Passing by this haunted place the road leads on to Darlington, a borough full of historical relics, from the Bulmer Stone in Northgate to the first locomotive at Bank Top Station. The Bulmer Stone is a large boulder of Shap granite, which was borne down to its present resting-place on a glacier in the Ice Age. Lying in the midst of the level, marshy plains of the Skerne, it formed a landmark for the men of the Bronze Age, and was perhaps the origin of the town. An Anglian burial-ground, probably pre-Christian, was discovered in the town in 1876. After the conversion of the North a church was built, and two Saxon crosses from it are preserved in the present Church of St. Cuthbert. The history of this beautiful building does not come within the scope of the present section. To the west of the church lies the market-place, where in 1217 Stephen de Cantuaria purchased half a pound of pepper at the fair on the Feast of All Saints, which he rendered to Roger Fitzacris as service for this land in Milneflach and elsewhere. From the market-cross in 1312 was read the Bishop’s order that a tournament which had been proclaimed at Darlington should not be held, as it was forbidden by the laws of the land. That market-cross is not standing now, but its successor may be seen in the modern covered market, a plain column surmounted by a ball, which was erected in 1727 by Dame Dorothy Brown, the last descendant of the family of Barnes, whose members had held the office of bailiff of Darlington for over a hundred years. The old toll-booth, in which the bailiffs held their courts, was pulled down in 1806 and replaced by the present Town Hall. Ever since 1197, Darlington enjoyed the title of borough, and yet it possesses no early charters and had no corporate government; it was not visited by the municipal commissioners in 1833, and was only incorporated in 1868. Until its incorporation the Bishop of Durham appointed a bailiff, who held the old manorial court of the borough. Darlington enjoys the distinction of having retained its bailiff until the middle of the nineteenth century, whereas in the other Durham towns the Bishop had ceased to appoint bailiffs by the end of the seventeenth century. The fame of Darlington rests on the fact that the first passenger railway-line in England was laid between Darlington and Stockton by George Stephenson, who was supported by the capital and influence of Edward Pease of Darlington; the line was opened in 1825. This is surely glory enough for any town! [Illustration: AN OLD TITHE-BARN AT DURHAM.]