Warkworth

“ From the turrets of Warkworth Castle one looks over a wide expanse of land and sea. The coast line is visible for great distances, beyond Alnmouth and Dunstanborough on the one hand, and almost to Tynemouth on the other. The great towers of Alnwick are in sight, and mile on mile of the most fertile land in Northumberland, and mile on mile of rabbit-haunted sandhills by the sea. ”

“ From this point onward the panorama is one of perfect and unbroken loveliness. Around you are spacious meadows of fern, diversified with clumps of fir-trees, and the sweet wind that blows upon your face seems glad and buoyant with its exultant vitality. At Warkworth Castle, once the home of the noble Hotspur, the ocean view is especially magnificent,—the brown and red sails of the ships and various craft descried at sea contributing to the prospect a lovely element of picturesque character. ”

“ Altogether, the village does not amount to much. It has a few good inns, and a few old-fashioned cottages. But it is as sweet a place as is to be found in all the [Pg 127] countryside, and is therefore much in favour with persons in search of a brief, quiet holiday.
In Warkworth, small as it is, one feels everywhere the influence of the past. History seems to keep guard over it as an important part of its story. In 737 it was conferred by King Ceowulph on the monastery of Lindisfarne. The town was burnt in 1174 by the army of William the Lion, who was something of a poltroon. ”

“ Warkworth would marry Aileen Moffatt, and use her money for an ambitious career. After these weeks now lying before them--weeks of dangerous intimacy, dangerous emotion--she and he would become as strangers to each other. He would be absorbed by his profession and his rich marriage. She would be left alone to live her life.
A sudden terror of her own weakness overcame her. No, she could not be alone. She must place a barrier between herself and this--this strange threatening of illimitable ruin that sometimes rose upon her from the dark. "I have no prejudices," she had said to Sir Wilfrid. ”

“ But here was some one, all joy, animation, and indulgence--a glorified Julie who trod on air. Why? Because good-fortune had befallen her friend? His heart smote him. He had never seen her so touching, so charming. Since the incubus of Lady Henry's house and presence had been removed she seemed to have grown years younger. A white muslin dress of her youth, touched here and there by the Duchess's maid, replaced the familiar black satin. When Warkworth first saw her he paused unconsciously in surprise. ”

“ Thence they marched to Warkworth, their road lying for the most part along the banks of the beautiful river Coquet.
XII.—WARKWORTH CASTLE. Next day, the two insurgent chiefs, who were lodged with all their followers in Warkworth Castle, were joined by Lord Widdrington with thirty horsemen.
His lordship would have brought double that number of men, but horses and equipments for them were wanting. Plenty of raw undisciplined infantry could be found, but cavalry were required.
On the whole, however, the prospects of the insurgents were very encouraging. ”

“ Out of the deep, open well clambered Roche and Flemming slowly and laboriously, for they were pretty well done up with their night of strenuous toil.
"They seem in no hurry to come for us," observed Warkworth, "after we've trudged all the blessed night."
"Ahoy, there!" shouted Roche. "Can you find someone to put you off? We've no dinghy."
"Then they have had a mishap," declared Warkworth. "I believe I can see the dinghy astern. She's waterlogged."
The difficulty that now arose was how to get on board. There were dozens of small boats off Duclair, but no one was about. ”

“ A living novelist, the best of our story tellers, has made Warkworth the starting-point of one of his Christmas tales, and has most admirably conveyed to the reader the feeling of the place. Whom should I mean but Mr. Walter Besant? The church where his hero did penance, and where his heroine bravely stood beside her lover, is at the foot of the village street, which slopes upward to the height on which the Castle stands. Just beyond the church is the great stone archway through which the town must be entered, standing at the inner side of the bridge over the Coquet stream. ”

“ Only the hope that looketh up to heaven.
Warkworth Hermitage is situated about half a mile above Warkworth Castle, on the brink of the Coquet river. This venerable retreat is probably the best preserved and the most entire work of its kind now remaining in the kingdom. ”

“ In May 1468 he was made commissioner to treat for peace with Francis, duke of Brittany, and on 3 July following was again a commissioner for array. According to Warkworth, early in 1469 he instigated the execution of Henry Courtenay, seventh earl of Devon, hoping to get the earldom for himself (Warkworth, Chron. p. 6) . In the same year he was sworn of the privy council, and on 7 May was created Earl of Devon. ”

