Memorials of the Counties of England
General Editor:
Rev. P. H. Ditchfield, M.A., F.S.A., F.R.S.L., F.R.Hist.S.



Memorials of Old Durham

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PREFACE

THE Palatinate of Durham possesses special claims to the attention of students of history. It alone amongst the English counties was for centuries ruled by Sovereign Bishops possessing their own peers, troops, mint, and legal courts. In every respect it was a miniature kingdom, in its constitution like only to the well-known Prince-Bishoprics of the Continent.

In the past the county has been favoured by a succession of historians, who have dealt more or less fully with its parochial history. More recently Dr. Lapsley and the contributors to the "Victoria History" have minutely examined the various phases of its early constitution. In the publications of the local archæological societies, the greater mansions and most of the more interesting churches have been dealt with in detail.

In view, therefore, of the now considerable accumulated literature upon the county, it has been a matter of no small difficulty to select subjects which should be helpful to the scholar as well as interesting to the general reader.

It has been endeavoured to make this volume serve a twofold purpose. Firstly, to awaken a greater interest in the past of this most historic district, and secondly, to serve as an introduction to the greater {viii}histories of the county. Some day, perhaps, we may hope to see an edition of Surtees’, revised to a recent date, and covering those portions of the county which he did not live to deal with.

Through the courtesy of the Earl of Durham we are enabled to reproduce for the first time the portrait of William James, sometime Bishop of Durham. Lord Strathmore has kindly enabled us to include the very interesting photograph of Streatlam Castle. Thanks are also due to Mrs. Greenwell, of Greenwell Ford, for the photograph of Fen Hall. Mr. J. Tavenor-Perry has supplied the sketches of the cathedral sanctuary knocker and the dun cow panel, besides the valuable measured drawings of Finchale Priory. The remaining sketches in pen and ink have been contributed by Mr. Wilfrid Leighton.

In conclusion, in addition to thanking the contributors of the various chapters for the care with which they have treated their subjects, thanks are due to the Rev. William Greenwell and to the Rev. Dr. Gee, who have both made useful suggestions.{ix}

CONTENTS

		PAGE
Historical Introduction	By the Rev. Henry Gee, D.D., F.S.A.	1
Topography of Durham	By Miss M. Hope Dodds	24
Folk-lore of the County of Durham	By Mrs. Newton W. Apperley	44
The Legends of Durham	By Miss Florence N. Cockburn	65
Place-names in the Durham Dales	By W. Morley Egglestone	79
Durham Cathedral	By the Rev. William Greenwell, M.A., etc.	108
Finchale Priory	By J. Tavenor-Perry	130
Monkwearmouth and Jarrow	By the Rev. Douglas S. Boutflower, M.A.	146
The Parish Churches of Durham	By Wilfrid Leighton	162
Monumental Inscriptions	By Edwin Dodds	182
The Castles and Halls of Durham	By Henry R. Leighton	198
Durham Associations of John Wesley	By the Rev. T. Cyril Dale, B.A.	229
The Old Families of Durham	By Henry R. Leighton	239
Index		257

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{xi} 

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Durham Cathedral	Frontispiece
(From the picture by J. M. W. Turner, R.A.)
	Page, or Facing Page
Portrait of William James, Bishop of Durham, 1606-1617	6
(From the painting at Lambton Castle)
The Market-Cross at Darlington	25
An Old Tithe-barn at Durham	27
Bishop Pudsey’s Charter to the City of Durham, and Pope Alexander III.’s Confirmation thereof	30
(From a copy made by Christopher Fawcett, of Newcastle, originally issued as one of the Allan Tracts)
Jack Crawford’s Birth-place, Sunderland	35
The Palace, Bishop Auckland	38
(From a drawing by W. Daniell, R.A.)
Barnard Castle	40
(From a drawing by E. Dayes)
Brancepeth Castle in 1777	42
(From an old Print)
The Palace Green, Durham	64
(From an old Print)
The Dun Cow Panel, Durham Cathedral	67
Hilton Castle from the North	70
Lambton Castle, 1835	74
(From the picture by T. Allom)
The Kepier Hospital	90
The Crypt, Durham Cathedral	112
The Sanctuary Knocker, Durham Cathedral	119
Durham Cathedral: The Western Towers from a window in the Monks’ Library	120
(From a drawing by R. W. Billings, 1844) {xii}
Piscina in Choir, Finchale Priory	135
Choir, Finchale Priory	137
The Church from the North-west, Finchale Priory	139
Plan of the Ruins of Finchale Priory	140
Front of the Chapter House, Finchale Priory	141
Crypt under Refectory, Finchale Priory	142
The Prior’s Lodging, Finchale Priory	143
Monkwearmouth Church	146
Old Stone, Monkwearmouth	148
Ornamental Stonework, Monkwearmouth Cathedral	153
Jarrow Church	154
(From a photograph by G. Hastings)
Early English Snakes, Monkwearmouth Church	157
Norton Church	172
Boldon Spire	176
Anglo-Saxon Stone at Chester-le-Street	184
Witton Castle in 1779	198
(From a contemporary print by Bailey)
Lumley Castle	202
Hilton Castle: West Front	206
Old Tower at Ravensworth Castle	210
The Cross at Ravensworth	212
Streatlam Castle	214
(From a photograph by E. Yeoman, Barnard Castle)
Raby Castle in 1783	218
(From a contemporary Print)
Gainford Hall	222
The Old Hall at Thorpe Thewles	223
Fen Hall	224
(From a photograph by Mrs. Greenwell)
A Corner of Washington Hall	225
The Doorway, West Rainton Hall	227
General John Lambton, 1710-1794	244
(From the portrait by G. Romney at Lambton Castle)
Hoppyland Park	248
Portrait of Sir George Bowes	254
(From the painting at Streatlam Castle)

{1} 

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION

By the Rev. Henry Gee, D.D., F.S.A., Master of University College, Durham

IN the older maps of England, that portion of the country which we call the county of Durham is generally described as "Episcopatus Dunelmensis," or the Bishopric of Durham, or simply the Bishopric. A further glance at the adjacent districts of Northumberland and Yorkshire shows that there are portions larger or smaller of those counties which are marked as integral parts of Durham. These members of the Bishopric are Norhamshire, Islandshire, and Bedlingtonshire in Northumberland, with the Manors of Northallerton, Howden, and Crayke, and certain lands adjacent to them in Yorkshire. These portions of the Bishopric were only cut off from it and merged in their own surrounding counties within the memory of persons still living. Indeed, the distinction between Bishopric folk and County folk—that is to say, people of Durham and people of Northumberland—is not yet quite forgotten, and looks back to a very interesting piece of English history that has to do with a state of things in the North of England which has now passed away.

Visitors who come to the city of Durham to-day and look on cathedral and castle have some vague idea of a time when the Bishop of Durham had "the power of life and death," as it is popularly called; but what this means, and what the peculiar constitution of the neighbourhood was, they do not, as a rule, understand. It may be worth while to try and get a clearer view of the Bishopric of{2} Durham, and more especially of the main portion between Tyne and Tees, which forms the modern county. We to-day are so much accustomed to a strong central Government controlling the whole of England, that we find it hard to think of a time when certain districts had a large independence, and were ruled by a local Earl or by Bishop, rather than by the King in the capital. Yet there were such times both in England and upon the Continent. The district so ruled is known as a franchise or liberty, and the history of its independence, won, maintained, or lost, generally forms an attractive subject of study, with many exciting episodes in it. The assertion is certainly true of Durham; and although it is not possible to go into detail within the space of an introductory article like this, it may be possible to explain what the Bishopric was, and how it came to get its distinctive characteristics and its later modification.

The franchise of the Bishop of Durham may be most aptly understood if we try to regard all the members of it mentioned above as a little kingdom, of which Durham City was the capital. The Bishop of Durham was virtually the King of this little realm, and ruled it, not only as its spiritual head, but as its temporal head. As its spiritual head, he was in the position of any ordinary Bishop, and possessed exactly the same powers as other prelates. As its temporal head, he had a power which they generally did not possess. Dr. Freeman has explained his position in the following words: "The prelate of Durham became one and the more important of the only two English prelates whose worldly franchises invested them with some faint shadow of the sovereign powers enjoyed by the princely Churchmen of the Empire. The Bishop of Ely in his island, the Bishop of Durham in his hill-fortress, possessed powers which no other English ecclesiastic was allowed to share.... The external aspect of the city of itself suggests its peculiar character. Durham alone among English cities, with its highest point crowned, not{3} only by the cathedral, but by the vast castle of the Prince-Bishop, recalls to mind those cities of the Empire—Lausanne, or Chur, or Sitten—where the priest, who bore alike the sword and the pastoral staff, looked down from his fortified height on a flock which he had to guard no less against worldly than against ghostly foes."[1] And this sovereignty was no nominal thing, for the Bishop came to have most of the institutions that we connect with the thought of a kingdom. He had his own courts of law, his own officers of state, his own assemblies, his own system of finance, his own coinage, and, to some extent, he had his own troops and his own ships. As we understand all this, we shall appreciate the significance of the lofty throne erected by Bishop Hatfield in Durham Cathedral. It was placed there in the flourishing days of the Bishop’s power, and is not merely the seat of a Bishop, but the throne of a King. So too, hard by, in the Bishop’s castle, as the chronicler tells us, there were two seats of royalty within the hall, one at either end. No doubt it was before the Bishop, sitting as Prince in one of these, that the great tenants of his franchise—the Barons of the Bishopric, as they were actually called—did homage in respect of their lands. Perhaps, when he sat in the other from time to time as Bishop, his clergy and others recognized his spiritual authority, or submitted themselves to his "godly admonitions."

The county of Durham has been marked out by nature, more or less distinctly, as separate from the neighbouring counties. The Tees on the south, and the Tyne on the north, with the Derwent running from the western fells to the Tyne, sufficiently differentiate it. In what follows we will keep mainly to the district represented by the modern county, leaving out of view the members outside to which{4} reference has been made. Its history, until modern times, is largely ecclesiastical, owing to its peculiar constitution, in which the Bishop plays so important a part. It had, indeed, virtually no history until the Church became the great civilizer in Northumbria. Its prehistoric remains are few, if interesting. Its occupation by Brigantes, a Celtic tribe, is a large fact with no details. In the days when Romans made the North of Britain their own, there is still no history beyond the evidence of Roman roads, with camps at Binchester, Lanchester, and Ebchester. Certainly no Roman Christian remains have been found as yet; but when in the seventh century Christianity came to the Anglian invaders who settled in these parts after the departure of the Romans, the history of the English people was born within the confines of the modern county. Bede, the first of English scholars and writers, compiled his history in the monastery of Jarrow. He tells us all we know of the earliest Durham Christians—of Benedict Biscop and of Hilda, who, with himself, are the first three historic personages in the district. In one pregnant sentence he tells us how churches were built in different places, how the people flocked together to hear the Word, and how landed possessions were given by royal munificence to found monasteries. These monasteries became the centres of religion, civilization, and learning all over Northumbria; and, in particular, the monasteries of Jarrow and Wearmouth, twin foundations of Benedict Biscop, were the commencement of everything best worth having between Tyne and Tees.

Thus religion, art, and literature, were born in Durham. In the last years of the eighth century a terrible calamity fell upon the wider province, of which Durham was only a part, when the Danes raided Lindisfarne, where had been the starting-point of the Northumbrian Church. When the mother was thus spoiled and laid desolate, the daughters trembled for their safety, but they were left for awhile, not unassailed, yet not destroyed. In those days of disturbed{5} peace further gifts of land were made to the Church, and in these we trace large slices of Durham handed over in the ninth century to the monks of Lindisfarne by those who had the power to give. And here we must notice that the great treasure of the monastery at Lindisfarne was the body of St. Cuthbert, the great Northumbrian saint, to whom the endowments named were most solemnly dedicated. They formed the nucleus of the Bishopric—the beginnings of the Patrimony of St. Cuthbert, which is only another name for the Bishopric. Repeated invasion of the Danes at last drove the monks out of Lindisfarne, and destroyed the Durham monasteries of Jarrow and Wearmouth. The Lindisfarne monks left their island, and bore away for safety’s sake the body of St. Cuthbert, and after various wanderings brought it back to rest within the fortified enclosure of Chester-le-Street, and so within the confines of Durham. Here the Danish conquerors confirmed previous gifts, and added others to them, until the lands of St. Cuthbert increased very widely, whilst Chester-le-Street became a centre of pilgrimage.

For 113 years Chester-le-Street was the Christian metropolis of the North, until the final fury of the Danes began to fall upon Northumbria. In 995 another exodus began, and the clergy bore off the body to Ripon, returning a few months later when the tempest seemed to have abated. Many legends cluster round this return, but in any case the fact is clear that the Bishop and his company took up their abode, not at Chester-le-Street, but on the rocky peninsula of Dun-holm, or Durham, which the River Wear nearly encircled. In this way the seat of ecclesiastical authority was changed for the second time, and Durham City now became the centre of the still-expanding Bishopric. Great prestige gathered round the Saxon cathedral in which the shrine of the saint was placed, for Kings and Princes vied with one another in doing honour to it. So Canute, walking to the spot with bare feet, gave{6} fresh donations of Durham land and confirmed what others had bestowed.

But again dark days fell upon the North. To say nothing of Scottish encroachments upon the Bishopric, which were sustained in the eleventh century, the worst blow fell when the Norman Conquest took place. In no part of England was a more determined patriotism opposed to William than in Durham. Submission was nominal, and desperate efforts were made to keep Northumbria as a separate kingdom by placing Edgar Atheling upon an English throne in York. When the Conqueror made a Norman called Cumin his Viceroy in these parts, the men of Durham rose and murdered him within their city. It was an act that William never forgave and never forgot. He wrought such a deed of vengeance that the whole of the smiling district from York to Durham was turned into a wilderness. When he came to die he is represented to have said of this ruthless episode: "I fell on the English of the Northern counties like a ravening lion. I commanded their houses and corn, with all their tools and furniture, to be burnt without distinction, and large herds of cattle and beasts of burden to be butchered wherever they were found. It was thus I took revenge on multitudes of both sexes, by subjecting them to the calamity of a cruel famine; and by so doing, alas! became the barbarous murderer of many thousands, both young and old, of that fine race of people."

William placed foreigners in most positions of importance. To the See of Durham he appointed Walcher from Lorraine, and the new prelate came from his consecration at Winchester, escorted across the belt of depopulated, ravaged land, until he reached Durham. North of the Wear the Patrimony of St. Cuthbert was as yet largely untouched, but the men of Durham had no love for the foreigner, and no wish to regard him as their lord. Fortunately for him the Earl of Northumbria stood his friend, and built for him in 1072 the Norman castle overlooking

{7}

the Wear, which was destined to be the Bishop’s fortress for seven and a half centuries. Within that castle Walcher was safe, and, helped by the Earl, he ruled his recalcitrant flock, not always wisely, but with all his power, until an insurrection which he strove to quell cost him his life. He died, however, not as mere Bishop of Durham, but as Earl of Northumbria as well, for when Waltheof the Earl died, William appointed Walcher in his place. Thus in the hands of the first Bishop after the Conquest was held the double authority of Bishop and of Earl. Whatever may have been the powers of the prelate in the Bishopric until this time, it is certain that from this point he claims a double authority within the Patrimony of St. Cuthbert. As for Walcher, stern example was made of what resistance to the Bishop’s lawful authority would mean, when William laid waste the land that had escaped ten years before, and extended his ravages north of the Wear and towards the Tyne.

Just before the eleventh century expired, an event of considerable importance took place when Bishop Carileph began the great cathedral which still crowns the height above the Wear at Durham. About the same time an understanding was reached between the Earl of Northumbria and the Bishop, by which all the rights and the independence of the Bishopric seem to have been recognized and confirmed, so that henceforward the Bishop was the undisputed lord of the lands of St. Cuthbert.[2] When in 1104 the cathedral was sufficiently advanced to receive the body of the saint within its eastern apse, a great ceremony took place, which served to carry the prestige of Durham beyond anything it had yet reached. Henceforward the stream of pilgrims which had steadily flowed to the shrine, whether at Lindisfarne, or Chester-le-Street, or Durham, swelled in volume until the{8} attractiveness of Durham exceeded that of any place of pilgrimage in England. Only when the shrine of St. Thomas at Canterbury drew to it so large a share of patronage from the end of the twelfth century did a serious rival manifest itself. Carileph had divided the territory of St. Cuthbert, reserving part for the Bishop, and part for the Benedictine monks whom he placed in the new cathedral. Thus the Bishop had his estates henceforward, and the monks had theirs. At first the portion belonging to the monastery seems to have been disappointingly poor, a fact very probably due to recent ravages whose brand was not yet effaced. By degrees, however, the lands of prior and convent improved, and the gifts of pilgrims made the monks prosperous.

The Bishop who presided when the body of St. Cuthbert was translated in 1104 was Ralph Flambard. He was not the character to allow the prestige of the Bishopric to decline. Under him the resources of the county were ably administered, and the organization of his dominions was carefully developed. By degrees the traces of the Norman harrying were obliterated. How fair a country Durham was in the early twelfth century we may discover from the poetry of a monk from the monastery who was called Lawrence, and wrote a description of events and localities connected with Durham. He speaks of its scenery, its excellent products, its fine breed of horses, its open-air amusements, to say nothing of indoor revels at Christmas. The twelfth century, with sparse population, open moor and plain, and increasing prosperity, is far away from the noise of anvil and forge, the smoke of endless coke ovens, the squalor of congested towns, as they exist in the county to-day. But the scene changed too soon. After the accession of Stephen in 1135 fierce dynastic feuds broke out, and the Scots joined in the anarchy of the time, attempting to annex the territory of St. Cuthbert to the Lowlands of Scotland. Durham suffered severely in the conflict, and a mock-bishop, supported by the Scots, actually held{9} Durham Castle and City against the lawful prelate. At length more quiet days came, and in the reign of Henry II. Bishop Pudsey, the King’s own cousin, succeeded in resisting the centralizing efforts of the monarch, and although he had to bow to the imperious Henry on more than one occasion, he carried on in the main the liberties and rights of the Bishopric. A little later he was enabled to round off the Bishopric lands when he bought the wapentake of Sadberge from King Richard, the only important part of the county which had never yet been included in the territory of St. Cuthbert. From this time the Earl of Northumbria disappears, and at last there is no rival whatsoever to powers which had been steadily growing. The Bishopric is now complete in head and members, and the Bishop is virtual sovereign of it, whilst the King is supreme outside. At this stage we may freely call the Bishop’s dominions the Palatinate of Durham—a name which continues to be usual until the power so described is, in 1836, annexed to the Crown. The word "Palatinate" is a conventional legal title which the lawyers brought into fashion to describe a great franchise with its independent jurisdiction.[3]

We are able to get a very much clearer notion of the Palatinate in Pudsey’s days, when the hitherto scanty materials of Durham history begin to swell. We have some of his buildings before us yet—St. Cuthbert’s, Darlington, the Galilee of the cathedral, the rich doorway in the castle; we have seal and charters and writs of his episcopate; and, in short, are able to trace in outline the way in which Pudsey developed the Bishopric on the analogy of a little kingdom, with institutions and officers of its own. Moreover, some notion is gained in the famous Boldon Book[4] of the episcopal lands and how they{10} were held. There we get a Domesday, as it were, of the Bishop’s holdings, to which those who desire to study the intricate methods of medieval land tenure on the Bishop’s property must be referred. A little later on we find somewhat similar information about the lands of the monastery, so that, as the centuries wear on, a fairly detailed picture is gained of the conditions of life in the medieval Bishopric. Thus we see the lands divided up into a large number of manors, which vary largely in character, for some are pastoral, others agricultural, others moor-land, or forest, and others still are connected with townships like Gateshead or Sunderland. The Bishop’s or Prior’s steward makes a circuit at different times, visiting all the units in some special locality, and looking to his lettings or his rents. The holdings vary very much in size and in tenure, and the tenants likewise differ in status and in service. There are villeins who are not free, and are bound to render certain dues of personal service, mowing, or reaping, or ploughing, or sowing, for so many days, and receiving perhaps doles of food, a cottage, and some land, but no money wage. There are farmers who take a manor or farm on condition of rendering so much agricultural produce to the lord. There are cottiers who work so many days in the week, and have to give so many eggs, or so many fowls for the table, in return for the little home that they occupy. In Durham itself certain houses were let to tenants, who had to defend the North Gate, or help act as garrison, or render herbs and other necessaries for the Bishop’s kitchen. The conditions of service among the villeins were often onerous, and a tone of deep discontent is marked in the medieval villages of Durham. In time of war external service might be demanded of the men, and a rally to join the Bishopric troops was no unfamiliar incident of life in those days. If it extended beyond the bounds proper of the territory of St. Cuthbert, pay was claimed, though it was not always given. Small quarrels and differences were probably adjusted by steward{11} or bailiff, but more serious cases came before justices of the peace specially appointed, whilst murder and other grave offences were reserved for judges whom the Bishop appointed to sit at various centres, of which Durham was the chief. And this power of appointing judges to try criminals and to convict or acquit them is what is meant by the popular and inexact phrase, "the power of life and death." The Bishop’s revenue was managed by special officers of his own appointment, who got returns from the local bailiffs, and then recorded them at Durham, where a special audit was held. A special set of buildings were erected near Durham Castle, with various adjacent offices, for the management and arrangement of all the mass of business—financial, judicial, and administrative—which was entailed by the Bishopric.

In this way the conditions of life, and the administration of the Palatinate, followed roughly the general order of the kingdom outside, and the Bishopric was, as has already been said, virtually a little kingdom ruled by a Bishop instead of a King. The Bishops who followed Pudsey maintained and developed his organization, but not without strife. The thirteenth century, in particular, presents a long record of obstinate struggle between the Bishop and those who tried to limit his power or to gain concessions which he was unwilling to make. Indeed, the struggle between the King and the people, which is the great feature of English history in that century, finds a close parallel on a small scale in Durham. At one time it is a long feud between the Bishop and the Monastery over their respective lands, a feud which was at last ended by an agreement between the contending parties. At another time the Bishop is trying to curb the independence of the Barons of the Bishopric, who held large estates for which they were supposed to yield homage, or to perform some kind of service. In this way Nevilles and Balliols, two of the great Bishopric families, held out against the crusading Bishop Bek, and in the end they had to give way. And{12} once more there was strife on more than one occasion with the King, who now and then attempted to restrain the exuberant independence of the Bishop of Durham; and here, in the main, the Bishop was successful in asserting his rights and powers as inalienable.

Over this scene of complex organization and activity dark shadows came in the fourteenth century. The Scots, who had been quiescent for some time, fell upon the Bishopric with great ferocity during the reigns of the first three Edwards, and the years were seldom free from the record of invasion or pillage. It had come to be regarded as a prime duty of the Bishop to repress all northern incursions, and, as a contemporary document puts it, to serve as a wall of brass against the Scots. He had his fortified castles, Norham in Norhamshire, Durham in its own county, and Northallerton in Yorkshire. These three lay on one of the chief routes by which the invaders entered England, and were kept in threatening times well defended and provisioned. In 1312 Bruce pushed his forces right through Northumberland, and advanced into the heart of the Bishopric, delivering a blow against Durham itself, which must have been severe. Two years later in Scotland the troops of England were beaten at Bannockburn, and the humiliation of Edward II. was only effaced some years later by Edward III. in the victories of Halidon Hill, and more particularly of Neville’s Cross in 1346. The latter battle was the great glory of the men of Durham until it was forgotten in the greater prestige of Flodden nearly 200 years later. The tomb of Ralph Neville, badly battered by Scots in later days, still stands in Durham Cathedral as a local memorial of Neville’s Cross, in which he led the Bishopric troops.

The joy caused by these successes was soon dimmed when the terrors of the Black Death overwhelmed the district. Perhaps no part of England suffered much more severely. The pestilence rolled up towards the North in the year 1349, and at last made its dreaded appearance in{13} the south-east of the county. From this point it spread with frightful rapidity, carrying off all orders and conditions of men, for none escaped. Sometimes a whole household perished, and here and there an entire village was obliterated. "No tenants came from West Thickley, because they are all dead," is the steward’s entry at one manorial court or halmote, as the local word is. In the winter that followed there was no sowing, and when the spring came men had not the heart to go to work on the fields, for the plague was renewed with increasing virulence, and everything was thrown out of gear. Villeins had run away from sheer terror; even madness was not unheard of; and whilst there was little to eat famine and misery stalked unchecked.[5] The Bishop’s lands and the Prior’s lands were going out of cultivation, for it was impossible to find labourers, or to bind them down in the old way. Grotesque attempts were made to keep up the former conditions of service, until by degrees stewards and bailiffs found out that they were face to face with the greatest economic difficulty which had ever appeared in the Bishopric. The Black Death practically brought to an end the rigid system of land tenure which had been kept up so long, for it gave the death-blow to serfdom, and the old services in kind, of which mention has been made. Discontent had long lurked in the manors of Durham, but from this time it became active and aggressive, until it pushed the peasants out to assert themselves and to seek for more congenial conditions of life. Elsewhere the transition was effected by bloodshed; in the territories of St. Cuthbert it came more peacefully, but to the accompaniment of much mutual mistrust and variance.

It is possibly in connection with all this covert rebellion on the part of the masses that Cardinal Langley built or finished the great gaol in the North Gate in Durham.{14} This large building running up to the castle keep on one side, and down towards the river on the other, spanned Saddler Street for four centuries, until it was taken down in 1820. It was often filled with criminals who were imprisoned here for various offences in its gloomy dungeons. There was another gaol at Sadberge, but it does not seem clear what relation this bore to the more important building in Durham. But the fifteenth century brought its own special anxieties. In the dynastic troubles which led to the Wars of the Roses, the Palatinate was generally Lancastrian in sympathy. Henry VI. (only one of many English Kings who visited Durham) came to the shrine of St. Cuthbert at a time when his dominions had been cut short upon the Continent, and were still further menaced by the Scots. In the bitter days that followed, when he was driven from his throne, he took refuge in the Bishopric, whilst his brave wife went to the Continent to seek for troops to enable him to regain the crown. Even rectories were fortified in those days, for men had to take one side or the other, and to defend their property against bands of marauders. Of religious trouble and dispute, Durham had no large share at that particular time, though elsewhere the ferment caused by the Lollard Movement was producing much unrest. The Bishopric was too much under the control of the Church to allow much freedom of thought. Yet there were isolated instances of Lollard sympathy, exceptions to prove the rule, which were instantly repressed by ecclesiastical authority.

Dynastic trouble did not end when Henry VII. and his wife, Elizabeth, united the Red and White Roses. The Bishopric men, indeed, had no desire to rise against the strong government which the King set up in England; but they were caught in the tide of rebellion which was set going by Simnel and Warbeck. It was to stem this tide that Henry placed Richard Fox as Bishop of Durham in 1494. This prelate, the King’s tried friend, fortified afresh the castles of the see, and placed garrisons in them to{15} check the advance of Warbeck through the northern counties. Fortunately, the invasion followed another line to the Battle of Stoke, and the men of Durham were spared the anxiety of decision. But Fox, keeping vigilant guard in his fortresses, was instrumental in concluding that alliance which was destined eventually to unite the English and the Scots as one nation. Henry’s young daughter, Margaret, was affianced to James IV. of Scotland, and in 1503 passed right through the Bishopric on her way to her northern home. Nowhere in all the long progress did the Princess receive a warmer welcome than in Durham, from the moment she entered the Bishopric at the Tees to the moment she crossed Tyne Bridge from Gateshead into Newcastle. A mighty banquet was given in her honour in Durham Castle, to which all the nobles and important personages of the district were invited. Little Margaret’s great-grandson was James VI. of Scotland and I. of England; and in his days border feuds passed away for ever. And yet at the moment of the banquet that consummation was a long way off. Ten years later the Scots invaded England at a time of grave national anxiety, when the King and his troops were warring in France. But the Bishopric musters turned out. Bishop Ruthall rushed up to Durham, and his men at Flodden contributed not a little to the great English success as they bore the banner of St. Cuthbert into the battle.

The century that had so recently dawned was destined to witness great changes in the Bishopric. Henry VIII. laid ruthless hands upon the power of the Church, and the monarch who extorted the submission of the clergy was not likely to allow the great power and independence of the Bishop of Durham to pass unchecked. Accordingly, in 1536, he cut short the judiciary authority of the prelate. This, as we have seen, was one of the most characteristic privileges of the Bishop, and neither Henry II. nor Edward I. had interfered with it. From this date the{16} King was the authority who appointed the judges; and although in practice the old forms and methods were largely followed, the sanction was royal, and not episcopal. And next year, when the Council of the North was set up for the purposes of defence, execution of justice, and finance, in the northern counties, a still further blow was aimed at the Bishop’s power, for this court could, if it willed, supersede the Palatinate machinery. As a matter of fact, its first President was Tunstall, Bishop of Durham, who prevented such degradation of the Palatinate for the present. Yet one thing of large importance was carried out under the Council’s authority, when the great Abbey of Durham was dissolved in 1539. The monastery had stood unassailed for 450 years, but Henry set going the process of destruction which ended in the total suppression of every religious house in the land. It had been a wealthy foundation, a kindly landlord, an influence for good in the district, with its library, and its schools, and its varied means of usefulness. Yet every good object that it had served was eventually carried on. Prior and convent became Dean and Canons; monastic lands were now capitular estates; its chief school and library were maintained with greater efficiency; its solemn offices soon became the familiar vernacular service of the Church of England. Otherwise there was little monastic destruction in the county of Durham, for the great monastery had brooked no rivals; and a friary or two with a single nunnery were scarcely rivals. The dependent cells of Jarrow, Wearmouth, Finchale, however, shared in the fall of Durham Abbey.

Three or four years before the surrender of the monastery the people of Durham had taken part in the Pilgrimage of Grace—that exciting demonstration in which popular resentment against the fall of the smaller houses was exhibited. When Durham Abbey fell, there was no repetition of that rising, for severe punishment had been meted out in 1537; whilst in 1540 pestilence was desolating{17} the district, and the gloom in consequence was depressing. But there was no sympathy with the changes which soon began to hurry on, and Durham was probably more opposed to the Reformation than any other district. Under Edward VI. the Bishopric became the object of the ambitious designs of Northumberland—one of the noblemen whom the rapid religious and political revolution of the time placed in power. He cast a longing eye on the Patrimony of St. Cuthbert; and in building up the fortunes of his upstart family (he was a Dudley, not a Percy, for the true Northumberland title was at the moment suspended) he probably intended to lay hands upon the whole Bishopric, and to arrogate for himself the Palatinate jurisdiction. He succeeded in getting the Bishop thrown into prison on false charges of treason, and then forced a Bill through Parliament which abolished the power of the Palatinate, and created two sees—one at Durham, the other at Newcastle. There can be little doubt that he intended to secure the Palatinate power for himself, and to rule in Durham as Duke of Northumberland; whilst his son, Guildford Dudley, recently married to Lady Jane Grey, was to be Prince Consort, and to share the throne of England. This most daring scheme fell to the ground when Mary came to the throne, and the recent legislation was at once abolished, and things went back to the conditions obtaining before the reign of Edward.

Under Elizabeth the Bishopric underwent a process of reconstruction in various ways. It was not a pleasant process. Socially the old system of land-tenure, which had been breaking up since the Black Death, was abolished, and a new method of leaseholds was evolved after much friction between the tenants on the one side, and the Dean and Chapter, or the Bishop, on the other. The power of the Bishop was now further attenuated, for the Queen laid hands upon large estates which were the undoubted possession of the see, with a history of many{18} centuries’ attachment to the Patrimony of St. Cuthbert. The settlement of religion carried out in the early years of the Queen’s reign was largely unpalatable in Durham. Certainly the majority of the clergy acquiesced, but the acquiescence was largely external. So the people at large tolerated the changes that were wrought in churches and services, when the English liturgy took the place of the Latin offices restored by Mary, and when altars were broken down, and the church furniture in general was destroyed. The great Bishopric families—Nevilles, Lumleys, and others—scarcely concealed their dislike of the new régime in Church and in State, and after some years of endurance, they rose at last in 1569. Feeling sure of wide sympathy in Northumberland and Durham, the Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland gathered retainers together, and restored the old order in Durham Cathedral, whilst the people of Durham, lowly kneeling, were absolved from the guilt of schism. But inferior leadership caused the rising to collapse outside the Bishopric, and when the Queen’s army marched through Durham it swept the undisciplined forces of the Earls across the Tyne to be dissipated in the rigours of a cold Northumbrian winter. But, although the rebellion came to nothing, passive resistance was maintained. As the reign proceeded, this quieter condition was roused into greater activity by the seminary priests and the Jesuit missionaries who came into the country from institutions abroad, which sent over into England, and not least into Durham, a long succession of these emissaries. They went up and down the district, welcomed and protected by friends who received their ministrations, but not seldom hunted down by the vigilance of the Ecclesiastical Commission, which increased the stringency of its measures as the century drew to its close.

The last years of the great Queen witnessed a rather distressing condition of things in the county. Pestilence was a frequent visitor in times that were insanitary, and{19} the transition to happier conditions in religion and in society was not complete. The villages were frequently unpopulated, and tillage was decayed, whilst the starving families wandered into the neighbouring towns in search of food. Probably the depressing state of affairs was worse in the Bishopric than in other parts of England, for it received a special aggravation in the Scottish inroads, which were renewed towards the end of the reign before their final extinction at the accession of James. When the Elizabethan Poor Law began its work, the county of Durham benefited by its operation, for regular collectors for the poor were appointed, and sometimes rates were levied, in place of the very uncertain alms of the "poor man’s box" in the church, to which parishioners were asked to contribute under the Injunctions of Elizabeth.

The Stuarts showed more regard for the Palatinate of Durham than did the Tudors. No Tudor sovereign, it seems, entered the county, but James I., Charles I., and James II. when Duke of York, paid ceremonious visits to Durham, and in general upheld the prestige of the see, though they never completely restored its independence. One of the most interesting episodes of the seventeenth century is the religious revolution carried out during the first forty years. Bishop Neile is credited with introducing to Durham a series of prebendaries who altered the aspect of the cathedral and produced great changes in the services. These "innovations" caused much comment, and although Charles in 1633 paid a special visit, and by his presence and countenance sanctioned what had been done, frequent remonstrance was made. The long reign of Elizabethan Churchmanship had accustomed the people to one uniform type of worship and ornament, and they were not prepared for the alterations now made in ritual and in the appearance of the churches. When the Scots entered England in 1640, by way of remonstrance against the King’s policy in Church and State, the Bishopric was not altogether unsympathetic; but when the armed demonstration proved{20} to be an armed occupation extending over a year in duration, the royalism of Durham re-asserted itself. At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1642 it was warmly royalist. A second Scottish occupation after Marston Moor in 1644 kept this spirit in check, whilst the Long Parliament virtually superseded the Palatinate and governed the district by committees. Bishop, prebendaries, and other high ecclesiastics had fled when the Scots entered Durham in 1640. Parliament now seized upon the lands of Bishop and Chapter, and sold them or let them as opportunity offered. Thus for several years the old ecclesiastical constitution of Durham was destroyed, and in the parish churches, carefully cleared in 1644 from all "monuments of idolatry," a Presbyterian system was set up. It was not, however, fully carried out, and all manner of ministers were in possession when the Protectorate was set up in 1653. The cathedral services had long been silenced, and in 1650 Cromwell used the buildings as a convenient accommodation for the Scottish prisoners captured at Dunbar. On the petition of the people of the county, the Protector undertook to establish a college in Durham and to devote the cathedral and castle buildings to that purpose. Resentment and discontent smouldered during these years of tyranny. Indeed, more than one Royalist rising had to be repressed. When, at the beginning of 1660, there was talk of restoring the King, no voice of dissent was heard in the county.

Exuberant loyalty greeted the Restoration. Cosin was made Bishop. He was one of the group of influential men appointed by Neile forty years before, and now for twelve years he repaired the breaches of the city and diocese, and carried out the principles which he had formed in earlier life. The Palatinate jurisdiction was revived, with perhaps greater lustre than it had exhibited for a century past. In these days of royalist triumph Nonconformist and Puritan scarcely ventured at first to show their heads, but in Durham they were only biding their time.{21} They found opportunity to promote a formidable rising, which was known as the Derwentdale Plot, aiming at some kind of overthrow of the restored Church and Crown. It was badly managed, and speedily collapsed; but Anabaptists, Quakers, and other parties managed to maintain their existence despite strenuous measures, and more particularly despite the vigorous working of the Conventicle Acts which were intended to crush Nonconformity.

Generally speaking, the county of Durham accepted the Revolution in 1688, though here and there some reluctance was manifested, and notwithstanding the efforts of Bishop Crewe and Dean Granville to promote allegiance to King James. Jacobitism, indeed, was spasmodic in the Bishopric, and it does not appear that in 1715 or in 1745 very wide sympathy was exhibited in the district when elsewhere the excitement was considerable. The eighteenth century witnessed two events of the greatest importance in Durham history. In the first place, after a period of long stagnation, industrial development caught the whole district and entirely changed its character. The coal trade had been prosecuted continuously since the thirteenth century at least, and the mines had proved a considerable source of revenue to the owners. Lead was an ancient industry, and the salt-pans of the county have a connected history, ranging over many centuries. These and other operations had increased in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, more particularly when a great development of shipping at Sunderland and at Hartlepool took place after the Restoration. A large export trade by sea spread rapidly. In the early part of the eighteenth century 175,000 tons of coal was the annual output on the Wear, and the history of the collier convoys at that time is a large chapter in the general history of North Country shipping. All this meant a considerable increase of prosperity, and by degrees the county which had been thinly populated, for the most part, became a hive of industry, in which{22} rapid fortunes were made. The mines and the shipyards attracted labour from other parts of England, and the population of the county, returned as 58,860 in the early days of Elizabeth, amounted to 149,384 in 1801, a figure which has been multiplied by ten in the last hundred years. The Bishop and the Dean and Chapter largely shared in the vast increase of wealth which the working of coal-mines in particular produced. It cannot, however, be said with truth that the Church authorities neglected the cause of charity. A list of the benefactions directly due to the various Bishops, and also to Dean and Chapter, shows how much they did in various ways for the cause of education as well as for the spiritual well-being of the people. Indeed, subscription lists of the early nineteenth century, which still survive, prove that the clergy gave the chief proportion of what was given when some public call was made. It must not be forgotten that Durham University and Durham School were the direct foundations of the Church within the Bishopric.

The other important event to which allusion has been made was the appearance of the Wesleyan Movement in Durham. Bishop Butler wrote his famous work, the Analogy, in the western parts of the county, and published it in 1736. It may be doubted whether its local effect was considerable. Within a few years John Wesley passed and repassed through the county, and established his societies in Durham, Sunderland, Darlington, and elsewhere. They prospered exceedingly, and left a permanent impression upon the district, and this was deepened and extended when a fresh wave of Methodism travelled over the North of England early in the nineteenth century in connection with the spread of Primitive Methodism. There can be no manner of doubt that the Methodist Movement deeply stirred and influenced some classes of the increasing population which the Church left untouched.

The real dividing-line between Old Durham and the present day is to be found in the series of changes which{23} took place in the reign of William IV. The spirit of reform was operating in various directions, and it was not likely that Durham could escape. The increasing wealth of the Church and the still independent powers of the Bishop attracted the attention of the party of change. The Dean and Chapter rose to their opportunity, and founded the University of Durham. The newly formed Ecclesiastical Commission reduced the large staff of the cathedral, and reduced the stipends of those who were left. The Bishop was henceforth to be no longer a great landowner, managing his own revenues and estates, but a prelate, like any other, drawing a fixed stipend. His officers went, and the Palatinate jurisdiction which Dudley had coveted was finally annexed to the Crown. Thus to-day George V. is, within the confines of the Bishopric, Earl Palatine of Durham.{24}

TOPOGRAPHY OF DURHAM

By Miss M. Hope Dodds
Hist. Tripos, Cantab.

The Great North Road.

THE Great North Road crosses the Tees by Croft Bridge, on which the boundary between Yorkshire and Durham is marked by a stone dated 1627. This road is the "Darnton Trod," along which criminals from the South sought refuge all through the Middle Ages. Once across the Tees the fugitive was safe, for the King’s writ did not run in the Bishopric. Moreover, this was the road to the great sanctuary of St. Cuthbert at Durham, where a man was safe from the vengeance of his enemies; and so it happened that Darlington became a great resort of evil-doers, and in 1311 Bishop Kellaw issued a proclamation threatening with the terrors of excommunication all those who molested merchants going to and returning from Darlington market. The ill-name of the neighbourhood was not lost after the Bishop had been deprived of his own writs in 1536. The little inn of Baydale was the resort of the gentlemen of the road in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the rendezvous of Catton’s gang, the haunt of Barwick and of Sir William Browne, all noted highwaymen of the North.

The first hamlet in Durham through which the road passes is Oxneyfield, where, in the fields by the wayside, may be seen the Hell Kettles, four dark, still pools, formed by the natural sinking of the soil over the salt measures in the north bank of the Tees. There is a tradition that an{25} Eastern diver, a black man, plunged into one of the pools, and reappeared in the Skerne, having discovered a subterranean connection between the two waters. The Black Man in North Country legends is usually the devil, and this story may be connected with the belief that the Hell Kettles sometimes grow boiling hot, and that the devil "seethes the souls of sinful men and women in them," at which times the spirits may be heard to cry and yell about the pools.

Passing by this haunted place the road leads on to Darlington, a borough full of historical relics, from the Bulmer Stone in Northgate to the first locomotive at Bank Top Station. The Bulmer Stone is a large boulder of Shap granite, which was borne down to its present resting-place on a glacier in the Ice Age. Lying in the midst of the level, marshy plains of the Skerne, it formed a land{26}mark for the men of the Bronze Age, and was perhaps the origin of the town. An Anglian burial-ground, probably pre-Christian, was discovered in the town in 1876. After the conversion of the North a church was built, and two Saxon crosses from it are preserved in the present Church of St. Cuthbert. The history of this beautiful building does not come within the scope of the present section. To the west of the church lies the market-place, where in 1217 Stephen de Cantuaria purchased half a pound of pepper at the fair on the Feast of All Saints, which he rendered to Roger Fitzacris as service for this land in Milneflach and elsewhere. From the market-cross in 1312 was read the Bishop’s order that a tournament which had been proclaimed at Darlington should not be held, as it was forbidden by the laws of the land. That market-cross is not standing now, but its successor may be seen in the modern covered market, a plain column surmounted by a ball, which was erected in 1727 by Dame Dorothy Brown, the last descendant of the family of Barnes, whose members had held the office of bailiff of Darlington for over a hundred years. The old toll-booth, in which the bailiffs held their courts, was pulled down in 1806 and replaced by the present Town Hall. Ever since 1197, Darlington enjoyed the title of borough, and yet it possesses no early charters and had no corporate government; it was not visited by the municipal commissioners in 1833, and was only incorporated in 1868. Until its incorporation the Bishop of Durham appointed a bailiff, who held the old manorial court of the borough. Darlington enjoys the distinction of having retained its bailiff until the middle of the nineteenth century, whereas in the other Durham towns the Bishop had ceased to appoint bailiffs by the end of the seventeenth century. The fame of Darlington rests on the fact that the first passenger railway-line in England was laid between Darlington and Stockton by George Stephenson, who was supported by the capital and influence of Edward Pease of Darlington; the line was{27} opened in 1825. This is surely glory enough for any town!

Great Aycliffe, lying five miles north of Darlington on the highroad, was once one of the lesser forests of the Bishopric. About four miles north of Aycliffe the road crosses a little stream by the hamlet of Rushyford. This was a desolate spot in 1317, when on September 1 Lewis Beaumont, Bishop-elect of Durham, and the Cardinals{28} Gaucelin John and Luke Fieschi, with a numerous train of attendants, travelled towards Durham, Beaumont to be consecrated in the cathedral, the Cardinals to negotiate a truce between England and Scotland. They had been warned at Darlington that the road was beset, and this warning, which they disregarded, proved only too true, for as they crossed the gloomy little burn at Rushyford, they were set upon by the notorious freebooter, Sir Gilbert Middleton, and his men. The Cardinals and their servants were stripped of their goods and allowed to continue their journey, but the borderers carried off the Bishop-elect to their fortress of Mitford Castle, and there held him to ransom, until the Prior and Convent of Durham by great sacrifices succeeded in redeeming him.

The next place of importance on the road is Ferryhill, a large modern village six and a half miles south of Durham. Few traces of the past survive here, except the fragment of an old stone cross, Cleve’s Cross, which is traditionally held to commemorate the slaying of a great wild boar, which ravaged Durham once upon a time, by a certain valiant Roger de Ferry, whose family long dwelt in the neighbourhood in great honour. About a mile to the south-east of Ferryhill is Mainsforth, the estate of Robert Surtees, the historian of Durham.

Midway between Ferryhill and Durham the highroad crosses the River Wear by Sunderland Bridge, and passes through the suburbs into the city of Durham.

A bird’s-eye view of the city of Durham even at the present day is surprisingly beautiful. In the Middle Ages it would have served as a model for one of those fascinating little Jerusalems or Bethlehems, walled, towered, and pinnacled, which the old Italian masters loved to perch on the craggy hills in the background of some sacred picture. The river sweeps round three sides of the crag, which is crowned by the cathedral and the castle, and the narrow neck of land on the fourth side was defended by a moat. The Prior’s borough of Elvet and the merchants’ quarter{29} of Framwellgate lay on the opposite bank of the river, and were connected with the citadel itself by their bridges.

The monastic chroniclers of the see were chiefly interested in the doings of the Bishop in his castle and the Prior in his cathedral, and the occasional interventions of the Lord King in the quarrels of these august persons; they tell comparatively little of the life and affairs of the burgesses themselves, the descendants of the men from between Coquet and Tees, who obeyed the summons of Earl Ucthred in 995, and hastened to Durham to raise a shrine worthy of St. Cuthbert, who cleared the thick forest on the crag of Durham, divided the land by lot, and became the Haliwerfolc, the people of the Saint. Twice during the eleventh century they were besieged by the Scots, and each time the enemy was routed. The heads of the slaughtered Scots were exposed in the market-place, where the great fair of Durham was held on September 4, the Feast of the Translation of St. Cuthbert. There was also a fair on the saint’s other festival, March 20; but the September fair was the more important. The laws of the special peace of St. Cuthbert, which was proclaimed by the thanes and drengs before the fair opened, were written in an ancient Gospel-Book, and a copy of them is still preserved.

