T * /\t Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 https://archive.org/details/ruinedabbeyscast00howi_1 KENILWORTH CASTLE, from the Brook. RUINED ABBEYS AND CASTLES OF Great Britain and Ireland, BY WILLIAM HOWITT. Jbcconfe Series?. The Photographic Illujirations by THOMPSON, SEDGFIELD, OGLE, AND HEMPHILL. LONDON: ALFRED W. BENNETT, 5, BISHOPSGATE WITHOUT. 1864 LONDON : RICHARD BARRETT, PRINTER, MARK LANE. GETTY CENTER library CONTENTS. PAGE, Kenilworth Caftle i Caernarvon Caftle 28 Lindisfarne 48 Tynemouth Priory 64 Whitby Abbey 77 Netley Abbey ... 91 Hurftmonceux Caftle 99 Croyland Abbey 106 Caftleacre Priory 122 Richmond Caftle 130 Byland Abbey .... . ... 152 Jedburgh Abbey . .. 160 Dry burgh Abbey 174 Rock of Cafhel 188 Holy-Crofs Abbey . 202 Cahir Caftle 216 ^Illustration# Kenilworth Cajlle ; General View ; Banqueting Hall ; Mernjyn s Tower Caernarvon Cajlle Lindisfarne ; General View ; Rainbow Arch ; Norman Porch Tynemouth Priory Whitby Abbey Netley Abbey ; Interior — ; South Aijle Hurjlmonceux Cajlle Croyland Abbey ; Wejlern Front ; Triangular Bridge Cajlleacre Priory ; Wejl Front ; Interior Richmond Cajlle Byland Abbey Jedburgh Abbey ; Wejlern Gateway ; South Porch Dryburgh Abbey Rock of Cajhel ; General View ; Round Tower ; North Tranfept of Cathedral Holy -Cr of Abbey Cahir Cafile By S. Thompson Frontispiece 99 DO. . . Page 9 99 DO. 26 „ W. R. Sedgfield 39 99 S. Thompson 49 99 DO. 53 >> DO. 62 >> DO. 7° T. Ogle 78 9* S. Thompson 9 2 >9 DO. 9 6 „ W. R. Sedgfield 9) DO. IO 9 99 DO. 120 >9 DO. I2 3 99 DO. 128 99 DO. 142 99 T. Ogle 156 99 S. Thompson 172 99 DO, 173 99 DO. 182 99 Dr. Hemphill . 189 99 DO. 194 do. 201 rt DO. 21 I 217 Kenilworth Caftle. The ruined caftle beckons me, The abbey hoar, the foreft dell ; Ey ancient halls 1 wander free, And by the hermit’s /hattered cell. HE lordly days of the old barons and the glories of feudalifm have found hofts of celebrators in poetry, romance, and novel literature; but in none of thefe things has any pen conferred equal intereft with that of Sir Walter Scott. Where he has laid the fcene of one of his ftories, hiftory falls into the background, and the genius of other writers feeins to yield only a pale moonlight. Kenilworth was a great and magnificent caftle, inhabited by princes royal, and the powerful favourites of princes : fieges ftout from time to time girt its walls, and gorgeous pageants enlivened its halls and courts and gardens; but had not Sir Walter Scott made it the theme of one of his moil thrilling romances, its ivied ruins would now have ftood little regarded, though Oueen Elizabeth feafted there, though the Earl of Leicefter gave the 2 KENILWORTH CASTLE. moft elaborate entertainments, and Laneham defcribed them at minuted: length. It is not the glory of Elizabeth, or the greatnefs of Leicefter, which flings a halo of beauty on the crumbling battlements of Kenilworth ; but the fpirit of a fweeter apparition — of one who never in reality feems to have been there at all — Amy Robfart. They who pafs the dark walls of Cumnor, may fhudder at the noCturnal tragedy which occurred there ; but the feeling is not more real or vivid than that which haunts us at the fight of Kenilworth, inno- cent as it is of that horror. Kenilworth Caftle claims a high antiquity. There was a caftle here, indeed, according to Dugdale, in the Saxon times, which flood on a hill called Horn, or Holme, Hill, which was battered down in the war betwixt King Edmund and Canute the Dane. This caftle was fituated on the hank of the Avon, in the woods oppofite to Stoneleigh Park. There does not appear to have been any rebuilding of a caftle on the eftate fo long as it remained in the hands of the crown. At the time of the Norman furvey, Kenilworth was found in poffeflion of two vaffals of the king, one of whom held what was called Optone, or the higher portion, and the other the lower part. In Henry IPs reign he granted the manor to Geoffrey de Clinton, who built a caftle on the prefent fite, as well as a monaftery near it. Henry III. granted the privileges of a market on Tuefday each week, and an annual fair of three days, to the village which grew up under its protection ; but thefe privileges died out from apparent abfence of any neceflity for them, till the Earl of Leicefter obtained a frefh grant of them from Queen Elizabeth. Geoffrey de Clinton, who rofe from a humble origin to become Lord Chief Juftice under Henry I., however, did not hand down this fair poffeflion to his family. In the reign of KENILWORTH CASTLE. 3 Henry II. we again find it in the hands of the crown, and garrifoned by the monarch in the rebellion againft him of his own foil Henry, who died before him. In the reigns of John and Henry III. the caftle was enlarged throughout, to meet the demands of thofe turbulent times. In the reign of the latter monarch, he granted it to Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicefter, and to Eleanor his wife ; but only for their refpec- tive lives. The ftory of Simon de Montfort is one of the molt remark- able of thofe days. This baron, who played fo confpicuous a part in the reign of Henry III., was the foil of that Count de Montfort who had gained an unenviable celebrity in the perfections of the Albigenfes, in the South of France. He became Earl of Leicefter in right of his mother Amicia, and, coming to England, was received in high favour by the king, and married Eleanor, the Countefs Dowager of Pembroke, King Henry’s filter. Much oppofition was made to this great match, efpecially by Richard, Earl of Cornwall, and titular king of the Romans, Henry III.’s brother, and molt power- ful fupport. Simon de Montfort, however, having fecured the bride, foon fet himfelf to win the affedtions of the Englifh people, and, though a foreigner, to oppofe the titles of foreigners who furrounded the throne, and preyed on the country. He became the leader of the barons againft the encroachments of royal power, and thus excited an enmity in the king againft him, as great as had been his regard for him. He was banifhed the court; yet in awhile, probably to remove him from the oppofition in England, he was made governor of Guienne. Here the fame fpirit of reform, or rather of repref- fion of the aftumptions and rapacity of the nobles, aroufed an outcry againft him ; he was recalled, and received fo infolently by Henry, that the proud de Montfort told the monarch that 4 KENILWORTH CASTLE. but for his royal rank he would have made him repent of the wrong on the fpot. Leicefter again retired to France, but was after a time reconciled to the monarch, returned to England, and refumed the work of popular, or rather baronial, oppofition. He was elected leader of the barons, who received the king in May, 1258, in Weftminfter Hall, armed, and demanding fweeping reforms in the government. From this time till 1267, or nine years, the conteft went on in Parliament, and by arms, betwixt the barons with Leicefter at their head, and the royal party, chiefly conducted by Prince Edward, afterwards the renowned Edward I. For a time Montfort was in pofleflion of both the king and the prince ; but the latter efcaping, came againft him, and defeated him in a great battle at Evefham, in Auguft, 1265, and releafed his father, the old king. Simon de Montfort was not only killed in this battle, but barbaroufly mutilated. His fon, alfo Simon de Montfort, however, continued the conteft for about two years longer, and had ftrong forces in the ifles of Ely and Axholm, the Cinque Ports, at Kenilworth, and in the forefts of Hampfhire. Find- ing it impoflible to put down the baronial power, the king confented to compromife, and at Kenilworth the conflicting parties came to an agreement, which was called the DiCtum de Kenilworth. The Earl of Gloucefter, however, did not come in to the terms of the DiCtum. He and others deemed the treatment awarded to the young de Montfort and his family too fevere, and the guarantees of the DiCtum too precarious. Supported by the Londoners, they flood out till November of 1267, — two years and three months after the battle of Evefham. The king then confented to a further acceptance of the conceflions which had been demanded by the great Simon de Montfort, called by the people “ Simon the Righteous and thus doled this long popular ftrife, excited by KENILWORTH CASTLE. 5 the pofTeflor of Kenilworth. But here did not entirely end the tragic confequences. When the pacification of the country was effected, Prince Edward, and Henry his coufin, foil of the King of the Romans, fet out for a crufade in the Holy Land. Prince Henry being in 1270 fent home on a fecret miffion by Prince Edward, took his way through Italy ; and one morning being at prayers in a church at Viterbo, heard a well-known voice exclaim: — “ Thou traitor, Henry, — thou fhalt not efcape!” Turning round, he faw, to his confirmation, Simon and Guy de Montfort, who, with their mother, the Countefs of Leicefter, King Henry’s own filler, had been excepted from the con- ditions of the Didlum de Kenilworth ; their eflates confifcated, and themfelves banifhed the realm. Thefe embittered enemies had become aware of his prefence in Viterbo, and now appeared in complete armour and with drawn fwords making towards him. He rufhed forward and clung to the holy altar, before which he was kneeling ; but in vain did the priefts endeavour to defend him. Two of them were themfelves killed by the enraged Anglo-Normans, and Prince Henry was aflaffinated, and his body horribly mutilated, in revenge for the treatment of their father at Evefham. Guy de Montfort had married the daughter of Count Aldobrandini, and by his aid the murderers were enabled to make their efcape. The fhock of this news haflened the death of the King of the Romans, Prince Henry’s father, and, as is fuppofed, that alfo of his uncle, Henry III., who died in November, 1272. On the furrender of the caftle of Kenilworth, Henry III. bellowed it on Edmund, his younger fon, whom he created Earl of Leicefter and Lancafter. During the more firm fway of Edward I., Kenilworth became as gay with feftivity as it 6 KENILWORTH CASTLE. had hitherto been ftern with war. In the feventh year of that reign a grand tournament was held at the caftle. Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, was the great promoter of this feftival, and was the principal challenger of the tilt-yard. There were a hundred knights and a hundred ladies affembled, and it was regarded as a fign of the fplendour of the occafion that the ladies were attired in filken mantles. The dances were not lefs gallantly attended than the lifts ; and, to avoid all painful diftinftions in regard to precedence, the whole party banqueted at a round table. Thefe exercifes began on the eve of St. Matthew, and continued till the day after the feaft of St. Michael. On the attainder of Thomas, Earl of Lancafter, fon of Earl Edmund, the caftle again reverted to the crown, and was defigned by Edward II. as a place of retirement, when he faw dangers arifing on all ftdes ; but it became fo to him in a very different fenfe to that which he propofed. Edward’s weaknefs and favouritifm had alienated his fub- jecfts, and had loft him that command in Scotland which his warlike father had acquired at the coft of fo many lives, and fo much treafure. He had in that country men as brave as he was pufillanimous to contend with. Robert Bruce and Douglas defeated him at Bannockburn, and afterwards drove him from Scotland. At home, his infane attachment to the Gafcon favourite, Piers Gavefton, had difgufted the whole country, and had caufed the death of the vain foreigner at Blacklow Hill, only three miles from Kenilworth, under the hands of the Earl of Warwick, the Black Dog of Arden, and other barons. Again the Defpenfers, father and fon, engrafted his favour, and funk him for ever in the regard of his fubjedls, by their unchecked aflumptions and rapacity. The father was feized and hanged at Briftol ; the fon, after KENILWORTH CASTLE. 7 fleeing to fea with the infatuated king, and wandering with him for weeks in difguife in the woods of South Wales, near Neath, was feized and hanged at Hereford, with feme other of the wretched monarch’s followers ; the Earl of Arundel being beheaded on the fame occafion. Thus reduced to the lowefl- extremity of difgrace and mifery, deferted by his wife, and in oppofition to his fon, the fugitive and now captive king was in the hands of Henry, Earl of Lancafter, the brother of Thomas, the earl who had been taken in infurredlion at Boroughbridge, in Yorklhire, and beheaded at PontefraH by Edward’s order. A more humi- liating condition cannot be conceived than that of Edward here. In the caftle which he had feized as the forfeited property of the attainted earl, he was now held clofe prifoner by that earl’s brother and his own coufin ; his favourites fucceflively deftroyed ; his party annihilated ; his wife and heir — a boy of only fourteen — alienated from him, and not a fubjedl in the realm but anxious to be well rid of him. After being kept at Kenilworth two months, Parliament met, declared that he had ceafed to reign, and proclaimed his fon, the Prince of Wales, amid univerfal acclamation. A bill was introduced by Stratford, Bifhop of Hereford, charging Edward with incapacity, cruelty, oppreflion, and a number of other crimes, and ordering his depofition. This was palled without oppofition; and on the 20th of January, 1327, a deputation, conftfting of bilhops, earls, barons, two knights from each Ihire, and two reprefentatives of each borough, waited on him here, and informed him of what had taken place, and that he was no longer king. The fallen monarch received this folemn deputation in the great hall of the caftle, wrapt only in a black gown, and formally renounced all right to the crown, except in favour of his fon, which he thanked 8 KENILWORTH CASTLE. them for recognifing. It is faid that, glancing round on the individuals of the deputation, his eye no fooner fell on one than he dropped fenfelefs to the ground. This was Adam Orleton, Bifhop of Hereford, whom he had deprived of his fee, and who had thence proved one of his molt powerful enemies. Orleton had headed the party of the guilty Ifabella, his queen, againft him, and had done more to the ruin of his charadler with the people, by fpreading the ftories of his difgraceful conduit with his favourites, than any man living. Then Sir William TrufTel, the fpeaker of the whole Parliament, pronounced the fentence of that auguft body ; Sir Thomas Blount, the fteward of the royal houfehold, broke his white ftaff of office, as at the death of a king, and pronounced all perfons engaged in Edward’s fervice difcharged and freed by that ait. The deputation then departed, leaving the fon of the powerful monarch Edward I., and the father of the equally powerful Edward III., the molt helplefs, ifolated, and abjeit individual in the realms over which he had fo lately ruled. On the 24th of the fame month proclamation was made in London of his depofition, and on the 29th the young king was crowned. He was by Parliament placed under the regency of his mother, the licentious Ifabella, and fhe was herfelf under the abfolute influence of Roger Mortimer, “ the gentle Mortimer fo' that Edward in his folitary prifon had the mortification of hearing that his wife, who had defpifed and helped to put him down, and her paramour, were actually reigning in his Head. But they did not forget him, though he now appeared fo impotent : they were afraid that there might be fome revulfion in his favour, efpecially as the clergy had the boldnefs to denounce from the pulpit the fcandalous connexion of Ifabella and Mortimer. They complained that the Earl of KENILWORTH CASTLE. 9 Lancafter favoured the depofed king too much, though Lancafter had the memory of the death of his brother to prevent too much lenity. But Lancafter was a humane and honour- able man ; Edward was, therefore, taken out of his hands, and put into thofe of Sir John Maltravers, a man of a fierce and KENILWORTH CASTLE*. BANQUETING HALL. favage temperament, fmarting under grievous wrongs from the king and his favourites. This brutal executioner removed the unhappy monarch from Kenilworth, carried him from caftle to caftle, heaped the moft cruel indignities on him, and c 10 KENILWORTH CASTLE. completed the horrible tragedy at Berkeley Caftle in a manner which yet Ihrieks through hiftory. Edward III. reftored the caftle and eftate of Kenilworth to Henry, Earl of Lancafter, for his fervices in placing him on the throne, and in the removal of the late king. By his marriage with Blanche, the grand-daughter of this earl, John of Gaunt, the fon of Edward III., became poflefted of Kenil- worth, with the title of Duke of Lancafter. To him the caftle owed both extenfion and improvement. The great Banqueting Hall is faid to have been of his ereddion, with mod of thofe portions of the caftle called the Lancafter Buildings, forming the weftern fide of the quadrangle. Again the caftle and eftate returned to the crown, through Henry IV. the fon of John of Gaunt, depofing Richard II., and feizing the throne. It remained the royal property till the reign of Queen Elizabeth, who conferred it with many other eftates on her favourite, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicefter. Leicefter, with the ambi- tion and difplay natural to him, determined to make Kenilworth one of the molt princely manfions in the kingdom. He expended ^60,000 — equal to half a million of our prefent money — in reftoring, enlarging, and embelliftiing it. He built the great entrance gateway and tower on the north fide, equal itfelf to many baronial caftles in ftrength and extent. He built alfo the part of the eaft front called Leicefter Buildings. He is faid to have refitted the great banqueting hall of John of Gaunt, and the range of buildings on the fouth fide, between the buildings named after him and the Lancafter Buildings. He alfo rebuilt Mortimer’s Tower and the Gallery Tower at the oppofite ends of the Tilt-yard. Having completed thefe magnificent works, he invited his royal miftrefs, to whom he was indebted for this fuperb houfe and eftate, to witnefs his lordly ftate there. This took place in 1566 ; and Elizabeth KENILWORTH CASTLE. I I was fo much pleafed with the entertainment that {he repeated the vifit in 1568, and a third time in 1575. It is the laft of thefe vifits that has been celebrated by Sir Walter Scott in his romance of Kenilworth, and has thus conferred a greater fil- tered: upon it than it could ever have derived from the whole feries of its hiftorical events. There are fome particulars of the defcription of the general appearance and condition of Kenilworth at/ this epoch, by Scott, that we may quote as making much clearer that which has to follow : — ct The outer wall of this fplendid and gigantic ftrutfture enclofed feven acres, a part of which was occupied by exten- five ftables, and by a pleafure garden, with its trim arbours and parterres, and the reft formed the large bafe-court, or outer yard, of the noble caftle. The lordly ftruCture itfelf, which rofe near the centre of this fpacious enclofure, was compofed of a huge pile of magnificent caftellated buildings, apparently of different ages, furrounding an inner court, and bearing in the names attached to each portion of the magnificent mafs, and in the armorial bearings which were there blazoned, the emblems of mighty chiefs who had long pafled away, and whofe hiftory, could ambition have lent ear to it, might have read a leffon to the haughty favourite who had now acquired and was augment- ing the fair domain The external wall of this royal caftle was, on the fouth and weft fides, adorned and defended by a lake, partly artificial, acrofs which Leicefter had con- ftruCted a ftately bridge, that Elizabeth might enter the caftle by a path hitherto untrodden, inftead of the ufual entrance to the northward, over which he had ereCted a gate-houfe, or barbican, which ftill exifts, and is equal in extent, and fuperior in archi- tecture, to the baronial caftle of many a northern chief. Beyond the lake lay an extenfive chafe, full of red deer, fallow deer, roes, and every fpecies of game ; and abounding with 12 KENILWORTH CASTLE. lofty trees, from amongft which the extended front and maffive towers of the caftle were feen to rife in majefty and beauty.” To give a more diftimft: idea of this fuperb place, the vifitor has only to fuppofe himfelf entering by the great gateway on the north, when, advancing along the great court fouthward, he would find himfelf in front of the eaffern facade. The great maffive tower at his right hand is Caefar’s Tower, fuppofed to be fo called from a refemblance to the Tower of London, but evidently Norman, and no doubt built by Geoffrey de Clinton. At his left hand, and forming the fouth-eaftern angle, ffands Leicefter’s more modern and ornate Tower, with its large Elizabethan windows ; and between them runs a lower range, called King Henry VIII. ’s Lodgings and Sir Robert Dudley’s Lobby. Betwixt Dudley’s Lobby, King Henry’s Lodgings, and Caefar’s Tower, is the arched main entrance to the interior court of the caftle. At the oppofite fide of the quadrangle rifes Lancafter’s great banqueting hall, facing weftward over the lake ; and at its north-weft angle rifes Mervyn’s or the Strong Tower, where Scott imagines Amy Robfart to have taken up her quarters, on her recent vifit to the caftle, during the great feftival. The buildings betwixt Lancafter’s Buildings and Leicefter’s, face the lake fouthward. The fpedfator, whilft making thefe obfervations, would have behind him the two towers, called Lun’s Tower and the Water Tower, built in the battlemented court wall, and with the moat outfide. To his left hand he would have the Gallery Tower and Mortimer’s Tower, with the Tilt-yard between them, and the lake coming up to them. Beyond them and the lake would fpread the chafe ; and on the right hand of the caftle he would fee the garden extending, with its ftatues and broad walks, to the Pleafaunce and the Swan Tower, both wafhed by the lake on the weft. Such was the afpedf of the place at the moment KENILWORTH CASTLE. *3 of the arrival of Queen Elizabeth. Of that arrival and vifit we have the quaint, conceited, but graphic defcription of Mailer Robert Laneham, “ Clerk of the Council-Chamber door, and alfo Keeper of the fame.” Scott calls Laneham u as great a coxcomb as ever blotted paper and no doubt he deferves the epithet : neverthelefs, he has left us a very amufing account of this remarkable vifit, in very antiquated language. He ftyles it “ A Letter, whearin, part of the Entertainment, untoo the Oueenz Maiefty, at Killingworth Caftle, in Warwick Sheer, in this Soomers Progrefs, 1575, iz fignified : from a freend Officer attendant in the Coourt, unto hiz freend, a Citizen and Merchaunt of London.” Before introducing fome touches from Laneham’s account, it is worth while taking a note or two of himfelf. Robert Laneham was a Nottinghamfhire man, who had travelled as a merchant-adventurer in fundry countries, and had picked up enough knowledge of French, Dutch, and Spanifh, to enable him to converfe with perfons from thofe countries on ordinary topics. Befides this, he could play on the guitar, citern and virginals ; had been a gallant amongft the ladies, and a bon vlvant amongft the men. He was fond of fack and fugar, which he fays made him “ flufh fo mooch a dayz ;” that is, have a very florid face. He was juft the man to fuit the Earl of Leicefter, and by him was introduced to this port at court, and, as Laneham boafts, did him many favours befides ; gave him apparel from his own back, got him allowance on the liable, and helped him in his licence of beans, one of thofe endlefs monopolies which opprefled the country under Elizabeth. In confequence, fays Laneham, “ I now go in my filks, that elfe might ruffle in my cut-canvas ; ride on horfeback, that elfe might manage on foot ; am known to their honours, and taken forth with the bell, that elfe might be bid to Hand back.” How KENILWORTH CASTLE. J 4 he exercifed his office, he thus tells us : — “ When the Council fit I am at hand. If any make a babbling, — ‘ Peace !’ I fay. If I take lifteneror a prier in at the chincks or lock-hole, I am bye and bye at the bones of him. If a friend come, I make him fit down by me on a form or cheft— let the reft walk a God’s name !” He adds, “ And here do my languages now and then Hand me in good ftead : my French, my Spanifh, my Dutch, and my Latin. Sometimes amongft the ambafladors’ men, if their mafter be within council ; fometimes with the ambaffador himfelf, if he defire me to call for his fervant, or afk me what it is o’clock ; and I warrant you I anfwer him fo boldly, that they wonder to fee fuch a fellow there.” We may from thefe paflages fee exadlly Laneham’s vanity and felf-confidence. He was by no means backward at putting himfelf amongft his fuperiors ; and no doubt, his language, his mufic, and his airs of foreign travel, made him amufing to them. Accordingly, he tells us that during the queen’s feven- teen days’ ftay at Kenilworth, he fpent many afternoons and evenings with Sir George Howard, and fometimes at Lady Sidney’s chambers, “ but always amongft the gentlewomen, by my good-will.” It was the rule at that day, as we find from a very rare book of 1671, that courtiers waiting in the ante-chamber or prefence-chamber were not to walk up and down, not to whiftle or fing for divertifement : if any one did fo, it was the uflier’s duty to rebuke him. What was more curious, “ it was uncivil to knock hard, or give more than one knock.” “To knock is no lefs than brutifti ; the way is to fcratch with the nails.” “If nobody was in the ante-chamber to introduce you, you muft try gently if the door be locked or bolted infide. If it were, you muft not knock or fiddle about the lock like an impatient perfon, as if he would pick it ; but you muft KENILWORTH CASTLE. 15 patiently wait till it is opened, or fcratch foftly to make them hear ; but if nobody comes, you muff retire to fome diftance, left you fhould be fufpedted of eaves-dropping, which would be a great offence to all perfons of quality.” It was confidered but civil for a perfon thus waiting to walk with his hat off* in halls and ante-chambers. Thefe were the rules that Laneham had to enforce. Laneham opens his narrative of the queen’s vifit with her arrival at Long Ichington, “a town and lordfhip of my lord’s ” within feven miles of Kenilworth, where Leicefter gave “ her majefty a great cheer, dinner, and pleazaunt paftime in hunt- ing by the way after, that it was eight in the evening ear her highnefs came too Killingworth.” Laneham always calls it Killingworth ; though he fays it was originally Kenelworth, fo named from Kenelm, or Kenulph, the firft builder of the caftle. Killingworth was the name commonly ufed at the time. The whole of the ceremonies of the queen’s reception and entertainment during her ftay were laid down in a mafque compofed by George Gafcoigne, the poet, ftyled u The Princely Pleafures at the Courte at Kenelworth ; that is to faye, the copies of all fuch Verfes, Profes, or poetical inventions, and other Deuices of Pleafure, as were there deuifed by fundry gentlemen before the Queen’s Majeftie, in the year 1575.” This, with all its long and adulatory addrefles in verfe and profe, which met Elizabeth at every turn from the mouths of all forts of heathen deities, may be found, as well as Laneham’s narrative, in the firft volume of Nicol’s “ Progrefles of Queen Elizabeth.” Sir Walter Scott has fo fully defcribed them in his romance, that we may be excufed taking more than a pafting notice of them. As the queen approached the firft gate, a perfon clad to reprefent one of the Sibyls accofted her with a poem ; at the i6 KENILWORTH CASTLE. next gate of the bridge or tilt-yard, a gigantic porter with huge club and keys made another addrefs, and the trumpeters on the gate founded their trumpets in welcome. Then a perfon attired as the famous Lady of the Lake of King Arthur’s ftory, came on a floating ifland to do homage at the fecond gate. On the different pairs of ports of the continuation of the bridge over a dry valley from the tilt-yard to the caftle-gate between which the queen parted, were placed cages with birds, green ears of corn as the gifts of Ceres, different kinds of fruits, oranges, lemons, pomegranates, &c.; grapes, wine, in livery pots of rtlver ; another pair of ports had a great difplay of fifh ; another a collection of arms and armour ; another of mufical inftruments. Over the entrance gate itfelf were fufpended her majefty’s arms, and a Latin poem in her honour ; every letter mentioning her majefty being in gold. Thefe verfes were recited by a poet crowned with bay, and in a long cerulean garment. In the caftle the queen was received with feafting, dancing, and a vifit from Jupiter Tonans himfelf, amidft burning darts, lightnings, and thunders. During the feventeen days that the entertainment lafted, Elizabeth could not turn any way, but pagan gods and goddeffes, favage men, fylvans, and nymphs, befet her path. Sometimes fhe hunted in the park, whence invifible beings fpoke out of trees and thickets ; fometimes fhe enjoyed one of her moft favourite delights, a bear-baiting ; and Laneham luxuriates in the defcrip- tion of this favage fport, where thirteen bears at once were attacked by the dogs ; and he details with the greateft gufto how the ban-dogs tore the bears by the throat, and clawed them by the fcalp, “with roring, tofllng, tumbling; how the bear would work to wynd himfelf from them ; and when he was lofe, to Ihake his ears twyfe or thryfe with the blood and flaver about fizaling, wos a matter of good relief.” KENILWORTH CASTLE. *7 One day they had the famous Coventry Hoketide play under the management of a Captain Cox, “ an old man I promiz yoo,” fo famous for this reprefentation that Ben Jonfon wrote a “ Mafque of Owls at Kenilworth ” to introduce him on his hobby-horfe. At other times they had all forts of feats of agility difplayed by an Italian, and at night again fireworks. They had all kinds of country fports, — the quintain, running, wreftling, even a country wedding celebrated. Amongfl other characters, a minftrel appeared in full coftume, and recited paflages from the ACts of King Arthur ; and Laneham runs into a great eulogy on bone fpoons as they appeared {landing upright in a bowl of furmenty in the minftreFs crefl ; “ how, beeing nether fo churlifli in weight az is metal, nor fo fro- ward and brittle to manure (manufacture) az ftone ; nor yet fo foily in ufe nor roough to the lips az wood is ; but lyght, plyaunt, und fmooth ; thot with a little licking, wool allweiz be kept as clean as a dy.” The manners of the time were not very refined. On the next page he tells us that the minftrel, preparing himfelf to recite, “ cleered his vois with a hem and a reach, and fpat oout withal; wyped his lips with the hollo of his hand (for fyling his napkin), tempered a firing or too with his wreaft, and after a little warbling on his harp for a prelude, began.” The flattery fhowered on the queen was without any flint ; often as coarfe as the manners, and fometimes abfolutely blafphemous. The fcene of the Echo, afterwards fo happily burlefqued by Butler in his Hudibras, is enaCted between a favage man all in ivy, and the faid Echo, in which the adulation is ftupendous, and yet not a whit beyond the capacious fwallow of this famous queen. But the climax of flattery was only reached by Gafcoigne himfelf, clad as Sylvanus, who aCtually declared that “ he had rather be her Majeftie’s footman on D KENILWORTH CASTLE. earth, than God on horfeback in heaven! !” (Nicols’ “ Pro- grefles of Queen Elizabeth,” vol I., p. 517.) But even this moil impious fpeech called forth no rebuke from Elizabeth, who was made fo drunk with flattery that fhe feemed to know no diftindtion betwixt due refpedt and the vileft fycophancy. But the truth is, when we difmifs romance and the mythic glories which fo long furrounded this age and monarch, and look Amply at the fadts which the official publication of the official documents of the court of this princefs prefent, we are (hocked to find what a mod demoralized and vicious reign was that of the fo-called virgin queen. This gay and gallant Earl of Leicefter, on whom fhe heaped fuch favours, and on whom file doted fo openly as to occafion the grofleft fcandals — who and what was he ? He was the grandfon of that fame Dudley who with Empfon was the bafe agent of Henry VIE for fleecing and oppreffing his fubjedfs, and whofe crimes and extortions were fo monftrous that they brought him to the block. But his diabolically-won wealth remained, and raifed his grandfon to a pofition higheft in the court of his fovereign, but through crimes of an equally dark dye. The only merits of this man were his hand- fome perfon and courtly manners. Hume the hiftorian fays, “ This earl was a great hypocrite, a pretender to the ftridteft religion, an encourager of the Puritans, and a founder of hofpitals.” He adds, “ He was proud, infolent, interefted, ambitious ; without honour, without generofity, without humanity. He had difcovered no condudl in any of his military enterprifes, yet the queen entrufted him with the command of her armies during the danger of the Spanifh invafion ; a partiality which might have proved fatal to her had the Duke of Parma been able to land his troops in England.” And this fhe did after he had wofully difgraced himfelf KENILWORTH CASTLE. 19 twice in the Netherlands, and greatly difgufted the Dutch Government. “No wonder,” fays Hume, “that a conduct fo unlike the ufual jealoufy of Elizabeth, gave reafon to fufpedt that the partiality was founded on l'ome other paffion than friendfhip.” In one thing, however, Leicefter was an adept, and that was in poifoning and aflaflination. His firft wife, Amy Robfart, was deftroyed by his orders in the manner defcribed in Scott’s novel, becaufe he had flattered himfelf that the queen was ready to marry him, but at an earlier period than Scott a flumes. Sir Nicholas Throgmorton being ambaflador at Paris heard fuch accounts of this murder, and of the probability of the queen marrying Leicefter, that he not only wrote to Mr. Secretary Cecil, but fent a meflenger exprefs to give Elizabeth the whole particulars. She only ftormed at Sir Nicholas, faying file knew all about it, but that Leicefter was at the time at court, and fo it could not be his doing ! However, neither Ihe nor Leicefter ever forgave Throgmorton, and Leicefter inviting him to make him a vifit, he died fuddenly, “ not without fufpicion of poifon,” fays Fuller, “ the more that his death took place in the houfe of no mean artift in that faculty.” After this he married Lady Sheffield, endeavoured to get rid of her too by poifon, and failing, denied the marriage, and compelled her to marry another man. His next vitftim was the Earl of Eflex ; for Leicefter taking a fancy to his wife, got rid, as thus ftated, of his own wife. Eflex alfo died fuddenly, and two days after- wards Leicefter married the Countefs. The fadt of this marriage was foon made known to Elizabeth by the Duke of Anjou, who was feeking her hand, and flie ftormed and put him in prifon, but foon forgave him again. Becoming jealous of the Countefs and Sir Chriftopher Blount, he endeavoured to aflaffinate Blount. When Leicefter was tired of the Countefs 20 KENILWORTH CASTLE. of EfTex he intended to poifon her too, and for this purpofe he gave her a bottle of liquor, as Ben Jonfon allured “ Drummond of Hawthornden,” which he willed her to ufe in any faintnefs ; which Ihe, after his return from court, not knowing it was poifon, gave him, and fo he died.” This took place at Corn- bury, in Oxfordlhire, in September, 1588. Leicefter, too, recommended Elizabeth to defpatch the Queen of Scots quietly by poifon, a council which fhe was anxious to adopt, but could not get Sir Amias Paulett, Mary’s keeper, to adminifter it, nor let it be adminiftered. Leicefter was as tyrannical and unprincipled as he was deadly in his purpofes. The “ Secret Memoirs of the Earl of Leicefter,” publifhed in his lifetime, ftate that the magnificent gardens and parks at Kenilworth were not completed without intolerable oppreftions. The Earl pretended that he had found an old record in a hole of the caftle wall, which eftablilhed his right over the eftates of many of his neighbours ; “ for he had lingular good luck always in finding out records for his purpofe, by virtue whereof he hath taken the lands, woods, paftures, and commons round about, to make himfelf parks, chafes, and other commodities, to the fubverfion of many a good family which was maintained there before this devourer fet foot in that country.” The fame volume mentions his “ intolerable tyranny upon the lands of one Lane.” But the cafe of a gentleman of an ancient family of the name of Arden was ftill more atrocious. This gentleman refufed to fell Leicefter his eftate. Leicefter ufed fuch preflure upon him, as compelled Arden to aft'ert his rights and independence as an Englifhman. He fet Leicefter at defiance, and relied upon the laws for pro- tection ; but he foon found how little law could avail him againft a royal favourite at that period. Arden had married his daughter to a Catholic gentleman named Somerville, who KENILWORTH CASTLE. 21 was infane, and this Somerville in one of his paroxyfms had drawn his fword, and fworn that he would kill all the Proteftants that he could meet with. This was enough for Leicefter. He had Somerville, Arden, and Hall, a Catholic prieft, arrefted, and torture applied. Nothing could be extracted from Arden ; but Hall the prieft, in his agony, faid he had once heard Arden fay he wiftied Elizabeth was in heaven. Enough ; within two hours after this, Somerville was found ftrangled in his cell, and Arden was executed as a traitor the very next day. Such was the confequence of any unhappy Naboth refufing his vineyard to this Elizabethan Ahab ! If modern difcoveries in the State Paper Office had not rent away the old romantic notions of the virgin queen and her court, we might have wondered at the attachment of Elizabeth to fuch a thorough villain as Leicefter. But the great Oueen was a match even for Leicefter in crime. She endeavoured to poifon the Queen of Scots ; and called Sir Amias Paulett and Mr. Secretary Davifon “ nice and dainty fellows,” becaufe they refufed to commit murder by poifon. She was accufed of having the Earl of Arundel defpatched by poifon in prifon, where he had been confined many years for having turned Catholic ; and fhe is faid to have done this becaufe, having executed his father, fhe fhrank from executing the fon alfo without fome clearly defined caufe. The character of Elizabeth has, till of late years, been taken on truft from the extravagant eulogies of the corrupt writers of her time. She has had a traditionary reputation as “the glorious Queen Befs,” “ the good Oueen Befs but the late refearches into the records of her reign in the State Paper Office have caft a dark ftiadow over that once brilliant fable. And yet, if people had taken the trouble to have confulted many truftworthy writers of her time, they muft have feen a 22 KENILWORTH CASTLE. fearful fight. Of the mere foibles of her character little need be faid : her vanity ; her irrefolution ; her thoufand dreffes, which were difcovered at her deceafe in her wardrobe ; her being painted up in her old age, face, neck and arms ; her numerous heads of falfe hair ; or even her curfing, fwearing, and beatings with her own lufly fills her maids of honour, and her very minifters, may be paffed over. But the licentioufnefs in which fhe is known to have lived whilfl calling herfelf a maiden queen ; the licentioufnefs which, in confequence of her example, pervaded her whole court ; the corruption of her courts of juftice ; the flagrant mifchief of the monopolies by which fhe allowed her favourites to fleece her people ; and the pauperifm and crime which abounded under her rule, are matters of far graver moment. Her indecorous conduit, not only towards Leicefler, but towards Hatton and Raleigh, Oxford and Blount, and the Frenchmen Simier and Anjou, it is better to draw a veil over. The court imitated the man- ners of the queen. It was a place in which, according to Faunt, “all enormities reigned in the highelt degree;” or according to Harrington, “ there was no love but that of the lully god of gallantry, Afmodeus.” Faunt afterwards adds in another letter,— “ The only difcontent I have is to live where there is fo little godlinefs and exercife of religion ; fo diflblute manners and corrupt converfation generally, which I find to be worfe than when I knew the place firft.” Under thefe hiftoric lights the grand pageant of Kenilworth afl'umes a very different afpedt to that which the romancift has given to it. The tragic death of Amy Robfart, by which Scott has conferred an interefl in thefe gala fcenes, no longer hides the other and many crimes which tainted the characters of the chief aCtors in it. In faCt, the death of Amy Robfart has been fomewhat violently imported into the narrative. She KENILWORTH CASTLE. 