b rib,- Country
re and
THE
MONTHLY
CHRONICLE
OF
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND
329 ENGRAVINGS.
1891
Printed and Published for Proprietors of the " Newcastle Weekly Chronicle " by
WALTER SCOTT, NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE,
AND 24 WARWICK LANE, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.
IK w
JAN -8 1960
s^5/Tv nc TrtR
Page.
The Press Gang in the Northern Counties 1
The Black Cock of Whickham *
The Nightingale and other Warblers 5
Prudhoe Castle and the Umfravilles 6
MEN OF MARK TWIXT TYNK AND TWEED. By Richard
Welford : John Fenwick, 11 : Sir John Fife, 12;
Thomas Forster, 58 ; George, Francis, and Joseph
Forster, 60 ; Jonathan Langstatf Forster, 62 ;
Westgarth Forster, 105 ; William Garrett, 106 ;
The Gibsons of Hexham and Stonecroft, 108 ;
William Sydney Gibson, 154 ; Thomas Gibson,
156 ; Rev. Thomas Gillow, 157 ; John and
Benjamin Green, 224; Richard Gilpin, 226;
Edward Glynn, 228; Joseph Glynn, F.R.S.,
250 ; Sir Leonard Greenwell, 251 ; Thomas
Michael Greenhow, 251; William Gray, 253;
George Grey, 297; Robert Grey, D.D., 299;
Gilbert and George Gray, 300 ; The Sir George
Greys, of Falloden, 354 ; Henry Grey, D.D.,
356 ; Timothy Hackworth, 358; William Anthony
Hails, 394; George Hall, D.D., 396; Thomas
Young Hall, 396; Samuel Hammond, D.D.,
441 ; Rev. George Harris, 443 ; William Harvey,
444 ; Thomas Haswell, 498 ; Sir Arthur Hazle-
rigg, 500 ; The Headlams, 538 ; Robert Rhodes,
540.
Sir John Vanbrugh in the North 15
Sunderland Town Hall 16
Katterlelto and his Wonders 16
The Old Dispensary, Newcastle 20
Whitley-by-the Sea 21
The Bigg Market and the'Groat Market, Newcastle... 23
North-Country Fairies 26
Arctic and Antarctic Navigators 29
A Ramble Round York 32
George Barrington in Newcastle 36
NORTH-COUNTRT GARLAND OF SONG. By John
Stokoe :
" Aw Wish Yor Muther Wad Cum" 38
" Billy Oliver's Ramble between Benwell and
Newcastle" 83
' ' The Gathering Ode of the Fenwyke" .... 118
" A U Hinny Burd" 195
"Dance ti Thy Daddy" 245
"The Brave Earl Brand and the King of Eng-
land's Daughter" 318
'The Keachi'the Creel" 342
"Luckey's Dream" 410
"My Love has 'Listed" 438
" The Pitman's Courtship" 510
A Delaval Letter 39
William Bell Scott 40
NOTES AND COMMENTARIES :
St. Cuthbert's Beads, Old Street Cries, Poet
Close, Greenwells of Broomshields .... . 41
Page.
Thomas Ironsides, a Tyneside worthy ; Elizabeth
Isabella Spence, Brougham's First Brief, a
Westmoreland Mathematician, the High Level
Bridge, Meridian Pillar at Hammerfest, First
Telegraph Message between Newcastle and
London 90
Lady Peat's Property, a Peculiar Parish, the
Founder of the Salvation Army, George Wat-
son, mathematician, Mountaineering Feats in
English Lakeland, an Invitation to Marriage .. 137
Sand Desks, the Lough Family, " I'm Brown," S.
Boverick : Watchmaker, the City of Durham,
"Waterloo Wetheral," "Jessamond Mill" 333
The Polka, the Devil's Due, "Jessamond Mill,"
John Forster, a Durham Colliery Explosion 182
Years Ago, Joseph Glynn, F.R.S 330
James Crosbie Hunter, Sailing Coaches, the Lee
Penny, the Battle-Field, Newcastle ., 378
Kemmel's Path, Mease Family, Reminiscence of
the Stage Coach, Baptist Church in Newcastle,
Buried Alive 426
Jonathan Cay, a Venerable Dame, Jane and
Anna Maria Porter, the Threat of Invasion,
Carlyle's Estimate of the Folks o' Shields, a
Cumbrian Bidden Wedding 473
Lemmings, a Dreadful Winter, Ben Wells, the
Dancing Master ; Grey's Monument, Newcastle 523
North -Country Wit and Humour : 43, 92, 139, 187,
235, 331, 379, 428, 475, 524, 572
North-Country Obituaries : 44, 93, 140, 187, 236, 282,
331, 380, 428. 476, 525, 573
Record of Events :-45, 94, 141, 189, 237, 284, 332, 381,
429, 477, 525, 573
Two Notable Weardale Men 49
Sailors' Strikes on theTyne 52
The Gipsies of the Border 54, 100, 163., 205
Cotherstone and Stilton 57
A Bit of Auld Scotland 63
The Battle of Homildon Hill 65
George Fox in the North 68
Swarthmoor Hall 70
Sunderland Bridge 71
Views of Netherwitton 74
Shepherds' Numerals 77
The Village of Whittingham 75
St. Mary's Loch 80
The Percies and Westminster Abbey...' 82
The Brown Man of the Moors 84
TTncle Toby's Toy Exhibition 85
Bath Lane Church and Schools 86
The Burning of Sunderland Lyceum 86
The Flycatchers 87
Dr. Thomson, Archbishop of York 89
Anne Clifford, High Sheriff of Westmoreland 97
Craigie's Cross 102
II.
CONTENTS.
Page.
The Snowflake and Lapland Bunting 103
Dove Cottage, Grasmere 104
The First Mayor of Sunderland Ill
Wooler, Doddington. and Milfield 112
Nimmo of thn Rocking Tower 113
The Siege and Capture of Newcastle, 1644 114
Richmond, Yorkshire 119
The Murder of Capt. Berckholtz in Sunderland
Harbour 123
"Whisky Jack" 125
The Delaval Weighing Machine 126
Around Ford 127
Regner Lodbrog 128
A North-Country Bibliopole 131
The Castle Spectre : A Legend of Houghton 133
Penrith Beacon ;..'.., 134
Joseph Blackett, Shoemaker and Poet 135
"Billy Fine Day " 136
Henry Tennant 136
About "Boldon Buke" 145
Hewson Clarke, Author of " The Saunterer " 149
A -Ramble Round Richmond 151
The Kingfisher and the Dipper 158
Sir William Brereton's Visit to the North 161
A Visit to Bamburgh 165
A Lecrend of Cotherstone 173
North-Country Ghost Stories 174
Aydon Castle 176
John Wesley in Newcastle and the North 180
The Bishop of Peterborough 184
The Poet Close 185
Blythe Hurst, Blacksmith and Clergyman 193
The Massacre of Ambovna, 1623 195
John Graham Lough, Sculptor 199
The Legend of Su Oswald 203
The Pitman 208
"January Searle" 209
The Knaresdale Hall Ghost 210
The Author of "Auld Robin Gray " 211
Corbridge-on-Tyne 214
A Sunderland Poet : William Allan 221
The Hallgarth Tragedy 221
"The Amphitrite . 222
Newbiggin-by-the-Sea 223
" Ye Apothecarie : HisBooke" 230
Three Members of the Linnet Family 232
Ednam and the Poet of "The Seasons" 241
A Border Heroine , 246
New Post Office in Newcastle ...'. 248
New Banking Premises in Newcastle 249
Warkworth Bridge Tower 255
Woodhorn Church. Northumberland 256
Billy Purvis '. 259, 314, 373
Methodism in Newcastle 261
Ambleside, Windermere, and the Lake District 263
The Case of Thomas Fury 266
Stories of Smugglers 269
An Alnwick Prize Essayist 271
Cresswell Village 271
Bywell-on-Tyne 272
Barge Day on the Tyne 275
TheGiantCor 277
The Northumberland Household Book 278
The Dove Family 280
The Entry of Biahop Van Mildert into Durham 289
The Conyers Falchion 291
Dorothy Wordsworth 291
The Maddison Monument 294
A Reminiscence of Mrs. Montagu 295
Levens Hall, Westmoreland 296
The Bumler Box 297
Northumbrian Hermits 302
Arthur Rousbey, Vocalist 303
Culzean Castle, Ailsa Crag, and the Coast of Carrick. 304
The First Tyne Steamboat 306
St. Crispin's Day Celebrations 309
A Novel Gathering 311
The Bishop's Palace, Bishop Auckland 314
The Rums at Bearpark, near Durham 318
The Woodpeckers 320
Page.
Louis Dutens, the Eccentric Rector of Elsdon 322
Samuel Reay, Organist 325
A Week End at Bellingham 326
The Rising in the North 337
Two Border Poetesses 340
Frank Pickering's Fatal Flight 343
The Keep of Richmond Castle 344
The Village of Mitford 344
A Tyneside Showman 346
Newcastle and Carlisle : The Canal and the Railroad. 347
Lilburn Tower 351
"Lang Jack," a Tyneside Samson 352
A Riot on the Town Moor 353
Interior of Cragside 359
The Battle of Otterburn 362, 402
Four Members of the Crake Family 364
The French Dragon and the Newcastle Editor 366
Scawfell Pikes 368
The Whitworth Doctors 370
The Nestor of the Tobacco Trade 372
Thomas Eyre Maeklin, Artist 373
The Derwentwater Veteran and Recluse 385
Aerial Armies 388
A Quaker Lieutenant 389
Sir Walter Scott in the North 390
Cleadon Village 392
Mr. Alderman Barkas 398-
The Weardale Linns 399
Allan Ramsay 404
The Picktree Brag 407
Tyneinouth Cliffs a Hundred Years Ago 407
The Market Place, South Shields 410
Mrs. Arkwright 411
Edward Elliott, of Earsdon 413
The Busty Seam 414
Jane and Anna Maria Porter 415
The Pitman's Saturday Night 416
Wordsworth and the Lake District 417
John Hodgson, the Historian of Northumberland 420
Members of the Partridge Family 423
The Capture of South Shields Fort by Scots . 426
Ada the Thoughtful, and Harald, Lord of War 433
Sir Gosselin Denville, Freebooter 436
A Shields Youth Hanged at Tyburn 439
St. Agatha's Abbey, Easby 440
John Horsley, Antiquary 445
Whitburn Village ' 448
The Battle of Otterburn : Its Doubts and Perplexities 450
Game Birds 453
Joyce's Patent Stove 455
Rothbury Town 457
The Ettrick Shepherd 459
John W. Brown, Artist 463
Wbitton Tower and Sharpe's Folly 464
The Baliols in Newcastle 464
The Northern Circuit Fifty Years Ago 467, 491
North-Country Slogans.... 470
The Pillar Rock 472
Aira Force 473
Plague and Cholera in the North 481, 553
John Lilburne, "Freeborn John " 483
Whickham Village 486
The Late Baron Watson 494
John Foster, the Essayist, in Newcastle .. ..495
The Keelmen's Hospital 496
Egglestone Abbey 497
"Shuffle, Darby, Shuffle " 503
Monkwearmouth Church . . 503
The Blackfriars, Newcastle 505
Brass Crosby, Lord Mayor of London 507
Newcastle from Gateshead 511
Lord Collingwood . 512
Our Parish Registers 517,558
The Battle of the Low Lights 519
The Mouth of the Tyne 520
All Saints' Church, Newcastle 521
Ned Corvan ..'., 522
Windmill* 529
Elizabeth Smith, Linguist, &c 535
Tom Taylor, Third Editor of Punch, 542
CONTENTS.
in.
Page,
The Simonside Dwarfs 543
The Walls of Newcastle 545
Macready in the North 547
Memorials at Otterburn 550
The Duddon Valley 553
Mary of Buttermere 556
The Widdrington Family and Estates 559
The Rev. James Murray's " Travels of the Imagina-
tion " .. 563
Pape.
Three Members of the Warbler Family 565
Marsden Rock 567
The Castle of the Seven Shields 567
Longhorsley Tower 568
The Two Pitmen 569
The Historian of Durham 569
Dr. Arnold 571
Lloyd Jones .... 571
Epilogue 576
Page.
Nightingale, Blackcap 5
Golden Warbler 6
Prudhoe Castle 6, 7, 8, 9
Gateway, Prudhoe Castle 8
Oriel Window, Prudhoe Castle ... 9
Arms of the Umfravilles 10
Suuderland Town Hall 16
Newcastle Dispensary 17
Bigg Market, Newcastle 24
Groat Market, Newcastle 25
Micklegate Bar, York 32
The Shambles. York 33
Barbican, Walmgate Bar, York... 33
The Fiddler of York 34
York Minster, from Monk Bar
and Market Place 34
York Minster Towers, from Peter
Gate 36
Kirk Yetholm and Gipsy Encamp-
ment 55
A Bit of Cotherstone 56
The Bell at Stilton 57
Both well Castle, Haddington 64
Nungate Bridge, Haddington 65
Swartbmoor Hall 71
Sunderland Bridge 72
Netberwitton 73, 74, 75, 76
Whittingham 80
St. Mary's Loch 81
Bath Lane Church and Schools ... 85
Pied Flycatcher 87
Spotted Flycatcher 88
Meridan Pillar, Hatnmerfest 91
Snowflake 104
Lapland Bunting 104
Dove Cottage, Grasmere 105
Wooler 112
Doddington Cross 113
Milfield, near Wooler 113
Richmond, Yorkshire 120
Marketplace, Richmond 121
Grey Friars Tower, Richmond ...122
Refreshment Room at Ford 127
Blacksmith's Shop at Ford 128
Ford Bridge 129
Penrith Beacon 134
Terrace Under Castle Wall, Rich-
mond 151
Richmond Castle 152
Swaledale from Willance's Leap... 153
The Convent, Richmond 154
The Kingfisher 160
. TheDipper 161
South Gateway, Bamburgh Castle 166
North Gateway, Bamburgh 166
Entrance to the Keep, Bamburgh. 167
Bamburgh Castle.. i/iW^m
Clock Tower, Bambnrgh .' 170
St. Aidan's Church, Bamburgh ... 171
Fame Islands from Bamburgh .... 172
Aydon Castle 176,177
Garderobe, Aydon Castle 178
Page.
Window at Aydon Castle 179
Tortures Inflicted in Amboyna.... 197
Green head, Birthplace of J. G.
Lough 200
Lough's Statuary, Newcastle 201
Lough's Milo 202
The Pitman Bowler and Pigeon
Fancier 208,209
Corbndge-on-Tyne .. 214, 216
St. Andrew's Church, Corbridge .. 215
Pele Tower, Corbridge 217, 218
Figure at Corbridge 219
The Angel Inn, Corbridge 219
Old House, Corbridge 220
Newbiggin-by-the-Sea 223
St. Bartholomew's Church, New-
biggin 224, 225
Text of Apothecarie's Booke 231
Arctic Redpole, Mealy Redpole... 232
Mountain Linnet 233
New Post Office Buildings, New-
castle 248
New Banking Premises, Newcastle 249
Autograph of William Gray 255
OldTowerand Bridge, Warkworth 256
Woodhorn Church, Northumber-
land 257, 258
Ambleside, Stockghyll Force, and
Old Mill 264
Windermere Lake 265
Cresswell Village and Bay, North-
umberland 272
Churches of By well, Northumber-
land 273
Wood Pigeon, Rock Dove 280
Stock Dove, Turtle Dove 281
The Conyers Falchion 291
The Maddison Monument 294
Levins Hall, Westmoreland 296
The Bumbler Box 297
Culzean Castle 304
AilsaCrag 305,306
Invitation Card to Contributors'
Gathering 312
Bishop's Palace, Bishop Auckland 313
Billy Purvis Stealing the Bundle.. 317
Green Woodpecker 320
Spotted Woodpecker, Great
Spotted Woodpecker 321
Clock Tower, Bellingham Town
Hall 326
Rustic Bridge, Bellingham 327
Bridge over Hareshaw Linn 327
Bellingham 328
St. Cuthbert's Church, Bellingham 329
The CharltonSpur 329
Old Sword of the Charltons 329
'Roman Altar at Binchester 33+
Interior of Keep, Richmond Castle 344
Mitf ord, Northumberland 345
Lilburn Tower, Northumberland.. 352
Lang Jack's Castle 353
Drawing Room, Cragside 360
Page.
Fireplace at Cragside 361
Corncrake 364
Water Rail, Spotted Crake 365
Little Crake 366
ScawfellPike 368
Scawfell 369
Sailing Coach- : 378
Sir John Woodford's House, Der-
wentwater 386
Cleadon Village - 392-3
Weardale Linns .- 400-1
Tynemouth Castle and Cliff, 1779.. 408
Market Place, South Shields 409
The Pitman's Saturday Night ...416-7
Partridge, Red-legged Partridge,
Quail, and Virginian Partridge 424-5
St. Agatha's Abbey, Easby 440
Norman Arch, Easby Abbey ... 441
Whitburn Village 448
Whitburn Church 449
Game Birds : Pheasant), Red
Grouse, Black Grouse 453-4
Roth bury 456-7
Thrum Mill, Rothbury 458
The Pool below Rothbury 459
Whitton Tower, Rothbury 464
Sharpe's Folly 465
The Pillar Rock 472
AiraForoe 473
Weekly Chronicle Cycling Cup 479
Door-case of the Lilburne Mansion 486
Whickham Church 486*
Whickham Village 487, 488, 489
Memorial Stone to Cuthbert How-
stan 490
Keelmen's Hospital, Newcastle ... 496
Egglestone Abbey 497
Monkwearmouth Church 504
Black friars, Newcastle 505
Newcastle from Hillgate 512, 513
The Mouth of the Tyne 520
All Saints' Church, Newcastle ... 521
The Lemming 523
The Gladstone Casket 527
Old Mill 529
Old Mill near North Shields 530
Chimney Mills, Newcastle 530
Windmill at Todd's Nook, New-
castle 531
Matthew Bank Farm, Jesmond ... 531
Cowgate Mill, near Fenham 532
Old Mill, Windmill Hills, Gates-
head 533
Round Mill, near North Shields... 534
Billy Mill, ., ... 534
Spittle Den Mill, Tynemouth .... 535
Burn Hall, co. Durham 536
Scene in Grounds of Burn Hall . 537
St. Nicholas' Steeple .'.. 41
Herber Tower, Newcastle 544
Turret, near St. Andrew's Church,
Newcastle 545
Map and Plan of Otterburn 551
IV.
CONTENTS.
Pa.se.
Battle Stones of Otterburn 552
Bridge at Otterburn 552
Duddon Valley 553
Stella Chapel 561
Page.
Sedge Warbler 565
Grasshopper and Icterine Warb-
lers 566
Marsden Rock 567
Pago.
Lonf*horsley Tower 568
Two Pitmen 569
Wesley Memorial Drinking Foun-
tain 574-
John Fife 31
William Bell Scott 40, 41
Alderman Thomas Hedley 44
R. W. Forsyth 46
Alice Simpkin, Violinist 47
James Uraggs 49
Thomas Forster 59
J. L. Forster 63
Dr. Thomson, late Archbishop of
York 89
Thomas Ironsides 90
George Walton 93
Amelia Ed wards, LL.D 94
William Garret 107
Andrew White, M.F Ill
John Wheldon 131
Joseph Blackett 136
Henry Tennant 137
John iDixon. C.E 140
M<5nie Muriel Dowie 143
Rev. Joseph Rorke 143
Whitworth Waliis 143
Wm. Sidney Gibson 155
Rev. Thomas Gillow 157
Esther Blythe 164
David Blythe 165
Dr. Mandell Creighton 184
Poet Close 185
Aid. Davidson 188
Aid. Dickinson 188
Rev. R. F. Proudfoot, B.A 189
James Horsley 189
E. A. Maund 189
Hon. J. B. Patterson 190
Aid. W. Temple 191
Rev. Blythe Hurst 193
John Graham Lough 199
" January Searle " 210
William Allan ..'. 221
Rev. Richard Gilpin 226
Edward Glynn 228
Prince Napoleon 240
T. M. Greonhow, M.D 252
T. H. Glenny 282
Henry Christie 284
C. Jurgenson 285
P. G. Halvorsen 285
Captain Bentzon 285
Catherine O'Hara 286
Chief-Constable Elliott 286
SirM. E. Grant Duff 287
Earl Percy 287
G. E. T. Smithsou 287
Captain Mackenzie 288
Gilbert Gray 300
George Gray 301
Arthur Rousbey 304
Samuel Reay 325
Sir George Grey 355
Henry Grey, D.D 357
John Harvey 372
Thomas Eyre Macklin 373
Billy Purvis 576, 377
Aid. Henry Nelson 381
Captain Cracknel! 381
Rev. A. D. Jeffery 384
Sir John G. Woodford 386
William Anthony Hails 394
Thomas Y. Hall 397
Aid. T. P. Barka- 398
Fanny Kemble (Mrs. Arkw right). 411
Edward Elliott 413
Jane and Anna Maria Porter 415
John Hodgson 420
Corporal Roscamp 430
Private E. Adams 430
Joseph Reed, jmi 430
Rev. George Harris 443
William Harvey 444
Walter Mavin 458
John W. Brown 463
Isabella Moscrip, aged 102 474
The Duke of Cleveland 477
Prince of Naples 477
W. Howitt 479
Robert Lilburne 486
Thomas Haswell 498
Sir Arthur Hazlerigg 500
Brass Crosby 507
Lord Collingwood 512
Ned Corvan 522
W. E. Gladstone, M.P 527
Elizabeth Smith, Linguist 536
Thomas De Quincey . .. 537
T. E. Headlam . ..538
Dr. Headlam 539
Tom Taylor 542
Lord Widdrington 560
Rev. James Murray . 563
Dr. Arnold . ... 571
W. M. Henzell . ... 573
B. J. Sutherland.. ... 575
Gbronicle
OF
NORTH-COUNTRY*LORE*AND*LEGEND
VOL. V. No. 47.
JANUARY, 1891.
PRICE 6u
$)r*44 (gang in tftc iimrtfrtrn
JHE practice of impressing seamen to man the
Royal Navy commenced in the year 1355,
immediately after England had been deso-
lated from one end to the other by a
noisome pestilence, which had scarcely left a sincfle
country of Europe or Asia free from its ravages, and
which had swept away near a third of the inhabitants
wherever it came, about fifty thousand souls being com-
puted to have perished by it in London alone. It
was the year before Edward, the Black Prince, in-
vaded France, on the expiration of a short truce, and
won the battle of Poictiers, in which the French King
John was taken prisoner. The resources of England
being almost wholly drained, and every effort being
required to man the army and navy, the system of the
press-gang was introduced by royal proclamation.
In every emergency, subsequently to Edward III. 'a
time, impressment was adopted with more or less
rigour. Maitland tells us that, on the morning of
Easter Monday, 1596, during the reign of Queen Eliza-
beth, the Lord Mayor and aldermen of London received
tbe royal command to raise a thousand men with the
utmost expedition, whereupon they repaired with their
deputies, constable?, and other officers, to the churches,
and, having caused the doors to be shut, took the people
during divine service from their worship, till the number
was completed. The men so raised were marched the
same night for Dover. But Elizabeth having got advice
of the reduction of Calais by the Spaniards, the pressed
men returned to London in about a week after their
departure. In King William's time, when the press
were very active during the war with France, the coal
trade is reckoned to have suffered, in increased wages
to seamen only, to the extent of some millions sterling.
For the first three years of the war 9 a voyage was given
to commou seamen, who before sailed for 36s., "which,"
says Postlethwayt, in his huge folio, "Universal Dic-
tionary of Trade and Commerce," "computing the
number of ships and men used in the trade, and of
voyages made, at eight hands to a vessel, does,
moderately accounting, make 896,000 difference in one
year."
Particulars of a few of the more exciting incidents
connected with the operation of the impressment system
in the Northern Counties may now be recorded.
On February 6th, 1755, a smart press for seamen broke
out at Shields, when sixty or seventy able hands were
taken by the Peggy Uoop of war, which lay in a deep
part of the harbour near the Low Lights, ever afterwards
known as "Peggy's Hole." A few days later, there not
being a sufficient number of pressed men secured, the
" volunteer drum " was beat through the streets, offering
a bounty of 3 to each "gentleman seaman " who should
enter his Majesty's service. Next year, war having been
proclaimed against France, another very hot press was
made both at Shields and Newcastle, and several hundred
men were taken.
On the 30th March, 1759, an unfortunate affair hap-
pened at Swalwell. A press-gang went thither in quest
of men, but the inhabitants (Crowley's Crew) gave them
a severe drubbing. Next night the gang returned, and
another scufHe took place. One William Moffat, a
barber, was seized, and Mr. Bell, one of the chief in-
habitants, received fire stabs with a sword in different
parts of his body, in consequence of which he died.
Some others, on both aides, were dangerously wounded,
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
{January
1891.
including the midshipmen who headed the gang.
Moffat made his escape, but a reward of 20 having
been offered for his apprehension, he was arrested at
Whitehaven by a man named Osborn, alias Captain
Death, so nick-named for his performance in singing a
celebrated ditty relating to the captain of the Terrible
privateer, whose servant he had formerly been. Moffat
was lodged in Carlisle gaol, and afterwards brought to
Durham, where he was tried at the assizes in August,
1759, but acquitted.
In the same year (May 14), about thirty impressed
men, on board a tender at Sunderland, forcibly made
their escape. The bravery of their leader was remark-
able. Being hoisted on deck by his followers, he wrested
the halbert from the sentinel on duty, and with one band
defended himself, while with the other he let down a
ladder into the hold for the rest to come up, which they
did, and then overpowered the crew.
The following year (1760), a tender sailed from Shields
with sixty impressed men on board. As soon as she had
got out to sea, the men found means to release them-
selves, and, getting possession of the vessel, took her
into Scarborough and made their escape, leaving the
lieutenant and his men battened down under hatches.
A few years later (1771), the impressed men on board the
Boacawen cutter, lying at Shields, found an opportunity
to overpower the watch on deck, and fifteen of them
escaped. The sentinel, in opposing them, lost three of
his fingers by the stroke of a cutlass, and an officer was
desperately wounded in the head.
On February 12th, 1777, about eight o'clock in the
evening, the impressed men on board the Union tender
at Shields rose upon the crew, took possession of the
ship, and, notwithstanding the fire from the other
tenders and from Clifford's Fort, carried her out to
sea.
A memorable affair occurred at Sunderland on Feb. 13,
1783. The sailors at that port, having got liberty to go
on shore, through the temporary cessation of impressment
at the close of the first American war, resolved to take
summary and condign vengeance on the persons who had
informed against them and their mates while the press-
gang was in active operation. The informers who were
caught were mounted upon stout poles or stangs, and
carried through the principal streets, exposed to the
insults of the populace. The women, in particular,
bedaubed them plentifully with rotten eggs, soap suds,
mud, &c. The drummers of the North York regiment of
Militia (the Black Cuffs), quartered in the town, got
orders to beat to arms, and the soldiers paraded the
streets, which had the effect of clearing them. Amongst
the informers slanged at this time was Jonathan Coates,
of Arras's Lane, Sunderland, commonly known as " Jotty
Coates," who, after undergoing severe punishment on the
etang, reached his home nearly dead. During the night,
he heard a noise, which he supposed to be the infuriated
populace coming after him again, when he crawled into a
narrow space between Arras's and Baines's Lane, where
he died. The popular fury ran so high that his relatives
durst not attempt to bury him in daylight, and his body
lay in his house until late in the evening of the 20th,
when some militiamen carried it to Sunderland Church-
yard, where it was interred without any funeral ceremony.
The register of burials thus records the interment :
"Jonathan Coates, February 20th, 1783."
In February, 1793, the seamen at Shields, Newcastle,
Sunderland, Blyth, and all along the eastern coast,
entered into resolutions to resist any attempt to press
them. On Tuesday, the 19th, they got hold of the press-
gang at North Shields, and, reversing their jackets, as a
mark of contempt, conducted them, accompanied by a
numerous crowd, to Chirton toll-bar, where, dismissing
them, they gave them three cheers, and told them never
again to enter Shields, or they should be torn limb from
limb. On the 18th of the ensuing month, the sailors to
the number of 500 assembled in a riotous manner, armed
with swords, pistols, and other weapons, and made an
attempt to seize the Eleanor tender, in order to rescue the
impressed men on board. But their design was rendered
abortive by the activity of the officers of the impressment
service. The seamen, next day, contemplated going to
Newcastle to break up the head-quarters of the gangj
but, hearing that a strong civil and military force (includ-
ing the Dragoons and North York Militia) were ready to
receive them, they dispersed, after having treated one
George Forster, a member of the gang, with the utmost
cruelty at Howdon Pans. On the 26th April, most
extraordinary preparations for impressing were made by
the crews of the armed vessels lying in Shields harbour
That night, the regiment lying at Tynemouth barracks
was drawn up, and formed into a cordon round North
Shields, to prevent any person from escaping. The
different press-gangs then began their rounds, when
sailors, mechanics, labourers, and men of every descrip-
tion, to the number of about two hundred and fifty, were
forced on board the armed ships.
It would be tedious to describe, or even enumerate, the
various press-gang riots, similar to the above, which took
place on the Tyne and Wear almost every season down to
the peace of Amiens. After the resumption of hostilities
in 1803, the like scenes began again to be acted. The coal
trade was constantly being thrown out of gear, so to
speak, through the best men on board the colliers being
dragged away, and the keelmen likewise forcibly pounced
upon. In the month of April, 1804, a young seaman,
named Stoddart, being pursued by the press gang down
the Broad Chare, Newcastle, jumped into the Tyne to
escape, and was drowned in attempting to swim across
to Gateshead.
Where brute force would have failed or been out of
place, all sorts of discreditable arts were tried by the
press-gang. Jonathan Martin, the man who set fire to
January \
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
York Minster, relates, in bis autobiography, how he was
inveigled by one of the gang. He says :
In my twenty-second year (1804), I removed to London,
my mind being intent on travelling to foreign countries.
One day, while viewing the Monument, a man accosted
me, perceiving that f was a stranger in town, and
inquired if I wanted a situation. I informed him of my
desire to go abroad. He said he could suit me exactly, as
a gentleman of his acquaintance had a son on board a
frigate on the Indian station, who wanted a person of my
description, and that he would give me 32s. a week,
besides my chance of prize money, which he assured me
would I e great. I agreed to go as a substitute for this
man, unconscious that I was in the hands ot the press-
gang ; but I was soon undeceived by my pretended friend
lodging me in the rendezvous, where I remained until I
was removed on board the Enterprise, with a number of
other impressed men. When I came to be sworn in, I
found myself on a footing with tbe rest of my unfortunate
companions.
Strange incidents occasionally took place in connection
with the press system. In 1813 (February 18) a sailor
named Bell, belonging to the Close, Newcastle, was
impressed, and safely lodged in the house of rendezvous.
In the evening, his sister, a young woman under twenty,
formed the resolution of attempting his rescue, and, for
that purpose, went to take a "long farewell" of her
brother, who was to be sent to the tender in the morning.
She was readily admitted to an interview, but, in order to
prevent the possibility of escape, brother and sister were
bolted and barred, for a few minutes, in a room by them-
selves. During this short space, they managed to
exchange clothes, and, on the door being opened, the
young man, "snivelling and piping his eye, "walked off
unmolested in female attire, while his sister remained to
fill the situation of a British tar. "It would be diffi-
cult," says a writer in the European Magazine, who tells
the story, " to describe the rage and disappointment of
the gang on discovering how they had been duped ; and
crowds of persons went to see the heroine, who received
several pounds from the spectators as a reward for her
intrepidity and affection. She was soon restored to her
liberty by order of the magistrates."
The head-quarters of the gang in Newcastle were at the
Plough Inn, in Spicer Lane, where a room down the yard
was the "press room." The gang was at one time com-
manded by Lieut. Frazer, two midshipmen, a man named
Corby, and another named Richardson. Both the latter
had been in the coasting trade before the war, and subsided
into river pilots after its close. One of them was years
afterwards " tyler " of a Freemasons' Lodge, and, falling
into reduced circumstances, found no small difficulty in
obtaining the usual benevolence of the brethren in con-
sequence of his past misdeeds.
The " regulating room " was in that part of the Low
Street of North Shields called Bell Street, near the
"Wooden Dolly," on the Custom House Quay. The
"regulating captain" was one Charlton, who had under
him a lieutenant, named Flynn, and two midshipmen,
named Fidler and Bell. Two tenders, the Eliza and the
Lyra, took their turns on the station in "Peggy's Hole,"
to carry off the sweepings of the gang one of whom, by
the bye, was a one-legged man, named Harry Swallow-
to the Lemio, the guard-ship at the Nore.
We are indebted to a well-informed writer, whose
article appeared in tbe Newcastle Weekly Chronicle several
years ago, for the following particulars, which seem neces-
sary to complete our present sketch :
Besides the regular gang, there was a small knot of
amateur spies and informers, who travelled the country
for miles round, tracking the sailors to Morpeth and other
inland parts, if they sought shelter with their friends
from forcible abduction. These vagabond auxiliaries of
the gang, skilful to recognise the sailor's roll through the
disguises of long-tailed coats, leather aprons, drab gaiters,
and other vain subterfuges, represented themselves to be
in biding, lured the sailors to their own dwellings, and
then gave secret information to the gang. It fared ill
sometimes with these gentry when they were found out.
On one of these occasions, in the year 1812, a spy, who
repaired to tbe regulating room at Shields to receive the
head money for the men be bad betrayed, was smuggled
down a trap-door leading on to the shore, but was recog-
nised and followed. He soon fled for his life, with a mob
of sailors and keelmen at bis heels, up the Low Street, and
took shelter in a house in Bartleman's Bank. The door
was broken open, and he was thrown down, like a fox
to a pack of hungry hounds, but doubled on his pursuers,
who followed him full cry till he was run to earth in the
hothouse in Squire Collingwood's gardens at Cbirton.
Scourged with whin bushes, he was made to run the
gantefope to the Low Lights. Tradesmen put up their
shutters, and the peaceable inhabitants shrunk within
doors, for tbe disturbance had assumed the dimensions of
a riot. Opposite the tender the mob gave three hearty
cheers to let tbe imprisoned seamen know what was being
enacted. The men, battened under hatches, by way of
response, " sallied " the tender till she rolled almost gun-
wale under, and the officer on board ordered the armed
crew to tire into tbe hold upon the unarmed men if they
did not desist. Under these threats something like order
was restored. The spy was rescued from the bands of his
tormentors by a rush of the friends of peace who came to
the assistance of the two constables, then the whole civil
force of North Shields, and he was dragged, panting,
bleeding, mud-bedraggled, wounded, and half-dead, into
tbe Northumberland Arms, to limp home under the cloud
of night, and resume his honest labours for the public
good. In 1815 he had another narrow escape for his life.
At Low Heaton Haugh, then called "Dunny's Green,"
he was tarred and feathered, beaten by the women who
put stones in their stockings for the purpose and. he
owed his life to the forbearance of the men he bad
betrayed, who rescued him from his more merciless tor-
mentors of tbe other sex.
The press-gang drove many thousands of active, able-
bodied British seamen into the American merchant navy
as well as sent them a-privateering against their fellow-
countrymen in tbe last American War. Indeed, that war
was partly caused by the wanton exercise of the right of
search claimed by the British Government, whose officers
were accused of taking naturalised American citizens out
of American vessels, on the ground that they were his
Majesty's born subjects, and pressing them into King
George's service. On the other hand, it was no uncommon
thing for British seamen, captured by the enemy, to
recognise old shipmates in the masters and sailors
by whom they were made prisoners. Under this abomin-
able system, it was estimated that there were at least
forty thousand British seamen, in tbe year 1812, navi-
gating merchant ships in neutral vessels under cover of
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
ts*
\ i
American protections. That was when the whole tonnage
of the United Kingdom iu the merchant and transport
service employed only about 120,000 men.
Impressment, as may be inferred from what we have
said, laid its unsparing hands upon useless landsmen as
well as upon seamen ; and, notwithstanding the fact that
they were always inefficient, it continued to be the prac-
tice, so long as the system lasted, to receive on board his
Majesty's ships any landsmen whom the gang could pick
up, if they were not physically disqualified. Lord
Collingwood, who deservedly earned the honourable title
of the Sailors' Friend, was ever adverse to impressment,
which he was of opinion might be dispensed with, even in
war time. Soon after the Mutiny of the Nore, he laid a
plan before the Admiralty for recruiting the navy by
raising yearly several thousand boys, whom he would
have had taught and prepared in ships of the line before
they were sent into smaller vessels. But, like many
other excellent schemes of the kind, it was never carried
into effect, though the modern training ships, such as the
Wellesley, may be called a modification of it.
The system of impressment has not been put in force
for many years now, nor is it likely that it will ever be
revived.
JlUCH interest has from time to time been
excited in the origin and meaning of a couplet
^_^_ that is well-known on the banks of the Tyne.
It has recently been revived by a correspondence which
has taken place in the Newcastle Weekly Chronicle. The
lines run thus :
The Black Cock of Whickham, he never ran away,
But once on the Sunday, and twice every day.
One writer explains that the " black cock " was a
certain rector who, being too fond of his glass, often ran
away from his duties, while another asserts that the term
was appliud to Charles Attwood, the celebrated politician,
whose career has been sketched in the Monthly Chronicle
for 1888, p. 56. But Mr. William Bourn writes from
Whickham : .
The couplet has been applied not only to Charles
Attwood, but to any celebrity, and especially to runners,
rowers, and bowlers, that either were trained in or
belonged to Whickham. When the lines were composed,
I am not prepared to say. They have been repeated for
at least 150 years, old people now living having heard
them sung by'their grandfathers.
Why the couplet was written may be more easily
explained. Cock-fighting was once a favourite sport
of the nobility and gentry in the neighbourhood, as
well as of the keelmen and pitmen. There is an entry
made in the books at Gibside of Sir J. Bowes engaging
workmen to make eight cock-pits at Whickham, one of
which and I believe the last has lately been filled up at
Windy Hill, about a mile out of the village. There was
another famous cock-pit at Dunston Hill, and one on the
site where the Swalwell Station in built. The last vestige
of the brutal sport has now disappeared from the village.
There were several famous breeds of cocks. One of them
belonged to Sir J. Bowes, being white with yellow backs.
Another belonged to Sir H. Liddell, white with " brass
wings. There was also a breed of black cocks, lo whom
it belonged I am unable to ascertain. But undoubtedly
it was one of this famous breed which has obtained for
itself such a world-wide reputation for courage and
endurance. It must have lived two centuries ago, and
hence the guesses about the origin of the lines.
The tune sung and played to the couplet repeated is, 1
believe, strictly local, and rather inspiring. By reason of
the roving habits of North-Countrymen, it is known m
nearly all our colonies. A friend of mine who had been
in Australia informed me that he was both startled and
pleased on one occasion, when he and others were trans-
acting business in the bush among the wilds of that
country, to hear the tune played by a fiddler. It turned
out that the player was a Sunderland man who had gone
to make his fortune as a goldfinder, and had taken his
fiddle with him.
Mr. John Stokoe, of South Shields, the compiler of the
"North-Country Garland of Song," agrees with Mr.
Bourn as to the improbability of a song having ever been
sung to the tune, which is essentially a fiddlers' tune.
The intervals, he says, show it to be of the usual type of
reels, possessing all the best characteristics of the " reel
rhythm," although he has never seen it in any collection
of reels printed north of the Tweed. Mr. Stokoe adds :
When the Antio.uarian Society of Newcastle began in
1857 to collect the'melodies and ballads of Northumuria,
the committee made a close search for the songs of which
only scraps of words were known, such as " Shew's the
Way to Wallington," "Sir John Fenwick's the Flower
AmangTbem," "Fenwick of Bywell," "The Black Cock
of Whickham," &c., &c. ; and I regret to say in few in-
stances only were they successful, failing altogether in
the four I have named.
The tune subjoined is taken from "Northumbrian
Minstrelsy," published in 1882, edited by Mr. Stokoe and
the Rev. J. Collingwood Bruce, LL.D.
THE BLACK COCK OF WHICKHAM.
January!
1891. /
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGSND.
Eft* $f afttiicgtrl* antt atfter
^CORDING to Morris, the nightingale
(Sylvia luscinia) is found in Italy, France,
Spain, and Greece, and the more temperate
parts of Siberia, Sweden, Holland, Den-
mark, Germany, and Russia. It is known also in Asia.
Asia Minor, and Syria, and in Egypt, along the Nile,
Nightingales are plentiful in England. They have been
seen in the neighbourhood of Doncaster, and near York,
at Skelton, about five miles north of the ancient city ; near
Beverley, Barnsley, Leeds, and Sheffield ; Cumberland, as
far north as Carlisle. Woods, groves, plantations, and
copses are the niehtingale's favourite resort, but it is also
found in gardens, even in the neighbourhood of London,
and also among thick hedges in shady and sheltered
situations.
Nightingales feed on insects of various sorts, including
spiders and earwigs. The young are fed principally with
caterpillars. Male : Weight about six drachms ; length,
six inches and three-quarters. The upper bill is blackish
brown, with a tinge of red ; the lower one is pale
yellowish, and dusky brown at the tip ; iris, dark brown ;
the feathers of the eyelids brownish white ; head, crown,
neck on the back, and nape, uniform dull chestnut
brown ; chin and throat, dull greyish white ; breast, pale
greyish brown, but lighter lower down ; back, reddish
brown, varying considerably in different individuals, some
being more red and others more grey. The wings, of
eighteen quills, have the first quill feather very short;
the second equal in length to the fifth ; the third the
longest ; the fourth almost as long. They extend to the
width of ten inches and a half ; primaries, secondaries,
and tertiaries, reddish brown ; the inner webs dusky
brown. The tail, which reaches an inch and a Quarter
beyond the closed wings, is rufous brown, and rather
rounded at the end. It is straight and rather long ; the
feathers rather broad. Under tail coverts dull yellowish
white. The female resembles the male, but is rather less
in size.
The nest is generally placed on the ground in some
natural hollow in the roots of a tree, on a bank, or at the
foot of a hedgerow.
The blackcap warbler (Sylvia atricaptila) is a spring
and autumn migrant. It is such a fine songster that it
is sometimes called the mock nightingale. It must not,
however, be confounded with the black-headed bunting.
"This charming songster," says Mr. Hancock, "is found
in all our denes and thickets where there is a dense
growth of underwood or scrub, formed by the blackthorn,
bramble, rose, and honeysuckle. Here it constructs its
nest, and finds the seclusion in which it delights. It
arrives in April and leaves us in September, and at that
time may be met with on the coast. Individuals, how-
ever, winter in the district. Mr. Dale, of Brancepeth,
Durham, shot a male on the 15th December, 1848, in his
garden, where it was feeding on the berries of the privet;
and about two years afterwards the same gentleman
killed a female, likewise in December, and near the same
place." The Rev. J. G. Wood waxes eloquent in speak-
ing of the song of this bird, which, in some respects, he
rates even higher than that of the nightingale. "With
the exception of the nightingale," he remarks, "the
blackcap warbler is the sweetest and richest of all the
British song-birds, and in many points the voice of the
blackcap is even superior to that of the far-famed
Philomel."
The male bird averages from five to six inches in
length, sometimes a little more. The bill is dusky-hued ;
and the crown of the head, or "cap, "is black, slightly
flecked with a lighter tinge. The chin and root of the
bill to the gape is yellowish orange up to the eye, and
merges into a bluish-grey patch which runs to the
shoulder ; iris, dark brown. The back is brownish ash-
coloured, the wing coverts being darker and edged with
black. The throat, breast, and under parts are ash-
coloured, with a tinge of grey beneath. The tail, grey
beneath, is coloured above like the wings, rather long.
6
MONTHLY CHRONICLE
I Januar j
\ 1891.
and square at the end. The female resembles the male,
but her plumage gent-rally bos a more brownish tinge.
She is a trifle larger, or rather longer, than her mate, and
her cap, unlike that of the male, is reddish brown.
The food of the blackcap warbler in summer is chiefly
insects and caterpillars, but it is also fond of garden fruit
and wild berries. On a sunny summer's afternoon it may
often be seen fluttering about the trunks of trees, picking
off the metallic-hued flies which love to bask on the warm
boles. Often the bird catches flies on the wing by a rapid
dart from some low branch.
The garden warbler (Sylvia hortenaisj is a spring and
autumn migrant. "This warbler," says Mr. Hancock,
" takes up its residence, during its summer sojourn with
us, in sequestered localities similar to those chosen by its
rival in song, the blackcap. The nest and eggs of the two
species are very similar ; and their song is so very much
alike that it is very difficult to distinguish them." The
bird arrives in this country about April, and leaves early
in September.
The male bird is about six inches long. The bill
is dusky brown, the base and edges of the lower man-
dible yellow, and the inside of the mouth a bright orange.
The iris of the eye is dark brown, with a small speck of
white. The crown of the head and the upper part of the
back are greyish brown, the plumage down to the root of
the tail, above, being of a lighter tinge, with a dash of
olive. The wings and tail arc nearly the same colour as
the head and upper part of the back. The neck on the
sides is brownish grey ; chin and throat, yellowish white,
the lower and upper parts tinged with reddish brown, as
are the sides; the remainder yellowish white, almost
white below. The tail is straight and slightly rounded at
the end ; and the toes and claws are greyish brown. The
female closely resembles the male in size and appearance,
but is rather lighter coloured in plumage above, and
greyer below.
The nest is sometimes placed among nettles, on which
account the bird is often called the nettle creeper.
antt tftr
Wmfvabilltti.
pRUDHOE, from Proud Hoe, the proud hill,
or Prut How, the swelling mound, is a
prosperous mining village on the south
bank of the Tyne, some nine miles or BO
west of Newcastle. The river at this place begins to
show traces of that beauty which, higher up, at Stocks-
field and Riding Mill, renders the Tyne one of the most
January!
1891. /
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
charming of North-Country streams. On the north bank,
the picturesque village of Ovingham, in which parish
Prudhoe is situated, nestles amongst its trees, the tower
of its ancient church being a rare feature in the land-
scape. On a stately mount between the river and the
village of Prudhoe stands the fine old castle of the Umfra-
villes. Lon^ has it been in ruins, though to-day the
modern mason has been at his patchwork, building up
a nineteenth century dwelling-house, as well as he
could, in the midst of mouldering, tottering walls.
The first of the Umfraville family who came into
Northumberland was a companion of William the
Conqueror Robert cum Barba, Robert with the Beard.
To him the barony of Prudhoe was granted for the
honourable service of defending the country against
wolves and the King's enemies with the sword which
William himself wore when he entered Northumbria.
The old barony extended to Harlow and Welton
in the parish of Ovingham, Inghoe in the parish of
Stamfordham, Chipchase and Birtley in the parish of
Chollerton, Little Bavington right away in the parish
of Throckington, even to Capheaton and Harle and
Kirkwhelpington in the parish of Whelpington, and
also included the manor and chapelry of Little Heaton,
or Kirk Heaton.
Do yon ask what the Urufravilles did to entitle them
to fame? They did what others did in the times in
which they lived ; helped the Norman kings and barons
to rul England, no easy task at that time ; fought in
their wars, took part in the lone Border struggles with
the Scots, and worked to re-make Northumberland after
it had been almost, what with Danes, what with Nor-
mans, and what with Scots, blotted out. He who
built the oldest portion of the castle of Prudhoe,
Odenel de Umfraville, was one of the chief supporters of
Henry II. against the aggressions of the Scots. When it
was built, not without much sweating and wearing of bones
and muscle* on the part of the peasantry on the estates,
Odenel defended it, like the noble soldier that he was,
against the army brought by William the Lion, in 1174,
to devastate England. In that invasion his own castle of
Harbottle was taken by the Scottish King, the castle of
Warkworth was captured and destroyed, and Carlisle and
Werk were surrendered. At Newcastle the Lion King
was repulsed, and then betook himself to Prudhoe, but
there again his attempt was frustrated, and he was
afterwards surprised and taken prisoner with some of his
attendants at Alnwick. Jordan Fantosme, in his metrical
chronicle, tells us that Prudhoe was admirably defended.
Odenel de Umfraville, fearing the garrison too weak to
hold the castle, rode away on horseback day and night
tillJie succeeded in getting together four hundred knights
to help him. After three days' continual assault, the
Scots, who had made no impression whatever on the
defenders, abandoned the siege, having first, in their dis-
appointment and chagrin at not being able to do more
damage, ravaged the gardens, the cornfields, and the
goodly orchard, in which they barked all the apple
trees. Fine sport this for the noble warriors of a king's
army \
Richard de Umfraville, who died in the eleventh year of
the reign of Henry III., having lived all through King
John's reign, was engaged in the chief transactions in the
North during the whole of his life, and took a prominent
DISTANT VIEW OF PRUDHOE CASTLE.
8
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
/January
1891.
part in resisting the usurpation and exactions of that
monarch. Richard was, too, a companion of Coeur da
Lion in the East, and we learn from Harding that, when
the King had concluded a three years' truce with
Saladin, "home he went"
And of Acres he made then captain
The Baron bold Sir Kichard Umfraville.
Richard's son, Gilbert, although nothing has come
down to us of his deeds, is highly extolled by the
chronicler, Matthew Paris, who terms him " the
illustrious baron, the defender of the North, and the
flower of chivalry." His son, also Gilbert, was made
Earl of Angus under peculiar circumstances by Edward I.
He was first styled Earl of Angus in a charter granting
him a market at Overton, on his Rutlandshire estate, in
the fifty-first year of Henry III. But he was not sum-
moned to Parliament under this title till the fifth year of
Edward I., and, yet, several times later, be is sum-
moned, not as Earl of Angus, but as Gilbert de
Umfraville.
Gilbert, the third Earl of Angus, married Matild* de
Lucy, an heiress, who had as her second husband Henry
de Percy, Earl of Northumberland, to whom she brought,
besides her other great possessions, the castles of Cocker-
mouth, Warkworth, and Prudhoe. These estates were
settled on the Earl of Northumberland on condition of his
quartering the arms of Lucy namely, gules, three lucies
argent with the Percy bearings of or, a lion rampant,
azure, in all shields, banners, and coats-of-arms, as may
now be seen. Thenceforth Prudhoe shared the for-
tunes of the Percies, and by them was later to be
held rebelliously against the Crown. The aged Earl
of Northumberland and his son, the gallant Hotspur,
who considered themselves chiefly instrumental in placing
Henry IV. on the throne, became dissatisfied with that
monarch's wretched administration, and rebuked the
king and his council for their want of consideration of the
Percies, to whom they were so indebted for their ser-
vices on the Scottish marches, and to whom the
king himself was under considerable pecuniary obliga-
tions. Their reasonable appeals being slighted, the
Percies took part with Owen Glendower in his Welsh
outbreak. The fiery Hotspur perished at Shrewsbury,
and the Earl of Northumberland was obliged to take
refuge across the Border, whence he made various raids
and ineffectual attempts to create insurrections. The
earl was finally killed at Bramham Moor, his body being
quartered and exposed at Lincoln, York. Newcastle, and
January \
1891. /
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
9
Berwick. Meantime, Henry personally besieged Wark-
worth, and Prudhoe and Alnwick were compelled to sur-
render. The castle and barony of Frudhoe, with the
rest of their estates, were forfeited, but were afterwards
restored to the Percies, who, with slight breaks, have
ever since retained them.
During the Wars of the Roses, the castle of Prudhoe
'
.y v ! - -I Y ..<. ,
was kept in a state of fortification, but there is no note-
worthy incident connected with it. After the accession
of the Tudor line, it was neglected, and allowed to fall
into decay. Lodge says it was tenanted in 1557
by Henry Percy, brother of Thomas, Earl of North-
umberland ; but two years later it is described as
"old and ruinous, being walled about, and
in form not much unlike a shield hanging
with one point upwards, situate upon a
high moate of earth, with high ditches in
some places, all wrought with man's hand
as it seemeth, and is of cement, all the scite
of it, with, as it seemeth, a little garden
plat, and the bankes, by estimatcion, sc. iii
acres. There is within the scite, and
without the walls, an elder chapell, which
hath been very fair, and covered with
slate."
Prudhoe Castle is entered from the
south-west by a strong gateway and barbi-
can, which latter is assumed, from the
character of the masonry, to be the latest
portion of the structure. From marks OK
the stones it is estimated that it was built
at the close of the reign of Edward I.
by Gilbert de Umfraville, second Earl of
Angus, or by his nephew, third earl ;
and it is conjectured, according to these
same stone marks, that the workmen who
built it laboured also in a similar capacity
at Dunstanburgh and Alnwick. At the
time when the barbican was built, the
upper chamber in the gateway tower was converted
into a chapel, which, it is worthy of note, contains
the first oriel window that was ever made in England.
Various theories have been propounded to account for
this notable departure, some averring that the room
was not large enough to contain an altar, and
consequently a portion of the building was carried out
on corbels to give the requisite space. But the most likely
way of accounting for it is one given by Mr. Cadwallader
J. Bates, who knows perhaps more about the old North-
umbrian castles than anybody living. He thinks that,
the topmost storey, above the chapel, being used as a
sleeping apartment, probably by the priest, and it being
against all practice to have any inhabited structure above
the altar, this oriel window was carried out beyond the
walls of the gateway, so that nothing especially no such
thing as a bedroom should intervene between the most
sacred part of the chapel and the vault of heaven.
Another notable feature in the architecture of the gate-
way is the purity of moulding in the very fine double corbels
at the base of the inside arch. Moreover, except in the
Cathedral at Durham, it is uncommon to find two heads,
as here, side by side, in a corbel. The outer and inner gate-
ways, connected by strong walls, werejn ruins as early as
in Queen Elizabeth's time, but they are believed to have
carried a covered way. The interior of the castle walls
is an indeterminate ruin, a conglomeration of crumbling
towers, of which the noblest are the remains of the grand
old keep, which still overtops all the other buildings.
Hutchinson, who has accurately described Prudhoe
10
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
f January
( 189).
Castle as be saw it, says : "The first gateway is formed
by a circular arch ; and by the fragments and broken
walls it evidently appears that it was originally flanked
with various outworks, and had a tower. This gate gives
admittance to a covered way, leading to the inner gate,
about 30 paces in length. There is a sallyport opening on
each side to flank the walls and defend the ditch. There
is no appearance of a portcullis in either gateway. The
second gateway is also formed by a circular arch, above
which is a high tower, the windows showing that it
contained three tiers of apartments. A lattice or open
gate still remains jointed with studs of iron. The roof of
the gateway is arched in semi-circles, with an aperture in
the centre from whence those in the upper chamber might
annoy an enemy who bad forced the gate. From thence
you enter an area, now so blocked up by the buildings of
a farm-yard and tenement that it is not possible to form
any idea of its original magnitude, though it appears by
the other parts that an open area had surrounded the
great tower, which does not show any remains of com-
munication with the outworks, but seems to have stood
apart on an eminence in the centre. The outward wall
was defended on the angle to the south-west by a large
square bastion with loopholes ; to the north-west by a
circular tower containing several tiers of low chambers,
singular in their form and height. The inhabitants
could not have stood erect in them at the time of defence.
Towards the river, and northward, the wall is guarded
by several small square bastions, and towards the south-
east a small mount, placed within the walls, overlooks the
ditch which guards the southern side and terminates at
he brink of the cliffs. The large tower is in ruins, only
the southern wall now standing, and not one bastion
remains entire, they being all in ruins towards the area.
A passage runs in the centre of the wall from bastion to
bastion. Steps ascend in several places from the area to
the top of the wall, which is broad enough to allow the
trmed men of the garrison to pass each other, covered
with a parapet."
After Mr. Hutchinson's time, the structure suffered con-
siderable dilapidations, and part of the main tower tumbled
down ; but the Duke of Northumberland subsequently
put the whole in a state of repair, and adopted measures
to preserve the remains. Apartments were also built
within the area of the castle, but in a most wretched
taste, quite out of keeping with the venerable walls, for
the accommodation of a resident steward.
The older parts of the castle were probably erected
during the reigns of Stephen and Henry II., when so
many other baronial fortresses were built. The barbican
and chapel are said to belong to the reign of Edward I. or
the early part of that of his unhappy successor ; but the
lancet windows must have been put in subsequently.
