[6] No account of the legends of Durham would be complete without some note upon Robert Surtees’ ballads, several of which he foisted upon the unsuspecting Walter Scott as genuine antiques. Perhaps the most weird and effective is the one generally known as the "Legend of Sir John le Spring," the scene of which is in Houghton, the _alma mater_ of the poet’s own schoolboy days. One or two of the verses, which are well known in the North, run: "Pray for the sowle of Sir John-le-Spring, When the black monks sing-- And the Vesper bells ring; Pray for the sprite of a murdered Knight, Pray for the sowle of Sir John-le-Spring. He fell not, before the....--♰ The waning crescent fled, When the Martyr’s palm and golden crown Reward Christ’s soldier dead. "He fell not in the battle-field, Beneath St. George’s banner bright, When the pealing cry of victory-- Might cheer the sowle of a dying knight; But at dead of night, in the soft moonlight, In his garden bower--he lay; And the dew of sleep, did his eyelids steep In the arms of his leman gay. "And by murderous hand, and bloody brand, In that guilty bower-- With his paramour, Did his sowle from his body fleet, And through mist and mirk, and moonlight gray, Was forc’d away from the bleeding clay, To the dreaded judgment seat." [7] This is proved by an inquest taken at Hilton in that year. _Cf._ Bishop Swaby’s _History of the Hiltons of Hilton Castle_, p. 39. [8] _The River-Names of Europe_, pp. 33, 34. [9] Pudsey commenced to build a Lady Chapel at the east end of the church which, as was said, St. Cuthbert shook down. [10] About the year 1800 the whole cathedral underwent a process of chiselling, in order to render the surface uniform. This was done under the superintendence of Wyatt, and in some parts four inches in depth were removed by the operation. The evidence of this is apparent in several places on the north side of the choir and nave, where, in consequence of the soil having accumulated several feet in height, that part of the building has escaped being pared down. What has been the result is shown there in the nook shafts of the arcade, which have been reduced from a due proportion to one most inadequate. [11] It is possible that Basire, whose words are rather curious, simply means that he destroyed the chapels. He speaks of them as "being blown up by Sir Arthur Haslerig in the Gunpowder Plot of the late Rebellion."