In the winter of 1068-69 Robert Cumin, the newly created Norman Earl of Northumberland, advanced to Durham with his troops, but as the Normans lay there they were surprised by a sudden rising of the whole population, and slain almost to a man. A year later news came that William himself was approaching Durham to avenge the death of Cumin, whereupon Bishop Egelwin and the priests took the sacred body of St. Cuthbert and such of the treasures of the church as they could carry and fled to Lindisfarne, followed by the people of the city, who dared not remain without the sacred relic. The whole multitude took refuge on the island while William devastated Durham and Northumberland. At length{30} peace was made, and St. Cuthbert and his followers returned to the desolate city. In 1072 William visited Durham, and installed the foreigner, Bishop Walcher, in the see. About this time also the first Norman castle was built in the city to keep the people in check; but when Bishop Walcher ventured out of his stronghold in 1080 he was murdered. Again William ravaged Durham, and the see was filled by Bishop William de St. Carileph, who began to build the present cathedral, and who founded the Benedictine monastery connected with it. To the new monastery he gave forty merchants’ houses in Elvet, which formed the nucleus of the Prior’s borough of Elvet. The troubles of Durham recommenced in 1140, when, the see being vacant, Durham Castle was seized by William Cumin, a nominee of King David of Scotland, who hoped through Cumin to annex the Bishopric. In the course of the struggle between the usurper and the new Bishop, William de St. Barbara, the greater part of the city of Durham was reduced to ashes. There were four years of desperate warfare before Bishop William entered his cathedral town, and at last received the submission of Cumin. Even then there could be no true peace while England was torn with civil war, and it was not until after the death of Bishop William that a brighter day dawned with the election of Bishop Hugh Pudsey. Bishop Hugh rebuilt the ruined city, restored the fortifications, and added to the cathedral. He granted the burgesses a charter, by which the customs of Newcastle-on-Tyne were confirmed to them, besides freedom from merchet, heriot, and toll. The city of Durham stands first in Bishop Pudsey’s great survey of the Bishopric (Boldon Book, compiled in 1183), when the city was at farm for 60 marks. Records which relate to the actual life of the citizens do not begin until the fourteenth century. The earliest are various charters of murage, dated 1345, 1377, 1385, which authorized the citizens to levy certain tolls, and to devote the proceeds to the repair of the walls and streets. The city was governed

{31}

by a bailiff, appointed by the Bishop, in the same way as Darlington. It is not until the fifteenth century that gilds are heard of in Durham. In 1436 Bishop Langley granted a licence to several of the principal inhabitants to form the religious gild of Corpus Christi in the Church of St. Nicholas, in the market-place. This gild was closely connected with the craft gilds of the town, which must have been in existence at the beginning of the century. The first records of the gilds occur in 1447, when the Shoemakers (Cordwainers) and the Fullers each gave recognizances to the Bishop that they would forfeit 20s. to him and 20s. to the light of Corpus Christi if any member took a Scot as an apprentice. The ordinances of the Weavers were enrolled and confirmed by the Bishop in 1450, and in them reference is made to the play which was to be played when they went in procession on Corpus Christi Day. The gilds were not merely a picturesque feature of town life, they had also a powerful influence on the development of the city. The corporation granted by Bishop Pilkington’s charter of 1565—the first charter of incorporation which the city obtained—was probably modelled on the governing body of the Corpus Christi Gild. The governing charter of the city until 1770 was granted by Bishop Toby Matthew in 1602, and by this charter the Common Council of the town was to consist of twenty-four persons, two being chosen from each of the twelve principal companies by the mayor and aldermen. When the city of Durham obtained Parliamentary representation in 1678, the franchise of the borough could only be obtained by membership in one of the companies, and the procedure of admission was therefore carefully regulated by the mayor and corporation. But in 1761 Durham experienced two elections within a few months of each other, and the political excitement completely demoralized the city. All restraints were thrown to the winds, and numbers of new freemen were admitted in a most irregular manner. The reaction of this exciting time on municipal{32} affairs was such that, in 1770, more than half the number of the twelve aldermen had resigned or been removed, and it was therefore impossible to elect a mayor under the charter of 1603, which consequently lapsed. The various feuds having been cooled by an interval of ten years, Bishop Egerton granted a new charter in 1780, with provisions closely resembling those of the old one, and under this charter Durham was governed until it was included in the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835.

The North Road, on leaving Durham, follows the course of one of the Roman roads which passed through the county. It leads northward over Framwellgate Moor, and six miles from Durham passes through Chester-le-Street, which lies on the banks of the Cone Burn. As the name indicates, a Roman camp was situated here, and numerous Roman remains have been found. The monks who had fled from Lindisfarne in 876 with the body of St. Cuthbert settled at Chester-le-Street after seven years’ wandering, when peace had been confirmed by the agreement between Alfred and Guthred the Dane. It was the principal city of the see until 995, when Bishop Aldhune fled once more before the renewed invasions of the Danes. In Chester-le-Street the old custom is still kept up of playing a football-match, in which the whole village takes part, on Shrove Tuesday.

The borough of Gateshead lies on the Tyne, eight miles north of Chester-le-Street. The south end of Tyne Bridge was the site of a Roman camp, and afterwards, in the seventh century, of a Saxon monastery, which was destroyed by the Danes. A little church which stood there in 1080 was the scene of the murder of Bishop Walcher, who was killed by the infuriated populace while he was trying to pacify a feud between his Norman followers and the Saxon nobles. The church was set on fire, and the Bishop was killed as he rushed from the burning building. The traces of early Norman work in the present building show that it must have soon been{33} rebuilt. The new church is first mentioned in 1256, when a prisoner who had escaped from the castle of Newcastle took refuge in Gateshead Church. Gateshead’s only charter was granted by Bishop Hugh Pudsey at some time between 1154 and 1183, and confirmed by his successor, Bishop Philip of Poitou. The little borough lay on the outskirts of the Bishop’s forest of Gateshead, and the charter freed the burgesses to some extent from the tyranny of that very great man, the Bishop’s Head Forester. In its form of government the borough was similar to Darlington. Gateshead has always been one of the principal commercial centres of the county, and, though there are no signs of craft gilds there, trade companies second in importance only to those of Durham existed from the reign of Elizabeth till the end of the eighteenth century. The prosperity of Gateshead very early excited the alarm of Newcastle, and the history of the town is studded with the attempts of its jealous neighbour to suppress its trade. In the fourteenth century the efforts of the Newcastle Corporation were directed against the fisheries and staithes on the south bank of the Tyne, which were frequently destroyed by "the malice of the men of Newcastle." In 1553 the two towns were united, but the Act was repealed by Queen Mary, who came to the throne in the same year. It was proposed to renew the union in 1568, but the anxious petitions of Gateshead, and the opposition of several influential persons in the Palatinate, frustrated the scheme. There are, however, several cases in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries of the interference of Newcastle with the trade of Gateshead. These troubles were the price that Gateshead had to pay for its advantageous position by the side of the greater town. Gateshead was given one representative in the House of Commons by the Reform Act of 1832, and was incorporated by its inclusion in the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835.

The boundary of Durham is now the south bank of{34} the Tyne, but formerly the Bishop’s jurisdiction extended over one-third of the river, and was marked by a blue stone on Tyne Bridge. The old bridge, which stood where the Swing Bridge is now, was built in 1248 to replace the Roman bridge, Pons Ælii, which dated from circa 119. In 1389 the burgesses of Newcastle carried off the Blue Stone, seized the whole of the bridge, and built a tower on the south end, which they held against the Bishop. It was not until 1415 that Bishop Langley at length obtained judgment against the Corporation of Newcastle, and took possession of the tower with all his chivalry. The tower stood until the great flood of 1771, when part of the bridge was swept away. After this catastrophe the whole was rebuilt, the new bridge being completed in 1781. The High-Level Bridge was built in 1849, and the present Swing Bridge replaced the old stone one in 1876. Meanwhile, the conservation of the River Tyne had been placed in the hands of commissioners, and the jurisdiction of the Bishop over the river came to an end.

Durham to South Shields.

The city of Durham, lying almost in the centre of the county, is an excellent point of departure from which to visit the other towns and places of interest in the Bishopric. The road which leads from the city to the mouth of the Tyne runs north-east from Framwellgate Bridge. The principal village through which it passes is Houghton-le-Spring, six and a half miles from Durham. The place is closely associated with the name of Bernard Gilpin, the Apostle of the North, who in the reigns of Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, was Rector of Houghton-le-Spring, and the chief instrument in spreading Protestant doctrines through the North. From here it is seven miles to the mouth of the Wear, where stands the flourishing port of Sunderland. In early records the town{35}

is usually called Wearmouth. It possesses two very interesting charters, dated respectively 1180-83 and 1634; nevertheless, it did not rise above the level of a manorial borough until 1835, when it was included in the Municipal Corporations Act. During the Civil War Sunderland was the principal centre of the Parliamentarians in Durham, which was on the whole a Royalist county. The fact that Sunderland was an exception was due to the influence of the family of Lilburne in the town, George Lilburne, the uncle of the famous John Lilburne, being the only magistrate in the borough during the war. At the same time the siege of Newcastle diverted the coal trade to Sunderland, and thus laid the foundation of its present prosperity. The town is famous in naval and military history as the birthplace of two heroes—Jack Crawford, who "nailed the colours to the mast" at the Battle of Camperdown, 1797, and Sir Henry Havelock, who relieved Lucknow in 1857. The Sunderland Orphan Asylum was founded in 1853 by the Freemen and Stallingers of Sunderland, and endowed with the proceeds of the sale of{36} the Town Moor, which had become exceedingly valuable in consequence of the building of the railway. The road crosses the Wear, and enters the parish of Monkwearmouth.

The history of Monkwearmouth goes back to 674, when Benedict Biscop founded there the monastery of St. Peter. The early history of the monastery was recorded by the Venerable Bede, who relates how Benedict brought over foreign masons and glass-workers to build his church, and beautified it with sacred pictures brought from Rome. It was destroyed by the Danes towards the end of the ninth century, refounded by Bishop Walcher, circa 1075, and finally annexed to the Convent of Durham by Bishop William de St. Carileph in 1083. A cell of the convent was maintained there until the Reformation, and Monkwearmouth continued to be a manor belonging to the Dean and Chapter of Durham until it was incorporated with Sunderland.

From Monkwearmouth the road runs parallel with the coast-line to South Shields. Shield Lawe, at the mouth of the Tyne, was occupied in pre-Roman times; an important Roman camp was built there; and later it was one of the fortresses of the Saxon Kings of Northumbria, and the site of St. Hilda’s first religious house, founded circa 650. The little convent was overshadowed by Benedict Biscop’s great monastery of St. Paul at Jarrow, and both fell before the onslaughts of the Danes. Jarrow subsequently became a cell of the Convent of Durham, and the Chapel of St. Hilda at South Shields kept alive the name of the foundress. After centuries of struggle with the burgesses of Newcastle, who put down the trade of South Shields with a high hand, the borough obtained Parliamentary representation in 1832, and incorporation in 1850. In the seventeenth century the salt-pans of South Shields were a flourishing industry, but its chief importance is now its harbour. The first lifeboat was built and used there in 1790.{37}

Durham to Hartlepool.

The twenty miles of road between Durham and Hartlepool is of an uninteresting character; but the town of Hartlepool itself has a long history, which begins in 640, when St. Hieu founded a convent there, of which St. Hilda was afterwards abbess. The house was destroyed by the Danes, and Hartlepool disappears from history, to reappear at the end of the twelfth century as a flourishing port belonging to Robert de Bruce, Lord of Annandale. Hitherto it had not been included in the Bishopric of Durham, but in 1189 the overlordship of the whole district of Hartness was bought by Bishop Hugh Pudsey from Richard I. The succeeding Bishop, Philip de Poitou, obtained possession of the town, but not until the burgesses had bought a charter from King John in 1200, granting to them the customs of Newcastle-on-Tyne, while the same King granted to William de Bruce, Lord of Hartlepool, the right to hold a weekly market and a fair at the Feast of St. Lawrence (August 10). The burgesses obtained another charter from Bishop Richard le Poore in 1230, in which he conceded to them the right to form a Merchant Gild and to elect a mayor. From this time the burgesses of Hartlepool were able to manage their own affairs in their own way, and enjoyed more independence than there was in any of the other towns of Durham. Their chief misfortunes befell them after Robert de Bruce became King of Scotland in 1305. Hartlepool escheated to the King of England, and in consequence the Scots felt a special enmity against it. The town was attacked more than once in the ensuing wars, but the walls and ramparts, which had been built by Robert de Bruce (1245-95) made it one of the strongest places in the Bishopric. At the beginning of the nineteenth century these fortifications were still among the finest specimens of Edwardian architecture in the kingdom, but when the trade of the town revived later in the century, the ancient walls were{38} pulled down to make way for the new pier and docks, and hardly any trace of them now remains. In 1599, by the good offices of Lord Lumley, the burgesses of Hartlepool obtained from Queen Elizabeth a charter of incorporation, under which the town was governed until 1834, when the conditions of the charter were not fulfilled, and it lapsed. The present governing charter of the town was obtained in 1850. The borough of West Hartlepool has grown up in the nineteenth century on the south side of the bay on which Hartlepool stands.

Durham to Stockton.

The Durham and Stockton road passes through Bishop Middleham, where one of the Bishop’s manor-houses used to stand, and through Sedgefield, about eleven miles from Durham, a market-town which received the grant of a weekly market and fair at the Feast of St. Edmund the Bishop (November 16) from Bishop Kellaw in 1312.

The borough of Stockton lies on the north bank of the Tees, twenty miles south of Durham. It is situated in the district which in early times formed the wapentake of Sadberg, and comprised all the lands lying along the north bank of the river. The wapentake, which was purchased by Bishop Pudsey in 1189, at the same time as Hartlepool, had a separate organization from the rest of the Bishopric, and its courts were held at Sadberg, which is now a small village about three miles east of Darlington. Stockton itself, however, seems to have come into the Bishop’s hands before the purchase of the wapentake, as it is included in the Boldon Book, 1183. The date of the incorporation of the borough is unknown, but there are grants by several of the Bishops, dated 1310, 1602, and 1666, of a weekly market and a fair at the Feast of St. Thomas à Becket (December 29). There is also an interesting letter relating to the customs practised both at Newcastle and at Stockton, which was sent by the Mayor of Newcastle

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to the Mayor of Stockton in 1344 in reply to certain questions which the people of Stockton had addressed to Newcastle as their mother town. The municipal government of the borough was in the hands of the mayor and the borough-holders, seventy-two in number, until Stockton was included in the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835.

Durham to Barnard Castle.

The road to Barnard Castle branches off from the North Road about a mile south of Sunderland Bridge, and travels south-west into Aucklandshire. This district included Binchester, Escomb, Newton, and all the Aucklands, Bishop Auckland, St. Andrew’s Auckland, St. Helen’s Auckland, and South Auckland. Aucklandshire lay on the borders of the Bishop’s great forest of Weardale, and the services of the tenants, as described in Boldon Book, were closely connected with the Bishop’s great hunting-parties in the forest. All the tenants had to provide ropes for snaring the deer, and to help to build the Bishop’s hall in the forest, with a larder, a buttery, a chamber, a chapel, and a fence round the whole encampment, when the Bishop went on the great hunt. They also kept eyries of falcons for the Bishop, and attended the roe-hunt when summoned. In return for their services at the great hunt they received a tun of beer, or half a tun if the Bishop did not come, and 2s. "as a favour." The little town of Bishop Auckland was called a borough in the fourteenth century, when the weekly markets and the fairs held on Ascension Day, Corpus Christi Day, and the Thursday before October 10, formed the chief commercial centre of the neighbourhood, but it has never been incorporated, and is now an urban district.

To the south of Aucklandshire lies the barony of Evenwood, about a quarter of a mile west of the road. This was one of the early baronies of the Bishopric, held by the family of Hansard. Evenwood was bought by{40} Bishop Bek in 1294, and his successors maintained a manor-house and park there. After passing by Evenwood, the road leads through Raby Park to Staindrop.

Staindrop was one of the vills over which the Bishop and the Convent of Durham disputed at the beginning of the twelfth century. Bishop Ralph Flambard restored it to the monks by the charter of restitution which he executed on his death-bed; and they kept it out of the clutches of succeeding Bishops by granting it in 1131 at an annual rental of £4 to Dolphin, son of Ughtred, one of the progenitors of the family of Neville. Henceforward, Staindrop remained part of the Neville estates in the Bishopric. In 1378 Bishop Hatfield granted to John Lord Neville the right to hold a weekly market and a fair there at the Feast of St. Thomas the Martyr (December 21). The whole of the Neville estates were confiscated in 1570, after the rebellion of the Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland in 1569, and Staindrop remained in the hands of the King until 1632, when it was purchased by Sir Henry Vane, from whom the present owner, Lord Barnard, is descended.

Barnard Castle is twenty-five miles from Durham, and lies on the north bank of the Tees. It did not form part of the Bishopric at the time of the Conquest, and was granted by William Rufus to Guy Balliol in 1093. Barnard Balliol, his son, built the castle circa 1132, and apparently founded the borough, for the first extant charter, granted by his son Barnard to the burgesses of Barnard Castle circa 1167, refers to the elder Barnard’s concessions to them. By this charter the burgesses were granted the customs of Richmond (Yorks). Barnard Castle was a manorial borough, and is now an urban district. The burgesses obtained charters from Hugh (1212-28), John (circa 1230), and Alexander, third son of John. All the Balliol estates in England were forfeited by John Balliol, sometime King of Scotland, in 1295. Barnard Castle was claimed by Bishop Bek, but Edward I. granted it to Guy

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Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. The Bishops of Durham made frequent efforts to obtain possession of the town, and although they were unsuccessful, they obtained Parliamentary recognition of the fact that Barnard Castle was part of the Bishopric. Richard III., by his marriage with Lady Anne of Warwick, became lord of the town, which Lady Anne inherited from her father, the King-maker. Barnard Castle escheated to the crown in 1485, and was finally granted to the Earl of Westmorland. In 1569, on receiving the news that the northern Earls had risen against the Queen, Sir George Bowes of Streatlam seized and garrisoned the castle, where he was besieged by the rebels; and although he was forced to surrender after a ten days’ siege, the delay had given the royal troops time to come up, and insured the defeat of the insurgents. After the rebellion Barnard Castle escheated to the crown again, and was leased to the valiant Bowes. It was finally purchased by Sir Henry Vane in 1632 (see above).

Durham to Alston.

The road from Durham to Alston, in Cumberland, passes by the field of the Battle of Neville’s Cross, fought on St. Luke’s Eve, October 17, 1346, in which David of Scotland, who had invaded England while Edward III. and all his forces were in France, was defeated by the troops which he contemptuously called "an army of women and priests," because they were raised by Queen Philippa, and the four divisions were commanded by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and the Bishops of Lincoln and Durham. The cross which Ralph, Lord Neville, erected on the battle-field was destroyed in 1589.

The next place of interest on the road is Brancepeth, which lies four and a half miles south-west of Durham. The family of Bulmer of Brancepeth held one of the early baronies of the Bishopric (see under Evenwood); the{42} estate finally descended to an heiress, the first of the many noble ladies whose stories lend interest to the place. She married Geoffry de Neville, circa 1150. Sixty years after, in 1227, there was again a sole heiress to Brancepeth; she married Robert FitzMeldred, Lord of Raby, and her son assumed his mother’s name, becoming the first Neville of Raby and Brancepeth. When the Neville estates were forfeited in 1570, the Countess of Westmorland was allowed to remain at the castle, and there, though beset by spies, she contrived her husband’s escape to Flanders. The surveys of the estate that were made in 1597 and 1614 mention that wild cattle were preserved in Brancepeth Park, as they still are at Chillingham. The escheated lands passed from one owner to another. In 1769 they were again inherited by an heiress, Bridgit, the only daughter of William Bellasis. She died five years after coming into her inheritance. The story goes that she pined away for love of a neighbouring squire, Robert Shafto, who had wooed and forsaken her; and the old Bishopric song of "Bobby Shafto" is said to be the record of the brief happiness of the lovelorn lady.

The market-town of Wolsingham lies sixteen miles west of Durham. It was one of the Bishop’s forest vills, lying on the moors of Weardale; and in the entry about it in Boldon Book mention is made of Ralf the Beekeeper, who held six acres for his service in keeping the bees, which were sent out on to the blossoming heather in the twelfth century, as they are to this day. Wolsingham lies on the north bank of the Wear, and, after passing through the village, the road follows the course of the river westward to Stanhope, which lies in the lead-mining district of West Durham. Half-way between Wolsingham and Stanhope lies Frosterley, where are the quarries of Frosterley marble.

Stanhope itself lay in the heart of the forest of Weardale, and was the spot to which all those who owed hunting-service must make their way when the Bishop’s great hunt was proclaimed. In 1327 the English and

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Scottish armies, commanded on the one side by Edward III., and on the other by the Earl of Murray and Sir James Douglas, lay encamped for some days over against each other on the hills round Stanhope. No battle was fought, and the Scots withdrew by night, having deceived Edward by false intelligence. The remains of the earthworks in which the two armies entrenched themselves may still be seen.

St. John’s Chapel, seven miles west of Stanhope, is the last considerable village on the road to Alston before it crosses the boundary of Durham. The chapel is mentioned in the fifteenth century, and a market and annual fair were held there, but there were few inhabitants until the end of the eighteenth century. From St. John’s Chapel the road leads up over the moors, past the sources of the Wear, and crosses the county boundary on Killhope Moor.{44}

FOLK-LORE OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM

By Mrs. Newton W. Apperley

WHOEVER makes a study of the folk-lore of a county will find that its customs, beliefs, and superstitions, have their origin in immemorial antiquity. To find out the reason for many a curious and apparently frivolous observance it is necessary to go back many centuries, to the time when a nature-worship, already immeasurably old, was practised; when the sun and moon, fire, water, and earth, were personified by gods and goddesses. Festivals were held in honour of each, and stones and trees, wells and rivers, had their temples and devotees. These were overlaid by and mingled with the successive rituals of Roman, Saxon, and Dane, and finally were almost, but not quite, conquered by Christianity. The older faiths made a stubborn resistance to the reformer, and though adapted and altered, many of their usages survive to this day.

The four great Fire Festivals of Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter were Christianized and dedicated anew; some of the gods and goddesses were re-named as saints; and many of the rites belonging to their worship were modified into Christian observances.

But the people kept their old superstitions, and placed their faith in the charms and amulets belonging to the ancient worship. In the North especially the old beliefs lingered long, and even now, in the twentieth century, many quaint customs are to be found. Most of the people{45} who practise them could give no reason for so doing, and have certainly no knowledge of their origin. It is "lucky" to do this, and "unlucky" to do that, is all they can say.

The county of Durham, though the especial patrimony and property of St. Cuthbert, is particularly rich in legends and traditions, in places both haunted and hallowed, and in old-world observances of all kinds. Many are the stories of giants, brownies, fairies, ghosts, witches, and "worms" or dragons, told of and in it.

The Gabriel Hounds—those monstrous human-headed dogs, whose pause over a house is said to bring death or misfortune to its inmates—are still heard traversing the air, though they are seldom seen.

Tales of the Hand of Glory—that unhallowed taper made of the hand of a hanged man, holding a candle made of the fat of a murderer, whose light would send all the inhabitants of a house to sleep, and enable a burglar to make his easy way throughout it—are still told.

And the Fairy Hills near Castleton, Hetton-le-Hole, Middridge, and other places where fairies used to dance their nightly rounds, are still pointed out. Cattle were often shot by their tiny arrows, and children frequently wore necklaces of coral or of peony seeds, as otherwise they might have been stolen and taken away to Fairyland.

Mr. Henderson, in his Folk-lore of the Northern Counties, is convinced that there is firm faith in ghosts and their power of revisiting the earth throughout the whole county of Durham.

Witchcraft is to some extent believed in. It is not long since an old woman reputed to be a witch died at Aycliffe, and charms against their power have been, and are still, practised; indeed, they are still "crossed-out" by those who make the sign of the cross on loaves before they are put in the oven, and by the butchers who make, or used to make, a cross on the shoulder before selling it. A crooked sixpence, a piece of rowan-wood, or a four-leaved clover{46} worn in the pocket, will keep them away. A self-bored stone or a horseshoe hung over the bed or in the byre will prevent their evil influence from harming either person or property; and should you be so unfortunate as to meet a reputed witch, it is well to close your fingers round your thumb, and repeat the rhyme:

And there were wise men, and especially wise women, who knew many spells of might to be used against them and against fairies.

It is clear that a child born into this haunted country, and surrounded from his birth by signs, portents, and auguries, must carry through his life a belief in the superstitions of his forefathers.

The day of birth is most important, for it always influences the character and fortunes of the child.

Children born during the hour after midnight see spirits, and this uncanny gift continues through life. If born with a caul, the child will always be lucky. Children born in May are said to be seldom healthy.

A cake and cheese should always be provided before the birth of an infant. These are cut by the doctor, and all present partake of them, on pain of the poor child growing up ugly. The nurse keeps some of this cake and cheese, and when she takes the child to be christened she gives them to the first person whom she meets of opposite sex to that of the child. If boys and girls are being christened at the same time, the boys must be christened first, as otherwise the girls would have beards, the boys none!{47}

Baptism is thought to be good for a child, and it is often said that children never thrive till they are christened. It is well if they cry during the ceremony, for it means that "the devil is going out of them." There is some warrant for this belief, for until the time of Edward VI. a form of exorcism, in order to expel the evil spirit from the child, was still used in the Baptismal Service.

A child who does not cry at baptism will not live.

It is unlucky to call a child by its future name until it has actually received it, and most especially should one avoid naming it after a dead brother or sister. The child will probably die also, or, if it lives, will never prosper.

Some nurses will never put a child’s dress over its head until it is christened, but always draw it up over the feet. I never could hear why. And the inside of the hands should not be washed during this time. Some go so far as to say that the right hand should not be washed for a year, so as not to "wash the luck away."

But before taking a child out of its mother’s room the careful nurse will see that it does not go downstairs first, as that would mean a descent in life for it. If it is impossible for it to go upstairs, she must take it in her arms, and mount a chair or stool with it, thereby assuring it of a rise in life.

The mother should go nowhere till she has been churched, as she would carry ill-luck to the house she entered.

The baby should receive three, sometimes four, presents when it first visits another house. These are its "almison," and consist of an egg, bread, salt, and sometimes a piece of money. The bread and salt are things used in sacrifices; the egg has always been a sacred emblem; the money is for luck, and should be carefully kept.

Never rock a cradle when empty, or you may rock another baby into it. And this is very likely to be the case if the reigning baby cuts its teeth very early, for, as the proverb says, "Soon teeth, soon toes" (another set of{48} them). If it tooths first in the upper jaw, that means death in infancy. Later, on losing a tooth, the cavity should be filled with salt, and the tooth thrown into the fire with the words:

It is an ancient custom, when a family is sold up, to except the cradle, and leave it in the possession of its original owner.

The nails should not be cut for a year, or the child will become a thief. Bite them off, and all will be well.

When the child grows older, the nails should never be cut on Friday or Sunday. These are unlucky days, but, as the rhyme tells us, other days do very well:

Still later in life, another verse says:

The hair should always be cut when the moon is waxing, and all clippings and combings should be burnt, or "the birds will take it for their nests." Probably the original idea, like that attached to the clippings of the nails, was that they should be destroyed, lest some enemy should use them to work an evil spell against the owner.

If the hair burn brightly when thrown into the fire, it means long life to the owner; if it smoulder, it is a sign of death.

If you swallow a hair, it will wrap itself round your heart and kill you. Howitt tells this seriously as having caused the death of Herbert Southey.{49}

The mother should be careful to see that no child is allowed to jump over the head of another, as in that case the overleapt infant would never grow. The Kafirs have the same idea, and some tribes will not play leap-frog for that reason.

When a seventh son is born, it is still said that he ought to be a doctor. He was anciently supposed to be able to cure the "king’s evil" by touching; and the seventh son of a seventh son had still higher and more Divine attributes. If a seventh daughter appeared without any boy intervening, she was to be a witch.

When the boy is old enough to put his instilled and inherited beliefs into practice, he may charm the butterfly to alight on his hand by saying (it must be said often enough!):

If he wishes for fine weather, he may sing:

The snail will look out from its shell if he says:

And when stung by a nettle, dock-leaves are laid on the stung place, and this rhyme chanted:

If he puts a horse-hair into water, it will turn into an eel.

Durham schoolboys used, when they saw a rainbow, to make a cross of straws or twigs upon the ground, in order to send it away, or, as they said, to "cross out the rainbow."

Borrow tells of "the gipsy mystery of the trus’hul, how by making a cross of two sticks the expert in occultism{50} could wipe the rainbow out of the heavens"; and the charm might have its roots still farther back in the cross of Thor, anciently used to dispel rain and thunderstorms.

In Confirmation, those who are touched by the Bishop’s left hand will never marry.

When the time for marriage comes, it is important to choose a lucky day and season. The days of the week are thus fated:

It is well to avoid marriage in Lent, for

And May is an unlucky month for weddings, as for births. But the time being happily settled, the bride must not hear the banns given out, or her children will be deaf and dumb, and neither she nor any of the guests must wear anything green. She should wear

The day of the marriage should be fine, "for happy is the bride whom the sun shines on." The bridal party is escorted to church by men armed with guns, which they continually fire. After the ceremony it is the clergyman’s privilege to kiss the bride; and outside the church people are probably waiting with "hot-pots," of which the whole party must taste.

At St. Helen’s Auckland, and other villages, the "race for the bride-door" for a ribbon or kerchief is still customary.

And it was formerly the custom to address complimentary verses to the bridal couple before they left the church. This was called "saying the Nominy." The verses differed, were of no great poetical merit, and always ended with, "Pray remember the Nominy sayer."{51}

The word is evidently derived from nomen, the bride having received a new name.

The loss of the wedding-ring means the loss of the husband’s love, and its breaking forbodes death.

Of portents of death there are many. The howling of dogs; the flight of jackdaws or swallows down the chimney; "a winding-sheet" in the candle; the crowing of a cock at the dead of night; the hovering of birds round the house, or their resting on the window-sill, or flapping against the pane; and three raps given by an invisible hand, are all auguries of death.

If thirteen persons sit down to a meal together, one of them will die before the year is out.

The custom of keeping the Vigil of St. Mark is not unknown. They who wish to know who of their fellow-parishioners will die during the coming year must keep watch in the church porch from eleven to one, on St. Mark’s Eve, for three successive years; then the doomed company will pass into the church. But if the watcher fall asleep during his vigil, he will himself die during the year.

At the time of death the door should be left open to afford free passage to the departing spirit. It is held that no one can die on a bed or pillow containing the feathers of pigeons or of game of any kind; and all along the East Coast it is said that people usually die during the falling of the tide.

When the corpse is "laid out," the death-chamber is shrouded in white, the clock is stopped, and the looking-glass covered, to show that for the dead time is no more and earthly vanity departed. There is also the dread that if the mirror were left uncovered the ghost of the dead man might be reflected in it.

A plate of salt is also placed upon the breast as an emblem of eternity.

Those who come to see the corpse are expected to touch it, in token that they are in peace with the dead. It is often said that if you do not touch it you will dream{52} of it. The coffin must be carried to the church by the old-established "church-road," and the notion still prevails that the way over which a body is carried to its burial thereby becomes a highroad. Therefore in the case of private roads or bridges (the Prebend’s Bridge at Durham, certainly) a small toll is levied when a funeral procession passes over it. The coffin-bearers are usually chosen so as to correspond with the deceased in sex, age, and position. In the case of children and young girls, white scarves and gloves are worn; and if the dead person were a young unmarried woman, a "maiden garland" used to be laid on the coffin, and hung up in the church after the funeral. There are, or were, some of these garlands hanging in the church of Witton-Gilbert, near Durham. These have a glove, cut out of white paper, in the midst.

When arrived at the churchyard, the dead must be carried to the grave the way of the sun (east, by south, west, and north, for "ye wad no hae them carry the dead again the sun; the dead maun aye go wi’ the sun." This is an old British usage, and in the Highlands is called "making the deisul." It is practised to bring good luck; to go round in the opposite direction (or "withershins") is an evil incantation, and brings ill-fortune.

It should rain a little during the procession, for "happy is the corpse that the rain rains on!"

It used to be customary for anyone meeting a funeral to stop for a moment and take his hat off. This is still occasionally done.

The survivors should not grieve too much for the dead, as this hinders their repose.

When the head of a house dies, the bees should be told of their master’s death, and asked to accept the new one, or they will all die.

It is said that if a loaf of bread weighted with quicksilver be allowed to float in the water, it will swim towards, and stand over the place where the body of a drowned person lies.{53}

There is a remedy for most diseases in the shape of a spell or charm.

Whooping-cough may be cured by passing the child under an ass; or by taking some milk, giving half to a white ferret, letting the child drink the rest. In Sunderland, the crown of the head is shaved and the hair hung upon a bush, so that the birds, carrying it to their nests, may take the cough with it.

For epilepsy, a half-crown may be offered at Communion and then asked for again, and made into a ring to be worn by the person affected.

For cramp, garter the left leg below the knee, or tie an eel’s skin round it.

A more unpleasant remedy is that for a wen, for the touch of a corpse’s hand will cure it. "Andrew Mills’s stob" (gibbet) was once thought sovereign against toothache.

Warts can be charmed away by taking a piece of raw meat (it ought to be stolen), rubbing the warts with it, and throwing it away. As the meat decays the warts will vanish.

If anyone is bitten by a dog, the animal should be destroyed, for, should it go mad at any time, the person bitten would be attacked by hydrophobia.

St. Agnes’s Fast (January 21) is thus practised: Two girls, each wishing to see their future husbands, must fast and be dumb through the whole of St. Agnes’s Eve. At night, in the same silence, they must make "the dumb cake," aided by their friends, then divide it in two parts, one of which each girl takes, walks backwards upstairs, cuts the cake, and retires to bed. Then dreams of the future husband should follow.

And girls will stick a candle-end full of pins to bring their lovers to them. Or, taking an apple-pip, and naming the lover, will put it in the fire. If it burst with a noise he loves, but if it burns silently his love is nought.{54}

If a girl wishes to meet her future husband, she must carry an ash-leaf having an even tip, and say—

If it is found difficult to rear calves, the leg of one of the dead animals should be hung in the chimney. In Yorkshire, the dead calf is buried under the threshold of the byre, either practice being (unconsciously) a sacrifice to Odin.

"To work as though one was working for need-fire," is a common proverb in the North, and refers to the practice of producing fire by the friction of two pieces of wood. This was done when the murrain prevailed among cattle, and the diseased animals were made to pass through the smoke raised by this holy fire. This was considered a certain cure. When cattle have foul in the feet, the turf on which the beast treads with the affected foot is taken up and hung in the open air. As it crumbles away, so will the diseased foot recover.

And the water in which Irish and other stones have been steeped has been used in the Bishopric as a cure for disease for cattle.

If you seize the opportunities, which are many, you may have what you please by wishing for it. But the condition is in every case the same: the nature of the wish must be kept secret. You may journey to Jarrow, and sitting in Bede’s chair, make your wish; or, nearer at hand, there is a stone seat at Finchale Priory credited with the same power. If you see a horseshoe or a nail, pick it up, throw it over your left shoulder and wish; and wish also if you see a piebald horse, but you must manage to do so before you see its tail.

You may wish, too, when you first hear the cuckoo, and when you see the new moon.

Much reverence has in all ages been paid to wells. The Worm Well at Lambton was once in high repute as a{55} wishing-well, and a crooked pin (the usual tribute of the "wishers") may be sometimes still discovered sparkling among the clear gravel of the bottom of the basin.

As late as 1740 children troubled with any infirmity were brought to the Venerable Bede’s Well, at Monkton, near Jarrow. A crooked pin was put in, and the well laved dry between each dipping.

Pins may sometimes be seen in Lady Byron’s Well at Seaham. There was a custom (which cannot now be practised, as the monument is railed in) of walking nine times round Neville’s Cross. "Then if you stoop down, and lay your head to the turf, you’ll hear the noise of the battle and the clash of the armour."

The weather-wise will tell you that if the leaves remain long upon the trees in autumn it is going to be a hard winter, and will bid you notice how the wind blows on New Year’s Eve:

Candlemas Day (February 2) should also be observed:

Some pretend to prophesy the coming weather from that of the last three days of March. These are called the "borrowing days."

Of Michaelmas Day it is said: "So many days old the moon is on Michaelmas Day, so many floods after."

If it rains on Friday it is sure to rain on Sunday—“wet Friday, wet Sunday."

Watch the cat as she washes her face, and if she passes her paw over her ear it will rain to-morrow.

The oak and ash-trees are considered to prophesy the weather:

If you will begin the year auspiciously, be careful that your first foot "is a fair man." Men still go about to "bring the New Year in," and their guerdon is usually a glass of whisky. On no account should a woman be the first foot, for she would bring misfortune. But before this the New Year has been ushered in by the ringing of church bells, and sounding of buzzers from all the collieries.

Nothing should be allowed to go out of the house on this day, for that would mean a year of poverty, but as much as possible should be brought in, as that will insure a year of plenty; and for the same reason a new dress should be worn with money in its pocket.

Be careful to avoid seeing the first moon of the year through glass; courtesy to her, and wish.

The day before Shrove Tuesday is known as Collop Monday, and on it eggs and bacon should be eaten.

Pancakes, of course, are appropriate to Shrove Tuesday; in fact, it is better known in the North as Pancake Tuesday. Durham children still believe that on this day pancakes fall out of the mouth of the great medieval knocker fixed on the north door of the cathedral, and are sometimes seen bringing plates or baskets to receive the dole, and sugar with which to eat it.

The Pancake Bell still rings from the cathedral to call{57} the faithful to confession, though neither confessional nor pancakes are existent.

Football usually begins now and continues till Easter.

Carlings, or grey peas soaked in water and fried in butter, are eaten on Carling Sunday.

"He who hath not a palm in his hand on Palm Sunday must have his hand cut off," so "palm crosses" were always made for Palm Sunday of willow catkins, tied up with ribbon, and kept till next year.

On Good Friday "hot cross buns," a sort of teacake made with spice and sugar, and marked with a cross, are always made; and fig pudding, or "fig sue," is eaten, in memory of the fig-tree cursed by our Lord when He rode to Jerusalem.

No blacksmith in the county of Durham would at one time drive a nail on this day, in memory of our Lord’s crucifixion.

Good Friday and Easter Sunday were both thought lucky days on which to cast the coats and caps of young children, or to short-coat them.

You must put on something new on Easter Sunday, or the birds will spoil your clothes.

Paste-eggs boiled hard and dyed with ribbons or wool, whinblossoms or onion peelings, are rolled on the grass, or "jauped" against each other till broken, and tansy puddings should be eaten.

Balls are often given to children and played with by them, this being a relic of the custom of playing at "handball" at Easter.

On Easter Sunday the boys may pull off the girls’ shoes; but on Easter Monday the girls may retaliate by pulling off the caps of the boys.

"All Fools’ Day" is still kept to some extent, chiefly by schoolboys, who send their victims to the chemist for oil of hazel, or "strap oil," which they receive in a dry form from the irate shop-keeper!

They also wear oak-leaves on Royal Oak Day; and{58} the choristers of Durham Cathedral go to the top of the central tower and sing anthems. This, though now done in honour of the Restoration, was originally in thanksgiving for the victory of Neville’s Cross, and used to take place in October.

And it is schoolboys, too, who keep Guy Fawkes’ Day in remembrance, for the noise of crackers and fireworks and the excitement of a bonfire do very much appeal to them. Guys are now seldom carried about, but are sometimes burnt.

The "mell-supper" in the county of Durham (from the Norse melr, corn) is akin to the Northumbrian "kirn-feast," and is held when the last sheaf is brought in. When this is done, the farmer’s headman proceeds to "shout the mell":

This last sheaf used to be dressed in finery and crowned with wheatears, hoisted on a pole, and all the harvesters danced round this "kern-baby," or harvest-queen, who afterward presided over the supper. Mummers, or "guisers," used to attend the feast, but all these usages are dying out, and the master often gives the harvesters money or ale instead of the supper. This is the old autumn feast of the ingathering of the corn, and in Brito-Roman times the image was that of the goddess Ceridwen, answering to Ceres. Later, it stood for the Virgin Mary.

You must not gather brambles after October, or the devil will come after you! He is evidently about at this time, for when the brambles are spoilt at the end of the season, it is said that "the devil has set his foot on the bummelkites," this being their local name.

Hallow E’en sports are still practised, the mystic apple so often appearing in Celtic fairy-lore, playing a great part{59} in them. Apples are ducked for in a tub of water with the mouth, the hands being clasped behind the back. A small rod of wood is sometimes suspended from the ceiling, a lighted candle being fixed at one end, and an apple at the other. The apple has to be caught by the teeth when it passes before them, and if it is carefully pared, so that the peel comes off in one strip, and this is flung over the left shoulder, it will form the initials of the loved one’s name. Or it may be eaten before a mirror, and the lover’s face will be reflected therein; but on no account must the worker of this spell look backwards.

At Christmas-tide Yule cakes and "Yule dollies" are made, these last being quaint figures made of dough, with currants to mark their features and the outlines of their dress. Furmety (wheat boiled in milk) is eaten, the Yule log is burnt, and the Christmas stocking is hung up that gifts may be placed in it. Candles are still given by grocers; the fruiterer presents a bunch of mistletoe; children come round and sing carols, bearing a box containing figures of the Virgin and Child. The sword-dancers or "guisers" come, perform a dance and sing a song, the words of which vary considerably.

Finally, as many mince-pies as you eat at Christmas, so many happy months will you have.

Here is "a copious catalogue of things lucky and unlucky," at least of those considered as such in the Bishopric:

If you accidentally put on a stocking, or indeed any garment, inside out, it is most fortunate, and the mistake should not be rectified, you will turn the luck.

But if you put a button or hook into the wrong hole while dressing in the morning, something unpleasant will happen to you during the day.

"Sing before breakfast, cry before supper," is an oft-quoted proverb, perhaps deduced from the common belief that unusually high spirits portend coming misfortune.

When a child first puts on a dress with a pocket in it,{60} its father should put some money into it; this means lifelong riches.

On putting on a new dress, a well-wisher will say to the owner, "I wish you health to wear it, strength to tear it, and money to buy another."

Similarly, when a young tradesman first dons his apron, it is well to say to him: "Weel may ye brook your apron." This, if said by a lucky person, will insure the young man’s success in life.

If a spider is found on the clothes, it means that money is coming to you; and if clothes must be mended while being worn, you will lose money.

If the hem of your dress persistently turns up, a letter is coming to you.

If your apron falls off, someone is thinking of you.

Those who can always guess the time accurately will never be married.

If the nose itches, you will be annoyed; if the foot, you will travel.

Itching of the right hand, money is coming to you; of the left, that you will have to pay money; of the ear, hearing sudden news.

If the right ear tingles, someone is defaming you.

If you shiver, someone is walking over your grave.

A blessing is still invoked on people when they sneeze.

Meeting eyebrows are fortunate; so is a mole on the neck, at least, it means health to the owner, but some say that it brings him in danger of hanging.

Always enter a house with your right foot first; to enter with the left foot brings ill luck to the inhabitants, and you must go back and repair the mistake.

If you stumble, by accident, in going upstairs, you will be married the same year; the same if you snuff out the candle (this omen is becoming rarer with the decline of tallow candles).

If two people wash their hands in the same basin,{61} they are sure to quarrel before bedtime, but this may be prevented by making the sign of the cross over the water.

If your eyes are weak, have your ears pierced, it will benefit them.

If a loaf be turned upside down after cutting, it is unlucky. Along the coast they say that it causes a ship to be wrecked. The same if three candles are placed upon the table.

If a loaf breaks in the hand while cutting it, you part man and wife.

And spilling the salt is as ominous here as elsewhere, but you may amend your luck by throwing a pinch three times over your left shoulder with your right hand.

"Help me to saut, help me to sorrow," would be the answer to the person who should offer to place salt on the plate of another.

To cross the knife and fork is a sign of bad luck. To give a knife cuts love; it should always be paid for. Only last Christmas I gave a knife to an old friend, and she punctiliously sent a penny to me in payment for it.

Do not lend a pin, your friend may take one, but it is unlucky to give it.

Never begin anything on Friday, it will not prosper.

If you must pass under a ladder, cross your fingers and wish. The unsophisticated spit; and if you are walking with anyone wait for him to speak first, and any ill luck that may be coming will fall on his head.

"Spitting for luck" is still common enough. Hucksters and fish-women spit on the handsel (the first money they receive), and many horsedealers do the same. Colliers, when considering a strike, used to spit on one stone together, by way of cementing their confederacy, and schoolboys used to spit their faith when making a challenge to fight. This was considered a sacred pledge which it was thought a point of honour to fulfil.

It is wrong to point at the stars, or even to count them; you may be struck dead for doing so.{62}

Hawthorn blossoms should not be brought into the house; they are as unlucky as peacock’s feathers, which also should never be brought indoors.

And evergreens should not be burnt.

The luck of three is much believed in. If you fail twice in trying to do a thing, you will probably succeed in the third trial. "The third time’s catchy time."

Servants say that if they break one thing they are sure to break three, a foreboding which not seldom comes true.

And when the minute-bell of the cathedral rings once it is bound to ring three times.

If you break a looking-glass, you will have no luck for seven years. Some say that it betokens a death in the house, probably that of its master.

If a black cat enters the house, it must by no means be turned away, for it brings good luck.

Kittens born in May are unlucky and useless, never keep them.

It is lucky, when you see the first lamb of the year, if its head is turned towards you; but unlucky, if its tail.

It is thought that hedgehogs suck cows as they lie asleep.

A toad is poisonous; do not touch it.

In all ages the flight and behaviour of birds have been thought worthy of notice.

When setting hens, the number of eggs should be odd (generally eleven or thirteen); if the number be even, you will have no chickens. A hen that crows brings ill luck, just as does a woman who whistles.

If the hens come into the house, or if the cock crows on the threshold, a visitor is coming. If you have money in your pocket and turn it when you first hear the cuckoo{63} you will be rich all that year; but if your pocket be empty so it will remain. There is a small bird attending on the cuckoo, generally a meadow-pipit. It is called in Durham the cuckoo’s sandy, and is supposed to provide its patron with food.

When the peacock screams, it is going to rain.

The magpie is an unlucky bird because it would not go into the ark with Noah, but sat outside, "jabbering at the drowned world."

But if you have the misfortune to see one magpie you may nullify the omen by making the sign of the cross, or, as some do, by waving a hand at the evil bird, and saying, "Mag, I defy thee."

The raven is thought to be an unlucky bird, though here in Durham city we should think better of it, for one made the fortune of Sir John Duck by dropping a gold piece at his feet when he was a poor out-of-work butcher-boy. He became a rich coal-owner, and in his memory coals are often called "ducks" in Durham; and the "Old Duck Main" still exists at Rainton.

If rooks, or crows, as we call them here, desert a rookery, it means the downfall of the family on whose property it is. Swallows, once sacred to the Penates, and honoured as the heralds of the spring, are lucky, and their nests must never be pulled down, as they bring good fortune to the place where they build, and it bodes ill luck if they leave a place they have once tenanted.

Naturally, much local lore has gathered round the cathedral, the great Mother-Church of the diocese. The death superstition relating to the minute-bell, the ringing of the Pancake Bell, and the legend of the knocker, have already been mentioned. The Curfew Bell still rings at nine (the hour of compline), not at eight, as in other{64} places, but never on Saturday, because on the night of that day a man, who went alone to ring, was spirited away, and never seen again.

When, on May 29, the choristers go to the central tower, they sing anthems on three sides only, and except the western side, because it was from this point that the man leaped whose tombstone is seen below. It is a mutilated effigy of Frosterly marble, and is said to represent Hob of Pelaw, holding the purse of money for which he risked and lost his life, and the fossils in the marble are said, by schoolboys, to be the coins contained in it. Country people come, for some unknown reason, to draw their foot over the purse.

Curiously, the churchyard here is on the north side of the church. The cloisters are ceiled with Irish oak, so that they never harbour dust or cobwebs, and the saying goes that if the Protestants were not always doing something to the cathedral the Catholics could take it away from them!

There is no church at Butterby, and you will often hear a man who is not in the habit of attending Divine worship spoken of as a "Butterby churchgoer."

These old-world beliefs and stories are fast fading away before the advance of the schoolmaster; but they linger yet in the minds of old people, and it will be long before they are quite forgotten.

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THE LEGENDS[6] OF DURHAM

By Miss Florence N. Cockburn

THE northern counties are all rich in legendary history, and the county of Durham has its full share.

Curiously, instead of most of the legends being of an ecclesiastical nature, as one would naturally expect in a county where the Church has predominated for many{66} centuries, the contrary is the case. All the best-known legends are of deadly war waged with some uncouth or venomous monster, in which, without exception, some local hero, Jack-the-Giant-Killer-like, comes off victorious.

The Dun Cow.

Visitors to Durham rarely leave without having the sculptured panel representing the famous Dun Cow on the cathedral front pointed out to them.

The legend runs that the monks, having fled from Chester-le-Street and rested with the body of the saint for some time at Ripon, were desirous of returning to Chester. "Coming with him (St. Cuthbert) on the east side of Durham to a place called Ward-lawe, they could not with all their force remove his body from thence, which seemed to be fastened to the ground, which strange and unexpected accident wrought great admiration in the heart of the bishops, monks, and their associates, and, ergo, they fasted and prayed three days with great reverence and devotion, desiring to know by revelation what they should do with the holy body of St. Cuthbert, which thing was granted unto them, and therein they were directed to carry him to Dunholme (Durham). But being distressed because they were ignorant where Dunholme was, see their good fortune. As they were going a woman that lacked her cow did call aloud to her companion to know if she did not see her, who answered with a loud voice that her cow was in Dunholme, a happy and heavenly echo to the distressed{67} monks, who by that means were at the end of their journey, where they should find a resting-place for the body of their honoured saint."

The Brawn of Brancepeth.

At what time the brawn, or boar, ceased to exist as a wild animal in Britain is uncertain, but it was at one time a common inhabitant of our British forests, and protected by the law in the tenth and eleventh centuries.

The village of Brancepeth (a corruption of Brawn’s path) is said to have derived its name from a formidable brawn of vast size, which made his lair on Brandon Hill, and walked the forest in ancient times, and was a terror to all the inhabitants from the Wear to the Gaunless. The{68} marshy, and then woody, vale extending from Croxdale to Ferry Wood was one of the brawn’s favourite haunts. According to tradition, Hodge of Ferry, after carefully marking the boar’s track near Cleves Cross, dug a pitfall, slightly covered with boughs and turf, and then, toiling on his victim by some bait to the treacherous spot, stood, armed with his good sword, across the pitfall—“at once with hope and fear his heart rebounds."