23 never was at this feftival, probably never at the caftle ; for her fearful fate occurred fifteen years before, namely, in 1560. What we really fee, then, ainid the pagan mummeries of Leicefter’s entertainment at Kenilworth, is a queen of forty- two, doting on the greateft criminal of the age, a pracftifed poi- foner, a ruthlefs opprefior, and the very fplendours with which he entertained this royal miftrefs built on the ruin of his neigh- bours. Knowing this, the charm of romance fades before the ftern realities of hiftory, and we congratulate ourfelves on the far nobler age in which we live — a time when virtue and purity poffefs the throne, and when the privileges of Englifh- men, won by centuries of political energy, Hand bafed on an independence that fears neither arbitrary monarch nor over- grown favourite. What a wonderful contrail does this era of art, fcience, and true liberty, prefent to the boalled days of Elizabeth, even with a Shakfpeare, a Spenfer, and a Sydney to honour them ! It was in returning from the grand entertainment at Kenil- worth, and whilll Ihe was at Woodllock, on her way to town, that the Queen was met by one of the moll horrible pieces of news which ever flew acrofs affrighted Europe — the Malfacre of St. Bartholomew. The Earl of Leicefter left his property to his brother Ambrofe, Earl of Warwick, for his life, and then to go to his own fon, Robert Dudley, whom he in his will termed his bafc fon. This was a fon by Lady Sheffield, the widow of Lord Sheffield, whom Leicefter had fecretly married during his refidence at court, at the very time that he and the queen were living more like married people than anything elfe. Yet as foon as he was tired of Lady Sheffield, file narrowly efcaped death by poifon, and, being menaced by Leicefter, file confented to marry Sir Edward Stafford. He was moft anxious to conceal this con- 24 KENILWORTH CASTLE. nexion from the queen, and he fucceeded. The unhappy Sir Robert, the fon of this marriage, came into pofleffion of Kenilworth foon after the deceafe of his father, by the death of his uncle, the Earl of W arwick, and he took meafures to prove his legitimacy ; but thefe proved his ruin. His father had married the Countefs of EfTex during the life of Sir Robert’s mother ; fhe had married another man ; and thefe inquiries were likely to bring to light many things which touched the honour of very powerful families. In fa£t, it was afTerted that there were only two ladies of Elizabeth’s court whom this accomplifhed rafcal had not corrupted. The pro- ceedings were put to an abrupt termination by a fpecial order of the Houfe of Lords ; the depofitions were fealed up, and copies were not to be taken without the king’s fpecial licenfe. Sir Robert, though he had proved his legitimacy, was politely permitted to travel : in plain language, he was baniflhed, that his damaging knowledge might be kept at a diftance from the public ear in England. Sir Robert is declared to have been a man of rare attain- ments ; but he mull have inherited fome of the libertine notions of his father. He had married Alicia, the daughter of Sir Thomas Leigh, of Stoneleigh Abbey, near Kenilworth, by whom he had a daughter Alicia. On quitting England, however, he did not take his wife with him ; but Dugdale informs us that “ Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir Charles Southwell, a very beautiful lady, went with him into Italy in the habit of a page, and there married him.” The emperor Ferdinand II. created him a duke ; and his real wife, who con- tinued to refide in England, and died at the age of ninety, bore the title of Duchefs Dudley. In the church at Stoneleigh is the marble altar-tomb of the duchefs and her daughter, with their recumbent figures upon it, under a canopy with arms on KENILWORTH CASTLE. 25 the facings. In the church of St. Mary, at Warwick, is the fplendid tomb of the favourite of Oueen Elizabeth ; with a Latin epitaph “ giving him,” fays the guide book, “ credit for virtues which hiftory refufes to aflociate with his name.” As Sir Robert Dudley continued to refide in Italy, where he enjoyed the friendfhip of the Duke of Tufcany, who conferred on him a penfion, and as he never returned to England, James I. feized on Kenilworth and prefented it to his foil, Prince Henry. Henry avowed his readinefs to pay Sir Robert ^14,500 for his title to the caftle and eftate, notwith Handing the legal incapacity to which he had rendered himfelf fubjedt : but owing to the death of the prince, only ^3,000 was actually forwarded, and no part ever reached the fugitive Sir Robert. What a Ruffian fort of liberty does this fa£t reveal to us in the time of the Stuarts, when a nobleman could not travel without a royal licence, and if he did not return at the time fixed, his eftate was feized by the crown ! The caftle, or rather the ruins of it, have fince pafled through various hands. It was the property of Charles I., at the outbreak of the civil war, when it fell into the power of Cromwell, who bellowed it on fome of his officers, who demolifhed it for the fake of the materials, which they fold. They felled the timber and drained the moat and lake. On the reftoration, Charles II. granted the caftle and eftate to Lawrence Hyde, afterwards Earl of Rochefter, a fon of Lord Chancellor Clarendon, who fucceeded to the title of a man, if poffible, more diftolute than Elizabeth’s Leicefter. After this it pafled by marriage into the family of the Earl of Eflex, and then to Thomas V illiers, after- wards Earl of Clarendon, whofe defendants ftill poflefs it. The prefent earl is careful to preferve the ftill magnificent ruins, as much as ruins can be preferved, from decay. The E 26 KENILWORTH CASTLE. remains of Caefar’s Tower, of Mervyn’s Tower, the Great Hall, and Leicefter’s Buildings, are ftriking fragments of the once magnificent whole. Leicefter’s Buildings, though laft eredted, exhibit the greateft decay, from being conftrudted of a more perilhable ftone. KENILWORTH MERVYN’s TOWER. Some remains of the ancient abbey, faid to have been built by Geoffrey de Clinton, the original builder of the caftle, ftill remain near the caftle, — part of them now forming a cow- houfe or barn, as well as the old gateway, — and the fine KENILWORTH CASTLE. 27 Norman arch forming the entrance to the parifh church is faid to have been the chief entrance to the abbey, which was removed thither. Altogether, the pleafantnefs of the country in which the remains of Kenilworth ftand, their own ftriking beauty, and the memory of the ftrange phafes and contrafts of human life which have occurred here, make them as inte- refting a fcene of ruined grandeur as any in the country. The Caltle of Caernarvon. HE caftles of Caernarvon, Beaumaris, and Conway, all on this north-weft coaft ol Wales, are monuments of the fubjecftion of the Principality by Edward I. Other caftles on this coaft he took and ftrengthened, for inftance thofe of Flint and Rhuddlan, as yokes on the necks of the North Welfh ; thefe three he built expreltly for that purpofe, and, though all now more or lefs in ruin, they remain fplendid evidences of his power, and of the architectural tafte of the age. We have no finer fpecimens of caftellated building than in the fortrefles of Caernarvon and Conway, and what remains of the extenfive caltle of Beaumaris fhows what it once was. Even the Wellh, who do not forget the objeCt of their ereCtion, yet regard them with pride. Edward I., a warrior and ftatefman of the firft rank, cherilhed, as the great purpofe of his life, the reduction of the whole of the magnificent illand of Great Britain into one compact and noble kingdom. This could not be done without invading the country and conftitutions of Wales and Scotland, which had as much right to maintain their own independence, their own laws and cuftoms, as England had. But warriors by nature and profeftion think little of fuch rights, and readily perfuade themfelves that the projeCl which aggrandizes their own CAERNARVON CASTLE. 2 9 country fan&ifies the mod flagrant ufurpations, and renders innocent all the bloodfhed and the crimes which irrefiftibly attend fuch enterprifes. At the prefent day, the general fenfe of both England and Scotland, if not of Wales, would refufe to pronounce on Edward I. any other verdiCt than that of a great benefactor to his nation for what he did, and even for what he attempted yet failed in, towards the confolidation of Great Britain under one crown. From the very firft eftablifhment of the Norman dynafty in England, it has caft greedy glances on the Welfh mountains ; and though it had been more fuccefsful in its attempts on Ireland, from the days of the fame Henry II. who conquered that country, encroachments had been fleadily making on the Welfh borders. As that monarch once rode through a part of Wales attended by a fplendid retinue of knights and barons, he looked with contempt on the Welfh gentlemen riding on their rough ponies, and on the poorer people clad in their goat or fheep-fkin garments. But the Welfh looked on the Englifh with an equal contempt, not unmingled with the jealous fear of the Norman thirft of conqueft ; and a mountaineer approached the proud Englifh king, and faid : — “ Thou feeft this poor people, but, fuch as they are, thou fhalt never fubdue them — that is referved alone for God in his wrath.” Still monarch after monarch difplayed his hankering after a fhare of their little mountain land, and flill more the bor- dering barons had made raids into the Welfh territory in order to plunder, and to extend their own already too exten- five eftates and jurifdiCtion. It was principally in South Wales that thefe inroads had been made. The conquerors had feized on the greater portion of Monmouthfhire, by the time Edward afcended the throne, and they held in pofleffion, though an uncertain and continually-difputed one, the greater 3 ° CAERNARVON CASTLE. part of South Wales. To fecure the hold they had gained, they raifed ftrong caftles ; and to ftimulate their aggreflive pro- penfities, the Englifh monarchs granted them large eftates out of the ufurped diftridls. As they approached the feet of the mountains, they raifed chains of fortifications at intervals fuffi- ciently near to be able to afford each other aid in any attack from the natives. Thus by the time of Edward I., there was a regular chain of fortreffes occupying the banks of the Monnow, the Wye, and the Severn ; thefe were Scenfreth, Grofmont, Monmouth, Trelech, probably Tintern, Chepftow, and Caldecot. A fecond line ftretched diagonally from Gros- mont on the Monnow, to the banks of the Rumney ; namely, Whitecaftle, Tregaer, Ufk, Langibby, Caerleon, and Newport. This diagonal line, with the ftrong caftle of Abergavenny to the north of it, was intended to curb the mountaineers, who made perpetual incurfions on the invaders. Thus the conflidl went on till the time of Edward I. : the Welfh feizing every opportunity to furprife any of thefe ftrongholds, and to cut off the Englifh paffing from one to another. But the advantage was ftill on the fide of the Englifh, and the circle of mountain independence continually grew narrower and narrower. Since the conqueft of Ireland, the Englifh fhips were on the alert to watch and blockade the weftern coaft of Wales, and, by the fortification of Milford Haven, to hold the port of embarkation for the filler ifland. In the wildernefs of Tivy, and amid the faftneffes of the mountains, moors and marfhes, the Welfh ftill held their own, and ftill breathed vengeance on the invaders. They would have been ftill more formidable to thefe, but for their mutual differences and feuds. As yet, however, little impreffion had been made on the northern portion of the Principality, and Edward I. fet himfelf to this great enterprife. He had learned in the Crufades to CAERNARVON CASTLE. 3 1 endure all forts of military hardfhip, and to encounter all kinds of obftacles ; and he now prepared in earneft for the inva- fion and thorough fubjugation of North Wales. He did not want for pretexts for his invafion. He complained that Llewellyn had not kept a treaty made fome time before, by which both parties had bound themfelves not to harbour or protect the enemies or revolted fubjedts of the other ; but this was as true of Edward as of the Welfh prince. He com- plained that Llewellyn had not done homage as the vaflal of the Englifh crown, which he had confented to do, and an accident enabled Edward to drive the Welfh prince to adts of hoftility. Llewellyn, in the reign of Henry III., had taken part againft that monarch with the barons, and with Simon de Montfort, their leader. He had now contracted a marriage with Elinor de Montfort, the daughter of the deceafed earl, who was on her voyage from France to Wales, when, with Emeric, her younger brother, fhe was feized by fome Englifh fhips and fent to Edward. Llewellyn juftly complained of this outrage on a prince with whom the Englifh king was at peace, and demanded the inftant releafe of his bride. But of this Edward took no notice, and Llewellyn in his refentment committed fome ravages on the Englifh borders. This was enough for Edward : he would have found fome pretence for the invafion of Wales, had this not prefented itfelf, or he would have commenced it without ; but now he fet forward at once, under the guife of the injured party. After the feaft of Eafter, 1277, he marched out of Wert- minfler with a force which increafed as he advanced north- wards. At Midfummer he croffed the Dee, and inverted and took the Caftles of Flint and Rhuddlan. Here he remained ftrengthening thefe fortrertes at his leifure, fpreading his fleet along the coaft, and cutting of all Llewellyn’s fupplies 3 2 CAERNARVON CASTLE. from the I He of Anglefea. Llewellyn and his forces were compelled to retreat into the mountains ; whilft his falfe and unpatriotic brother David had joined the Englifh invader, was living in his camp, and was rewarded by an Englifh bride, the daughter of an Englifh earl, for his treafon. David was him- felf created an Englifh baron, and was promifed great eflates and honour for his fervices in tracking his brother and coun- trymen into their mountain retreats, and for the enflavement of his country. On the arrival of winter, with famine added to its other terrors, Llewellyn was compelled to fue for peace. This was dictated to him at the Caftle of Rhuddlan on the ioth of November, and thefe were the conditions : — He was to cede the whole of the Principality as far as the river Conway ; to do homage for the remainder, and deliver hoffages for the keeping of thefe terms and for the maintenance of peace. He was allowed to retain Anglefea ; but that was to fall to the Englifh crown in cafe he died without iffue male ; and even during his life-pofTeflion of it he was to pay an annual rental of 1,000 marks. Befides all this he was to pay down a fine of fifty thoufand pounds. On the other hand, Edward engaged to furrender Elinor de Montfort. It was impoflible for Llewellyn to pay the enormous fine, and Edward made a merit of remitting that as well as the rent of Anglefea ; but he delayed to deliver up Llewellyn’s bride, and nearly a year elapfed before he did this. In the meantime the Englifh invaders, by their infolences and aggreffions, roufed the warm blood of the Welfh into refiftance. They derided the national cufloms of the Welfh, ridiculed their poverty, made conftant encroachment on their lands, and cut down the woods efpecially exempt from their touch by the treaty. David, the brother of Llewellyn, amid the favours and honours received for the ruin of his country, faw thefe atrocities and CAERNARVON CASTLE. 33 indignities perpetrated on his own people, and grew afhamed of his conduit. He paffed over to his brother, made recon- cilement with him, and joined him in repelling and punifhing the haughty conquerors. On the night of Palm Sunday, 1282, David, as fome amends for his paft treafon, attacked and made himfelf matter of Hawarden Cattle, killed mott of the defenders, and wounded and took prifoner the proprietor, Roger Clifford, the jutticiary, and a man who, though honoured by the Englith, was charged by the Welth with being one of their mott cruel oppreffors. There was a general rifing of the Welfh ; they defcended in torrents from their mountains, and headed by the two brothers, Llewellyn and David, advanced to the attack of Flint and Rhuddlan. Edward had rendered thefe impervious to their means of affault ; but they took and dettroyed other for- treffes, and drove many of the Englith over the Marches. On the receipt of this news, Edward haftily fummoned together a ftrong body of troops, and once more marched for North Wales. Before he commenced operations there, which he now meant to be of the mott decifive character, he received powerful reinforcements, and, attended by 1,000 pioneers, he advanced towards Flint and Rhuddlan, driving before him all oppofition. Leaving thofe ftrongholds in his rear well garrifoned, he took up his quarters at Conway, and fent for- ward his troops to recover the country betwixt that place and Anglefea. His fleet at the fame time failed along the coaft, and enabled his troops to reduce Anglefea. His large band of pioneers cut down woods and opened up roads into the very heart of the Snowdon group of mountains. There, however, the Welfh in their delpair fought furioufly, and in the narrow defiles of the hills they prefented obftacles to the advance of the Englifh troops, which were not overcome without terrible daughter. But Edward ftill had frefh fupplies of foldiers F 34 CAERNARVON CASTLE. marching down from England, or conveyed by his vefiels along the coaft, to replace the victims facrificed to his ambition ; and, determined to conquer the country at any coft, he pro- cured the fervices of a fpecies of troops fully accuftomed to mountain warfare, being mountaineers themfelves. Thefe were bands of Bafques from the Pyrenees, who climbed the fteepeft rocks and threaded the moft intricate valleys with as much lightnefs and rapidity as the Welfh themfelves. Thefe adtive and relentlefs enemies took the Welfh by furprife in their moft concealed faftneftes, and by their aid Edward chafed them from their laft places of refuge. Defcending from the hills, no longer their impregnable bulwarks, they, however, fell on Edward’s troops, who were crofting into Anglefea, with the fury of defpair. They found them engaged in conftrucfting a bridge of boats acrofs the Menai Straits, and, attacking them before it was finifhed, and whilft fome were on one fide and fome on the other, at the time of high tide, when their unfinifhed bridge was ufelefs, they effected a great (laughter of them, and amongft them a great number of the hated Bafques and Gafcons. On this occafion fell under the weapons of the exafperated Welfh, or in the waves, borne down by their heavy armour, thirteen knights, feventeen efquires, and many hun- dreds of foot-foldiers. Edward was himfelf ftill lying at Conway, probably planning or commencing the caftle there, which was to hold the Welfh in check, and afford a ftrong pofition for his troops in cafe of another general rifing. He now, however, advanced in perfon to chaftife their audacity ; but in a defperate encounter with Llewellyn himfelf he fuffered a fignal defeat, had two of his ableft generals killed, and was obliged to feek his own fafety in retreat to one of his caftles. Llewellyn and his brave fubjecfts were now highly elated, and felt confident that with CAERNARVON CASTLE. 35 the approaching winter they fhould fucceed in driving the proud enemy entirely out of their borders. But the refources of Edward were not fo foon exhaufted. Protected by his ftrong caftles of Flint and Rhuddlan, he could wait the operation of other plans, and the Welfh foon found that he had a ftrong army now advancing from Pembrokefhire and Caermarthen, through South Wales, to take them on that fide, while Edward himfelf fell upon them from the north. To meet this double danger, Llewellyn left his brother David to keep Edward at bay in this quarter, and himfelf marched fouth to meet the advancing forces. But the Englifh, who feem to have had good information of his progrefs and ftrength, fuddenly furprifed him near Builth, in the vale of the Wye ; and whilft he was feparated from the main body of his troops, and as he was repofing himfelf, diverted of his armour, killed him, cut off his head, and fent it to Edward ; who defpatched it to London to be placed in the Tower, crowned with a diadem of willow ; in mockery of a Welfh prophecy, that a Prince of Wales would be crowned in England,— a prophecy often fince fulfilled, but in a fenfe very different to what the Welfh or the prophet himfelf imagined. This terrible blow fcattered confufion and defpair amongft the Welfh. Many of the chieftains made the beft terms they could with the conqueror ; but Prince David, who had now done bitter penance for his early defertion of his brave brother, ft ill maintained the hopelefs conflict for about fix months. His end muff: have feemed to him dictated by a fevere Provi- dence, as the peculiar punifhment of his own crime towards his prince, his brother, and his country. As he had betrayed their caufe, he was now betrayed by fome of his own country- men and followers, and delivered a captive, with his wife and children, to the inexorable conqueror at Rhuddlan Caftle. CAERNARVON CASTLE. 3 ^ Edward difgraced himfelf by putting David to death with all the ignominy and brutal cruelty attached to the death of a traitor ; forgetting that he was no traitor, but a brave man who had been bravely fighting for the liberties of his country. It is true that his doom was fixed with all the folemn formality of a parliament held at Shrewfbury in the following September, but it was wholly at the option of Edward thus to try him or to acquit him. He was hanged, drawn, and quartered, and his limbs then fent to be expofed in different places, becaufe, as it was ftated by proclamation, he had “ confpired the death of his lord the king.” Thus fell the royal line of Llewellyn the Great, and the laft liberties of the Principality. There were yet much remaining ferment of an indignant population, and fome defperate attempts to revive a general refiftance, but they were all in vain ; and Edward fpent a year in North Wales after the death of Llewellyn in devifing meafures for fecuring the dominion that he had won there. The firft ftep was a wife one. Imme- diately after the fall of Llewellyn at Builth, he iffued a pro- clamation offering peace and the enjoyment of all their lands and perfonal liberties to the people ; affuring them that they Ihould be put on the fame footing in thofe refpedls with his fubjedls of England. Pie alfo ordered a reduction of taxes, and, whilft he introduced the general laws of England, he refpedled, as far as poffible, the ancient ufages of the country. He divided the whole Principality into {hires and hundreds, bringing it thus into conformity with the reft of the kingdom, and at the fame time facilitating its civil government and the prefervation of tranquillity. He gave liberal charters and privi- leges to various trading and mining companies, thus alluring the inhabitants by the hope of profit from their mountains ; and among!! the towns thus benefited, were Caernarvon, CAERNARVON CASTLE. 37 Rhuddlan, Aberyftwith, and others. Whilft, however, he en- deavoured to mollify the fpirit of the Welfli by the extenfion to them of civil, focial, and commercial advantages, he did not truft by any means wholly to thefe, but planned the erection of a chain of ftrong fortrefles which fhould command the north as completely as the fouth was commanded by the fame means. And thus arofe, with others, the three princely ftrongholds of Conway, Beaumaris, and Caernarvon. The caftle of Conway feems to have been commenced a - couple of years later than Caernarvon Caftle ; Caernarvon being begun immediately on the defeat and death of Llewellyn, that is, in 1282, or in the fpring of 1283. Conway was not com- menced till the following year 1284, when, finding that thefe two caftles were not fufficient to keep the Welfti in check, Edward eredled the caftle of Beaumaris, in 1295. There is a great refemblance in the ftyle of the two caftles of Conway and Beaumaris — they have round towers ; whilft Caernarvon has odftagonal, hexagonal and pentagonal ones. The caftle of Conway was ftill further defended by the town on the land fide, being alfo enclofed with a high wall and round towers, which yet remain. Every one is ftruck with the Moorifh look of thefe walls and towers, and the tradition is that Edward had them raifed after the model of fuch as he had been familiar with in the Crufades. The caftle of Beaumaris is curious from feveral caul'es. Though built on the banks of Beaumaris Bay, it has no natural fource of ftrength whatever. It ftands on a flat in an open country, rather commanded by the landward Hopes than otherwife. For this reafon, it was not only furrounded by a deep moat, well fupplied with water from a never-failing fpring, and alfo from the fea, but it is enclofed in a high, ftrong wall, with round towers and battlements, and every arrange- ment for thofe within annoying an enemy without. Between 3 8 CAERNARVON CASTLE. this encircling ballium and the caftle itfelf there is a wide fpace, fo that any enemy making himfelf mafter of this wall would have the fame procefs to commence again with the caftle itfelf, which is alfo defended by ftrong towers, and by walls of an enormous thicknefs. There is a covered way, called the Gunner’s Walk, running out at right angles from near the main gateway towards the fea, which it appears at the time of the building of the caftle came diredfly up to the outer ballium. Under cover of this way the garrifon could make fallies to attack any veflels approaching that fide. Nor are thefe all the precautions of defence. On obferving the gate- ways, though both thofe in the ballium and in the caftle are on the oppofite Tides, they are not exactly oppofite. The gateway in the ballium towards the fea is confiderably on one fide of the next gateway in the caftle, and this is the cafe alfo on the other fide of the caftle. The effedt of this would be to baffle greatly any enemy who had forced either of the outer gates. They would not find the inner gate diredtly before them, but on one fide ; fo that their onward impetus would be broken ; their means of diredting any catapult or other machine againft the inner gate would be diminiftied ; and in cafe that, on the forcing in of the outer gate, the inner one was not fecured, it would give the garrifon more time for that purpofe. The caftle of Caernarvon, which is the one now engaging our attention, differs greatly from thefe other two ; and if not more ftriking in appearance than that of Conway,— than which Pennant fays “ one more beautiful never arofe,” — it is equal in grandeur, and has, in truth, a royal and moft ftately air. Its fituation is very fine ; for, though it ftands in the not very fplendid town of Caernarvon, it is placed on the Ihore of the Menai Straits ; and, looked down upon from a rocky eminence called Fort Hill, a good view is obtained of it and CAERNARVON CASTLE. 39 the town, of the Menai Straits, the oppofite fhore of Anglefea, with the diftant fummits of the Holyhead and Parys hills, the blue peaks of the Eiflridge, in the promontory of Lleyn, the group of mountains furrounding Snowdon, and on a clear day the far-off heights of Wicklow, in Ireland. The architect CAERNARVON CASTLE. employed by Edward I., in its ere&ion, was Henry Ellerton, or de Elreton ; and, according to tradition, many of the materials were brought from Segontium, or the old Caernarvon, and much of the limeftone of which it is built came from Twr-Celyn, in Anglefea ; and of the gritftone from Vaenol, in the county of Caernarvon : the Menai facilitating the carriage from both places. 4 o CAERNARVON CASTLE. The foundations of the caftle are furrounded on three fides by water. It is bounded on one fide by the Menai Straits, on another by the eftuary of the Seoint, the river which runs hither from the Lake of Llanberis. As you approach the caftle, its walls and towers have an air of lightnefs, which deceives you completely as to its ftrength, for thefe walls are immenfely thick and ftrong. The doorways in the gateway towers and the windows are more lofty and graceful than the doors and windows generally in caftles of that age. The walls enclofe an area of about three acres, and are themfelves from feven to nine feet thick. They have within them each a gallery, with flips for the difcharge of arrows, and are flanked by thirteen towers, all angular, but differing in the number of their angles. The very maflive pentagonal tower, called the Eagle Tower, guards the fouth of the Seoint, and is fo called from a now fhapelefs figure of that bird, faid to have been brought from the ruins of the neighbouring Roman ftation of Segontium, but probably placed there fimply as being one of Edward I.’s crefts. This majeftic tower has three turrets, and its battle- ments difplay a mutilated feries of armour heads of the time of Edward II. This tower is the only one of which the ftaircafe remains perfect, and by 158 ftone fteps you may afcend to the fummit, and obtain a fplendid view thence over the ftraits, the town, and the furrounding country. In the lower part of this tower is fhown a fmall dark room, meafur- ing 12 feet by 8 feet, in which Edward II. was born. That unfortunate prince was moft probably born in the caftle ; but it has been endeavoured to be fhown that it could not poflibly be in this tower, as it would appear not to have been built for fome years afterwards, and, indeed, only to have been finifhed by Edward II. after he became King of England. The Rev. C. H. Hartfhorne, of Cogenhoe, in Northamptonfhire, CAERNARVON CASTLE. 4 1 afterted at the annual meeting of the Cambrian Archaeological Society, held at Caernarvon in September, 1848, that this caftle, inftead of being built, as Pennant and others reprefent, in about two years, was not completed in lefs than thirty-eight years— that it was begun in 1284, and only completed in 1322. As Edward firft entered the town of Caernarvon on the 1 ft of April, 1284, and his fon was born on the 25th of the fame month, twenty-four days only are left for the building of the Eagle Tower, which would be work, not for Englilh or Welfh builders, but for the Afrits of the “Arabian Nights,” and would feem to put an end to the whole tradition of Edward of Caernarvon having been born in the room affigned him by popular aftertion. And yet tradition fo often maintains itfelf againft ftatiftics, and againft theories ftarted long after- wards, that we fhould not be furprifed if, after all, the firft Prince of Wales was actually born in that little, difmal room. In the then difturbed condition of North Wales ; amid the intenfe indignation of the Welfh at the murder of their beloved prince, and the barbarous execution of his brother David ; under the well-known fpirit of revolt and revenge which was fiercely fermenting in the minds of the natives, it is not likely that Edward would rifk the fafety of his wife and his infant in the open town. No doubt he had ordered the erection of a ftronghold here immediately on the fall of Llewellyn. This was in the autumn of 1282, and Edward was born, it is faid, in the caftle of Caernarvon, on the 25th of April, 1284. Here was a good part of two years in which a ftrong building might have been raifed fufficient for a ftout defence : and this is probably what is meant when it is faid by the hiftorians that Edward commenced this caftle in a.d. 1282-3, and completed it in two or three years. It is rnoft probable that he did com- mence and complete fuch a caftle as anfwered his immediate G 42 CAERNARVON CASTLE. purpofe, and that in this caftle his fon Edward was born ; that Edward I., however, contemplated and eredled a much larger and more impofing caftle on the fpot — the prefent ftrudture ; and that he caufed the part in which his Ton’s birth took place to be encafed in the larger building, and that it forms an internal part of the prefent Eagle Tower, juft as the poet Thomfon’s cottage at Richmond now forms a portion of the larger villa of the Earl of Shaftesbury. It may be remarked that there is no appearance of any different mafonry on the exterior of this part of the Eagle Tower. Of courfe not. The architect would new-front that part in uniformity with the reft ; but that need not in the leaft difturb the exiftence of this room. That is our opinion of the real fa£t ; and it is one which at once reconciles the tradition and the proofs that the prefent fplendid fabric was not completed in two years, but in two reigns. All Mr. Hartfhorne’s ftatiftical fails may be fully admitted, and the tradition of the place remain untouched. We ourfelves have juft as much, or rather more, faith in tradition than in ftatiftics ; for, in fcores of cafes, tradition has aflerted itfelf luccefsfully againft apparent fails, and, in fcores of cafes, ftatiftics have proved very delufive. That Edward I. would be very fure to preferve the locale of his fon’s birth, and that the Welfti would vividly retain a knowledge of it, may be inferred from the part which Edward meant to play with his fon, and the delufive hope which his plan excited in the minds of the W elfh. He prefented this infant fon to them, and told them that they fliould have a native Welfhman for their prince. As Alphonfo, Edward’s eldeft fon, was ftill living, the Welfh, in their ardent patriotifm, fondly jumped to the idea that they would have their own principality under a prince of their own. Alphonfo died, Edward of Caernarvon became King of England, CAERNARVON CASTLE. 43 and that hope was at once fternly quenched. Under iuch circumftances, the Welfh were not likely to forget the fpot where the prince on whom fuch hopes were hinged firft faw the light. We may, therefore, without much chance of miftake, accept at once the fadls that Edward II. was born in this very tower, and yet that the Eagle Tower was not com- pleted till the tenth year of the fecond Edward’s reign. The main gateway of the caftle is flanked by lofty towers, of vaft ftrength. Over the grand entrance arch Hands, in a niche, a mutilated ftatue of Edward I., with his hand upon a half-drawn fword, as if to intimate that he was equally prepared to pluck it forth on any menace of refillance, or to Iheathe it at the defire for peace. In the archway beneath are grooves for four portcullifes. The entrance on the eaft fide is called the Queen’s Gate, becaufe Queen Eleanor is faid by tradition to have entered the caftle by it. On palling into the interior you obferve the traces, on the two oppofite buildings, of a partition wall having formerly divided it into two courts. Much of the interior is cleared away, leaving expofed one of the fine corridors, which led from one part of the caftle to another. On the fouth-eaft fide is foine modern building, which has been raifed within the old walls. Several of the dungeons are yet vifible ; and in one of thefe was confined, in the reign of Charles I., the celebrated William Prynne. No more zealous, fiery, and yet honeft fpirit, certainly was ever confined here than Prynne. He was at once a lawyer of Lincoln’s Inn and a determined Puritan. His famous u Hiftrio- maftix, or a Scourge for Stage Players,” being fuppofed to refledt on Henrietta, the Queen of Charles I., who had herfelf adted in a paftoral at Somerfet Houfe, Prynne was profecuted in the Star Chamber ; and his fentence and its rigid execution are a ftriking proof of the favage fpirit of the age, though it 44 CAERNARVON CASTLE. was already near the middle of the feventeenth century, namely, in 1634. He was fined ^3,000, expelled from the Univerfity of Oxford and the Society of Lincoln’s Inn, degraded from the bar, fet in the pillory, both his ears cut off, his book burnt publicly by the hangman, and himfelf condemned to perpetual imprifonment. But no amount of cruelty could tame that daring foul. Whilll {fill imprifoned in the Tower, and after three years’ durance, he launched forth another book, reflecting feverely on the hierarchy generally, and particularly on the popifh follies and political defpotifm of Archbiftiop Laud. For this he was further fentenced by the infamous Star Chamber to be fined ^5,000, to be again fet in the pillory, to be branded on both cheeks with the letters S. and L., for Seditious Libeller, to have the very roots of his ears dug out by the hangman, and to be imprifoned in this caftle of Caernarvon. But the event fhowed that there was a fpirit afloat which thefe fierce barbarities of regal tyranny were only roufing into a degree of fury which would fweep both church and throne from the land. The Puritan friends of Prynne flocked to Caernarvon Caftle in fuch numbers, that the poor mutilated prifoner fate more like a monarch holding a perpetual levee than a convict who had endured the vileft infults and the favageft brutalities of the law. Only ten weeks had elapfed fince Prynne was brought to this royal ftronghold when he was illegally removed by a warrant from the Lords of the Council, and removed to the caftle of Mount Orgueil, in the ifland of Jerfey. The current of democracy, however, was running at full tide, and 1641 faw Prynne releafed from Mount Orgueil by a warrant of the Speaker of the Long Parliament, and received at Southampton on his landing with all the honours and applaufes CAERNARVON CASTLE. 