed by impropriators in the present day. Thus, 
 the grant of the Vicarage of Hart, made to the monks of 
 Guisborough in 1288, by Anthony Beke, the great Bishop 
 of Durham, was expressly made in consideration of their 
 great expenditure in charity, hospitality, and other bur- 
 dens. The bishop casts upon the monks the reciprocal 
 obligation of providing for the performance of the vicarial 
 duties, which involved residence, by " two virtuous and 
 discreet canons," who were moreover topractise hospitality 
 towards the poor, to the utmost of tlieir ability ;* and 
 the same prelate subsequently (a. d. 1308) granted that 
 in the mother church and in the chapel of Hartlepool 
 Divine service should be celebrated bv canons of Guis- 
 borough instead of bv a secular vicar. In the valuation 
 or taxation of ecclesiastical l)enefices which was made in the 
 
 * In 1287 Peter, Bishop of Exeter, decreed that in everj parochial 
 church the vicarage should be worth at least five marks per annum, so 
 that the vicar might in some measure maintain hospitality. Where the 
 benefice (the rectory,) was of greater value than forty marks, the vicai^'s 
 portion was to be increased, and the curate was to be paid forty shillings 
 a-year for his stipend. In 12^9 Gilbert, Bishop of Chichester, decreed five 
 marks to the curates in poor churches only, and in richer churches, nn)ie. 
 At this time the Lord Chief Justice had fifty mnrks a-year.
 
 A VISIT TO HARTLEPOOL. Il7 
 
 reign of Edward I. in consequence of the grant of a ninth 
 part of their vakie by Pope Nicholas for the aid of that 
 monarch in his expedition to the Holy Land, we find the 
 church of Hart, with the vicarage, valued at 40/. and the 
 chapel of Hartlepool, at 261. ISs. M* — sums respectively 
 equivalent perhaps to nearly 500/. and 300/. of the 
 money of the present day, and indicating no small 
 amount of agricultural and commercial prosperity in the 
 parish of Hartness and the port of Hartlepool. The 
 mural defences of Hartlepool which have been already 
 alluded to as attributable to the Ptobert de Brus vho 
 flourished in the reign of Edward I., likewise bear 
 testimony to the then growing opulence of the burgesses 
 of that maritime town. In Hutchinson's Historv of 
 Durham may be read a minute and probably accurate 
 description of the walls of Hartlepool as they stood when 
 he wrote, t and he observes that few" places exhibit so 
 perfect and interesting a specimen of the fortifications of 
 former times. The circuit of the wall was strengthened 
 by bastions, a breast wall, and parapet, and there were 
 ten towers to defend the haven. The great land-gate 
 was probably defended by a moat and drawbridge ; the 
 other gateways and sallyports w^ere strengthened as was 
 usual in the military architecture of the period, and 
 defended by turrets. All these defences were l^uilt of 
 the mao-nesian limestone of the localitv, and the wall was 
 faced on each side by smooth squared stones. The grand 
 entrance to the haven was commanded by two lofty 
 round towers, thirty-six feet apart, and this entrance was 
 guarded by a large chain stretched from tower to tower. 
 The south wall, which is almost the only portion that 
 remains, faces the harbour, forming a fine embankment 
 about eighteen feet in height from the beach to the top 
 of the wall, its thickness varying from six to nine feet. 
 It affords an agreeable walk, especially at high water, 
 w^hen the eye embraces a range of picturesque coast and 
 the moving panorama of the bay. In this wall a water- 
 
 * Taxatio Episcopat. Dimelm. Dioc. a.d. 1291. See the A^oliime pub- 
 by the Kecord Commission, pp. 314, 315. 
 
 f Mr. Surtees reprints tliis description and corrects some of the measure- 
 ments. See iristorv of Durliani.
 
 118 A VISIT TO HAIITLEPOOL. 
 
 gate, leading from the High Street to the beach, is in 
 very good preservation ; the arch is about eight feet in 
 width, and is streni'thened bv an ani^uUxr bastion on 
 eitlier side. Tlie Bishops of Durham frequently granted 
 charters of murasre, that is, license to lew and collect 
 duties on merchandise and provisions entering the to^vn 
 and port, for the maintenance of these walls. Of the 
 value of the fee-farm of Hartlepool early in the reign of 
 Edward II. we have a distinct record, for in 1314, Bishop 
 Kellaw, as superior lord, in right of his wardship during 
 the minority of the heir of the possessions of Brus, leased 
 the borough (i. e. the lord's revenues of the borough) of 
 Hartlepool, the common bake-house, the mills, and the 
 lord's mill of Ilert, to Bichard le Maceon, for a year, at 
 the rent of 81/. reserving the lord's right of lorisage, 
 customs, and royalties. What these privileges and liber- 
 ties Avere, as enjoyed by Robert de Brus in 1293, we find 
 from inquisition taken before the King's justices itinerant 
 at Newcastle, when it appeared that he had at Hartle- 
 pool the privilege of a sea port, and market and fair, and 
 their respective liberties appurtenant, and there took 
 keelage, to wit of every ship m ith a barge or small l)oat 
 (l)atello) arriving there, eight pence, and of every ship 
 without a boat, four pence, besides prisage of fish, and 
 also exercised rights of pre-emption.* 
 
 But in 1306, all the English possessions of Bobert de 
 Brus, including of course these privileges, became for- 
 feited l)y his seizure of the Scotish crown, and were 
 conferred upon llo])ert de Clifford, to whom on the 1 7th 
 July, 1301, the King had granted the custody of the 
 tem])oralities of the see of Durham, which in the absence 
 of Bishop Anthony de Beke had been seized into the 
 royal hands. The Bishop o1)tained restitution in the 
 following year, but again the crown seized the tempo- 
 ralities of the see, and on the 6th Dec. 1305, f committed 
 them to the same guardian,! and thenceforth Hartlepool 
 
 * Kot. Piirliam. vol i. 118 b. and Placit. dc quo Warr. 21 Edw. T. r. 10. 
 
 I Cart. 34 Ivl. 1. par. i. No. 18. Grant of the manor of Ilert to Robert 
 de Clifford and his heirs. He died at Banuockburn (24 June, 1314). 
 
 \ From tlic successor of Edward I. l>ishop de Beke obtained ample resti- 
 tution, but in lieu of Barnard Castle (derived from Baliol's forfeiture) and
 
 A VISIT TO HARTLEPOOL. 119 
 
 was rendered independent of the claims of the bishops of 
 Durham as counts palatine until 1328, when, in con- 
 sequence of judgment given in parliament on the com- 
 plaint of Bishop Beaumont (who obtained the restitution 
 to the see of many of its privileges), the king's writ was 
 directed " Ballivo de Hert et Hertness," commanding 
 him to restore the severed territory to the bishop, who 
 knew the value of this maritime key of the county pala- 
 tine. But the Cliffords were sufficiently powerful to 
 resist even a solemn judgment in the great council of the 
 realm, and continued to hold those possessions, with this 
 distinction, says Surtees, that future records state the 
 manor to be held of the bishop, not of the crown ; but 
 the bishops resumed their receipt of prisage and other 
 liberties. The change in the ownership of the manor 
 does not seem to have altered the condition of the port 
 and borough, wliicli continued to increase in importance. 
 When Douglas invaded the bishopric after the battle of 
 Bannockburn, and proceeded as far as Hartlepool, the 
 industrious burgesses, who probably felt that they were 
 not by any means fighting-men, are said to have betaken 
 themselves to their ships with their valuables, and so 
 rode out the storm. 
 
 The Scotish campaigns, begun by Edward I., and con- 
 tinued by Edward II. and Edward III., rendered Hartle- 
 pool a port of no small importance. This appears from 
 innumerable instances in the Botuli Scotise and other 
 records, which it would be tedious to refer to separately. 
 They consist chiefly of mandates from the king that 
 vessels should be fitted out and provided l3y the port of 
 Hartlepool to aid in the Scotish war ; and it would seem 
 that this port was then deemed of equal ability in this 
 respect with Newcastle and Hull. A few facts connected 
 with those demands may be mentioned here. They do 
 not occur in the published histories. In 1299 William 
 le Jetour, " Magister Navis Dei de Hertelpole," which 
 vessel carried twenty-six sailors, was employed by Ed- 
 ward I. to carry provisions. The master received six 
 pence per day, the sailors half that sum. On the 10th 
 
 Hartlepool, received the regal dignity of the isle of Man. This splendid 
 pontiff died 3d March, 1310.
 
 120 A VISIT TO HARTLEPOOL. 
 
 of July, 1308, the same ])erson was constituted the kini>-'s 
 captain of mariners and slii])s of Hartlepool, NcAVcastle, 
 Berwick, and other ])()rts Ijetween Hartlepool and Aher- 
 deen. In 1st Edward III. Hartlepool Avas ordered to 
 jjrovide tAvo efficient ships of at least sixty tons hiirden, 
 well supplied Avith men and proA'isions, to be at the dis- 
 posal of the kini^'s admiral of the fleet. In 1331 the 
 bailiffs of Hartlepool are ordered to detain for the king's 
 use all ships aboA^e forty tons burden, and in the I'oIIoaa ing 
 year they are directed to provide a ship with 100 men, as 
 AA'cll archers as seamen. In the same A^ear Nicholas de 
 Bruntoft, a burgess of Hartlepool, ayIio appears to have 
 been himself a i)erson of importance and a relation of 
 persons of importance, received "letters of protection" 
 for tAvo ships of AAar, manned with his seamen and ser- 
 A^ants, to be employed against the Scots. Prom the king's 
 Avrit, Avhich is dated at NcAA^castle, 30th Jnne, 1335, it 
 appears that this Nicholas had at his oAvn expense 
 equipped tAvo of his ships and sent them to aid the king 
 in his Scotish campaign. A AA'rit to liberate ships 
 arrested in the ports of Hartlepool and Newcastle, and 
 betAveen the former place and BerAA'ick, AAas addressed to 
 the famous "William de Emeldon, on the 12th Sept. 1335. 
 In 1339, tAA o merchants of Hartlepool received permis- 
 sion to carry provisions to those Scotish towns Avliich 
 were in the possession of the English forces. 
 
 Dnring this period, the customs levied at Hartlepool 
 formed an important item of revenue. In the 2d Ed- 
 ward III. John de Nesebit and Roger de GoscAA^yk were 
 appointed collectors of the king's customs on wool at that 
 port ; and aa ith the latter, William Ileryng AAas afterAA^ards 
 associated. In the 4th EdAvard III. the like commission 
 Avas given to Gosewyk and Nicholas de Bruntoft ; in the 
 foUoAving year to Nicholas de Bruntoft ; in the 8th Ed- 
 Avard III. to Richard de Bruntoft and John de Nessebit; 
 and in the 10th EdAAard III. to the latter together Avitli 
 Jolm de Billingham.* Bnt the appointment of these 
 officers of the croAAm appears to liaAC interfered AAdth the 
 
 * Rot. Orig. 7 Ed. III. r. 2 and r. 9 ; 4 Ed. IIL r. 29; 5 Ed. III. r. 15; 
 8 Ed. Til r. 6; 10 Ed. m. r. 21; 11 Ed. III. r. 8.
 
 A VISIT TO HARTLEPOOL. 121 
 
 ejjiscopal privileges ; the sovereign of the county palatine 
 complained, and after that time such appointments were 
 not renewed.* 
 
 As if by ^aj of compensation to the burgesses for the 
 charges sustained by them in providing ships and arma- 
 ments for the Scotish w ar, the bishop in 1330 granted to 
 the town a charter of liberties, bv which it is declared that 
 thev shall be free bursresses, and shall hold all their tene- 
 ments by their just rents only, free from other service, 
 aid, or exaction ; that the fair of St. Lawrence shall be 
 extended to fifteen days ; and that they shall enjoy all 
 such liberties as other free burgesses have, in their out- 
 goings and tlieir incomings with their merchandizes, &c. 
 by land and by water, saving the rights of the bishop, and 
 the right of prisage and pre-emption, in like manner 
 as the king enjoys such rights ; and the bishop most pru- 
 dently adds another saving — that the men of the bishop- 
 ric and of the Prior of Durham, as well bond as free, 
 shall be exempt from toll in Hartlepool. The Prior of 
 Durham by his confirmation saves the privileges of the 
 convent as s-ranted bv William de Brus and Robert de 
 Brus, and the prior's right of purchasing provisions in 
 the borough without impediment. Prom the 9th Edward 
 II. to the 42nd Edw^ard III. the mayor and burgesses of 
 Hartlepool ol)tained from the crown many grants of 
 murage, i. e. of the right to take tolls for the repair and 
 maintenance of their walls, f 
 
 Por the prosecution of the war in Prance, the king had 
 required certain ports to assemble ships for his fleet, l^ut 
 some of the ships expected did not come, and others which 
 had accompanied the king to the Prencli coast departed 
 home without leave ; wherefore on the 20th August, 
 1343, a commission was issued to Sir John de Montego- 
 mery, John de Percybridge, William atte AYode, serjeant- 
 at-arms, and William de Whiteby, of Yarmouth, requiring 
 
 * Apropos of customs, we find that in 1334 (8 Edw. Ill ), English mer- 
 chants complain that ther, having paid custom at Ber\vick-upon-Tweecl, 
 are compelled to pay it again in the port of Hartlepool, if they are driven 
 there by stress of weather. (Rot Parliam. vol. ii. 87.) 
 
 t Pat. 9 Ed. II. p. 1. m 24; Pat. 19 Ed. II. p. 2. m. 18; Pat. 4 Ed. III. 
 p. 2. m. 7; Pat. 38 Ed. III. p. 2. m. 24; and Pat. 42. Ed. III. p. 2. ni. 18.
 
 122 A VISIT TO HARTLEPOOL. 
 
 them to lay an attacliment upon those defaulting and 
 truant ships, some of whicli we find to have helonged to 
 the oppressed merchants of lI[\rtlepool ; for lliehard dc 
 Bury, Bishop of Durham (the port heing within his 
 liberties) issued his commission dated 8th April, 1344, 
 for the execution of the king's mandate, and addressed 
 it to Montgomery, William de IMordone, Sheriff of the 
 County Palatine, William atte Wode, and AVilliam de 
 Whiteby, whereby they are required to cause to be seized 
 and placed in safe custody all ships of the burden of 
 twenty tons and more, not already arrested, that A\'ere in 
 the port of the town of Hartlepool, and which by inqui- 
 sition should be found not to have come to the passage 
 of the king and his army across the seas according to 
 the Avarning given, or to have departed from his ol)e- 
 dience without leave, whereby they had incurred forfei- 
 ture; and the captains, crews, and cargoes of such ships 
 were in like manner to l)e arrested and detained, and the 
 lands and goods of those who should refuse to aj^pear 
 were to be sequestered. * Again, on the 1st April, 1345, 
 the same bishop, pursuant to the king's command, issued 
 his commission to John Donyngton, clerk, and John de 
 Nesebit, burgess of Hartlepool (whom he had ap]:)ointed 
 his collector of prisage of wines and ulnage of cloth in 
 Hartlepool and the Palatinate), to lay embargo on all 
 ships in that port, or elsewhere in the waters of the 
 county palatine, in order to their being placed at the 
 disposal of the Earl of Suifolk, Admiral of the North 
 Elect, and the masters and seamen were to be a])p()inted 
 to assemble at certain ports for the service of tlie king. 
 
 In 1346, the English fleet — an armament numbering 
 738 sail, carrying, on an average, t^^ enty men to each 
 vessel, and raised from various ports, including Hartle- 
 pool, partly by these oppressive means — was asseml)led 
 before Calais. Hartlepool famished five ships and 145 
 seamen, t 
 
 In 1354, the King ordered the Admiral of the North 
 Elect to provide three ships from the port of Tyne or from 
 
 * Register of Bishop de Bury, MS. lield by Dean and Chapter, fo. 7. 
 f Surtees, Hist. Durham, vol. iii. p. 101 note. Newcastle equifjped 17 
 ships, and London 2f) ships, on this occasion.
 
 A VISIT TO HARTLEPOOL. 123 
 
 Hartlepool, to convey Bishop Hatfield to the Parliament 
 at Westminster. 
 
 In 1379, William andJohn Canynges, the famous mer- 
 chants of Bristol, of pious memory, complained to the 
 king's court that John Hesilden, Andrew Brountoft, and 
 others, had seized and carried into St. Hilda's bay a ship 
 of theirs which was sailing towards Calais and Elanders. 
 The circumstances under which tliis seizure was made do 
 not appear. 
 