From an inquisition held in the 18th year of King
Edward II. it appears that Robert de Umfraville held on
the day of his death, sixteen years before, the castle and
manor of Frudhoe, with an orchard belonging to the
manor. The castle and orchard were worth 1 per
annum in times of peace, but worth nothing then, on
account of the destructions of the Scots and the poverty
of the country. The pigeon-house was worth one shilling
per annum in times of peace, then nothing, for the
pigeons were destroyed. One hundred and twenty acres
of land in demesne was worth sixpence per acre per
annum in times of peace, then nothing, for they lay waste
in the lord's hands for want of tenants. Six acres of
meadow were worth in times of peace sixpence per acre
per annum, then twopence. And five bondages, each
containing a toft and sixteen acres ot land, were then
worth nothing per annum, for want of tenants. This
gives us a curious insight into the state of the North of
England six hundred years ago.
The arms of the Umfravilles are : Gules, a cinquefoil
within an orle of crosses palonce or. The crest is : Out of
a mural coronet gules, a griffin's head issuant, ermine.
The coat of arms may be seen sculptured on the battle-
tfrafiwille.
ment of the south front of the walls of the Eladon
parsonage one of the most interesting buildings in
the county. These arms are, as Hodgson conjectures,
those of Sir Robert Taylboys, who was descended from a
branch of the Umfravilles. The inscription below the
arms is R. D. Rede, which, being interpreted, signifies,
Robertus Dominus de Rede, or, BS the vulgar tongue hath
it, Robert, Lord of Rede. It may, however, refer either
to Sir Robert Taylboys, as stated above, or to Sir Robert
Umfraville, who died in 1436, shortly after some important
repairs had been made to Elsdon Castle. It may not
be out of the way to draw attention to the similarity of
these arms of the Umfravilles to those of the Umfrevilles of
Langham, in Essex, and no doubt the latter are a branch
of the same Norman family that came over with the
Conqueror. They are : Gules, an orle of crosses flory,
and cinqfoil or ; and the crest is an eagle's head coupt
(couped) p'per (proper) out of a ducal crowu or.
January
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
11
ffitn at itfarfc '
SSelforl).
foh.it /munch, /..&.,
ATTORNEY AND ANTIQUARY.
SEVERAL members of the race of Fenwick
have become at various times citizens of
Newcastle ; a few of them have achieved
. _ distinction in the public life of the town.
Nicholas Fenwick, to whom Ambrose Barnes surrendered
his alderman's gown, and Vicar March dedicated his
sermon, "The False Prophet Unmasked," filled the office
of Sheriff in the municipal year 1678-79, and was Mayor
in 1682-83 and 1697-98. Robert Fenwick became Mayor
in 1708. Nicholas Fenwick (2) obtained the shrievalty in
1713, and was five times Mayor-1720-21, 1726-27. 1736-37,
1746-47, and 1747-48. He contested the borough as Par-
liamentary candidate on three successive occasions (1727,
1734, and 1741), and in each instance wat successful. His
town residence was the mansion in Pilgrim Street, after-
wards converted into the Queen's Head Inn, and now the
home of the Liberal Club; his country seat was at
Lemington, near Alnwick, where he distinguished him-
self in forestry, for which he was honoured with the gold
medal of the Society of Arts. Cuthbert Fenwick.
passing through the shrievalty in 1719-20, filled the office
of chief magistrate in 1727-28, and 1739-40. William
Fenwick was sheriff in 1732, and John Fenwick was
elected an alderman in 1836.
John Fenwick, the last of the series, attorney-at-law,
known to his contemporaries as "John the Baptist,"
claimed descent from the historical family at Wallington,
through one Ambrose Fenwick, who, he asserted, was a
son of Sir William Fenwick, of Wallington, and therefore
brother, or half-brother, to Sir William Fenwick, of
Meldon, whose mother (Sir William of Wellington's
second wife) was the famous Meg of Meldon. It is to be
observed that no such person as this Ambrose occurs in
Hodgson's elaborate genealogies of the Fenwicks, and if
Mr. Fenwick's claim be well founded, it must be assumed
that Mr. Hodgson overlooked him. To whom Ambrose
Fenwick was married does not appear, but it is stated
that the Rev. Edward Fenwick, Vicar of Stamfordham,
in the reign of William and Mary, was his immediate
descendant. From that point all is clear. There was a
Rev. Edward Fenwick, who succeeded Ralph Fenwick,
A.M., in the living of Stamfordham about the end of
Charles the First's reign, and hnld the appointment for
many years. He married in May, 1685, a daughter of
Sir Francis Liddell, of Redheugh, who is supposed to
have been the Sheriff of Newcastle in 1640, and the
Mayor of that town in 1654.
Upon the death of Sir Francis, the Rev. Edward
Fenwick, in right of his wife, became possessed of
Redheugh, and having two sons destined for the Church
he exchanged that property with his " relative," the Earl
of Derwentwater, for the advowson of Simonburn, one of
the richest rectories in the diocese. The earl had
married Catherine, one of the daughters of Sir William
Fenwick, of Meldon, and would, therefore, if Ambrose
were a brother or a half-brother of Sir William, bp a near
relative indeed. His lordship entered at once into
possession of Redheugh, for the occupant of the rectory
of Simonburn was over ninety years of age, and it was
supposed that no great delay would occur in effecting a
complete interchange. But almost directly after the
transaction had been arranged, the Rebellion of 1715
broke out. Lord Derwentwater, as is well known, was
one of the leaders in the insurrection, was attainted a
rebel, and all his property became forfeit to the Crown.
Thus the Rev. Edward Fenwick found himself deprived
of his wife's estate, and shut out of Simonburn, through
110 fault of his own truly a hard case.
Pending suits against the Government for the restitu-
tion of one or the other of these properties (which were
resisted on the ground that the exchange was simoniacal),
in December, 1730, the baffled clergyman died, leaving to
his two clerical sons but a poor inheritance. The elder of
them, Ambrose, had succeeded to the living of Stamford-
ham on the resignation of his father in 1719; the
other son, Edward, had been inducted vicar of
Kirkwhelpington in 1720. Ambrose married Elizabeth,
daughter of Mr. Bradley, attorney, at Gateshead, and
died childless in 1732. Edward thereupon embarked in a
new suit to oust the mominee of the Crown from Simon-
burn, and, being unsuccessful, died 'heartbroken in
July, 1734, leaving a widow, two sons, and six
daughters in comparative poverty. Edward, his eldest
son, was brought up by Mr. Fenwick, of Bywell, and
designed for holy orders, but preferring a trade,
he was bound apprentice to Mr. Toppin, a saddler,
at Hexham. Subsequently he entered the army, and
died abroad. His eldest son, also named Edward,
was befriended by Sir Walter Blackett, who, it is said,
believing him to be entitled to the estates of the cele-
brated Dorothy Windsor, took possession of one of them
in the name of the infant, and, being ejected, secured a
sum of money for the youth, which was paid over to him
when he had served his time at Hexham to his father's
business of a saddler. This Edward Fenwick married
Mary, daughter of John Shield, of Catton, and became
the father of John Fenwick, attorney, the subject of the
present article.
John Fenwick was born at Hexham, April 14, 1787.
His father intended him to follow the sea, towards which
he had a boyish predilection, and with that view he was
taught navigation by George Brown, a local mathema-
tician, for many years editor of the " Newcastle Tide
Tables." At the age of fourteen he went as cabin boy in
12
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
r January
a Shields vessel, stayed long enough to be promoted to
the cook's galley, and then, conceiving a disgust at his
surroundings, returned home and was articled to a New-
castle attorney. On the 9th of June, 1814, he married
Ann, youngest daughter of Abram Rumney, head master
of Alnwick Grammar School, and began to make his way
in the town. The first number of Mr. Joseph Clark's
Northumberland and Newcastle Monthly Magazine
(January, 1818) contains an article from his pen, dated
"Shield Field, November 20, 1817," introducing a case
relating to the practice of the Mayor and Sheriff's Court,
in Newcastle the publication of which extended over
several subsequent issues, and was supposed to correct
some errors into which Wallis in his "History of North-
umberland," and the Rev. John Hodgson in the "Picture
of Newcastle," had unwittingly fallen. Before long Mr.
Fenwick had become connected with the public life of
Newcastle in many different directions. A staunch and
argumentative Baptist, he interested himself in most of
the leading Nonconformist movements of the day, while,
as an evangelical dissenter, he co-operated with members
of other denominations in promoting general schemes of
piety and benevolence. Among these latter may be
noted the providing of a cemetery for the interment of
Nonconformists at the junction of Elswick Lane with
Arthur's Hill a project that received its first impulse
from a speech which he delivered in Newcastle in 1825,
and afterwards published as a pamphlet.
Moving thus actively in public matters, he became in
time local treasurer to the Baptist Missionary Society,
the Religious Tract Society, and the Newcastle Benevo-
lent Society, and a member of the managing committees
of the local Indigent and Sick Society, the Sunday School
Union, the Bible Society, the Bethel Union, the Anti-
Slavery Society, and kindred organisations. A founder
and active promoter of the Newcastle and Gateshead
Law Society, he was honoured by election to the suc-
cessive offices of vice-president and president of the
society ; an early nr.ember of the Newcastle Society of
Antiquaries, he filled in after life the post of treasurer
to that flourishing institution.
At the elections which followed the passing of the
Municipal Reform Act of 1835, Mr. Fenwick was nomi-
nated as one of seventeen suitable persons to represent
the burgesses of South St. Andrew's Ward in the
Reformed Town Council. He was not elected, but at
the first meeting of the new Council he was appointed
an alderman, receiving twenty votes, being one vote
more than Mr. James Hodgson, who stood at the
bottom of the list. For some reason or other the
position did not fit Mr. Fenwick. He attended eight
out of twenty meetings of the Council, and then
resigned.
Mr. Fenwick was associated with John Trotttr
Brockett, John Adamson, and others in the formation
of the Newcastle Typographical Society. Though he
wrote very little himself, he printed more tracts in the
society's name than any other member, numbering indeed
nearly a third of the whole series.
To the " Archeeologia j3liana " Mr. Fenwick con-
tributed nothing of his own, but he produced from his
extensive collection relating to the Derwentwater family
materials which enabled Mr. Longstaffe and the Rev.
James Raine to add to the first three volumes of the
octavo edition of that excellent publication a series of
papers of great interest and value. In the first volume
appear "Francis Radclyffe, First Earl of Derwent-
water, "and "Sir Ed ward Radclyffe, of Dilston." In the
second volume are "The Heirs General to Radclyffe of
Derwentwater " and " Extracts from the Accounts of the
Steward of Sir Francis Radclyffe, Bart., at Dilston, from
June, 1686, to June, 1687"; while in volume three come
"The Markets, Fairs, and Mills of Morpeth," and "Dis-
continuance of an Action against a Recusant. " His son,
John Clerevaulx Fenwick, contributed to the same
volume (iii.) an interesting paper on " Bagpipes and Pipe
Music."
Mr. Fenwick died in Newcastle on the 10th of April,
1867, at the age of eighty.
/itt,
POLITICAL AND MUNICIPAL REFORMER.
Among the fiery leaders who, sixty years ago, conducted
the campaign upon Tyneside in favour of Parliamentary
Reform and Municipal Freedom, the most dashing, if not
the most daring or the most enduring, was the popular
doctor, the bold huntsman, and the polished gentleman,
who was known throughout the Northern Counties as
"young Mr. Fife."
John Fife was a son of William Fife, a Newcastle sur-
geon, who practised his profession, at the beginning of
the century, in Denton Chare, and afterwards till his
death in 1839, at the house which still occupies the space
between the west end of that narrow thoroughfare and
the junction of Westgate Road with Collingwood Street.
Born in 1795, and brought up to his father's calling,
"young Mr. Fife" rapidly made his way in the town.
A high-spirited young man, of polished address and
courteous manners, abounding in wit and gallantry, able
to ride to hounds, and conduct himself bravely in a
drawing-room, he became a general favourite. His
abilities in these directions helped him to a fortunate
marriage. On the 26th of March, 1818, he was united at
All Saints' Church to Elizabeth, second daughter of
Joseph Bainbridge, a well-known solicitor, who lived in
Pilgrim Street, in a house he had built for himself, and to
which, in honour of the great military hero of the day,
he had given the name of Wellington Place.
About the time of his marriage, Mr. Fife, having taken
up his freedom in the Incorporated Company of Barber
Surgeons and Chandlers, began to practise on his own
Januarrl
1891. /
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
13
account in Newcastle. Fortune favoured him. The
Corporation, noting his abilities, made him, in 1819, one
of the town coroners; the Barber Surgeons, for similar
reasons, elected him, in 1821, one of their stewards. A
movement which he inaugurated the following year gave
him wide popularity among the labouring classes. He
had made diseases of the eye a special study, and in
March, 1822, in conjunction with Mr. T. M. Greenhow,
brother-in-law of Harriet Martineau, he started, upon a
very modest scale, in Brunswick Place, a medical charity,
known in after years aa the Newcastle Eye Infirmary.
Becoming associated with some of the leaders of advanced
thought in the town, and evincing sympathy with their
principles, he was invited to co-operate in public move-
ments of a political character. But to these allurements
he turned, while his father-in-law lived, a deaf ear. In
December, 1823, Mr. Bainbridge, undergoing an opera-
tion in London for aneurism, suddenly died, and then the
obstacle to Mr. Fife's entry into political life was re-
moved. Strengthening his intimacy with local leaders,
and extending his influence among the people, he waited
for an opportunity to show his strength. The oppor-
tunity was delayed. At the time of his emancipation
political opinion in Newcastle was practically stagnant.
"The great election" of 1826 stirred it a little; the
struggle for Catholic emancipation produced a ripple or
two; but for the most part the stream of political
agitation in the North of England was'standing still.
All of a sudden, in July, 1830, a revolution broke out
in France, spread to Brussels, passed over to Brunswick
and Saxony, and affected, more or less, every throne in
Europe. In this country the democracy, cowed by the
Mauchester massacre ten years before, were encouraged
to lift up their heads and raise their voices once more.
The Whigs, dexterously availing themselves of the
democratic upheaval, joined forces with the proletariat in
order to weaken the Tory Ministry under the Duke of
Wellington, and agitate for Parliamentary and Adminis-
trative Reform. In Newcastle, the two parties, Whigs
and Radicals, met in Mr. Charnley's shop, and projected
a town's meeting to be held in the Guildhall, for the
purpose of attesting the "sympathy of Englishmen with
the cause of liberty in France." At this meeting, held on
the 7th September, 1830, the Mayor in the chair, Mr.
Fife made his first public appearance on the political
platform. Some stirring speeches were delivered so
stirring, indeed, that they attracted the attention of the
Age newspaper, which poured out upon the speakers the
vials of its wrath in the following choice language :
Mister- Alderman Cramlington was there, and a very fit
fellow he is for such society ; and John Bowes Wright
was there, the traveller, him wot told the meeting what
he saw when he was in Paris ; Doctor Headlam and his
hat, and Mister Fitfey and his stays, were both there ;
and Tom Doubleday, sonnet writer and soap-boiler, was
there, but he did not say six words he was Ashamed of
his company ; and Aleck Reid, the auctioneer and pawn-
broker, was there : and Ralph Park Philipson was there ;
and the Green-eyed Monster was there ; and William
Irving Wilkinson was there, the man wot wants to be
called a squire ; and, in fact, all the desperate upon or
about the town were there, . . . creatures who are as
unknown in good society in England as they are to the
inhabitants of Timbuctoo . . . the scum and dregs of
the town and neighbourhood. Let the quacks of New-
castle, medical and political, stick to their own business.
Let them St. John Long their patients, or dabble on in
coab and grindstones ; but do not let them deal in politics
or revolutionary humbug. Emulsionary Headlam and
Sarsaparilla Fife may do very well for the coalheavers
and skippers of Newcastle, but they ire no more fit to
embank the liberties of Europe than are the beavers on
the lakes of America to prevent the outpouring of the
waters at the Falls of Niagara.
Once embarked upon a political career, Mr. Fife's zeal
was limited only by his opportunities. He was one of the
leading spirits in the formation of the Northern Political
Union and one of the most effective and energetic
speakers at the public and private gatherings of that
triumphant organisation. To his skill in tactics the
Union owed no small part of its success. While Larkin
thundered forth fiery invective, Attwood threw out
scathing satire, and Eneas Mackenzie emitted moral
platitudes, Fife planned and plotted, marshalled and
manoeuvred. Possessing a suavity of manner that soothed
the turbulent, and cultivating a polished rhetoric that
disarmed the rebellious, he could plead, argue or de-
nounce with equal facility and effect. Yet, while never
losing his temper, nor allowing himself to be drawn into
excess of language, gesture, or demeanour, he knew how
to "take occasion by the. hand " and mould it to his pur-
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
{Jauuur:
1891.
pose. When in the summer of 1831, the burgesses of
Newcastle met, under the presidency of the Mayor, to
petition the House of Lords in favour of the Reform
Bill, and a weak petition was submitted by the Whig
section of the Reform party, he outmanoeuvred them,
drove the baffled Whigs out of the room, was put into the
seat which the Mayor had occupied, and obtained from
the excited burgesses an enthusiastic vote for a much
stronger petition which Mr. Attwood had conveniently
found in his pocket. When the Lords threw out the Bill,
he was the chief organiser of the great October demonstra-
tion upon the Town Moor, the leader in the subsequent
march of three hundred men from Tyneside to Durham
to prevent Lord Londonderry's " lambs " from breaking
up a Reform meeting, and the proposer of the resolution,
already adopted by the Birmingham Radicals, which
pledged the members of the Northern Political Union to
pay no taxes until the Reform Bill became the law of the
land.
At the Newcastle Spital meeting, on the 15th of May,
1832. Mr. Fife struck the keynote which Charles Larkin
expanded into a howl of defiance against the throne and
the aristocracy that echoed and re-echoed all over the
kingdom. Quoting a speech of Fox against the Sedition
Bills of 1795, in which that impassioned orator asserted
that Parliament might pass such bills, and they might
even receive the Royal sanction, J*et be so unconstitu-
tional that obedience was no longer a moral duty, and
insurrection itself be justifiable, and adding the emphatic
declaration, "In these principles I will live and die," Mr.
Fife continued
Here is an immense multitude, and is there one man
who will not join me in holding up his right hand and re-
peating after me "In these principles I will live and
die ?"
The response, a writer in the Northern Tribune tells
us, was instantaneous. A forest of hands were uplifted
in imitation of the speaker, and in solemn cadence the
vast multitude ejaculated that memorable vow "In
these principles I will live and die." Scarcely had the
hands disappeared when a forest of oak saplings was up-
lifted, and remained there for some minutes, amidst pro-
found yet most significant silence. Then the speaker
resumed
The House of Commons yet stands between this
country and a revolution. If it only prove that it is the
representative of the nation, the people may obtain their
that cry
is disregarded, until privilege of Parliament ceases to
exist, or is grossly violated, then, and not till then, shall
I, for one, exclaim, " To your tents, O Israel ! "
With the passing of the Reform Bill, Mr. Fife con-
sidered that to a considerable extent victory had been
won, and that the fight should now be left to the enlarged
constituencies. Finding himself in a minority upon this
and other questions in the Council of the Political
Union, he withdrew, and, after a brief existence, the
organisation itself came to an end. But, although acting
no longer with Attwood and Larkin, he avowed himself an
earnest reformer still, and, being shortly after his retire-
ment elected a member of the committee of the Newcastle
Mechanics' Institute, he proved the sincerity of his
avowal by presenting to the library a copy of Fame's
"Rights of Man." For the next few years, although he
published a letter to Lord Howick in favour of household
suffrage, triennial Parliaments, and vote by ballot, he
concerned himself chiefly in the struggle for municipal
reform. At the Michaelmas Guild of the burgesses in
1833, he headed a party of " independent voters " whose
criticisms of the ruling powers were remarkably pointed
and unusually free. Towards the close of the proceedings,
which were stormy and protracted, Mr. Fife and Mr.
George Clayton Atkinson were nominated for the office of
sheriff. Mr. Fife lost, and Mr. Atkinson was elected
amidst the groans and hisses of the burgesses.
In the summer of 1834 Mr. Fife sustained a heavy
bereavement in the death of his wife, and, for a time, he
withdrew from active participation in public work. But
as soon as the Municipal Reform Act was passed, he
emerged from his seclusion, and threw himself once more
into the arena of local conflict. At the first election
under the new Act he was returned at the head of the
poll for the ward of St. Nicholas, every man in the ward
but thirty-seven having given him a vote. Upon the first
occasion that the Reformed Council assembled Mr. Fife
was appointed an alderman ; at the second meeting of that
body he originated a discussion upon the use and abuse of
the Mansion House, kept it going meeting after meeting,
and never ceased to agitate till that famous resort of con-
vivial burgesses was dismantled, and its contents sold to
the highest bidder. At Michaelmas, 1838, he was elected
Mayor. He had fairly earned his promotion, and none of
his opponents raised a hand against it.
In his election to the Mayoralty Mr. Fife's popularity
reached its culmination ; before his year of office expired
it had received serious damage. Into the details it is
unnecessary to enter. They have been printed over and
over again, and may always be read in Richardson's
"Table Book," in Gammage's "History of the Chartist
Movement," and in "The Odd Book " of Thomas Ainge
Devyr. It is sufficient here to state that in the summer
of 1839 the townspeople were seriously disturbed by
Chartist meetings and processions, accompanied by stone-
throwing, window-smashing, and other mischief ; that the
Mayor, as chief magistrate, intervened for the prevention
of such disorders; and that, failing to secure peaceable
obedience to his commands, he called out the military, and
broke up a Chartist demonstration at the point of tho
bayonet. For these services he was denounced as a
traitor, a renegade, and a second Judas Iscariot by those
who bad beforetime been bis warmest friends and sup-
porters. With the denunciations of the Chartists and
their friends still ringing in his ears, on the 1st July, 1840,
January!
1891. /
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
15
he was knighted by the Queen " as a mark of approbation
of the manner in which he had sustained the office of
chief magistrate under very critical circumstances."
Sir John was elected Mayor of Newcastle again in 18W,
and he continued for many years to take an active part in
the public life of his native town. Not, however, in the
sphere of political conflict in which he had won his early
fame. With advancing age his interest in politics,
shaken by the events of 1839, declined, and although he
took an active part in the Anti-Corn Law Agitation,
being chairman of the League meetings in Newcastle, he
gradually settled down into a mild and colourless Whig.
When the next wave of Parliamentary Reform swept
over the country, assuming the attitude of offended
dignity contemplating past services, he stood aloof, and
there the new school of Reformers left him. Meanwhile,
the fervour which distinguished his early career had
found a new channel. The vapouring of certain French
colonels in 1859 turned the thoughts of Englishmen to the
use of arms, and Sir John's soldierly instincts pushed him
into the forefront of the agitation. He took the chair at
a meeting held in Newcastle in the summer of that year
to promote the volunteer movement, and became the first
president of the club which shortly afterwards developed
into the 1st Newcastle Rifle Volunteer Corps. Of that
corps he was made lieutenant colonel, and he filled the
post to admiration. He was proud of his volunteers,
thirteen companies strong ; the volunteers were proud of
Sir John, who looked every inch a soldier; Newcastle
was proud of them all together.
Engrossed in volunteering, Sir John lost to some extent
his interest in matters municipal as well as political. He
had formed county connections, and began to consider
himself as much a country gentleman as an alderman of
Newcastle. When, therefore, in 1862, the farmers and
dealers attending Newcastle Cattle Market fell into a hot
dispute with the Corporation, Sir John, conceiving that
they had reason for their complaints, made various
proposals for settling the dispute, and upon these being
rejected, accompanied by some heated personal remarks
from one or two lively members of the Council, he
resigned his office, and nothing could induce him to
resume it. Failing health compelled him, in December,
1868, to relinquish his command of the volunteers, and
from that time to his death, at Reedsmouth, on the 15th
of January, 1871, the people of Newcastle saw but little
of their gifted fellow-townsman.
Sir John Fife was in the commission of the peace for
his native borough and for the county of Argyle; a
deputy lieutenant ; an M.A. of Durham ; and a knight in
the English League of the Order of St. John of
Jerusalem. In religion he was a Churchman an earnest
advocate of the establishment of a bishopric in Newcastle.
For thirty years he filled the office of surgeon to the
Newcastle Infirmary, and, besides founding the local Eye
Infirmary, was one of the early promoters of the New-
castle College of Practical Science, in which, for some
years, he officiated as a lecturer.
in tfte
NUMBER of valuable documents relating to
the Pelhain family have been recently ac-
quired by the Manuscript Department of the
British Museum. Amongst them are several letters from
Sir John Vanbrugh, the famous architect, written be-
tween 1715 and 1723. One of these, addressed to Thomas
Pelham, Duke of Newcastle, afterwards the well-known
Prime Minister, relates to Castle Howard and to a visit
of the Duke of Wharton to York. It runs as follows :
Castle Howard, Augt Sth, 1721.
I have no other business to trouble your Grace with a
letter upon, but to thank you for your warrant. The
rest is only to remind you, of my constant wishes (others
would say prayers) for your health and happyness where-
ever I wander. And amongst those good wishes, one is,
that you were here at this time, to see in its beauty
(warm weather too) the most delightful place I ever
beheld. Many new charms open this year, that never
appear'd before, and many more will next, that people do
not dream of now : If I take in what a third will pro-
duce (bar more Southsea storms) I believe here will bo
(beyond all content) the top seat, and garden ~>i England.
Of the house 1 say nothing : The others I may commend,
because nature made them ; I pretend to no more merrit
in them than a midwife, who helps to bring a fine child
into the world, out of bushes boggs and bryars.
I was at York all last week. A race every day, and a
ball every night ; with as much well look't company, as
ever I saw got together. The Ladys I mean in chief. As
to the men the Duke of Wharton was the top gallant.
The entertainments ending on Friday. He declar'd it
the company wou'd stay in towue one day more, he wou'd
treat the jockeys with a plate, the Ladys with a ball, and
all together with a supper. T'was done accordingly, and
my Lady Milner, who had all along been bis partner,
was now his Cjueen. When supper was ended, he in-
vited all the good company to meet him again that day
twelve month, on . he same terms ; with many decent and
good complimts. to the inhabitants of York and York-
shire for the honour they did him, and hop't wou'd do
him again. To which they gratefully bow'd, as who
wou'd say, yes. But his Grace, thnn bethought himself,
of one civil thing more, and said. That unless my Lady
Milner wou'd absolutly engage to be there too, he was
olF, as to the rest of the company. Upon which she
look'd she did not know how, and all went home to
He is now here, for two or three days, & we have jok't
off the affair of the House of Lords on both sides. Here's
the house full of company, which I like better when it's
emptye, so am going to morrow to Lumley Castle, and
Delavals, which will take me up a fortnight. I shall
then return to York.
Here is another letter of Sir John Vanbrugh's ad-
dressed to "Brigadier William Watkins in Scotland
Yard," who at that time was one of his colleagues at
the Office of Works, and held the post of "Keeper of
H.M. Private Roads and Conductor and Guide in the
Royal Progresses," at a salary of 200 a year :
York, Augt. ye 26th, 1721.
Cou'd you see bow busy I have been ever since I writ
to you last, you wou'd easily forgive my being so long
16
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
/January
I 1891.
before I did it again. I return'd but last night from the
north (for here you must know we are in the south)
where I have been near this three weeks finding a vast
deal to do, both at Delavals and Lumley Castle. Since
it is not easy, to go there often, I resolv'd to do all the
service I cou'd while I was there now.
The Admiral [Delaval] is very gallant in bis operations,
not being disposed to starve the design at all, so that he
is like to have a very fine dwelling for himself now, and
his nephew &c. hereafter.
Lumley Castle is a noble thing, and well deserves the
favours Lord Lumley designs to bestow upon it : In order
to which, I stay'd there near a week, to form a general
design for the whole, which consists, in altering the house
both for state, beauty and convenience, and making the
courts gardens and offices suitable to it ; all which I
believe may be done, for a sum, that can never ly very
heavy upon the family. If I had had pood weather
in this expedition, I shou'd have been well enough diver-
ted in it ; there being many more valluable and agreeable
things and places to be seen, than in the tame sneaking
south of England.
I am going in three or four days again to Castle Howard,
where I must spend a week or ten days, to do what is
necessary there. My Lord Carlisle going on with his
works as usual ; by which the seat is wonderfully improv'd
this last year. Two years more, tho' they won't
com pleat all the building, will so beautify the out-
works, of gardens, park, &c., that I think no
place I ever saw, will dispute with it, for a delight-
full dwelling in general!, let the criticks fish out
what particular faults they please in the architec-
ture.
Here are several gentlemen in these parts of
the world, that are possess'd with the spirit of
building, and seem dispos'd to do it, in so good
a manner, that were they to establish here a sort
of a Board of Works to conduct the affairs, I
do verily believe, they wou'd sooner make Hawks-
moor a commissioner uf it, than that excellent
architect Ripley. "
It appears from a further letter, dated Castle
Howard, August 20, 1723, that the great archi-
tect had a jovial time of it in the North. "I
have been drinking waters at Scarborough three
or four days, "he says, "and am to return thither
with Lord Carlisle, for a few weeks more, and
Boon after that, I point towards London."
aiuit
j]EW towns even in the North of Eng-
land have made greater strides ot
late years than the important town
at the mouth of the Wear. Its population has
increased by leaps and bounds; its residential
suburbs have grown in beauty year by year ;
and its public buildings have kept pace with
the march of improvement and prosperity. The
latest addition to the architectural attractions of
Sunderland is the new Town Hall. This edi-
fice, erected at a cost of about 50,000 from
designs by Mr. Brightwen Binyon, of Ipswich,
was opened with much ceremony on Nov. 6,
1890. The style of architecture is described as
Italian renaissance. It will be seen from the
accompanying engraving that the new building is really
a handsome pile.
Hatttrftltjr awtr fttd
tlje late latntjs ffllepljan.
Katterfelto, with his hair on end
At his own wonders, wondering for his bread.
COWPKK.
jjATTERFELTO flourishes as a fly in the
precious amber of classic song. Em-
balmed in enduring verse, he is perpetu-
ated for all time, wonderstruck by his
own wonders. With " hair on end " he comes stream-
ing down to the light and life of the passing
day, few knowing anything more of him than the
StJXDEBLAND TOWN HALL.
January!
1891. f
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
17
poet's picture portrays. Familiar as be was when
the portrait was drawn, he lives for the most of men
in these lines alone ; and yet, scattered up and down
over the island, relics must remain of him in sundry
household corners, in the form of magnets, hygrometers,
"fire- machines," and other articles of his merchandise,
sold to his customers at the close of his performances
when the last century was growing old and about to
depart. He was vending them in Newcastle while ex-
hibiting his mysterious " Morocco Black Cat " to ad-
miring throngs, and ministering to that love of rare
sights and strange spectacles which belongs to our race.
When Cowper, in the year 1785, published his "Task,"
and affixed to Katterfelto the words we have taken for
our motto, there were readings and recitations in Free-
masons' Hall, London ; and his "John Gilpin" was one
of the most popular pieces in the programme. It was
read by Henderson, the famous actor; and none were
more warm in their applause than Mrs. Siddons. The
poet heard, of course, of the sudden celebrity into which
he had been lifted by his " citizen of credit and renown ";
but his friend Unwin, in communicating to him the fact
of his metropolitan popularity, slily admonished him that
he had a competitor for fame in "The Learned Pig."
The times were sensational then as now. Our ancestors
were as fond of marvels and excitements as their descen-
dants ; and in 1783, when the suggestion was made to
Cowper that led to the prodaction of "The Task," the
world was running after novelties and wonders. It gave
crowded audiences to Katterfelto, who, according to his
own account, was " the greatest philosopher in this king-
dom since Sir Isaac Newton," but is classed among
" mountebanks " in " Chambers's Book of Days," and has
been brought more recently under notice as one of the
"quacks of the eighteenth century.'' It was in the
latter years of that century that balloons became the
fashion and the rage. "Senators, philosophers, ladies,
everybody," wrote Walpole near the end of 1783, gazed
aloft at balloons. "I am tired of reading about them in
the papers, " said the Right Hon. Frederick Montague to
Mrs. Delany in 1784 ; and in the same year there were
adventurous journeys above the earth in Northumberland
and Durham. On the 8th of May, little more than two
months from the first ascent of Blanchard at Paris in a
hydrogen balloon, "the ingenious Mr. Jackson, of
Hutton Rudby," as the Kewcaatle Chronicle reported at
the time, " entertained the inhabitants of Stockton and
environs with that fashionable amusement, an air-
balloon " ; and we learn from Sykes, the Newcastle
annalist, that on the 9th of August "a balloon was set
off from the Sandhill, Newcastle, by Mr. Clarke, Jun.,
for the benefit and enlargement of an eminent teacher,
then in Newgate for a debt contracted when in a bad
state of health," the sum thus benevolently collected
amounting to 33, "which answered the intended pur-
pose."
Balloons went up, other "fashionable amusements"
courted public favour, and the weekly newspaper had a
word for them all. Cowper was among -its readers in his
rustic retreat : and with "the folio of four pages" before
him
that map of busy life,
Its fluctuations and its vast, concerns.
he Closed his fireside picture of what was going on in the
world beyond his shutters with the lines
Ethereal journeys, submarine exploits,
And Katterfelto, with his hair on end
At his own wonders, wondering for his bread.
Katterfelto came to Newcastle "for his bread :> in 1787 ;
18
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
f Jan'iary
\ 1891.
and "The Learned Pig "visited the town in the same
year. In 1784, when Johnson was in his native Lichfield
for the last time. Miss Seward told him of " the wonder-
ful learned pig, which she had seen at Nottingham, and
which did all that we have seen exhibited by dogs and
horses." He had also, while remaining in his old city,
"three letters on one day about the air-balloon"; and
shortly after he left, being in Oxford, and considerate of
the gratification of his faithful negro servant. " he sent
Francis to see the balloon fly."
Wonders have ever been in request. " Dogs were made
to bark and bite, "says the poet; but patient preceptors
have taught them more, and turned a penny by their
accomplishments. There were "learned dogs" going
about the country, as may be seen by Mrs. Delany's
letters, in 1760. One could dance a hornpipe. Another
told what o'clock it was, and could spell. The third
could even speak a word or two ; barked his own name ;
" his voice, indeed, a little hoarse, but the words tolerably
distinct." Such clever companions were the attraction
and astonishment of their little day. The world
ran after them ; for every generation must have its
amusements. When Bonaparte was carrying his eagles
over Europe, and England was apprehensive of inva-
sion ; when the health of the Sovereign excited uneasiness
and there were Ministerial difficulties and Parliamentary
perplexities ; " in the midst of all this," wrote Sir Gilbert
Elliot ia 1804, "everybody goes to see ' Valentine and
Orson," and weep over the death of a bear." No little
excitement, doubtless, there was on the banks of the Tyne
in 1787, when the intimation was made of Katterfelto's
coming visit to Newcastle with his Cat, immediately
preceding in the Newcastle Chronicle the announcement
that "The Learned Pig" was also on the road thither.
It was in the month of February that there was
exhibited in the Long Room of the Bigg Market
"that most astonishing animal, the learned or scienti-
fic pig from Charing Cross, and last from Sadler's
Wells." Its ingenious tutor had "taught a turtle to
fetch and carry " ; had "overcome the timidity of a hare,
by making her beat a drum " ; had "perfected six turkey-
cocks in a regular country dance"; had "taught three
cats to strike several tunes on the dulcimer with their
paws, and to imitate the Italian manner of singing" ; and
now, above all, "he had conquered the natural obstinacy
and stupidity of a pig, ty teaching him to unite the
letters of any person's name," and tell "the number of
persons in the room, the hour and minute by any watch,
&c., &c." This docile creature had no sooner arrived in
the Bigg Market, " than the curious of all degrees
resorted to see him " ; and after the interview, " the most
penetrating frankly declared that neither the tongue of
the most florid orator, uor pen of the most ingenious
writer, could sufficiently describe the wonderful perform-
ance." Some one having suggested at Lichfield, in
Johnson's presence, "that great torture must have been
employed ere the indocility of the animal could have been
subdued," the doctor, never at a loss in controversy,
ascertained from Miss Seward that it was three years of
age, and at once replied : "Then the pig has no cause to
complain ; he would have been killed the first year if he
had not been educated; and protracted existence is a pood
recompense for very considerable degrees of torture. "
A generation earlier, a "Learned Dog" had been in
Newcastle, more learned than all the three dogs put
together seen by Mrs. Delany in 1760. He " read, wrote,
and cast accounts, answered various questions in Ovid's
'Metamorphoses,' Geography, Roman, English, and
Sacred History ; knew the Greek Alphabet, &c. " ; and
could distinguish all the colours of the rainbow. It was
in the reign of George the Second that this wondrous
exhibition was witnessed on the Tyne. But whether, on
his way from London to Edinburgh i the reign of
Elizabeth, "Banks's Horse," the "dancing horse" of
Shakspeare, also paused to display his skill in Newcastle,
is either not noticed in our annals or we have overlooked
the record.
Every year our forefathers had some remarkable amuse .
ments, some new attractions, by which they were
strangely interested ; and great, apparently, was the
excitement produced by the visit to the North, in the
month of May, 1787, of Dr. Katterfelto. With what
extent of display and ceremony " the noted philosopher,'
when "on his way from London to Edinburgh," came
along Tyne Bridge, we have not been able to discover ;
but here, in the "Book of Days," is the account of bis
" turn-out " at the time he visited Durham in 1790 or
1791: "His travelling equipage consisted of an old
rumbling coach, drawn by a pair of sorry hacks ; and his
two black servants wore green liveries with red collars.
They were sent round the town, blowing trumpets, and
delivering bills of their master's performances," which
were as manifold as they were marvellous. It was on
Tuesday, the 29th of May, 1787 (the day after his arrival
on the Tyne), that this itinerant philosopher gave his first
discourse in Newcastle, "at St. John's Lodge, Friar
Street"; and, "among the polite circle," the room
received for the occasion the title of "The Temple of
Instruction." Those who entered its portals paid for the
course of eight lectures ten shillings. Single lecture, half-
a-crowu. "Back seats for servants one shilling only."
At the close of his first lecture, and "for that night
only," Dr. Katterfelto was to "show many of his occult
secrets.".
By day and by night "The Temple of Instruction " was
open to an admiring public. Every noon there was the
Doctor's Wonderful and Grand Mechanical Exhibition,
"only two shillings." His Perpetual Motion was visible
at the same charge. But half-a-crown was the figure for
admission to his newly-invente,d Solar Microscope. And
how various the matters treated of at the evening
lectures ! " Philosophical, Mathematical, Electrical,
January!
1891. j
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
19
Maguetical, Optical, Physical, Chymical." And over
and above this wondrous round, we have " Pneumatic,
Hydraulic, Hydrostatic, and Stynographic Arts," the
whole illustrated by apparatus which had "cost him
about 7,000 !"
"Our learned gentlemen in this town and neighbour-
hood " are described as bavin? " received the doctor with
great joy " ; and verses were written on " hearing his
lectures and his laudable explanation of the various arts
made use of- by sharpers to obtain illegal fortunes at the
expense of the credulous, at St. John's Lodge, last Tues-
day " (that is, on the 29th of May, 1787). The poet's
eulogy was printed at the time ; and after the lapse of
more than a century, three or four of his lines may
be produced again :
His curious apparatus gives a charm,
While his experiments keep genius warm ;
High o'er all mean device he proudly soars,
And hidden fraud ingeniously explores.
Among the "curious apparatus" thus renowned in
song, there was, as we have already shown, his Grand
Solar Microscope, "whereby were seen the greatest
wonders of natural history, which beggar all descrip-
tion " ; and in the forenoons of June 18, 19, and 20, when
this instrument was to be exhibited, visitors would be
privileged to witness "above 5,000 live insects in a drop
of beer the pize of a pin's head, and 40,000 in a small drop
of clear water," &c., with more than " 500 other curious
and uncommon objects ; likewise several curious crystal-
lizations ot salts, which never were seen at Newcastle
before." But, if cloudy, he would, at the hours men-
tioned, show "his Grand Perpetual Motion, and his
various other occult secrets." Moreover, every evening
during the Race Week, after his philosophical lecture
there were surprising feats in dexterity of band. " Ex.
pecting to be very much crowded every day and evening '>
while the races were in progress, Dr. Katterfelto expressed
a wish that the public, " the ladies particularly, would
send their servants one hour before the lecture, to keep
places for them, in the day-time as well as in the
evening."
Katterfeko's famous " Morocco Black Cat " formed one
of the prime attractions of the Temple of Instruction in
Low Friar Street the cat " which won 3,000 in
London, and had surprised the most of the very first
nobility in the kingdom." It accompanied its wandering
owner wherever he went, till in the autumn of 1790 it was
ruthlessly snatched from among his treasures at Man-
chester. A paragraph of the 4th of September in that
year records this "most horrid and daring robbery."
"Some incorrigible depredators" had "run away with
the renowned and wonderful Dr. Katterfelto's black cat."
But either the rare animal had been recovered, or a
fitting successor had turned up, for in future years puss
was still in the programme.
In the year that was marked by the abstraction of the
cat, Dr. Graham was advertising his intention to come to
Newcastle. He was to give six lectures in the Assize
Week of 1790, by which " he would endeavour to lead his
audience gently and affectionately by the hand along the
sweet, simple, and obvious paths of great, venerable,
ever-constant, ever-young, and ever-beautiful Nature,
and of consequent temporal happiness, up to that ever-
lasting felicity which we all hope finally to obtain."
Such are some of the words that were addressed to our
townsmen by "Dr. Graham, from Edinburgh"; and
here, as elsewhere, his " earth baths " were exhibited
before the eyes of wondering crowds. (Sea Monthly
Chronicle. 1887, page 157).
In 1798, Katterfelto was again in these Northern parts ;
and at Sunderland, on the 28th and 29th of August, not
only ladies bat gentlemen, not only civilians, but
soldiers were "much alarmed and surprised " by seeing,
with the help of the Grand Solar Microscope, "above
90,000 wonderful live insects in a drop of beer, water,
milk, and vinegar, and most of them as large as eels, and
some as rats and mice." "Mites in cheese were seen as
big as cats"; and some poet of the Wear, "a lover of
arts and sciences, on seeing Dr. Katterfelto's grand ex-
hibition before a large company of ladies and gentlemen
at Sunderland," wrote Hnes extempore the same lines,
by a strange coincidence, which had been printed in
Newcastle in the year 1787 ! Again we read in the
Newcastle Chronicle
His curious apparatus gives a charm,
While his experiments keep genius warm :
High o'er all mean device he proudly soars,
And hidden fraud ingeniously explores.
From the Wear Katterfelto came to the Tyne. New-
castle was revisited in September ; and on this occasion
his arrival was commemorated by a paragraph headed
"Movements of Great Men." "Mr. Pitt," said the
writer, "arrived in London, laat week, from Burton
Pynsent, in good health. And, from Sunderland, a few
days ago, in this town, that wonderful philosopher, Dr.
Katterfelto." Among his rarities he brought for ex-
hibition "a most wonderful diamond beetle"; with also,
for sale, a variety of miscellaneous wares : "Six different
kinds of phosphorus " of his own manufacture ; "magnets
from one shilling to a guinea"; "a most valuable
tincture for the toothache," two shillings a bottle, that
"never failed of curing instantly"; a new invented
hygrometer, of the size of a watch or snuff-box,
foretelling to all the world changes of weather in a
quarter of an hour, revealing to travellers the damp-
ness of a bed, and ascertaining for gardeners the
proper heat of a hot-house; yet, for half-a-crown, any-
body might have it. A bottle of new-invented powder,
to be acquired for the same small sum, would "light a
pipe or a candle, or fire gunpowder." Two and six were
favourite figures with Katterfelto. He had a half-crown
fire-machine, of new contrivance, for discovering in the
dark the hour of a watch, or lighting a match or candle
on land or sea; and he also cured, "on very low terms,"
20
MONTHLY CHRONICLE
{January
1891.
many different complaints. " Sprains, bruises, rheu-
matic pains," c., yielded to a most valuable tincture,
costing no more than a crown a bottle; and while he
remained in Newcastle he "performed many capital
cures." For a single shilling he showed, on cloudy days,
his large loadstone of 491bs., his mechanical museum, his
wonderful diamond buckles ; and with tens of thousands
of other insects, "a live flea" would loom out in his
microscope "as big as an ox," and "mites in cheese"
attain the dimensions of "his black cats." His black
cats, moreover, were to be " lifted up in the air by his
string magnet," and he would " magnetize any lady or
gentleman's knife for a shilling."
Through the month of October, and into the middle of
November, Katterfelto was lingering in the shadows of
St. Nicholas ; and during his prolcngsd stay " the whole
cry at Newcastle, particularly among the curious and
learned ladies and gentlemen," was this: "Those that
have not seen Dr. Katterfelto's solar microscope exhibi-
tion have seen nothing." Night after night he gave
lectures on Electricity, the Power of the Four Elements,
Fixed Air and the Air Pump ; "and after his lectures he
would also show and discover several of those arts and
feats that are now exhibited by Jonas, Comas, Boaz,
and Breslaw," in all of which he was ready to give lessons
on very low terms. Once more, also, there were " verses
written extempore " after witnessing the wonders ex-
hibited by "Dr. Katterfelto, M.D." These lines, open-
ing as below, throw additional light upon the character of
his performances :
His ship beyond description lies.
When well observed by curious eyes ;
The guns, no thicker than a straw,
Go off by philosophic law,
Without the help of match or fire
Which all applaud and some admire.
There was a "fountain playing both tire and water,"
and "a watch and hour-glass that stood still, or fell into
motion, at his command."
Sir Ruffia's face, as grim as death,
Blows out the candle without breath,
And lone-headed harlequin
Without match or fire lights it again.
His famous black cat, I protest.
Surprised me more than all the rest ;
And by dexterity of hand,
He shows how gamesters gain their end.
There was a lapse of more than ten years between the
two visits of the great wonder-maker to Newcastle. In
the interval, the Literary and Philosophical Society had
been established, and had removed from its quarters in
St. Nicholas' Churchyard to the Old Assembly Rooms in
the Groat Market. It was in the society's former rooms
that Katterfelto received patrons during his stay in 1798 ;
and ere his departure, those who had neglected their
privilege who were delaying their visit to the cat and the
conjuring were admonished to repair their error while
there was yet an opportunity. " Several hundred persons,"
it was expected, "would repent in a short time in
Newcastle and the neighbourhood, that they had not seen
his solar microscope exhibition and large loadstone."
But some, probably, of the tardy absentees supplied the
omission at the last moment, and saw, burning in water,
"the new and most surprising chymical strong light, "
prepared "last week," and announced on the 10th of
November, 1798, in the latest of the Katterfelto
advertisements inserted in the columns of the Newcastle
Chronicle.*
STitc
|T. JOHN'S LODGE, Low Friar Street,
where Katterfelto performed his wonders in.
1787, was erected in 1777 by the members
of the Masonic order. It contained, says
Mackenzie, an excellent organ-, and two paintings by
Bell, one representing St. John, the other a portrait of
Mr. Francis Peacock, roper, the Grand Master of the
Lodge. A Greek inscription was placed on the front of
the building, signifying, "The darkness comprehendeth
it not." Extravagance and the introduction of politics
ruined the Lodge ; and Mr. Alderman Blackett, who had
a mortgage on the hall, sold it and the other property
of the fraternity for 320.
The initiation of the project for the establishment of a
Dispensary as an appendix to the Infirmary, but in no
way antagonistic to that institution, is due to Dr. Clark,
a local practitioner, and Mr. Anderson, a philanthropic
surgeon. At the outset the physicians of the Infirmary
opposed the proposal ; but when it was explained that the
medical department was to be open to the whole of the
resident faculty, all opposition ceased, and arrangements
were made for carrying out the scheme. Accordingly, a
meeting of the governors was held on September 29, 1777,
Mr. John Baker, mayor, being in the chair, when the
regulations for the management or the new charity were
confirmed.
The object of the promoters was "to give advice and
medicine to that numerous class of sufferers whose cases
excluded them from the Infirmary, but also to extend the
limits of the healing art." The Dispensary for the first
four years was located in an entry at the foot of the Side ;
then it was removed to an entry in Pilgrim Street, below
the Queen's Head Inn, and known as Dispensary Entry.
Its career of usefulness having extended, the governor*
decided upon the purchase of a lease for fifty years of St.
John's Lodge, Low Friar Street, from the Incorporated
* Katterfelto, described as a tall thin man, dressed in a black
ffown and square cap, is said to have been originally a soldier in
the Prussian service. In one of his advertisements he stated that
he was a colonel in the "Death's Head" regiment of Hussars.
Not long before his death, which occurred at Bristol, he was
committed by the Mayor of Shrewsbury to the House of Correc-
tion as a vagrant and impostor.
January 1
1891. /
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
21
Company of Saddlers, which, with the necessary fittings,
cost 626 2s. W. The building consisted of "a hall for
the meetings of the governors, a shop and waiting-
room for patients, two consulting-rooms for the phy-
sicians and surgeons, an electrical room, and lodgings
for the apothecary and his assistant, with a small labora-
tory behind the building. "
The building in Low Friar Street in course of time
became too small to meet the demands of the population
of a growing district, and it was resolved in 1837 to build
the present Dispensary in Nelson Street, which was
opened in August, 1839.
Our drawing of the old Dispensary seen on page 17,
is copied from Mackenzie's " History of Newcastle."
Several changes have been made in the external and in-
ternal appearance of the place, which now bears the name
of the Sadler's Wells Inn, -so that its aspect at the
present time varies somewhat from the original design.
IJHITLEY, to judge from the derivation of the
name, which means the white lea or pas-
ture, was founded by some family of Anglian
settlers. Whitley-by-the-Sea, as it is now
called, so as to distinguish it from Whitley Chapel and
Whitley Castle, also in Northumberland, is referred to in
ancient documents and maps as : Wyteley, Witelei,
Hwyteleg, Witelithe, Wheteley, Wytheleye, Whitlaw,
Whitlathe, and Whitla?.
The earliest mention of Whitley is found about the year
1100, when Henry I. conferred it, with other possessions,
on the Priory of Tynemouth. It is again referred to in
the charter of Henry II., Richard I., -and John, confirm-
ing to the priors their possessions and liberties.
In 1291, Whitley came very prominently before the
notice of Edward I. and his council, in connexion with an
event of soms importance in the history of Tynemouth
Priory which had taken place the previous year. The
facts are these : Waltr Fitz Nicholas charged John de
Whitley, Gilbert Audre, and William de Cowpen, with
robbery and breach of the peace, stating that, at noon of
the Sunday next before the Feast of S.S. Simon and Jude
this would be October 22nd, 1290 they had entered
his house at Whitley, during his absence, broken open the
door of a chamber with an iron hatchet, and taken
from a chest which they found there, two over-
tunics or gowns belonging to a certain woman, one
ot them green, the other blue, worth two marks ; two
cloths of Raynes, worth one mark ; forty ells of woven
linen, to the value of ten shillings; and two napkins and four
towels, worth together twenty shillings. The defendants
were cast into the Prior's prison by William Steward, the
Prior's coroner, and kept there from the Feast of St.
Martin (Sunday, the 12th Nov., 1290) to the Wednesday
next before the Feast of St. Nicholas this would be
Nov. 30th, 1290. On this last named date the Justices of
the King, William Heron, Richard Knaut, and Robert
Bertram, came to Tynemouth and demanded that the
prisoners should be brought before them for trial. This
the Prior refused to do, on the ground that
they, the justices, were interfering with his prero-
gatives. Before the Feast of St. Hilary January 13th,
1291 th Prior caused his own Court to be summoned,
and on Sunday, January 15, Walter Fitz Nicholas made
his appeal against John de Whitley and Gilbert Audre.
William de Cowpen, it appears, had died in prison. The
Prior's bailiffs found they had no power to hold the ap-
peal, and it was quashed. The prisoners, though they
claimed the right to acquit themselves in the Court of
King's Bench, were committed again to prison, and re-
manded from time to time until after Easter, when they
were set free by the King's writ. The question of the
legality of the Prior's action was afterwards re-
ferred to the King in council, at Norham, who deputed
Gilbert de Thornton and others to consider it. The con-
clusion they arrived at was that the Prior had exceeded
his authority in resisting the justices and retaining the
prisoners. The consequence was that the judicial privi-
leges which the Priors had enjoyed for nearly a century
were forfeited, and not restored for nearly eight years.
The appeal which had originated all these proceedings was
subsequently tried, when the defendants were acquitted,
and it was found that Walter Fitz Nicholas, the appellor,
was maliciously abetted by Brother Martin, the cellarer
of the Priory, William de Kirkeby, a monk of the same
house, and others. Bail was given for the Prior to make
fine with the King ; William Steward, his coroner, was
fined half-a-mark ; and the appellor 20s. The Prior's fine
was afterwards compromised by a payment of 20s.
The next fact in the history of Whitley connects it with
the Crusades. Pope Nicholas the IV. had granted to
Edward I. the first-fruits and tenths of all ecclesiastical
possessions for six years to defray the expenses of an ex-
pedition to the Holy Land, and so a valuation was made
of the spiritual and temporal goods of the Priory, on
March 26th, 1292, when the yearly rents from Whitley
were returned at 20s., and the tithes at 9 marks.
About the beginning of the fourteenth century,
the manor of Whitley was held from the Prior of
Tynemouth, by a singular feudal fervice called
the Conveyes, which seems to have originated with
John da Whitley probably the person charged with rob-
bery in the time of Master Simon de Walden, the Prior
in 1301, and during the following 19 years. At Christ-
mas, all the servants and tenants of the Priory, the
"keelers," who served in the barges, and other depend-
ants, with the horses and dogs of the Priory, were to come
to Whitley. At the outskirts of the village, the Lord of
the Manor was to meet them and receive them in a fitting
22
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
{January
1891.
manner. They were to be hospitably entertained n the
Feast of the Holy Innocents (Dec. 28th), and the day fol-
lowing. For most of the company fresh meat, cheese,
and good ale were to be provided, but the esquires and
men of their own rank were to have a whole hen between
every two of them for the second course at supper. The
horses also were to have half-a-boll of good oats each.
Whitley must thus have been the scene of much feasting,
drinking, and merry-making six hundred years ago. As
horses and dogs were among the guests, it is supposed
that hunting formed part of the entertainment.
On the 9th April, 1345, Edward III. granted to Gilbert
de Whitley a license to crenellate his manor-house at
Whitley. To crenellate a houso was to place battlements
upon it, crenelles, or embrasures, being the square
openings between the merlons. Before this could be
done, the sanction of the Crown was necessary. The fact
of the Lord of Whitley building a strong tower on his
estate at this time is an evidence of the insecurity felt,
even so far south as this, during the Edwardian wars with
Scotland. This Gilbert de Whitley was probably the
same person mentioned in the Sheriff of Northumberland's
accounts for 1356 as "the Master and Supervisor of the
King's work in the Castle of Newcastle." The tower
built at Whitley by Gilbert de Whitley, in 1345, is in-
cluded in the list of castles and fortalices drawn up in
1415. At that time it was in the possession of the Prior
of Tynemouth.
After the suppression of monasteries, Whitley was held
under the Crown for a time. By a grant of Edward VI.,
dated the 8th December, 1551, it came into the hands of
Dudley, Earl of Warwick, who was created Duke of
Northumberland. It was demised in 1557 to Thomas,
Earl of Northumberland, for 21 3'ears ; and by virtue of a
grant made by Queen Elizabeth in 1570 to Sir Henry
Percy and his son Henry, and afterwards to Thomas, Sir
Henry's son, for life, it remained in the Percy family until
1632, when the last of the three grantees died. On the
16th of May, 1634, the King's Lordship of Tyne-
mouth Shire, which embraced "five tenements of
husbandry* in Whitley worth 8 6s. 8d. per annum ;
a cottage with five butts of arable land, called Our Lady
Land,' worth 8s. per annum ; a little orchard there,
worth Is. 4d. per annum ; the tithe of hay of all the town
aforesaid, valued at 2s. 6d per annum ; the pannage or
take of swine there, worth 20s. per annum; twenty
quarters of barley called ' bigge,' and ten quarters of oats
for the aforesaid five tenements of husbandry in Whitley,"
was granted to William Scriven and William Eden, of
London, Esquires, to be held at a yearly rental. These
possessions wer conveyed on the 16th March, 1640, to
Algernon, tenth Earl of Northumberland. They after-
wards came into the hands of the Duke of Somerset on
his marriage in 1682, with Elizabeth, the heiress of
Joscelyn, the eleventh Earl of Northumberland. They
subsequently passed by inheritance to her grand-daughter,
Elizabeth Seymour, who had married Sir Hugh Smithson,
a Yorkshire baronet, afterwards created Duke of North-
umberland, and have since been retained by their descen-
dants.
