Part 16

Whitburn Church holds a singular effigy of comparatively late date. Attired in the full stiff dress of the time of William and Mary lies a plump, elderly gentleman. He wears a full periwig, a neckcloth with square ends, a coat with large buckramed skirts and wide sleeves, rolled breeches, and square-toed laced shoes ornamented with immense bows of ribbon. His head rests on a pillow, and his right hand holds a book, which is open at the text, "I shall not lye here, but rise." There is a skull between the feet. On the uprights of the tomb the same figure is carved in bas-relief, kneeling, and on each side of him is a lady in the dress of the same period. A tablet on the wall states that this is "the burial-place of Mr. Michael Mathew of Cleadon, and his wife, who had issue three sons and two daughters, of which only Hannah survives."

BRASSES.--In many of the older churches of the county there are remaining the stone matrices which formerly held monumental brasses, but in most cases the brasses themselves have disappeared, the sanctity of a church, and the contiguity of a Table of the Ten Commandments not having prevailed against the temptation to steal a substance so portable and so readily saleable as brass.

In the floor of the chapel at Greatham Hospital there is a large slab of stone, 90 by 43 inches in size, with an inscription in brass Lombardic letters round the edge commemorating William de Middleton, a master of the Hospital in 1312. On the wall is another inscription, in raised black-letter with chasing, asking for prayers for the souls of Nicholas Hulme, who was master in 1427, of John Kelyng, 1463, and of William Estfelde, who died in 1497.

At Sherburn Hospital there is a small brass let into the chancel steps, which reads: "THOMAS . LEAVER . PREACHER . TO KING EDWARD . THE . SIXTE. HE . DIED . iN . iVLY . i577."

In the church at St. Andrew’s Auckland there is a finely cut brass with the figure of a priest, of which the head is, unfortunately, missing. There is no inscription, but the date of it is probably about 1400. In the same church there is a unique brass, small in size, but about ½ inch thick; it bears a small Greek cross with a backing of plant decoration, and it has three lines of inscription across the plate and a legend round the margin. It is dated April 8, 1581, and was put up to the memory of Mrs. Fridesmond Barnes, who was the wife of the second Protestant Bishop of Durham, Richard Barnes. We know the cost of this brass, for in the Bishop’s accounts there is the entry, "To the gould-smyth at Yorke for a plate to sett over Mrs. Barnes, 32ˢ."

At St. Helen’s Auckland there is a brass which portrays the figure of a man in a long tunic edged with fur; his wife lies by his side, and below are figures of his sons and daughters. The inscription is lost, but the date of it is probably about 1460.

In Sedgefield Church there is a curious brass giving the crest of William Hoton, 1445, with a black-letter inscription below: "<f>Hic iacet will[=m]s Hoton . qui . obijt . xviº die Septebr’ Anno . dni . Mill[=m]o . ECCCº . xlvº . cui’ aie ppicietur de’ ame’</f>." In the same church there are two of the objectionable brasses which were not uncommon in the fifteenth century, which portrayed skeletons in shrouds.

Chester-le-Street Church has a very pleasing brass, giving the full-length figure of a woman attired in the costume of the first half of the fifteenth century. The lines of the composition are simple and bold, and the effect is very graceful. The brass has no inscription, but it is known that it was put up to the memory of Alice Salcock of Salcock in Yorkshire, who married William Lambton, and who died in 1434.

At Dinsdale, on the southern margin of the county, close to the River Tees, there is in the church a late, small, but beautifully worked brass, only about 11 inches by 8 inches in size. It bears the coat of arms of eight quarterings, and records the merciful benefactions to the poor of the parish of Dinsdale of Mary, the wife of Thomas Spennithorne. She died in 1668, and was buried at Spennithorne.