“ Shakespeare was so far adherent to fact that Hotspur actually lived at Warkworth Castle. Edward III. had conferred it on the second Lord Percy, and until the middle of the fifteenth century the Percies preferred Warkworth to Alnwick. The Castle is one of the most beautiful and perfect ruins in England. It is not only finely situated, but is unique in design, suggesting less of strength than of taste in constructing a palace which must also be a stronghold. ”

“ It is universally agreed, that the founder was one of the Bertram family, which had once considerable possessions in Northumberland, and were anciently Lords of Bothal Castle, which is 10 miles from Warkworth. ”

“ On our way farther north, I paid my first visit to my cousins at Ravensworth, and very alarming I thought it; rejoining my mother at Warkworth, a place I have always delighted in, and where Mrs. Clutterbuck [112] and her daughters were very kind to us. ”

“ Though rejoiced to see her husband, the countess appeared greatly disappointed that so little had been achieved, and told the earl she would rather have heard from him at Newcastle, than have seen him at Hexham.
Nor did Dorothy Forster show more consideration to her brother, but blamed him severely for quitting Warkworth.
“What could we do there?” cried the general. “We should have been cut off from a junction with our Scottish allies and compelled to surrender.” ”

“ Warwick was detained in London by negotiations with ambassadors from France and Burgundy, and, though he reached York by 5 May, his brother Montagu had the sole honour of giving the quietus to the northern Lancastrians at Hedgeley Moor and Hexham. In June the two brothers reduced the three outstanding strongholds (Warkworth, p. 36; Worcester, p. 782) . All England, except an isolated handful of men in Harlech Castle, had now submitted to Edward, and foreign powers had ceased to look askance upon him. For this he had to thank Warwick and the Nevilles. ”

“ WARKWORTH CASTLE, in Northumberland, stands very boldly on a neck of land near the sea-shore, almost surrounded by the river Coquet (called by our old Latin historians Coqueda) which runs with a clear and rapid stream, but when swollen with rains becomes violent and dangerous.
About a mile from the Castle, in a deep romantic valley, are the remains of a Hermitage; of which the Chapel is still entire. This is hollowed with great elegance, in a cliff near the river ”

“ The grand gate of entrée has been a stately structure, but a few only of its apartments now remain. For several ages, Warkworth Castle continued to be the favourite residence of the noble family of Percy, who derive the title of Baron from this ancient manor. ”

“ The Merse troop, it appeared, had marched from Jedburgh, over a mountainous and marshy country to Roth-bury, where Captain Hume heard of Forster and Lord Derwentwater, and finding they were now posted at Warkworth, came on thither. Behind, but following the same route, were the four other troops, respectively commanded by the Honourable Basil Hamilton of Beldoun, the Earl of Wintoun, Captain James Dalziel, brother of the Earl of Carnwath, and Captain Lockhart. ”

“ Warkworth tells us that 'the same night that King Edward came to London, King Harry being in ward in prison in the Tower of London, was put to death on the 21st of May on a Tuesday night between eleven and twelve of the clock, being then at the Tower the Duke of Gloucester, brother to King Edward, and many others. On the morrow he was chested, and brought to Paul's and his face was open that every man might see him. ”

“ The traditional story of the origin of the hermitage, attributing it to one of the Bertrams of Bothal Castle in this county, is told in Bishop Percy's ballad The Hermit of Warkworth (1771) . At Amble are ruins of a monastic toll-house, where a tax was levied on shipping; and Coquet Island, 1 m. off the mouth of the river, was a monastic resort from the earliest times, like the Farne and Holy Islands farther north. The harbour at Amble has an export trade in coal and bricks, coal and fireclay being extensively worked in the neighbourhood, and an import trade in timber. ”

“ She tore off the outer envelope; beneath was a letter of which the address was feebly written in Warkworth's hand: "Mademoiselle Le Breton, 3 Heribert Street, London."
She had the strength to carry her own letter to her room, to call Aileen's maid and send her with the other packet to Lady Blanche. Then she locked herself in....
Oh, the poor, crumpled page, and the labored hand-writing!
"Julie, I am dying. They are such good fellows, but they can't save me. It's horrible.
"I saw the news of your engagement in a paper the day before I left Denga. You're right. He'll make you happy. ”

