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
Every King of England from Henry I. to Henry IV., seems to have
been at Wark at some time during his reign, with the exception of
Richard Coeur-de-Lion and Richard II. After the Union of the
Crowns, Wark, like most other fortresses in the north that were not
in use as the dwellings of their owners, was allowed to fall into
decay. From Wark to Carham is a walk of only two miles along the
road which follows the course of the river, and ultimately leads to
Kelso. Carham has the remains of an ancient monastery; and here the
Danes, after having plundered Lindisfarne, fought a battle in which
the Saxons, led by several Bishops, were defeated with great
slaughter. From Carham, having reached the last point of interest
on the Tweed within the Northumbrian border, we must retrace our
steps to Tillmouth, and follow the Tweed through pasture land and
level haughs, until we come in sight of the steep cliffs and
overhanging woods by Norham Castle.
Naturally here, the words of the opening canto of “Marmion” are
recalled to our memory—
“Day set on Norham’s castled steep, On Tweed’s fair river, broad and
deep, And Cheviot’s mountains lone The battled towers, the donjon
keep, The loophole grates, where captives weep, The flanking walls
that round it sweep, In yellow lustre shone.”
The “castled steep” is still crowned by a massive fragment of the
old fortress that has braved, in its time, so many days of storm
and stress. A good deal of the curtain wall, too, is standing, and
the natural defences of the castle are admirable, for a deep ravine
on the east and the river with its steep banks on the south made it
practically unassailable at these points. It was built in 1121, as
we have seen, by Bishop Flambard of Durham, as a defence for the
northern portions of his diocese. The necessity for its presence
there was soon made apparent, for it was attacked by the Scots
again and again; and by the time thirty years had passed. Bishop
Pudsey found it necessary to strengthen it greatly. When Edward I.
was called to arbitrate between the claimants to the Scottish
throne, he came to Norham and met the rival nobles, who, with their
followers, were quartered at Ladykirk, on the opposite side of the
Tweed. It was known as Upsettlington then, however; the name of
Ladykirk was bestowed upon it long afterwards, when James IV. built
the little chapel there, in gratitude for an escape from drowning
in the Tweed. Edward held his interview with the Scottish nobles in
Norham church, and announced that he had come there in the
character of lord paramount, and as such was prepared to make
choice of one among them. Edward did not by any means make up his
mind quickly, and the various places in which the successive acts
in the affair took place are widely scattered, for he met the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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