45 of a Roman conqueror in an ovation. A little time i'aw him a member of Parliament, reftored as a bencher of Lincoln’s Inn, and made Recorder of Bath. Yet, moll barbaroufly and fhame- fully treated as Prynne had been by the king, he did not let this embitter his fpirit againft him, or lead him to affift in condemning him to death. On the contrary, he denied the fupremacy of Parliament, protefted againft the affumptions of Cromwell, and was now imprifoned in turn by the republican power. He faw himfelf thruft into the dungeon of Dunfter Caltle, in Somerfetlhire, and afterwards of Pendennis Cattle, in Cornwall. He was expelled Parliament, declared incapable of holding any office in the Commonwealth, and deprived of the recorderlhip of Bath. He was one of the firft to work with the reactionary party for the Reltoration, and on the accomplifh- ment of that event was again reftored to his recorderlhip of Bath and his feat in Parliament, and was made keeper of the records in the Tower, where he had formerly been a prifoner. Yet even here did not end his troubles ; for his free expreffion of his opinion on Government matters fubjedted him to the cenfures of the Houfe of Commons. Befides his political doings and writings, Prynne was a voluminous author, as his “ Calendar of Parliament ” and his “ Records ” teftify. It is curious that in thefe laft he endeavours to prove the fupremacy of the Kings of England in ecclefiaftical affairs, as fhown by the public records from the earlieft times to thofe of Edward I., the latefl period which he lived to illuftrate. There is no reminifcence more lively than that of the fhort incarceration of Prynne in this caftle. One of its earlieft hiftorical events was the furprife of it by Madoc, a natural fon of Llewellyn, in 1295, and his retention of it till Edward I. expelled him from it. In 1402 Owen Glendower made a fuccefsful attempt to feize feveral of the Welfh caftles, but was 46 CAERNARVON CASTLE. repulfed from the gates of this ftronghold. In the wars of the Rofes it repeatedly changed mailers, and in 1644 Cromwell’s forces obtained pofleffion of it, made 400 of the garrifon prifoners, and enriched themfelves with much fpoil. Lord Byron foon after retook it for the king; but in 1646 the Parliament regained it. In 1660, the firlt year of Charles II., an order was iffued for the demolition of the callle ; but, fortunately, it was not completely carried out. The property Hill continues in the pofleffion of the Crown ; and the Marquis of Anglefea holds the office of conftable of it, as well as that of mayor of the town and ranger of Snowdon Forell. A Ihort dillance from the Callle, on the lleep bank of the river Seoint, are yet remaining fome llrong walls of a Roman fort ; and not far from them, between the town and the church of Llanbeblig, is the fite of the Roman llation of Segontium. That martial people faw, as well as the warlike Edward, the advantages of this fituation for keeping in check both the Wellh mountaineers and the iflanders of Anglefea. An extenlion of the Cheller and Holyhead Railway to Caernarvon enables tourills to vifit eafily this very noble and interelling callle. Camden fays that in his time Caernarvon was “ com- prehended within a fmall and almoll circular extent of llrong walls, the well fide being entirely occupied by its beautiful callle.” Camden alfo, fpeaking of the remains of the old Roman fort, near Segontium, fays, “ On the oppofite fide of the Seoint, about half a mile from the town, are the ruins of a Roman fort, its walls entire on three fides, about ten feet high, and near four feet thick, built of rude Hones ftrongly cemented together, and enclofing an area of about eighty yards from eall to well, by forty-five from north to fouth ; the weft fide, over- hanging the lleep bank of the river, has no traces of a wall. Helena, the wife of Conllantine, is faid to have had a chapel CAERNARVON CASTLE. 47 here, and her name is alfo preferved in a well half a mile below on the river fide, very good “ for bathing little lads when they be very Tick for want of wind breath, after being cleaned by a broom from the flaver.” This is a quotation from an older author, probably from Leland. The well appears to have been a fpa ; and the broom, no doubt, was intended to clear the fcum from its furface, not from the “ little Tick lad,” as would at firft fight appear the meaning of the paffage. The Priory of Lindisfarne. MONGST thofe wild and ftern bafaltic rocks and iflands which ftud the North- umbrian coaft, the haunts of myriads of fea-fowls, and the fporting - grounds of fierce winds, the largeft is Lindisfarne, or Holy Ifland ; fo called from its having become, very early in the Saxon times, the feat of a community of Chriftian priefts. This ifland is direcftly oppofite Beal, near the great north road, and now a ftation on the North-Eaftern Railway. On its north- weft point, indeed, there runs out a narrow promontory to within half a mile of the Northumberland ftrand. From the coaft below Beal there is a way marked out acrofs the fands by a line of ports ; and the paftage over thefe fands, which are bare at low-water, is fomething more than two miles. The country-people pafs over on foot or with carts at fuch times, but it is by no means fafe for ftrangers. The fands in the deepeft part are feldom fo free from water as to fuperfede the neceftity of wading above the fhoes ; and there are quickfands, which have not unfrequently lwallowed up horfes and carriages, as the records of the country fhow. Perhaps the beft crofting is from the lower end ofFenham Flats, nearer to Belford, where the coaft fweeps round fouth- eaft, and runs in a long promontory into the fea, to a point THE PRIORY OF LINDISFARNE. 49 called the Old Law, whence the pafTage to Lindisfarne is only about half a mile, and boats are always in readinefs to fetch you over. The walk along the coaft to this point is extremely wild. The fury of tempefts has thrown up a chaos of fand-hills, and LINDISFARNE J GENERAL VIEW. the riotous waves have torn out caverns and hollows, and fcattered the beach with fea-weeds, {hells, and drift, at high- water mark. The long, thin fea-grafs on the fand-hills hides in the wind as you advance, and behind other hills before you H 53 THE PRIORY OF LINDISFARNE. the fea booms folemnly. Here and there you come upon a fifherman’s hut amid the fand-hills, with boats, pitch-cafks, and old boards, the relics of wrecks, fcattered about. As you advance, the ancient Priory, and to its right the Caftle, — the two chief buildings of the ifland, — rife more and more boldly before you, juft as Sir Walter Scott defcribed them in the voyage of the Abbefs of Whitby and her nuns in “ Marmion.” Higher and higher rofe to view The Caftle with its battled walls, The ancient monaftery’s halls, A folemn, huge and dark-red pile. Placed on the margin of the ifle. As you approach, you are ftruck by the dark cliffs that gird the i Hand, flanked by enormous maffes of rock fallen from them to the fea-beach. You land and find yourfelves near the ruins of the Abbey, with a fiftung village adjoining it, and acrofs a moorifh flat, at about half a mile diftant, the caftle built into the fummit of a ftern pile of rocks. It is altogether a fifhing place, with its boats on the fhore, its refufe of fifh, and its drying-houfes for the herring feafon. There are children at play, fifhermen going about, flovenly-looking village ftreets, thatched huts, and the grand old ruins of the abbey. We ftand and wonder what in the olden time could have induced the holy fathers to choofe fuch a defolate fpot for their abode. It could not have been for the love of fcenery, it muft have been for the love of fouls. At prefent the population of the whole ifland is about 1,000 fouls, who have one refident clergyman ; but formerly, no doubt, the fame of the place drew worlhippers from very diftant regions. And in truth, we may fee that a certain refemblance to Iona, the original fchool of Britifh Chriftianity in the North, probably determined the THE PRIORY OF LINDISFARNE. 5 1 fettlement of the brethren here. The very air of defolation reminded them of their northern home : the margin of the fea, with its wild, tumbling waves, and the church a landmark far around to the inquirers after the faith that taught felf-denial and the afpiration after a higher world. In our account of Iona in our previous volume, we related the circumftances under which Lindisfarne became one of the firft feats of Chriftianity in the North of England, as Glafton- bury was at a much earlier date in the South. Iona was fending forth its devoted apoftles, not only into different parts of Britain, but to many a diftant part of the Continent, ere the ufurping power of Rome had clofed the way againft fo fimple and unambitious a race of teachers. Whilft St. Columb and his companions were Chriftianizing the Pi£ts of Scotland, as his predeceffors had Chriftianized the people of Ireland, Columbanus, — a younger and different man to Columb,-— and his friend Gall, went forth into Switzerland and France. Having fettled fchools of the faith in the Vofges, Columbanus advanced to Lombardy. Agilulf went and founded the convent of Bobbio in the Apennines. Clement conveyed the Gofpel to Bavaria, affifted by Sampfon and Virgilius. The latter pene- trated into Carinthia, and became Bifliop of Salzburg. Thefe great evangelifts were followed by John Scotus Erigena, who fettled at the court of Charles the Bald ; by Claude Clement, called Claude of Turin, from his ftation there; but who after- wards founded the Univerfity of Paris, as John Scott, called Albinus, did that of Pavia. Sedulius, labouring in the North of Italy, afterwards became Bifhop of Greta in Spain, as Donatus did of Fiefole in Italy; and it was by thefe men of Hibernia and Iona that the dodlrine of Chrift was eftablifhed in the Cifalpine valleys, and maintained its purity in the Waldenftan church, in defiance of all the power and perfecutions of Rome. 52 THE PRIORY OF LINDISFARNE. It was the lot of the meek but zealous Aidan to become the apoftle of the North of England. We learn from Bede that Donald the Fourth, King of Scotland, had embraced the faith from the preaching of fome of thefe fimple Culdees from the Weft, and had given an afylum to Acca, the widow of Ethelfrith, King of Northumberland, and to her feven fons, who had fled into Scotland with her from the wrath of their uncle Edwin. Donald feized the opportunity to inftil into the minds of thefe Saxon princes the truth of Chriftianity. On the death of Edwin two of them returned to Northumberland, and reigned there, one over Bernicia and the other over Deira. But they relapfed into idolatry, and foon fell in the invafion of Cedwell, King of Cumberland, and were both killed by him, one in battle, one in cold blood. Ofwald, who was the fecond fon of Ethelfrith, then made an attempt to reconquer his rightful dominions ; but, feeing the ftrength of the enemy, and the fewnefs of his followers, he threw himfelf on the power of the only true God, planted the crofs in the front of his army, and on his knees implored the Lord of Heaven to vindicate the rights of Chrift and of himfelf. V idtory fate on his banners; he recovered all Northumberland, and, thus confirmed in the new faith, he not only proclaimed himfelf a Chriftian, but laboured anxioufly to convert his fubjedts to that faith. He applied to Donald of Scotland to fend him a teacher of the truth ; and Donald fent to Iona, to requeft one to be haftened to Northumberland. Corman, a pious but auftere brother, was feledted on this million ; but he foon returned dilpirited to Iona, faying, “ The Northumbrians are fo obftinate, we muft renounce all idea of changing their manners.” As Aidan heard this he faid to himfelf, “ O, my Saviour ! if thy love had been offered to this people, many hearts would have been touched ! I will go and make Thee known — Thee who broke not the THE PRIORY OF LINDISFARNE. 53 bruifed reed !” T hen turning to Corman, he faid, “ Brother, you have been too i'evere towards hearers fo dull of heart. You fhould have given them fpiritual milk to drink, until they were able to receive more folid food.” All eyes were at once turned on Aidan ; and the brethren exclaimed, “ Aidan is worthy of the epifcopate ! ” And accordingly Aidan was fent to Northumberland. At that time Northumberland extended in a line from the Cheviots to the Tweed, and Roxburghfhire was part, not of Scotland, but of that kingdom. Melrofe feems to have been the location firft feleSted by Aidan, who arrived in Northum- berland in 635 ; but he foon refigned the charge to one of his difciples, and, moving fouthward, fixed his abode in the defo- late ifland of Lindisfarne, amid the roar of the ocean, and expofed to the ravages of the fierce fea-rovers of the time. The account which Bede gives us of Aidan is like that of one of the primitive apoftles. He traverfed the country on foot to teach the rude inhabitants, accepting the pooreft accommodation, and undaunted by any negledt of his teachings or any oppofition. In time he fucceeded in converting the chiefs, and then the bulk of the people. He died in the year 651, the feventeenth of his epifcopacy, of grief, it is faid by Godwin, for the death of the king who had proved fo true a friend to the faith and to him. He was fucceeded by Ferian, another monk from Iona, who converted both Peada, the fon of Penda, King of the Mercians, who had invaded Northumberland and killed King Ofwine, and Sigebert, king of the Eaft Angles, and they fent for four priefts to preach to their fubjedls. He was in turn fucceeded by Colman, who alfo came dire£l from Iona ; and in the third year of Colman’s epifcopacy there arofe a controverfy with the Roman church regarding the proper time of keeping Eafter, as well as the 54 THE FRIORY OF LINDISFARNE. mode of tonfure. This had begun on the firft appearance of Aidan on the fcene, as it had met the Britifli monks in every quarter where they approached the Roman ones ; but it was now raifed to an intenfity which demanded fettlement, and it was agreed to call a fynod at Whitby, before the Abbefs Hilda, to determine thefe points. The queftion was decided againft the Britifh priefts ; and Colman, rather than fall into the Roman practice, returned to Iona. In fa£t, the queftion included not merely the points diredlly at iftue, but that of the fupremacy of Rome, which was everywhere aflerted, and which the apoftles of Iona would not admit, any more than their followers the Waldenfes. Eata, one of twelve Englifti boys whom Aidan had educated, was at this juncture Bilhop of Melrofe ; he conformed, and one of his priefts, named Tuda, went to Lindisfarne, and fucceeded to Colman. Thus both Melrofe and Lindisfarne fell under the Roman rule. Tuda died of a peftilence in a few months, and was fucceeded by Eata, the Bifhop of Melrofe. He was the laft of what were called the Scottifh bifhops ; that is, Iona biftiops; and Bede, though oppofed to them on queftions of the tonfure and the true keeping of Eafter, takes the opportunity to pay them the higheft eulogiums on their fimple lives and zealous piety. In the church only was magnificence allowed. Their pofteftions confifted chiefly of cattle, for they only retained money till they could diftribute it to the poor. When the king came there it was purely for the exercife of the rites of religion, and he was attended only by a few followers ; and if he partook of refrefhment it was the ordinary frugal diet of the monks. As for temporal affairs, they refufed to meddle in them, confidering that the bufinefs of temporal authorities, and theirs to attend to the fpiritual needs of their flocks. Hence they were univerfally admired and beloved by the people. THE PRIORY OF LINDISFARNE. 55 Eata, underftanding that Cuthbert, who was Bifhop of Hexham, would prefer Lindisfarne, refigned it to him in 685. St. Cuthbert had originally been a fhepherd near Melrofe ; but, as he tended his fheep on the banks of the Leder, he faw a vifion of the fpirit of Aidan afcending into heaven. This divine fpedtacle had bach an effedt on his mind that he deter- mined to dedicate himfelf to the fame holy life which had thus glorified the good bifhop. He applied to Eata, and was received into the monaftery. He removed with Eata to Lindisfarne, and became prior there, till Eata refigned the fee to him. Lindisfarne was a place after his own heart. He ftrengthened himfelf here by prayer and meditation, and by long and arduous rambles through the moorlands and mountains of Northumberland, preaching to the half-favage population in the glens and faftneftes whither the found of the gofpel had never yet reached. After fourteen years of l'uch labours, though of only about two years as bifhop, St. Cuthbert retired to one of the Farn Ifles, a few miles fouth- ward, and in the one neareft to the land,— called thence the Houfe Ifland, — built himfelf a hut of ftone and turf, and gave himfelf up to prayer and meditation, like one of the old afcetics in the Thebaic defert. It is faid that he maintained himfelf by vegetables that he cultivated ; which mud have been one of the greateft of his miracles, for the winds fweep over this defolate ifland now with fuch force as to carry away any vegetation. Once his friends prevailed on him to return to the monaftery, but he foon quitted it again, and went back to his hut, where he died, and whence his body was conveyed to Lindisfarne, and depofited near the high altar; but on his deathbed the faint, forefeeing the deftrudtion of this monaftery by the inroads of foreign enemies, took a pledge of the brethren that whenever they were forced to quit it, they fhould carry his bones with them. 5 ^ THE PRIORY OF LINDISFARNE. The predicted invafion did not take place for 105 years, when the Danes and other barbarians fell upon it, deftroyed or drove away the monks, and pillaged the church. The monks who efcaped, however, this time returned and reftored the monaftery to a habitable condition. But nearly a century afterwards (in 887) the Danes made a more murderous defcent upon it : the holy brethren took up the relics of the faint, and quitted the place, which was on this occafion fo far demolifhed by the barbarians that it was never reftored, though a cell was maintained there till the reign of Henry VIII., when all the monafteries and their cells were fupprefled. The body was conveyed to Melrofe, and, the monks again removing, it was depofited for 113 years at Chefter-le-Street, the fee remaining there for that time. The brethren fleeing thence from fear of pirates, the faint’s body was removed to Ripon, and finally to Durham, St. Cuthbert and Lindisfarne becoming thus the parents of that great bifhopric. The legends of this miraculous wandering of the remains of the faint are well told by Scott in the fecond book of “ Marmion — Nor did St. Cuthbert’s daughters fail To vie with thefe in holy tale ; His body’s refting-place, of old, How oft their patron changed, they told ; How, when the rude Danes burned their pile, The monks fled forth from Holy Ifle ; O’er northern mountain, marlh and moor, From fea to fea, from (hore to ffiore, Seven years St. Cuthbert’s corpfe they bore. They refted then in fair Melrofe ; But, though alive he loved it well, Not there his relics might repofe, For, wondrous tale to tell ! In his ftone coffin forth he rides, A ponderous bark for river tides, Yet light as goffamer it glides Downward to Tilmouth cell. Nor long was his abiding there, For fouthward did the faint repair ; THE PRIORY OF LINDISFARNE. 57 Cheller-le-Street and Ripon faw His holy corpfe, ere Wardelavv Hailed him with joy and fear ; And after many wanderings pafTed, He chofe his lordly feat at laft, Where his cathedral, huge and vaft, Looks down upon the Wear ; There deep in Durham’s Gothic (hade His relics are in fecret laid : But none may know the place, Save of his holieft fervants three, Deep fworn to folemn fecrecy, Who (hare that wondrous grace. In this account Scott wilfully violates the truth of hiftory by giving St. Cuthbert daughters. No nuns were ever allowed in Lindisfarne, or at any other Ihrine of this flint. No woman of any kind after his death was luffered to fet foot in his ftirine, or his abbey. His honour had been afperfed by a fair, fall'e princefs, in his youth, and could only be cleared by a miracle. Henceforth he kept all women at a diftance, not even letting his monks keep a cow ; for he faid, “ Where there is a cow there is a woman, and where there is a woman there is mifchief.” Even the great Queen Philippa, who had, by the faint’s aid, won the battle of Neville’s Crofs, was not allowed to fleep in the Abbey, on a fubfequent vifit with her hufband Edward III. The monks having dilcovered this horrible facft at midnight, roufed her from her fleep, and, haftily colledling her garments, fhe had to flee to the caftle. Yet this averfion did not over- come the faint’s pious benevolence ; for we find in his life many inftances of his curing women miraculoufly of the moll ferious complaints. Excellent defcriptions of the very interefting ruins of Lindis- farne Priory may be found in Hutchinfon’s Hiftory of Durham, in Surtees’ Hiftory, and in Grofe’s Antiquities. Grofe fays : — “ The nave of the church confifts of a wide centre and two i THE PRIORY OF LINDISFARNE. 5* fide aides, the columns of which are heavy, and the arches circular. In the fuperftrudture of the north and fouth walls pointed arches appear. The windows are narrow, ornamented with a corner pilafter, and a moulding of a few members. The walls are very thick, and every part wears a gloomy LINDISFARNE PRIORY : RAINBOW ARCH. countenance. The fouth wall of the middle tower is Handing, about fifty feet high, and one corner tower at the well end of the church remains perfect. Thefe ruins ftill retain one mod fingular beauty — an arch unloaded with any fuperftrudture, THE PRIORY OF LINDISFARNE. 59 fupported by the fouth-eaft and north-weft corner pillars, and ornamented with the dancette or zigzag moulding, ftretching a fine bow over the chafin of ruins occafioned by the falling-in of the aifles.” This fine airy arch ftill remains like a “ rainbow in the fky,” and is confequently called “ the Rainbow Arch.” The build- ing is chiefly of a foft red fandftone, and is confequently much worn by the weather. The oldeft parts of the church are genuine Saxon, with low, fturdy columns, many of them five feet in diameter. Within the ruins ftand a ruftic chapel and burial-ground crowded with memorials of death by (hipwreck and the drowning of fiftiermen. No one ftiould vifitthe ruins of Lindisfarne without walking to the Caftle, and from its elevated platform taking a wide and noble view of the ifland and the furrounding fea and country. As to the ifland itfelf you have a complete view of it ; the ocean furging all round againft its dark rocks ; and its little area of cultivation, corn, grafs, and potato-patches, but bare of trees, the winds tolerating nothing higher than bufhes. Dugdale fays, “ The profpedt from the ifland is beautiful. To the northward you command the town of Berwick, over an arm of the fea about feven miles in breadth. At near the fame diftance to the fouth you view Bamborough Caftle, on a promontory. On the one hand, you have a view of the open fea, fcattered over with veflels ; and on the other hand, a narrow channel, by which this land is infulated, about two miles in width. The diftant fhore exhibits a beautiful hanging landfcape of cultivated country, graced with a multitude of hamlets, villages, and woodlands.” He might have added that betwixt you and the land you fee St. Cuthbert’s Ifland, whofe legend Scott alludes to thus : — 6o THE PRIORY OF LINDISFARNE. But fain St. Hilda's nuns would learn, If on a rock by Lindisfarne St. Cuthbert fits and toils to frame The fea-born beads that bear his name. Such tales had Whitby s fifhers told And faid they might his lhape behold, And hear his anvil found : A deadened clang, —a huge dim form Seen but and heard when gathering ftorm And night were clofing round. But this, as tale of idle fame, The nuns of Lindisfarne difclaim. Thefe foflrls, called Entrochi , or, popularly, St. Cuthbert’s beads, are ftill found among the rocks on the north-eaft fide of Holy I Hand. They are about the fize of the feeds of the mallow, and of a dark leaden colour. From the height of the Caftle, now a coaftguard Ration, you have a full view of the black and iron-bound rocks, called the Farn and Staple Iflands, the haunts of fea-fowl, and the lcene of fo many fatal wrecks. On one of the fartheft out at fea, called the Longftone rock, Rands the lighthoufe from whence the brave Grace Darling and her father ilTued to five the furvivors, nine in number, of the paflengers of the Forfar- Jhire Reamer, wrecked on the 7th of September, 1838. Turn- ing landward, the eye in clear weather catches the fummit of the Cheviot hills, and in fuch an atmofphere it ranges fouth- ward as far as the ruins of Dunftanborough. The great purfuit of the prefent inhabitants of Lindisfarne and the neighbouring coaR is fifhing. In the herring feafon there is a great refort to the Farn Ifles from different places betwixt Leith and Yarmouth, and even from France. North Sunderland fends out a little fleet of herring-boats, the great ground for the herrings being fouth-eafl of the CrumRone Rock. Lindisfarne fends alfo a great number of lobRers and holibut, THE PRIORY OF LINDISFARNE. 6l and other fifh, to London. Of the ancient purfuits of Lindis- farne fome fpecimens yet exift in illuminated Millais and Gofpels, in the library of Durham Cathedral and in the Britifh Mufeum. The one in the Britifh Mufeum is the fo-called Durham Manufcript, in its rich, jewelled binding. It is a copy of the Four Gofpels, written by the learned Bifhop of Lindis- farne, Eadfrith, or Egfrid. It is in his own hand, tranfcribed with all the elegance of Saxon caligraphy. It will be found in the Mufeum — Nero D., 4 — and has been mod minutely defcribed by Selden, Marefchall, Smith, Wanley, and, laft of all, by Aftle. According to a note at the conclufion of St. Matthew’s Gofpel, which gives a full account of this mod interefting book, the text — that of the Vulgate — was written by Eadfrith ; Ethelwald, his fuccefTor, fupplied the illumina- tions, which are brilliant beyond conception. Belfrid bellowed upon it a cover of filver and gold, bedecked with precious ftones ; and, a while after, Aldred, a prieft of the houfe, added an interlinear Dano-Saxon verfion, with marginal notes. The fubfequent hiftory of this book is very curious. It remained in the church at Lindisfarne until the monks were compelled by the Danes to flee from the ifland, and then it became the companion of their travels. During their flight it fell into the fea, and it is faid that a monk faw it in a vifion, thrown up uninjured on the coaft. On feeking for it, it was there found. At length it reached Durham, with the other treafures of the church ; and there it remained till Lindisfarne rofe again from its afhes, when it was carried back, and formed an item in the inventories of the priory of Holy Ifland till its diflolution. Lindisfarne had many inmates who could beftow wealth on fuch objects of art and veneration. Several Saxon kings and princes retired to it, and became brethren there. Amongft thefe was Ceolwulf, King of Northumberland, who refigned his 62 THE PRIORY OF LJNDISFARNE. crown in 737 to Edbert, his coufin, and carried with him to the priory great riches in money and eftate. He alfo intro- duced ale and wine into the convent, inftead of the milk and water of Aidan, their founder. In the reign of Edbert, the fucceflor of Ceolwulf, Offa, a prince of the royal blood, took LINDISFARNE PRIORY : NORMAN PORCH. fandtuary in Lindisfarne, from fome caufe not explained. Edbert, the king, dragged him from the high altar of this facred place, put him to death at once, and imprifoned the bifhop in Bam- horough Caftle. THE PRIORY OF LINDISFARNE. 63 Such were the fcenes that occafionally difturbed the quiet of this hallowed retirement, when the ftormy paffions of half- favage princes were added to thofe of nature. How fubftantial muft have been a fabric, fo Expofed to the tempeftuous teas, Scourged by the winds’ eternal fway. Open to rovers fierce as they, Which could twelve hundred years withftand Winds, waves, and northern pirates’ hands ! Tynemouth Priory. E Priory of Tynemouth was founded in the early Saxon ages, nearly coeval with Whitby and Lindisfarne. It fuffered the fame ravages from the Danes, and once or twice was totally demolilhed and left for long years as a heap of ruins. Yet it rofe, phoenix-like, from its afhes, and continued till the great era of Henry VIII., which put an end to the glories, abufes, benevolences and crimes, of all thefe magnifi- cent manfions. Tanner, following Leland and Creffy, afferts that there was a religious houfe there in the very earlieft ages of Chriftianity in thefe iflands. It would feem to have been originally intended for nuns, and fo continued to the time of St. Cuthbert ; for Virca, Abbefs of Tynemouth, prefented to that faint — not feeming to take any offence at his myfogyny — a rare winding-fheet, in emulation of the holy lady Tuda, who had fent him a coffin. Perhaps, however, thefe peculiar gifts might have a particular meaning, namely, that the ladies would be glad to have him comfortably configned to his ultimate home. Whatever might be the original ftru£ture on this airy fpot, we are told by Leland that Edwin, King of Northumber- land, ere£ted a nunnery of wood here, and that his daughter Rofella took the veil in it. Ofwald, the great patron of the Iona clergy, who began his reign in the year 634, removed TYNEMOUTH PRIORY. 65 this wooden building and replaced it by one of fubftantial ftone ; from which occurrence he has been reprefented by many as the original founder of Tynemouth monaftery. The place acquired fuch famftity that perfons fought eagerly to be buried within its walls ; and, amongft thofe interred within it, was no lefs a perfon than Ofwin, King of Ueira, who was flain by Ofwy, King of Bernicia, in 651. Again, it was faid to owe its foundation to Egfrid, King of Northumberland, who reigned from 671 to 685 ; but during his reign the Danes committed fearful ravages in Northumberland, and mod likely deftroyed the monaftery of Tynemouth, fo that Egfrid literally became its reftorer. In this revived ftate it received the earthly remains of Ofred, King of Northumberland in 792 ; but it was deftined to fuffer a fucceflion of ravages during the next century and a half from the Danes, fufficient to have deterred all attempts to re-inhabit it. It was plundered by them in 800 ; again by Inguar and Hubba in 866; again in 870, when it was occu- pied by nuns ; by Halfdan the Danifh king in 876, only fix years after one of thefe vifitations ; and finally in the reign of Athelftan, King of the Weft Saxons, between 924 and 940. Such was the defpair of the monks and nuns of Tynemouth — for it appears to have had both — created by thefe calamities, that, for a very long time, nothing could induce any of the religious to occupy it. In fa£I, its fituation was itfelf an invi- tation to the roving vikings to vifit it. It flood on a bold cliff, overhanging the fea, fhowing itfelf for leagues over the ocean^ and naturally awakening the cupidity of thefe marauders. At length, when they had left nothing further in Northumberland worth carrying off, the bifhop of the diocefe begged the fite from the Earls of Northumberland, and once more peopled it. Soon after this the fexton dreamed of the fpot where lay the remains K 66 TYNEMOUTH PRIORY. of the king and martyr Ofwin. Judith, the wife of Toftig, Earl of Northumberland, fupported the fexton in his fearch ; and, the royal bones being difcovered and honoured with a ftately tomb, conferred a great intereft on the monaftery. The Danes paid feveral fucceflive vifits to the coaft, took and burned the Caftle of Bamborough fo late as 995, but do not feem to have molefted Tynemouth. In 1074, Tynemouth Priory was deprived of the relics of King Ofwin, which were conferred by Waltheof, Earl of Northumberland, on the monks of Yarrow, who removed them thither. The earl alfo bellowed the property of Tyne- mouth, and all its lands, on Yarrow. Yet, though it was even taken from Yarrow, and made a mere cell to the monaftery of St. Alban’s forever, it became the burial-place of Malcolm, King of Scotland, and his fon, Prince Edward, who were killed on St. Brice’s-day, 1094. Succeffive kings confirmed to the monaftery all its lands and privileges ; and Hugh Pudfey, Bifhop of Durham, in 1 196, confirmed the monks of Tyne- mouth in all their tithes in Durham and Northumberland. About this time, however, Matthew Paris tells us that a man got into the monaftery in the garb of a monk, who was no monk, but a Judas, and who, fecretly watching his opportunity, put the prior’s feal to a counterfeit deed, which he handed to one Robert, their enemy, who thereupon began to boaft of what was in his power ; but, this exciting the prior’s fufpicion, the fraud was difcovered, and the traitor, having over-fed and drank himfelf, died of apoplexy, and the monks in the cloifter faid they plainly heard a voice faying, — “Take him, Satan! take him, Satan ! ” In the time of Edward II., the Scots, encouraged by his imbecility, made fierce raids into Northumberland, and plun- dered the Priory of Tynemouth ; but fome of them, being TYNEMOUTH PRIORY. 67 taken prifoners, were fent to London and hanged. Edward II. ’s queen refided fome time in the priory, and a natural foil of Edward’s, named Ada, was buried there. At the diflolution, the annual revenue of Tynemouth Priory amounted to a clear value of ^397 iOr. 5^. ; and its manors, manor-houfes, villas, and royalties in Northumberland, were numerous, as may be feen in Dugdale. In the reign of Edward VI., the Duke of Northumberland became the pofleflor of the demefne, lands, and appurtenances of the priory ; and Dugdale Hates the manor of Tynemouth to be in his time in the poffellion of the Duke of Northumberland, but the fite of^ the monaftery in that of the crown. From very early times there Hood a caflle in near proximity to the priory. No doubt the expofed fituation of the priory, and its frequent ravages by the Danes, rendered this meafure neceflary, though it could not be very conducive to religious quiet. In early times the prior, however, made ufe of the caflle for confining any of his refractory monks ; and Prior John incarcerated there William Pigeon, who contrived to put the prior’s feal to a falfe deed. Newcome, in his Hiflory of St. Alban’s, fays — “ During the invafion of England by the Scots, when the Englifh army was abfent at the battle of Crecy, Ralph Nqville, then keeper of the marches, intended to fend all the Scots prifoners to Tynemouth, under pretence of con- fining them there in the caflle, but in reality to eat up the prior and live upon the Church. But Thomas de la Marc, then abbot of St. Alban’s, haftened away to the king, who had juft arrived at Langley, and petitioned him that he would fuller no one — not even the prior — to lodge prifoners in the caflle. During the wars betwixt Charles I. and the Parliament, Tyne- mouth Caflle was befieged and taken by the Scots. A garrifon was put in by the Parliament, and the defences im- 68 TYNEMOUTH PRIORY. proved. Colonel Lilburn was appointed governor, but he declared for the king ; and Sir Arthur Haflerigg marched from Newcaftle againft him, {formed the fort, took Lilburn, cut off his head, and hoifted it on a pole as a leffon to other governors. In the period of the great French war, and during the menaces of invafion, the caftle and the whole promontory on which the priory ftands were treated by the military engineers in a manner that, however it might contribute to the fafety of the coaft, was greatly at the coft of the remains of the priory.” What the priory was in its beft days may be feen from a “ platte,” or plan, of the peninfula on which it ftands, made in the time of Oueen Elizabeth, and yet preferved in the Cot- tonian Manufcript, Auguftus I., vol. ii . , art 6. From this we learn that, “ entering from Tinmouth town, over a wide moat and drawbridge, ftood the Ward Houfe, with what was called the ‘ Utter P'orte ’ to the right ; a neck of land projecting from which, and rounding off parallel with that part of the penin- fula on which the abbey itfelf ftood, formed the ‘ Priour’s Haven.’ A little to the left of the drawbridge already men- tioned was the ‘ Gatehoufe Houfe,’ in the way from which to the ‘ Great Court,’ right and left, were the ‘ Kylne ’ and ‘ Conftable Lodgyng,’ the ‘ Back Houfe ’ and ‘ Mylne.’ To the left, near the brink of the cliff, was the ‘ Gonner’s Lodge’ and the c Pultre Yard ;’ then the north walk, with two barns, a barn-yard, a garner, three fets of ftables, and a cow-houfe. In the centre of the area which formed the complete fite was the ‘ Abbey Kirke,’ to the eaft of which was the ‘ Gardyn Place.’ The weft end of the abbey church, fomewhat nar- rower than the main buildings, as being apparently without aides, is marked as the ‘ Paryfh Kirke.’ North of this, apparently fronting the great court, already named, was the ‘ Priour’s Lodgyng.’ The ‘Chapter Houfe’ and ‘ Dortoz,’ TYNEMOUTH PRIORY. 69 or dormitory (continuing from which was the edifice named ‘Lord’s Lodgyng’), adjoined the fouth fide of the choir of the abbey church, forming the eaft fide of the cloifter ; part of the parifh church formed the north, the ‘ Common Aule’ the weft, and the ‘ New Aule ’ the fouth fides. South of the common hall were ‘ Botereye Aule ’ and ‘ Ketchyn ; ’ and then the ‘ Southe Courte,’ occupying the remaining fpace to the cliffs which overlooked the Prior’s Haven. North of the buttery hall and kitchen was the c Ender Courte,’ with the ‘ New Lodgyng’ and ‘ Bruhoufe.’ The whole precindt of the abbey was furrounded by a ftrong wall ; that part of the fite towards Tinmouth, being unprotected by the fea, appears to have been rendered doubly ftrong by a wall and ditch. Adjoining the ditch to the fouth-weft of the town of Tinmouth were the ‘ Old Fifti Pownds,’ now an old dyke.” Thus we have a moft complete view of the abbey and caftle of Tynemouth, in their full ftate in the Elizabethan era, with all their appurtenances about them, — granaries, fifti- ponds, everything requifite for them to hold out againft a fiege, if neceffary. At the prefent moment the place retains fome ftrong features of the olden time. True, the abbey has been affailed by Scotch Covenanters, Englifti Puritans, winds, weather, and thofe word of all dilapidators, men who look with covetous eyes on fine old buildings when they want to eredl ugly new ones without the trouble of quarrying and fquaring. Under all thefe influences this beautiful abbey has ftirunk to a mere fragment ; but it is a fragment which fhows what the whole mull have been, and what churls they mull have been who pulled it to pieces to build the prefent bald Governor’s Houfe. Walter White fays, with a juft indig- nation : — “From what remains of the ruin, with its tall and graceful arches, fome round, fome pointed, and all richly red 7 o TYNEMOUTH PRIORY. in colour, we can mentally rebuild the priory, and imagine its former pride and magnificence. Spoliation, more than time, is to blame for the deplorable dilapidation ; and it feems fome- thing like a mockery that the authorities fhould write a warning to the mifchievous, while the governor’s houfe ftill TYNEMOUTH PRIORY. {lands but a few yards diflant, a model of uglinefs, built of flone taken from the ancient walls. Looking thereon, you llill wonder how the builder could ever convert that which was already beautiful into anything fo unfightly. If it is left TYNEMOUTH PRIORY. 