as far as Durham, passed Wark Castle. His rear, laden with spoils, were seen by the garrison with the greatest indignation. Sir William Montague was then governor, and the Countess of Salisbury, whose lord the fortress then belonged to, resided there. The governor, with forty horsemen, made a sally, committed great slaughter on the Scots, and returned into the castle with 160 horses, laden with booty. The Scotch king, incensed at this insult, made a general assault on the castle, but met with a repulse. He then invested the place. The imminent danger of the garrison rendered it necessary to send information of their situation to the English monarch, who was approaching the borders with a great army. The attempt was perilous, but it was effected by the governor himself on a fleet horse, in the darkness and tumult of a stormy night. He passed through the enemy's lines, and carried intelligence to King Edward, who advanced so rapidly to the relief of the besieged, that the Scotch had but barely time to pass the Tweed before the van of the English army appeared. The Countess of Salisbury expressed the most grateful joy for this relief. She entertained the king at Wark Castle, and her deportment and manners were so pleasing to him, that the origin of the institution of the most noble order of the garter is said to be owing to this visit.

"Soon after the accession of Henry IV. to the throne of England, the Scots made an incursion, in which they took the castle of Wark, and utterly demolished the works. It had been a fortress of too much consequence to the safety of that part of the kingdom to be long neglected; it was, therefore, soon after restored, and in a good state of defence. In 1419, in the absence of the king, who was then in France, hostilities having commenced on the Borders, William Haliburton of Fast Castle took the Castle of Wark, and put all the garrison to the sword; but it was soon recovered by the English, who made their way by a sewer which led from the kitchen of the castle into the Tweed, and surprising the Scots, put them all to death, in revenge for their former cruelty. This castle was again in the hands of the Scotch in the reign of Henry VI., and they once more levelled its fortifications with the ground. It was afterwards repaired by the Earl of Surrey; and in the year 1523, in the reign of Henry VIII., the Scotch army, lying at Coldstream, resolved again to attempt the destruction of Wark. Buchanan, the historian, being present at the siege, gives the following description of the castle :-'In the innermost area was a tower of great strength and height; this was encircled by two walls, the outer including the larger space, into which the inhabitants of the country used to fly with their cattle, corn, and flocks, in time of war; the inner of much smaller extent, but fortified more strongly by ditches and towers. It had a strong garrison, good store of artillery and ammunition, and other necessary things for defence.' The Duke of Albany, the commander of the Scotch, sent against it battering cannon and a chosen band of Scots and French, to the number of 4000, under

the command of Andrew Ker of Fairnherst The French carried the outer enclosure at the first assault, but they were dislodged by the garrison setting fire to the corn and straw laid therein. The besiegers soon recovered it, and by their canuon effected a breach in the inner wall The French, with great intrepidity, mounted the breach, sustaining great loss from the shot of that part of the garrison who possessed the keep; and being warmly received by the forces that defended the inner ballium, were obliged to retire after great slaughter. The attack was to have been renewed on the succeeding day, but a fall of rain in the night, which swelled the Tweed, and threatened to cut off the retreat of the assailants to the main army, and the approach of the Ear of Surrey, who before lay at Alnwick with a large force, obliged the Duke to relinquish his design and return into Scotland. The governor of Wark Castle at this time was Sir John Lisle.

"Wark was the barony and ancient possession of the family of Ross, one of whom, William de Ross, was a competitor for the crown of Sestland in the reign of Edward I. of England. It continued in that family to the end of the fourteenth century, when it appears to have be come the possession of the Greys, who took their title from the place, being styled the Lords Grey of Wark, in the descendants of which family it has continued to the present time."