 In 1383, Bishop Pordham granted to the burgesses for 
 five years certain customs in aid of the costs of inclosing 
 the town and repairing and forming the pavement ; * 
 and late in the reign of Bichard II. we find charters of 
 confirmation of their privileges granted to the burgesses 
 of Hartlepool, t 
 
 Some events connected with religion belong to this 
 period of our history. Two of the three chantries which 
 existed in the church of St. Hilda were founded late in 
 the fourteenth century. Bishop Skirlaw granted licence 
 to the mayor and commonalty of Hartlepool to found a 
 chantry of one chaplain at the altar of St. Helen, to jiray 
 for the bishop, and for Maude, formerly wife of Boger 
 de Clifford, I and the founders, and the repose of their 
 souls. By similar episcopal licence, St. Mary's chantry 
 
 * In 1388 (7tli Ric. II.) the men of Scarborough pay toll on herrings 
 and great fish taken between " la Ville de Hertilpole" and the river liumber. 
 (Rot. Pari iii. 162.) 
 
 t Rot. Cart. 21, 22, 23 Ric. II. m. 20. And see Pat. 21 Ric. II. par. 1, 
 m. 31, for confirmation of liberties to the Burgesses of Hartlepool, as in 
 their charters of 18 Hen. III. and 39 Edw. III. 
 
 I She was the daughter of Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. Roger de 
 CliflFord occurs in the Originalia 43 Ed. III. r. 61, as owner of the manor 
 of Hert and the town of Hertilpole. The property had been restored to 
 this family after the attainder of Roger de Cliftbrd in 15 Edw, II. when it 
 was granted to John of Bretagne, Earl of Richmond, in tail general (Cart. 
 15 Edw. II. p. 1, m. 20); but in the 20th year of the same reign, the king 
 granted to Henry de Percy and Robert de Clifibrd the custody of the 
 manor and lands of Roger de Clifford in Hert and Hertness (Orig. 20 Ed. 
 II. r. 14). By the episcopal licence for foundation of the chantry above 
 mentioned, the founders were empowered to convey to Robert Rosson, priest 
 of the same chantry, and his successors, three messuages which Geoffrey 
 of Eltham and Isabel his wife held for life, and seven messuages and forty 
 acres and upwards of arable land, an acre of meadow, ten tofts and crofts, 
 and 14s. rent, held of the same Maude de Clifford.
 
 121' A VISIT TO HARTLEPOOL. 
 
 was founded at the same time, for two chaplains to serve 
 at the altar of the Blessed Airgin.* The mayor and 
 commonaltv were also licensed to "-rant seven messua2;es 
 held of Maude de Clitford to AValter Baksterf and William 
 Howe, "g-uardians of the fabric of St. Hilda's Church," 
 in order to maintain the choir of the church, and to sup- 
 port a perpetual light at the altar of the Blessed A^irgin. 
 A third chantry— a])propriately dedicated to St. Nicholas, 
 Avas founded under similar licence, and endowed with 
 eight messuages : these were also held of Maude de 
 Ciiflbrd. 
 
 The privileges of the hishops of Durham in Hartlepool 
 appear to have been usurped during the troubled state of 
 the realm, for in the Parliament held at Westminster in 
 1433 (11 Hen. VI.) those privileges were confirmed. J 
 They seem to have been enjoyed by the Iji shops thence- 
 forth for nearlv a centurv. But before 1535 the mitred 
 lords of Durham had relaxed their hold upon Hartlepool; 
 and in that year, when the crown and parliament had 
 begun their detestable usurpations on the Church, an act 
 was passed declaring the lordship of Hartlepool to be 
 parcel of the county of York; and it was not until the 
 1st vear of the reiijrn of Marv that Parliament restored 
 to the l)isliop all his rights. But before the reign of 
 Henry VIII. the glory of Hartlepool had departed. In 
 1523 a ruined haven and neglected fortifications are 
 spoken of. The Chancellor of Durham, Avriting to AYolsey, 
 tells the cardinal 1)ishop that Hartlepool with its mem- 
 bers is worth 200 marks a year, standing rents, and that 
 "the recoverinn- and fortifvini? of that haven town would 
 
 * The endowment was 32 messuages, 27 tofts and crofts, and 84.9. Gd. 
 rent, held of Maude de Clifford. Surtees (iii. 1 17) gives some particulars 
 as to the grant of parcels of tlie chantry lands by the crown in the times 
 of James I. and the dealings of the grantees therewith. Some of the 
 j)rop(;rty is mentioned to lie in "'Hie Nunnery Close." 
 
 f He occurs as holding the office of a bailiff of the town, in lv)7G. 
 (Collect. Topog. et Geneal. v. 233.) He is not named in Sir C. Sharp's list 
 of bailiffs. 
 
 I Kot. Pari vol. iv. p. 430. The confirmation proceeded upon inqui- 
 sition t.aken at Hartlepool under a commission from the crown directed to 
 Henry Earl of Northumberland, Ralph Earl of Westmerland, Thomas de 
 Dacre, Kobert Umfravill, Ralph Cirey, "William Tempest, Laurence Acton, 
 John Cartington, Robert "W'helpyngton, Jolni Horsley, and Hugh Salkeld.
 
 A VISIT TO HARTLEPOOL. 125 
 
 be a great profit and strength to the bishopric; a refuge 
 to the English ships; and might do many displeasures to 
 the king's enemies, for which purpose it Avas thought to 
 stand the best of any haven town in England." Its im- 
 portance as a military station was not lost sight of, l3ut 
 its commercial prosperity was not to be recalled, and 
 the tide of commerce had long set into the Tyne. But 
 at the rising under the Earls of Northumberland and 
 Westmorland, in 1569, part of their forces wisely occu- 
 pied Hartlepool, which may be supposed to have shewn, 
 on this occasion, its traditionary attachment to the an- 
 cient faith. Their main body, lieaded by the venerable 
 Richard Norton, had moved southwards to Cliflbrd's 
 Moor. A letter written to the Earl of Sussex during 
 this period — it is dated 18tli Dec. 1569 — shews that the 
 forces of the northern earls were then in possession of 
 the town. On the relation of the crew of a fishins* coble 
 of Hartlepool, which the Avriter's party captured at sea, 
 he says — 
 
 " As for shipping, there is none there, nor was not a great while, but four 
 five-men cobles, and sixteen small cobles : I desire to know your Lordship's 
 pleasure what Ave shall do with the men of Hartlepool, for they are very 
 poor men, and have almost no clothes on their backs," &c.* 
 
 Before the 21th Dec. Hartlepool was recovered for the 
 Queen ; and even after the rebellion was crushed, it was 
 thought expedient by her council to maintain a garrison 
 of three hundred men there, under Sir H. Gate. The 
 possession of this place appears to have been matter of 
 great anxiety to Secretary Cecil. 
 
 But shortly after this period, Ave find arms again yield- 
 ing to the (municipal) gOAvn ; and on the 3rd Eebruary, 
 1593, at the request of John Lord Lumley, who, in 1586, 
 had purchased Hart and Hartlepool from the Clifford 
 family, Queen Elizabeth granted to the burgesses of 
 Hartlepool a new charter. Until this time the town had 
 been governed by mayors and bailiffs, under their old 
 royal charters. JBy this new charter, the mayor, with a 
 common council of twelve chief burgesses, are em- 
 powered to hold courts, and make statutes for the good 
 
 * Surtees, Hist. Dur. iii. 102, citing [MS. Cott.] Caligula,, B. ix.
 
 120 A VISIT TO HARTLEPOOL. 
 
 i^overnment of the town ; to hold a weekly market on 
 Tuestlav, and a fair, to commence on the eve of St. 
 Laurence, and last for lifteen days, and they are to enjoy 
 the like privileges as the burgesses of TscAvcastle.* 
 
 The long vexed question of jurisdiction arose between 
 this new lord of Hartlepool and the then Bishop of 
 Durham, but the arbitrators decided that these manors 
 were within the precinct and royal lil)erties of the Bishop 
 of Durham between the Tyne and Tees ; and thus (says 
 Surtees) ended for ever this question which had been 
 litigated from tiDie to time since the days of Bishop 
 Beaumont. 
 
 Of the decayed state of Hartlepool even before the 
 Great Bebellion we have a curious notice bv eve wit- 
 nesses — three military officers stationed at Norwich — 
 who made a topographical excursion in lG31,t and refer 
 to it as " that antient decayed coast-town, Avhich is sur- 
 rounded some half a mile by the main sea every twelve 
 hours. This," they add, " hath been formerly a brave, 
 stately, and A^ell fortified toAvn, now only a sea-land 
 habitation for fishermen." 
 
 But during the civil wars, Hartlepool, as an eligible 
 station for military forces, w^as again of importance. It 
 was at first in ])osscssion of the royalists, and John Lord 
 of Hilton occupied the garrison in February, 1612. In 
 January 1611, a reserve army of ten thousand Scots 
 re])els under Lord Leven and the Earl of Calandar, 
 entered England a second time, to assist the parliament 
 against the king. Tbe town of Newcastle-upon-Tyne 
 was then garrisoned by the royal forces, and the parlia- 
 ment faction was desirous to secure that stronghold. On 
 
 * Sharp, Hist, of Hartlepool, p. 62, ct scq. On the 8th of June following, 
 the mayor and chief burgesses, in gratitude to Lord Lumley for his pains 
 taken to enlarge the franchises of the borough, granted to him and his heirs 
 a moiety of the fines arising within tlie borough, with keelage, stallage, 
 passage, etc. In 1652 a moiety of these profits, with anchorage, pierage, 
 &c. were leased by Viscount Lumley to the mayor and burgesses, at 10/. 
 per annum, for twenty-one years. During the first half century after the 
 grant of Elizabeth's charter, the fi-equent recurrence of the same individuals 
 in municipal offices, seems to indicate that there was no superabundance 
 of wealthy burgesses solicitous of the honour. 
 
 t MS. Lnnsd. No. 21,3, fo. 3i;)-348.
 
 A VISIT TO HARTLEPOOL. 127 
 
 the 24th July following', Hartlepool was taken by the 
 Earl of Calandar. This was considered a great success, 
 as the " place was theretofore of great use and advan- 
 tage to the enemy." The earl writes thus to the presi- 
 dent of the Scotish parliament under date 30th July, 
 1644:* 
 
 *' I have prosecuted my intentions against Hartlepool and Stockton. As 
 for the event, we have reason to thank God who still makes it appear that 
 this work is his own, for upon Wednesday the 24th of this instant, being 
 there in person, after I had drawn some forces both horse and foot, near 
 the said town close to the out-works, and after fire given upon both sides, 
 summoned the town. The governor. Sir EdAvard Gary, did accept of my 
 summons and enter into capitulation, which continued till Thursday at 
 two or three o'clock in the afternoon, at which time (having agreed that it 
 should be surrendered i;pon the same terms and conditions that wei'e given 
 to York) he marched out, and at the same time the castle of Stockton was 
 given up to me, being comprehended within the party, he being governor 
 of both. There was in the town nine pieces of cannon, with some small 
 quantity of ammunition, and in the castle [Stockton] there was only one 
 cannon. I have put garrisons in both, and appointed governors to keep 
 the same under me ; Hartlepool is the most fit place for a magazine, where- 
 fore I intend to make it there, and not at Sunderland." 
 
 The Weeldy Intelligencer of 6th August, 1644, an- 
 nounces in London the capture of Hartlepool, " the an- 
 tientest harbour in the north of England," adding — " the 
 sea encompasses it half round." On 13th August, 1644, 
 the siege of Newcastle commenced. The Earl of Calandar 
 took Gateshead, and, with the Lord General Leven, ob- 
 tained possession of the bridge ; the head quarters of the 
 latter were long at Elswick. On the 7th Septeml^er the 
 rebel generals entreated the besieged to surrender the 
 town of Newcastle, in order to stop the further effusion of 
 blood. The gallant defenders, however, disregarded these 
 entreaties. On the 19tli October, the Scots began their 
 assault upon the town-wall, and, portions of it being 
 opened in several places by the firing of mines, the enemy 
 pressed on. They were courageously met l)y the besieged, 
 but ultimately entered the town ; and its garrison, finding 
 further resistance in vain, forsook the walls. It is said 
 to have numbered only 1500 men, wearied with duty, 
 whereas the Scotish horde was accounted 30,000 in num- 
 
 * State papers of Mr. Secretary Thurloe, vol. i. p. 41.
 
 128 A VISIT TO HARTLEPOOL. 
 
 her ; and so was the town of Newcastle wrested from the 
 kind's forces after an obstinate and gallant defence. 
 
 On the 2Gtli Pebruary, 1G47, the Commons resolved 
 that the garrison he no longer maintained in Hartlepool. 
 But it was again garrisoned in 1018, for on the 24th 
 Novemljer in that year, Pairfax, Lord General, received 
 a petition from the officers and soldiers of the garrisons 
 of Xewcastle, Hartlepool, Holy Island, and from several 
 officers of Berwick, wherein these renegades, impatient 
 for their sovereign's hlood, charge the kin"' with being 
 " the occasion of the war, and of the massacres and devas- 
 tations in the realm," and declare that "other endeavours 
 are to little purpose? Avhile the grand delinquent is un- 
 touched, as l)eing not an acceptable sacrifice to the justice 
 of God to offer to Him aught else."(!) But enough of 
 these melancholy recollections of regicidal usurpation. 
 
 In Dec. 1649, mention occurs of])irates lurking on the 
 north coast ; they were carrying off a party of gentlemen 
 from the country on the Tees, when they were put to 
 flight by a party of foot from Hartlepool ; and in Peb. 
 1650, an Irish frigate boarded a Newcastle sliip off Hartle- 
 pool, which outrage l)eing A^'itnessed by tlie governor, he 
 caused his guns to be so pointed at the assailant that she 
 was shot through and through, and was glad to leave her 
 intended i)rey behind. This fact is mentioned as slioA\ing 
 that the sea batteries of Hartlepool Avere then maintained. 
 In 1667, the aa orthy Mayor was put in bodily fear of a 
 hostile visit from the Dutch, for a Dutch ship of war had 
 the audacity to send her long boat into the Tees mouth 
 to sound tlie harbour, and other ships of that nation 
 were in the vicinity ; but the garrison Avas put on the 
 defensive, and the companies of trained bands were 
 draAvn out, so tlie mayor and l)urgesses Avere left unmo- 
 lested. This, says Surtees, Avas the last time Avlien 
 Hartlepool assumed a Avarlike aspect. 
 
 The present harbour is distinct from the old fortified 
 basin already described. It is protected by a inev which 
 projects from a point near the south-eastern angle of the 
 sea Avails already mentioned. So early as 1473 the mayor 
 and burgesses obtained the bishop's licence to build a pier 
 and collect dues for that pm-pose. This fjibric seems to
 
 A VISIT TO HARTLEPOOL. 1 29 
 
 have shared the fortunes of the town, and m 1804 it had 
 become much decayed, for want of funds applica1)le to its 
 maintenance. A few years afterwards, representations 
 were made to Parliament that by the destruction of this 
 pier the wall would be endangered, and that a part of the 
 town would be thereby submerged ; that vessels would in 
 that event be deprived of the safe retreat afforded l3y the 
 haven, and that the fishermen, who then formed the ma- 
 jority of the inhabitants, would be thereby left without 
 shelter; and Hartlepool was further represented to be the 
 only harl)our between Sunderland and Bridlington, and 
 to be a harbour in which vessels might ride secure from 
 the storms most destructive on that coast.* The pier 
 was partially restored by private subscriptions, but it was 
 not until 1813 that an act was obtained for improving 
 the pier and port, and for levying certain tolls for those 
 most desirable purposes. The pier is now a su]3stantial 
 structure, a])out 150 yards in length, and a longer pier has 
 been built on the south. The entrance to the harbour is 
 bold, and its anchorage ground deep and good; and it has 
 advantages superior to those afforded by the Tees, the 
 Wear, or the Tyne. But a work of greater magnitude and 
 of the highest importance was the formation of a tidal har- 
 bour, and of docks comprising an area of twenty acres, 
 which work has been completed within the last fourteen 
 years. The first act of the Hartlepool Dock and Bailway 
 Company was obtained in 1832; coalAvas first shipped in 
 the tide harbour in 1835, and the dock Avas opened at the 
 end of 1840. The total cost of this magnificent enterprise 
 was the large sum of 519,543/. Every succeeding year 
 has brought an accession to the trade of Hartlepool, and 
 it seems destined to become a port of considerable im- 
 portance. It is connected by railway with productive col- 
 lieries, and with the main line of the York, jSTewcastle, and 
 Berwick Railway, but a better In-anch line is a desider- 
 atum. West Hartlepool, the new commercial rival of 
 the ancient port, is connected with the Leeds Northern 
 Hallway, and is fast rising to prosperity. The ex- 
 portation of coal, and the importation of Scotch, Baltic, 
 
 * A depth in the outer harbour, of 24 feet of water in spring tides, and 
 of from 16 to 18 feet at neap tides, is calculated upon. 
 
