CHAPTER XIII.

Fetterlock and Crescent-Capturing a Lion-A Walk in the Park-The Brislee Tower - The Prospect - Inspirations― Moralising — Hulne Abbey-John de Vesci-A Pilgrimage to Palestine-A Discovery on Carmel-Days of Old-The Northumbrian Carmel-The Friar's Library-A Word of Wisdom-Dormentory and Ivory-Parlez vous Français ?-An Inscription-Alnwick Abbey-Malcolm's Spring-A Miraculous Relic-A Lucky Burgess-Tombs of the Percys-Malcolm's Cross.

BUT it is time to ramble farther. We leave the castle and come presently to the church, which contains a superbly-decorated chancel, and masonry that dates from the time of the second lord of Alnwick, and on the capital of one of the pillars you may see the fetterlock and crescent-the Percy badge. A little farther and among the trees on the right of the road we see the stone cross which commemorates the capture of William the Lion. The Scottish monarch returning flushed with success from his ravage of the northern counties halted before Alnwick, hoping to include it among his captures. The English barons, having relieved Prudhoe, started in pursuit, leaving Newcastle at dawn on July 13th, 1174, and marched for some hours, until bewildered by a thick fog it seemed best to return. But Bernard de Baliol declaring that he would advance even though alone, they moved forwards once more, and the fog presently clearing off they found themselves to their great surprise within sight of Alnwick. William who was encamped with about fourscore

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knights near the place where the cross now stands, at first supposed them to be a division of his own army; but discovering his mistake as their banner came nearer, he cried "Now we shall see who are good knights," put spurs to his horse and charged. Fortune, however, deserted him; he was unhorsed and taken prisoner with his followers, and conducted the same day to Newcastle. He was kept prisoner in Richmond Castle for awhile, and afterwards led before the king at Northampton with his legs tied under the horse's belly—a mark of indignity. Later, about the year 1200, we hear of him as taking an oath of fealty to John, and after that we may dismiss him from our memory.

How fragrant was the park with new-mown hay as I walked across the undulating slopes to the height crowned by the Brislee Tower. This is a pleasant spot, well sheltered by wood, in which the openings entice your eye as into a forest glade. Cottages are scattered about, tenanted by retainers of the estate; and you can see by the style in which they are built that the good time has come for some Northumbrian cottagers. The woman who lives nearest to the tower, and keeps the key, and exhibits ginger beer, told me that the Duke didn't keep his place locked up, as some folk do, but liked to let people come in and see it, so long as they didn't do mischief. There were two open days in the week, Sunday being one of the two, when the public were allowed to walk in the park.

The tower stands on the brow of the hill, an elegant structure ninety feet in height, bearing inscriptions which tell us as much as we wish to know of its history. Thus :-H. Dvx. Northumbria fecit. MDCCLXXXI. Circumspice. Ego omnia ista sum dimensus; mei sunt

ordines, mea descriptio; multæ etiam istaurum arborum mea manu sunt satæ. There is a balcony at each stage from which you may anticipate the view that lies outspread beneath your eye from the top. You see the park, the river winding through, farms here and there on the uplands, the town and castle, Ratsheugh Crag, the sea, and the Isles in one direction; in the other you look into the fertile and wooded vale of Whittingham, thence from hill to hill up to the rounded summits of the Cheviots, and away to the blue heights of Teviotdale, forty miles distant. There are acres of rustling foliage, ash, birch, and beech; and dark masses of firs on the outskirts; and from amid the trees on the opposite hill peer the ruins of Hulne Abbey, once tenanted by Carmelite friars.

One likes to linger over such a view. The variety, the expanse, the breeze, the sunshine, inspire a feeling as of renewed youth. It comes with gazing. We have only to gaze with a loving heart, and Nature will do the rest.

And while I lingered in the lofty balcony, I thought it a fine thing to be a Duke: to look round and say all this is mine!-mine the hills, the woods, the broad fields, the houses! to exercise power; to will one good thing after another, till the best was accomplished, till prosperity and beauty reigned throughout my possessions to try whether decent habitation will moralise a tenantry: to show how the loftiest rank may be adorned by virtuous life: to lead the very servility of society to wise purposes, even as the cunning medicineman of the Chikasaws by boiling snakes extracts therefrom a healing ointment:-to do all this, and more, would indeed be a fine thing!

I came down from the tower wondering whether I had grown envious; plunged down the hill-side through

brake and heather and copse, the nearest way to the ruin; crossed the river, and only slackened my pace when climbing the steep grassy slope to the ancient gateway. Foliage and weather-stains relieve the severe aspect of the high inclosing wall; and the buildings seen from the arch appear to be embowered, so luxuriant is the wood. Coming nearer I saw a garden, and hencoops, and hens and chickens, and a comfortable homestead, and a woman who, speaking with a tongue not Northumbrian, showed me the way up the tower. When on the leads I could not help lingering once more to contemplate the charming scene below; so secluded though on a hilltop; so quiet, so shut in by wood and shrubbery, that you cannot resist the mute appeal. Not that there is any remarkable beauty in the architecture; the style is sober as befits a religious edifice exposed to visits from lawless borderers; but it is the combination of pleasing objects, the thoughts they inspire, and the reminiscences they awaken that work the charm.

Six hundred years may have rolled away since John de Vesci founded here a house of Carmelite friars. A minor, at the time of his father's decease in 1252, he travelled in foreign parts until of age to enter upon his inheritance. The crusades were still a favourite theme with pilgrim and minstrel; many a one did he meet who had taken part in the soul-stirring campaigns against the Infidel, and he too influenced alike by heroic associations and religious enthusiasm journeyed to the Holy Land, accompanied by Richard Gray, a fellowcountryman. In their wanderings amid the scenes where Israel of old had suffered and triumphed; where One was born according to the promise; where Europe had poured out her best blood to rescue the hallowed

places from the hands of the heathen, they came to Carmel, visiting the monastery which zealous poverty had long maintained upon the Mount. Among the brethren they found a fellow-countryman, one Ralph Fresborn, who after doing valiantly in the ranks of the crusaders had taken the vow of poverty and the gown of the White Friars. We can imagine the joyful surprise of their unexpected meeting. How the heart of the monk must have warmed towards the strangers as he heard the familiar speech of his native land, the accents of that distant Northumbria, which even religious vows could not banish from his memory! How thoughts of his home and his boyhood must have rushed to his mind as he heard his mother-tongue rough and vigorous; but sweeter to his ear than fairy music! And they, the new-comers, must have hailed him in that remote spot as brother. And when in the eventide they mounted to the roof of the monastery, and looked forth over the sun-scorched landscape of Palestine, how their hearts must have burned within them as they talked of the mighty deeds wrought in times of old. On Carmel the prophet had sojourned and waited for the word of the Lord: on Carmel he had assembled the false priests, and built an altar, and called the fire from heaven, and led them thence to their doom by the brook of Kishon: on Carmel had he heard "a sound of abundance of rain:" from Carmel's top had been seen the rising of "a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand." Was not the monastery built on the spot where the prophet had offered the wondrous sacrifice? And while they talked their eyes would rest on green slopes and pastures, for even from the ancient days Carmel had been "the habitation of shepherds."

And he, the cowled one, how eagerly must he have