7 1 {landing as a foil to the architectural graces of the ruin, the purpofe is fully anfwered.” The portion of the priory church Hill remaining is moll beautiful. Its arches are for the molt part round, but here and there fhowing the pointed ones, included under a general round arch. There are three tiers of thefe arches, one above the other : the lower ones very tall and beautifully worked ; the fecond tier of equal grace, but fhorter ; the upper are greatly dilapidated. A portion of the choir is fitted up as a church ; and at the eaftern end is St. Ofwin’s fhrine, reftored at the expenfe of the Duke of Northumberland. It has its flained glafs windows, and emboffed ceiling, and refembles a lovely little oratory. But in ftrange contrail to it Hands, not far off, the modern barracks. The decaying church and the noify canteen rife fide by fide. It is an odd medley of the pi&u- refque old and the unpiClurefque new. What is moll in keeping with the remains of the abbey is a graveyard that lies around it ; but this the governor of the caftle, or the Board of Ordnance, fome years ago endeavoured to fhut the inhabitants out from, and to prevent them laying their dead by the fide of their anceftors. The fpirit of the people, however, broke through this arbitrary attempt. In faCl, there is no place more calculated to infpire folemn and elevating ideas than this lofty, airy promontory, amid the evidences of prefent human aClivity and the {lumbers of the dead. The fea dafhes on the perpen- dicular cliffs far below you, and roars amid huge blocks of Hone fallen from them ; whilft the eye roves far over the ocean, beholding bufy fteamers, gleaming fails, and, along the fands, fifhermen and ftrolling people, children at play, and nets drying. Stephen Oliver, the younger, in his “Rambles in Northum- 72 TYNEMOUTH PRIORY. berland,” fays, “To behold a ftorm at fea, a more likely fituation could fcarcely be pointed out than Tynemouth Caftle-yard ; for the fea, during a gale of wind from the eaft- ward, breaks with tremendous violence over the rocks at the foot of the cliff by which the caftle-yard is bounded ; and many a gallant fhip is wrecked in fuch weather ; fometimes diredtly on the rocks below the caftle, though more frequently on the Herd Sands to the fouth, or on the dangerous rock called the Black Middins, to the north of the Tyne.” We may fuppofe the anonymous author of the following ftanzas fitting on the edge of the Priory Cliff, mufing on fuch fubjedls, when he penned them. They relate to the “ Morning Star,” a veffel from the port of Tyne, which, in 1 8 1 8, perifhed in the Cattegat, with all hands. THE “MORNING STAR.” The “ Morning Star ” Sailed o’er the bar, Bound for the Baltic Sea ; In the morning grey She ftretched away, ’T was a weary day to me. And many an hour In fleet and Ihower, By the lighthouie rock I (fray, And watch till dark For the winged bark, Of him that’s faraway. The caftle’s bound I wander round, Among the grafly graves; But all I hear Is the north wind drear And all I fee — the waves .' TYNEMOUTH PRIORY. 73 Oh roam not there, Thou mourner fair, Nor pour the fruitlels tear ! Thy plaint of woe Is all too low, The dead they cannot hear. The “ Morning Star ” Is fet afar, Set in the Baltic fea ; And the billows fpread O’er the fandy bed That holds thy love from thee 1 Having faid enough of the hiftory of 7'ynemouth Priory, let us conclude with a fample of its traditions. In an old black- letter pamphlet, we have an account of the “ The Monk’s Stone, a Goodlye Legend of a Crofs ; fhewing how a certayne Monk wandered from his Monafterie of Tinemouth, and going unto ye Caftell of Seton De-la-Val, Hole therefrom a Pigg’s Head ; with what befell him on his waie back : newlie written downe by the audtour from fundrie truthes gotten out of diuerfe bookes and ould writeings, and from ye faieings of manie aunciente men and wiues of verie goode report.” The legend is more particularly told afterwards : — “ Once upon a time in the days of old, a certain monk of the Priory of Tynemouth, {Tolling abroad, came unto the Caftle of Seton De-la-Val, whofe lord was a-hunting, but expedted home anon. Among the manydifhes preparing in the kitchen was a pig, ordered expreffly for the lord’s own eating. This alone fuiting the liquorifh palate of the monk, and though admonifhed and informed for whom it was intended, he cut off the head, reckoned by epicures the molt favoury part of the creature, and, putting it into his bag, made the beft of his way towards the monaftery. A while after, De-la-Val and his fellows re- turned from the chafe, and being informed of the theft, which L 74 TYNEMOUTH PRIORY. he looked upon as a perfonal infult, he remounted his horfe, and fet out in purfuit of the offender, and by dint of hard riding overtook him about a mile eaft of Prefton ; and fo belaboured him with his ftaff, called a hunting-gad, that he was hardly able to crawl to his cell. This monk dying within a year and a day, — although, as the ftory goes, the beating was not the caufe of his death, — his brethren made it a handle to charge De-la-Val with his murder: who, before he could get him abfolved, was obliged to make over to the monaftery, as an expiation of the deed, the Manor of Elfig, hard by Neweaftle, with divers other valuable eftates ; and by way of amends to fet up a monument on the fpot, where he had fo properly chaftifed the gluttonous monk ; infcribing thereon : — O horor, to kill a man for a Pigg’s Head.” T hat is the main tradition ; but there are others, and one is that De-la-Val was conveyed to York, tried, and pardoned by the Crown ; and that the monks, chagrined at the refult of the affair, eredted this ftone with its infcription, to give vent to their mortification. But the fadt is, that the ftone, — a part of which yet remains in a field, a little to the north-eaft of Tyne- mouth, and in the immediate vicinity of the farmftead of Monkhoufe, — was an ancient crofs, called the Seton Crofs. It is mentioned in various ancient writings from the eleventh to the fourteenth century, and always called the Rood, or Crofs, and as ftanding on Rodeftane Moor. It is fuppofed to have flood at the boundary of the Seton eftate, and on a road pro- ceeding diredtly from Seton to Tynemouth, of which traces are yet vifible. When Grofe vifited it, this ftone was broken, part of it lying on the ground, and a gentleman told him he remembered it ten feet high. He gives a drawing of it, full of carved figures, and evidencing that it had been originally a TYNEMOUTH PRIORY. 75 very elaborately executed crofs. After his time, a farmer dragged the broken part away, and then pulled up the remain- ing pedeftal, becaufe people trod down his crops by reforting to it. It was put down again, but again fhifted repeatedly; the laft and fourth time, becaufe it was in the way of a farm outhoufe about to be built. It was then fet down in its pre- fent fituation. The upper part was afterwards found built into the wall of the barn of the fame farmhoufe. The moft probable tradition is that the monk was near this crofs when the angry knight overtook him, and fled to it for fan£luary ; to which the aflailant, in his wrath, paid no regard ; and that, in record of the offence, the monks had carved on the pedeftal the following rhyme, more ancient than the profe infcription already given : — O horrid dede To kill a man for a pig’s hede ! The fubjedb has furnilhed ballad and ftory. In one long ballad, which has been modernized and reprinted in the “ London Univerfity Magazine,” in the “ Story Teller,” and by Hone, Sir Delaval, as he is called, is made to go to the Crufades before he could feel “ all right ” after the penance and the lofs of his eftates. On his return, the ballad thus concludes Once more is merrie the border land — Hark ! through the midnight gale The bagpipes again play a waflail ftrain, Round flies the joyous tale; Many a joke of the friar’s poke Is pafled o’er hill and dale. The Ladye Delaval once more fmiled, And fang to her wean on her knee, And prayed her knight in fond delight While he held her lovinglie; 76 TYNEMOUTH PRIORY. Nor grieved he more of his dolours fore Though ftripped of land and fee. At Warkworth Callle, which proudly looks O’er the ltormy northern main, The Percy greeted the Border knight, With his merrieft minftrel ftrain, Thronged was the hall with nobles all To welcome the knight again. Now at this day while years roll on, And the knight doth coldly Lie, A ftone doth (Land on the filent land, To tellen the ftrangers nigh, That a horrid dede for a pig his hede, Did thence to heavenward cry Whitby Abbey. If e’er to Whitby’s filver ftrand Thy pilgrim fteps have (frayed ; Defcended Hakenefs’ valleys deep. Or roved through Elkdale’s lhade ; Then fure thy weary feet have toiled The fteep afcent to gain, Where holy Hilda’s mouldering pile O’erhangs the foaming main. Ballad of St. Hilda. NE of the molt ftriking objedts on the coaft of Yorkftiire is the rained abbey of Whitby. From its elevation, and its overlooking the fea-cliffs, it is an objedt feen far out at fea, and up and down the coaft. Expofed as is the lofty fite of the abbey ruins, the neighbourhood of Whitby itfelf has many beauties. The town lies deep below the abbey, and the church near it, in the vale of the Efk, the river running through it, and its houfes climbing in cluftered confufion, one above another, up the fteep hill-fides to a great height. In fadt, a flight of nearly two hundred fteps has to be afcended to reach the church from the level of the river ; but above them the view is very animated, of the river expanding deep below, between the bufy wharves, and the ftiips pafling in and out between the molly headlands that reftrain the billows of the ftormy fea. Near the church ftand the remains of the abbey, 7 » WHITBY ABBEY. WHITBY ABBEY. being enclofed in private grounds, but admitting free accefs to the public. In Dugdale’s time a great part of the central tower was Handing; but the laft portion of this fell in 1830, and now lies a heap of grafs-grown ruins. But Hill the main walls of the church, with their triple heights of finely-carved windows, and its richly-cluftered columns, remain to delight the eye with their grace and loftinefs. Moft of thefe arches are pointed, fhowing a much more recent origin than the earlieft ftrudlure of the abbey ; but there are ftill round arches that bear teftimony to a much higher antiquity. WHITBY ABBEY. 79 This monaftery is faid to have been firft erefted by St. Hilda, the abbefs of Heruten, now Hartlepool, in confequence of a vow made by her, and on ground granted by Ofwy, King of Northumberland. This took place in 657 ; and TElfleda, a daughter of Ofwy, became a nun in the eftablifhment, and fucceeded as abbefs on Hilda’s deceafe, which occurred in 680. The monaftery was for both men and women. The name of the place in the Saxon times was Streonefhall, meaning the bay of a watch-tower ; but on the invafion of the Danes it ob- tained the name of Vitby, or the White Town; now flightly changed into Whitby. The main event which diftinguifhed the rule of St. Hilda was one to which we have already feveral times alluded, — the council which was held here in 664 to fettle the queftion of the true time of keeping Eafter, and, in fa£I, the fupremacy of the Britifh or the Romifti Church in thefe iflands. Henry, in his excellent “ Hiftory of England” (vol. iii., p. 203), gives the fol- lowing account of this moft important event : — “ It appears that the Englifh in the kingdoms of Kent and Weflex were converted to and inftrufted in the Chriftian religion by milfionaries from Rome and France, whilft thofe of Mercia and Northumberland received the light of the Gofpel from preachers of the Scotch nation. All thefe different teachers eftablifhed the rites and ufages of the church from whence they came in thofe which they planted ; which gave rife to many controverfies between the Englifh churches in the fouth and thofe in the north, about their refpedtive cuftoms, particularly about the time of keeping Eafter, and the form of the ecclefiaftical tonfure. The churches planted by the Roman miftionaries kept Eafter on the firft Sunday after the fourteenth and before the twenty- fecond day of the firft month after the vernal equinox, and thofe planted by the Scotch kept that feftival on the firft 8o WHITBY ABBEY. Sunday after the thirteenth and before the twenty-firft day of the fame moon. By this means, when the fourteenth day of that moon happened to be a Sunday, thofe of the Scotch com- munion celebrated the feaft of Eafter on that day, whereas thofe of the Roman communion did not celebrate theirs till the Sunday after. The Romifti clergy in the fouth of England, animated with the haughty, intolerant fpirit of the church from whence they came, were not contented with enjoying their own cuftoms in peace, but laboured with much violence to impofe them upon the Britons, Scots, and northern Englifh, who were all abundantly tenacious of their own ufages. At length a famous council was fummoned by Ofwy, King of Northumberland, at Whitby, in Yorkfhire (a.d. 644), to determine this mighty controverfy ; which occafioned no little confufion in his own family, — his queen and fon following the Roman ritual, while he obferved the Scotch. The principal champions on the Roman fide at this council were Agelbert, Biftiop of the Weft Saxons, with Agatho, James, Romanus, and Wilfrid, priefts ; while Colman, Biftiop of Lindisfarne, with fome of his clergy, managed the argument on the other fide. The Scotch orators maintained that their manner of celebrating Eafter was prefcribed by St. John, the beloved difciple ; and the Romanifts affirmed, with equal confidence, that theirs was inftituted by St. Peter, the prince of the apoftles, and the door-keeper of heaven. Ofwy was ftruck with this laft obfervation ; and, both parties acknowledging that Peter kept the keys, the king declared that he was deter- mined not to difoblige this celeftial porter upon any account, but to obferve all his inftitutions to the utmoft of his power, for fear he ftiould turn his back upon him when he came to the gate. of heaven. This fagacious declaration was applauded by the whole aflembly, and the Roman orators obtained a com- WHITBY ABBEY. plete victory, at which Bilhop Colman, and many of his clergy, were fo much offended, that they left England and returned to their native country. St. Hilda, under whofe roof this great triumph of Romanifm was gained, was a princefs of the blood, being the daughter of Hereric, nephew — or, as fome fay, grandfon — of the great Saxon King, Edwin ; and was baptized by Paulinus himfelf, when only fourteen years of age. Her filter Herefuit was abbefs of Chelles, in Normandy, in whofe convent Hilda fpent a year, and then, returning to Northumberland, became abbefs of a fmall nunnery on the river Wear; afterwards of Heruten, or Hartlepool, and, finally, of Whitby. Bede gives us a long account of the death of this famous abbefs being feen in a vifion by a nun, who alfo heard the death-bell tolling fuper- naturally at Hakenefs, now Hacknefs, thirteen miles fouth of Whitby, and near the Ihore ; and that, when the meffengers arrived with the news of her deceafe on the previous night, they found the nuns faying mafs for her foul. This Hacknefs was a cell of Whitby. It lies between Whitby and Scarborough, and is now the property of Sir John Vanden Bempde Johnftone, Bart. The old manor houfe lies in a lovely valley amidft woods, having all the air of a monaftic feclufion. It was originally erecSted, like to many others on this coaft, for nuns ; but the pirates that infefted the feas in the Saxon times rendered it too unfafe for them. We are told, too, in the reign of William Rufus, not only that pirates ravaged this Ihore, but that thieves and robbers came day and night out of the forefts, and carried off all they could lay hands on. In Forge Valley, leading to Hacknefs from Scarborough, are the remains of a monaftic cell, and traces of an iron foundry, as at Rievaux Abbey, indicating that the monks M 82 WHITBY ABBEY. were not all “ lazy monks,” but looked after the minerals on their eftates. Such was the fandfity of this famous abbefs, that tradition relates that the numerous foUils found on that fhore, now called ammonites, and which refemble fnakes coiled up, but without any heads, were real ferpents which infefted that neighbourhood, and were thus deprived of their heads, and petrified for ever, at the prayer of the holy abbefs. Scott refers gracefully to this, and to other legends of St. Hilda and her convent, in the fecond canto of Marmion : — Then Whitby nuns, exulting, told, How to their houfe three barons bold Mull menial fervice do ; While horns- blow out a note of (hamc, And monks cry “ Fie, upon your name !” In wrath, for lofs of (ylvan game, St. Hilda’s pried: ye (lew ! This, on Afcenfion-day each year, While labouring on our harbour pier, Mud Herbert, Bruce, and Percy hear. They told how in their convent cell A Saxon princefs once did dwell, The lovely Edelfled ; And how, of thoufand fnakes, each one Was changed into a coil of done, When holy Hilda prayed : Themfelves, within their holy bound, Their dony folds had often found. They told how fca-fowls’ pinions fail As over Whitby’s towers they fail, And finking down with dutterings faint, They do their homage to the faint. Foffils, in fadt, abound in the neighbourhood of Whitby. Walter White, in his “ Month in Yorklhire,” fays : — ■“ The foffil fpecimens in the mufeum of the Literary Society of WHITBY ABBEY. 83 Whitby are efpecially worthy of attention. Side by fide with a leftion of the ftrata of the coaft from Bridlington to Redcar, there is a colledtion of the foffils therein contained, among which thofe of the immediate neighbourhood, fuch as may be called Whitby foffils, occupy the chief place. There are faurians in good prefervation, one .of which was prefented (fold?) to the mufeum for ^150, by the nobleman on whofe eftate it was found embedded in lias. The number of am- monites of all fizes is furprifing. Thefe are the headlefs fnakes of St. Hilda’s nuns, and the c ftrange frolics of Na- ture’ of philofophers in later days, who held that {he formed them for ‘ diverfion after a toilfome application to bufinefs.’ Perhaps it is to fome fuperftitious notion connected with the fnake-ftones that the town owes the three ammonites in its coat of arms. In all, the foffil fpecimens in the mufeum now amount to nearly nine thoufand.” The tradition regarding the birds is thus mentioned by Camden : “ It is alfo afcribed to the power of her fandfity, that thofe wild geefe, which in the winter fly in great flocks to the lakes and rivers unfrozen in the fouthern parts, to the great amazement of every one, fall down fuddenly upon the ground, when they are in their flight over certain neighbouring fields hereabouts ; a relation I Ihould not have made, if I had not received it from feveral credible men. But thofe who are lefs inclined to heed fuperftition, attribute it to fome occult quality in the ground, and to fomewhat of antipathy between it and the geefe, fuch as they fay is between wolves and fcylla roots ; for that fuch hidden tendencies and averfions, as we call fympathies and antipathies, are implanted in many things by provident nature for the prefervation of them, is a thing fo evident, that every body grants it.” Mr. Charlton, in his Hiftory of Whitby, attributes this effe£l to the number of fea- 8 4 WHITBY ABBEY. gulls that, when flying from a ftorm, often alight near Whitby; and from the woodcocks, and other birds of paflage, who do the fame on their arrival on flhore after a long flight. The ftatement of the menial fervice done by the defcendants of thofe baronial houfes to the abbefles of Whitby is very curious, and is quoted by Scott in his notes to “ Marmion,” as thus given in “The True Account,” printed and circulated at Whitby : — “In the fifth year of the reign of Henry II., after the conquelt of England by William, Duke of Normandy, the lord of Uglebarnby, then called William de Bruce ; the lord of Smeaton, called Ralph de Percy ; with a gentleman and a freeholder named Allatfon, did, on the 16th of October, 1159, appoint to meet and hunt the wild boar, in a certain wood or defert place belonging to the Abbot of Whitby; the place’s name was Efkdale-fide, and the abbot’s name was Sedman. Then, thefe young gentlemen having met, with their hounds and boar-ftaves, in the place above-mentioned, and there having found a great wild boar, the hounds ran him well near about the chapel and hermitage of Elkdale-fide, where was a monk of Whitby, who was a hermit. The boar, being forely purfued, and dead-run, took in at the chapel door, there laid him down, and prefently died. The hermit fhut the hounds out of the chapel, and kept himfelf in at his medita- tions and prayers, the hounds Handing at bay without. The gentlemen, in the thick of the wood, being juft behind their game, followed the cry of their hounds, and fo came to the hermitage, calling on the hermit, who opened the door, and came forth, and within they found the boar lying dead ; for which the gentlemen, in a fit of great fury, becaufe the hounds were put from their game, did moft violently and cruelly run at the hermit with their boar-ftaves, whereby he foon after died. Thereupon, the gentlemen, perceiving and knowing that WHITBY ABBEY. 85 they were in peril of death, took fandluary at Scarborough. But at that time the abbot, being in very great favour with the king, removed them out of the fandtuary, whereby they were in danger of the law, and not to be privileged, but likely to have the feverity of the law, which was death for death. But the hermit being a holy and devout man, and at the point of death, fent for the abbot, and defired him to fend for the gentlemen who had wounded him. The abbot fo doing, the gentlemen came ; and the hermit, being very Tick and weak, faid unto them, ‘ I am fure to die of thofe wounds you have given me.’ The abbot anfwered, ‘ They fhall as furely die for the fame.’ But the hermit anfwered, c Not fo ; for I will freely forgive them my death, if they will be content to be enjoined the penance I fhall lay on them for the fafeguard of their fouls.’ The gentlemen, being prefent, bade him fave their lives. Then faid the hermit, c You and yours fhall hold your lands of the abbot of Whitby, and his fucceflors, in this manner: that, upon Afcenfion-day, you, or fome of you, fhall come to the wood of the Stray-heads, which is in Efkdale-fide, the fame day at fun-rifing, and there fhall the abbot’s officer blow his horn, to the intent that you may know where to find him, and he fhall deliver unto you, William de Bruce, ten flakes, eleven flrout flowers, and eleven yethers, to be cut by you, or fome of you, with a knife of one penny price ; and you, Ralph de Percy, fhall take twenty-one of each fort, to be cut in the fame manner ; and you, Allatfon, fhall take nine of each fort, to be cut as aforefaid, and to be taken on your backs, and carried to the town of Whitby, and to be there before nine of the clock the fame day before mentioned. At the fame hour of nine of the clock, if it be full fea, your labour and fervice fhall ceafe ; and if low water, each of you fhall fet your flakes to the brim, each flake one yard from the other, and fo yether 86 WHITBY ABBEY. them on each fide with your yethers ; and fo flake on each fide with your ftrout flowers, that they may ftand three tides, without removing by the force thereof. Each of you fhall do, make, and execute the faid fervice, at that very hour, every year, except it be full fea at that hour ; but when it {hall fo fall out this fervice fhall ceafe. You fhall faithfully do this, in remembrance that you did moft cruelly flay me ; and that you may the better call to God for mercy, repent unfeignedly of your fins, and do good works. The officer of Efkdale-fide fhall blow Out on you ! Out on you ! Out on you ! for this heinous crime. If you, or your fucceflors, fhall refufe this fervice, fo long as it fhall not be full fea at the aforefaid hour, you, or yours, fhall forfeit your lands to the Abbot of Whitby, or his fucceflors. This I entreat, and earneftly beg, that you may have your lives and goods preferved for this fervice ; and I requeft of you to promife, by your parts in heaven, that it fhall be done by you, and your fucceflors, as is aforefaid requefted ; and I will confirm it by the faith of an honeft man.’ Then the hermit faid, ‘ My foul longeth for the Lord ; and I do as freely forgive thefe men my death, as Chrift for- gave the thieves on the crofs.’ And in the prefence of the abbot and the reft, he faid, moreover, thefe words : ‘ In manus tuas, Domine, commendo fpiritum meum, a vinculis enim mortis redemifti me, Domine veritatis. Amen.’ So he yielded up the ghoft the 8th day of December, Anno Domini, 1159, whofe foul God have mercy upon. Amen. “ This fervice,” it is added, “ ftill continues to be performed with the prefcribed ceremonies, though not by the proprietors in perfon. Part of the lands charged therewith are now held by a gentleman of the name of Herbert.” This incident is very illuftrative of the avidity and dexterity with which the Church, in the good old Roman times, feized WHITBY ABBEY. «7 on any circumftance by which to lay the great feudal lords and their property under its power. Thefe three young fprigs of ariftocracy little dreamed, we may be well allured, that in their fury over their game — a fury almoft equalling that of the game fanatics of the prefent day — they were attacking a member of the powerful abbey of Whitby in the perfon of the poor hermit. The hermit lived, it appears, from the 16th of October to the 8th of December ; that is, fifty-three days, or a month and more than three weeks. During this time the abbot and abbefs of Whitby had had plenty of leifure to plan the penance of thefe youngfters. This was nothing lefs than the rendering themfelves for ever vaflals of the monaftery of Whitby, and bound to their good behaviour to all generations. Pioufly as the hermit exprefled himfelf, the completenefs of the deed, as taken down from his utterance, (hows how much defign and deep policy lay under thefe words of forgivenefs. It was well that in fuch times there was a power which could hold in check the otherwife lawlefs barons ; but the reftraining power in time needed reftraint itfelf, and, not acknowledging it, fell and palled away. It may feem ftrange that the abbot of Whitby is mentioned in the cafe alone, and not the abbefs. The following paflage will explain this : — u The abbey of Whitby, in the Arch- deaconry of Cleveland, on the coaft of Yorklhire, founded by Ofwy, king of Northumberland, contained both monks and nuns of the Benedidline order ; but, contrary to what was ufual in fuch eftablilhments, the abbefs was fuperior to the abbot.” We may fuppofe that, in fuch cafes as the one above, the abbot came forward rather than the abbefs, as more fitted for fuch worldly work ; and it would appear that the male element, as is ufually the cafe, got the upper hand eventually, for there were no nuns in Whitby Abbey in Henry VIII. ’s time, 88 WHITBY ABBEY. nor had been for long before that period. The ceremony of the fervice done by the defendants of thefe wild hunters was called Horngarth, from the blowing of the horn. The Norwegians landed and plundered Whitby in the twelfth century, in the time of Richard, who had been prior of Peterborough, and who died in 1 175. When the abbey was furrendered in Henry VIII. ’s time, its grofs annual rental amounted to ^505, fome (hillings, fo that it had become very rich ; and, indeed, the enumeration of the places in its pofleflion Ihow its great wealth and power. They may be feen in Dugdale. The landed property at Whitby, and the fite of the abbey, were granted to Sir Richard Chomley, Knt., and in Dugdale’s time remained in that family, and, in fa£t, do fo ftill. Charlton fays : — “ Amongd others, Whitby Abbey, after being plundered of the wood, the timber and lead on its roof, as alfo of its bells, and everything elfe belonging thereto that could be fold, was left (landing with its (lone walls, a mere (keleton of what it had formerly been.” The cells, or houfes fubordinate to this abbey, were Hacknefs, in Whitby Strand ; Middlefburgh, the church of All Saints in Filhergate at York ; and Godeland, or Gotheland ; befides feveral hermitages. The abbot of Whitby was one of thofe abbots who were confidered fpiritual barons, but did not fit in Parliament. The perfon of mod literary didindtion amongd the monks of Whitby was Caedmon, the Anglo-Saxon poet, to whom, Bede informs us, the moft fublime drains of poetry were fo natural that he dreamed in verfe, and compofed the mod admirable poems in his deep, which he repeated as foon as he awoke. A fpecimen of his work, “ The Origin of Things,” is preferved in Alfred’s tranflation of Bede’s Ecclefuidical Hidory, and is fuppofed to be the olded fpecimen of the Saxon now remaining. It may intered the reader to fee what was the WHITBY ABBEY. 89 language fpoken and written in this country about a.d. 670, and therefore we prefent this fragment with a literal tranflation of it in parallel columns : — The fame of St. Hilda was very great all over the north of England in Catholic times ; and not only was there a full belief in her headlefs fnakes, — How foie amid the ferpent tribe The holy abbefs flood, With fervent faith, and up-lift hands Grafping the holy ro od ; The fuppliant’s prayer and powerful charm, The unnumbered reptiles own ; Each, falling from the cliff, becomes A headlefs coil of (tone ; How, when above the oriel arch The fcreaming fea-fowl foared, Their drooping pinions confcious fell, And the virgin faint adored ; Nu we fceolan herian Heofon-rices weard. Metodes mihte, And his mod-gethone. Wera wuldor-feder 1 Swa he wundra gehwa’s. Ece drihten, Oord onftealde. He aereft gefceop Eorthan bearnum Heofon to hrofe, Halig fcyppend 1 Tha Middangeard, Moncynnes weard, Ece dryhten, /Efter teode, Firum foldan, Frea aelmitig. Now muft we praife The guardian of heaven’s kingdom. The Creator’s might, And his mind’s thought. Glorious Father of Man 1 As of every wonder he, Lord Eternal, From the beginning. He firft framed For the children of earth The heaven as a roof, The holy Creator 1 Then mid-earth, The Guardian of Mankind, The Eternal Lord, Afterwards produced, The earth for men, Lord Almighty. and likewife N 9 ° WHITBY ABBEY. but Charlton, in his hiftory of Whitby, fays : — “ I fhall produce one inftance more of the great veneration paid to Lady Hilda, which prevails even in our days ; and that is the conftant opinion that fhe rendered, and ftill renders, herfelf vifible, on fome occafions, in the Abbey of Streonefhall, or Whitby, where fhe long refided. At a particular time of the year, namely, in the fummer months, at ten or eleven in the forenoon, the fun- beams fall in the infide of the northern part of the choir ; and it is then that the fpedlators, who ftand on the weft fide of Whitby churchyard, fo as juft to fee the moft northerly part of the abbey, paft the north end of Whitby church, imagine that they perceive, in one of the higheft windows, the refem- blance of a woman arrayed in a fhroud. Though we are certain that this is only a reflection caufed by the fplendour of the funbeams, yet fame reports it, and it is conftantly believed among the vulgar, to be an appearance of Lady Hilda in her fhroud, or, rather, in a glorified ftate ; before which, I make no doubt, the Papifts, even in thefe our days, offer up their prayers with as much zeal and devotion as before any other image of their glorified faint.” v Netley Abbey. LEASURE touriffs croffing from Southamp- ton to Cowes in the Ifle of Wight, have often admired the woods of Netley on their hanging fhore, with here and there a fummit of broken wall peering through the noble trees. The fituation on the banks of Southampton Water, about three miles from that town, and near a part of the New Foreft, is parti- cularly charming, and has often drawn the foot of the lover of nature or of art to a nearer infpedtion of it. The beauty of the place is by no means diminifhed by this approximation. There is a foreft air about it ftill ; the trees are wonderfully lofty and fine, and many of them have fprung up in the interior of the once fair building, whilft mafles of luxuriant ivy clamber the lofty walls, and depend in rich prodigality from their crum- bling fummits, adding a fuller grace to the fcene. The vifitor, feated on a fallen ftone, ftill feels a foreft filence around him ; and the neighbourhood of the Southampton Water feems to complete the feeling of the monaftic tranquillity which for ages brooded over the fpot. Mr. Moile, in his tc State Trials,” has infufed this feeling livingly, bringing into the picture the monks of Binftead, alfo, in the Ifle of Wight, oppofite, — In Netley Abbey, — on the neighbouring ifle The woods of Binftead fhroud as fair a pile ; — Where Hoping meadows fringe the fhore with green, A river of the ocean rolls between, 92 NETLEY ABBEY. NETLEY ABBEY : EAST WINDOW. Whofe murmurs, borne on funny winds, difport Through oriel windows and a clobbered court; O’er hills fo fair, o’er terraces fo fweet, The fea comes twice a-day to kifs their feet ; Where founding caverns mine the garden bowers, Where groves intone, where many an ilex towers, And many a fragrant breath exhales from fruit and flowers ; And lowing herds and feathered warblers there Make myftic concords with repofe and prayer; Mixed with the hum of apiaries near, The mill’s far cataradl and the fea-boy’s cheer ; Whofe oars beat time to litanies at noon, NETLEY ABBEY. 93 Or hymns at compline by the riling moon ; Where, after chimes, each chapel echoes round Like one aerial instrument of found, Some vaft, harmonious fabric of the Lord’s. Netley Abbey, however, has little befides its prefent beauty to intereft the imagination. No ftriking hiftories prefent themfelves in its annals ; in fail, its annals are loft ; no regifter of the abbey is known to exift. In this refpedt, the glorious old Abbey of Beaulieu, whence its monks originally came, has much the advantage over it. There fudden oftfhoots from the fecular world’s convulfions, ever and anon fuddenly broke its religious repofe, and called in the monks to adminifter confola- tion to the glittering but lefs happy beings of the political fpheres of exiftence. There came the brave but unfortunate Margaret of Anjou, feeking refuge ; there the bold impoftor, Perkin Warbeck, made a palling retreat. Netley, fituated nearer to the coaft, would have feemed more expofed to fuch vifitations ; but it appears Angularly to have efcaped, and to have flumbered on in a dream-like, poetical quiet, through its days of profperity. Its prefent remains Ihow plainly its date. Its light and lofty arches and pointed windows are of the early Englifh order, according with the date of its foundation in 1239, by Henry III., who dedicated it to the Virgin Mary and St. Edward. Some authors have doubted its foundation by Henry ; but the charter of the third Henry, given in Dugdale, fuffi- ciently attefts its foundation by him, and this is confirmed by the annals of Waverley and Parcolude. It was anciently called varioufly Netley, Nethley, Letteley, Edwardftow, or De Loco Sandti Edwardi. The name has been traced to de laeto loco , from its pleafant fituation, and again from Natan-leaga, or Leas of Nate, a wooded diftridl extending from the Avon to 94 NETLEY ABBEY. the Teft and Itchin. John, Earl of Warren, one of the great patrons of Caflleacre, in Norfolk, alfo confirmed to Netley the manor of Schire, near Guildford, in Surrey, which had been given to the monks by Roger de Clerc, in the year 1252. For a long time its revenues continued very frnall. It was, however, afterwards better endowed by Edmund Earl of Corn- wall, Robert de Ver, and Walter de Burg, the laft of whom conferred on it lands in Lincolnfhire. But, at the diffolution, its grofs revenue only amounted to ^160 2 s. g^d, and its clear revenue to £100 12 s. 8 d. The deftrudlion of the abbey, according to Willis Brown, commenced about the period when it was inhabited by the Earl of Huntingdon. This was after it had parted from the family of Sir William Paulet, to whom it had been granted by Henry VIII., and afterwards from that of the Earl of Hertford. The Earl of Huntingdon, — or Sir Bartlet Lucy, as aflerted by others, — fold the materials to a builder of Southampton, foon after the beginning of the eighteenth century ; but an accident which happened to Mr. Taylor, the builder, faved the edifice, or rather the prefent ruins of it. The account of the accident is this. Sir Bartlet Lucy, who had become the portertor of the Abbey in 1700, fold the materials of the great church to a builder of Southampton, of the name of Taylor. After Taylor had concluded his contradi with Sir Bartlet, fome of his friends warned him again!! touching the remains of the abbey, faying that they would themfelves never be concerned in the demolition of holy and confecrated places. Their remarks made a deep impreflion on Taylor ; who alfo dreamt that, in taking down the roof of the church, the keyflone of the arch above the eafl: window fell from its place and killed him. He told his dream to Mr. Watts, a fchoolmafter in Southampton, the father of Dr. Ifaac Watts, who gave him the fomewhat NETLEY ABBEY. 95 Jefuitical advice to have no perfonal concern in pulling down the building. This advice Taylor did not follow, and his fkull, it is faid, was actually fradtured by a ftone which fell from the eaft window. The accident had the good effedt of {faying the demolition of the abbey, which has fince been uninjured except by time and tourifts. The remains are now the property of T. Chamberlayne, Efq., of Cranbury Park. The principal remains of Netley Abbey are the chapel, a crypt, popularly called the Abbot’s kitchen, the chapter-houfe, and the refedfory. The chapel was in the form of a crofs ; the fouthern tranfept and the choir are the mo{f perfedt portions ; the northern tranfept has been delfroyed, and many parts are much mutilated. The roof of the whole has fallen in, and moft of the windows have loft their tracery. The length of the chapel, when entire, was about 200 feet ; the breadth 60 feet, and at the tranfepts, 120 feet. The crypt is a curious vaulted apartment, 48 feet long by 18 feet broad. The pre- cindf was furrounded by a moat. The fouth gateway opens into the fountain, or cloifter court, round which the various monaffic buildings were arranged. On the north fide of the court was the church ; on the weft the kitchen, refedtory, and chapter-houfe ; and on the ea{f the abbot’s houfe and garden. Traces of the ancient cloiffers may be feen in the court, efpe- cially on the fouth and weft Tides. A turret at the fouth corner of the fouth tranfept is faid to have ferved for a landmark. A portion of the walls of the domeftic buildings is of brick ; and if thefe be the original walls, they are probably the earlieft poft-Roman example of the ufe of brick in England. The firft large building conftrudted entirely of brick is Hurftmon- ceux Caftle in Suffex. The portion of the abbey on the eaftern fide of the cloifter court is ftill enclofed within ancient walls. 9 6 NETLEY ABBEY. The ruins of the abbot’s houfe adjoin ; and beyond the traces of the moat eaftward are the hollows of two large fifh-ponds. Horace Walpole, in his days of Gothic enthufiafm, was en- chanted with Netley, and feems to have contemplated reftoring at leaft enough of it for a houfe. What an efcape it had of being NETLEY ABBEY : WEST FRONT. Strawberry-hilled ! He wrote to Bentley : — “ Shall I defcribe Netley to you ? I can only by telling you it is the fpot in the world which I and Mr. Chute wifti. The ruins are vaft, and retain fragments of beautiful fretted roof, pendent in NETLEY ABBEY. 