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
Beyond Coupland Castle we look across Milfield Plain lying in the
angle formed by the meeting of the Glen with the deep and sullen
Till, whose slow windings can be traced as it gleams at intervals
between the undulations of the lower hills through which it flows
northwestward to the Tweed. Though a brisk and sparkling stream in
certain parts of its course, the general characteristics of the
Till are well borne out by the lines—
Tweed says to Till “What gars ye rin sae still?” Till says to Tweed
“Though ye rin wi’ speed And I rin slaw; Where ye droon ae man I
droon twa.”
There is yet more of historical and traditional interest to note in
this view from the top of Yeavering Bell, which, as I saw it last,
lay warm in the glow of a September afternoon. Nennius is our
authority for stating that on Milfield Plain took place one of the
great conflicts in which King Arthur
“Fought, and in twelve great battles overcame The heathen hordes, and
made a realm, and reigned”
And, as we gazed, the level spaces seemed peopled once more with
charging knights, flashing sword and swinging battle-axe, and the
intervening centuries dropped away, and Arthur’s call to battle for
“our fair father Christ,” seemed curiously befitting that romantic
scene. But, as the shadows lengthened, and the streams took on a
golden glow in the rays of the September sun, then slowly setting,
“the tumult and the shouting of the captains” died away, and the
figure of an earnest monk seemed to stand by the riverside, with
prince and serf, peasant and warrior for his audience, and the cold
bright waters of the Glen dripping from his hand, as he enrolled
one after another into the ranks of an army mightier than the hosts
of Arthur or Edwin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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