Northumberland Yesterday and To-dayTerry, Jean F. (Jean Finlay)
History
Northumberland Yesterday and To-day
Terry, Jean F. (Jean Finlay)
Northumberland (England) -- Guidebooks; Northumberland (England) -- History
Within the park, approached by the gate at the foot of Canongate,
is the fine gateway which is all that is left of Alnwick Abbey. No
more peaceful spot could have been found than this, on the level
greensward, surrounded by fine trees which shelter it on all sides
save one, and near the brink of the little Aln, whose banks are
thickly covered with wild flowers, while the steep slope on the
opposite side of the river is overhung with shady woods. The extent
of the parks may be judged from the fact that the enclosing wall is
about five miles long. At the foot of Bailiffgate, on the edge of a
steep ridge above the descent to Canongate and the banks of the
river, the ancient parish church, dedicated to St. Mary and St.
Michael stands in a commanding position. The present building dates
from the fourteenth century, and occupies the site of an earlier
one, whose few remaining stones have been built into the present
structure. Two other reminders of long-past days are to be found in
Alnwick; one is the large stone in the Market Place to which the
bull ring used to be fixed in the days when bull-baiting and
bear-baiting took place; and the other, a relic of days still
further back in the distant years, is the sounding of the Curfew
Bell, which is still rung here every evening at eight o’clock.
Altogether there is the quaintest and most unexpected mingling of
the ancient and modern in the little feudal town.
Between Alnwick and the sea, the Aln winds its way past Alnmouth
Station, formerly known as Bilton Junction, and past Lesbury, a
pretty little tree-shaded village, to the sandy flats by Alnmouth
where it ends its journey in the North Sea.
The Till, by whose side we shall next wander, flows in the opposite
direction, for that historic stream is a tributary of “Tweed’s fair
river, broad and deep,” and curves from the Cheviots round to the
North-west, where it enters the larger stream at Tillmouth. It
begins life as the Breamish, tumbling down the slopes of Cushat Law
within sight of all the giants of the Cheviot range. The Linhope
Burn, a fellow traveller down these steep hillsides, forms in its
course the Linhope Spout, one of the largest waterfalls to be found
amongst the Cheviots, before it joins the Breamish, which then
flows through a country of green slopes and grassy levels to
Ingram. This village possesses an old church with massive square
tower and windows which suggest the fortress rather than the
church. The heights which stretch eastward from the Cheviots and
bound the valley of the Till add not a little to the beauty and
variety of the scenery in this district.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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