An important event in the history of Whitley would be
the opening of the colliery there. In 1656 it is supposed
to have been working and shipping its coals from Culler-
coats. On November 29th, 1673, the Earl of Essex and
William Pierpoint, Esquire, leased the coal mines in the
township and precmts of Whitley to John Dove for 21
years. The next lessees of the colliery seem to have been
Nathaniel Blakiston, Henry Hudson, and Abigail Carr,
who were- working the mines in the early part of the
eighteenth century. The Hudsons, who now come on the
scene, were a wealthy Quaker family belonging to New-
biggin. The Henry Hudson referred to above, by his
marriage with Sarah, daughter of John Dove, of Whitley,
gent., allied himself to another wealthy and influential
Quaker family, which had much property in the district.
He died on June 17th, 1737. His son, Henry (b. 1720, d.
1789), in 1772, added the wings to Whitley Hall, which is
now occupied by Mr. M, W. Lambert. In 1820, the hall
was sold to the Duke of Northumberland.
In 1789, a fat ox, belonging to Mr. Edward Hall, of
Whitley, had immortality conferred upon it, for, on April
10th of this year, Messrs. Beilby and Bewick published a
large copper-plate (10| ins. by 7 ins.) of the famous
animal, drawn and engraved by Thomas Bewick. " The
Whitley Ox " weighed 187 stones at the Public Weigh
House on March 21st, 1789.
In January, 1790, Lady Tyrconnel, the lovely daughter
of Lord Delaval, narrowly escaped being drowned on
Whitley sands, at least so it would appear from an entry
in the Seaton Delaval Cellar Book, which is as follows :
"January 31st, 1790. 1 Bottle Sherry, 1 Bottle Port, and
1 Brandy for the Post-boys, etc., to drink, by Lady
Tyrconnel's order after she got home, when overturned
upon Whitley sands, and nearly lost." The accident
probably occurred at the mouth of Briardene Burn, which
the old road over the links crossed. Whether it was due
to any of the "high jinks " for which the Delavals were
famous, is a matter for conjecture.
In July, 1795, the following regiments were encamped
at Whitley: The 37th Regiment of Foot, Royal Lanca-
shire Volunteers, North Yorkshire Militia, and a consi-
derable park of Artillery, commanded by Lord Mulgrave.
The camp broke up in October.
On the 16th of July, 1797, a terrible thunderstorm
occurred at Whitley. At the camp there the lightning
set fire to the whins placed as a facing to the sheds of the
East and West Lothian Cavalry, and, the wind blowing
briskly, the whele line was almost instantly in a blaze ; three
of the horses were struck dead at once, and two more nearly
suffocated. The remainder were saved by the men having
cut their; collars on the first alarm. The poor animals,
quite frenzied by the lightning, the thunderpeals,
January!
1891. /
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
23
and the fire, galloped off in various directions ; several of
them, between eight and nine o'clock in the evening, came
foaming through the streets of Newcastle to the great
danger and terror of the inhabitants.
During the first quarter of the nineteenth century the
collieries, the magnesian limestone quarries near Harden,
and the ironstone mines on the Links, were all being
actively worked. Considerable quantities of the stone
were conveyed by waggons on a rail-road to the Lw
Lights, North Shields, and there shipped for exportation.
A miner employed at the colliery in 1833 was the father
of William Crawford, the member of Parliament for Mid-
Durham, who died July 1st, 1890. On November the
22nd, 1839, the colliery and lime works were advertised
"to be let." "Mr. Hugh Taylor of Earsdon"-
so ran the paragraph " will afford any informa-
tion and treat for the letting of the whole." In
1848, the colliery was laid in, the stock being sold by
auction in May of that year. The colliery seems to have
been sineularly free from accidents of any magnitude,
though in 1835, 1836, 1838, 1839, and 1841, several
casualties and explosions of fire-damp had taken place,
attended more or less with loss of life. The last man
killed at the colliery was William Boag, an innkeeper,
who was in a tub suspended by a rope over the mouth of
the shaft taking up some wood when the knot in the rope
slipped and he was precipitated to the bottom. In conse-
quence of the laying in of the colliery the population of
the village, which in 1841 was 749, had decreased to 431
in 1851.
The Felling Artillery Corps were encamped on Whitley
Sands in September, 1862. A local song, entitled
"Whitley Camp," was written on the occasion by Mr.
Edward Elliott, of Earsdon, in which, after depicting the
warriors "fierce as untyem'd goats," and "their little
huts, like sugar loaves, all pointin' te the sky," he de-
scribes the effect f their practice with the Armstrong
gun:
The greet round shot went plish-for-plash
Inte the tortured deep ;
They myed the crabs an' lobsters hop,
An' the fish cud get ne sleep.
On the 14th of September, 1869, the Prudhoe Memorial
Convalescent Home was opened by the Dowager Duchess
of Northumberland, in the presence of a distinguished
and fashionable company. The Northumberland Village
Homes, founded by Mr. James Hall, of Tynemouth, have
been located at Whitly. The first six homes were opened .
in 1880, and since then four more have been erected two
in 1884 at the cost of Mr. and Mrs. Donkin, and two in
1888 at the cost of Mr. John Hall.
In 1864, the Church of St. Paul was erected at the cost
of the Duke of Northumberland, the bells in the tower
being presented by Sir Charles Mark Palmer, M.P.
The population of Whitley, which in 1801 was 251, is
now probably over 3,000.
W. W. TOMLINSON.
Qrftc 23ttrg JHar&ct antf tftc (great
JlIFTY years ago the Bigg Market, New
castle, presented an old-world appearance,
with its quaint shops and quainter hostel-
ries. As will be seen from our drawing,
which depicts a number of old houses at the west side
of this thoroughfare, one of the widest in the town,
the change, as compared with the present aspect of the
place, is remarkable.
The house to the left, with the lamp-post in front
of it, was the Golden Lion, a noted resort of
carriers, farmers, and country people who came
into the town to sell their produce. Mr. Ruther-
ford, the landlord of the Golden Lion, did not
occupy the whole of the building, for the room to the
right of the entrance was used as a barber's shop. The
premises in the yard behind often served as a mart for
calves.
The next house, the Unicorn, was rather a superior
hostelry, the landlady being one Rachel Dixon, who was
respected by everybody. Farmers and carriers were to be
met with here also in considerable numbers, and there
was a general aspect of comfort and snugness about the
place.
The next building, rather more pretentious than any
other in the sketch, was occupied by a couple of trades-
men.
Then we come to the Fighting Cocks, an inn of the
old school, kept by a bluff, hearty Boniface named Roger
Heron. The entrance was through an archway, and
although a numerous array of tradesmen's signs met the
gaze few would have conjectured that in the yard behind
almost every known craft was at one time carried on.
Amongst those who were to be found in the yard about
fifty years ago was a gold-beater named Armstrong,
whose shop was identified by the gilt arm and mallet
which was to be seen above the signboard ;*a file-cutter
named Bambro ; and a shoeing smith named Stephenson,
father of Mr. Clement Stephenson, veterinary surgeon,
of Newcastle. A man named Hudson had a foundry
at the bottom of the yard, which, it may be explained, ex-
tended as far as the rails of St. John's Church, West
Grainger Street not having then been made. In the same
yard might be found plumbers, cabinetmakers, wood-
turners, joiners, brassfounders, glassblowers, and many
others.
Immediately in front of the Fighting Cocks Inn, and a
few yards above the present pant, there was a large
fountain with troughs for cattle. It will be noticed that
to the right of the principal entrance to the Golden Lion
and to the left of the lower front window of the Fighting
Cocks are mounting or " louping-on" stones for the use of
24
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
January.
1891.
January}. NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
25
>? j> <A
vVVv*
,, " ;. '..'?-"': ' I':" ""-"" Mfgri
!; : ^ >i?f^?M^r^ I,
^ ; PiiUliffiWS 2? '
^W-F^^W*^***^ v"
26
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
f January
horsemen. One of these stones is preserved by the
Society of Antiquaries in the Old Caatle.
Much of the old Groat Market, shown in our second
engraving, has long since disappeared. All the quaint
houses seen on the right-hand side of the picture were
removed when the present Town Hall was built. More
lately some of the houses to the left have given place to
modern edifices. But the conspicuous figure of a horse,
forming the sign of an inn, still remains.
The pillars noticed to the right are a portion of what
was, half a century ago, called the new Corn Market,
which was built by a company in 1839 at a cost of
10,000. Mr. Richard Grainger, " who found Newcastle
crumbling bricks and left it stone," had previously
offered the Corporation the free and exclusive use of the
newly-built Central Exchange Art Gallery, on the con-
dition that it should be used as a corn market. Mr.
Grainger also promised to rebuild the front elevations of
the houses in the Groat Market and the Cloth Market in
the Gothic style of architecture, and remove all the old
buildings in Middle Street and Union Street lying
between the two thoroughfares. This offer was, however,
rejected by the Newcastle Council on October 4-, 1837.
But the new Corn Market, before twenty years had
elapsed from the time of the rejection of Grainger's pro-
posal, had to make way for the new Town Hall buildings,
the foundation stone of which was laid in August, 1855.
Our drawings are reproduced from photographs, taken
some years ago, which have been kindly lent us by Mr.
W. Parry, photographer, of South Shields.
SHE oldest fairy tale in the world is believed
to be one written on papyrus for the edifica-
tion of the young Egyptian Crown Prince,
Seti Manephta, the son of Pharaoh Rameses
Mi-amun, who ruled in Thebes fourteen hundred years
before Christ, and at whose court Moses was educated.
This curious papyrus was unfolded by a learned German
in 1863, and a literal translation of its contents was read
by him to a Berlin audience in the winter of that year
thirty-two centuries after it had been written.
A good-sized library would be required to contain all
the rich fairy literature that the human imagination has
created, since the days of Moses and Aaron, Jannes and
Jambres. Fickle fancy has no more pleasant field to
revel in, but we must not allow her to roam to a distance
here. We must stay at home, and speak only of our own
North-Country Fairies.
Brand, in his "Antiquities," under the heading "Fairy
Mythology," has gathered together a mass of interesting
items, but most of them are drawn from places more or
less far away. All he says with regard to the "good
people " in this part of the country is :
I have made strict inquiries after fairies in the un-
cultivated wilds of Northumberland, but even there I
could only meet with a man who said that he had seen
one that liad seen fairies. Truth is hard to come at in
most cases. None, I believe, ever came nearer to it than
I have done.
Mr. Henderson, in his "Folk-Lore of the Northern
Counties of England," has likewise but few references to
the fairies of Northumberland and Durham. He tells us,
indeed, of the Elf Stone, which " is described as sharp,
and with many corners and points, so that, whichever
way it falls, it inflicts a wound on the animal it touches."
"Popular belief," he adds, "maintains that the elves
received these stones from old fairies, who wore thorn as
breast-pins at the fairy court, and that the old fairies
received them in turn from mermaidens." They are in
reality flint arrow heads, fashioned by our ancestors in
what is known as the Stone Age, and now familiar to
frequenters of local museums, where they may be sen of
all shapes and sizes.
We are most of us familiar with those ourious natural
phenomena called Fairy Rings. Some attribute them to
tl e growth of fungi, spreading from a centre ; others
think they are caused by lightning ; but the vulgar
opinion is that they are spots where the fairies have been
dancing in a ring by moonlight, and have trodden down
the grass with their tiny feet.
Fairies have a perpetual memorial in a remarkable kind
of small stones in a rounded or spiral form, as if produced
by the action of a lathe, which are frequently picked up
after rain or thaw, in the beds of some of the smaller
Northumbrian streams, such as the Beaumont, and like-
wise in the Elwin or Allan, whicli falls into the Tweed
from the North, a little above Melrose. They are com-
monly known as fairy cups, dishes, cradles, and bonnets,
according to the particular shape they assume.
While Friday is the witches' Sabbath, Wednesday ia
that of the fairies. Every Friday, however, the "good
people " are declared to divert themselves with combing
the beards of goats.
In the olden time, it was not uncommon for the servant
girl in a farm-house to discover, when she rose with the
sun or before it, that the floor had been clean swept,
and every article of furniture put into its proper place,
by some kind sleight-of-hand fairy during the night. But
servant girls get no such supernatural nocturnal help
now, but must do the needful work themselves.
The fairies were formerly much addicted to stealing the
most beautiful and witty children they came across, and
leaving in their places such brats of their own as were
prodigiously ugly and stupid, mischievously inclined, or
of a peevish and fretful temper. These elfish imps were
termed "changelings." Some will have it that the "good
people " could only exchange these weakly, starveling,
ill-conditioned elves for the more robust children of
Jyminryl
1891. /
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
27
Christian parents before baptism, and that they could not
do so even then if a candle was always kept burning
at night in the room where the infant lay.
The fairies used to be heard patting their butter on the
slope of Pensher Hill, when people were passing in the
dark. A man once heard one of them say, "Mend that
peel !" Next day, going past again, he found a broken
peel lying on the ground. So he took it up and mended
it. The day after that, when going along the road with
a cart, he saw a piece of bread lying on a stsne at the
root of the hedge, at the identical place, with nice-look-
ing fresh-churned butter spread upon it; but he durst
neither eat it himself nor give it to his horses. The con-
sequence was, that before he got to the top of the
" lonnin," both his horses fell down dead. And thus was
he eoudignly punished for his want of faith in the fairies'
hjncnir. What is commonly known as Fairy Butter is a
certain fungous excrescence, sometimes found about the
roots of old trees. After great rains, and at a particular
stage of putrefaction, it is reduced to a consistency
which, together with its 'colour, makes it not unlike
butter; and hence its name. When met with inside
houses, it IB reckoned Incky. Why so, we cannot tell.
There are several round green hills in Durham and
Northumberland which were formerly supposed to be in-
habited underground by the fairies. We have met with
people who said they knew this to be a fact, because
sometimes in a fine still summer night, they have them-
selves lain down on these green hills, with their ears
close to the ground, and have heard piping, fiddling,
and dancing going on far down in the interior. When
questioned as to whether ths sounds might not rather
come from some neighbouring village or gipsy encamp-
ment, they would reply, " No, it was the fairies ; every-
body knew it was ; hundreds had heard them." Indeed,
almost every circular mound in the North must once have
been thus inhabited, if all tales be true. One such place
is the site of the old. fortress of the Conyers family, at
Bishopfcon, called the Castle Hill. Another is a remark-
able tumulus between Eppleton and Hetton, consisting
entirely of field stones gathered together. At the top of
this is a little hollow, called the Fairy's Cradle, and
there the fairies formerly used to dance to the music
made on a peculiarly sweet-toned pipe by a supernatural
minstrel. Ritson speaks of some fairy hills at Billing-
ham, and Mr. W. H. D. Longstaffe tells us of a very
famous one at Middleton-io-Teesdale. called the Tower
Hill, close to Pounties Lane (vulgo County Lane,
originally Pont Tees Lane). A person informed Mr.
Longstaffe that his grandmother frequently asserted that
she had seen the fairies go from that hill to the
Tees to wash themselves and to wash their clothes
also. Moreover, she once found a fairy, like unto
a miniature girl, dressed in green, and with
brilliant red eyes, composedly sitting on a small
cheese-like stone near her house. She took this
strange creature into the kitchen and set it by
the fire, and gave .it some bread and butter, with sugar on
it, which it ate, but it cried so bitterly that she was
obliged to carry it back to where she found it. She,
however, kept the elfish stone, and it may be in existence
until this day. The old woman preserved it most reli-
giously, not suffering it to be touched, and always had it
under the table in the pantry, for what purpose is not
stated.
Ritson deduces " Ferry Hill " from " Fairy Kill. " At
Hartlepool there are Fairy Coves, while the upper
valley of the Wear abounds with Fairy Caves. Near
Marsden, in one of the limestone caverns with which that
neighbourhood abounds, is "the Fairy's Kettle," a
circular hole in the rock, about five feet deep, filled with
pellucid salt water, the sea covering the place at spring
tides, and occasionally leaving a few little fishes in it, to
swim gaily about in a fairy-like fashion, as in an
aquarium of Nature's own forming.
While the foul fiend used to appear in the shape of a
black dog, and his poor deluded hags, the witches, in that
of a hare, the fairies were wont at times to assume that of
a cat. The following tale is told confirmatory of this :
A Stamdrop farmer was crossing a bridge at night, when
a cat jumped out, stood right before him, looked him in
the face earnestly, and at last, opening its mouth like
Balaam's ass, said in articulate vernacular North-Country
speech :
Johnny Reed ! Johnny Reed !
Tell Madam Mumfort
'At Mally Dixon's deed.
The farmer came home and told his wife what he had
seen and heard, when up sprang their old black cat, which
had been sitting cosily beside the fire, and, exclaiming,
" Is she? Then aa mun off '." bolted out at the door and
disappeared for ever. It was supposed she was a fairy in
disguise, and that she had gone to attend the funeral of a
relative, through whose death she might Rave come in for
some legacy.
Chathill, near Alnwick, boasted of a large Fairy Ring,
round which the children used to dance. But if they ran
round it more than nine times, some evil, it was thought,
was sure to befal them. So they would go the appointed
number, but never more.
Henhole, on the north side of Cheviot, is a chasm in the
midst of green slopes and heathy solitudes, so deep and
narrow that the rays of the sun never enter, and where a
small patch of snow, called a "snow egg, "is frequently
to be seen at midsummer. Some hunters were one day
chasing a roe, when they heard issuing from the depths of
the ravine the sweetest music they had ever heard. For-
getting the roe, which bounded away unheeded, they
were impelled to enter to see who the musicians were,
but they could never again find their way out Only one
who had been left behind, owing to his being worse
28
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
|Janary
1:91.
mounted than the rest, hesitated when he came to the
brink of the " hole," and came back to tell the tale.
A widow and her son. a wilful little fellow, in or near
Rothley, in the parish of Hartburn, famed in the days of
Border "raids," were sitting alone in their solitary
cottage, one winter evening, when the lad refused to go
to bed, because, as he averred, he was not sleepy. His
mother told him that, if he would not go, the fairies
would come to take him away. He laughed, however,
and sat still by the fire, while his mother retired to rest.
Soon a beautiful little figure, about the size of a child's
doll, came down the wide chimney and alighted on the
hearth. " What do they ca' thoo ?" asked the astonished
boy. " My Ainsell," was the reply, "and what do they
ca' thoo?" "My Ainsell," retorted he, and no more
questions were asked. Shortly they began to play
together, like brother and sister. At length the fire grew
dim. The boy took up the poker to stir it, but in doing
so a hot cinder accidentally fell on the foot of his strange
playmate. The girl set up a terrific roar, and the boy
flung down the tongs and bolted off to bed. Immediately
the voice of the fairy mother was heard, asking " Who's
done it?" "Oh! it was my ainsell," screamed the girl.
"Why, then," said the mother, "what's all the noise
aboot ? Thor's nyen te blame. "
A cottager and his wife at Netherwitton, on the banks
of the Font, were one day visited by a fairy and his
spouse, with their young child, which they wished to
leave in their charge. They agreed to retain it for a
certain period, after which it was to be taken back. The
fairy woman gave them a box of ointment with which to
anoint tho child's eyes ; but they were noc on any account
themselves to use it, or some misfortune would befal
them. For a long time they carefully avoided letting the
least particle stick to their fingers ; but, one day when his
wife was out, curiosity overcame prudence in the man's
mind, and he anointed his eyes with the forbidden stuff,
without any noticeable effect. Some short time after,
however, when walking through Longhorsley Fair, he
met the male fairy and accosted him. The elf started
back in amazement, but, instantly guessing the truth,
came forward and blew in the cottager's eyes. The effect
was instantaneous. The poor man was struck stone
blind. And the fairy child was never more seen.
A farmer, riding home at midnight past Fawdon Hill,
was surprised to hear the sound of music and jollity in so
lonely a place. On coming nearer, he became aware of a
door open in the hill side, and through it saw a large
company of strange-looking dwarfed people seated at a
splendid banquet. One of the attendants, perceiving the
stranger, came forward and offered him a cup full of
liquor, which he accepted ; but, instead of drinking the
contents to his entertainers' health, he prudently spilt
them on the ground, .and, putting spurs to his horse, fled
incontinently. The swiftness of the beast enabled him to
bafHe his pursuers, so that he bore away the empty vessel,
which was afterwards found to be made of some unknown
substance, possibly selenium. This is a very old story,
first told by a monkish chronicler, named William of
Newbury, who died in 1208, and who is said by his
translator, the Rev. Joseph Stevenson, to have been " in
criticism in advance of his age, and freer from prejudice
than might reasonably have been expected." William
concludes his narrative by telling his readers that the
identical fairy cup, having come into the possession of
King Henry I., was presented by that monarch to
Alexander I., King of Scots, who had married Sybilla,
one of his numerous illegitimate daughters.
Once upon a time a particularly clever midwife, well
known as " the howdie " for many miles round, flourished
somewhere about Elsdon. A messenger on horseback
came and called her out of bed one night, and told her
that she must instantly rise and go with him to the place
where he had hastily come from, a good distance off,
where a lady, whose friends could afford to pay her hand-
somely, was in sore want of her attendance. She must,
however, submit to be blindfolded, as the expected event
was to be kept a secret. The man gave her something in
hand by way of earnest, and she consented to mount
behind him on a pillion. Then fast, fast away they rode.
Arrived at tbeir destination, the howdie was introduced
into the room wherein the lady lay, and the bandage was
removed from her eyes. It was a very neat and comfort-
able place, but a place she had never been in before.
After she had successfully performed her office, and the
relieved mother was as well as could be expected, the man
got from an old crone who was sitting in the room a box
of ointment, with which she was tuld she must anoint the
baby, but to be careful not to let it touch her own
person. She accordingly did as she was bid, having no
mind to try any such experiments on herself, as she did
not know of what the stuff consisted. But, feeling an
itching in her eye, she put up her hand unconsciously,
and now saw everything in a different light. Instead of
a cosy room, it was a wood she was in. There was a
hollow moss-grown trunk instead of a fireplace. Glow-
worms supplied the place of lamps, and the lady was
evidently a fairy woman. But though mightily aston-
ished, the howdie retained her self-possession, finished
her task, was again blindfolded, got mounted behind her
mysterious conductor, and returned safely home, with a
good heavy purse of fairy money in her pocket. One
market-day soon after, she saw the old crone who had
handed her the box, and likewise been her pay-mistress,
gliding from one basket to another, among the farmers,
and hinds' wives, passing a little wooden scraper along
the rolls of butter, and carefully collecting the particles
thus purloined into a vessel hung bv her side. After a
mutual but silent recognition, the old lady inquired,
" What eye do you see me with ?" " With the left eye, "
was the innocent answer. " Well, then, take that !'"
cried the crone, as she startled her with a sudden, sharp
January 1
1891. /
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
29
puff. From that moment the poor hbwdie was a one-eyed
woman.
Another version of the story is that it was a certain
country doctor who received the eye salve from his elfin
conductor, and that, after he had anointed his eyes with
it, he saw a splendid portico in the side of a steep hill,
to which he was taken by his guide. He entered, and
found himself in a gorgeously furnished hall, fit for a
royal residence. On coming out, after performing his
office, another box was put into his hands, and he was
told to rub his eyes with its contents. He rubbed only
one eye, however, and with it saw the hill in its natural
shape, palace and portico having vanished. Thinking
to cheat his conductor, he feigned to rub the other eye
also, and then galloped off home. But, afterwards, see-
ing the fairy husband stealing corn in Morpeth Market,
he accosted him, with the same melancholy result, losing
for ever the sight of both eyes.
It was with tales like these that our grandmothers and
great-grandmothers entertained their hopeful offspring.
W. B.
Arctic & Antarctic
F the two circumpolar oceans, the Arctic and
the Antarctic, some of the most daring and
successful explorers have been North-
Country men. The discoverer of Hudson's
Bay was, there is reason to believe, a native of this part
of the country. Old family traditions of the name con-
firm the alleged fact, which cannot, however, be histori-
cally established, owing to Henry Hudson's birthplace
and early life not having been deemed worthy of record.
We need do little more than allude to Captain Cook,
whose father was an Ednam man, who was himself
born at Marton, near Middlesbrough, and who served his
apprenticeship to the sea on board a Newcastle collier,
belonging, it is true, to Whitby owners. Cook's dis-
coveries ranged from latitude 71 dees. 10 mins. south, to
70 degs. 41 mins. north, and he occupies the foremost
place among modern explorers. Captain Weddell, who
reached latitude 74 degs. 15 mins. south, in January, 1823,
was also, if we are not misinformed, a North-Country
man ; and we may confidently claim old Willy Scoresby,
born at Cropton, in the North Riding, and his even more
distinguished son, Dr. William Scoresby, who, in their
voyage to Greenland in 1806 (the father filling the place of
captain, the son that of chief mate), sailed in the high
latitude (by observation) of 81 degs. 12 mins. 42 sees.,
little more than five hundred nautical miles from the pole
This fact, as it had been previously unexampled, long re-
mained unsurpassed in the annals of polar navigation
for though Parry, in his voyage of 1827, succeeded in
reaching a higher parallel (82 degs. 45 mins.) by the joint
aid of boats and sledges, yet his ship had been unable to
advance beyond 79 degs. 55 mins. It was not till the
year 1871 that the American ship Polaris, commanded by
Captain Hall, reached a higher latitude than the
Scoresbys (84 degs. 16 mins.).
Captain F. R. M. Crozier, of the Terror, Sir John
Franklin's comrade in his last melancholy voyage, was,
we believe, a Ramsgate man, though his family connec-
tions lay in Blyt'u or Shields, if we are not misinformed.
He was chosen as Franklin's lieutenant, on account of his
being an experienced Arctic and Antarctic navigator,
who had accompanied Sir James Clark Ross to the South
Polar regions, and it was he who assumed the command
after Sir John's death, and endeavoured as a forlorn hope,
but in vain, to reach the Great Fish River with the
survivors of the expedition, one hundred and five in num-
ber all doomed, with himself, to perish in the trackless
frozen wilderness. His name is perpetuated in Crozier
Channel, leading out of Banks Strait, northward, and in
Cape Crazier, on the dreary western shore of King
William Land. Lieutenant Fairholm, who also perished
with Franklin, was a Berwickshire man, born, we believe,
at Greenkuowe, near Gordon, his paternal estate. On*
of the crew of the Erebus or Terror, we forget which, was
John Handford, son of James Handford, of Sunderland.
Lady Franklin got his father and mother into an alms-
house in London. Rear-Admiral Swinburne, a much
esteemed friend of Sir John Franklin, and one of the
earliest supporters of the final expedition sent in search of
him (McClintock's), was a scion of one of our oldest and
most respected Northumbrian families.
Captain John Balleny, who discovered Sabrina Land
in 1839 a tract of the southern circumpolar continent,
long known as Terra Australis Incognita sailed origin-
ally, we have been told, from Berwick-on-Tweed.
Captain (Admiral) Collinson, who passed three winters
in the icev and worked his ship, the Enterprise, right
along the North American coast, from Behring's Strait to
Cambridge Bay and back, across sixty degrees of longi-
tude, in 1850, 1851, and 1852, was born in Gateshead.
His father, the Rev. John Collinson, was rector of thafi
parish from 1810 to 1840, and afterwards rector of
Boidon, where he died in 1857. Captain Collinson
penetrated the furthest eastward from Behring's Strait
that any v<jssel has yet reached ; and he named the
point at which he was obliged by the ice to turn to the
west again, on his homeward route, Gateshead Island.
In the British Museum, among the Arctic Expedition
Relics, is a portrait of the Esquimaux dog "Daddy,"
brought home by the captain to Boidon Rectory, where it
died. A very beautiful flag, given to Captain McClintock
by Lady Franklin, on his departure on the search expedi-
tion, bearing her ladyship's name in white letters upon a
red ground, and margined with white embroidery, was
worked by the sisters of Captain Collinson. It was
hoisted on the occasion of McClintock's having at length
completed the sole object of his voyage acquired
30
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
/ January
1891.
possession of the Franklin Records, picked up by Lieu-
tenant Hobson on the shore of King William Land.
One of the most intrepid of our Arctic explorers was
Captain Christopher Middleton, supposed to have been
born at Newtcn Bewley, near Billingham, South Dur-
ham, about the beginning of the last century. There is a
detailed biography of him in Brewster's " History of
Stockton." We there learn that Middleton was bred to
the sea, and was engaged for some time in the fur trade,
in one of the Hudson's Bay Company's vessels. Recom-
mended by a.Mr. Dobbs, who was impressed with a
conviction that a passage might be found from the
Atlantic into the great Western Ocean, by an opening
not far distant from the course annually taken by the
Company's ships, he received from the Admiralty the
command of the Furnace for the purposes of discovery,
and had also put under his orders the Discovery junk,
which was commanded by Mr. William Moor, also
a, Billingham man. They left England in the summer
of 1741, wintered in Churchill River, and, as soon as the
ice allowed next year, began to sail up Sir Thomas
Roe's Welcome, through which they hoped to be able
to make their way westward. Their attention was soon
attracted by an inlet or river, which they called the
Wager, six or eight miles in breath, opening in the right
direction. They Bailed up it a little way, but ere long
found, to their mortification, that it would not afford
them the passage they sought, because the tide of
flood constantly came from the eastward, or in at its
mouth. Some twenty miles further north they came to
another opening, thirteen leagues in width, and doubled a
cape or headland, from which the trending of the
land gave them the greatest joy, all believing that this
would prove the extreme north-east point of America.
Middleton, therefore, gave it the name of Cape Hope.
But when the fog cleared away the next day they
experienced a sad reverse ; for they found the land to
extend westward of north, making a deep bay ; and
standing on towards the bottom of that they plainly saw
they could not proceed above six or eight miles further,
the bay being land-locked. Under these disappointing
circumstance*, Middleton gave it the name of Repulse
Bay. He now tried to find an outlet from the Welcome
on the eastern side, but in this also he was unsuccessful.
Landing, and walking twelve or fifteen miles, he
ascended a very high mountain, from which he obtained
a full view of a strait, eighteen or twenty leagues in
length, and seven in breadth, but completely frozen from
side to side, and seemingly as impermeable as a solid
rock. This hard and fast locked and sealed waterway,
which retains on the chart the name of the Frozen Strait,
leads out of the Welcome back into Hudson's Strait, as
Middleton, from the set of the tide, concluded it did.
On coming home with this account of what he
had seen and done, he was very much blamed for
not having prosecuted his search further. It was more
than insinuated that he had been bribed by the directors
of the Hudson's Bay Company, whose trusted servant he
had been, with the sum of five thousand pounds, in order
to stifle inquiry and prevent discovery ; for the influx of
private traders into these seas might have led to their
profitable monopoly being broken up a thing to be pre-
veuted by any means short of murder. This Frozen
Strait, it was said, was all a chimera ; indeed, some of
his petty officers swore it was. Middleton strenuously
denied the bribe, and maintained the correctness of his
representations. But his patron Dobbs refused to believe
him, and the Lords of the Admiralty, after hearing all
parties, were dissatisfied with his explanations. Captains
Parry and Lyon, long afterwards, substantially verified
his account, which varied from theirs only in such
minutiie as may be accounted for by the use ot imperfect
nautical instruments. This confirmation of his state-
ments came, of course, too late, except to clear
his character for veracity long after his death, which
took place in 1770. Brewster says that " neither
emolument nor honour graced his latter end," and
that, "dejected probably in spirits, he retired from
public employment, and, having married his ser-
vant, he had a large family, aud, it is said, died
poor." We learn from the "Annual Register," however,
that he was chosen a fellow of the Royal Society, and
received a medal "for his curious observations in the
discovery of the North-West Passage in 1740." His latter
years were spent at Norton, where he died. The follow-
ing is the entry of his burial, 1770 :" Feb.' 15, Christ.
Middleton, master and commander in the Royal Navy."
Some of his papers and journals, it appears, came into
the possession of the parish clerk at Norton, who gave
them to a young sailor of the name of Robinson, who
was shipwrecked and lost his life on the coast of Jutland,
and the papers, we conclude, were lost with him.
Middleton's correspondence with the Hudson's Bay
Company is still extant, we believe, in manuscript, in the
company's archives. His "Narrative" was published in
London shortly after his return.
As Middleton's failure did not shake the general
opinion respecting the possibility of the North-West
Passage through Hudson's Strait, a reward of 20,000
was offered by Parliament for the discovery ; and a new-
expedition under the direction of private persons, with
Mr. Dobbs's assistance, was fitted out for the purpose.
Captain Moor, who had been Middleton's associate, was
appointed to the command. As he seems to have been
but a poor scholar, though doubtless a good seaman, a
Mr. Henry Ellis was sent out with him, engaged by the
committee of management, to write a narrative of the
voyage. The expedition consisted of two vessels the
Dobbs galley, of 180 tons, and the California, of 140 tons,
the latter commanded by Captain Francis Smith.
Having sailed on the 20th of May, 1746, they made the
land on the 21st of August, on the west side of the
January!
1891. /
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
31
Welcome. Five days afterwards, the Dobbs grounded at
the entrance to Port Nelson, about seven miles from York
Fort, but she was got off without material damage. The
governor of the fort had no mind to promote their
designs, and some time was wasted in disputes with him.
It was then judged to be too late in the season to attempt
explorations that year, so they sailed up Hayes or Nelson
River and moored in a creek, about two miles above the
fort, where they wintered. They resumed the search, or,
more correctly speaking, commenced it, next year, on the
24th of June. But all they did was to sail up Wager
Strait, where they were again disappointed in not find-
ing a passsage, and then cursorily examining another
strait to the northward, which appears to have been
either Middleton's Frozen Strait or the entrance to
Repulse Bay, and where they had no better success. "A
difference of opinions," says Brewster, "prevailed be-
tween the commanders and among the officers as to the
propriety of proceeding to the examination of the bay,
consistent with their instructions. The greater part
were evidently indisposed towards any further research,
urging the advanced season of the year, though it was
only the 7th of August. After this, nothing was done or
attempted. After a council surely an inglorious council
they determined to bear up for England." On the 29th
they reached the westward entrance of Hudson's Strait,
and arrived in Yarmouth Roads on the 14th of October,
1747, having been absent one year, four months, and
seventeen days. After this really fruitless voyage,
Captain Moor, adds the historian of Stockton, ''soon
retired from the service ; prudently cast anchor in his
own neighbourhood of Greatham, where he married
Mary, sister of Ralph Bradley, Esq., of Stockton, in
1757, where he continued to reside, and died at that place
in 1765."
A more noteworthy local name connected with North-
West Passage exploration is that of Captain William
Christopher, a native of Norton, who sailed from Fort
Churchill in the summer of 1761, in the sloop Churchill,
belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company, the directors of
which had, in the intervals since Moor's luckless attempt,
risen above the narrow prejudices of their predecessors,
and resolved to make some amends for the obstructions
thrown in the way of former voyagers. Christopher
made his way up Cbesterneld Inlet, through which a
passage had, from Ellis's account of it, been generally
expected ; but finding the water turn brackish, which
showed that he was not in a strait, but in a river, he
returned. The ensuing summer he was ordered to repeat
the voyage in the same ship, and Mr. Norton, in a cutter,
was appointed to attend him. This time they ascended
the Chesterfield Inlet again, and found it to end in a
large fresh water lake, completely land-locked and fed by
small rivulsts, at the distance of about one hundred and
seventy miles from the sea. Several other inlets were
afterwards examined, from latitude 62 degrees to the
south point of Main ; but none of them offered the pass-
age searched for, the deepest not running above three
or four miles inland. So the result of these explorations
was only negative. Captain Christopher settled with his
family at Stockton, in comfortable circumstances, after
having left the company's service; and he died, in the 60th
year of his age, at Newcastle-on-Tyne, where he bad gone
for medical advice. His remains were interred at Norton.
Turning to the southern hemisphere, we find that one
of the most important discoveries ill high latitudes in
that part of the world was made by a Blyth man, Mr.
William Smith, commander of the brig William, of
JBiyth. He was on a voyage from Buenos Ayres to
Valparaiso, in the year 1819, when, on the 19th of
February, having stretched far to the south, he sighted
land in lat. 62 deg. 40 min., and near the longitude of 62
W., about two leagues off. Hard gales, with flying
showers of snow and fields of ice a combination of
adverse circumstances prevented at that time an ex-
ploration of the coast; and on the brig's return to the
Kiver Plate in the following month of May similar cir-
cumstances prevented further discovery. But, on a
subsequent voyage from Monte Video to Valparaiso, in
October of the same year, the William again made
the land, in lat. 62 deg. 30 min. S. and long. 60. deg. W.,
by chronometer bearing distance about three leagues.
Captain Smith ran along the coast, which seemed to be
that of a continent, fringed with islands a good way, and
effected a landing at several points. He found the
country barren and covered with snow, but seals and
spermaceti whales were in abundance. He named it
New South Shetland. It is now known to be an ex-
tensive archipelago, partly if not wholly volcanic, and
almost without a vestige of vegetation, but with several
good harbours. Ever since its discovery it has been the
great seat of the seal, sea-elephant, and whale fisheries
in those seas. One ship'i crew has been known to catch
as many as twelve thousand seals in one season along its
shores ; and the number taken off the islands, durimj the
years 1821 and 1822, chiefly by American vessels, is com-
puted by Captain Weddell at 320.000. Blyth Bay, in
Desolation Island, is that in which the William first
came to anchor, and Smith's Island, named after her
commander, is the westernmost of the group. It is the
highest and most forbidding of the whole, rising to more
than two thousand feet above the sea level, and covered
with eternal snow, except only where the surface is too
precipitous to let it lie. The black dismal rocks contrast
painfully with the glaring white, and give a very weird
aspect to the scene, which is like nothing that meets the
eye in more temperate regions. Captain Smith thought
he saw pino and fir trees growing in many places, as he
ran in a westward direction along the coasts for two or
three hundred miles ; and he reported that the country
had upon the whole the appearance of the coast of Nor-
way ; but no subsequent voyager has seen any trees on
32
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
{January
1891.
any part of New South Shetland, or the lands adjacent,
not oven grass or shrubs. The only vegetation, ap-
parently, consists of moss and lichens. But the riches of
the sea make up in some measure for the poverty of the
land. W. B.
Hawfcl* Knuittf
JHE city of York, in its inner and outward
aspect, spans the centuries so completely
that it would be difficult to find a better
compendium in stone of British history.
Here we have tangible memories of Britons, Romans,
Saxons, Danes, and Normans aye, and even of those
hapless Jews who, after attaining wealth and power,
perished so tragically in the revengeful outbreak of the
twelfth century.
But before we touch that lurid page, let us recall other
incidents in York's story that are infinitely more
pleasurable. We shall not quibble over the names suc-
cessively borne by the city; but it seems indisputable that
the Romans first gave it importance under the title of
Eboracum, and that the Danes anticipated the modern
appellation of "York" by dubbing it Jorvik the initial
letter having the sound of "y." The beautiful Minster,
which is so commanding a feature in the vale of York, can
claim connection with those remote times, for Con-
stantino the Great, proclaimed Roman Emperor here
From Harpr' Magazine.
"
, 1889, by Hirptr 4 Brothen.
MICKLEGATE BAR, YORK.
January 1
1891. f
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
33
about A.D. 306, is believed to have given, on the very
spot where the sacred edifice now stands, his gracious
permission for the first preaching of Christianity in the
city. On this spot, too, Paulinus baptised the North-
umbrian monarch Edwin ; and if we descend into the
crypt of the present-day Minster we may view the
remains of Edwin's first church, or at least of the original
building reared by Archbishops Thomas and Rogers.
Saxon crypts, however, as in Hexham Abbey, are not
inspiring regions, and the decidedly "elevating" in-
fluence of a climb to the top of the central tower of the
Minster is much more to be recommended. Here the eye
roves over a goodly prospect of the broad -acred county; and
on a fine summer or autumn day one is not, even at this
lapse of time, inclined to dispute the Chevalier Bunsen's
opinion that we see before us " the most beautiful and
most romantic vale in the world, the vale of Normandy
excepted." The description seems all the more faithful
when we remember that Normandy retains its sweet
simplicity, while York, on the other hand, is familiar
with the screams of locomotives, and boasts of
having the largest railway station in the United King-
dom.
Circled by its white walls, however, there is in York
city much that is quaint, and picturesque, and rich in
historic associations. The modern spirit of research has
laid bare the remains of Roman walls, villas, and palaces,
with many curious evidences of military aud domestic
pursuits, as well as samples of architectural ornamenta-
tion and personal adornment. The clustering streets,
with their strange nomenclature, such as the Shambles,
tell their own story, helped out here and there by grim
turrets and frowning gateways. Micklegate Bar, at the
head of one of the principal streets, is eloquent with its
embattled turrets and stone warders, which frequently
From Umi-sk's iuoizi>. Copyright, loaf,
THE SHAMBLES, YORK.
had for company in the "good old days" the heads of
those who gave offence and had not wit or luck enough
to escape the penalty. A ghastly procession has walked
.
ftw llura'i Xiurax
Copyright, 1889, by Harper 4 Brother..
BARBICAN, WALMGATE BAR, YORK.
3
MONTHLY CHRONICLE
(January
I 1891.
these battlements ! Then, in contrast with the trim
wails of the Castle, there is the ancient tower of the
Cliffords, with its savour of William the Conqueror,
while over the 1'oss lies the glcoiny keep at Fishergate,.
and not far ahead is Walmgate, celebrated as being the
only "bar" that remains
in England with barbi-
can complete. Walm-
gate is indeed a mine of
memories, possessing in
its forbidding front and
jealous, spiteful port-
cullis the clue to the
right reading of many a
page of history.
But Jewbury, close
by, now stirs up recol-
lections of the part
played in York by the
forerunners of the
Rothschilds, and re-
kindles the interest in
the Israelites of " Ivan-
hoe." The Norther n
capital was soon fixed
upon by the Jews as a
favourable centre, and
here, William of Newburgh assures us, they attained
1:1
From Harpr'i Magazine.-- Copyright.
1889, by Harper 4 Brothera.
THE FIDDLER OF TOBK,
CABVED ON THE TOP OF A
JIINSTEB PINNACLE.
"the luxury and the pomp of kings." But, while they
grew fat upon usury, the Crusadere. who had sought their
aid, with many others groaning under extortions, felt the
strain too great to bear, and forthwith resolved tp wipe
out their bonds with the sword. Five hundred Hebrews
took refuge in the Castle, and here they were besieged by
the populace clamouring for the blood of the " Jewish
dogs." Not thus, however, were they to die. An aged
rabbi, perceiving their desperate straits, counselled a,
"free surrender of life to Him that gave it," whereupon
the Jews hid or destroyed all their wealth, set fire to the
Castle, and plunged their daggers first into the hearts of
their women and children and then into their own bosoms.
Not without a shudder, therefore, do we think of what
befell the dwellers in Jewbury.
Monk Bar, which receives its name from the general
who played a part in the Restoration of the Stuart
dynasty, is considered to be the most perfect of the feudal
type of such remains in the country. In this respect,
therefore, both as regards Walmgate and Monk Bar,
York is of special interest to the antiquary. But one
need not pause at the corbelled and embattled turrets, or
tha rudely sculptured defenders who, standing in the act,
have not yet made up their minds to hurl their missiles of
rock. A rich field lies around, and, turn where one will,
there is ample food for study and reflection. Go to the
Mansion House, for instance, and there look upon the
sword of state presented by the Emperor Sigismund, and
Fr3m Harper'* Magazine.
Copyright, 18S9, bj Harper 4 Brother.,
EAST END OF YORK MINSTER, FROM MONK BAR.
January!
1891. /
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
35
upon the cap of maintenance given by Richard II. when
he made William de Selby the first Lord Mayor of York,
the cap to be worn as faithfully observed to this day
by the mayoral sword-bearer in all presences on all state
occasions. " My Lord Mayor " keeps up considerable
pomp, and within his own jurisdiction takes social
precedence of all except the sovereign and heir-apparent ;
yet the office has pone a-begging more than once, some of
the elected having paid a monelary consideration to
YOHK MIXHTER, FBO.M TUB MARKET PLACE.
escape from serving. Surely the manifold associations of
the Guildhall, gathered with the roll of centuries, and
crystallized in the stained glass windows and fine oak
carvings, ought to invest with dignity and lustre the
duties of " My Lord Mayor " I
Next to the abodes of civic power we might place
that curious relic, the King's Manor House, which
carries us back to the time of the Tudors and the
Stuarts, for this was the scene of royal receptions, and
here Charles II. held Parliament. Now,
I as a school for the blind, it is the county
! memorial of William Wilberforce, and
I Puritans may eay it thus serves a better
I purpose. Another spot sweet to the
antiquary is the Merchants' Hall, in
Fossgate, which at one stroke, so ripe is
this memorial of the past, takes three
centuries off the world's record. One
might almost expect to encounter on the
step one of those worthy old souls
whose excellent motto is sculptured over
the entrance with the arms of the Cor-
poration : Dieu nous donnc bonne ad-
venture.
But all this while we have been sen-
sible of the influence of the towering
Minster an influence that must be felt
rather than described. Churches and
charities there are in plenty, and the
student may rejoice in chance specimens
of Gothic and Norman architecture, or
go into raptures over the remains of St.
Mary's Abbey, dating from the Con-
quest, and celebrated for its rich and
powerful monks. But the glory of York
is its Minster. Built in the form of a
cross, it seems the embodiment of peace
and sanctity, while its grand proportions
and stately spires fill the mind of the
beholder with a sense of awe. Fresh
beauties appear at every point, and no
one can weary of contemplating the
delicate tracery of this exquisite piece of
cathedral architecture. The heart burns
at the mere thought that Jonathan
Martin, in a mad freak, sought to
fire this marvellous edifice, and one is
thankful that the design of the incen-
diary was frustrated. Carved on the
top of one of the pinnacles, it may be
noted, is an antique figure which bears
the quaint appellation of "The Fiddler of
York." The interior of the Minster is iu
keeping with the exterior. Let the visitor
enter, and he will realise the full power of
this "sermon in stone." As he stanJs
by Hwpr A Brothers.
36
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
{January
1
1891.
beneath the central tower, and gazes in admiration at the
works of art that chastely adorn this monument of man's
faith, he is sensible of a sacred influence around him,
and it only requires the rare melody of the choir at even-
song to make all that is spiritual in his nature vibrate in
harmony with the magnificent conception which fills the
Minster and dominates the city.
3Sffrringt0tT irt
pORGE WALDRON, alias Harrington, was
a famous pickpocket towards the end of the
last century. But Harrington was much
more than a common thief. His educa-
tional advantages placed him head and shoulders above
the ordinary criminal level, while his superior manners
and gift of speech showed that, if it had been his fortune
to have commenced life under more favourable conditions,
he would have achieved a respectable position in society.
But his adverse circumstances and false start in life
were entirely due to his own misconduct.
Waldron was born at Maynooth, County Kildare, in
1755. When he had entered his sixteenth year, he at-
tracted the attention of a dignitary of the Church of
Ireland, who placed him in a grammar school in Dublin,
the object being to prepare him for the University. In
an evil moment, he quarrelled with a school-fellow, older
and stronger than himself. Getting the worst of the
fight which ensued, he stabbed his comrade with a pen-
knife. The youth was subjected to discipline for this
offence; but this, instead of having a deterrent effect,
only increased his feeling for revenge. After robbing
the schoolmaster, he escaped from the school-house, and
wandered aimlessly about the country.
While at Drogheda, he joined a company of strolling
players, with whom he remained for a time. The
manager of the troupe, who had previously been con-
victed for fraud and was at the time in fear of capture,
was young Waldron's counsellor and friend. It was at
this man's suggestion that the young fellow assumed the
name of Barrington. Owing to a tolerably pleasing
address, he soon made his name as an actor ; but, fearing
that success in the profession would expose him to the
attentions of his friends, he relinquished what might
have been an honourable career. Acting on the advice
of his evil counsellor, he adopted another profession
that of a "gentleman pickpocket."
After relieving many Irish gentlemen of their watches
and trinkets, he transferred his operations to London.
Ranelagh Gardens were then in the full flood of popularity
the resort of the rank and fashion of the time. Here
he managed to pick the pockets of the Duke of Leinster
and Sir William Draper of considerable sums. In 1775
we find him at Bath, where, pretending to be a gentle-
man of fortune, he had no doubt many opportunities of
replenishing his exchequer. On his return to London, he
went to Court on the Queen's birthday, disguised as a
clergyman, and not only picked several pockets, but found
means to purloin a diamond order that adorned the breast
of a nobleman. But perhaps the most daring of his
ventures was the attempt to rob the Russian Prince
Orloff .of a gold snuff-box, set with brilliants, and valued
at 30,000. Following the prince to Covent Garden
Theatre, he contrived to secure the treasure, but was
caught in the act by Orloff himself. For this offence
Barrington was prosecuted ; but he presented so plausible
a defence that liberation followed.
Trouble, however, overtook the audacious thief in 1777,
in which year, being convicted of theft, he was sent to the
hulks for three years. But fortune did not yet desert
him, for, owing to his good conduct in prison, he was
liberated at the termination of the first year.
Six months afterwards he was again convicted of theft,
MINSTER TOWERS, YORK, FROM PETER GATE.
January 1
1891. /
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
37
and again sentenced to the hulks, this time for a period of
five years: Once more good luck attended him. Having
nearly wrecked his constitution by an attempt to destroy
his life, his pitiable condition excited the compassion of a
gentleman of rank, a visitor to the hulks, who obtained
for him n free pardon on condition that he quitted the
kingdom. The condition was, of course, accepted, and,
being provided with money by his benefactor, he de-
parted for Dublin.
Within a very short time afterwards he resumed his old
practices. Apprehended on a charge of stealing the
watch and money of a nobleman at a theatre, he made so
effective a defence in court that he was discharged. We
next find him in Edinburgh, and subsequently in London
again. Arrested for violating the condition of release, he
was imprisoned for the remainder of his term in Newgate.
Soon after the expiration of his captivity, he was charged
with stealing the watch of Mr. Haviland Le Mesurier, at
Drury Lane Theatre, but eluded the vigilance of the con-
stable, and so escaped once more.
Harrington wandered about the country in various dis-
guises, and eventually turned up in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
The circumstances of his arrest there are detailed in the
following extract from the Newcastle Chronicle of July 5,
1788:
On Friday evening, the 27th ult., as the Rev. Mr.
Warilow, of this town, was going into the boxes of the
theatre, a man genteely dressed came up to him, and at-
tempted to take the watch out of his pocket; but having
pulled it in an oblique direction, it stuck fast, and Mr.
Warilow, perceiving his intention, laid hold of his arm ;
he, however, immediately got it disengaged, and walked
up into the green boxes, where he stood looking on the
stage till Mr. W. went to him and accused him of the
attempt, which he denied with great firmness and
hauteur, and affected to be much insulted by the sus
picion ; he then walked down stairs, and into the oppo-
site green box, but, seeing Mr. W. determined not
to leave him, he went again down stairs, and walked
carelessly out of the theatre, when Mr. W., having pro-
cured a constable, he was apprehended in the passage
leading to the Flesh Market. He underwent an imme-
diate examination before Mr. Alderman Rudman, and,
being unwilling to give a satisfactory account of himself,
he was committed to the custody of a sergeant-at-mace
till next morning, when lie was again examined before the
Court of Aldermen ; he there said his name was Jones,
but, that circumstance being doubted, a sailor was
brought into court, who made oath that he knew
him to be the renowned pickpocket Harrington ;
he was thereupon committed to Newgate, and in-
telligence sent off to the Public Office in Bow
Street, an advertisement having been published
from thence in February last, charging him with
having picked the pocket of Haviland Le Mesurier,
Esq., of a purse containing twenty-three guineas and a
half, and offering a reward of five guineas on his commit-
ment. On hearing of his apprehension, the lady who
travels with him, and calls herself his wife, immediately
set off, in their one-horse chaise, towards the south, but
returned again the same evening, in a different convey-
ance, to the Old Queen's Head, in Pilgrim Street, where
she was discovered by one of the sergeants, who con-
ducted her before a magistrate, to undergo an exami-
tion. She said her name was Johnson, and that
her father was a waiter at a tavern in York ; but
no information could be gained from her that could lead
to a discovery of any malpractices of herself or her hus-
band. She still remains in the custody of a serjeant-at-
mace ; but, being far advanced in pregnancy, if no hopes
remain of gaining any criminating matter from her
evidence, humanity would seem to plead much for her
enlargement. Notwithstanding Mr. Harrington's dex-
terity, it appears that he has been rather unsuccessful
here, as we do not find that any losses have been sustained
from the exercise of his art, though it is imagined he was
the person who attempted to pick the pockets of his Grace
the Duke of Northumberland and two other gentlemen in
the theatre. Mr. Harrington, should this be really him,
is a man of genteel appearance and address, about five
feet ten or eleven inches high, slender make, of a dark
complexion, and has sharp, piercing eyes; he was dressed
in a drab coat and round hat. Some of the Bow Street
people are daily expected to arrive here, to convey him to
London.
A fortnight later the ingenious thief was still in
custody, as appears from the following paragraph
extracted from the Newcastle Chronicle of July 19 :
The supposed Mr. Barrington still remains in custody
here, Sir Sampson Wright not having yet thought proper
to despatch messengers to convey him to London. He at
first, indeed, desired he might be despatched by sea, but
that method was, we imagine, deemed too insecure to be
adopted. He has been visited in Newgate by a great
number of gentlemen, whom he receives in the most polite
manner. We could, however, have wished that some-
what more delicacy had been observed in conducting that
business ; it must be grating to him, and we cannot con-
ceive how anyone can derive pleasure from such a visit.
Another extract from the same source, dated July 26,
1788, gives particulars of the prisoner's removal :
It having appeared by the certificate of Henry Colling-
wood Selby, Esq., Clerk of the Peace for the county ot
Middlesex, and by the affidavit of John Townsend, that
George Barrington stands indicted at the general sessions
of the peace for the county of Middlesex for felony he was
removed from hence by habeas corpus on Wednesday last
to take his trial thereon. He was conveyed in the mail-
coach in the custody of a sergeant-at-mace and Mr.
Townsend, one of the Bow Street officers.
John Townsend was of course the celebrated "Bow
Street runner, " of whom many exciting stories are told
in the criminal annals of the country. But the special
charge on which Mr. Townsend's captive was taken to
London seems to have tailed on account of the absence at
the trial of a material witness.
In the Newcastle Chronicle for September 13, 1788, we find
an intimation to the effect that Barrington's trial at the
Old Bailey Sessions would commence on the following
Wednesday, when he would be charged with stealing the
watch of Mr. Le Mesurier. The prisoner secured the
services of an eminent lawyer, who, in the absence of
material evidence, was instrumental in securing his dis-
charge from custody.
Barrington's career as a pickpocket may be said to have
come to an end in September, 1798, when, being found
guilty of again picking pockets, he was sentenced to trans-
portation for seven years. During the voyage in the con-
vict ship to Botany Bay, he assisted in quelling a
mutiny, for which service he was duly rewarded.
The captain of the ship gave so excellent an
account of his conduct to the Governor of Port
Jackson that that official at once appointed him
superintendent of convicts at Paramatta. Subsequently
he was appointed high constable of the same place, in
38
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
{ Jtt i n 8 9! 8ry
which situation he is said to have won the respect of his
superiors. Barrington died in 1804, it is supposed from
mental imbecility induced by remorse for his wasted life.
(SarlaitU
at
goljti tokoe.
AW WISH YOR MUTHOR WAD CUM.
