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
The quiet little market town lies pleasantly among green meadows
almost at the foot of the Cheviots; its low substantial stone
houses, with few gardens in front, give the place a somewhat
monotonous appearance, but the newer streets try to make amends by
blossoming out into brilliant flower-plots in summer-time. Still,
one would not quarrel with the older buildings; solid and
unpretentious, they must look much the same as in the days of
Border turmoil, when the first requisite in house or town was
strength, not beauty.
Near to Wooler are many interesting places; within the limits of
quite a short stroll one may visit the Pin Well, a wishing well of
which there are so many examples to be found wherever one may
travel; the King’s Chair, a porphyry crag on the hill above the Pin
Well; Maiden Castle, or, less euphoniously, Kettles Camp, an
ancient British encampment on the same hill, the Kettles being
pot-like cavities in the ravines surrounding it; and the Cup and
Saucer Camp, just half a mile distant from Wooler. The Golf Course
is now laid out on these same heights.
To reach the Cheviots from Wooler, the most usual way is by the
beautiful glen in which lies Langleeford. The bright streamlet
known as the Wooler Water runs through it from Cheviot on its way
to the town from which it has taken its present name; formerly it
was known as Caldgate Burn. It was at Langleeford that Sir Walter
Scott stayed, as a youth, in 1791, with his uncle, after they had
vainly attempted to find accommodation in Wooler. Here they rode,
fished, shot, walked, and drank the goat’s whey for which the
district was famous in those days and for long afterwards.
Cheviot itself, or “The Muckle Cheviot,” is a huge cumbrous-looking
mass, with rounded sides and flat top, boggy and treacherous,
where, nevertheless, many wild berries brighten the marshy flats in
their season. The name “Cheviot” is said to mean “Snowy Ridge” and
well does this highest summit of the range merit the name, for on
its marshy top and in the rocky chasms of Henhole and Bazzle, the
winter’s snow often lies until far into the summer. Down through
the weird and fairy-haunted cleft of Henhole, as we have seen, the
little brown stream of Colledge Water splashes its way, breaking
into golden foam between mossy banks as it reaches the outlet, and
turns northward to join the Till.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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