97 the air, with all variety of Gothic patterns of windows, wrapped round and round with ivy. Many trees are fprouted up among the walls, and only want to be increafed with cyprejfes ! A hill rifes above the abbey, encircled with wood. The fort, in which we would build a tower for habitation, remains, with two fmall platforms. This little caftle is buried from the abbey in a wood, in the very centre, on the edge of the hill. On each fide breaks in the view of the Southampton Sea, deep blue, glittering with filver and veflels ; on one fide ter- minated by Southampton, on the other by Calfhot Caftle ; and the Ifle of Wight rifing above the oppofite hills. In fhort, they are not the ruins of Netley, but of Paradife. Oh, the purple abbots ! what a fpot had they chofen to dumber in ! The fcene is fo beautifully tranquil, yet fo lively, that they feem only to have retired into the world.” The vifitors and tourifts of to-day are juft as much charmed with the ruins of Netley as the monks and Walpole were. They crowd there in fummer to picnic amongft the ruined walls and lofty trees, and are not always careful to avoid defecrating thefe delightful fpots with their relics of greafy paper, and of ftirimps and fardine boxes. But the grounds are carefully kept, and thefe unfightly objects are daily removed, to be only in fine weather daily left again ; a ftrange defecration that one would think every lover of the pidturefque would feel inftindtively aware of. A military hofpital has been eredted in the immediate neigh- bourhood of the ruins ; an intrufion which for its objedt might have been tolerated had its fite been healthy, which is denied by many medical men ; neither did the Queen, on her recent vifit, find all the arrangements there entirely to her fatisfac- tion. Thefe may be readily remedied, whatever the fanitary conditions of the fite may be. The cajile which Walpole o 9 8 NETLEY ABBEY. mentioned at Netley is one of the many fmall forts built by Henry VIII. for the protection of the fouthern coaft. Callhot Caftle, at the mouth of the Southampton Water, on the oppofite coaft, is another of them, and both of thefe are now inhabited. Hurftmonceux Caftle. URSTMONCEUX CASTLE is remark- able as being a caftle built of brick, and perhaps one of the oldeft buildings of that material in the kingdom, except fuch as are of Roman origin. It was built in the reign of Henry VI., but, as is fuppofed, on the fite of a manor-houfe which had exifted there from very early times. The eftate fell into the hands of a Norman lord at the Conqueft ; and in the “ Magna Britannia ” we have this hiftory of it and its pofteflors : — “ Hurftmonceux, a village fituate among the woods, being from its woody fituation called at firft Herft ; for the Saxons called a wood Hyrft. This place, foon after the coming in of the Normans, was the feat of a family of gentlemen who took their name from the place, and were called de Hurft for fome fucceffions, till William, the fon of Walleran de Hurft, for what reafon is not known, took the name of Monceux, which was at length annexed, for diftimftion’s fake, to the village itfelf, and fo it hath been long called Hurft-Monceux. John de Fiennes, male iffiie failing in this family of Monceux, married the female heir, who brought this manor and feveral other eftates of her anceftors into his family, and their heir Robert inherited them. Roger, the great-grandfon of John, made the manor-houfe here his feat, and obtained a licenfe of 100 HURSTMONCEUX CASTLE. King Henry VI. to make a caftle of it, and enlarge his park there with 600 acres of land, and left it at his death to his fon Richard de Fiennes, Fenes, Fienes, or Fienles. “ Thefe Fiennes were defcended from Ingelram de Fienes, who took to wife Sibilde de Tyngrie, daughter of the heir of Pharamufe de Boloigne, who was defcended from the earls of Bologne, and nephew to Maud, the wife of King Stephen. Richard de Fiennes above mentioned, being thus nobly defcended, was knighted and made the chamberlain to King Edward IV., and having before married Joan, the daughter and foie heir of Thomas Lord Dacre, was by reafon thereof created by letters patent, 37 Hen. VI., accepted, declared and fummoned to Parliament as a baron of this realm, under the name and title of Lord Dacre. But this lord did not enjoy his inheritance without difturbance for fome time ; for Humphrey Dacre, fecond fon of Thomas Lord Dacre, fued this lord for fome part of his lands and the honour itfelf; but King Edward IV., who was chofen honorary arbitrator between them, having heard their leveral pleas, confirmed the honour and eftate to him, the faid Richard, Joan his wife, and the heirs of their bodies lawfully begotten, becaufe fhe was the next and right heir of Thomas Lord Dacre above-mentioned. And fo the family of Fiennes continued Lords Dacre as long as male iil'ue in their diredl line continued, as we fhall Ihow anon. “ Richard de Fiennes, the firft Lord Dacre, having been made Conftable of the Tower, one of King Edward IV. ’s Privy Council, and attended the Parliament as a baron from 38 Hen. VI., to 22 Edw. IV., departed this life 2 Rich. III., in poffeffion of this manor, and was buried in the parifh church there, dedicated to All-Saints, as was Joan his wife, who died 1 Hen. VII., and were fucceeded by their fon and heir, Thomas de Fiennes. He was a ftout defender of the Lancaftrian title HURSTMONCEUX CASTLE. 101 in Kino; Henry’s reign, both againft the Cornilhmen and Scots, and having been fummoned to Parliament from n Hen. VII., to 21 Hen. VIII., died in the fame reign, and was buried in this parilh church, on the north fide of the high altar, appoint- ing by his teftament that a tomb Ihould be made there for him, and our Lord’s fepulchre placed thereon, with tapers of ten pounds weight burning about it, and that an honeft prieft fhould fing for his foul feven years, and have yearly twelve marks fterling for his falary, and to find bread for the facrament, wine and wax. This family ofFenys failed, 36 Elizabeth, in the iflue male, and Margaret, fifter of Gregory Fenys, married to Sampfon Leonard, Efq., carried their eftate and honour to his family, which thereupon became Lords Dacre, whofe fon Richard fucceeded him, and died in this place. His grandfon, Thomas, was created Earl of Suftex, 26 Car. II.” In this extract the reader has a fine example of the thoroughly unfettled manner of fpelling till of late years, efpecially in proper names. Thus we have Hurft fpelled Herft and Hyrft ; Bologne fpelled Bologne and Boloigne ; and Fiennes fpelled Fiennes, Fenes, Fienes, Fienles, and Fenys. Since the Leonards, Lords Dacre, Hurftmonceux has palled into the hands of the families of Hare, Naylor, Kemp, and Curteis. George Naylor purchafed the eftate in 1701 for ^38,215. It remained in his family for about a century, and was then purchafed by Francis Hare Naylor, Efq., M.P., for ^'60,000. Towards the end of 1777, the caftle being fub- mitted to the examination of Wyatt, the architect, he repre- fented it as fo much out of repair that it would be better to quit it, and build a new houfe out of the materials. The thing was done, and the prefent Monceux Place was enlarged out of it. We can imagine an architect of Wyatt’s tafte, or rather want of it, being delighted to pull to pieces the only 102 HURSTMONCEUX CASTLE. fpecimen of a brick caftle in England, and to eredt a Wyattville villa out of it. The only wonder is that he did not pull the whole down ; but it may be fuppofed that fome little pofteflion of tafte in the proprietors prevented the utter deftrudtion of this unique fabric. The fhell of the caftle is ftill finely mantled with ivy, long, no doubt, to remain a monument of Wyatt Vandalifm. Not only has the building been ravaged, but thofe fine woods around, which Horace Walpole noticed with fo much admira- tion, have been for the moil part felled. Still the fituation, though low, is very pleafant. As you approach the main HURSTMONCEUX CASILE. HURSTMONCEUX CASTI-E. IO3 gateway to the fouth, you are ftruck by its bold and impreffive afpeft. Above it are the arms of the Fiennes, with their fupporters, the alaune, or wolf-dog. The flanking towers are 84 feet high, and are capped with watch-turrets, from which there is a good view of the fea, at a few miles diftance ; for the caftle overlooks the bay of Pevenfey, and prefents a full fight of Beachy Head. Palling over a wooden bridge, where the drawbridge ftill remained in Walpole’s time, you find the caftle enclofing three courts, the main one and two lefler ones. In the courts ftill lie great piles of brickwork, either the refufe of what was felefted for Hurftmonceux Place, or what was fuperfluous for it ; and in fpring-time the ground is thickly ftrewn with blue violets, and the air perfumed by them. Huge trunks of ivy afcend the walls of the rooms, and clothe in luxuriant mafles the rooflefs battle- ments. Hazel-bufhes have alfo fprung up in the courts, and the wallflower has aflerted its ancient right to the defolated refidences of great men. Thick mofs has carpeted the floors fince men have removed their rulhes and carpets, and nature altogether has done her beft to reconquer the place from the defecrations of a Wyatt. The fouth and north fronts of the caftle meafured 206 feet, and the eaft and weft ones 214 feet. The Green Court was the firft entered, and beyond it was the Great Hall, which had one of the old baronial central fire-places. This hall had no upper ftory, fo that the fmoke could pafs out at the roof. This was the cafe alfo with the kitchen, of which the great oven of the bakehoufe yet remains, being 14 feet in diameter. Walpole found the fmall chapel in the fouth-eaft front ftill retaining fome of its ftained glafs ; but much of it had been removed to very odd places, and he fays he found “ St. Catherine and another gentlewoman with a church in her hand exiled into the buttery.” J04 HURSTMONCEUX CASTLE. The alaunes of the Fiennes figured in moft of the windows of the caftle, and the walls at the demolition continued inter- nally of bare brick. No doubt, they had been hung with tapeftry, and therefore had not been plaftered; “that age,” fays Walpole, “not having arrived at the luxury of whitewafh.” But when tapeftry ceafed to hide the brickwork, we have plenty of proof that drawing took its place. Our great families did not fit with bare brick or ftone walls. Tapeftry, filk, or ftucco-work gave a fitting finifti to their interiors. Under the tower at the fouth-eaft angle was the dungeon ; and, when Grofe vifited it, there remained a ftout ftone poft for fecuring chains to. Over the porter’s lodge was the room called the “ Drum- mer’s Hall,” which was faid to be haunted by a fpirit which occafionally beat a drum at midnight. Addifon’s comedy of “The Drummer,” Walpole fays, was fuggefted by this tradi- tion ; but it might have been juft as well fuggefted by the celebrated Drummer of Tedworth, who fo long annoyed the family of Mr. Mompefton. The drumming here has been faid to have been the work of a gardener, who invented the fcheme to allow the midnight vifits of fmugglers from Pevenfey, with- out fear of intrufion from chicken-hearted coaft-guards and revenue officers. Some carvings by Grinlin Gibbons were removed from the caftle after Walpole’s vifit, and are now at Hurftmonceux Place. There are ftill traces of the moat, and of a large refervoir of water connected with it ; and a row of grand old Spanifh chefnuts beyond the moat are faid to be older than the caftle itfelf. The vifitor fhould notice the peculiar character of fcenery betwixt the caftle and the neighbouring coaft. The wide, dreary marfh-lands, interfered by reed-grown water-courfes, and the yellow lichen colouring the old thorn trees that grow in the moorlands, (how the prevalence of damp exhalations. HURSTMONCEUX CASTLE. IO5 Hurftmonceux Place has nothing to recommend it, not even Wyatt’s architecture, which he undoubtedly believed to be much finer than that of the caftle. It will give the vifitor, however, fine breezy profpeCts towards Beachy Head ; and both the churchyard and the church poftefs monuments of the Fiennes, and others of intereft. Among the memories of the place are, that it was the reCtory of Archdeacon Hare ; that here his brother, Marcus Hare, fpent his youth ; and that John Sterling, whofe life has been written both by the Archdeacon and Thomas Carlyle, was the Archdeacon’s firft curate at this place. But a particular interelf attaches to Hurftmonceux from its lying juft in the neighbourhood where the Norman Conqueror landed, and from which he marched to fight that eventful battle which overthrew the Saxon rule in England, and made the Norman barons lords of England, now for eight hundred years. The Conqueror, who landed at that fingular old town, fucceflively inhabited by Britons, Romans, and SaXons, the Anderida of the natives, muft have marched very near Hurft- monceux on his way to meet Harold at Epiton, from that dynafty-deciding conflict thence called Battle. All that coaft, from Pevenfey to Haftings, is faid to have been covered by the Conqueror’s ftiips, landing troops, and by the troops marching towards that common centre of adtion. They pafled through and over Crowhurft, the very manor of Harold himfelf; for it appears by the Conqueror’s furvey that Crowhurft was one of the many lordfhips which Harold, Earl of Kent, was poffefled of, but which, with the throne, were loft to the Conqueror. William, as we fuppofe, gave this lordfhip, with divers other eftates, to Alan Fergant, Earl of Brittany and Richmond, as a reward for his courage and condudt in the victorious battle by which he, with his aftiftance, and that of other Normans, won the crown. P Croyland Abbey. ROYLAND ABBEY — or Crowland Abbey, as it is frequently called — was one of the mod: wealthy and important monafteries in this country. It had amongft its abbots fome very able men, efpecially the ex- chancellor Turketul, and Ingulphus, the hiftorian of the eftablifhment in the reign of William the Conqueror. Thefe men had a talent for govern- ing and managing, and raifed the monaftery to a height of great reputation and power. Croyland was built on a great bog in the fens of the Lincolnfhire Holland. It was on an ifland lying between a number of ftreams, ftruggling towards the Wafh, between the main ftreams of the Welland and the Nen. Brompton, in defcribing the marfhland of Croyland, fays “ Eft autem palus ilia, de qua loquimur, latifllma et vifu decora, multis fluviis et infulis decurrentibus irrigata, multis lacubus magnis et parvis dilata, multis etiam fylvis infulis florida et amoena, infra quam abbatiae de Ely, Chateris, Thorneye, et Crouland fituantur : fed juxta earn abbatiae de Burgh et Spaulding, ecclefia fandti Ivonis fuper vocam fluvium Huntingdon, et ecclefia fancfti Egidii fuper Grentam fluvium Cantabrigite ftatuuntur.” It was a vaft watery region of ftreams, lakes, woods, principally, it may be prefumed, of alders and willows, CROYLAND ABBEY. io 7 of rank vegetation and wild fowl, with plenty of fat eels. In this tottering and quagmire wafte did the Saxon monks lay the foundations of Croyland, Ely, Thorney, Chateris, and Peter- borough, having a prophetic fenfe that, as this undluous diftrict of fifh and frogs, reeds and bulrufhes, became drained, it would become eminently rich. Another motive, no doubt, was to avoid the vifits of the Danes, who might find fuch places as Lindisfarne and Whitby, on their folid rocks, more acceffible, and might not care to drag their veflels up the fluggifh ftreams of Lincolnlhire, or to wade amid its mud after thefe half-aquatic nells of monks. It was one of the fancies of thefe old devotees to fele£I a fpot for their religious meditations where nobody elfe could or would live. In this oozy and flaggy fenland, amid the dark, glofly alder trees, and the whifpering of reeds, with the wild duck, the water-hen, and the flitting dragon-fly, a young warrior, of high family connexions, renouncing his military profeffion, and afluming the ecclefiaftical habit, had built his folitary hut, and fought a way to heaven at a diftance from the elbowings of man. Guthlac, this foldier no longer of any earthly king, but become the foldier of Chrift, and fighting his battles alone with the invifible enemies of man, foon became, however, famous for his fan&ity and his prophetic gifts. To him fled Ethelbald, a Saxon earl, and great nephew of Penda, being purfued by his coufin Ceolred, who then governed Mercia. Guthlac not only comforted Ethelbald, but allured him that he would undoubtedly live to wear the crown of Mercia, and that without any trouble, any battle, or any bloodlhed. Improbable as this feemed, it all came to pafs ; and Ethelbald, mindful of his vow to build a monaftery on the fite of Guthlac’s cell if thefe aflurances were verified, proceeded in 716 to fulfil his promife. Guthlac had departed this life; but ioB CROYLAND ABBEY. he fhowed Ethelbald that he was equally attentive to this engagement, by appearing to him, and pointing out the exacft fpot for the eredlion of the facred fane. It was juft as unlikely a fituation for a building as could be imagined. It was a deep and watery fwamp ; but Ethelbald caufed great numbers of the neighbouring alders to be cut down, and driven into the fpongy mafs. On this was raifed a building of wood, but not before hundreds of boat-loads of dry earth had been brought from a diftance of nine miles to make a folid furface or floor for the monaftery. Ethelbald then fent for Kenulph, a monk of Evefham, and conveyed the ifland of Croyland to him and his monks for ever, defcribing all the boundaries in a charter, and giving three hundred pounds down, and a hundred a-year for ten years, towards the erection of the building. When this was finifhed, the remains of Guthlac were con- veyed into the church, and buried with great ceremony near the high altar, where they continued to perform many miracles. At the time of the building of Croyland there were four other hermits inhabiting cells on this marfhy ifland, who were per- mitted by the abbot Kenulph to Anifti their days there ; and Pega, the After of Guthlac, was alfo an anchoritefs on the ifland ; but ftie brought to the monaftery the facred treafures poflefled by Guthlac, namely, his pfalter, and the whip of St. Bartholomew, which Agures, along with three knives, in the arms of Croyland ftill. She brought other relics, and, putting them into the hands of Kenulph, retired to her cell at about two miles diftance from the monaftery, when, after an abode of two years and three months, fhe went to Rome and there ended her life. Notwithftanding the quagmire character of the place, monks flocked to it, and men of fubftance conferred affluence on it. Kings who, like Ethelbald, in the days of their adverfity, had CROYLAND ABBEY. IO9 fought refuge there, gave them gifts and privileges. Witlaf, who had concealed himfelf there from the purfuit of King Egbert, on becoming king himfelf, gave a frefh charter to Croyland in 833, and granted the privilege of fandluary betwixt the five waters of Croyland. He bellowed alfo on the monaftery his coronation robe, to be made into a cope or cafula ; a golden veil, embroidered with the Fall of Troy, to be fufpended on the walls on the day of his anniverfary ; a golden cup with figures of vine-drefters fighting with dragons, called his crucibolum, and his drinking horn. In the following reign, however, the brother of Witlaf jftripped the monaftery of CROYLAND ABBEY : WESTERN FRONT. I 10 CROYLAND ABBEY. its jewels and gold ; and, in the ninth century, the Danes not only plundered the monaftery, and murdered the monks, but burnt down the church, the convent, and its offices. The monaftery continued for a long time in ruins ; but, in 946, as Turketul, the chancellor of King Edred, was on his way into Northumberland to quell a rebellion there, he happened to take his way by Croyland, where he found three old monks who had efcaped the maflacre of the Danes, and the oppreffive hand of King Beorred, who had feized on the facred lands. Thefe monks had conftrudted a little oratory within the ruins, where they received the great chancellor in the beft manner they could, fhowed him the relics of St. Guthlac, and related to him the ftory of their misfortunes. The chancellor was greatly affedted by their humble piety, their forrows, and their hofpitality. After putting down the northern rebellion, he again took Croyland in his way, and gave the monks twenty pounds in filver. On his return to court, he extolled everywhere the generous behaviour of the monks in their deep adverftty, fo that “ Croyland courtely ” became a phrafe. The king, on hearing of the calamities of Croyland, gave Turketul full licenfe to do whatever he thought neceflary for the reftora- tion of the monaftery. After this Turketul declared his intention of affirming the cowl and retiring himfelf to Croy- land. The king did all in his power to dilfuade him from this deftgn, but, finding it vain, he accompanied him to Croyland. Turketul made over to the king all his manors, which were more than fixty, referving only every tenth ; and thofe fix manors which lay near Croyland he conferred on the abbey. At this royal vifit two of the monks, who had fled to Winchefter from the Danes, Bruno and Aio, were recalled. Turketul was appointed abbot. He now liberated the manors of the monaftery, which were in debt, and the king gave a CROYLAND ABBEY. 1 I I new charter to it. Many learned men followed Turketul to Croyland. The church and monaftery were rebuilt about 950 ; and alfo a cell at Pegaland dedicated to the virgin, St. Pega, on the eaft fide of the monaftery, in which he placed fuch perfons as wifhed to join the brethren, till they had received fair trial of their characters and progrefs in piety. Some of thefe continued feculars, fome became priefts, others clerks. Turketul, by the aid of Aio, who was an eminent civilian, and Thurgar, who had been at Croyland from his youth, drew up the hiftory of the abbey, from its foundation to the fourteenth year of King Edgar. He then divided the brethren into three different ranks, according to the time they had been in the monaftery, affigning them their particular duties. The third and fenior clafs confifted of men who had reached their fiftieth year. They were called Sempadfae, or privileged perfons, and were exempted from all offices in the houfe, except by particular command of the abbot. Each had his own chamber, with a junior brother to keep him company, and a clerk or boy to wait on him. There has been much difcuflion on this word SempaCla, and Du Cange fuppofes it to mean, not that thefe monks were SympaCfae, but had cu/iTra/cmt, or junior monks, to attend on them. Having brought Croyland into admirable order, and made it a model among monafteries, T urketul died at the age of fixty- eight, having been abbot twenty-feven years. Turketul’s conftitution had fuffered much from bodily wounds, received in early life ; and thus he reached only a moderate age for an inmate of Croyland ; for, contrary as it may feem to our notions of the unhealthinefs of low and damp fituations, the monks of Croyland frequently attained amazing ages. One of them, Clarenbaldus, was a hundred and fixty-eight at the time of his deceafe. Swarlingus, another monk, was a I 12 CROYLAND ABBEY'. hundred and forty-two; and Turgarus, a third, a hundred and thirteen. Brunus and Aio were very old. On his death-bed Turketul called together the whole of the brethren, and made the fteward read to them the exaCt amount of the property, furniture, and treafures, both in money and relics, of the monaftery, that the fteward might be anfwerable for thefe after his death. The money itfelf amounted to fix thoufand pounds. He alfo warned them expreffly and repeatedly to take efpecial care of their fire. This was afterwards deemed pro- phetic, for the abbey was burnt down in the time of Ingulphus. From this period (975) to the Norman Conqueft, the fortunes of Croyland were various, fometimes receiving rich benefactions, fometimes ftripped by the Danes under Turkel, Swane, and others. With the Conqueft came a fevere trial to the monks. Wulketul was then abbot; and Ivo Tailbois, the Norman, married the fifter of the Saxon earls Edwin and Morcar, became the lord of Hoyland, or Holland, ravaged the lands of the monks, and maimed their cattle. His malevolence was inflamed by the honour paid by the brethren of Croyland to the name and remains of the great Saxon earl, Waltheof, who had been a great benefactor to them. Wulketul irritated Tailbois ftill more by publifhing an account of the miracles performed at Waltheof’s tomb, in the chapter-houfe of Croy- land. He was fummoned before a council in London, 1075, accufed of idolatry, and committed to prifon at Glaftonbury, “ fub cruentiflimo turn abbate Thurftano, procul a notis et a fua patria.” The treafure of the abbey was, at the fame time, confifeated to the king. Walketul being thus depofed, William the Conqueror appointed to the abbacy Ingulphus, who became the hiftorian, and the moft efficient head of the monaftery fince the days of Turketul. He was a favourite of King William, having been CROYLAND APBEY. XI 3 at court in 1051, when William paid his vifit to Edward the Confeflor, and fo much attra£led William’s regard, that he invited him to accompany him to Normandy, and made him his fecretary. Ingulphus afterwards fet out with thirty knights and clerks on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. They had the ill fortune to be attacked and plundered by the Arabs before arriving at Jerufalem. They managed, however, to reach the Holy City, and faw the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, but were prevented vifiting any other of the facred places by the Arabs. They reached home, reduced to two-thirds of their number, and in the molt deplorable ftate of wretchednefs. Ingulphus retired to the Abbey of Fontenelle, where he became prior. When Duke William embarked for England, he brought him from his abbot twelve chofen horfemen, and a hundred marks for their pay ; and William not only gave in return the vineyard Cari Loci to the Abbey of Fontenelle, but, on the depofition of Wulketul, fent for Ingulphus, and made him abbot of Croyland. Ingulphus found the affairs of the abbey in great diforder. The monks amounted to fixty-two, but four were lay brethren ; and there were more than a hundred monks from other monas- teries refiding there, who were called “ comprofefli.” Thefe were from Thorney, Peterborough, Ely, St. Edmundfbury, and places as diftant as St. Albans, Weftminfter, Norwich, and even York. They came and went as they pleafed, flaying half a year, or a year, and then returning to their own mon- aflery again. The plea for this was the troubled flate of the times, and the necefTity of feeking a place of fecurity. But we may fuppofe that there was a good deal of licenfe in the practice ; and Ingulphus, accordingly, found the affairs of the convent in a very ruinous ftate. The fteward had grown enormoufly rich, and, when Ingulphus examined into his accounts, he CROYLAND ABBEY. 1X4 claimed Helieftone, one of the manors, as his own. Ingulphus brought the matter before the king’s judges at Stamford ; and as Afhford, this unjuft fteward, was riding thither on the day appointed, his horfe threw him and broke his neck. This was regarded as a clearly divine judgment; but this was not all. As the body of Afhford was carried in his coffin to burial at Peterborough, a fudden darknefs and heavy rain fell on the proceffion ; the coffin was thrown violently from the bearers’ fhoulders, was broken open, and the corpfe rolled out on the muddy ground, where it was fuffered to lie a confiderable time, no one daring to approach it. Thefe awful events fettled the queftion, not only of the right of the monaftery to Helieftone ; but thenceforward, fays Ingulphus, no one ever again dared to encroach on the patrimony of St. Guthlac. From this period to the diffolution, the monaftery enjoyed a ftate of great profperity. Ingulphus went up to London to folicit the king on many accounts. The firft matter was highly creditable to him. It was to pray William to remit the punifh- ment of Wulketul, and allow him to return to Croyland. William reftored him to liberty, but forbade him to approach Croyland except on fpecial invitation from Ingulphus himfelf. Ingulphus, however, found frequent occafion to invite him thither, on the plea of confulting him on matters connected with the rights of the monaftery, on which no prior was fo well informed, and thus he added much to the comfort of the old abbot during the remainder of his days. Ingulphus alfo laid claim to many parts of the pofleffions of the convent which had been ufurped by the new lords of the land, and fucceeded againft all but the too powerful Ivo Tailbois, who ftill kept fall hold on the manor of Spalding ; but Ingulphus left a ftridt charge to his fucceffiors to affert their right to it on all poffible occafions. A few days after his return home, we are told that CROYLAND ABBEY. 1 J 5 “ the winter fet in with unufual feverity. The provifions of the convent failed ; the fens were fo bound up with ice, that nothing could be conveyed from the neighbouring manors. In this extremity, Abbot Ingulphus betook himfelf to prayer for a whole night before St. Guthlac’s Ihrine. In the morning, while the convent was at prayers in the church, a voice was fuddenly heard from the north part of the monaftery, as of an angel faying, ‘ Accipite vidlualia fratribus, et parate panes ut manducent hii.’ The whole convent running out, no perfon could be feen ; but four large facks, two of wheat and two of flour, were Handing in readinefs in the church-vard.” But, relieved miraculoufly from one difficulty, Ingulphus found himfelf in another. The Conqueror was dead, William Rufus was on the throne, and the infatiable Tailbois, who was in favour with the king, feized on all the lands of the abbey within his demefne, at Cappelade, Spalding, Pyncebeck, and Algare. Ingulphus tried the mediation of Richard de Rulos and other friends, but without avail ; and he then reforted to Archbilhop Lanfranc, to whom he exhibited the title to the abbey lands, and who boldly ordered the Sheriff of Lincoln to compel reftoration. But the flood of the misfortunes of Croyland had not reached its height. In 109 1, four years after Tailbois was compelled to difgorge the abbey lands, a fire broke out in the monaftery, through the careleflnefs of a plumber, and confumed the greater part of the fabric and many of the charters. No fooner was this known than many powerful friends fent in pro- vifions and money for the prefent fupport of the monks and the rebuilding of the convent. But the news was alfo fpecially delightful to the greedy Ivo Tailbois, who hoped that there was an end to the title-deeds of the lands he coveted. But thefe had efcaped, and this Norman harpy was difappointed. He then fet on ruffians to waylay the clerk of Trigus (who had 1 16 CROYLAND ABBEY. produced the deeds at Spalding) who feized and fearched him ; but they were again difappointed, for the wary clerk had fent them another way. From that time Ingulphus kept the fur- viving charters in great fecrecy ; and foon after Tailbois was accufed of confpiring againft the king, and outlawed ; and thus the convent was relieved of his perfections. Ingulphus clofed his diftinguifhed career in 1109, and was buried with all honour in the chapter-houfe. Joffrid, the prior of St. Ebrulph, in Normandy, fucceeded him, and began rebuilding the monaftery. For this purpofe indulgences were liberally granted, and the monks travelled with them over Wales, Ireland, Cornwall, Denmark, Norway, France, Flanders, and Scotland. Other monks, very learned men — Gilbert, Odo, and William — proceeded to Cambridge, and delivered lectures on grammar, rhetoric, and logic, on 'Fully and Quintillian, and preached alfo on Sundays and Saints’ days in Englilh, Latin, and French, and againft the Jews. Their lectures were exceedingly popular, and greatly aided the building fund. In the year 1114, Joftrid laid the firft ftone of the new building, and was followed by many diftinguifhed perfons, both gentlemen and ladies, who each laid a ftone, and then a contribution upon it. Some laid down money, fome an order for a quarrier, a mafon, or a carpenter, to work on the building at their expenfe ; others laid down the title to the patronage of different churches. Thefe, of courfe, were barons, knights, and ladies of great eftate. The bafes of each pillar were laid by companies of workmen, fifty and fixty in number, who each offered one day’s work in a month till the whole fhould be finifhed. Or they were laid by the prieft, deacon, and men of different parifhes, who gave wheat, or malt, or the quarrying and carriage of ftone, or money to an equal value. Whilft they laid the different ftones, the Abbot CROYLAND ABBEY. 117 JofFrid delivered a difcourfe to each party, and then invited them to attend prayers, and afterwards to dinner. The abbots of Croyland and Thorney, with near four hundred monks of different monafteries, dined in the refectory ; the two earls and two barons, with their wives, the knights and gentlemen, dined in the abbot’s hall ; the fix companies who raifed the fix pillars, with their wives, in the cloifter ; and the populace in the court ; the whole amounting to more than five thoufand perfons. Three years later, whilft the building was in progrefs, and the roof not yet on, came an earthquake, cracked the new walls fo that they had to be fliored up with beams, and threw much of them down. Scarcely was the place finifhed, when it was burnt down again, and for the third time. The un- daunted monks, however, fet zealoufly to work, and once more rebuilt it in a very magnificent ftyle ; and William de Croyland, fome years afterwards, made great additions to it. Croyland was nearly related with the fate of the mad tyrant, King John. In the year 1216, when feverely preffed by the barons and their ally the Dauphin Louis of France, John, in the autumn of that year, made himfelf matter of Lincoln ; and, taking up his head-quarters there, made many a predatory excurfion into the country round for fupplies, and for doing all poffible damage to thofe who favoured the barons. His efpecial hatred fell on the Church, and on monafteries, from the great part which the Pope and Archbifhop Langton had taken againft him. The latter, indeed, had ftirred up the barons to their oppofition, and drawn the great charter which they compelled him to fign at Runnymede. At the beginning of Odtober he marched through Peterborough, entered the diftridl of Croyland, and plundered and burnt the farm-houfes belonging to the abbey. Thence he crofted over to Lynn, ] i8 CROVLAND AUKEY. and, turning againft Wifbeach, and attempting to crofs the fouthern fide of the Waft by the fands, at low water, at a place called the Crofs Keys, he was overtaken by the tide before he reached the Fofs Dyke, and had a great number of his men, his wagons and fumpter horfes carrying his baggage and money, fwept away. All the world knows the miferable end that he made. Coming direct from the plunder of reli- gious houfes, he was compelled to feek refuge at Swinefhead Abbey, where he palfed the night. Here he ate voracioufly of peaches, or pears, and the next day was exceffively ill. Tradition fays that a monk aided his own gluttony by a dofe of poifon ; but this is not recorded by any writer within half a century of the time, and probably was not needed to produce his death. His mortification at the lofs of his baggage and troops, and his voracity, were, it may be fuppofed, enough to kill him. Travelling in great agony in a litter, he reached Newark, and there died. During the wars of York and Lancafter, the unfortunate Henry VI. paid a vifit to the tomb of St. Guthlac, and fpent three days and three nights at the abbey, and was fo charmed with the monafiic life, that he defired to be admitted into the fraternity, and in return for this favour he granted the abbey a new charter of liberties. How exa<£tly is this difpofition por- trayed by Shakfpeare, when he makes Henry exclaim : — Oh God ! methinks it were a happy life, To be no better than a homely fwain, To fit upon a hill as I do now, To carve out dials quaintly, point by point, Thereby to lee the minutes how they run. * * * * * So many minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years, Palled over to the end they were created, Would bring white hairs unto a quiet grave. Ah ! what a life were this ! how fweet ! how lovely ! CROYLAND ABBEY. I 1 9 Gives not the hawthorn bufli a fweeter (hade To thepherds looking on their filly Iheep, Than doth a rich embroidered canopy To kings that fear their fubjefts’ treachery ? O yes, it doth, a thoufandfold it doth ! This Ihows a fpirit that would have found a heaven in the peaceful contemplations of the cloifler. Henry was a monk fet by a crofs fate on a throne. In 1464, Croyland had again great inmates. Margaret, Duchefs of Somerfet, and her daughter Margaret, the Countefs of Richmond, are recorded to have been received into the fiHer- hood of Croyland. The revenues of the abbey at the diflolution fhow that, in fpite of all its greedy ariflocratic neighbours, Croyland had managed to continue rich. Its grofs revenue, according to Speed, was £1,217 5 s. lid.-, its net income, according to Stevens and Tanner, £1,083 I 5 - f - I0 ‘W- The eafl part of the church, with the tranfepts, was taken down foon after the dilTolution ; but the nave and the aides left Handing as a parifh church till the clofe of the feventeenth century, when, the roof and the fouth aide falling, the north aide was fitted up for the ufe of the parifh, with a heavy, fhort tower. This tower is of the perpendicular order. On its right hand as you face it, Hands, in a continued line, the beautiful old weflern front, in a richly decorated flyle, with a fine large window from which all the tracery has difappeared. This front is finely ornamented with niches, and flatues of faints as large as life ; and on the fummit formerly were pinnacles, with the figures of St. Bartho- lomew and St. Guthlac. Thefe have long fallen ; but this front, now greatly decayed, and a portion of the fouth aide in continuance, fhow that, in its perfection, Croyland was one of the moH beautiful monafleries in the kingdom. 120 CROYLAND ABBEY . On the weft fide of the church ftands the famous Triangular Bridge, the only one of the kind, I believe, remaining in the kingdom. It was built to admit three ftreams at their con- fluence, which ran through the town and met here. It confifts of three femi-arches uniting in a common centre, and forming, TRIANGULAR BRIDGE AT CROYLAND. by their junction, as many pointed arches. It is fuppofed to have been defigned as a fymbol of the Trinity. It is too fteep for carriages, and is little ufed even by horfes. There was a bridge here as early as a.d. 943; it being mentioned in King Edward’s charter of that date, and again in King Edgar’s CROYLAND ABBEY. I 2 1 charter, a.d. 966 ; but the prefent ftrudture is not thought to be older than the reign of Edward I. At the end of the bridge next the London road are the remains of a ftatue, now much mutilated, but defcribed in old books as that of King Ethelbald, the founder of the abbey. It was, when unbroken, in a fitting pofture, drelTed in royal robes, and with a globe in its hand. The Triangular Bridge pofTeffes the additional intereft of being placed at the junction of the three counties of Lincoln, Cambridge, and Northampton. R Caftleacre Priory. ASTLEACRE PRIORY, in Norfolk, is one of the earlieft Norman priories in England. It was founded by William de Warrene, the firft Earl of Surrey, in 1085, only nineteen years after the Conquefl. The remains of the weft front, with por- tions of the north and fouth tranfept, fhow that it was ereCted in the higheft ftyle of Norman architecture. It has fcarcely any projecting buttreffes, but its level facade is enriched by fucceffive tiers of arch-work, fome of thefe fimple, others interlacing. The great weftern entrance has a very rich round arch of many recefles or mouldings, elaborately ornamented with the zigzag, the dot, and other ornaments. Similar archways give entrance on either hand to the tranfepts, but they are lefs ornate, and of fmaller dimenfions. Within the great round arch is a lefter pointed one, evidently inferted after- wards to contraCl the paffage to a more convenient fize. Around and above this great archway are four fucceffive tiers of arches running along the whole face of the front, — the lower and third interlacing, the fecond fhort and round, the fourth and uppermoft confifting of curious zigzag arches. There has been a noble lofty window over the great weftern door, apparently of the perpendicular order. Altogether, the weftern front muft have been very beautiful. CASTLEACRE PRIORY. 