At length the gallant brute came trotting on its onward path, and, seeing the passage barred, rushed headlong on the vile pitfall to meet its death. It is generally believed that this champion of Cleves sleeps in Merrington churchyard, beneath a coffin-shaped stone, rudely sculptured with the instruments of the victory—a sword and spade on each side of a cross.

Another stone, supposed to be the remnant of a cross, stands on the hill near the farm of Cleves Cross, and is said to have probably been raised on the same occasion. It was not unusual, in England or abroad, when a man had slain a boar, wolf, or spotted pard, to bear the animal as an ensign in his shield. We believe that the seal of Roger de Ferry still remains in the treasury at Durham, exhibiting his old antagonist, a boar passant. The seal of his daughter Maud, wife of Alan of Merrington, shows the boar’s head erased.

The Pollard Boar.

A family of the name of Pollard was seated at an early period in the parish of Bishop Auckland; and one of their estates was called Pollard’s Dene, and the ceremony of presenting a falchion to the Bishop soon after his entrance into the See was performed by the possessors of Pollard’s lands.

The legend of how a Pollard gained this land runs as follows:

The King offered to anyone who would bring the head{69} of a wild boar, which destroyed man and beast, to his palace "a princely guerdon," and the Bishop of Durham, who passed the greater part of the year at Auckland Castle, having also promised a large reward, a member of the ancient family of Pollard determined to kill the brute, or die in the attempt. So this courageous knight armed himself, mounted his trusty steed, and rode to the lair of the boar, and noted its track. After tying his horse to a tree, out of its regular course, he climbed a beech-tree under which the monster often passed, and shook down a large quantity of ripe beechmast.

There he waited until the boar came, and had the satisfaction of seeing it make a good meal. In time it showed signs of drowsiness, and commenced moving from the place. Pollard, feeling that the time had come for action, made an onslaught on the boar. After so hearty a meal, it was not in a fighting humour, but nevertheless made a fierce resistance, and taxed to the utmost the prowess of the knight. The encounter lasted the greater part of the night, and the welcome rays of the sun burst forth as he severed the head from the trunk of the boar. Having cut out its tongue and placed it in his wallet, he decided to rest for a short time under a tree; but a deep sleep overcame him, and led to a serious disappointment, for when he awoke he discovered that the head had been taken away. He was in great despair, for he had not the trophy to take to the King to obtain the promised prize; so, mounting his horse, he rode to the Bishop and told his tale, and, showing the tongue, his lordship, who was about to dine, rejoiced to hear the good news, and, as a reward, promised the knight as much land as he could ride round during the hour of dinner. When he next came before the prelate, he startled the latter by intimating that he had ridden round his castle, and claimed it and all it contained as his meed. The Bishop was loath to part with his stronghold, but was bound to admit the validity of the claim, and eventually made a compromise by granting him an extensive freehold{70} estate known to this day as Pollard’s Land. These broad acres were given with the condition attached that the possessor should meet every Bishop of Durham on his first coming to Auckland, and present to him a falchion with this speech: "My lord, I, in behalf of myself as well as several others, possessors of the Pollard’s lands, do humbly present your lordship with this falchion, at your first coming here, wherewith, as the tradition goeth, he slew of old a mighty boar, which did much harm to man and beast; and by performing this service we hold our lands."

Hutchinson, rather curiously, quotes a letter signed "R. Bowser," commencing: "Sir, inclosed you have the speech my brother Pewterer gave me out of Lord Bishop Cosin’s old Book," in which the boar is described as "a venomous serpent."

Dr. Longley, created Bishop of Durham in the year 1856, was the last Bishop to whom the falchion was presented.

The crest of the Pollard family is an arm holding a falchion. As to the missing head, it is related that while Pollard slept the head of the Northumbrian family of Mitford passed, saw what had occurred, seized the head, and rode with all speed to the King, and gained the reward. The champion Pollard also sought an interview with His Majesty, and giving the facts, showed that the head presented had not a tongue; he was, however, dismissed without any recompense, the King declining to entertain a second claim.

There is in the parish church of St. Andrew’s Auckland an old wooden effigy representing a knight in a suit of chain armour, cross-legged, with his feet resting on a boar, and it is generally believed that this monument was erected in memory of our hero.

In sequel it should perhaps be added that the Mitfords have for many centuries borne as their crest two arms holding a sword pierced through the head of a boar; and as a commentary, perhaps, upon the principle that fortune

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helps those who help themselves, they flaunt the pious motto:

GOD + CARYTHE + FOR + US.

The Cau’d Lad of Hilton.

The grey old castle of Hilton has long had the reputation of being haunted by a bar-guest, or local spirit, known as the "cau’d lad of Hilton," or "cowed lad of Hilton." His history, however, seems to be rather mixed, and to partake of the nature of the genuine ghost as well as that of a brownie. This brownie was seldom seen, but often heard engaged in playing pranks in the great hall, or in the kitchen after the servants had retired for the night. If they left the kitchen orderly and clean, the brownie, angered at having his work taken out of his hands, would throw all the crockery and kitchen utensils about the room, so that when the servants appeared in the morning a picture of confusion met their eyes. Of course, as a rule, they found it worked best not to attempt to leave things tidy, and then the brownie would exert himself through the night, and all would be straight and clean for the maids when they rose.

The servants, however, engaged by the last Baron thought his pranks rather wearisome, and determined to attempt his banishment by the usual means employed in such cases—that is, by leaving for his express use some article of clothing, or some toothsome delicacy to tempt his palate. They resorted to a green cloak and hood as the best means of driving him away. However, the brownie knew what they were after, and many a time during the making of the cloak and hood could be heard singing in the dead of night—

The green cloak and hood were finished at length; the servants laid them down before the fire in the great kitchen, and watched at a prudent distance. At midnight the "cau’d lad" glided in, surveyed the garments, put them on, frisked about, and when the cock crew disappeared, saying—

And so disappeared for ever.

The appearance of this brownie seems to have been confused with another ghost.

The apparition of a boy who was killed by one of the Barons often used to be seen—sometimes, it is said, with his head under his arm.

A Baron of Hilton, many years ago, ordered his horse to be got ready. He was a passionate man, and a fearsome one to cross. The stable-boy foolishly fell asleep. For awhile the lord waited for his horse, and then, in a lively temper, went off to the stable and found the sleeping boy. He struck the boy with a hay-fork and killed him there and then. Horrified at what he had done, he covered the body with straw till night, and then threw it into a pond at the south side of the park, where, many years afterwards, the skeleton of a boy was discovered. So runs the legend.

It is interesting to note that a boy named Roger Skelton was killed by Robert Hilton, a brother of the then Baron, in July, 1609.[7]

There was a haunted room in the castle called the "cau’d lad’s room," which was never used. Here, it is said, the spirit of the murdered boy made its residence.{73} For many years there has been no appearance of the ghost, though there are persons who affirm that, if they have not actually seen it, they have heard it about the castle.

The Lambton Worm.

In Plantagenet days the Lord of Lambton had a godless son, who desecrated the Sabbath by fishing in the Wear, and while so doing he hooked a strange worm with nine breathing-holes on either side of its throat. This queer find he threw into a well near by, since known as "the Worm Well," and here the worm grew until it was too large for the well. It then emerged, and betook itself by day to the river, where it lay coiled round a rock in the middle of the stream, and by night to a neighbouring hill, round whose base it would twine itself. Meanwhile it continued to grow so fast that it soon could encircle the hill three times. This hill, which is on the north side of the Wear, and about a mile and a half from old Lambton Hall, is oval in shape and still called the Worm Hill. In the meantime the heir of Lambton had turned over a new leaf, and departed as a Crusader to the Holy Land. The worm still grew, and came daily ravaging for food. The milk of nine cows hardly sufficed it for a meal, and if this were not forthcoming it slayed both man and beast. Many knights tried their prowess against the worm, but with no avail, for no sooner was the worm cut in two than the pieces grew together again. The poor Lord of Lambton was in sore trouble when, after seven long years, the heir of Lambton returned home, a much sadder and wiser man. Seeing the result of his former evil practices, he determined to kill the enormous beast. Several attempts he made without success, because the parts would come together whenever he cut it in two. At last he consulted a witch of the neighbourhood, and she told him if he came to the fight clothed in armour studded with{74} razors, and stood in the swift stream, he would conquer; but that he, like Jephthah, must kill the first living creature that met him after the victory. So to meet this latter difficulty he told his old father to listen, and when he gained the victory he would blow three notes upon his bugle, then his father was to loosen his favourite greyhound, which would come to the bugle’s call.

Having made all preparations, the heir started on his mission. Standing in midstream, he waited the onset of the worm. It came, and seeing its enemy, wound itself about him; but as it tightened its hold, the razors cut it into many pieces, which, falling into the water, were swept away by the current, and so were unable to grow together again. Thus the victory was won, and the bugle sounded; but the old lord, overjoyed at the thought of his son’s victory, forgot to let loose the hound, and ran himself to meet the conqueror. Here now arose a difficulty; the son would not be a parricide. He went again to the witch, and she told him that the only alternative was the doom that none of his family should die a peaceful death, to the seventh, or some say the ninth, generation. Tradition sayeth that this alternative was accepted, and that no head of the family died on his bed for several centuries after.

There are two stone figures of some antiquity preserved at Lambton Castle. One of these is apparently an effigy of our hero in the middle of the fray, only the worm has ears, legs, and a pair of wings. The other figure is a female one, and marked by no very characteristic features.

The Sockburn Worm.

The legend of the Sockburn worm is very similar to that of the Pollard boar. It is recorded in an old manuscript that Sir John Conyers, knight, slew a monstrous and poisonous wyvern, or worm, which had devoured many people in fight, for the scent of the poison was so strong no person could stand it. But before making this enterprise,

{75}

having but one son, he went to the church of Sockburn in complete armour, and offered up his only son to the Holy Ghost. The place where this great serpent lay was called Graystane. The gray stone is still pointed out in a field near the church. For more than six hundred years the manor of Sockburn was held by the singular service of presenting a falchion to the Bishop of Durham on his first entering the diocese, and it was the duty of the Lord of the Manor of Sockburn, or his representative, to meet His Grace at the middle of Sockburn Ford, or on Croft Bridge, which spans the River Tees, and after hailing him Count Palatine and Earl of Sadberge, to present him with a falchion, saying: "My Lord Bishop, I here present you with the falchion wherewith the champion Conyers slew the worm, dragon, or fiery flying serpent which destroyed man, woman, and child, in memory of which the King then reigning gave him the manor of Sockburn, to hold by this tenure, that upon the first entrance of every Bishop into the county this falchion should be presented." The Bishop, after receiving the weapon in his hand, promptly and politely returned it, and at the same time wished the Lord of Sockburn health and a long enjoyment of the manor.

This ceremony was last performed in April, 1826, when the steward of Sir Edward Blackett, the Lord of Sockburn Manor, met, on Croft Bridge, Dr. Van Mildert, the last Prince-Bishop of Durham. The tenure is mentioned in the inquisition post-mortem held on the death of Sir John Conyers in the year 1396. The falchion was formerly kept at the manor-house of Sockburn: the blade is broad, and 2 feet 5 inches long, and on the pommel of the weapon, which is of bronze, are two shields; on one side are the three lions of England, as borne by the Plantagenet monarchs from John to Edward III., and the eagle displayed on the other side is said to belong to Morcar, the Saxon Earl of Northumberland. This relic was also represented on one of the stained-glass windows{76} of Sockburn Church. On a marble monument, placed to the memory of an old member of the Conyers family, the serpent and falchion were sculptured.

The Pickled Parson.

The present rectory house at Sedgefield, erected by the Rev. George, Viscount Barrington, was preceded by a castellated edifice, which, after serving the purpose of a rectory house for some years, was burnt down in 1792. During a lengthened period previous to the destruction of the old house the inhabitants of Sedgefield appear to have been greatly disturbed by the visits of an apparition known as the "Pickled Parson," which, it was confidently declared, wandered in the neighbourhood of the rector’s hall, "making night hideous." Whose wandering shade the ghost was supposed to have been is explained as follows: A rector’s wife had the ill-luck to lose her husband about a week before the farmer’s tithes fell due. Prompted by avarice, she cunningly concealed his death by salting the body of her departed spouse, and retaining it in a private room. Her scheme succeeded, she received the emoluments of the living, and the next day made the decease of the rector public.

The Picktree Brag.

Picktree, near Chester-le-Street, is famous for two reasons—first, because it was the home of the heroine of the popular song, "Ailsie Marley," and, secondly, because it was the haunt of one of those mischievous goblins known as the Picktree Brag. Sir Cuthbert Sharp gives an account of the apparition, as told by an old woman of respectable appearance, of about ninety years of age, living near the spot, probably at Pelton. The old woman said: "I never saw the Brag distinctly, but I frequently heard it. It some{77}times appeared like a calf with a white handkerchief about its neck, and a bushy tail. It came also like a galloway, but more often like a coach-horse, and went trotting along the lonnin, afore folks, settin’ up a great nicker and a whinney every now and then; and it came frequently like a dickass, and it always stopped at the pond at the four lonnin ends, and nickered and whinnied. My brother saw it like four men holding up a white sheet. I saw then sure that some near relation was going to die, which was true. My husband once saw it in the image of a naked man without a head. I knew a man of the name of Bewick that was so frightened that he hanged himself for fear on’t. Whenever the midwife was sent for it always came up with her in the shape of a galloway. Dr. Harrison wouldn’t believe in it, but he met it one night as he was going home, and it ’maist killed him; but he never would tell what happened, and didn’t like to talk about it, and whenever the Brag was mentioned he sat tremblin’ and shakin’ by the fireside. My husband had a white suit of clothes, and the first time he ever put them on he met the Brag, and never had them on afterwards but he met with some misfortune; and once when he met the Brag, and he had his white suit on (being a bold man), and having been at a christening, he was determined to get on the Brag’s back, but when he came to the four lonnin ends the Brag joggled him so sore that he could hardly keep his seat, and at last it threw him off into the middle of the pond, and then ran away, setting up a great nicker and laugh, just for all the world like a Christian. But this I know to be true of my own knowledge, that when my father was dying the Brag was heard coming up the lonnin like a coach and six, and it stood before the house, and the room shaked, and it gave a terrible yell when my father died, and then it went chatterin’ and gallopin’ down the lonnin as if yeben and yerth was comin’ together."

These northern ghosts or goblins have been very{78} well described in the following verse attributed to Ben Jonson:

NAME-PLACES IN THE DURHAM DALES

By William Morley Egglestone

WHEN Julius Cæsar conquered Britain, he found the island peopled by Celts—a branch of the great family of nations called the Aryan, or Indo-European, which spread over the world from Central Asia. The Western branches, which rolled in successive waves over Europe, included the Celts, who, according to the Greek traveller Pytheas, were in the fourth century before the Christian era quite at home in Britain, for he there saw growing in the fields corn which the farmers took in sheaves to the barns, in which were threshing-floors.

In Weardale, situated in the western and mountainous part of the county of Durham, and surrounded by brown and heath-clad fells, the ancient Briton lived in the limestone caves, and hunted in the oaken forests. In the Wear Valley, near Hamsterley, and about seven miles east of Stanhope, there is a remarkable relic of the ancient Britons. This ancient fortification—like many other works constructed by the Britons of old, such as the Dene Holes of Essex and the Cliff Castles—has its name, and is called The Castles. The treasure of Heatheryburn Cave, at Stanhope, consisted of bone knives and pins, boar tusks, bronze and jet ornaments, spearheads and bronze celts, with prehistoric human skulls, showing considerable activity of the natives who manufactured and formed the various rude implements. Apart from these landmarks, there have come down to us in names of places the Celtic{80} roots the ray and the tay, which we find in Lang Tay, the name of a small but long tributary stream of water in Burnhope; and in Reahope, a tributary hope to Stanhope, and which empties its waters into Stanhope Burn, a tributary of the River Wear.

The Roman power seems to have been extended to Weardale, for the two Roman altars found at Bolihope and Eastgate, and the denarii found at Westgate, prove that this lead-mining dale was well known to those ruling and wall-building people.

Soon after the Romans left, the Anglo-Saxons—including the Jutes, the Saxons, and the English—established themselves along the eastern coast of Britain, and these tribes of the Teutonic family took a firm grasp of the land, and planted the roots of the English nation.

Though little more in the early Saxon period than a dense forest, in which wild animals and ancient Britons found shelter, Weardale ultimately became an Anglo-Saxon district, influenced by the blending of the Scandinavian element in dialect and names of places, owing to its proximity to the Danelagh on the south, and the Norwegian settlement in Cumberland on the west. The whole of the Palatinate appears to have remained Saxon through the Danish rule except the northern banks of the Tees. We know little of Weardale at this period. Situated amidst mountains, and lying next the Strathclyde, it was probably as much Celtic as Saxon; but the division of counties, however, was made in 953 by the Saxon Edred, or Eadred, and the Weardale people would know their county, for, on the bleak and heather-clad fell of Burnhope, the limits of the Palatinate is marked by a pile of stones, called "eade stones"—evidently King Eadred’s stones—the boundary established by that Saxon monarch. Weardale and Teesdale, however, under the power of the Normans, were destined to be turned into desolate wastes; yet, as we shall see, the Saxon names of places survived the desolation of fire and sword.{81}

If we examine the names of places in the Bishopric of Durham a century or so after the Danish rule had ceased and the Norman rule had been established, we shall find a large percentage of Saxon suffixes. In the Boldon Buke, A.D. 1183, there are some 151 names of manors, wards, vills, etc., in which, with a few other names in charters of about the same period, we have 45 endings, or suffixes, in 175 names of places. The Anglo-Saxon test-word, ton, figures in no less than 34 of these principal names of places: as Darlington, a settlement of the Deorlings; Stockton, the stockaded town; Haughton, the haugh town; Morton, the moor town; Norton, the north town; Essington, the home or settlement of the Essings, as the Herrings gave a name to Herrington. Of the other Saxon suffices we have: ley 25, burn 14, don 8, worth 6, ford and ham 5 each; and the Celtic hope, common in the Anglo-Saxon North, occurs 8 times. Thus, 8 endings take up 105 of the names of places in Boldon Buke, the remaining 70 names having 37 endings. The Danish test-words, by and thorpe, only occur once each—Killerby and Thorp. These names do not show that the Vikings made permanent settlements north of the Tees. In Teesdale we find in Domesday Book, A.D. 1086, Lontune, Mickleton, Lertinton, and Codrestune, having the Saxon ending tun or ton; but though the names of these places were English, the places themselves were, or had been, belonging to a Dane, for they were then in the hands of Bodin, and had formerly been Torfin’s—a person named from the Scandinavian god Thunder, or Thor. Hundredestoft and Rochebi have the Danish toft and by, and, like many other names, such as Thorsgill and Balders Dale, point to the influence and power of the Scandinavians and their heathen worship in the neighbouring dale of the Tees.

In the five northern counties, Worsaae returns Danish-Norwegian place-names in the following order: Westmorland 158, Cumberland 142, Durham 23, Northumberland 22, and Yorkshire in its three Ridings 405.{82} The ending by occurs 167 times in Yorkshire, and thorpe 95 times; whilst 7 of each are ascribed to Durham, and but 1 of the latter only to Northumberland. Yorkshire, however, on a closer inquiry, shows over 250 names of places containing the element by, and over 160 of that of thorpe, the former predominating in the North and West, and the latter in the East and West Ridings. Of the 83 names ending in the Norwegian test-word thwaite, as mentioned by Worsaae, 80 occur in the northern district, Yorkshire 9, Lancashire 14, Westmorland 14, and in Norwegian Cumberland 43, whilst there are no thwaites in Durham or Northumberland. The evidence adduced from names of places thus goes to prove that the Angles of Durham and Northumberland, though under the yoke of the Danes during the ascendancy of the Scandinavian power, have, from their first settlement, continued on their adopted soil through all the vicissitudes incident to the descents of the Britons from the western mountains, the inroads of the Picts and Scots, the ravages of the Vikings, and the subduing marches of the powerful William of Normandy.

Northumbria, as of old, may be divided into two provinces in respect to its place-names—Deira, the district of the Danes, and Bernicia, the district of the Angles, the central boundary-line being the River Tees. The Norse beck and Anglo-Saxon burn distinctively mark this line between these districts in the upper reaches of the valleys of the Wear and Tees. The mountain-range from Burnhope Seat, at the western confines of Durham, eastward to Paw Law Pike, forms the south division between the parishes of Stanhope in Weardale and Middleton in Teesdale. The principal tributaries of the Tees, on the south of this ridge, are becks, whilst those on the Wear side are burns. In Weardale, at the north-western extremity, Scraith Burn and Langtay Burn contribute to Burnhope Burn. On the Tees side, rising within half a mile or so of the above burns, Ashgill Beck contributes its{83} waters to Harewood Beck. Farther eastward we have Harthope Burn on the Weardale side, and Harthope Beck, which runs into Langdon Beck, on the Teesdale side, both streams rising on Harthope Fell, and within a few yards of each other.

Continuing eastward, we find several becks on the southern border of the county of Durham. In 1672 a Teesdale stream was named Raygill Burn, having the Celtic ray, the Norse gill, and the Saxon burn. In the adjoining parish of Wolsingham, in the Wear valley, nearly all the tributaries are named becks in the Ordnance map, but these are, with one or two exceptions, originally all burns. In an old document of Queen Elizabeth’s time we find in this parish, Wascrow Burn, Westerharehope Burn, Hadderly Clough Burn, Houselop Burn, Bradley Burn, Collier Beck and Ells Beck. There do not appear to be more than two becks in this parish, Ells Beck and Holbeck, the latter a small runner near Holbeck House, the home of the Craggs family, one of whom was the Right Hon. James Craggs, Secretary of State.

In the Wolsingham names of streams that of Wascrow is generally now called Waskerley; its real name, however, appears to be Westcrau, from crau, a crag or rock, and west; or its adjectival component might be wæs, water. Houselop is Ouselhope, the hope of the Ousel or Ouse, Welsh wysg, Erse uisge, water. Ouse is a common river name.

Having so many Anglo-Saxon names of places in the eastern part of the Bishopric of Durham, it is natural to suppose that the settled families of the Angles would send offshoots along the banks of the Wear, up into the dale where the river had its source. Wolsingham—the Saxon metropolis of Weardale, for its ancient manor included the whole of the Wear valley westward—is the ham or home of the sons or descendants of a family of Franks, represented in Kemble’s English settlement names in Wælsingas, and in the German Walasingas, a family who probably{84} settled in the South of England and sent their sons to the North, for Durham, according to Taylor, contained no original Anglo-Saxon settlements.

East of Wolsingham but a few miles is Witton, the ton, or town of witness, Anglo-Saxon witena-gemot. North of Weardale lie Hunstanworth and Edmundbyres, so the dale of the Wear is surrounded by towns having the Anglo-Saxon suffixes, ton, ham, and worth, except the Danish byre of St. Edmund.

Along the banks of the Wear, three miles west of Wolsingham, is situated the village of Frosterley. Here early settlers appear to have had an abode on the banks of the river. The present name of the village is evidently derived from the forest or foresters of the Bishops of Durham, who resided here to manage the great forest westward, but the Scandinavian personal name, Frosti, is worthy of consideration. There appears, however, to have been a far earlier settlement here. A very small enclosure near the river-side is named Bottlingham, but not a vestige of a settlement remains, and the name of the small plot of ground is all that is now left. Bolihope, a tributary valley to the Wear, and which empties its burn into the river a hundred yards or two below the place under consideration, was called, in Bishop Bec’s time, Bothelinghopp. In these two names we have the hope and the ham of some Anglo-Saxon settlers, named Pottel, which by the law of interchange might become Bottel. Bodvulf, who died in 655, was canonized, having founded the monastery of Ikano. This saint’s relics were dispersed, hence several churches are dedicated to St. Botolph, and Bottlebridge is St. Botolph’s bridge. The old chapel at Frosterley was, according to tradition, dedicated to St. Botolph, and close to the chapel site there is Bot’s Well, a name which would appear to confirm the local tradition in respect to the dedication.

Stanhope, too, with its Anglo-Saxon initial syllable stan, a stone, and Celtic hope, had an older settlement in all{85} probability than the present town, which takes its name from the adjoining Hope, which is full of rocks or stones. At the west end of Stanhope town there is a small stream called Allerton Burn, which gathers its waters near Allerton Riggs, lying north-west of Stanhope. The stream joins the Hope Burn, near Stanhope Hall, but where is Allerton? which is, or was, the ton or town beside the allers or alders, or more probably the enclosed place of some Saxon named Alder or Ealder, from Anglo-Saxon ald, old, and hari, warrior. The site of this place was most likely near Allerton Bridge at Stanhope Hall, and this old hall residence—the seat of the Fetherston-halghs, from the days of King Stephen—probably represents the spot which we are in search of; it occupies a tongue of land between the confluence of the Allerton and Stanhope Burns.

Seven hundred years ago, persons bearing the Saxon names of Osbert, Ethelred, Meldred, Goda, Aldred, Collan, and others, held lands at Stanhope, and did service under the Bishops of Durham.

Considering the close proximity of the principal Danish settlement in England, that of Yorkshire, it would not be surprising if an inquiry into local names of places revealed the fact that the followers of Odin’s prophetic raven had left a footprint of some value in the Durham dales. The most remarkable, if not unique, footprint of the adventurous Northmen is preserved in the word thing, pronounced ting, which in names of parishes and places points out the localities where the Vikings, in their days of rule, held their outdoor national assemblies, and promulgated their national laws.

When the daring Northmen touched the shores of England, subdued in the year 867 Northumbria, and set up Inguar, the first Danish King, as ruler, they brought with them, and implanted, their traditions and customs.

In Weardale there is a Thimbleby Hill, on the south side of the Wear, opposite Stanhope, and if the Danes{86} were in this dale for the purpose of assembling a thing or council, this hill is the one above all others which they would have chosen. It has on the top a considerable flat, and it overlooks Stanhope Town on the north, commands a most excellent view down the valley eastward, and up the valley westward, whilst to the south lies a rising heath-covered ridge. The position of the hill would at once recommend itself to the Danes, who always took care to have their national courts held in places which would be free from surprise; and it is possible that Shield Ash represents the shealings of ash bows, erected for the accommodation of those attending the court. Stanhope is in Darlington Wapentake, which word is Danish, and each wapentake had its court or thing. Presuming that the Danes held a council at Stanhope, they do not appear to have established themselves to any extent; but, as we find the Danish toft, as in Toft Well, and a place in Bolihope, named in Hatfield’s Survey Turpenstanes, the boundary stones of Thorfinn, a Danish personal name, and that in A.D. 1183 persons holding the Scandinavian names of Russell, Thore, Arkil, and a son of Turkill, held lands at Stanhope, it would not be a matter of surprise if a Danish council did take place in Weardale, which is situated so close to the Danish district, and which was under the rule of the first Danish King in England.

One of the most striking instances of the Norwegian element in Weardale, is what was fifty or sixty years ago the "national" winter sport of the dale. This was skeeing, the national sport of Norway. Within the memory of a few of the oldest inhabitants no snowy winter passed in Weardale without this sport being practised to its full extent.

In the mountainous district of Weardale, one of the most important North of England rivers is cradled, and into this isolated highland dale the Celtic name of the Durham river has penetrated. Almost all the English rivers have retained the names given to them by the Celts,{87} and avon, dur, esk, rhe, and don, are Celtic roots repeated, over and over again, in names of streams, not only in England, but on the Continent. In the name Nent Water, in Cumberland, we have the simple name "water," and the Cymric nant, a hollow or valley formed by water—a common name in Wales. Writers mention Nant Lle as+ the vale of Lle; Nant Gwyrfai, the vale of fresh water; Nant Frangon, the beavers’ hollow or ravine; and Pennant, the head of the valley. The little village Nenthead, on the western slope of Killhope, is the head of the valley. From the root dwr, water, and the frequently occurring Celtic gwent, an open region, comes Derwent, the name of the stream on the north of Weardale, and of various other rivers in England. The local pronunciation, however, in the district of Derwent is Darwen, which suggests dwr and gwen, the clear water.

The River Wear is formed by the joint streams of Killhope and Burnhope Burns, which meet at Wearhead village. Its course through the dale is rapid, receiving many tributaries from the hopes. On reaching Auckland it takes a north-easterly course. "And now," says Camden, "the river, as though it proposed to make an island, compasseth almost on every side the chief city of this province standing on an hill, whence the Saxons gave it the name Dunholm. For as you may gather out of Bede, they call an hill dun, and a river island holme." The Wear, which enters the sea at Sunderland, was called Vedra by Ptolemy, Wirus by Bede, and in Bishop Pudsey’s time (1153-94) the name was written Were, the same as we find in Hatfield, 1380, Holinshed 1577, and Camden 1604. The latter form is the proper modern spelling up to about the last century, when Were became Wear, the present form of the name of St. Cuthbert’s stream. Ferguson, on the authority of Pott, gives the Sanscrit ud, udon, water, from which comes the German wasser, English water, as the root of Ptolemy’s Vedra.[8] {88}Wirus suggests the Celtic gwyrhe, rapid water. Perhaps gwy or wy, water, and garw or arw, rough, form the roots. The former root enters into the names of several rivers, as the Wye, Edwy, Elwy, and others. In all the forms of spelling the river-name of Durham the letter "r" is conspicuous. It is the principal one in arw, which enters into the names of several streams—the Ayr, Are, Aire, Arre, being variations of this widely diffused root. The Welsh rhe, rapid, with gwy, may show equal claim to notice as first mentioned—namely, gwyrhe. Omitting the initial g in the first, and the middle letter in the second, root, we have wyre.

A hope is a small opening running up to the mountain ridges as a tributary to a main stream. From the burns again branch out grains, which, fed by springs, issue from brocs. The cleugh, gill, and sike, contribute their waters generally to the burns, whilst a well may come from a dene, and empty into the main stream. The western dales of Durham are pre-eminently dales of hopes. This word is the Celtic hwpp, a slope or hollow between hills—a little dale in which a stream of water gathers. These openings at the sides of the dale may very properly be termed places of refuge, places of shelter for animals, such as the deer, and in these days we find sheep located in the various hopes, where they have their heft—a locality to which they become attached; Anglo-Saxon hæft, from the having a holding or place. The Norse hop is a place of shelter or refuge. An inquiry into the Bishop’s possessions of game in Weardale, nearly three hundred years ago, particularly mentioned forests, parks, hopes and pastures. The place-name hope is common throughout the hilly parts of Durham, Northumberland, Yorkshire, and Derbyshire. In the neighbouring parish of Wolsingham there are Harehope, Ouselhope, and Thornhope; in Allendale Swinhope, Sinderhope, Ellershope, and Mohope; the Boldon Buke records in the Bishopric, Ayleshope, Rokehope, Cazhope, Refhope, Horsleyhope, Histeshope, Baldinge{89}hope, Burnhop, and Roueleiehope; and in Teesdale we have Egleshope and Hudeshope. In Weardale we have the Hope, sometimes called Stanhope Hope, probably to distinguish it from the town of Stanhope.

In Weardale there are sixteen hopes, distinguished in name by some characteristic feature, as represented in their respective initial components.

Burnhope and Killhope, with Wellhope, are the three vales which contribute their streams to form the Wear at Wearhead. The initial components burn, kil and wel, are all Anglo-Saxon, meaning water, and have been given according to the custom of the early settlers. From the head of the River Wear, the hopes, striking into the hills encircling the head of the dale, are those out of which come water. Burnhope is the hope of the burn, Anglo-Saxon burne, a stream; Killhope is from Anglo-Saxon keld, a fountain; we have also Icelandic keld, Danish kilde, Norse kill, a fountain or brook; Wellhope from Anglo-Saxon wyl, wel, a well or fountain—hence they are all the hopes of water. Kil is the Scotch and Irish word denoting a church, and if the situation had been favourable, and had there been any evidence of a St. Godric having been located here, as at Wolsingham, we might have had the hope of the kil, kirk, or church, but in Camden we find Kelhop and Welhop. Leland, at an earlier date, gives Kelhope and Welhop, and Holinshed Kellop. Brocket says keld is a word used in Yorkshire, Westmorland, and Cumberland, for a well or spring. Taylor gives kell and well as synonymous terms for a place from whence water flows. We read in Simeon of Durham of the Scots, in A.D. 1070, having marched through Cumberland and devastated Teesdale and the parts bordering; then they came to the place called in English, Hundredeskelde—that is, "the hundred springs." Barnard Castle water-supply comes from a place called Spring Keld.

One of the Bishopric knights at the Battle of Lewis was Sir Henry Merley, of Herkeld, in Witton; and Besan{90}skeldes is a Boldon Buke place-name. We thus have, at the western confines of the county of Durham, the hopes of water, and which pour forth their streams to form the main river of the historic county of Durham.

Ireshope, Middlehope, and Westernhope, derive their initial components from their position. Middlehope occupies a central position in the forest. The first tributary burn to the Wear after its formation is, of course, the most western one, Ireshope, from Erse iar, the west. Snowhope, sheltered under the southern hills, retains patches of its winter covering long enough, no doubt, to have warranted its name—Snawhope, as it was formerly written, Anglo-Saxon snaw, Danish snee, German schnee, Belgic sneeuw—a name given to many mountains subject to being covered in winter, as Snafell in Iceland, Sneekoppe in Bohemia, Sneeuw Bergen at the Cape of Good Hope, Snee Hatten in Norway, Snafell in the Isle of Man, and Snowdon in Wales. In respect to Ireshope, there is the Anglo-Saxon yrfe, erfe, irfe, inheritance, from the root ar; Old English ear, earth, as the Aryan races were the tillers of the ground. There is also a root ar applied to rivers, as the Ayr, Are, and Aire: Welsh araf, gentle; Gaelic ar, slow; Celtic arw, violent—some of which might apply.

Stanhope and Rookhope are characteristic names in a district of stone and rock. In the Boldon Buke and Hatfield’s Survey we have Stanhope, Rokhop, and in the times of Bishop Beck, Stanehop, and Stanhop. The first components in these names are from Anglo-Saxon stan, German stein, Icelandic sten, Danish steen, a stone; and Gaelic roc, a mass of stone. The district is full of stones, as the many stone fences which net the whole of the inlands and the higher lands to the moors testify. From Boltsburn village the Rookhope stream runs over successive edges of limestone and freestone, and culminates in a grand display by leaping over several picturesque linns at Eastgate.

{91}

Two of the place-names, Harthope and Swinhope, carry us back to the wild beasts of the forest. One was the lodging-ground or resort of the hart or stag, Anglo-Saxon heort; and the other gets its initial component from Anglo-Saxon swin, swyn, a swine; Old German suin, traceable back to the Sanskrit su. The boar tusks found in Heatheryburn Cave, and the Roman altar at Stanhope Rectory, testify to Weardale being the abode of boars. The local word aswin, obliquely, Welsh asswyn, does not apply to this place-name. A far more probable etymology is the Celtic swyn, holy. Charnock is of opinion that the several rivers named "swine" or "swin" may be from this root.

Bolihope, the name of a considerable subvalley on the south of Frosterley and Stanhope, is interesting, if not so easily explained. The name is evidently associated with the district of Frosterley, where the stream from Bolihope enters the Wear. At this village we have as place-names Bottlingham and Bot’s Well, and the ancient chapel is said to have been dedicated to St. Botolph. Bishop Beck granted to Walter Berington twenty-seven acres of land in Bothelinghopp. The initial component would suggest the Anglo-Saxon botel, botl, botles, an abode, mansion, or dwelling; also Norse botl, German buttel. Leo, however, says that very few Anglo-Saxon names of places are united with this word. Bolton was formerly written Bodeltune. This, however, does not appear to be the etymon of the name in question, as botel and ham, both Saxon for a dwelling, would not be found in one name. A large number of names of places have the Saxon patronymic ing, which often forms the medial syllable, such as Wolsingham, Darlington, Easington, Washington, Heighington, and, if the medial syllable of the name under consideration be the Saxon patronymic, then it is an Anglo-Saxon place-name—the home of the sons of some Saxon named Bottel. Bot is a Scandinavian personal name, but we find the Saxon Byttingas and Potingas, Liber Vitæ, Bota, and{92} Frisian Botte. The personal name Pottel—which by the law of interchange of initial letters might become Bottel—would explain that the hope and the ham were belonging to the son of some Saxon settler of this name, as elsewhere mentioned.

Boltshope is a small offshoot from Rookhope. Bolt, as an iron-door bolt, is from Anglo-Saxon and Danish bolt, German bolgen, from the root bole, round as the bole of a tree. The Anglo-Saxon bold, bolt, originally búld, búlt, means a house or dwelling, an abode; Danish bolig; and we have mention made in Hatfield of Bold Shell in Rookhope. Boltsburn is the village of the Rookhope Valley, and is situated at the foot of Boltshopeburn. At the top of the hope is Bolts Law, which is probably the place earliest named, and in all probability is from a personal name. Bold Shield would not be from the Anglo-Saxon bold, an abode, but is evidently Bold’s shield, the shield, or home, of Bold, as the eminence might be the law of Bold or Bolt.

Dene is from the Celto-Saxon den, a deep, wooded valley; Anglo-Saxon den, dene, denn. The best specimen of this kind of valley in the county of Durham is probably Castle Eden Dene, a wooded, narrow valley near the sea. Its name is interesting, and contains the ancient and modern spelling. Its earliest name was evidently Eden, from ea or e, water, and den, a wooded valley; and this becoming a proper name, a second den was added—namely, Eden Dene, which gives us water-dene-dene. We have also in the north Hesleden, Deneholm, and Hardwick Dene.

Burn, grain, broc, are allied. The first of these may be said to be as pure Weardale as Saxon. Whilst the Norse beck crowds the banks of Teesdale, it does not exist in Weardale. Burn spreads from this dale northward through Durham, Northumberland, and Scotland. Beck is as foreign to Weardale as the Danish test-word by and the Norwegian thwaite, though all the three names crowd{93} around, close to the very hills on the south and west of the dale of the Wear. Within the bounds of Stanhope parish the Wear is fed by several tributary burns. These streams receive or are formed at the head by grains, and the grains are fed by springs from the brocks. Brock is from Anglo-Saxon broc, brece, to break forth—the place where the water first breaks through the earth—hence brook, literally water running through the earth. A brock is a little hollow a few feet wide, formed by water breaking through the ground, and washing out a miniature valley. The moors of Weardale and surrounding district abound with these broken places, which are mostly known to shepherds and game-shooters. They exist on the top of the fells, where they are the only natural shelters. Platey Brock, on Chapel Fell, receives its name from an exposed plate or shale bed. To show how numerous these places are, I will mention that on Burnhope Moor there are also Coldberry Brocks, Limestone Brocks, Highfield Brocks, Wester Langtayhead Brocks, Todsyke Brocks, Lodgegill Brocks, Scraith Head Brocks, Browngill Brock, Cocklake Brock, Sally-Grain Brocks, Lang Brock. To the above may be added the better-known names of Black Brocks, or Moss Brocks, in Burnhope, and Welhope Brocks.

Grain, Icelandic grein, is a division, a branch, as the grain of a fork; Danish green, a branch, a bough. Generally the branches at the head of a burn are distinguished by north and south, and east and west grains; and sometimes by name, as Sally Grain in Burnhope, and Jopla Grains in Bolihope. "East Graine under Craggs" is in Bolihope. At Harthope Head there are the east and west grains, which meet and form the burn. In addition to the sixteen hopes previously mentioned, from twelve of which flow the principal tributary burns to the Wear, there are some thirty secondary streams, named burn, Anglo-Saxon burne, a bourn, stream, brook, river, and which are distinguished by the names of the hope, or place, from{94} which they flow, or from some other characteristic feature or condition.

Sowen Burn, near Stanhope, is a very characteristic specimen, the adjectival component being the Old English sounen, sound, the noisy burn, or, rather, the sounding burn.

Fine Burn, in Bolihope, is so named owing to the stream being a line of boundary. The words "fine," "confines," "finish," "finis," mark the end, and the above stream is the boundary between the parishes of Stanhope and Wolsingham. The Roman camp, ad fines camps, is situated close to the border-line between England and Scotland.

In Rookhope Smails Burn implies the small burns—Anglo-Saxon smala, small—two little runners rendered somewhat historic in the days of Border broils, as we find in the old ballad of Rookhope Ryde. In the same district we have Red Burn, and Over Red Burn. Red is from Anglo-Saxon read, rud; Danish röd, red, the red stream; or the Celtic rhyd, a ford; whilst over is from the Anglo-Saxon ofer, a shore, or ofer, over, above or higher—hence High Redburn.

Yeky Burn is from Anglo-Saxon æc, eac, oak, the stream of the oaks. There are two Heathery Burns, one associated with the noted cave at Stanhope. Old spelling hetherie, hetherye, hethery, from heath, Anglo-Saxon hæth, Scotch heather.

The name well is given to a large number of tiny streams in Weardale. Dutch wellen, Anglo-Saxon wel, a fountain of water, and in Saxon names of places, wel, wyl, and well often occur.

Kelhope and Welhope are literally the hopes out of which water wells. The source of the latter is named Wellheads. At the head of smaller wells there are springs, places where water springs out—Anglo-Saxon springan—hence we have such names as Spring Wells, Whitewell Spring, White Wells, White Springs.{95}

Ludwell is the people’s well, Anglo-Saxon leod, people. This water springs out of a cave in the great limestone, where, in olden times, the Weardale folks might have congregated, for the Saxon prefix shows it to have been the well of the people, like Ludlaw, the people’s hill, suggesting the days of village communities, and the days of superstition when wells were in many cases held sacred. These were generally iron wells—locally, haliwells. There are many wells known as holywells in this district, some of which are also termed spa-wells. This term is from the bath town, Spa, in Belgium, derived from espa.

Of other wells proper, we might mention Sunderland Well, Hunterley Well, Huntshield Well, Black Dene Well, Carrbrow Well, Earnwell; Anglo-Saxon earn, ern, an eagle—the eagle’s well. Several names of places in England are from the eagle. Toft Well, east of Stanhope, is the well in the toft or field, and the initial in Totley Well is probably from toft. Bot’s Well, at Frosterley, is supposed to be that of St. Botolph, to which saint, the old chapel, close by the well, was dedicated. Poppet Well is a curious name, and is probably "coppet," from cop, a head. The adjectival component in Duntert Well is evidently the same as in Dunter Linn, at Eastgate. Boutes Well is Bolts Well, as in Boltsburn. Berry Well is apparently the well of the mountain, Anglo-Saxon beorg, beorh, a hill, a mountain. At Newhouse there is a Bank Spring, and at Westgate a Spring Bank, indicating at each place a bank and a spring of water. Cuthbert’s Spring, near Westgate, is in honour of the patron saint of Durham, and it is no wonder that we find the name of St. Cuthbert associated with names of places. On Harthope Moor, and close to the road, is an excellent spring called Jenny’s Meggie, and at Frosterley a spring is called Meggie.

Cleugh, gill, and sike are associated with water. We have in the parish of Stanhope, in round numbers, 30 cleughs, 10 gills, and 70 sikes. Cleugh is from the{96} Anglo-Saxon clough, a cleft down the side of a hill; Danish kloft; Norwegian kliufa, to split—a narrow ravine more like a cleft in the hill than a water-worn valley. Yearn Cleugh, written earne in 1666, is the eagle’s haunt, or that of the falcon, the latter being once reared in Weardale for the purpose of the Bishop’s hunt.

In 1666 we find mention of Addercleugh, the adder being frequently found in Weardale. Whick Cleugh—in 1595 written Weekerclough—is probably from the Anglo-Saxon wic, a marsh, but more probably from wice, the mountain ash, or rowan-tree, well known in the dale, and also known as the wich-elm.

Gill is from the Norse gil, a mountain chasm, a glen or fissure in the hillside. For this name we are indebted to the Norwegians, who peopled the neighbouring county of Cumberland. The best-known places of this class are Aller Gill, Lodge Gill, and Dry Gill, as being associated with habitations and lead mines. The first is the gill of the alders. In Burnhope there is Lodge Gill, a well-known name owing to a once famous lead-mine being there situated. The name very probably originated from some forest animal lodging there, as we find Lodge Field, Anglo-Saxon logian, to place, put, lodge—the field where probably deer were lodged in the forest-hunting days of the princely Bishops of Durham.

In Burnhope, a lead-mine in 1666 was called Hesley Gill—the hazel gill. In Witton Gill we may have a very important place-name, for here may be the gill of the witness—the spot where the inhabitants met, similar to the meetings held in primitive times at particular stones. Leo says: "By the names Wittan-ig, Wittan-mor, Wittan-mær, and Readan-stan, we are informed of those national and provincial meetings for self-government which have always characterized our race." Anglo-Saxon witan, to know; Icelandic vita; German wissen, to know. The Witena gemot Bosworth explains as "the assembly of the wise, the supreme council of the nation." Edred the{97} Saxon King held a witan at Ginge, in the parish of West Hendred, Berks, and there is a Witan Dyke at Worthe in Hants, whilst in our valley there is the village of Witton-le-Wear. Mirke Gill in Bolihope is the dark gill from the Anglo-Saxon myrc, Icelandic myrk, dark. It is curious to notice how the Danish and Saxon cleugh, the Norwegian gill, and the Anglo-Saxon burn, are intermixed in Rogerley-Gill-Burn, Willowgreen-Burn-Gill, and Stock-Gill-Cleugh; but such are many names of places, for if the term burn was not understood by a Norwegian settler, he would add his own term, gill; if this was not sufficiently clear to a Saxon, burn would be added to convey his own meaning of a mountain-stream, and in a similar manner the various races of mankind have stratified and built one upon another the various components of place-names which are ethnological and historical landmarks too invaluable not to be closely investigated.

Sike or syke is a very common local name. It is from Anglo-Saxon sic, sich, Icelandic sikje, Norse siki. Sullivan says a sike is the drainage of a marsh, and that all sikes were once marshes. Natural productions have given names to several sikes, as the marshy hollows were the homes of trees, grasses, and animals; hence we have Rowantree Sike, where there is an excellent ironstone mine; Saugh Sike, two Aller Sikes, Rushy Sike, Bents Sike, Moss Sike, and Birk Sike. Where we find trees we find birds, so we have Hawk Sike, Hawk Sikes near Stanhope, and Snipe Sike. Todd Sike is where the fox haunted, and Goat Sike wants no explanation. Chisholm Sike, Anglo-Saxon ceosel, ceosl, gravel, sand, the sike by the gravelly or sandy holm. In Teesdale there is a Whey Sike, in Burnhope a Whoe Sike, and in Ireshope a Hoe Sike. In Middlehope there is Scar Sike, the sike of the rock. Anglo-Saxon carr, Danish skær, Swedish skar, a projecting or prominent rock, a cliff—as Scarborough, Scarthwaite, Scarcliff, and Scarsdale, written in Doomsday Book, Scarnesdele. At{98} Middleton on the Tees there is a place called Skears, and scarr, skarr, skire, are forms found in place-names. Whetstone Sike is where the whetstone sill is exposed.

A linn is a deep or still pool, from the Celtic llyn, water, a lake, flood; Anglo-Saxon hlynna, a brook. In the North of England, however, a linn is understood to be a cascade or cataract, evidently owing to the waterfall being a more attractive feature in a river scene than the linn or pool, which is always found at the bottom of a fall. In Scotland a lin, lyn, is described as a cataract, and in a secondary sense the pool below. In Ireland lin is a pool; and the Icelandic form of the word is lind. The most attractive linns in Weardale are Linnkirk, on Shittlehope Burn, near Stanhope—a romantic spot where there is a tiny waterfall and a cave close by in the great limestone; the Dunter Linn and Holm Linn at Eastgate; and the Linny—a waterfall on the Harthope Burn, near St. John’s Chapel. The Danish dundre is to make a noise like thunder, and the Scotch dunder has the same meaning. The Saxon Donar is the god of thunder, hence Dunter Linn is that which makes a great noise.

Kern is from the Anglo-Saxon cyrn, cyrin, cerene; Danish kjerne, a churn; Icelandic kirna; Scottish kirn. The primary meaning appears to be to turn, the act of turning, allied to quern, the ancient mills for grinding corn. Kern-holes, found in the bed of rivers, are holes worn out by the churning motion of water mixed with sand. On Chapel Fell there is a watery hole called Jackson’s Kern, owing to one Jackson being accidentally drowned in it whilst coming from Middleton; but this might be cairn, a heap of stones. In Burnhope Burn, at Six-dargue, a deep hole in the stream is called Kern Pool.