“ If your lordship had not joined me, I should have returned to Rothbury. But now I think it will be best to proceed to Warkworth. The castle is in our hands, and Lord Widdrington will be there to-morrow with a troop of horse. I hope we shall soon be strong enough to besiege Newcastle.”
“Nothing can be decided upon till our forces are organised, and we can ascertain what assistance we are likely to receive from Scotland,” said Lord Derwentwater. “From what you say, we shall be able to hold a consultation with Lord Widdrington to-morrow, and can be guided by his advice.” ”

“ But even so, the two boys being about the same age and weight, it was a fair fight. There was no crime. Yet Mr. Gairdner still calls it a 'murder'! Of course there is no authority or ground whatever for bringing Richard in at all, if Warkworth's version is adopted. Verily the fiction is dying hard!
There is no reason for considering the Duke of Gloucester to have been capable of assassinating his cousin because it was his duty to sit in judgment on prisoners as Lord Constable. ”

“ They saw Hotspur’s force set out for the Cheviots to intercept Douglas and his followers, which they did at Homildon Hill, near Wooler; and it was the quarrel in connection with the prisoners taken on that day which led Hotspur and his father openly to throw off their allegiance to Henry IV., so that a few months later the peasants of Warkworth saw their idolised young lord set out for what was to prove the fatal field of Shrewsbury. ”

“ It was when the castle was bestowed by Edward III. upon Lord Percy of Alnwick that it became, for more than two hundred years, the chief residence of that illustrious family; becoming in the next reign of historical value as the home of that Hotspur whose valour and gallantry made Henry IV. envy the Earl of Northumberland, in that he “should be the father of so blest a son.” In Act II., Scene 3 of “Henry IV.,” Part II., Shakespeare has laid the scene at Warkworth Castle, where Hotspur’s wife, troubled by her lord’s moody abstraction, tries to win from him the reason of his secret care. ”

“ Worcester, p. 779) . Hearing that Margaret was returning to the north with a small force supplied by Louis XI, Warwick, who had come up to London, went back to his post on 30 Oct. with a large army (ib. p. 780; Paston Letters, ii. 120) . Edward, who followed him, fell ill with measles at Durham, and Warwick superintended the siege of the three strongholds, Dunstanborough, Bamborough, and Alnwick, the two latter having been recovered by Margaret. Warwick himself fixed his headquarters at Warkworth, whence he rode daily to view the three leaguers, a ride of thirty-four miles (ib. ii. 121) . ”

“ When that happened in the spring of 1471, Clarence took care to wait until Edward was blockading Warwick in Coventry and he could bring over a force that would give weight to his accession. After, it is said, preventing Warwick from fighting by urging him to wait his arrival, he ordered the four thousand men he had levied for Henry VI to mount the white rose of York and marched them to Edward's camp at Warwick, where the two brothers had ‘right kind and loving language’ between their armies, and swore ‘perfect accord for ever hereafter’ (ib.; Warkworth, p. 15) . ”

“ But the Yorkshiremen outside Warwick's own followers had risen to drive the Wydevilles from power, not to make the king captive. When the Lancastrians, eager to turn to their own profit a success they had helped to secure, sprang to arms on the Scottish marches under Sir Humphrey Neville [q. v.] of Brancepeth, a member of the elder branch of the family, Warwick could not raise the forces of Yorkshire until he had released Edward from constraint and accompanied him to York (Croyland Cont. pp. 551–2; Warkworth, p. 7; cf. State Papers, Venetian, i. 421) . ”

“ The king gave them a long start, staying at York until 27 March to settle the north, and when he reached Exeter on 14 April they had already taken ship at Dartmouth (Croyland Cont. p. 553; Warkworth, p. 9) . On their way up Channel to Calais they made a dash on a ship of Warwick's lying at Southampton, but were beaten off with loss by Scales, now Earl Rivers (ib.) Presently Warwick appeared before Calais, and demanded admission from his lieutenant, Wenlock, with whom were a number of his personal followers. The Duchess of Clarence was delivered of a daughter as they lay at anchor. ”