123 The defcription of the Priory in Blomfield’s Hiftory, in 1775, fhows that the whole of the ftrudfure was of equal elegance, and was a place of great extent: “ The fite of the priory church, which lies weft of the caftle, was a venerable large Gothic pile of freeftone, flint, &c., and built in a cathedral or con- ventual manner. Great part of the front, or weft end of it, is CASTLEACRE PRIORY : WEST FRONT. {fill remaining, where the principal entrance was through a great arch, over which was a ftately window. On each fide of the great door were doors to enter into the north and fouth aifles. At the north and fouth ends of this front ftood two towers, fupported by ftrong arches and pillars. The nave, 1 24 CASTLEACRE PRIORY. or body, had twelve great pillars, making feven arches on each fide, the loweft joining to the towers. On the eaft end of the nave flood the grand tower, fupported by four great pillars, through which was the entrance into the choir. On the fouth and north fides of this tower were two crofs aides or tranfepts ; and at the end of the north tranfept there feems to have been a chapel or veftry. The choir was of equal breadth with the nave and aides, but much fhorter, and the ead: end of it was in form of a chapel. The chapter-houfe feems to have joined the eaft fide of the cloifter, and the dormitory to have been near the weft part of the cloifter. Weft of the cloifter, and adjoining, was the prior’s apartment, now converted into a farm-houfe. In a large room above-ftairs, called the prior’s dining-room, is a curious bow-window of ftone, confifting of nine panels. In the hrft were the arms of the priory, painted on glafs ; in the fecond, the arms of the Earl of Arundel, and Earl Warren, quarterly, but now broken and gone; in the third, Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, gules, a lion rampant argent ; fourth, the red and white rofe united, and a crown over it ; fifth, France and England, quarterly; fixth, the rofe, &c., as above ; feventh, Earl Warren’s arms; eighth, quar- terly, the Earl of Arundel in the firft and fourth quarter, and in the fecond and third, Maltravers, fable, fretty, or, and Fitz-Alan, Baron of Clun, per fefs, azure, and argent quar- terly ; ninth, argent, a crofs compone, or and azure, between twelve crofs crofilets, fitche fable : the priory arms, I take it ; and thefe letters J. W. joined together by a knot, and, under it, spitv. Principali. confirma. me. By this it ap- pears that this window was built by John Winchelley, prior in the reign of Henry VII. or VIII.” Blomfield thinks this was originally a chapel, and part of the original erection, having the arms of Warren confpicuous on CASTLEACRli PRIORY. 125 its fouth wall, but that it was afterwards altered into a dining- room. He adds, “ The fite of this priory took in feveral acres. The grand entrance was north of the priory church, where is now ftanding a large and ftately gatehoufe of free- ftone. Over the arch, as you enter, are the arms of the Earl Warren, of Arundel, and Warren, quarterly, France and England, and thofe of the priory. The whole fite was enclofed with a lofty ftone wall, good part of which is ftill ftanding.” In thefe armorial bearings we have, in fa£t, a hiftory of the patronage of the priory. In the firft place it was that of the Warrens, Earls of Surrey. Thefe were amongft the moft powerful nobles in England from the Conqueft till the reigns of the Edwards. Warren came over with the Conqueror, and obtained great eftates in Surrey and Norfolk. He is faid to have been fon-in-law to the Conqueror, having married his fifth daughter. We find Earl Warren amongft the very firft noblemen who oppofed the arbitrary a5 + BYLAND ABBEY. but thefe were by no means years of peace and uninterrupted religious contemplation. The abbots of Calder and Furnefs, notwithdanding the exemption which they had obtained from their jurifdicdion, commenced law proceedings to compel them again to fubmiffion. Thefe vexatious proceedings were not brought to a clofe till the year 1 155, the firft year of the reign of Henry II. They were then determined in their favour by the abbot of Rievaux, who had been appointed judge, and the Archbifhop of York took them under his direcd protection. Being now at eafe, the monks felected a yet more eligible fite for their monadery, and finally raifed it in a valley a little more to the eadward, having drained the marfhes and cleared a large tract of woodland. The abbey, of which we now have the remains, was completed and entered upon A. D. 1177, 23 Hen. II. It flood near to Burtoft and Berfclive, between Whitaker and Cambe Hill, a pleafant and retired fituation. It was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and continued to flourifh till the difiolution. Byland was not one of the abbeys which ever raifed itfelf into princely date amongfl the monafleries of England. It was not one of the mitred edablifhments, whofe heads aflumed the date of nobles, and attended parliaments with the retinue of princes ; but it had many privileges, and was a well-to-do and independent community. The Biland which the monks had left near Rievaux was thenceforth known as Old Byland : this new Byland was didant about five miles from Rievaux ; and after eroding a moor, as you defeended a very deep hill, the profpeeft of a very fine country opened upon you, with this abbey and the village near it. Henry II., Henry III., and Henry VI. granted efpecial privileges to Byland. It was exempted from all tolls, pontage, &c., from paying any fort of gelds, feutage, or hidage, from performing any duties of the county, wapen- BYLAND ABBEY. 1 55 take, or riding, and from all aids and fecular fervice. The monks were free in all cities, boroughs, markets, fairs, bridges, and ports, in England and Normandy, and had liberty of holding courts of their own, with fac, foe, thal, theam, infangentheof, and utfangentheof. They could be fued by no magiftrate except the king or his chief juftice. They had free warren over all their demefnes, and no perfon could intrude upon them. Henry III. made them free of ward-penny, over-penny, thething-penny, hengwith, flemwith, blodewite, leirwith, (leme- frith, grithbreth, foreftal, hamfokne, heinfare, and all fervice and fecular exactions. He extended their right of trying caufes to their manors of Sutton and Clifton, in Yorklhire, and at their manor of Wardcope, in Weftmoreland; and Henry VI. gave them a grant of all waifs, Ifrays, and forfeiture of felons within their lands. Dugdale gives a long lift of their pofteffions in different places. At the diffolution, the grofs revenue of the abbey was ^295 5 r. 4 d. ; the clear income, ^238 9 s. 4 cl. It was a profperous abbey of an unambitious kind. No great events are recorded in its annals, nor does it feem to have produced, or had the prefence of, any men of pre-eminently diftinguilhed talents ; but one may, from its fubftance and its pleafant fituation, fairly fuppofe it a favoured fpecimen of monaftic retreat. The vifitor to Byland will not fail to afcend the hill and take a glance at Coxwold, the church and parfonage of Lawrence Sterne. There he will find the fame pulpit in the church in which Sterne preached ; and on the right hand fide of the road — the laft houfe, I think, on that fide, on the way towards Byland, — he will fee the fame houfe which Sterne inhabited. There is a parfonage now adjoining the churchyard; but, at this little houfe of two fmall rooms in front, and of two ftories high, the humourift lived. The landlady of the village inn was fond of 156 BYLANI) A1313HY. BYLAND ABBF.Y . talking of Sterne. “ A very clever man,” fhe laid ; “ a very clever man, indeed ; but he had a daughter much cleverer than himfelf.” “ Really,” I faid ; “in what way did fhe difplay this extraordinary ability ? ” “ In an extraordinary way,” refponded the landlady ; “ by riding about the village on her father’s horfe with her face to the tail.” T his, of courfe, fhe explained, was when fhe was a girl of eleven or twelve ; but the good woman was not by any means jefting. This feat of equeftrianifm was in her eyes an exhibition of talent far greater than her father’s. What her idea of literary fame was we may imagine. BYLAND ABBEY. l S7 She allured us, alfo, that the village doctor lived at Sterne’s old houfe — “ a very civil man, a very civil man, indeed ; and Ihe was lure he would have much pleafure in fhowing it to us.” Accordingly my friend, who on that occafion was driving me in his carriage to Rievaux Abbey, drew up at the door. I knocked, and was admitted by a maid, who allured me that her mailer was at home, and would fee me in a minute. Where- upon Ihe Ihowed me into a fmall front room, in which Sterne is faid to have written, and there I waited fome time. Anon the fervant returned, and faid her mailer was coming diredlly. A while after fhe returned once more, and alked my name. I gave her my card, and added that I was forry to trouble her mailer, as my obje£l was merely to fee Sterne’s abode ; and again fhe made her appearance to fay that her mailer was engaged and could not fee me. The village Galen had difcovered that I was not a hoped-for patient, and “ the very civil man, — very civil man, indeed,” was not civil enough to gratify the curiofity of a llranger by allowing him to fee a cottage in which there was literally nothing worth feeing. However, I had been in Sterne’s houfe, and difcovered that all his endeavours to incul- cate benevolence of fentiment had not penetrated very deep into the nature of his fuccelTor, fo I adjourned to the church. The fexton attended with the key, and I entered. It is a lofty, plain church, and there flood the old pulpit in which the author of “ Triftram Shandy” ufed to preach. What, how- ever, particularly attracted my attention was a folitary fwallow which was flitting about, and giving an occafional twitter as it fought a way out. I looked round ; all the windows were clofed ; there was no way for it to efcape, and I immediately thought of Sterne’s llarling, which was always plaintively crying “ I can’t get out.” The fexton faid it had, no doubt, flown in on Sunday, when i 5 H BYLAND ABBEY. the windows were open, Co that it mull then (the middle oC the week) have been flitting about and vainly feeking egrefs for feveral days. “ Good man,” faid I, “ pull open one or two of your windows, and let it efcape, for Heaven’s fake !” And what was the man’s cool anfwer ? “ Oh, it will die of itfelf, if we let it alone.” And that was in Sterne’s church, in the very front of his pulpit, not many yards from the place where he probably penned that very pathetic incident of the ftarling, with its crv, fo full of pitiful appeal, “ I can’t get out ! I can’t get out ! ’’ Such is the effedt of the fineft touches of genius, of the happielt incentives to humanity. Who could have believed that fuch an incident could poffibly have happened where Sterne had penned thofe words which have thrilled fo many a youthful bofom, never again to be forgotten ? The fexton had only to pull a cord to open a window high aloft, no doubt the one through which the fwallow had entered ; but he was reluftant to do it, becaufe, he faid, it would let others in ; and though he did it at my earneft infiftance, I had a feeling that the moment my back was turned he would clofe it again, without giving the bird time to find its way out. I afterwards felt much vexed with myfelf that I did not go to the parfonage and afk the clergyman to fee that the fexton did let the poor creature “ get out.” As we returned through the village on the following day, the Medicus was leaning over his gate as we parted. He was a man of middle age, with a vulgar air, and confiderable quantity of whifker about his face ; and he had evidently taken a peep at us the day before, and recognifed us as the perfons who would have liked to fee Sterne’s houfe ; for he grinned broadly, and evidently with much felf-gratulation, as we drove by, evidently thinking he had done a very clever thing in doing a difcourtefy. BYLAND ABBEY. 1 59 Such were the revelations of the tone of mind and the fcale of enlightenment in the place where Sterne drew the picture of Uncle Toby and Corporal Trim, where he taught us to refpeSl human forrows in Lieutenant Le Fevre, the blight of the heart in poor Maria, and the fufferings of animals in the captive darling. As a prophet has no honour in his own country, in that country his teachings are, of courfe, ufually thrown away. Here, inftead of feeling, there feemed an utter want of it ; inftead of the kindlinefs of Uncle Toby and Cor- poral Trim, churlifli rudenefs prevailed, and the higheft idea of clevernefs was that of a romping girl riding with her face to a horfe’s tail ! The monaftery of Fors, in Yorkfhire, was fubjeift to Byland. Jedburgh Abbey. HE abbey of Jedburgh was raifed by David I. of Scotland, that founder of fo many religious houfes, in a very pleafant and picturefque, but very dangerous neighbour- hood. It was always expofed to the inroads of the hoftile Englilh, and fuffered, as it was fure to do, frequently and grievoufly at their hands. It flood on the river Jed, near the jundtion of the Teviot with that river. The ballad of the “ Hermit of Warkworth” well pidtures the fcenes that were for ages con- tinually occurring in the fair border-lands of England and Scotland. Lord Percy and his barons bold They fix upon a day, To fcour the marches late oppreded, And Scottilh wrongs repay. The knights adembled on the hills, A thoufand horfe and more : Brave Widdrington, then funk in years, The Percy ftandard bore. Tweed’s limpid current foon they pafs, And range the Borders round, Down the green dopes of Teviotdalc Their bugle-horns refound. JED3URGH ABBEY. 1 6 1 And foon turned out to meet them the flout Scottifh Borderers ; on this ground, as the ballad of “ Chevy Chafe ” has it, — All men of pleafant Tivydale, Fall: by the river Tweed. A very pleafant dale was Teviotdale, but rather a trying place to live in whilft thefe fiflicuff days remained. “ The vicinage of this abbey,” fays Grofe, “ to the Borders, fubjedled it to the depredations of every incurfion or invafion. Thefe were, in general, carried on with the greateft cruelty imagin- able ; neither age, fex, nor profeffion affording the leaf! pro- tection, the vidlors marking their footfteps with fire and fword. “ The ravages committed in the different incurfions of the Englifh had fo damaged this houfe, and reduced its income, as to render it infufficient for the lodging and maintenance of the canons. King Edward I. therefore fent feveral of them to different religious houfes of the fame order in England, there to be maintained till this houfe could be repaired and reftored to better circumflances. One of the writs is ftill extant by which a canon, named Ingelram de Colonia, was fent to the convent of Bridlington, in Yorkfhire.” The abbey of Jedburgh had two cells, one at Reflenote, in Angusfhire, and the other at Canonby, fituated on the river Efke, in Efkedale, in Roxburghfhire ; if poflible, a more unlucky fituation than that of Jedburgh. It was frequently plundered and burned by the Englifh, and the prior and canons obliged to flee during the heat of the war, by which means their records were fo often deflroyed, that an accurate account of them is impoflible. The firft monks, who were canons regular, were brought to Jedburgh by David I., from the abbey of St. Y 162 JEDBURGH ABBEY. Ouintin’s, at Beauvais, in France. NotwithFanding all the ravages of the Border wars, at the diffolution the revenue of the abbey, with that of its two cells at ReFenote and Canonby, amounted to £1274. lor. The abbey was eredfed into a temporal lordfhip in favour of Sir Andrew Kerr of FernihurF, anceFor to the Marquis of Lothian, who was in high favour with James VI., who made him a peer, with the title of Lord Jedburgh. The abbey and eFate yet remain the property of the Marquis of Lothian. The ruins of the abbey are Fill very fine, and Ihow what the building mud have been before it was fo frequently battered and burned by the Englifh invaders. Befides the attacks of Edward I. and Edward III., the Earl of Surrey, in 1523, Formed and burned Jedburgb, and along with it the abbey. In his difpatch to Henry VIII., he particularly notices the Fout refiFance of the abbey, which, he fays, held them till “ twoo houres within night,” but does not fpecify when the attack on the abbey commenced. NotwithFanding, one author after another has Fated that the Forming of the abbey laFed “ two hours an evident miFake, founded on the Earl of Surrey’s phral'e that it laFed to within two hours of the night. In this fame difpatch he informs us that “ the towne was much better than I weened it had been, for there was twoo tymes moo houfes therein then in Berwicke, and well buylded with many honeF and fair houfes therein, fufficiente to have lodged M horfemen in garnyfon, and fix good towres therein ; which towne and towres be clenely deFroyed, burnt, and throwen downe. Undoubtedly there was noo journey made into Scotlande, in noo mann’s day levying, with foo few a nombre, that is recownted to be foo high an enterprife as this, both with thies contremen and Scottifiimen, nor of truthe fo much hurt doon.” JEDBURGH ABBEY. l6 3 This would feem a fufficient deftruction for fome time ; but afterwards the Earl of Hertford committed as great ravages there ; and fo completely was the place fpoiled, that the abbey, in common with the other monafteries in Teviotdale, had ceafed to be inhabited at the diflolution. Nor was it from the Englifh alone that thefe ill-fated Borders received fuch treat- ment. The men of Teviotdale were famous for their martial propenfities, and were as ready to make raids and plunderings as their enemies, and, therefore, the lefs to be pitied. “ As for the humours of the people of Teviotdale,” fays Scott of Harden, in the Macfarlane MSS., “ they were both ftrong and warlike, as being inured to war and daily incurfions ; and the mod part of the heritors of the country gave out their lands to their tenants for military attendance, upon rentals, and referved only fome few mainfes for their own fuftenance, which were laboured by their fervants befides their fervice. They paid an entry, a herauld, and a fmall rent-duty; for there were no rents raifed here that were confiderable till King James went into England ; yea, all along the Border.” This gives a difmal picture of the date of the border-country till the union of the two kingdoms under one crown. Alter- nate invalions, burnings, maffacres, and every kind of defo- lation ; fo that none but men fond of war could live in it, and no profit could be derived from the lands except what con- fided in mere defence againd invaders. Thefe men, efpecially thofe of Jedburgh, fought with axes, which were called Jeddart axes, or Jeddart daves. Scott, in his “Lay of the Laft Minftrel,” defcribes the warriors of Brankfome Hall, as With Jedwood axe at faddle-bow. He fays, in his introduction to the “ Border Minftrelfy,” that, upon the arrival of the ill-fated Mary in her native country, 164 JEDBURGH ABBEY. fhe found the Borderers in a ftate of great diforder. The exertions of her natural brother, afterwards the famous Regent Murray, were necefTary to reftore fome degree of tranquillity. He marched to Jedburgh, executed twenty or thirty of the tranfgreffors, burnt many houfes, and brought a number of prifoners to Edinburgh. No doubt, on thefe occafions, the military commanders, come from which fide they would, retorted on the Jedburgh men what was popularly called “ Jeddard juftice,” hanging them firfb and trying them after. The unfortunate Oueen Mary, finding that the feverities of her brother, the Regent, had not quelled the fierce fpirit of the Borderers, appointed the Earl of Bothwell commiffioner for that purpofe ; but his unprincipled and licentious conduit only embroiled that wretched diftriit worfe. On this, fhe herfelf advanced to the Border, determining to hold a court at Jed- burgh for the fettlement of the peace and the punifhment of the offenders ; but, hearing that Bothwell was feverely wounded in attempting to feize John Elliott of the Parke, a notorious freebooter, in an evil hour for her reputation and happinefs, fhe mounted her horfe, and rode to Hermitage Caffle (where Bothwell lay) by a circuitous route, and returned the fame day, a diftance, altogether, of nearly fifty miles. A dangerous morafs, flill called the Queen’s Mire, is pointed out on the way, where fhe had a narrow efcape for her life. On her return to Jedburgh fhe was feized with a dangerous fever, and lay ill for feveral weeks at an old manfion ftill pointed out in the town, and where for fome time her death was expected. The confufion upon the Borders became more and more lawlefs ; and when the rifing of the North took place, and the Earls of Northumberland and W eftmoreland fled into Scotland, Northumberland was betrayed by Douglas into the hands of Murray the Regent, but Weftmoreland was received by the JEDBURGH ABBEY. 165 Laird of Ferniehurft, clofe to Jedburgh, and many of the Teviotdale men were greatly fcandalized that the Lords Ferniehurft and Hume had not forcibly refcued Northumber- land from the Regent. Murray marched towards Jedburgh to feize Weftmoreland and his followers at Ferniehurft ; but, as he approached Jedburgh, his men, who had no fancy for the work, nearly all deferted him, and he was obliged to return. In fa£I, the gentry of the Border, the Humes, Granges, Buccleuchs, Ferniehurfts, Johnftones, Armftrongs, Maxwells, Kerrs, Jardines, and others, ruled on the Borders, and fet both their own government and that of England at defiance. Sir Ralph Sadler, who was ported at Berwick by Queen Elizabeth to watch the movements of the Scotch court, and to corrupt all the nobles, went amongft thefe bold Border chiefs, and gives fome lively defcriptions in his defpatches of their mode of life; their drinking, gaming, riding, and open contempt of all authority. During the minority of James VI., the daring of the Border chiefs rofe to an enormous pitch. Buccleuch, with his followers, on one occafion, affifted by Lord Claud Hamilton, feized the Regent Lennox, and were very near getting pofieffion of the young king in Stirling. Failing in this, they killed the Regent. Morton, who fucceeded Lennox as Regent, managed to fow diffenfion amongft the Border chiefs, and made an attempt to furprife Jedburgh and Fernie- hurft, but was repulfed. After the death of Morton the full licenfe of the Border revived. A fon of the Earl of Bedford was, in 1585, killed in one of their frays by Kerr of Ferniehurft, which, at the demand of Elizabeth, brought that doughty chief to a dungeon, where he died. After that, Francis Stuart, an illegitimate fon of James V., who had been created Earl of Bothwell, on the forfeiture of the infamous Bothwell, hufband of Queen Mary, made great difturbance on the Border ; he was x 66 JEDBURGH ABBEY. highly popular with the men of Jedburgh and Teviotdale, and even attempted to feize the perfon of James VI. in his palace of Holyrood. In the meantime, the chiefs in the neighbour- hood of Jedburgh and the Middle Marches were fighting with each other for the provoftry of Jedburgh, in which affray Kerr of Ancram, a follower of Ferniehurft, was killed. Such was the favage condition of this neighbourhood down to the very epoch of James VI.’s afcent of the Englifh throne. Robert Carr, the infamous favourite of James I., was third fon of Sir Thomas Kerr, of Ferniehurft Caftle, which is only a mile and a half from Jedburgh. The caftle of Jedburgh was fo formidable a protection to the infubordinate Borderers in thefe difturbed times, that in the beginning of the ffxteenth century the Government refolved to deftroy it; and the work appeared fo enormous, from its ponder- ous ftrength, that it was propofed to lay a tax of two pennies on every hearth in Scotland to defray the expenfe. On the fite was raifed the county gaol, which is ftill called the caftle. A fingular occurrence took place in a cell of this caftle, in the reign of Charles I., which led to a yet more remarkable one, indicative of the ftill lawlefs condition of the times. We give it in the words of Sir Walter Scott : — - “ In the reign of Charles I., when the mofs-trooping practices were not entirely difcontinued, the tower of Gilnockie, in the parifh of Cannoby, was occupied by William Armftrong, called, for diftinCtion’s fake, Chriftie’s Will, a lineal defcendant of the famous John Armftrong, of Gilnockie, executed by James VI. The hereditary love of plunder had defcended to this perfon with the family manfton ; and, upon fome marauding party, he was feized and imprifoned in the tolbooth of Jedburgh. The Earl of Traquair, Lord High Treafurer, happening to vifit Jedburgh, and knowing Chriftie’s JEDBURGH ABBEY. 167 Will, inquired the caufe of his confinement. Will replied that he was imprifoned for {dealing two tethers (halters); but, upon being more clofely interrogated, acknowledged that there were two delicate colts at the end of them. The joke, fuch as it was, amufed the earl, who exerted his intereft, and fucceeded in releafing Will from bondage. Some time afterwards, a lawfuit of importance to Lord Traquair was to be decided in the Court of Seffion, and there was every reafon to believe that judgment would turn upon the voice of the prefiding judge, who has a calling vote, in cafe of an equal divifion among his brethren. The opinion of the Prefident was un- favourable to Lord Traquair, and the point was, therefore, to keep him out of the way when the queftion fhould be tried. In this dilemma, the earl had recourfe to Chriftie’s Will, who at once offered his fervices to kidnap the Prefident. Upon due fcrutiny he found it was the judge’s practice to take the air on horfeback on the Sands of Leith, without an attendant. In one of thefe excurfions, Chriftie’s Will, who had long watched his opportunity, ventured to accoft the Prefident and engage him in converfation. His addrefs and language were fo amufing, that he decoyed the Prefident into an unfrequented and furzy common, called the Frigate Whins, where, riding fuddenly up to him, he pulled him from his horfe, muffled him in a large cloak, which he had provided, and rode off with the lucklefs judge truffed up behind him. Will crofted the country with great expedition, by paths known only to perfons of his defcription, and depofited his weary and terrified burden in an old caftle in Annandale, called the Lower of Graham. The judge’s horfe being found, it was concluded that he had thrown his rider into the fea, his friends went into mourning, and a fucceffor was appointed to his office. Meanwhile, the poor Prefident fpent a heavy time in the vault of the caftle. He 1 68 JEDBURGH ABBEY. was imprifoned and folitary, receiving his food through an aperture in the wall, and never hearing the found of a human voice, fave when a fhepherd called his dog by the name of Batty , and when a female domeftic called upon Maudge , the cat. Thefe, he concluded, were invocations of fpirits ; for he held himfelf to be in the dungeon of a forcerer. At length, after three months had elapfed, the lawluit was decided in favour of Lord Traquair, and Will was directed to fet the Prefident at liberty. Accordingly, he entered the vault at the dead of the night, feized the Prefident, muffled him once more in the cloak, without fpeaking a fingle word, and, ufing the fame mode of tranfportation, conveyed him to Leith Sands, and fet down the aftonifhed judge at the very fpot where he had taken him up. The joy of his friends, and the lefs agreeable lurprife of his fucceffor, may eafily be conceived, when he appeared in court to reclaim his office and honours. All embraced his own perfuafion, that he had been fpirited away by witchcraft ; nor could he himfelf be convinced of the contrary, until, many years afterwards, happening to travel in Annandale, his ears were faluted once more with the founds of Maudge and Batty , the only notes which had folaced his long confinement. This led to a difcovery of the whole ftory ; but, in thofe diforderly times, it was only laughed at as a fair rufe de guerre. “ Wild and ftrange as this tradition may feem, there is little doubt of its foundation in fa£L The judge upon whofe perfon this extraordinary ftratagem was practifed, was Sir Alexander Gibfon, Lord Durie, collector of the reports well known in the Scottifh law under the title of Durie’s Decifions. He was advanced to the ftation of an ordinary Lord of Seffion, i oth of July, 1621, and died at his own houfe of Durie, July, 1646. Betwixt thefe periods, this whimfical adventure JEDBURGH ABBEY. I 6g muft have happened ; a date which correfponds with that of the tradition.” Another and the popular verfion of this extraordinary abdudlion is given in the ballad of Chriftie’s Will. There the Borderer, being engaged by Lord Traquair, — He lighted at Lord Durie’s door, And there he knocked moll manfullie ; And up and fpake Lord Durie fae ftout, “ What tidings, thou ftalwart groom, to me ? “ The faireft lady in Teviotdale Has lent, moft reverent fir, for thee , She pleas at the Seffion for her land a’ haill, And fain lhe would plead her caufe to thee.” “ But how can I to that lady ride, With faving of my dignitie ?” “ O, a curch and mantle ye may wear, And in my cloak fall muffled be.” Wi’ curch on head and cloak owre face, He mounted the judge on a palfrey fine : He rode away, a right round pace, And Chriftie’s Will held the bridle reyn. The Lothian Edge they were not o’er, When they heard bugles bauldly ring, And, hunting over Middleton Moor, They met, I ween, our noble king. When Willie looked upon the king, I wot a frightened man was he ! But even auld Durie was ftartled mail’, For tyning of his dignitie. The king he crolfed himfelf, I wis, When as the pair came riding bye — “ An uglier crone, and a fturdier loon I think were never feen with eye !” Willie has hied to the tower of Grteme, He took auld Durie on his back, He Ihot him down to the dungeon deep, Which garred his auld banes gie mony a crack. Z 1 7 o JEDBURGH ABBEY. For nineteen days and nineteen nights, Of fun, or moon, or midnight ftern, Auld Durie never faw a blink, The lodging was fo dark and dern. He thought the warlocks o’ the rofy-crofs Had fanged him in their nets fae fall ; Or that the gipfies’ glamoured gang Had laired his learning at the laft. Having now recounted the incidents of ftormy times which led to the deftrudtion of the caftle of Jedburgh, and to the ruin of the abbey, which was burnt by the Earl of Hereford in j 545, we will take a curfory glance at the remains of this once magnificent monaftery, as they yet exift. The chapter- houfe, cloifters, and other parts have perifhed, and the church alone furvives, and, in the form of a crofs, extends from eaft to weft 230 feet. The choir is much dilapidated, no doubt from being of a much greater age than the reft. The two lower ftories confift of maffive pillars and femicircular arches, with the diagonal or zigzag mouldings of Saxon architecture ; whilft the upper windows are of early Englifh, having been evidently added at a more recent period. The north tranfept is entire, pre- fenting traceried pointed windows, which are efpecially of great fize and beauty. Above the interfedlion of the tranfepts with the nave and choir, a large fquare tower rifes on four pillars to the height of 100 feet, lurmounted by projedting battlements, and crowned with turrets and pinnacles. The nave, meafuring a hundred feet in length, prefents on each fide three tiers of arches ; the firft, opening into the aide, confifts of pointed arches, deeply receded and richly moulded, fupported by chartered columns, with fculptured capitals ; the fecond, which opened into the galleries, confifts of beautifully moulded femi- circular aifles, with two pointed arches inferted in each ; and the third, of elegantly pointed windows. The lofty weftern JEDBURGH ABBEY. I 7 I front poffeffes a Norman door of uncommon beauty, the arch- way exhibiting a profufion of ornamented mouldings fupported by {lender receding pillars to the depth of feven feet and a half. Above it is a large window with a femicircular arch, flanked by l'mall blank pointed arches, on long, {lender fhafts, and this furmounted by a beautiful St. Catherine’s Wheel. On the fouth fide of the choir there is a chapel, which was formerly ufed as a grammar-fchool, and there the poet Thomfon was educated. But the chief beauty of the building is the Norman door which formed the fouthern entrance to the church from the cloifters. This is unrivalled in Scotland for the fymmetry of its proportions and the elegance of its workmanfhip. Its fculptured mouldings, fpringing from {lender fhafts, with capitals richly wreathed, prefent the figures of men, animals, and flowers of the molt admirable delicacy and minutenefs. Alto- gether, the late Archibald Elliot, architect, pronounced this, in a ftatiftical account of Scotland, the molt perfe< 5 f and beautiful fpecimen of the Saxon and Early Gothic in Scotland. The neighbourhood of Jedburgh is well worthy of poffefs- ing beautiful remains of the old times and their arts. The town lies on ground rifing from the weft bank of the Jed, and is furrounded by pleafant gardens and cheerful villas fcattered amongft them and their orchards. Around rife wooded Hopes, and at a diftance is defcried the dark bulk of Carter Fell. Above the caftle hill rifes alfo the Dunion ; northward is feen Hartrigg, the feat of Lord Campbell ; and farther off the heights of Penilheugh, with its Wellington monument. The neighbouring dale of Teviot is extremely fine, and varied by its hills and Hopes, and maffes of wood, remains of the ancient foreft. The Jed, as well as the Teviot, charmed Burns, who vifited Jedburgh in 1789, and fung of “ Eden fcenes on cryftal Jed.” Ferniehurft Caftle, now in ruins, occupying JEDBURGH ABBEY. I72 a fteep bank overhanging the Jed, and enriched with ancient woods, is a fine object. On the Jed, at Southdean, under Carter Fell, lived the poet Thomfon’s father, when the embryo bard was only two years old, and there he fpent his JEDBURGH : WESTERN GATEWAY. boyhood. From this place his father fent him, mounted behind a fervant man, to Edinburgh, to the univerfity ; but the town was by no means to the tafte of the author of “ The Seafons he had found his way back to the manfe on foot before the man had got there on horfeback, and declared to JEDBURGH ABBEY. r 73 the aftonifhed family, that he was fure he could ftudy as well in Southdean as in Edinburgh. Dr. Somerville, the hiftorian of William and Anne, was for more than fifty years minifter of Jedburgh ; and there was born the celebrated Mrs. Somer- JEDBURGH : SOUTH PORCH. ville. It is the native place, alfo, of Sir David Brewfler; and with thefe names we bid adieu to The hoary peaks of Scotland, that give birth To Teviot’s ftream, to Annan, Tweed, and Clyde. Dryburgh Abbey. Let us explore the ruined abbey’s choir ; Its fretted roof and windows of rich tracery, The fculptured tombs o’ergrown with Ihrubs and brambles, Midft broken arches, graves, and gloomy vaults: Or view the caftle of fome ancient thane, Its hall, its dungeons, and embattled towers, Mantled with ivy. their united ftrength, he broke down the fair fortune which his genius, employed on fuch themes, had won, and darkened his latter days, and taxed his failing ftrength, in the endeavour to confer on his name and children higher honours, rather fecular than literary. With thefe few failings, what a genial glory envelopes his memory, and what a like glory of all rainbow hues has he caft over the whole country which furrounded his favourite abode ! He has collected all that hiftory, tradition, ballad, and legend have bequeathed to this part of Scotland, and has added new charms to them. The perfonal memory of the great romancer, with all his poetic and hiftoric taftes, is E are now come into the immediate vicinity of the great romancer of Abbotsford, and to the place which, for its beauty, as well as fome anceftral aftociations, he chofe for his burial- place. To both thefe influences— -thofe of nature and of anceftry — no man was ever more fubjedt. He raifed his great fame on DRYBURGH ABBEY. J 75 now for ever interwoven with the fcenes and ftories, chivalrous or monaftic, that he loved. Dryburgh lies amid the fcenes in which he not only took fuch peculiar delight, but which furnifhed him themes both for his poems and romances, and which were rich in thofe old fongs and narratives of Border feats and raids which he has preferved in his Border Minftrelfy. Melrofe, the Eildon Hills, the haunt of Thomas of Ercildoune, Jedburgh, Yetholm, the Cowdenknowes, the Yarrow, and Ettrick, all lie on different Tides within a circle of twenty miles, and moft of them much nearer. Smailholme Tower, the fcene of fome of Scott’s youthful days, and of his ballad of “ The Eve of St. John,” is alfo one of thefe. Grofe tells us that “ The ruins of Dryburgh Monaftery are beautifully fituated on a peninfula formed by the T weed, ten miles above Kelfo, and three below Melrofe, on the fouth-weftern confine of the county of Berwick. “ St. Modan, who was one of the firft Chriftian miffionaries in Britain, was abbot of Dryburgh about the year 522, and made apoftolical excurfions into the north-weftern parts of Scotland, particularly in the diftricts of Stirling and Dumbarton, where his memory is Hill to be traced in popular tradition. T here is fome reafon to conjecture that on this fpot there had been more anciently a Druidical eftablifhment, becaufe the Celtic or Gaelic etymology of the name, Darach-bruach, or Darachbrugh, or Dryburgh, can be no otherwife interpreted than as the bank of the facred grove of oaks, or the fettlemen of the Druids ; and we know that it was ufual for the firft planters of Chriftianity in Pagan countries to choofe fuch facred haunts for the propagation of the gofpel. “ Bede, however, in his ecclefiaftical hiftory, is filent on this fubject ; and, as more than a century had elapfed from the days of Modan to thofe of the venerable hiftorian, it is probable that 1 76 DRYBURGH ABBEY. the religious refidence had been transferred to Melrofe long before he compofed his annals.” The new Abbey of Dryburgh had the credit of being founded in 1150, by David I., who was fond of the reputation of a founder of abbeys ; Holyrood Abbey, Melrofe Abbey, Kelfo Abbey, Jedburgh Abbey, and others, having David I. Hated as their founder. However it might be in other cafes, and in fome of them he was merely the reftorer, the real founders of Dryburgh were Hugh de Morville, Lord of Lauderdale, and Conftable of Scotland, and his wife, Beatrice de Beauchamp. They obtained a charter of confirmation from King David, in which he affumes the character of founder. The chronicle of Melrofe, however, clearly fhows who were the founders, and places David in his true pofition of patron only. The cemetery of the abbey was confecrated on St. Martin’s Day, in the year of its completion, as the chronicle obferves, “ ne daemones in iis graflarentur.” Hugh de Morville brought monks of the Premonftratenfian order from Alnwick, to occupy it, in 1152. A monk of this houfe, Rodulphus de Strode, travelled through England, France, Germany, Italy, and Paleftine. Dempfter calls him a poet of eminence, and efteemed by Chaucer ; that he was of the Haunch old Catholic fchool is fhown by his being a determined antagonifl of Wycliffe and his dodlrines. Edward II., in his invafion of Scotland in 1323, burnt down Dryburgh Abbey, as he had done that of Melrofe in the preceding year ; and both thefe magnificent houfes were reflored principally at the cofl of Robert Bruce. It was again deflroyed by the Englifh in 1544, by Sir George Bowes and Sir Brian Latoun, as Melrofe was alfo. Amongfl the moll diftinguifhed of its abbots we may mention Andrew Fordun, Bifhop of Moray, and afterwards Archbifhop of St. DRYBURGH ABBEY. 