Part 17

There is some fine armour in the present and modern great hall, amongst others a suit richly inlaid in gold, and traditionally said to have been taken from the Scottish King after the Battle of Neville’s Cross, although really it is of Elizabethan date.

The existing castle in Durham City, long the principal seat of the Episcopal Princes, largely helps, with its frowning walls and grim battlements, standing side by side with the cathedral, to make Durham one of the most picturesque cities in this country.

The castle is approached from the north-west corner of the Palace Green, a short avenue leading to the gateway, which was modernized by Bishop Barrington. The iron-bound gates were placed there by Bishop Tunstall, and one of them contains a wicket which is the subject of one of Spearman’s amusing anecdotes. He states that Bishop Crewe had been pressing Dr. Grey, Rector of Bishopwearmouth, and Dr. Morton, Rector of Boldon, to read King James’s declaration for a dispensing power in their parish churches. Both declined and began to argue against it, when the Bishop appears to have lost his temper. He told Dr. Grey that his age made him dote, and that he had forgotten his learning. "The good old Doctor briskly replied he had forgott more learning than his Lordship ever had. ‘Well,’ said the Bishop, ‘I’ll forgive and reverence you, but cannot pardon that blockhead Morton, whom I raised from nothing.’ They thereupon took their leave of the Bishop, who with great civility waited upon them towards the gate, and ye porter opening ye wikett or posterne only, ye Bishop said, ‘Sirrah, why don’t you open ye great gates?’ ‘No,’ says ye Reverend Dr. Grey, ‘my Lord, wee’le leave _ye broad way_ to your lordship, _ye strait way_ will serve us.’"

The gateway leads directly into the courtyard. A door and flight of steps in the wall to the left leads into the Fellows’ Garden, formerly the private garden of the Bishops, through which they could enter Bishop Cosin’s library.

Crossing the court to the left, the first building approached is partly of early Norman date, with additions by Bishop Fox, and a later restoration by Bishop Cosin, whose arms, impaling the see, are upon the front. It is now used entirely as students’ quarters.

A portico farther along the court leads into the great hall, erected by Bishop Anthony Bek. The hall measures 101 feet long by 35 feet wide, and was restored somewhere about 1850.

The window at the north end was filled with stained glass in 1882 to commemorate the jubilee of the University.

The walls are hung with paintings, and include:

1. A collection of thirteen portraits of English Archbishops and Bishops, said to have been made by Bishop Cosin.

2. Ten pictures of the Apostles, which were taken at St. Mary’s, in Spain, in the expedition under the Duke of Ormond, and purchased by the Dean and Chapter in 1753.

3. A number of portraits of prebendaries and professors.

4. Portraits of Charles I., Bishop Cosin, and Charles II.

On the same wall as the last-mentioned portraits the banners of the Durham local volunteer companies, raised to defend the country at the time of Napoleon’s threatened invasion, are suspended.

A door at the north end of the hall leads to Bishop Cosin’s great staircase, which is most handsomely carved.

At the foot of the staircase a corridor, the woodwork of which originally formed part of the same Bishop’s choir screen in the cathedral, may be entered.

The staircase itself, however, leads more directly to Bishop Tunstall’s Gallery, and to several apartments, from one of which a door opens upon the terrace on the north side of the castle.

Tunstall’s Gallery contains several objects of interest, and the walls are covered with sixteenth-century tapestry.

Here also is the magnificent Norman doorway erected by Bishop Pudsey as the entrance to his lower hall. From its position and the weathering of the stonework, it is supposed to have originally been approached by a stairway from the court; the case at the top must have been roofed with open arcades at the sides.

The present Senate-room of the University contains some good tapestry, illustrating the life of Moses, and dating from the sixteenth century. This room also contains a handsome carved fireplace, armorially decorated, and evidently the work of Bishop James. In the centre are the Royal Arms, Garter, and Motto. On either side are the arms of the Palatinate impaling the Bishop’s dolphin and cross-crosslets, with the James’s motto, "Dei Gratia Sum quod Sum."