J|HE catalogue of Newcastle song-writers, be-
ginning with Henry Robson, and followed
in succession by Thompson, Mitford, Gil-
christ, Robson, Corvan, and Ridley con-
tains the names of no more pathetic and homely lyrist
than that of Joe Wilson. A man of blameless life,
not possessing the robust frame which sometimes lends
itself to stirring and robust song, he passed quietly
and respected through a life of only thirty-four years,
dying in February, 1875, and leaving a vacancy which has
not yet been filled. The song we publish, together with
"The Row Upon the Stairs," "The Gallowgate Lad,"
"Dinnet Clash the Door," besides many other of his
homely domestic ditties, will live and be sung as long as
the Tyne runs to the sea. The tune is a well-known Irish
comic melody, to which is sung " The Whistling Thief."
It should be added that Messrs. Thos. and George Allan,
of Newcastle, have lately published a handsome and
complete edition of Wilson's songs, that the song given
below has been chosen by Mr. Ralph Hedley as the
subject for an oil painting, and that this painting has
been reproduced in colours as a presentation plate for the
Christmas Supplement of the Newcastle Weekly Chronicle,
1890.
sure aw'll not stop lanp; ;
ol ten deun'd for
fun.
"Cum, Geordy, hand the bairn,
Aw's sure aw'll not stop lang ;
Aw'd tyek the jewel mesel,
But really aw's not strang.
Thors floor and coals te get,
The hoose-turns thor not deun ;
So haud the bairn for fairs,
Ye've often deund for fun ?"
Then Geordy held the bairn,
But sair agyen his will ;
The poor bit thing wes gud,
But Geordy had ne skill :
He haddint its nnitlior's ways,
He sat byeth stiff an' nuin ;
Before five minutes wes past,
He wished its muthor wad cum.
His wife had scarcely gyen
The bairn began to squall,
Wi' hikin't up an' (loon,
He'd let the poor thing fall.
It waddent had its tung,
Tho' sum aud teun he'd hum
Like " Jack an' Jill went up a hill ''
Aw wish yor muthor wad cum.
"What weary toil," says he,
" This nursin' bairns mun be ;
A bit ont's well eneuf,
Ay, quite eneuf for me.
Te keep a cryin' bairn
It may be grand te sum ;
A day's wark's not as bad
Aw wish yor nuuhor wad cum.
"Men seldum giv a thowt
Te what thor wives endure ;
Aw thowt she'd nowt te de
But clean the house, aw's sure;
Or myek me dinner an' tea
It's'startin' te chow its thum ;
The poor thing wants its tit
Aw wish yor muthor wad cuir.
What a selfish world this is !
Thor's nowt mair se than man ;
He laffs at wummin's toil,
And winnet nurse his awn
It's startin' te cry agyen,
Aw see tuts throo its gum :
Maw little bit pet, dinnct fret
Aw wish yor muthor wad cum.
" But kindness dis a vast,
It's ne use gettin' vext ;
It winnet please the bairn,
Or ease a mind perplext
At last, it's eyen te sleep,
Me wi|e 'ill not say aw's nuin ;
She'll think aw's a real gud nurse
Aw wish yor muthor wad cum.
hoose-turns thor not
deun.
January \
1891. /
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
39
iUttn*.
j]R. WELFORD, referring to Sir John Delaval,
Bart., of Sea ton Lodge, quotes from Spear-
man's MSS. that Sir John's daughter, having
been married to John Rogers, of Denton, "died within
the year, as was said, by a posset given by Sir John's
mistress, Mrs. Poole, and Mr. Rogers went distracted.' 1
(See Monthly Chronicle, 1890, page 251.) Till some
proof be given, this "fairy tale" should be withdrawn
from local history, for in this, as in other of his state-
ments about the Delavals, Spearman, when compared
with facts, appears to have erred. Mr. Rogers was son
and heir of John Rogers, of Newcastle, by Elizabeth,
the fifth daughter of Benjamin Ellison, merchant-
adventurer, of the same town, and, previous to
his marriage with Sir John's daughter, he and his
widowed mother joined in conveying on November 5,
1713, certain lands in Rouchester. West Denton,
North Seaton, Scotchwood, Benwell, Jarrow, lands
"called Whitefield, in possession of Robert Awde
{sic) and Richard Batty," lands at Hindley,
in the Bywell parishes, lands at Low Sugley and
Lemmgton Green, in the parish of Newburn, &c.,
to certain trustees to wit, Grey Neville of Billing-
bare, Bucks, and Edward Delavall of Dissington, North-
umberland. That Mrs. Rogers did not "die within
the year," or even seven years, will be seen from
a paragraph in a letter from James Mewburn to
Admiral George Delaval. Mewburn resided at New-
castle, and was evidently the manager for the estate
of Seaton, which was taken over by Admiral
Delaval from Sir John Delaval, Bart. All the build-
ing accounts of the hall, and the estate rentals,
are in his very fine clerk - like handwriting,
giving the most minute particulars, and balanced to a
farthing. Mr. Etty, mentioned by Mewburn, was prob-
ably an assistant to Sir John Vanburgh, and made occa-
sional visits to the works at Delaval Hall. Mewburu's
letter, being of interest, is given in full :
Newcastle, 10th December, 1720.
Honoured Sr., Both Your Hon'rs of the 1st and 6th
Instant, I Reed., and now thinks Sr. John Van Brugh
will Keep his Xtmas at Castle Howard, haveing noe
Letter from him. Mr. Etty will most certainly come to
Seaton along with Sr. John, and though I had rather
take to a small fault at any time then make many words,
yett I Cannot bear, when any wrong is put upon mee, so
if Mr. Etty offer to doe any such things, Your Honr. may
be assured I shall speak my mind freely.
Mr. Etty's Letter which your Honr. is pleased to
Inclose mee, Speaks enough to" the Carrying on the work
to perfection. I shall take care of the Lettr. Sr. John
Delavall and all bis i'amily is altogether at the Lodge,
and Madm. Rogers, Sr. John's Daughter, is bearing them
Company, and Mr. Rogers is often there too, and Madm.
Rogers is to stay till Mrs. Pool's Birthday, as I am told.
Mr. Etty has been in Some of his Ares, when he writ the
Dirfction for your Honr.
The Draines are all Cast and wee have Level! Enough,
and most Covered and Secured, so that noe wett canu
stand any where about the House. Mr. Etty takes the
Ordering and Manageing of the draines to himselfe (as I
perceive by his Letter), but must begs his pardon a Little
in that Matter, for Your Brother Knows and forty
more, that they were well advanced before he came to
Seaton.
Wee have abundance of wett weather, which is bring-
ing downe every day some old walls, which wee are
obliged to Repair Immediately to keep the Houseing from
falling.
The Groyning, which Mr. Etty mentions in his Letter,
I think is a terme of Art, which is Arching of the
Passage, as I apprehend him.
The New Stair Case mentioned in Etty's Letter, is
that draught of the Stare Case which Sir John Van
Brugh sent Your Honr. after Your departure from
Seaton, and Your Honr. sent mee. Mr. Etty see it at
Seaton and propose it for the East Stare Case, that is for
the East Tower. When any thing of Substance goes from
hence for Your Honr. shall send your linnen, and Beanes
too if Your Honr. pleases, and likewise all those things
from Madm. Shaftoe when they come to hand, and Your
Honr's. Pillow too, if Your Honr. pleases, but my wife
knows not what method to use to gett it cleaned.
As for the Sault Your Honr. mentions, it was quite
jrone out of my thoughts, but if any such can be
gott shall speak to Mr. Nicholson and Engage him in
that affair.
This day gone seven nights, I mentioned to Your
Honr. that the Gardeners was Supplying the Dead Trees
in the West Avenue, and at night when I gott hon.e they
told mee there was only three dead trees in all that West
Avenue and Circle, the other which seemed dead at Topp
was Growing severall foot above Ground, and this
weather I hope will doe much good to all the planta-
tions. There is near two hundred Elmes planted this
week, wee are now Obliged to plant the large Elmes in
the Nurserys, all the dead ones being renewed, save only
the Scape hill in the Lumperwill field before the North
door, which wee leave till further orders. There is
about 300 limes to plant and many of them must be
planted in the Nursery too. What the Gardeners say
about pruneing seems very reasonable, and ought to be
observed.
Shall Direct the Young men now with me to Obsene
Your Honour's Directions about pruneing the Young
Elmes in the East Nursery.
Shall wait of Sr. John at the Lodge, and doe Your
Honrs. Commands. Shall Observe to plant the Broad
Leafed Elmes with their Lead ing shouts [shoots] on, and
shall plant the Largest Branches in Cuttings of the
Willows, but pray does Your Honr. please to have the
roots of any of the Willows removed, and planted else-
where ?
I am Glad the Corne is gott into the Priver [stack
yard ?]
I doe not Remembr of any full answer given Your
Honr. Concerning the door between the two Great Base-
ments to the North, and Last Setterday was snort about
it, and since have Examined the plans, and doe find the
stairs being placed there, and the sole of the Door levell
with the flower [floor] within, and halfe pace without,
and a window of Each side, very plaine : so what mistake
is here I Cannot tell but it is Certaine that a door Intined
[intended] in the plan to goe up the Stepps between the
North Basements into the Hall : and as for the door
under (which is already made) that comes into the
Duch, is placed for Conveniency of Receiving Vessells
into the Cellar, and will not be seen when the
stepps are made ; tho steps will rise from the North
only and not up at the tnds too, as they are now
Intended.
I hope your Honr. will be pleased to accept of my
wishing you joy of your new Honr. which 1 hope is Con-
firmed upon Your Honr. by this time, and pray be pleased
to excuse my not doing it "earlyer, for doe begg lieve to
assure your Honr. that none doe wish or desire Your
Honr. 's welfare and happyness more than my self e, and
doe Likewise begg Your Honr. will be pleased to advise
mee how to Direct to Your Honr. in propper Expressions
due to Your Honr. ; for it is ueiiher my duty nor my desire
40
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
f January
I 1691.
to be any way short in shewing my due obedience to Your
Honr. and all things else that is becoming or due from
Your Honr. 'a most duty full
and obedient humble servant,
JA. MEWBUBN.
Inclosed a Lettr. of Sr. John Vanbrughs which I found
this week have taken a Copy of it.
If Mr. Rogers "went distracted" within the year, he
got over the supposed calamity, for at the county elec-
tion, in February, 1722, we find him residing at New-
castle, and capable ot recording his vote for his freehold
at East Denton, which vote he gave to Ralph Jennison,
the unsuccessful candidate.
CUTHBEKT HOMK TRASLAW.
William 33*U &tatt
MAN of exalted and varied genius was the
poet-artist who, on November 22, 1890, sank
to his rest at the seat of Miss Boyd, Penkill
Castle, Girvan, a home enriched by noble
frescoes from his hand. William Bell Scott, whoso death
is a loss tq the world of art and letters, found in Miss
Boyd a true and devoted friend, who not only cheered his
declining years, but tended with loving care his aged wife.
Rare memories therefore cling to Penkill Castle, rendered
sweeter from the fact that there also the artist's friend
and kindred spirit, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, wrote some
of his subtlest poems.
Mr. Scott, the son of an Edinburgh engraver, and the
younger brother and biographer of David Scott, F.S.A.,
gave early evidence that he possessed the family talent.
Born in Edinburgh on September 12th, 1811, he was
educated at the High School there. His first instruction
in art was imparted by his father and his brother. On
coming to London in 1831, he studied the antique
zealously at the British Museum. Returning to Edin-
burgh, he put forth his earliest poems in Tail's Magazine,
and in the Edinburgh University Souvenir for 1854.
Finally, he left Edinburgh for London about 1836.
His first contribution to a London Gallery was "The
Jester," which was exhibited at Suffolk Street in 1840 ;
while his first picture in the Academy was sent in 1842,
under the title of " Chaucer, John of Gaunt, and their
Wives." Mr. Scott also sent various works to the British
Institution, beginning with " Bell Ringers and Cavaliers
celebrating the Entrance of Charles II. into London,"
which was shown in 1841. This was followed by " The
Old English Ballad Singer," 1842; "Comfort the
Afflicted," 1845; "The School, Newcastle-upon-Tyne,"
1846, and five later productions.
Scott's most ambitious effort was due to that impulse
which, in 1842 and 1843, stirred the artistic world to its
depths, and resulted in the Cartoon Competition in West-
minster Hall. To this he sent a drawing of life-size
figures, measuring 11 ft by 9 ft., and representing, in a
dramatic fashion, " The Northern Britons surprising the
Roman Wall." It obtained no premium, but brought its
young author under the notice of some of the more intelli-
gent and influential leaders of opinion. Scott did not
tempt fortune again at Westminster, but, profiting by the
feeling excited in his favour among artists, accepted the
offer of a considerable appointment in the School of
Design, which was then being developed with Govern-
ment aid. Soon after this (that is, in 1843) we find him in
charge of the most important Government school of art in
the North of England, that of Newcastle-upon-Tyne a
post which he occupied until about 1858, when changes in
what had become the Art Department caused him to
abandon his appointment and remove to London, without
ceasing to be connected with South Kensington.
In 1846 Mr. Scott published his only long poem, "The
Year of the World, a Philosophical Poem on Redemp-
tion from the Fall." Shortly afterwards appeared his
"Memoir of David Scott," "Antiquarian Gleanings in
WILLIAM BELL SCOTT.
the North of England," and "Ornamental Designs for
Silver and Gold Work," with an essay on ornamental
design. Under the title of " Chorea Sancti Viti, or Steps
in the Life of Prince Legion," he published in 1851 a
series of allegorical etchings ; and in 1854 appeared the
volume best known as " Poems by a Painter."
For five years afterwards Scott was employed in paint-
ing eight large pictures illustrating the principal events of
Northumbrian history, at Wallington Hall, the seat of
Sir Walter Trevelyan, Bart. ; and in 1863-4 the com-
plement of his work was executed in the form of
eighteen oil paintings on canvas for the spandrels of
the arches in the saloon containing the Border subjects.
The interest in this magnificent set of paintings does
not depend upon the workmanship or the subjects
alone. All the objects introduced are relics which still
exist in Northumbrian houses, and many of the figures
were portraits of living Northumbrian characters. The
learned author of the history of the Roman Wall occu-
pies a prominent place among the figures on that ram-
January 1
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
41
part, the late Eev. Cooper Abbes figures as St. Cuth-
bert, and Mr. W. H. Charlton, the late proprietor of
Hesleyside, is exhibited as the astonished recipient of
the Charlton spur. The pictures occur in the following
order : 1, the building of the Roman Wall ; 2, a scene on
the Farne Islands, King Egfrid and Bishop Trumwine
urging St. Cuthbert to accept the bishopric of Hexham ;
3, the Danes invading Northumberland at Tynemouth ;
4, the death of Bede at Jarrow ; 5, the Border Chieftain
shown the emptiness of the larder by the spur in the dish
which is brought in place of dinner ; 6. Bernard Gilpin
preventing a Border feud; 7, Grace Darling's act of
heroism ; 8, Newcastle in the 19th century. A picture
by Mr. Scott, representing the building of the "New
Castle upon Tyne " adorns the walls of the Literary and
Philosophical Society. In 1868 he also completed a series
of mural paintings illustrating " The King's Quhair " on
the spiral staircase of Penkill Castle,
In 1869 Scott brought out "Albert Diirer, his Life
WILLIAM BELL SCOTT.
and Works," a critical bioeraphy, containing admirable
etchings by the author. Other works from his pen which
may simply be mentioned are "Half-hour Lectures
on the History and Practice of the Fine and
Ornamental Arts," "William Blake, Etchings from his
Work," with descriptive text, and " The Little Masters"
(of Germany), a valuable contribution to English art
literature. In 1882 he added to the rest of his acquire-
ments the title of architect by building a hall at Penkill
Castle, and in the same year he published a fresh volume
of poetry, entitled " The Poet's Harvest Home."
We present two portraits of Mr. Scott one, taken
from a photograph by Mr. C. K. Reed, showing him aa
he was about the time when he first settled in Newcastle,
and the other not many years before his death.
atttr
ST. CUTHBERT'S BEADS.
G. W. Bulman, M. A., writes as follows on this subject
in the Gentleman's Magazine for November :
Encrinite stems are among the most common fossils of
the carboniferous limestone. They constitute a large por-
tion of its bulk. Locally they are known as St. Cuth-
bert's beads. On a little rock off Holy Island, on the
Northumbrian coast, says the old legend, the Saint
laboriously forged them on his anvil :
On a rock, by Lindisfarne,
St. Cuthbert sits and toils to frame
The sea-born beads that bear his name.
Here we are presented with the work of St. Cuth-
bert ; further down the coast, near tho classic town
of Whitby, we encounter the deeds of St. Hilda.
The ammonites occurring in the lias there are the
relics of snakes, of which
Kach one
Was changed into a coil of stone
When holy Hilda prav'd.
Thus even in the domains of the geologist is found
the work of the weaver of legends.
L., Newcastle.
OLD STREET CRIES.
One of the best cries I remember was that of
" Grozers," and this reminds me of an amusing
anecdote which came under my own notice. A
young girl living in Milburn Place, North Shields,
had been to the New Quay (the market place in
those days), and when going along the Front was
asked by a woman whether there were any goose-
berries in the market. She replied, "No, ma'am;
but thor's plenty o' grozers." To my ears the crying
of "Grozers" was at all times most melodious, and
even at this long distance of time I can picture to
myself the form and appearance of "Mary the
Maid," as, with basket on her head, she perambulated
the streets of "canny aad Shields," crying in
stentorian, but not unmelodiotis, voice :
Lairge ripe gro - zers, caller gro - zers.
I must take exception, however, to both Mr. Greenwell's
and Mr. Haswell's rendering of boiled crabs. I do not
remember ever hearing it " Fine boiled crabs, " as given
42
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
{Jauuar;
1891.
by Mr. Greenwell, nor as "Fine boiled crabs, new boiled
crabs, " aa given by Mr. Haswell (see Monthly Chronicle,
1890, pages 379 and 473). To me it was always
New boiled orabs, new boiled crabs.
The " Borgondy peors " in my young days was converted
into "Fine mahogeney peors," and cried to the follow-
ing:
Fine ma - hog - en - ey pe - ors.
Plums also came in for a good melodious cry, which was
as follows :
Lairjje ripe honey plums, ripe honey plums.
While scallions came in with a shrill
four bunches a penny.
Heor'syour scallions 1
four bunches a f P enny '
Black puddings were also treated to a good cry, and no
doubt many will remember the clean old woman who sat
at the end of the New Quay, just in front of the Pipe-
maker's Stairs, and cried
A fine black pudding, ninny, a fatten and a gooden, hiuny.
Mr. Greenwell's " Caller harren " is not familiar to me ;
the Cullercoats women's cry was as follows, and I may
remark that in crying herring they never told the price :
--
p
f 3 ra
*}} <s
I_J
: i
&
i 1
Caller hern fresh hern caller hern.
The Shields women cried as follows, and who does not
remember "Highland Bet " and her lusty daughters ?
Caller hern fresh hern caller hern here's yer
noble hern four a penny four a penny heor.
The cry of the coal carter as given by Mr. Haswell is also
unfamiliar to me. It was as follows :
Coals a pen' - north.
I think Mr. Haswell must be alluding to the unmelodious
voice of poor old Tommy Kell, but then Tommy was like
nobody but himself. There are many more cries familiar
to me, from the
New boiled she
of poor old Marget to the
rimps.
-- o
Fine broon ware, fine broon ware,
of Mally Kelsey. One singular thing in connection with
these cries is that in Antwerp one hears the women cry-
ing their wares in exactly similar tones.
W. D., Lowestoft.
***
One of the most beautiful of street calls, lingering on
the summer air like a breath from scented orchards, was
that given below
Ye buy hon-ey plums. Ye buy hon-ey plums.
The market garden as well as the orchard had its
songster. She came jogging along, arms akimbo, a well-
laden basket cleverly balanced on her " weeze," and sing-
ing as she went
Red dish and seal - lions two bun - ches
/-
ches
pen - ny two bun ches a pen ny.
The Cullercoats fish-wife with a creel-full of crabs had,
and has still, I believe, a very effective call
:
New boiled crabs. New boiled crabs.
I can recall only one more of the many cries which once
upon a time re-echoed in Shields streets and lanes that
with which the " rubbin'-stone " vendor used to warn her
customers. Here it is in all its native simplicity
rub - bin' stone.
D. C., Edinburgh.
THE POET CLOSE.
Perhaps the following anecdote of the Poet Close may
be of interest to your readers :
Somti years ago, five gentlemen arrived at Windermere
by a late train and put up at the Royal Hotel. They
had read about the celebrated Lake Poet in 1'unch and
the newspapers ; and, having upon inquiry learned that
the eccentric old gentleman was then at Bowriess, they
purposed to make themselves merry at his expense.
Accordingly, a waiter was sent to the poet's lodgings with
the request that he would return with the messenger to
January X
1S91. /
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
43
the Royal Hotel, where some gentlemen wished to see
him. The poet was smoking his pipe in front of the fire,
preparatory to retiring for the night, but, having always
an "eye to business," was nothing loth to accompany the
waiter.
" How many gentlemen ?" he asked.
"Five," was the reply.
"Then " said he, " they will want five sets of my books.
He immediately proceeded to put up five sets of his
books to take with him.
On arrival at the hotel, he was introduced to the gentle-
men, and said he supposed, as they had specially sent for
him, they would want to buy his books, and he had,
therefore", brought each of them a set. The gentlemen
looked at each other somewhat taken aback ; but one of
them, quickly recovering, answered :
" Quite right, Mr. Close. How much?" f>
The poet replied : "Ten shillings each set, gentlemen.
The books quickly changed hands, the poet smilingly
pocketing the five half sovereigns. He was then invited
to drink with them. The gentlemen now, looking forward
to their coming enjoyment, called the waiter to bring
a bottle of port, and one of sherry. Mr. Close was asked
what he would take.
"Gentlemen," said the poet, as the wine was placed on
the table, "you have surely not ordered those for me at
this time of night V"
"Oh, yes, certainly, we have," was the reply.
The poet, taking up a bottle in each hand, said,
"Well, gentlemen, it is very kind of you," and he put
the bottles into his coat pockets. "My wife," said he,
"is partial to sherry, and / like port. So I thank you
very kindly, gentlemen. Good evening."
Before another word could be said, the poet had gone,
leaving the would-be jokers looking at each other in blank
amazement.
" Done, by Jove !" was the general exclamation.
F. N. R., Barrow-m-Furnesa.
THE GREENWELLS OF BROOMSHIELDS.
Broomshields Hall, the seat of the Greenwell family, is
a neat modern mansion a little to the south-west of the
village of Satley, four miles from Lanchester, in the
County of Durham. It occupies a pleasant position, over-
looking a well wooded gill or dene, through which flows
the Pan Burn, a truly sylvan streamlet, one of the
tributaries of the Browney, the Wear's greatest affluent.
The Greenwell family, of Norman origin, is second to
none in the county of Durham in antiquity, and is one of
the few now remaining in England who retain in their
male line the estates which gave them a name. The
earliest mention of the branch of the family (for it had
numbers of scions scattered over West Durham) at this
estate is in the reign of Henry VIII. (1488), when Peter
Greenwell resided at Bromesheles ; and from that date,
now more than four centuries ago, the family have held
the patrimony.
Thomas Greenwell, born 1736, died 1817, married in
1774 Eleanor, daughter and heiress of John Maddison,
Esq., of Hole House, near Alansford, county of Durham,
whose ancestors had held that estate from 1595. Besides
an only son, he left three daughters Eleanor, Mary, and
Elizabeth who never married, but resided at Broom-
shields Cottage, near the hall, and died in extreme old
age at the ages of 96, 86, and 89 years respectively.
John Greenwell, son and heir, born 1785, was for more
than fifty years an active magistrate for the county. He
married Elizabeth Greenwell of the Ford, near Lan-
chester, the daughter of a remote kinsman, and aunt of
Dora Greenwell, the Durham poetess. He died in 1869,
and was buried at Lanchester. A beautiful stained
window erected to his memory is in the south wall of
Satley Church. Thomas Greenwell, the only surviving
son and heir, born 1821, graduated M.A. at St. John's
College, Oxford, was in his year sixth wrangler, and was
called to the bar in 1847. He married Georgina, daughter
of Mr. Bridges, London, by whom he had a numerous
issue. He died 1874, and was buried at Satley.
The estate is now the patrimony of his eldest son, Mr.
F. W. Greenwell, formerly editor of a popular periodical,
author of "Dissertations on the Apocalypse," &c., and
now residing in Florida, U.S.
Broomshields, in the time of Bishop Hatfield's Survey,
1377-1380, was a township by itself, and was divided into
several parcels. These portions have since become amal-
gamated with the adjoining townships. The arms of the
Greenwell family is one of the grandest in the North of
England Or, two bars azure between three ducal crowns
g u l es . J. W. FAWCETT.
A CAKKFUL LAD.
A lad from the neighbourhood of Choppington came to
Newcastle, and bought a topcoat. Getting intoxicated,
he pawned the coat the same day. The next morning,
when his mother asked him where the ticket was, he
said : "Wey, thoo sees, aa we* feered aa wad loss't, se
aa eav't tiv a publican for a glass o' yell !"
WHERE THE QUEEN LIVES.
An old woman who resides at Byker was asked where
her daughter Mary was living. "Oh," was the leply,
"at Windsor Crescent." "Wey," was the observation,
"aa thowt she'd got a plyece as norsemaid in Victoria
Square!" "Yor reet, and aa's wrang," said the old
lady ; " aa knaa'd it wes yen o' them streets whor the
Queen lives 1"
LONG STOCKINGS.
A miner entered a drapery establishment at Seaham
Harbour one day. He was accosted by the master of the
establishment as to what he could serve him with, when
the customer asked to see some "lang stockin's." After
having had about a dozen pairs to inspect, he said that
" nyen o' them wad de for him." " Well, how's that my
good man ? These are long enough." " That's aall reet,
mistor, but aa want a pair o' bow-legged yens !"
PAKADISE.
According to a famous old story, one Patrick Long had
occasion to remove from Blaydon to Paradise. On the
day of his removal the river was much swollen from recent
rains ; the haughs, in fact, about the different parts of the
44
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
{January
1
1891.
river being completely covered with water. A few
months after this Patrick found himself in the Assize
Court, and in the course of his examination was asked his
name. "Patrick Long," was the reply. "Where do you
live?" "Paradise." "Where?" said the Judge, half
inclined to be severe. "Paradise, sor." "Aye, and how
long have you lived there ?" " Ivvor since the flood," was
the reply. Here the judge was about to administer a
rebuke, when a local solicitor, interposing, explained the
circumstance.
PIT LADS AT SEa.
A couple of pit lads were on board ship during a storm.
Snugly seated in the cabin, one of them asked the other
who had just been on deck "What kind o' weather
is't?" "Eh! man," was the reply, "it's a sair neet at
bank ! "
THE BEVOLUTION OF THE EAETH.
In a public-house in the neighbourhood of Blaydon, the
conversation turned upon the earth revolving, when an
old man said, "Aa'll nivvor believe the warld gnns
round. Aa've hard it mony a time, but nebody '11 ivvor
persuade me that." One of the company drew au
imitation of the globe, and proceeded to explain, when
the old gentleman stopped him. "It's ne use," said he,
" it's ne use thoo trying ta shove that down ma throat.
Aa've had far aader yens than thoo at ma, and it's aa'll
been neuse." "Well, but," replied the other, "listen."
"Na, na," continued our old friend, "aa can prove that
aa's reet. Aa've wrowt in the pits sin aa was nine year
aad ; aa've gin in both forst and back shift ; and aa've
gan into the hoose all hoors of the neet ; and the Black-
hill cinder yovens wis aalways opposite wor back door !"
On the 12th of November, 1890, Mr. Alderman Thomas
Hedley, J.P., died suddenly at his residence in Fenham
Terrace, Newcastle.
Born at Harnham, in
Northumberland, on the
22nd of April, 1809, the
deceased gentleman was
in the 82nd year of his
age. Mr. Hedley was the
founder of the firm uf
Thomas Hedley and
ALDERMAN THOMAS HEDLEY.
,
facturers, New Road.
He entered the Town
Council as one of the
representatives of East
All Saints' Ward on
the 1st of November,
1853, and he had held
the position of alder-
man since the 13th Of
November, 1866. In 1860-61, he served as Sheriff, and
in 1863-64-, he filled the office of Mayor. Mr. Hedley
was also prominently associated with several local com-
mercial undertakings. The chief of these was the New-
castle and Gateshead Gas Company, of which for nearly
twenty years he had been chairman.
The same day, the remains of Mr. Featherstone
Martindale, a Weardale poet, who had died on the 8th,
were interred at Westgate.
Mr. George Greenwell, a leading tradesman and magis-
trate of Durham, died in that city on the Kth of Novem-
ber, in the seventieth year of his age.
On the 15th of November, Mr. Ambrose Walker, J.P.,
died at Stafford House, South Stockton. The deceased,
who was proprietor of the pottery at South Stockton
before its transfer to a limited liability company, was
about 60 years of age.
On the same day, died Mr. Thomas Charles Johnson
Sowerby, late ef Snow Hall, Gainsfurd, aged 53. He was
a magistrate for North Yorkshire, and was a well-known
athlete and gentleman jockey.
The death was announced on the 17th of November, oi
the Very Rev. George Curry, of Dodding Green, near
Kendal, for some time connected with the Roman
Catholic Missions at Bishop Auckland and Button
Henry, in the county of Durham. He was in his 74-th
year.
On the 17th of November, Jesmond Cemetery received
the remains of Mr. Michael Ewbank, who sixty years ago
was a well-known figure on the Quayside of Newcastle,
where he carried on the busingss of a shipbroker. He
was brother of Mr. John Wilson Ewbank, the painter,
and was a native of Gateshead. It is nearly a generation
since the deceased retired from business and settled at
Murpeth, where in his ninetieth year he died.
Mr. George Angus, founder of the firm of George
Angus and Co., leather merchants, sometime ago con-
verted into a limited liability undertaking, with branches
in Newcastle, Liverpool, London, and Cardiff, died on the
18th of November, at his residence, Low Gosforth Hall,
near Newcastle. Mr. Angus, who was 69 years of age,
was a prominent member of the local Baptist body, and
had for a short time a seat in the Newcastle Town Coun-
cil. The deceased gentleman left bequests to a number
of local charitable ins titutions, to the amount of upwards
of 2,000.
The Rev. Canon Kearney, a well known Roman
Catholic clergyman, also died on the 18th of November,
at Darlington, aged 70. He commenced his clerical life
in Newcastle in 1847, but in 1349 was transferred to The
Brooms, Leadgate, with which he retained his connection
to the last.
Mr. William Waggott, who in his youth was an
active Chartist, died at Sunderland, his age being 76
years.
On the 20th of November, Mr. William Laine, of
Carlton Villa, Benton, died at the advanced age of 86
years.
Mr. Henry Greenwell, J.P., formerly Registrar of
the Durham County Court, died on the 23rd of
November.
On the 23rd of November, the remains of Mr. Thomas
Taylor, tyler to the Fawcett Lodge of Freemasons, and
formerly a shipmaster, were interred in the cemetery at
January!
1891. /
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
45
Seaham Harbour. The deceased had been a resident in
that town for nearly sixty years.
Mr. Robert Vint, long connected, as part proprietor,
with the Sunderland Herald, and one of the founders of
the Sunderland Water Company, died at the Cedars,
Sunderland, on the 23rd of November. The deceased,
who was a native of Blyth, and was at one time a chemist t
was in the 83rd year of his age.
Dr. Edwin Douglas, a medical gentleman in practice at
Jlorpeth, died suddenly in that town on the 25th of
November.
Mr. George Edward Watson, coroner for North North-
umberland, and the holder of a number of other public
offices, died at Alnwick on the 28th of November, at the
age ot 54 years.
On the same day, at the advanced age of 95, Mr. John
Nesbitt, farmer, one of the oldest teetotallers in the
country, died at Paxton South Mains, near Berwick-on-
Tweed.
Mr. Joshua Coke Monkhouse, late estate agent at
Egglestone, in Teesdale, and father of Mr. Monkhouse,
of the firm of Monkhouse and Goddard, accountants, died
at Barnard Castle, on the 30th of November, at the age
of 76 years.
On the 2nd of December, news was received of the
death of Hardcastle Bey (brother of Dr. Hardcastle,
surgeon to the Newcastle Gaol), at his residence in
Alexandria, Egypt. The deceased was a son of the late
Dr. Hardcastle, of Newcastle, who was married to a sister
of the late Mr. R. P. Philipson. Mr. Hardcastle was one
of the railway engineering pupils sent out by Robert
Stephenson, the great engineer, to superintend the laying
down of the first railway in Egypt, and was afterwards
appointed chief engineer. His services under the
Egyptian Government lasted forty years. Latterly, Mr.
Hardcastle took up another sphere of work, transferring
his abilities from the railway to the department of ports
and lighthouses, filling the position of Deputy Controller
General. He witnessed the bombardment of Alexandria
by the fleet under Admiral Seymour (now Lord Alcester);
and for services rendered during that period, as well as
for former good work, he received the rank of Bey, the
highest under the Turkish empire. Hardcastle Bey was
over 60 years of age.
. Mr. Thomas Hallam, Borough Accountant, Middles-
brough, died after an exceedingly short illness on the 4th
of December, at the age of 57.
On the same day, Mr. Charles Marvin, journalist,
author, and lecturer, died at his residence in London, ac
the age of 36. The deceased, among other literary work,
had, as the result of a special mission to Russia, contri-
buted a series of able articles to the Newcastle Daily
Chronicle on the Central Asian question. They were
afterwards published in book form under the title of
"The Russian Advance Towards India."
On the 8th of December, the death was announced, at
the age of 103 years, of Patrick Quin, at Cowpen Quay,
Blyth. The deceased, who was a native of Ireland, had
been thrice married, and at the time of his death had 30
children, and between 80 and 90 grandchildren.
The same evening, the Countess of Ravensworth died
somewhat suddenly at Ravensworth Castle. The deceased
lady was a daughter of the late Captain Orlando
Gunning Sutton, R.N., and was married to the Earl of
Ravensworth in 1852.
At the age of 77, Mr. George Hutchinson, one of the
earliest managers at the Elswick works of Sir W. G.
Armstrong and Co., Newcastle, died on the 9th of
December.
On the 9th of December, the remains of Sergeant
David Jackson, late of the 3rd Battalion Northumber-
land Fusiliers, who had been engaged in active service in
the Crimean and other campaigns, were interred in
Alnwick Cemetery.
^lort|)=CIountr3i entrances.
NOVEMBER, 1890.
10. A swallow was seen at Blaydon Burn.
11. Mr. John Bryson, of Blyth, was presented with a
solid gold albert and medal for his heroic service at
Warkworth, in saving some of the excursionists from a
watery grave.
12. A monument to perpetuate the memory of Dr.
Carlo Pallotti, late Italian Vice-Consul in Newcastle, was
unveiled in Jesmond Cemetery.
Foundation stones were laid for a new Congregational
Church in Sorley Street, Sunderland.
Mr. Hunter resigned his position as superintendent
registrar of births, deaths, and marriages in Newcastle,
and Mr. Morison Johnston was afterwards appointed by
the Newcastle Guardians to the vacant office.
15. An alarming explosion occurred at the Middles-
brough Corporation Gasworks. A considerable portion of
the works was blown to atoms, and the engineman,
named William Ogden, was killed and buried in the
debris. The town was in a state of darkness for two
nights owing to the accident.
16. According to annual custom, the new Mayor (Mr.
J. Baxter Ellis) of Newcastle, attended by the members
and officials of the Corporation, attended service at St.
Nicholas' Cathedral. The sermon in St. Nicholas was
preached by the Bishop of Newcastle; and the collections,
on behalf of the medical charities, amounted to 144 3s.
4d. The day was similarly observed in other Northern
boroughs.
Mr. Henry Arthur Jones, dramatic author, lectured
in the Tyne Theatre, Newcastle, under the auspices of
the Tyneside Sunday Lectfire Society, his subject being,
"On Being Rightly Amused at the Theatre."
17. A boiler explosion occurred at Palmer's shipyard,
Jarrow, whereby George Scanlon was killed, and George
Porthouse and Robert Johnson were severely scalded.
The Bishop of Durham presided at the annual meet-
ing of the Newcastle and Gateshead Branch of the Peace
Society, in the Town Hall, Gateshead.
. By a majority of 31 to 18, the Newcastle City Council
resolved to purchase Byker Bridge for the sum of
107,500.
18. The mutilated dead body of a German workman.
46
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
(January
1=91.
named Philip Kirschtnann, 37 years of ago, was found in A
pond at South Bank, near Middlesbrough ; and on the
following day a coroner's jury returned a verdict of wilful
murder against some person or persons unknown.
As the result of a poll it was found that, in response
to the offer by Mr. T. Wrightson, J.P., to erect a handsome
building for Free Library purposes, the owners and rate-
payerscf South Stockton had resolved, bya large majority,
to adopt the Public Libraries Act.
19. The Durham colliery owners resolved to advance
the wages of their workmen by 5 per cent, from the 29th
of December, 1890, and the 5th of January, 1891. The
men accepted this arrangement.
Mr. W. B. Wilkinson, J.P., was elected chairman,
and Mr. Edward Leadbittor deputy-chairman, of the
Newcastle and Gateshead Gas Company.
A little boy, between three and four years of age, son
of George Ougbton, miner, was accidentally drowned in
the river Wear, at Bishop Auckland, near the spot where,
only a year previously, a brother of the deceased had met
with the same fate.
Dr. Lunn, a leading member of the Wesleyan body,
preached in the Wesley Hall, Beaumont Street, New-
castle.
The bronze medal of the Royal Humane Society was
awarded to Joseph Craig, son of the Ouseburn hero, for a
gallant feat of life saving, performed in the river Tyne at
Newcastle on the 23rd of September. The medal was
formally presented by Mr. Alderman W. D. Stephens in
the Central Hall, Newcastle, on the 6th of December.
20. George Sterling, formerly assistant-overseer of
Elswick township, Newcastle, was brought from London,
where he had been arrested ; and on the following morning
he was remanded by the Newcastle magistrates on a charge
of having made certain false entries in a banker's pass-
book belonging to the overseers.
21. Senor Sarasate, the celebrated Spanish violinist,
gave a performance in Newcastle.
22. A concert in aid of the proposed memorial to
William Shield was held at Swalwell, of which village the
celebrated musician and composer was a native.
Mr. R. B. Cunninghame Graham, M.P., addressed
meetings at Backworth, and on the following evening he
presided at a meeting held under the auspices of the
Socialist Sunday Lecture Society.
A woman named Jane Gibson, 63 years of age, was
accidentally killed at the Teams, on the North Eastern
railway, her head being literally severed from her body.
Arrangements were concluded whereby Washington
Hall, in the county of Durham, the property and once
the residence of Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell, was placed by
that gentleman at the disposal of the committee of the
Gosforth Home for Waifs and Strays.
23. At the Tyne Theatre, Newcastle, under the
auspices of the Tyneaide Sunday Lecture Socictv, a
lecture was delivered by Mr. Oakey Hall, late Mayor of
New York, under the title of "American Views in an
English Mirror."
The Rev. C. P. Sherman preached a farewell sermon
as curate of St. Paul's Church, Newcastle, previous to his
removal to St. John Lee, near Hexham. He was inducted
into his new charge on the following day.
Mrs. Walker, wife of a farm labourer near Consett,
gave birth to three children, all boys.
2+. Mr. Thomas Burgess Winter, optician, was elected
an alderman of Newcastle.
It was announced that Mr. Stephen Scott, of HLXITO-
gate, formerly of Newcastle, had given the sum of 1,000
to the Newcastle College of Medicine for the purpose of
founding a scholarship to promote the study of hernia
and allied complaints.
During a gale, Thomas Stephenson and David
Young, two pilots, were drowned by the upsetting of
their boat off the mouth of the Tyne.
25. The Rev. Father Wood, who for seven years had
been pastor of St. Andrew's Roman Catholic Church
Newcastle, was presented with an address and a purse of
gold, on the occasion of his departure for Tow Law.
Mr. J. B. Radcliffe, a member of the staff of the New-
castle Daily Journal, was presented with an address and
a cheque for 315, with a diamond bracelet worth 105
for Mrs. Radcliffe.
A verdict of wilful murder against some person or
persons unknown was re-
turned by the coroner's
jury in the case of
Richard William For-
syth, the young man
who had met with his
death so mysteriously
in Gateshead. (See
Monthly Chronicle, 1890,
page 575.)
26. Acomplimentary
dinner was given in the
CouncilChamber, Gates-
head, to Mr. Alderman
John Lucas by his col-
leagues and friends, in
recognition of his ser-
vices as Mayor of tins
borough during the two
municipal years 1888-89
and 1889-90.
27. Mr. Ii.icb.ard Welford, author of "Men of Mark
Twixt Tyne and Tweed,' 1 was elected a director of the
Tyne Steam Shipping Company.
A man named Edward Walls gave himself up to the
police authorities at Sunderland, stating that he had
stabbed a man called Dennis O'Neill in Low Friar Street,
Newcastle. The police officials in that city, on being
apprised of the circumstance, proceeded to a marine store
shop in the thoroughfare in question, and found the body
lying beneath two bales of paper. The coroner's jury
returned a verdict of wilful murder against Wallu ; and
he was afterwards committed for trial by the magistrates
on the same charge.
28. Mr. Arthur Grant, M.A., in connection with the
Cambridge and Durham Universities Extension move-
ment, delivered in the Nelson Street Lecture Hall,
Newcastle, the first of a series of popular free lectures oil
the French Revolution.
Three persons were injured by the bursting of a hot
water pipe used for heating in the fuse department of the
ordnance works at Elswick ; and one of the number,
James Tulip, 16 years of age, died on the following day.
The Lord Bishop of Newcastle appointed the Rev.
James Henderson, Clerk in Holy Orders, M.A., Rector
of Wallsend, and the Rev. Henry Frederick Long, Clerk
in Holy Orders, M.A., Vicar of Bamburgh, to be
Honorary Canons of the Cathedral Church of St. Nicholas.
B. W. FORSYTH.
January \
1891. f
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
30. Mr. Wedmore, art critic of the Standard, was the
Sunday evening lecturer at the Tync Theatre, Newcastle,
his subject being "The Life and Work of Turner."
DECEMBER.
1. A new Constitutional Club, built at a cost of
6,500, was opened at Sunderland.
The Empire Variety Theatre, a new place of enter-
tainment in connection with the Royal Scotch Arms,
Newgate Street, Newcastle, was opened to the public for
the first time.
The Rev. E. B. Hicks, B.A., was presented with a
purse of gold on the occasion of his leaving Newcastle for
Killingworth.
A fine specimen of the white-tailed eagle was shot at
Eshott, Northumberland. It measured 7 feet 6 inches
from tip to tip, 39 inches in length, and weighed 10 pounds
6 ounces.
At Durham Assizes, the bill against George Spencely
for the manslaughter of Joseph Cooper, at Coundon, was
thrown out by the Grand Jury ; and William Stavely,
who was convicted on the 4th, was sentenced to two
months' hard labour. (See page 573).
2. Mr. T. Burt, M.P., was entertained to dinner by
the members of the Eighty Club in London.
3. Mr. T. Eustace Hill, M.B., Health Department,
Birmingham, was appointed Medical Officer of Health
for South Shields.
Mr. Albert Grey despatched from Longhoughton
Station, to Palatswie, in South Africa, on behalf of the
South African Company, three bulls as a present to the
principal chief of that part of the interior of the African
Continent.
Miss L. E. Pease, daughter of Sir J. W. Pease, M.P.,
of Hutton Hall, was married to Mr. Gerald Buxton.
eldest son of Mr. Edward North Buxton, late chairman
of the London School Board.
4. It was announced, sad to say, that beautiful speci.
mens of the red-throated diver and young skua had been
shot on the Northumberland coast.
A local committee was appointed at a meeting in the
Newcastle Council Chamber to aid the National Associa.
tion for the discovery of the best and most economical
means of preventing black smoke from factories.
At a meeting of the committee of the Newcastle
Royal Infirmary, a special vote of thanks was accorded to
Dr. John Rutherford for his very valuable gift of lymph
which he had received from Dr. Koch, of Berlin, for the
treatment of consumption. On the 9th, four patients
were inoculated with the liquid at the Infirmary, in the
presence of a large number of local medical gentlemen
and students. There were three cases of tuberculosis and
oue of lupus.
At Durham Assizes, a man named John Forster
pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Elizabeth Forster,
at Gateshead, on September 2nd, and was sentenced tu
nine months' hard labour.
5. A new Salvation Army Temple in Westgate Road,
Newcastle, capable of accommodating 2,800 persons, was
opened by " General " Booth, who in the evening
addressed a large assemblage in the same place on his
social amelioration scheme, entitled "Darkest England,
and the Way Out." The chair was occupied by Mr.
Aid. W. D. Stephens, and subscriptions to a considerable
amount were announced.
6. A branch of the National Home Reading Union
was formed for Newcastle and Gateshead.
Miss Alice Simpkin, a young violinist, played with
much success at the People's Concerts, Newcastle. The
accomplished little lady began her musical career on
Tyneside, but is now a pupil of Herr Hollander at the
Guildhall School of Music in London. Miss Simpkin
is an early member of Uncle Toby's Dicky Bird Society.
Moreover, she composed the music for a Dickv Bird song
that appeared in the Newcastle Weekly Chronicle on
October 25th.
7. The weekly lecture in the Tyne Theatre, Newcastle,
under the auspices of the Tyneside Sunday Lecture
Society, was delivered by Dr. Andrew Wilson, editor of
Health, his subject being, "Is Evolution a Fact?"
8. The Natural History Museum, Barras Bridge,
Newcastle, after having been fitted in every part with the
electric light, was opened to visitors, for the first time,
between the hours of seven and nine in the evening.
Mr. and Mrs. William Ritson, of Woodley Field,
Hexham, celebrated their golden wedding.
The Carl Rosa Opera Company commenced a series
of twelve nights and two morning performances at the
Tyne Theatre, Newcastle.
9. At the York Assizes, Robert Kitching, aged 34,
market gardener, was found guilty of the murder of
Police-Sergeant Weedy, at Leeming, near Bedale, on ths
19th of September. The jury recommended him to
mercy. Sentence of death was passed in the usual form.
A portrait of Thomas Haswell, for nearly fifty years
the head-master of the Royal Jubilee Schools, North
Shields, was unveiled in the Public Library of that town,
and a medal in honour of Mr. Haswell was presented
to the dux of the schools.
10. Operations were commenced at six of the salt pans
recently laid down near the North Ormesby toll bar,
Middlesbrough.
A fire, causing a considerable amount of damage.
48
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
{ *89J
1891.
broke out in the drying shed of Messrs. Gray's extensive
shipyard, East Hartlepool Docks.
(general Occurrences.
NOVEMBER.
11. The British cruiser Serpent was wrecked off Cape
Buck, on the north-west coast of Spain. Of the crew of
176 only three were saved.
A collision occurred on the Great Western Railway
near Taunton. Ten people were killed and many others
injured. Among the killed were two North-Countrymen
Joseph Reed and John Edward Morris who were re-
turning from South Africa.
14. An extraordinary edition was published of the
German Medical Weekly, which contained an article by
Dr. Koch on his discovery of a cure for tuberculosis.
John Reginald Birchall was hanged at Woodstock,
Canada, for the murder of Mr. Ben well.
15. The body of a school teacher. Elizabeth Holt,
which was discovered near Bolton, bore unmistakable
evidence that the girl had been brutally murdered. A
man named Macdonald confessed that he had done the
deed.
The election for Lord Rector of Glasgow resulted as
follows : Mr. Arthur J. Balfour, 948 ; Lord Aberdeen,
717.
Mr. Goschen, Chancellor of the Exchequer, was
elected Lord Rector of Edinburgh, with 1,378 votes ; Sir
Charles Russell, the other candidate, obtained 805 votes.
An action was brought by Captain O'Shea for
divorce against his wife, Mrs. O'Shea, on the grounds of
her adultery with Mr. Charles Stewart Parnell, the leader
of the Irish Parliamentary party, a decree nisi being
granted by Mr. Justice Butt. No defence was made by
Mr. Parnell ; but Mrs. O'Shea made counter allegations
against her husband of connivance and adultery with her
sister, Mrs. Steele, which were proved to have no founda-
tion whatever.
16. Death of Mr. Shirley Hibberd, a well-known
horticulturist.
General Seliverskoff, of the Russian army, was found
shot at the Hotel de Bade, Paris. The murder was
supposed to have been perpetrated by a Pole, named
Padlewski.
19. Lady Rosebery died at Dalmeny Park. She was
the daughter and heiress of the late Baron Meyer de
Rothschild.
The trial of Irish members of Parliament and others
for conspiracy, which was begun at Tipperary on Septem-
ber 25th, was brought to a conclusion. Messrs. John
Dillon, William O'Brien, Patrick O'Brien, and John
Gullinane were each sentenced to six months' imprison-
ment, while others were sentenced to four months'
imprisonment.
21. A fierce south-easterly gale prevailed off the coast
of Norway, an entire fishing fleet was destroyed, and
hundreds of lives were lost.
23. The King of the Netherlands, William III., died
at the Castle of Loo. His Majesty was born on February
19th, 1817, and succeeded to the throne on March 17tb,
1849.
Mr. W. Beckett, member for the Bassetlaw Division
of Nottinghamshire, was killed on the railway at Wira-
borne.
25. Parliament reassembled after the autumn vaca-
tion. A meeting of the Irish party was held in
one of the committee rooms of the House of Com-
mons, when Mr. Parnell was received with enthusiasm,
and was unanimously re-elected chairman of the party.
The same afternoon Mr. John Morley communicated to
Mr. Parnell the contents of a letter he had received from
Mr. Gladstone, to the effect that, if Mr. Parnell did not
retire from the leadership of the Irish party, he (Mr.
Gladstone) would renounce public life. The following day
another meeting of the Irish party was held, when Mr.
Parnell declined to retire, though a majority of his sup-
porters were against him. Three days later Mr. Parnell
issued a manifesto to the Irish people, in which he made
some remarkable disclosures, the principal of which was
an account of a private interview which he had with Mr.
Gladstone at Hawarden. The accuracy of this version of
the interview was afterwards denied by Mr. Gladstone.
Mr. Parnell subsequently offered to retire if Mr. Glad-
stone would give a guarantee that any Home Rule Bill
passed by the Liberals would yield to the Irish Parliament
the control over the police, the land, and the judiciary.
But Mr. Gladstone declined to say or do anything in the
matter while Mr. Parnell remained leader of the Irish
party On the 6th December, about fifty of the Irish
members who were opposed to Mr. Parnell severed them-
selves from the remaining section, and formed an indepen-
dent party with Mr. Justin McCarthy as chairman. Mr.
Parnell proceeded to Dublin on the 9th, and was there
received with extraordinary enthusiasm. Among the
exciting scenes which followed were the seizure of the
office of United Ireland by the Parnellites, the recapture
of the premises by the anti-Parnellites, and the final
ejection of the old staff of the paper.
DECEMBER.
3. The body of Lord Cantelupe, who was drowned in
Belfast Lough on November 7th, was found near the
scene of the disaster.
Death of Lord Cottesloe, who was Chief'Secretary
for Ireland during the last years of Sir Robert Peel's
Administration, and Secretary tor War in 1844-5. He
was chairman of the Board of Customs until 1873, and
was raised to the peerage in 1874. His lordship, who
was 92 years of age, claimed to have been present at the
reading of the Budget for fifty years in succession.
Mary Eleanor Wheeler, charged with the murder of
Mrs. Hogg and her child at Hampstead, was sentenced to
death.
4. Death of Mr. Charles Marvin, author, lecturer, and
journalist, aged 36. (See Monthly Chronicle, 1889, page
573.)
5. Death of Baron Huddleston, one of the last of the
Barons of the old Exchequer Court abolished by the
Judicature Act.
9. Six children were drowned at Tipton, South Staf-
fordshire, through the breaking of the ice on a colliery
pool.
Printed by WALTEB SCOTT, Felling-on-Tyne.
'Cbe
Cbronicle
OF
NORTH-COUNTRY*LOREAND*LEGEND
VOL. V. No. 48.
FEBRUARY, 1891.
PRICK 60.
JTtucr jlfftiiblr JKBCearlfal*
HT a distance of rather over a mile south-
west of Walsingham, in the pleasant Wear
Valley, in the county of Durham, there
nestles on the immediate southern bank of
the river Wear, Holbeck House, the ancient home of the
Craggs family. This secluded building is situated on the
margin of the tiny stream of Hole Beck, whose crystal
water renders the spot more picturesque as it ripples
through a ferny glen with wooded banks.
The old house, with the surrounding lands, is now the
property of Colonel H. J. Wilkinson. Here, in Holbeck
House, were deposited in 1875 by the owner of the
estate, Colonel Wilkinson, some interesting memorials of
its ancient owners. These memorials are three engravings
which at one time belonged to the Craggs family, and
the following note is attached to the pictures: "I
desire these engravings may be left where I have placed
them at Holbeck House, the birth-place of James
Craggs, Sen., and the ancient home of the Craggs family.
They were presented by some of the family to Mr.
Chapman of Wolsingham, on whose death they were
sold by auction, and purchased by Mr. Josh. Nicholson,
parish clerk, from whom I bought them in 18,74. They
are now in their original frames and glasses, and I wish
them to remain so. H. J. WILKINSON, late Major 9th
Regiment, Curragb, 1875," One is the portrait of the
Right Hon, James Craggs, Secretary of State, &c. The
engraving is dated 1720, and is by Virtue from the
original portrait painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller. The
second portrait is that of the Secretary's father, James
Craggs, Sen., Postmaster-General of Great Britain, and
appears to have been engraved by Virtue in 1728 from
a painting by Kneller in 1709. The third picture
represents Edward Eliot, of Port Eliot, Cornwall, his
wife Elizabeth, second daughter and co-heiress of James
Craggs, Sen., and their two children, James and Eliza-
beth.
When Anthony Craegs, the grandfather of the Secre-
tary of State, lived at Holbeck, the rector of the adjoin-
ing parish of Stanhope was the Rev. Ferdinando
Moorcroft, one time master of Greatham Hospital, who
was collated to Stanhope in 1608. He was rector of
Heighington from 1625 to 1639, but appears in the mean-
time to have retained the rectory of Stanhope up to the
time of his death in 1641. In the Stanhope register we
50
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
{February
1891.
find "Ann Moorecroft, daughter to Mr. Ffardenando
Moorecroft of Stanhop, person, was bap. 28th Oct. 1628.
Her godfather was Mr. Anthony Maxton [rector of
Wolsingham] ; her godmothers, Mrs. Ann Maddison and
Mrs. Mary Phillopson." This Ann was grandmother to
Secretary Craprgs, having married, June 22, 1654, at
Heighington, Anthony Craggs of Wolsingham, a repre-
sentative of an old family.
Anthony and Ann Craggs had issue, James, who
bcame Postmaster-General; Ann, born in 1661, who
married Mr. George Robinson, London, died in 1726,
and was buried at Charlton, Kent; and ' Ferdinando who
died unmarried at the old home at Holbeck in the year
1749, at the age of 78 years.
James Craggs, son of Anthony, was born at Holbeck,
and was baptised at Wolsingham Church, June 10, 1657.
He married Elizabeth, sister of Brigadier Michael
Richards, Surveyor-General of the Ordnance to George I.
A manuscript accompanying the engravings above men-
tioned gives the following particulars of Anthony's son
and grandson : "Mr. Craggs was member of Parliament
for Grampound from 1702 to 1713. He held several im-
portant and lucrative positions under Government in the
reigns of Queen Anne and her successor, George I.
He died of a broken heart, March 16, 1721, one month
after his son, to whom he was deeply attached, and on
whom he built his hopes for the ennoblement of his
family. The aspersion cast upon them both by the
sufferers in the South Sea Bubble tended no doubt in a
great measure to his sad end."
The elder Craggs was buried at Charlton in the county
of Kent, where there is a tablet erected by his daughters
to his memory bearing the following inscription :
"Here lies the body of James Craggs, late of Lon-
don, Esq., one of His Majesty's Postmasters-General.
