The wing containing the servants’ hall (on the ceiling of which is a plaster shield of Bishop Tunstall’s arms) and the dining-room was commenced by Bishop Ruthall, and completed by the former prelate. The arms of both Bishops appear on the exterior of the building. Adjoining this wing to the west is another of some length, still known by the curious name of _Scotland_, and undoubtedly erected by Tunstall. No very satisfactory reason has been offered for the derivation of its name. Brancepeth Castle stands within a mile from the River Wear, a little to the south of the village of the same name. There was undoubtedly a castle there in the twelfth century, towards the end of which it passed, by the marriage of Emma, widow of Peter de Valoignes, and only child of Bertram de Bulmer, to Geoffrey de Neville, from the former to the latter family. The present castle is stated by Leland to have been erected by Ralph, first Earl of Westmorland. It was defended north and east by a moat; south and west the walls rise from a rock nearly forty feet in height. The original gateway, defended by a portcullis and flanked by square towers, stood on the site of the present gate, and was approached from the north. It has been destroyed. It opened directly into the courtyard, south-west of which are the residential parts of the castle. There were, when Hutchinson wrote, four towers, closely conjoined. Three of these remain, containing respectively the dining-room, saloon, and the baron’s hall. The destroyed tower stood north of the last mentioned, but was not so high. It contained three stories, and was probably, as Mr. Boyle has suggested, the great hall. The projecting angles of the towers are surmounted by small turrets, eight in number, the arrangement consisting of two sides rising directly from the sides of the buttresses on which they are built, whilst the other two are machicolated, the parapets resting on corbels. Two other towers now standing at either end of the billiard-room are respectively used as the chapel and the library. The castle possesses a number of other interesting features. Amongst the pictures is one by Hogarth, painted for the first Viscount Boyne, and representing several members of the _Hell-fire Club_. They are supposed to have assembled in a wine-cellar, and resolved not to part until its contents have been consumed. Sir Philip Hoby is depicted sitting on a cask of claret. Immediately behind him, with his hand held up, is Mr. De Grey, and below him is Lord John Cavendish, who has drawn a spigot from the cask to let the wine flow into a bowl. Lord Sandwich is kneeling down, holding a bottle to his mouth. Lord Galway lies extended on a form, in such a position that the liquor from a cask above him is flowing into his mouth. The arrangement of the four central figures is a clever imitation of a statue of _Charity_ shown in the cellar.