The adjoining anteroom contains several paintings, including portraits of King James II. and his Queen, Mary of Modena.

Leaving the county town behind, the picturesque outlines of Lumley Castle may be seen for some miles from the train journeying to Newcastle. It is situated about a mile from Chester-le-Street, but on the opposite bank of the Wear. The place is first mentioned by Styr, the son of Ulf, in a list of gifts made to St. Cuthbert.

The castle is supposed to have been erected by Sir Ralph Lumley, who obtained licences from Richard II. and Bishop Skirlaw to embattle his house of Lumley. It is in arrangement a square courtyard, surrounded by a quadrangle. Two of the fronts, the south and north, measure 65 yards 1 foot in length, the other two 58 yards and 1 foot. Oblong towers, of greater height than the main portions of each front, from which they project, strengthen and guard each corner. The most exterior angle of each tower is capped by a buttress.

The west front is the oldest existing portion of the castle, and is supposed to have been the Lumley manor-house, before Sir Ralph extended and added to it.

Originally the east side of it, that looking into the courtyard, was the principal front, and in its centre the gateway, flanked by semi-octagonal turrets, may still be seen. The front of the gateway is formed of two arches, the outer segmental headed, and the inner one pointed. Between these is the groove wherein the portcullis ran. The arch leads to a vaulted passage which entered the original courtyard. On the north side of the passage is a pointed doorway, leading into a narrow corridor, having a latrine at its east end, and connected originally with the gatekeeper’s room.

The present gateway is in the centre of the east front, and has incorporated with it an earlier round-headed archway, with semi-octagonal jambs and moulded imposts. On either side of it is a square turret, surmounted by octagonal machicolated parapets, the alternate sides of which are embrasured.

The turrets are joined by a machicolated gallery, defended by a battlemented parapet. Above the door are six sculptured coats of arms. Between the two highest, Neville and Percy, is the royal coat of Richard II. Below is the Lumley coat, having on the sinister side the arms of Grey, and on the dexter the coat of Hilton. The shields are all surmounted by the respective family crests.

A room on the south side of the gateway contains in its centre a flag, which on being raised leaves open the entrance to a vaulted chamber about 10 feet square and some 16 feet deep. From the existence of a latrine, and a little ventilation from a small unglazed loophole looking into the courtyard, it seems to have been intended as a safe place for the custody of prisoners.

In the north-east tower are two rooms, divided by a modern partition, and showing evidence that they originally formed the private chapel of the family. The south-east tower contains on its second floor the state bedroom, in which King James I. is said to have slept when he visited Lumley.

In the north-west tower is the famous kitchen, which Howitt described as "one of the most stupendous, lofty, and every way remarkable kitchens in the kingdom." The south-west tower contains the banqueting-hall, celebrated for its very fine stuccoed ceiling, part of the work initiated by Richard, second Earl of Scarborough.

Between the towers on the west side the main building forms the baron’s, or great, hall, which probably remained unaltered from the time of Sir Ralph to the early days of the century before last. The fireplace is the work of John, Lord Lumley, and is decorated with the family arms, impaling FitzAlan. Here also is a large equestrian statue, representing Liulph, a traditional ancestor of the house. There are also a series of interesting family portraits.

Not far from Lumley, Lambton Castle stands on the northern and opposite bank of the river. The original home of the Lambton family was, however, on the same bank as Lumley. According to an old view, it was a double house of stone, with flanking, gabled wings, and the grounds laid out in parterres and terraces. It remained the residence of the family, until it was dismantled in 1797 by William Henry Lambton, who had adopted Harraton Hall as the family seat.[12]

The present Lambton Castle[13] stands on the site and incorporates portions of the original building of Harraton Hall, a manor-house erected about the year 1600. Very considerable additions were made to this hall by William Henry Lambton, grandfather of the late Lord Durham, from designs by the elder Bonomi, in the Italian style. The first Lord Durham also made considerable alterations and additions to the building from plans furnished by Bonomi, the general appearance of the mansion being entirely changed. The south front is in the Tudor style and castellated, and the north is Norman.

