ham and
Naworth); Harbottle, a hamlet of venerable antiquity; Holystone,
mentioned already in connection with Paulinus; Hepple, with the remnant
of a strong peel tower of the Ogles; and Rothbury, the capital of Upper
Coquetdale, a snug township in the midst of an amphitheatre of the
wild, stony Simonside hills. In the old days it was a reiving centre of
notoriety. All this part of Northumberland, indeed, was a constant
freebooting arena, neither Scots nor English being content without some
fray on hand. There is not a village, or a town, or farmhouse even, but
has some tale to tell of that uncanny period. Cragside, Lord Armstrong's
palatial seat, reclaimed, like Abbotsford, from the barren mountain
side, is within a mile of Rothbury. Then come Brinkburn Priory, "an
ancient fabric awful in repose," founded by William de Bertram, lord of
Mitford, in the reign of Henry I.; Felton, a neat little village, where
Alexander of Scotland received the homage of the Northumbrian barons;
and Warkworth, "proud of the Percy name," one of the quaintest and
oldest towns in Northumberland, and teeming with historical and romantic
associations. So near the sea, and with some of the rarest river scenery
in the county close at hand, the place is in high favour as a holiday
resort. A Saxon settlement, all interest centres around its dismantled
Castle, believed to have been built by Roger Fitz-Richard, to whom Henry
II. granted in 1158 the manor of Warkworth. Strengthened from time to
time, it became a Percy possession, and was the chief residence of the
family to the middle of the 15th century. At the height of its power it
must have been well-nigh impregnable, encircled on three sides by the
winding banks and overhanging woods of the Coquet, and on a commanding
eminence above it; and though time and many devastating hands have long
since riven its ancient walls, the pile still presents a splendid
example of a baronial stronghold, second to few on the Borders.

Among Northumbrian towns, Alnwick (the county town) ranks next to
Newcastle. But whilst the rise of the latter and its prosperity and
colour have been each affected by the great industrial changes of the
century, Alnwick's development has been very different. Lying peacefully
amidst pastoral hills, by the side of a river unpolluted by modern
commerce, this ancient Border town still presents the plain and austere
aspect which it wore when the great stage-coaches passed through on
their