The Scottish banks of the river, from the Eden water to Coldstream, are richly cultivated, and partially wooded by hedgerows and the plantations of several properties. The country being flat, the extensive woods of Lord Hume's fine place of the Hirsel fill up the back-ground very happily. A very singular little stream, called the Leet, passes through his grounds. It is extremely small, and, having its course through a deep alluvial soil, it has more the appearance of a ditch than anything else; but, insignificant-looking as it is, it contains trout of very superior size and flavour. Mr. Stoddart gives us the following extraordinary account of this small stream;"Of all streams that I am acquainted with, the Leet, which discharges itself into the Tweed above Coldstream, was wont, considering its size, to contain the largest trout. During the summer season it is a mere ditch, in many places not above four or five span in width, and, where broadest, still capable of being leapt across. The run of water is, comparatively speaking, insignificant, not equalling in the average a cubie foot. This, however, as it proceeds, is every now and then expanded over a considerable surface, and forms a pool of some depth; in fact, the whole stream, from head to foot, pursuing, as it does, a winding course for upwards of twelve miles, is a continued chain of pools, fringed, during the summer, on both sides, with rushes and water-flags, and choked up in many parts with pickerel weed and other aquatic plants. The channel of Leet contains shell-marl, and its banks, being hollowed out beneath, afford, independent of occasional stones and tree roots, excellent shelter for trout. Not many years

reside at Ladykirk, he took from his nephew the house and place of Lees to live in. Here he established his crack pack of fox-hounds, and hunted the Northumbrian country for several seasons with great success. He afterwards handed the hounds and the country over to Lord Elcho, who has now a very superior range of hunting country on both sides the Tweed, and particularly in Northumberland. The assemblage of sportsmen of the highest order in and about Coldstream during the hunting season is very great, and there are few places where fox-hunting can be more fully and freely enjoyed; whilst the courtesy and urbanity of Lord Elcho himself give a tone to the society that makes the mere residence here during the hunting season peculiarly fascinating.

The River Till is an important tributary to the Tweed from its right bank, but we are at some loss to say whether or not we should interfere with it, seeing that it is so decidedly an English river, and we recall, with fear and trembling, the aid its bridge of Twisel afforded to the army of Lord Surrey, enabling it to meet and overthrow the Scottish army at Flodden; but we cannot pass over the graphic description given by Scott of the passage of the English army :

"Even so it was. From Flodden ridge

The Scots beheld the English host
Leave Barmore-wood, their evening post,
And heedful watch'd them as they cross'd
The Till by Twisel bridge.

High sight it is, and haughty, while
They dive into the deep defile;
Beneath the cavern'd cliff they fall,
Beneath the castle's airy wall.
By rock, by oak, by hawthorn tree,

Troop after troop are disappearing,
Troop after troop their banners rearing,
Upon the eastern bank you see.
Still pouring down the rocky den,

Where flows the sullen Till,
And, rising from the dim-wood glen,
Standards on standards, men on men,
In slow succession still,

And sweeping o'er the Gothic arch,
And pressing on, in ceaseless march,

To gain the opposing hill.

That morn, to many a trumpet clang,
Twisel thy rocks deep echo rang;
And many a chief of birth and rank,
Saint Helen at thy fountain drank.
Thy hawthorn glade, which now we see
In spring-tide bloom so lavishly,
Had then from many an axe its doom,
To give the marching columns room."

From what we have seen of this ravine, we are disposed to think that when the hounds take their course across it, they must be productive of many curious and amusing incidents among the field of sportsmen, worthy, perhaps, of being described by such a lively pencil as that of Mr. Alken. It is extremely romantic and beautiful; and the well alluded to by Sir Walter Scott in his verses is to be found beneath a tall rock near the bridge. The Till runs so extremely slow, that it forms a curious contrast with the Tweed, whose course here is very rapid, giving rise to the following quaint verses :

"Tweed said to Till,

What gars ye rin sae still?
Till said to Tweed,
Though ye rin wi' speed,
And I rin slaw,

Yet where ye drown ae man
I drown twa!"'