 K
 
 180 A VISIT TO HARTLEPOOL. 
 
 and American timber seem to have been hitherto 
 the chief sources of revenue to Hartlepool. It lies in a 
 great corn-producing country, and is most conveniently 
 situated for shipping corn, coal, lime, and other products 
 of the neighl30uring district. Por some years past 
 Hartlepool has been fast reviving by the influx of the 
 great tide of commerce which the coal trade had pre- 
 viously thrown exclusively into the Tyne and Wear ; 
 and perhaps there is not any place on this coast of 
 England better adapted for a fishing station upon 
 the most extended scale.* AVhat remarkable contrasts 
 its present condition and prospects afford to its state 
 in 1620, when it was described as a poor fishing town, 
 unambitious of a parliamentary franchise, and not con- 
 taining a sufficient inhabitant to serve in Parliament If 
 
 But the income of the church in Hartlepool continues 
 miserably small. On the dissolution of the monastery of 
 Guisborough, the rectory and patronage of the mother 
 church of Hart (which it will be recollected was appro- 
 priated to that foundation), were seized l)y the spoiler, and 
 ere long came into the hands of lay impropriators under 
 colour of purchase from the crown, to which an annual 
 rent or feefarm of 22/. issuing from the rectory and church 
 of Hart, and the chapelry of Hartlepool, continued to be 
 payable in 1026. The parochial chap(?lry of Hartlepool 
 was held by the vicars of Hart, but in 1807 it became 
 a perpetual curac}^ Its revenue is said to be under 200/. 
 a year ; and yet the population already numbers nearly 
 ten thousand souls. 
 
 The restoration and enlargement of the fine church of 
 St. Hilda was much to be preferred to the erection of a 
 chapel of ease ; but the new chapel of the Holy Trinity 
 
 * It partook largely in the herring fisheries so early as 1331. Surtees 
 mentions that in one ■week, in his own time, upwards of 1,000 turbot were 
 sent lu'nce to London. 
 
 I In 1G14 some agitation was first made to obtain parliamentary repre- 
 sentation for the inh;d)itants of the bishopric, and it was recommended that 
 Hartlepool, as being the only port town within the county, should send 
 burgesses to parliament, and the privilege W'as claimed " in respect to the 
 ancientness, walled strength, and royal privileges" it had formerly enjoyed. 
 But objection was made that the town was poor, aiid (what was more for- 
 midable) was still much given to popery.
 
 A VISIT TO HARTLEPOOL. 131 
 
 is a more creditable structure than miglit have been 
 expected. 
 
 The new Homan Catholic church is a spacious and 
 effective Gothic edifice. 
 
 It remains to mention a few historical circumstances 
 which could not he adverted to in their chronological 
 order, without disturbing the connexion of the foregoing 
 narrative. The reader of history knows that land-owners 
 in ancient times seldom failed to write the record of their 
 ownership in the cartularies of the monastic bodies. 
 Accordingly we find that not only the monasteries of 
 Durham* and of Guisborough possessed lands in Hart 
 and Hartlepool, but that the nunnery of St. Mary's and 
 St. Andrew's, at Marrick, in the North Hiding, was ter- 
 ritorially connected mth Hartlepool. f 
 
 The corporation possesses two ancient of&cial seals 
 made of brass. In the oldest of these, which is the 
 largest, St. Hilda is represented on the reverse standing 
 
 * From the bursar's book of this great Benedictine convent, it appears 
 that the monks paid to the bishop, as superior lord, a rent called " land- 
 mail," and a composition in lieu of suit of court, in respect of their property 
 in Hartlepool. 
 
 f The fact is not noticed by either Sharp or Surtees, but appears from 
 a series of ancient documents which are given in that very valuable pub- 
 lication the Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, vol. v. p. 233. et seq. 
 Some of the circumstances mentioned in the charters of donation are 
 worthy of remark. Robert de Brus gave in free alms to the nuns of 
 Marrick a toft in "Hertepul." The charter is without date, but is Avit- 
 nessed by William de Brus and Bernard de Brus. William de Brus, the 
 donor's son, confirmed his gift. William Seer, of Hartlepool, granted, with 
 the assent of his lord, Robert de Brus, a yearly rent of two marks from 
 the land of Simon de Waynfleth upon the Ness, and of Roger de Newton, 
 Peter Marrays, and Agnes de Witeby, in St. Mary's Street. John the 
 Mason, of Hartlepool, is the second subscribing witness. Robert de Brus, 
 who is described as lord of Annandale, confirms this donation, and to this 
 grant John de Carrou, lord of Seton, is a witness. Another tenement in 
 the Ness was demised to Robert Fitz WilUam de Seton, formerly burgess 
 of Hartlepool, he rendering annually for lights in honour of the blessed 
 Mary the Virgin, in the church of St. Hilda, six pence in silver, and to 
 the nuns of Marrick ten shillings. The charter is witnessed by Andrew 
 de Bruntoft, then mayor, and William de Farneley, bailiff of Hartlepool, 
 and is dated on Wednesday next after the feast of St. Matthew, 13 10. 
 A charter in 1376, between Matilda Melscnby, prioress, and William 
 Midlam of Hartlepool and Alice his wife, relating to a house in Hartlepool, 
 is witnessed by John de Seton, mayor, Robert Goldsmith and Walter 
 Bakster, bailiffs of the town. 
 
 k2
 
 132 A VISIT TO HAETLEPOOL. 
 
 in the centre of a canopy, surmounted hy a cliurch. On 
 each side, under a smaller canopy, a priest is celebrating 
 mass. A crescent is on one side of St. Hilda, and a star 
 on the other, and a bird is descending on either side.* 
 The legend is — Subveniat famulis nobilis Hilda suis. 
 The obverse of the seal exhibits a hart at bay in a pool 
 of water, and this rebus is surrounded by the legend 
 
 SiGILLUM COMMUNITATIS DE HeHTEUPOL. TllCSC dcviceS 
 
 may perhaps be assigned even to the reign of Henry III. 
 A smaller and later seal, inscribed with the words Sigil- 
 LUM Officii Maioris de Heiitilpole, represents l)eneath 
 a richer decorated canopy, St. Hilda holding her staff, 
 and a mitred ecclesiastic on either side. The figures stand 
 upon a prostrate hart. The town books go back to 1599. 
 
 A fine lighthouse has 1)een recently erected on the cliff 
 to the north-east of the town. It is lighted on the inge- 
 nious principle of M. Presnel, the light (which is a fixed 
 one) being reflected from tiers of reflectors which are ar- 
 ranged at certain angles around and above the central jet, 
 upon a series of bands or zones of prismatic glass, so that 
 the light is refracted in parallel rays of intense brilliancy, 
 and is said to be visible at a distance of thirty miles. 
 
 In descrdjing the situation of Hartlepool it should 
 have been stated that it is seated on the magnesian lime- 
 stone — a hard, buff coloured, crystaline formation, the 
 stratification of which is very distinct. The village of 
 Hart is almost the southern extremitv of the limestone 
 on this coast. t A fine chalybeate spring rises near the 
 Watergate, and on the shore there is a mineral spring 
 from the sandstone and conglomerate beds of the red 
 marl. A quarry here contains a stratum of hard white 
 oolite, composed of grains about the size of a mustard seed. 
 
 * On the ancient seal of Robert de Brus appendant to a cliarter of 
 donation to the monks of Durham, which is witnessed by liis sons Robert, 
 William, and Bernard, Adam de Nesebit, &c. (iv. viii. Spccialium, A. i.), 
 a fleiir de lis is represented, with a bird perched on each of the drooping 
 leaves. Possibly the introduction of the birds on the town seal may have 
 some reference to its ancient benefactors. 
 
 f It was there bored to the depth of tifty-two fathoms without coming 
 to coal, but the formation rests upon the coal measures.
 
 133 
 
 A VISIT TO JARROW. 
 
 On the south side of the Tyne, not far to the westward 
 of South Shields, on the bank of the little stream of the 
 Don which there flows into the main estuary, stand the 
 church and the remains of the monastery of Jarrow — a 
 place which, as the residence of Venerable Bede, and as 
 the site of one of the earliest Christian edifices of England, 
 must possess an imperishable interest : a place illustrious 
 in the history of the Anglo-Saxon Church and people, 
 but which now, so far as the actual and the visible are 
 concerned, presents only a melancholy contrast between 
 the present and the past, and, in the state of the church 
 and monastic remains, a deplorable picture of decadence 
 and degradation. 
 
 In A.D. 680, as we learn from Bede in his " Lives of 
 the Abbats of Weremouth," the noble Abbat Benedict 
 Biscop built the monastery of Jarrow, having within the 
 eight years next preceding built that of Weremouth. 
 When he had built Jarrow monastery, which work occu- 
 pied two years, he made his fifth journey to Borne, and 
 brought with him works of art, which he placed in the 
 church of St. Paul, in his monastery of Jarrow. Both 
 these churches were built of stone, a material of which 
 very few churches had been constructed in those days, 
 for the Anglo-Saxons built their religious edifices of wood. 
 
 Abbat Benedict presided over six hundred monlvs in 
 the two monasteries ; and at the death of his successor 
 Ceolfrid, a few years after the building of the church, 
 Jarrow possessed no less than fifteen thousand acres of 
 land. It was the destiny of one illustrious monk of Jar- 
 YO\Y, who was himself dedicated to the religious life in a 
 year or two after the noble Northumbrian dedicated the 
 Church of St. Paul, to achieve a fame more enduring 
 than its Saxon walls — a fame that irradiates even their
 
 131 A VISIT TO JARROW. 
 
 ruined state with something of the lustre that shone 
 upon tlieir pristine dignity. 
 
 Bedc was born in a.d. G71, at Monkton, a hamlet 
 about a mile and a half from Jarrow, towards the south- 
 west, and he was received in the monastery of Weremouth 
 when only seven or ei"'lit years old. Proliablv he was at 
 that early age solemnly dedicated by his parents for the 
 religious life. The hamlet of Monkton still retains 
 something connected with his name, for a well, inclosed 
 by simple masonry, is known as " Bede's Well." lie 
 witnessed the completion of the original church, and he 
 passed his whole life near its walls. 
 
 Jarrow was then a place of some rural beauty, and few 
 dwcllino's of man were visible from its secluded eminence. 
 But, as we have seen, it was even before the days of Bede 
 a centre of monastic zeal and of missionary activity 
 amongst the scattered population of Northumbria. When 
 it had become the scene of his labours, people of all con- 
 ditions came to the cloister of the immortal monk, and 
 Jarrow seems to have been in liis days a sort of monastic 
 metropolis, the constant resort of strangers from afar. 
 The fleet of King Ecgfrid rode in the adjacent bay, now 
 called Jarrow Slake, but no collieries or manufactories, 
 towns or habitations crowded by the sons of toil, then 
 darkened its green and rural banks. Yet a monastic 
 community so astonishingly numerous must have brought 
 around it vendors of merchandize by land and sea and a 
 large number of laljouring peasantry, besides monks and 
 visitors from distant parts of Enghmd and even from 
 Home, whom the learning and the fame of Bede brought 
 to Jarrow. 
 
 It would be very interesting to know, that in the walls 
 of the existing church in any part, or in the adjacent mo- 
 nastic ruins, we view anything that was actually looked 
 upon by Bede. Perhaps it might be allowable to con- 
 clude that tlie celebrated mural inscri])tion, which was 
 ])uilt, in 1783, into the wall over the arch leading into 
 the chancel, and which records the dedication of the 
 church by Abl^at Ceolfrid, and also two straight-lined or 
 angular arches, one on the western side of the tower, and 
 the other on the western side of the monastic ruins which
 
 A VISIT TO JARROW. 135 
 
 lay to the soutli of the church, are portions of that Saxon 
 edifice and monastery on which the venerahle historian 
 looked daily. 
 
 The columns in the upper story of the tower are of the 
 earliest Norman character, decidedly very early E,oma- 
 nesque, and the whole tower (to use the language of Mr. 
 Gilbert Scott, the eminent church-architect) is of very pe- 
 culiar and characteristic design, widely difl^ering from the 
 usual form of Norman towers. The chancel and tower 
 have been generally supposed to be of ante-Norman date. 
 The writer cannot afi'irm that they are so early ; besides, 
 it is very probable that the tower of Bede's day was 
 destroyed or overthrown by the Danes, and that the 
 present tower was wholly rebuilt in the eleventh century. 
 Still, Saxon pillars and other masonry may have been 
 worked into that fabric when it was rebuilt ; and more- 
 over it is on record that in or about a.d. 1075, the walls 
 of the monastery, though unroofed, were standing ; walls 
 of such a massive and enduring character as we may well 
 believe the walls of the original church and monastery 
 were, might be retained by the eleventh century builders. 
 
 However this may be, manuscripts have come down to 
 our time which belonged to Bede, if they do not actually 
 bear characters that were traced by his pen. His literary 
 works are of a nature and extent to excite our wondering 
 admiration, for he has left to us numerous books, not 
 only on Church history, but on theology, on the Holy 
 Scriptures, and many sciences. The "Historia Ecclesi- 
 astica" is his greatest work, and it is one of the utmost 
 historical importance and value. A manuscript of this 
 work preserved in the public library, Cambridge, belongs 
 to his latter days. A manuscript, which may still be seen 
 at the British Museum, and which is one of the most 
 celebrated of English manuscripts, is reputed to have been 
 once Bede's property. It is that very fine and ancient 
 copy of the Latin gospels, written before a.d. 720, with 
 an interlineary Saxon gloss or translation, which was 
 originally treasured at Lindisfarne, and was transferred 
 thence with the body of St. Cuthbert to Durham, whence 
 it is called "the Durham Book." It is now preserved 
 amongst the Cottonian MSS. in the British Museum 
 
 ir^
 
 136 A VISIT TO JAimOW. 
 
 (Nero, D. iv.). But, more tlian tliis, amongst the manu- 
 scripts in tlic lil)rary of the Dean and Cliai)ter of Durham 
 is a book which there are good grounds for l)elieving to 
 be written in his own hand. It was tradition amongst 
 the monks of Durham that it was of Bede's handwriting. 
 
 His reputation, even in his lifetime, was spread through 
 Christendom; but he never left his native province, and 
 there devoted his whole life to religion and literary labour, 
 surrounded by disciples and scholars, and visited by kings 
 and monks, and other persons who came to him for in- 
 formation, and from whom he learned what was going 
 on in the world. 
 
 In A.D. 735 he had done with the affairs of this life 
 and of time. In his cell at Jarrow, on the 27th of May 
 in that year, he departed to immortality, but his fame 
 and memory have never died. His remains rested at 
 JarroAV until the reign of Edward the Confessor, at some 
 time during whose reign they w^ere removed to Durham, 
 where the monks had then established themselves aroimd 
 the remains of St. Cuthbert, l)ut where the present mag- 
 nificent cathedral had not then arisen. 
 
 AVhen a monk named Aldwin came with tw^o or three 
 l)retliren from Winchelcombe, early in the reign of 
 William the Conqueror, Watcher, Bishop of Durham, 
 gave them for their abode the then deserted monastery 
 of Jarrow, the greatness of which had departed for more 
 than tAVO hundred years. Bede's remains w^ere afterwards 
 translated to Durham, of which great monastery Aldwin 
 became prior, and all the Church lands formerly of 
 Jarrow^ were confirmed to the monks of Durham. It is 
 not stated by what means the reliques so translated were 
 known to be those of Venerable Bcde. However, in 
 1101, the remains reputed and believed to be his, which 
 on their removal from Jarrow had been placed in the 
 coffin of St. Cuthl)ert, were again translated from that 
 resting-place, and at the close of the twelfth century (as 
 if they were thought to have been insufficiently honoured) 
 they were placed l)y the great Bishop Hugh de Pudsey in 
 a casket of gold and silver upon Bede's altar-tomb — a well- 
 knoAvn monument in the chapel called the Galilee, which 
 that prelate built. There is a tradition, that Bede's
 
 A VISIT TO JAllROW. 137 
 
 remains were removed from. Durham to Italy for safe 
 preservation at the time the monastery was dissolved. 
 
 Before the heginning of the twelfth century he had 
 acquired the epithet — "the Venerable." 
 
 The importance and interest of the monastery of Jarrow 
 ceased not long after the time of the great Alfred, for it 
 cannot be said to have revived even after its alliance with 
 Durham. It was maintained as a cell of that magnificent 
 foundation until the monasteries were dissolved, and 
 seems to have been governed by masters, who were ac- 
 countable to the parent house.* In 1394 it was granted 
 by the prior and convent to Robert de Walworth, a 
 worthy monk, formerly Prior of Durham, to hold for his 
 life, together with other provisions for his support. 
 
 Excepting the tower, a church of less outward attractions 
 to the ecclesiologist than the present church of Jarrow 
 can hardly be imagined. Coal pits and alkali works have 
 changed the face of the country, and, the tithes being 
 alienated, generations have grownup in heathenism; and 
 grievously is Jarrov/ changed in every respect since the 
 days when the light of religion and of learning shone 
 from hence throughout the civilised world. 
 
