first syllable indicates. Thus, Edlingham, only a few miles away, is
the "home or settlement of the sons of Eadwulf"; Ellingham, the "home of
the sons of Ella," and so on. How the "Whitt" syllable was spelled we do
not know; most probably Hwitta or Hwitha--for all our _wh's_ were _hw_
originally--_hwaet, hwa, hwaether_ and so forth.

This ancient village is in these days a charming and peaceful place,
lying in the midst of rich meadow lands, and surrounded by magnificent
trees. It had its romances, too, in the course of years; so long ago as
the days of the early Danish invasions a certain widow in Whittingham,
in the reign of King Alfred, had no less a person than a Danish prince
among her slaves; he was ransomed, however, and made king of the Danes
in the North, in consequence of a vision in which St. Cuthbert had
directed the Abbot of Carlisle to see this done. Young Prince Guthred's
gratitude showed itself in a substantial grant of land to St. Cuthbert
at Durham. Whittingham Church is supposed to have been founded by the
Saxon king Ceolwulf, whose acquaintance we have already made at Holy
Island, and he bestowed the lands of Whittingham on the church at
Lindisfarne. It still shows some of the original Saxon work at the base
of the tower, and much more was to be seen before the so-called
"restoration" of the church in 1840. The pele-tower on the south side of
the river, after its days of storm and stress are over, still serves as
a shelter in time of need, for it is now used as an almshouse for the
poor of the village, a former Lady Ravensworth having originated the
quaint idea and seen it carried out.

Whittingham Fair, now Whittingham Sports, a well-known rendezvous of the
whole countryside, has lost some of its former splendour, but is still
looked forward to with great enjoyment in the surrounding district. The
old coaching road from Newcastle to Edinburgh passed through the
village, crossing the Aln by the stone bridge, from whence it went on
through Glanton and Wooler to Cornhill.

In the vale of Whittingham, the little Aln flows placidly along, its
waters murmuring a soothing refrain, a peaceful interlude between its
busy bustling beginning and its ending. Before reaching Alnwick it flows
past the ancient walls of Hulne Abbey, the monastery of Carmelite friars
so romantically founded by the Northumbrian knight and monk after his
visit to the monastery on Mount Carmel. A considerable portion of the
ancient b