According to Mr. Stoddart, Till has considerable fame as an angling river. The fish it contains are pike, perch, trout, and eels; but the migratory sorts, especially whitlings, enter it freely, and much earlier than they do any other branch from the main stream. Not many salmon, however, are caught by the rod above Etal, their progress being much obstructed by a waterfall in that locality. The sea-trout, on the occurrence of a flood, force their way up into the Glen, a stream entering Till two or three miles below Wooler, and formed by the junction of the Bowmont and Colledge waters, the one passing Yetholm from Roxburghshire, and the other from the foot of Cheviot. The Glen is in high repute as an angling stream, and contains abundance of small liveș trout. There are good inns at and adjoining Wooler, and a small one at Bender. Connected with this district is the Glendale fishing club, a numerous body of Northumbrians, comprising several able and intelligent anglers.

On the Tweed, at Till-mouth, there is an excellent cast for salmon; but here, as at Colstream, the fish are very capricious, and show little inclination to favour the angler.

Let us now return to the Scottish side of the Tweed, and there let us notice the charming resi dence of Lennel, beautifully situated on the banks of the river, a little below Coldstream bridge. This belongs to the Earl of Haddington, and was here that Mr. Brydone, the well-known tourist in Sicily and Malta, lived for some time previous to his death. Near this are the remains of the church of Lennel, surrounded by a burying. ground, which is still in use. Tradition speaks of Maxwell's Cross, which stood about a century agʊ between Lennel church and Tweed mill. A little way below Tweed mill is Milnegraden, the sea; of that gallant and heroic veteran, Admiral Sir David Milne, now the residence of his son. It is charmingly situated in a wooded park upon the immediate banks of the river.

As to the angling on the Tweed, Mr. Stoddart tells us that at Coldstream bridge there is a good cast, which seldom wants its fish; and where, in the grilse season, when the river is clear, one has an excellent opportunity of studying the habits and likings of the salmon in fresh waterwhat fly is most attractive, &c. &c. The trouting about Coldstream is very superior; but the rod fishing for salmon, with the exception of the cast above mentioned, is somewhat precarious Three miles below Coldstream stands Tweed mill, nearly opposite which the Till enters.

We must now proceed to make our last inroad into England-an inroad, however, very different indeed from those which used to be made by our ancestors, when they rode at the head of their men-at-arms, for the purpose of harrying the country, and driving a spoil. We go now upon a

peaceful visitation of Norham Castle, certainly the most interesting of all objects of a similar description on the whole course of the Tweed. Our first approach to this very striking ruin was from Lees, when we were upon a visit to the late Sir John Marjoribanks, grandfather of the present baronet, and we shall not easily forget the deep impression it then made upon us. The ancient name of this castle appears to have been Ubbanford. It stands on a steep bank, partially wooded, and overhanging the river. It seems to have occupied a very large piece of ground, as the ruins are very extensive, consisting of a strong square keep, considerably shattered, with a number of banks and fragments of buildings, enclosed within an outer wall, of a great circuit; the whole forming the most picturesque subject for the

artist. It was here that Edward I. resided when engaged in acting as umpire in the dispute concerning the Scottish crown. From its position, exactly upon the very line of the border, no war ever took place between the two countries without subjecting it to frequent sieges, during which it was repeatedly taken and retaken. The Greys of Chillingham Castle were often successively captains of the garrison; yet as the castle was situated in the patrimony of St. Cuthbert, the property was in the see of Durham till the Reformation. After that period, it passed through various hands. At the union of the crown it was in the possession of Sir Robert Carey, afterwards Earl of Monmouth, for his own life and that of two of his sons. After King James' accession, Carey sold Norham Castle to George Home, Earl of Dunbar, for £6000. According to Mr. Pinkerton, there is, in the British Museum, col. B. 6,216, a curious memoir of the Dacres on the state of Norham Castle in 1522, not long after the battle of Flodden, The inner ward or keep is represented as impregnable. "The provisions are three great vats of salt eels, forty-four kine, three hogsheads of salted salmon, forty quarters of grain, besides many cows, and four hundred sheep, lying under the castle wall nightly; but a number of the arrows wanted feathers, and a good Fletcher (i. e. maker of arrows) was required."