 The edifice now consists of nave and chancel only. 
 There are neither transepts nor aisles. The appearance 
 of the church is extraordinary, for the tower already 
 mentioned now grows up from the centre of the building. 
 On its eastern side is the mark of the original roof, of 
 unusually high pitch ; there is no corresponding mark on 
 the western side. The tower is very narrow on the 
 northern and southern sides, and, as there are no traces 
 of doorways on those sides, it cannot have stood at the 
 intersection of a cross. The first chamber of this tower, 
 above the vaulted work under which you now pass from 
 nave to chancel, is in its original state. On the western 
 side therens a spacious Norman arch, and on the southern 
 side there are two smaller archways, all of which have 
 
 * The Inventories and Account Eolls of tlie INIonasteries of Weremouth 
 and Jarrow are preserved at Durham, from their commencement in 1303 
 to the Dissolution, and are nearly complete. Being exceedingly curious, 
 and likely to illustrate Northern customs and philology, they are about to 
 be published by the Surtees Society.
 
 138 A VISIT TO JAUROW. 
 
 "been blocked up. The cliuveli, however, has lately been 
 surveyed by Mr. Scott, who speaks of this chamber or 
 floor of the toAver as having formed the rood-loft in days 
 when it oi)ened into a lofty nave. There are two upper 
 floors of the tower ; in the highest hang two large and 
 ancient bells. The tower has those remarkable balustre 
 windows which are so characteristic of early llomanesque. 
 The same kind of opening is seen in the tower of Monk- 
 Wearmouth Church — a tower which has been supposed 
 to be the work of Benedict Biscop, and to be the very 
 oldest in the countrv. 
 
 The nave of Jarrow was wholly rebuilt in 1/83, in 
 the most wretched and incongruous style; it is impossiljle 
 to conceive any thing more mean and in every respect de- 
 based. At this same period the old walls of the chancel 
 in the present edifice were inclosed in new work, and on 
 the southern side many round-headed windows and indi- 
 cations of early work may be noticed. A really good deco- 
 rated window was inserted in this wall, and is well deser- 
 ving of careful preservation and adornment in the event 
 of the rest of the edifice being restored. Mr. Scott has 
 reported that the tower is in actual danger of falling, 
 and then the whole edifice will become once more a ruin. 
 The interior having been diligently plastered, the original 
 appearance of the walls is entirely lost. The barbarous 
 work done on the rebuilding in 1783 makes it difiicult to 
 say what the original church was, or to trace the portions 
 of an earlier church which are thought to have been 
 incorporated on the rebuilding by the Norman archi- 
 tects. 
 
 In the chancel there is some extremely fine oak carving, 
 of perp(uidicular date, but retaining flamboyant orna- 
 ments. It is in very fine preservation, and consists of 
 panels for stall- desks. 
 
 The rude old chair, called Bede's Chair, remains in the 
 vestry, which is entered from the tower, on the northern 
 side of which it has been built. In the vestry also there 
 is a piece of stone sculptured with l)irds and Norman 
 interlaced work. A few bases and capitals of early 
 English columns are scattered about. 
 
 There are not any ancient inscriptions, monumental or
 
 A VISIT TO JARUOW. 139 
 
 otherwise, except the remarkable dedication stone ah^eady 
 mentioned. The font is unworthy of notice. 
 
 The cloister doorway is in excellent preservation. 
 
 An attempt to effect tlie restoration and suitable en- 
 largement of this venerable church, and to render the 
 structure worthy of its old associations, has been recently 
 made by the incumbent (the Eev. J. M. Mason) ; but as 
 the populous part of the parish is at some distance, and 
 there are few resident owners to aid in this most laud- 
 able work, there seems little hope of its accomplishment. 
 And yet enormous sums arising from the Cathedral 
 revenues are annually funded by the Ecclesiastical Com- 
 missioners, or dissipated for distant and less urgent pur- 
 poses in other parts of England.
 
 110 
 
 A VISIT 
 
 WITH THE AKCHyEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE 
 
 TO NEWCASTLE AND DURHAM. 
 
 The cathedral cities of Canterbiiry, York, Winchester, 
 Norwich, Lincoln, Salisbury, Oxford, and Bristol having- 
 successively received the Institute on its annual congress 
 in previous years, the members could hardly have selected 
 for the visit of 1852 a place so unlike the cities they had 
 previously Adsited as the busy commercial town of New- 
 castle-upon-Tyne. 
 
 August edifices of religion dignified the cities in wliich 
 the Institute had invited its members to assemble in 
 former years ; but now they came to a town in which the 
 only ecclesiastical monuments remaining are tliree old 
 parish churches ; a town from wliich some twenty re- 
 ligious edifices besides many old gates and ancient walls 
 have been swept before the march of improvement ; a 
 town which has been more distinguished for manufacturing 
 industry and commercial enterprise than for any regard 
 towards liistorical monuments or any love for history or 
 art. But, a visit to the northern diocese having been wisely 
 resolved upon, it Avas natural that Newcastle should be 
 selected for the head-quarters of the Archaeological 
 forces, it being the centre of railway communication 
 with a district Avhicli, although a land of ecclesiastical 
 ruins, is rich in historical monuments, being a place 
 formerly conspicuous in national history, and still pos- 
 sessing many characteristic remains of antiquity. And 
 so the members of the Institute on this visit stood on 
 the eminence once fortified by the liomans ; saw the 
 evidences of Norman might in the stern and time-worn 
 castle-keep ; traced remains of church architecture in 
 walls now desecrated for a tavern or a corn-loft ; and
 
 TO NEWCASTLE AND DURHAM. 141 
 
 traversed busy streets built on tlie site of a monastic 
 garden and a Benedictine cloister ; or, escaping to green 
 hills and vales beyond the smoke-enveloped town that 
 man has marked with ruin, stood upon the roads and 
 footsteps of the Romans, and climbed the craggy steeps 
 that had been traversed by the Homan wall ; descended 
 to the subterranean chapel of St. Wilfrid at Hexham, or 
 mounted the wood-environed towers of Durham, and 
 feasted in its castle hall ; or, turning to the monuments 
 of feudal grandeur, traced the splendour of the Percys in 
 the castellated pride of Warkworth, and received the 
 graceful hospitality of their ducal successor in the sump- 
 tuous halls of Alnwick Castle ; or, visiting the remotest 
 corner of the Northumbrian coast, explored the lonely 
 ruins of Lindisfarne and the proud towers of Bamburgh 
 Castle, and stood upon the wave-worn rocks 
 
 ' Of Dunstanburo;la's caverned sliore." 
 
 'O 
 
 It is not the purpose of the present article to describe 
 the places thus visited by the Institute ; the writer 
 intends to confine it to a brief sketch of the vicissitudes 
 sustained by the town of Newcastle, and to an equally 
 brief notice of Durham Cathedral. 
 
 And first, as to the town of Newcastle itself. The 
 square, dark, massive Norman keep, the three ancient 
 churches, the few other monuments of antiquity that 
 remain, and the aspect of un-modernised portions of the 
 town, prepare the stranger to find its annals ascend to 
 dark and turbulent periods of English history, and to find 
 around him memorials of the martial, the monastic, and 
 the mercantile inhabitants that in former days moved 
 within its walls. 
 
 The first and most striking feature in its history is, that 
 many centuries before the Norman conqueror built the 
 fortress which gave to Newcastle its present name, Koman 
 legions occupied this remote frontier of the Imperial pos- 
 sessions, and that it was in those days a place of strength. 
 Nearly eighteen hundred years ago, a colony of Roman 
 soldiers came to the banks of the Tyne, and about the 78th 
 year of the Christian sera, Julius Agricola, governor under 
 the Emperor Titus Vespasian, established here a military
 
 ld<2 A VISIT WITH THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE 
 
 station for the security of the northern province. To 
 that station a branch of the ffreat militarv wav conducted 
 from the southern portions of Britain, then traversing 
 fell and forest, morass and moor. About forty years 
 afterwards the Emperor Hadrian built his famous ram- 
 part from the Tyne to the Solway, besides a bridge across 
 the Tyne ; and from this circumstance (liis family name 
 being ^Elius), it is believed that the Roman station 
 acquired the name of Pons JElii — the only name by 
 which this place was known in the days of Roman 
 dominion. The massive walls of that station are now 
 occasionally l3rought to light in excavating beneath one 
 of the busiest streets in Newcastle ; and tradition says 
 that the mother-church of St. Nicholas stands on the site 
 of a Roman temple, while the modern building called 
 the Moot Hall occupies the eminence formerly defended 
 by the south-eastern toAver of the Roman fort or camp. 
 
 But, however important or populous this place may 
 have been in the days of the Romans, the scanty annals 
 of Saxon history afford no mention of it during the cen- 
 turies which elapsed between their depart lu'e and the 
 establishment of Norman power in England. There 
 was, however, a Saxon settlement, an abode of royalty, in 
 the adjacent valley of Pandon (now part of Newcastle), 
 situate within a few hundred yards eastward of the 
 Roman bridge and station and sheltered by the Roman 
 wall. There are good reasons for concluding that it was 
 the AD MURUM to which Venerable Bede alludes as a 
 royal vill of eminence — the place where in a.d. 654 
 Penda, heir of the kingdom of Mercia, received baptism. 
 It was called yEt Walle by the Saxons (as appears from 
 the Saxon version), and the name of Wall Knoll above 
 the declivities of Pandon still commemorates the great 
 barrier wdiich in Bede's days, and probably for long after- 
 wards, sheltered the Saxon vill. Below it is the place to 
 which tradition points as the site of the old royal abode. 
 Pandon was distinct from Newcastle down to the end of 
 the thirteenth century, and at that time occurs as a little 
 vill maintained by the productive salmon-fisheries of the 
 Tyne ; but in 1298 it was incorporated with the municipal 
 borough, and it is now densely overspread by houses
 
 TO NEWCASTLE AND DURHAM. 143 
 
 which unite it mth its encroaching neighbour, and 
 spread far to the north and east. 
 
 No mention, however, occurs of a church or a monastic 
 foundation existing during the Saxon times at or near 
 the place afterwards known as Newcastle. 
 
 Tynemouth Abbey is the only religious foundation 
 known from history to have existed on the north bank of 
 the Tyne at the period when the royal heir of Mercia 
 was baptised, as recorded by Bede ; who, if a church had 
 existed on the site of the Roman town or at Pandon, 
 would probably have mentioned it. Yet the Ptoman 
 defences afterwards came to aflPord shelter to monks, for 
 we find from Simeon of Durham that when Aldwin and 
 his two brother monks travelled from Gloucestershii'e 
 to restore religious foundations in the province of Nor- 
 thumberland they came to Newcastle, which was then 
 called Munecaceaster — a name indicating that Saxon 
 monks had at some time taken up their abode within the 
 ramparts of the Poman station. Possibly it was so 
 occupied when the Danes overthrew religious edifices in 
 Northumberland, but the monks had gone long l3efore 
 Aldwin arrived ; and we hear no more of Saxon Monk- 
 chester, nor does that name occur save in the pages of 
 Simeon. He is speaking of a time shortly prior to the 
 Norman conquest. Soon after that event the scene again 
 changed to military occupation. 
 
 When, within the area of the Poman station, the New 
 Castle, which gave to the town its present name, was 
 built by a son of the Conqueror; and when, in later 
 times, a circuit of massive wall inclosed the ecclesiastical 
 and rising commercial edifices of the town ; it became, as 
 it had been in the Poman days, a place of mihtary 
 strength, and it so continued during the long eventful 
 period of the Scotish wars. It saw armed hosts repulsed 
 fi'om its ramparts, and martial armaments prepared 
 within them. It opened its gates to sovereigns and 
 military leaders, and saw national treaties settled within 
 its walls when kings had their temporary abode in New- 
 castle. It was a place of great commercial importance 
 as a port when Liverpool and Manchester were villages, 
 and Sunderland had not acquired any trade. Yet, for
 
 lti.4 A VISIT WITH THE AUCHiEOLOGTCAL INSTITUTE 
 
 centuries after the Conquest, it was a chief home of the 
 monastic orders, and, with all its martial pride and com- 
 mercial prosperity, it has " bowed before the rood and 
 book." Benedictine monks, Augustine canons, Domini- 
 cans, Carmelites, Eranciscans, Hospitallers, and Xuns had 
 their convents within the walls of Newcastle ; there was 
 many an hospitium for the wayfarer, many an old inn 
 for the pilgrims resorting to the shrine of " Our Lady of 
 Jesmond," many a guild or religious fraternity incor- 
 porated for charitable purposes, and many a chapel. In 
 the narrow street called the Close was the town residence 
 of the Percvs : and inns of the chief no])ilitv of the 
 diocese are still remembered. Newcastle has sheltered 
 the English chivalry assemljled for warlike campaigns 
 against the Scots ; princes, prelates, and pilgrims have met 
 in its streets. In the Blackfriars' monastery, sovereigns 
 were frequent guests. Here Scotish kings did homage 
 to Edward for their crown; here a Scotish army sold 
 King Charles to the fanatics and rebels who were about 
 to stain themselves with his blood. Erom the Norman 
 Keep — still a characteristic feature of the town —Time has 
 seen a variegated stream of life ebb and How beneath its 
 walls, and has seen the edifices that received the throng 
 give place one by one to modern structures, until now 
 only a few towers and crumbling fragments of masonry 
 are left standing here and there to tell of the strong 
 mural circuit that once encompassed its busy motley life. 
 But time has not equally effaced the traces of military 
 occupation, and we may still behold, amidst the march 
 of commercial enterprise, some of those warlike features 
 which were beheld bv our forefathers. Such a buildino: 
 as the Norman Keep, which now, by a strange vicissi- 
 tude, looks down on one of the most wondrous achieve- 
 ments of engineering skill (the High Level Bridge), can 
 never fail to arrest the attention of every spectator, and 
 to carry l)ack the mind to the days when not only that 
 massive keep but also the town itself stood environed 
 by well-defended walls ; when few wheels disturbed, and 
 when, certainly, no steam-whistles sounded through its 
 narrow streets, and when it stood, like some of the 
 continental cities, a walled inclosure of quaint buildings
 
 TO NEWCASTLE AND DURHAM. 145 
 
 and gray old monasteries with quiet gardens paced by 
 friars, while bailey and barbican and turret surrounded 
 the stern old keep and echoed the footsteps of a con- 
 siderable garrison. But as the keep, and the chief 
 entrance-gate of the castle (a structure assigned to the 
 year 1248), besides a few towers and fragments of the 
 town wall, three old parochial churches, and several 
 timber houses on the ancient ways of commerce have 
 not been removed for shops, the town has still some 
 antique features. The commercial element in its his- 
 tory is, however, more fully represented in its l)uildings 
 than either the religious or the warlike ; and, although 
 Newcastle does not boast any buildings that can be com- 
 pared with the fine and ornate timber houses so com- 
 mon in midland and south-western counties, there are in 
 the toAvn many interesting old buildings of this kind 
 formerly the residences of its wealthy merchants. 
 
 But the modern is fast usurping the place of the 
 antique, and (chiefly for the sake of town improvements) 
 all the grim old gate-towers and many ecclesiastical 
 buildings have been destroyed. The subjoined list shews 
 the extent of the destruction of religious edifices : — 
 
 1. The chapel of the Black Friars; now the hall of a company. 
 
 2. The chapel of the Gray Friars ; a residence occupies the site. 
 
 3. The chapel of the White Friars; pulled down by leave of the 
 corporation. 
 
 4. The chapel of the Friars of the Sac; demolished. 
 
 5. The chapel of St. Bartholomew's Nunnery; removed for the old 
 theatre, built in 1748 on part of the walls. 
 
 6. The chapel of the Premonstratensians ; demolished. 
 
 7. The chapel of the Hospital of St. Mary; wantonly destroyed for 
 widening the road to the new Central Eailway Station. 
 
 8. The chapel of the Maison Dieu; removed for bridge approaches. 
 
 9. The chapel of the Augustine Friars ; granted for desecration. 
 
 10. The chapel of St. John; used as a warehouse. 
 
 11. The chapel of St. Laurence; used for glass works. 
 
 12. The chapel of the Pilgrims' Inn ; demolished. 
 
 13. The chapel of the Blessed Virgin on the Tyne Bridge; used as a 
 dwelling-house until the bridge was destroyed in a flood in 1771. ' 
 
 14. The chapel of the Tower on the Bridge ; shared the same fate. 
 
 15. The chapel of St. Thomas of Canterbury, which was founded at the 
 bridge end not many years after his martyrdom ; removed for sliops. 
 
 16. The Royal Free Chapel in the castle, a late Norman edifice; used 
 as a beer-cellar to an adjacent public house until about 1845, since which 
 time it has been restored and preserved. 
 
 L
 
 1 in A VISIT WITH THE AUCILEOLOGTCAI. INSTITUTE 
 
 Beyond tlic toAvn walls were : — 
 
 17. The chapel at Barrows Bridge; used as a stable until demolished. 
 
 18. The chapel of St. Mary of Jesmond, a Norman edifice adjacent to a 
 once far-famed well; also until lately used as a stable. 
 