He was the son of Mr. Anthony Craggs of Holbeck, in
the parish of Wolsingham, in the County Palatine of
Durham, and died the 16th of March, 1720-21. He had
issue one son and three daughters, viz., the Right Hon.
James Craggs, Esq., one of the Principal Secretaries of
State to his present Majesty, who died one month before
his said father, and three daughters who survived him ;
Ann, who married John Newsham of Chadshunt, in the
county of Warwick, Esq. ; Elizabeth, who married
Edward Eliot, of Port Eliot, in the county of Cornwall ;
and Margaret, who married Samuel Trefusis, Esq., of
Trefusis, in the county of Cornwall; which three
daughters, in duty, erected this monument to the pious
memory of the best of fathers. "
Ann was thrice married, her last husband being Robert
Nugent, Esq., created Earl Nugent; Elizabeth's hus-
band, Edward Eliot, Esq., was grandson of Nicholas
Eliot, fifth son of Sir John Eliot, the patriot; and
Margaret married lastly Sir John Hinde Cotton, Bart.,
and died without issue.
"Burke's Peerage," after stating that Elizabeth
married as above, mentions that Elizabeth's husband,
Edward Eliot, died in 1722, and was succeeded by his
only son, James Eliot, who died unmarried in 1742, when
the property reverted to his uncle, Richard Eliot, M.P.,
Keceiver-General to the Prince of Wales. Richard Eliot
married, according to the same authority, in 1726,
Harriot, daughter of the Right Hon. James Craggs,
Secretary of State, by whom he had issue, amongst others,
Edward, his son and heir, who was afterwards M.P. for
Cornwall. He assumed by sign-manual the additional
surname of Craggs, and in 1784 was elevated to the peer-
age by the title of Baron Eliot, of St. Germans, county
Cornwall. His lordship was succeeded by his third son,
John, who was created Earl of St. Germans in 1815,
with remainder, in default of male issue, to his
brother William who succeeded him. William married
Lady Georgiana Augusta Leveson-Gower, the fourth
daughter of Granville, first Marquis of Stafford, and
was succeeded by his eldest son, the distinguished Earl
of St. Germans, who was Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland
in 1852.
John Hamilton, second son of James, seventh Earl' of
Abercorn, married, according to Burke, Harriot, daughter
of Secretary Craggs and widow of Richard Eliot, M.P.
Their son John James, ninth Earl of Abercorn, was
created in 1790 Marquis of Abercorn, and his grandson
was created Puke of Abercorn.
James Craggs, the younger, was engaged in various
foreign courts, was in 1717 made Secretary of War,
and in the following year one of the Secretaries of State
to his Majesty George I. In 1720 his friend Pope thus
wrote of him :
A soul as full of worth as void of pride,
Which nothing seeks to show, or needs to hide,
Which nor to guilt nor fear its caution owes.
And boasts a warmth that from no passion flows.
A face untaught to feign ; a judging eye,
That darts severe upon a rising lie,
And strikes a blush through frontless flattery.
All this thou wert ; and being this before.
Know, kings and fortunes cannot make thee more.
Then scorn to gain a friend by servile ways,
Nor wish to lose a foe these virtues raise ;
But, candid, free, sincere, as you began,
Proceed a Minister, but still a man.
Be not (exalted to whate'er degree)
Ashamed of any friend, not ev'n of me :
The patriot's plain, but untrod, path pursue ;
If not, 'tis I must be ashamed of you.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu said of him : "He had great
vivacity, a happy memory, and flowing elocution ; he was
brave and generous, and had an appearance of open-
heartedness in his manners that gained him a universal
goodwill, if not a universal esteem." Craggs was the
patron of the poet Pope, who wrote some of his Homer's
" Iliad " and " Odyssey " on the backs of letters received
from the Secretary of State, who was styled by Gay as
" bold, generous Craggs, whose heart was ne'er disguised."
Addison, just before his death, bequeathed to him his
works, which, however, Craggs did not live to receive.
February \
1891. /
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
51
Tickell, in the dedication of his edition of Addison's
works, which appeared in 1721, writes as follows :
These works divine which on his death-bed laid,
To thee, O Craggs, the expiring sage conveyed ;
Great but ill-omened monument of fame,
Nor he survived to give nor thpu to claim.
Swift after him thy social spirit flies,
And close to his how soon they coffin lies.
Blest pair ! whose union future bards shall tell
On future tongues, each other boast farewell,
Farewell whom joined in fame, in friendship tried,
No chance could sever, nor the grave divide.
James Craggs died Feb. 16, 1720, aged 35 years, and was
buried in Westminster, where his epitaph exists ; the con-
cluding lines in Pope's epistle to Addison in 1715 were
added to the inscription.
JACOBUS CRAGGS,
KEGI MAGNiE BRITANNIA A SECRETIS
ET CONSILIIS 8ANCTIORIBCS,
PKINOIPIS PARITER AC POPULI AMOR ET DILICLfi ',
VlX.lt TITULIS ET INVIDIA MAJOR
ANNOS, HKU PAUCOS. XXXV.
Ob. FEB. XVI. MDCCXX.
Statesman, yet friend to Truth ! of soul sincere,
In action faithful, and in honour clear !
Who broke no promise, served no private end,
Who gain'd no title, and who lost no friend ;
Ennobled by himself, by all approved,
Praised, wept and honour'd by the muse he loved.
The portrait which appears on page 49 is that of the
elder Craggs the Postmaster-General. It is copied from
an engraving of a picture by Zincka in the Marquis of
Buckingham's collection at Stowe, which engraving was
published in 1807. WILLIAM MORLEY EGGLESTONE.
***
James Craggs, the elder, joined with his father in
cutting off the entail and selling the whole of the small
iamily property. He afterwards made his way to
London, finding employment in various capacities.
Some assort he began life as a country barber. This, if
not strictly true, is quite possible, for his earlier occupa-
tions were not of the very highest character, and this
part of his career is surrounded with considerable ob-
scurity.
The Duke of Norfolk promoted him to the post of
steward in 1684. He next formed one of the Duke of
Marlborough's household, in which, by assiduity and
shrewd administrative ability, he contrived to attract the
attention of her Grace "The Viceroy, " who soon in-
stalled him as the manager of her business affairs. On
the 4th of March, 1695, Craggs, who was at this time
engaged in business as an army clothier, refused to sub-
mit his books to the inspection of the commissioners ap-
pointed to examine the public accounts of the kingdom.
Three days afterwards he was compelled to appear
before the Commons. He was then sent to the Tower as
an obstructive to the official inquiry into the regulations
of the public income (vide " Parl. Hist, vol. v., cola.
892-5). In 1702, Craggs through Queen Sarah's influence
was elected as one of the members for the borough
of Grampound, of which he remained representative
until Anne's fourth Parliament was dissolved in August,
1713. It was in 1715 that he was appointed joint Post-
master-General with Charles, fourth Lord Cornwallis.
Craggs was deeply involved in the transactions of the
South Sea Company, though not an actual director at the
time the crash came. At the beginning of 1721, the
House of Commons appointed a secret committee of
inquiry, before which Oaggs was examined. From their
third report, which did not reach the consideration of the
House until after Craggs's death, it was found that no
less than 40,000 of South Sea Stock had been paid for
out of the cash of the company for his use and
benefit, 30,000 of which sum had actually been
transferred to him. Shortly after this discovery, the
Commons passed an Act by which all the property
acquired by Craggs since 1st Dec., 1719, was confiscated
for the relief of those who had suffered by the collapse of
the famous (or infamous) bubble. One of the recitals of
the Act (7 Geo. I., c. 28) sets out that "James Craggs the
elder, esquire, was a notorious accomplice and con-
federate with the. said Robert Knight, and some of the
late directors of the South Sea Company, in carrying
out their corrupt and scandalous practices ; and did by
his wicked influence and for his own exorbitant gain
promote and encourage the pernicious execution of the
late South Sea scheme."
To a character of great energy and eminent financial
ability, Craggs added the remarkable "talent of reading
men, and by a peculiar way of gaining on the minds of
those he dealt with." Few scruples troubled his mind.
Lord Sunderland, while in attendance on the king at
Hanover, had entrusted his interests to the care of
Craggs. Walpole and his party got possession of a
scandal very much against Lord Sunderland ; in fact,
a tale difficult to counteract by common means. Old
Craggs, therefore, at once sent to Sir Robert Walpole
requesting to see him, acknowledged the truth of the
story, but informed him that any attempt to make the
least use of it would send him (Craggs) on the instant
to the Lord Mayor, before whom he would make oath
that he (Walpole) had held a long conversation with the
Pretender. Walpole, enraged, declared it was a gross
falsehood. Craggs replied that possibly it might be, but
ha would swear to it and accompany it with such cir-
cumstances as would make it be believed beyond dis-
proof, and added that Walpole knew he was able and
capable of it. ("Life of William, Earl of Sbelburne,"
1875, 1, 40-1.)
James Craggs, the younger, was born April 9th,
1686, in the city of Westminster. Before completing
his education at a school in Chelsea, he was sent
to travel on the Continent, where, after spending
some time at the Hanoverian Court, he gained the
favour of the Elector through the influence of the Coun-
tess of Platen. He next visited the Court of Turin, and
was afterwards appointed resident to the King of
Spain at Barcelona. At the commencment of the cam-
52
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
/February
\ 1891.
paign of 1709 he was in Flanders. In September he
was returned to the House of Commons for the borough
of Tregony, and on the day before the Queen's death he
was despatched by the Council to Herrenhausen to inform
the future king of the measures which had been taken
to secure his succession to the throne. Some months after
this journey, be was rewarded with the post of cofferer to
the Prince of Wales. At the general election in January,
1715, Craggs was again returned for Tregony, and on
April 13, 1717, he was appointed Secretary of War in the
place of William Pulteney, afterwards Earl of Bath.
Upon Addison's retirement, Craggs succeeded him as one
of the principal Secretaries of State, with the charge of
the Southern Department.
Cragg's political career was wonderfully rapid. His
remarkable mastery of detail and readiness in debate
enabled him quite to hold his own against Walpole and
others in the House of Commons. According to Old-
mixon, Addison " was pleased to say of his successor that
he was as fit a man for the part as any in the kingdom ;
and that he never knew any man who had a greater
genius for business, whether in Parliament or out of Par-
liament, than young Mr. Craggs, as," continued he, "will
appear by his conduct."
Unluckily this high commendation was doomed to be
belied, owing to Cragg's implication in the affairs of the
Pouth Sea Company. There was, however, but scant
evidence against him in the seven reports of the secret
committee, and the most that can be laid to this charge
is that, at his suggestion, the Duchess of Kendal and
other ladies were bribed with presents of stock in order
to facilitate the passing of the company's bill through
Parliament. C. H. STEPHENSON.
***
" James Craggs," says Macaulay's History of England,
" had begun life as a barber. He had then been a
footman. His abilities, eminently vigorous, though not
improved by education, had raised him in the world, and
he was now entering upon a career which was destined
to end, after many years of prosperity, in unutterable
misery and despair. He had become an army clothier.
He was examined as to his dealings with colonels of
regiments, and, as he obstinately refused to produce
his books, he was sent to the Tower."
The reference the historian thus makes to the elder
Craggs appears in that part of Macaulay's History which
deals with the events of 1695. Twenty-seven years later,
when that marvellous instance of infatuation, the South
Sea Bubble, came to the surface, James Craggs found
himself again in trouble. He was accused of receiving
shares in the company to the amount ot 659,000. " On
the very day," says Cassell's "History of England,"
"that one of the reports respecting the South Sea Bubble
was being read in the House of Commons, James Craggs,
Secretary of State, died. His complaint was small-pox,
but the state of mind caused by this exposure is supposed
to have rendered the malady fatal. His father, who
was Postmaster-General, was so shamefully involved in
the same dishonest proceedings that he took poison."
A story is told of William Whiston, the translator of
" Josephus," to this effect : A party, in which Addison,
Pope, Walpole, and Craggs were included, was debating
whether a Secretary of State could be an honest man, and
Whiston was asked for his opinion. Craggs said " it
might do for a fortnight, but not longer" ; when, with
much simplicity, Whiston inquired, "Mr. Secretary, did
you ever try it for a fortnight ?" HERODOTUS.
J>ati0r6'
mr tfte STgtrc.
[UNNING back through the files of the New-
castle Chronicle for a century, we come upon
numerous examples of the conflicts between
labour and capital engaged in maritime
affairs. These, in the old days, were called "sticks,"
but latterly have passed under the more general name
of "strikes."
1775.
A temporary combination of the seventy coalowners
who then practically monopolised the mining trade of
the district resulted in raising the price of coal delivered
on board in the river a shilling a chaldron. This does
not appear a very serious matter ; but in order to under-
stand its bearings, it is only necessary to state that four
or five years previously an export duty had been placed
upon coal, and this had brought up the price to such a
point that both Germany and Scotland could almost
compete with England in the markets of Holland and
Scandinavia. So unprofitable had the carrying of coal
become that in Sunderland, which had formerly boasted
of turning out twenty ships a year, there had been only
one new ship launched in 1774-. At this juncture the
shilling rise was announced, and at once the shipowners
of the two ports resolved, first, that they would load no
coal at the advanced rates, and, next, that they would
maintain their seamen in the meanwhile on condition
that they would not abandon their ships. The Bailors
were quite willing to stand by their employers; but, as
they were to get only their rations, they naturally desired
to terminate the strike as soon as possible. A few ship-
owners stood aloof from the combination, and the sailors
adopted rather strong measures to prevent them from
getting their ships to sea. Something of this kind had
evidently been counted on by the coalowners, for almost
immediately after they had determined to demand the
extra shilling they applied for the reinforcement of the
military in Newcastle. Three companies of the 31st
Regiment were accordingly withdrawn from Tynemouth
Castle, and billetted upon publicans in Newcastle. After
a fortnight of occasional disturbance, two or three troops
February!
1891. /
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
53
of the North British Dragoons were drafted off from
Durham ; and such was the excitement that when the
dragoons arrived on Gateshead Fell they loaded their
muskets, fully expecting to see Newcastle in flames. The
sailors, under the inspirine orders or sanction of their
employers, struck the topmasts and unrigged several of
what may be called the non-union ships in the London
trade. One shipowner applied to the magistrates of
Newcastle for assistance to get his ship out to sea ; and
Mr. Alderman Blackett went down the river, took with
him the water bailiff and several constables, and, having
gone on board, got the ship safely over the bar, although
the banks were crowded with excited sailors. This bold
feat appears to have broken the back of the strike. At
all events, the number of those who deserted the cause
rapidly increased, and by about the end of the month
of March all was once more quiet.
1777.
In the early part of this year there was great commotion
among the Tyne seamen in consequence of the activity
of the press-gang. Two serious occurrences served to show
the hatred with which Tyne sailors regarded the iniqui-
tous press system. The tales are somewhat variously told,
but substantially they are as follows : On the 12th
Feburary, in the evening, the impressed men on board
the tender Speedwell or the Union rose on the crew, and
took possession of the ship. The other tenders in the
harbour opened fire on the sloop, as also did the guns in
Clifford's Fort, but in spite of all she got safely to sea.
On arriving at Scarborough seventeen of the pressed men
went ashore and escaped. A fortnight later a more
formidable demonstration was organised. The collier
sailors combined to prevent the other tenders from sailing.
Lieutenant Okes, of the special service, having got wind
of the plot, manned his cutter and one or two other
boat?, and then proceeded in search of the offenders.
Coming up with one ship's boat, containing 20 men, he
forthwith impressed them for his Majesty's service ; but,
in the meantime, great numbers of sailors had to go on
board the marked ships, and from the forecastle they
pelted the obnoxious officer with billets of wood and cob-
coal. The lieutenant aimed at them with his blunderbuss,
but without effect. Then, according to the evidence he
gave subsequently, his weapon went off by accident,
wounding one man fatally. But the whole story of the
press-gang will have to be told later.
1792.
Writing to Lord (then Captain) Nelson, from Morpeth,
in the year 1792, under date 14th November, Lord
Collingwood alludes to the insurrectionary spirit of the
Tyne seamen as follows : "There are great commotions
in our neighbourhood at present. The seamen at Shields
have embarked themselves, to the number of 1,200 or
1,400, with a view to compel the owners of the coal ships
to advance their wages ; and, as is generally the case
when they consider themselves the strongest party, their
demand has been exorbitant. Application has been made
to Government for such assistance as the remedy of this
evil might require. They have sent the Drake and
Martin sloops to join the Racehorse, which was here
before, and some troops of dragoons, whose presence, I
hope, will dispose the Johnnies to peace, without their
having occasion to act. But the times are turbulent, and
the enthusiasm for liberty is raging even to madness."
1796.
Throughout the greater part of this year there were
disturbances on the Tyne. Severe measures were taken
on both sides. In many cases the sailors took the
command out ot the hands of the masters. At length,
when about fourscore of the ringleaders had been pressed,
the excitement subsided.
1819.
The next great disturbance on the river was chiefly
confined to the keelmen, but both on the Tyne and the
Wear the seamen were agitating for an advance of wages
from 2 10s. to 3 a circumstance which tended to
aggravate the public excitement in connection with the
demands of the keelmen. On October 14, the disturb-
ances culminated in a serious riot. The Mayor of New-
castle (Mr. Archibald Reed) had proceeded down the
river with the civil power, aided by the boats of his
Majesty's ships, with a view of opening the navigation of
the river (which had been interrupted for some time by
the proceedings of the keelmen), and had gone on shore
at North Shields. After the Mayor and the other
gentlemen who accompanied him had retired to the
Northumberland Arms Inn, the mob made an attack,
with paving-stones and other missiles, upon the Speedwell
steam packet ; several of the peace officers and the cox-
swain of the packet were severely hurt ; the marines
then fired in protection of themselves and those in the
steamboat, when unfortunately one man, named Joseph
Cleckson, was shot upon the New Quay. This so
exasperated the mob that they turned their fury upon
the inn, with threats of vengeance against the Mayor,
and exclaiming that they wculd have blood for blood.
By the application of some iron pipes, they soon de-
molished the doors and windows of the inn, and liberated
a man who had been taken into custody when in the
act of throwing stones. By the spirited exertions of Mr.
Donkin, the high constable of the district, they were held
some time in check, and opportunity was thus afforded the
Mayor and other gentlemen to escape by the back part of
the inn. From the fury with which they were actuated,
there was too much reason to fear that they would have
carried their threats into execution; and so eager were
they to attain their object, that they searched almost
every part of the house. They also sought to wreak their
vengeance on the officers in the steamboat, but these had
fortunately escaped in boats over to the south side of the
river. The mob continued in the streets in the most
tumultuous state till a late hour; but the arrival of a
54
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
f February
I 1891.
party of the 6th Dragoon Guards from the barracks at
Newcastle somewhat quieted the fears of the inhabitants.
The town continued agitated for several days.. The in-
quest on Joseph Cleckson lasted five days, and resulted
in a verdict of "Justifiable homicide." On the verdict
becoming known the keelmen were again terribly excited.
Mr. Coppin, one of the jury, was shot at in his own
house the same evening, but the thickness of the shutters
saved him. Mr. Fenwick also was attacked in a similar
manner under a mistake, as it was his brother who acted
as foreman to the jury on the inquest. Mr. Hall,
another of the jury, was also molested. The inhabitants
were in the greatest alarm. They entered into a sub-
scription and offered a reward of 300 guineas for the con-
viction of the perpetrators of these outrages. The streets
were for several successive nights patrolled by cavalry,
constables, and infantry. Government sent a ship of
war. The keelmen, however, having gained a part of
their objects, returned to work on Friday, the 22nd
October.
1831.
The high wages for the London voyage during the early
part of this year were the result of long- continued
pressure on the part of the seamen of the port ; but no
sooner did it become known in London, Hull, and other
ports than large numbers of men came down to the Tyne
in search of employment. The labour market was soon
over supplied, and those who had come thus far north in
the hope of getting 4 a voyage were induced to
offer their services under the current rates. This led to a
serious breach of the peace on the 22nd of July in South
Shields Market Place. On tbe 26th the ship Atlas
was boarded, and a demand made for her articles in
order to show whether the men on board had accepted the
lower wages. This was peremptorily refused. The
boarders then took measures to stop the vessel from going
to sea. Assistance having been obtained from H.M.S.
Orestes, fourteen of the disaffected were arrested.
Having been examined before the magistrates at New-
castle, they were liberated on bail to come up at the next
Sessions to answer a charge of riot. But so far as the
newspaper report of the following October Session goes,
there is reason to conclude that they wers never called
upon to appear.
1851.
This year opened amidst almost unprecedented agita-
tion among seamen, partly in consequence of several
highly obnoxious clauses in the Mercantile Shipping Act.
The actual strike, however, proceeded upon a demand for
a rise of wages from 4 to 4 10s. per London voyage,
and 3 per month foreign. Sunderland and the two
Shields towns acted together in the business with great
fidelity. Hartlepool also threw in its lo: with the discon-
tented. Many meetings were held, both at Shields and
Sunderland, the seamen from one port marching in pro-
cession with banners and music to meet and confer with
their brethren in another port. On Saturday, the 24th
January, there could not be fewer than 17,000 in proces-
sion to or from Sunderland Moor. The employers soon
pave way ; but they could not induce the sailors to sign
articles at tbe new shipping offices. A petition, signed
by a thousand sailors, was forwarded to the Board of
Trade requesting the abolition of seamen's register
tickets, an abrogation of the orders respecting shipping
offices and the government of crews on ship-board ; also
notably praying for the establishment of nautical schools
in every principal port. The more obnoxious features of
the new arrangements under the Shipping Act having
been either cancelled or satisfactorily explained, the men
went aboard the ships, and since that day there have been
no strikes of any serious importance among the Tyne
sailors.
af tfte
THE YETHOLM TINKLERS.
jjETHOLM, in Roxburghshire, lies on the
Beaumont, a tributary of the Till, about
four miles from the English Border. It con-
sists of two hamlets, named Town Yetholm
and Kirk Yetholm respectively.* A row of houses in the
latter, which lies on the south side of the water, and
about a quarter of a mile from Town Yetholm, which is
on the north side of the stream, is entirely occupied by
gipsies. They belong to several distinct families, the
chief names being Faa, Young, Douglas, and Blythe.
The latter do not seem to be of the same race as the three
former. The Douglases, Youngs, and Faas are generally
dark-complexioned, with black hair, while the Blythes
are mostly light-haired and of fair complexion. Tradi-
tion has it that the settlement of the gipsies at Yetholm
came about in consequence of one of the tribe having
saved the life of Captain Bennett, proprietor of the
barony, at the siege of Namur.
MODIFICATION OF THKIR HABITS.
The habits, manners, and customs of the Yetholm
gipsies have been greatly modified of late years. Our
account of their affairs, therefore, rather is what they
were than what they are. Fifty years ago they mostly
remained at home in winter, or only made short excur-
sions to the neighbouring villages; but in summer they
shut up their houses, and travelled about in different
directions in Northumberland, North Durham, and the
Border Counties of Scotland.
MELLERSTAIN ENTRIES.
Mellerstain Entries, in the parish of Earlstoun, in Ber-
wickshire, extending for three-quarters of a mile between
The engraving of Kirk Yetholm, on priffe 55, is copied from
sketches by Jlr. J. Gillies Brown.
February!
1891. /
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
55
Mellerstain Home Farm and the farm of Rachelfield, and
close to the limits of the county, had been from time
immemorial, down to the late Earl of Haddington's time,
a constant place of summer resort for the gipsies. From
about Whitsuntide till after Michaelmas every year it
was seldom that there were not several gipsy camps esta-
blished in "the Entries." We have seen as many as
sixty carts "lowsed"at one time by the roadside close
to Rachelfield, near an old ruin called "the Boggle's
House," properly Whitside House, said to have been
used as an hospital for the neighbourhood during the
virulence of the Plague, long, long ago. Twenty carts
were a usual sight, and two, three, four, or five, common
all the summer. The motley assemblage of wild-looking
men and perhaps still wilder-looking women, ragged little
urchins ferocious bull-dogs, skye terriers, dandle din-
monts, lurchers, and greyhounds a score or two of
horses and donkeys, old and young, the horses hoppled,
the asses free, but sometimes with the panniers on, with a
child in one and a counterweight in the other, ready for
starting formed a picture too strangely vivid to be ever
forgotten.
OCCUPATIONS OP THE MEN.
The men during the day were either absolutely idle
lying smoking or asleep in front of their tents, or engaged
in besom making, pitcher making, fishine-tackle making,
or some other light and easy industry. The manufacture
of horn spoons, which was the ostensible employment of
some of them half a century since, is now, we believe,
unknown. Night, which Montgomery calls "the time
for rest," is the real working day of the normal male
gipsy, unsophisticated and unconverted. It is chiefly
devoted to poaching and kindred avocations, for which
reason the country people used to call the men " night
hawks.'
THEIR PREDATORY HABITS.
One often hears of the predatory habits of the gipsies ;
but it would be very unfair to stigmatise them as indis-
criminate thieves and robbers. Indeed, they made it a
principle not to steal from those farmers on or near
whose grounds they encamped. A tenant of Rachelfield,
during his twenty-one years' lease, had never once occa-
sion to complain of them. It is even said that the gipsies
were in many respects farmers' friends. For one thing,
they kept down the game. But for them the rabbits
would have totally consumed the crops on some fields in
dry seasons. And even the potatoes and turnips, so great
a temptation to rural trespassers, were generally safe
from their ravages. If they stole any at all, they did it
with rare discretion, so that what they took was never
missed.
THEIE VINDICTIVE DISPOSITION.
The gipsies were held to be of a particularly vindictive
disposition towards those whom they imagined to have
injured them. This trait of character is common, how-
ever, to all isolated tribes of men. In the South of Scot-
land, the "tinklers," as the farmers called them, were a
formidable set, down till a comparatively recent date.
*% ^^
"
56
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
/February
1 189] .
Many a husbandman would.wink at their petty depreda-
tions and trespasses, for fear that, if he set the parish
constable after them, they might burn down his onstead.
MAHT YOEKSTON.
Here is the picture of a gipsy queen, Mary Yorkston,
taken by Mr. Linton from the mouth of an aged and very
respectable gentleman, the late Mr. David Stoddart, at
Bankhead, near Queensferry, who had often seen her
in his youth :
She was fully six feet in stature, stout made in her
person, with very strongly-marked and harsh features,
and had, altogether, a very imposing aspect and manner.
She wore a large black beaver hat, tied down over her
ears with a handkerchief, knotted below her chin, in the
gipsy fashion. Her upper garment was a dark blue short
cloak, somewhat after the Spanish fashion, made of
substantial woollen cloth, approaching to superfine in
quality. The greater part of her other apparel was made
of dark blue camlet cloth, with petticoats so short that
they scarcely reached to the calves of her well-set legs.
Her stockings were of dark blue worsted, flowered and
ornamented at the ankles with scarlet thread, and in her
shoes she displayed large, massive silver buckles. The
whole of her habiliments were very substantial, with not
a rag or rent to be seen about her person. Her outer
petticoats were folded up round her haunches, for a lap,
with a large pocket dangling at each side ; and below her
cloak she carried, between her shoulders, a email flat
pack, or pad, which contained her most valuable articles.
About her person she generally kept a large clasp-knife,
with a long, broad blade, resembling a dagger or carving-
knife, and carried in her hand a long pole or pike-staff,
that reached about a foot above her head.
Many stories are told of this woman, who went under the
appellations of "my lady "and "the duchess," and who
presided, like a sibyl, at the celebration of marriages and
divorces, and was, in fact, the Deborah of her tribe. She
had very little of the milk of human kindness about her,
as the following incident will show : Chancing, on one
occasion, to meet a shepherd's wife among the wild hills
in the parish of Stobo, in Peebleshire, she stripped her of
the whole of her clothes. The shepherd was horrified at
beholding his better half, an hour afterwards, approach-
ing their secluded domicile in the simple costume of
Mother Eve before the fall. There would have been no
use in pursuing the thief, however, and the couple were
fain to put up quietly with their loss. Another time, at
a market in the south of Scotland, where Mary Yorkston
was present with her gang, a farmer lost hia purse
containing a considerable sum of money. He immediately
went to " the duchess," soliciting her influence to recover
his property. As he had of ten* given her quarters, she,
without the least hesitation, took him along with her
to the place in the fair where her husband kept his
temporary depot, or rather office, to receive the findings
of his satellites. Matthew Baillie, for that was the man's
name, had assurance that all was right when he saw his
spouse in the farmer's company ; and, upon the matter
being explained, he instantly produced, and spread out
before the applicant, from twenty to thirty purses,
desiring him to pick out his own from amongst them.
The countryman soon recognised his own, and grasped at
it without ceremony. "Hold on," said Baillie, "let us
count its contents first." The gipsy chief then, with the
greatest coolness, as if he had been an honest banker or
money-changer, counted over the money in the purse,
when not a farthing was wanting. "There is your purse,
sir," continued he; "you see what it is when honest
folks meet!"
GlEED-NKCKIT WILL.
The Scottish gipsies were extremely civil and obliging to
their neighbours. This trait is well illustrated in the
following anecdote, which appeared in an early number of
Blackwood's Magazine :
The late Mr. Leek, minister of Yetholm, happened to be
riding home one evening from a visit in Northumberland,
when, finding himself likely to be benighted, for the sake
of a near cut he struck into a wild, solitary track, or
drove-road, across the fields by a place called the Staw.
In one of the derne places through which this path led
him, there stood an old deserted shepherd's house,
which of course was reputed to be haunted. The minister,
though little apt to be alarmed by such reports, was, how-
ever, somewhat startled on observing, as he approached
February 1
1891. /
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
57
closer to the cottage, a "grim visage" staring out past a
window claith, or sort of curtain, which had been fastened
up to supply the place of a door, and also several
"dusky figures" skulking among the bourtree-bushes
that had once sheltered the shepherd's garden. Without
leaving him any time for speculation, however, the knight
of the curtain bolted forth upon him. and, seizing his
horse by the bridle, demanded his money. Mr. Leek,
though it was now dark, at once recognised the gruff voice
and the great black burly head of his next-door neigh-
bourgh, Gleed-Neckit Will, the gipsy chief. " Dear me,
William," said the minister, in his usual quiet manner,
" can this be you ? Ye're surely no serious wi' me? Ye
wadna sae far wrang your character for a good neighbour
for the bit trifle I ha'e to gi'e, William ? " " Lord saif us,
Mr. Leek !" said Will, quitting the reins and lifting his
hat with great respect, " whae wad hae thought o' meeting
you out our here-away ? Ye needna gripe for ony siller to
me I wadna touch a plack o' your gear, nor a hair o' your
head, for a' the gowd o' Tividale. I ken ye'll no do ua
an ill turn for this mistak and I'll e'en see ye safe
through the eirie Staw it's no reckoned a very canny bit,
mair ways nor ane ; but 111 wat yell no be feared for
the dead, and I'll tak care o' the living." Will ac-
cordingly gave his reverend friend a safe convoy through
the haunted pass, and, notwithstanding his ugly mistake,
continued ever after an inoffensive and obliging neighbour
to the minister, who, on his part, observed a prudent and
inviolable secrecy on the subject of this rencounter during
the lifetime of Gleed-Neckit Will. W. B.
atttr
j|OTHERSTONE is a quaint little place, and
pretty. There is a pleasant sort of air about
it that it is impossible to describe ; you must
be there to experience it for yourself. It is
said to be St. Cuthbert's town ; that is the derivation of
the word due to the fact that legend makes it one of the
places where the restless body of the saint halted for a time
from its wanderings. But most people have forgotten that.
Now, the little town is celebrated chiefly for two things
its cheeses and its Quakers. Formerly it used to be in-
habited almost entirely by members of the Society of
Friends, and even now a goodly number of the Cother-
stonites are adherents of that sect. And the Cotherstone
cheese, some of it is hardly inferior to Stilton. It is made
by all the housewives at the surrounding farm-houses, and
then it goes forth to the world to make the name of
Cotherstone famous. For there is not much else to rest
the fame of Cotherstone on. Stay ! There is the scenery of
the district, but that needs no praise from me. Who has
not heard of Balderdale, which is entered just to the south
58
MONTHLY CHRONICLE
{February
p=
1891.
of Cotherstone, where the Balder joins the Tees? On a
mound above the junction of these two rivers is all
that remains of Cotherstone Castle. This was a keep-
tower of the Fitz-Hughs, and is believed to be "Pen-
dragon's lonely mound " in " Rokeby." " We rode next,
if you remember, to Cotherstone, an ancient village of the
Fitz-Hughs on the Tees, whence I showed you a rock
rising over the crown of the wood, still called Pendragon
Castle." So wrote Morritt to Scott. Balderdale some-
what resembles Deepdale, though it is perhaps scarcely
so picturesque. Balder Grange stands on the right
bank of the stream, and a little nearer the Tees is
Woden Croft. This is now a farm-house, but it was
long a school of some reputation. Here Richard Cobden
received some part of his education. Nearly opposite
Woden's Croft is the base of the Plague Cross, at
which, during the infection, a market was held for
Barnard Castle.
But now let us leave the Cotherstone country, and soar
through the air, not so disastrously, it is to be hoped, as
Icarus, to another cheese town, which will occur to every
one's mind on the mention of Cotherstone Stilton.
Somehow Cotherstone always reminds one of Stilton, not
that the places are similar in any way, but it may be
because the two cheeses are not unlike.
Stilton cheese ! I remember a friend of mine who once
journeyed all the way down to Huntingdonshire to see
the Stilton cheese made at Stilton. When he got there
he was grievously disappointed, for he found that the
cheese is not made there, 'but far away in Lsicestershire ;
at any rate, Leicestershire is where it is made chiefly,
though I believe a very small quantity is still made at
Stilton itself, more for the sake of form than anything
else. The quaint little Huntingdon village on the
high north road, however, is none the less interesting,
though our cherished illusion concerning its cheeses
may be shattered. Stilton is supposed to be a place
of considerable antiquity ; indeed, it is not quite cer-
tain that it may not go so far back in point of pedigree
as the Ermine Street, the Roman road on which it stands.
For there are Roman remains still extant near the place,
so that it is possible the Romans may have had a habita-
tion there. The pretty square-towered church is a feature,
too, of Stilton which carries us far back into the past, to
the days when mediaeval Stilton flourished, and when
perhaps the most interesting building in the village. The
Bell, an hostelry that has been famous for long genera-
tions, was in its youth. At The Bell, Cowper Thornhill
first sold the Stilton cheese that was brought from
Leicester, where the original article was made by Mrs.
Paulet, of Wymondham, near Melton Mowbray.
But Stilton cheese soon gained universal fame, and has
not unfrequently been called the English Parmesan.
Cowper or Cooper Thornhill, the landlord of The Bell,
was consigned to immortality in a poem called "The
Stilton Hero," and was famed as a rider, it being
recorded of him that "he rode three times to London in
eleven hours," and that he won the cup at Kiuibolton
with a mare which he accidentally took on to the course
after a journey of twelve miles.
I cannot conclude without giving the following refer-
ence to Stilton translated from the pages of Drunken
Barnaby :
Thence to Stilton slowly paced,
With no bloom nor blossom graced ;
With no plums nor apples stored,
But bald, like an old man's forehead ;
Yet, with inns so well provided,
Guests are pleased when they have tried it.
V.
at
HTtoi>*t ftgne
JUch.itr.u- eSEHfori).
THE KEBEL GENERAL.
j|HE Forsters of Northumberland were at one
time as numerous as the Fenwicks, the
Carrs, or the Greys. Settled at an early
period of English history in the manor of
Adderstone, or Etherstone, near Belford, they proved to
be a most prolific race. One member of the family left
twenty-two sons behind him, and it is not at all difficult
to believe that, in a few generations, they overran the
eastern seaboard of the county. Public interest in the
family begins with Sir Thomas Forster, Knight, who in
the reign of Henry VIII. was Marshal of Berwick, made
his will (still preserved at Durham) in 1526, and died
soon after. By his marriage with a daughter of Robert,
Lord Ogle, he had amongst other children Thomas
Forster, of Adderstone, Sheriff of Northumberland in
1564 and 1572, and Sir John Forster, Knight, Warden
of the Marches for seven-and-thirty years, Governor of
Berwick, grantee from the Crown of Bamborough Castle,
and the owner of the abbey lands of Blanchland, From
these two brothers the Forsters of Adderstone and the
Forsters of Bamborough and Blanchland descended, and
from their respective families came, for the most part,
the Forsters whe figure conspicuously in local history.
Towards the end of the seventeenth century these two
main lines of the opulent family of Forster were amalga-
mated by marriage. Thomas Forster, of Adderstone, the
representative of the older .branch, chose for his wife
Frances, eldest daughter of Sir William Forster of Baiu-
borough and Blanchland (an honorary freeman of New-
castle), representative of the younger branch of the
family. Sir William, like some of his ancestors, was
blessed with numerous offspring, whose good fortune it
was to make the name of Forster known beyond the
February 1
1S91. /
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
59
limits of their native county. Dorothy, one of his
daughters, married Bishop Crewe. William, his eldest
son, entered upon a long parliamentary career. Chosen
by the electors of Northumberland to represent them
in the Convention Parliament, which placed the Prince
of Orange on the English throne, he was returned to
each successive Parliament that met between that date
and his death in 1700. His successor was his brother,
Fertiinando, murdered in Newcastle under well-known
Ytionias ForsTer.
circumstances, shortly after election, by John Fenwick,
of Rock. With the death of Ferdinando, the male heirs
of the Forsters of Bamborough ceased. Thomas Forster,
of Adderstone, the brother-in-law, took their place in
Parliament, while his son Thomas became co-heir with
Lady Crewe of the family wealth.
Baptised at Bamborough on the 29th March, 1683,
Thomas Forster, jun., was trained with a view to par-
liamentary honours. When he was twenty-five years old,
his father retired from the representation of the county
in his favour. He was returned to the third Parliament
of Queen Anne, on the 27th May, 1708, and seeking re-
election in the two following Parliaments of that Queen,
and in the first summoned by George I., he was success-
ful in retaining his seat. His parliamentary record
during that time is, unfortunately, a blank. It is not
known whether he took the oath of allegiance to the
Hanoverian dynasty. His name is not in Cosin's list of
those who refused. But if he did take the oath, he was
not long faithful to it. Parliament met on the 17th
March, 1715, and on the 21st September the king sent a
message to the Commons declaring that he had just cause
to suspect "Mr. Thomas Forster, junior," and five other
members, of a design to support an intended invasion of
the kingdom in the interest of the Pretender, and desiring
the approval of the House to an order which he had
given for apprehending them as conspirators against his
person and Government. A rebellion had broken out
amone; the adherents of the Stuarts in Scotland, under
the Earl of Mar, and Thomas Forster was believed, and
truly believed, to be in active sympathy with them.
Full details of the progress of the rebellion, and of the
part which Mr. Forster took in it, have already appeared
in these columns. (See Monthly Chronicle, 1890, pp, 1
and 49.) Forster was "General" of the expedition, and
being hopelessly beaten at Preston, in November, was
taken prisoner, conveyed to London, and committed to
Newgate. Expelled from his seat in Parliament by
resolution of the House, ho lay in prison awaiting his
trial till April, 1716, when his sister Dorothy (Walter
Besant's Dorothy Forster) is said to have effected his
liberation. Riding to London disguised as a servant,
behind an Adderstone blacksmith named Purdy (so runs
the legend), this brave young lady procured, upon a
piece of clay, an impression of the key of the strong
room in which her brother was confined. A false key
was easily smuggled into the prisoner's hands, and near
midnight on the 10th April he achieved his freedom.
The escape was so well concerted that, as soon as he was
out of the prison, horses were in readiness to take him to
a vessel lying off the Essex coast, in which, within
twenty-four hours after leaving Newgate, he safely
arrived in Calais. The Government offered a reward of a
thousand pounds for his capture, describing him as "of
Middle Stature, inclining to be Fat ; well shaped, except
that he stoops in the shoulders ; fair complexion'd, his
Mouth wide, his Nose pretty large, his eyes gray, and
speaks the Northern Dialect." This proving ineffectual,
the House of Commons, on the 24th of May, ordered a
bill to be prepared attainting him of high treason, and a
month later, having passed through all its stages, the bill
received the sanction of the House of Lords.
Under ordinary circumstances, the Crown would have
reaped a rich harvest by the attainder of Forster, as it
did by the attainder of the Earl of Derwentwater. But
Forster had nothing left to forfeit. Historians, one after
the other, tell us that his estates were confiscated, and
that Lord Crewe, his brother-in-law, purchased them ol
the Crown Commissioners and devoted them to charitable
uses. This is an error which the late William Dickson,
of Alnwick, Clerk of the Peace for Northumberland, cor-
rected long ago. In the "Proceedings of the Berwick-
shire Naturalists' Club," vol. vi. (1872), is a paper written
by him which shows upon undoubted evidence that
Thomas Forster surrendered to Bishop Crewe, long before
the rebellion broke out, all his interest in the estates of
his family. Thus :
Sir William Forster and his sons, William and Ferdi-
nando, had run through all these fine estates by reckless
60
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
/February
\ 1891.
extravagance, and that in a very short space of time.
Law proceedings began about 1701, and all the estates
were sold before 1709 was out ; thus proving conclusively
that the estates were never forfeited by the rebellion, but
sold in due course of law to pay debts by order of the
Court of Chancery ; and that when the rebel general
committed the act of treason by joining m the rebellion,
all his lands had been sold six years before to pay his
debts, and he had not an acre left to bless himself with at
the time he joined the Pretender in 1715.
To deceive the Government, aud avoid the risk of
capture, it was reported soon after his escape that Forster
had died abroad, and to complete the deception a mock
funeral was prepared, and a coffin full of sawdust was
placed in the family vault at Bamborough with due
solemnity. When he died in reality (at Boulogne,
September, 1738, having survived his escape for two-and-
twenty years), his body was secretly brought to Bam-
borough and privately deposited beside the dummy.
Scorge, /randjs, anb |o$eph, .fowler,
MAYORS OF NEWCASTLE.
Among the numerous persons bearing the name of
Forster who have occupied clerical or municipal office in
Newcastle, three rose to the high position of chief magis-
trate. Francis Forster was Mayor in 1769-1770 and
1779-80 ; Joseph Forster, his son, occupied the post in
1801-2, 1808-9, and 1818-19 ; George Forster filled the
same office in 1811-12, 1820-21, and 1825-26. Now, a man
who has been Mayor of Newcastle twice is presumably a
"man of mark" in the town; but he who is appointed
to that dignity thrice is undoubtedly so. The three
Forsters, therefore, with eight mayoralties among them,
clearly belong to our series.
GEOKGE FOBSTER.
About George Forster little is known. His connection
with the historical family of that name is not traceable ;
probably it did not exist. He was a respectable linen
draper (a partner in the firm of Gibson and Forster, linen
drapers and mercers in the Wool Market, Newcastle),
who, in March, 1802, upon the death of William Rais-
beck, was elected one of the Common Council, and in
July, 1810, upon the resignation of William Cramlington
and the refusal of Isaac Cookson, senior, to accept the
office, was appointed an alderman. Having laid aside
the yard wand to don the alderman's gown, he was raised
the following year to the chief magistracy. During his
second mayoralty, in 1820, the coronation of George IV.
was celebrated in Newcastle, when oxen were roasted in
the streets, and the public pants ran wine and beer, and
the townspeople indulged in orgies which reflected little
credit upon them, and less upon the authorities who
encouraged them. Upon this occasion the Mayor was
invested for the first time with the gold chain and medal-
lion which still adorn the breast of our chief magistrate.
His third mayoralty was uneventful, though the great
election in Northumberland made it a stirring time for
the district. Alderman Forster died at his house in the
Forth on the 16th May, 1836, aged 71.
KBAKCIS FORSTER.
Francis Forster, it is supposed, was a descendant of the
Adderstone Forsters, through a branch of the family
which settled at Buston, near Warkworth, with collaterals
at Newton-by-the-Sea, near Embleton. His upbringing
is not recorded, but we know that he carried on business
as a merchant in Newcastle, and acquired property at
Seaton Burn, where he resided. In 1761, he joined
Thomas Doubleday, merchant; Lancelot Stout, hatter;
Jonathan Ormston, gen tinman ; George Westgarth, dyer;
and Peregrine Tyzack, gentleman, all of Newcastle, in
the purchase of premises and a wharf situate in Hillgate,
Gateshead, which a dozen years before had been con-
verted into a sugar house by James Orton, of Newcastle,
sugar baker. He was the head of the firm of Forster,
Bankin, and Atkinson, who owned the sugar house in the
Close, a partner in the Commercial Bank, a merchant of
great enterprise, and, before he died, a man of consider-
able wealth. Identifying himself with the interests of
the town to which he owed his success in life, he entered
the Common Council, and in 1763, when the Blacketts,
the Ridleys, and the Claytons governed Newcastle, he
was appointed Sheriff. Six years later, at Michaelmas,
1769, the electors made him chief magistrate.
Mr. Forster entered upon the mayoralty at a time of
great political agitation. In the early part of the year,
John Wilkes, expelled from the House of Commons, had
been three times re-elected, and three times declared
incompetent to sit. Newcastle followed the example of
other towns in demanding that the decision of Wilkes's
constituents should be respected, and great was the
outcry and the clamour. A petition to the throne was
prepared, and, on the Friday before Michaelmas Monday,
a deputation from seventeen of the Incorporated Com-
panies of the town waited upon Mr. Forster, as Mayor-
elect, with a requisition, asking that the burgesses might
be specially summoned by the Town Clerk to attend the
Guild meeting for the purpose of signing it. Mr. Forster
expostulated with the excited deputation, and recom-
mended them to postpone the petition till after the
meeting of Parliament, but he was told that the burgesses
were determined ; and that they had a petition drawn up,
which would be laid before their worships on Monday for
their approbation and subscription. On the Monday the
Guildhall was crowded. The two members for the
borough Sir Walter Blackett and Matthew Ridley-
were there ; most of the aldermen were there ; but not
one of them would sign the document. Sir Walter,
indeed, although he had voted tor Wilkes in the House,
struck an attitude strongly antagonistic. "Standing up,
and laying his left hand upon his breast, stretching out
his right as a mark of eloquence," he uttered these
" weighty and emphatical " words : " I will sooner have
that right hand cut off than sign such a petition."
February
\
r
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
61
Deserted by their representatives, and discouraged by
the Mayor, the promoters determined to have a meeting
of their own. "Mounted on a galloway called Liberty,"
they despatched a messenger to Sir Francis Blake
Delaval, at Seaton Delaval, and that " gay Lothario "
consented to become their chairman. On the 16th Nov-
ember, 1769. the great meeting was held (in the Long
Room of Forth House), the petition adopted, an offer of
Mr. Ridley to present it to the king without signing it
refused, and the chairman requested to undertake that
duty. In May following, a similar meeting took place,
with Thomas Delaval in the chair, and this time it was
a "remonstrance " as well as a petition which Sir Francis
was desired to lay at the foot of the throne.
By their refusal to assist in the Wilkes agitation, the
M.P.'sand the Mayor lost favour. At the next Parlia-
mentary election an attempt, though a very unsuccessful
one, was made to defeat both Sir Walter and Mr. Ridley.
As for Mr. Forster, ten years was allowed to pass before
he was again invited to assume the dignity of chief magis-
trate. In the meantime asperities had softened down,
and his second mayoralty was popular.
Mr. Forster died at Seaton Burn House on the 4th
October, 1784, leaving amongst other issue a son and a
daughter. The daughter, Eleanor Forster, married the
Rev. James Manisty, B.D., vicar of Edlingbam, and
became, in 1808, the mother of Henry afterwards Sir
Henry Manisty, one of her Majesty's judges. The son,
Joseph Forster, succeeded his father in the sugar house
and the bank, and in the public work of the muni-
cipality.
JOSEPH FOBSTEK.
Joseph Forster was born in the same year as George
IV. 1762 brought up at Seaton Burn and in Newcastle,
and soon after his father's death, at Michaelmas, 1787,
was chosen to be one of the Electors of the Corporation,
and at the same time appointed Sheriff. Seven years
later, on the 8th of July, 1794, he was united to Mary, only
daughter of Henry Scott, and the favourite niece of Sir
John Scott, Attorney-General, afterwards Lord Eldon.
By this marriage young Mr. Forster was brought into
intimate social relationship with the local families of
Surtees, Burdon, Atkinson, Cramlington, Crichloe-
Turner, and other people of position, which helped
him to local honours if not to fortune. "Remember me
affectionately to Mr. and Mrs. Forster," was the message
which Lord Eldon sent to his niece and her husband when
announcing to his brother Henry his elevation to the
peerage in the month of July, 1799. The people of New-
castle were proud of their illustrious fellow-townsman, the
coalfitter's son who had been made a peer, and to some
extent his lordship's kinsfolk shared the public favour.
At Michaelmas, 1801, shortly after his lordship was
raised to the Woolsack, the Corporation elevated Mr.
Forster, who had already been made an alderman, to the
Mayoralty.
Through the Eldnn influence, Mr. Forster received the
appointment of joint receiver of the Derwentwater estates
for the Commissioners of Greenwich Hospital. In 1808
he was elected Mayor for the second time, and ten years
later for the third time. Just before his third election
some facetious burgess issued a handbill announcing the
intended publication of a letter addressed to him " on the
subject of paving the streets with Cobble Stones, Brick-
bats, and all the Rubbish from the Town Walls." But
this was only a harmless squib calling attention to a local
grievance which Mr. Forster's influence might remedy.
A glance at the newspapers of the period shows that he
was invariably a leader in seeking to remedy grievances,
and especially those which affected the commercial
prosperity of Newcastle. In one day during his Mayor-
alty (March 8, 1819) he presided over two meetings of the
townspeople convened with that intent. At one of them
it was determined to petition Parliament against a pro-
posed measure for taxing coals at the pit's mouth. At
the other meeting a protest was made against a renewal
of the "Insolvent Debtors' Act, "and it was resolved to
tell the House of Commons that " consequences most
disastrous to the commerce of this country, and most
destructive to public morals," had followed the enactment
of that measure, while "the confidence and good faith
which mark the transactions of the British trader, and
which form the basis of commercial prosperity," had been
shaken, " profligacy and extravagance " had been encour-
aged, and "frauds and perjuries multiplied to an awful
extent." The burgesses of Newcastle were accustomed to
express themselves in somewhat vigorous language, and
upon this occasion the Mayor seems to have approved
of it.
Mr. Forster's last appearance in a public capacity
occurred at the Parliamentary election of 1820. Some of
the electors, desirous of breaking down the influence of
the members for the borough (Sir M. W. Ridley and
Cuthbert Ellison) brought forward young Mr. Scott, son
of Sir William Scott, the future Lord Stowell. Alder-
man Forster supported the nomination, and, in the
absence of the candidate, entered upon a hopeless contest.
At the close of the first day's polling he saw his mistake,
and withdrew his relative from the struggle. But. like
most men who have been accustomed to lead and to rule,
he did not take kindly to defeat. Twelve months after
the election, on the 7th April, 1821, he died at his town
house in Westgate Street, aged 59, and a few days later
was buried in St. Nicholas'.
Mrs. Forster survived her husband for many years. To
her we owe the majority of the personal reminiscences
of Lord Eldon which besprinkle the pages of Twiss's
voluminous " Life " cf that great lawyer. While his lord-
ship lived, Mrs. Forster spent much of her time with him,
carefully collecting all the family traditions relating to
his early life, and noting down his own genial gossip
respecting his exceptionally fortunate career. After the
2
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
{February
1891.
death of Lord Eldon in 1838, she lived in comparative
retirement, and, dying on the 17th April, 1846, aged 71,
was buried in St. Nicholas' beside her husband.
3onatl)<m Jangstaffi Jfowter,
A LEARNED ATTORNEY.
Learning maketh young men temperate, is the comfort
of old age, standing for wealth with poverty, and serving
as an ornament to riches. Cicero,
One of the numerous branches of the Northumbrian
Forsters established themselves in the township of
Horsley, in the parish of Ovingham, where, at the time
of the Civil War, the family had a freehold estate.
Towards the close of last centnry, the representative of
this Horsley branch was one Matthew Forster, a sub-
stantial farmer at High Barnes, in that township. He
had listened to the preaching of John Wesley, and
became the friend and entertainer of that eminent man
whenever he visited the society in Horsley district. His
eldest son, also named Matthew, born in 1775, came to
Newcastle to learn the profession of the law. He was
articled to Mr. John Kirsop, attorney and notary public
in Westgate Street, and having served his time, obtained
his qualification, and spent a year or two in London to
gain experience, commenced to practise on his own
account. The compiler of Mitchell's Newcastle Directory
for 1801 enters him as "Foster, Matt., attorney-at-law,
High Bridge."
Shortly after his return to the North, Matthew Forster
married Sarah, daughter of Joseph and Catherine Lang-
staff, members of an old Romaldkirk family, and,
removing to Clavering Place, gradually built up a
respectable and profitable business. He filled for some
years the office of joint secretary of the Newcastle
Auxiliary to the British and Foreign Anti - Slavery
Society, and his name occasionally occurs during the
early part of the present century attached to benevolent
enterprises of an unsectarian character. He died at his
residence in St. James's Street, Newcastle, in 1860, at the
venerable age of 85, leaving behind him two sons,
Jonathan Langstaff Forster, attorney, and James
Forster, merchant and shipbroker.
Jonathan Langstaff Forster was born in Newcastle, on
the 8th of January, 1804. His primary education was
conducted by Mr. John Bruce, at Percy Street Academy,
his finishing course was entrusted to the famous school-
master at Witton-le-Wear, the Rev. George Newby.
Articled, at the proper age, to his father's friend, Mr.
William Kirkley, attorney, in Newgate Street, he distin-
guished himself by assiduous attention to the theory and
practice of the law, devotion to classical literature, and
the cultivation of the poetic muse. At the expiration of
his articles, he entered the office of Messrs. Fisher and
Sudlow, in London, and, gaining there an insight into the
working details of a leading practice, returned to New-
castle, fully equipped for the responsible duties of his
profession. Joining his father, he was in due time
admitted to a partnership, the firm becoming that of
"Matthew and Jonathan Langstaff Forster," with an
office in Library Place, Westgate Street, and an excellent
business in the intricate but peaceful department of
conveyancing.
The active pursuit of his calling made no change in
Mr. Forster's literary habits. Attaching himself to the
local Literary and Philosophical Society, then in the
height of its usefulness, he read hard and worked hard ;
his favourite studies being philosophy and languages.
It may be doubted whether any other man in Newcastle
knew so many languages, or could use those which he
knew with greater facility. So absorbed was he in his
studies that until he was nearly forty years of age he
did not find time to marry. The lady of his choice
was Jane Rachael Wood (daughter of Major Wood, of
Berwick, a retired officer of the Royal Artillery), to
whom he was united at St. Andrew's, Newcastle, on the
26th April, 1342. Her decease, after only five and a half
years of married life, was a great affliction to him, and ha
honoured her memory by devoting the rest of his days to
the education and upbringing of the three sons whom she
had left to his care.
From an early age Mr. Forster identified himself with
philanthropic and benevolent enterpriser in Newcastle.
For a number of years he taught in the Sunday schools
attached to St. John's and St. Andrew's, and throughout
his life he sacrificed no small portion of his leisure hours
to helpful but unobtrusive ministrations among the
suffering poor. He assisted his father as the first honor-
ary secretary of the Newcastle Indigent and Sick Society,
and shortly afterwards he undertook the secretarial duties
himself, discharging them with vigour and success for
seven and thirty years. He was also for some years co-
secretary with his father of the Newcastle Auxiliary to
the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. The
North-Eastern Reformatory School and the Newcastle
Town Mission had no warmer supporter; he was one
of the early promoters of both institutions, and for a long
time held an active membership of their respective com-
mittees.
Like his father, Mr. Forster belonged to that branch
of the Church of England which claims to be the true
exponent of the principles of the Reformation. The
Rev, Richard Clayton, head of the evangelical clergy
in Newcastle, was his spiritual leader. When that ex-
cellent man died, and it was proposed to preserve his
memory by the erection in Jesraond of a memorial
church, Mr. Forster was one of the five or six ardent
workers who carried the movement to a successful issue.
In him and four others the trusteeship and patronage
of the church were vested, and he was rarely absent from
its services.