Pool, Anglo-Saxon pol, Welsh pwll, Icelandic pollr. There are in the Wear and its tributaries a large number of pools which have names. Holm Pool is the pool by the holm, and Wash Pool very probably was a place where the good wives washed their linen in the days when{99} spinning, weaving, and various other methods of manufacturing household requisites were in full operation. Winn Pool, from the Anglo-Saxon winn, gewin, contest, struggle, to win—the pool where the meeting of the waters cause a fight, and struggle, as it were, to win.

The eale and ealand are our isle and island, and are the names given in Weardale to alluvial land on the margins of the main river. In the river and place-names Greta, Ea, Eamont, Batters-ea, Aldern-ey, Pont-eland, ea or a represents water or a river. Bishop Egelwin, 1069, "after having, with all his people, passed three months and some days at Ealande, returned to the church of Durham," according to the Saxon writers. In the Boldon Buke we find in a charter of Bishop Flambard—“R. Biscop greteth well all his thanes and drenghs of Ealandscire and Norhamscire." In Wolsingham parish we find in Hatfield’s Survey, Papworth-ell, Small-eys, and in the same record Catherine of the Ele is mentioned. The names of places containing the Anglo-Saxon root ea, in the parish of Stanhope, are about a dozen.

In 1380, according to Hatfield, the parson of Stanhope held the Frith, and a place parcellum del Ele, containing one acre. In 1608, in a list of lands held by the rector of Stanhope, we find "one close called ‘The Parson Ele.’" A few hundreds of yards eastward, just below the Butts, we have Bond Eale, a stretch of land subject to be flooded, and formerly held by bond tenants, who had to perform services in connection with the land, such as thatching and carrying the running gear for Stanhope corn-mill.

Thomas Morgan, by will dated 1641, left for charitable purposes amongst other lands: "One parcel of arable ground in ye said Frosterley lying and being at ye west end of ye same town in a place there called Hudse Eale, and one acre and a rood of ground lying and being in ye said Frosterley in a place called ye Mille Eale, and all other my lands and tenements with ye said appurtenances in Frosterley aforesad—Barnes Eale—excepted."{100}

A mile and a half west of Eastgate we have, between Hunterley Well and Parkhouse Pasture, the interesting Cammock Eale, locally called "Cammo Keel," for the derivation of which we have the adjectival component from the Celtic cam, crooked, and the ending og, diminutive, Celtic ock—hence the little crooked isle.

Holm is akin to ealand. Taylor says: "The suffix in the name Durham is properly not the Saxon ham, but the Norse holm; and Dunelm—the signature of the Bishop—reminds us also that the Celtic prefix is Dun, a hill-fort, and not Dur, water. In the Saxon Chronicle the name is correctly written Dunholm." Holm is also Anglo-Saxon, and is described by Bosworth as "a river island, a green plot of ground environed with water—hence holmes."

Holmside, in the county of Durham, and Midge Holm, Holmwath, and Yallow Holm, are names of places by the river in Teesdale.

By the Wear, at the west end of Rogerley Park, is situated Burry Holm. In the year 1583 Thomas Blacket, Esq., of Woodcroft, demised to Peter Maddison, gent., three closes of land being part of Woodcroft estate; one close was on the west side of the low pasture, and another close of meadow was called "Buiri Holme." It might be the holm of the burdock (Arctium Lappa), or the berry holm from Anglo-Saxon berie, berige, a berry, or the bere holm or place where barley grew, Anglo-Saxon bere, barley. Again, the spear plume-thistle (Cnicus lanceolatus), called in Scotland the bur-thrissil, might flourish here, or the burtree, the common elder (Sambucus nigra).

The names flask, swang, bog, and wass, indicate wet land, and are kindred terms to a certain extent. Those accustomed to travel on the highlands of Weardale will be familiar with lands denominated boggy, swampy, swangy, marshy. The term wass may be considered obsolete, and that of flask nearly so.

In Hatfield’s Survey there were in Bolihope lands called the Wasses and Seggefeldland. Wass is from the {101}Anglo-Saxon wæs, water, and segg from the Anglo-Saxon segg, seeg, a reed or sedge, which commonly grows on wet land.

A pasture in Killhope, between Low Moss and the Rush, was some thirty years ago called the Flask. Langtay Flask is in Burnhope, and a lead-mine here was known by that name 200 years ago. In the bailiffs’ roll under Queryndon, we find in Hatfield, lands called fennes, flasskes, and a place called Atthillswang. In Quesshowe there was le Flaske. At Framwelgate, Broom cum le Flassh, at Cotam les flaskes.

Bog, Gaelic bog, Irish bogach, marsh, morass, quagmire, needs little explanation. Riggy Bogs, Boghouse, White Bog, and Bog Hole, are amongst names of places in the dales.

Den, from the Celto-Saxon, is a deep wooded valley, and has already been considered under valleys. The most important denes are Easter Black Dene and Wester Black Dene.

Hot Hill is no doubt the wooded hill, but Hotts has another derivation, and appears to be from hut, an abode or sheltered place. Another name, hurst, pure German, a thick wood, is confined, as far as Weardale is concerned, to Shield Hurst.

The termination shaw, a thicket or small wood, is frequently met with in place-names. The Danish skov is a wood or forest, Icelandic skogr; the Anglo-Saxon scua, scuwa is a shade, the same as the Swedish skugga. Anglo-Saxon sceaga seems to mean shaggy wood. In the Hatfield’s Survey, a place in Bolihope is called Watteshawe—a wet wooded place. Near Allergill we have Birkshaw, the place shaded by birch-trees. In Shittlehope there are two places on the expanding moorlands called Bashaw and Mogshaw. The former was probably the badger shaw or wood. In the latter we have an important root, the Erse magh, Welsh maes, a plain. Taylor gives magh as a Gadhelic test word, and says that it is found in more than a hundred Irish names of places.{102}

The various place-names embracing mea, may, are from the same root, and probably Migg Clos, held by the parson of Stanhope in 1380, is a kindred name. A place on the south side of Bolihope is named Harnshaw—written in 1614 Hornyshawe, and in 1666 Harnshaw—from Anglo-Saxon hyrne, hirne, an angle or corner, a resemblance to a horn—hence the hyrne shaw would be the horn-shaped wood. Ramshaw, particularly known for its well, is evidently the ram wood, Anglo-Saxon ram, ramm, a ram; but some authorities derive ram from raven. These etymological conclusions give us a broad birch, a horn-shaped and a wet wood, a wood on a plain, and a wood frequented by the ram and the badger.

Wood, Anglo-Saxon wudu, wode, woodland, enters into a few local names, as Bradwode or Broadwood.

In Rookhope there is a Foul Wood, a lead-mine so named over two hundred years ago. Its name is evidently from the Anglo-Saxon ful, rotten, the same as Foul Sike was the impure watercourse. In 1401 Roger Thornton leased a lead-mine in Weardale at a place called Old Wode Clough.

In field, ley, and ridding, we have indications of clearings in the forest—places where cattle might feed. In Weardale there are some thirty leys, numerous fields but very few riddings. The latter word is from Anglo-Saxon hreddan, to rid; hredding a ridding; Danish rydde, to clear, grub up; rydning, clearing. The Weardale people are familiar with rid-up, a house; rid-out, a quarry; and similar terms. It is different from the riding, from Anglo-Saxon thri, thry, three; thridda, the third; thrithing, a third part of a province, as in the Yorkshire Ridings. Five hundred years ago John Migg held at Stanhope four acres of land in the Ridding, Robert Todd held j Ridding over an acre, and Alexander Brancepath held five acres and one rod in the Riddying. In Queen Elizabeth’s time Michael Fetherstonhalgh of Stanhope Hall purchased of Follinsby a parcel of ground called Pathemairidding. In Path-mai{103}ridding we have the ridding on the plain over which there was a path.

Ley, lea, lee, lay, is an open place, a pasture or field where cattle may lie; from the Anglo-Saxon leah, leag, lege, lea, leah; from licgan, liggan, to lie. The lea was an opening or forest clearing where cattle might be depastured, but where a good deal of woodland might exist. Gray, in the opening lines of his beautiful "Elegy," sings—

This terminal occurs in over twenty names of places in Boldon Buke. In Weardale there are five names of places having this suffix which are very important, as they give names to extensive stretches of land, and very probably the adjectival components may all be derived from personal names. These are Frosterley, Bishopley, Rogerley, Horsley, and Brotherlee.

On the hill north of Eastgate is situated Bewley, where once a cross existed, and in former days a watch for invaders was kept here. This place-name is probably more correctly Bewdley. In 1380 and 1590 it was written Bowdlye, and may be derived from the Anglo-Saxon bige, biga, bigan, a turning, corner, bending, angle, the ley, or field, on the bend or bow of the hill, the bowed ley.

Amongst the highest hills in Weardale are Fendrith Hill, Knoutberry Hill, Noon Hill, St. Cuthbert’s Hill, and Horseshoe Hill. Hill, hyl, hyll, is Anglo-Saxon, Norse holl, a name given to large and small elevations. One of these hills is named after the patron saint of the Bishopric of St. Cuthbert. Like Outberry Plain on the southern ridge, Knoutberry Hill on the north, evidently derived its name from the cloud-berry, Rubus Chamæmorus, which grows on the Weardale fells. In 1614, however, it was written Nookhill. Fendrith was written in 1539 Fenrake. The word rake is common in Weardale, and means to walk or range, or the extent of the walk—hence a sheep-rake, Swedish reka, to travel, journey. A fen is land{104} covered with mud, a morass—hence the Fenrake was the district covered by a large morass. The hill known as the Horseshoe might be so shaped, or the suffix may be shaw, a wood—the wood of Horsa.

Amongst hills of lesser elevations than the five abovementioned are Billing Hills, where the Scots camped in 1327; Scaud Hill, in Burnhope, from the Anglo-Saxon sceawian, scewian, to look; Batable Hill, debatable land; Scrog Hill, Anglo-Saxon scrob, scrobb, a shrub, the hill of shrubs; Dun Hill, Ancient British dun, a height or hill fort (Gaelic dun, as Dun Fell, in Teesdale). Dod Hill and Dodder Hill are mountains with rounded summits, as Dodd Fell, in the Lake District. Cross Hill, in Stanhope, is where an ancient cross stood. We had a Paper Hill and a Poperd Hill, which were the hills where the priests preached. We have hills known or distinguished as hard, long, windy, slate, black, green, white, gold, quarrel (quarry), hungry (poor), stony, great, low, etc. Animals contribute their names, as in Hog Hill, Lamb Hill, Plover Hill, Fairhills (Norse faar, sheep), and Cowshill, the hill where cows congregated.

Law, Anglo-Saxon hlaw, hlæw, rising ground, an elevation, a hill. In the south it is low, as Ludlow, the people’s hill. Killhope Law is 2,206 feet above sea-level, Collier Law 1,692, Bolts Law 1,772, and Pow Law and the Three Laws are the names of other hills in the district.

Seat, Anglo-Saxon set, a sitting; sæta, settlers, inhabitants. The root sæte, set, or seta, enters into several names of places in England, some of which are county towns, as Dorset, Somerset; Old Norse setr, a seat. The Norwegian seter is a pasture or mountain-side—Burnhope Seat, Dora’s Seat, and Raven’s Seat. One was the settlement of a person named Raven, or Rafn; the other that of Dora, or Dore. In 1614 we find Dorry Sette. Bishop’s Seat was the place where the lords of the Bishopric settled when hunting in Weardale Forest. Another name is Laverock Seat, evidently Leofric’s Seat, modernized into Lark-seat.{105}

Head, Anglo-Saxon head, heafod, a head. In a district full of undulating lands and small valleys there are several places deriving their names from being the top or head, or finished part of something, as Lanehead, Wearhead, Dalehead, Sidehead, Nag’s Head, Lamb’s Head, and others.

Rig, rigg, Anglo-Saxon rig, hrycg, and various other forms; Danish ryg; Icelandic hriggr, a ridge, a back. Stangend Rigg is 2,075 feet above sea-level.

Plain and pike are sufficiently expressive—the one a broad stretch of land, and the other a peak or pointed eminence. Five Pikes are near Paw Law Pike, a south-eastern boundary point on the hills. Ireshope Plains is a euphonious name; and Bewdley Plain, Sedling Plain, Outberry Plain, may be mentioned in the list.

Moor, fell, common, are well-known terms. Anglo-Saxon mor is waste-land, a moor, a heath; Danish mor is a moor, or morass; we have Killhope, Burnhope, and Wellhope Moors. Fell is Old Norse. All the Weardale moorlands are called fells. Chapel Fell is 2,294 feet above sea-level; A common is a tract of unenclosed pasture or outside land on which the tenantry of the inlands have a common right, or right of common for their sheep.

Bank, band, brae, and brow, are common in place-names, as Brook Bank, Owsen Bands, Whitfield Brow, etc. Batts, low, flat ground near water; Anglo-Saxon bæth, a bath, land subject to be soaked with water. Berry, as Knoutberry Hill, Bleaberry, and Snodberry, are from the Anglo-Saxon beorg, beorh, a hill. Cut, cove, as Cove’s Houses; crooks, as Milncrook, Seggecrok, Crawcrook, are found. Also end, as Hill End; and edge, as White Edge, Band Edge. Flat, green, and ground, are also found in several place-names, as Barnflat, Willow Green, and Trodden Ground. In the Boldon Buke we have Pelhou, Quesshow, and Dunhow, from haw, Anglo-Saxon hæge, a hedge.

Haugh is a common name in Northumberland for low-lying grounds close to rivers. It is frequently met with on{106} the Tyne, but it is not so common on the Wear. Worsaae returns haugh in no other county than Northumberland, to which he ascribes ten, the haugh, or how, being given as the Scandinavian haugh, a hill; but the haugh of the Borderland is low-lying and sheltered meadow-land close to the winding rivers. In 1380, at Stanhope, there was a Castle Hogh, known as the Castle Haugh until within fifty years ago. There is a haugh at Softly, and a haughing-gate at Eastgate. There are various haughs in and about Blanchland, and it might appear that Weardale, where it is very rare, formed the southern boundary. But there are, however, three haughs in the West Riding.

Hooks, height, hole, and howl. We have Fairy Holes—caves in the limestone—Foxholes, Brockholes, and Catholes, as names of places; Hole House, Clay Holes, and many others. Cuthbert Heights is from St. Cuthbert. Knot, loc, lake, land, as the Knotts, the Locks, Cocklake, and the Lands. Mea, Welsh maes, Erse magh—a plan—is very common in the Durham dales. In Teesdale there is Flushy Mea, Sow Mea; and, in Weardale, Broad Mea, Mea Sike, Pitty Mea, Rimea, and others. Mound, moss, nook, rake, pit, and pot, occur in many names.

Side, a Saxon word, Icelandic sida, the edge, a hillside, enters into a number of names of places, as Fell Side, Kirk Side, with siders, as Cuthbert Siders; and also sedeing, a sideling or sloping. Slack, spot, wick, wham, clints, crag, carr, scar, are amongst other words forming place-names.

Habitations and enclosures have their special names.

When the Angles and Saxons arrived in our island they planted settlements in fertile districts. By the margins of some meandering river, which had already been named by the earlier Celtic race, the Saxon families located themselves and established homes, many of which are now large towns. The forest growth was cleared, and, with that love of home characteristic of the Saxons, a portion of the cleared land was enclosed, guarded, or protected, with the tines of forest growth—the tines or twigs{107} of the wood; hence tun occurs in 137 Anglo-Saxon names of places in the 1,200 taken from Kemble’s Charters. This termination became to mean, not the tines or twigs alone, nor yet the hedges of which they were made, but the whole enclosure or estate was the tun or ton of some person; or the ton otherwise distinguished, as Stockton, the stockaded town; Middleton, the middle town; Willington, the town of the family of Willing—sons of Will. Other terminations indicate Saxon homes, as ham, worth, stoke, stow, fold, bury. In the Boldon Buke we find the Danish toft; and the universal description of small holdings in Hatfield’s Survey is a toft and a croft. We also find in primitive days the villagers holding dales of land—land divided into long, narrow strips or divisions, each villager knowing his own strip. When Weardale was more under cultivation, it was customary for the inhabitants to take in land from the moors; hence we find the place-name intake, locally intak. And at a later period still, when Acts of Parliament dealt with the division of moorlands, we got the name allotment, abbreviated to lotment and lot—the allotted land.

Acre is mentioned, as in Farnacres, in the Boldon Buke; and in later surveys are Longacre and Etheredacres. Barn, berry, beeld, byre, and by, bower, cave, castle, chesters, close, croft, dale, and darg—as six darg, from Anglo-Saxon dæg-weorc, day’s work. Fold, farm, faw, frith, gate, garth, hot, ing, ham, kirk, lodge, park, meadow, pry, shield, stead, ton, and wall, are common in the dales of the county of Durham.

Amongst the names referring to buildings we have cross, as Killhope Cross and Edmundbyres Cross. Stone crosses to guide the wayfarer were once erected at these places. Brig is from bridge, whether built of stone or wood. Currock, a pile of stones erected on the moors or fells as a landmark. Peth and lonnon and way are also common names. And all these have their adjectival component, as Lodge Field, Leases Park, Mill Houses, Pry Hill, Old Faw, Shield Ash, Watch Currock, etc.{108}

DURHAM CATHEDRAL

By the Rev. William Greenwell, M.A., D.C.L., F.R.S., F.S.A.

IN the year 875 the great Scandinavian invasions were assuming large proportions, and among other parts of England where the Danes landed and harried the country was the coast of Northumbria. The monks fled from Lindisfarne, which had been selected by Aidan principally because of its resemblance to Iona. There was probably another reason for the choice: its neighbourhood to the stronghold of Bamborough, the seat of the Northumbrian Kings. Lindisfarne is very near to it, and naturally would be under the protection of the King who lived there.

Bamborough, however, proved no protection against the Danes, who came oversea, and, landing on the coast, overran not only a great part of the North of England, but also a considerable portion of the South of Scotland. The monks, fearing lest they should be deprived of St. Cuthbert’s body and their other treasures, and of their lives as well, fled from Lindisfarne, carrying with them the body of the saint. Many churches dedicated to St. Cuthbert in these parts probably mark the spots where the monks in their journeying rested for a while.

After wandering from 875 to 883, having remained for a short time at Crayke, they settled at Chester-le-Street, which was given to them by Guthred, a Danish King then reigning in Northumbria, and who had become a Christian.{109}

There the body rested, and from it the Bernician See was ruled until the removal of Bishop Aldhun and the congregation of St. Cuthbert (after a short sojourn at Ripon) to Durham in 995. The difficulties of an adequate defence probably proved to the monks that Chester-le-Street was not a suitable place for their protection. The superior position of Durham was no doubt the reason why it was selected for the site of the see. This, then, was the commencement of the church and city of Durham.

In 999 Bishop Aldhun, having commenced it three years before, completed the building of a stone church, to which the body of St. Cuthbert was transferred from a wooden building (æcclesiola, Symeon calls it), where it had been at first placed. Of that church no part remains visible to the eye, though there are no doubt thousands of the stones belonging to it enclosed within the walls of the present church.

The first building remained until after the Norman Conquest, a great change having taken place in the meantime. The monks who, with the Bishop, had originally constituted the congregation of St. Cuthbert, had fallen from the rule which was first observed. There was in those days a great tendency among the regular clergy in the Saxon Church to degenerate into a kind of secular clergy. Symeon says those at Durham were neither monks nor regular canons. At Durham, as at Hexham, some members of the congregation were married and had families, and there was springing up at Durham possibly, as there certainly was at Hexham, an hereditary system, son succeeding father; and had the system gone on, there would have arisen a sacerdotal caste, with all the evils attending such a body. The Norman Conquest happily did away with that, as it did with other abuses. It is probable that some remains connected with these married members of the congregation were discovered in 1874, when the foundations of the east end of the old chapter-house, which was so ruthlessly destroyed in 1796, were laid bare. The graves of Bishops{110} Ranulph Flambard, Galfrid Rufus, and William de St. Barbara were met with, each covered with a slab bearing his name—probably not quite contemporary—and in them were found three episcopal rings of gold, set with sapphires, and in the grave of Flambard, the head, made of iron, plated with silver, and the iron ferrule of a pastoral staff, all of which are now preserved in the cathedral library. Below the level of the Bishops’ graves there were found a considerable number of skeletons of men, women, and children, with one of which was deposited the iron head of a spear, having the socket plated with gold. There can be little doubt that these bodies belonged to the married portion of the congregation and their families, who occupied the monastery at Durham from the time of Aldhun to their being dispossessed by Bishop William of St. Carileph.

Allusion has already been made to the congregation of St. Cuthbert, but of that body some further account must be given. The religious community, the congregation of St. Cuthbert, which ultimately settled at Durham, included the Bishop and the monks. The two formed one body, whose interests were identical, and whose property was in common; and the Bishop lived among the monks, over whom he ruled within the community as he ruled over the diocese without, having no estates or means of subsistence separate from the congregation of which he formed a part. This unity between the Bishop and the monks was very similar to that which prevailed amongst the early religious communities in Ireland and Scotland. The system went on at Durham until the establishment of the Benedictine Order there by Bishop William of St. Carileph, shortly after the Norman Conquest. He was the second Bishop appointed by William I., Walcher, the first Norman Bishop, having been killed, after a short reign, by his own people at Gateshead, during a rebellion caused by the oppression of his officials. William of St. Carileph, Abbot of St. Vincent, became Bishop in 1081. Originally a{111} secular priest, he afterwards became a monk in the monastery of St. Calais, and such an establishment as that he found at Durham must have been most distasteful to him. A Benedictine monk himself, he naturally preferred being surrounded by religious of his own Order, and not by those of whose system he disapproved. In the time of Bishop Walcher the ancient monasteries of Jarrow and Wearmouth were to a great extent, though probably not altogether, deserted, and had been so since they were laid waste by the Danes. When Bishop William determined upon establishing Benedictine monks at Durham, he found these two monasteries already existing at Jarrow and Wearmouth. Thinking there were not sufficient provision for the maintenance of more than one monastery, he transferred the monks from Jarrow and Wearmouth to Durham in 1083, and founded a Benedictine house there. He became a party to the rebellion against William Rufus in 1088, and was driven an exile for three years into Normandy. It may well be that during his sojourn there he conceived the design of replacing the old church by a new and more magnificent one. Normandy at that time was full of large and noble churches, many lately erected, and we can readily understand how the thought may have passed across the mind of Carileph that, if he ever returned to Durham, he would raise there a more glorious building, and one better adapted to the wants of the new community than the church he had left behind him. At all events, on his return, he determined to build a new church, and may we not suppose that gratitude was among the motives which induced him to do this? In the meanwhile, during the time of his exile, as we learn from Symeon, the monks had built the refectory as, says he, it now stands. Symeon was living in the early part of the twelfth century; he therefore speaks with authority. The crypt under the refectory, which still exists, cannot be later than Symeon’s time, and must therefore be part of the refectory built during Carileph’s exile (1088-1091), and is therefore in{112} either case one of the earliest buildings at Durham in connection with the monastery.

This very ancient structure lies on the south side of the cloister, and to the west of a contemporary passage leading from it into the great enclosure of the monastery, now called the college. The passage itself has an arcade of low blind arches on either side, and openings, possibly coeval{113} with it, lead into the crypt under the refectory at one side, and into a smaller one on the other. The refectory crypt is low, being only seven and a half feet high, and commences at the east end with a division, which has a plain, barrel-shaped vault. From this an arched opening leads into the main area of the crypt. It is divided into three aisles by two rows of short, massive square pillars, four in each row, making five bays in the length. The pillars support a plain groined vault without ribs or transverse arches. This space is again succeeded towards the west by three divisions, the westernmost one being not so long as the others, all the three having, like the first and easternmost one, plain barrel vaults. Up to this point the whole crypt is of the same early date, but beyond, to the west of what appears to be an original wall, are some other structures, the cellar and pantry, of later times. The older crypt has been lighted on the south side by at least seven, or possibly more, small windows, all round-headed except one, which is circular.

To the east of the passage there is, as has already been stated, a smaller crypt, which in general corresponds with the architectural character of that under the refectory. It is now beneath the entrance-hall of the deanery, once part of the Prior’s hall, and has apparently been curtailed of some of its original length.

Symeon, a monk of Durham, already mentioned, lived when a great part of the work at the church was going on, and therefore his testimony is very important. He wrote a history of the church of Durham, and his history was continued after him by an anonymous writer. We next have a further continuation by Geoffrey de Coldingham, Robert de Graystanes, and William de Chambre, together with a number of indulgences from various Bishops, given towards obtaining means for making additions to and alterations in the building, and a few, but late, fabric rolls. Besides these there is a most important document, "A Description or Brief Declaration of all the Ancient{114} Monuments, Rites, and Customs belonging or being within the Monastical Church of Durham before the Suppression," apparently written towards the end of the sixteenth century by someone who had been an inmate of the monastery. These form the series of historical evidences which now exist with regard to the dates of the various parts of the church.

In 1093, on August 11, the foundation-stones of the new church were laid, the foundations themselves having been dug on the preceding July 29. Aldhun’s church, as Symeon tells us, had been previously destroyed. There were then present Bishop William of St. Carileph; Turgot, Prior of the monastery, afterwards Bishop at St. Andrews; and, as other writers say, Malcolm, King of Scotland. The continuator of Symeon says that, on the accession of Flambard, he found the church finished as far as the nave. This statement does not, of course, imply that the whole of this was the work of Carileph, for the monks after his death had carried on the building of the church; but it appears on the whole probable that, with the exception of the west side of the transepts and the vaulting of the choir, all the church up to the point mentioned had been built before the death of Carileph.

It may be well to give here a general description of the Norman work, taking the nave first, as being the most important feature in the whole great scheme. The nave consists of three double compartments, a single bay westward of these, and the western bay flanked by the towers. The principal piers consist of triple shafts, placed on each face of a central mass, square in plan; the shafts rest on massive bases of cruciform plan, having a flat projecting band about the middle and a narrow plinth at the bottom. A similar band and plinth are carried beneath the wall-arcades of the nave and transepts and entirely round the church on the outside. In the choir, however, except on the piers of the tower arch, the bases are without a band, but have a plinth of greater height, the responds on the{115} aisle walls being similar. The triple shafts next the nave or choir rise almost to the top of the triforium, and support the great transverse arches of the vault. The shafts next the aisles receive the diagonal and transverse ribs of the aisle vault, and the shafts on the two remaining faces receive the arches of the great arcade. The intermediate piers, in the centre of each double compartment, are circular in plan, and stand on square bases. The western pair of piers, at the corners of the towers, are clustered like the other main piers, but have two additional shafts (like the crossing piers), but these shafts on the side next the nave receive the diagonal ribs of the vault, whereas the additional shafts on the crossing piers support the outer order of the tower arches.

The triforium is of eight bays, having a containing arch with two sub-arches, the tympanum being solid. The clerestory has in each of its eight bays a lofty and wide arch with a smaller and lower one on each side, the central arch having a window fronting it. It has a wall passage which connects it with the clerestories on the west side of the transepts. The inner arcade in the eastern bays appears to be an insertion, possibly made when the vault was put on the nave. The idea of vaulting the nave was apparently abandoned, when the triforium stage was reached, and it is probable that the arrangement of the nave clerestory was at first not unlike that of the south transept. The resumption of the vaulting idea thus necessitated an alteration in the design of the clerestory.

The nave is covered a double quadripartite vault over each double compartment, without transverse ribs over the minor piers. The great transverse arches, which spring from the major piers, are pointed. The diagonal ribs, which rise from corbels inserted in the spandrils of the triforium arches, are semicircular. They are all decorated with zigzag.

The choir consists of two double compartments, and in{116} its plan as a whole agrees with that of the nave. There are, however, some differences in the details. The piers of the great arcades, although similar in motive to those of the nave, are much longer from east to west, and are, in fact, more like sections of wall than piers. The clerestory is quite unlike that of the nave, having a plain round-headed arch in each bay, with a corresponding window, and is destitute of a wall passage. The triforiums on both sides of the choir and on the east side of the transepts are all very similar. They are lighted by windows, consisting of two small round-headed openings, about twenty inches apart, under a containing arch. The buttressing arches, which are opposite the piers, are semicircular in form, and are contemporaneous with the arcades. Each transept has two double bays, with an aisle on the east side. The vault on the north transept has one transverse arch, which is semicircular, the double bay to the north having a single quadripartite vault with segmental diagonal ribs. All the ribs are moulded with a roll between two hollows. The south transept has a similarly formed vault, but the ribs are enriched with zigzag. The triforium and other upper parts of the church are reached by staircases contained in two square internal projections which are in the north-west and south-west angles of the transept. The end walls of the transepts were probably lighted by three tiers of windows; the lowest—which still remains—though blocked up, in the south transept, is a single round-headed window. It is difficult to say what was the arrangement above, but probably there were three windows on the triforium level and one on that of the clerestory. Passages crossed the ends at these levels, but none now remain in their original state.

The vaults of the aisles of the choir, transepts, and nave, are quadripartite and are the same throughout, except that the diagonal ribs of the nave aisles beyond the two eastern bays have zigzag upon them.

The transverse ribs, which rise alike from both piers{117} and columns, are composed of a flat soffit, with a roll and shallow on each edge, the diagonal ribs having a large roll between two hollows. The first compartment of the nave arcade, which comprises two bays and the east bay of the triforium arcade, correspond in their mouldings and other features with those of the choir, whereas in the remainder of the nave, although the elevation in its general design and principal features is the same, the mouldings in some essential particulars, especially in the use of the zigzag and the course of small sunk squares forming a quasi hood-moulding round the arches of the great arcade, differ from those of the choir. There is a difference also in the way in which the diagonal ribs of the main vault was carried. In the choir the diagonal ribs of the original Norman vault are supported on shafts, which still remain and rise from the level of the triforium floor; on the east side of the transept they are supported by similar shafts; in the nave they are supported on brackets formed of two grotesque heads, inserted in the spandrils between the containing arches of the triforium. The eastern compartment of the nave arcade, with the triforium arch above it, which, before the nave was completed, acted as an abutment to the tower arches on the west side, as the similar and corresponding arches of the transepts did on the north and south, must necessarily have been built at the same time as the tower arches themselves, and, therefore, naturally corresponds with them in the details.

The spiral grooving on the piers, a rare feature in Norman work, is seen in the choir and transepts, but not in the nave, where lozenge and zigzag patterns and flutings are used instead. The spirals are contrary to the ordinary direction of those on a screw. The eastern part of Carileph’s church no longer exists, having been replaced by a very beautiful eastern transept. Until some important excavations were made in 1895, it was generally believed that the choir ended in an apsidal termination, with an extension of the aisles forming an ambulatory{118} round it. The foundations of the east end of the aisles, as well as of the choir, together with a small portion of the choir wall itself, were then discovered. From what remained it was shown that Carileph’s choir terminated in three apses, the central one, which extended 27 feet beyond the others, being semicircular on the outside as well as within, while those at the end of the aisles had been semicircular only on the inside, being finished square externally.

To Galfrid Rufus may be attributed the present great north and south doorways of the nave, themselves, however, replacing earlier ones. The sculpturing upon these doorways, and that upon the corbels which once supported the ribs at the east end of the chapter-house, have apparently been done by the same hand, and there is otherwise much in common between the decoration of these doorways and that of the chapter-house itself.

Skilfully wrought and probably contemporary ironwork covers the south door, still remaining in a very perfect state.

On the north door there are sufficient indications to show what was the pattern of the ironwork once there, and, indeed, with care and under a favourable light, the very elaborate design may be made out. The grotesque but effective sanctuary knocker of bronze, of the same date as the door itself, if it does not invite the unfortunate offender to seek for that protection now, happily, under more humane conditions, not needed for his safety, will recall to memory how the Church in a ruder age held out her saving hand, and interposed between the shedder of blood, sometimes guiltless, and the avenger.

The death of Bishop Carileph took place in 1096, and an interval of three years elapsed before the election of Bishop Flambard, in 1099, who is described as great by some, and infamous by other, writers.

Ralph Flambard was William Rufus’s Chancellor, and whether he was infamous or not, he was, anyhow, a{119} remarkable man. We are told by the continuator of Symeon, that he carried on the work of the nave up to the roof—that is, that he completed the nave as far as the vault, including the side aisles and their vaults, and probably at the same time building that portion of the western towers which attains an equal elevation with the walls of the nave.

Flambard probably began to build soon after he became Bishop, and though that part of the church which is due to him might not have been finished until near the time of his death, no material alteration seems to have been{120} made in the plan. With regard to the upper part of the western towers, and the time when they were built, we are entirely left to the evidence of the architecture itself, for nothing has been recorded which has reference to their erection. The upper stages belong to a time when the style called the Early English was being developed, and they may have been constructed during the episcopate of Richard de Marisco (1217-26), or even of Philip de Pictavia (1197-1208). Although the towers have suffered much from weathering, and more from the paring process, which, however, to some extent, has been remedied by the late reparation, they are well designed and very effective additions to the church as originally planned. In combination with the end of the nave and the bold mouldings of Pudsey’s Galilee, they form a termination which will not suffer even when compared with some of our finest west fronts. The upper part of both is enriched by four arcades, two open and two blank, of alternately round-headed and pointed arches. The towers were, until the time of the Commonwealth, surmounted by spires of wood covered with lead. At present they are finished by a parapet with turrets, placed there at the beginning of the present century, which, though faulty in detail, are, nevertheless, by no means unworthy of the towers they crown, and add materially to the picturesque outline of the cathedral when viewed from a distance.

Bishop Cosin, in his articles of inquiry at his first visitation in 1662, asks: "What is become of the wood and lead of the two great broaches that stood upon the square towers at the west end of the church?" (Miscellanea, Surtees Society, vol. xxxvii., p. 257). This inquiry was repeated in Cosin’s second visitation, July 17, 1665, and the reply made in the presentment of the minor canons, etc., was as follows: "And as for the lead and timber of the two great broaches at the west end of the church, Mr. Gilbert Marshall can give the best account how they were employed" (Hunter MSS., vol. xi., No. 94). To

{121}

this reply James Green, minor canon and sacrist, adds: "Mr. Gilbert Marshall, Mr. Gilpin, and Mr. Anthony Smith, can best tell what became of it" (Hunter MSS., vol. xi., No. 98). Bishop Cosin would remember them as being on the towers when he was Prebendary before the time of the Commonwealth. That they were never rebuilt is shown by Buck’s view, published in 1732, where the towers are without spires.

The most important, as it is not the least striking and beautiful, object in the choir is the large and lofty throne, built by Bishop Thomas de Hatfield (1345-81) during his lifetime, for his tomb beneath and the throne above. It is a structure worthy of the Palatine See of Durham and of the mighty Prince-Bishop who erected it. The alabaster figure of the Bishop still remains, comparatively perfect, clothed in richly decorated pontifical vestments, lying on an altar-tomb under a canopy whose groining is finely ornamented with bosses of boldly sculptured foliage. Upon the wall at each end of the arch, and opposite to the head and feet of the Bishop, are two angels painted in fresco. Those at the feet hold a blank shield, but at the other end the painting is too much damaged to allow the object they hold to be made out. The whole throne has once been richly gilded and coloured, and contains many shields with the Bishop’s and other arms upon them. In the construction of the upper portion of the throne it is not well fitted into the space it occupies between the pillars, and some of its parts do not quite correspond with each other. The impression given by these incongruities is that Hatfield used some pieces of stonework already carved before he planned the throne, and that it possibly was, like the Galilee, not intended from the first to occupy the position in which it was ultimately placed.

Another beautiful piece of work of about the same period as the throne is the screen behind the high-altar, commenced to be built in 1372 and finished before 1380, when the altar was dedicated. It is commonly called the{122} Neville Screen, on account of a great part of the expense of erecting it having been defrayed by John, Lord Neville, of Raby, though Prior Fossor (1341-74), Prior Berrington (1374-91), and others, bore some part of the cost. It was brought from London to Newcastle by sea, and has always been spoken of as made of Caen stone, "French peere" as it is called in the rites of Durham, being really Dorsetshire clunch.

St. Cuthbert is said to have had a more than usual monastic dislike to women—though some of his most intimate friends were women—and therefore to have built the Lady Chapel at the east end of the choir, the ordinary position, which was close to his shrine, would have been most distasteful to him. No woman, indeed, was allowed to approach farther eastward in the church than as far as a line of dark-coloured Frosterley marble, forming a cross with two short limbs at the centre, which stretches across the nave between the piers, just west of the north and south doors. The Chapel of the Blessed Virgin,[9] commonly called the Galilee, was therefore placed where we now see it. It rises almost directly from the edge of the river-bank, and is built against the west front of the church. It is of an oblong form, of five aisles divided by four arcades, each of four bays, the aisles being all of the same width. The middle aisle is higher than those adjoining, and these again are higher than the extreme north and south ones. The arches, richly decorated with zigzag, are supported upon columns, originally composed of two slender shafts of Purbeck marble, but now of four shafts, alternately of marble and sandstone, the latter, added by Cardinal Langley when he repaired the Galilee in which he placed his tomb in front of the altar, having capitals of plain volutes, which are very characteristic of the Transitional period. The chapel was entered from without through a doorway on the north side, which has been{123} restored, the old one, however, having been exactly copied to the minutest parts. The doorway is deeply recessed, the wall being increased in thickness on both sides in the manner usual at that time, and is a fine example of the style in use when it was erected. Access to the church from the Galilee was also obtained through the great west door, which was probably not blocked up until Bishop Langley placed the altar of the Blessed Virgin there, and made two doors, one at the north and the other at the south end of the west wall. The chapel was at first lighted by eight round-headed windows, placed high in the wall above the arches of the outer arcade on the north and south sides, and no doubt had other windows at the west end. The three windows in the north wall and the four in the south, originally inserted about the close of the thirteenth century, when the walls were raised in height, have all been renewed, so far as the mullions and tracery are concerned. It is probable that at the same time five similar windows were placed in the west wall, of which only two are now left, the others having given place to three fifteenth-century windows. At the time when these important alterations were made, the original windows in the wall above the arches were probably blocked up. Their outline, however, is still to be traced quite distinctly.

It must not be overlooked that the shrine containing the bones of the Venerable Bede were ultimately placed in the Galilee in 1370, in front of his altar. The bones are now placed in a plain tomb, having upon it the well-known inscription, which, however, was only engraved on the covering slab in 1830:

There are some beautiful and well-preserved fresco paintings on the east wall at its north end. They are contemporary with the building, and comprise a King and Bishop, probably St. Oswald and St. Cuthbert, and some tasteful decoration of conventional leaf forms, very charac{124}teristic of the art of the period. The lower part of the back of the recess, on the sides of which the figures occur, is filled with a representation of hangings, the middle of which is now defaced, but where, before the Dissolution, was a picture of our Lady with the dead Christ. It is not impossible that the principal altar of the Blessed Virgin originally stood there, and was transferred by Cardinal Langley to the position it afterwards occupied when he probably built up the great western doorway of the church. The site in question was, up to the time of the Reformation, devoted to the altar of Our Lady of Pity, or Piety, which may have been removed thither by Langley from the recess to the north of it, which is surmounted by an arch with the dentel moulding of a date apparently not later than the commencement of the thirteenth century—a removal necessitated by his making there one of the two new doorways into the Galilee. These paintings are not only of great interest in themselves, but they possess a further one of being the only specimens of fresco decoration in the cathedral which are now anything more than mere fragments. The arches and capitals in the Galilee have also been enriched by colour, among the designs being a zigzag and spiral pattern. It does not appear that this kind of decoration had ever been used to any great extent throughout the church, for very few remains of it were discovered when the modern whitewash was lately removed.

In the aisle, however, of the north transept, where the altars of St. Benedict and St. Gregory and that of St. Nicholas and St. Giles once stood, there are some portions of the pictures which adorned the wall behind them, including, in connection with St. Gregory’s altar, the upper part of a figure vested with the pallium. There are also some scanty remnants of colour left behind the altars of Our Lady of Houghall and Our Lady of Bolton in the aisle of the south transept. The site of the Neville Chantry in the south aisle of the nave still contains sufficient remains{125} of the delicate and tasteful pattern to enable one to judge what the design has been, and slight traces of colour are to be found upon the arches of the arcade behind the altars in the Chapel of the Nine Altars. It is probable, indeed, that the walls behind all the altars in the church have been more or less decorated with painting, though certainly it had not been used generally on the church itself.

The point of junction between the Norman choir and the thirteenth-century work which connects it with the eastern transept may be placed at the fourth pier from the eastern tower arch on each side. The arch of the triforium next these piers comes close up to them, whereas in the corresponding piers to the west there is a space between the arch and the pier. The same feature is to be seen in the triforium arch, which is next to the piers of the tower arch, which have five shafts, the others having only three. It is very probable that the piers at the entrance of the apse supported a larger transverse arch than the others, corresponding in this to the great tower arch, and that the supporting piers had, like those at the entrance of the choir, five shafts. These piers, the body of which forms a part of Carileph’s Norman work, untouched where they face into the aisles, have been encased on the choir face with very rich and tasteful decoration of about the middle of the thirteenth century. Above, upon each side of the choir, is a figure of an angel under a canopy, that on the south side holding a crown in the left hand, the other having lost the uplifted hand and what it once held. They are the only two left out of a numerous host of statues once decorating the church, and their beauty makes the destruction which has befallen the others the more to be regretted.

After the Nine Altars was finished and the connecting part between it and the choir completed, a new vault was put on to the choir, and the whole of the original Norman vault was taken down. The reason for this was almost certainly an artistic one: the sumptuously decorated vault of the Nine Altars being of a pointed form, while the{126} original plain vault of the choir was semicircular, it would have been very difficult, if not impossible, when the great transverse arch was taken down, to bring these two forms into harmonious combination. It was replaced by one which to a great extent in its mouldings and decoration corresponds with that of the Nine Altars. This vault is in five compartments, and has four richly moulded transverse arches in addition to the eastern arch of the crossing. These arches are supported alternately on the main vaulting-shafts, which rise from the floor, and on triple shafts, which rise from the level of the triforium floor, and originally received the diagonal ribs of the Norman vault. The diagonal ribs spring from the outer shafts of the three semi-shafts and from the corresponding outer shafts next to the main vaulting-shafts. The vault is quadripartite, but in the eastern bay is an additional rib on each side—a quasi ridge-rib, which runs north and south from the spandrils between the clerestory arches, and unites at the intersection of the diagonal ribs. The additional rib on the north side springs from a draped male seated figure, on each side of which is a lacertine creature with its back to the figure, and its head turned so that the mouth touches the hair, while the tail curves towards the feet; that on the south side springs from an angel. The wall ribs spring from shafts of Frosterley marble, resting on inserted corbels or on the capitals of the Norman vaulting-shafts. In the eastern angle of the eastern bay the wall rib on each side springs from the head of a small canopy, which contains a sculptured figure; that on the north side a demibishop blessing; that on the south the upper half of a male figure.

Whatever difficulty, however, there may have been in collecting the necessary funds for the erection of this noble addition to the church of Bishop William of St. Carileph, first projected by Bishop Poore, no expense or pains has been spared in its being carried out to perfection, and the vault of the Nine Altars and choir, the last part of this{127} great work, with its enrichment of dog-tooth ornament of various and graceful forms, and bosses of foliage and figure subjects, fitly completes the building in a style no less beautiful and effective than the walls which support it. It may be asserted without fear of contradiction that no more effective or majestic vault crowns any church in our country.

The cloister occupies a considerable space of ground left open at the centre, where the lavatory was placed, and was enclosed on the north side by the church, and on the other sides by those various structures which had relation to the household economy of the monastery and to its domestic and political life. Around it, in the dormitory and refectory, the monks slept, lived, and ate. They studied in the library and in the small wooden chambers—carells, as they were called—one of which was placed in front of each compartment of the windows of the north alley, which, like the east one, was glazed, the latter containing in its windows the history of St. Cuthbert. In the west alley the novices had their school, where they were taught by the master of the novices, "one of the oldest monks that was learned," who had opposite to them "a pretty seat of wainscot, adjoining to the south side of the treasury door."

In the treasury, situated at the north end of the crypt under the dormitory, and which is still divided by its ancient iron grating, were kept the title-deeds and other muniments of the church, in themselves no small treasure. At the other end of the same crypt was the common house, the only place where there was a fire for ordinary use, and which was frequented by the monks as their room for converse and recreation, and which had in connection with it a garden and a bowling alley.

In the chapter-house on the east side the monks met the Prior between five and six o’clock "every night there to remain in prayer and devotion" during that time. Here also at other times they assembled in chapter to{128} regulate all matters connected with the life within the body, and to order the many transactions which as a great corporation the convent necessarily had with the world without. Close by, on the one side of the chapter-house, out of which it opened, was the prison, where for minor offences a monk was confined; and on the other side was the passage through which his body was conveyed to his last home in the cemetery beyond.

Opening out of the dormitory to the east, at its south end, where a modern doorway has replaced the earlier one, is a room which was called by the monks "the loft," and which forms, in connection with the refectory, the south side of the cloister. It was the place where the monks, with the Subprior presiding, ordinarily dined, having beneath it what was once the cellar of the convent. Beyond this, to the east, was the refectory, or frater-house, standing above the early crypt which has already been described, where the Prior and monks dined together on March 20—St. Cuthbert’s Day. Whatever it was before then, though possibly the original building still remained, in part at least, unaltered, it was entirely reconstructed by Dean Sudbury (1662-84), who made it into the library, transferring the books from the old library adjoining to the chapter-house, and filling it with the handsome and commodious oak cases which now furnish it. Near to it, on the south-west, is the kitchen of the monastery, now attached to the deanery, an octagonal building which well deserves examination.

Returning to the cloister, there may still be seen at the centre of the garth what is left above ground of the lavatory. It was originally an octagonal structure, the upper part being occupied as a dovecote. The basin was begun in 1432, and completed the next year. The marble stones of the basin, which still exists, were brought from Eggleston-on-the-Tees, of the Abbot of which monastery they were bought. The basin is not in situ, but has at some time been removed from its original situation, "over{129} against the frater-house door," where the foundations of a circular, or octagonal, building were discovered in 1903, and with them those of an earlier building, square in form, with the substructure of an earlier basin.

Before concluding the description of the church, it is necessary that a few words should be said about the exterior. It has charms of its own which, in spite of the disasters it has undergone in the shape of paring down and refacing, still makes it one of our noblest churches.

It must be admitted that, on account of the removal of some inches from the surface of the stone,[10] and the consequent curtailment of mouldings in their projections and hollows, there is a want of light and shade which much detracts from its effect when seen near at hand.

Indeed, the first impression made is perhaps one of disappointment. The east end is especially flat and bald, and with its ill-designed modern pinnacles forms but a poor clothing to the wondrous beauty which is to be seen within the Nine Altars. But with all these drawbacks, when viewed as a whole, and when distance has lent its compensating power, the cathedral, its lofty central tower rising in harmonious combination with the two western ones, stands sublime in its grand outline, and fitly crowns the hill of Durham.{130}

FINCHALE PRIORY

By J. Tavenor-Perry

AFTER the Romans had completed the subjection of the Brigantes they constructed a great military road through the centre of their country from Eburicum, which became the capital of the province, to the Tweed and the country beyond. This road intersected the county of Durham from north to south, and much of its course can still be traced from its point of entry at Pierce Bridge, through Vinovium or Binchester in Auckland, Epiacum or Lanchester, and Vindomora or Ebchester where it passes over the Derwent into Northumberland. From Binchester a branch road led by way of Chester-le-Street to the Pons Ælii or Newcastle, which was continued by another branch to Jarrow and South Shields passing along the south bank of the Tyne. This great military road and the branch to Newcastle were cut through the dense forest which then covered the whole of Durham and which continued through Saxon times to form an almost impassable boundary, save by these roads, between the closely associated provinces of Deira and Bernicia. The considerable remains of the Roman towns still standing after the conquest of Northumbria by the Angles were no doubt occupied by them as settlements; and we find it stated in the life of St. Cuthbert that when he was crossing the wild country of Durham and was like to be starved he found succour from someone residing in the buildings still re{131}maining at Chester-le-Street. Along the sides of the roads, between the towns, would be the ruins, not then entirely destroyed, of villas and other buildings which may have formed places for rest or refuge to those who like the saint traversed these dangerous forest paths, from which may have been derived the names of localities still in use although the ruins after which they were called have long since been forgotten. The monks who were conveying the body of St. Cuthbert to its final resting-place were directed to take it to Dunholm, and an accident revealed to them the obscure place which then bore that name; and when St. Godric was directed to repair to Finchale and there build himself a hermitage, he only discovered there was a place so called by a chance conversation he had with a monk at Durham.