 The fortified gates of the to^^^l Avail were for the most 
 part destroyed for toA\ai improvements. A native archi- 
 tect — Mr. Grainger — a piddic- spirited and hold projector, 
 an enterprising and a skilful achiever, created house- 
 property valued at a million sterling on the site of 
 monastic gardens, covered waste-places T\ith streets of 
 regularly-l)uilt houses of stone, filled up hollows, and 
 removed hills as well as gate-towers, for his new streets, 
 and demolished much of the masonry that had resisted 
 Scotish armies and the march of tune. In later years, 
 when peace succeeded to war, the town began to expand 
 beyond the confined circuit of its ancient walls ; but it is 
 within the last twenty years, more especially, that so 
 many new streets and s])VGm\m^ faubourgs of small houses 
 have been built. The magnificent and spacious Central 
 Railway Station * stands without the line of the old 
 toAvn Avail of Newcastle, and further beyond it endless new 
 streets and roAvs of small houses have risen within the 
 last ten years. Por the approaches to that station the 
 municipality levelled one of the religious foundations 
 above mentioned, the Hospital of St. Mary at the West- 
 gate (Avliich was founded in the reign of Hemy I.), 
 besides green pleasure-grounds planted Avith elms, be- 
 neath whose shade the citizens Avere Avont to spend the 
 evenings of summer. Incredible numbers of cattle and 
 sheep are brought to an open market Avhich occupies a 
 site that Avas formerlv also bevond the toAvn wall ; and 
 the spacious covered markets Avithin the town are built 
 on the grounds of a great monastery. Busy thousands 
 intent on trade pass and repass through streets built 
 over its secluded gardens ; and in digging for the founda- 
 tion of the adjacent roAVS of houses upon the Nuns' Pield, 
 the ancient l)urial-ground Avas found in Avhich the holy 
 sisterhood had been laid for their final rest. 
 
 * The work of Mr. Dobson, the eminent architect of Newcastle.
 
 TO NEWCASTLE AND DUEHAM. 147 
 
 If the Institute had visited Newcastle only twenty years 
 ago, visitors, instead of crossing the Tyne on a road-way 
 120 feet above the water, and of being swiftly borne over 
 roofs amidst smoky salutes from hundreds of chimneys, 
 would have crossed a low bridge and have passed under 
 a narrow and frowning gateway, and by antique looking 
 houses that have now ceased to exist. Until about 1770, 
 all persons coming from the south crossed a dusky, 
 narrow bridge, on which were many buildings, and which 
 was defended by three gate-towers. At the Newcastle 
 end of the bridge stood the chapel of St. Thomas, where 
 way-farers were accustomed to oflPer their alms. Even at 
 that time, quiet gardens, formerly attached to monasteries, 
 might still be seen w ithin the walls of the town ; open 
 country stretched beyond those ramparts, and the slope 
 of the hill on which Dean Street was afterwards built 
 was a sedgy ravine, not deserted by the sand-piper and 
 the king-fisher. In the reign of Richard II., the now 
 busy place of merchants called the Sand Hill was a low 
 hill of barren sand. That crowded avenue to the bridiire 
 and quay passes below the eminence formerly occupied 
 by the E;oman station, and the dene was spanned in living 
 memory by an arch said to have been of Homan masonry, 
 on the line of the Great Wall. At this time, instead of 
 monastic gardens, and river sand-banks, and a wild ravine, 
 we have a main street thronged by traffic and spanned by 
 one railway arch a hundred feet in width ; manufacturing 
 industry and trading enterprise have lined the river with 
 factories, wharfs and warehouses, and covered its banks 
 with iron-works, lead-works, alkali-works, potteries, and 
 various smoke-producing manufactories ; and on all sides 
 the sounds of labour are heard. So much for the changes 
 that have taken place in Newcastle. 
 
 We may now briefly glance at the history of its 
 churches. At some time not long previous to a.d. 1099, 
 when the strong castle of Hobert of Normandy was yet 
 unfinished, — when this town was a place of small popula- 
 tion, and no commercial importance, — when it had not 
 recovered from its overthrow by William the Conqueror 
 and had not yet acquired a name from his new fortress, 
 Osmund the Good, bishop of Salisburv, (a nephew of the 
 
 L 2
 
 118 A VISIT WITH THE ATlCn^.OLOGICAL INSTITUTE 
 
 Conqueror, formerly his chancellor and chief minister of 
 justice), founded the mother church of the rising town 
 of Newcastle upon Tyne, for Norman princes were 
 Christians as well as conquerors, and huilt churches as 
 well as castles. Osmund's church was rising ahove the 
 ruins of Monkchester whilst the great William de 
 Carilefe, Bishop of Durham, Avas huilding his stately 
 cathedral church ; and it was prol)al)ly unfinished at the 
 time when Ilenry I. (after a.d. 1115) granted the church 
 of Newcastle to the canons regular of Carlisle, the old 
 royal city which he had made the seat of his ncAV hishop- 
 ric. The church of St. Nicholas (for to that patron of 
 mariners it was dedicated) was rehuilt in the fourteenth 
 century on a much enlarged plan, and, so rehuilt, consists 
 of nave and chancel, with clerestories and hroad aisles, 
 transepts, and western tower. The present tower, with 
 its peculiar lantern and spire, the latter a graceful and 
 celehrated work, were huilt in the reign of Henry VI. 
 The piers of nave and chancel are Mictdle-pointed ; and 
 the chief part of the fahric is of the same period ; hut 
 several of the lights are of sadly deljased AAork, and some 
 of the modern additions, the roof and many other features, 
 not to mention the suhstantial and hideous pews, deface 
 the structure. 
 
 The choir of this church is the only part used for 
 service ; its whole area heing encumhered with pews, a 
 considerahle proportion of which are rented, the poor are 
 of course nearly excluded, yet the nave lies waste and 
 unemployed.* The spacious proportions of St. Nicholas 
 fit it for a cathedral church, and it might he made the 
 glory of Newcastle, if Newcastle had the grace to glory 
 in ecclesiastical edifices, and if the Churcli of England 
 could regain her own from the grasp of impropriators 
 
 * By tlie termination of a lease of some property belonging to the 
 church of St. Nicholas, the clergy and churchwardens will ere long receive 
 — what they have not hitherto possessed — the means of adapting this 
 spacious parish church to the purposes it ought to fulfil. It is to be 
 hoped that, Avhen existing debts are paid, the vicar and clergy will lose 
 no time in abolishing not only pew rents but pews, and in celebrating 
 Divine service with such accessories and such frequency as would fill the 
 church with worshippers drawn from the crowded haunts of honest poverty 
 and toil.
 
 TO NEWCASTLE AND DURHAM. 149 
 
 and ecclesiastical commissions. This, tlie parish church 
 of Newcastle, stands amidst a population of 85,000 per- 
 sons ! There were formerly in St. Nicholas alone nine 
 chantry chapels. At least as many new churches, and 
 district parish-priests, would he a spiritual armament too 
 small for the state of the surrounding population.* 
 
 The church next in antiquity of foundation, hut earlier 
 than the mother church in many parts of its existing 
 fabric, is the church of St. Andrew. It consists of nave, 
 with aisles and chancel. A considerable part of the 
 interior is of plain Norman architecture. The chancel 
 arch is Norman. The east window and some of the 
 other lights are of Middle-pointed work. The church is 
 begalleried, and defaced by pews. 
 
 The only other old church is St. John's, which was 
 founded in the thirteenth century, but is of later fabric. 
 It is hideously encumbered by pews and galleries in every 
 direction. 
 
 There was a fourth parochial church, the church of 
 ALL Saints, which was founded before 1286, and was the 
 finest ecclesiastical edifice in the tovra. Its place is oc- 
 cupied by a costly building in amphitheatrical fashion, 
 filled with mahogany pews and galleries, and in every 
 respect as unlike a clim'ch as it was possible to make it. 
 The descriptions we have of the lengthened nave and 
 chancel of the ancient fabric, with its pointed arches and 
 clustered shafts of Pirst-pointed work, make one sensible 
 
 * The net income of the vicarage of Newcastle is absohitely less than SOOl. 
 a year ; yet the Bishop and the chapter of Carlisle, as impropriators of 
 the tithes of Newcastle, receive for them something like 2,000/. per annum 
 — a sum which would enable the mother church of Newcastle to stretch 
 out hands of mercy amidst the thousands of labouring poor and the 
 thousands of miserable children, who surround her ancient walls. It is 
 really astonishing, and is an instance of the unchristian jealousy and the 
 fatal influence of dissent, that the more powerful inhabitants, who call 
 themselves churchmen, have not stirred in this matter, especially since the 
 suppression of canonries has enabled the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to 
 deal with capitular revenues. Steps should be immediately taken for that 
 purpose; and a sinecure mastership of a suppressed hospital of Avhich 
 office the municipality are patrons, now held by a low churchman who has 
 nothing to do but to receive a large income, and preach for pew rents at 
 St. Thomas's Chapel, should be annexed by law to the Vicarage of this 
 populous town.
 
 150 A- VISIT WITH THE ARCII/EOLOGICAL INSTITUTE 
 
 of the severe loss sustained by its decay and removal. 
 The onlv relic of the old cliurcli is a brass of Flemish 
 work, one of the finest monumental brasses in England, 
 in memory of a munificent Newcastle merchant and 
 his wife ; tliis was taken off the tomb when the churcli 
 was rebuilt, and is now on a wall in the vestry. 
 
 Prom these edifices, and from the clustering abodes of 
 poverty, disease, and sin, by which they are now sur- 
 rounded, it is refreshing to turn to the green hills, the 
 gliding river, and the antique towers of Durham — to 
 tliat wood-euAdroned steep where, enthroned in a solitary 
 grandeur with no other works of man detracting from 
 its pride, and in the midst of hills that seem to be only 
 attendants on its superior majesty, the noble Cathedral 
 church of Durham, " still standing in unspoiled massive- 
 ness," 
 
 " Looks down upon the Wear." 
 
 Many of the visitors on this visit of the Institute * 
 beheld Durham for the first time ; and a first sight of it 
 is something to be remembered through life, especially 
 when the "tower-crowned hill" is seen (as it was on 
 this occasion) on one of the l)rightest mornings that ever 
 shone, the grand outline of the abbey church soaring 
 into an azure sky, the romid keep and picturesque 
 ramparts of the ancient castle crowning their proud 
 eminence, the town lying beneath on the declivities 
 sloping to the river, its circling waters overhung by 
 clustering woods and inclosed by bounding hills. It was 
 a scene filled with historical monuments : religion, 
 learning, warfare, aU these have marked it with edifices 
 of their own — the aged survivors of bygone time. There 
 was the cathedral ; its massive walls impressed in gi- 
 gantic characters by the genius of religion — the mighty 
 shrine of Cuthl)ert, once the recluse of Lindisfarne, the 
 saint long renowned through Christendom ; there was the 
 al)bey cloister, the nursery of piety and learning in dark 
 and troubled times ; there the Norman fortress which 
 AVilliam the Conqueror had rel)uilt on the crest of that 
 
 * 28tli August, 1852.
 
 TO NEWCASTLE AND DURHAM. 151 
 
 bold escarpment above the Wear ; and there, on one of 
 the hills adjacent, was the sangumary battle field of 
 Neville's Cross. But let ns not lini^er amidst these 
 associations. The visitors to Durham eagerly pressed 
 forward to morning prayer, and stood entranced amidst 
 the enduring pillars and beneath the vaulted roof of the 
 cathedral church — the cathedral that recals in every 
 part of its spacious area the memory of a more splendid 
 worshi}!, whose walls seem to repeat to us the story of 
 their former pride, whose shado\^^ aisles are still 
 haunted by the pale spectre of the faith that reared 
 them, and still faintly reflect the splendours of which 
 they have been the sumptuous pathway. 
 
 During the Heptarchy, Durham does not occur in 
 history. The Bishop's see was at Lindisfarne, where it 
 was founded as early as a.d. 635. In a.d. 883, the 
 bishop and his clergy took up their abode at Chester-le- 
 Street (a castrum in vico of the Bomans), where they 
 remained with the body of St. Cuthbert until a.d. 995, 
 when, on an invasion of the Danes, the then bishop and 
 clergy became wanderers with his remains. After several 
 migrations, the natural advantages of Durham induced 
 them to select its then woodland solitudes for their final 
 abode ; and in a.d. 999, Aldhune, the first bishop on the 
 settlement at Durham, caused a cathedral church to be 
 raised upon the hill to which four years before the body 
 of St. Cuthbert had been brought. Ere ninety years had 
 passed, his small edifice gave place to the present stately 
 fabric, which was begun in the reign of William the 
 Conqueror, by those peaceful soldiers of the cross, 
 " guiltless of their country's blood," whose conquests, 
 achieved in the might of the Bedeemer, were to endure 
 through endless time. In a.d. 1093, William de Carilefe, 
 Bishop of Durham, a native of Bayeux, Justiciary of 
 England in 1088, the first great benefactor of his see, 
 laid the foundations of the Norman part of the present 
 cathedral. The original design seems to have been 
 adhered to in the erection of those parts of the structure 
 which were successively built after the death of that 
 great prelate. The building of the apse and choir was 
 the first stage ; the second was the building of the
 
 152 A VISIT WITH THE AllCII.EOLOGICAL INSTITUTE 
 
 transepts and of tlic first bay westward in the nave. The 
 Avork A\as continued by Bishop llanulph de Plamhard, in 
 whose time (a.d. 1101 — 1128) the nave was carried up to 
 tlievauhiug-,thc north transept vaulted, andthe aisles com- 
 pleted. The huildingof theNorman portionsof the existing 
 fabric occupied nearly half a century. The work appears 
 to have been frequently delayed for want of money, and a 
 papal l:)rief authorised collections to be made in aid of it. 
 But the energy of these early prelates, aided by the 
 munificence of the nobles, martial and unlettered men as 
 they were, enabled them to complete before the year 1129 
 the nave and its aisles up to tlie vaulting, the transepts, 
 and the choir with its then semi-circular termination. 
 
 The plan of Bishop Carilefe's Cathedral was in the 
 usual form of the Latin Cross, consisting of nave, with 
 triforium, and clerestory ; aisles ; middle transept with 
 eastern aisle ; central tower, and choir with aisles, tri- 
 forium, and clerestory. The grand entrance to this 
 church was in the western front between the towers ; 
 but before a.d. 1195, the munificent Hugh de Pudsey 
 Bishop of Durham, a nephcAV of King Stephen, one of 
 the greatest of the bishops who have adorned this see, 
 had completed the western building or chapel called the 
 Galilee, which projects between the towers, and made a 
 great northern doorway for the principal entrance to the 
 cathedral.* These additions completed and terminated 
 the Norman work, and church architecture was passing 
 into the Early-English or Eirst-point(3d style some years 
 before the completion of the Galilee Chapel. The 
 western front of Durham Cathedral, with its grand and 
 massive towers, is a remarkal)le and most instructive 
 portion of tlie fabric ; it affords fine examples of Norman 
 and Transitional work. 
 
 In 1212 another stage began. The " new fabric " 
 eastward of the Norman choir, was begun by Prior 
 Melsonby, and tlie liglit and stately eastern transept of 
 the Nine Altars superseded the sombre and massive 
 
 * This chapel was built for the female part of the congregation; and 
 the boundary line at the western end of the nave marked by a blue 
 marble cross in the pavement, iK'yond which women never passed, is a 
 curious monument of the saint's imputed aversion to the fair sex.
 
 TO NEWCASTLE AND DURHAM. 153 
 
 semi-circular apse of tlie Norman cathedral. The 
 capitals of the clustered piers and columns in this mag- 
 nificent portion of the fahric are sculptured with 
 luxuriant foliage in all the rich variety of design that 
 marks the Eirst-pointed style. The piers and arches of 
 the choir, from the intersection of the cross to the hay 
 where the Eirst-pointed work begins, exhibit the same 
 features as those of the nave, the piers being massive 
 and gigantic, with the cushion capital, cylindrical and 
 square alternately, as in the nave ; but a lofty pointed 
 arch, springing from clustered columns alternately of 
 dark marble and freestone, divides the choir from the 
 transept of the Nine Altars. Its branching roof, its 
 tall lancet lights, and its magnificent circular window* 
 above the central triplet, form a grand and impos- 
 ing eastern transept extending beyond the termination 
 of the choir. When this fine transept was commenced, 
 Richard Poor, formerly Bishop of Salisbury, was Bishop 
 of Durham. The energy and taste of Melsonby added 
 to what that prelate's energies had accomplished, archi- 
 tecture which may rank with the finest examples of Eirst- 
 pointed work in England. That rich and truly eccle- 
 siastical style had added its own graceful characteristics 
 to massiveness and solidity, and attained its perfection 
 before this part of the existing fabric was completed; 
 and Durham Cathedral therefore combines fine examples 
 of that style with a perfect and in some respects un- 
 surpassed monument of the Norman period. The mighty 
 cylindrical pillars, channeled some by spiral, others by 
 rectangular, furrows ; the massive square piers, some 
 plain, others ornamented with longitudinal mouldings, 
 and the gigantic cushion capitals, — these, for example, are 
 full of the characteristic features of Norman architecture ; 
 and, while they aid to produce the effect of massiveness, 
 solidity, and duration which pervades the edifice, they are 
 agreeably relieved by "pointed aisle and shafted stalk " 
 in the eastern part of the cathedral. 
 
