er than the soft
look of more melting Southern eyes. Sir Lionel is of the South--born in
Cornwall; yet his eyes have this Northern glint in them--as if he knew
and understood mountains. Just now they are terribly wintry, and when
they rest coldly on me I feel as if I were lost in a snowstorm without
hat or coat. But no matter!

Now, what shall I say to you of Bamborough Castle, which is the crown of
our whole tour?

I wish I were clever enough to make the splendour of it burst upon you,
as it did upon me.

Imagine us motoring over from Cragside (a very beautiful and famous
modern house, with marvellous gardens and enchanting views) which
belongs to these kind, delightful friends of Sir Lionel's who own
Bamborough Castle. There was a house-party at Cragside, and there were
twelve or fifteen of us who left there in a drove of automobiles.

[Illustration: "_There were twelve or fifteen of us who left Cragside_"]

Down the beautiful winding avenue; then out upon a hump-backed,
switchback road, a dozen miles and more, past great Alnwick, on, on,
until suddenly a vast, dark shape loomed against the sky; a stone
silhouette, not of a giant's profile, but of a whole vast family of
giants grouped together, to face the sea.

To _own_ a Thing like that must feel like owning Niagara Falls, or the
marble range of the Sierra Nevada, or biting off a whole end of England
and digesting it. Yet these charming people take their ownership quite
calmly; and by filling the huge castle from keep to farthest tower with
their beautiful possessions, seem to have tamed the splendid monster,
making it legitimately theirs.

I thought Alnwick grand, as we passed, but its position is insignificant
compared with Bamborough, which has the wide North Sea for a background.
On a craggy platform of black rock like a petrified cushion for a royal
crown, it rises above the sea, a few low foothills of golden sand
drifting toward it ahead of the tide. The grandeur of the vast pile is
almost overwhelming to one who, like me, has never until now seen any of
these mighty fortress-castles of the North; but a great historian says
that the site of Bamborough surpasses the sites of all other
Northumbrian castles in ancient and abiding historic interest; so even
if I had been introduced to dozens, my impression must remain the same.
"Round Bamborough, and its founder, Ida (the Flame-Bearer), all
Northumbrian history gathers"; and it is "one of the great cradles