Upon his return from London in 1827, Mr. Forster
joined the newly-formed Newcastle and Gateshead Law
February!
1S91. /
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND,
63
Society, and in 1835 moved the resolution by which an
affiliated association, the Newcastle and Gateshead Law
Institute, was created. This organization was established
to promote the study of the law by the formation of a
library, the reading of papers on law and jurisprudence,
and the delivery of lectures. Mr. Forster was appointed
co-secretary of the movement, with Mr. Joseph Watson
as his colleague. His services in the promotion of these
institutions were recognised in 1859, when the Incorpor-
ated Law Society appointed him a commissioner to super-
intend the preliminary examination of law students.
After his death, which occurred on the 17th December,
1870, his youngest son, Mr. Henry Langstaff Forster, pub-
lished in two volumes some of the literary effusions with
which he had occupied hia leisure hours. The first, issued
by Messrs. Hamilton Adams and Co. in 1872, is entitled
"Episodes of Life, in Poetry and Prose." The second, a
work of great erudition, published by Messrs. Longmans
Green and Co. the following year, bears the title of
"Biblical Psychology." Both of them pourtray a richly
stored mind, influenced by strong domestic affections, and
guided by deep religious feeling. In the " Episodes " are
many quaint conceits and happy turns of thought, such as
this, referring to the loss of his wife :
In vain I oft with heart resigned
Her profile, like her shadow, view ;
So life may leave its print behind
That marks its absence too.
His translations from ancient authors, in which he
delighted most, are eraceful and pleasing. Among them
is one from Horace, "To Aristius Fuscus," which,
although for the most part easy, and often attempted by
beginners, ends with a couple of lines that have puzzled
every translator who has attempted to turn them into
English verse.
Pone sub curru nimium propinqui
Solis, in terra domibus negata ;
Dulce ridentem Lalagen amabo,
Dulce loquentem.
The late Lord Ravensworth, in his "Odes of Horace
translated into English Lyric Verse," expresses doubt
whether anyone has succeeded in conveying the full
sweetness of the last lines, adding, " I confess my own
failure, which is the more humiliating, after having tried
every conceivable variety of form for twenty years." His
lordship's version reads
Place me beneath the tropic sun,
Where houseless men in deserts run.
The softly speaking Lalage,
The softly smiling still for me.
Mr. Forster's translation is as follows :
Consign me where the sun above
Bakes th' uninhabitable ground ;
Sweet smiling Lalage I'll love.
Her prattling sweet shall sound.
and classical readers must judge between them.
j|T is in the town of Haddington, the capital
of East Lothian, that the antiquary may
revel in all the peculiarities of an old
Scottish town untouched save by the hand
of Time. The Tyne (the Scottish river of that name),
which flows from the Lammermoors, here divides the
present from the past ; for the spirit of progress, it would
seem, has never crossed the fine old bridge connecting
Haddington with its forerunner, now the crumbling
suburb of Nungate.
Neat streets and pleasant villas form the picture on the
one hand : houses huddled together, grey and ruinous
with age, but still giving signs of life, are seen on the
other. Nungate is as it was, so far as mere architecture
goes ; but its glory has departed, and the houses of pre-
tension in the olden time are now the abodes of a class of
labourers, chiefly Irish, who rather assist than retard the
process of decay. Nungate, in short, is to Haddington
what the Cowgate is to Edinburgh, with this difference,
that the bit of "Auld Scotland" in East Lothian is
completely isolated. Till a few years ago, indeed, Nun-
gate was not legally a part of Haddington. It was a
"baillierie " or separate territory, and when it did at last
come under the sway of Haddington it had the honour of
getting a special functionary known as " Baron Baillie of
the Nungate." The "Baron," however, like everybody
else of his day, lets the " bailliene " alone, and it "gangs
its ain gait " accordingly.
But the old place has a history that is not without in
terest. It is useless to speculate as to the age of the
beautiful bridge of red stone which spans the Tyne with-
out flaw in its four graceful arches. Like all work of the
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
{February
189L
period of its erection, it was meant to stand, and the
roaring floods from the Lammermoors have failed to move
"Nungate Brig." Not so with Nungate itself; for
terrible inundations are recorded as having taken place
about once a century, houses being swept away and their
occupants drowned. In 1358, however, one John Burley
escaped the general fate by clambering on to his roof and
guiding his strange bark by means of a long pole. On
rushed the flood, and John's craft was finally dashed
against the brig. Fixing his pole into the structure, he
held on, and the impromptu couplet-
Row we merely (merrily),
Quo John Burley
illustrates the coolness ascribed to him by tradition. At
any rate John, with his cock, his cat, and his dog, the
only surviving members of his household, landed, like
another Noah, when the waters subsided. And if he had
lived until he heard Drummond of Hawthornden's de-
scription of the scene of this marvellous, voyage "Tyne
tortoise-like that flows" no doubt he would have in-
sisted upon a more correct comparison.
It goes without saying that Nungate, along with
Haddington, being in the linn of march far invading
hosts, had its share of trouble by fire and sword.
Four times did the English make a bonfire of
the place, and in the year 1548, when the French
and Scots sought to turn out the English forces,
the ravages of pestilence were so great that the dead
were left unburied, while, on the evacuation of the town
by the English in the following year, only "a mean
number of the ancient inhabitants " were left " to rebuild
and venture as best they could." George Wishart had
prophesied this dire visitation "for their contempt of
God's messenger," complaining that while a "vain clerk
BOTHWELL CASTLE, HADDINGTON.
February 1
1891. /
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
play " would have drawn an audience of two or three
thousand, he himself could not get a hundred hearers. It
was in this very Nungate that the great Reformer, John
Knox, had his birth, a tree still marking the site of the
house.
There is one other memory that clings to this quaint
scene. Close by a ford over the Tyne is what appears to
be a collection of old houses having some pretension in
their architecture. This is known as Bothwell Castle,
being the town-house of Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, and
the abode of Francis, Earl of Bothwell and Duke of
Orbury. Here stayed Queen Mary from time to time,
and tradition says that the Castle was her residence for
a while between the murder of Darnley and her imprison-
n-.ent at Loch Leven. A melancholy interest, therefore,
is awakened by the rambling building now the home of
poor families as we think of the hapless woman whose
chief fault, as a Scottish preacher once said, was that she
was "bonnie."
EattU at tyamiltsan ill.
jjHE battle of Hombyll-dnwn, Homildon, or
Humbledon, near Wooler, was fought on
Holy Rood Day, the 14th September, 1402,
in the third year of the reign of that brave
but unhappy monarch, Henry the Fourth.
There had been a short truce between the two king-
doms of England and Scotland ; but, as usual, little
respect was paid to it by the turbulent Borderers on
either side. George, Earl of March, who had fled from
Scotland, and taken refuge with the Earl of Northumber-
land, ravaged the lands of his enemies, the Douglases, in
company with the Percies, while the latter, and their
dependents and allies, revenged themselves by repeated
inroads on the English side of the Border. In one of
these Douglas (Archibald, the fourth earl) is said to have
burned Bamborough Castle, but this is doubtful. At any
rate, the Scottish chief was far less successful than others
of his name had been. Indeed, he sustained so many
losses that he gained the popular title of Tyne-man, or
Lose-man, on account of the number of men who were
slain under his banner. People accordingly began to say
that ill-luck attended upon all his undertakings, and only
those who were as reckless as himself cared to follow him
across the Tweed. Douglas, however, after gaining a
victory over Hotspur and the Earl of March at Liutuii or
Prestonkirk, a village on the Scottish river Tyne, in East
Lothian, made a successful raid into England and carried
away a deal of spoil.
The Scots were not so fortunate in a second raid.
Having penetrated too far, they were intercepted by
Percy and March at Nesbit Moor, in the Merse, a short
way from Dunse. Here, after a desperate conflict, the
leader of the Scots, Sir Patrick Hepburn of Hailes, was
slain, with many of his bravest companions, and most of
the rest, including some distinguished knights of Lothian,
were taken prisoners.
Although this was but an inconsiderable battle, it pro-
duced important results. While King Henry thanked
the Earl of Northumberland and his son, the gallant
NUNGATE BRIDGE, HADDINGTON.
5
66
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
{February
1891.
Hotspur, for their activity, and ordered them to collect
the force of the Border Counties to resist more effectually
the incursions of the Scots, the Earl of Douglas, enraged
at the defeat at Nesbit Moor, and believing that the
English king was fully occupied with the invasion of the
Welsh, who, under Owen Glendower, were ravaging the
western marches with fire and sword, determined to
collect all his available strength and take ample ven-
geance for the loss of Hepburn and his companions-in-
arms.
There assembled under his banner, unlucky though it
was, the greater part of the chivalry of Scotland, includ-
ing the Earls of Moray, Angus, and Orkney, with the an-
cient British chief. Fergus Macdouall, at the head of the
men of Galloway, and the heads of the houses of Erskine,
Grahame, Montgomery, Seton, Sinclair, Lesley, the
Stuarts of Angus, Durisdeer, and Lome, and many other
knights of distinction. They were joined by Murdoch,
Earl of Fife, the eldest son of the Duke of Albany,
brother of King Robert the Third, in command of a
strong body of archers and spearmen. The whole force
which crossed the Border amounted to not less than ten
thousand men the "pick and wale" of Scotland's
warriors.
The Earl of Northumberland and his son were pre-
pared, however, for this formidable invasion, which took
place about the middle of August ; and, assisted by the
Earl of March and his son Gawin of Dunbar, they assem-
bled their forces to meet it. But they prudently per-
mitted the invaders to advance for a while without oppo-
sition ; and so the Scots marched through the heart of
Northumberland, up to the gates of Newcastle, undis-
turbed. Their leaders, imagining that King Henry had
all his forces with him in Wales, and that the Borderers
were panic-stricken, were now confident in the strength
of their army. They, therefore, gave way to a fatal
security. Having collected their rich but cumbersome
spoils, they began a slow retreat ; and they had encamped
carelessly in the neighbourhood of Wooler when intelli-
gence was suddenly brought to Douglas that the pass in
front was occupied by an English army, under the re-
doubtable Hotspur, who was marching to attack him.
Douglas lost no time in preparing for the fight. But
he committed a fatal error in the choice of his position.
He placed his men in a solid square on a high eminence a
little to the west of Wooler, called in the old Cymric
tongue, once vernacular in the North, "the bold bare
hill " (Hu-moeltwn), as though he had only to resist an
attack of the English men-at-arms, whereas the greater
part of Hotspur's army consisted of archers, whose skill
in the use of the bow had proved in so many cases
disastrous to Scotland, and the hill on which his army
was massed was surrounded by other eminences within
bowshot, which commanded it.
When the English came in sight of the Scottish posi-
ion, Hotspur, with characteristic impetuosity, would at
once have rushed on to the attack with his men-at-arms,
but he was restrained by the Earl of March, whose old
and experienced eye saw at a glance the error which had
been committed by the Scottish general. Holding
Percy's horse by the reins, March urged that the men-at-
arms should be kept in reserve, and that the archers
should be allowed to begin the battle. Fortunately for
the English, his advice was followed. The archers
marched slowly down the hill where the rest of the army
halted, pouring forth as they went volleys of arrows,
which fell with fearful execution on the close ranks of
their enemies. The Scots were much more ex posed than
they otherwise would have been, owing to their being
marshalled on a number of terraces cut in the side of the
hill, it is supposed in the old British, Saxon, and
Danish wars, a position which would have enabled them
to make a powerful defence had the English been forced
to come to close quarters with them, but which rendered
them practically defenceless when their assailants were
armed with those famous long and cross-bows which they
knew so well how to handle. Many of the Scottish
barons and gentlemen were slain in this unequal fight, for
even their tempered steel armour was not proof against
the English arrows, and the chroniclers tell us that the
unprotected bodies of the wild Galwegians, who fought in
the kilt and trews, presented the appearance of hedgehogs
on the field after the battle was over. The Scots for a
while seemed paralysed by the destruction which thus fell
upon them, and which became greater as the English
archers drew nearer. At length one of the bravest of the
Northern barons, Sir John Swinton
A doughty knight
As ever Scotland bred
exclaimed that they should rush down the hill upon their
enemies, and not stand still to be slain like deer. Calling
on his fellow-warriors to follow, he couched his lance, and
was giving the rein to bis horse, when another Berwick-
shire baron Adam of Gordon with whom he had long
been at deadly feud, dismounted and stopped him. "Let
us be reconciled on this spot," he said, "that I may
receive knighthood at thy hand, for I can never receive
the honour from any more noble and brave." Swinton
got off his horse, embraced his old foe, and gave him the
accolade ; and then both mounted their steeds again and
charged down the hill, with their immediate followers,
amounting to about a hundred horsemen.
Like two huge rocks on Braemar's brow,
When loosen'd from their bed,
That thunder down and overthrow
The pines that crown the glade.
Thus they, through ranks, the Earl of March,
And the bold Percies sought,
And blood and carnage mark'd their path,
Where'er they stept and fought.
At length they're wi' their gallant train,
By numbers compass'd round,
And fighting fall on heaps of slain,
And stain with gore the ground.
February 1
1891. /
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
67
So did these valiant chieftains fall,
Who lived in mortal strife ;
But lock'd in one another's arms.
Dear friendship closed their life.
It was a desperate charge, fatal to all who took part in
it. Every man of them was slain or dismounted before
he reached the enemy's ranks, and Sir John Swinton and
Sir Adam of Gordon fell, as the ballad-writer states in
the lines just quoted, fighting side hy side, on foot, with
bootless bravery. Several times did they rally flying
parties, and rush forward to renew the battle ; but they
were both struck down, and trampled under foot.
Douglas had now given the word of command to
advance, and the whole Scottish army followed the
example of these devoted cavaliers. As the Scots
descended the hill towards the plain on the north-west,
the English archers fell back slowly on their own men-
at-arms, according to the most approved tactics then in
vogue. They retired in well-compacted bodies, a little
apart, to admit the other troops into the line ; and at
each retrograde step they discharged a new volley, with
such deadly aim that the Scots fell thick on every side.
The numerous bodies of the slain and the furious kicking
and prancing of the wounded horses impeded the progress
of Douglas's men greatly. Confusion and terror soon per-
vaded their ranks, if ranks they could now be called, and
they began ta disperse and fly in all directions ; upon
which the English archers laid aside their bows, and,
rushing in with their short swords and Sheffield knives,
completed the discomfiture of their foes.
We are assured by contemporary writers that the
English men-at-arms never needed to strike a blow, but
that the battle was gained solely by the archers. No
person of note was slain on the English side. But the
slaughter of the Scots was dreadful, and almost every per-
son of rank and station who survived was made a prisoner.
The Earl of Douglas, in spite of the extraordinary
temper of his armour, received five wounds, and likewise
lost an eye. With him were captured the Earls of Fife.
Moray, Angus, and Orkney, as well as Fergus Macdouall,
lord of Galloway. Eighty knights of the first Scottish
families were also taken, including Sir Robert Erskine of
Alva, Sir William Abernithy of Saltoun, Sir John Stuart
of Lome. Sir George Leslie of Rothes, Sir Adam Forester
of Corstophine, Sir William Sinclair of Hermandston, Sir
Robert Logan of Restalrig. the Lord Montgomery, Sir
James Douglas, master of Dalkeith, together with three
French knights, the Sieurs Piers de Essars, Jacques de
Nelsey, and Jean d'Arnay. Among the slain were,
besides the two knights already named, Sir John Leving-
stun of Callendar, Sir Alexander Ramsay of Dalhousie,
Sir Roger Gordon, Sir Walter Scott, and Sir Walter
Sinclair. It was computed that at least four hundred
fugitives were drowned in trying to cross the Tweed. Of
the rest of the Scottish host, comparatively few found
their wav b >me.
Seldom had a battle, in a war undertaken for such un-
worthy objects, brought such mourning upon Scotland.
Frae Forth to Tweed, a swankie blade
Was then a sight to see ;
The cou'ter, left in half plough'd rigg,
Lay rusting on the lee.
The plain on which the battle was fought got the name
of Redriggs, from the slaughter with which it was stained.
A whinstone pillar, which was set up to commemorate the
victory, is still known as the Battle Stone. It stands
about half a mile south from Akeld farm, half-way be-
tween Wooler and Kirk Newton, on the road to Kelso.
When King Henry received intelligence of what had
taken place, he sent the Duke of Northumberland orders
not to ransom his prisoners, as he 'intended to detain
them, in order to increase his demands in making peace
with Scotland. This message was highly resented by the
earl, who, by the laws of war which prevailed in that age,
had a right to the ransom of all such as he had taken in
battle. The command was still more irksome since he
considered the king his debtor, both for his security and
his crown, for it was the Percies who had been mainly
instrumental in the deposition of his unhappy predecessor,
Richard the Second. Accordingly, stung by this sup-
posed injury, the earl resolved to overturn a throne which
he had had the chief hand in establishing.
So a secret scheme was laid for uniting the Scots and
Welsh to assist Northumberland in deposing Henry and
elevating Mortimer to the throne. Meanwhile, the
Percies held their prisoners at their own disposal, though
they professed to be ready to obey the king's commands.
Except in restricting the disposal of the Homildon
prisoners. King Henry treated the Percies with the most
distinguished favour. He conferred on them, by a
stretch of authority truly imperial, the whole Earldom
of Douglas, with all the territories appeitaining to it,
though they lay wholly within the confines of an inde-
pendent kingdom. The Earl of Northumberland and
his sons therefore girded themselves to carry on the war
against the Scots, which served as a convenient cover for
their treasonable designs. The conquest of the Earldom
of Douglas afforded the Percies an excuse for raising a
numerous army of devoted adherents.
With this force, in the beginning of the summer
of 1403, they marched into Scotland, in company with the
Earl of March ; but, instead of undertaking any consider-
able exploit, the whole army sat down before a miserable
little fortress, called Cocklaws, or Ormiston, just over the
Border, at the head of Beaumont Water, on the old hill
road from Rothbury and Alwinton to Yetholm. This
sorry Border peel, the possession of which was not worth
a groat, they made a show of battering down with
warlike engines. The commander of the place, a simple
squire named John (ireenlaw, assumed the air of a power-
ful chieftain, and entered into a formal agreement to sur-
render his solitary Cheviot tower at the end of six weeks
if he were not in that time relieved by the King of Soot-
68
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
{February
1891.
laud, or by his brother the Duke of Albany. In the mean-
time, the army of the I'ercies was to remain inactive ; and
a messenger was sent to Albany to inform him of the
urgency of the case. The herald, it is said, carried back
to the Percies the secret assurance that Albany was ready
to give all the help he could to the intended insurrection
in England. But it was necessary to keep up appear-
ances, and so Albany assembled the Privy Council,
gravely laid before their lordships the message of Green-
law, and asked their opinion whether he should go to
raise the siege or not The privy councillors, believing
that they were acting according to Albany's real withes
when they advised peace, recommended that the Border
reive should be left to his fate rather than risk a battle
with the victorious English, at a moment when the flower
of the Scottish chivalry were captives in Northumber-
land. But, greatly to the astonishment of the council,
Albany, who knew better than the members did how
things stood, gave vent to a sudden burst of patriotic
spirit " By Heavens and St. Fillan !" he exclaimed, "I
will keep the day of appointment with Cocklaws, were
there none to follow me thither but Peter of Kinbuck,
who holds my horse yonder !" The Council, hearing tbis,
immediately agreed to the propriety of relieving John
Greenlaw. So a formidable aimy was raised, and
marched under Albany's command to the Border.
The conspiracy was now ready for explosion. The Earl
of Douglas, with the greater part of the barons and
knights taken at Homildon Hill, being set at liberty,
aised their forces to march under the banner ot Percy,
who, suddenly breaking off the Scottish expedition,
hurried away to unite his forces with those of Glendower
on the borders of Wales. The Earl ol Northumberland,
however, being seized with a sudden illness, stayed
behind at Berwick.
The fact that Douglas had joined in alliance with Percy
was enough to drive away the Earl of March, who
refused to assist in the conspiracy, and rode off to give
information to King Henry, and urge him to take active
measures against the insurgents. By a rapid march the
king intercepted them at Shrewsbury, and a terrible
conflict established Henry definitely on the throne.
The Douglas and the Hotspur, both together,
Were confident against the world in arms.
But the Fates were now against them. The Earl of
Douglas, severely wounded, became again a captive. He
had performed, during the day, deeds of valour which are
almost incredible, and which nearly decided the battle in
Percy's favour. Seeming determined that the King of
England should fall by his arm, he sought him all over
the field, and as Henry, either to elude the attacks of the
enemy upon his royal person, or to encourage his own
men by the belief of his presence everywhere, had
accoutred several captains in his kingly garb, the sword of
Douglas rendered this honour fatal to many. Shakspeare
makes Hotspur say, after the doughty earl had slain two
of these counterfeit kings :
Douglas, hadst thou fought at Homildon thus.
1 never had triumphed upon a Scot
The descendant of the hero of Otterburn swore he was
determined
To render all his wardrobe, piece by piece,
Until he met the king.
At length
The noble Scot, Lord Douglas, when he saw
The fortune of the day quite turn'd from him,
The noble Percy slain, and all his men
Upon the foot of fear, fed with the rest ;
And, falling from a hill, he was so bruised
That the pursuers took him.
Before the event of the battle of Shrewsbury was
known in the North, the Duke of Albany arrived at
Cocklaws, with an army of no less than fifty thousand
men, announcing publicly his intention of giving battle to
the Percies, though there can be no doubt that his real
intention was to join them in making war upon King
Henry. It was not till he reached Cocklaws that he
knew the rebellion had broken out, and the first news of
it was the announcement of the desperate fight on the
Welsh border, the death of Hotspur, the capture of
Douglas, the total dispersion of the rebels, and the
submission of the Earl of Northumberland. Having
caused the news to be proclaimed through his army by a
herald, Albany matched back into Scotland.
So ended the transactions which immediately followed
the battle of Homildon Hill.
itt tfte
jlMIDST the excitement and confusion of the
J"\GB Sfreat Puritan Revolution, there were many
singular developments of religious enthusi-
asm, some of which passed into wild fanati-
cism ; but, although in numerous cases the preposterous
pretensions of crazy prophets attracted some attention
and a few followers, each mania seemed to die away after
a short spell of raving without leaving a trace beyond
a vague memory that such things had been. Conspicuous
among the characters of that zealous age was George
Fox ; but, whatever of extravagance or phantasy his co-
temporaries imputed to him, time has proved that he was
a man ef deep insight into the needs and errors of the
human heart, that he was a veritable king among enthusi-
asts, that he was a true apostle of the faith professed by
all Christendom, and that the work he did was of a
permanent and extensively useful character.
George Fox was a man of lowly origin, imperfect
education, insignificant social standing, and somewhat
uncouth manners. Yet he became a power in the land.
His followers were opprobriously nicknamed Quakers by
Justice Bennet, of Derby, in 1650, because George Fox
February!
1891.
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
69
admonished him and those present "to quake at the
word of the Lord." But fearless George gloried in the
epithet. In 1655 he was moved to indite a lengthy and
vigorous epistle to "all you that scorn trembling and
quaking ; who scoff at, scorn, stone, and belch forth oaths
against those who are trembling and quaking, threatening
them and beating them." And he cited from Scripture
Moses trembling and quaking, Jeremiah's bones quaking
and his denunciation of those who did not " tremble at
tlie Word of the Lord," Isaiah's words of comfort to
those who "tremble at my Word," and Habakkuk's
prophecy that "all the people shall tremble and all faces
gather blackness," summing up as follows :" There
ye may see ye are contrary to God, contrary to the
prophets, and are such as hate what the Lord regards,
which we, whom the world scorns and calls Quakers,
own. We exalt and honour the power that makes the
devils tremble, shakes the earth and throws down the
loftiness and haughtiness of men, which makes the beasts
of the field to tremble and the earth to reel to and fro,
which cleaves the earth asunder and overturneth the
world."
Fox was born in the year 1621, at the village of
Drayton-in-the-Clay, Leicestershire. His father, Christo-
pher Fox, was called "Righteous Christer," a very
honourable nickname. His mother, Mary Lago, was, he
says, of the seed of the martyrs. From earliest childhood
he was of a grave and staid demeanour and speech beyond
his years. Before he was 20 years of age he entered upon
the great mission to which he devoted the remaining forty
years of his life. In the earlier portion of this period, and,
indeed, often in the course of his strange and wandering
life, he was subject to deep depression of mind and fear-
ful conflicts of soul. Out of all, however, he emerged
into the clear shining of the sun, and enjoyed serenest
peace in the thickest of outward troubles.
We cannot even sketch his writings or his teachings,
but must content ourselves with tracing his missionary
career, so far as it connects him with the Northern
Counties. For traces of this kind we must look chiefly
to his own admirable and most interesting Journal, but
also to other vehicles of tradition and history. It was
not until 1653 that he made his way into Northumber-
land. Let us see what his Journal says as to his first
visit :
In Northumberland many came to dispute, of whom
some pleaded against perfection ; unto whom I declared,
"that Adam and Eve were perfect before they fell ; and
all that God made was perfect ; and that the imperfection
came by the Devil, and the fall ; but Christ, that came to
destroy the Devil, said, 'Be ye perfect.'" One of the
professors alleged that Job said, " Shall mortal man be
more pure than his Maker? The heavens are not clear
in his sight. God charged his angels with folly." But I
showed him his mistake, and let him see, " that it was
not Job that said so, but one of those that contended
against Job; for Job stood for perfection, and held his
integrity ; and they were called miserable comforters."
Then these professors said, the outward body was the
body of death and sin. I showed them their mistake in
that also ; for " Adam and Eve had each of them an
outward body, before the body of death and sin got into
them ; and that man and woman will have bodies,
when the body of sin and death is put off
again ; when they are renewed up into the image
of God again by Christ Jesus, which they were
in before they fell." So they ceased at that time
from opposing further ; and glorious meetings we had in
the Lord's power. Then passed we on to Hexbam, where
we had a great meeting at the top of a hill (the Seal).
The priest threatened that he would come and oppose us,
but he came not; so that all was quiet; and the everlasting
day and renowned truth of the everliving God was
sounded over those dark countries, and His Son exalted
over all. It was proclaimed among the people that the
day was now come, wherein all that made a profession of
the Son of God, might receive him ; and that to as many
as would receive Him, he would give power to
become the sons of God, as He had done to
me. And it was further declared, that "he that
had the Son of God had life eternal ; but
that he that had not the Son of God (though he
professed all the Scriptures, from the first of Genesis to
the last of the Revelation) had not life." So after that
all were directed to the light of Christ, by which they
might see Him and receive Him, and know where their
true teacher was ; and the everlasting truth had been
largely declared amongst them, we passed away through
Hexham peaceably, and came into Gilsland, a country
noted for thieving. Here a Friend, spying the priest,
went to speak to him ; whereupon the priest came down
to our inn, and the town's people gathered about us.
The priest said he would prove us deceivers out of the
Bible, but could find no Scripture for his purpose. Then
he went into the inn : and after a while came out again,
and brought some broken sentences of Scripture, that
mention " the doctrines and commandments of men, &c.,
and, touch not, taste not, &c., for they perish with the
using." All which, poor man! was his own condition;
whereas we were persecuted, because we would not taste,
nor touch, nor handle their doctrines and traditions,
which we knew perished with the using. I asked him
what he called the steeple-house. "Oh," said he, "the
dreadful house of God, the temple of God." Then I
showed him, and the poor dark people, that their bodies
should be the temples of God ; and that Christ never
commanded these temples, but ended that temple at
Jerusalem, which God had commanded. While I was
speaking the priest got away ; and afterwards the people
made as if they feared we would take their pur.ses or
steal their horses ; judging us like themselves, who are
naturally given to thieving.
The disciples of Fox appear, however, not to have
gained a permanent footing in the town, or even in the
shire, of Hexham. There used to be one solitary Quaker
bonnet in the tewn, and that belonged to Betty Bowman,
the bread baker and milk seller ; and so well known was
she, that whenever the young Hexhamites chanced to see
a person in Quaker garb, they instantly went up and
asked, "Do you want Betty Bowman?" There is a
tradition, doubtless, in the very name Quaker's Garth,
given to a field at the foot of Battle Hill ; but what is the
origin of the name we cannot discover. Probably it was
once the property of a man who turned Quaker, and
subsequently disappeared without leaving any traces
behind him. Thirty years after George Fox had stirred
up the priest at Hexham. some of his zealous followers
did the same at Chapel Hill, with the effect of provoking
the neighbouring priest of Slaley to the "good works " of
instituting regular service, though not, it is said, to any
great love of the people who had thus provoked him.
Three years later, George Fox repeated his visit to the
70
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
f February
{ im.
Northumberland Friends, and this is his account of the
mission :
Leavine Berwick, we came to Mprpeth, and so through
the country, visiting Friends, to Newcastle, where I had
been once before. The Newcastle priests had written
many books against us ; and one Ledger, an alderman of
the town, was very envious against truth and iriends.
He and the priests had said, " the Quakers would not
come into any great towns, but lived in the lells, like
butterflies." So I took Anthony Pearson with me, and
went to this Ledger, and several others of the aldermen,
" desiring to have a meeting amongst them, seeing they
had written so many books against u. for we were now
come, I told them, into their great town. But they
would not yield we should have a meeting, neither would
they be spoken withal, save only this Ledger and one
other. I queried, had they not called Friends butterflies,
and said we would not come into any great towns .' and
now we were come into their town, they would not come
at us, though they had printed books against us. Who
are the butterflies now '!" said I. Then Ledger began to
plead for the Sabbath day ; but I told him they kept
markets and fairs on that which was the Sabbath day, tor
that was the seventh day of the week ; whereas that day,
which the professed Christians now met on, and call their
Sabbath, is the first day of the week. As we couid not
have a public meeting among them, we got a little
meeting among Friends and friendly people at the Gate-
Bide ; where a meeting is continued to this day, in the
name of Jesus. As I was passing by the market-place.
the power of the Lord rose in me, " to warn them of the
day of the Lord, that was coming upon them." And not
long after, all those priests of Newcastle and their profes-
sion were turned out, when the king came in. From
Newcastle we travelled through the countries^ having
meetings and visiting Friends as we went, in Northum-
berland and Bishopric. A very good meeting we had at
Lieutenant Dove's, where many were turned to the Lord
and his teaching. After the meeting, I went to visit a
justice of the peace, a very sober, loving man, who con-
fessed to the truth.
In 1653, Fox paid a lengthened visit to the city and
county of Durham. Benfieldside was the locality of
almost the first Friends' Meeting House erected in
England. The original house is not standing, but its
successor is, and is preserved for the sake of its adjoining
burying-ground, while another meeting place is now used.
Shotley Spa, and several other parts of Derwent Valley,
early became peaceful refuges for the buffeted and per-
secuted followers of George Fox.
One of the most interesting portions of Fox's diary, so
far as Durham is concerned, relates to Oliver Cromwell's
project for establishing a university. So early as 1650, the
Lord Protector had drawn attention to his project in a
letter which gives a melancholy account of educational
matters in these "poore, rude, and ignorant parts." The
matter slept till 1651-2, when the grand jury of the county
petitioned Parliament, aiid a committee of the House
reported that the "houses of the Dean and Chapter were
fit places to erect a college or school for all the science
and literature." In 1656 Cromwell issued an ordinance
founding the college, and in 1657 (May 15) he issued
letters patent by which the University was created.
Ample provision was made for its maintenance out of the
sequestrated funds of the Dean and Chapter. At the
Restoration the new college shared the fate of the
Government by which it had been set up. That the
scheme did not wholly commend itself to George Fox is
evident from what follows:
From Lieut. Dove's we came to Durham, where was a
man come from London, to set up a college there, to
make ministers of Christ, as they said. I went, with some
others to reason with the man, and to let him see,
that to teach men Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, and the
seven arts, which were all but the teachings of the
natural man, was not the way to make them ministers of
Christ. For the languages began at Babel ; and to the
Greeks, that spoke Greek as their mother-tongue, the
preaching of the cross of Christ was foolishness ; and to
the Jews, that spoke Hebrew as their mother-tongue,
Christ was a stumbling block. The Romans, who had
the Latin, persecuted the Christians; and Pilate, one
of the Roman governors, set Hebrew, Greek, and Latin
a-top of Christ, when he crucified him. So he might
see the many languages began at Babel, and they
set them a-top of Christ, the Word, when they crucified
Him. John the Divine, who preached the Word, that
was in the beginning, said, "that the beast and the
whore have power over tongues and languages, and they
are as waters." Thus 1 told him, he might see, the
whore and beast have power over the tongues and the
many languages which are in mystery Babylon : for they
began at Babel ; and the persecutors of Christ Jesus set
them over Him, when he was crucified by them ; but He
is risen over them all, who was before them all. Now,
said I, to this man, "dost thou think to make ministers
of Christ by these natural, confused languages, which
sprung from Babel, are admired in Babylon, and set a-top
of Christ, the Life, by a persecutor ?" Oh no ! The man
confessed to many of these things. Then we showed him
further, " that Christ made His ministers Himself, gave
gifts unto them, and bid them ' pray to the Lord of the
harvest, to send forth labourers. ' And Peter and John,
though unlearned and ignorant (as to school learning)
preached Christ Jesus, the Word, which was in the
beginning, before Babel was. Paul also was made an
apostle, not of man, nor by man, neither received he the
gospel from man, but from Jesus Christ, who is the same
now, and so is His gospel, as it was at that day." When
we had thus discoursed with the man, he became very
loving and tender ; and, after he had considered further
of it, declined to set up his college.
In 1663 this zealous missionary once more visited Dur-
ham, preaching at the house of one Richmond, and
staying overnight at the house of Henry Draper. Next
morning he received friendly warning, as he puts it, that
"if the priests and justices (for many priests were made
justices in that country at that time) could light on me
they would destroy me." After this year he came no
more into Northumberland and Durham, unless for very
brief visits, during the one or two years he spent in a
sort of recruiting seclusion at his beloved Swarthmore.
jBtoartl)moor
Lancashire is famous for its many picturesque old
halls ; but Swarthmoor, near Ulverston, can hardly be
said to be worthy of being classed with such remarkable
erections as Tufton, Speke, or Moreton. Indeed, beyond
a certain quaintness, Swarthmoor Hall is not of much
moment, so far as its external appearance is concerned.
It is an irregular, Elizabethan dwelling-house of the
better class, without any distinguishing features, excepting
the projecting gable. But the old hall has an interest
to students of history, for here dwelt for a time the
founder of the Society of Friends. And here, it is
alleged, were held the first regular meetings of that sect.
February X
1891. f
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
71
George Fox's 6rst visit to Swarthmonr Hall occurred in
1652, during the temporary absence of the owner, Thomas
Fell, who, being one of the judges of assize, had gone on
the Welsh circuit. The hospitality of the hall was open
to ministers of religion, and Fox stayed there all night.
The next day, being Sunday, he repaired to Ulverston
Church, where he was allowed to preach, his words
creating a deep impression in the mind of the judge's
wife. The same night he preached in Swarthmoor Hall
to the family and servants, and from that time Mrs. Fell
became one of his staunchest adherents. The friends of
the judge went to meet him as he was returning home
from circuit, and informed him that "a great disaster
was befallen amongst his family, and that they were
witches, and that they had taken us out of our religion,
and that he must set them away, or all the country would
be undone." This information naturally perturbed the
spirit of the judge, who, on arriving at Swarthmoor,
expressed his displeasure. But the same night George
family, he does not appear to have claimed any undue
advantage. At any rate, it is stated that he and his
stepchildren lived on most amicable terms. But most of
the later years of his life were spent in the London
district, where he died on the 13th of November, 1690, in
the 67th year of his age.
Our drawing of Swarthraoor Hall shows it as it appears
at the present time. The house was for a long period in
a state of dilapidation. It is, however, now occupied by
a farmer. In the projecting portion there are three
windows. The room indicated by the highest of the
three was Fox's study, and he occasionally preached from
the window of it. Within the building are some old
carved oak mantelpieces. It was in a quaint, flagged
apartment on the ground floor that the first meetings of
the Friends were held. There are many relics still to be
seen in the place; but Mr. Edwin Waugh, in his
"Rambles in the Lake Country," published in 1882,
states that Fox's Bible was then in the possession of a
lady belonging to the Society of Friends in Ulverston.
Some quarter of a mile or so to the west ot Swarthmoor
Hall is the first chapel of the disciples of George Fox. It
was built at his own cost in 1688. Above the entrance is
the inscription: "Ex dono, G. F., 1688.'' Near to the
western end of the chapel is a croft which was presented
with the chapel for the accommodation of worshippers
who came from a distance.
About a couple of miles from Swarthmoor Hall is
Swart or Swarth Moor, where, in 1487, the army of the
impostor Lambert Simnel encamped. In 1643 there was
an engagement at the same spot between 1,500 men of the
King's forces and about the same number of the Parlia-
mentary party. The affair resulted in the defeat of the
Royalists, with a loss of 300 prisoners, including Colonel
Huddlestone.
Fox expounded his views at the hall, and favourably
impressed the judge himself with his fervour and
sincerity. "This was on the sixth day of the week,
about the fifth month, 1652," wrote the lady in the book
which she afterwards issued giving "a brief account of
Fox's travels, sufferings, and hardships, endured for
truth's sake." As there was no place in the neighbour-
hood where the Friends could hold a meeting, the judge
suggested that they might assemble at Swarthmoor Hall.
This offer was gladly accepted, and, quoting from the
same source, we find that " notice was given that day and
the next to Friends, and there was a good large meeting
the first day, which was the first meeting which was at
Swarthmore, and so continued tlieie a meeting from 1652
to 1690."
Judge Fell died in 1658. Eleven years afterwards
George Fox married the widow. Both before and subse-
quent to marriage the couple suffered imprisonment for
conscience' sake. Although Fox considerably bettered
his worldly prospects by the connection with a good
| HE Monthly Chronicle for November, 1887,
p. 401, contained an account of the bridge
over the Wear at Sunderland which was con-
structed and erected by Rowland Burdon in the year
1796. The total cost of the structure was 40,000.
Of this sum 30,000 was advanced by Mr. Burdon,
at 5 per cent, interest, on security of tolls, while
the remaining fourth was raised by subscription on
loan. Owing to adverse pecuniary circumstances, the
shares held by Mr. Burdon were afterwards offered
for sale. As there was no prospect of realising
by this means, it was determined to sell Mr.
Burdon's interest in the bridge by means of a lottery.
All the circumstances in connexion therewith are fully
detailed in the Monthly Chronicle for June, 1889, p. 254.
The foundation stone of Sunderland Bridge was
February t
1891. I
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
73
.=33
./ 'Ji*?
-':'&
.^-#.
74
MONTHLY CHRONICLE
/February
\ 1891.
laid on September 18, 1795, the bridge being opened
to the public on August 8, 1796. An Act of Parliament
was obtained in 1857 for the renovation of the bridge,
which was carried out under the superintendence of
Robert Stepbenson. An additional interest is attached
to the drawing which we now present to our readers
(page 72) from the fact that it includes a view of the rail-
way bridge which also spans the Wear.
at Uttfttrtoittan.
J1ROM the Simonside Hills to the Wansbeck
runs the bright little river the Font,
through a valley of sylvan beauty, shut
in and protected by pastoral ridges, which,
to the north, roll away into moor and common.
Midway up this valley, surrounded by woods and
waters, is the picturesque village of Netherwitton. To
our Anglian forefathers it was the "white" or fair
"town, "and hence it received from them the descriptive
and lovely name of Witton-by-the- Waters.
It is five miles from any railway station, and out of the
track of the ordinary tourist who may follow perhaps the
high-road to Alnwick and Rothbury, never dreaming
that so pretty a bit of Northumberland is within a very
short distance of him.
Netherwitton impresses us most when approached from
the south by a road called the Trench, which descends the
hillside through the Old Park Wood, being bordered by
several fine beeches a little way out of the village.
Through the foliage .we may catch, now and then, a brief
glimpse of an old thatched roof or a picturesque gable.
The greater part of the village is seated, as we see, on a
gentle incline in a bend of the Font, which is joined at
this point from the west by the Ewesley Burn. A num-
ber of fine tall elms interspersed with sycamores, beeches,
and limes the abode of a colony of rooks, who have many
a good-natured wrangle in the branches form an appro-
priate background of dark-green foliage.
The " harvest of a quiet eye" is a rich one in Nether-
witton. We gaze with calm pleasure on the rustic scene,
singling out all the picturesque details thereof the pan-
tiled smithy with some rusty, worn horse-shoes nailed
to its door ; the modest little temperance hotel,
which is also the post-office, of two storeys,
built of a warm-tinted sandstone and roofed with thin
slabs of the same material ; the half-dozen steps near its
door, which have probably served in the past as a " horse-
block," or "louping-on-styen," as it is locally called ; the
grey-walled, thatched, low cottages, which have asters,
nasturtiums, calceolarias, and stocks round
their doorways ; the newly-built cottages in
the centre of the village with high-pointed
gables and diamond-panedwindows, one of
them decked very prettily with clematis
and honeysuckle ; the village well under
a small roundarch, four steps leading down
to it ; and the neat little gardens with
hedges or palings around them, a few
having beehives of modern construction
What was once the village green is now
occupied by several of these gardens, and
we cannot fail to notice, in one of them,
between two leafy limes, the village cross
(restored in 1825) with the date 1698 carved
upon it. Here might have been formerly
fi witnessed those simple rural sports and
pastimes so inimitably described by Gold-
smith in the opening lines of the "De-
serted Village." The villagers, we are
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
75
told, were accustomed to assemble of an evening on the
green, and to dance around the cross to the sound of the
Northumbrian bag-pipes. On festival days they decked
it with flowers, ribbons, and showy finery.
A path by the end of the principal house in the vil-
lagethe residence of Mr. Raleigh Trevelyan leads
along the park wall to a small wooden bridge across
the Font. Then, from this point, a walk between ivy-
grown walls curves round past the vicarage to the church
of St. Giles a plain little edifice consisting of nave and
chancel, with a bell-turret rising from its western gable.
A chapel waa founded here in tDe 12th or 13th century,
but not a vestige remains of it in the present building,
which was erected above 120 years ago, though restored in
1881 and 1886. While excavations were being made for
the north wall of the nave the stone effigy of a female in a
loose flowing mantle was found. It now occupies a posi-
tion near the pulpit. Netherwitton is ecclesiastically
dependent on Hartburn.
A curious side-light is thrown by the acts of the High
Commission Court at Durham on the relations that
existed in 1633 between the curate of Netherwitton and
some members of his flock. On the 8th of March of that
year, Mungo Barnes, of Netherwitton, was brought in by
attachment upon the information of Andrew Hall, clerk,
curate of Netherwitton, " that he called Hall ' base lousie
rogue ' and did pull him by the throat and strick him on
the breast." This offence he had to acknowledge publicly
on Sunday, the 14th of April. For laying violent hands
upon Hall he was denounced excommunicate in the chapel
of Netherwitton. It would seem from another entry that
he was assisted by one Giles Todd. This person confessed
"that he did call Mr. Hall base fellow, and did assist
Mungo Barnes, who attempted to have beaten him, though
he himself did not meddle with him. " He also had to
make public confession. About the same time, another
person in the parish of Netherwitton, one Thomas Swan,
came to grief in the High Commission Court for " beating
a minister" probably Mr. Hall. What the reverend
gentleman had done to provoke this violence we are
unable to say. The incidents show how accustomed the
people of those days were to take the law into their own
hands.
A former curate of Netherwitton the Rev. J. Thomson
published, in 1806, two volumes of poems, moral,
descriptive, and elegiac, one of which is entitled ''On
Seeing Mr. Cunningham's Monument in St. John's
Churchyard, Newcastle-upon-Ty ne. " Had the reverend
gentleman possessed, even in a small degree, poor
Cunningham's descriptive powers, the attractions of
Netherwitton might have been sung in some lovely
stanzas that the world would have cherished ; but,
unfortunately, he was but a mere rhetorician, and his
volumes contain little of value or interest, unless we
76
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
{February
1891.
except "The Country Wedding " for its description of old
marriage customs.
By the side of the river, which is fringed with small
elders and thorn bushes, past some shrubberies and
gardens, there is a road from the church to the woollen
mill. It was about here that the old market town oj
Netherwitton stood ; for, says Hodgson, " Very old
people remember when its site was ploughed and cleared
of the old groundworks, weeds, and rubbish." The
market was granted by Edward I. to Sir Roger de
Somerville in 1290. The woollen mill stands on the north
side of the Morpeth road near the bridge, and is a large
stone building with a fine, many-windowed fagade, the
central portion, projecting slightly, being crowned with a
pediment ot simple character. It was erected in 179^ by
Mr. Walter Trevelyan as a cotton mill, but was not
worked long, the speculation having proved unsuccessful.
After being closed many years, it was taken, in 1823, by
Messrs. Dixon, Walker, and Co., of Morpeth, and re-
opened as a manufactory of flannel, blankets, and yarn.
As such, it is still being carried on by Mr. Joseph
Law ton.
The mill forms the subject of some verses in a volume
of poems, published in 1831, by John Farrer, who first
drew breath, as he states with some pride, by the side of
the Font. For thirty years, he laments, the well-known
bell which had tolled the hour six times a day to all the
country round from the turret of the mill, has never been
rung, the engines are destroyed, the machinery is rusted,
the lofty roof admits the rain, the walls are becoming
ruinous, the shattered sashes rattle in the wind, and the
windows are stuffed with straw. He wishes success to
"the enterprising few whose resolutions all these works
renew," and he looks forward to the time when Xether-
witton, by virtue of its manufactures, will rival Leeds and
Huddersfield.
Adjoining the building, on the east side, is the old
manor corn-mill, now in ruins. On the great overshot
wheel the water drips and splashes, creating a humid
atmosphere, which favours the growth of mosses, liver-
worts, and ferns in the dim enclosure. The wheel of the
woollen mill is also laid idle.
The fine stone bridge over the Font, consisting of two
segmental arches, 23 feet in span, was erected by sub
scription, the foundation-stone being laid on September
13th, 1837, by Mr. K. Trevelyan. Its battlements were
carried away by the great flood of Sunday, the 15th
September, 1839, which also partly destroyed the dam-
head higher up the river. Many of the inhabitants can
remember how the waters of the Font came rushing
through the village, flooding the lower storeys of several
of the houses. Here, on this graceful parapet, just above
where the Font and the Ewealey Burn meet and mingle
in the shade of three spreading willows, it is pleasant to
linger and watch the brisk waters as they shimmer among
the smooth mossed stones, whereon we may chance to see
resting the shy water-ouzel, and gaze at the peaceful
village, where everyone moves about in a quiet and
leisurely way, as though Time were not fast on the wing.
So tranquil is the scene that it induces a dreamy,
clairvoyant mood in which our thoughts, almost uncon-
sciously, slip back into the past, and we find ourselves
trying to realise the changes which the scene has wit-
nessed. We can see in imagination the skin-clad chief-
tains, who tenanted the rudely-formed camp nearGallow-
shaw, and the smaller one on the outskirts of Dixon's
February 1
1S91. /
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
77
Wood brave warriors who, perhaps, were interred with
mysterious rites, beneath the Five- Ashes and Callagers
tumuli, and the other three barrows in the neighbour-
hood of the xillage; we behold once again the stern
legionaries of Rome as they passed up the Devil's Cause-
way, within half a mile of the place where we sit ; and we
picture to ourselves the village as it was in the by-gone
centuries in 1405, when Roger Thornton, the munificent
merchant prince of Newcastle, who is stated by Leland
to have been born here, became the lord of the manor ;
in 1505, when, beneath a September sky, the unfortunate
John Crawfurth lay, with a mortal wound in his breast
from the weapon of Cuthbert Law, who had fled to the
sanctuary of Durham ; and, in the summer of 1651, when
it was visited by the great Cromwell, his army, consist-
ing of nine regiments of foot, and two regiments of
dragoons with his horse guard, being quartered for one
night on the grounds of the Lady Thornton, and there
doing much damage to the grass and corn, &c., for
which, however, compensation to the amount of
96 5s. 6d. was paid.
But the times are changed, and the character of the
people too, and the secret of the change is to be found in
the little school-room by the wayside just above us.
A little way along the Morpeth road, past the woollen
mill, there is a fine view of the front of Netherwitton
Hall the seat of Mr. Thornton Roger Trevelyan. It is
a stately pile, with open battlements, built by Robert
Trollop, the architect of Capheaton Hall and the Guild-
hall of Newcastle. A tower, which probably stood to the
south of the present gardens, was built here by Roger de
Thornton, not long after 1411, when he completed the
purchase of the estate. It is mentioned in the list of
cascles and fortalices compiled in 1415. A tablet in the
north wall of the house, bearing the arms of Thornton,
and the inscription, "Anno Regis Ed wardi Quinti "-
in the year of King Edward V. probably belonged to this
earlier building, and refers to some repairs or additions
which were made to it in 1483. In the upper part of the
house is one of those secret closets or hiding-places found
iu nearly all the old Catholic mansions, and known as
"Priests' Holes."
Near the hall, on the opposite side of the road, there
are two small lakes connected by a pathway which leads
through the wood, past an enclosed chalybeate spring.
Beautifully situated is the upper lakelet, in the midst
of trees of many varieties larches, firs, pinasters,
beeches, elms, sycamores, birches, and horse-chestnuts.
Bulrushes, among which the water-fowl splash and nutter,
stand thickly along one side of it, and water-lillies spread
their broad leaves upon its surface, while at one end
there is quite a rich glow of colour from the pretty pink
spikes of the amphibious persicaria. Not many yards
from the north side is an islet of diminutive size, whereon
a few firs have secured a foothold. On the bank near it
is a row of large beeches, having their lower branches
trained in one direction, towards the lake, thus making a
shady walk more conducive to meditation than a monastic
arcade. The lake in its perfect seclusion, surrounded by
woods, where, within reasonable limits, nature has
pretty much her own way, would be, to a Thoreau, a
not unfair substitute for the famous Walden Pond.
The woods of Witton-by-the-Waters are of ancient
celebrity. Ranulph de Merlay, when he founded the
Abbey of Newminster in 1139, gave to the monks " a
part of the wood of Witton." Roger de Merlay, the
second, obtained from King John, in 1214, a license to
make a park of his woods at Witton, and bis son granted
to John de Plessy liberty to cut timber in them. To
thesn woods may have belonged the two venerable
oaks the King and Queen of Netherwitton which
stand above the Font a short distance from the weir.
There is a tradition in the village, which may be
founded on a memory of the above-named grant to the
Abbey of Newminster, that the three plane-trees, growing
close together by the side of the road to Morpeth, half a
mile from the bridge, were planted by the monks, and re-
present the three persons of the Trinity.
Hitherto the smoky banners of trade have not waved in
this charming valley. May it long retain its idyllic agri-
cultural character must be the devout wish of all who love
nature and simple modes of life.
WM. W. TOMLINSON.
tre' fJumn-als,
||HE moors of Upper Weardale and Teesdale are
vast grazing fields vast solitudes too. We
are transported thither. No sign of aught save
sheep and moorlands. At last a human being ! A man !
Listen, he is apparently talking to his sheep. Ah ! I
have it. But I will wager a small amount you cannot tell
me the meaning of what he is saying. Talking Dutch !
No. He is counting his sheep one , two, three, four,
and so on. Listen again. Now you hear "Yan, tean,
tether, mether, pip, sezar, azar, catrah, horna, dik,"&c.
There is an interesting thing for you. You have been
extremely lucky to hear that, for there are extremely
few people in this part of the world who use that
language in counting their sheep. Civilization is in-
vading all the out-of-the-way corners of the earth.
and all dialects and local distinctions are dying out.
People in Teesdale, getting more cultivated as years aa-
vance, are abandoning the fashions and habits of their fore-
fathers ; but in some of the more retired mountain vales
of Westmoreland and North Yorkshire, as also in Wales,
the numerals used by these shepherds are so similar to
each other, and so different from those English words now
in general use, that they point to a common Celtic
origin, and that, in turn, can be shown to be akin
to the rest of the Aryan tongues. For instance, your
78
MONTHL Y CHRONICLE.
/February
\ 1891.
ancient Swaledalesman will say, " Yahn, tay'nn,
tether, mether, mimph, hithher, lithher. anver, dan-
ver, die." The Nidderdale rnan says, " Yain, tain,
eddero, peddero, pitta, tayter, later, overro, cover-
ro, dix." Compare with this the Welsh, "Tin,
dau, tri. pedwar, pump, cwec. saith, wyth, naw. deg."
Few words excepted, these shepherds' numerals
are the sole relics of the old Cymric dialect of
the Pennine Chain, Wales, and Cumberland and West-
moreland, as spoken by those ancient Britons who
were driven by fierce invaders into mountain retreats,
whither no one cared to follow them. You get the same
numerals in Brittany, where also there is a fast expiring
Celtic population, "Unan, daou, tri, peder, pemp,
chouech, seiz, eiz, nao, dek." Then look at the gipsy,
"Yek, dui, drin, stor, pange, tscho, efta, octo, enia,
desh." Hindustani is similar. "Ek, du, trin, char, panj,
tscho, st, aute, noh, des." So, of course, is Sanskrit,
" Eka, dui, tri, c'atur, pancan, s'as, saptan, astan, nuvan,
dasan. 1 ' And, go over the Atlantic, you will find it trans-
lated there. Here is what was written from the dictation
of an old gentleman of Hartford, Connecticut ; he had
been taught the scoring when a child by an old Indian
woman, who used to come to his father's house in Connec-
ticut: ''Een, teen, tudhur. fedhur, pip, sat, latta, poal,
defri, dik/' C.
at
jjETWEEN the millstone grit ridfie running
northward from Rothbury and the porphyry
hills of the Cheviot range is a broad,
fertile valley, where all the elements of
a picturesque landscape limpid streamlets, green
meadows and pastures ; fields of wheat, barley, and oats ;
trees massed into woods and plantations, or deploying, as
it were, into lines by the roadsides are gathered
together.
The principal village in this lovely valley is Whitting-
ham, which occupies a low, sheltered situation on the
banks of the little river, the Aln. The view on all sides
is bounded by hills Northfieldhead Hill, Ewe Hill, Ryle
Hill, Chubden, Old Fawdon Hill, Gibb's Hill, Glanton
Pike, Titlington Mount, Lantern Hill, Brizlee Hill,
Thrunton, Callaly Crags, and others.
Whittingham, as we gather from the derivation of its
name, was originally the home of the Anglian family of
White or Hewit, and from its position in a rich agricul-
tural district, has been, through the centuries, a place of
no little importance. Until the railway was opened out
between Alnwick and Cornhill, it was little known to the
outside world, and, indeed, was not easily accessible.
The village is pretty without being prim, for it has not
grown up as an adjunct to some stately and venerable
hall which would perhaps have interfered with its natural
development along other than conventional lines.
Very cheerful and quiet does it look as we approach it
from the south-east. Right before us is the Castle Inn
a well-known posting-house in the early years of the
century, having still such a quaint, old-fashioned air
about it that we might almost expect to Bee, on the open
space in front of it, the Wellington coach from Newcastle
or Edinburgh drawn up, while the horses were being
changed and the passengers entertained with such cheer
as the house could provide for them.
From the garden hedge behind the inn rises a very fine
ash, 85 feet in height. Near to it a road leading to
Callaly turns off to the left, passing through the southern
part of the village, which is seated on a gentle slope,
the various buildings being arranged around three
sides of a rough square. These consist of several
cosy-looking cottages with honeysuckle and bindweed
round the windows and small garden plots m front ; a few
shops which it would not be easy to classify under the
respective trades on account of the miscellaneous charac-
ter of the articles sold in them; the Court-House where
the Petty Sessions are held on the second Monday of each
month a stone building with many gables and mullioned
windows erected in 1859 ; the Post-office, the smithy,
with the coulter of a plough and a few rusty wheel-tyres
near it ; and the massive old pele-tower overlooking the
river, &c.
Some portions of the space enclosed have been planted
with shrubs and young trees, chiefly sycamores, limes,
laburnums, lilacs, and privets, which add a leafy charm
to the scene.
Half hidden by some of these trees is the village pant
erected in 1865 by the Right Hon. Henry Thomas Baron
Ravensworth. It bears the following inscription :
May this pure Fount perpetual streams supply
To every thirsty soul that passeth by !