 * It was filled some fifty years ago with a strange jumble of coloured 
 fragments collected on repairing the windows of the cathedral. If these 
 lights were filled with suitable stained glass, the eastern end of Durham 
 Cathedral would be one of the grandest sights in England.
 
 154 A VISIT WITH THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE 
 
 The timber used in the construction of the Nine Altars 
 transept was purchased by the monks from llohert Lord 
 Neville of llaby, in 1232, for six hundred and thirty 
 marks — a sum which has been computed worth 5,000/. 
 of our money.* 
 
 The great central tower was built by the Norman 
 architects to the belfry stage, but the lantern is of the 
 time of Bishop Earnham, who died in 1217. The vaulting 
 of the north transept and of part of the aisles is Norman 
 work. It has plain mouldings. The vaulting of the nave 
 and south transept is of later date, and the groining is en- 
 riched, but still of Norman style. The transverse ribs 
 of the middle aisle arc scgmental-pointed — probably 
 of Pudsey's work. The vanlting of the eastern end of 
 the choir was the work of Prior Iloghton about 1290. 
 The builders of the Nine Altars transept attached an 
 arcade with beautiful foliated corbels and other orna- 
 ments to the eastern Norman piers of the choir. 
 
 Less than another century brought in the Middle- 
 pointed style, of which Durham Cathedral affords some 
 examples. The principal of these is the great west 
 window, which was the work of Prior Possour's time, 
 between 1311 and 1371. t The altar-screen was finished 
 in A.D. 1380. It cost eight hundred marks (533Z. 6s. Sd.), 
 of which a Lord Neville of llaby :j: presented six hundred. 
 It was early in Possour's time that the prior's kitchen 
 (which is in the college- square on the south of the cloister) 
 was built. It is an octagonal building, and valuable as 
 
 * The Rev. James Raine has iiiaile known this purchase and some 
 curious particulars connected with it. The trees grew on tlie north side of 
 t}ie AVear, on ground extending from Sunderland Bridge to Willington, 
 witli Brancepeth for its northern boundary. The contract was to be in 
 force for thirty years, and six acres Avere to be cleared yearly. Young 
 timber was to be protected, and all hawks that should build in the trees 
 were to be held harmless — a provision very characteristic of the times. 
 
 t The remains of this munificent Prior of Durliam were discovered in 
 1729. The body had been interred in an ox's hide. 
 
 I The eastern portion of the south aisle of the nave was appropriated to 
 the tombs and the chantry chapel of the Nevilles of Raby. Ralph, Lord 
 Neville, leader of the English army in the battle of Neville's Cross (a.d. 
 1346), was the first layman buried in the cathedral church. He died in 
 1308. Fine altar tombs, bearing fragments of effigies in memory of this 
 martial lord and of another Lord of Raby, stand in this part of the nave.
 
 TO NEWCASTLE AND DrUHAM. 155 
 
 affording a specimen of a groined roof of the date 1368 
 — 1370.* The eastern transept Avas finished before 
 1405. 
 
 The present lantern of the central tower was the ninth 
 and completing stage of the existing fabric of Durham 
 Cathedral. In 1424 the repairs of the tower had been 
 commenced by Prior Wessington, whose works in his 
 cathedral cost 2,454^. — a sum equivalent to an enormous 
 amount in our money. The work of the Perpendicular 
 style remaining in the cathedral is due to this liberal 
 prior, who governed the monastery from 1416 to 1446, 
 and left in various parts of the cathedral memorable 
 proofs of his taste. He was the great restorer of the 
 church and the monastic buildings, was munificent in his 
 gifts for the splendour of divine service, and was the 
 champion of the rights of the fraternity. He was also 
 an author. 
 
 Durham Cathedral may therefore be regarded in its 
 architecture as a great page of history continued by suc- 
 cessive annalists. 
 
 Besides the high altar, there were twenty -nine altars 
 in this great edifice. One of these was built by Cardinal 
 Langley, Bishop of Durham, under the archway of the 
 former west door of the Norman Cathedral, and before it 
 he was interred in 1437. The famous shrine of St. 
 Cuthbert stood on the high altar platform eastward of 
 the altar- screen. The tomb of Venerable Bede is in the 
 Galilee Chapel, but we cannot feel assured that his l)ones, 
 which were brought from Jarrow and placed in a silver 
 shrine upon this tomb by Bishop Hugh de Pudsey, really 
 remain below it. There is on the south of the choir a 
 sumptuous canopied tomb and ef&gy in memory of Bishop 
 Hatfield, who died in 1381. It is overshadowed by a gigan- 
 tic private box, supposed to have been constructed with a 
 view to the possibility that the Bishop (Dr. Maltliy) might 
 occasionally enter his Cathedral Charch. In the centre of 
 the choir is the matrix of what must have been one of 
 the largest and finest brasses, if not the largest and finest 
 ecclesiastical brass, in England ; — it was in memory of 
 Bishop Louis de Beaumont. But to describe the niouu- 
 
 * The cost-roll for this work exists, and shows that its cost w^as 180/. 
 IT*'. Id. in the money of those days.
 
 15G A VISIT WITH THE ARCIIiEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE 
 
 ments that formerly existed in Durliam Cathedral or even 
 those which were not destroyed in the Great llehellion, 
 or by the iconoclasts of the preceding- century, would 
 occupy a volume. The reader may be referred to the 
 work entitled " A Description or Declaration of the 
 antlent Ilomunents, Hites, and Customs of the Cathedral 
 Church of Durham before the Supiwession^^^ (republished 
 by the Surtees Society, and therefore easily accessible,) 
 for an account of the Shrine of St. Cuthbert, and the 
 state of the cathedral l)efore the Ileformation. No other 
 cathedral church can boast any such record. Many of 
 the monuments were destroyed on the rej^aWng and 
 repair of the cathedral in more recent times. 
 
 The external repairs seem to have commenced in 1775, 
 when the masonry of Avindows, and angles, niches, and 
 canopies ,and other parts of the fabric, was sadly decayed. 
 Instead, however, of renovation, the surface was planed 
 down to the depth of two, three, or four inches where 
 projecting portions were decayed ; niches and canopies 
 were cut down to the wall ; sculptured stone figures Avere 
 removed ; and buttresses, arcades, window-shafts, mould- 
 ings, and corbels all suffered mutilation, so that now 
 those parts of the exterior walls look deplorably modern- 
 ized and bald. Yet enough remained of those character- 
 istic features at the time the repairs were undertaken to 
 have enabled an architect to restore them completely. 
 Nondescript monstrosities, supposed to have been in- 
 tended for Gothic architecture, were built upon the magni- 
 ficent north doorway; an incongruous parapet and turrets 
 were added to the massive western towers, and the upper 
 stage of the central tower was absolutely encased in 
 Parker's cement. But, painful as it is to see the mischief 
 that Mr. Wyatt perpetrated, we have satisfaction in re- 
 flecting on tlie escape of the venerable fabric from the 
 greater destruction Avhich he ignorantly and presump- 
 tuously designed. One of his proposals {ex. gr.) Avas to 
 remove the Norman Galilee altogether, and form a car- 
 riage driA^e for prebendaries and their ladies over the site 
 — a carriage drive for Protestant dignitaries from the 
 palace green to the college, over the holy ground of Bishop 
 Pudsey's Chapel, and the tomb of Venerable Bede! 
 
 "Works of repair and restoration of the exterior Avere
 
 TO NEWCASTLE AND DURHAM. . 157 
 
 in progress during many years and were only recently 
 completed, but the windows continue glazed with plain 
 uncoloured glass. The heavy, cumbrous, and unworthy 
 screen, between nave and choir, was removed at the 
 instance of the present dean. No other screen has taken 
 its place, and consequently the long vista is unbroken ; 
 but the rows of velvet-cushioned stalls and the intrusive 
 upholstery-work of the choir form a strange and now 
 only more conspicuous contrast with the stern majesty 
 of the Norman architecture. The fine organ has been 
 placed in the north aisle of the choir. 
 
 The Chapter -house was commenced and finished in the 
 time of Bishop Geoffrey Rufus, a.d. 1133 — 1140, and 
 was standing in unspoiled grandeur at the close of the 
 last century. It was surrounded by a magnificent arcade 
 of intersecting arches ; the eastern end was semicircular ; 
 and the whole edifice was unrivalled, as well in its archi- 
 tectural character, as in the dignity of its associations. 
 In the stone chair which stood at the eastern end forty- 
 five of the bishops of Durham were installed (the last 
 was Bishop Barrington, in 1791) ; and the floor was 
 paved with inscribed slabs and brasses commemorating 
 the great prelates who, from the earliest time down to 
 Bishop KellaAve in the thirteenth century, were there 
 interred. Under its pavement rested the honoured dust 
 of Aidan, first Bishop of Lindisfarne ; and the remains 
 of the great William de Carilefe and Hugh de Pudsey, — 
 those magnificent bishops whose more enduring monu- 
 ment is their stately cathedral church. But what 
 availed such traditions in comparison with the comfort 
 of cold dignitaries in the reign of George III.? In 1799, 
 the chapter-house was found "uncomfortable," and the 
 work of destruction was begun. The key-stones of the 
 vaulted roof were extracted, and the whole was allowed 
 to fall upon the inscribed gravestones of the pavement ; 
 the eastern portion and the walls to the length of forty 
 feet were destroyed, and a new wall inclosed the remain- 
 ing end as a comfortable square apartment, which 
 received a lath and plaster ceiling, a boarded floor, and 
 three sash-iolnclows to light its Norman arcades ! The 
 o-round that had been encumbered l)v the venerable
 
 158 A VISIT WITH THE ARCH.'EOLOGTCAL INSTITUTE 
 
 building thenceforth made a pleasant addition to the 
 dean's garden. And so fell the chapter-house of Dur- 
 ham by the hands of its official Gruardians. 
 
 In that room, the Rev. James llaine, lil)rarian of the 
 dean and chapter, after he had delivered a lecture on 
 the architectural history of the cathedral (which has 
 furnished data for many of the foregoing statements), 
 and had accompanied the whole party over and around 
 the fabric, exhibited and described some of the more 
 celebrated manuscrijits possessed by the church of Dur- 
 ham. There were the two books said to be in the hand- 
 writing of Bede ; the magnificent Norman manuscript 
 of the Bible with illuminations, which had l)elonged 
 to Bishop Carilefe; the Bible and the Psalter of Bishop 
 Pndsey, in the former of which are illuminations glitter- 
 ing with gold, as fresh as if it had been applied yester- 
 day. Many other manuscript treasures were displayed 
 and described by Mr. Baine, who produced also the 
 embroidered portions of robes and other reliques found 
 in the tomb of St. Cuthbert. 
 
 It remains to mention the chief work of restoration 
 recently completed by the dean and chapter — the clear- 
 ance and repair, viz. of the ancient Dormitory, a mag- 
 nificent hall, one hundred and ninety-three feet in length, 
 built at the beginning of the fifte(intli century. It has 
 an original timber-roof remarkable for its simple and 
 effective construction. Below this dormitory is a fine 
 and spacious crypt, the ambulatorium of the monks, 
 opening from the western side of the cloister square. The 
 abbey Refectory, which occupied the south side of the 
 cloister, and was built above a Norman crypt, gave place 
 in 1G81 to a hall now used as the Chapter-library and 
 Museum. 
 
 The necessary limits of this article forbid any notice 
 of other parts of the abbey-buildings, past or present, or 
 of any monuments of antiquity at Durham, excepting 
 the Castle — the Norman castle formerly inhabited by the 
 mitred sovereigns of the county palatine, and on this 
 occasion the scene of the Warden's splendid hospitality. 
 In 1072, the castle was built by William the Conqueror, 
 and, after it had stood for a century, was so much injured 
 by lire that it was for the most part rebuilt (in 1171) by
 
 TO NEWCASTLE AND DURHAM. 159 
 
 the munificent Hugh de Pudsey, himself a kinsman of 
 monarchs. On the basement floor is the Norman chapel 
 of the castle — a most interesting monument of the time of 
 William II. (Uufus). Above it was the grand staircase. 
 The doorway of the great entrance remains; it is recessed, 
 and adorned with the chevron and billet mouldino:s with a 
 richness and beauty which no words can describe. On the 
 southern and western sides of the Norman castle, on a 
 level nearly with the great doorway, is a fine arcade of 
 Norman windows, apparently of Bishop Pudsey's time : 
 they run round those two sides of the building, in what is 
 now a gallery or lobby, but they no doubt originally lighted 
 the bishop's great hall. The whole of the castle has 
 been transformed by the modern alterations made for the 
 formation of college rooms, which likewise occupy the 
 keep — an octagonal building in Edwardian style, which 
 rises on a lofty mound. The present great hall stands to 
 the south of the Norman remains ; it was rebuilt by 
 Bishop Hatfield in the reign of Edward III. The crypts 
 beneath it, which were disclosed a few years ago, appear 
 to have supported an earlier edifice — indeed the masonry 
 of the hall itself is in great part Norman even now. 
 The present spacious hall is a noble structure. Built for 
 the splendid hospitalities of feudal times, it is full of 
 associations with the past. In it Edward III. and other 
 sovereigns were regally entertained by the bishops — 
 princes palatine who had no superior in their do- 
 minions ; and its aspect still recalls the time when it was 
 their hall of state, — 
 
 " Where valour bowed before the rood and book, 
 And kneeling knighthood served a prelate lord." 
 
 Happily, the defences of the castle are no longer 
 needed. No border horde approaches to lay waste the 
 property of peaceful citizens ; no warlike bishops issue 
 from its gates attended by the retinue of the military 
 chieftain ; nor do beacon-fires arise on neighbouring hills 
 to warn the natives of border foray. The castle is 
 now applied only to the serene and dignified purposes 
 of the University of Durham ; its walls protect only the 
 vestal fires of learning, and aff"ord a characteristic monu- 
 ment of the " rich and regal Past."
 
 1 no 
 
 A VISIT TO COUBY CASTLE, CUMBERLAND. 
 
 " Waft me, thou doAvny-pinioned breeze, 
 To Corby's beauteous, kind retreat, 
 Where caverned rocks, and spreading trees, 
 And every grace and beauty meet. 
 
 The rapid river flowing by. 
 
 In varied tones alternate sounds; 
 \ The smiling landscape cheers the eye. 
 
 The distance mighty Skiddaw bounds. 
 
 Nature's best gifts may there be seen, 
 
 There joy and health with Howard dwell ; 
 
 Ancestral worth, and faitli serene, 
 Bestow on all their magic spell." * 
 
 Corby Castle, last subject in the present volume, yet 
 foremost in beauty and interest ! After treading the 
 monastic solitudes of Brinkburn, and the busy streets of 
 Newcastle ; lingering amidst the remains of christian 
 art that crown the wave-worn clifPs of Tynemouth, and 
 on the footsteps of Saxon piety at Ilartlopool and at 
 Jarrow ; and surveying the monuments of ecclesiastical 
 grandeur at Durham, and of feudal pride at Naworth 
 Castle, it is refreshing to visit another Howard's home ; 
 to turn from the cold and silent walls of ruined structures 
 to the genial precincts of his hospitable seat, from the 
 smoke and crowds of cities to careen woodland solitudes 
 in rocky Cumberland, and from the bleak cliffs tliat 
 roll back the waves of the German Ocean to shady 
 walks, and sheltered sunny glades upon the Eden's 
 wooded shore. 
 
 * The lines prefixed Avere written at Greystoke, after a visit to Corby 
 Castle. The authoress became in 1830 Countess of Carnarvon.
 
 A VISIT TO CORBY CASTLE, CUMBERLAND. 161 
 
 Corby Castle crowns a noble eminence on the east side 
 of the river, and is situated about five miles to the south- 
 east of Carlisle. The character of its scenery is familiar 
 to travellers by the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway, for 
 it is beheld to great advantage from the Railway-bridge 
 which crosses the Eden, at a part where the wooded decli- 
 vities of its rocks are the most picturesque, and where 
 the spectator commands a magnificent view of the broad 
 stream as it flows fair, swift, and clear, beneath the em- 
 bowerins^ woods of Corbv on the south, and winds 
 through the soft pastoral landscape of AVarwick vale on 
 the north side of that stupendous \T.aduct. 
 