We spent the greater part of a day in wandering about the ruins, visiting every hole and corner that we could thrust our head into, trying to make out the uses of the various fragments of masonry, and how they were employed, restoring the whole in our mind's-eye to its ancient state, and in filling the court yard, stables, guard-houses, and the ramparts, with the rough and hardy warriors who might have constituted its garrison. How beautifully has Sir Walter Scott thrown himself back into those times in the charming verses with which he opens Marmion!

After referring to the brilliant lines from the great minstrel, it is with much diffidence, and not without a certain dread of being accused of presumption, that we venture to give a few sentences from the Wolfe of Badenoch, in which we have introduced our hero to Norham Castle; our only apology is an earnest and romantic desire to

VOL. XIV.NO. CLXVIII.

associate ourselves with this most interesting pile :

"These tedious leagues of English ground seem to lengthen under our tread,' said Sir John Assueton, breaking a silence that was stealing upon their march, with the descending shades of evening. Dost thou not long for have been forsaken by the last glimmer of twilight?" one cheering glance of the silver Tweed, ere its stream shall

In sooth, I should be well contented to behold it,' replied Hepborne. The night droops fast, and our jaded palfreys already lag their ears from weariness. Even our unbacked war-steeds, albeit they have carried lost some deal of their morning's metal, and, judging no heavier burden than their trappings, have nathless from their sobered paces, methinks they would gladly exchange their gay chamfronts for the more vulgar hempen halters of some well-littered stable.' "Depardieux! but I have mine own sympathy with them,' 'said Assueton. Said'st thou not that we should lie at Norham to-night?'

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'Methought to cast the time and the distance so,' replied Hepborne ; ' and by those heights that twinkle from yonder dark mass, rising against that yellow streak in the meting our day's journey to that of the sun. sky, I should judge that I have not greatly missed in Look between these groups of trees-nay, more to the right, over that swelling bank; that, if I mistake not, is the keep of Norham Castle, and those are doubtless the torches of the warders, moving along the battlements. The watch must be setting ere this. Let us put on.'

"Thou dost not mean to crave hospitality from the captain of the strength, dost thou?' demanded Assueton. Such was my purpose,' replied Hepborne; and the rather that the good old knight, Sir Walter de Selby, hath a fair fame for being no churlish host.'

The

"The night was soft and tranquil. The moon was up, and her silvery light poured itself on the broad walls of the keep and the extensive fortifications of Norham Castle, rising on the height before them, and was partially reflected from the water of the farther side of the Tweed, here sweeping widely under the rocky eminence, and threw its shadow half-way across it. They climbed up the hollow way leading to the outer ditch, and were immediately challenged by the watch upon the walls. pass-word was given by their guide, the massive gate was bridge lowered at the signal, and they passed under a unbarred, the portcullis lifted, and the clanging drawdark archway to the door of the outer court of guard. There they were surrounded by pikemen and billmen, and narrowly examined by the light of torches; but the officer of the guard appeared, and the squire's mission being known to him, they were formally saluted, and permitted to pass on. Crossing a broad area, they came to the inner gate, where they underwent a similar scrutiny. They had now reached that part of the fortress where stood the barracks, the stables, and various other buildings necessarily belonging to so important a place; while in the centre arose the keep, huge in bulk, and adamant in strength, defended by a broad ditch where not naturally rendered inaccessible by the precipitous steep, and approachable from one point only by a narrow bridge. Lights appeared from some of its windows, and sounds of life came faintly from within; but all was still in the buildings around them, the measured step of the sentinel on the wall above them forming the only interruption to the silence that prevailed."

It is amusing enough to perceive how the translator of the French edition, published at Paris in 1828, renders some of the original passages. Instead of making the stranger knights receive a military compliment from the guard on their entrance into the castle, the French translator says, "L'officier de garde arriva en ce moment, et comme il connaissait la mission de l'écuyer, il le salua poliment, et ordonna qu'on les laissât passer;" thus converting what was intended to be a

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