And may these crystal waters ever run
Unchanged by Winter's frost or Summer's sun !
R.
This portion of the village is connected with the Church
Town as it was formerly called by a stone bridge of
four arches built early in the century, and restored in
1887, and by a wooden foot-bridge.
We obtain from the parapet of the bridge our best view
of the village, which is that represented in our sketch.
To the east we see the Aln making its way through a
swampy bit of ground, where, among rank butter-burs,
grow a few young firs, birches, and poplars. In a pasture
called Pyle's Field, below the inn garden, we can trace,
by a depression in the surface, the course of the road
which led down to the ancient ford. To the north, by the
side of the Glanton road, stands an old house, which once
bore the sign of the Hole-in-the-Wall : a garden, girdled
with a green hedge, sweeps down from it to the river.
Looking to the west, we observe on our right, alittle grove
February 1
1891. I
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
79
of trees, principally beeche?. which extend their branches
over the stream. Behind the grove runs the Eslington
road, forming a kind of terrace above the river. By the
side of it, approached through gardens, are some taste-
fully built cottages with dormer windows, and the school-
house, erected in 1850, standing amid flowers.
To our left we notice the Court House and the great Pele
Tower converted in 1845 into an alms-house, its battle-
ments corbelled out from the walls, and its flagstaff turret
standing out boldly against the sky.
Looking right up the stream, which is bordered with
sallows and sedges, past the wooden foot-bridge, we see
the gable end of a cottage having a pear tree trained up
it, and, beyond, the square tower of the church, with the
vicarage trees as a background.
On the wsst side of the village the Aln is crossed by
another bridge, and this again is a good standpoint for
obtaining a view of the place. We behold the Aln winding
along from the Eslington woods through the level haughs,
and the Callaly burn wending from another direction to
join it. Looking eastward, we see the vicarage seated on
a slight mound nearly surrounded by trees, then a portion
of the church and churchyard, the fountain erected in
1874 by the villagers ; a cluster of farm-buildings and
cottages, with a number of conical-headed stacks adjoining
them.
The tower of the church, which is prominent in every
view, is a constant witness to the antiquity of the place, for,
in its lower stage, is the long-and -short work of pre-Con-
quest architecture. With such a past we naturally
expect to h'nd some interesting historical associations in
connexion with Whittingham, and we shall not be dis-
appointed.
Whittingham was one of the five places conferred by
Ceolwulph on the monastery of Lindisfarne, when he, in
737
For cowl and beads laid down
The Saxon battle-axe and crown.
It would probably not be long after the monks of the
Holy Isle acquired this possession that they erected a
church here.
About 882 there was livingat Whittingham, in bondage
to a widow, a Dane Guthred the son of Hardacnut,
probably of that Haurda-Knute who appears in the lists
of the Danish kings as the second in succession to Regner
Lodbrog. From this position of servitude he was
redeemed and made king of the southarn portion of
Northumbria on the death of Halfdene in the 13th year of
King Alfred. The story, as told by Roger de Hoveden,
is, that this was done in accordance with the instructions
of St. Cuthbert communicated to Eadred, Abbot of Car-
lisle, in a vision. The appointment of a king whc was
a Dane, but also a convert to Christianity, was probably
a compromise between the Christian Angles and the
Pagan invaders. The arrangement was sanctioned, if not
suggested, by Alfred, who found in the new king a loyal
vassal and a faithful servant of the Church. Guthred
died on the 21st of August, 896, and his remains were
interred in the Cathedral at York.
During medieval times when the Borders were so
disturbed by feud and foray, we hear but little of
Whittingham. At the close ot Gilbert de Middleton's
rebellion in 1317, Whittingham Pele was reduced by the
garrison of Warkworth Castle.
From this time we leap over three hundred years to the
Civil Wars of the seventeenth century. On August 25th,
1640, about 400 horse of the Parliament ordered breakfast
at Whittingham. They came from the Brandon Hills,
singing psalms all the way. They behaved civilly, we
are told, and paid for everything. Again, in the summer
of 1648, Whittingham was visited by the Roundheads,
who captured here Lieut. -Colonel Millet with 200 horse.
" Wee advanced on towards Bran ton," says Major Saun-
derson in his report to headquarters ; " but, finding that
wee were cloyed with prisoners and horse and booty, wee
retyred towards Whittingham, where Colonel Lilburne
was labouring to rally into a firme body, for there
appeared about Shawtonfour bodies of the enemies' horse,
who had taken the alarme and got together : but all the
rest wee took before they could mount."
In 1761, when there was so much dissatisfaction in
Northumberland respecting a new regulation whereby
men were elected by ballot for the militia instead of being
hired by the landowners dissatisfaction which resulted
in fatal riots at Hexham Whittingham was thrown into
a state of excitement on March 3rd of that year by the
arrival of a number of rioters from Morpeth, who seized
all the lists and books relating to the militia from the
constables, burning them or tearing them to pieces before
their eyes.
From that time to this there has happened little to dis-
turb the calm tenour of life in the village.
Whittingham is justly proud of the two important
relics of the past still preserved in its midst the church
of St. Bartholomew and the Pele Tower. The tower of
the former has quite an archaeological fame ; it is repre-
sented in Rickinan's great work on Gothic architecture.
In 1840, during a "restoration," falsely so-called, the
upper stages of the tower, the Norman arcade of the
north aisle, and other interesting features of the build-
ing, were ruthlessly destroyed. Most antiquaries find
the English language too inadequate to express their
feelings on the subject of this vandalism. Some Early
English additions on the south side ei the nave were,
however, happily spared.
The Pele Tower, in spite of the alterations which were
necessary to transform it into a charitable institution, is
still a fine specimen of a small Border stronghold of the
14th century, and we examine with interest the plinth,
partly covered with ivy, the barrel-vaulted chamber on the
ground floor, and the original doorway on the south side
a fine pointed arch. In 1415 it was in the possession of
80
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
( February
t 1891.
William Heron, and in 1541 of Robert Collingwood, both
owners being members of famous North-Country families.
There was another pele tower here in the 16th century,
occupied by the vicars, but this was removed when the
present vicarage was built.
Whittingham formerly had its fair, which was the
occasion of much rustic festivity ; but it has now been
discontinued. The day on which it was held, the 24th of
August, is now set apart for athletic and other sports.
We are no longer hailed in the words of the quaint old
ballad " Are you going to Whittingham Fair ? '' but if
confronted with the question, without the addition of the
"fair," in the brighter months of the year, we should
answer at once in the affirmative, with a lively anticipa-
tion of much serene pleasure from the visit.
W. W. TOMLIKSON-.
| ITU ATE some score of miles north of Moffat,
which is within easy distance by rail from
Carlisle, St. Mary's Loch is the resort of
thousands of tourists in the summer time ;
for the district literally teems with poetic and historic
associations ; and many are the pilgrimages to the places
that are everlastingly connected with such names as those
of Sir Walter Scott, the Ettrick Shepherd, Christopher
North, and William Wordsworth, not to mention lesser
luminaries.
Let us join the university undergraduate, say, who has
tsiken his seat on the top of the coach which is to bear its
freight along Moffatdale to the lochs Loch Skene, Loch
of the Lowes, and St. Mary s Loch. As we are whirled
along the road which leads to Selkirk, we quickly realise
that the scenery is suggestive of calmness and repose,
though it is not devoid of a certain amount of grandeur.
If we were to alight and inspect every tower or
other interesting object that presents itself on the
journey, it would be some days before we reached
the far-famed lochs : so we content ourselves with
a mere glance at Cornal Tower on the east side of
the valley, and a small eminence which is suggestive
of a British fort. Approaching Craigieburn, we are
reminded of Burns's beautiful song, "Sweet fa's the
Eve on Craigieburn," and the Ettrick Shepherd's legend
of "Bonnie Mary.' 1 To our left we soon see Saddleyoke,
or Saddleback, as it is sometimes named, the summit of
which is so narrow that, standing astride of it, you can
roll a stone a mile down the hill on either hand. Here-
abouts were the hiding places of many of the old
Covenanters.
Near to the tenth milestone is the famous waterfall, the
Grey Mare's Tail. The total height of the fall, with two
breaks, is about 300 feet, and of course it is seen to best
advantage immediately after a storm of rain. No one will
emulate the young man who, in 1811, lost his life whilst
attempting to scale the rock in the line of the waterfall,
and lovers of natural scenery will generally be content
with what they see from the ordinary point of view. Time
does not always allow of a visit to the gloomy Loch Skene
from which the Grey Mare's Tail issues, and one must
February \
1891. /
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
81
rest content with the description thereof by the Wizard
of the North.
Passing Watch Hill, one of the outposts of the
Covenanters, we reach the summit of the watershed, and,
following the course of the Yarrow, coine to the rather
uninteresting sheet of water called the Loch of the Lowes,
and arrive within sight of the Ettrick Shepherd's Monu-
ment. The statue, which is 8 feet in height, stands on a
square pedestal 9i feet high, and was erected in I860-
The poet is seen seated on an old oak ; by his side is his
faithful dog Hector ; his right hand grasps a stout staff,
and he holds in his left a scroll on which is carved the last
line of the "Queen's Wake "
He taught the wanderin? winds to aing.
The hostelry kept by the renowned Tibbie Shiel stands
on a piece of level ground, not far from the Ettrick
Shepherd's Monument, and between the Loch of the
Lowes and St. Mary's Loch, which is now in sight.
Tibbie owes her reputation to the pens of the great poets
of a past age who partook of her hospitality. A more
modern writer, Professor John Stuart Blackie, has sung
her praises in the following lines :
TIBBIE SHIEL'S IN YARROW.
" And is this Yarrow?" Wordsworth sang ;
Though I am but a linnet,
And he a skylark, I may weave
A rhyme with something in it.
All things that are to all men given,
Sometimes a peeping sparrow,
May spy a beauty that escaped
An eagle's glance in Yarrow.
But wiser he whom once I knew
'Neath Tibbie's roof in Yarrow,
Who nevei- brimmed a cup to-day
That left a sting to-morrow.
High priest of "Maga," glorious John,
The troutful billow lashing,
Himself a grand old trout in floods
Of sportive wisdom splashing.
Nor he alone, but who with him
Had sworn a league together,
To greet the sun or face the blast
In bright or stormy weather,
And live a life in all things true
To Nature's prime intention,
And breathe free breath, and speak free words
That own no nice convention.
With him was Hogg, a minstrel born,
Who sang no stilted sonnets,
But bonny lasses, honest men,
And grey plaids and blue bonnets ;
And many an eldritch story told
Of brownies and of fairies,
That from the cellar witched the wine,
And soured the milk in dairies.
And others came whom I could name,
Stout men of bone and marrow,
To catch contagion from the whim
Of glorious John in Yarrow,
Whose brain was like a busy hive
Of humming bees in summer.
With honey free and never a sting
To every blithe new-comer.
To praise the green huge-shouldered hills,
The silver-shimmering waters,
82
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
f February
The hill-fed well whose draught brings health
To Yarrow's sons and daughters ;
And I for love-lorn maids can spare
A tear of kindred sorrow.
And my best thought is glorious John
At Tibbie Shiel's in Yarrow.
St. Mary's Loch is surrounded by bare hills that do not
possess any beauty of outline. From Megget Bridge,
however, the views of the lake are very fine. We make
no apology for quoting Sir Walter Scott's vivid descrip-
tion of the scene :
Thou know'st it well nor fen, nor sedge
Pollute the pure lake's crystal edge ;
Abrupt and sheer the mountains sink,
At once upon the level brink ;
And just a trace of silver sand
Marks where the water meets the land.
Far in the mirror, bright and blue,
Each hill's huge outline you may view ;
Shaggy with heath, but lonely bare,
Nor tree, nor bush, nor brake is there,
Save where, of land, yon slender line
Bears 'thwart the lake the scattered pine.
Yet even this nakedness has power,
And aids the feeling of the hour :
Nor thicket, dell, nor copse you spy,
Where living thing concealed might lie ;
Nor point, retiring, hides a dell,
Where swain or woodman lone might dwell :
There's nothing left to fancy's guess,
You see that all is loneliness :
And silence aids though the steep hills
Send to the lake a thousand rills,
In summertide so soft they weep,
The sound but lulls the ear asleep :
Your horse's hoof-tread sounds too rude,
So stilly is the solitude.
Not far from the east end of the lake is Drybope Tower,
noted as the birthplace of Mary Scott, the " Flower of
Yarrow," and the heroine of a song by Allan Ramsay.
All that remains to indicate the site of St. Mary's Kirk,
which continued to be a place of worship during the
seventeenth century, are a few gravestones which may be
found a little above the road not far from the lake. The
church is the scene of one of the main incidents in the old
ballad "The Gay Goss Hawk," which may be found in
Scott's "Border Minstrelsy."
The district known as Yarrow, to the east of St Mary's
Loch, has been sung by Wordsworth in immortal verse
' Yarrow Unvisited," "Yarrow Visited," and "Yarrow
Revisited." The following lines from the first-named
poem are pleasantly anticipatory of the delight which he
afterwards experienced :
Let beeves and horae-bred kine partake
The sweets of Burnhill meadow ;
The swan on still St. Mary's Lake
Float double swan and shadow !
We will not see them ; will not go
To-day, nor yet to-morrow ;
Enough if in our hearts we know
There's such a place as Yarrow.
tytvcitd ffirtr Wetitminzttv
LARGE number of people assembled at
Westminster Abbey on the morning of
December 24, 1890, to see the remains of the
late Duchess of Northumberland Louisa,
daughter of the celebrated Henry Drummond deposited
in their final resting place. The body had been trans-
ferred from Alnwick Castle to the residence of Earl
Percy, in Grosvenor Square. There it remained until it
was removed, by way of Hyde Park Corner, to the
front of the family mansion in Grosvenor Place. As
soon as the bereaved duke joined his eldest son at this
point, the journey to the Abbey was resumed the hearse
being stopped in front of the great west door. This
furnished the onlookers with their first surprise, for the
Percies not only claim a right of burial at Westminster,
but their dead are admitted by the entrance that is usually
reserved for royalty. The inscription on the coffin read
as follows :
LOUISA,
Wife of Algernon George,
6th Duke of Northumberland,
Born October 22, 1815,
Fell asleep December 18, 1890.
Some interesting information concerning the ancient
prescriptive right of the ducal family of Northumberland
to interment in the Abbey has been given by the Dean of
Westminster to a Royal Commission, which has recently
published its first report of evidence on the present want
of space for monuments there. Asked whether there are
any prescriptive rights of burial in the Abbey other than
the burial of kings, Dean Bradley stated that there was a
very curious instance in what is called the Percy or
Northumberland tomb. It is in the Chapel of St.
Nicholas, where the Seymours were originally buried.
The following is a list of recent burials in the Duke of
Northumberland's vault in St. Nicholas' Chapel, viz.:
On July 19th, 1817, Hug-h Percy, Duke of Northumber-
land ; January 20tb, 1820, Lady Elizabeth Percy ; May
10th, 1820, Frances Julia, Dowager Duchess of Northum-
berland ; February 23rd, 1849, Hugh Percy, Duke of
Northumberland ; February 25th, 1865, Algernon Percy,
Duke of Northumberland ; August 3rd, 1866, Charlotte
Florentia, Duchess of Northumberland ; August 30th,
1867, George Percy, Duke of Northumberland ; Decem-
ber 7th, 1877, Lord Henry Hugh Manners Percy ; De-
cember 29th, 1883, Lady Louisa Percy; and December
24th, 1890, Louisa, Duchess of Northumberland. It
was not until after the marriage with the Duke of
Somerset with the heiress of the Percies that the Percies
were buried in the Abbey, and there is a prescriptive
right, although the Dean said he could not trace its legal
value, that the Percies may claim to be buried in the
Percy vault. This right is still claimed and exercised, as
February \
1891. /
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
83
we have just seen. There are in the Abbey other vaults
beloncring to private families ; but there is no other claim
of prescriptive right.
The right of sepulture claimed by the Dukes of North-
umberland comes no doubt from the Percy alliance with
the Seymours, whose ancestors appear to have been buried
in the Chapel of St. Nicholas for centuries. One of the
present monuments, which stands 24- feet high, was
erected in memory of the Duchess of Somerset, who, as
wife of the great Protector, was sister-in-law of one of the
queens of Henry VIII., and aunt to Edward VI. On
another of the tombs is recorded the death of Elizabeth
Percy, who is described as sole heiress of Algernon, Duke
of Somerset, as well as of the Ancient Earls of North-
umberland. She is said to have "inherited all their
great and noble qualities, together with their amiable
and benevolent virtues." It was this lady who married
Sir Hugh Smithson, and who became Duchess of North-
umberland shortly before her death in 1766. Her
funeral, we are told, led to so much crushing and confu-
sion amongst the spectators that the screen of St.
Edmund's Chapel was knocked down and smashed to
pieces, stopping the ceremony for many hours, and in-
juring a large number of the onlookers. "The body,"
says Dean Stanley, "was left in the ruined chapel, and
the Dean did not return until after midnight, when the
funeral was completed, but still amidst the cries and
groans of sufferers from the fall of the screen who had not
yet been removed. "
at gang.
3> 3oh,n tokoe.
BILLY OLIVER'S RAMBLE BETWEEN
BENWELL AND NEWCASTLE.
jjHE song of " Billy Oliver's Ramble " is one
of the old-time ditties which were as highly
popular fifty years ago as " Jimmy Joneson'a
Whurry," "My Lord 'Size," or any of our
historic local effusions. The author is unknown, but the
song is a characteristic description of the ways of an
old fashioned bard-working pitman bent on a pilgrimage
of pleasure to his Mecca, Newcastle, and doing it, we
fear, with anything but frugality or total abstinence.
The tune is a very old English melody, which Mr.
William Chappell, in his " Popular Music of the Olden
Time," traces back to 1641, when it was introduced in
Brome's comedy of "The Jovial Crew, or the Merry
Beggars," with the song of "A Begging we will go."
The latter was the prototype of several others sung to the
same melody, such as "A Bowling we will go," "A
Fishing we will go," "A Hunting we will go," &c.,
besides being used in a number of the principal ballad
operas performed in London during the eighteenth
century.
The "Parody on Billy Oliver " was written about the
same time, and enjoyed a share of popularity somewhat
less than the original song.
Me nyem it's Bil - ly
Ol i - ver, Iv
n - well toon aw dwell. An' aw's a clev -er
chep, aw's sure, Tho' aw de say'd me - sel. Sio an a
chep am aw, am aw, am
aw, Sic an a
clever chep am aw.
Me nyem it's Billy Oliver,
Iv Benwell toon aw dwell;
An' aw's a clever chep, aw's sure,
Tho' aw de say'd mesel.
Sic an a, clever chep am aw, am aw, am aw,
Sic an a clever chep am aw.
There's not a lad iv a' wur wark
Can put or hew wi : me ;
Nor not a lad iv Benwell toon
Can coax the lasses sae.
Sic an a clever chep am aw, &c.
When aw gans tiv Newcassel toon,
Aw myeks mysel' sae fine,
Wur neybors stand and stare at me,
An' say " Eh ! what a shine ! "
Sic an a clever chep am aw, &c.
An' then aw walks wi' sic an air,
That, if the folks hev eyes.
They a'wis think its some greet man
That's cum in i' disguise.
Sic an a clever chep am aw, &c,
An' when aw gans down Westgate Street,
An' alang biv Denton Chare,
Aw whussels a' the way aw gans,
An' myek the people stare.
Sic an a clever chep am aw, & ;.
An' then aw gans intiv the Cock*
Ca's for a pint o" beer ;
An' when the lassie cums in wi'd,
Aw a'wis says maw dear !
Sic an a clever chep am aw, &c.
An' when w gets a pint o' beer
Aw a'wis sings a sane ;
For aw've a nice yen aw can sing
Six an' thorty vairses lang.
Sic an a clever chep am aw, &c.
An' if the folks that's i' the house
Cry " Haud yor tongue, ye cull !"
* "The Cock," a favourite public-house of the pitmen, kept by
the late Martin Jude, stood nearly opposite the west door of St.
Nicholas' Cathedral.
84
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
( February
\ 1891.
Aw's sure to hev a fight wi' them,
For aw's as strang as ony bull.
Sic an a clever chep am aw, &c.
An' when aw've had a fight or twee
An' fairly useless grown,
Aw back, as drunk as aw can be.
To canny Benwell toon.
Sic an a clever chep am aw, &c.
A PARODY ON BILLY OLIVER'S RAMBLE.
Me nyem is Willy Dixon,
A coachmaker to my trade ;
And when aw see a pitman come.
Aw run because aw's naid.
Sic an a clever chep am aw, am aw, am aw,
Sic an a clever chep am aw.
On pay-day neets aw gan to th' Cock,
When the pitmen's a' gyen hyem,
Then aw begins to rair and sing
An" myek o' them a gyem.
Sic an a clever chep am aw, &o.
On Sunday mornings, then ye see,
Aw dress mesel se tine ;
And wi' me white drill pantaloons,
Aw cuts a fearful shine.
Sic an a clever chep am aw, &c.
Then what a swagger a diz cut,
As aw gan alang the street ;
'But aw's myed se like nutcrackers,
That my nose and chin they meet.
Sic an a clever chep am aw, &c.
Then when aw gans to see the lass,
It's in the afternoon ;
An' then we gans a walking,
Wi' her fine lustre goon.
Sic an a clever chep am aw, &c.
And as we gan through Jesmond Fields
The lasses gyep and luik,
And efter we get past them a",
They cry " Ah ! what a guik !"
Sic an a clever chep am aw, &c.
Then efter wandering up an' down.
At neet we toddle hyem ;
And aw gie her a kiss, ye see,
And she cries " Fie for shem !"
Sic an clever chep am aw, &c.
Then aw seeks out my awd wark claes.
Gets on another sark ;
And on Monday morn, at six o'clock,
Gans whisslin' off to wark.
Sic an a clover chep am aw, &c. .
iSrfltoiT JHatt at tfit Maavti.
ROWNIES, it would appear, were divided
into two sets. Both belonged to the rebellious
spirits whom the Archangel Michael worsted
in fair fight and tumbled ignominiously out of heaven.
Some, when they reached the earth, took refuge in the
dwellings of men, and became domestic drudges, service-
able but capricious. Others fell down on the wild lonely
moors, and were the progenitors of those usually male-
volent elf-folk who terrified belated travellers and some-
times drowned them in moss-haggs. A being of the
latter class used in former days to haunt the extensive
wastes that spread over the upper part of Northumber-
land, houseless, treeless, and trackless. It was seldom,
indeed, that he was actually seen, for his colour was
that of the heather and ferns amid which he passed
his time.
The historian of Durham, Robert Surtees, tells, on the
authority of an old dame named Elizabeth Cockburn,
how, in the year before the Great Rebellion (that of 1715,
as we conclude), two young men from Newcastle were
sporting on the high moors above Elsdon, and at last sat
down to refresh themselves in a green glen near a moun
tain stream. After their repast, the younger lad ran to
the brook for water, and, after stooping to drink, was
surprised, on lifting his head again, by the appearance of
a brown dwarf, who stood on a crag covered with brackens
across the burn. This remarkable personage did not ap-
pear to be above half the stature of an ordinary man, but
was uncommonly stout and broad built, having the ap-
pearance of vast strength ; his dress was entirely brown,
the colour of the brackens, and his head covered with
frizzled red hair ; his countenance was expressive of the
most savage ferocity, and his eyes glared like those of a
bull.
Addressing the awe-struck young man, he threatened
vengeance for having trespassed on his demesnes, asking
him if he knew in whose presence he stood. The youth re-
plied that he supposed him to be the lord of the moors, but
added that he had offended through ignorance, and offered
to bring him the game he had killed. This seemed to
mollify the dwarf a little ; nevertheless, he protested that
nothing could be more offensive to him than such an offer.
For, said he, "I consider the wild animals as my subjects
and never fail to avenge their destruction. I do net feed
on anything that has life. In the summer I subsist on
whortle-berries, cloud-berries, dew-berries, and crane-
berries, with nuts and mushrooms for a change ; and
in winter my food is hazel nuts and crab apples, wild
plums and sloes, of which I have great store in the
woods."
The strange figure then invited the youth to partake of
his hospitality. And the lad was about to accept the in-
vitation when he heard the call of his companion. Turn-
ing to tell him that he would be with him erelong, he was
surprised to find, on looking round again, that " the Wee
Brown Man had fled."
Elizabeth Cockburn's information was to the effect that
the infatuated youth paid so little attention to the warn-
ing he had gotten from the Brown Man, that he continued
his day's sport over the moors on his way homewards,
reckless of the consequences. Sooth to tell, however,
soon after his return he fell into a lingering disorder, of
which he died before a year was out. People, of course
felt morally certain that it was the Brown Man of the
Moors that was the death of the irreverent sportsman
February \
1891. f
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
83
who had made light of the warning to spare his feathered
and furred subjects.
annual
j]N the presence of a large assemblage of people,
the third annual Exhibition of Toys in
connection with the Dicky Bird Society,
conducted by Uncle Toby in the Newcastle
Weekly Chronicle, was opened in the Bath Lane Hall,
Newcastle, on the 19th of December, 1890. The spacious
room was specially fitted up for the occasion ; and the
splendid and well-displayed array of playthings collected
and subscribed for by the members and friends of the
society, and numbering 16,250 articles, presented an
exceedingly pretty and attractive sight.
The opening address was delivered by the Mayor of
Newcastle (Mr. J. Baxter Ellis), who reviewed briefly the
history of the society, and spoke of the good it did in
stimulating its young members to thoughts and acts of
kindness. Appropriate speeches were also delivered by
the Vicar of Newcastle (the Rev. Canon Lloyd), the
ex-Mayor (Mr. Thomas Bell), the Rev. Frank Walters,
Colonel Coulson, Dr. Hodgkin, and the Sheriff of New-
castle (Mr. Stephen Quin). Afterwards, accompanied by
Mr. C. X. Sykes, of the Weekly Chronicle, who had
charge of the musical arrangements, Madame Tomsett
sang a song, entitled "Robin Redbreast," composed for
the Dicky Bird Society by Miss Alice Simpkin.
During the two days on which it remained open, the
toy show was visited by large and interested throngs of
spectators, the estimate being that, in all, between 30,000
and 4-0,000 persons had passed through the room. Vocal
and instrumental music was performed at intervals. The
Wellesley Band, under the leadership of Mr. Wigg, Mus.
Bach., played "Uncle Toby's March," the composition of
Mr. Ernest Reid, of Newcastle ; and a very charming
pianoforte recital was given by Master Willie Wigg.
Mr. J. H. Amers kindly gave the services of his
orchestral band on the two afternoons, and selections
were likewise rendered by the Newcastle Industrial
Band, the Newcastle Workhouse Band, and ihe Gates-
head Workhouse Band. Among other performers were
Miss Etta Newborne, Mr. W. G. Whittaker, Master
Willie Scott, Miss Lillie Heenan, Master T. H. Morrison,
Master Harry Amers, Miss Ethel May Amers, and Miss
Kate Steele.
The closing address was delivered by Mr. Alderman
W. D. Stephens, the proceedings concluding with three
86
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
cheers for Uncle Toby and Father Chirpie. The
articles comprising the varied and extensive collection of
toys were afterwards, as usual, distributed among the
poor children in the charitable institutions of the North
of England and elsewhere.
$atl) $ane ljurcl) anb
More than thirty years ago, when the late Dr.
Rutherford was holding religious services in the Lecture
Room, Nelson Street, Newcastle, he gathered around him
a number of influential supporters, who, finding that the
popularity of this energetic preacher was increasing,
decided upon erecting for him a permanent place of wor-
ship. The edifice then raised was Bath Lane Church,
which was built and opened in 1860. It occupies a site at
the corner of Bath Lane and Corporation Street. Not
long after being settled in his new church, Dr. Ruther-
ford set about the foundation of schools. As a re-
sult of his energy and enterprise, the elementary schools
in Corporation Street adjoining the church were erected
in 1870. Accommodation was provided for 660 scholars,
but within a short time it was found necessary to provide
seats for double that number of children, while branch
schools were afterwards opened elsewhere. The next
progressive step in the cause of education was the erection
of the School of Science and Art, also in Corporation
Street, the foundation stone of which was laid on
November 21, 1877, by Mr. Joseph Cowen. This was
followed in 1886 by the establishment of a technical
college, situated in Diana Street, containing workshops,
dining hall, and about fifty separate dormitories. Over
all his educational undertakings, Dr. Rutherford ex-
ercised personal supervision. After a life of untiring
zeal, he died suddenly on March 22, 1890, to the great
grief of bis fellow-townsmen, more than one hundred
thousand of whom lined the streets as his remains were
borne to their last resting place. It was in the large hall
devoted to the elementary schools that Uncle Toby held
his third annual Exhibition of Toys.
Sttrtring at
Irmng'is Jirjit Appearance.
j]REAT preparations were being made in
December, 1855, for the production at the
Lyceum Theatre, Sunderland, of the panto-
mime, " Puss in Boots," in which Sam John-
eon was to play the Cat. Scenery of the most picturesque
and costumes of the most elaborate description were pre-
pared ; most careful rehearsals had brought us up to as near
perfection as was possible ; and on the Saturday night
iChristmas Eve) we parted at twelve o'clock with the
hope of meeting on the Monday and taking the town by
storm. The theatre was carefully looked over from the
large front doors, which were fastened by heavy bars of
wood across the back as well as by lock and bolts, to the
purlieus of the stage, above and below, and so to the stage
exit. Everything was right, and apparently safe.
In the middle of my first sleep I was listening, it
seemed, to the vigorous plaudits of an audience, but these
soon resolved themselves into frantic knockings at ray
bedroom door, accompanied by cries of "Get up, Mr.
Davis ! The Lyceum is on fire ! " As may be imagined,
it did not take me long to struggle into some garments and
get to the theatre. The entire back part of the building,
by which alone entrance could be made, was a raging
furnace. That end was hopeless, "To the front !" was
then the cry. Those bars and bolts appeared to be
adamantine. Hatchets, crowbars, improvised battering
rams all were applied vigorously and unceasingly
until the doors went down, and I made a rush
for the stairs leading to the wardrobe, which was
in the front of the house. The last thing I saw was a
roaring flame rushing at terrific speed towards me, but I
thought it might be just possible to save the costumes.
The next instant, as it seemed, I found friends round me
in the street forcing water and other refreshers into my
mouth. They said I had fallen, and providentially so
close to the stairs that I had rolled down them.
Dipping a handkerchief into water, I tied it over my
mouth and nostrils, and with a hatchet in my hand made
for another stair leading to the business office. Others
followed, we smashed a door or two, and with great
difficulty we contrived to get out the office desk with its
contents the sole salvage from the entire wreck.
It was then about five in the morning ; snow deep on
the ground, the military drawn up in due array, and the
entire building a mass of flame a beautiful sight to on-
lookers who had not a personal interest in the result. To
me it was different, "Have you telegraphed to E. D.
Davis?" "Certainly not; let him have his night's
rest. He'll know all about it quite soon enough." Some
one, however, wished to be the first to make the pleasing
announcement, and just as the roof had fallen in my
father arrived from Newcastle. As we met there was no
word spoken ; just an exchange of looks, and a good firm
hand grip. Then we went away to see what was to be
done.
While we E. D. D. and self were writing letters,
our friends came in troops to bring comfort and cheer us
ur>, and we were compelled in the kindest manner to join
an improvised dinner party, where jollity and enjoyment
were the order of the day.
The announcement was at once put out that the New
Lyceum Theatre would be opened in the month of Sep-
tember of the following year, and building was imme-
diately commenced. It being settled that the new
theatre should be much larger than the original Lyceum,
February \
1891. J
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
87
purchase was made of adjoining premises, and of course
there was not to be any large hall underneath to favour
"the entrance of any would-be fire-raiser." When com-
pleted the theatre was considered such a perfect model of
comfort in the auditorium, and of convenience behind the
curtain, that the builder (Mr. J. Potts, of Sunderland)
rose into eminence as a theatre architect, and was sent for
to improve and re-build several other houses in Glasgow,
Birkenhead, and elsewhere.
As promised, the theatre was opened in September,
1856, and on the 29th of that month we started. For
months previously a small army of scenic artists had been
at work, headed by John Johnson. Carpenters, property
makers, and of course costumiers had been working night
and day, and everything was, as far as could be foreseen,
ready and perfect. Among the names of a carefully
selected corps dramatique were those of our old friend Sam
Johnson, George Orvell (real name Frederick Kimpster),
Miss Sly Loveday (sister of H. J. Loveday, the present
much respected stage manager of the Lyceum, London),
afterwards married to Mr. Kimpster ; and a youthful
novice just eighteen, " his first appearance on any stage,"
called Henry Irving. Making his first appearance, he
spoke the first word in the first piece (played for the first
time in the town, I believe) on the first or opening night
of the new theatre, from which he has by his industry
and genius worked up to the proud position of the first
man in the first theatre of the first city of the world ! The
words of the speech itself, "Here's to our enterprise !" have
in them almost a prophetic tone of aspiration and success.
It will be readily believed that on such an occasion my
time was fully occupied. In fact, so busy was I in front
and behind the scenes that I was barely able to reach my
place on the stage in time for the rising of the curtain.
I kept my back to the audience till my cue to speak was
given, all the while buttoning up, tying, and finishing my
dressing generally, so that scant attention would be given
to others. But even under these circumstances I was
compelled to notice, and with perfect appreciation, the
great and most minute care which had been bestowed by
our aspirant on the completion of his costume. In those
days managers provided the mere dress. Accessories, or
"properties," as they were called, were found by every
actor.
Henry Irving was, from his splendid white hat and
feather; to the tips of his shoes, point-device, a perfect
picture ; and, no doubt, had borrowed his authority from
some historical picture of the Louis XIII. period. From
the very outset of his career, he gave an earnest of that
attention to detail, in its microscopic points, which has
culminated in his being facile princeps among stage
directors, and the beat arranger of realistic theatrical
pictures in the world.
The character in which Mr. Irving made his first
bow to the theatrical public was that of Orleans in
"Richelieu." ALFRED DAVIS.
SHE Flycatchers (ifuscicapcej, a rather
numerous group, constitute a family of
birds chiefly confined to Europe, Africa, and
Asia, our only British birds of the family,
both spring and autumn migrants, being the spotted and
pied flycatchers. The members of this family have
elongated bodies, short necks, and broad heads. Their
soft and rather fluffy plumage varies considerably in its
colouration, according to the age and sex of the bird, and
the young are easily recognised by their spotted appear-
ance. They frequent trees in preference to bushes, and
rarely seek their food on the ground. In fine weather
they may be seen darting from the branches of trees,
snapping up passing flies. In rainy weather, when flies
and insects are under cover, the birds feed on berries and
wild fruit.
The spotted flycatcher iMuscicapa griiola), which is
tolerably plentiful in the Northern Counties, is about the
latest of our summer arrivals, and it departs for warmer
climes correspondingly early. The bird is a regular
frequenter of gardens and orchards, where it is too often
killed by fruit growers while clearing the fruit trees and
bushes of insect pests. It is known as the beam bird,
rafter, cob-web bird, post bird, cherry chopper, cherry
sucker, and chanchider. Its scientific name, Afuscicapa
is derived from musca, a fly, and capio, to catch or take,
while grisola seems to indicate that the bird helps itself
to garden fruits. It is, however, by no means a fruit
eater, inasmuch as its food consists almost exclusively of
insects inimical to fruits, wild and cultivated. Gilbert
White, of Selborne, notes that the female, while hatch-
ing, is assiduously fed by her mate as late as nine o'clock
at night.
The following curious circumstance has been recorded
of a brood of flycatchers, which had been taken from a
nest, and placed in a large cage with some other birds of
different species, among which was a robin : The young
88
MONTHLY CHRONICLE
f Fe'oruary
birds were fed regularly by one of their parents, the
female, while her mate, who accompanied her constantly
in her flight, used to wait outside the window, either
upon the roof of the house or on a neighbouring tree.
Sometimes the little birds were on the top perch of the
cage, and not always near enough to the wires of the
cage to be within reach of the old bird when she ap-
peared with food ; but the robin, who had been for some
time an inhabitant of the cage, where it lived in perfect
harmony with all its associates, and had from the first
taken great interest in the little flycatchers, now per-
ceiving that the nestlings could not reach the offered
food, but sat with their wings fluttering, and their
mouths open, anxious to obtain it, flew to the wires,
received the insects from the mother bird, and put them
into the open mouths of the nestlings. This was repeated
every succeeding day, as often as kind robin's services
were required.
The male bird (and in plumage and markings the hen
resembles her mate) is soberly feathered, and but for the
conformation of the beak, and the spotted feathers of the
breast, might be taken for the titlark, though the latter
affects a different habitat. It has an undulating flight,
not unlike that of the pied wagtail, and its only note is a
weak and somewhat monotonous chirp, which it mostly
utters from the branch of a tree or shrub. The birds,
which commence to nest about the beginning of June,
sometimes select extraordinary places for their nests, and
some have even been known to build on lamp-posts and in
letter boxes.
The average length of the male is five inches and a half ;
bill,' dusky, flattened and broad at the base, with a ridge
along the upper part ; the under mandible is yellowish
at the base ; iris, dark brown ; head, brown ; crown,
spotted with darker brown ; neck on the sides, streaked
with brown ; nape, as the back ; chin, dull white streaked
with brown; breast, as the chin, tinged on the sides
with yellowish brown ; back, light brown ; greater
and lesser wing coverts, as the back ; primaries, darker
brown, sometimes edged with buff brown ; the first feather
very short, the second and fourth nearly equal, the third
the largest ; secondaries, as the primaries ; tertiaries,
the same, with a narrow margin of light brown. Tail,
brown, paler at the tip, slightly forked ; under tail coverts,
dull white ; legs, toes, and claws, dusky black.
The pied flycatcher (Muscicapa luctuosa) is a much
rarer bird than the spotted flycatcher, and affects more
lonely localities. On this account, and as it cannot be
said to be plentiful anywhere, it is by no means as well
known as its more familiar relative. It is sometimes
called the coldfinch and epicurean warbler, and occurs
sparingly in most English districts, but seems most
partial to the Northern Counties. Morris remarks that
it appears to be only a summer visitant, and not a
resident throughout the year.
Mr. John Hancock, in his "Catalogue of the Birds of
Northumberland and Durham," has some interesting
notes on the bird. The pied flycatcher, he observes, "is
a spring-and-autumn migrant, though very rarely ob-
served breeding here. I never obtained its nest in the
district, though Bewick mentions the occurrence of one in
Axwell Park, near Newcastle, in June, 1801. And I am
informed by Mr. Isaac Clark that a nest was taken with
five eggs in Stella Park, a little west of Newcastle. A
few of the birds may always be seen on our coast in
autumn previous to their migration ; and in the middle
of May they are occasionally observed in the same
locality on their return to this country."
The bird has been found along the banks of the Eden,
near Carlisle ; on the banks of the Lyne, near the Border;
and in various parts of the Lake District. Years ago it
was by no means scarce in Castle Eden Dene. Morris
notes that it has been seen near Wearmouth (Sunder-
land), in Durham, and several others at Benton and other
parts of Northumberland. Indeed, it has of late years in-
creased in numbers, both in Northumberland and
Durham, and is found nesting regularly in the two
counties.
The food consists almost entirely of insects, which are
captured in the air when the birds are on the wing.
The male bird is about five inches in length ; tail,
black ; head on the sides, dark brown spotted with
white ; crown, black ; forehead, white, the connection of
two white spots ; neck and nape, brownish or yellowish
black ; chin, throat, and breast, white, tinged with
yellowish brown at the sides ; back black, blackish grey
in winter. The wings, which expand to a width of about
seven and a half inches, reach to one-third of the length
of the tail, which is black, with the exception of the basal
half of the outer web of the outer feather, but it is said to
be totally black in aged birds. The wings are brownish
black, edged with white ; tail coverts, greyish black ;
under tail coverts, white ; legs, toes, and claws, black.
The female is distinguished from the male by the white
portions of the plumage being of a duller hue chan in her
February \
1891. f
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
89
mate. The young are at first mottled over with dull
white spots on the back, and with brown on the breast ;
the eyes, toes, and claws being of a dark slate colour.
J3r,
, arcfrfcteftap at
ILLIAM THOMSON, Archbishop of York,
and Primate of All England, whose death
occurred at Bishopthorpe on Christmas morn-
', 1890, was the son of Mr. John Thomson, of Kelswick
House, near Whitehaven, and was born in the year 1819.
It was at Shrewsbury and Queen's College, Oxford,
that he received his higher education. While at Oxford
he devoted a great portion of his time to the study of
k>g!c, and produced his well-known work, " An Outline
DR. THOMSON', LATE ARCHBISHOP OF TOKK.
of the Laws of Thought," which is used as a text-book in
several universities in this country and in America.
Entering the church, he was for three years curate of
St. Nicholas', Guildford, and there he came under the
notice of one of the greatest men of the day, Samuel
Wilberforce, father of the present Bishop of Newcastle,
who was then Archdeacon of Surrey. By hirn Mr.
Thomson was offered a curacy at Alverstoke; but
while the arrangement was being made the rector ol
Alverstoke became Bishop of Oxford, and Mr. Thomson
followed him to Cuddesdon as curate, the bishop being
then the vicar of that parish, in which the episcopal
palace is situated. Here he did not remain long, for in
1847 he was asked to return to his college as tutor,
a position that he occupied for over eight years,
during which period he successively became dean and
bursar.
The year after Mr. Thomson's return to Queen's
College, he was appointed Select Preacher to the Uni-
versity, which distinguished post he was again called
upon to fill in 1856. Previous to the latter date he was
chosen Bampton Lecturer an honourable office which
the University bestows upon her most eminent men.
The year 1855 was an eventful one in the life aud career
of Mr. Thomson. In the month of July he married Miss
Zoe Skene, then living with her grandfather, James
Skene, of Rubislaw, known to many as the friend of Sir
Walter Scott, who dedicated to him the fourth canto of
"Marmion." The lady's father was James Henry
Skene, her Majesty's Consul at Aleppo, while her mother
was Rhalou Rangabe, a Greek lady of distinguished
birth.
And in this year commenced those appointments which
led up to Mr. Thomson's promotion to the Primacy of
England. It was then that he became Chaplain to the
Queen, and shortly after, when the important Crown
living of All Souls. Langham Place, became vacant, Lord
Palmerston, who was Prime Minister, offered it to Mr.
Thomson. Shortly after he had accepted the living of
All Souls, he was elected Provost of Queen's College. At
this time Mr. Thomson was only 36 an unusually early
age for anyone to be elected to such a position. In 1856
Mr. Thomson took his degree of Doctor of Divinity. In
1858 the preachership of Lincoln's Inn became vacant,
and the Provost of Queen's, who had by this time estab-
lished a considerable reputation as a preacher, became
a candidate for the distinguished post. There were
thirty competitors, and from among them the benchers
of the society elected Dr. Thomson by a very large
majority.
After a few years' enjoyment of the comparatively
tranquil position of Provost of Queen's, Dr. Thomson was
called to a higher post and increased responsibilities. The
See of Gloucester and Bristol became vacant in 1861 by
the death of Bishop Monk ; and Lord Palmerston, who
was still Prime Minister, presented it to Dr. Thomson.
A year after this Dr. Longley was translated to Canter-
bury, and the newly-made Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol
was appointed in his room, and became Archbishop of
York.
The Archbishop was the projector of the "Speaker's
Commentary"; he also contributed largely to Smith's
"Dictionary of the Bible." A theologian, philosopher,
and poet, Archbishop Thomson was also a student of
physical science, and had a remarkable power of grasping
any subject to which he turned his mind. On one occa-
sion, when he addressed the students of St. Mary's
Hospital, Paddington, the medical men present ex-
claimed, "What a good doctor spoilt by being Arch-
90
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
{February
1891.
bishop ! " Another time an ironmaster to whom he was
talking said, "If he hod been an ironmaster, he would
have beaten us all."
years ago, and was left with a grown-up family, chiefly
sons, the eldest of whom is 73 years old.
ROBIN GOODFELLOW.
atrti Cunwmrtaries.
THOMAS IRONSIDES, A TYNESIDE WORTHY.
A Dunston correspondent, who takes the name of Vil-
lage Blacksmith, lately informed the readers of the Weekly
Chronicle that a venerable gentleman who had nearly
reached his hundredth
year was still living,
hale and hearty, in the
neighbourhood of Kib-
blesworth. Village
Blacksmith has since
supplied me with a few
particulars of this re-
markable man, together
with a copy of a photo-
graph which was taken
by Mr. J. Eltriugham,
of the Telling. It is
from this photograph
that the accompanying
sketch has been copied.
Mr. Thomas Ironsides
was born at the quaint village of Kibblesworth, in the
county of Durham, in 1791, so that he is within a very
few months of celebrating his hundredth birthday. It
is an interesting fact that he first saw the light
in the same house Kibblesworth East Farm that
he now occupies, which has been his peaceable
home for close upon a century. Mr. Ironsides is a
son of the late William Ironsides, a well-known agricul-
turist in his day. Coming to Kibblesworth about 1786, the
father obtained from an ancestor of Lord Ravensworth the
farm which his son now holds. William was born in the
year 1766, and died on July 25, 1856, at the ripe age of
90 years. After his father's retirement, about 61 years
ago, Thomas took the farm (which he had managed for
some time previously) into his own hands, and he has
carried it on with success up to the present day.
Although the old gentleman walks at a slow pace,
and has to rely upon a trusty stick, he still takes plenty
of out-door exercise, enjoys good health, and has all his
mental faculties about him. When a young man, he
served in Sir Thomas Burdon's cavalry. Although he was
seven years a foot soldier and seven years a horse soldier,
he was never called out except once, and thatwasatthetime
of the great Keelmen's Strike on the Tyne, when troops
were despatched to Shields to assist in preserving the
peace. Village Blacksmith regrets to say that Mr.
Ironsides lost the partner of his joys and sorrows some
ELIZABETH ISABELLA SPENCE.
Elizabeth Isabella Spence, the descendant of a literary
family, was the only child of Dr. Spence of Durham, where
she was born in the year 1767. Her parents dying whilst
she was yet a child, she went to London and resided with
some friends, and there became imbued with a desire for
the study of literature. At the house of these relatives
she became the associate and friend of many of the leading
litterateurs of the period, and in time the authoress of
several works, including : " Summer Excursions through
Part of England and Wales," "Letters from the North
Highlands," " Tales of Welsh Society and Scenery,"
"The Curate and his Daughter," "Dame Rebecca
Berry." She died at Chelsea on the 27th of July, 1832,
in the sixty-fifth year of her age.
J. W. FAWCETT, The Grange, Satley.
BROUGHAM'S FIRST BRIEF.
Old Samuel Wood, Town Clerk of Jedburgh, gave
Henry Brougham his first brief. He found him in his
office, pacing up and down like a bear in his den, with a
clerk, evidently afraid of him, writing to his dictation.
Mr. Wood stated his case, and then proceeded, with the
natural self-confidence of an old practitioner, to give him
some law points. Brougham stopped him. " Are these
the facts?" "Yes." "Then leave the law to me.
Good day !" And he hurried him out. The worthy old
gentleman thought he had engaged a madman; but
Brougham gained the cause. While it was going
on in the court, the young advocate curtly asked
the attorney if he could lend him ten pounds. He did so.
"I'll remit you," said Brougham. But the remittance
never came. Six months afterwards, Mr. Wood was
walking along Princes Street when he saw Brougham
approaching. He would have avoided him, but the
future Lord Chancellor's quick eye, catching sight of his
Jeddart friend, put it out of his power. Brougham came
forward with a bound, and, taking his hand, said, " I
remitted you yesterday, Mr. Wood, with ten thousand
thanks, and ten thousand apologies ; for I had entirely
forgotten all about it." He sent off the money by next
post. W. BROCKIE, Sunderland.
A WESTMORELAND MATHEMATICIAN.
William Gibson was born at Boulton, near Appleby,
Westmoreland, in 1720. From his childhood (so I
read in the "Imperial Dictionary,") he was brought
up to farming, receiving no education whatever. In
early manhood he obtained a farm at Hollins, near
Cartmell Fell, Lancashire. It was here he commenced
to teach himself how to read, his chief lesson book
being a work on arithmetic. While studying the art
of reading, he developed a marvellous power for work-
February \
189L /
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
91
ing out sums of all kinds by sheer mental process. He
next set about mastering the art of writing; then he
devoted all his spare time to studying geometry, algebra,
trigonometry, and astronomy, proving himself an expert
in these sciences, finally acquiring a sound knowledge
of the higher grades in mathematics and their various
branches. The problems propounded in the " Ladies'
Diary," the "Palladium," the "Gentleman's Diary,"
and cognate publications, were answered by him with an
accuracy so astounding that his fame spread far and wide.
Mathematicians in various parts of England were glad to
consult him on abstruse matters. By the time he was
thirty years of age he opened a school at Cartmel for the
instruction of eight or ten pupils, who boarded at his
farm-house. He also held a good position as a laud-
surveyor and acquired a lucrative practice. He died from
the effects of a fall at his bouse at Blawitb, near Cartmel,
on Sept. 4, 1791, leaving a widow and ten children.
C. H. STEPHENSON, Southport.
THE HIGH LEVEL BRIDGE.
One of the first persons to suggest the idea of a high level
bridge between Newcastle and Gateshead was Edward
Hutchinson, master-mason, of Newcastle, who, when the
old Tyne Bridge was swept away in 1771, brought a
prospectus and plan before the Newcastle Corporation ;
but the project was premature, and nothing was done.
In 1853 a plan was presented for an elevated suspension
bridge, to connect Newcastle and Gateshead, by Mr. B. R.
Dodd, civil engineer, Newcastle, at a cost of 77,000 ; but
this project was also abandoned. About the year 1839
Messrs. John and Benjamin Green published a scheme for
a high level bridge. Although a committee of the New-
castle Corporation, of which Sir John Fife was a member,
reported in favour of the plan, it likewise was abandoned.
Another plan for a high level bridge was that of Mr.
Richard Grainger, who proposed to erect a superstruc-
ture on the Tyne Bridge, consisting of a viaduct for
passengers and other traffic, supported upon metal tubes
resting upon the piers of the bridge. Mr. Grainger's pro-
posal, which, like the others, left the railway connection
severed, did not meet with much favour. The eccentric
William Martin (brother of John Martin, the painter)
proposed to raise an additional storey upon the old bridge.
The most important proposal of all was that of Mr. John
Dobson, the architect of many of the fine buildings in
Newcastle. His plan provided a road for horse carriages
and foot passengers in addition to a viaduct with two
lines of railway, and included the formation of a grand
central and general railway station in Neville Street,
Newcastle. To Mr. Dobson is due the honour of
having initiated the idea of the High Level Bridge ; but
he did not design that noble structure. The directors of
the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway Company, who saw
the utility of the plan, judiciously engaged the services
of the greatest engineer of the day, Mr. Robert Stephen-
son, to carry the scheme into execution, engaging Mr.
Dobson at the same time to design the Central Railway
Station. x., Newcastle.
THE MERIDIAN PILLAR AT HAMMERFEST.
TERMINUS SEPTENTRIONALIB
arcus meridian! 25 20'
quern
inde-ab-Oceano-Artico
ad fluvium Danubiun usque
per
Norvegiam, Sueoiam et Rossiam
j ussu et auspiciis
Eegis Augustissimi
OSCAR I.
et Imperatorura AuKUStissimorum
ALE.XAXDRI L
atque
NlCOLAI I.
Annis MDOOOXVI. ad UDCCOLII.
continue labore emensi sunt
triuiu gentium Geometry.
Latitudo 70' W 11" 3.
At a little distance outside the town of Hammerfest
(the most northern town in Norway and of the world),
there stands a handsome polished granite pillar, of
which I here give a drawing from a photograph. The
pillar is surmounted by a large bronze casting of
the globe, and upon
I this the hemispheres
are portrayed in re-
lief, the wholestand-
ing upon a suitable
base consisting of
three tiers of granite,
and enclosed by a
massive metal rail-
ing. Upon either
side of the granite
column may be read
an inscription in the
Latin and Norwe-
gian languages
which indicates that
the pillar has been
erected for putting
on record the fact
that the geometri-
cians of the three
northern countries Norway, Sweden, and Russia under
the auspices of the most august King Oscar I., and of the
most august Emperors Alexander I. and Nicholas I.,
have, by continuous labour, during the years 1816-1852,
measured the northern terminus of the arc of the meridian
of 25 20', the latitude being recorded as 70 40' 11" 3.
VIATOR, Newcastle.
THE FIRST TELEGRAPH MESSAGE BETWEEN
NEWCASTLE AND LONDON.
Mr. Joaeph W. Oliver, now of Birmingham, while
employed in the Electric Telegraph Company's office in
the Sandhill, Newcastle, in 1849, had the honour of
sending the first telegraphic message that was ever
92
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
/ February
\ 189L
transmitted from Newcastle to London. How this hap-
pened has been thus described by himself :
In those days, night-work was almost a sinecure, and,
except in the troublous times of 184-8, it was rare that
anything occurred to disturb our "watchful repose," or
the game of draughts in which we occasionally indulged
with our fellow-clerk at Edinburgh or York. On one
occasion somewhere in the latter half of 18491 was
alone on night duty at the Sandhill, long after all active
business had ceased, when, looking up from a book I was
reading, I noticed a slight vibration of the needles taking
place. But it was so very slight, and so much like that
which was constantly being caused by disturbed condi-
tions of the atmosphere, that for some time I paid but
little heed. At last, however, I began to suspect that
someone was "calling " Newcastle, and I at once proceeded
to reply to the signal, taking it for granted that it was one
of the stations with which we usually communicated, but
that some accident had occurred to the wires, and thus
rendered the signal indistinct. For a long time, I could
make nothing of it, but at last, after a very slow and
deliberate putting of the question, " Who are you ?" I got
the reply, equally deliberately given, but with the very
faintest motion of the needles, "lam I. R." As far as
my memory goes, those were the code letters which stood
ior London ; at any rate, it was the code signal for Lon-
don which was given, and to my astonishment I found I
was speaking to the great metropolis, whereas up to that
time our messages had never gone further than Norman-
ton. We both of us tried a little further talk, but with-
out avail ; and presently Nprmanton intervened and told
me he had connected me with London, and that it was
with London I had been speaking. My chief and col
leagues were considerably surprised when I reported the
matter to them next morning.
ifJcrrtft=Cmwtrt> 8Mtt& ftunumr.
THE DRUNKARD'S REPLY.
A drunken character was accosted in the streets of
Blyth one day by a person of evangelistic propensities,
who found John in his usual condition. " Oh Jack," said
he, " drunk again, aa see. Wey. man, whaat'll become
o' ye ? Divvent ye knaa that drunkards cannot inherit
the kingdom of heaven?" "Aye," said Jack, "aaknaa
that; but aa divvent mean to get drunk when aa gans
thor !"
CONSOLATION.
A Pelton Fell man who had purchased the week's pro-
visions at the co-operative stores, called at a public-house
on his way home, and indulged rather freely in strong ale.
The result was that he lost his parcel. On his arrival at
his home, he told his wife of his misfortune, and she up-
braided him for his folly. "Begox," he suddenly shouted
in joyful tones, " it's not se bad ef tor aall. Nivvor mind
the grosseries aa've getten the checks aall reet ! "
AS ARTIST'S LICENSE.
A Tyneside artist was painting the portrait of a sculler
who hails from the other side of the Atlantic. The oarsman
was seated in his boat, and the painter was desirous that
he should alter his position. " I want you to be a little
more foreshortened," said the painter. " What's that ?"
queried the other. "Oh, it's just an artist's expression
an artist's license." "Waal," said the oarsman, " this is
the first time I've heard that English painters have to
obtain licenses !"
A FRIEND OF PUBLICANS AND SINNERS.
A local character in the neighbourhod of Jarrow, a
great frequenter of public-houses, was accosted recently
by a temperance friend who pointed out that he was des-
pised and rejected by all respectable people, owing to his
frequent visits to the public-house. " Ah, weel," was the
reply, " if aa is despised and rejected by them, aa can
easily see that it's for the syem reason that ma Lord and
Master was despised and rejected because aa's a friend
of publicans and sinnors !"