 The carriage road to the castle passes through the 
 village of Corby, and the drive from the lodge under an 
 avenue of noble trees borders a picturesque lawn, which 
 rises to the Avell-wooded eminences of the park known 
 as the Castle-hill. Erom its summit, a magnificent 
 panorama lies spread beneath the eye. To the north- 
 west the prospect extends far beyond the silvery tide of 
 Solway and the Scotish border, embracing the blue 
 mountainous range, from Criffel to near Selkirk, on the 
 north, a distance of sixty miles ; to the west, the city of 
 Carlisle is seen amidst the outstretched vale ; to the 
 south-west, the distant moLintains of Skiddaw and Saddle- 
 back rest on the horizon; and to the east, a country 
 diversified by pasture and woodland extends to the dark 
 ridges of the Northumberland hills. 
 
 But it is the river scenery for which this beautiful 
 abode is more especially famed. Eor a considerable 
 distance above Corby, the Eden expands between receding 
 cliffs of red sand- stone rock, Avhich rise to a great height, 
 advancing here and there precipitously, their steep decli- 
 vities in other parts thickly clothed by trees : 
 
 " as tlie river bends, 
 
 Shade above shade the spreading wood ascends ; 
 The branching oak, the elm, and towering pine, 
 Their lofty heads in varied tints combine ; 
 From out the liquid plain sublimely rise — 
 A towering grove that seems to meet the skies ; 
 Our eyes through opening glades here curious stray, 
 There, deeper shades exclude the noontide ray."* 
 
 * These lines occur in some verses on Corby, written in 1795, by Philip 
 
 M
 
 1()'2 A VISIT TO CORBY CASTLE, CUMBERLAND. 
 
 The lofty banks of the river on ^\'hich the south front 
 of Corbv Castle looks down, recede in the form of a cres- 
 cent, their declivities thicklv overi>TOwn with wood. On 
 the opposite (the AVetheral) side of the river, the dark 
 red dill's, at the distance of about half a mile from Corby, 
 rise to a great height, presenting a precipitous face ; and 
 midway between the rapid ri^er that cliafes their rocky 
 base and the woods that wave upon their lofty crest are 
 the famous caverns known as Constantino's Cells, or the 
 Wetheral Safesruards, the narrow ^^•indows of which are 
 seen, from the opposite side, in the face of the cliff, but 
 wove proliably in former times concealed by the trees.* 
 Corl)y Castle stands upon a higher eminence at a bend 
 of the river, the Avooded banks slo]iing from it to the 
 water s edge. For a consideral)le distance towards the 
 Wetheral Caves, the bright flood s})reads like a lake be- 
 tween its loftv banks ; and in the midst of the river a lonsr 
 narrow island, thickly planted with trees, divides the 
 stream and forms a pleasing feature in the view. The 
 
 Howard, Esq. who was the author of the Theory of the Earth, (4to.) and the 
 friend of ]\I de SaiTSSiirc, ^I. de Liic, and most of the men of science and 
 natural philosopliers wlio flonrished at the close of the hist century. 
 
 * The ancient and very remarkable excavations known as Constantine'a 
 Cells are at a height of 40 feet above the river, aboiit midway in the face 
 of the cliff. There are three chambers; they are in a row, and are about 
 eight feet in width, and twelve in depth. Under the name of the Chambers 
 of Constantino, these cells were granted, with lands belonging to them, by 
 Kanulph de ^Icschines, not long after the Conquest, to tlie Benedictine 
 Abbey of St. ilary at York — the mother church of Wetheral. The 
 legend is that Constantino inhabited the "Wetheral Cells after his defeat by 
 Athelstan, and became ultimately a monk at INIelrose. Cumberland Avas 
 then held by the King of Scotland as a fief of the English Crown. The 
 cells were maintained by the piior and monks of Wetheral, to Avhom they 
 may have formed a place of refuge and security in the days of border 
 warfare, for these curious caves were not likely to be discovered, or, if 
 known, to be accessible by an enemy. The memory of Constantino, king 
 and monk, is presen-ed in the dedication of the parish church at Wetheral, 
 to the Blessed Virgin jointly with St. Constantino. The priory at AVetheral 
 was built by a colony from St. ]\Iary's. The abbey lands became the 
 property of the Dean and Chapter of Carlisle, who found the masonry of 
 the abbey-buildings convenient for erecting prebendal houses at Carlisle; 
 all that remains, therefore, is the massive gate-tower, which presents a 
 noble archway. A safe access to the caves has been recently formed. 
 These caverned cliffs command an enchanting view of the embowering 
 woods of Corby, and of one of the most picturesque bends of the river, 
 inclosed by plantations and wooded banks. The spot must have enjoyed 
 the deepest seclusion.
 
 A VISIT TO CORBY CASTLE, CUMBERLAND. 163 
 
 rocky nature of the river bed gives great variety to its 
 current. Where deep, the Eden glides without noise, and 
 refle>:*ts as in a broad placid mirror the varied hues by which 
 it is overhung, but in shallow parts of its course runs in 
 swift impetuous streams or falls over ledges of rock, and 
 
 " Murmurs forth a solemn sound." 
 
 The varied scenery of wood and water beheld from the 
 terrace or platform on which the mansion stands is said 
 to resemble the famous scenery on the Clyde below and 
 around Bothwell Castle, but Corby may claim some un- 
 rivalled beauties of its own. On the opposite side of the 
 river, commanded by the western windows of the house, 
 is a landscape of a diiferent character to the scene below 
 the south front. It is a landscape filled with holy and 
 chivalric associations, for the woodlands and pastures 
 that stretch to the horizon were the abbey lands of 
 Wetheral, whose massive ancient gatcAvay, together with 
 the adjacent parish church and picturesque village, form 
 interesting features of the scene. 
 
 A garden path, bordered by a screen of trees, on the 
 edge of the wooded cliff, descends from the terrace in 
 front of Corby Castle, by the walks that are formed on the 
 banks, to the margin of the river, whose ceaseless mur- 
 muring, " now loud, now fainter," is heard far beloAv. 
 At a short distance from the castle, a gigantic fir, a nol)le 
 larch, and a Weymouth pine, towering amidst other 
 trees of picturesque form, stand at the entrance of 
 the shrubbery, through whose leafy covert the path just 
 mentioned leads to the walks. On these steep l)anks 
 many ancient kings of the forest raise aloft their giant 
 arms and time-worn crests ; here and there are the 
 tufted heads of Scotch firs of great height;* and standing — 
 
 " Like veteran worn but unsubdued" — 
 
 the mighty trunk of an oak tree that may have flourished 
 in the time of the Heptarchy and seen the Norman lords 
 
 * When the army of Prince Charles Edward was before Carlisle (which 
 the Highland forces reached on the 9th Nov. 1745), the woods of Corby 
 were resorted to for tall fir trees, which were cut down to be made into 
 the scaling-ladders wanted by the assaulting army. This fact is mentioned 
 in correspondence of the time, published by G. G. Mounsey, Esq., in his 
 \erj interesting volume entitled, Carlisle in 1745.
 
 164 A VISIT TO COllliV CASTLE, CLMHEllLAND. 
 
 of Corby rest beneath its sluide. The different kinds of 
 trees that grow upon these banks are i)rincipally the oak, 
 the hirch, the Seotch fir, the stately chestnut, the beech, 
 the graceful ash, and the sycamore ; — a Avondrous variety 
 of hue is therefore c'iven to the "QTOvesof livins? crreen." 
 
 One of the principal and most attractive features of 
 the ])leasure ijrrounds of Cor])v is a broad level walk of 
 smootliest turf which extends about seven hundred yards 
 in length, having the verdant margin of the river with a 
 row of chestnuts and other trees on the one side, and upon 
 the other, the richly wooded banks, that rise to the height 
 of more than a hundred feet, cohered with a rich under- 
 growth of mossy verdure enamelled in the spring with a 
 thousand \\ild flowers. At one end of the long vista of 
 tliis walk Corby Castle is seen in tlie distance rising above 
 the wooded declivities ; on a mount at the other end is an 
 elegant tempietto, a cool summer-house, from which the 
 walk continues by the river side for a considerable distance 
 further up the stream, overhung in many places by 
 ledges of the red sandstone rock which project through 
 the foliage of the banks, and, like the dizzy cliff called 
 "the Ptaven Clints," afford support to time-Avorn oaks 
 that crown the wooded ridge. On the whole length of 
 the Avalks by the side of the river there are deep grottos 
 and shadv recesses in the rock, tliat seem formed for the 
 Dryads of the wood, so admiral )ly are natural fcatm'es 
 here blended aa ith creations of art ; and more delightful 
 solitudes can hardly be found amid the pines of Eavenna 
 or the myrtle groves of Sicily than on the banks of the 
 Eden at Corby and by the margin of its mountain- 
 descended wave. 
 
 No building can be less like a fortress than the elegant 
 and modern mansion called Corby Castle, as must be appa- 
 rent from the representation prefixed to the present Avork. 
 The Ijuilding, however, includes part of the walls of an 
 older structure, (which in its original state Avas probably 
 like the square toAvers that still remain in many parts of 
 the border counties,) and in some of the ajDartments the 
 Avails are of great thickness. The original dark oak 
 Avainscot is preserved in portions of the liouse, and one 
 room es})ecially, to Avliich a mysterious aAve is attached
 
 A VISIT TO CORBY CASTLE, CUMBERLAND. 165 
 
 by its title of" tlie liaimted cliamber," is preserved in all 
 the antique and sombre cliaracter it possessed when Lord 
 William Howard acquired these fair domains and con- 
 ferred them on Sir Eraucis his secoud surviving son.* 
 The rest of the present mansion dates, however, from the 
 year 1813, a period when settled peace upon the borders 
 permitted the withdrawal of all defences against enemies, 
 and its cheerful aspect seems to proclaim that Corby 
 Castle can be approached by none but friends, and is the 
 home of honoured worth and gracious hospitality. No- 
 thing can be more appropriate than the inscription on the 
 dedication-stone over the portico : — 
 
 SUIS ET AMICIS 
 
 HENRICUS HOWARD 
 
 A. G. M.DCCC.XIII. D.D. 
 
 It is as impossible in this limited sketch to do any 
 justice to the well-stored library or the treasures of art by 
 which Corby Castle is enriched, as to convey by any descrip- 
 tion an adequate idea of the natural beauty by which it is 
 surrounded. Some of them, however, must be mentioned. 
 And first, there is the ancient relic known as the grace- 
 cup of St. Thomas of Canterbury. f It is not improbable 
 that this gold cup was presented to the primate by 
 Eleanor of Aquitaine, the consortof Henry II., and came 
 again to royal hands after a Becket's martyrdom ; at all 
 
 * Sir Francis Howard's picture, preserved at Corby Castle, is inscribed 
 1632, anno ajtatis 44. He died 18tli April, 1659, according to the mor- 
 tuary of Corby Castle, and is buried in the north aisle at AVetheral ChiircL , 
 where the mavisoleuni or monumental edifice fomed for Nollekens' master- 
 piece of statuary in memory of the Hon. ]\Irs. Howard, first mfe of the late 
 Henry Howard Esq. of Corby, was afterwards built by that gentleman, 
 
 f This relic was left by Sir Edward Howard, K.G. (Standard Bearer to 
 King Henry VIH., and High Admiral,) in 1512 to Queen Katharine of 
 Aragon. (See his mil printed in Testamenta Vetusta.) It was for some 
 time in the Arundel Collection, and was given by the late Bernard-Edward 
 Duke of Norfolk to the late Henry Howard, Esq. by whom it was highly 
 prized. Some ornamentation in cinque-cento style has been added. This cup 
 (which is in the chalice form, with a rim of ivory, and has a cover studded 
 with precious stones) has been particularly described in the Archaaologia, 
 and very beautifully etched by Mr. W. B. Scott (Superintendent of the 
 School of Design at Newcastle), in his Antiquarian Gleanings. 
 
 A seal with the Blanch Lion of Mowbray, and Sir Edward's initials 
 E.H. engraved on Jin old Roman ring, and supposed to have been his signet- 
 ring, is in the possession of Philip Henry Howard, Esq. of Corby.
 
 166 A VISIT TO CORBY CASTLE, CUMBERLAND. 
 
 events, in the reign of Henry VIII. it was tlie property 
 of tlic valiant lord admiral Sir Edward Howard, who 
 bequeathed it to Queen Katherine of Aragon. It after- 
 wards passed into the possession of the late Henry 
 Howard, Esq. of Corby : — 
 
 *' So noA\- it has come to a Howard again, 
 Long, long in his halls may the relic remain, 
 And the time-honoured chieftain of Corby with joy, 
 For years pledge his grace-cup and taste no alloy." 
 
 Another relic of similar kind, but less illustrious descent, 
 is a curious cup formed of a nautilus-shell mounted in 
 silver, and enriched in a beautiful specimen of cinque- 
 cento work. With them is preserved also a magniiicent 
 flagon, in ivory, carved by Bernard Straus of Nuremburg. 
 Amongst th(i reliques of medi^^e^'al art, there is a very 
 fine specimen of an early-English carved ivory pastoral 
 staff. The head is circular ; in the centre is the figure of 
 our Loi'd, with an angel on either side, bearing the 
 instruments of crucifixion ; tlie figures are inclosed in a 
 beautiful foliated border, and they bear traces of having 
 been illuminated in colours and gold. The boss is richly 
 car^"ed Avith figures of apostles under canopies. An- 
 other relic, the most interesting of all, is the rosary of 
 embossed gold beads, with pendant crucifix, which be- 
 longed to Mary Queenof Scots, — a relic worth a monarcli's 
 ransom. The late Henry Howard, Esq. in his Ifeinorials 
 of the Uoioard Family^ has made the following remarks 
 respecting it : — 
 
 " 1 am in possession of a golden pair-beads, with remains of blue 
 enamel, mikI a small golden crucifix with (lioj) jjcarls attached to it, 
 which came to the late Charles Duke of Norfolk as part of the collection 
 of Thomas Earl of Arinidel; this, by the tradition of tlie family, is the 
 ' Pair of beades at her girdle, with a golden cross at the end of them, which 
 she wore at the time of her heroic death, and wliich she sent by Melville 
 to the Earl or Countess of Arundel, as the last token of her affiction.' 
 She is painted Avith these beads at her girdle, and the c]-oss at her breast, 
 in a portrait at Welbeck, and also in lier porti-ait at Hardwick, and like- 
 wise in one that was at the Scotch College at Paris, and which is noAV at 
 the Convent of the English Augustinian JS'uns there. There is also an 
 engraving of her by Vertue, in Avhich she wears these beads, which are 
 supposed to have been sent to the Queen of Scots by the Pope." 
 
 The paintings are for the most part family portraits :
 
 A VISIT TO CORBY CASTLE, CUMBERLAND. 167 
 
 amongst tliem are, a full-length portrait of Lord William 
 Howard, of Naworth ;* a portrait of Sir Prancis, his son, 
 ancestor of the Corby branch of the Howard family ; a 
 portrait of Colonel Thomas Howard, his son, a gallant 
 royalist slain in the cause of Charles I. in 1613; portraits 
 of several ancestors of the present owner of Corby; 
 besides some portraits and pleasing productions of the 
 pencil, by Lady Petre and the Hon. Mrs. Philip Stourton, 
 surviving sisters of Mr. Philip Howard, for the Howard 
 muse has been propitious in painting as in song.f 
 
 Although these family portraits reflect " the light of 
 other days " upon the modern interior of Corby Castle, 
 and recall to memory the chivalry and constancy, the 
 valour and the virtue, that have graced the line of Howard, 
 the visitor might forget in the modern aspects of the 
 mansion, that Corby has a name in historic annals from 
 the time of the Norman Conquest. Tlie writer must be 
 content to refer to the county histories, for wdiat is known 
 
 * There is at Corby an interesting relic of Margaret Duchess of Norfolk 
 (daughter of Lord Chancellor Audley), the mother of Lord William 
 Howard, viz. her work-box or portable chest: it is richly inlaid with "mother 
 of pearl," and has the original key. Her portrait is at Audley-end. 
 
 I Two of the historical paintings must be mentioned. The one repre- 
 sents the Emperor Charles V. and his Empress, and is by Titian. There 
 is the following note respecting it in the Memorials of the Howard Family, 
 p. 83: — "John (fourth son of Thomas Howard) General of the Order of 
 English Benedictine Monks, was born 1st June, 1698, and died at Douay on 
 the 5th of July, 1766. A picture of Charles V. and his Empress, by Titian, 
 is said to have been left to him by a friend in Flanders, and to have been, 
 with a silver bread-basket, transferred to his nephew, my father. The 
 picture is very masterly, and the bread-basket is a fine specimen of old 
 plate." The other portrait is of cabinet size, and represents Cardinal 
 York. It was his gift to Mrs. Canning of Foxcote, born Giffard of Chil- 
 lington (grandmother of Mrs. Philip Howard), and bears the following 
 inscription in Mrs Canning's handwriting : — " H. R. H. Henry Stuart, 
 Cardinal Duke of York, given by himself to Mrs. Canning at Rome, 1795. 
 The last of the illustrious family." 
 
