Alnwick-The Old Gate-Quiet Day and Market Day-The Castle-The Barbican-The Baily-Permission to View-The Duke's TowerThe Duchess's Tower-The Keep-The Well-The Grand StaircaseNative Material-Decorations from Chevy Chase-Gorgeous Ceilings— Hall of the first Percy-A Question of Art-Native Artists-The Prudhoe Tower-The Record Tower-The Museum-Hotspur's Chair

A Great Household-Reminiscence of Canina-The Evil Eye-Glimpses of History-Tysen-De Vesci-The Percys-Valour, Honour, and the Headsman-From Percy to Smithson-Royal Visitors-Sir Ralph the Birdkeeper.

I MET my friend and his wife at the railway station on the morrow; they having an errand to Alnwick as well as I, we journeyed thither in company. The distance is about seven miles, so we were soon in the town which Northumbrians call Annick.

Revisiting a place after some years opens a longdisused page of memory, and it is with a lively interest that you recognise features and objects which seemed forgotten the impression they made was deeper than we thought. So, on walking from the station into the town, my curiosity was kept alive by noticing the local changes; missing here and there some old acquaintance. The tall column testifying the tenantry's gratitude to the late Duke, still rears itself aloft, and there on the same side of the way, the trees of the ducal gardens still show their heads above the wall. A little farther and Bondgate an old heavy arched gateway, supported by two heavy towers-bestrides the street; a relic of the

Plantagenet times, which the nineteenth century regards as an obstruction. It would long ago have been pulled down, but for its historical associations. It was built by Henry Hotspur's son, he who erected the keep at Warkworth, more than four hundred years ago, when, on the restoration of the Percy estates by Henry V., he got leave to fortify the town.

The streets are quiet; indeed, we might fancy ourselves in a clean well-paved cathedral town. Farther on stands the market-house, with town-hall over it, built by the late Duke: here, too, quiet prevails; but come on a market-day, and you will see such a gathering of Northumbrians as will astonish your eyes and Then, as Halleck rhymes it

ears.

"Then beasts and borderers throng the way;
Oxen, and bleating lambs in lots,
Northumbrian boors, and plaided Scots;

Men in the coal and cattle line,

From Teviot's hard and hero land,
From royal Berwick's beach of sand,

From Wooler, Morpeth, Hexham, and
Newcastle-upon-Tyne."

"You are come at the wrong time, if you want to see the Castle," said the landlord of the White Swan, when I went in to leave my knapsack: "Nobody is admitted while the new buildings are going on. You won't get in."

"No harm in trying," I answered.

"No harm only you won't get in. Take my word for it."

There is something imposing in the sight that awaits you on emerging from a narrow street upon the broad road-the barbican, with its dark arch and embattled towers, the lofty octagonal gate-towers behind, the massive embrasured walls on each side-all seeming as

if they belonged to a real castle, built for use rather than show. The effect is heightened by the big statues of warriors standing here and there on the parapets, even the highest. Some appear to be quietly watching; some grotesque in attitude, threaten and defy; one bends his crossbow, another holds a missile ready to cast down on the heads of invading Scots, who more than once laid siege to Alnwick.

No signs now appear of the two moats which had to be crossed before reaching the gate; one ran within the entrance of the barbican, and as that gloomy passage shut in by high walls was protected besides by three or four gates, the enemy, once inside, were caught as in a trap, powerless against the stones hurled from above. There is a feeling of relief as you pass the porter's lodge to the spacious court within. Before us rises the keep, a mass of old and new masonry; the curtain wall stretches away on each hand, here supporting a turret or garret, there strengthened by a tower, masking on the right the offices and servants' lodgings; and between spread broad plots of grass, bordered by stripes of pavement. We are in the outer ward or baily; beyond the keep we get a peep into the middle ward, and a distant one, for the space inclosed is about five acres; room enough to hold joustings, and to train or review the garrison. But now the troop engaged are not fighting-men but workmen; heaps of stone and rubbish and piles of timber encumber the ground, and there is a lively noise of labour. The Castle is putting on an aspect of comfort and magnificence which it never had before.

Owing to the alterations the household were roughing it in a range of buildings on the right of the court. I presented my letter at the door indicated by the tall

liveried porter; it was promptly answered by a message from up-stairs, and I had the pleasure of a brief interview with the Duke and Duchess. They were on the point of setting out for Warkworth; but his Grace. leading the way to the court, spoke a few words to Mr. Salvin the architect, and kindly included my Newcastle friends in his permission to view the interior; and the architect completed the favour by placing us under the guidance of his clerk of the works.

The keep gains in diversity of outline and dignity of expression by the restorations and additional buildings, while the Past finds itself brought into unwonted harmony with the Present. The entrance is still defended by the Duke's Tower on one side, by the Duchess's Tower on the other, and between them curves the admirable Norman arch, a relic of the stronghold, erected about 1145 by Eustace Fitz-John, then Baron of Alnwick. In the outer wall there are portions which were also built by him at the same date. The Percys began their works two centuries later. The barbican and principal gate were built by the first Lord Henry : the well, which we see on the right as we enter the court, is his, and a pleasing example of beauty and utility combined; a shallow pointed arch sunk in the wall about five feet from the ground, and within this three small arches immediately over the mouth of the well, and deep enough to receive the axle and two pegged handwheels, by which the water was laboriously raised. With this well at command, and a good store of provisions, the Lords of Alnwick could hold out for months, even after the loss of their outworks; for the keep itself was protected by a moat.

There are vaults and dungeons under the towers, which have not been altered since they were first built,

THE GRAND STAIRCASE.

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or since they were occupied by Sir William Lysle and his party; grim-looking places in which, if a prisoner died, it was not, as in our day, from kindness overmuch; for he was shut up, as it were, in a big stone bottle, the neck of which, the only opening, was far above his head.

The entrance to the keep itself is under a covered drive, designed with such skill that it has no appearance of being an excrescence. Before it was built there was nothing to shelter visitors from the weather while alighting from their carriages; and as there was no covered way leading to the kitchen, the servants were at times dodging among the horses with the dinner trays; and a story still runs that once a dish of patties was scattered by a gust of wind. Now, a corridor, supported on arches, is carried along one side of the court, with access to a lift from the kitchen, whereby the service will in future be saved from exposure.

The leading idea in the plan of the restorations is to advance from the simple to the elaborate; from the unadorned to the superbly decorated; hence the grand staircase, though of noble proportions, is plain in character. Each step is formed of a single stone, twelve feet in length; each landing of a single slab, twelve feet. square; all beautifully white and unblemished, wherein all that can be desired in the way of effect is obtained, and another part of the plan is accomplished, which provides that as much as possible native material shall be used. This stone is got from a quarry on Rothbury Moor, where the stratum is so thick and sound, that blocks and slabs may be hewed in one piece big enough for a Cleopatra's needle, without a flaw, and hard enough to take a good polish. The external building stone is quarried on Alnwick Moor.