PRIORITY IN SWEARING.
A gentleman and his wife were walking down Grey
Street, Newcastle, when a little sweep in front of them
delivered a volley of oaths, and then ran away. The
gentleman, disgusted, left his partner and hastened after
the boy to correct him. "You young scoundrel," he
cried, shaking the boy, "what made you swear before my
wife?" "What, sor?" "What made you swear before
my wife?" "Oh, aadident knaa, sor," whimpered the
laddie, " thet'yor wife wanted to sweer, or she shud ha'
sweered afore aa did !"
SPELLING.
Two miners were conversing together one morning dur-
ing the spelling bee rage. Bob says to Mick, " What an
a sort of a speller is thoo, Mick ?" "Wey, when aa went
te skyule, aa nivvor got varry far larn'd, but aa knaa
m-double-e spells me." "Whaat?" says Bob; "no.it
dissent." " Wey, it dis noo," says Mick. " Aa tell thoo,
man, thoo's wrang," said Bob. "Wabbot, aa's sure aa's
reet; it dis, mun." "Hoots man, had thee tongue ; aa
tell thoo thoo's wrang; it dissent spell me," says Bob.
" Wey. aa cannot tell whether it spells thoo or not, but
aa can insure thoo it spells me !"
"MIND YOR PIPESTOPPLES."
A few years ago a keelman opened the door of a carriage
at a Tyneside railway station, with the intention of
entering, but found that the passage was not clear, as a
tall, thin gentleman, deeply engaged in reading his paper,
and evidently too much interested to perceive the opening
of the door, had his legs stretched on to the opposite seat.
Making his way up the steps, the keelman shouted out,
" Mind thy pipestopples, man !" The gentleman at once
withdrew the offending extremities, and the keelman took
his seat. As soon as the train started, the former began,
"I am sorry, my friend, that I did not observe your
entrance, or I certainly should not have caused such an
offending request to be made to me. But just let me give
you a bit of advice. Be a little more respectful and
courteous to your fellows, make your requests with a
certain amount of civility and regard, and I'll warrant
you will get on much better in life." The keelman looked
at him with somewhat of a curious gaze, as if he hardly
understood him, but, determined not to be beaten, re-
plied, "Noo, let me gie thoo a bit advice. Always keep
February X
1391. I
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
93
thy pipestopples oot o' folk's way, if thoo dissent war.t
them smashed !"
age being only 35 years. The deceased, who was born at
Blenkiasop, near Haltwhistle, in 1855, after studying at
D (Dfottuartto.
On the 12th of December, 1890, Mrs. Dodds, widow of Mr.
George Dodds, the well-known temperance advocate and
ex -Mayor of Tynemouth, died at the residence of her
grandson, Mr. Allison, at Liverpool. The remains of the
deceased were conveyed to Newcastle, and interred in
All Saints' Cemetery.
Mr. John Burnup, of the firm of Messrs John Burnup
and Sons, builders, and for many years chairman of St.
John's Burial Board, Newcastle, died in Newcastle, on
the 11th of December, in the 87th year of his age.
On the same day, Mr. Robert McQueen, senior partner
in the firm of R. McQueen and Son, cutlers, Grainger
Street, Newcastle, died at his residence at Gateshead.
On the 18th of December the Duchess of Northumber-
land died at Alnwick Castle. (See ante, p. 82.)
The death was announced, on the 20th of December, of
Joseph Inskip, an old standard of the city of Durham.
The deceased was a great favourite of John Gully, the
celebrated prize - fighter, horse racer, legislator, and
colliery proprietor, by whom he was frequently enter-
tained at Cocken Hall.
On the 23rd of December, Mr. William Dodd Pratt, a
large land and property owner, died suddenly at Field
House, Hylton, in the 69th year of bis age. The deceased
was originally an architect, and in that capacity furnished
the design of the Lambton Monument at Penshaw. Mr.
Pratt was a member of several local public bodies.
On the same day, James C. Hunter, an old showman,
died at South Bank, Yorkshire. The deceased was a
Newcastle man, belonging to the Ouseburn, and a brick-
layer to trade, but at an early age he acquired a taste for
the drama, and as an actor and showman he travelled
round the Northern Counties, Northumberland and
Durham especially being his favourites.
Mrs. Watson, of Prestone, Weardale, a lady well known
for her philanthropy, died suddenly on the 24th of
December.
Mr. Joseph Michael Smith, of Monkwearmouth, a
retired draper, local philanthropist, and originator of the
Volunteer Life Brigade at Roker, died on the 24th of
December, 80 years of age.
Dr. Thomson, Archbishop of York, in his 72nd year,
died in that city on the 25th of December. (See ante,
page 89.)
On the 27th of December, Mr. Matthew Stephenson
Dodds, the oldest printer in business in Newcastle, died
at his residence in Gateshead, aged 70 years.
Mr. Thomas Richardson, member of Parliament for
the Hartlepools, died at his residence, Kirklevington, near
Yarm, on the 29th of December. The deceased gentle-
man, who was 69 years of age, was head of the firm of
Richardson and Sons, marine engineers, Hartlepool.
On the 30th of December, the remains of the late Mr.
Jonathan Claude Wylie, a noted linguist, and a frequent
contributor to theological and philological discussions,
were interred in the cemetery at Blackhill.
Mr. George Walton, artist, of Newcastle, who was
especially distinguished as a portrait painter, died at
Appleby, Westmoreland, on the 30th of December, his
orv.
the School of Art, Newcastle, the Royal Academy, and
in Paris, painted many portraits of great excellence both
in England and in Australia.
On the 1st of January, 1891. Mrs. Harkness, wife of
the chief officer of the Tyne Division of the Salvation
Army, died in Westgate Road, Newcastle.
At the age of 75 years, Mr. William Knott, for upwards
of thirty years outdoor manager fortheSunderland Water
Company, died on the 4th of January,
Mr. J. G. Robinson, one of the principal clerks in
Backhouse's Bank at Durham, a prominent architologist,
and a captain in the 4th Durham Volunteers, died on the
5th of January, aged 50 years.
The death occurred on the 6th of January, at an ad-
vanced age, of Mr. Thomas Brentnall, J.P., of South-
field Terrace, Middlesbrough. The deceased was Mayor
of that borough in 1862-63.
On the 6th of January, news was received of the death,
at Hull, of Mr. William Joliffe, the founder of the
famous steam-tug boat company at Liverpool, to which
town, in early life, he had removed from Shields.
Mr. Thomas Tucker, managing partner of the firm of
Isaac Tucker and Co., brewers and merchants, Gates-
head, died suddenly on the 6th of January, aged 41.
On the 8th of January, intelligence was received of the
death from fever at Usambiro, in Africa, of two mission-
aries belonging to the party of Bishop Tucker. One of
the unfortunate gentlemen was Mr. James William
Dunn, a native of Blaydon.
Mr, John Thompson, who for thirty years was a builder
of wooden ships at Sunderland, died on the 8th of
January.
On the same day, the death took place of Mr. John
Binks, for forty years assistant-overseer and poor-rate
collector for the township of Westoe, in the South Shields
94
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
f February
Union. Mr. Binks was a native of Alnwick, and was 81
years of age.
Mr. H. Bowman Brady, of the firm of Brady ana
Martin, chemists, Newcastle, and one of the sons of Dr.
Brady, of Gateshead, died at Bournemouth on the 10th of
January. Mr. Brady, who was an accomplished natur-
alist, was a member of the Society of Friends, and was 56
years of age.
On the same day died, in his 70th year, Mr. Thomas
Main, a member of the Northumberland County Council.
On the 10th, also, in the 91st year of his age, Mr.
Andrew Brown died at Linthaugh Farm, near Ford,
Northumberland.
at
DECEMBER, 1890.
11. Mr. G. E. T. Smithson, secretary of the Tyneside
Geographical Society, addressed a letter to the local
papers, enclosing a communication from Mr. Albert Grey,
who drew attention to the fact that the initial steps
of the Anglo-Siberian enterprise, which had recently been
crowned with success, grew directly out of the admirable
lecture delivered by Captain Wiggins under the auspices
of that society about twelve months previously.
12. The Bishop of Durham laid the foundation stone
of a new wing of the Lady Vernon Schools, Gateshead.
13. At the offices of the Miners' Permanent Belief
Fund, Newcastle, Mr. Thomas Weatherley, of Pelton
Fell, was presented with a testimonial, in the form of a
purse containing a hundred sovereigns, together with a
handsomely bound volume of Allan's edition de luxe of
Joe Wilson's poems and a copy of Wilson's "Pitman's
Pay," in recognition of the services he had rendered to the
miners of the Morth of England during a period of fifty
years. Mr. T. Burt, M.P., presided, and the presentation
was made by Mr. George Parkinson, of Sherburn, Dur-
ham.
Messrs. Palmer and Co., Jarrow-on-Tyne, launched
from their yard at Howdon, a second-class twin-screw
steamer, named the Pique, for the English Government.
The first prize awarded by the directors of the North-
Eastern Railway Company for the best floral display at
railway stations was awarded to the station-master at
Heddon-on-the-Wall, and the second to the station-
master at Newburn.
The Dundee and Newcastle steamer Pladda went
ashore, and subsequently became a wreck, on the Fifeshire
coast, near Crail, but the passengers and crew were saved.
14. At two mass meetings, held in Newcastle, an almost
unanimous resolution was passed in favour of a strike
among the servants of the North-Eastern Railway Com-
pany in the event of certain demands relating to the
hours of work and the rate of wages not being conceded,
and a large number of notices of an intended cessation
of labour on the expiration of a week were subsequently
handed in to the company. Before the expiration of the
notices, however, an amicable settlement of the difficul-
ties was effected, liberal concessions having been made to
the men.
In the Tyne T heatre, Newcastle, Miss Amelia B.
Edwards, LL.D,, PH.D., lectured under the auspices of
the Tyneside Sunday Lecture Society on "The Literature
and Religion of the Ancient Egyptians."
15. Mr. Thomas Wilson, the father of the Newcastle
Council, and for many years chairman of the Town Im-
provement Committee, tendered his resignation as an
alderman of the city of Newcastle. Mr. Richard Henry
Holmes, of the firm of Messrs. Holmi>s and Spence,
chartered accountants, and honorary secretary to the
Newcastle Hospital Sunday Fund, was subsequently
elected in his stead.
The Newcastle City Council declined the proposal of
the Byker Bridge Company to sell the bridge to the
Corporation for 112,000.
Mr. Sims Reeves, the celebrated tenor vocalist, gave
a farewell concert in the Victoria Hall, Sunderland.
A meeting was held in reference to a freehold farm,
consisting of a hundred acres, about four miles west, of
Newcastle, which it was proposed to purchase with a
view to its subdivision into allotments, and applications
were eventually received for the whole of the lots.
The foundation stone was laid of a new "Citadel,"
to be erected by the Salvation Army on the site of the
old Lyceum Theatre, in Lambton Street, Sunderland.
16. At Newcastle Christmas Cattle Market the total
number of cattle shown was 2,650, and the prices realised
ranged from 8s. 3d. to 8s. 6d. per stone.
17. Mr. E. A. Hedley was appointed a director of the
Newcastle and Gateshead Gas Company in the room of
his late brother, Mr. Alderman Hedley.
Three men, named Birbeck, Laverick, and Maddison,
were fatally suffocated by a sudden escape of gas from
some old workings at North Biddick Colliery.
18. Mr. Charles Percy, solicitor, Alnwick, was elected
coroner for the northern division of the county of North-
umberland.
19. The third annual exhibition of toys for poor
children, under the auspices of Uncle Toby, the conductor
February X
1891. /
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
95
of the Dicky Bird Society of the Weekly Chronicle, was
opened by the Mayor of Newcastle in the Bath Lane Hall
in that city. (See page 85.)
The Rev. R. Stewart Wright, who three years ago
left Newcastle to act as a missionary in Central Africa,
but who had had to return home invalided, paid a visit to
Newcastle.
It was announced that the will of the late Mr. Daniel
Adamson, of the Towers, Didsbury, formerly of Shildon,
in the county of Durham, and one of the originators
of the Manchester Ship Canal, had been sworn at
54,168 10s. lOd. Other local wills of the month were
those of Mrs. Bolckow, widow of Mr. H. W. F. Bolckow,
M.P. for Middlesbrough, 29,281, and of Mr. Robert
Walters, of Eldon Square, Newcastle, valued at 16,376.
Under the last of these testaments a considerable sum
was left to local charities.
2L Damage to the extent of 4,000 was caused by a
fire which broke out in Messrs, Lauder and Company's
saw mills at West Hartlepool.
22. The Rev. C. P. Sherman, who had been appointed
to the living of St. John Lee, Hexham, was presented
with several gifts by the parishioners of St. Paul's,
Elswick, Newcastle.
23. A severe frost, which had lasted several days,
prevailed at this time, skating being freely enjoyed on
the ponds in the public parks ; and as showing the great
waste of water, from the fear of frozen pipes, it was stated
that 15,500,000 gallons per day had been sent from Whittle
Dene to the Benwell reservoir, whereas the usual quantity
did not exceed 12,000,000 gallons.
24. It was announced that Mr. Charles William F.
Goss, sub-librarian of the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Public
Libraries, hid been appointed principal librarian to the
Lewisham Public Libraries and Museum, London, S.E.
The Christmas pantomime of " Dick Whittington and
his Cat" was produced at the Theatre Royal ; and the
same evening witnessed the first representation of " Jack
and the Beanstalk " at the Tyne Theatre, Newcastle,
25. The frost having given way, rain fell smartly
during the greater part of Christmas Day. There were
the customary festivities and entertainments, including a
breakfast to poor children given by the Mayor (Mr. J.
Baxter Ellis), in Bath Lane Hall, Newcastle.
A married woman at Consett was delivered of
triplets, all boys.
Dr. and Mrs. Beatty celebrated their golden wedding
at Seaham Harbour.
26. The little Border church of Falstone was destroyed
by fire ; the sacramental plate, a fine harmonium, and a
painted window, presented by Mr. T. Spencer, of Ryton
Grove, being lost in the conflagration.
A massive silver pencil case was presented to Colonel
Coulson by a number of the girls whom he had helped in
connection with the Northumberland Association for the
Protection of Women and Children.
27. Mr. J. R. D. Lynn, as umpire, decided that the
drawing hours of double shift pits in the county of
Durham should be twenty hours per day.
A second-class protected cruiser, the Sybille, built
for the Government, was launched from the shipbuilding
yard of Mesrs. Robert Stephenson and Co., at Hebburn,
The foundation of a Workmen's Institute for the
workmen of IHirradon was laid by Mrs. Reah, of
Gosforth, wife of the managing owner of the Burradon
and Coxlodge Coal Company.
29. A meeting of the governors of the Wellesley
Training Ship in the river Tyne was held in Newcastle, in
reference to certain changes in the rules ; but, owing to the
difficulty of coining to a unanimous agreement, the pro-
ceedings were eventually adjourned.
30. Robert Kitching was executed in York Castle for
the murder of Police-Sergeant Weedy, at Leeming, near
Bedale, on the 9th of September, the executioner being a
man named Billington.
JANUARY, 1891.
1. In Newcastle, and throughout the North of
England generally, the New Year of 1891 was ushered in
by a strict observance of the customs, secular and sacred,
traditionally associated with the season. There were the
usual festive and other social gatherings, while in the
evening all the places of entertainment were largely
patronised. In the afternoon, the Mayor of Newcastle
entertained about 250 aged persons, male and female, to
a comfortable meal in the schoolroom attached to the
Church of the Divine Unity, New Bridge Street. One of
the guests, Catherine O'Hara, of Wall Knoll, was of the
reputed age of 104 years.
The annual gathering and singing competition pro-
moted by the Cleveland and Durham Eisteddfod was held
in the Town Hall, Middlesbrough, under the presidency
of the Marquis of Londonderry.
2. Mr. Thomas Stamp Alder's annual New Year's
breakfast to poor children took place in the Bath Lane
Hall, Newcastle, the little guests numbering 2,500.
Through Mr. Alder's instrumentality, also, about 200 of
the poorest and most destitute children in the neighbour-
hood were, on the 4th, entertained to breakfast in All
Saints' Church Mission Room, Silver Street, in the same
city.
John Power, a labourer, but formerly stationed as a
Customs officer at North Shields, was found lying dead
on the North-Eastern Railway between North Shields
and Tynemouth.
3. The steamer Caroline Robert de Massey, of Stock-
ton, was sunk off Dungeness after collision with another
steamer, the Braithwaite Hall.
It was announced that the degree of D.D. had been
conferred by the University of Dublin on the Rev. Thos.
Randall, Principal of Bede College, Durham.
5. The Rev. J. C. Street, formerly minister of the
Church of the Divine Unity, Newcastle, received and
accepted a unanimous call to the pastorate of the Church
of the Saviour in Birmingham, with which the late Mr.
George Dawson, M.A., was identified.
A large new Board School at Todd's Nook, affording
accommodation for 1,200 children, and erected at a cost of
11,000, was formally opened by the Mayor of Newcastle.
In the Central Hall, Hood Street, Newcastle, the Rev.
Canon Talbot commenced a series of six lectures on " The
English Reformation in the Sixteenth Century." The
Bishop of Newcastle presided.
6. A number of men were seriously burned by the
accidental upsetting of a ladle of molten steel at the
Eston Steel Works of Messrs. Bolckow, Vaughan, & Co.
The Stockton Town Council resolved to confer the
honorary freedom of the boroueh on Major Ropner, J.P.,
in recognition of his munificent gift of a park to the
town.
Mr. G. F. Kobinson, a local artist, and his wife,
celebrated their golden wedding at tbeir residence,
96
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
/February
\ 1891.
Elsdon Road, Gosforth, and were the recipients of
numerous congratulations.
7. There being no cases for hearing at the Sunderland
Police Court, the customary pair of white gloves was pre-
sented t*> the Mayor, who presided on the Bench.
It was stated that the total output of iron in the
Cleveland district during 1890 had amounted to 2,846,000
tons, being the largest quantity ever known in one year.
9. George Sterling, late assistant-overseer of the town-
ship of Elswick, pleaded guilty to falsifying the books of
the township and embezzling large sums of money
received by him on account of the overseers. The
Recorder (Mr. W. Digby Seymour, Q.C.j sentenced the
prisoner to 18 months' imprisonment.
Mr. Thomas Stamp Alder gave the first of a series of
free indoor winter concerts for the poor, in the People's
Palace, Haymarket, Newcastle.
Five men were injured by the sudden collapse of a
portion of the roof of the North Bridge Street Presby-
terian Church, Snnderland, at which they were working.
10. A gold watch and guard and a pair of gold-rimmed
spectacles were presented, on the occasion of his retire-
ment, to Mr. John Baines, permanent-way inspector for
the North-Eastern Railway Co., at Malton. Mr. Baines
began his career on the Stockton and Darlington Railway,
under George Stephenson, sixty-four years ago.
A conversazione was held in the Burras Bridge
Assembly Rooms, Newcastle, under the auspices of the
Tyneside Sunday Lecture Society. Dr. R. Spence
Watson, who presided, stated that the attendance at the
lectures had averaged 1,900.
Considerable damage was caused by a fire which broke
out in the shop of Miss H. Pye, milliner, 177, Westgate
Road, Newcastle.
(general reumnecs.
DECEMBER, 1890.
12. Sir Edgar Boehm, K.A., the famous sculptor,
died suddenly in his studio, Fulham Road, London.
15. A Parliamentary election for the Bassetlaw
division of Nottinghamshire resulted as follows : Sir
Frederick Milner (Conservative), 4,381; Mr. Mellor, Q.C.
(Liberal), 3,653.
Owing to the prospect of a rising of Indians in the
United States, the authorities arrested a noted chief.
Sitting Bull, and his son. Their followers attempted a
rescue, and the two chiefs were killed.
16. Serious disturbances occurred at Ballinakill,
Ireland, in connection with an election for North Kil-
kenny. Among those assaulted were Mr. Michael
Davitt and several members of the Irish party. Mr.
Parnell was nearly blinded by having two bags of lime
thrown in his face.
The trial of Michael Eyraud and Gabrielle Bompard
for the murder of a man named Gouffe was commenced at
Paris. After a very sensational and prolonged inquiry,
both the prisoners were found guilty. Bompard was
sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment, while Eyraud
was sentenced to death.
19- Charles Lyddon, a medical student, was committed
for trial by the coroner of Faversham on a charge of
having feloniously administered a poisonous dose of
morphia to his brother, Dr. Lyddon.
21. The Scotch railway servants decided to coma out
on strike, owing to the refusal of the directors to grant a
ten hours' day. The traffic was almost paralysed for a
time by the action of the men.
22, M. Niels Gade, the eminent Danish composer,
died suddenly, aged 73.
The North Kilkenny election took place. The result
was the defeat of the Parnellite candidate, Mr. Vincent
Scully, by a majority of 1,162 votes, Sir J. Pope
Hennessy, the Gladstonian candidate, being returned
with 2,527 votes.
23. Mary Eleanor Wheeler, alias Mrs. Pearcey, was
executed at Newgate Prison for the murder of Phoebe
Hogg, the wife of Frank Hogg, and their infant daughter,
Phoebe Hanslope Hogg, on 24th October last, in Kentish
Town, London.
27. Mr. Walter Grimshaw, a well-known chess player,
committed suicide.
28. A terrible fight ensued between American troops
and Red Indians at Porcupine Creek, Nebraska, U.S.,
owing to the attempted disarmament of the latter. The
Indians were mown down by artillery, and during their
flight many women and children were killed.
29. M. Octave Feuillet, the well-known French author,
died, aged 78.
30. Thomas Macdonald was executed at Liverpool for
the murder of Miss Holt at Belmont, near Bolton.
JANUARY, 1891.
1- Nine children lost their lives and many others were
seriously burnt at an entertainment at Leeds. While
they were being dressed in cotton wool to represent th
winter season, a Chinese lantern caught fire and ignited
the costumes of the children.
2. A great tire occurred at New York, the Fifth
Avenue and Hermann Theatres being destroyed.
3. About two hundred men employed in the Savings
Bank department of the General Post Office were dis-
charged for having declined to work two hours extra the
day previous. They afterwards apologised, and were
re-instated.
5. Serious disturbances took place at Motherwell in
connection with the Scotch railway strike. The affair
arose through men being evicted from houses belonging
to the Caledonian company. The soldiers were called
out, and the Riot Act was read. Blank cartridges were
fired upon the crowd, which then quickly dispersed.
Intelligence was received of the suppression of a
native insurrection in the Caroline Islands with terrible
slaughter.
10. Kiotous proceedings occurred at Carlisle in con-
nection with the strike on the North British Railway.
11. Two steamers the Britannia, trading between
Leith and Newcastle, and the Bear, belonging to Glasgow
accidentally collided in the Firth of Forth. Both
vessels were sunk, thirteen persons being drowned.
It was announced that the Right Rev. William
Connor Magee, Bishop of Peterborough, had been ap-
pointed Archbishop of York.
Printed by WALTEB SCOTT, Felling-on-Tyne.
Gbronicle
OF
NORTH-COUNTRY*LORE*AND*LEGEND
VOL. V. No. 49.
MARCH, 1891.
PRICK 60.
Cltfficrrtt, 3&t|jft JHtrnff trf
j|EORGE CLIFFORD, third Earl of Cum-
berland, the father of the subject of our
sketch, was a brave, extravagant, reckless,
and eccentric man. Endowed by nature
with strength and agility, splendid in his dress, and
accomplished in all knightly exercises, he was renowned
alike for his personal attractions and his Quixotic
valour. A skilful navigator and an intrepid com-
mander, he made many successful voyages to the
Spanish Main an El Dorado whose golden stores were
the goal of all sea adventurers in Elizabethan
days. Spending his substance in fitting out ships for
these expeditions, this high-born buccaneer won the
favour of Queen Elizabeth, who, true to her
Boleyn blood, liked nothing better than to share
the profits of enterprises whioh cost her nothing ;
in fact, the handsome cavalier was held in so much
esteem by the Queen, who loved a "proper man,"
that she honoured the most skilful horseman and tilter
of his day by appointing him her special champion at all
tournaments, an office for which he was admirably
qualified by taste and personal advantages.
The suit of tilting armour which he wore when
challenging all-comers to combat in honour of his Royal
mistress now hangs in "monumental mockery" at
Appleby Castle, and some idea of the gallant champion's
strength and vigour may be formed from the great size
and weight of the helmet, which no living shoulders can
now support. In 1592 he was invested with the Order
of the Garter, which he is represented as wearing in
the Skipton family picture, while another whole length
portrait of the earl preserves the memory of a cireura-
etance characteristic of that chivalric age, when even
the most trifling observance bore some romantic or
allegorical meaning. On his return from one of his semi-
piratical voyages the Queen accorded him an audience,
during which she inadvertently dropped her glove. Earl
George immediately picked it up, and presented it kneel-
ing ; his sovereign, with a gracious smile, bade him keep
it, and he, fully conscious of the honour Elizabeth had be-
stowed upon him, had the gauntlet richly set in diamonds,
and wore it ever afterwards in front of his hat at all
courtly ceremonials.
In 1577 this Earl of Cumberland married Margaret
Russell, daughter of the Earl of Bedford, and Ann Clif-
ford, the youngest and ultimately only surviving child
of this union, was born at Skiptou in 1590. Her father
and mother, though knowing each other from infancy,
and married before either of them had reached twenty
years of age, led a moit unhappy life, the reckless and
roving disposition of the earl causing him to be a negli-
gent and unfaithful husband to a wife whose only faults
appear to have been goodness and virtue. They were
separated while their daughter was still in her childhood,
and she was thenceforth entirely left to the care of her
mother a prudent, sensible woman, who entrusted her
education to efficient teachers. Samuel Daniel, a poet of
no mean fame, was appointed her tutor, and it was from
him she acquired that fondness for literature and com-
position which led her afterwards to write the long
and curious account of herself and family which is still
extant. Her account of her own personal appearance is
worthy of notice ; she details the length and thickness of
her hair, the beauty of her eyes and figure, the dimple on
her cheek, &c., but in her idea her physical advantages
were more thau equalled by her intellectual charms, for,
" though I say it, the perfections of my mind were
much above those of my body; I had a strong and
98
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
I March
1. 1S91.
copious memory ; a sound judgment ; and a discerning
spirit; and so much of a strong imagination as at
many times even my dreams and apprehensions proved
to be true." From a very early age the Lady Anne, as
the only child of her noble parents, was regarded as a
little lady of no small importance. Before she was ten
she was introduced at the Court of Queen Elizabeth by
her maternal aunt the Countess of Warwick, and after
that Queen's death she accompanied her mother to
Tibbals to see King James when he first came to England.
Of that visit she writes : " We all saw a great change
between the fashion of the Court as it was BOW, and of
that in the Queen's (time), for we were all lousy by sitting
in Sir Thomas Erskine's chamber."
The Lady Anne was not present at the coronation of
James and Anne of Denmark, " because the plague was
then so bad in London " ; but afterwards we find her
in constant attendance at courtly festivities in company
with her mother and her aunt of Warwick, and we learn
that her " father at this tyme followed his suite to the
kinge about the border lands, so that sometimes my
mother and ho did meet by chance when their countenance
did shew the dislik they had one of ye other, yet he
would speak to me in a slight fashion and give me his
blessinge."
The extravagances of the Earl of Cumberland plunged
the countess into poverty, and the education of his
daughter had to be conducted on the strictest principles
of economy. During the two years Lady Anne was in
London with her governess (Mrs. Taylor), her whole ex-
penses amounted to 55 13s. 8d. This small allowance
was, however, supplemented by constant gifts from her
wealthy relatives, the Countess of Warwick, the Countess
of Derby, and the Countess of Northumberland, who sent
her presents of silver groats and small gold pieces packed
in little silver barrels, besides trinkets, fruit, and game,
and sometimes a whole stag at a time. Her most expen-
sive accomplishment was dancing, for we find twenty
shillings was paid for " teaching my lady to daunce for
one month." If she could read the books the titles
of which are seen on the backs of volumes depicted
in the portrait representing her as a prim girl
of thirteen, she must have been a very learned little
woman, for among them are Josephus, Eusebius, Sidney's
"Arcadia, "and works on alchemy. Her general educa-
tion, however, was in no particular neglected ; she was in-
structed in the precepte and practice of frugality and
domestic economy, and to her careful training in early
youth must be ascribed the business habits and adminis-
trative power she developed in after life. She made
journeys with her mother to Brougham, Skipton, and
Appleby, and paid visits to numerous relatives. During
one of these visits she tells us, "I used to wear my hair-
coloured velvet gown every day, and learned to sing and
play on the bass viol of Jack Jenkins, my aunt's boy."
But a great change in Lady Anne Clifford's circum-
stances and position was about to take place. Her
father's iron constitution broke down during a course of
wild dissipation, and he died in London in the autumn of
1605, after a mouth's illness. In spite of all previous
estrangements and disagreements his wife and daughter
were with him at the bitter end. The latter testifies that
he expressed great sorrow for his conduct to her saint-like
mother, and died a very penitent man. He left the world,
however, without repairing a grievous injury he had done
his child. Pride of family was with him a stronger
feeling than paternal affection, and by a will and deeds
executed some years previously he arranged that all bis
lands should go with the earldom to his brother, and
should only return to his daughter on the failure of his
brother's heir male ; the only provision bequeathed to
Anne Clifford, expect this apparently remote reversion,
being a present portion of 15,000.
After the death of the earl, Anne, by the advice and
under the direction of her mother, contested the validity
of her father's settlement, grounding her claim to the
estates and barony of Clifford on the old entail granted
by King John. Her case was laid before the House of
Peers, and judgment was given against her at York.
Both mother and daughter refused to accept this
decision, and demanded a fresh trial ; but before
the case was ready for a new tribunal Anne Clifford,
then in her nineteenth year, was married to Richard,
Earl of Dorset, a youth who was a few months older than
herself. From the first the marriage was an unhappy
one ; her husband, like all the Buckhursts, was immoral
and extravagant ; he soon wearied of the perpetual law-
suit, and urged his wife to accept a sum of money in lieu
of her birthright. She held out ; the case was tried over and
over again ; quarrels ensued and put an end to all harmony
between husband and wife ; and, though never finally
separated, they lived as much apart as if they had been
separated. The Earl of Dorset's life was, however, not
a long one ; he died in 1624, leaving by his wife only two
daughters. Some years afterwards Lady Dorset's eldest
daughter, then about fifteen, was married to Lord
Lupton, and she herself took as her second husband
Philip, Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery. This union
was no more fortunate than her preceding one, and my
lady's matrimonial miseries, and the state of terror in
which she lived, may be imagined when we find that she
was obliged to write to her uncle, Lord Bedford, begging
him to ask her husband to allow her to spend a few days
in London, " for I dare not ventter to come up without
his leve, lest he should take that occasion to turne me
outt of his howse, as he did outt of Whitehall, and then I
shall not know wher to put my hede." Under such cir-
cumstances well might she exclaim that "the marble
pillars of Knowle and Melton were to her aftertimes but
the gay arbours of anguish." Events now occurred which
were of more vital interest to this daughter of the house of
Clifford than the acquisition or loss of a husband. Her
Mnrchl
1891. /
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
99
uncle ^Francis, the fourth Earl of Cumberland, died,
after holding the title and estates for thirty-five years,
and his son Henry, who succeeded him, expired at York
about two years afterwards, without leaving an heir male.
On the death of this last earl the long contest was finally
cl.>sed, and Anne, Countess Dowager of Dorset, Countess
of Pembroke and Montgomery, in accordance with her
father's will, as well as heir of entail, became Baroness
Clifford, and the ancient title and inheritance once more
settled in the old line.
It was not, however, till the death of her tyrannical
husband, the Earl of Pembroke, in 1649, that she found
herself for the first time in her life a free agent. She then
set out, though nearly sixty years ot age, with all the
activity and energy of a great nature long suppressed, to
take personal possession of her superb estates in the
North, and never again quitted her native mountains.
With every impediment removed, and two rich jointures
added to her paternal possessions, she at once commenced
the great works which have made her as celebrated a
builder as Bess of Hardwicke. She completely rebuilt
the castles of Brougham, Skipton, Pendragon, Appleby,
Brough, and Barden, some of which had been in ruins for
centuries, and "scarce one showed more than the skeleton
of a house," for "she did think upon the stones, and it
pitied her to see them in the dust." As "she was not one to
live in ceiled palaces while the Lord's House lay waste,"
she did not neglect more sacred edifices, but restored the
parish churches of Appleby, Brougham, Barden, Skipton,
Bongate, Mallerstang, and Ninekirks; she also repaired
an almshouse, built by her mother at Bearmly, and built
and endowed another at Appleby for thirteen poor
women. In this way she imagined she earned the
blessings promised in scripture to "the repairer of
breaches, and the restorer of paths to dwell in."
One of her first pious works was the erection of a
memorial pillar on the road between Penrith and
Appleby, marking the never-to-be-forgotten spot
where years before she had said her last sad
good-bye to her beloved mother. (See Monthly
Chronicle, 1890, page 71.) The memory of this dear
parent was cherished through life ; she constantly
alludes to her in her memoirs, and ascribes whatever
good fortune befell her to "the prayers of my
devout mother, who incessantly begged of God
for my safety and preservation." She never forgot
or forgave her mother's injuries ; even in the long epitaph
she inscribed on her father's magnificent monument this
feeling peeps out, for she assures us that it was erected by
his sole surviving legitimate offspring, an innuendo most
daughters would have avoided, particularly in Craven (her
father was interred at Skipton), where many families claim
a sinister descent from George, Earl of Cumberland.
Moving from castle to castle, the Countess Anne spread
plenty and happiness around her, consuming the produce
of her estates and spending large sums in hospitality and
benevolence. She caused all the groceries, spices, stuffs,
wine, corn, and malt required in her households to be
bought from her neighbours, being desirous that the
country should be benefited by her expenditure. Amongst
other charitable acts, she caused a dole of money to be dis-
tributed to twenty poor persons in the neighbourhood of
her residence every Monday morning. Exceedingly
temperate in her diet, she rarely tasted wine, even
after she ws past eighty years of age, nor did
she ever take physic in her life ; her dress was plain to
meanness, for though she attired her waiting women (who
were all daughters of her tenants) in handsome garments,
a petticoat and waistcoat of black serge was her own con-
stant dress after her second widowhood. It was her
custom to pass the year among her six castles, spending a
certain number of weeks or months at each, not only
inspecting the works she had in progress, but insisting in a
tenacious and inflexible manner on what she believed to be
her just rights.
It was a custom on her estates for each tenant, in
addition to his rent, to pay an annual boon hen, as it was
called, and this survival of an old custom had come to be
considered the steward's perquisite. It happened that a
rich tradesman from Halifax, named Murgatroyd,
having taken a house near Skipton,' refused to pay
bis boon hen. The countess, whenever relinquished even
the most shadowy of her claims, at once commenced
a suit against him. As her tenant was as obstinate and
determined as herself, the case was argued at consider-
able length, and when at last the law decided in her
favour she found her hen had cost her 200. After the
affair was settled, she invited Mr. Murgatroyd to dine
with her, and the hen was the first dish served at table.
"Come," said she, "let us now be good friends; since
you allow the hen to be dressed at my table, we will
divide it between us." Many other anecdotes of
her . inflexible determination are related. She defied
Oliver Cromwell, refused his proffered arbitration in some
difficulty with her tenants, and when he threatened to
blow her castle down with his cannon she said she would
build them up again so long as she had a shilling in her
pocket. Who has not heard of her celebrated letter to
the Minister who attempted to interfere with her right of
nomination to the borough of Appleby ? "I have been
bullied by a usurper and neglected by a court, but I will
not be dictated to by a subject : your man shan't stand.
ANNE DOBSET, Pembroke and Montgomery." Whether
this letter is authentic or not, it is difficult to say.
Horace Walpole believed it to be genuine, and he was no
mean authority.
The countess was particularly proud of a singular
dignity derived from her paternal ancestors, who had a
hereditary right to act as High Sheriffs of Westmoreland.
It has been stated again and again that Anne Clifford
filled this office in person, and, like her great ancestress,
Alethea, sat on the bench with the judges. That she
100
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
f March
\ 1891.
ever did so is uncertain ; she was, however, recognised
as Sheriff, and exercised the authority of the office by
deputy. After having lain in abeyance for many years,
this right was at length abolished by an Act of Parliament
passed in 1850, ordaining the appointment of Sheriffs for
that county in the usual manner.
' Lady Dorset preserved her mental and physical activity
to the end of her life, keeping up her journal of the events
and transactions of every passing day to the very last.
She met death with the same uncomplaining fortitude
which had characterised her life, always answering when
asked how she felt during her last brief illness, " I thank
God I am very well." She died at Brougham Castle in
1675, in the 86th year of her age, and was buried in the
sepulchre which she had herself erected at Appleby,
choosing rather to rest beside her adored mother than to
be interred with her martial ancestors at Skipton.
M. S. HAKDCASTLE.
5Tfte
at tfte Utartttr.
ii.
GIPSY GENTLEMEN.
| HUNDRED and fifty years ago, or less, the
superior order of gipsies used to swagger
about the country like "perfect gentlemen."
Simson tells us, in his History of the
Gipsies, that the male head of the Hut livens a man
who, according to the newspapers of the day, lived to the
advanced age of 115 years when in full dress in his
youth, wore a white wig, a ruffled shirt, a blue Scottish
bonnet, and white stockings, with silver buckles in his
shoes. And William Baillie, well-known in Tweeddale
and Clydesdale, was said to be the handsomest, the best
dressed, the best looking, and the best bred man of his
day. He acted, however, the character of the gentleman,
the robber, and the tinker, indifferently, just as it
answered his purpose. He was considered the most
accomplished swordsman in all Scotland. Weapon in
hand, and his back at a wall, he set almost everything.
save fire-arms, at defiance.
THE WINTEES.
The Winters, one of whom was the principal in the
Elsdon tragedy, for which murderous exploit he was hung
in chains, were a gang of ferocious gipsies who long in-
fested the wastes of Northumberland and committed many
crimes. Several of them, we believe, were hanged for
horse-stealing, house-breaking, or murder, and others were
sent to the plantations or the hulks for various offences.
The only member of the family that turned out well, for
several generations, was a girl who was taken from her
father when he was in prison, previous to execution, and
brought up apart from her brothers and sisters. The
father had a quarrel with one of his sons about the sale
of some property, and shot him dead. The mother
cohabited with another man, and was one morning found
dead, with her throat cut. The remnant of this gang
went down to Scotland about a hundred years ago, and
assumed the Roxburghshire name of Wintrup, as they
found their own somewhat odious. They settled at a
cottage within four miles of Earlstoun, on the Leader,
and became great plagues to the country round, until
they were secured, after a pitched battle, tried before the
Circuit Court at Jedburgb, and banished to England.
The dalesmen of Reedwater showed great reluctance to
receive these returned emigrants when they were set
loose on the southern side of the Carter Bar. After the
Sunday service at a little chapel near Otterburn, one of
the squires rose, and, addressing the congregation, told
them they would no longer be accounted Reedsdale
men, but Reedsdale women, if they permitted this
marked and atrocious family to enter the district. The
people answered that they would not allow them to come
that way; and the proscribed family, hearing of the
unanimous resolution to oppose their passage, slunk away
across the Kielder Moors to the head of North Tyne,
and thence southward, where they were lost sight of.
One of them was the redoubtable boxer, Tom Spring,
Champion of England, who changed his name of Winter
to that of a more kindly season on severing connection
with his tribe.
THE KOMANNO POLTMACHT.
The quarrels of the gipsies frequently broke out in an
instant, and almost without a visible cause. Some of
their conflicts were terrible. Dr. Pennecuik gives the
following account of one of them that took place on his
estate of Romanno, in the parish of Newlands, in Tweed-
dale :
Upon the 1st of October, 1677, there happened at
Romanno a remarkable polymachy between two clans of
gipsies, the Fawes and the Shawes, who had come
from Haddington fair, and were going to Harestanes to
meet two other clans of these rogues, the Baillies and
Browns, with a resolution to fight them. They fell out
at Romanno among themselves about dividing the spoil
they got at Haddington, and fought it manfully. Of the
Fawes, there were four brethren and a brother's son ; of
the Shawes, the father with three sons ; and several
women on both sides. Old Sandy Fawe, a bold and
proper fellow, with his wife, then with child, were both
killed dead upon the place, and his brother George very
dangerously wounded. In February, 1678, old Robin
Shawe, the gipsy, and his three sons, were hanged at the
Grassmarket for the above-mentioned murder, committed
at Romanno ; and John Fawe was hanged the Wednes-
day following, for another murder.
This gipsy battle is also noticed by Lord Fountainhall, in
a MS. preserved in the Advocates' Library. The Browns
and Baillies (whom he calls Bailezies) had come over from
Ireland, he says, a short time before, and the others were
determined to chase them back. The bodies of the four
Shawes who were hanged were thrown into a hole dug
for them in the Greyfriars' Churchyard, with their clothes
on, but the next morning that of the youngest, who was
scarce sixteen, was missed. "Some thought," says his
March!
1891. /
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
101
lordship, "that, being last thrown over the ladder and
first cut down, and in full vigour, aud not much earth
placed upon him, and lying uppermost, and so not so
ready to smother, the fermentation of the blood, and heat
of the bodies under him, might cause him to rebound, and
throw off the earth, and recover ere the morning and
steal away, which, if true, he deserved his life, though
the magistrates deserved a reprimand. But others, more
probably, thought his body was stolen away by some
chirurgeon, or his servant, to make an anatomical
dissection on." Dr. Pennecuik erected a dove-cot on the
spot where the fray took place ; and to commemorate the
battle, put upon the lintel of the door the following in-
scription :
A.D. 1683.
The field of gipsie blood, which here you see,
A shelter for the harmless dove shall be.
THE BATTLE OF HAWIOK BBIO.
A very bloody, though not fatal, gipsy battle took
place at the bridge of Hawick, in Teviotdale, in the
spring of the year 1772 or 1773. The following particu-
lars, given in Simson's History, were derived from a
former tenant of Falnash, Mr. Robert Laidlaw, a gentle-
man of respectability, who was an eye-witness. It was
understood that the battle originated in some encroach-
ments of one tribe upon the district assigned to another ;
and it had been agreed by the contending parties to fight
ont their dispute the first time they should meet :
On the one side, in this battle, was the famous Alex-
ander Kennedy, a handsome and intelligent man, and
head of his tribe. Next to him in consideration was little
Wull Ruthven, Kennedy's father-in-law. This man was
known, all over the country, by the extraordinary title
of the Earl of Hell ; and although he was above five feet
ten inches in height, he got the appellation of Little
Wnll to distinguish him from Muckle Wull Rutbven,
who was a man of uncommon stature and personal
strength. The earl's son was also in the fray. These
were the chief men in Kennedy's band. Jean Ruthven,
Kennedy's wife, was also present, with a great number of
inferior members of the clan, males as well as females, of
all ages, down to mere children. The opposite band
consisted of old Rob Tait, the chieftain of his horde,
Jacob Tait, young Rob Tait, and three of old Rob Tait's
sons-in-law. These individuals, with Jean Gordon, old
Tait's wife, and a numerous train of youths of both sexes
and various ages, composed the adherents ot old Robert
Tait. These adverse tribes were all closely connected
with one another by the ties of blood. The Kennedies
and Ruthvens were from the ancient burgh of Loch-
maben. The whole of the gipsies in the field, females as
well as males, were armed with bludgeons, excepting
some of the Taits, who carried cutlasses, and pieces of
iron hoops notched and serrated on either side like a saw,
and fixed to the end of sticks. The boldest of the tribe
were in front of their respective bands, with their
children and the other members of their clan in the rear,
forming a long train behind them. In this order both
parties boldly advanced, with their weapons uplifted
above their heads. Both sides fought with extraordinary
fury and obstinacy. Sometimes the one band gave way,
and sometimes the other ; but both, again and again,
returned to the combat with fresh ardour. Not a word
was spoken during the struggle ; nothing was heard but
the rattling of the cudgels and the strokes of
the cutlasses. After a long and doubtful contest,
Jean Ruthven, big with child at the time, at
last received, among many other blows, a dreadful
wound with a cutlass. She was cut to the bone, above
and below the breast, particularly on one side. It was
said the slashes were so large and so deep that one of her
breasts was nearly severed from her body, and that
the motions of her lungs, while she breathed, were
observed through the aperture between her ribs. But,
notwithstanding her dreadful condition, she would
neither quit the field nor yield, but continued
to assist her husband as long as she was able.
Jean's father, the Earl of Hell, was also shockingly
wounded, the flesh being literally cut from the bone of
one of his legs, and hanging down over his ankles, "like
beefsteaks." The earl left the field to get his wounds
dressed ; but, observing his daughter, Kennedy's wife, so
dangerously wounded, he lost heart, and, with others of
his party, fled, leaving Kennedy alone to defend himself
against the whole of the clan of Tait. Having now all
the Taits, young and old, male and female, to contend
with, Kennedy, like an experienced warrior, took advan-
tage of the place. Posting himself on the narrow bridge
of Hawick (over the Teviot), he defended himself in the
defile, with his bludgeon, against the whole of his in-
furiated enemies. His handsome person, his undaunted
bravery, his extraordinary dexterity in handling his
weapon, and his desperate situation (for it was evident
that the Taits thirsted for his blood, and were determined
to despatch him on the spot) excited a general and lively
interest in his favour among the inhabitants of the town
who were present, gazing on the conflict with amazement
and horror. In one dash to the front, and with one
powerful sweep of his cudgel, he disarmed two of the
Taits, aud, cutting a third to the skull, felled him to the
ground. He sometimes daringly advanced upon his
assailants, and drove the whole band before him pell-melL
When he broke one cudgel on his enemies, by his powerful
arm, the town's people were ready to hand him another.
Still, the vindictive Taits rallied, and renewed the charge
with unabated vigour ; and everyone expected that
Kennedy would fall a sacrifice to their desperate fury.
Jean Gordon stole, unobserved, from her band, and,
taking a circuitous route, came behind Kennedy, and
struck him on the head with her cudgel, but failed to
stun him. A party of messengers and constables at last
arrived to his relief, when the Taits were all apprehended
and imprisoned ; but as none of the gipsies were actually
slain in the fray, they were soon set at liberty.
This gipsy fray at Hawick is known as " The Battle o'
the Brig." Every one engaged in it, save Alexander
Kennedy, was severely wounded, and the ground on
which they fought was wet with blood. Mr. Murray, of
Hawick, in his " Gipsies of the Border," gives an account
of another conflict which took place at Hawick, about
the year 1730, between the Yetholm and Lochmaben
tribes. The incident, he tells us, is gleaned from Wilson's
" History of Hawick," where it may be read at length.
FATAL SKIRMISH ON ESKDALE MOOB.
Alexander Kennedy's grandson, of the same name as
himself, was sent to Botany Bay for fourteen years, about
the year 1819, for the manslaughter of a gipsy named
Irving, at Yarrowford, the cause of the quarrel having
been the same feud which gave rise to the Hawick battle.
The latter engagement was not decisive to either party.
The hostile bands, a short time afterwards, came in
contact in Ettrick Forest, at a place on the water of
Teema, called Deepshope. They did not, however, en-
gage then and there, though the women on both sides,
at some distance from each other, with the stream
between them, scolded, cursed, and banned, urging the
males to fight. The men, more cautious, observed for the
nonce a sullen and gloomy silence. After this they
102
MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
/March
\ 1891.
separated, taking different roads ; but in the course of a
few days, meeting again on Eskdale Moor, a second
desperate conflict ensued. In thia the Taits were com-
pletely routed, and the result was that they were driven
from the district. The country people were horrified at
the sight of the wounded tinklers, after these bloody
engagements. Several of them, lame and exhausted, in
consequence of the severity of their wounds, were carried
up and down, by the assistance of the tribe, on the backs
of asses, till they either recovered or died. Some of them
were slain outright in the Eskdale Moor fight, and buried
on the field, or at least were never heard of more.
FIGHT AT LOWRIE'S DEN.
There used to be, and perhaps still is, a small public-
house on the roadside between Lauder and Dalkeith,
called Lowrie's Den. It stood in a very lonely situation,
near the steep mountain pass of Soutra Hill, the terror of
the South-Country carters in pre-railway times. It was
seldom one could get past it without witnessing a
drunken fight, if not getting implicated in it. In fact,
the place was infamous. The neighbourhood was a
harbourage for the gipsies, who could make their way
thence across the hills, without let or hindrance, either to
Galawater, Leithen and Eddlestone waters, the Black-
adder, which runs down into the Merse, the Haddingtou-
shire Tyne, the South Esk in Mid-Lothian, or right down
Lauderdale into Teviotdale, and thence into England.
Many a gipsy fight, as well as carters' squabble, has taken
place at Lowrie's Den. Little more than a century ago it
was the scene of a terrible conflict. Two gipsy chiefs,
named respectively Robert Keith and Charles Anderson,
who had somehow fallen out, and followed each other for
some time, for the purpose of fighting out their quarrel,
met at last at Lowrie'a Den. The two antagonists were
brothers-in-law, Anderson being married to Keith's sister.
Anderson proved an over-match for Keith ; and William
Keith, to save his brother, laid hold of Anderson.
Whereupon Madee Grieg, Robert's wife, handed her
husband a knife, and called on him to despatch the
villain, while unable to defend himself, owing to his
hands being held. Robert repeatedly struck with the
knife, but it rebounded from the unhappy man's ribs
without much effect. Impatient at the delay, Madge
called out to the assassin, "Strike laigh ! strike laigh !'
Following her directions, he stabbed him to the heart.
The only remark made by any of the gang was this ex-
clamation from one of them: "Gude faith, Rob, ye've
dune for 'im noo !" William Keith was astonished when
he found that Anderson had been stabbed in his arms, as
his interference was only to save his brother from being
overpowered by him. Robert Keith instantly fled, but
was pursued by the country folks, armed with pitchforks
and muskets. He was caught in a bracken-bush, in which
he had concealed himself, and was executed at Jedburgh,
on the 24th November, 1772. One of the persons who
assisted at Keith's capture was the father of Sir Walter
Scott. Long afterwards William Keith was apprehended
in a ruinous house in Peeblesshire, but not till he had made,
thugh half-naked, a desperate resistance to the officers
sent to capture him. He was tried, condemned, and
banished to the plantations.
THE SIEQE OF PENNICUIK HOUSE.
So formidable were the numbers of the gipsies, at one
time, and so alarming their desperate and bloody battles,
in the upper section of Tweeddale and parts adjoining,
that the fencible men of the district had sometimes to turn
out to disperse them. A clergyman was on one occa-
sion under the necessity of dismissing the congregation
in the middle of divine service, that they might
quell one of these furious tumults in the immediate
vicinity of the church. On another occasion, a band
of gipsies broke into the house of Pennicuik, when
the greater part of the family were at church. Sit
John Clerk, the proprietor, barricaded himself in hi&
own room, where he sustained a sort of siege, firing from
the windows upon the robbers, who fired upon him in re-
turn. One of them, while straying through the house in
quest of booty, happened to mount the stairs of a very
narrow turret, but his foot slipping, be caught hold of the
rope of the alarm bell, the ringing of which startled the
congregation assembled in the parish church. The people
instantly came to the rescue of the laird, and succeeded,
it is said, in apprehending some of the gipsies, who were
executed in due course in the Grass Market of Edinburgh.
A volume might be filled with tales of violence and outrage
similar to the above, recorded in the Scotch law books.
pNTIL a comparatively recent date, the higher
districts of Northumberland were entirely
destitute of made roads. All traffic between
one part and another was carried on by means of pack
horses, generally shelties from Shetland or galloways
from the wild uplands of Wigton and Kirkcudbright-
shires. These shaggy little creatures, wonderfully strong
for their size, furnished with rope halters instead of
bridles, and having their backs fitted with straw-stuffed
cloth pads, would be marched in single file, or driven, if
ten or a dozen, from twenty to thirty miles a day, for
several days consecutively, with loads of four, five, or
even six bushels of oats, barley, or rye, poised across their
backs, in sacks made for the express purpose, with a slit
on each side to pour or empty the corn through.
The principal route taken across that wild and dreary
tract of country which lies between Corbridge on the
Tyne and Woodburn on the Reed was by the old Roman
road, the Watling Street, which "runs in its arrow-like
course over hill and dale, swerving not to the right or the
left, undaunted, untrammelled by any physical difficulty,
March 1
1891. /
NORTH-COUNTRY LORE AND LEGEND.
103
whether in the form of deep set valley, running water,
boggy tract, or ridgy precipitous hill in short, over-
coming any hindrance which may present itself, rather
than deviate from its straightforward course." If the
traveller rashly diverged from it, either to the right or to
the left, he was almost sure to get entangled and lost in
the trackless waste, or, at all events, to find himself in
such a situation that, as Hutchinson the historian says,
" he would prove himself a patient Christian if he
forebore to execrate the want of guide posts, and the
neglect of those whose duty it was to remedy the delay,
fatigue, hazard, and anxiety of the stranger whose stars
infatuated him to engage in the labyrinths and wilds of
such a country."
But to our tale. We shall tell it as it was told to Mr.
William Pattison, about fifty years ago, by the landlord
of a little roadside public-house, at Tone Pits, near Carry
Coates, in Throckrington parish, and as he afterwards
communicated it to Richardson's "Table Book." The
landlord spoke as follows :
It is as nigh fifty years as I can guess, that old Johnnie
Craigie, of the Whitesidelaw, on the South Tyne, went to
Cowden, in Reedswater, to bring oats. He had twelve
ponies, and carried with him his son, who was an idiot
born. The lad was counted harmless, and was besides
very useful being a capital hand among horses. Well,
they went to Cowden, where they met with many others
on the same errand. The oats were soon bought, and the
money as quickly paid, and then the whisky drinking
commenced, which did not end as soon or so well.
Terrible hands for drinking whisky in those days ! I've
known my father stay a month, and heard of others stay-
ing from seed-time to harvest. Well, .old Craigie drank
whisky until he was well nigh full, and, what was worse
than that, they gave it to his idiot lad, who was not
drunk with it, but staring mad. His looks almost
frightened the whole company to death, so that instead of
detaining old Craigie (as was many a time the case with
others), the people of the house very gladly seconded bis
proposal to depart, when, much to the relief of the rest of
the guests, be left on the afternoon of the following day.
After proceeding a few miles on their journey the lad
began to be very mischievous, turning the horses off upon
the moor, and upsetting the sacks on their backs. For a
time the old father kept putting things to rights, but at
last his patience was exhausted ; and, when the lad was
in the act of throwing off a sack, the old man struck him
a smart blow across his fingers with the stock of his whip.
In a moment, maddened with pain and opposition, the
wretch, implanted with the fury of a demon, suddenly
seizing the whip, wrenched it from his father, and with
one blow felled him to the ground. A g^rl attending some
sheep which were pasturing around witnessed the whole
affair. Of all the deeds ever transacted, perhaps this was
one of the most appalling. The lad jumped upon his
father, and kicked him until he was tired ; then withdrew
to a distance and watched him attentively ; ran again and
inflicted another shower of blows. There then lay on one
side a heap of stones intended for the repair of the road ;
these he took up, and, selecting the sharpest, pelted the
body with such unerring aim and effect, that it might as
lief have been a heap of road scrapings as that it could be
said to bear any resemblance to humanity. This done,
the lad mounted one of the ponies, scoured over the moor,
and, reaching home, informed his mother of the deed.
Meanwhile, assistance arrived, but too late. There lay in
a bloody mass all that was mortal of poor Craigie his
brains and grey hairs besmeared and matted among the
stones, whilst I myself, a little boy at the time, picked up
five of his fingers, which had been knocked off by the
stroke of the stones. The lad, on his arrival home, went
to bed, and lay till he was secured and sent to a lunatic
asylum in Newcastle, where he died. When the common
was enclosed, the masons employed in erecting the fence,
built a cross into the wall Crafgie's Cross which, being
destroyed by some accident or other, a rude death's head
was made to supply its place.
Mine host concluded by observing : " Often have I
heard it said that at night the form of old Craigie might
be seen stealing quietly about the fatal spot ; but I'm not
one, sir, that believes in suc 