 Amongst the engraved historical jjortraits in the Gallery at Corby, are 
 portraits of Louis Philippe and Queen Amelie, which the King gave at Paris 
 to the present Mr. Howard's father, together with an engraving which re- 
 presents the royal donor, at an earlier period of his remarkable career, viz. 
 after the Revolution, teaching a class or school at Reichenau. It will be 
 remembered that Louis Philippe, shortly after he became King of the 
 French, caused the picture representing him as schoolmaster, to be hung 
 up in the Hotel de Ville at Paris.
 
 1()8 A VISIT TO CORBY CASTLE, CUMBERLAND. 
 
 of the descent of the manor from the time when it 
 belonc^ed to Iluliert de Vallibus, the Norman lord of Gil- 
 lesland, down to the time when it was purchased by Lord 
 William Howard. In 1336, Corby (which had reverted 
 to the crown on the attainder of Andrew de Ilarcla, Earl 
 of Carlisle,) was granted to Sir Richard Salkeld, of the 
 old Cumbrian family of that name, by whose posterity it 
 was held until the death of Sir Uichard Salkeld, governor 
 of Carlisle, in 1502,* when his possessions were divided 
 amongst co-heiresses. Prom the descendants of two of 
 the co-heiresses, the manor was purchased l)y Lord Wil- 
 liam Howard. It has now^ descended on Mr. Philip 
 Henry Howard, until recently M.P. for Carlisle, who 
 fulfils Avhat jNIadame de Stael justly terms the import- 
 ant and kindly career of an English gentleman residing 
 on his estates. The visitor to Corl)y therefore cannot 
 fail to concur in the sentiments which a fair authoress 
 has well expressed in the' following lines : — 
 
 " Here, whilst I gaze on Eden's wooded shore, 
 Where fond tradition weaves her magic spell, 
 And saintly legends of historic lore 
 
 Detain my steps within the time-worn cell; 
 
 My fancy flies to those heroic days 
 
 When chivalry led forth her mailed band; 
 
 When truth and valour formed the Howard's praise, 
 And graced as now the noblest of the land. 
 
 Nor to regret tliem. In this cool retreat 
 
 I hear the silvery Eden murmuring by. 
 And view the checrfnl scene so calm and sweet. 
 
 The distant mountain, the unrutlled sky; 
 
 And see the owner of this favoured place, 
 
 AVhose worth and manners every heart engage, 
 
 Combine the generous spirit of his race 
 With all the milder virtues of our age." 
 
 * The mutilated effigies of this knight and his lady are on the north 
 side of the chancel of Wetheral Church. 
 
 London : Printed by J. B. Nirhols and Sons, 25, Parliament-street.
 
 Ekkatum. — At p. 159, iti the sentence beginning "The crypts 
 beneath," &c. omit from the loord beneath to the end of the sentence, 
 and read thus: The crypts beneath the Norman Hall were dis- 
 covered recently, and they probably extended under the whole of 
 that earlier great hall of which much of the original masonry 
 remains even now.
 
 1G8 A VISIT TO CO KEY CASTLE, CUMBERLAND. 
 
 of the descent of the manor from the time when it 
 belonged to Hu])ert de Vallibus, the Norman lord of Gil- 
 lesland, down to the time when it was purchased l)y Lord 
 William Howard. In 1330, Corhy (which had reverted 
 to the crown on the attainder of Andrew de Ilarcla, Earl 
 of Carlisle,) was i^rantcd to Sir Richard Salkeld, of the 
 old Curahrian family of that name, hy whose posterity it 
 was held until tlie death of Sir Richard Salkeld, governor 
 of Carlisle, in 1502,* when his possessions were divided 
 amongst co-heiresses. Prom the descendants of two of 
 the co-heiresses, the manor was purchased hy Lord Wil- 
 liam Howard. It has now descended on Mr. Philip 
 Henry Howard, until recently M.P. for Carlisle, who 
 fulfils Avhat Madame de Stael justly terms the import- 
 ant and kiufllv ncivt^r^^ -^ --- T7v..-i:-~l- -LT 
 
 Alia view the cheerful scene so calm and sweet, 
 The distant mountain, the unruffled skj; 
 
 And see the owner of this faA'oured place. 
 
 Whose worth and manners every heart engage, 
 
 Combine the generous spirit of his race 
 With all the milder virtues of our age." 
 
 * The mutilated effigies of this knight and his lady are on the north 
 side of the chancel of Wetheral Church. 
 
 London : Printed by J. B. Nichols and Sons, 25, Parliament-street.
 
 ARCH^OLOGICAL WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR, ALREADY PUBLISHED. 
 
 In Svo. 10*. cloth, with Portraits, and many Plates, 
 
 DILSTON HALL; 
 
 OR, 
 
 MEMOIRS OF THE RIGHT HON. JAMES RADCLIFFE, 
 
 EARL OF DERWENTWATER, 
 A MARTYR IN THE REBELLION OF 1715. 
 
 TO WHICH IS ADDED, 
 
 A VISIT TO BAMBURGH CASTLE; 
 
 WITH AN ACCOUNT OF LORD CREWE'S CHARITIES, AND A MEMOIR OF 
 
 THE NOBLE FOUNDER. 
 
 %* This Work forms the Second Series of the Author's Descriptive and Historical 
 Notices of Northumbrian Churches and Castles. 
 
 " We are delighted to meet with Mr. Gibson in a second volume of bis Northumbrian 
 Sketches. He has here given us a careful and most interesting memoir." — Erclesiolo<jist. 
 
 " A tender and chivalric interest will always attach to the name and fate of the Earl 
 of Derwentwater, whatever be the politics of the historian or his reader. The incidents 
 have the pathos of one of the ancient ballad stories." — Athenaeum. 
 
 " Mr. Gibson's antiquarianism is of a very popular kind ; he has carefully collected 
 whatever materials could be acquired for the discharge of his labour of love. The accounts 
 of Bamburgh Castle and Bishop Crewe afford many topics of interest." — Guardian. 
 
 " Mr. Gibson has favoured us with several works abounding with great discrimination 
 and learning. The work he has now produced is one without which no library of the 
 slightest local pretensions can possibly be considered complete. He has executed his 
 task in an admirable manner, and we heartily thank him for the delight we have expe- 
 rienced in perusing it. Some very beautiful lithographed and engraved views greatly add 
 to the attractiveness of the whole." — Newcastle Chronicle. 
 
 " The gifted author has applied his knowledge, judgment, and extensive acquirements 
 to the illustration of an event, and the fortunes of a noble house, which will continue to 
 be regarded with extraordinary interest. The work is entitled to the highest degree of 
 estimation, and will be perused with avidity." — Newcastle Journal. 
 
 " We commend this volume to the attention of all, and especially the reading public of 
 Northumberland. The enthusiasm of the author has gilded many of its scenes and cir- 
 cumstances, and thrown around them an irresistible charm ; his diction is chaste and 
 elegant, and the narrative, abundantly evinces his industry and research. The volume is 
 one which will not fail to yield great intellectual pleasure, and no inconsiderable amount 
 of historical and antiquarian knowledge." — Newcastle Guardian. 
 
 " We commend this work to all lovers of ancient times and family history, a kind of 
 reading as useful and profitable as the mind can be engaged in ; and, where such a writer 
 as Mr. Gibson is the guide, a source of instruction calculated to improve the heart, as 
 well as to inform the understanding." — Durham Advertiser. 
 
 " An important addition to local history and general literature." — Carlisle Patriot. 
 
 " This work fully sustains the reputation procured for the author by its predecessors. 
 The same vivid descriptions of scenery, correct accounts of historical monuments, and 
 biographical information, which procured such general favour for the first series, are to 
 be found in the present volume." — Tahiti. 
 
 " Mr. Gibson appears to have undertaken his task from genuine enthusiasm. He 
 determined to vindicate the memory of the generous and devoted young nobleman who 
 formed so goodly but useless a sacrifice to the Stuart cause, and he became, for the time, 
 a Jacobite. This volume is calculated in every way to enhance his rising reputation as 
 an antiquary and archaeologist, and deserves to be extremely popular." — WeeH>/ Neivs. 
 
 *,t* The Work is Embellished with a highly-finished Portrait of the Earl of Derwent- 
 water, Views of DiLSTON, Bamburgh Castle, Preston, &c., and several Woodcuts. 
 1
 
 In Octavo, cloth, gilt, and embellished with Views of Finchale, and of the Abbey 
 
 Church of Hexham, price 45. 
 
 DESCRIPTIVE AND HISTORICAL NOTICES 
 
 OF SOME KEMARKABLE 
 
 NORTIIUMBRLiN CASTLES, CHURCHES, AND 
 
 ANTIQUITIES, 
 
 WITH BIOGRAPHICAL ANECDOTES OF EMINENT PERSONS. 
 
 FIRST SERIES: — comprising Visits to the Ruined Priory op Finchale ; the Abbey 
 Church of Hexham, the Parish Churches of IIoughton-le-Spring, Morpeth, 
 
 BOTHAL, OVINGHAM, AND RyTON ; THE AnCIENT CaSTLES OF PruDUOE AND OF 
 BOTIIAL ; THE RUINED AbBEY OF NeWMINSTER, «&C. 
 
 " A republication, revised and enlarged, of a series of admirable articles which first 
 appeared in this journal. Mr. Gibson has viewed the various scones which he has 
 visited and described with the eye of a poet, historian, and philosopher ; and his sketches, 
 enriched by antiquarian knowledge, personal anecdotes, historical incidents, and descriptive 
 pencilings, cannot fail to enlighten and entertain the reader." — JVeivcastle Journal. 
 
 " A work laboriously and lovingly executed." — Gateshead Observer. 
 
 " Many will be glad to possess these very interesting papers in a collected form, with 
 the subsequent additions of the erudite author. This book will be principally read by 
 persons in the district in which the churches and castles treated of are situated ; but it 
 will have a more extensive influence than this." — Durham Advertiser, 
 
 " We hail this delightful volume as another product of that goodly band of antiquaries 
 who are doing so much to illustrate and preserve the remains in the north of England." — 
 Arch. Camh. 
 
 " To the reader for pleasurable excitement, the piquant and lively style in which the 
 author dresses his subject will commend this agreeable book ; but to the churchman, the 
 scholar, and the antiquary it will present itself with irresistible attraction." — Exeter Gazette. 
 
 A MEMOIE 
 
 ON SOME 
 
 ANCIENT MODES OF TRIAL, 
 
 ESPECIALLY 
 
 THE JUDICIA DEI IN THE ORDEALS OF WATER AND FIRE. 
 Being a Paper read before the Society of Antiquaries of London. 
 
 In 8vo. pp. 51, unbound, price \s. Qd, 
 
 EEMAEKS 
 
 ON THE 
 
 MEDLEVAL WllITEES OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 
 
 " The author of this very brief publication upon a most extensive subject will, we hope, 
 
 at some future day develop those stores of information and observation which he 
 
 has amassed and knows how to bring out witli judgment and etl'ect. To condense our 
 opinion of the merits of this essay into a few words, we would say tliat it constitutes a 
 manual for this particular division of British Historical Literature which the antiquary 
 should immediately possess himself of. In it the reader will find a chronological list of all 
 or nearly all the British Monastic Historians, as far as they are yet known, with a brief 
 but lucid statement of what their writings refer to.'' — Archa>olo(jla Camh. 
 
 " This little work, intended as a popular sketch of the advantages and pleasures 
 derivable from monastic literature, is liy the author of ' The History of the Monastery of 
 Tynemoutli,'' wliicli has attracted considerable notice. The author displays great research, 
 and an extensive acquaintance with his subject." — E.ceter Gazette. 
 2
 
 THE ANTIQUITIES AND CHRONICLE OP TYNEMOUTH. 
 
 In two Volumes, Royal 4to. price £6 6s. profusely illuminated, half red morocco, uncut, 
 
 A HISTOKY OF THE 
 
 MONASTERY FOUNDED AT TYNEMOUTH, 
 
 IN THE DIOCESE OF DUEHAM. 
 
 This work is produced in a very ornate and costly manner, and in a 
 style of Embellishment which is, perhaps, miique. It is decorated with 
 Illuminated Pages, and Illuminated Initial Letters selected from celebrated 
 MSS. of the Middle Ages, all which are finished hy hand, in Gold and 
 Colours, so as to be equal to the Original Drawings, and form a series of 
 examples of ancient art. The work contains also many characteristic 
 Etchings, by Mr. T. M. Richardson, representing the Ruins of Tynemouth 
 Priory ; together with Engravings, fac-simile Representations of Ancient 
 Deeds, Seals, &c. 
 
 " During the last three years several important and costly works have appeared on the 
 History of Ancient Monastic Foundations in England. The volume before us is the most 
 attractive of these contributions to English Ecclesiastical History." — ArchceologicalJournal. 
 
 " A work of great care and value." — Arch. Camh. 
 
 "A work which is destined to occupy an honourable place in the historical literature of 
 the country." — Newcastle Journal. 
 
 " This is one of those laborious works which ever and anon appear, and which will live 
 and be cherished when hundreds of others are forgotten. A gentleman, with sufficient 
 zeal and talent, who will devote himself to the faithful elucidation of the history of 
 an important and venerable institution, cannot fail of obtaining the approbation of the 
 discerning archaeologist. " — Literary Gazette. 
 
 " This record of the antiquities of the monastery at Tynemouth is from the pen of 
 an accomplished antiquary, and is the most superb specimen of typography and illuminated 
 engraving we ever beheld. We most cordially recommend these volumes to the scholar 
 and the antiquarian as an important addition to the library. They form a work of per- 
 manent beauty and value, and they are illuminated with incomparable skill and effect." — 
 Dolman's Magazine. 
 
 " In the author's portion of the task we find reason to approve his research in pursuing 
 his inquiries into all the various storehouses of records ; his arrangement in the systematic 
 division and due consideration of his subject ; the general intelligence which has led him 
 to the investigation of its minuter features ; and the elegance and finish which pervade 
 his usual style of composition." — Gentleiimn^s Magazine. 
 
 Very few copies remain. They can be obtained by application to Mr. 
 Robinson, bookseller, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
 
 Biographical Work by the same Author, preparing for Puhlication. 
 
 A 31 E 31 01 11 
 
 OF THE 
 
 LIFE OF RICIIARI) 1)E BURY, 
 
 BISHOP OF DURHAM, 
 
 AND LORD CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND TEMP. EDW. IIL 
 
 Few readers of History are unacquainted with the fact that Richard de 
 Bury was the most learned Enghshman of his day, and was justly distin- 
 guished among the virtuous and worthy Ecclesiastics whose memory sheds 
 lustre on the brilliant reign of Edward III. His services in the cause of 
 letters have conferred lasting benefits upon all succeeding ages, and scholars 
 are in no small degree indebted to him for the preservation of classical 
 learning. His literary fame has been perpetuated by himself in his treatise 
 " On the Love of Books," which he wrote for the students at Oxford, for 
 whose benefit he amassed and bequeathed his vast collection of Manuscripts. 
 This treatise — the Philobiblon — has been six times reprinted (in Latin); its 
 style is spirited and characteristic, and it is a remarkable and unique 
 literary monument of the fourteenth century. The Biographer has, there- 
 fore, been induced to subjoin to the present Memoir, an accurate English 
 Version of this celebrated work. But the good and learned Prelate was 
 not merely an author. The events of his life are extremely interesting 
 and varied, as may be supposed from the facts that he was Treasurer of 
 Guienne, Cofferer and Treasurer of the Wardrobe to Edward II., and 
 Preceptor of Edward of Windsor, who evinced his love, confidence, and 
 favour towards De Bury, by bestowing upon him innumerable preferments 
 in the Church and State, and amongst these the dignities of Dean of 
 Wells, Prebendary of Lincoln, Sarum, and Lichfield, Keeper of the Privy 
 Seal, Lord Chancellor of England, Lord Treasurer, and, to crown all, 
 Bishop of Durham. He was Chaplain and Secretary of the King, and 
 frequently his Ambassador to the Pope and to Continental Courts, on 
 matters memorable in English History. 
 
 The materials for this Memoir are for the most part derived from un- 
 published MSS. and other original sources. 
 
 The publication will form a small quarto volume, embellished, the price 
 of which will not exceed One Guinea. A few copies will be printed on 
 vellum, and a limited number on large paper, at Thirty Shillings. 
 
 Gentlemen who may wish to have the work are requested by the Author 
 to transmit their names to Mr. R. Robinson, Bookseller, Pilgrim Street, 
 Newcastle-upon-Tyne. 
 
 AN ESSAY 
 
 ON THIC 
 
 HISTORY A]SD AKTIQUITIES OF HIGHCtATE. 
 
 *^^* This work obtained tlie Prize which was offered hy the Higligate 
 
 Literary Institution. . 
 
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