The name of Finchale must have been well known in the ninth century if we accept the common and reasonable belief that it was a place of meeting of two or three important councils concerned with the affairs of Northumbria. Its position in reference to the great road passing to the South, its accessibility to the neighbouring town of Chester-le-Street only three or four miles distant, and its comparative seclusion in the great surrounding forest made it particularly suitable for such meetings, which were held, as Bishop Stubbs says in his Constitutional History, generally on the confines of states whence those assembled might easily retire at nightfall to safer places. The councils held in Northumbria during the latter part of the eighth century met at a time when the country was not only disturbed by internal troubles, but already threatened by the Danish pirates along the coast; and the forest depths of Durham were safer for such meetings than the more open lands of Northumberland or Yorkshire. The affix of "hale," the Saxon "hal," signifies the existence of a hall or some building, perhaps the remains of a Roman villa, which would have served as a temporary shelter for the members of a council, of which{132} all traces have long since disappeared; but, taking all the circumstances together, we may fairly assume that Finchale was the place in which these Northumbrian councils met, and the name still lingered in the locality when St. Godric established himself within its glades on the banks of the rushing Wear.

This Godric, whose name is indissolubly associated with Finchale Priory, although he was in no sense the founder of it, was as selfish and dirty an old anchorite as ever attained the brevet rank of sainthood. Born about 1065, the first thirty years of his life were spent as a pedlar and sailor, during which he travelled far and wide, and met with many adventures; and the remainder he spent in pilgrimages or a hermit-life of penance and prayer. The Dictionary of National Biography gives a very complete history of him, compiled from all available sources, the most important being the MS. life by his contemporary Nicholas of Durham. While he was leading the roving life of a pedlar he was nearly drowned in trying to catch a porpoise, and afterwards made a pilgrimage to Rome, presumably in thankfulness for his rescue. But the time was unfortunate, for it appears to have been about 1086, when Gregory VII., Hildebrand, had just died in exile, when the Anti-Pope Clement III. was in possession of the Vatican, while the newly elected Pope Victor III. was afraid to enter Rome, which then lay sunk in the most frightful anarchy. The spectacle he beheld could scarcely then have induced him to accept a religious vocation; and we find that for sixteen years afterwards he led a seafaring life, trading between England, Scotland, Flanders and Denmark, presently going so far afield as the Holy Land, where the Chronicler’s description of him as "Gudericus pirata de regno Angliae" sufficiently indicates the character of his occupation. Returning thence, he paid a visit to the shrine of St. James of Compostella; and when he reached home he accepted a menial position in the house of a countryman, which{133} suggests that he had not made much money by his ventures. But with a restless spirit on him he went two more pilgrimages to Rome, and the second time he took his mother with him carrying her, it is said, on his shoulders where the way was difficult. It was on this journey that he was accompanied by a lady of wondrous beauty, whom he met on his way in London, who left him there again on his return, and who nightly washed his feet; a story which perhaps grew out of the custom of noble ladies, and which became more common later on, of washing the feet of pilgrims in penance for some special sin, in the manner described by Charles Reade in The Cloister and the Hearth. On his return, somewhere about 1104, he settled for a time at Carlisle, and then went to share his cell with a hermit named Aelrice, by Wolsingham, and perhaps learn the lessons which were to guide him in his future life. After a stay here of only seventeen months the hermit died, and directed, he believed, by St. Cuthbert, Godric went again on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, after which he was instructed to return and take up his residence at Finchale. Not knowing the locality by name he returned to Durham where he resided for some time until a chance conversation disclosed the whereabouts of the place.

When he at length retired to Finchale he seems to have found there the remains of some ancient building, perhaps of a Roman villa, which may have given its name to the place, and which may not only have formed a sufficient residence for the hermit but for the other members of his family who came to reside with him. The site of this dwelling was a little nearer to Durham than is the present Priory, and the lands around were a hunting-ground (the villa may have been a hunting-lodge) belonging to Bishop Ralph Flambard who gave Godric permission to settle here, so that possession must have been taken before 1128, the date of the Bishop’s death. Adjoining to this residence he seems to have built a{134} wooden chapel which was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, and about twenty years after he built another of stone which was consecrated by Bishop William de St. Barbara, dedicated to the Holy Sepulchre and St. John Baptist, and regularly served by a priest from Durham. As well as the many self-imposed mortifications he endured, he was much troubled by the serpents with which the place abounded, but which, at his command, departed; but if we may believe the equally veracious story of "the loathly worm of Lambton," a witch as well as a saint had a hand in that achievement.

Godric, who was bedridden with rheumatism, the result of his senile excesses, for eight years before his death, died in 1170, during the episcopacy of Bishop Hugh de Puiset, or Pudsey, who appears to have personally interested himself in the Finchale oratory; and under his directions two monks from the Durham convent, named Henry and Reginald, took up their residence in the place. In 1180 Pudsey confirmed the priory of Durham in their possession of Finchale and added lands and other benefactions to those already granted by Flambard; and thus no doubt the attention of his son Henry was drawn to the place.

Henry de Pudsey, who may be regarded as the founder of Finchale, was Bishop Pudsey’s eldest illegitimate son, and must have been born some long time before his father succeeded to the see as the Bishop had other children younger than Henry. His mother was Adelaide de Percy from whom he appears to have inherited a good deal of land in Craven, as well as the manors of Wingate and Haswell, with which he afterwards endowed Finchale. At some period not long before the death of Godric he seems to have been engaged in founding a small establishment for Austen Canons at a place called Bakstanford not far from Neville’s Cross to which the monks of Durham seem to have objected as an intrusion of a foreign order within their immediate sphere of influence. Whether it was in{135} consequence of their protests or at the wish of his father is uncertain, but he suspended his operations and transferred his endowments to Finchale; and there he erected new monastic buildings for the accommodation of a colony of Benedictines from Durham who, under Thomas the Sacrist as Prior, took possession of the convent in 1196, a year after the death of Bishop Pudsey. It was apparently the intention also of Henry to rebuild Godric’s church in a more suitable manner, but in 1198 he became involved in some political troubles and went crusading in 1201 from which he did not return until 1212; and he left the rebuilding of the church to be carried out by the community.

The building of a new church seems to have been taken in hand in 1242, a year memorable in the annals of Durham Cathedral as the one which saw the beginning of the great eastern transept of the "Nine Altars," under the auspices of Prior Thomas of Melsamby, of whom Canon Greenwell says: "He was one of the greatest men who have sat in the prior’s chair at Durham." The subservient position which Finchale held to the Durham convent necessitated{136} the assent of its Prior to so important an undertaking; and it is not improbable that he may have pointed out the necessity of the work and that his architect, Richard de Farnham, was responsible for the design. Although of but modest dimensions for a priory church, and but little longer and wider than the chapel which the Brus family had recently built near by at Hartlepool, it was still on too ambitious a scale for the limited resources of the convent; and the work dragged on for a number of years, and was never completed in its entirety. Its chief internal dimensions were—total length of nave and choir 194 feet and of the transepts 99 feet; the widths of the nave and choir were 23 feet and of the transepts 21 feet, while the width across the unbuilt aisles would have been 52 feet. But the aisles would seem never to have been finished, and though Mackensie Walcot pathetically says that "it was the hand of the monk which pulled down the chapel of the transept and the aisles of the choir and nave" it seems more than likely that they were never begun, and that the idea was abandoned for lack of funds soon after the nave and choir arcades had been completed. It is probable that the choir only was roofed in in a temporary manner, and that the nave and perhaps the transepts as well were not enclosed until the works were seriously resumed in the next century. The wars with Scotland caused much trouble within the county of Durham, and doubtless affected the revenues of the priory, although there is nothing to show that the monks were disturbed in any way by the invaders; but twice the Scotch armies appeared upon the Wear, first under the Douglas just before the treaty of Northampton made in 1328, and again in 1346 when they were defeated at the Battle of Neville’s Cross within sight of the cathedral.

All works were suspended at Durham as well as at Finchale for the same reasons, but with the return of peace and under the energetic sway of Prior John Fossor they were resumed; and no doubt under his direct{137}

influence and perhaps with his assistance the completion of the church at Finchale was undertaken. The account rolls of the priory from 1348 begin to mention large quantities of material bought for the works and money expended upon labour until 1372 when we may consider the fabric of the church was finished. Instead of building the aisles as originally intended, they filled up the moulded{138} arches of the arcades with walling in which they inserted traceried windows; and they seemed to have roofed in the buildings at a level but little above the top of the arches without any clerestory but sufficiently high to clear the great arches of the crossing. Whether the crossing was vaulted is not quite certain, but some stones found among the ruins seem to indicate remains of groin ribs, and it was raised as a low tower, and covered in all probability with a squat, leaded spire such as those which once stood on the western towers of the cathedral. The windows which had their heads filled in with reticulated tracery were, with those of Easington Church and those inserted in the cathedral by Prior Fossor, among the most important Decorated work in the county. The east end of the choir had originally three lancet windows, but either at this time or later a large traceried window was inserted in their place, the cost of reglazing which appears in the accounts for 1488. A reredos to the high-altar was erected about 1376 during the period when the great Neville screen was in course of construction in the cathedral. The exact position it occupied in the choir is not now evident, as the position of the original double piscina (see p. 135) and the sedilia left but little room for such an erection, and it seems to have involved some alteration in the arrangements of the east end. It is clear from existing remains that it was originally intended to build a chapel on the east side of the north transept and possibly a corresponding one to the south transept, the former with an altar dedicated to St. Godric and the latter to the Blessed Virgin, but these chapels were abandoned at the completion; the whole south transept became the Lady Chapel, and it has been suggested that the shrine of St. Godric was removed to the extreme east end of the choir, from which it was cut off by the new reredos, in which case another piscina which has disappeared must have been made for the service of the high-altar. The ancient sedilia of which there were three were cut into and reduced to two when the large traceried{139} window was inserted in the south wall of the choir, and our illustration (see p. 137) shows not only this alteration but what is supposed to have been the base of the reredos.

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The arches, which had been left open on the eastern face of the transepts, were filled in in the same manner as the nave arcades but with two-light windows in the walling except in the case of the south transept where there is a{141} five-light window, with the heads uncusped, beneath which was the altar of the Blessed Virgin. In 1469 sixty shillings was paid for glazing this window. The west walls of the transepts contain the only original windows left complete, the south transept having a short lancet which looked over the cloister roof, and the north transept has two narrow and lofty lancets. The lancets at the north end of the transept were doubtless removed for a traceried window as in the choir; but the triplets of the west front were left undisturbed, and their remains and the beautifully simple west front, together with the lancets of the transepts, are shown in our illustration (see p. 139).

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The conventual buildings were all placed on the south side of the church and their arrangement, so far as they exist at the present time, is shown on the general plan (see p. 140). They were to a great extent erected at the same time as the church, that is during the thirteenth century, but were far from completed, and the account rolls show that they were not finished before the latter half{143}

of the fifteenth century; but it is quite possible that some of the buildings erected by Henry de Pudsey continued in use until the new ones were ready for occupation. The{144} chapter-house adjoins the south transept and still retains its front over which one of the dormitory windows can yet be seen (see p. 141). To the south of the cloister are considerable remains of the refectory, raised, as at Durham, above a vaulted basement (see p. 142); it was lighted by a fine range of lancet windows on either side, and had a fireplace at the west end, and over it was another chamber the use of which is not apparent. By the west front of the church a guest-house for the poorer travellers was erected about 1464 in two storeys, the lower one containing an oven; but the superior guests were entertained in the Prior’s lodging. Although surrounded by earlier buildings, the cloister was not completed until the second building epoch, the north walk occupying the site of the proposed south aisle of the nave, and the original doorway which had been built to be the south door of the church now crosses the east walk at the north end.

The Prior’s lodgings (see p. 143) form an important and picturesque group of buildings standing by themselves to the south-east of the church, much in the same position as those of Durham. The vaulted basement under the Prior’s hall and most of the substructure may be the earliest part of the conventual buildings remaining, and earlier in date than the church, though much of the upper storey which contains the hall, camera and chapel belong to the subsequent periods. The low building at the west end containing a fireplace, which has been described as the Prior’s kitchen, seems to be the building which, according to the Gentleman’s Magazine for 1836, was the "spacious entertainment room" which Mr. Prebendary Spence erected for the use of the picnic parties which have in modern times pervaded the ruins. To the north of the Prior’s lodging, separated from it only in the basement story, is the building mentioned in the account rolls for 1460 under the name of the "Douglestour." How it came by this name is uncertain, but as the lower part of the building was standing in 1328 when Douglas and his Scots made{145} their raid across Northumberland to the banks of the Wear, it may have gained it through some association with him. The upper storey of the tower formed the Prior’s camera and had at the north end an embayed window which commanded a charming prospect of the river and the Cocken woods beyond. St. Godric was reputed to be the special patron of women, and this encorbelled window-base was known by them as the "wishing-chair"; but whatever was its charm, the spell was broken when the monks left the convent at the Reformation.

At the Dissolution, as its income was less than £200 per annum, the Priory was treated as one of the lesser monasteries and suppressed in 1536, when the site was granted to the Bishop of Durham, and the buildings were left neglected; but their ruin was hastened by being treated as a stone-quarry. It does not appear that the Priory was ever purposely damaged otherwise, and it remains, after three centuries of neglect, a more perfect and picturesque ruin than many of higher importance and more beautiful architecture.{146}

MONKWEARMOUTH AND JARROW

By the Rev. D. S. Boutflower, M.A.

IT is almost impossible for the student of history to dissociate the two names. In their earliest origin, in the ups and downs of their long existence, and almost, if not quite, in their present conditions, the sister churches have met with one and the same experience. Their foundations were laid within the short period of ten years; they have arisen and decayed and revived (and that more than once) almost simultaneously. They have shared together honour and neglect, wealth and poverty. In all things and at all times the supreme desire of their great founder has been fulfilled, and Monkwearmouth and Jarrow have been one. Planted long ago as outposts of religious culture brought oversea to the mouths of the Wear and the Tyne, the Churches of St. Peter and St. Paul are now the centres of populous districts. Like other churches around them, they have their own busy church life; but, unlike to and above the rest, these two stand as witnesses of the antiquity and continuity of the Christian faith in England. The churches where Bede worshipped are still, at least in part, the churches of the twentieth century. The Gospels which he expounded are heard at their Communion services to-day.

Much of their history must be sought for and read in the buildings themselves. The first thing they will tell us is that they belong to a very early period of Saxon art. We have other evidence to assure us that these were

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among the first stone churches in England, and to tell how masons were brought from the Continent to erect them. The singular height of the church at Monkwearmouth would lead us to the same conclusion. They were thus churches of quite a peculiar type, a type destined to undergo many modifications in later times. In Monkwearmouth and Jarrow you are face to face with the earliest form of English ecclesiastical architecture.

We have no need to ask about the builders, or to wrangle over the date of their foundation. There are darker and lighter periods in any history; Monkwearmouth and Jarrow have, indeed, known much of both. But the light shines clearly enough upon their early days. For Monkwearmouth saw the birth and Jarrow the death of the patriarch of English historians. Both places claim him as altogether their own. In the united convent of St. Peter and St. Paul he spent practically the whole of his life. Like all great men, he said little about himself; but he has much to tell us about his twofold home. We turn gladly enough to the writings of Bede, and specially to his Lives of the Abbots. We find ourselves at once in the presence of one who knew how to observe and to describe, to admire but never to condemn; one who loved to dwell upon the beautiful in the characters and works of men; a conscientious man withal, who sought out and told the truth. It is he that relates to us how Monkwearmouth and Jarrow grew.

It was not fifty years since the Christian faith had been first taught to the Northumbrians, and less than forty since its permanent establishment by the preaching of the gentle Aidan, when there came back to his native kingdom of Northumbria a man of noble birth and cultured training, Biscop, called Benedict. He had wealth and interest at his command, and, above all things, a fervent zeal concentrated upon a definite purpose. It was an age that had recently witnessed a revival of monasticism; the life of contemplation had led on to study; orthodoxy{148}

was the aim of trained thinkers; emotional minds dwelt on the devotedness of the saintly life. Biscop himself was a traveller and a student; he desired to found his own monastery, and to bring to it treasures from foreign lands. His relative, King Ecgfrid, granted him for this purpose an estate at the mouth of the Wear (A.D. 672). There he built the Church of St. Peter, of which the western wall and porch still remain. He brought with him (as we have seen) masons, and also glaziers, who restored to England a science that had long been lost. The building was quite peculiar in its dimensions—some 60 feet long, 30 high, and 20 broad. The singular proportions of Monkwearmouth Church, which have long puzzled antiquaries, appear to be explained by a sermon in the now printed works of Bede, and possibly preached in the church itself on some anniversary of its dedication. They correspond with those of Solomon’s Temple, the units in this last case being cubits. There was a truly mathematical love of numbers in the mind of Bede, and he is evidently pleased to explain how the three dimensions above mentioned set forth in allegory the three Christian virtues of faith, hope, and charity. The windows were small, and set high in the walls of the building. You may see two of them, their splays adorned with baluster shafts, in the western wall of the church. The south wall was adorned with paintings representing scenes from the Gospel of St. John; a series of pictures illustrating the Apocalypse occupied the northern wall. The roof was adorned with portraits of the Virgin and of the Twelve Apostles; the presumption is that it was in the form of a flat ceiling. The whole arrangement of{149} the building thus gave fair scope for light, shelter, and decoration.

There was a second church soon afterwards erected at Monkwearmouth, dedicated to St. Mary. There were also dining-rooms and porches and sleeping apartments, in connection with the last of which there was an oratory dedicated to St. Lawrence. Where these other buildings lay is uncertain. Tradition says that they were to the west of the present church. St. Mary’s Church was probably very much in this direction. In the fourteenth century "the old kirk" was used as a granary.

The house at Monkwearmouth grew and prospered, a home of arts and science and religion. There Bede began to acquire his wonderful knowledge, and John the Chanter founded his great school of music. Seven years after its foundation (A.D. 681) expansion became a necessity, and a new grant of land was obtained, this time at Jarrow, on the south bank of the Tyne. Seventeen persons, clerical and lay, were sent thither, their leader being Ceolfrid, to whose care Bede, already for two years an inmate of the older monastery, was committed. Soon after this event Biscop departed on his last visit to Rome, leaving his stalwart kinsman Eosterwini to rule at Monkwearmouth. He was absent for more than three years, an eventful time, during which both houses suffered grievously from a visitation of the plague. Eosterwini was its most notable victim, whilst at Jarrow nearly the whole convent was stricken down. At that place, as an anonymous writer informs us, only Ceolfrid and one boy, obviously Bede, were left to chant the daily services. The above facts will explain the delay in the consecration of the great church at Jarrow, which, according to a contemporary inscription still preserved, was not dedicated till the fourth year of Ceolfrid’s presidency.

Of this church only some stones now remain. A smaller church had, however, been first built and consecrated, and it is this which forms the chancel of Jarrow{150} Church to-day. Its dimensions do not suggest any special meaning. Twenty-eight feet to the west of it, and lying precisely in the same right line, stood at one time a fabric precisely similar to that of St. Peter’s, Monkwearmouth, the same, apparently, in length and breadth and height, and lighted by windows of the same type and in the same position. Annexed to it on the north and south were a number of apartments, undoubtedly to be identified with the porches in Bede’s account of Monkwearmouth, chambers opening by round-headed arches into the church itself. The arches on the north side, and vestiges of three rooms on the south, remained as late as the year 1769. Probably one such porch as this stood at the eastern end of the building; this we know was the case at Monkwearmouth. These apartments, walled off as they were from each other, would be used for prayer and study, and sometimes as places of sepulture. They were probably constructed in imitation of the chambers round Solomon’s temple.

This, then, appears to have been the church which it took so long to complete, and in this building was set up the dedication stone above mentioned. It was erected and consecrated under the auspices of King Aldfrid (brother and successor to Ecgfrid), and the Abbot Ceolfrid. Biscop himself was still abroad, but soon afterwards returned to England, bringing with him many books and pictures, one series of which, depicting the events of our Lord’s life, was ranged as a crown round the Church of St. Mary in the greater monastery; another, representing the Gospel story by type and antitype, adorned the monastery and Church of St. Paul. Biscop’s last homecoming had its sorrows. He found Eosterwini dead, and his successor Sigfrid slowly dying of consumption. Then there came to himself a stroke of paralysis. Very touching is the story told us of the last days of the two Abbots. The greater man feels the greater anxiety. His much-prized library is not to be dispersed, but before all things the unity of the double foundation is to be{151} maintained. Before his end comes he appoints Ceolfrid to govern the united monastery of St. Peter and St. Paul.

The narrative continues till the year 716, when the aged Ceolfrid resigned his charge, and departed to die, as he hoped, at Rome. But this was not to be. His last moments were spent at Langres, near Lyons. But one great work of Northumbrian art passed on by other hands to Italy—the splendid manuscript of the Vulgate, now known as the Codex Amiantinus, and preserved in the Medicean Library at Florence.

Bede himself lived on in his old home till the year 735. The story of his end is too well known to need repetition here. Before his death Northumbria had fallen from its former glory. A period of darkness supervenes, broken here and there by the lurid light of Danish invasions. Yet the churches of Monkwearmouth and Jarrow lasted on, sacked, it might be, burned and desolated, but still saved from total destruction.

The period of depression that followed the golden days of the twin monasteries has left us but scanty memorials of their history. We begin to hear of times of insecurity, of attacks made upon the eastern coast of England by Danish pirates. The situations of the two churches would, under these circumstances, be distinctly against them. Jarrow is to this day conspicuous; it is probably less well known that Monkwearmouth Church stood for centuries upon the top of a hill. This is shown quite clearly in the engraving of the year 1785. The sea rovers would take their own survey of the coast and its harbours, and would make for any place that offered promise of pillage. There is much good and rich land between the Wear and the Tyne, and the monks of early days were assiduous cultivators. The country of Wilfrid and Biscop and Bede was no uncivilized or neglected part of the world. To a pagan race there would be no impediment in the form of religious scruples. The wealth of the Church would but invite the spoilers to their prey.{152}

And so the Danes came first to Northern England, to begin with, somewhat tentatively, in the year 793, harrying the island of Lindisfarne, plundering its monastery, and burning the church. The next year their ships put into the Tyne. On the hill overlooking the slake, just where that river receives its tributary the Don, stood the monastery of Jarrow, Egfrid’s Port lying immediately below it. Here they landed, and took such booty as they found. But the people of the neighbourhood rallied, and drove back the invaders to their ships. Few of them made good their escape, for the wind was against them. The storm came up into the river, and the fugitives were driven to the shore, where they and their chieftain, Ragner Lodbrog, met with the vengeance they deserved.

It is quite clear that the lesson thus given was not forgotten. We hear no more of Danish invasions for well on to sixty years. When they recommenced, they were directed elsewhere. In the year 851 the Danes landed in Sheppey, and this time they came to stay. The chroniclers have much to say about the Army; but it was not till the year 875 that it marched into Northern England, and then probably not much beyond York; it moved south two years later. But meanwhile there had no doubt been many a raid upon the settlements on the coast. The year 866 was marked by one of the most serious of these. At that date Hingvar and Hubba burned the church of Monkwearmouth. The traces of this conflagration are still distinctly perceptible. Again in the year 875 the fleet of Halfdan was in the Tyne. Contemporaneously with this event took place the flight from Lindisfarne, and the commencement of the journeyings of the body of St. Cuthbert.

How the Danish power was driven back by Alfred, how his wise policy reclaimed the half of his kingdom, is a well-known part of our national history. The final triumph was not so much one of war as of peace. The wisdom of a very great King effected much; the growing{153} strength of recovering Christianity did the rest. Never did any ruler so effectually combine the forces of secular and spiritual power, or hold them more truly in balance and co-operation. The invaders became settlers, and have left this part of their history in the names of their new homes. This is especially true of Lincolnshire; then, hardly less decidedly, of York. But north of the Tees the English population simply retained lands which they had never ceased to occupy. Danish place-names in the county of Durham are few and far between.

This is so much evidence—and it is worth something—in favour of the supposition that the sister churches of Monkwearmouth and Jarrow were not left to permanent ruin. The population of the neighbourhood was, and remained, English, and would no doubt be warmly attached to the ancient sanctuaries. Their hearts and minds would be as faithful to the sacred memories of the past as were those of the wanderers who guarded the body of St. Cuthbert. That there was no revolution in the history of this particular district may be presumed from the silence which veils this part of the story of their two great churches. The theory here advocated appears to be further confirmed by the one incident recorded at this period in connection with the church of Jarrow.

The old faith in the potency of the relics of the saints remained unshaken through all periods of sunshine or of gloom. Respect for the past and for the good clings to the devoted Churchman of every age; it may sometimes even be strong enough to overpower his moral principle. It was so undoubtedly in the case of Ælfred, a monk of{154} Durham in the early part of the eleventh century. This man conceived himself to be divinely commissioned to visit the sites of ancient monasteries and to gather together the remains of departed martyrs and confessors. He was very successful in his quest. Hexham and Melrose were laid under contribution, and Jarrow was not likely to be forgotten. To it he paid an annual visit on the anniversary of the death of Bede. At least once he prolonged his stay for several days, fasting and praying in the church. Then one morning he departed at a very early hour, and he returned no more. What he had done may be inferred from the assurance with which he stated in after-years that the remains of Bede were resting in the grave of St. Cuthbert. From what we know of the man and of the age there seems little room for dispute about the matter: it appears, moreover, to have been corroborated at a later date by visual evidence.

The story is of interest to us mainly as bearing witness to the fact that in the year 1022 the church of Jarrow remained a popular centre of worship. In the case of Monkwearmouth history and legend alike fail us; we must judge for ourselves. The tower of the church was evidently built at two distinct periods. The porch and the parvise over it appear to belong to the age of the founder. They also show traces of the fires of the Danes. This is not the case with the superstructure. Incontestably of Saxon work, it belongs to the same period which saw the erection of at least four church towers in the valley of the Tyne. As it exhibits no traces of the burning of the year 866, its date and theirs must be looked for somewhere in the next two centuries. The reign of the Northumbrian Guthred (A.D. 884-894) has been ascertained to be a period when relations between Church and State were more than ordinarily friendly. At this time the tower of Monkwearmouth Church may well have been completed. It can hardly have been built at a much later date, for there is other and different work in the

{155}

same church which appears to belong to the age before the Conquest. The modern arch between nave and chancel rises on its south side from an ancient substructure, of which one feature is the cushion moulding at its base. There is something here begun by Anglo-Saxon masons, but carried out apparently by Norman builders. It was possibly a work of the reign of Edward the Confessor, and apparently implies some contemporaneous reconstruction of the early porch or chancel.

Subject, then, to the chances of time and of warfare, the churches of Monkwearmouth and Jarrow still carried on their existence. The latter was certainly in use at the date of the Conquest. This was a period of trouble and disaster. Oswulf, the Earl of Northumberland, is displaced, and soon after murders his successor. Gospatric next buys the earldom, and forthwith rebels. The Conqueror marches northward in person, and appoints Robert Cummin to the vacant office. He, too, is assassinated in the city of Durham. This event is followed by the King’s return, and the wholesale devastation of the lands north of York. Ethelwin the Bishop, accompanied by his canons, flees northward with the body of St. Cuthbert. They rest for a night in the church at Jarrow. Their pursuers follow on their track and set the building on fire. Northumbria is devastated by Norman and Scottish enemies at once; and for nine years the land lies waste. During this period we may well believe that both our churches stood unroofed and desolate; their walls, on the other hand, certainly resisted the flames, and were preserved to be ere long the home of a new band of settlers.

 

The Norman Conquest brought in its train a very distinct revival of monasticism. This was part of the general movement in favour of order and authority which then prevailed. It came, no doubt, originally from Rome. It was, in fact, the characteristic of Rome from very early days. It made itself felt in the eleventh century by the{156} growth of the military spirit, and later on by the gradual development of law. It affected more immediately the religious side of national life. Clerical celibacy began to be enforced, and the foundation of monasteries was encouraged. The foreigners took the lead in this matter, amongst them Walcher of Lorraine, Bishop of Durham. Hearing of a small party of missionary monks who had just arrived at Monkchester (now Newcastle), he made haste to invite them to settle in his own territory at Jarrow. We are told that he gave them the churches there (the plural number is significant). They were soon joined by others who had followed them from the South—the men of the North stood aloof; they had at this time good reason to be suspicious of Southern visitors. The numbers of the monks grew, and their patron enlarged their estate to meet their increased needs. Besides a large property in land on both sides of the Tyne, they received a grant of the church of Monkwearmouth. Briers and trees were standing within its walls; much the same thing was probably true of Jarrow. But they set to work with energy to repair and to acquire and to establish.

What they did at Monkwearmouth we are not able to say. Probably they extended the eastern porch into the form of a chancel. Two centuries later that chancel attained its present peculiar form—long and narrow—as became the custom in this part of England; it is also decidedly lofty, being apparently intended thus to correspond with the ancient nave. Undoubtedly respect was from the first shown to those who designed the original church. The same right sentiment may be observed much more evidently in the case of Jarrow, with which as their first and more important possession Bishop Walcher’s monks proceeded to deal at once.

We have mentioned above the existence of two churches at Jarrow, and have observed that there exists written corroboration of this. The smaller church which stood to the east is the chancel of the present building.{157} Twenty-eight feet to the west of it was the termination of the nave or main block of the western church, built precisely on the quite mathematical lines of the elder fabric at Monkwearmouth. We may presume of this building what we know to have been the case at St. Peter’s, that there was a porch behind the altar, a building, that is to say, with three walls and one open side. Such a building still exists in the chancel of the Saxon church at Escomb, near Bishop Auckland. Assuming that the porch at Jarrow was like that at Escomb, square, and of proportionately larger dimensions, there would be a space of some thirteen feet intervening between it and the eastern church. It was here that the Norman builders would be disposed to erect their tower, and here the tower was accordingly built, not foursquare after the Norman model, but in an oblong form. The site occupies a rectangle of thirteen by twenty-one feet. The lower stages of this structure are essentially massive and very distinctly Norman in character. The highest storey, on the other hand, less well executed as some think, has its own ornateness; it was probably erected in the succeeding generation. If so, we understand the better the set-back of its northern and southern sides; the architect employed had, no doubt, his own opinion to the effect that the tower ought to have been square.

The principle adopted by Bishop Walcher’s monks appears to have been that of reverent adaptation to immediate needs. They wished to repair and to add, but not to destroy. Had their stay at their new home been prolonged, the case would in time have been altered.{158} Large medieval buildings would have taken the place of the more primitive original structures. But their sojourn at Jarrow lasted for only eight years. In the year 1083 Bishop William of St. Carileph transferred them to his cathedral. The extruded canons were placed at Auckland and Darlington, and the Evesham Benedictines occupied the mother-church of the diocese.

It was all done in haste. It was repented of, no doubt, at leisure. In the enthusiasm of the moment Bishop William founded the one and only abbey in the Bishopric of Durham. His successors, we may well believe, deplored what was politically and ecclesiastically a great mistake. But what was done could not be undone by anything less than a revolution. The Abbey of Durham grew and was strong. The magnificence of its buildings tells of the wealth of the builders. The Durham Household Book speaks of the stir and pomp and cheerfulness of its daily life. Meanwhile, the two more ancient sanctuaries were reduced to the insignificant condition of Cells. They were left with their old estates, each under the rule of a master, appointed or removed by the Prior of Durham at his will. Each master had one monk with him for company, sometimes two, and very rarely three. The masters appear to have taken but little interest in the spiritual affairs of their churches. The naves of these buildings were considered the property of the parishioners, who executed repairs at their own cost; an ill-paid stipendiary, called the chaplain or parish priest, discharged all parochial duties. The church of Jarrow had its chapels at Wallsend, at Shields, and at Westoe. The first named of these was left very much to itself; the very altar-fees of the other chapels, as well as those of the churches, were the perquisite of the master, while the services of the chaplain were remunerated at very much the same rate as those of the monastery barber.

The result as regards the fabrics was much what might have been expected. The nave at Monkwearmouth was{159} left to itself; that at Jarrow was at some time extended so as to include the ground occupied by its eastern porch. The other porches or chapels that once flanked this building may have served for a while as parts of the parish church; then they fell one after another by a lingering process of decay. On the other hand, Monkwearmouth Church was in course of time enlarged; a north aisle was added in the thirteenth century; its very pleasing doorway has been fortunately preserved. About the same time two rather large windows were set to lighten the east end of the nave of Jarrow.

The case was different with the conventual part of the two churches. At Monkwearmouth, as we have seen, the choir was made long and lofty. Two Decorated windows were placed on its southern side; a third, similar to the others, stood in the north wall, all traces of which seem to have been destroyed in quite recent times. The date of these windows is fixed by an entry in the account rolls under the year 1347. A little later an east window of five lights was erected; it has been reproduced from its fragments, and is not without merit. The design at Monkwearmouth is, however, far better than the workmanship.

In the case of Jarrow it was not necessary to find a new chancel; the old eastern church was quite sufficiently roomy. What was required was light, and this was provided first by a north-east window and an east window, each of three lights, and afterwards by two additional windows of three lights, one on each side of the western end of the chancel. The latest of these was inserted in the year 1350.

The two houses conducted their financial affairs in an easy way. They wanted enough to live upon, but had no further ambitions. They did not develop their estates, and were careless as to their fisheries. Jarrow was the richer house, but Monkwearmouth was reckoned the healthier; thither came the monks of Durham to enjoy{160} the bracing air. Once, at any rate, Jarrow had to contribute to their maintenance. The usual donations were made—subscriptions to subsidies and to the needs of scholars at Oxford. A singular entry is often repeated in the rolls—the cost of wine for the parishioners’ Communion.

 

Such was the uneventful life of Jarrow and Monkwearmouth till the revolution of 1536, which brought an end to the existence of the smaller monasteries. These two were valued at £38 14s. 4d. and £26 9s. 9d. respectively.

The property of both the cells passed thenceforth into lay hands, and the churches became poorer still. To Jarrow was preserved the meagre endowment of ten marks; to Monkwearmouth two marks less. The former church had, moreover, Easter offerings and a small parsonage. The incumbents of both had, of course, an uncertain income from fees. No attempt to mend matters was made till the commencement of the nineteenth century.

Before that period had arrived the neglected churches had at last fallen quite into decay. The parishioners had had to do something; what they did was to destroy the nave of Jarrow, and the southern (or Saxon) wall of Monkwearmouth. These demolitions took place in 1782 and 1806 respectively. The result of the alterations and rebuildings no doubt commended itself to those then concerned with such matters. We find a picture of the new Monkwearmouth Church accompanied with a note of much satisfaction in a contemporary number of the Gentleman’s Magazine.

Restorations followed in 1861 and 1873, but they could not give back the past. What was spared has been treated with reverence. The west front of Monkwearmouth still remains. The church, now apparently sunk into a hollow, is surrounded by poor and crowded tenements, built upon ballast brought from the Thames. The{161} medieval chancel is there, its restored windows now filled with Kempe’s beautiful glass. The music of its services is worthy of the church of John the Chanter. Only we regret the loss of the Saxon Church as it once stood upon its hill overlooking river and sea. Jarrow has been more fortunate; it still crowns the hill above its wide slake—a landmark well known to all those who use the waterways of the Tyne. It, too, has its points of interest, its Saxon chancel and its Norman tower. Much, of course, is missing in both places. But there is still more than enough to attract and to fascinate the mind of the Englishman and the Christian, who looks back to the glories of that good old time that gave to Northumbria and to the world the life of the one man that was Venerable—the learning and the labours of Bede.{162}

THE PARISH CHURCHES OF DURHAM

By Wilfrid Leighton

ARCHITECTURALLY, the parish churches of Durham are best described as of the "homely order," and one may search the county in vain for an oft-recurring and distinctive feature, such as the graceful spires of Northamptonshire, or the splendid Perpendicular towers, which distinguish so many of the churches of Somerset. In the country of Benedict Biscop and the Venerable Bede it is natural that we should look for other matters of interest than striking architecture, and undoubtedly many of the churches carry evidence of a high antiquity, though only perhaps a fragment of dog-tooth moulding breaking through lath and plaster restoration of the eighteenth century.

Two churches, Jarrow and Monkwearmouth, are no less interesting for the Saxon remains which they contain than for their association with the early Christian Fathers of the North. Both these churches date from the latter part of the seventh century. At the time of their erection Theodore of Tarsus, to whom the division of the country into parishes is generally attributed, was Archbishop of Canterbury; but it would not at this early date be correct to describe them as parish churches, for it was not until the decay of the brotherhoods to which they were attached that they ceased to be other than the chapels of their respective monasteries.

In another part of this volume full justice has been{163} done to these early churches, but some reference must be made here to the church of Escomb, in the west of the county. It is perhaps of an equally early date and a remarkably perfect example of a church of the period. Very little is known of its early history, but after the Dissolution it was regarded as a chapel-of-ease to St. Andrew’s, Auckland. In 1879 it had fallen into disuse, a new church having been built at some distance. But upon the "re-discovery" of the nature of the old building, in that year, funds were at once raised for its repair.

The church consists of a square chancel, a nave, and a porch as a later addition. The church has undoubtedly been built with stones from the Roman camp of Binchester, many of which show the diamond broaching. Professor Baldwin Brown is of the opinion that the chancel arch, which is the most striking feature of the interior, was removed bodily from the camp and set up in pre-Conquest times in its present position.

On the south side of the chancel there are two original windows, with semicircular heads, cut out of single blocks, and jambs battering inwards. There are two original windows on the north side with square heads. The sills of these windows are thirteen feet from the floor level, and another window in the west end is placed still higher. At later dates the walls have been pierced with other windows, two in the south wall of the nave, one in the west gable, one in the east end, and one in the south wall of the chancel. Between the two original windows on the south is a "Saxon" sundial. The original entrances were in the north and south walls of the nave, and there is a later doorway in the chancel. A fragment of an early cross is preserved in the church.

Contemporary with these churches there existed at Hartlepool a monastic house said by Bede to have been founded by Heiu, the first Northumbrian nun, and subsequently extended by St. Hilda, before her transition to Whitby in 657.{164}

Although continued after this date, its history during the period of the Danish invasion is lost. The present Church of St. Hilda is mentioned in the confirmatory charter to Guisborough Priory of Bishop Pudsey in 1195, and in those of several of his successors, and was most likely included in the original grant with the churches of Hart and Stranton, of which it was a dependent chapel. In 1308 Bishop Bek, as a reward for the continual devotion, charity, and hospitality of the Prior and convent of Guisborough, granted them the indulgence, that in the church of Hart and chapel of Hartlepool, service should, after that date, be perpetually performed by a canon of Guisborough.

Statutes for the government of the church were drawn up by the Corporation of Hartlepool in 1599, and appear in the Corporation records, whence the following extract:

In 1600 the number of "pues or stalls" was thirty-three.

The first church, though much restored, is the one which still remains, and the finest of the parish churches in the North. Standing on high ground, the impressive landmark formed by its massive tower and crocketed pinnacles, over many miles of land and water, has been referred to with admiration by every historian of the county.

The church stands to the north-west of the site of St. Hilda’s Foundation. Its tower is its most striking{165} characteristic. At an early date the tower must have shown signs of weakness, and the enormous buttresses which increase its picturesqueness so much were added. These additions are generally ascribed to the year 1230, and the entrance arch, with a very beautiful but much decayed chevron moulding, cut through the south buttress of the west side, is of the same date. The tower is of three stages, and the south-west corner forms a turret, through which a staircase leads to the roof. The clerestory windows have formerly been of three lights each, now built into one, and are very fine. The original capitals remain, but all the shafts have gone.

The west, or main entrance, has been built up. The nave is supported by five clustered pillars on each side, with pointed arches. In the wall of the south aisle is a piscina. The greater part of the chancel is modern.

Several chantries were attached to the church before the dissolution of the monasteries, but the monumental remains are few.

In the churchyard is a large tomb, which was formerly enclosed within the walls of the ancient chancel, before the latter was taken down. It is generally ascribed to the De Bruses, and the armorial shields on the sides, each charged with a lion rampant, confirm the suggestion.

Durham possesses another very good example of Early English architecture in the parish church of Darlington, dedicated to St. Cuthbert. It consists of a chancel, north and south transepts, a nave with aisles, and a central tower crowned by a spire. That it stands on a site of great antiquity is proved by the discovery, in 1866, during restoration, of fragments of three pre-Conquest crosses, which are now preserved in the church. In the charter of Styr, son of Ulf, which is included in a record called by Symeon, the "Ancient Chartulary of the Church," there is given to St. Cuthbert "the vill which is called Dearthingtun, with sac and soc," and Symeon again mentions Darlington as one of the places to which the secularized monks of{166} Durham were removed in 1083 by William de St. Carileph. On the authority of Geoffry de Coldingham, the erection of the church has been ascribed to Bishop Pudsey, and the date to 1190-95.

The principal entrance is in the west front, set in a richly moulded arch, with a trefoil-headed niche above. In the second stage of the front is an arcade of five arches, and the third stage has three arches, all with dividing shafts. The arches in the second stage are pierced alternately with lancet lights. The walls of the aisle were greatly altered about the middle of the fourteenth century, and all the square-headed windows belong to this period, no features dating from the original erection of the church remaining except the doorways. The north doorway has been greatly restored, and the south doorway was originally covered by a porch; it has a niche above. The clerestory has an arcade of twelve arches pierced with four lancet windows on each side. Both transepts and the chancel are of two stages, divided by string courses; but the south transept is more enriched than the north, both internally and externally. Buttresses divide the walls of the chancel into three bays, and the walls and ends of the transepts are similarly divided into two bays each. Those buttresses at the junctions of the transepts and the chancel, owing to their great proportion, have much the appearance of corner turrets. The spire and the higher stage of the tower are of the same date as the walls of the aisles. Longstaffe says of the spire: "On July 17, 1750, this beautiful spire, considered the highest and finest in the North of England, was rent.... The storm occasioned fifteen yards of the spire to be taken down and rebuilt in 1752.... Unfortunately the mason omitted the moulding at the angles of the new part."

Incidentally it should be noted that Durham is one of the counties in which spires are comparatively rare.

The tower is supported by four arches on clustered shafts, and the nave is divided from its aisle by four arches{167} on each side. The east wall of the chancel is modern. Three sedilia of the Decorated period occupy the usual position in the chancel. In one of the windows on the east side of the south transept occurs the only instance of the dog-tooth ornament in the interior of the church, and there is a piscina in both of the side walls of the same transept.

Darlington is the only church in the county which retains a rood-loft.

On the south of the chancel is the vestry, which has been greatly modernized. The only monumental effigy is that of an unknown lady with a book in her hand. It dates from the early thirteenth century, and is placed at the west end of the nave.

After the two churches last mentioned, the church at Sedgefield, dedicated to St. Edmund the Bishop, but formerly dedicated to the Virgin, is probably the finest in the county. The nave and chancel date from the Early English period. The tower is very fine, of Perpendicular date and of three stages, crowned by battlemented parapets and small spirelets standing on angle buttresses. The Rev. J. F. Hodgson is of the opinion that it was intended to crown the tower with an open lantern, as at St. Nicholas’ Cathedral, Newcastle.

There are two transepts; the south contains the chapel of St. Thomas, and in its east wall are two piscinas, one of which is trefoil-headed; and in the south wall are two pointed recesses occupied by much mutilated male and female effigies, the latter dating from the later fourteenth century. The north transept contains the Chapel of St. Katherine, and is now known as the Hardwick porch. Two of its ancient windows still remain, and fix its date as 1328. The east window is filled with Late Decorated tracery. The nave is divided from the aisles by three pointed arches, supported by clustered pillars on moulded bases. The capitals are richly carved and very interesting.

The font is octagonal and of Frosterley marble, dating{168} from the end of the fifteenth century, and charged on each side with armorial shields, most likely carved in the seventeenth century. The stall work of the chancel is ascribed to the latter part of the seventeenth century, and the rich chancel screen to a slightly earlier date.

On the north side of the chancel is the grave cover of Andrew de Stanley, first master of Greatham Hospital.

Two interesting brasses of skeletons in shrouds are preserved in the vestry, and were originally inlaid in one slab. Another small brass is in the south transept. It is considered to be one of the earliest in England, and represents a lady in loose robe with tight sleeves and wimple and hood. There is another brass to the memory of William Hoton, engraved with a helmet and crest of three trefoils.

Of the five bells, one is of pre-Reformation date, bearing the inscription "✠ Trinitate Sacra Fiat Hec Campana Beata," and the arms of Rhodes and Thornton.

The church at Staindrop, dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin, was much mutilated by restorations in 1849, but its sepulchral monuments to members of the Neville family are unrivalled.

Parts of the walls of the nave are of pre-Reformation date, and two of the original windows still remain. The north and south aisles were added to the original structure in the twelfth century, when the nave walls were pierced by three arches on each side, supported on cylindrical pillars, with capitals carved in different foliage designs. During the following century the plan of the church was altered, and an additional bay added to the west end of the nave, north and south transepts thrown out, and the tower erected. The tower was of three stages, probably crowned by a wooden spire, taken down in 1408, when a fourth stage was added. Being built on the original corbel-tables, and overhanging the substructure, it gives the whole a very heavy appearance. About the same{169} time the original high-pitched roofs were lowered to the almost flat roofs which now exist, and the clerestory of the nave built. Before the date of the latter alterations extensive changes had been made in the church during the fourteenth century, when Ralph, Lord Neville, under licence of the Prior and convent of Durham, endowed three chantries. The original south aisle and transept were removed, and the present south aisle, which is much wider than the nave, erected. At the south-east angle of the aisle a small porch or vestry projects, which was intended for the use of the priests officiating in the chantries.

Shortly after these alterations, the symmetry of the church being destroyed, a new north aisle and transept, of similar dimensions, but much inferior work, were erected. The ancient vestry opening from the chancel, with domus inclusa above, is very interesting.

Staindrop is the only church in the county in which the pre-Reformation chancel screen remains, but the rood-loft which surmounted it has been destroyed. The font is octagonal, and of Teesdale marble, decorated with armorial bearings, and may date from the latter part of the fourteenth century.

The first of the effigies before referred to is that of a lady, and lies in a recess in the south aisle. It is ascribed to Isabel de Neville, wife of Robert FitzMeldred, Lord of Raby. "The costume is an excellent example of the dress of a gentlewoman of Western Europe in the second half of the thirteenth century and beginning of the fourteenth." Sepulchral effigies of females of this early date are extremely rare. The general resemblance of this effigy to that of Aveline, Countess of Lancaster, in Westminster Abbey, who died in 1269, is very striking.

The second effigy in point of date is attributed to Euphemia, mother of Ralph, Lord Neville, founder of the chantries and builder of the south aisle, in which it lies in an enriched recess. The third, a female effigy, is also in{170} the same aisle, and though no doubt representing one of the Neville family, its exact identity is a matter of some controversy. It dates from the fourteenth century, and the remaining effigy in the aisle—that of a boy—is of the same date.

A remarkably fine altar-tomb, with effigies of Ralph Neville, first Earl of Westmorland, and his wives—Margaret, daughter of Hugh, Earl of Stafford, and Joan, daughter of John of Gaunt—has been described as the most splendid in the North of England.

The Earl is dressed in a rich suit of full armour, with collar of SS., and the ladies in kirtles, with jewelled girdles and sideless surcoats and mantles. Their arms have been destroyed. The Earl died in 1426.

The remaining monument is to the memory of Henry Neville, fifth Earl of Westmorland, who died in 1564, and his two first wives—Anne, daughter of Thomas Manners, Earl of Rutland, and Jane, daughter of Sir Richard Cholmondeley.

The monument is of oak, and ornamented with effigies of the Earl’s children and armorial bearings. The Earl is dressed in armour, and an inscription states that the tomb was made in the year 1560.

In addition to the churches already mentioned, the south and south-east districts of the county are rich in churches, worthy, if space availed, of more than passing notice.

At Barnard Castle the church dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin carries evidence that it was in early times a large and important edifice, and in the twelfth century consisted of chancel and nave, with north and south aisles. Rebuilding and structural alterations were carried out from time to time until the middle of the fifteenth century, when both transepts were rebuilt. The vestry is probably of the same date, and the chancel arch, which is very fine, slightly earlier. The tower is modern, and replaced a fifteenth-century structure. The floor of the chancel is much higher than that of the nave, and evidence of a{171} similar difference in levels is found at Lanchester Church. Two arched recesses, one of which contains an effigy of a priest, are in the north wall of the north transept, and a mutilated piscina is in the south wall of the same transept. In this church there were four chantry chapels dedicated respectively to St. Catherine, St. Helen, St. Margaret, and the Trinity, and referred to in old records, but their exact position cannot now be ascertained.

