Alnwick Castle, about seven miles from Dunstanbrough, is the residence of the Duke of Northumberland: it is an immense pile covering nearly five acres of ground; and built upon an elevated spot on the southern side of the river Aln. [8] The moon is said to "wade" when she seems as if toilfully making her way through a succession of clouds, which flit rapidly past her. [9] _History of Northumberland_, vol. i. _p._ 594. Edit. 1810. [Illustration: BAMBOROUGH. _FROM THE SOUTH-EAST._] BAMBROUGH CASTLE. FROM THE SOUTH-EAST. Sir Walter Scott, in his description of the voyage of the abbess of Whitby and her nuns to Holy Island, in the second canto of Marmion, thus speaks of them as noticing Bambrough Castle: "Thy tower, proud Bambrough, marked they there, King Ida's castle, huge and square, From its tall rock look grimly down, And on the swelling ocean frown." The view which Balmer, with his usual effect, has given of Bambrough Castle from the south-east, is that which the reverend mother and her five fair nuns might be supposed to contemplate on entering the channel between the Great Farn Island and the mainland, and when about half a mile from the shore. The stranded vessel, however, must not be supposed to be of the age of Henry VIII., when the abbess made her voyage; for she is evidently a light collier of the present day, whose captain, probably, in running for Skate Roads in a strong south-east gale, had stood too close in shore in passing through the Fareway, and laid her snugly up on Bambrough Sands. The Holy Island fishing-boats that are seen--for no fishermen dwell at the village of Bambrough--would seem to indicate that their owners expect a job in assisting to get her off.