Northumberland Yesterday and To-day

Jean F. (Jean Finlay) Terry

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• Publié par: emku
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 45
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

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Title: Northumberland Yesterday and To-day
Author: Jean F. Terry
Release Date: February 17, 2004 [EBook #11124]
Language: English
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Northumberland Yesterday and To-day.
BY JEAN F. TERRY, L.L.A. (St. Andrews), 1913.
To Sir Francis Douglas Blake, this book is inscribed in admiration of an eminent Northumbrian.
Generated TOC, Edit, Use, or Remove.
Contents
CONTENTS.
ILLUSTRATIONS.
INTRODUCTORY.NORTHUMBERLAND YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
CHAPTER I. The Coast of Northumberland
CHAPTER II. North and South Tyne
CHAPTER III. Down the Tyne
CHAPTER IV. Newcastle-upon-Tyne
CHAPTER V. Elswick and its Founder
CHAPTER VI. The Cheviots
CHAPTER VII. The Roman Wall
CHAPTER VIII. Some Northumbrian Streams
CHAPTER IX. Drum and Trumpet
CHAPTER X. Tales and Legends
CHAPTER XI. Ballads and Poems
List of Illustrations
Bamburgh Castle. From photograph by J.P. Gibson, Hexham
The Priory, Tynemouth. From photograph by T.H. Dickinson, Sheriff Hill
Untitled
Hexham Abbey from North West. From photograph by J.P. Gibson, Hexham
The River Tyne at Newcastle (showing Swing Bridge Open).
Untitled
Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
Untitled
North Gateway, Housesteads and Roman Wall. From photograph by J.P. Gibson, Hexham
Untitled
Alnwick Castle. From photograph by J.P. Gibson, Hexham
The Wreck of the "Forfarshire". From illustration kindly lent by B. Rowland Hill, Newcastle
Sketch Map Of Northumberland.From a Drawing by C.H. Abbey








INTRODUCTORY.
The following book makes no pretensions to be a mine of deep historical research or antiquarian lore; its
object will have been achieved, and its existence to some extent justified, if haply by its aid some of the
dwellers in this northern county of ours, with its past so full of action, and its present so rich in the memorials
of those actions, may pass a pleasant hour in becoming acquainted through its pages with the happenings
which have taken place in their own particular fields, their own streets, or by their own riverside.
I am aware that many learned volumes on this subject, representing an enormous amount of patient labourand careful research in their compilation, are already in existence. To such this little book can in no sense be
a rival; but there must be many people who have not a superabundance of time, to enable them to dig out the
information for which they wish, from these various sources; nor can they always make these volumes their
own, to be consulted at leisure.
Northumbrians have always been interested in the records of their own county, and are now-a-days not
less so than when, some three-and-a-half centuries ago, Roger North found them "great antiquarians within
their own bounds." If to such as these this little book may perhaps bring in a more convenient form the
information they seek, and help them to become better acquainted with the county which inspired
Swinburne to write in stirring phrases of "Northumberland," and to address the home of his people as
"Land beloved, where nought of legend's dream
Outshines the truth"—
I shall be more than satisfied. I would take this opportunity of expressing my grateful thanks to the Rev.
Canon Savage, of Hexham, for information relating to the tomb of Alfwald the Just, in the Abbey, given
with courteous readiness; to the Rev. Canon Jeffery, of Bywell, for similar kindness regarding Bywell St.
Peter's; to R.O. Heslop, Esq., whose profound store of learning on the subject of "Northumberland words"
was in cases of uncertainty my final court of appeal; to E.T. Nisbet, Esq., and J. Treble, Esq., to whom I am
greatly indebted for their goodness in reading my manuscript, and for their generous encouragement
following thereupon; to C.H. Abbey, Esq., for his kindness in executing the map which accompanies these
pages; and to Mr. G.P. Dunn, of Corbridge, for much helpful criticism, and many suggestions which only
want of space has prevented my adopting in their entirety.
J.F.T.
31st May, 1913.