The church at Winston has several sepulchral brasses, but, with the exception of the walls of the chancel, which contain two remarkable single-light windows, and the arcade and north wall of the nave, is modern.

Nearer to Darlington is the Church of St. Andrew at Haughton-le-Skerne. The whole of the edifice is of one period, and dates from the second quarter of the twelfth century. Its most striking feature is a massive tower, surmounted by a battlemented turret of later date. The richly carved woodwork of Restoration date is interesting. In the east wall of the nave is a monumental brass, and a stone slab in the floor of the tower commemorates the death of Elizabeth Naunton, Prioress of Neasham, 1488-89.

The only medieval pulpit in the county is in the Church of St. Michael at Heighington. It is of oak, and carved with the linen pattern design and flowing tracery, with an inscription on the cornice.

The church dates from the twelfth century, and considerable remains of that date still exist.

At Aycliffe, the Church of St. Andrew is substantially a building of Norman date. It now consists of a chancel, nave with north and south aisles, south porch, and western tower, the latter and the south aisle dating from the beginning of the thirteenth century. Remains of several pre-Conquest crosses are in the church and churchyard.

Gainford Church, dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin, is all of one period, and with a few exceptions dates from the middle of the thirteenth century. It contains several interesting brasses. The same may be said of the Church{172} of St. Edwin at Coniscliffe, which has a very interesting carved slab above the south door.

The Church of All Saints at Hurworth contains several effigies, but was almost entirely rebuilt in 1870. The Church of St. Mary at Egglescliffe has portions of Early Norman date, but the chancel dates from the later Perpendicular period, and has a fine east window of five lights. On the south side of the nave is a fourteenth-century chapel, with a sepulchral effigy of a man in rich armour in a niche in the outer wall.

St. Cuthbert at Redmarshall is a modest structure, but contains two interesting alabaster effigies of Thomas de Langton and Sybil, his wife, placed in a fifteenth-century chantry chapel on the south side of the nave.

Both Norton and Billingham contain churches of great interest. The former has portions of pre-Conquest date, and was one of the churches to which William de St. Carileph removed the monks of Durham in 1083. The church, dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin, contains a nave and side aisles, chancel, north and south porches, and central tower. The latter originally rose no higher than the ridges of the main roofs, and formed a chamber, the floor of which has been removed. Beneath the tower is a very fine effigy of a knight in chain armour, surmounted by a crocketed canopy. The chancel was rebuilt in the thirteenth century, and the upper stage of the tower is probably of the same period.

At Billingham the church is dedicated to St. Cuthbert. The tower is of pre-Conquest date, and has certain points of resemblance to the higher stage of that at St. Peter’s, Monkwearmouth. Several fragments of pre-Conquest crosses are built into the south wall of the tower, and the church has three memorial brasses.

In Durham City, St. Oswald’s, the parish church of Elvet, has a well-recorded history, and was the subject of an amusing dispute between the Bishop Philip de Pictavia and the Prior and monks of Durham, arising from a charter

{173}

of Henry II. confirming to the latter "Elvet, with the church of the same town."

On the accession of Philip—the last vicar, Richard de Coldingham, having recently died—

The church is of various periods, and has a very good clerestory with a fine open-work parapet, and a tower of more than ordinary interest, with a stone staircase in the thickness of the wall, roofed with thirteenth and fourteenth century grave-covers.

St. Margaret’s and St. Giles’s are two city churches of interest. Both have several pre-Reformation bells, and of the latter—

Pittington Church, dedicated to St. Lawrence, is one of the most interesting churches in the central district of the county. Portions of the western bays of the nave are of Norman date. In the twelfth century great structural alterations were made to the original church, which had consisted of a nave and chancel only. The tower belongs to this period, and the wonderful north arcade pierced through the original north wall of the nave. The arcading of the wall forms four bays, and a fifth was built as an elongation to the east, the original chancel being taken down and rebuilt. The pillars are alternately cylindrical, ornamented with spiral bands, and octagonal with{174} flutings. The arches are of two orders, ornamented towards the nave with chevron mouldings, and resting on octagonal cushioned capitals. During the thirteenth century the church was enlarged by a south aisle being built. The tower arch is also of this period. The date of the clerestory is uncertain. In 1846 the chancel was taken down, and the south aisle entirely, and north aisle partly, rebuilt, and the nave again lengthened. In the splays of an early window in the north wall of the nave are remains of two wall paintings.

There is an interesting grave-cover in the floor beneath the tower, bearing an inscription to the memory of Christian the Mason, a contemporary of Bishop Pudsey. Also an effigy attributed to the family of Fitz-Marmaduke, Lords of Horden, and several interesting monumental stones.

All the bells, three in number, are of pre-Reformation date.

The important Church of St. Michael at Houghton-le-Spring dates almost entirely from the thirteenth century, but stands on the site of a much earlier erection, of which a portion still remains in the north wall of the chancel, containing a square-headed doorway and round-headed window. The church, as now existing, consists of a chancel with north and south transepts, nave with north and south aisles, south porch, and central tower. In the north wall of the chancel is an arcade of eight lancets, much restored, and opening from the south side is an unusual two-storeyed erection, which, it is presumed, had some connection with the ancient Gild of Holy Trinity and St. Mary, established in the church in 1476.

The windows in the gables of the transepts are modern. In the east wall of the south transept are three tall lancets{175} and two in the corresponding wall of the north transept. In a recess in the south wall of the former is a roughly carved and much-weathered effigy of a man in armour, dating from the thirteenth century, and a similar effigy of later date and superior workmanship lies in the same transept, together with the altar-tomb of Bernard Gilpin, "the apostle of the North," and a brass to the memory of Margery, wife of Richard Bellasis of Henknoll, dated 1587. Both the transepts contained chantry chapels before the Reformation, and in both are piscinas in the usual position.

The arcading of the nave is very fine, and supported on clustered piers. The east and west windows are Decorated insertions and contain good tracery. The lower stage of the tower and its supporting arches are contemporary with the main body of the church, the upper stage is modern and with the present spire replaced the ancient spire of wood.

At Dalton, the Church of St. Andrew, is a very simple structure, but contains an unusual sundial, consisting of carved stone figures on the inside of the north wall of the nave, upon which the time is marked by a sunbeam passing through a window.

St. Mary’s, Easington, has suffered much at the hands of restorers, but still remains a most interesting church. The whole of the present edifice, with the exception of the tower, which is of Norman work, dates from the thirteenth century. The nave is separated from its aisle by four pointed arches on either side resting on piers, alternately octagonal and cylindrical. The clerestory is good and has four lancet windows on each side. With the exception of the original round-headed windows in the tower, all the windows are restorations. The present entrance is at the south of the tower, the original entrance to the nave having been built up. The woodwork of the chancel is interesting. There are two fine male and female effigies of the Fitz-Marmaduke family in the chancel, but their{176} identity is uncertain. They date from the latter part of the thirteenth century.

In the north-eastern quarter of the county there are the churches of Jarrow and Monkwearmouth already referred to, and several other edifices of ancient foundation, but so much restored and modernized as to retain few of their original features.

This may be said of the church at Whitburn, which contains a peculiar seventeenth-century monumental effigy in wood. The Church of St. Nicholas at West Boldon occupies a lofty site on the side of a hill, and is visible for many miles over Jarrow and the low land round Hedworth. The oldest portions date from the beginning of the thirteenth century. In January, 1906, the nave and chancel roofs were destroyed by fire, and several of the monumental inscriptions badly scorched. The Church of St. Hilda, at South Shields, occupies a site of great antiquity, but was entirely rebuilt in 1810.

The Church of St. Mary, Gateshead, is of more general interest, but has been greatly restored. The tower was{177} rebuilt in 1740. The roof of the nave is good, and of Perpendicular date. Several pre-Reformation grave-covers are built into the walls, two of special interest being in the porch. A number of quaint extracts from the parish books are given by Surtees:

In the north-west of the county, Ryton Church (Holy Cross), dates from the thirteenth century, and is all of one period. It consists of a chancel, nave with north and south aisles, western tower with spire, and south porch. In the chancel is a square-headed piscina in the usual position, a priest’s doorway, and a low side-window, now built up. In the north wall is an ambry. The arcades of the nave are of three arches each, the easternmost pillars on each side being octagonal, the others cylindrical. The corbel-table of the tower is of interest, several of the corbels being carved in foliage designs. The wooden, lead-covered spire is contemporary with the tower. Within the altar-rails is a fine sepulchral effigy in marble of a deacon.

Returning again to the central districts, the Church of St. Mary and St. Cuthbert at Chester-le-Street is the successor of an early wooden edifice, which sheltered for the greater part of two centuries the remains of the latter saint, before the Danish invasion of 995 caused his guardians—for better security—to remove their charge to Ripon. Egelric, fourth Bishop of Durham, decided to rebuild the church of stone, but it is doubtful if any remains of his church are incorporated in the present building. The date of the erection of the latter is uncertain.

The oldest portions of the present church are the north{178} and south walls of the chancel, and in the south wall are inserted three windows, dating from the thirteenth century, and evidently contemporary with the three eastern bays of the arcade of the nave. The remaining bays of the nave and the tower are later additions, and the graceful spire still later, dating from the Early Decorated period.

At the time of the Reformation there were two chantries in the church, one being in the south aisle, at the east end of which there is a trefoil-headed piscina and square ambry. At the west end of the north aisle, partly within and partly without the church, is an interesting two-storied erection, containing four chambers, which must have, at one time, been an anchorage. The church is chiefly remarkable for the series of fourteen monumental effigies of presumed members of the Lumley family. Eleven, however, were the work of sculptors employed by John, Lord Lumley, at the end of the sixteenth century, and two were removed by him from the graveyard of Durham Abbey, under the mistaken impression that they represented two of his ancestors.

In the church is also a thirteenth-century effigy of a bishop, representing St. Cuthbert.

St. Mary the Virgin, Lanchester, is a very interesting church, and has portions of Norman date. It consists of a chancel, nave with north and south aisles, and south porch, western tower, and a vestry. The chancel dates from the thirteenth century, and there is a very fine piscina in its south wall. The chancel arch dates from the middle of the twelfth century. The vestry opens from the chancel by a very fine doorway, with a cinquefoil arch. The arcades of the nave have four bays on either side, with cylindrical pillars and pointed arches. The south aisle and porch date from the beginning, and the north aisle from the end, of the fourteenth century.

There is a brass in the chancel to the memory of John Rudd, and an effigy of a priest lies in a recess in the south aisle. During the episcopacy of Bishop Bek the church was made collegiate with a Dean and seven Prebendaries, and portions of the woodwork of their stalls are still preserved.

The church at Brancepeth (St. Brandon) has parts dating from the thirteenth century, and is an interesting edifice. The panelling and general internal fittings of the church are of a most elaborate nature. Over the chancel arch is some remarkable screen work, carved in oak and painted white. The chancel screen and stalls date from the time of John Cosin, who was rector of Brancepeth before being raised to the Bishopric in 1661, but have the appearance, in common with much of his work at Durham Castle, of belonging to a much earlier period.{180}

There are several sepulchral effigies to members of the Neville family in the church.

St. Michael’s, Bishop Middleham, is a thirteenth-century church and all of one period. Whitworth church was entirely rebuilt in 1850, and is only interesting for the remarkable male and female sepulchral effigies in the churchyard.

At Bishop Auckland, St. Helen’s has a chancel arch and two bays of the arcades of the nave of Late Transitional work, a very short period separating them from the western bays of the nave. The chancel is of thirteenth-century date, and the aisles are prolonged to engage the greater part of it, forming chantry chapels. The clerestory has three two-light, Late Perpendicular windows on each side, and at the west end is a round-headed window of earlier date, but evidently an insertion in its present position. The east window consists of three lancets under one arch, the spandrel spaces being pierced. The south doorway is of Perpendicular date, and the porch, a later addition, has in common with St. Andrew’s, Auckland, a chamber above. There is a brass of fifteenth-century date in the church.

The Church of St. Andrew’s, Auckland, is a fitting edifice to close this brief account of the parish churches of Durham. Its site has from the earliest times of Christianity in the North been occupied by a church, and there is strong evidence that it was the home of a collegiate body formed of monks removed from Durham by Bishop William de St. Carileph. This establishment was reorganized by Bishop Bek in 1292, and great alterations were made in the fabric of the church at the same time.

The church consists of a chancel, north and south transepts, nave with north and south aisles, and western tower. It dates from the thirteenth century, and there is evidence that it succeeded a building of Norman date, which was itself either an enlargement of, or a successor to, the first building.{181}

The church has many points of great interest, and perhaps the most striking features of the interior are the arcades of the nave. These are of five bays each, with richly moulded arches, resting on alternate octagonal and clustered piers. The north transept was almost entirely rebuilt during restoration, but the new work is a copy of the old, which, however, did not date from the original church, but was one of the alterations of Bishop Bek, before referred to. The east wall of the chancel is also his work. In 1417 a higher stage was added to the tower, and the clerestory of the nave is of still later date.

The chancel stalls are the work of Cardinal Langley and very effective. There are two monumental effigies in the church, one of a Knight in armour, the other of a lady; both apparently date from the end of the fourteenth century. There are also three brasses.{182}

MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM

By Edwin Dodds

THE earliest-known burial-place in the county of Durham has no monumental inscriptions in it. It is a barrow opened at Copt Hill, near Houghton-le-Spring, which contained Neolithic remains, and it is interesting inasmuch as it has also vestiges of burials made again after the lapse of many years, when the Bronze Age had superseded the period in which men warred and worked with weapons of stone only. There is no memento known of the Paleolithic Age in the county, and only thirteen places of burial used by Neolithic man have been investigated. Of the Bronze Age about a dozen burial-places have been examined, many of them containing those small rudely fashioned earthenware vessels, from three to six inches high, roughly ornamented with simple lines and dots, which are known as "food-vessels" and "incense-cups."

Of the monumental inscriptions left by the Romans, two of the most interesting were found near the Roman station in South Shields. One of them is an elaborately carved slab, four feet long, which bears the figure of a woman seated, with a work-basket at her left hand and a jewel-case at her right; she seems to be occupied in needlework. Below is the Latin inscription: "To the Divine Shades of Regina, of the Catuallaunian Tribe, a freed woman, and the wife of Barates the Palmyrene.{183} She lived thirty years." Below this is a line in Syriac: "Regina, the freed woman of Barate. Alas!" The district of Catuallauna is said to have extended from Gloucestershire to Lincolnshire. It is strange that affinity of souls should have brought together as man and wife a merchant from Syria and a slave from the centre of England. Another Roman gravestone from South Shields, found in 1885, reads: "To the Divine Shades of Victor. He was by nation a Moor: he lived twenty years: and was the freed man of Numerianus, a horseman of the first ala of Asturians, who most affectionately followed [his former servant to the grave]." This stone probably dates from about A.D. 275; it bears the half-recumbent figure of a man on a couch, with a canopy above and the inscription below. At Binchester, near Bishop Auckland—the Vinovia of the Romans—a plain slab with ansated ends was found inscribed: "Sacred to the Divine Shades. Nemesius Montanus the Decurion lived forty years. Nemesius Sanctus, his brother, and his coheirs, erected this in accordance with the provisions of his will." This slab was also probably carved and set up in the third century. In Roman epitaphs no mention of death is ever made; it is stated that the person commemorated had lived so many years, but the fact that he died and the date of his death is not recorded.

Of Anglo-Saxon memorial crosses there are a large number in the county of Durham, all of them of great interest, and some of beautiful workmanship. The most notable are those at Aycliffe, Billingham, Chester-le-Street, Coniscliffe, Darlington, Dinsdale, Durham (where, in the Dean and Chapter Library, there is a fine collection both of original stones from several places and of facsimile copies), Elwick, Escomb, Gainford, Great Stainton, Haughton-le-Skerne, Hurworth, Kelloe, Norton, Sockburn, and Winston-on-the-Tees. None of them are perfect; most of them are fragments of monuments which have at some time been broken up and used as building stones.{184}

The cross at Kelloe is made up of pieces now carefully joined together; it is a very fine example. Most of these crosses have the characteristic knot-work ornament, and many of them have human figures, crucifixions, monsters, warriors, animals, and birds, carved upon them, the sculpture and design being of the Anglian school. Very few of them have any lettering. One at Chester-le-Street has EADMUND in mixed Runic and Roman letters, but this may be an addition by a later hand. The hog-backed stones of this period, of which some very fine specimens were discovered at Sockburn in 1900, bear similar knot-work ornaments. In 1833 a burial-place at Hartlepool, and in 1834 one at Monkwearmouth, were discovered; they both yielded memorial stones, small in size, but of great interest. A stone from the latter place, now in the British Museum, bears the name TIDFIRTH in Runic characters. Tidfirth was the last Bishop of Hexham, and was deposed about the year 821. The stones found at Hartlepool are known as pillow-stones; they are almost square, and only from 9 to 12 inches across by about 2 inches thick. Only seven of them have been saved. They all bear a cross, sunk in some stones and raised on others, and several of them have short inscriptions in Saxon minus{185}cules. One reads: "ORATE PRO EDILUINI ORATE PRO UERMUND ET TORTHSUID."

Those effigies, or early statues, generally recumbent, and made sometimes of wood, but more often of stone, which were placed in churches from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries, are to be found in many places in the county, sometimes decently and carefully preserved in the church, sometimes left to weather and decay in the churchyard, or in the rectory garden. Among the more noticeable of them are the following:

At the west end of Staindrop Church is the "altar-tomb of alabaster," with an effigy of Ralph Neville, first Earl of Westmorland, in plate armour, and with figures of his two wives, one on either hand. Surtees, in his History of Durham, describes it as "this noble tomb, which is in the purest style of the best age of sepulchral monuments." Its date is probably about 1425. There is in the same church another tomb with effigies, in wood, of the fifth Earl of Westmorland and his two wives; it is dated 1560.

Barnard Castle Church has an effigy of a priest attired in chasuble, stole, dalmatic, alb, and amice. The inscription is in Lombardic lettering, and reads: "ORATE PRO AIA ROBERTI DE MORTHAM QNDM VICARII DE GAYNFORD." This Robert de Mortham founded a chantry at Barnard Castle in 1339.

At Bishopwearmouth there was formerly the effigy of Thomas Middleton of Chillingham, the founder of the family of Silksworth. It represented Middleton in complete armour, with his hands raised. It bore the inscription: "Hic jacet Thom’ Middylton Armiger — — — MCCC." At one time this statue lay on an altar-tomb in the north aisle of the church; later it was placed upright against the wall of the aisle; later, again, it is recorded that it lay, broken into two pieces, in the porch; to-day it cannot be found.

In the Church of St. Giles, in the city of Durham, there is a wooden effigy in complete armour, which is supposed{186} to represent the first John Heath, of Kepier, who was buried in the chancel of that church in 1590.

The Lumley monuments are a collection of fourteen effigies which lie in the north aisle of Chester-le-Street Church. They were placed there by a Lord Lumley about 1594. They represent the Lords of Lumley from Liulph, who lived in the days of William the Conqueror, down to the John, Lord Lumley, who fought at Flodden Field in 1513. Probably only three of the fourteen monuments are genuine; the others were either manufactured or, more probably, collected from other places.

The old chapel at Greatham was pulled down in 1788. In a recess in the south wall of the transept there was a wooden effigy of an ecclesiastic. During the rebuilding of the chapel a stone coffin containing his bones and a chalice of pewter was found near the foot of the wall.

In the Pespoole seats in the south aisle of Easington Church there is an elegant recumbent figure of a woman, carved in Stanhope marble. On it are carved the three popinjays which were carried on the coat of arms of the ancient owners of Horden. At Heighington Church there are two female effigies, one of which has been very fine, but they are both much weathered and decayed; they are probably of fourteenth-century date. In the same church there is a medieval pulpit, the only one remaining in the county. It is of oak, and on it there is inscribed in black letter: "orate p’ aiabz Alexandri flessehar et agnetis uxoris sue." To commemorate oneself by giving a pulpit to the church seems a practical and useful form of memorial. As this is the only medieval pulpit the county has left, it seems likely that its preservation is due to the inscription it bears.

When Neasham Abbey, in the north of Yorkshire, fell into ruin, two of its effigies were moved over the Tees to the church at Hurworth. One of them was a remarkably fine figure of a knight in armour, his head covered with a coat of mail, his body clad in a shirt of mail, over which{187} there is a surcoat. His shield has "barry of eight, three chaplets of roses." The armour is of the style in use in the early part of the fourteenth century, and the effigy probably represents the Robert FitzWilliam who was Warden of the Marches in the time of the just King Edward I., and who died in 1316.

In Lanchester Church, under an arch in the wall of the south aisle, lies a recumbent effigy of a canon secular, his raised hands clasping a chalice. This is believed to represent Stephen Austell, Dean of Lanchester, who died in 1464. In Monkwearmouth Church, under a canopy which bears the shields of the Hiltons and Viponds, there is a very interesting effigy of a knight in plate armour of the early part of the fifteenth century. This is probably the Baron William Hilton, who built Hilton Castle on the Wear, with its wonderful armorial front. He died in 1435. At Norton, near Stockton, there is a magnificent effigy of a knight in chain armour; over the head there is a rich canopy of tabernacle-work; the hands are raised and the legs are crossed, the feet resting on a lion. It is sometimes assumed that this representation of a knight with his legs crossed one over the other indicates that the person portrayed was a Crusader, but there are many cases where the attitude is used in which it is known that the effigy was that of one who could not have taken any part in those Holy Wars. This monument is further noticeable as it is one of the very few which give us even a slight hint as to the personality of the sculptor; it bears what is believed to be his mark in the shape of a small squiggle, which looks like a short length of chain, in front of which is the letter "I," and it is supposed that this punning rebus means that the effigy is the handiwork of one John Cheyne. It would be very interesting to know who commissioned Cheyne to carve this monument, for another curious feature in it is that the shield of the knight bears six coats of arms—Blakeston, Surtees, Bowes, Dalden, Conyers, and Conyers—which mean that the{188} knight was a Blakeston of Blakeston. But the Blakestons bore these arms in the sixteenth century, probably not later than the year 1587, whereas the armour of the effigy is of the time of Edward I., 1272-1307. Boyle suggests that probably the monument is to one of the De Parks, and that a Blakeston took it, scraped off the De Park arms, and put on his own coat. Whatever its vicissitudes may have been, it remains a noble piece of work.

In Redmarshall Church, in the Claxton Porch, there are effigies of Thomas Langton de Wynyard and of Sibil Langton, his wife. They are admirably carved in a rather soft alabaster, and the delicacy and clearness of detail in the costumes is very remarkable. The lady’s hair is dressed in the extraordinary horns which were fashionable in the days of Henry V. She wears a long, loose kirtle, with a surcoat and mantle; round her neck is a string of pearls, and round her waist is a jewelled belt. The knight wears a suit of plate armour, probably of Italian make, the fashion of which suggests that the effigy was carved several years after the death of Thomas de Langton in 1440.

Effigies of men who had devoted themselves to a religious life, but who died before attaining the order of priesthood, are very rare. There is one of a deacon within the altar-rails of Ryton Church, carved in green marble from Stanhope.

Whitburn Church holds a singular effigy of comparatively late date. Attired in the full stiff dress of the time of William and Mary lies a plump, elderly gentleman. He wears a full periwig, a neckcloth with square ends, a coat with large buckramed skirts and wide sleeves, rolled breeches, and square-toed laced shoes ornamented with immense bows of ribbon. His head rests on a pillow, and his right hand holds a book, which is open at the text, "I shall not lye here, but rise." There is a skull between the feet. On the uprights of the tomb the same figure is carved in bas-relief, kneeling, and on each side of him is a{189} lady in the dress of the same period. A tablet on the wall states that this is "the burial-place of Mr. Michael Mathew of Cleadon, and his wife, who had issue three sons and two daughters, of which only Hannah survives."

Brasses.—In many of the older churches of the county there are remaining the stone matrices which formerly held monumental brasses, but in most cases the brasses themselves have disappeared, the sanctity of a church, and the contiguity of a Table of the Ten Commandments not having prevailed against the temptation to steal a substance so portable and so readily saleable as brass.

In the floor of the chapel at Greatham Hospital there is a large slab of stone, 90 by 43 inches in size, with an inscription in brass Lombardic letters round the edge commemorating William de Middleton, a master of the Hospital in 1312. On the wall is another inscription, in raised black-letter with chasing, asking for prayers for the souls of Nicholas Hulme, who was master in 1427, of John Kelyng, 1463, and of William Estfelde, who died in 1497.

At Sherburn Hospital there is a small brass let into the chancel steps, which reads: "THOMAS . LEAVER . PREACHER . TO KING EDWARD . THE . SIXTE. HE . DIED . iN . iVLY . i577."

In the church at St. Andrew’s Auckland there is a finely cut brass with the figure of a priest, of which the head is, unfortunately, missing. There is no inscription, but the date of it is probably about 1400. In the same church there is a unique brass, small in size, but about ½ inch thick; it bears a small Greek cross with a backing of plant decoration, and it has three lines of inscription across the plate and a legend round the margin. It is dated April 8, 1581, and was put up to the memory of Mrs. Fridesmond Barnes, who was the wife of the second Protestant Bishop of Durham, Richard Barnes. We know the cost of this brass, for in the Bisho{190}p’s accounts there is the entry, "To the gould-smyth at Yorke for a plate to sett over Mrs. Barnes, 32ˢ."

At St. Helen’s Auckland there is a brass which portrays the figure of a man in a long tunic edged with fur; his wife lies by his side, and below are figures of his sons and daughters. The inscription is lost, but the date of it is probably about 1460.

In Sedgefield Church there is a curious brass giving the crest of William Hoton, 1445, with a black-letter inscription below: "Hic iacet willm̄s Hoton . qui . obijt . xviº die Septebr’ Anno . dni . Millm̄o . ECCCº . xlvº . cui’ aie ppicietur de’ ame’." In the same church there are two of the objectionable brasses which were not uncommon in the fifteenth century, which portrayed skeletons in shrouds.

Chester-le-Street Church has a very pleasing brass, giving the full-length figure of a woman attired in the costume of the first half of the fifteenth century. The lines of the composition are simple and bold, and the effect is very graceful. The brass has no inscription, but it is known that it was put up to the memory of Alice Salcock of Salcock in Yorkshire, who married William Lambton, and who died in 1434.

At Dinsdale, on the southern margin of the county, close to the River Tees, there is in the church a late, small, but beautifully worked brass, only about 11 inches by 8 inches in size. It bears the coat of arms of eight quarterings, and records the merciful benefactions to the poor of the parish of Dinsdale of Mary, the wife of Thomas Spennithorne. She died in 1668, and was buried at Spennithorne.

In the magnificent cathedral of Durham most of the sepulchral monuments were destroyed either at the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII., or when the cathedral church was used as a prison for Scotch prisoners of war after the Battle of Dunbar in 1650. In 1671 Davies wrote his book on The Rites and Monuments of the Church of Durham, with the motto Tempora{191} mutantur—on the title-page, giving a sad description of the past glories of the church. "Lodovic de bello Monte, Bishop of Durham," he says, "lieth buried before the high Altar in the Quire, under a most curious and sumptuous Marble stone, which he prepar’d for himself, before he died, being adorned with most excellent workmanship of Brass, wherein he was most excellently and lively Pictur’d, as he was accustomed to sing, or say Mass." This Bishop de bello Monte, or Beaumont, died at Brantingham, near Hull, in 1333. His gravestone, which was said to be the largest in England, still lies before the high-altar in Durham Cathedral, but the "most excellent workmanship of Brass" has utterly disappeared.

In Hartlepool Church there is a brass with the figure of a lady in a large hat, with ruff and farthingale; on another brass below it is the inscription:

In Haughton-le-Skerne Church there is a curious figure on a brass, representing a lady, who holds a baby on each arm. She was Dorothy, the wife of Robert Perkinson of Whessey, and she died, with her twin sons, in 1592.

At Houghton-le-Spring there is a brass to the memory of Margery, wife of Richard Bellasis. It pictures the kneeling figure of a woman with her eight sons and three daughters behind her. The Bellasis coat of arms is on the brass: the date is 1587.

In Sedgefield Church there is a rudely engraved, early brass, probably cut about the year 1300. It shows a small female figure, kneeling, and it has a coat of arms on both{192} sides of the figure. From the shape of the two coats of arms, and from the conventional treatment of the features of the face, which is more carefully executed than the rest of the figure, it is believed that this is one of the oldest sepulchral brasses now remaining in England.

The tombstone to Dean Rudde, which lies in the floor of the chancel of Sedgefield Church, still carries its inscribed brass. The stone is a very large one. The black-letter epitaph is so much worn by the tread of the feet of many generations that it can only be read with some uncertainty. It seems to run:

This John Rudde gave to the church of Esh the only medieval service-book belonging to any church in the diocese of Durham which is now known to exist. It is in the library of the Roman Catholic College of Ushaw, near Durham.

The beautiful memorials to the dead which were known as grave-covers were used in England and Ireland from the ninth to the sixteenth century. Though they are abundant in the county, Durham cannot boast of the possession of specimens equal in merit to those found in some other parts of England. At Sedgefield Church there is a fine thirteenth-century grave-cover with a double, eight-rayed cross; it has the rare feature of a double row of dog-tooth ornament at the head; and it is the only stone known in the county which has the whole surface covered with a tracery of foliage. It is, unfortunately, much weathered. Built into the tower of the same church, and only partly visible, is another richly ornamented cover, dating probably from the middle of the fourteenth century, the foliated ornament being more naturally shown, or less conventionalized, than in earlier examples. It bears a sword and a cross moline on a small shield.{193}

The symbolism used on grave-covers is not well understood. A key is said to indicate a woman, a sword a man; shears sometimes represent a woman, sometimes a wool-stapler; a chalice or a book, or both, are placed on the gravestone of a priest or other ecclesiastic. Craftsmen are often indicated by some sign of their business, as a square for a mason, a horseshoe or a hammer for a smith. Sometimes a merchant uses his trade-mark much as an armigerous person uses his coat of arms. Built into the south porch of St. Mary’s Church in Gateshead there are two large grave-covers bearing incised crosses. One of them, a fourteenth-century slab, has at one side of the stem of the cross a key, and at the other side a fish. Most authorities think that the fish is the mystic symbol of our Saviour, which was so dear to the early Christians, and which is frequently found on the gravestones in the catacombs at Rome; but other antiquaries consider that the stone is to be more literally interpreted, and that it covered the remains of a fish-wife.

The earlier grave-covers were stone lids for stone coffins, but after the use of stone coffins was discontinued, and wooden coffins were substituted, the remains of the dead were often covered by these carved stone slabs. The larger part of them are uninscribed, but grave-covers with a few lines cut on them are by no means uncommon. At Gainford there is a perfect grave-cover of the fourteenth century which bears a chalice and three floreated crosses, one large and two small. It has been suggested that these prove this to have been the burial-place of an ecclesiastic and two children, for burial in a monk’s frock or in the grave of a priest was long considered by all classes of people to be desirable. This stone, though it is of early fourteenth-century period, bears an inscription to Laurence Brockett, Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge, who died in 1768. His executors seem to have thought that an old gravestone was just as good as a new one.{194}

Of quaint sepulchral inscriptions there are many in the county. The one in Monkwearmouth Church to the memory of a Mrs. Lee is on a small marble tablet on the vestry wall. It reads:

It is strange that a lawyer "of ability and integrity" should not be able to make himself a sound will. In Greatham Chapel there is an inscription: "In memory of Ralph Bradley, Esq. an eminent Councillor at Law, born in this parish, who bequeathed a large fortune, acquired in a great measure by his abilities and integrity, to the purchasing of books calculated to promote the interests of virtue and religion, and the happiness of mankind. He died the 28th day of December 1788, in the 72d year of his age...." Below, on a copper plate, is: "By a decree of Edward Lord Thurlow, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, on the 2ᵈ day of August 1791, the charitable intention mentioned above was set aside in favour of the next of kin."

In Stockton Church we may read that on "Wednesday the 19th of May 1773 was here interred the body of Mrs. Sarah Baker ... aged 59. Do thou reflect in time; death itself is nothing, but prepare to be you know not what, to go you know not where."

At Houghton-le-Spring stands the massy altar-tomb of the great Bernard Gilpin, "the apostle of the North," that sweet-natured, fearless, and humble-minded man who so narrowly escaped a martyr’s death at the stake. The tomb bears his coat of arms and the following:{195}

BERNERD		OBIT QVA
GILPIN RE	[A bear with a crescent on its side,	RTV DIE M
CTOR HV	leaning against a tree.]	ARTII AN.
IVS ECCLIÆ		DOM. 1583.

In the same church of Houghton-le-Spring there is the following epitaph: "Here Lyes interr’d the Body of Nicolas Conyers Esqʳ. High Sheriff of this County Chiefe of yᵉ Family of Conyers of the House of Boulby in Yorkshire. He dyed at South Biddick Mar: 27 A.D. 1689 his age 57." Below is his crest.

At Houghton Hall Robert Hutton, a zealous Puritan and a Captain in Cromwell’s army, was buried in his own orchard, where his altar-tomb is inscribed: "HIC JACET ROBERTVS HVTTON ARMIGER QVI OBIIT AVG. DIE NONO 1681 ET MORIENDO VIVIT."

In the Galilee Chapel at the west end of Durham Cathedral there is a stone on the floor inscribed:

This Brimley was master of the Song School at Durham Cathedral.

That mighty builder, Hugh Pudsey, who was Bishop of Durham from 1153 to 1195, seems to have had a fellow-worker who pleased him in the person of Christian the Mason, whose grave-cover is at Pittington. One wonders whether it was after Christian had built for the Bishop the stout fortifications of Durham Castle, or whether it was when he had finished the beautiful Galilee Chapel of the cathedral, that Pudsey gave him, as we know he did, forty acres in the moor at South Sherburn, besides other lands,{196} "quit of all rent whilst he should remain in the service of the bishop." Pudsey’s own tomb in Durham Cathedral is broken and dispoiled, but Christian the Mason’s grave-cover at Pittington can still be read:

which may be interpreted: "One having the name of Christ is buried here. Let him who beholds the grave commend himself with prayer to Christ."

In the churchyard of St. Hild’s at Hartlepool, about 6 feet from the east wall of the modern chancel, there is an old altar-tomb covered with a very large slab of bluish stone. If it has ever been inscribed the lettering is now utterly weathered off, but it has the lion of Bruce on the uprights at the sides still faintly visible. This is the resting-place of the fathers of Robert Bruce. They owned Hart and Hartlepool for many generations before Robert Bruce claimed the crown of Scotland in 1306. His lands in the county of Durham were then seized and given to the Cliffords. In Easington Church there is an effigy of a lady in thirteenth-century costume, which probably represents Isabella, first wife of John Fitz-Marmaduke. She was the daughter of Robert de Brus of Skelton, and the sister of Robert Bruce, King of Scotland.

Coming last to the ordinary inscriptions on the tombstones and headstones of our churchyards, one of the first things that strikes an observer is the large number of cases where, though the stone remains, the inscription is wholly or partly weathered off and lost; such cases are an occasion of woe to the genealogist. In looking through a country churchyard it will often be found that 10 per cent. of the stones are unreadable. This is generally because a soft and unsuitable stone has been used. Some slate-stones stand well; limestones and marbles only last while they are in a church, rain and slight traces of acid in the atmosphere soon disintegrate them out of doors.{197} Granite will probably endure very long, but it has been little used in Durham churchyards, and only since about 1860. Sandstones are most generally used, and some of these, of a close-grain and of a dark colour when old, stand exceedingly well. The fell sandstones, or hassells, used in the west of the county, are almost as hard as granite. They are very difficult to cut, so the lettering on them is often quite shallow; but stones 200 years old are quite unaffected by weather. Soft sandstones, which are easily cut, either crumble and decay gradually, or in some cases they scale off in flakes and perish very quickly. It is common to see two stones of about the same date, standing side by side, one of which is sound and clear, while the other cannot be read. Frequently one finds a stone where, owing to differences of hardness, one part of the inscription is sharp and legible, while other parts are completely gone.

Along the parishes on the coast of the county the wanderer cannot fail to be struck with the constant repetition of the words, "Lost at sea," and if he should turn to the registers of these parishes and read the many entries like, "A woman at ye sea side found drowned," "A man cast upon our sands by the sea," "Foure Duchmen wth a woman and a childe being drowned by shipwrack were buried in this Churchyard," he will learn what a heavy tithe the sea takes from the land, and how high is the price that man pays for the sovereignty of the sea.

Punning epitaphs are, fortunately, not numerous in the county. Here is one, from Stockton, to the memory of two masons, "Ralph Wood, who departed this life Oct. 22, 1730, in the 67th year of his age. Here lieth the Body of Ralph Wood, aged 67, 1743.

THE CASTLES AND HALLS OF DURHAM

By Henry R. Leighton

ALTHOUGH the county of Durham is not studded with castles and peels like its northern neighbour, nor decked with many ancient homes in a still picturesque and habitable condition, like the moors and valleys of York, it is still fairly rich in buildings of historic and antiquarian interest.

The banks of the Wear alone, if followed from the source to the mouth, may be compared to some miniature Rhine in picturesqueness. The mountainous scenery of Weardale, and the frequent woods and plantations that ornament the banks of its lower reaches, the castles of Stanhope, Witton, Auckland, Brancepeth, Durham, Lumley, Lambton, and Hilton, rising in a stately succession, to say nothing of the glorious old cathedral, the monastic ruins of Finchale, and the grey old tower of Wearmouth, make a panorama unrivalled in its way. It may, however, be remarked in all fairness that almost every English stream can tell a similar story, and for a vision, in homely and familiar buildings, of a glorious past our England stands unrivalled.

The first-named of the above mansions, Stanhope Castle, stands upon the site of a fortified house existing in the time of Bishop Anthony Bek. The present building is, however, a Georgian structure erected about a century ago by Cuthbert Rippon, M.P. for Gateshead. The old home of

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the Fetherstonhaughs, so long associated with this district, Stanhope Hall, is an Elizabethan mansion with several panelled rooms, and is now divided amongst a number of tenants.

Witton Castle, erected by the great baronial house of Eure, stands on the south side of the river, not very far from Witton-le-Wear. It was erected somewhere about 1410, for in that year Bishop Langley granted a pardon to Sir Ralph Eure for having commenced to embattle his manor-house at Witton. It originally consisted of a square bailey, surrounded by an outer wall, with a projecting keep on the north side.

The keep has been considerably altered at various periods. It is oblong in shape, with corner turrets rising above the roof. The basement consists of one barrel-vaulted apartment, with adjoining chambers in the north-west, south-west, and south-east turrets; the entrances to two of these were originally fastened on the outer side. The first floor is the great hall, and has doorways leading into chambers in the turrets. Another door in the north-east corner leads to a newel staircase ascending to the battlements. The room immediately over the east end of the great hall has a doorway opening into a small mural chamber, originally a latrine, in the north-east turret. This floor has a passage in the thickness of the west wall. The parapets are reached by the staircase already referred to. The turrets at the north-east and south-east corners project like angle buttresses, and the latter has two figures in armour, similar to those at Hilton Castle, standing on the parapet. The north-west turret is larger, and its sides are parallel with the walls of the keep. The south-west turret is still larger, and it projects beyond the south front, having its west wall continued in line with that of the main building. All the turrets have crenellated parapets. The eastern turrets have their alternate sides machicolated on double corbels.

The outer wall has two gateways, one on the east, and{200} the other on the west side, leading into the courtyard. Both are defended by machicolated galleries above, the parapet being carried outwards on double corbels. The whole wall is defended by a broad battlement with a high parapet round the top. There are embrasures at intervals, each originally defended by movable shutters; a round socket on one side, and a slot on the other, remain to show where the pivots moved. A number of round holes in the walls were intended to support woodwork on which platforms could be erected, thus enabling the garrison to strike at attackers below.

Each angle of this outer or curtain wall was originally strengthened by a bartizan. Three of these were circular, but one, that at the north-west corner, was pulled down in the early days of last century. The fourth bartizan, that at the south-west corner of the wall, is almost square in shape, with the outer walls projecting and resting on corbels. It contains a guardroom, with a fireplace, and two doors opening on to the adjoining battlements. The south-east bartizan also contains a room, circular in shape, with a loopholed wall. About a century ago the castle was unfortunately damaged by fire. It was afterwards restored by Mr. J. T. H. Hopper, the owner.

Tracing the river eastwards, the ancient home and palace of the Bishops and Lords Palatine stands close to the river and to the east of Auckland town.

Robert de Graystanes, one of the early chroniclers, states that Bishop Anthony Bek erected the manor-house at Auckland, but from several entries in the Boldon Book it is evident that the Bishops had a residence there at the time that record was drawn up.

The existing buildings are extensive, and are approached from the market-place through a castellated gateway. One of the most prominent and interesting features is the chapel, which was originally the great hall. It was adapted for its present purpose and consecrated by Bishop Cosin. Prior to the great Civil War, there were two{201} chapels, variously referred to, and as early as 1338, as the major and the minor. One of these was over the other, and they stood to the south of the castle proper, near to a postern which opened on to a road outside the park. When for a while the Episcopal Church was abolished by a Puritan Government, and the old story of spiteful spoliation began, Auckland Palace was sold to Sir Arthur Heslerigg for £6,102 8s. 11½d. This redoubtable worthy appears to have dismantled a considerable portion of the buildings. He blew up the chapels,[11] and commenced to alter the place to suit his own ideas.

It seems probable that Sir Arthur left his projected buildings in an unfinished state, for when Bishop Cosin came to his diocese at the Restoration, he wrote that the castle "had been pul’d down and ruined." The Bishop commenced an extensive restoration, and a number of interesting letters and agreements have been preserved showing the progress made.

As it now stands, the chapel is divided into nave and aisles by arcades, each of four bays. The supporting pillars are clearly those described by Leland, who, speaking of the great hall, says: "There be divers pillars of black marble speckled with white." Each pillar consists of four clustered cylindrical shafts, two being of Weardale marble, and two of freestone. The four pillars nearest the west are banded half-way up, and the capitals of the two western pillars are carved with foliage, the north-western showing also the spiral scroll or volute. The capitals of the other pillars and the bases of all are moulded, the latter resting on square plinths.

The arches are richly moulded, and have labels terminating in carved ornaments. They rest at the east end on responds of three clustered shafts, two of marble, and one of freestone, with moulded capitals and bases.{202} At the west end the arches rest on highly ornamental corbels. Each of the latter consists in its lower portion of two carved heads, the northernmost being of Bishops wearing mitres, and the southern of crowned Kings. From within the mitres and crowns rise dwarfed shafts with Late Transitional foliage carved on the bells. Each capital is surmounted with a square moulded abacus, on which rest the bases of a triplet of dwarfed, clustered shafts corresponding to those in the piers of the arcades. In the spandrels between the arches, on both sides, are carved corbels; those on the inner side carry single cylindrical shafts surmounted by moulded capitals, and originally carried the pendant posts of the roof. The outer corbels supported the rafters of the aisle roofs. There is now but little doubt that this portion of the building was erected by Bishop Pudsey.

Bishop Hatfield made further improvements, inserting the windows still existing. At a much later period, as already mentioned, Bishop Cosin altered and restored the castle, which he appears to have made his favourite residence. He certainly took great delight and pride in improving his country home. Most of the fine woodwork in the chapel is his work—the roof, mouldings, and the great screen at the west end being particularly noteworthy.

Since his time the chapel has been but little altered. Bishop Van Mildert refloored it, and Bishop Lightfoot erected a new reredos, and filled most of the windows with stained glass.

The other portions of the castle have been considerably modernized, and bear but little resemblance to Pennant’s picture of it. The room which he describes as "below stairs," and having painted on the old wainscot "the arms of a strange assemblage of potentates, from Queen Elizabeth, with all the European princes, to the Emperors of Abissinia, Bildelgerid, Carthage, and Tartaria, sixteen peers of the same reign, knights of the garter, and above

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them the arms of every bishoprick in England," is now used as the housekeeper’s storeroom.

The wing containing the servants’ hall (on the ceiling of which is a plaster shield of Bishop Tunstall’s arms) and the dining-room was commenced by Bishop Ruthall, and completed by the former prelate. The arms of both Bishops appear on the exterior of the building. Adjoining this wing to the west is another of some length, still known by the curious name of Scotland, and undoubtedly erected by Tunstall. No very satisfactory reason has been offered for the derivation of its name.

Brancepeth Castle stands within a mile from the River Wear, a little to the south of the village of the same name. There was undoubtedly a castle there in the twelfth century, towards the end of which it passed, by the marriage of Emma, widow of Peter de Valoignes, and only child of Bertram de Bulmer, to Geoffrey de Neville, from the former to the latter family.

The present castle is stated by Leland to have been erected by Ralph, first Earl of Westmorland. It was defended north and east by a moat; south and west the walls rise from a rock nearly forty feet in height. The original gateway, defended by a portcullis and flanked by square towers, stood on the site of the present gate, and was approached from the north. It has been destroyed. It opened directly into the courtyard, south-west of which are the residential parts of the castle.

There were, when Hutchinson wrote, four towers, closely conjoined. Three of these remain, containing respectively the dining-room, saloon, and the baron’s hall. The destroyed tower stood north of the last mentioned, but was not so high. It contained three stories, and was probably, as Mr. Boyle has suggested, the great hall.

The projecting angles of the towers are surmounted by small turrets, eight in number, the arrangement consisting of two sides rising directly from the sides of the buttresses{204} on which they are built, whilst the other two are machicolated, the parapets resting on corbels.

Two other towers now standing at either end of the billiard-room are respectively used as the chapel and the library. The castle possesses a number of other interesting features.

Amongst the pictures is one by Hogarth, painted for the first Viscount Boyne, and representing several members of the Hell-fire Club. They are supposed to have assembled in a wine-cellar, and resolved not to part until its contents have been consumed. Sir Philip Hoby is depicted sitting on a cask of claret. Immediately behind him, with his hand held up, is Mr. De Grey, and below him is Lord John Cavendish, who has drawn a spigot from the cask to let the wine flow into a bowl. Lord Sandwich is kneeling down, holding a bottle to his mouth. Lord Galway lies extended on a form, in such a position that the liquor from a cask above him is flowing into his mouth. The arrangement of the four central figures is a clever imitation of a statue of Charity shown in the cellar.

There is some fine armour in the present and modern great hall, amongst others a suit richly inlaid in gold, and traditionally said to have been taken from the Scottish King after the Battle of Neville’s Cross, although really it is of Elizabethan date.

The existing castle in Durham City, long the principal seat of the Episcopal Princes, largely helps, with its frowning walls and grim battlements, standing side by side with the cathedral, to make Durham one of the most picturesque cities in this country.

The castle is approached from the north-west corner of the Palace Green, a short avenue leading to the gateway, which was modernized by Bishop Barrington. The iron-bound gates were placed there by Bishop Tunstall, and one of them contains a wicket which is the subject of one of Spearman’s amusing anecdotes. He states that Bishop Crewe had been pressing Dr. Grey, Rector of Bishopwear{205}mouth, and Dr. Morton, Rector of Boldon, to read King James’s declaration for a dispensing power in their parish churches. Both declined and began to argue against it, when the Bishop appears to have lost his temper. He told Dr. Grey that his age made him dote, and that he had forgotten his learning. "The good old Doctor briskly replied he had forgott more learning than his Lordship ever had. ‘Well,’ said the Bishop, ‘I’ll forgive and reverence you, but cannot pardon that blockhead Morton, whom I raised from nothing.’ They thereupon took their leave of the Bishop, who with great civility waited upon them towards the gate, and ye porter opening ye wikett or posterne only, ye Bishop said, ‘Sirrah, why don’t you open ye great gates?’ ‘No,’ says ye Reverend Dr. Grey, ‘my Lord, wee’le leave ye broad way to your lordship, ye strait way will serve us.’"

The gateway leads directly into the courtyard. A door and flight of steps in the wall to the left leads into the Fellows’ Garden, formerly the private garden of the Bishops, through which they could enter Bishop Cosin’s library.

Crossing the court to the left, the first building approached is partly of early Norman date, with additions by Bishop Fox, and a later restoration by Bishop Cosin, whose arms, impaling the see, are upon the front. It is now used entirely as students’ quarters.

