The Rivers and Streams of EnglandBradley, A. G. (Arthur Granville)
General
The Rivers and Streams of England
Bradley, A. G. (Arthur Granville)
England -- Description and travel; Rivers -- England
The story runs thus, that the man is a Bertram of Bothal and the lady a
Widdrington, his intended bride, whom he killed by mistake, and then,
fashioning this hermitage, mourned her here in seclusion for the
remainder of his life. How the mistake arose and the tragedy came about
is too long a tale for these pages. Hotspur's son, when an exile in
Scotland, after his father's death and attainder, is supposed to have
contracted a stealthy marriage with a daughter of the rival Marcher
house of Neville, whom he afterwards publicly espoused, in this same
hermitage. Just beneath the cliff is a small ruinous building on the
river bank, built of hewn rock in the fifteenth century; concerning
this, however, there is no mystery though some interest, as the cell of
a priest attached to the Percy family under ordinary conditions, which
are still preserved in writing. The inevitably sombre, but in a sense
rather picturesque little town of Warkworth, with its market cross,
straggles up from the fifteenth-century bridge, guarded by an old
turreted gateway, to the castle in most suggestively feudal fashion. So
soon after this does the Coquet join the sea that Warkworth considers
itself something of a watering-place, though no disturbing evidences of
anything of the kind mar the bygone flavour of dominant castle and
tributary townlet which it still so pleasantly retains. Passengers to
and from Scotland on the main line must assuredly be familiar with these
proud towers standing out above the bare fields, a mile or two eastward
against the sea. Not so obvious is a beautiful glimpse of the Coquet
which must be snatched at precisely the proper moment. But as the train
crosses the river some four miles from its mouth, it may be seen for a
few brief seconds down a long straight half-mile trail of glancing light
between luxuriant walls of woodland.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account