NORTHUMBERLAND YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY




CHAPTER I.
THE COAST OF NORTHUMBERLAND.
"We'll see nae mair the sea banks fair,
And the sweet grey gleaming sky,
And the lordly strand of Northumberland,
And the goodly towers thereby."
—A.C. Swinburne.
Wild and bleak it may be, hard and cruel at times it undoubtedly is, but, nevertheless, this north-east coast
of ours is at all times inspiring, whether half-hidden by storm-clouds, its cliffs and hollows lashed by the
"wild north-easter," or seen calmly brooding in the warm haze of a summer's day, its grey-blue water
smiling beneath the grey-blue sky, and its stretches of sand and bents edging the sea with a border of goldand silver.
In keeping with either mood of nature, the ancient Priory of Tynemouth, standing on the sandstone cliffs
on the northern bank of the Tyne, rearing its grey and roofless walls above the harbour mouth, strikes a note
that is symbolic of the Northumbria of old and the Northumberland of to-day—the note, that is, of the
intimate commingling of the romance of the warlike past and the romance of the industrial present. Here,
above the mouth of the river on which so many of the most noteworthy advances in industrial science have
been made, and out of which sail the vessels which are often the last word of the moment in marine
engineering and construction, stand calmly looking down upon them all the fragments of a building which
was a century old when John signed Magna Charta, and which stands upon the site of another that had
already braved the storms of nearly five hundred years.
Looking upon the Priory of St. Mary and St. Oswin we are carried back to the days when Edwin, the first
king of Northumbria to embrace Christianity, built a little church here, in which his daughter took the veil.
King Oswald had the first wooden structure replaced by a stone one; and here, in 651, the body of another
good king—Oswyn—was brought for burial from Gilling, near Richmond in Yorkshire, where, disbanding
his army, he sacrificed his cause and his life to Oswy of Bernicia, with whom he had been about to fight.
When the pirate ships of the Danes swept down upon our coasts, the Priory of St. Oswin, conspicuous on
its bold headland, could not hope to escape their ravages. It was destroyed by the fierce invaders; but King
1Ecgfrith of Northumbria restored the shattered shrine. Again, in the year 865, it was sacked and burnt, and
the poor nuns of St. Hilda, who had already fled from Hartlepool to Tynemouth hoping to find safety, were
ruthlessly slain and earned the crown of martyrdom. It was again restored; but, five years later, the
destroying hands of the invaders fell on the place once more, and for two hundred years the Priory stood
roofless and tenantless. After the Norman Conquest, Waltheof, Earl of Northumberland bestowed it upon
the monks of Jarrow. The rediscovery of the tomb of St. Oswyn in 1065, had gladdened the hearts of the
monks, and forthwith the monastery was reared anew over the ashes of its former self.
1 [ Pronounced "Edge-frith."]
Mowbray, the next Earl of Northumberland, re-endowed the building. He had quarrelled with the Bishop
of Durham, so in order to do him a displeasure, he made Tynemouth Priory subordinate to St. Albans
instead of to Durham and brought monks from St. Albans to dwell there. The new buildings were finished in
1110, and the bones of St. Oswyn enshrined within them, the right of sanctuary being extended for a mile
around his resting-place. This right, however, was already in existence, and had been appealed to in 1095 by
Mowbray himself, who fled here pursued by the followers of William Rufus, against whom he had rebelled.
2The King's men disregarded the sanctuary right, captured Mowbray, and sent him prisoner to Durham .
[Footnote 2: See account of Bamburgh Castle.]
In later days the queens of Edward I. and Edward II. visited Tynemouth Priory; and it was from
Tynemouth that the foolish King Edward II. and his worthless favourite Piers Gaveston fled from the angry
barons to Scarborough. In the reign of Edward III., after the battle of Neville's Cross, David of Scotland was
brought here by his captors on his way to Bamburgh, from whence he was sent to the Tower.
At the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII. the Priory was inhabited by eighteen monks with
their Prior. They bowed to the King's decree and left the monastery; but the church continued to be used as
the parish church until the days of Charles II., when Christ Church was built.
The Priory has many times formed the subject of pictures by famous artists, the best known being that of
no less a genius than J. M. W. Turner; and its picturesque ruins are a well-known landmark to the hundreds