Northumberland Yesterday And To Day - Jean F. Terry (i want to read a book TXT) 📗

Do Each

Other An Injury, And The River-Valleys Were The Natural Passes Through

Which The Tide Of Invasion, Raid, And Reprisal Flowed.

 

In The Beginning Of The Reign Of Edward Iii., About 24,000 Scots, Under

Douglas And Murray, Crossed The Tyne Near Haydon Bridge, And Rode On To

Plunder The Richer Lands That Lay To The South And West. They Reached

Stanhope And Encamped There For A Time. The Young King Set Out

Northwards With A Great Army To Punish These Marauders, And He Was Told

By His Scouts That They Had Hastily Left Stanhope On His Approach. He

And His Army Pushed On Quickly Until They Reached Bardon Mill; And,

Crossing The Tyne, Marched Down To Haydon Bridge, Expecting The Scots To

Return By The Way They Went. It Was Miserable Weather, And The Feeding

Of So Many Thousands Of Men Was No Little Problem. They Scoured All The

Country Round For Provisions, Getting The Most From The Hexham Abbey

Lands. Meanwhile It Rained And Rained, And No Scots Appeared. After A

Week Of Waiting, Edward, In Great Disappointment, Went To Haltwhistle,

While His Followers Reconnoitered In All Directions. Finally, He Had The

Mortification Of Learning That The Scots Were Still At Stanhope, But

Before Anything More Could Be Done, They Betook Themselves Back To

Scotland By A Different Route, And There Was Nothing Left For Edward But

To Give Up The Expedition In Despair.

 

The Bridge At Haydon Appears To Have Been The Only One For Some Distance

Up And Down The River In The Sixteenth Century, For We Read Of Its Being

Barred And Chained, On Various Occasions Of Marauding Troubles In

Tynedale, To Prevent The Free-Booters Re-Crossing The River.

 

In The Days Of Charles I. Colonel Lilburn Marched To Haydon Bridge In

Command Of Some Troops Of The Roundheads, On His Way To Join Their

Comrades At Hexham As A Counter-Move To The Operations Of The Royalist

Troops In The North. Little More Than Thirty Years After This, When The

Days Of Cromwell's Power Had Come And Gone, And Charles Ii. Ruled At

Whitehall, The Old Grammar School Was Founded At Haydon Bridge In 1685

By A Clergyman, The Rev. John Shafto. Various Changes Have Taken Place

In The School From Time To Time, Necessitated By The Gradual Changes And

Educational Needs Of The Passing Years; And Now, Like The Grammar School

Of Queen Elizabeth At Hexham, It Has Been Entirely Re-Constituted To

Meet Modern Requirements. John Martin, The Famous Painter Of "The Plains

Of Heaven," Received The Beginnings Of His Education At This School. He

Was Born At East Land Ends Farm In 1789. In After Years The Authorities

Of Haydon Bridge Reading Room, Wishing No Doubt To Afford A Perfect

Example To Future Generations Of The Truth Of The Proverb Concerning A

Prophet And His Own Country, Refused Some Of Martin's Pictures, Which

The Gifted Painter Himself Offered To Them--An Act Which Their

Successors Have Doubtless Regretted.

 

At A Little Distance Along The Langley Road, Which Leads Past The

School, A Memorial Cross Is Standing. It Was Erected In 1883 By The Late

Mr. C.J. Bates, The Historian Of Northumberland, To The Memory Of The

Last Of The Derwentwater Family, Whose Castle Of Langley He Purchased.

The Inscription On The Cross Reads:--"To The Memory Of James And

Charles, Viscounts Langley, Earls Of Derwentwater, Beheaded On Tower

Hill, London, 24th February, 1716, And 8th December, 1746, For Loyalty

To Their Lawful Sovereign."

 

A Striking Testimony, This, To The Fact That Freedom In England Is A

Reality, And Not Merely A Name. In What Other Land Would An Inscription

Such As This Have Been Allowed To Remain For More Than Twenty-Four

Hours?

 

A Couple Of Miles Or More Down The South Tyne Is Fourstones, So Called

Because Of Four Stones, Said To Have Been Roman Altars, Having Been Used

To Mark Its Boundaries. A Romantic Use Was Made Of One Of These Stones

In The Early Days Of "The Fifteen." Every Evening, As Dusk Fell, A

Little Figure, Clad In Green, Stole Up To The Ancient Altar, Which Had

Been Slightly Hollowed Out, And, Taking Out A Packet, Laid Another In

Its Place. The Mysterious Packets, Placed There So Secretly, Were

Letters From The Jacobites Of The Neighbourhood To Each Other; And The

Little Figure In Green Was A Boy Who Acted As Messenger For Them. No

Wonder That The People Of The District Gave This Altar The Name Of The

"Fairy Stone."