177 Andrews, and ambaffador to France, and who held fome of the molt important offices under James IV. and James V. The favours conferred upon him were in proportion to his confequence in the flate. Along with this Abbey of Dryburgh, he held in commendam thofe of Pittenweem, Coldingham, and Dunfermline. He refigned Dryburgh to James Ogilvie, of the family of Defkford. Ogilvie was alfo confiderably employed in offices of diplomacy, both at London and Paris. Sir Walter Scott, in his Introduction to the Border Minflrelfy, gives fome curious particulars regarding this abbot from a MS. hiflory of the Halliburtons of Mertoun or New- mains. Thefe Halliburtons held fome lands under the abbey, about which contentions repeatedly took place betwixt the abbot and his tenants. In the rude fpirit of the times, they proceeded to fettle their differences by arms inftead of by lawyers’ tongues. Blood having been Ihed between them, the king called the matter before him, and made an award dated at Stirling, in May, 1 535, which was, that, as the Halliburtons were good fubjeCIs of the king, flout men-at-arms, and brave Borderers againft England, they fhould be left in quiet pofleffion of their lands, and fhould be good fervants to the venerable father the abbot, as their predecefTors had been to the venerable father’s predecefTors. So eafy an award did not promife much peace, nor did it infure it. A marriage, indeed, was arranged betwixt the daughter — a natural daughter, we may fuppofe — of the abbot, Elizabeth Stewart, and Walter Halliburton, one of the family of Newmains; but this did not extinguifh the feud. The offspring of this marriage was one daughter, named Elizabeth Halliburton. To keep the property in the family, the Halliburtons determined to marry her to one of her coufins ; but the arbitrary old abbot did not confent to this l'cheme, but had his grandchild carried off by force, and married her to 2 A 1 7 8 DRYBURGH ABBEY. Alexander Erfkine, a relative of his own, and brother to the laird of Balgony. This daring add of the abbot kindled afrefh the ancient feud betwixt the abbey and the Halliburtons, which continued to rage till the diffolution of the houfe. The Erfkines feemed to keep firm hold of the Abbey of Dryburgh, and Adam Erfkine, one of Abbot James’s fuccefTors, was, under George Buchanan, a fub-preceptor to James VI. This James I. of England diftolved the abbey in 1604, and conferred it and its lands, together with the abbeys and eftates of Cambufkenneth and Inchmahornae, on John Erfkine, Earl of Mar, who was made, on this occafion, alfo Baron of Cardrofs, which barony was compofed of the property of thefe three monafteries. In this line, Dryburgh defcended to the lords of Buchan. The Earls of Buchan, at one time, fold it to the Halliburtons of Mortoun, from whom it was purchafed by Colonel Tod, whofe heirs again fold it to the Earl of Buchan in 1786. This eccentric nobleman bequeathed it to his fon, Sir David Erfkine, at whofe death in 1837 it reverted to the Buchan family. Two monafteries in Ireland, the Abbey of Druin-la-Croix in the County of Armagh, and the Abbey of Woodburn in the County of Antrim, acknowledged Dryburgh as their mother. A copy of the Liber S. Mariae de Dryburgh is in the Advocates’ Library in Edinburgh, containing all its ancient charters. Such are the- main points of hiftory connected with Dryburgh ; but, when we open the ballad lore of the South of Scotland, we find this fine old place figuring repeatedly and prominently. Maitland, of the ballad of “ Auld Maitland,” was a benefactor to Dryburgh. This Sir Richard Mautlant or Maitland, of Lauder or Thirleftane, gave lands to the abbey at Haubent-fide in his demefne of Thirleftane. He alfo gave to the fame convent other lands held by Walter de Gilling in Thirleftane, DRYBURGH ABBEY. IJ9 and pafture for forty fheep, fixty cows, and twenty horfes. This flout old Maitland is reprefented as holding his caftle of Thirleftane againft the Englifh army, headed by an imaginary nephew of Edward I. As they fared up o’er Lammermore, They burned baith up and doun, Until they came to a darkfome house, Some call it Leader Toun. “ Wha hauds this houfe ?” young Edward cried, “ Or wha geift ower to me ?” A grey-haired knight fet up his head, And crackit richt croufely : — “ Of Scotland’s king I haud my houfe ; He pays me meat and fee ; And I will keep my guid auld houfe, While my houfe will keep me.” The Eildon Hill, on which Thomas of Ercildoune had his interview with the fairy queen, looks down upon you on your right hand as you go from Melrofe to Dryburgh. Cowden- knowes, which gave rife to the fine old ballad of the “ Broom o’ the Cowdenknowes,” Bemerfide, and Merton Houfe, the feat of Scott of Harden, one of Sir Walter’s relatives, are not far off. Many of thefe afiociations Scott has woven into his ballad of the “ Eve of St. John.” The Lady of Smailholme Lower is made to fay to her paramour : — O fear not the prieft, who fleepeth to the eaft ! For to Dryburgh the way he hath ta’en ; And there to fay mafs, till three days do pals, For the foul of a knight that is flain. And the Lord, the Baron of Smailholme, fays to his page : — Where fair Tweed flows round holy Melrofe, And Eildon Hopes to the plain, Full three nights ago, by fome fecret foe, That gay gallant was flain. i8o DRYBURGH ABBEY. The varying light deceived thy fight, And the wild winds drowned the name ; For the Dryburgh bells ring, and the white monks do fing, For Richard of Coldinghame. Into the guilty details of the liafon of the Lady of Smail- holme and this Sir Richard of Coldinghame, Scott has intro- duced warning phenomena, drawn probably from fome of his German reading, but more particularly from the ftory of Lady Beresford and Lord Tyrone. In the apparition fcene, — Love mattered fear — her brow /he crofted ; “ How, Richard, haft thou fped ? And art thou faved, or art thou loft ?” The vifion /hook his head. “ Who fpilleth life /hall forfeit life, So bid thy lord believe ; That lawlefs love is guilt above, This awful fign receive.” He laid his left palm on an oaken beam, His right upon her hand ; The lady /hrunk and fainting funk, For it fcorched like a fiery brand. The fable fcore of fingers four Remains on that board imprefted ; And for ever more that lady wore A covering on her wrift. There is a nun in Dryburgh bower Ne’er looks upon the fun ; There is a monk in Melrofe tower, fie l'peaketh word to none. That nun who ne’er beholds the day, That monk who fpeaks to none — That nun was Smaylho'mes lady gay, That monk the bold baron To this ghoftly ballad Sir Walter appends this ghoftly anecdote “ About fifty years ago, an unfortunate female DRYBURGH ABBEY. 1 8 1 wanderer took up her refidence in a dark vault, among the ruins of Dryburgh Abbey, which, during the day, fhe never quitted. When night fell, fhe ilTued from this miferable habi- tation, and went to the houfe of Mr. Halliburton, of Newmains, the editor’s great-grandfather, or to that of Mr. Erfkine, of Shielfield, two gentlemen of the neighbourhood. From their charity fhe obtained fuch neceffaries as fhe could only be pre- vailed upon to accept. At twelve each night fhe lighted her candle, and returned to her vault, alluring her friendly neigh- bours that, during her abfence, her habitation was arranged by a fpirit, to whom fhe gave the uncouth name of Fat Hips ; defcribing him as a little man, wearing heavy iron fhoes, with which he trampled the clay floor of the vault to difpel the damps. This circumftance caufed her to be regarded, by the well-informed, with companion, as deranged in her underftand- ing ; and by the vulgar, with fome degree of terror. The caule of her adopting this extraordinary mode of life fhe would never explain. It was, however, believed to have been occafioned by a vow that, during the abfence of a man to whom fhe was attached, fhe would never look upon the fun. Her lover never returned, he fell during the civil war of 1745-6, and fhe never more would behold the light of day. “ The vault, or rather dungeon, in which this unfortunate woman lived and died, paffes flill by the name of the fuper- natural being with which its gloom was tenanted by her difturbed imagination, and few of the neighbouring peafants dare enter it at night.” Having now noticed the hiftory and tradition of Dryburgh, let us take a view of it as it now exifts. Grofe fays, — “ The freeftone of which the monaftery of Dryburgh and the mod elegant parts of the abbey of Melrofe were built, is of a molt beautiful colour and texture, and has defied the influence of the DRYBURGH ABBEY. ]82 weather for more than fix centuries ; nor is the fharpnefs of the fculpture in the leaf); affeCted by the ravages of time. The quarry from which it was taken is ftill fuccefsfully worked at Dryburgh, and no ftone in the ifland feems more perfectly adapted for the purpofes of architecture, as it hardens by age, and is not fubjeCt to be corroded or decompofed by the weather, fo that it might even be ufed for the cutting of bas-reliefs and of ftatues.” He adds: — “ The ftate of this ruin, when viewed by Mr. Pennant, in DRYBURGH ABBEY. DRYBURGH ABBEY. 183 the year 1769, was a very little remains of the church, but much of the convent ; the refeftory, fupported by two pillars, feveral vaults, and other offices ; part of the cloifter walls ; and a fine radiated window of Bone work. Since this account was written, the refectory, fupported by the two pillars above- mentioned, has fallen ; but the gable-ends are ftill remaining ; in one of which is the fine circular radiated window, defcribed by Mr. Pennant, at prefent finely mantled with ivy.” As the remains of the abbey have fince been carefully pre- ferved, they prefent ftill much the fame afpecft as at Grofe’s vifit in 1797. When I vifited this lovely ruin and lovely neighbourhood in 1845, I walked from Melrofe, a diftance of between three and four miles. Leaving the Eildon Hills on my right, and following the courfe of the Tweed, I faw, as I progreffed, Cowdenknowes, Bemerfide, and other fpots famous in Border fong. Iftuing from a fteep and woody lane, I came out on a broad bend of the river, with a wide ftrand of gravel and ftones on this fide, Blowing with what force the wintry torrents ruftied along here. Oppofite role lofty and finely- wooded banks. Amid the trees on that fide fhone out a little temple of the Mufes, where they are reprefented as confecrating Thomfon the poet. Farther off, on a hill, Bands a gigantic ftatue of William Wallace, which was originally intended for Burns ; but, the ftone being too large, it was thought by the eccentric Lord Buchan, who erected it, a pity to cut it down. Another ftill more ftriking monument of the activity of Lord Buchan are the remains of a chain-bridge which he had erected acrofs the river. This would have been a great convenience to the neighbourhood had it been durable ; but a tempeft tore it to pieces, and there ftood up the great white wood frames to which the bridge was attached, the two main chains ftill ftretching acrofs, but the fragments of others dangling in the 184 DRYBURGH ABBEY. air, looking mod ghaftly and ruinous. So it was in 1845, and fo it ftill Teems to continue ; for Walter White, who vifited the fpot in 1858, or 1859, f° un d thefe ruins of the bridge ftill un- removed. I was ferried over by two women, who were by no means forry that the winds and floods had carried my Lord Buchan’s bridge away, as it reftored their bufinefs of putting people over. I then afcended a lane from the ferry, and found myfelf in front of an apparently old caftle gateway ; but, from the Latin infcription over it, difcovered that it was alfo ere£ted by the fame Angular Lord Buchan, as the entrance to a Pomarium, or, in plain Englifh, an orchard, dedicated to his honoured parents, who, I fuppofe, like our firft parents, were particularly fond of apples. That his parents or himfelf might enjoy all the apples, he had, under the Latin dedication, placed a Ample Englifh menace of fteel traps and fpringguns. I ftill advanced through a pleafant fcene of trees and cottages, of rich grafly crofts, with cattle lying luxurioufly in them, and amid a hufh of repofe, indicative of a monaftic fcene. Having found a guide to the ruins, at a cottage near the river, I was led acrofs a young orchard towards them, the two old gables and the fine circular window fhowing themfelves above the foliage. I found the interior of the ruins carpeted by foft turf, and two rows of cedars growing in the church, marking where the aifles formerly ran. The cloifters and fouth tranfept were ftill entire, and difplayed much fine workmanfhip. The great circular window is efpecially lovely, formed of five ftars cut in ftone, fo that the open centre within them forms a rofe. The light feen through this charming window produced a fine effecft. The chapter-houfe was alfo entire, the floor being now only of earth ; and a circle was drawn in the centre, where the remains of the founder and his lady lie. Here again, however, the DRYBURGH ABBEY. 185 fantaftic old Lord Buchan had interfered, and a ftatue of Locke, reading in an open book, and pointing to his own forehead, one of Inigo Jones, and one of Newton, made you wonder what they were doing there. So totally without regard to fitnefs did this half-crazy nobleman put down his fuppofed ornaments. The wonder is that his fucceflor had not removed thefe, and fome ftatues or bufts which had as little bufinefs on the fpot. But the charm of the place in every fenfe was the grave of Scott. It was in the Lady aille, and occupies two arches of it ; and the adjoining fpace under the next arch is the burial- place of the Erfkines, as Scott’s burial-place was that of his anceftors the Halliburtons. The whole, with the tier offmall fe&ional Norman arches above, form a glorious tomb much refembling one of the chapel tombs in Winchefter Cathedral. Taken in connection with the fine ruins, and the finer natural fcenery around, no fpot can be fuppofed more fuitable for the refting-place of the remains of the great minftrel and romancer, who fo delighted in the natural, hiftoric, and legendary charms of the neighbourhood, and who added Hill greater ones to them himfelf. And yet there is a ferious drawback to this feeling. The place is private property ; and, though the public is admitted to it, it was then, and would appear from recent accounts to be yet, done in a fpirit that is anything but liberal and courteous. I found the perfons who Ihowed the place particularly un- courteous, and, on Hating this in the neighbourhood, was allured that this was a general experience. In fa£t, nothing could be more marked than the pleafantnefs with which Melrofe and Abbotsford were fhown to me, and the fullen difcourtefy and impatience of the guides here ; and this could not be the cafe were the fpirit of their employers of a more 2 B 1 86 DRYBURGH ABBEY. liberal llamp. Walter White, in his recent vifit, fays, that he perfuaded his companion, an American, to linger awhile in the ruin ; but the maiden, the guide, “ came back and fpoke of regulations which forbid uncontrolled liberty, fo, to fave her the trouble of watching, we departed. On our way back to the ferry, the American finds further fault with the criticifms of one of his countrymen on the Abbey, and does not fee why the unhappy one in the boat complained of Jack-in-office.” This Jack-in-office had, it is clear, retained the fame character as my Jack-in-office, thirteen years before. Since my vifit, a maffive tomb, of Aberdeen granite, has been placed over the remains of Sir Walter and Lady Scott, and thofe of their eldeft fon. A railway alfo now makes the place much more acceffible, the ftation for Dryburgh being at the village of Newtown, on the other fide of the river. Near St. Bofwell’s, oppofite to Dryburgh, has alfo been lately eredted a bridge over the Tweed, opening up the communica- tion betwixt the north and fouth fide of the river, and thus enabling the tourilf to explore at greater convenience the fcenes of ancient loves and feuds, and the haunts of Scott. Here his dull: lies amid the objedls redolent of his fame, and within a few miles, near Makerftoun, a view may be obtained, from a hill, of Smailholme Tower, where the poet palled fome of the years of his boyhood, and the memory of which he has perpetuated in one of the epiftles which introduce each Canto of Marmion : — It was a barren fcene and wild, Where naked cliffs were rudely piled ; But, ever and anon, between, Lay velvet tufts of lovelieft green ; And well the lonely infant knew Receffes where the wall-flower grew, And honeyfuckle loved to crawl Up the low crag and ruined wall, DRYBURGH ABBEY. 187 1 deemed fuch nooks the fweeteft ihade The fun in all his round furveyed ; And ftill I thought that Shattered tower The mightieft work of human power 5 And marvelled, as the aged hind With fome ftrange tale bewitch’d my mind, Of forayers, who, with headlong force, Down from that ftrength had fpurred their horle, Their fouthern rapine to renew Far in the diftant Cheviots blue, And home returning, filled the hall, With revel, waflail, rout, and brawl. The Rock of Calhel. NE of the moft interefting places in Ireland is the Rock of Cafhel, in Tipperary. It Hands boldly in the midft of a vaft cham- pagne, crowned by a duller of ruins which unite fome of the moft attractive reminis- cences, and fome of the moft exquifite ecclefiaftical architecture in the ifland. The character of fcene in which the Rock and Tower of Calhel Hand is, as ftated by Frazer, beft feen from the neighbouring hill of Killough. “ The hill of Killough is eafy of afcent, and, from its fuperior altitude, a much better view is obtained than from the Rock, of Calhel ; befides, this hill, and the rocky range running from it, form a vifual barrier to the view north- ward from the rock. If the day is favourable for diftant pros- pects, the view is bounded only by the furrounding high lands which blend with the diftant horizon. Eaftward, the detached and very remarkable mountain of Slievenaman ftretches acrofs, and prevents the eye ranging down the valley of the Suir ; and the low and foftly rounded hills of Kilkenny, lweeping from Killenaule to Frefliford, and thence to Durrow, feem to difplay and prolong the diftant perlpective. Northward, the range of hills generally known as the Slievebloom mountains, running from Tullamore to Rofcrea, and, nearer, the Devil’s Bit range of hills, blending with the Keeper mountains, take up the THE ROCK. OF CASHEL. J 89 ROCK OF CASHEL : GENERAL VIEW. boundary line from Rofcrea to Limerick, lapping over the Clare highlands beyond the Upper Shannon. Weftward, the hills ifl'ue from the Lower Shannon, at Shanagolden, and run nearly at right angles to its courfe acrofs the country to Charle- ville ; from whence fpring in a foutherly direction the Cattle Oliver mountains, connecting with the near and more lofty Galtees, by far the fineft of our inland mountain ranges. Due fouth, and more within the reach of the unaided eye, may be feen a portion of the Munavuleagh and Knockmealedown mountains, which run in a wetterly direction from Carrick-on- Suir to Kilworth.” THE ROCK OF CASHEL. 1 90 In the centre of this grand panorama Hands the rock, with the town clofely crouched at its feet. On the fummit of the rock rifes a fplendid group of ruins, confiffing of the cathedral, Cormack’s chapel, and the cafile and monaffery. Around thefe ruins an area of about three acres of the richeff fward has been enclofed, which is open to the public ; and the parifh fexton, who adts as the cicerone, is at hand to Ihow the interior. The cathedral forms the centre of the group of thefe celebrated ruins, which are unparalleled in Ireland for pidturefque beauty and antiquarian intereff. It is a noble remnant of early pointed Gothic, and contains many intereffing relics. The caflellated building adjoining forms externally a part of, and is internally connedted with, the cathedral, and appears to have been a place of great ffrength in thofe days when princely ecclefiaflics affumed the powers of lords temporal as well as fpiritual. To the north Hands one of the old Round Towers, and, on the fouth fide, Cormack’s Chapel. This famous chapel was built by Cormack M‘Carthy, King of Munfler, in 1136. In its external figure it Hrikingly re- fembles thofe far more ancient churches of the Irifh Chrifiian fathers who, from the fifth century, continued to evangelize and civilize the rude people, till the Roman hierarchy came in, rofe over their heads, and put them down. We have already had to notice the labours and domiciles of this fimple and devoted race of Chriflian fathers at Iona and Lindisfarne, who fpread themfelves thence all over Europe. As in the places mentioned, fo in Ireland, they generally fought the wildefi and moH defolate fpots for their refidences, as more fitted for religious contemplation, from having nothing to call off the attention by its amenity. They had fuch at Smerwick Harbour, in the county of Kerry, at Bilhop’s Ifiand, near Kilkee, upon the coaff of Clare, flyled in Irifh, “ Oilean-ap- THE ROCK. OF CASHEL. I 9 I Eafpoig-gor-taigh,” the ifle of the hungry or ftarving bifhop. This was a barren, precipitous rock, environed with perpen- dicular or overhanging cliffs, about 250 feet in height, and containing about three-quarters of an acre of furface, to which accefs is moll difficult, and only to be effected by a fkilful climber, and after a continuance of calm weather. There was another fuch fecluded feat of piety on the ifland of Ard-Oilean, or Eye Ifland, off the coaft of Connemara. The only com- panions of the holy fathers on this ifland were the fea-birds, which built there in thoufands, and a few martins. So lonely and defolate was the place, that even thefe creatures feemed to have loft their dread of man. Again, Saint Senan had, in the fixth century, a very primitive church on Inis Cathaigh or Scattery Ifland, the Iona of the South of Ireland. In moft of thefe, the earlieft erections were Amply fquare huts, the gables tapering up from the ground to the eaves, and then covered in by flabs of ftone gradually approximating, till they met at the ridge. The windows were very fmall, very few, and alfo contracting upwards. The doors did the fame, being fometimes not fix feet high, yet two feet four inches wide at the bottom, and only one foot nine inches at the top, which was finifhed, not by an arch, but by a flat lintel. Others were circular, with the bafe low, and the roof a high cone of Hones laid to contract at every frefh layer till they terminated in a point at the top. Thefe little dwellings and churches were fuch as the moft unfkilled perfon could erect, and yet were fo ftrong as to refift the force of the tempeft of the wild locations in which they were raifed. As time and architecture advanced, the churches, though Hill fmall, became fquare, with high-pitched ftone roofs, and doors and windows ftill Ihowing the fame ftyle of contracting upwards, but now often finifhed by arches, round or pointed. 192 THE ROCK OF CASHEL. The walls were very thick, and therefore the windows were widened, or difplayed inwards to admit more light. Such are the remains of the ancient I rifh churches in the romantic valley of Glendalough in Wicklow, of the ftruCture called St. Kevin’s Kitchen in the fame valley, of Killiney Church, about nine miles from Dublin; of the Church of Kilternan, about fix miles from Dublin on the Ennifkerry Road, of St. Columb’s Houfe at Kells, County Meath, and of St. Flannan’s Houfe at Killaloe. The roofs of thefe churches did not depend on the mutual fupport of the Hone flabs forming them, but were borne on ftone arches. It is curious that, as the Norman period approached, the windows and doors of thefe churches were found to be ornamented with the zig-zag or chevron moulding, had recefied arches, and pillars furmounted with capitals pre- fenting fculptured faces, mingled with the remains of their own old flyle, their upward narrowing doors and peculiar pillars. Norman, whatever it did in England before the Conqueft, has been fhown by Wakeman to have been modify- ing the Irifh ecclefiaflical architecture for fome time. After that period, the Norman ftyle prevailed more purely, and no finer proof of this exifts than in St. Cormack’s Chapel at Cafhel. With the exception of the Round Tower, it is the molt ancient ftruCture on the rock. The numerous ornaments, grotefque heads, and other curious fculptures which adorn the arches, columns, and pilafters, are all uniform in ftyle, and that ftyle is diftinCtly Norman. The plan is a nave and chancel, with a fquare tower on each fide, at their junction. The fouthern tower is ornamented externally with fix projecting bands, three of which are continued along the fide walls of the ftruCture ; and it is finifhed at the top by a plain parapet, the mafonry of which is different from that of the other portions, THE ROCK OF CASHEL. l 93 and evidently of a later period. The northern tower remains in its original ftate, and is covered with a pyramidal cap of ftone. An almoft endlefs variety of Norman decorations appear upon the arches and other features of the building, both within and without. Both nave and chancel are roofed with a femi-circular arch, refting upon fquare ribs, which fpring from a feries of maffive femi-columns, fet at equal diftances ag-ainft the walls. The bafes of thefe femi-columns are on a level with the capitals of the choir arch, the abacus of which is continued as a firing courfe round the interior of the build- ing. The walls of both nave and chancel beneath the firing courfe are ornamented with a row of femi-circular arches, flightly receded, and enriched with chevron, fillet, and other ornaments and mouldings. Thofe of the nave fpring from fquare imports rerting upon piers, while thofe in the chancel have pillars and well-formed capitals. There are final! crofts, to which accefs is gained by a fpiral flair in the northern tower, between the arches over both nave and chancel, and the external roof. Thefe little apartments were probably ufed as dormitories by the ecclefiaftics. A fimilar croft in the church of St. Doulough, near Dublin, is furnifhed with a fire-place, a fa£l which clearly demonftrates that they were applied to the purpofe of a habitation. Of the three doorways of Connor’s chapel, two are very rich in fculpture, and fhow remains of the ancient Irifh ftyle, having a fquare lintel, and upon that a femi-circular arch highly decorated. The Round Tower on the north of the cathedral is a perfeil one, and difplays moft of the peculiarities of thefe mod interefting remains of Irifh antiquity. As the reader is aware, for a very long time there was much fpeculation in Ireland amongfl the learned, and many theories regarding their origin. They were Danifh, Phoenician, and half a dozen other things. 2 c BOUND TOWER ROCK OF CASHEL. Their tall pointed character fuggefted that they belonged to the worfhippers of the fun and of fire. For a confiderable period this theory of General Valiancy and his difciples prevailed; but Dr. Petrie in his “ Ecclefiaftical Architecture of Ireland,” publifhed in 1845, put all thefe fancies to flight, and added a new intereft to them by clearly demonftrating that they were the work of the ancient Chriftians of the country ; that they THE ROCK OF CASHEL. I 95 had been ere&ed at different periods betwixt the fifth and thirteenth centuries, and had ferved for belfries, and for places of ftrength in cafes of attack by marauding enemies ; as well as for watch-towers, from whence the approach of danger might be defcried. He imagines that they might alfo have ufed them as beacons. Thefe deductions he drew not only from their peculiar conftru&ion, but from the ancient Celtic MSS. of the country. How clear now appears their origin. Thefe fingular and gloomy-looking tall hollow cylinders, with their lantern tops for the moil part, with their fmall loopholes generally larger near the fummit, and their loweft entrance at many feet from the ground, which the ancient Chriftians, no doubt, reached by a ladder, probably of rope, and which they drew in after them, feem now perfectly intelligible. Tolerably fecure, from the ftrength of the building and its refiftance to fire, having no wood about it, the Chriftian inhabitants could carry in with them their few valuables, efpecially their hiftoric and facred MSS., and could repel any aflailants from the entrance, by having, as was frequently the cafe, another doorway above it, whence they could fling down huge ftones on their heads. This origin accounts fully for their always being in con- nexion with the old churches, or on the fpots where they had flood, and on which more modern ones have been ereCted. The charaCler of their doorways is fimilar to thofe of the primitive churches, narrowing upwards, fometimes with the Ample lintel, fometimes with a round and fomewhat orna- mented arch. Over the main door they had frequently a crofs, or the figure of the crucifixion, in a ftyle allied to that of the churches. The round towers which I have feen were chiefly in the middle part of Ireland. A fine one, but much out of the perpendicular, ftands in the cathedral yard of 196 THE ROCK OF CASHEL. Kilkenny. I obferved another on my way from Edgeworth Town to Auburn ; and Dr Petrie particularly mentions thofe of Antrim; thofe at Donoughmore, in the county of Meath ; at Timahoe and Kildare ; at Clondalkin, Swords, Rufk and Rath- michael, near Dublin ; at Monaflerboice, near Drogheda ; at Cloyne, in the county of Cork, and others. This round tower at Cafhel indicates that the rock was the fite of more ancient ecclefiaftical erections than the prefent ruined cathedral. Befides thefe facred buildings on the rock, Cafhel poflefTed feveral monafleries of much note. There was the old Domi- nican Friary, which was clofe to the fite of the old Roman Catholic chapel. This was founded in the year 1243, by Archbifhop Michael M‘Kelly, who brought brethren from the Dominican abbey at Cork. It was deflroyed by fire, and rebuilt in 1480, by John Cantwell, the archbilhop, who pro- mifed to all perfons aiding in its refloration the benefit of the mafies, prayers, fermons, vigils, and other good deeds of the Dominican brotherhood throughout the kingdom during this life, and afterwards eternal happinefs. A very liberal promife, if the recipients could have been allured of more infrangibility than promifes are proverbial for. This friary is faid to have been the nobleft and rnofl beautiful building belonging to the Dominican order in Ireland. At the fuppreflion it was granted by Henry VIII. to Walter Fleming, of Cafhel, for ever — tithes excepted — at an annual rent of 2 s. bd., Irifh money. The ruins are now much decayed. Then there was Hacket’s, or the Francifcan abbey, on whole fite the prefent Roman Catholic chapel was built. Phis was founded in the reign of Henry III., by William Hacket. In 1363 the abbey mull have been in a very diforderly Hate ; for a number of the friars by name were charged by the Lord Chief Jultice, Sir Robert Preflon, with cutting down timber, THE ROCK OF CASHEL. >97 driving oft’ the ftock to the value of a hundred marks, and committing a variety of other enormities on his lands of Bally- tarfyn and Le Hethon, for which offences he ordered the fheriffs to attach them. In 1538, the friars of the Stridl Obfervance reformed this convent ; but, if it had not been reformed before, it muff have had about two centuries, or pro- bably more, of difgraceful licenfe. At the diflolution, Henry VIII. granted it for ever to Archbifhop Butler, of Cafhel, at the annual rent of 2 s. ior/., Irifh money. In the night of the 14th of February, 1757, the lofty and beautiful fteeple of this friary fell to the ground ; and afterwards the ruins went rapidly to decay, till their outlines could fcarcely be traced. But the moft important of all thefe monafteries was Hore Abbey, or the White Friars. This was fituated upon the plain immediately befide the rock, and its fine remains continue in comparatively good prefervation. This abbey — called all'o St. Mary’s Abbey of the Rock of Cafhel — was originally founded for Benedidlines ; but the archbifhop, David M‘Carvill, having dreamed, in the year 1269 or 1272, that thefe monks had made an attempt to cut off his head, he violently difpolfefted them, and gave their monaftery to a body of Ciftercian monks, whom he brought from the abbey of Mellifont, in the county of Louth, he himfelf at the fame time affirming the habit of that order. The abbey poflefled at this time much property, various extenftve lands, three mills, and a moiety of a mill, a church and a chapel ; all of which were confirmed to the Ciftercians by Edwards I. and II. At the diflolution the cata- logue of the abbey property was large. There were nearly twenty mefi'uages, with their gardens and fields, amounting to nearly five hundred acres, befides warren, tithes and alterages, a meafure of ale out of every brewing in the town, called the Mary-gallon, with other privileges, and four churches. The THE ROCK OF CASHEL. I98 bulk of this property was granted in 1561 by Queen Elizabeth to Sir Henry Radcliffe ; but in 1576 it was re-granted on leafe to James Butler, and in the forty-fecond of the fame reign to Thomas Sinclair, at the annual rent of 2 s. Irifh money. In Archdall’s time (1786) he defcribed the remains of Hore Abbey as in the following condition : — “ The noble ruins of this erecftion ftill remain, and are, for the moil part, entire. The fteeple is large, and about twenty feet fquare on the infide, which is fupported by a variety of ogives from each angle, fome meeting in an o£tagon in the centre, and others at the key-ftones of the vault, and the ftrucfture is fupported by two fine arches, about thirty feet high. The choir, or chapel, which adjoins the eaft fide of the fteeple, is about twenty-nine feet in length, and twenty-four in breadth on the infide ; the eaft window is fmall and plain, and in the fide walls are fome remains of ftalls, &c. The nave is fixty feet in length, twenty-three in breadth, and on each fide was an arcade of three Gothic arches, the north fide whereof is levelled, with lateral aifles, which were about thirteen feet broad. Between this and the fteeple is an apartment, but we are equally igno- rant as to its name and the ufe to which it was applied. It is thirty-one feet in length, of the fame breadth as the nave, and divided from the fteeple by a plain wall. On each fide are fimilar arcades of two arches only, and this opens with the weft arch of the fteeple. On the fouth fide of the fteeple is a fmall door leading into an open part, about thirty feet long and twenty-four broad ; the fide walls are much broken, and in the gable end is a long window. There is a fimilar divifion on the north fide of the fteeple. Here is a fmall arched apartment, which feems to have been a con- feffionary, as there are niches in the walls, with holes, & c.” Such is the group of monafteries whofe ruins crown the THE ROCK OF CASHEL. I 99 fummitof the Rock of Cafhel, or ftand beneath its fhade in the town, perhaps altogether the moil remarkable in Ireland. They Ihow that in the early ages of Irifli hiftory Cafhel was a place of much importance. It was long the refidence of the Kings of Munfter, who had their palace on the rock ; the ancient round tower probably being attached to the royal chapel. After 1101, the rock became wholly occupied by the cathedral, and the other ecclefiaftical buildings. When Strongbow and his followers, by adopting the quarrel of Dermond MacMurrogh, the King of Leinfter, againft Roderick O’Connor, King of Connaught, Tiernan O’Ruarc, lord of Breffny, and other Irifh chieftains, had made himfelf mailer of all Ireland, except Ulfter, and Henry II. haftened over, in 1171, to fecure the poffeffion of the ifland to himfelf, it was near Cafhel, on the banks of the Suir, that he received the homage of the King of Thomond or Limerick, the Prince of OfTory, and the other chiefs of Munfter. Here again, after having vifited Dublin, and received the homage of moft of the other Irifh chieftains, except thofe of Ulfter, Henry called together a general council of the clergy to regulate the affairs of the church. At this council the fovereignty of Henry was fully acknowledged by the clergy. Between that important period, however, and the landing of King William III., Cafhel was doomed, like moft other Irifh towns, to fuffer many a blow in the different rebellions againft the Englifh rule, and by the punifhments infliefted for thefe rebellions. What the Catholic clergy had to endure from the fo-called Proteftant invaders, may be imagined from what Miller in his “ Letters to a Prebendary” relates ; namely, that on O’Hurle, the Arch- bifhop of Cafhel, falling into the hands of Oueen Elizabeth’s Governor, Sir William Drury, in 1573, he was firft tortured by immerfing his legs in jack-boots, filled with quick-lime, 200 THE ROCK OF CASHEL. water, &c., until they were burnt to the bone, in order to force him to take the oath of fupremacy, and he was then, with other circumftances of barbarity, hanged on the gallows. During the civil war in the reign of Charles I., Lord Inchiquin, who had been one of the king’s mod zealous partizans, revolted againft him, and fell with fury on the Catholics. He had long commanded in Ireland, though without the title of Lord Prefident ; and when the Earl of Portland was named by Charles to that office, Inchiquin was fo incenfed, that he went over to the Parliament, and fet himfelf diligently to work to prove his zeal in the caufe of his new mailers. He made his officers and foldiers take the covenant, and bound them by a folemn oath to effedl the total extirpation of popery, and the fubjugation of the Irifh. He proceeded to feize Cork, Youghal, and Kinfale, and drove out all the Catholic inhabitants, and plundered them of their effects. But his crowning atrocity was that at Cafhel. “ There,” fays Leland, “ the inhabitants fled to their cathedral, feated on a rock well fortified, and provided with a flrong garrifon. Inchi- quin propofed to leave them unmolefted, on condition that they paid him over ^3,000, and a month’s pay to his army. But, as this propofal was ralhly rejected, he took the place by ftorm, with confiderable daughter, both of the citizens and foldiers. Here he gained a prodigious booty. In ftorming the rock of Cafhel, about twenty ecclefiaflics fell in the indifcriminate daughter ; an incident fhocking to the nuncio, who inveighed againft this facrilege, and clamoured for revenge.” Caftlehaun fays that he put to death three thoufand people, including many gentry who had fled to the rock for fafety, and took the priefts from under the very altars. “Inchiquin,” fays Taylor, “was the lineal defcendant of the royal race of the O’Briens 5 but there never was a fcourge THE ROCK OF CASHEL. 