A portico farther along the court leads into the great hall, erected by Bishop Anthony Bek. The hall measures 101 feet long by 35 feet wide, and was restored somewhere about 1850.

The window at the north end was filled with stained glass in 1882 to commemorate the jubilee of the University.

The walls are hung with paintings, and include:

1. A collection of thirteen portraits of English Archbishops and Bishops, said to have been made by Bishop Cosin.{206}

2. Ten pictures of the Apostles, which were taken at St. Mary’s, in Spain, in the expedition under the Duke of Ormond, and purchased by the Dean and Chapter in 1753.

3. A number of portraits of prebendaries and professors.

4. Portraits of Charles I., Bishop Cosin, and Charles II.

On the same wall as the last-mentioned portraits the banners of the Durham local volunteer companies, raised to defend the country at the time of Napoleon’s threatened invasion, are suspended.

A door at the north end of the hall leads to Bishop Cosin’s great staircase, which is most handsomely carved.

At the foot of the staircase a corridor, the woodwork of which originally formed part of the same Bishop’s choir screen in the cathedral, may be entered.

The staircase itself, however, leads more directly to Bishop Tunstall’s Gallery, and to several apartments, from one of which a door opens upon the terrace on the north side of the castle.

Tunstall’s Gallery contains several objects of interest, and the walls are covered with sixteenth-century tapestry.

Here also is the magnificent Norman doorway erected by Bishop Pudsey as the entrance to his lower hall. From its position and the weathering of the stonework, it is supposed to have originally been approached by a stairway from the court; the case at the top must have been roofed with open arcades at the sides.

The present Senate-room of the University contains some good tapestry, illustrating the life of Moses, and dating from the sixteenth century. This room also contains a handsome carved fireplace, armorially decorated, and evidently the work of Bishop James. In the centre are the Royal Arms, Garter, and Motto. On either side are the arms of the Palatinate impaling the Bishop’s dolphin and cross-crosslets, with the James’s motto, "Dei Gratia Sum quod Sum."

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The adjoining anteroom contains several paintings, including portraits of King James II. and his Queen, Mary of Modena.

Leaving the county town behind, the picturesque outlines of Lumley Castle may be seen for some miles from the train journeying to Newcastle. It is situated about a mile from Chester-le-Street, but on the opposite bank of the Wear. The place is first mentioned by Styr, the son of Ulf, in a list of gifts made to St. Cuthbert.

The castle is supposed to have been erected by Sir Ralph Lumley, who obtained licences from Richard II. and Bishop Skirlaw to embattle his house of Lumley. It is in arrangement a square courtyard, surrounded by a quadrangle. Two of the fronts, the south and north, measure 65 yards 1 foot in length, the other two 58 yards and 1 foot. Oblong towers, of greater height than the main portions of each front, from which they project, strengthen and guard each corner. The most exterior angle of each tower is capped by a buttress.

The west front is the oldest existing portion of the castle, and is supposed to have been the Lumley manor-house, before Sir Ralph extended and added to it.

Originally the east side of it, that looking into the courtyard, was the principal front, and in its centre the gateway, flanked by semi-octagonal turrets, may still be seen. The front of the gateway is formed of two arches, the outer segmental headed, and the inner one pointed. Between these is the groove wherein the portcullis ran. The arch leads to a vaulted passage which entered the original courtyard. On the north side of the passage is a pointed doorway, leading into a narrow corridor, having a latrine at its east end, and connected originally with the gatekeeper’s room.

The present gateway is in the centre of the east front, and has incorporated with it an earlier round-headed archway, with semi-octagonal jambs and moulded imposts. On either side of it is a square turret, surmounted by{208} octagonal machicolated parapets, the alternate sides of which are embrasured.

The turrets are joined by a machicolated gallery, defended by a battlemented parapet. Above the door are six sculptured coats of arms. Between the two highest, Neville and Percy, is the royal coat of Richard II. Below is the Lumley coat, having on the sinister side the arms of Grey, and on the dexter the coat of Hilton. The shields are all surmounted by the respective family crests.

A room on the south side of the gateway contains in its centre a flag, which on being raised leaves open the entrance to a vaulted chamber about 10 feet square and some 16 feet deep. From the existence of a latrine, and a little ventilation from a small unglazed loophole looking into the courtyard, it seems to have been intended as a safe place for the custody of prisoners.

In the north-east tower are two rooms, divided by a modern partition, and showing evidence that they originally formed the private chapel of the family. The south-east tower contains on its second floor the state bedroom, in which King James I. is said to have slept when he visited Lumley.

In the north-west tower is the famous kitchen, which Howitt described as "one of the most stupendous, lofty, and every way remarkable kitchens in the kingdom." The south-west tower contains the banqueting-hall, celebrated for its very fine stuccoed ceiling, part of the work initiated by Richard, second Earl of Scarborough.

Between the towers on the west side the main building forms the baron’s, or great, hall, which probably remained unaltered from the time of Sir Ralph to the early days of the century before last. The fireplace is the work of John, Lord Lumley, and is decorated with the family arms, impaling FitzAlan. Here also is a large equestrian statue, representing Liulph, a traditional ancestor of the house. There are also a series of interesting family portraits.{209}

Not far from Lumley, Lambton Castle stands on the northern and opposite bank of the river. The original home of the Lambton family was, however, on the same bank as Lumley. According to an old view, it was a double house of stone, with flanking, gabled wings, and the grounds laid out in parterres and terraces. It remained the residence of the family, until it was dismantled in 1797 by William Henry Lambton, who had adopted Harraton Hall as the family seat.[12]

The present Lambton Castle[13] stands on the site and incorporates portions of the original building of Harraton Hall, a manor-house erected about the year 1600. Very considerable additions were made to this hall by William Henry Lambton, grandfather of the late Lord Durham, from designs by the elder Bonomi, in the Italian style. The first Lord Durham also made considerable alterations and additions to the building from plans furnished by Bonomi, the general appearance of the mansion being entirely changed. The south front is in the Tudor style and castellated, and the north is Norman.

The great hall is panelled, and the windows are glazed with richly stained glass, containing a representation of "Ye Legend of the Worme of Lambton," and also the heraldic emblems of the family. The dimensions of the hall are 94 feet by 36 feet, being larger than St. Stephen’s Hall, Westminster. The principal staircase leading out{210} of the hall, communicating with the upper apartments, is 24 feet wide and 36 feet high. East of the hall is the dining-room and west is the drawing-room, abutting on the terraces of the west lawn.

Owing to the subsidence of the hill on which the castle stands, through some old colliery workings underneath falling in, the castle had become, when the second Earl succeeded to the estates, insecure. To meet this, and strengthen the foundations, the workings, two seams deep, round the castle, to the extent of 4½ acres, were filled up with débris. Three seams lower still were bricked up, over 10,000,000 bricks being used, and in several instances in the fourth seam the brickwork exceeded 30 feet in height.

Hilton Castle, like Lambton, stands on the north bank of the River Wear, on a gentle slope commanding an extensive view of the valley to the west.

The present building, a melancholy-looking tower, is only the gatehouse of the original castle. It is first mentioned in the inquisition post-mortem of William de Hilton in 1435, when it is described as "a house constructed of stone, called the Yethouse." The intention of the original builder, the William just mentioned, was evidently to erect an extensive mansion on a similar scale, but there is sufficient evidence to show that he never completed the work.

That there were other buildings probably surrounding a courtyard is proved by various inventories. In 1559, after the death of Sir Thomas Hilton, an inventory of his effects mentions the great chamber, the green chamber, the middle and new chambers, the gallery, the wardrobe, the parlour, the chamber over the hall door, and various out-buildings, such as the brewhouse, buttery, and the barns. The tower is mentioned separately, and the term evidently applies to the existing building.

These surrounding buildings were probably removed by John Hilton, who early in the eighteenth century built

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a large wing in the Italian style against the north end of the gatehouse. This erection was three stories in height, having pedimented windows in the two lower floors, and square-headed windows in the story above. John Hilton also, to some extent, spoiled the ancient gatehouse by inserting a number of similar pedimented windows in it. His son, the last of the male line to own Hilton, and also named John, added a similar south wing. Both these wings were castellated—at any rate, on the east front.

The castle passed by descent to the Musgraves, and afterwards by successive sales to the Bowes and Briggs families, and again within the last year or two to the Monkwearmouth Colliery Company.

As it now stands, the tower presents a bold and picturesque outline. It is divided, on the west front, into three bays by projecting, square-shaped turrets. The main entrance is through the central bay, over which is a fine array of heraldry. Immediately beneath the arcade, the elaborately carved and projecting canopies of which fell in 1882, is a banner and staff of the Royal Arms of France and England temp. Henry V. Beneath the banner are the arms of Neville, Vesci, and Percy, and amongst other coats represented are those of the families of Lumley, Grey, Eure, Washington, Felton, Heron, Surtees, and Bowes. On the right-hand turret, close to the entrance, beneath a canopy, is a large banner of the Hilton arms. The east front shows a curious sculpture of the family badge, a roebuck collared and chained. Below is the family coat, accompanied with their curious crest—the head of Moses, horned with triple rays.

The battlements are exceedingly picturesque and decorated with numerous statued figures, one of which apparently represents the slayer of the Lambton Worm.

The ancient family chapel stands in a semi-ruinous condition a little to the north of the castle.

Ravensworth Castle was erected towards the end of the thirteenth century, and has belonged successively to the{212} Fitz-Marmadukes, Lumleys, Boyntons, Gascoignes, and Liddells. It originally consisted of four towers, one standing at each angle of a courtyard and joined by curtain walls. Two of these towers still stand and form part of the present castle, which was erected shortly after 1808, from designs by Nash. It may be added that the castle was formerly known as Ravenshelm, Ravensworth being the name of the adjoining village. Not far from the castle, and near to the road leading to the north entrance, is an old cross commonly known as the "Butter Cross." It is stated that the country people left their produce here for the citizens of Newcastle to take when that city was infested by the plague in the sixteenth century.

A few miles to the west, Gibside, a seat of the Earl of{213} Strathmore, stands in an exceedingly picturesque position. A terrace at the back of the house stands above a sheer descent to an exceedingly wild glen. The older portions of the building were erected by Sir William Blakiston, who had inherited the estate from his grandmother, an heiress of the Marley family, in the reign of James I. Over the entrance are the Royal Arms, and the arms of Blakiston and Marley quarterly with the initials W. I. B. for Sir William and his wife Jane Lambton. There is also an interesting sundial inscribed with the motto Ut hora, sic vita. The old drawing-room has a large fireplace, with figures of Samson and Hercules at either side, and above a further heraldic display of the family alliances.

There are four baronial mansions lying between the Wear and the Tees.

Barnard Castle, once a residence of the princely house of Baliol, has for long years been a ruin.

Originally erected by Bernard de Baliol, son of Guy de Baliol, Lord of Bailleul en Vimeu in Picardy, and founder also of Baynard’s Castle in London, it passed on the attainder of his descendant John Baliol, sometime King of Scotland, in 1296 to Bishop Bek. A few years later Edward I. severed the Durham fees of Bruce and Baliol from the control of the Palatinate and granted Barnard Castle to the Beauchamps. By marriage the estate passed to the Nevilles, and by marriage again to the Crown. Later it passed to the Vanes, who hold it still. The castle, which was of some size and great strength, stands in a commanding position above the River Tees. A great portion of the remaining buildings dates from Norman times. One of the towers is still known as the Brackenbury Tower, evidently deriving its name from the family of the famous Constable of the Tower of London. The castle is also associated with Richard III., whose badge of "the hog" occurs in one of the rooms.

Not far from Barnard, Streatlam Castle stands in a valley between that town and Raby. It has remained{214} the property of the descendants of the owners in the twelfth century to this day, although it has passed by marriage successively to the Traynes, Boweses, and Lyons. The existing castle includes some portions of the structure erected by old Sir William Bowes. This Sir William is stated on the death of his young wife Jane, daughter of Lord Greystock, under the age of twenty, to have gone to the wars in France, where for some years he was Chamberlain to the Regent, the Duke of Bedford. Sometime about 1450 he pulled down the older castle at Streatlam, and erected a new one from designs he had brought from France. His arms are on the north front of the castle, which has been altered frequently since his time. A good portion of it was pulled down by William Blakiston Bowes, who died in 1721, leaving his alterations incomplete.

Raby Castle, one of the finest baronial piles in the North of England, and for many centuries the great seat of the princely house of Neville, would require, to deal with it in justice, more pages than a volume of limited space can afford. A few of its leading features must, however, be mentioned. Portions of the present building were erected by Ralph, Lord Neville, one of the commanders at Neville’s Cross, who died in 1367. His son John carried on the work, and in 1378 obtained a licence from Bishop Hatfield to embattle and crenellate his manor-house at Raby. In aspect the castle consists of buildings forming a rough square, with towers projecting from three of the corners, the whole enclosing a courtyard. The four outer sides face the cardinal points. Some distance from the main building, a wall 30 feet high with a deep moat on its outer side entirely enclosed it. The main entrance is guarded by a large tower thrown forward in a flanking position, rendering the approach exceedingly difficult to an opposing force. This building is known as Clifford’s Tower. At the south end of a curtain wall running southwards stands the Watch Tower, which has, however, been considerably modernized. Adjoining the great gatehouse,

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which is the work of at least two builders, is the tower which Leland says bears the name of Joan, wife of the first Earl of Westmorland. East of Joan’s Tower is another stretch of curtain wall now containing the drawing-rooms, and terminating at Bulmer’s Tower, an interesting building in shape an irregular pentagon. On the upper story of this tower is the badge of the builder, a large Old English b, doubtless like the bull, their other badge, derived from the Bulmers.

A block of modern buildings adjoining the Bulmer Tower adjoins a tower, from which a corridor enters the great hall, 90 feet long and 35 feet wide. Close to the hall is the kitchen, which has been preserved in all its original quaintness. Over a passage leading from the east side of the great hall is the chapel. A short curtain wall connects this portion of the building with the Mount Raskelf Tower, evidently named after a manor owned by the Nevilles in Yorkshire. It is rather curious to observe that the Christian names Ralph and Henry, which occur so frequently in old northern families, are the predominating names respectively of the great houses of Neville and Percy.

Walworth Castle, a large, picturesque old house, was erected by the Jenisons in or about the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The north front, flanked by two projecting wings, has a centre three stories high terminating in a balustraded parapet. The south front has a circular tower at each end. The windows were originally decorated with fine old painted glass of heraldic design, which has been almost entirely destroyed in modern times. Some fragments have, however, been gathered together and are preserved in a window in the corridor. Here King James I. was entertained and slept on his progress to the South in 1603.

Inferior to the larger houses, there were in the county several buildings of great strength coming under the same head as the peel-houses or towers on the borders.{216}

One of these, now only represented by a few portions of the outer walls, was Dalden Tower. The buildings appear to have formed a tower rather longer than square, standing on a slight mound. The walls were of rubble, 5 feet thick. In the east wall there is a square-headed niche, surmounted by a pediment within an ogee-headed arch, the space within which is filled with tracery. Two blank shields are upon a cornice over the pediment. The niche seems to point to the room once adjoining having been the private chapel. On the inner side of the curtain facing the west wall there appears to have been a cell with a loophole.

A more recent manor-house was built about the reign of James I., adjoining the tower on the east, and portions of it are built into the present farmhouse. For some generations it was a seat of the Royalist family of Collingwood, and, at an earlier date, of a branch of the great house of Bowes. It was a lady of this family, Maud, wife of Sir William Bowes and heiress of Sir Robert Dalden, who possessed within the old walls a curious library. In her will, made in 1420, she left to Matilda Hilton one Romaunce-boke, to Dame Eleanor Washington the boke with the knotts, to Elizabeth de Whitchester a book that is called Trystram, and to her god-daughter Maud, daughter of the Baron of Hilton, one Romaunce boke is called the Gospells. Surtees pertinently writes: "Did a romance ever actually exist under this strange title? or had the lady of Dalden met with one of Wicliffe’s Bibles, and conceived the Gospels to be a series of fabulous adventures, in which our Saviour and His Apostles were introduced to act and to moralize like the goodly personages who figure in the ancient mysteries, or in Les Jeux du Roi René d’Anjou"?

Farther to the south an old tower, oblong in shape stood at Little Eden. It was, however, taken down in the early days of last century by Mr. Rowland Burdon, who erected the present castellated house at Castle Eden.{217} At Dinsdale, on the banks of the Tees, the remains of the ancient home of the Surtees family were excavated by the late Mr. Scott Surtees, and showed that a large gatehouse of late twelfth-century work, with vaulted chambers and a newel stair, had once stood there.

The later manor-house of the Place family retains some portions of the older building. With thick walls and low rooms with heavy beams and rafters, and an old oak staircase with a wicket, it still remains a picturesque fragment of former days. A stone originally fixed over a gateway destroyed shortly before Hutchinson compiled his history is now let into the wall on the left of the farmhouse door, and bears the arms of Place quarterly with Surtees.

The home of the Surtees’s neighbours, the allied and equally noble house of Conyers, was at Sockburn, situated on the same sweep of the Tees. Traces of the foundations of gardens and orchards alone point out the site of the old house, where Dugdale in 1666 had noted the family emblazonments in or on the building—the arms of Conyers, Vesci, Scrope, Neville, Dacre, FitzHugh, Lumley, and of the Royal Family. Surtees suggests that seven of the coats seem to have formed a rich armorial window, and that amidst them ran the motto, "REGI SECVLOR I’ MORTALI I’ VISIBILI SOLI DEO HONOR ET GLORIA I’ SECVLA SECVLOR." When the historian wrote, "one old decaying Spanish chestnut" seemed alone to connect the deserted spot with some recollection of its ancient owners. Of the old house not one stone remains. A new house was erected about a century ago by the baronet family of Blackett, who for some generations have owned the manor. Here the far-famed Conyers falchion is preserved. The sword dates from the thirteenth century, and has a blade 2 feet and 5½ inches long. The handle is partly covered with ash, and has on the pommel two shields, the three lions of England, and an eagle displayed. The cross is engraved with decorative foliage of the period.{218}

One of the most interesting specimens of the older fortified residences was Ludworth Tower.[14] The building, which consisted of a three-storeyed oblong tower of common limestone, stands near a brook, on a low hill, at the head of the valley in which Shadforth village lies. A lower vaulted room up till recently still contained a large open fireplace and hearthstone. The only entrance was by a small arched door leading to a spiral stone staircase, projecting from the north-west angle of the tower. Remnants of a curtain wall exist to the east, and on the west the adjoining ground has apparently been levelled by hand.

The whole appearance of the building, which has, unfortunately, in recent years[15] been allowed to fall into a ruinous condition, was dark and gloomy in the extreme. The date of its erection is fixed by the licence obtained in 1422 by Sir Thomas Holden to embattle his manor-house of Ludworth.

At Bellasis, or Belasyse, another old house, with stone walls of great thickness and moated, is now occupied by a farmer.

Hollinside, an old mansion, associated with the Hardings, of whom Ralph Harding the chronicler was a noteworthy member, still stands in ruins on a bank above the River Derwent. Originally three stories in height, and with two wings forming the three sides of a narrow court. The fourth and east side is arched over and surmounted by a tower. On the west side a turret projects in line with the south wall. The interior presents several interesting features, and an outbuilding contains a large fireplace.

Passing from the great homes of the county, and the older fortified towers, we come to the time when, with the greater security accorded to the minor gentry,

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numerous manor-houses and country granges began to rise.

Even at this time, spoiled as the county is for residential purposes, it requires no strong effort of the imagination to picture the county as it was in later Tudor times. The Bishops, greater than ever through the collapse of the Nevilles, still appointed their foresters, and doubtless often made the dales resound with all the view-halloo of a gay hunt. Durham City became a stronghold of great ecclesiastical families, the sons and daughters of the prebendaries intermarrying with one another, and the descendants of successive Bishops allied themselves by cross marriages. In the country better farmsteads became erected, and throughout the shire the landowners began to erect more commodious residences. It is, with one or two exceptions, from this period that the older halls and manor-houses still in existence date. It must not be forgotten that there were at this time no great landowners in the county in the sense that we now understand the term, and almost every village had its own predominating squire.

A few houses still remain, not so strongly built as the peel-towers, yet well adapted to defence. Holmside Hall is one of these. Once one of the principal seats of the great House of Tempest, it was forfeited by Robert of that name, who, with his son Michael, had joined the Earls in their rebellion, and therefore appears in Hall and Humberston’s Survey as a "capital messuage, with all the housings built of stone and covered with slate, with the orchards and gardens, within a park containing three acres." Now sufficient remains to show that once the buildings were ranged round a court and surrounded by a moat. The north side was faced by the chapel containing a still perfect west window of two trefoil-headed lights under a square label, with the cinquefoil of the Umphrevilles and two blank shields in the spandrels. Above the window "a mutilated figure is fixed to the wall, with a full-moony{220} face, and a kind of round helmet," of which Surtees writes: "I should almost conjecture this to be a rude piece of Roman sculpture, removed from the station, which may possibly have furnished the coins and squared stones used in building this chantry."

The house itself is a curiously confused building of many different periods of architecture. The original gables were pulled down and the house enlarged to the south. The windows are mullioned and narrow and guarded with iron bars.

After the Tempests’ fall the estate became the property of William Whittingham, the bigoted Calvinist Dean, whose name deserves perpetual execration as the destroyer of much that was old and beautiful in Durham Abbey. It is possible that in the austere gloom that even now pervades the old house at Holmeside, he might find something sympathetic with his own strange faith.

The Isle, another Tempest residence, stands on low ground, surrounded by marshes caused through risings of the Skerne. It is a picturesque place, with projecting gables and narrow mullioned lights. It was the residence of Colonel John Tempest, first M.P. for Durham County, and still belongs to the Marquess of Londonderry as representative of his family.

Sledwish Hall, standing lonely and sequestered, is a place of "ghastly grey renown." Upwards of a hundred years ago the bones of an infant were found interred in a stone coffin in the field adjoining. The house, too, like most of these old mansions, is supposed to contain secret passages and rooms. Portions of the present building, more particularly the south front, date back to Plantagenet times, but the house as it now stands is an interesting specimen of Tudor architecture. It was rebuilt by John Clopton, Queen Elizabeth’s Receiver, his great work being the ceiling in the Orchard Chamber. This is divided into compartments by deep mouldings, ornamented by numerous crowned roses, fleurs-de-lis, and pomegranates. In the{221} centre is a shield bearing his family arms, a quarterly shield, first and fourth, paly a lion rampant, and second and third a cross pattee fitchée, over all a crescent for difference. The arms are reversed through the artist having formed his mould without considering that the impression was the final result. Two other shields impressed from the same mould bear the initials E. C. (evidently for the builder’s wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Ralph Ashton of Great Lever, in Lancashire), the date 1584, and "a tun with a rose clapt on."[16] Above this shield is a rose surrounded by three crowns. At the four corners of the room are large decorative groups; two are falcons with pomegranates, the third is a swan, and the fourth a boar under an oak-tree devouring an acorn. A deep cornice running round the whole ceiling is decorated with repeated devices of the Royal lion and the Welsh dragon supporting the crowned rose, the whole evidently symbolic of Good Queen Bess. There are several other good rooms, and a large chimney at the south-west is supported outside by three double brackets.

There are several other interesting mansions in this district. At Cleatlam the old mansion of the Ewbankes still stands, gable-ended, with mullioned windows. It was sold by them in the troublous times of the great Civil War to the Somersets of Pauntley in Gloucester, and later was a seat of the Wards. Another old home of the Ewbanke family was Staindrop Hall, at the east end of the village of that name. The family arms, three chevronels interlaced and on a chief three pellets, are on one of the ceilings. Still another old house, once belonging to the same race, was Snotterton Hall, which stood about a mile to the west of Staindrop. Here the walls were embattled with crocketed pinnacles at the corners, and the windows were triple mullioned lights under square labels. Over the entrance the arms and crest of the Bainbridges, who sold the estate to the Ewbankes in 1607, were sculptured. A portion of{222} the house which was pulled down in 1831 is preserved in the present Raby Grange.

Westholme Hall is another existing good specimen of Jacobean architecture. It consists of a main building, with two gabled wings and mullioned windows. The date 1606, and the name IOHN DOWTHET on a chimney-piece in the hall, points to its erection by the Douthwaites, who purchased the estate from the Boweses in 1603. Erected about the same period, Gainford Hall still stands at the west end of the village. It, too, has gable ends and mullioned windows, and several of the rooms are wainscotted. One of the latter has a stuccoed border of flowers and fruit. Over the door is the three-garbed chevron of the Cradocks and the inscription IOHN : CRADOCK 1600.

At Bishop Middleham a large old gable-ended house has a doorway with jambs and a pediment of carved freestone. It stands on the west side of the road leading to the church, and was originally the property of the Wards, one of whom was Master of Sidney-Sussex College at Cambridge. In 1738 it was the residence of Thomas Brunskill, whose daughter or granddaughter married Edward Watson, of Ingleby Greenhow, in Yorkshire.

Another picturesque fragment of the past is the old house now standing at the western end of Thorpe Thewles village. It is built of brick, with low rooms, and is locally stated to have been visited by Queen Anne. The tradition may possibly be a survival of one of our sovereigns’ passage through the county, but it is impossible that any crowned head can ever have rested in this old mansion. A few fields away a wing of the once great house at Blakiston still stands. It alone remains to show where the birthplace of one of our great old families once stood, and is the only remnant of the later home of the loyal house of Davison, two of whom were slain at the storming of Newcastle in 1644.

Cotham Conyers, or Cotham Stob, derives its affix name

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from its erstwhile owners, the Conyers, and is another old gable-ended manor-house. It stands, surrounded by elms, near to a brook. The rooms are wainscotted, and over the fireplace in one of the rooms there was a hunting scene on the panel, depicting a stag at bay. One of the upper rooms was hung with tapestry. The estate was forfeited by the Conyers through Ralph Conyers having taken part in the Earls’ rebellion in 1569. Lying almost midway between the two Conyers’ seats of Cotham and{224} Sockburn stands the old home of the Killinghalls and Pembertons, at Middleton St. George. The house formerly contained a painting, by Francis Place, of "A Pointer and Pheasants." An old cross in the garden is said to have been brought from Neasham Abbey.

Passing to the west of Darlington again, near the highroad leading to Staindrop, stands Thornton Hall, for many years the residence of a branch of the baronial family of Tailbois. It is a stone house, with high pitched gables, old-world red tiles, and mullioned windows, and has long been used as a farmhouse. Above the window over the main entrance are two gargoyles. An interesting account of this house, with a number of good sketches, may be found in Mr. G. A. Fothergill’s Sketch-book.

Several miles north of Thornton, a small old mansion with gables and mullions may be seen at School Aycliffe, and not very far away, in a north-westerly direction, the old grange of Midridge stands within an old walled garden, with a row of old elms leading along the road from the south. The house is a large treble-gable-ended building, and is said to have been garrisoned by the Loyalist owner, Anthony Byerley, who was a Colonel in the Royal army. His troopers are still locally known as "Byerley’s Bull Dogs." A little to the south-west, the old house of Newbiggin stands low, with solid stone walls, and the main staircase of the same substantial material. There was formerly a tower on the west end of the house.

The hall at Coxhoe, erected about the year 1725 by John Burdon, has a richly decorated interior of contemporary date. In this house Elizabeth Barrett Browning was born on March 6, 1806.

The northern portion of the county does not contain so many houses of interest as the southern; there are, however, a few interesting mansions.

Fen Hall, near Lanchester, is an interesting old house,

{225}

dating from the Stuart period. It has the Greenwell arms over the entrance, and is now fast falling into a ruinous condition.

Washington Hall, a large, old stone mansion, built in the form of an E, with high-pitched roof and gable-ends, stands to the south side of the low hill on which the church is built. The lights are divided by stone mullions and transoms. It was erected by the family of James, possibly by the Bishop, and was, in Hutchinson’s time,{226} the seat of the Bracks.[17] It is now, like the old hall at Rainton, in a pitiable state, and let in tenements.

In the neighbourhood of Sunderland there are several interesting houses. High Barnes, for long the home of the Ettricks, is now a convent, and has been considerably altered. Low Barnes, the Pembertons’ old home, is let to a laundry company. Ford Hall is a comparatively modern house, but is interesting as having been the birthplace of General Havelock. Pallion Hall, an old stone mansion, has recently been pulled down.

The old hall at West Boldon is more modern, having been erected in 1709 by the Fawcetts. The house has the arms of that family over the main entrance, and several of the rooms are wainscotted. A quaint record of another generation may well be noted in the late Mr. Boyle’s own words: "On one of the window-panes in a bedroom, in a neat hand of the early part of last century, someone has written with a diamond:

On the next pane, in equally delicate script, another hand has added:

Travelling by railway from Boldon to Newcastle, the house now known as the Mulberry Inn is a familiar object, just outside of Felling station. It has been a picturesque building, and for long was the residence of the Brandlings. It is now undergoing a serious alteration. A small stone{227} summer-house, once in the garden, still stands on one of the station platforms.

Kibblesworth Hall, a few miles south of Gateshead, is a solid Jacobean brick house, with stone-mullioned, square-headed windows. It has a fine oak staircase, and some of the fireplaces and cornices are of contemporary date. The house has been let in tenements to the pitmen of the adjoining colliery, the stables turned into cottages, and the gardens into allotments. Another old house that has undergone a similar fate is West Rainton Hall, erected about 1690 by Sir John Duck, Bart. It stands on the main street of the village, shorn of the battlements men{228}tioned by Surtees, but still retaining a fine old doorway, reminiscent of its better days.

There are also in this district several other old houses dismantled and in tenements, betokening the scattering of their once owners to many far lands. It is a pleasure to turn from these to a few houses still in good condition. The Hall,[18] Houghton-le-Spring, was perhaps erected by Robert Hutton, Rector of Houghton, between the years 1589 and 1623, although its erection is more popularly attributed to his grandson and namesake. This later Robert Hutton was Captain of a troop of horse in the Parliamentary army, and, like Dobson of Harlow Hill,

With the proceeds of this expedition he is supposed to have built the house in which his descendants dwelt for many generations. To satisfy some scruple of his conscience, or, according to another story, to lie near a favourite horse, he was buried in his garden under an altar-tomb, inscribed:

Stella Hall, a picturesque Elizabethan structure, situated close to the River Tyne, was erected by the Tempests on the site of a nunnery, and still contains some tapestry representing the story of Hero and Leander.

Scattered up and down the dales are many other old homes that a writer dealing with his homeland would love to touch upon, but space forbids. Even these short notes are all too short. The old mansions of our countryside are a much neglected feature of archæology, and each house in itself demands photographs and drawings and a chapter quite as long as this.{229}

DURHAM ASSOCIATIONS OF JOHN WESLEY

By the Rev. T. Cyril Dale, B.A.

A PACKET of old letters suggests many questions as to the writers, whom they have long survived. Nor is this curiosity diminished when one of the correspondents has achieved a world-wide fame, so that there is no portion of the globe where his name is not known. For then one desires to know who were the people whom he honoured with his friendship, and to scan the letters closely to see if they throw any new light upon the character of the writer. There are in existence seventeen letters written by John Wesley to a member of a family once well-known in the county of Durham. Originally there were thirty letters, as appears from the numbering of those which remain, but where the other letters are the writer does not know.[19] These seventeen letters, two of them being only copies of the originals, came into the possession of the Rev. Thomas Dale, Canon of St. Paul’s from 1843-70, and from him passed to his eldest son, the Rev. Thomas Pelham Dale (1821-92), at one time well-known as the Rector of St. Vedast in the city of London.[20] They were written to Miss Margaret{230} Dale, second daughter of Edward Dale[21] of Tunstall, who, owing to the extinction (as it seems) of the elder branch of the family in the male line, was head of the family of Dale, first of Dalton le Dale, and then of Tunstall. This Edward Dale was the son of Thomas Dale by his wife Margaret, daughter and co-heiress of George Middleton of Silksworth. Through her Burke, who was far too amiable a genealogist to doubt the assertions of any one respecting his ancestors, however remote, traces the descent of Edward Dale from Gundreda, daughter of William the Conqueror. The curious will find the descent set out at length in Burke’s Royal Family, Pedigree XVI. Edward Dale married Eleanor, youngest of the three daughters of the Rev. John Lawrence, Rector of Bishop’s Wearmouth. Mr. Lawrence (1668-1732) was in his day a well-known writer on horticulture, and has, as a consequence, a niche in that temple of fame—the Dictionary of National Biography. It is related that when in 1721 he was appointed to the Rectory, he was so obnoxious to the principal inhabitants of his parish, owing to his Hanoverian proclivities, that when he was "reading himself in" the three chief landowners of the place—John Goodchild of Pallion, John Pemberton of Bainbridge Holme, and Thomas Dale of Tunstall—walked out of the church as a protest against his appointment.[22] By a kind of poetic justice, his three daughters married into the families of the three protesters. His eldest daughter married the above-named John Goodchild, his two younger daughters the sons and heirs of John Pemberton and Thomas Dale. Only unfortunately for the completeness of the tale, the two last marriages did not take place till after the death of John Lawrence.{231}

By Eleanor Lawrence, Edward Dale had three daughters—Mary, Margaret, and Anne—and one son, also called Edward. He died when his eldest daughter was only eleven and his son still an infant.

Margaret Dale no doubt made the acquaintance of John Wesley through his devoted adherent, Margaret Lewen. Miss Lewen, the only child of Thomas Lewen of Kibblesworth, while still a girl of about twenty-two, was attracted by the preaching of John Wesley during his visit to the North in the year 1764. Wesley, in his famous "Diary," speaks of her as being "a remarkable monument of Divine mercy. She broke through all hindrances, and joined heart and hand with the children of God." She was "a pattern to all young women of fortune in England." Margaret Lewen was certainly exceedingly liberal. "In works of benevolence and Christian zeal, she cheerfully expended an ample income" (Stamp: Orphan House of Wesley, London, 1863). Wesley says she had about £600 a year "in her own hands." On one of his visits to the North she gave him a chaise and a pair of horses. Now, Margaret Lewen was very intimate with the Dale girls, and it was probably through her influence that they came into contact with the great preacher. Whether any letters were written to the other sisters is not known, but they can hardly have been so numerous or more intimate than those written to Margaret Dale.

The first letter extant is written from Portpatrick, and is dated June 1, 1765, when Margaret Dale was still two or three months short of twenty-one. It begins: "My Dear Miss Peggy," and ends, "I trust you will be happier every day; and that you will not forget, my Dear Sister, your Affectionate Brother, J. Wesley." The letter is occupied with spiritual counsels, and questions about her spiritual health. He inquires: "How far do you find Power over your Thoughts? Does not your imagination sometimes wander? Do those imaginations continue for any time?" It is clear, from Wesley’s next letter, written from Kilkenny, dated July 5, 1765, that Miss Peggy had{232} found she was guilty of wandering thoughts, for the letter begins: "My dear Sister,—Altho’ it is certain the kind of Wandering Thoughts wch you mention, are consistent with pure Love, yet it is highly desirable to be delivered from yᵐ, because (as you observe) they hinder profitable thoughts." Miss Lewen is mentioned. "I hope Miss Lewen and you speak to each other, not only without Disguise, but without Reserve." The letter ends, "My Dear Sister, your affectionate Brother."

Letters 4 and 5 are missing. The next, numbered 6, is dated from London, November 6, 1765. Peggy has a fixed idea that she will not live beyond the age of three and twenty. Wesley, in this letter, asks many questions about this conviction. He wants to know when it began, and whether it continues the same, whether her health is better or worse. The subject is continued in the next letter, written December 31 in the same year. This letter begins "My dear Peggy," and ends, "I cannot tell you how tenderly I am, my Dear Sister, your affectionate Brother, J. Wesley."

Wesley had evidently a tender paternal regard for the girl. He was in 1765 sixty-two years of age, fifteen years older than her father would have been if he had survived. Peggy was mistaken in her conviction. She did not actually die till November, 1777, when she had completed her thirty-third year, so she was just ten years out. Letter 9, written April, 1766, from Manchester, contains nothing of interest. Numbers 10 and 11 are unfortunately missing. Number 12 shows that Peggy desired to go to Leytonstone, where there was a considerable colony of Wesleyans, and whither perhaps Margaret Lewen had already gone. Wesley was very anxious she should not go. "I am afraid," he writes, "if you go to Laton-Stone you will give up Perfection. I mean by placing it so high, as I fear none will ever attain. I know not one in London that has ever largely conversed with Sally Ryan, who has not given it up, that is, with regard to their own{233} Experience. Now this, I think, would do you no good at all. Nay, I judge, it wou’d do you much hurt: it would be a substantial Loss. But I do not see how you cou’d possibly avoid that loss, without a free intercourse with me, both in Writing and Speaking. Otherwise I know and feel, I can give you up, tho’ you are exceeding near and dear to me. But if you was to be moved from your Stedfastness that wᵈ give me pain indeed. You will write immediately to, my Dear Peggy, your Affectionate Brother, J. Wesley."

The next two letters are missing, so that we do not know if Peggy obeyed John Wesley or no, though from the tone of the next letter it seems probable that she did so. The next letter is dated November 7, 1766. Margaret Lewen had died at Leytonstone, October 30. By her will, dated November 21, 1764, she left many legacies to various Methodist good works, and to John Wesley £1,000, and her residuary estate to be applied as he should "think fit for the furtherance of the Gospel." She left Mary Dale £1,000, and to her sisters Margaret and Ann Dale, £100 apiece. Her father threatened to dispute the will, and the matter was compromised by the surrender to him of the residuary estate.

John Wesley refers to Margaret Lewen’s death in the fifteenth letter: "How happy it is to sit loose to all below! Just now I find a paper on wch is wrote (in Miss Lewen’s hand), ‘March 24, 1762, Margaret Dale, Ann Dale, Margaret Lewen, wonder in what state of life they will be in the year 1766.’ How little did any of you think at that time that she would then be in Eternity: But she now wonders at nothing and grieves at nothing." He ends: "And sure neither Life nor Death shall separate you from, my Dear Sister, your Affectionate Brother, J. Wesley."

In the eighteenth letter—the sixteenth contains nothing of especial interest, the seventeenth is missing—Wesley speaks of his followers at Newcastle: "Those you{234} mention are Israelites indeed to whom you will do well to speak with all freedom. A few more in Newcastle are of the same spirit: Altho’ they are but few in whom ye Gold is free from dross. I wish you could help poor Molly Stralliger. I am often afraid for her lest she shᵈ be ignorant of Satan’s devices, and lose all that God had wrought in her."

The twentieth letter we give in full, not because it is more interesting than the other letters, but because it has not before appeared in public print.[23] The other letters will be found in the Life and Letters of Thomas Pelham Dale, by his daughter, Helen Pelham Dale, published by George Allen, 1894. The whereabouts of this letter was not then known, but it has since been unearthed from a collection of autographs made by a connection of the family. Possibly the other missing letters may be in other collections. The letter is dated from Athlone, June 19, 1767: "My dear Peggy, By conversing with you, I should be overpaid for coming two or three hundred miles round about. But how it will be I know not yet. If a ship be ready for Whitehaven, then I shall arrive at Whitehaven or Newcastle, otherwise I must sail for Holyhead or Chester. I hope you now again find the increased witness that you are saved from sin. There is a danger in being content without it, into which you may easily reason yourself. You may easily bring yourself to believe there is no need of it, especially while you are in an easy and peaceful state. But beware of this. The Witness of Sanctification as well as of Justification, is ye privilege of God’s Children, and you may have the one always clear as well as ye other if you walk humbly and closely with God. In what state do you find your mind now? Full of Faith and Love? Praying always? Then I hope you{235} always remember my Dear Peggy, Your affectionate Brother, J. Wesley."

Before Wesley wrote again he had been to Newcastle and had seen Peggy. The letter is dated from Witney, August 27, and is, as usual, very affectionate in tone: "I thought it was hardly possible for me to love you better than I did before I came last to Newcastle. But your artless, simple, undisguised Affection exceedingly increased mine. At the same time it increased my Confidence in you so that I feel you are unspeakably near and dear to me." He adds in a postscript, "Don’t forget what you have learnt in Music." Possibly Peggy had been showing her friend her accomplishments. Possibly, too, she had learnt her music from a certain young man, Edward Avison, afterwards organist of St. Nicholas’ Church, Newcastle. If this were the case, her teacher taught Peggy something else beside music, for she afterwards married him.

In the next letter we get glimpses of two people famous in the Methodist world of the day, George Whitefield, and Darcy, Lady Maxwell. Of George Whitefield it is unnecessary to speak. Lady Maxwell was the daughter of Thomas Brisbane of Brisbane in Ayrshire, and the widow of Sir Walter Maxwell, fourth Baronet, of Pollock. Left a childless widow in 1757, she became a follower of John Wesley, though she did not formally join the Methodists till many years later. She provided the money for building the school at Kingswood.

Wesley writes: "I hope Mr. Whitefield was an instrument of good at Newcasle, and a means of stirring up Some. He is very affectionate and very lively and his word seldom falls to the ground: tho’ he does not frequently speak of the deep things of God, or the Height of ye Promises. But you say not one word of Lady Maxwell? Did she call at Newcastle going and coming? Did you converse with her alone? And did she break thro’ her Natural and habitual Shyness? How did you{236} find her? Seeking Heavenly things alone, and all athirst for God? It will be a miracle of miracles if she stands, considering the thousand snares that surround her. I have much satisfaction when I consider in how different a situation you and my Dear Molly Dale are. You have every outward Advantage for Holiness wch an indulgent Providence can give."[24]

The correspondence now begins to slacken. Peggy has accused him of not answering her last letter; in reply Wesley writes from Liverpool, April 1, 1768. "I do not understand what Letter you mean. I have answer’d (if I do not forget) every letter which I have receiv’d, and I commonly answer either of you within a day or two. In this respect, I do not love to remain in your debt. In others I must always be so, for I can never pay you the Affection I owe. Accept of what little I have to give.... I hope to be at Glasgow on Wednesday the 19th instant, at Aberdeen ye 28th, at Edinburgh May 5th, at Newcastle on Friday May 20th."

The next letter dated June 30, 1768, may be described as a very brief treatise on Sanctification. Then there is a gap of nearly a year, the next letter being dated May 20, 1769. Peggy has had to endure a great trial. Her sister Molly married a Mr. John Collinson of London. The Newcastle Courant of April 29, 1769, thus announces the fact: "Thursday, was married at St. Andrew’s, Mr. John Collinson of London to Miss Dale of Northumberland Street, daughter of the late Mr. Dale of Tunstall, near Sunderland, a most agreeable young lady, endowed with every qualification to render the marriage state happy, with a fortune of £2,000." But Peggy felt her sister’s defection much. Wesley was strongly in favour of the single life both for men and women. He had published a treatise in favour of celibacy, entitled Thoughts on a Single Life. It is true that he himself afterwards married{237} in the year 1751, but, as his matrimonial experiences were distinctly unfortunate (he separated from his wife for ever after five years of married life), he was not unnaturally more than ever firmly convinced of the advantage of celibacy.[25] Peggy was as yet quite sure that John Wesley was right in this as in everything else.

He comforts her thus: "The hearing from my Dear Peggy at this critical time gives me a particular satisfaction. I wanted to know, How you bore such a trial, a wound in the tenderest part. You have now a first proof that the God whom you serve, is able to deliver you in every trial. You feel and yet conquer.... I hope you are delivered not only from repining with regard to Her, but from reasoning with regard to yourself. You still see the more excellent way, and are sensible of the advantages you enjoy. I allow some single women have fewer Advantages for Eternity than they might have in a married State. But, blessed be God you have all the Advantages wch one can well conceive.... O may you improve every advantage to the uttermost. And give more and more comfort to, my Dear Peggy, your Affectionate Brother, J. Wesley."

There is one more letter from London, November 17, 1769, encouraging Peggy to persevere in her work for others. Then the letters cease. Perhaps there were more letters which have been lost, or were perchance destroyed by the recipient. Wesley, with his zeal for celibacy, can hardly have liked the news of his Peggy’s engagement to Edward Avison. He was organist of St. Nicholas’, Newcastle, in succession to his father, Charles Avison,[26] once a well-known musician in the North of England. He was three years younger than Peggy. Their married life was short. They were married March, 1773: Edward Avison died October, 1776, aged twenty-nine; and Peggy in{238} November, 1777, aged thirty-three. They left no children. Their monument in the churchyard of St. Andrew’s Church, Newcastle, says: "They were eminent for piety and primitive simplicity of manners; having each borne a lingering disease with the most exemplary patience and resignation, they rejoiced at the approach of death." Perhaps Wesley visited Newcastle during the last year of his dear Peggy’s life, and was able to minister spiritual consolation to her. Let us hope that any breach that Peggy’s marriage may have made between her and one who loved her with so tender and paternal an affection was cured by the approach of Death, the great Healer.

Little remains to be said. Mary Collinson lived to 1812, and left a family of two sons, George Dale and John Collinson, and three daughters, Ann Collinson, Thermuthis Collinson, and Mary, the wife of Christopher Godmond. It is not known if any of her descendants are alive to-day; if there be any such, they may very likely possess the missing letters. Ann Dale never married, and lived till 1820. Edward, their brother, died in 1826, having seen five of his six sons die before him without issue. His eldest and only surviving son, also Edward, lived till 1862, and then died childless. With him died out the senior branch of the family of Dale of Dalton-le-Dale and Tunstall. Since his death there have been no Dales of this family residing in the Bishopric. How the letters written by John Wesley came into the possession of Canon Dale, or Canon Dale’s father, William Dale, is not known. Possibly Anne Dale gave them to William Dale, or her brother may have given them to his son. It is certain that to that son’s careful preservation of them we owe this intimate revelation of the great revivalist’s affection for a Durham girl.{239}

THE OLD FAMILIES OF DURHAM

By Henry R. Leighton

THE evil fate that has attended the old houses in this county has followed equally relentlessly the families who once dwelled therein. Here and there, it is true, a family still exists that has weathered the storms of long centuries; one or two, perhaps, may be pointed out that have increased their acreage as the long years went by; and perhaps another two or three whose lands remain with daughters’ heirs.

With few exceptions, almost all the families of importance in feudal days have passed away. The great House of Neville,[27] that once threatened to overshadow the Lords Palatine themselves, survives only in several southern branches, and their name is almost forgotten in their native land. The baronial houses of Eure,[28] Conyers, Hylton, and FitzMarmaduke have all passed away. So, too, have nearly all the names recorded in the Heralds’ Visitations at intervals from 1530 to 1666. Of the latter,{240} eight only retain their patrimonial acres. These are the Chaytors, Edens, Lambtons, Liddells, Lumleys, Salvins, Vanes, and Whartons. To these may be added the Williamsons, who came from Nottinghamshire, and the Shaftos from Northumberland.

The Visitations of Durham[29] are, like those of the sister county of Northumberland, notoriously incomplete. Of the latter, Surtees wrote: "The Northumbrian gentry, many of whom probably never heard of the Visitation, would scarcely leave their business or amusements to attend an Officer of Arms for a purpose of which few then saw the utility, and which, it is plain, in many instances was considered an extreme nuisance." In the adjoining county to the south there was a similar state of affairs. Of Dugdale’s Visitation of York, Mr. Davies wrote: "Nearly one-third of the whole number of gentry whom the herald called upon to appear before him with proofs of their arms and pedigrees treated his summonses with neglect."

In this county both a long and a strong list of families of gentle blood can easily be enumerated who, for one reason or another, make no appearance in the Heralds’ books. No one familiar with the history of the county can have helped remarking the absence of families formerly so well known, and in many cases still well known, as the Allgoods of Bradley, Blacketts of Hoppyland, Bromleys of Nesbitt, Dales of Dalton, Douthwaites of Westholme, Emersons of Westgate, Goodchilds of Pallion, Greenwells of Greenwell and Stobilee, Holmeses of Wearmouth, Hunters of Medomsley, Ironsides of{241} Houghton, Meaburns of Pontop, and others whose names spin out too long a list to give in full. Now, most of these families had intermarried with families who registered and had written themselves as "gentlemen" for several generations; and, as an interesting sidelight upon the Visitations, we believe it could be shown that more than one family who registered was in debt pretty heavily to others who didn’t register. So it does not appear to have been altogether a matter of means.

It may perhaps be as well, before proceeding farther, to notice the principal material we have, in addition to the Visitations, for proving the succession to estate in this county.