 

Between Haydon Bridge And Fourstones Are Both Freestone And Limestone

Quarries, Which Latter Have Supplied Many Fossils To Visitors Of

Geological Tastes. Halfway Between Fourstones And Hexham, The Two

Streams Of North And South Tyne Unite, And Flow Together Down To The Old

Town Of Hexham, With Its Quaintly Irregular Buildings Clustering In

Picturesque Confusion Round Its Ancient Abbey, Which Dominates The

Landscape From Whatever Point We Approach.

 

Warden Village, Already Mentioned, Lies In The Angle Formed By The

Meeting Of The Two Streams, And Has An Ancient Church Which, However,

Has Been Largely Rebuilt. From High Warden, Near At Hand, A Delightful

View May Be Obtained For A Long Distance Up The Valleys Of North And

South Tyne. On The Summit Of This Hill There Are The Remains Of A

Considerable British Camp, Showing That They Had Seized Upon This Point

Of Vantage, And Though The Ancient British Name Has Not Come Down To Us,

It Is Evident From The Saxon Name Of Warden (_Weardian_) That Saxons As

Well As Britons Were Fully Alive To The Merits Of The Situation,

"Guarding" The Valley At Such A Commanding Point.

Chapter 3 (Down The Tyne)

The Town Of Hexham, Standing On Hilly Ground Overlooking The Tyne,

Immediately Below The Point At Which The North And South Tyne Unite, And

Spreading From Thence Down To The Levels All Round, Is One Of The Most

Ancient In The Kingdom. To Write Of Hexham With Any Measure Of Fulness

Would Require Much More Space Than Can Be Given To It Within The Limits

Of A Small Book; Only A Mere Summary Can Be Offered Here. Britons,

Romans, And Saxons, In Turn, Have Dwelt On And Around The Hill Which, In

Saxon Days, Was To Be Crowned With Wilfrid's Beautiful Abbey, Which, We

Read, Surpassed All Others In England At That Time For Beauty And

Excellence Of Design And Workmanship; Nor Was There Another To Equal It

Anywhere On This Side Of The Alps.

 

The Name Of Hexham Is Generally Understood To Be Derived From The Names

Of Two Little Streams, The Hextol And The Halgut, Now The Cowgarth And

The Cockshaw Burns, Which Here Flow Into The Tyne; Or, As Mr. Bates

Suggests, It May Have Been The "Ham" Of "Some Forgotten Hagustald,"

Which The Name Perpetuates. In Any Case Its Name Was Hagustaldesham When

King Ecgfrith (Or Egfrid) Of Northumbria Gave It To His Queen,

Etheldreda, Who Wished To Take The Veil. Queen Etheldreda, However,

Preferred To Go To East Anglia, Which Was Her Home; She Retired To A

Convent At Ely, And Bestowed The Land At Hagustaldesham On Wilfrid, A

Monk Of Lindisfarne, Clever, Ambitious And Hardworking, Who Had Become

Bishop Of York, Which Meant Bishop Of All Northumbria.

 

Wilfrid Had Been To Rome, And Seen The Churches Of That City And Of The

Lands Through Which He Travelled; And, On His Appointment To Power, He

Set Himself To Make The Churches Of His Diocese Worthy To Compare With

Those Of Older Civilizations. He Did Much To The Cathedral Of York, And

Built That Of Ripon; But The Abbey Of Hexham Was His Masterpiece. He

Built A Monastery And Church, Dedicating The Latter To St. Andrew, For

It Was In The Church Of St. Andrew At Rome That, Kneeling, He Felt

Himself Fired With Enthusiasm For His Work, In The Same Church From

Which Augustine Had Set Out On His Journey To Britain Some Fifty Years

Before. The Year 674 Is Generally Accepted As The Date On Which This

Noble Abbey Was Founded.