The great hall is panelled, and the windows are glazed with richly stained glass, containing a representation of "Ye Legend of the Worme of Lambton," and also the heraldic emblems of the family. The dimensions of the hall are 94 feet by 36 feet, being larger than St. Stephen’s Hall, Westminster. The principal staircase leading out of the hall, communicating with the upper apartments, is 24 feet wide and 36 feet high. East of the hall is the dining-room and west is the drawing-room, abutting on the terraces of the west lawn.

Owing to the subsidence of the hill on which the castle stands, through some old colliery workings underneath falling in, the castle had become, when the second Earl succeeded to the estates, insecure. To meet this, and strengthen the foundations, the workings, two seams deep, round the castle, to the extent of 4½ acres, were filled up with débris. Three seams lower still were bricked up, over 10,000,000 bricks being used, and in several instances in the fourth seam the brickwork exceeded 30 feet in height.

Hilton Castle, like Lambton, stands on the north bank of the River Wear, on a gentle slope commanding an extensive view of the valley to the west.

The present building, a melancholy-looking tower, is only the gatehouse of the original castle. It is first mentioned in the inquisition post-mortem of William de Hilton in 1435, when it is described as "a house constructed of stone, called the Yethouse." The intention of the original builder, the William just mentioned, was evidently to erect an extensive mansion on a similar scale, but there is sufficient evidence to show that he never completed the work.

That there were other buildings probably surrounding a courtyard is proved by various inventories. In 1559, after the death of Sir Thomas Hilton, an inventory of his effects mentions the great chamber, the green chamber, the middle and new chambers, the gallery, the wardrobe, the parlour, the chamber over the hall door, and various out-buildings, such as the brewhouse, buttery, and the barns. The tower is mentioned separately, and the term evidently applies to the existing building.

These surrounding buildings were probably removed by John Hilton, who early in the eighteenth century built

a large wing in the Italian style against the north end of the gatehouse. This erection was three stories in height, having pedimented windows in the two lower floors, and square-headed windows in the story above. John Hilton also, to some extent, spoiled the ancient gatehouse by inserting a number of similar pedimented windows in it. His son, the last of the male line to own Hilton, and also named John, added a similar south wing. Both these wings were castellated--at any rate, on the east front.

The castle passed by descent to the Musgraves, and afterwards by successive sales to the Bowes and Briggs families, and again within the last year or two to the Monkwearmouth Colliery Company.

As it now stands, the tower presents a bold and picturesque outline. It is divided, on the west front, into three bays by projecting, square-shaped turrets. The main entrance is through the central bay, over which is a fine array of heraldry. Immediately beneath the arcade, the elaborately carved and projecting canopies of which fell in 1882, is a banner and staff of the Royal Arms of France and England _temp._ Henry V. Beneath the banner are the arms of Neville, Vesci, and Percy, and amongst other coats represented are those of the families of Lumley, Grey, Eure, Washington, Felton, Heron, Surtees, and Bowes. On the right-hand turret, close to the entrance, beneath a canopy, is a large banner of the Hilton arms. The east front shows a curious sculpture of the family badge, _a roebuck collared and chained_. Below is the family coat, accompanied with their curious crest--_the head of Moses, horned with triple rays_.

The battlements are exceedingly picturesque and decorated with numerous statued figures, one of which apparently represents the slayer of the Lambton Worm.

The ancient family chapel stands in a semi-ruinous condition a little to the north of the castle.