Durham, being a separate regality, is not included in the Domesday Book, and our earliest record is the Boldon Book, dated some years later, being compiled by order of Bishop Pudsey in 1183. Later there is a survey of the county, made by order of Bishop Hatfield, who ruled from 1345 to 1381. From the time of Bishop Beaumont (1318-33) the succession may be proved by the inquisitions post-mortem taken upon the death of every owner. These documents were formerly kept at Durham, but are now, with many other local records, in London.

With these must be mentioned the Halmote Rolls, commencing in 1349, containing a record of all holders of the Bishop’s lands and other records of the cursitors. The Durham Chancery Proceedings, also now in the Record Office, are full of the most interesting information respecting local families.

The wills of residents in the Bishopric from the sixteenth century onwards are of great value. A few also of the parish registers within the diocese commence towards the end of the same century, but the majority do not date with any regularity until another hundred years had passed.

Limited space forbids any lengthy account of the families individually, and a few passing notices must suffice. Amongst the existing "indigenous" families, as{242} Surtees calls them, the Lumleys must bear the palm, not for length of pedigree, but for the long period they have ranked amongst the greater nobility.

Probably for some generations before, and certainly from, the days of Uchtred, Lord of Lumley, temp. King Stephen, the family has held high rank. Marmaduke de Lumley, who was in right of his mother one of the coheirs of the barony of Thweng, made an interesting change in the family arms. His father had borne a scarlet shield with six silver popinjays, whilst his mother’s family arms were a golden shield, thereon a fess gules. Marmaduke dispensed with three of the popinjays, and placed his mother’s fess between the remaining three, two above it and one below. His son Sir Ralph, the builder of the castle at Lumley, was summoned to Parliament as a Baron in the eighth year of Richard II.’s reign. Yorkist in sympathy, he joined in an unfortunate attempt to overthrow the fourth Henry in the year that monarch grasped the throne, and was killed at Cirencester in a skirmish. One of his younger sons, Marmaduke, was successively Bishop of Carlisle and Lincoln, and Lord High Treasurer of England. John de Lumley, Sir Ralph’s second but eldest surviving son, was restored to his father’s estates by King Henry, became a distinguished leader in the French wars, and was slain on the field of Baugé in 1421. The successor, his only son Thomas, was summoned to Parliament in his grandfather’s barony in 1461, the attainder of the latter being reversed upon petition.

Third in descent from the last-named peer, John, the fifth Baron, took part in the great victory of Flodden. He lived to see his son and heir, George Lumley, beheaded for high treason, and attainted, for taking part in the Pilgrimage of Grace.

George Lumley’s son, John Lumley, was recreated a Peer in 1547, his father’s attainder being reversed. This John, Lord Lumley, must have been something of an Oriental in his philosophy. He was strongly imbued{243} with the spirit of ancestor-worship. It was he who brought two stone monuments from Durham Abbey under the belief that they were of his forefathers, and set them up with a long line of effigies representing every generation of his house from a remote period. The rooms at Lumley were also hung with a series of portraits of the same individuals by his direction. About the origin of these the late Mr. Planché advanced an interesting theory, printed in 1866, in the Journal of the British Archæological Association.

Lord Lumley appears to have impressed his family importance upon William James, the contemporary Bishop of Durham, whose repetition of the pedigree so astonished that modern Solomon, King James I., that the latter evidently thought the Bishop was taking a rise out of him. "By my saul, I didna ken Adam’s name was Lumley!" said the Sovereign. Doubtless this was a natural exclamation, for it was the King’s first meeting with a pedigree drawn up by an Elizabethan Herald. He would meet others as he travelled farther South!

The estates passed on the death of this peer to a second cousin, Sir Richard Lumley. Created in 1628 a Viscount in the Peerage of Ireland, Sir Richard in later years was known as a gallant Royalist, and one of Prince Rupert’s trusted officers.

His son, another Richard, one of the commanders of the Royal army at Sedgemoor, was advanced in 1690 to the Earldom of Scarborough. Little more remains to be said, beyond that Lumleys have taken part in almost every war since that date (one, Sir William, commanded the cavalry at Albuera; and another, a captain in the navy, was killed on the Isis in 1782), and that Lumley Castle is still the seat of the Earls of Scarborough.

Closely allied to the Lumleys by marriage, the Lambtons have owned the adjoining estate of Lambton from the twelfth century. Their connection with the curious legend of the Lambton Worm has made the name widely known in the North. From the fifteenth century onwards the{244} family were perhaps most remarkable for the brilliant series of marriages the successive owners of the estate made. Matches with Rokeby of Rokeby, Lumley of Ludworth, the Lords Eure, the Tempests of Stella, and the Curwens of Workington, each either bringing additional lands to the house, or else widening and extending the family influence, came to a climax with the marriage of Ralph Lambton, in 1696, with Dorothy Hedworth, heiress to great estates on the north bank of the river. The great-grandson of this marriage was the celebrated Radical Earl of Durham, whose life has been told in recent years by Mr. Stuart Reid.

The Greenwells are the third ancient house in this county who still dwell on the lands from which they take their name. At the time our earliest record, the Boldon Book, was compiled, William the Priest[30] held lands at Greenwell, in the green valley of Wolsingham, and his sons, James and Richard de Greenwell, took their surname from their home. From their generation through long centuries Greenwell succeeded Greenwell, until the death of Henry Greenwell in 1890. The estate then passed to his brother’s daughter, Mrs. Fletcher, who sold Greenwell within the last few years to her kinsman, Sir Walpole Eyre Greenwell, Bart.

Like other families, as the years passed by, younger sons founded branches, some of which flourished and became even more influential than the parent stem.

Anthony Greenwell, a son of Peter Greenwell of Wolsingham, and grandson of Peter Greenwell of Greenwell, living in the reign of Henry VIII., is stated to have settled at Corbridge, in the adjoining county of Northumberland. His son Ralph became allied by marriage to a number of influential families; the administration issued after the death of his father-in-law, Ralph Fenwick of Dilston, in

{245}

1623, showing that the latter left five daughters, his coheirs. Of these, Isabel, the eldest, married Ralph Greenwell, Mary married John Swinburne, Agnes was wife to John Orde, Margaret to George Tempest of Winlaton, and Barbara married William Harrison.

Ralph’s grandson Nicholas, so named after his mother’s father Nicholas Leadbitter of Warden, married, in 1683, Frances Whitfield, and their son, Whitfield Greenwell, a captain in the army, was killed at the Battle of Glenshiels in 1719. From his grandson, John Greenwell, of the India House, the present Sir Walpole Greenwell is lineally descended.

A second branch of the family has long been known as the Greenwells of Greenwell Ford, thus curiously taking their name from the old home in Wolsingham parish and giving it to the new (though its very newness has now grown green with age) home near Lanchester.

Thomas Greenwell, probably a younger son of John Greenwell of Greenwell, living circa 1440, took up his abode at Stobilee, in the parish of Satley (the vill of which had been held in chief in the early days of the fourteenth century by Robert de Greenwell), and there his descendants resided until the time of the Commonwealth, when the then head of the family, William Greenwell, was sequestered as a Royalist, his lands being taken from him, and let to Henry Blackett by the Parliamentary Commissioners.

Nicholas Greenwell, a younger brother of the Royalist William, founded the house of Ford, purchasing that estate in 1633. He married at Medomsley, in 1623, Mary Kirkley, probably a near relative of Michael Kirkley of Newcastle, whose daughter married the first Sir William Blackett. This Michael Kirkley mentions in his will, which he made in 1620, amongst other relatives, his cousin, Mr. William Greenwell the elder, of London, merchant, to whom William Camden, the Herald, had confirmed in 1602 "the antient armes of the worshipfull family of Greenwell, of Grenewell{246} Hill, in the County Palatine of Duresme, from which the said William Greenwell is descended." This London branch of the family ended with an heiress, who married Thomas Legh, of Ridge, in Cheshire.

Returning to Nicholas Greenwell of Ford, he died in 1640, and was buried amongst his ancestors at Lanchester. His son, another William, added lands at Kibblesworth to the paternal estate by marriage with an heiress of the Cole family. He died at an advanced age in 1701, when his eldest son, Nicholas, succeeded to Greenwell Ford, whilst Kibblesworth passed to his younger son, Robert. The latter was great-grandfather of the late Major-General Sir Leonard Greenwell, K.C.B., who, in 1820, acted as godfather to the present venerable head of the family, the author of Greenwell’s Glory, one of, if not, the best trout flies known.

Other branches of the family have flourished for awhile and then disappeared. In 1697 William Greenwell of Whitworth acquired a moiety, including the mansion-house of Great Chilton, where his descendants lived for some three generations. One of his daughters married Cuthbert Smith, whose brother Ralph became his heir. This hunting squire bequeathed his property, for no other reason but that they had often ridden together

to Robert Surtees of Milkwellburn.

At a much earlier date another William Greenwell owned a fair estate at Neasham, and dying in 1619 left two daughters, Margaret aged three and Eleanor two years, as his heirs. His widow married Marmaduke Wyville, and the daughters respectively became the wives of John Taylor of Appleton, and Ralph Hedworth of Pokerley.

One other branch, still surviving, must not be passed over. The estate of Broomshields near to Satley has{247} belonged to Greenwells from as far back as 1488, when one of the many Peters lived there. The representation of the Maddisons of Hole House in the Derwent Valley, a family celebrated in local history and ballad, passed into this family by marriage in 1774. A later owner of Broomshields, John Greenwell, married Elizabeth, daughter of Alan Greenwell of Ford, and thus re-united the two families.

Many years have passed since Robert Surtees wrote: "Sic transit. We know not what are become of the descendants of Bulmer, whose ancestors held Brancepeth and Middleham Castles. The family of Conyers, which has had Parliamentary lords, and once consisted of nine or ten flourishing branches (excepting some remains in the South), is reduced to a single Baronet’s title without a fortune, and the probable descendants of Surtees of Dinsdale are ignorant of their own origin, whilst the chief male line is either extinct or steeped in poverty and oblivion."

The great house of Surtees derives, as its name implies, its origin from a family resident to a remote period on the banks of the River Tees. William, the son of Siward, was living there in the reign of Henry II., and his son Ralph was the first to style himself Sur Tees, the family residence being then, as for many long years afterwards, at Dinsdale, the adjoining seat to Sockburn where the Conyers family dwelt.

Of the dissolution of this head house of the race, Mr. Surtees added: "I discovered by a remarkable deed at Durham (unknown to Hutchinson) how the estates went to Brandling in prejudice of Marmaduke, heir male of the half-blood; and that Marmaduke’s grandson Thomas sold most of what remained in the male line; but I cannot find further as to this Thomas except that his younger brother Richard married and had two sons, Robert and Richard, who are the last I can trace of this branch, the undoubted direct heirs."{248}

The existing branches of this old family now resident at Redworth Hall, Mainsforth, and Hamsterley, derive their descent from a William Surtees who, in the year 1440, acquired lands in Whickham under the Halmote Court, his sureties being Robert Boutflower and Thomas Gibson.

His descendants for some generations resided within the parishes of Whickham in this county, and Ovingham in Northumberland.

Edward Surtees strengthened the family by marrying in 1617 Margaret Coulson, whose mother was sister and heir of Robert Surtees, Alderman and twice Mayor of Durham.

The eldest son of this marriage was ancestor of the famous beauty, Bessy Surtees, who ran away with and married John Scott, afterwards Lord Eldon and Chancellor of Great Britain.

The second son, Robert Surtees of Ryton, added to his inheritance by marrying an heiress of the Hauxley family. He purchased Mainsforth and founded the two families now owning that seat and Redworth, and amongst his descendants was Robert Surtees the historian, to whom his native county owes an everlasting debt.

The Surtees of Hamsterley Hall trace their descent from a Cuthbert Surtees of Ebchester who died in 1622, and whose relationship to the Ovingham family is not at present clear. His son Anthony, however, held the Hollins in Ovingham parish in 1629, and that property in 1586 was in the possession of Rowland Surtees, who died the following year, and who was brother of William Surtees, ancestor of the families already mentioned.

Hamsterley descended to Robert Smith Surtees, the author of some well-known sporting novels.

The Edens are almost certainly an indigenous family, for there can be but little doubt that they derive their name from the village of Eden, now called Castle Eden. The family for a number of generations resided at Preston-on-Tees,

{249}

where lands were held by Robert de Eden in 1413. A succession of Thomases and Williams bring the pedigree into the sixteenth century, when John Eden married an heiress of the Lambtons. After the heads of the house successively increased the family patrimony by marrying heiresses of the Hutton, Welbury, and Bee families, John Eden’s great-great-grandson, Robert by name, followed his ancestor’s example by marrying another Lambton heiress. He was Member for the county and was created a Baronet in 1672. Sir Robert Eden, the third Baronet, had a large and distinguished family. His second son Robert was Governor of Maryland, and created a Baronet in 1776. He was ancestor of the present Sir William Eden, who succeeded also to the inheritance of the first-named Sir Robert’s eldest son, and is thus doubly a Baronet. The Governor’s next brother, Sir Robert’s third son, was the distinguished statesman, William Lord Auckland, and the fifth son, Sir Morton Eden, an eminent diplomatist, was created Baron Henley, and was ancestor of the present peer. One of the sisters of this talented trio married John Moore, Archbishop of Canterbury, and another married the Rev. Richard Richardson, Chancellor of St. Paul’s.

Several old families have for many generations dwelt in the Valley of the Derwent, and were all more or less intermarried with each other.

Thomas Hunter, about the end of the fourteenth century, married Margaret Layton, heiress, through her mother, of the family of Alanshields of Alanshields. A century later quite a small clan of the Hunters were resident up and down the valley, but principally at Medomsley. Here in 1675 was born Dr. Christopher Hunter, the celebrated antiquary; and here nearly a century later, in 1757, General Sir Martin Hunter, G.C.M.G., first saw the light.

The Stevensons were another Derwentside family, whose name is best known through John Hall, the Eugenius of{250} Sterne, having taken it when he married the heiress of Ambrose Stevenson of Byerside.

The Shaftos have in various branches been closely connected with the county for many centuries. The late Rev. John Hodgson, in an early volume of the Archæologia Æliana, throws doubt upon the traditional descent of the Shaftos in the male line from the Folliots. He overlooked, however, several important facts that at least render the assertion possible. The Fenwick of which the Folliots were Lords is not the Fenwick in Northumberland as he assumed, but the place of that name in Yorkshire which passed by the marriage of Margaret Folliot to her husband, Sir Hugh Hastings, and long continued in his family.

Cuthbert, son of John Folliot of Fenwick, is said to have acquired lands at Shafto in Northumberland by marrying one of the heirs of Roger Welwick of that place, and his descendants took the local name; another daughter of Roger is stated in the Visitation of Rutland, 1618, to have married a Bryan Harbottle. A comparison of the arms of the respective families shows that the Shafto coat is merely the Folliot arms differenced. Jordan Folliot in 1295 bore gules a bend argent, and Robert de Shaftowe, a contemporary, bore gules on a bend argent, three mullets azure.

The Shaftos of Tanfield Leigh in this county recorded their pedigree at the Visitation of 1615. Le Neve continued the family for several generations. James Shafto, aged eight, in 1615 married a sister of Sir John Jackson of Harraton, and his son was living in 1707, and then described as very poor. His son, again, a third James, married a daughter of Sir Thomas Sandford, and had three sons, after whom the descent is not clear.

The family now resident at Whitworth Park are an early offshoot of the Shaftos of Bavington in Northumberland. They have several times intermarried with the Edens, and, like that family, are very rich in quarterings. Their escutcheon includes the arms of the Cavendishes,{251} Dukes of Newcastle; the Lords Ogle, and many other great houses. Within the last century Beamish Park, near Chester-le-Street, has become the seat of another branch of the same family.

The Salvins of Croxdale are another of our old historic families who have held the same acres for generations. They have lived at their present home from the early days of the fifteenth century. In the time of King Charles they were gallant Loyalists, and two of them were killed in the King’s service.

The Whartons have also resided near to Durham for a good many centuries. They descend from the Whartons of Wharton in Westmorland, and their armorial insignia is interesting both in its origin and as illustrating the close alliance often existing between families bearing similar arms. Amongst the Normans who settled in this country after the Conquest was a family named Flamanville, often abbreviated into Flamville, who took their name from their lordship of that name in the province of La Manche in Normandy, and gave it as a suffix to their new Leicester estate of Aston. Their coat of arms was simply la manche, the sleeve, and so the name originally applied to the curious geographical shape of a peninsula came to be a familiar term in English heraldry. They intermarried with the Conyers and the Hastings, and both these families adopted the manche as their emblem. An heiress of the latter family married a Wharton, and to this day a silver manche or maunch on a black field is the Wharton arms.

Dr. Wharton of Old Park, a lineal ancestor of the Dryburn family, is celebrated as one of the courageous physicians who continued to visit the sick during the Great Plague of London. One of his descendants, Dr. Thomas Wharton, was the friend of the poet Thomas Gray, who visited him at Old Park.

The name of Burdon is an old one in the county, and probably derived from one or other of the local villages of that name. There were Burdons at Helmdon centuries{252} ago, and for a number of generations Burdens have owned Castle Eden. The curious articles on the family arms, described by some writers as organ-pipes, are said to be in reality palmers’ staffs, and are so used by the present family.

One branch of the Ords, who are a Northumbrian, or more correctly a North Durham, family, must not be passed over. In the reign of James I. John Ord acquired property at Fishburn, and founded the house who have for so long dwelt at Sands Hall, beside Sedgefield.

Another family of Northumbrian extraction are the Blenkinsopps of Hoppyland, who are, however, in the male line descended from the Leatons or Leightons of Benfieldside. Hoppyland was purchased from the Blacketts in 1768 by William Leaton of Gibside, agent to the Bowes family.

The Blacketts, who now reside at Wylam in Northumberland, held Hoppyland for several generations. Their ancestor, Edward Blackett, of Shildon, married for his second wife a daughter of the famous Lilburne family of Thickley-Puncharden, and a near relative of "Freeborn John." The Baronet family, who now own the old Conyers estate of Sockburn, are also descended from this Edward, and are rather curiously derived from the latter family. The first baronet’s wife was a daughter of Michael Kirkley of Newcastle, whose wife’s grandmother, Marion Anderson, was a lineal descendant of William Conyers of Wynyard.[31]

Ravensworth Castle, near Gateshead, has been the home of the Liddell family since 1607. The third owner of the name was created a Baronet by King Charles I. in 1642, and was a strong Royalist during the troubled years of that King’s reign. Since then the family has twice held peerages. Sir Henry Liddell was created Baron Ravensworth in 1747, but as he had no children the title became{253} extinct at his death in 1784. His great-nephew, Sir Thomas Henry Liddell, took the same title on his elevation to the peerage in 1821.

Two members of the Ravensworth family have left names well known in the literary world. The second Baron, son and namesake of the first, was the author of a translation into English lyric verse of the Odes of Horace, and, in conjunction with Mr. Richards, he published in blank verse a translation of the last six books of Virgil’s Æneid. He was created Earl of Ravensworth, a title that died with his son, when the Barony passed to a cousin. The Very Rev. Henry George Liddell, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, and some time Vice-Chancellor of that University, was one of the compilers of the well-known Greek lexicon.

The Bowes family was once as widely scattered over Durham as the Conyers. Streatlam Castle and Gibside, Bradley Hall, Biddick, and Thornton Hall, were all residences of the Boweses at one time. One branch only in the male line survives, and is now resident at Croft. Streatlam and Gibside, however, still belong to descendants in the female line—the Earls of Strathmore—who have added the name of their Durham ancestors to the paternal surname of Lyon.

One of the most celebrated members of this family was Old Sir William Bowes, whose devotion to the young wife he lost, when he was about twenty-eight years old, has caused him to be celebrated amongst true lovers. He lived to a great age, and never remarried.

A descendant of his, Sir George Bowes, is celebrated in local rhyme as—

a most erroneous term, for he was, in very truth, a loyal and gallant gentleman, whose brave defence of Barnard Castle in a time of strife and rebellion perhaps saved England for Queen Elizabeth. But the Boweses have{254} always, like most of our real old families, been a brave old race, and fully up to their motto: In multis, in magnis, in bonis expertus.

The Chaytors are descended from a certain John Chaytor, of Newcastle, merchant, whose widow remarried William Wilkinson, another merchant in the same old city.

The widow of both made her will on March 23, 1558-59, and in it, after desiring to be buried in All Saints’ Church, Newcastle, beside her last lord, mentions her two sons, Christopher and John, and her daughter, Jane Kirkhouse. John Chaytor the younger married a daughter of James Perkinson, and left two children, Elizabeth and John, living in 1579.

Christopher Chaytor became an important public man, and, besides acquiring the Manor of Butterby, near Durham, gathered into the family fold the great estate of the noble old house of Clervaux, of Croft, and founded the present Baronet Chaytors. His son Thomas married a daughter of Sir Nicholas Tempest, Bart., of Stella; and his son again, Nicholas Chaytor, was a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Royal Army under the famous fighting Marquess of Newcastle, and by his wife, a Lambton heiress, was father of Sir William, created a Baronet in 1671. This baronetcy became extinct on the death of the first holder in 1720, but was again revived when Sir William Chaytor was created a Baronet in 1801.

The Tempests, as already mentioned, were relatives of the Chaytors. They came into the county from Yorkshire, when Sir William Tempest, of Studley, married the heiress of the Washingtons of Washington. His natural son, Rowland, acquired a considerable estate by marrying one of the many coheirs of the great baronial family of Umphreville, and was ancestor of the various families of the name seated in this county.

Sir Nicholas Tempest, of Stella Hall, in the reign of James I., was created a Baronet, and was buried at Ryton in 1625.

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His younger brother, Rowland Tempest, was ancestor of the Tempests of the Isle and Old Durham, whose representative some hundred years later, John Tempest, who was many years M.P. for the city of Durham, left a daughter Frances, who became eventually heiress of this branch of the family. She married the Rev. Sir Henry Vane, Bart., Prebendary of Durham Cathedral, a descendant of the famous Sir Henry Vane the elder, and her son, assuming his mother’s name, became Sir Henry Vane-Tempest. He left an only daughter, Frances Anne Emily, who married the third Marquess of Londonderry as his second wife, and was grandmother of the present Marquess.

The Vanes, who descend from a common ancestor with the Earls of Westmorland, have only been connected with Durham since the reign of James I., when Sir Henry Vane, of Hadlo Castle, a Kentish knight, acquired Raby Castle by grant from the Crown. His youngest son was ancestor of the Marquesses of Londonderry, and his eldest son was ancestor of the late Duke of Cleveland and of the present Lord Barnard.

The Williamsons came into this county through a strange decree of fate. The estate of Monkwearmouth passed from its purchaser, Colonel George Fenwick, of Brinkburn, the well-known Puritan, to his daughter Dorothy, who married Sir Thomas Williamson, of East Markham, in Nottinghamshire. Sir Thomas belonged to a Cavalier family that had lost much in the Royal cause.

Sir William, the fourth Baronet, married a sister of Mrs. Lambton, of Lambton, and co-heiress of John Hedworth, of Harraton, whose wife was a descendant of William James, sometime Bishop of Durham. Whitburn Hall has for several generations been the family residence, and the present Baronet is the ninth.

Lord Boyne’s family are only recent settlers in Durham, and came here when Brancepeth Castle passed to the seventh Viscount upon his marriage with an heiress of the{256} Russells. They have been Barons of Brancepeth since 1866.

Other old families still existent in the shire who should at least be mentioned are the Pembertons[32] of Belmont Hall, the Wilkinsons of Durham, the Fogg-Elliots of Elvet Hill, the Bateses of Wolsingham, the Trotters of Helmdon, and the Hutchinsons.

The Claverings of Axwell, a noble old race, have within the last few years died out in the male line, but the name and blood continue in the present owners of the old home.

Descendants of other old families doubtless linger on: Byerleys and Fawcetts, Darnells and Croudaces, Muschamps and Emersons, Morgans and Marleys, Ewbankes and Raines, Rippons and Maddisons, and many another race, inheriting to the full the traditions of our country, are to be found scattered up and down the county.

INDEX

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, Y.

Abbey, Durham, 158
— of Durham dissolved, 16
Acre, 107
Agnes’s Fast, St., 53
Alanshields of Alanshields, 249
Aldhun, Bishop, 109
"All Fools’ Day," 57
Alston, 41
Altars at Bolihope, Roman, 80
Altar-screen, Durham, 121-122, 138
Altar-tomb, Neville, 170
— of Bernard Gilpin, 194, 195
Amiatinus, the Codex, 151
Anglo-Saxon memorial crosses, 183
Arms, Greenwell, 225
— Lumley, 242
Associations of John Wesley, Durham, 229-238
Asylum, Sunderland Orphan, 35
Auckland, brasses in St. Andrew’s, 180, 189
— brass in St. Helen’s, 180, 190
Aucklandshire, 39
Aycliffe Church, 171

Baker, Mrs. Sarah, 194
Bale Hill, 218
Balliol, Bernard de, 213
— John, sometime King of Scotland, 213
Ballads, Robert Surtees’, 65
Bank, 105
Barbara, Bishop William de St., 30
Barnard Castle, 40, 213
— — Church, 170, 185
Barnes, Mrs. Fridesmond, 189
Baronial houses, 239
Barons of the Bishopric, 3, 11
Barrow at Copt Hill, 182
Bateses of Wolsingham, 256
Battle of Neville’s Cross, 41
Baydale inn, 24
Bayley, K. C., 7
Beaumont, Lewis, Bishop-elect of Durham, 27, 28
Bede, Venerable, 4, 36
— at Monkwearmouth and Jarrow, 146-151
Bede’s chair, Jarrow, 54
— tomb, 123
— Well, Monkton, 55
Bellasis, 218
Bell, Durham Curfew, 63
— Pancake, 56
Billingham Church, 172
Binchester, Roman camp at, 4
— Roman epitaph at, 183
Birthdays folk-lore, 46
Biscop, Benedict, 4, 36, 147, 149, 150
Bishop Aldhun, 109
— Auckland, 39
— — Palace, 200
— Cosin, 20, 120, 179
— Crewe, 21, 204
— Flambard, 8, 40, 118, 133
— James, 206
— Middleham, 222
— — Church, 180
— Philip de Pictavia, 172
— Pudsey, 9-33, 37, 38, 134, 166, 195, 202, 241
— Walcher, 6-7, 30, 32, 36, 156
— William of St. Carileph, 7, 30, 110, 114, 118, 158, 166
Bishopric, Barons of the, 3, 11
— of Durham, 1, 2, 81
Bishop’s revenue, 11
Bishopwearmouth effigy, 185
Black Death, the, 12-13
Blackett family, 252
— Sir Edward, 75
Blakeston of Blakeston, 188
Blakiston, 222
— Sir William, 212
Blenkinsopps of Hoppyland, 252
Boar, the Pollard, 68-71, 74
Bogs, 101
Boldon Book, 9, 30, 38, 39, 42, 241
— Church, 176
Bolihope, 91
— Roman altars at, 80
Bowes of Streatlam, 253
— Sir George, 41
— Sir William, 214, 216
Boyne, Lord, 255
Bradley, Ralph, 194
Brae, 105
Brag, the Picktree, 76-78
Brancepeth, 41
— Castle, 203
— Church, 179
Brass, Chester-le-Street Church, 190
— Haughton-le-Skerne, 191
— Hoton, William, 168, 190
— Houghton-le-Spring, 191
— Brasses, monumental, 189
— Sedgefield Church, 168, 190, 191, 192, 193
Bridge, Prebend’s, 52
— Tyne, 34
Brigantes, occupation by, 4
Brocks, 91-92
Bronze Age, 182
Brow, 105
Brown, Dame Dorothy, 26
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 224
Bruce, Robert de, 37
— tombs, 196
Brunskill, Thomas, 222
Bruses (De), tomb of, 165
Bulmer, Bertram de, 203
— family, 247
— stone, 25
Burdon family, 251
— John, 224
Burns, 91-92
Butler, Bishop, 22
"Butterby churchgoer," 64
"Butter Cross," Ravensworth, 212
Byerley, Colonel Anthony, 224
"Byerley’s Bull Dogs," 224

Carileph, Bishop William of St., 7, 30, 110, 114, 118, 158, 166
Carling Sunday, 57
Castle Barnard, 213
— Brancepeth, 203
— Durham, 204-207
— Eden, 216
— Hilton, 187, 210, 211
— Lambton, 74, 209
— Lumley, 207-208
— Raby, 214, 215
— Ravensworth, 211, 212
— Stanhope, 198
— Streatlam, 213, 214
— Walworth, 215
— Witton, 199
Castles and Halls of Durham, 198-228
— the, 79
Cathedral brasses, Durham, 190-191
— Durham, 3, 7, 12, 18, 108-129
— local lore of Durham, 63
Cau’d Lad of Hilton, the, 71-73
Cave, Heatheryburn, 79
Ceolfrid, Abbot, 149, 150
Chancery Proceedings, Durham, 241
Chanter, John the, 149, 161
Chapel, "Galilee," 122
— Lady, 122, 138
— Nine Altars, 125, 135
— of St. Hilda, first, 36
— St. John’s, 42
Charter, Bishop Hugh Pudsey’s, Durham, 30
Chaytor family, 240, 254
Chester-le-Street, 5, 32, 108, 109, 130, 131
— Church, 177, 186
Cheyne, John, sculptor, 187
Christian the Mason, 195
"Churchgoer, Butterby," 64
Churches at Monkwearmouth and Jarrow, Saxon, 147
— of Durham, parish, 162-181
Civil War, outbreak of, 20
Claverings of Axwell, 256
Cleatlam Hall, 221
Clergy, secular, 109
Cleughs, 95-96
Cleve’s Cross, 68
Clopton, John, 220
Club, Hell-fire, 204
Codex Amiatinus, 151
Coldingham, Richard de, 173
College, Ushaw, 192
Commission, Ecclesiastical, 18, 23
Common, 105
Coniscliffe, Church of St. Edwin, 172
Convent of SS. Peter and Paul, 147
Conyers falchion, 75, 217
— family, 247
— Nicolas, 195
Conyers, Ralph, 223
— Sir John, 74
Copt Hill, Houghton-le-Spring, 182
Cosin, Bishop, 20, 120, 179
Cotham Conyers, 222
— Stob, 222
Council of the North, 16
Cow, the Dun, 66-67
Coxhoe Hall, 224
Cradock family, 222
Craft gilds, 31
Craggs family, 83
Crawford, Jack, 35
Crayke, 108
Crewe, Bishop, 21, 204
Cross at Darlington Market, 25, 26
— at Ravensworth, 212
— Battle of Neville’s, 41
— Butter, 212
— Cleve’s, 28, 68
— Neville’s, 55, 58
Crosses, 107
— Anglo-Saxon memorial, 183
— Billingham pre-Conquest, 172
— Saxon, 26
Cumin, Robert, Earl of Northumberland, 29
Curfew Bell, Durham, 63
Cuthbert, St., 5, 133, 152, 155
— Feast of the Translation of St., 29
— Patrimony of St., 5, 6, 17
— sanctuary of St., 24

Dalden Tower, 216
Dale, Helen Pelham, 234
— Life and Letters of Thomas Pelham, 234
— Miss Margaret, 230
— of Dalton-le-Dale, family of, 238
— of Tunstall, Edward, 230
— Rev. Thomas, 229
— Rev. Thomas Pelham, 229
Dales, name-places in the Durham, 79-107
Dalton Church, 175
Darcy, Lady Maxwell, 235
Darlington Church tower, 166
— market-cross at, 25, 26
— rood-loft, 167
— St. Cuthbert’s Church, 165
"Darnton Trod," 24
Day, New Year’s, 56
Days, lucky, 57
Death, portents of, 51
"Death, power of life and," 1, 11
Delavale, Peter, 194
Denes, 91
Dens, 101
Derwentdale Plot, 21
Dinsdale, 217
— Church brass, 190
Dog-tooth ornament, only instance of, 167
Douthwaite family, 222
Duck, Sir John, 63, 227
Dun Cow, the, 66-67
Durham, 5-6, 28, 109
— Bishopric of, 1-2
— Castle, 204-207
— Cathedral:
altar of Our Lady of Pity, 124;
altar screen, 121;
altars in north transept, 124;
Bede’s tomb, 123;
Bishop’s throne, 123;
brasses, 190-191;
Carileph’s choir, 113;
chapter-house, 127;
choir, 114-115;
cloister, 127-128;
crypt, 111-113;
doorways, 113;
fresco paintings, 123;
Galilee Chapel, 122;
Hatfield’s tomb, 121;
ironwork, 118;
Lady Chapel, 122;
library, 127-128;
local lore of, 63;
monks’ dormitory, 128;
nave, 114;
Neville chantry, 124;
Neville screen, 122;
nine altars, 125-126;
refectory, 111, 127-128;
sanctuary knocker, 118;
towers, 120;
transepts, 116;
treasury, 127
— curfew bell, 63
— fall of abbey, 16
— first Lord, 209
— Lewis Beaumont, Bishop-elect of, 27, 28
— local volunteer companies, 206
— North Gate, 13
— Palatinate of, 9, 19
— prosperity of Methodism in, 22
— St. Giles’s Church, 173, 185
— St. Margaret’s Church, 173, 185
— St. Oswald’s Church, 172
— School, 22, 23
— spires, 166
— trades, 21, 22
— University of, 22, 23

"Eade stones," 80
Eales, 99
Earl of Northumberland, Robert Cumin, 29
Earls, rebellion of the, 18
Easington Church, 175, 186
Ebchester, Roman camp at, 4
Ecclesiastical Commission, 18, 23
Eden family, 240, 248-249
Edmundbyres Cross, 107
Effigy at Bishopwearmouth, 185
— at Norton, 187
— of Euphemia de Neville, 169
— of Isabel de Neville, 169
— of Isabella, sister of Robert Bruce, 196
— in Barnard Castle Church, 185
— Lanchester Church, 187
— St. Giles’s Church, Durham, 185
— Whitburn Church, singular, 188
Effigies in Easington Church, 175, 186
— in Hurworth Church, 186
— in Redmarshall Church, 172, 188
— stone and wood, 185-189
Egelwin, Bishop, 29
Egglescliffe Church, 172
Elizabethan Poor Law, 19
Elvet, 28, 30
Epitaph of Regina, wife of Barates the Palmyrene, 182, 183
— of Tidfirth, Bishop of Hexham, 184
Epitaphs, punning, 197
Escomb Church, 159, 163
Estfelde, William, 189
Eures family, 239
Evenwood, 39
Ewbanke family, 221

Fairy Hills, Castleton, 45
Falchion, Conyers, 75, 217
Families of Durham, Old, 239-256
Fast, St. Agnes’s, 53
Feast of the Translation of St. Cuthbert, 29
Fell, 105
Fen Hall, 224
Ferryhill, 28
Ferry, Roger de, 68
"Fig sue," 57
Finchale Priory, 130-145
Fire festivals, 44
First charter of incorporation, Durham, 31
First lifeboat built at South Shields, 36
— passenger railway-line, 26
Flambard, Bishop Ralph, 8, 40, 118, 133
Flask, the, 101
Flodden, banner of St. Cuthbert at, 15
Fogg-Elliots of Elvet Hill, 256
Folk-lore, Durham, 44-64
Font, Sedgefield, 167
— Staindrop, 169
Ford Hall, 226
Forest of Weardale, 39
Fothergill, G. A., 224
Fox, Bishop Richard, 14
Framwellgate, 29
Frosterley, 84
Furmety, 59

Gabriel Hounds, 45
Gainford Church, 171
— grave-cover, 193
— Hall, 222
Galilee Chapel, Durham, 122
"Garland, maiden," 52
Gateshead, 32
— St. Mary’s, Church, 176
— grave-covers, 193
Gibside, 212
Gild, craft, 31
Gills, 95-97
Gilpin, altar-tomb of Bernard, 194, 195
Glory, Hand of, 45
Godric, St., 130-132, 173
— shrine of St., 138
Goodchild of Pallion, John, 230
Grace, Pilgrimage of, 16
Grains, 91-92
Grange, Lambton, 209
— Midridge, 224
— Raby, 222
Grave-covers, 192-193
— stones, Roman, 182
Great Aycliffe, 27
Greatham Hospital, 189
— old chapel at, 186
Great North Road, 24
Greenwell arms, 225
Greenwell family, 244-246
Greenwells of Broomshields, 247
"Guisers," or mummers, 58

Hall, Bishop Middleham, 222
— Blakiston, 222
Hall, Cleatlam, 221
— Cotham Conyers, 222, 223
— Coxhoe, 224
— Fen, 224
— Ford, 226
— Gainford, 222
— Holmside, 219
— Houghton-le-Spring, 228
— Kibblesworth, 227
— Middleton St. George, 224
— Pallion, 226
— School Aycliffe, 224
— Sledwish, 220
— Snotterton, 221
— Staindrop, 221
— Stanhope, 199
— Stella, 228
— Thornton, 224
— Thorpe Thewles, old, 222
— Washington, 225
— West Boldon, 226
— Westholme, 222
— West Rainton, 227
Hallow E’en sports, 58
Halls and Castles of Durham, 198-228
Halmote Rolls, 241
Hand of Glory, 45
Harding the Chronicler, Ralph, 218
Hartlepool, 37
— Church, 163
— — brass, 191
— West, 38
Hatfield, Bishop, 3
— Survey, 241
Haugh, 105
Haughton-le-Skerne Church, 171
Havelock, birthplace of General, 226
— Sir Henry, 35
Heatheryburn Cave, 79
Heighington Church, 171, 186
Hell-Fire Club, the, 204
Hell Kettles, 24
Heraldry, the Manche in, 251
Heralds’ Visitations, 239
Heslerigg, Sir Arthur, 201
High Barnes, Sunderland, 226
Highwaymen of the North, 24
Hilda, 4
— first religious house of St., 36
Hilton Castle, 187, 210, 211
— John, 210
— Sir Thomas, 210
— the Cau’d Lad of, 71-73
Hilton’s tomb, Monkwearmouth, 187
Hob of Pelaw, 64
Hodgson, Rev. J. F., 167
Holden, Sir Thomas, 218
Hole, 106
Hollinside, 218
Holms, 100
Holmside Hall, 219
Hooks, 106
Hopes, 88-92
Hopper, J. T. H., 200
"Hot cross buns," 57
Hot Hill, 101
Hoton brass, William, 168, 190
Houghton-le-Spring, 34
— Church, 174
— Hall, 228
Hounds, Gabriel, 45
Hulme, Nicholas, 189
Hunter family, 249
Hurworth Church, 172, 186
Hutchinson family, 256
Hutton, Robert, 195, 228

Incorporation, Durham’s first charter of, 31
Inn, Baydale, 24
Inscriptions, monumental, 182-197
Intake, 107
Isabella, sister of Robert Bruce, effigy of, 196
Isle, The, 220

James, Bishop, 206
James family, 225
Jarrow, 146-161
Jarrow, monastery of, 4, 16
John the Chanter, 149, 161

Kellaw, Bishop, 24
Kelyng, John, 189
Kerns, 98
Kettles, Hell, 24
Kibblesworth Hall, 227
Killhope Cross, 107
— Moor, 42
Knocker, sanctuary, 118-119

Lady Byron’s Well, Seaham, 55
Lady Chapel, Durham, 122, 138
Lad of Hilton, the Cau’d, 71-73
Lambton Castle, 74, 209
— Grange, 209
— William Henry, 209
— Worm, the, 73, 74, 134
— — Well, 54
Lambtons of Lambton, 240, 243-244
Lanchester Church, 171, 179
— Roman camp at, 4
Langley, Bishop, 31, 34
Law, Elizabethan Poor, 19
Lawrence of Durham, 8
— Rev. John, 230
Lee, Mary, 194
Legends of Durham, 65-78
Leighton, Henry, 209
Letters of John Wesley to Margaret Dale, 231-237
Lewen, Margaret, 231, 233
Ley, 103
Liddell family, 240, 252
"Life and death, power of," 1, 11
Lifeboat, first, 36
Lilburne family, 35
Lindisfarne, 108, 152
— monastery of, 4, 5
Linns, 98
Little Eden Tower, 216
Local lore of Durham Cathedral, 63
Londonderry, Marquess of, 220
Low Barnes, Sunderland, 226
Luck, spitting for, 61
Lucky and unlucky things, 59-61
— days, 57
Ludworth Tower, 218
Lumley arms, 242
— Castle, 207, 208
— tombs, Chester-le-Street, 178, 186
Lumleys of Lumley, 241-243

"Maiden garland," 52
Manche in heraldry, the, 251
Market-cross at Darlington, 25, 26
Mark, Vigil of St., 51
Material for tombstones, 196-197
Mathew, Michael, 189
Mea, 106
"Mell-supper," 58
Melsamby, Prior Thomas of, 135
Memorial brasses, Billingham, 172
— crosses, Anglo-Saxon, 183
Methodism in Durham, 22
Middleton, brass of William de, 189
— of Silksworth, George, 230
— St. George, 224
— Sir Gilbert, 28
— Thomas, of Chillingham, 185
Midridge Grange, 224
Mitford family, 70
Monkchester, 156
Monkwearmouth, 36, 146-161
Monumental brass, Haughton-le-Skerne, 171
— brasses, 189
— inscriptions, 182-197
Moor, Killhope, 42
Mortham, Robert de, 185
Motto, the Jameses’, 206
Mulberry Inn, Felling, 226

Names of streams, 83
Naunton, Elizabeth, Prioress of Neasham, 171
"Need-fire," working for, 54
Neile, Bishop, 19, 20
Neolithic men, 182
Neville family, 239
— Geoffrey de, 203
— Henry, Earl of Northumberland, 170
— monuments, Staindrop, 168
— Ralph, Earl of Northumberland, 170, 214
— screen, 121-122, 138
— tombs, Staindrop, 185
Neville’s Cross, 12, 55, 58
— — Battle of, 41
New Year’s Day, 56
Nine Altars Chapel, 125, 135
"Nominy sayer," 50
Norman tower, Jarrow, 161
North, Council of the, 16
— Gate, Durham, 13
Northumberland, Robert Cumin, Earl of, 29
Norton Church, 172
— effigy at, 187

Old Families of Durham, 239-256
Ords of Sands Hall, 252
Orphan Asylum, Sunderland, 35

Palace, Bishop Auckland, 200
Palatinate of Durham, 9, 19
Pallion Hall, 226
Pancake Bell, 56
— Tuesday, 56
Parish churches of Durham, 162-181
Park (De) arms, 188
"Parson, the Pickled," 76
Passenger railway-line, first, 26
Patrimony of St. Cuthbert, 5-6, 17
Pelaw, Hob of, 64
Pemberton of Bainbridge, John, 230
Pembertons of Belmont Hall, 256
Pictavia, Bishop Philip de, 172
Pictree Brag, the, 76-78
Pike, 105
Pilgrimage of Grace, 16
Pittington Church, 173
Place, Francis, 224
Plain, 105
Plot, Derwentdale, 21
Pollard Boar, the, 68-71, 74
— family, 68, 71
Pools, 98
Poor Law, Elizabethan, 19
Portents of death, 51
"Power of life and death," 1, 11
Prebendaries of Durham, 19
Prebend’s Bridge, Durham, 52
Pre-Reformation chancel screen, Staindrop, 169
Prior Thomas of Melsamby, 135
Priory, Finchale, 130-145
Pudsey, Bishop, 9, 33, 37, 38, 134, 166, 195, 202, 241
— Durham Charter of, 30
— Henry de, 134
Pulpit, Heighington Church, 186
Punning epitaphs, 197

Quaint sepulchral inscriptions, 194

Raby Castle, 214, 215
— Grange, 222
Railway-line, first passenger, 26
Ravenshelm, 212
Ravensworth Castle, 211, 212
— cross at, 212
Rebellion of the Earls, 18
Redmarshall Church, 172
Revenue, Bishop’s, 11
Ridding, 102
Rig, 105
Road, Great North, 24
Rolls, Halmote, 241
Roman altars at Bolihope, 80
— camps in Durham, 4
— gravestones, 182
— roads, 4, 130
Rood-loft, Darlington, 167
— Staindrop, 169
Roses, Wars of the, 14
Royal Oak Day, 57
Rudde brass, John, 192
Rushyford, 27
Ruthall, Bishop, 15
Ryton Church, 177

Sadberge, wapentake of, 9-14, 38
St. Cuthbert’s Church, Darlington, 165
St. Mary’s Church, Monkwearmouth, 149
Salvins of Croxdale, 240, 251
Sanctuary knocker, 118-119
— of St. Cuthbert, 24
Saxon chancel, Jarrow, 161
— church at Escomb, 157
— churches at Monkwearmouth and Jarrow, 147
— crosses, 26
— suffixes, 81
"Sayer, Nominy," 50
School Aycliffe, 224
— Durham, 22, 23
Screen, Neville, 121-122, 138
Seat, 104
Secular clergy, 109
Sedgefield, 38
— Church, 167
— — brasses in, 190, 191, 192, 193
— Rectory, 76
Seventh sons, 49
"Shafto, Bobby," 42
— family, 250
Shaftos of Tanfield Leigh, 250
Shaw, 101
Sherburn Hospital, 189
Shield Lawe, 36
Shields, South, 36
— — St. Hilda’s Church, 176
"Shout the mell," 58
Shrine of St. Godric, 138
Side, 106
Sikes or Sykes, 95-98
Skelton, Roger, 72
Snotterton Hall, 221
Sockburn, 217
— Worm, the, 74-76
Solomon’s Temple, 148
Spires, Durham, 166
"Spitting for luck," 61
Spring, legend of Sir John le, 65
Staindrop, 40
— Church, 168
— Hall, 221
Stanhope, 42, 84, 85
— Castle, 198
— Hall, 199
— treasure of, 79
Stanley, Andrew de, 168
Stella Hall, 228
Stevenson family, 249
Stockton, 38
Stone and wood effigies, 185-189
— Bulmer, 25
— cross, 28
— crosses, 107
Streams, names of, 83
Streatlam Castle, 213, 214
Sunderland, 34
— Orphan Asylum, 35
— of Dinsdale, 247-248
— Robert, 28, 246, 248
Surtees, Robert, ballads, 65
Symbolism on grave-covers, 193
Symeon of Durham, 111

Tailbois, family of, 224
Tempest, Colonel John, 220
— family, 219, 254
Temple, Solomon’s, 148
Theodore of Tarsus, 162
Things lucky and unlucky, 59-61
Thornton Hall, 224
Thorpe Thewles old hall, 222
Tidfirth, Bishop of Hexham, epitaph, 184
— of a deacon in Ryton Church, 188
Tomb of De Bruses, 165
— Venerable Bede’s, 123
Tombs, Bruce, 196
— Lumley, Chester-le-Street, 178, 186
— Neville, 185
Tombstones, material for, 196-197
Tower, Dalden, 216
— Darlington Church, 166
— Little Eden, 216
— Ludworth, 218
— Monkwearmouth Church, 153
— Staindrop Church, 169
Trades, Durham, 21, 22
Translation of St. Cuthbert, Feast of the, 29
Trotters of Helmdon, 256
Tunstall, Bishop of Durham, 16
Tyne Bridge, 34

University of Durham, 22, 23
Unlucky, things lucky and, 59
Ushaw College, 192

Vane family, 240
Van Mildert, Dr., 75
Vigil of St. Mark, 51
Visitation of Northumberland, 240
— of Shropshire, 240
— of York, 240
Visitations, Heralds’, 239

Walcher, Bishop, 6, 7, 30, 32, 36, 156
Waltheof, Earl of Northumbria, 6
Walworth Castle, 215
Warbeck, advance of, 15
War, Civil, 20
Wars of the Roses, 14
Washington Hall, 225
Washingtons of Washington, 254
Watson, Edward, 222
Weardale, 79
— Forest of, 39
Wearmouth, 34
— monastery of, 4, 16
Weather-lore, 55
Weddings, 50
Well, Lady Byron’s, 55
— Lambton Worm, 54, 73, 74
— Venerable Bede’s, 55
Wells, 94-95
Wesley, Durham associations of John, 22, 229-238
West Boldon Hall, 226
West Rainton Hall, 227
Westholme Hall, 222
Wharton family, 240, 251
Whitburn Church, 176
Whitefield, George, 235
Whittingham, William, Dean of Durham, 220
Wilkinsons of Durham, 256
William of St. Carileph, Bishop, 7, 30, 110, 114, 118, 158, 166
Williamson family, 255
Wills, 241
Winston Church, 171
Witchcraft, 45
Witton Castle, 199
Wolsingham, 42
Wood and stone effigies, 185-189
— punning epitaph on Ralph, 197
Worm, the Lambton, 73, 74, 134
— the Sockburn, 74-76
— Well, the, 54, 73, 74

"Yule dollies," 59

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