 

Wilfrid Lived In Great Splendour At York, And Ruled His Immense Diocese

With A Firm Hand; In Fact, He Was The First Of That Line Of Great

Ecclesiastics Who Have Moved With Such Proud, And Oft-Times Turbulent,

Progress Through The Pages Of English History. King Ecgfrith's Second

Wife, Ermenburga, Was Jealous Of The Great Power And Magnificence Of The

Northumbrian Prelate, And Through Her Influence, Archbishop Theodore Was

Induced To Divide The Huge Diocese Of Northumbria Into Four

Portions--York, Hexham, Ripon And Withern In Galloway. Wilfrid,

Naturally Indignant, Found All His Protests Disregarded, And Immediately

Set Out For Rome, To Obtain A Decree Of Restitution From The Pope. It

Was Given To Him, But Little Cared The Northumbrians For That. Wilfrid

Was Imprisoned For Nine Months, And Then Banished From Northumbria.

 

He Went Southwards And Dwelt In Sussex, Where His Genius For Hard Work

Found Scope In A Mission To The Saxons Of The South Lands, And Where He

Built And Founded More Churches And Monasteries. Readers Of "Rewards

And Fairies" Will Have Made Acquaintance With Wilfrid In His Sussex

Wanderings And Hardships. On His Recall To The North By King Aldfrith,

He Returned To Hexham. On The Death Of Aldfrith, The New King, Edwulf,

Banished Wilfrid Once More, Ordering Him To Leave The Kingdom Within Six

Days; But The Friends Of Aldfrith's Young Son, Whom Edwulf Had

Dispossessed, Obtained The Ascendancy, And Wilfrid Was Re-Instated In

His Abbeys Of Hexham And Ripon.

 

While On His Way Back From Rome, On His Last Visit, Wilfrid Had A Severe

Illness, But Was Granted A Vision In Which He Was Told That He Had Four

Years More To Live, And That He Must Build A Church To The Honour Of The

Blessed Virgin. The Little Church Of St. Mary, Which Stood Close To The

Walls Of The Great Abbey Of Hexham, Was Erected In Fulfilment Of This

Command.

 

In The Abbey Church Itself, All That Was Known For Centuries Of The

Original Work Of Wilfrid Was The Famous Crypt, Which Is Almost Unique,

That Of Ripon, Also The Work Of Wilfrid, Being The Only One Like It; But

Recent Excavations Have Brought Much More Of The Ancient Cathedral To

Light, And Laid Bare, Not Only Its Original Plan, But Some Of The Walls,

And Part Of The Very Pavement Trodden By The Feet Of Wilfrid And His

Fellows So Many Centuries Ago. The Tomb Of Wilfrid, However, Is Not At

Hexham, But At His Other Foundation Of Ripon.

 

The Ancient Abbey Suffered Much At The Hands Of The Danes, And In Later

Years From The Ravages Of The Scots, Having Been Burnt Several Times,

Notably In 1296, When 40,000 Scots Ravaged The North Of England,

Plundering, Burning, And Laying Waste Wherever They Went, Exactly As The

Danes Had Done Four Hundred Years Before. Some Of The Stones Of The Old

Abbey Yet Bear Traces Of The Fires By Which The Ancient Building Was So

Often Nearly Destroyed, And In These Frequent Conflagrations All

Records, Charters, Etc., Of The Abbey, From Which Might Have Been

Compiled A Complete History, Not Only Of The Abbey But Of Much Of The

Provincial And National History Of The Times, Were Lost.

 

The Abbey Was Restored And Rebuilt Again And Again, But For Varying

Reasons Was Without A Nave For Some Hundreds Of Years. Within The Last

Ten Years, However, A Complete Restoration Has Been Carried Out, Under

The Loving, And, What Is More To The Point, The Capable Superintendence

Of Canon Savage And His Colleagues, In The Spirit And Manner, As Nearly

As Possible, Of The Beautiful Portions Already Standing; And Several

Disfiguring So-Called "Restorations" Of Nineteenth Century Work, Which

Could Only Detract From The Beauty And Dignity Of The Noble Building,

Have Been Removed Entirely. This Work Was Completed In 1908, And All Who

Have The Honour Of Our Famous County At Heart Must Rejoice That Its

Noblest Church Is At Last More Worthy Of Its Own High Rank And Glorious

Past.

 

Among The Many Deeply Interesting Objects To Be Seen In The Abbey Is The

Stone Sanctuary Seat--The Frid Stool, Or Seat Of Peace--At Which

Fugitives, Fleeing From Their Enemies, Might Find Refuge. It Is Believed

That This Was The "Cathedra" Of St. Wilfrid Himself. The Arms And Back

Of