201 of Ireland animated by a greater hatred of his countrymen. Whether fighting for the king or the parliament — and he changed Tides more than once — he was invariably the bitter enemy of his countrymen, and the favage profaner of the ROCK OF CASHEL : NORTH TRANSEPT OF CATHEDRAL. religious edifices in which the afhes of his own anceftors repofed. His name is preferved in the traditions of Munfter, as the fymbolof everything that is wicked and terrible. Nurfes fcare their children by the threat of calling black Murrough O' Bryan ; and the fuperftitious peafant tells of the curfe that he brought upon his family ; and the failure of male heirs to the title of Inchiquin.” 2 D Holy-Crofs Abbey. RELAND,” fays Harris in his preface to his edition of “ Ware’s Antiquities,” “has been diftinguifhed among other nations by the title of the Iflandof the Saints, for the vigilance of its reformers from heathenifm, and the per- feverance of the nation in the practice of the ftri&efl moral and religious duties.” Arienus, many centuries ago, following ftill earlier writers, called it the holy ifland. We may, therefore, fuppofe that Ireland, from a very early period, abounded with monafteries and nunneries. One of the moft facred and efteemed of thefe eftablifhments was Holy-Crofs Abbey in Tipperary. It was founded for monks of the Ciftercian order, in honour of the Holy Crofs of St. Mary and St. Benedict. It flood on the right bank of the Suir, about three miles from Thurles, and near it a village. It was named the Abbey of the Holy Crofs, from a fragment of the true crofs which Pope Pafcal II. fent to Murtough, King of Ireland, in mo. The abbey, however, was not founded till 1182, by Donogh Carbragh O’Brien, King of Limerick. The founder conferred on it extenfive lands, and Gregory was its firft abbot. It received further endowments and privileges from Kings John, Henry III., Richard II., the Earls of Ormond, and the Archbifhop of Cafhel. The abbey was a daughter of the Abbey of Nenagh, Magy, THE ROCK OF CASHEL. 203 or Maig, in the County of Limerick, which was alfo founded by O’Brien, and, itfelf a daughter of Mell, became the mother of many others. The abbot of Holy Crofs was a baron of Parliament, and ftyled Earl of Holy Crofs. He was ufually the vicar-general of the Ciftercian order in Ireland. Jungelin, in his time, faid that it was incredible what a number of Irifh Catholics ftill continued their refort to this church on account of the piece of our Saviour’s crofs kept there. In the winter of 1559, the great rebel O’Neill made a pilgrimage to the piece of the crofs, and this faid fragment is affirmed to be ftill in the pofl’effion of the Roman Catholics of the place. The incident juft thrown in by the topographer, of the great rebel, O’Neill, making a pilgrimage to the fragment of the crofs at Holy-Crofs Abbey, is juft one of thofe dry bones {tripped of every particle of living flefh, of which our topo- graphies generally confift. How little does the reader fee of the real fa£t in this dry incidental ftatement. It is only when he turns to hiftory, and afks who was this O’Neill, and what were the circumftances under which he made this pilgrimage, that he finds himfelf in the midft of fcenes which tell a ftartling tale of what Ireland and what England were at that day, the much-vaunted day of Queen Elizabeth. Around this pidturefque pile of Holy-Crofs there combated the wild children of a wild land, for their foil and their religion, againft the Raleighs, the Spenfers, and the Eftexes of England. Then indeed did the opprefted native? of Ireland cling to every fytnbol and abode of his faith with a half defpairing, half defperate energy, and faw that Proteftantifm, — which fhould have been mild and merciful, becaufe it boafted itfelf more enlightened, — libelled by greedy ftatefmen, and even by the worfhippers of the mufes, who were grafping at the pofleffions of their neigh- bours, and reigning amid fire and bloodfhed over the defolated 204 HOLY-CROSS ABBEY. lands of the Irilh. The picture of thofe days, as they are limned by Samuel Smiles, author of the “ Life of George Stephenfon,” in his Hiftory of Ireland, fhows us what are the memories that to this day Hill rankle in the hearts of the children of Erin, and render them infenfible to the better treatment of to-day. It may be well to quote a few paflages from a writer fo well known for his moderate and judicious fpirit : — “At the acceffion of Elizabeth, Ireland was in a Hate of diftradlion. In the north, 0‘Neill was ftruggling to make himfelf mailer of Ulller, in which he had nearly fucceeded ; in Connaught, the rival branches of the De Burgh family were making fierce and dellrudlive war on each other : Munller wasj again dillradled by the feuds of the Butlers and the Geraldines, and by Ilruggles for the chieftaincy of the pro- vince ; while Leinller was overrun by the men whom the barbarous perfecution of the Englifh Government had made landlefs, homelefs, and defperate. “ One of the firll adls of the Earl of Effex, the Queen’s Lord-deputy, was to convene a parliament, and pafs the famous Adis of Supremacy and Conformity for the re-ellablifhment of the Reformed religion. Thefe Adis were levelled at the whole fabric of Catholicifm in Ireland : they transferred the primacy from the Pope to the Queen, and veiled in her and the Englifh Parliament the fpiritual power to decide in all errors and herefies in the Church. The work of Protellantizing the Irifh then commenced in earneft. The prieflhood, who refufed to change their opinions at the command of the Queen, were driven at once from their cures, and their places fupplied by the fcum of the Englilh Church — men whom the Englifh poet Spenfer defcribes as guilty of ‘ grofs fimony, greedy covetoufnefs, flelhly incontinence, carelefs floth, and generally HOLY-CROSS ABBEY. 205 all difordered life.’ The new clergy, befides, were men who did not know a word of the language of the people among whom they were fent to minifter ; they had no fympathy for them ; but, on the other hand, were leagued with thofe whom the Irifh naturally looked upon as their malignant enemies and oppreflors. How different from the native Catholic clergy of Ireland ! — men fprung from the people, devotedly attached to them, fympathizing with their forrows, fharing in their fuffer- ings, and fparing no toil or labour in the performance of their religious duties. All the powers of the moft perfecuting government that ever exifted could have no influence upon the convictions of a people miniftered to by a prieflhood fuch as this. And they had not. Elizabeth had tried all forms of perfecution with the Irifh, even to the length of extermination, and they failed. She and her armies might conquer the foil of Ireland ; but they could not conquer the deeply-rooted religious convictions of its inhabitants. Long, indeed, before the conclufion of her reign, Proteftantifm had made itfelf thoroughly odious and intolerable to the great mafs of the Irifh people. “ The plan which the government of Elizabeth feems to have premeditatedly adopted, and rigidly adhered to during her reign, was that of coercion and fubjugation of the Irifh. At one period, nothing fhort of utter extermination was thought of. With this view, chieftains were incited to make war upon each other, the agents of the government watching the oppor- tunity to pounce upon them, and divide their eftates amongft themfelves. When diflriCls could not be goaded to rebellion, other excufes were always found ready at hand. An infamous aCt was never yet done by wicked men, but there was an excufe to prop it up with. Thus, when chiefs did not aCtually rebel, it was eafy to accule them of intending to rebel ; and the fame 206 HOLY-CROSS ABBEY. obje£l was accomplilhed as if they had been taken in acftual rebellion. The firft chief with whom the new policy was tried, was the powerful John O’Neill of Ulfter. A large force was marched againft him, which O’Neill prepared vigoroufly to refill. An accommodation, however, was eft'ecfted between the Lord-deputy and the chief, and blood- Ihed was for a time averted. The chief feized the oppor- tunity of proceeding to London with all fpeed, to lay his cafe before Queen Elizabeth in perfon. His appearance at the Englilh court, in the character, drefs, and following of an Irilh chief, caufed a great fenfation. The fight-loving Londoners were delighted with the novelty ; and Elizabeth felt flattered by the deference of the ‘wild Irilh chief.’ The refult was that O’Neill gained his point; and returned to Ireland, confirmed in all his honours, and in the pofleflion of all his vail eftates.” Elizabeth, in fa£t, created him Earl of Tyrone ; or Tir Owen, as the Englilh called him. Camden, fpeaking of this Shane-Dymas, or John 0 ‘Neill, and his vifit to London, fays : — “ He had 600 men for his guard, 4,000 foot, 1,000 horfe for the field. He claimed fuperiority over all the lords of Ulfter, and called himfelf king thereof. When commiftioners were fent to treat with him, he faid ‘ that, though the Queen were his Sovereign lady, he never made peace with her, but at her lodging ; that fhe had made a wife earl of Macartymore, but that he kept as good a man as he. That he cared not for fo mean a title as earl ; that his blood and power were better than the beft ; that his anceftors were kings of Ulfter ; and that he would give place to none.’ His kinfman, the Earl of Kildare, having perluaded him of the folly of contending with the crown of England, he refolved to attend the Queen, but in a ftyle fuited to his princely dignity. He appeared in London with a HOLY-CROSS ABBEY. 207 magnificent train of Irifh galloglafl’es, arrayed in the richeft habiliments of their country, their heads bare, their hair flowing on their fhoulders, with their long and open fleeves dyed with faffron. Thus dreffed, and furcharged with military harnefs, and armed with battle-axes, they afforded an aftonifh- ing fpedlacle to the citizens, who regarded them as the intruders of fome very diftant part of the globe. But at court his verfatility now prevailed ; his title to the fovereignty of Tyrone was pleaded from Englifh laws and Irifh inftitutions ; and his allegations were fo fpecious, that the Queen difmifled him with prefents and affurances of favour. In England this tranfadlion was looked upon as the humiliation of a repenting rebel : in Tyrone it was confidered as a treaty of peace between two potentates.” “ The Queen’s Englifh agents in Ireland were enraged at being thus out-manoeuvred by O’Neill. They continued to reprefent to the Queen the danger of allowing fuch a perfon to remain poflefled of fuch vaft powers, and conftantly afferted that he was on the brink of infurredlion. ‘Well,’ at length replied Elizabeth, ‘ if he do revolt, it will be the better for you, as there will then be ejlates enough for you all .’ However Elizabeth may have meant this — and fhe was a woman heartlefs and felfifh enough for anything — her Irifh retainers conftrued it into a licence to provoke the native chiefs into revolt, that they might fhare amongft them the eftates which might thus be forfeited. Certainly means were immediately thereafter adopted to provoke O’Neill to rebellion. His refiftance to the Government was at firft effectual ; but only a fhort time elapfed before he was completely crufhed by their overwhelm- ing power, as well as by the defection of thofe on whom he had counted as allies. In his lafE extremity, he fled to the Hebridian Scots, whom he had formerly attacked and routed 208 HOLY-CROSS ABBEY. with great flaughter, to gain the favour of the Englifh queen. In revenge, and inftigated by Piers, a Britifh officer, they flew him, and his head was fent to Dublin, as a trophy of the victory.” Then follows the long and revolting llory of the Iharing up of O’Neill’s vaft eftates amongft the Englilh officers and gentlemen, and the fame perfecution, purfuing to death, and carving up of the great eftates in Munfter of the Earl of Defmond, a defcendant of one of the Anglo-Norman barons, who firft invaded Ireland under Strongbow. “ The ferocity and cruelty with which this war was condu&ed,” fays Mr. Smiles, “ is perhaps unfurpafled in the records of crime. Slaughter, famine, and defolation, marked the route of the Englilh army. No quarter was given. Men, women, and children, wherever found, were indifcriminately put to death. Soldiers were mad for blood. Priefts were murdered at the altar, and children at their mother’s breafts. The beauty of women, the venerablenefs of age, the innocence of youth, were no protection againft thefe fanguinary demons in human form. The foldiers in the camp,’ fays Holinlhed, the Englilh chroni- cler, ‘ were fo hot upon the fpur, and fo eager upon the vile rebels, that they fpared neither man, woman, nor child, but all were committed to the fword.’ Neither was their cruelty glutted with bloodlhed. According to Lombard, a contempo- rary writer, ‘ great companies of thefe provincials, men, women, and children, were often forced into caftles, and other houfes, which were then fet on fire.’ All cattle were carried away by the invaders, and crops cut down in Iheer wantonnefs. What they could not carry with them they deftroyed with the flames. Famine and defolation were their handmaids ; thofe who were not flain with the fword perilhed with hunger. ‘ They per- formed,’ fays Cox, another old Englifh writer, c their duty fo HOLY-CROSS ABBEY. 209 effectually, and brought the rebels to fo low a condition, that they faw three children eating the entrails of their dead mother, upon whofe flefh they had fed many days, and roafted it with a flow fire.’ We take a poet’s defcription of the hideous fcenes of defolation which Ireland prefented at this period. “ Not- withftanding,” fays Edmund Spenfer, 1 that the fame was a molt rich and plentiful country, yet, in one year and a half they were brought to fuch wretchednefs, as that any ftrong heart would rue the fame. Out of every corner of the woods and glynns they came creeping forth upon their hands, for their legs could not bear them ; they looked like anatomies of death ; they fpoke like ghofts crying out of their graves ; they did eat the dead carrions, happy when they could find them, yea, and one another foon after ; infomuch that the very carcafes they fpared not to fcrape out of their graves ; and if they found a plot of water-creffes or fhamrocks, there they flocked as to a feaft for the time, yet not able to continue withal ; that in fhort fpace there was none almoft left, and a moft populous and plentiful country fuddenly left void of man and beaff.’ And though Spenfer fpeaks here rather pityingly of the poor Irifh, yet, in his “View of the State of Ireland,” he recom- mended ftarving them down till “ they would quietly confume themfelves and devour one another.” Sir Walter Raleigh is charged with maffacring in cold blood, and after furrender, a Spanifh garrifon at Smerwick, in Kerry, — maffacring them to a man ; and for fuch deeds he received 40,000 acres of the eftate of the murdered Earl Defmond, and Spenfer received Kilcolman Caftle and property, which was in turn burnt over his head by the incenfed Irifh. At leno-th Oueen Elizabeth was informed that “ nothing was left in Ireland but carcafes and afhes :” and Sir George 2 E 210 HOLY-CROSS ABBEY. Carrew, one of the acftors in thefe horrid fcenes, wrote an account of thefe infernal proceedings in a book called u Hibernia Pacata,” — “ Ireland Pacified !” It was fo completely “ paci- fied ” that Holinfhed fays, “ The land itfelf, which before thefe wars was populous, well inhabited, and rich in all the bleffings of God, being plenteous of corn, full of cattle, well ftored with fruit, and fundry other good commodities — is now wafte and barren, yielding no fruits ; the paftures no cattle ; the fields no corn ; the air no birds ; the feas, though full of fifh, yet to them yielding nothing. Finally, every way, the curfe of God was fo great, and the land fo barren both of man and beaft, that whofoever did travel from the one end to the other of all Munfter, even from Waterford to the heart of Limerick, which is about fix-fcore miles, he fhould not meet any man, woman, or child, faving in towns or cities ; nor yet fee any beaft, but the very wolves, the foxes, and other like ravenous beafts.” Such were the fcenes which, in Queen Elizabeth’s days, and through thofe of the Stuarts, furrounded thefe old monaftic halls, which we are accuftomed to regard as the haunts of peace and pious contemplation. The only wonder is that they efcaped the general ravage, and were fuffered to Hand at all. The only thing which protected even a fragment of thefe fine architectural walls, was the fact that they were become the property of the Earl of Ormond, granted by Elizabeth in the fifth year of her reign, with 160 acres of arable land, fixty of pafture and two of wood, in the town of Holy Crofs. The great O’Neill, who made a pilgrimage to the fragment of the Holy Crofs, would no longer find it depofited in the Abbey of Holy-Crofs, but in fome Catholic church or chapel of the place. It was this O’Neill, or O’Neale, to whom Sir Walter Scott alludes in Rokeby: HOLY -CROSS ABBEY. 21 1 HOLY-CROSS ABBEY. Who has not heard while Erin yet Strove ’gainft the Saxon's iron bit — Who has not heard how brave O’Neale In Englilh blood imbrued his fteel, Againft St. George’s crofs blazed high The banners of his Taniftry, To fiery Efiex gave the foil, And reigned a prince in Ulfter’s foil ? 212 HOLY-CROSS ABBEY. Spenfer, the poet, defcribes the rude mode in which even chiefs like O’Neill occafionaliy lived : — “ The wood is his houfe againft all weathers, and his mantle is his couch to deep in. Therein he wrappeth himfelf round, and covereth him- fe If ftrongly againft the gnats, which in that country doe more annoy the naked rebels while they keep the woods, and doe more fharply wound them, than all their enemies’ fwords or fpears, which can feldom come nigh them.” But Sir John Harrington tells us how this O’Neill lived at his camp, for he paid him a vifit at the time of his truce with Eflex ; and after noticing “ his fern tables, and fern forms, fpread under the ftately canopy of heaven,” he notices what conftitutes the real power of every monarch, the love, namely, and allegiance of his fubjedts : — “His guard, for the moft part, were beardlefs boys, without ftiirts, who in the froft wade as familiarly through rivers as water- fpaniels. With what charm fuch a mafter makes them love him, I know not ; but if he bid them come, they come ; if go, they do go ; if he fay — do this, they do it.” — Nugte AntlqiicE. The Englifh, however, never ceafed to purfue thefe half wild but heroic O’Neills, till their followers were obliged to fay : — For Turlough’s days of joy are done, And other lords have feized his land, And faint and feeble is his hand, And all the glory of Tyrone Is like a morning vapour flown. This O’Neill was Hugh, the nephew of the former great Earl of Tyrone, who had fucceeded to his eftates, which had been reftored by Elizabeth once more, once more only to excite the cupidity of the Englifti fettlers. By thefe voracious harpies he had been, like his uncle, driven into rebellion, that his property might become forfeited. One general after HOLY-CROSS AKBEY. 213 another had been lent againft him only to be defeated. Sir John Norris, Lord Burgh, Sir Henry Bagnal, had all fucceflively been put to the rout; O’Neill was fa ft uniting the Irifli chiefs in a common refiftance to their oppreftors, and was feeking additional aid from Spain. Elizabeth, now trembling for her Irilh dominions, fent over her favourite, the Earl of Eflex, to quell him. Eflex was not more fuccelsful againft O’Neill than his predeceflors, and was glad to make a truce with him ; which fo enraged Elizabeth that, to calm down her anger, he haftened to England, leaving Lord Mountjoy to manage affairs in his abfence. It was during this winter of 1559, whilft Eflex in London was vainly endeavouring to regain the favour of Elizabeth, and whilft Mountjoy was as vainly endeavouring to draw O’Neill into an engagement, that he paid his vifit to the piece of the truecrofs. Perhaps it might be in hope to draw fome confola- tion from fo facred a relic, for the days were now very dark with him. Eflex, who had dealt gently with him, was gone, and had himfelf fallen amongft courtiers who {Emulated his fove- reign, and fuccefsfully, to fend him to the block. But he had left his kinfman Blount, Lord Mountjoy, and other able generals, who were prefling him hard, and never ceafed to prefs him till they had brought him to a humiliating peace. It was time ! Such was the condition of his people, that Morrifon, in his u Hiftory of Ireland,” fays, — “ Some old women about Newry ufed to make a fire in the fields, and divers little children, driving out the cattle in the cold mornings, and coming thither to warm themfelves, were by thefe women furprifed, killed, and eaten ; which was at length difcovered by a great girl breaking from them by the ftrength of her body ; and Captain Trevor fending out foldiers to know the truth, they found the children’s fculls and bones, and apprehended the old women, 214 HOLY-CROSS ABBEY. who were executed for the fail.” Numbers of poor people, Morrifon adds, were found dead in the ditches, with the remains of nettles, docks, and other weeds in their mouths. Such were the refults of the fo-called endeavours to plant Proteftantifm in Ireland by “ good Oueen Befs.” From its prefent remains, Holy-Crofs evidences for itfelf that it was one of the fined: fpecimens of the pointed ftyle of architecture in Ireland. Archdall, in the “ Monafticum Hibernicum,” in 1786, reprefents the condition of the building as follows : — It confifts of a high fteeple, nearly fquare, fup- ported on each fide by a beautiful Gothic arch, and in the centre by a great variety of ogives palling diagonally from each angle. On the call fide thereof there is a fmall chapel, twenty-one feet in breadth, and twenty-four in length. The roof is arched, and beautifully fupported by a number of ogives from the fides and angles. On the fouth fide is a Gothic tomb, which, according to O’Halloran, is that of the founder, with a crofs thereon, but no infcription. The tradition of the place, however, informs us that this tomb was ereCled for the good woman who brought the holy relic hither. Between the nave and the fteeple is a fpace of twenty-one feet fix inches in breadth, and thirty in length, detached from the nave by an arch, which, we fuppofe, made a part of the choir. The nave was forty-nine feet broad, and fifty-eight long : on each fide is an arcade of four arches, with lateral ailles, which pafs on either fide of that part we conclude to have been the choir. The entrance is by a door at the weft-end, under a large window. On the fouth fide of the choir are two chapels, each about ten feet fquare, and both of them arched and fupported as the other parts of the building. Between thefe are a double row of Gothic arches, fupported by twilled pillars, each diftant about two feet four inches from HOLY-CROSS ABBEY. 2I 5 each other: here the ceremony of waking the monks was performed ; and not where the holy relic was kept, as remarked by a refpefftable writer, in a plate which by miftake is reverfed. On the north fide of the choir are two other chapels, each of them eleven feet long and eleven broad, with roofs fupported in like manner with the others ; and between thefe and the oppofite lateral aide, the whole is arched ; but oppofite the fouth chapel there is an open fpace, with a large flight of flairs leading to the fteeple, &c., in the north angle of which are flairs which afcend to the top. The difference in the work of this monaftery is very extraordinary ; — nothing could have been more highly finifhed than the fteeple and chapels, which are built of marble and limeftone ; yet the nave, the aides, and adjoining ruins, are miferably mean. On the fouth fide the ruins cover a conffderable fpace. The river Suir, which, before it reaches the fea, is fo amazingly extenfive, flows near the ruins of this monaftery in a fmall ftream. A parifh church, with a few wretched cabins, are the only remains of a once celebrated town.” It may be fuppofed that fince this account was written, the remains of Holy-Crofs have differed further and conffderable dilapidation ; yet Frazer, in his “ Handbook of Ireland,” fays that the ruins are ftill extenfive and pidturefque, containing many interefting details, and amongft thefe is a tomb of Lady Eleanor Butler, fourth Countefs of Defmond. Cahir Caftle. 11 1 .. ' I Hr“ % T about eight miles fouth-weft from Cafhel, and at the fame diftance weft-north-weft from Clonmel, and alfo on the Suir, ftands the very pretty little town of Cahir. It has about 3,500 inhabitants, and, for its fize, pofteftes the handfomeft public build- ings in Munfter. But it is ftill more ftriking from its very fine fituation, and its furrounding fcenery. The property of the town and caftle is that of the earls of Glengall, who have preferved the ruins of the caftle from unnecefiary dilapidations, and have greatly improved the town generally. The fituation of the caftle is fine, ftanding on an ifolated rock on the left bank of the Suir, and commanding views of the Galtee and Knockmealedown Mountains. Cahir is, in faCt, fituated at the foot of the eaftern extremity of the Galtee range, and looking over the fine level lands fouthward to the Knockmealedown range. At Cahir, the traveller finds himfelf in the centre of many natural beauties, and all of eafy accefs. The country round the town, the banks of the Suir, which runs through the town, and the finely-wooded park of the Earl of Glengall, are themfelves very attractive ; but, befides this, within eafy drives are the mountains already mentioned, the Glen of Aharlo, and the caves of Mitchels- town. The Galtee Mountains are celebrated for their variety CAHIR CASTLE. 2I 7 of outline, their fertile dopes and pidturefque glens ; and the caves of Mitchelftown, about midway between Cahir and Mitchelftown, are near the fouth feet of thefe mountains. They have not been difcovered many years, though they cahir castle. are near the cavern of Skuhewinky, which has been long known. It is aflerted by modern archasologifts that the builder of the prefent Caftle of Cahir is unknown. Archdall and others attribute its erection to Conor-na-Catharach O’Brien, King of CAHIR CASTLE. 2l8 Thomond prior to 1142. But it is contended that no caftle, properly fo called, of this clafs was erefted in Ireland at that period, and that the fuppofition of Connor having built this caftle arifes from his having built a “cahir,” or fort ; but that this fort of his was not this on the Suir, but one on the ifland in Lough Derg, near Killaloe, which ftill retains his name. The ancient name of this town was originally Cahir- duna-iafcaigh , or the circular ftone fortrefs of the fifh-abound- ing dun, or fort; from an earthern dun, or fort, having flood on the fite of a fubfequent cahir, or ftone fort, which was again fucceeded by a regular caftle. There is a record of the deftrueftion of the ftone fort as early as the third century, by the brother-in-law of Felemy Rechtmar, at which time it was the refidence of a lady of the name of Bodamar. The prefent caftle was, no doubt, built by fome of the earlieft Anglo-Norman fettlers in Ireland. In the fourteenth century it was the refidence of James Galdie, or Butler, fon of James, the third earl of Ormond, by Catherine, daughter of Gerald, Earl of Defmond, whofe defeendant Thomas Butler, anceftor to the prefent Earl of Glengall, was advanced to the peerage in the 34th of Henry VIII., by the title of Baron of Cahir. The chief hiftorical events conne£ted with the caftle were the fieges of it by the Earl of Eftex, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and by Lord Inchiquin, in that of Charles I. The readers of Englifh hiftory are familiar with the unhappy expedition of Eftex to Ireland, which was greatly promoted by his powerful enemies at court, as certain to end unfortu- nately, and thus as certainly to break his influence with the Queen. Former viceroys and commanders in Ireland had buffered difafter on difafter ; and by the battle of the Black- water, in 1598, the Englifh forces were reduced to the loweft CAHIR CASTLE. 219 ebb. Ettex landed with an army of more than 20,000 men, the largeft force, according to the Four Matters, fent to Ireland by the Englifh fince the invafion by Strongbow. But Ettex was no more fuccefsful than his predeceffors. His orders were, in the firft place, to reduce the rebels in Ulfter, and to put ftrong garrifons into their forts ; but, inftead of this, he marched into Munfter, and laid fiege to Cahir Cattle. He inverted it with 7,000 foot and 1,300 horfe ; but the Earl of Defmond and Redmond Burk came to its relief, and Ettex found himfelf unable to reduce it till he had fent to Waterford for heavy ordnance. On the tenth day of the fiege, being the 20th of May, 1599, the cattle was furrendered to the Earl of Ettex and the Queen. But the lurrender of the cattle was of no real advantage. He made, indeed, capture of the rebels’ cattle in thofe parts, and drove the rebels themfelves into the woods and mountains ; but, as faft as he retired again towards Dublin, thefe rebels came out from their retreats and followed on his track, haraffing his rear, fo that his return was rather like a rout than the march of a conqueror. The difafters which befell him on this journey completed his ruin ; fo that the Four Matters obferve : — “ The Irifh afterwards were wont to fay that it were better for the Earl of Ettex that he had not undertaken this expedition from Dublin to Hy-Conell Gaura, as he had to return back from his enterprife without receiving fubmiffion or refpeett from the Geraldines, and without having achieved any exploit except the taking of Cahir-duna-iafgach.” The Lord Cahir, Lord Roche, and fome others, made their fubmiffion ; but this was only feigned, for they quickly rejoined the rebel party: and on the 23rd of May, in the following year, the Cattle of Cahir was furprifed and taken by the Lord Cahir’s brother, as was fuppofed with his con- nivance. This furrender to the rebels, and its fubfequent 220 CAHIR CASTLE. recovery, are thus related by Sir George Carew, in his “ Pacata Hibernia”: — “ The Prefident being at Youghall, in his journey to Cork, Tent Sir John Dowdall, an ancient captain in Ireland, to Cahir Caftle, as well to fee the fame provided of a fufficient ward out of Captain George Blount’s company, as to take order for the furnifhing of them with victual, municion, and other warlike provifion. There he left, the 8th or 9th of May, a fergeant with nine-and-twenty foldiers, and all neceftary provifions for two months ; who, notwithftanding, upon the three-and- twentieth of the fame, were furprifed by James Galdie, alias Butler, brother to the Lord of Cahir, and, as it was fufpeCted by many pregnant prefumptions, not without the confent and working of the lord himfelf, which in after times proved to be true. The carelefs fecurity of the warders, together with the treachery of an Irifhman who was placed fentinel upon the top of the caftle, were the caufes of the furprife. “ James Galdie had no more in his company than fixty men ; and, coming to the wall of the bawne of the caftle undifcovered, by the help of ladders, and fome mafons that brake holes in fome part of the wall where it was weak, got in and entered the hall before they were perceived. The ferjeant, named Thomas Quayle, which had the charge of the caftle, made fome little refiftance, and was wounded. Three of the wards were flaine ; the reft, upon promife of their lives, rendered their arms, and were fent to Clonmell. Of this furprife the Lord Prefident had notice when he was at Kil- mallock ; whereupon he fent directions for their imprifonment in Clonmell, until he might have leifure to try the delinquents by a marfhall’s-court. Upon the fourth day following, James Butler, who took the caftle, wrote a large letter to the Prefi- dent, to excufe himfelf of his traitorly a£t, wherein there were CAHIR CASTLE. 221 not fo many lines as lies, and written by the underhand working of the Lord of Cahir, his brother, they conceiving it to be the very next way to have the caftle reftored to the baron. “ Toward the latter end of the month of Auguft, the Lord- Deputy, writing to the Prefident about fome other occafions, it pleafed him to remember Cahir Caftle, fignifying that he much defired to have that caftle recovered from the rebels ; the rather becaufe the great ordnance, or cannon, and a culverin being left there by the Earl of Eflex, were now poffeffed by the rebels. This item from the Lord-Deputy fpurred on the Prefident, wdthout further delay, to take order therein, and therefore, prefently, by his letters, fent for the lord, who was vehemently fufpedted to have fome hand both in the taking and keeping of it. The Baron of Cahir being come, the council perfuaded him to deal with his brother, James Galdie, about the redelivery of it to Her Majefty ; but his anfwer was, that he had no more intereft with his brother than the meaneft perfon had, for he was unwilling to have the caftle regained by the ftate. The Prefident perceiving this, let him know that if it were fpeedily yielded to him, he would entreat the Lord-Deputy to reftore it to him ; but, if not, he would march to the caftle and rafe it to the ground.” This had the defired effect. Lord Cahir, accompanied by Juftice Comerford, rode away to the caftle, and foon prevailed on James Galdie to furrender the caftle to the Queen. Lord Cahir, notwithftanding his treachery, was pardoned by the Queen, and had his caftle and eftates reftored to him in May, 1601, and died in poffefiion of them in January, 1628; but his brother, James Galdie, lived to engage in the troubles of 1641, and fuftered accordingly. During this Lord Cahir’s time, namely in 1626, Lord- Deputy Falkland was entertained by him with great fplendour 222 CAHIR CASTLE. in the caftle, while on a tour through Ireland. On the death of this Lord Cahir, as already ftated, in 1628, the property was inherited by his only daughter Margaret, who married her kinfman, Edmund Butler, the fourth Lord Dumboyne, who, whilft refiding in this caftle with his wife, murdered in it James Prendergaft, the owner of Newcaftle. For this he was arrefted and confined in Dublin Caftle ; but on his trial he was acquitted, fifteen of his peers voting him innocent, and only one, the celebrated Lord Dockwra, voting him guilty. During the troubles following the rebellion of 1641, Cahir Caftle was inverted by Lord Inchiquin, who was then com- manding for the Parliament. He carried its outer works, and compelled its furrender in a few hours. This was in Auguft, 1647, and again in February, 1650, Cromwell himfelf appeared before it, and his proceedings were very charadteriftic. They are thus related by Cliffe, the fecretary to General Ireton : — “ The place was poflefled by one Captain Mathews, who was but a little before married to Lady Cahir, and had in it a confiderable number of men to defend it. The general drew his men before it, and, for the better terror in the bufinefs, brought fome cannon with him likewife, there being a great report of the ftrength of the place ; and a ftory told the General that the Earl of Effex, in Queen Elizabeth’s time, lay feven or eight weeks before it, and could not take it. He was, notwithftanding, then refolvcd to attempt the taking of it, and in order thereunto fent them this thundering meftage : “ ‘ Sir, having brought the army and my cannon near this place, according to my ufual manner in fummoning places, I thought fit to offer you terms honourable for foldiers, that you may march away with your baggage, arms and colours, free from injuries or violence. But if I be, notwithftanding, neces- CAHIR CASTI-E. 223 fitated to bend my cannon upon you, you muji expert what is ufual in fuch cafes. To avoid blood, this is offered to you by ‘ Y our fervant, ‘ O. Cromwell. ‘ To the Governor at Cahir Caftle, 241/; February, 1649 (1650.)’ u Notwithftanding the ftrength of the place, and the unfea- fonablenefs of the time of year, this fummons ftruck fuch a terror into the garrifon, that the fame day the governor, Captain Mathews, immediately came to the General, and agreed for the furrender,” etc. This Captain Mathews, or Mathew, it appears, was the anceftor of the celebrated Father Mathew, the apoftle of tem- perance ; an interefting fadt connected with the place. In the “Pacata Hibernia” there is an accurate birds-eye view of Cahir Caftle, as beffeged by the Earl of Effex ; which ftiows that, notwithftanding the lapfe of time, its great age, even at that period, and all the effedts of ftorms and winters fince, it prefents very much the fame appearance now as then, and from the care exercifed for its prefervation by the prefent owner, it is likely to exhibit a fimilar afpedt for ages to come. It ftands on a confiderable fpace of ground, on an iftand, and has two bridges to connedt it with the two banks of the Suir. It conftfts of a great fquare keep, furrounded by extenfive out-works, forming an outer and inner ballium, with a fmall court-yard between the two ; thefe outworks being flanked by feven towers, four of which are circular, and three of larger ftze, fquare. The view of the interior juftifies the reputation for ftrength which this caftle poflefled before the vaft force acquired by cannon. Its ftrong gateways, with their machicolations, their vaulted paflages and portcullifles, its vaulted dungeons and 224 CAHIR CASTI.E. oubliettes, one of them having its roof covered with large flat {tones, its trap-doors and gates of iron, imprefs you with a fenfe of the difficulty of aflaillants breaking in, and of the impoffibility of unlucky prifoners breaking out. The Great Keep has a mod Angular oubliette or dungeon-hole made in the wall, very much like one of thofe in Germany, in which obnoxious prifoners were built up and left to perifh. The great hall has been reftored. The fummits of the building have been as care- fully prepared for defence as any part below ; and the whole prefents a very interefting fpecimen of fortification in the days when Whitworth and Armftrong guns were unknown. The marks of fhot are vifible all over the eaftern front of each building, in which direction it was attacked by Eflex. Many of his cannon-balls have been found in the walls, and are now again replaced in the (pots out of which they had been taken. Many others {truck, but did not penetrate, only chipping and fcaling away the outer {tone ; the powder as well as the artillery of thofe days being far inferior to what they are now. Richard Barrett, Printer, 13, Mark Lane, London. DS-O) I ^534 i f THE GETTY CENTER y«W?Y ,• V. v v v W.v (rW i* v.v,Y,y