Ravensworth Castle was erected towards the end of the thirteenth century, and has belonged successively to the Fitz-Marmadukes, Lumleys, Boyntons, Gascoignes, and Liddells. It originally consisted of four towers, one standing at each angle of a courtyard and joined by curtain walls. Two of these towers still stand and form part of the present castle, which was erected shortly after 1808, from designs by Nash. It may be added that the castle was formerly known as Ravenshelm, Ravensworth being the name of the adjoining village. Not far from the castle, and near to the road leading to the north entrance, is an old cross commonly known as the "Butter Cross." It is stated that the country people left their produce here for the citizens of Newcastle to take when that city was infested by the plague in the sixteenth century.

A few miles to the west, Gibside, a seat of the Earl of Strathmore, stands in an exceedingly picturesque position. A terrace at the back of the house stands above a sheer descent to an exceedingly wild glen. The older portions of the building were erected by Sir William Blakiston, who had inherited the estate from his grandmother, an heiress of the Marley family, in the reign of James I. Over the entrance are the Royal Arms, and the arms of Blakiston and Marley quarterly with the initials W. I. B. for Sir William and his wife Jane Lambton. There is also an interesting sundial inscribed with the motto _Ut hora, sic vita_. The old drawing-room has a large fireplace, with figures of Samson and Hercules at either side, and above a further heraldic display of the family alliances.

There are four baronial mansions lying between the Wear and the Tees.

Barnard Castle, once a residence of the princely house of Baliol, has for long years been a ruin.

Originally erected by Bernard de Baliol, son of Guy de Baliol, Lord of Bailleul en Vimeu in Picardy, and founder also of Baynard’s Castle in London, it passed on the attainder of his descendant John Baliol, sometime King of Scotland, in 1296 to Bishop Bek. A few years later Edward I. severed the Durham fees of Bruce and Baliol from the control of the Palatinate and granted Barnard Castle to the Beauchamps. By marriage the estate passed to the Nevilles, and by marriage again to the Crown. Later it passed to the Vanes, who hold it still. The castle, which was of some size and great strength, stands in a commanding position above the River Tees. A great portion of the remaining buildings dates from Norman times. One of the towers is still known as the Brackenbury Tower, evidently deriving its name from the family of the famous Constable of the Tower of London. The castle is also associated with Richard III., whose badge of "the hog" occurs in one of the rooms.

Not far from Barnard, Streatlam Castle stands in a valley between that town and Raby. It has remained the property of the descendants of the owners in the twelfth century to this day, although it has passed by marriage successively to the Traynes, Boweses, and Lyons. The existing castle includes some portions of the structure erected by old Sir William Bowes. This Sir William is stated on the death of his young wife Jane, daughter of Lord Greystock, under the age of twenty, to have gone to the wars in France, where for some years he was Chamberlain to the Regent, the Duke of Bedford. Sometime about 1450 he pulled down the older castle at Streatlam, and erected a new one from designs he had brought from France. His arms are on the north front of the castle, which has been altered frequently since his time. A good portion of it was pulled down by William Blakiston Bowes, who died in 1721, leaving his alterations incomplete.

Raby Castle, one of the finest baronial piles in the North of England, and for many centuries the great seat of the princely house of Neville, would require, to deal with it in justice, more pages than a volume of limited space can afford. A few of its leading features must, however, be mentioned. Portions of the present building were erected by Ralph, Lord Neville, one of the commanders at Neville’s Cross, who died in 1367. His son John carried on the work, and in 1378 obtained a licence from Bishop Hatfield to embattle and crenellate his manor-house at Raby. In aspect the castle consists of buildings forming a rough square, with towers projecting from three of the corners, the whole enclosing a courtyard. The four outer sides face the cardinal points. Some distance from the main building, a wall 30 feet high with a deep moat on its outer side entirely enclosed it. The main entrance is guarded by a large tower thrown forward in a flanking position, rendering the approach exceedingly difficult to an opposing force. This building is known as Clifford’s Tower. At the south end of a curtain wall running southwards stands the Watch Tower, which has, however, been considerably modernized. Adjoining the great gatehouse,

which is the work of at least two builders, is the tower which Leland says bears the name of Joan, wife of the first Earl of Westmorland. East of Joan’s Tower is another stretch of curtain wall now containing the drawing-rooms, and terminating at Bulmer’s Tower, an interesting building in shape an irregular pentagon. On the upper story of this tower is the badge of the builder, a large Old English b , doubtless like the bull, their other badge, derived from the Bulmers.

