t to his bedside every morning at six, by a very
pretty dairymaid. So much for my residence. All the day we shoot, fish,
walk, and ride; dine and sup on fish struggling from the stream, and the
most delicious heath-fed mutton, barn-door fowls, pies, milk cheese,
etc, all in perfection; and so much simplicity resides amongst those
hills that a pen, which could write at least, was not to be found about
the house, though belonging to a considerable farmer, till I shot the
crow with whose quill I write this epistle." (See Lockhart, chapter
vi.). In this passage we have an interesting glimpse of what
Northumberland was a hundred years ago, and of the great author enjoying
a holiday while yet reading for the law, and before fame began to blow
her trumpet in his praise.

Sweeter villages than Etal and Ford could scarcely be imagined out of
Arcadia. Etal Castle was destroyed by James IV. previous to Flodden,
and has never been restored. Ford Castle, built originally in 1287, has
been frequently renovated and enlarged, and is now a most excellent
example of the military style of architecture plus the modern mansion
house. Formerly held by the Herons, its chatelaine figures in "Marmion"
as the syren who detained the King when he ought to have been in the
field. The frescoes in Ford schoolroom, painted by the late Lady
Waterford, are objects not only of good art but of a well-conceived
philanthropy. Ancroft and Lowick, Chatton and Chillingham are delightful
summer resorts. Chillingham is famous for its Elizabethan Castle, but
still more so, perhaps, for its herds of wild cattle, the survivors of
the wild ox of Europe, and the supposed progenitors of our domestic
cattle. Other summer resorts are Belford and Doddington, but the whole
coast-line, indeed, is dotted with the most desirable holiday-nooks in
the county.

PLATE 8

VIEW OF WARKWORTH

FROM A WATER-COLOUR SKETCH

PAINTED BY

JAMES ORROCK, R.I.

(_See pp. 39, 51, 52, 56_)

[Illustration]

The Coquet bears the palm for picturesqueness amongst Northumbrian
valleys, and is about forty miles in length. From Alwinton, the first
village after crossing the Cheviots, where the Alwine joins the
Coquet--"a place of slumber and of dreams remote among the hills"--to
Warkworth Castle, the stream carries history and romance in every league
of its course. Here are such names as Biddlestone, the "Osbaldistone,"
of "Rob Roy" (there are other claimants such as Chilling