"Sometime there dwelt in Crosland Hall A kind and courteous Knight; It was well known that he withal Sir Robert Beaumont hight. Some say that Eland Sheriff was By Beaumont disobey'd, Which might him make for that trespass With him the worst afraid." The origin of the feud appears to have been in this wise--Earl de Warren had seduced Alice de Lacy, wife of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, upon which a quarrel arose between the two Earls, and their retainers met and fought, when a nephew of Sir John was slain by one Exley. Exley made over to Sir John a plot of land as compensation for the mischance, which he accepted, but still sought to be avenged by the death of the homicide. Exley fled to the house of his relative, Sir Robert Beaumont, for shelter, and Sir John demanded his surrender, which was refused by Sir Robert, and in this he was countenanced by his friends Quarmby and Lockwood, on the ground that Sir John, having accepted the plot of land, had condoned the offence, which gave great affront to Sir John, who went off muttering threats of vengeance. Sir John was doubtlessly perfectly right, in his capacity of Sheriff, to demand the delivery up of an offender against the laws of the realm, but he was equally in the wrong in having accepted a bribe to compromise the offence; but his irritation arose from the fact of Sir Robert having set his authority at defiance--an insult which his proud spirit could not brook. He brooded over the matter at home for some days, and at length came to the resolution of erasing the stain upon his dignity by the death of Sir Robert, which he determined to accomplish with his own hands. He considered, further, that as Quarmby and Lockwood had backed Sir Robert in his defiance of him as Sheriff, they would be likely to avenge his death, so, to make assurance doubly sure, he felt it to be necessary to deal out the same fate to them. Accordingly, a few days after-- "He raised the country round about, His friends and tenants all, And for his purpose picked out Stout, sturdy men, and tall. To Quarmby Hall they came by night, And there the lord they slew, At that time Hugh of Quarmby hight, Before the country knew. To Lockwood then, the selfsame night, They came, and there they slew Lockwood of Lockwood, that wiley wight. That stirred the strife anew." "A gentleman of that wisdom and prudence that he was not only reckoned, but esteemed, as the oracle, as well as the darling, of his country, and whose memory will remain fragrant in future ages." Having completed these preliminary murders, Sir John proceeded with his men to execute his _coup de grace_. Crosland Hall was surrounded by a deep moat-- "The hall was watered well about, No wight might enter in, Till that the bridge was well made out They durst not enter in."