A block of modern buildings adjoining the Bulmer Tower adjoins a tower, from which a corridor enters the great hall, 90 feet long and 35 feet wide. Close to the hall is the kitchen, which has been preserved in all its original quaintness. Over a passage leading from the east side of the great hall is the chapel. A short curtain wall connects this portion of the building with the Mount Raskelf Tower, evidently named after a manor owned by the Nevilles in Yorkshire. It is rather curious to observe that the Christian names Ralph and Henry, which occur so frequently in old northern families, are the predominating names respectively of the great houses of Neville and Percy.

Walworth Castle, a large, picturesque old house, was erected by the Jenisons in or about the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The north front, flanked by two projecting wings, has a centre three stories high terminating in a balustraded parapet. The south front has a circular tower at each end. The windows were originally decorated with fine old painted glass of heraldic design, which has been almost entirely destroyed in modern times. Some fragments have, however, been gathered together and are preserved in a window in the corridor. Here King James I. was entertained and slept on his progress to the South in 1603.

Inferior to the larger houses, there were in the county several buildings of great strength coming under the same head as the _peel-houses_ or _towers_ on the borders.

One of these, now only represented by a few portions of the outer walls, was Dalden Tower. The buildings appear to have formed a tower rather longer than square, standing on a slight mound. The walls were of rubble, 5 feet thick. In the east wall there is a square-headed niche, surmounted by a pediment within an ogee-headed arch, the space within which is filled with tracery. Two blank shields are upon a cornice over the pediment. The niche seems to point to the room once adjoining having been the private chapel. On the inner side of the curtain facing the west wall there appears to have been a cell with a loophole.

A more recent manor-house was built about the reign of James I., adjoining the tower on the east, and portions of it are built into the present farmhouse. For some generations it was a seat of the Royalist family of Collingwood, and, at an earlier date, of a branch of the great house of Bowes. It was a lady of this family, Maud, wife of Sir William Bowes and heiress of Sir Robert Dalden, who possessed within the old walls a curious library. In her will, made in 1420, she left to Matilda Hilton _one Romaunce-boke_, to Dame Eleanor Washington _the boke with the knotts_, to Elizabeth de Whitchester a book that is called _Trystram_, and to her god-daughter Maud, daughter of the Baron of Hilton, _one Romaunce boke is called the Gospells_. Surtees pertinently writes: "Did a romance ever actually exist under this strange title? or had the lady of Dalden met with one of Wicliffe’s Bibles, and conceived the Gospels to be a series of fabulous adventures, in which our Saviour and His Apostles were introduced to act and to moralize like the goodly personages who figure in the ancient mysteries, or in _Les Jeux du Roi René d’Anjou_"?

Farther to the south an old tower, oblong in shape stood at Little Eden. It was, however, taken down in the early days of last century by Mr. Rowland Burdon, who erected the present castellated house at Castle Eden. At Dinsdale, on the banks of the Tees, the remains of the ancient home of the Surtees family were excavated by the late Mr. Scott Surtees, and showed that a large gatehouse of late twelfth-century work, with vaulted chambers and a newel stair, had once stood there.

The later manor-house of the Place family retains some portions of the older building. With thick walls and low rooms with heavy beams and rafters, and an old oak staircase with a wicket, it still remains a picturesque fragment of former days. A stone originally fixed over a gateway destroyed shortly before Hutchinson compiled his history is now let into the wall on the left of the farmhouse door, and bears the arms of Place quarterly with Surtees.