In the magnificent cathedral of Durham most of the sepulchral monuments were destroyed either at the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII., or when the cathedral church was used as a prison for Scotch prisoners of war after the Battle of Dunbar in 1650. In 1671 Davies wrote his book on _The Rites and Monuments of the Church of Durham_, with the motto _Tempora mutantur_--on the title-page, giving a sad description of the past glories of the church. "Lodovic de bello Monte, Bishop of Durham," he says, "lieth buried before the high Altar in the Quire, under a most curious and sumptuous Marble stone, which he prepar’d for himself, before he died, being adorned with most excellent workmanship of Brass, wherein he was most excellently and lively Pictur’d, as he was accustomed to sing, or say Mass." This Bishop de bello Monte, or Beaumont, died at Brantingham, near Hull, in 1333. His gravestone, which was said to be the largest in England, still lies before the high-altar in Durham Cathedral, but the "most excellent workmanship of Brass" has utterly disappeared.

In Hartlepool Church there is a brass with the figure of a lady in a large hat, with ruff and farthingale; on another brass below it is the inscription:

HERE VNDER THiS STONE LYETH BVRiED THE BODiE OF THE VERTVOUS GENTELLWOMAN IANE BELL, WHO DEPTED THiS LYFE THE . vi. DAYE OF IANVARIE 1593 BEiNGE THE DOWGHTER OF LAVERANCE THORNELL OF DARLINGTON GENT & LATE WYFE TO PARSAVAL BELL, NOWE MAiRE OF THIS TOWEN OF HARTiNPOOELL. MARCHANT

whos vertues if thou wilt beholde peruse this tabel hanginge bye which will the same to thee vnfold by her good lyfe learne thou to die.

In Haughton-le-Skerne Church there is a curious figure on a brass, representing a lady, who holds a baby on each arm. She was Dorothy, the wife of Robert Perkinson of Whessey, and she died, with her twin sons, in 1592.

At Houghton-le-Spring there is a brass to the memory of Margery, wife of Richard Bellasis. It pictures the kneeling figure of a woman with her eight sons and three daughters behind her. The Bellasis coat of arms is on the brass: the date is 1587.

In Sedgefield Church there is a rudely engraved, early brass, probably cut about the year 1300. It shows a small female figure, kneeling, and it has a coat of arms on both sides of the figure. From the shape of the two coats of arms, and from the conventional treatment of the features of the face, which is more carefully executed than the rest of the figure, it is believed that this is one of the oldest sepulchral brasses now remaining in England.

The tombstone to Dean Rudde, which lies in the floor of the chancel of Sedgefield Church, still carries its inscribed brass. The stone is a very large one. The black-letter epitaph is so much worn by the tread of the feet of many generations that it can only be read with some uncertainty. It seems to run:

<f>Orate p aīa [=m]ri Jo[=h]is Rudde in decretis baccalarii quond[=m] decani hui’ loci qui obiit xxix die decēbr’ Anno d[=n]i Mº CCCCº lxxxx cui’ āīē ppiciet de’ amen.</f>

This John Rudde gave to the church of Esh the only medieval service-book belonging to any church in the diocese of Durham which is now known to exist. It is in the library of the Roman Catholic College of Ushaw, near Durham.

The beautiful memorials to the dead which were known as grave-covers were used in England and Ireland from the ninth to the sixteenth century. Though they are abundant in the county, Durham cannot boast of the possession of specimens equal in merit to those found in some other parts of England. At Sedgefield Church there is a fine thirteenth-century grave-cover with a double, eight-rayed cross; it has the rare feature of a double row of dog-tooth ornament at the head; and it is the only stone known in the county which has the whole surface covered with a tracery of foliage. It is, unfortunately, much weathered. Built into the tower of the same church, and only partly visible, is another richly ornamented cover, dating probably from the middle of the fourteenth century, the foliated ornament being more naturally shown, or less conventionalized, than in earlier examples. It bears a sword and a cross moline on a small shield.

The symbolism used on grave-covers is not well understood. A key is said to indicate a woman, a sword a man; shears sometimes represent a woman, sometimes a wool-stapler; a chalice or a book, or both, are placed on the gravestone of a priest or other ecclesiastic. Craftsmen are often indicated by some sign of their business, as a square for a mason, a horseshoe or a hammer for a smith. Sometimes a merchant uses his trade-mark much as an armigerous person uses his coat of arms. Built into the south porch of St. Mary’s Church in Gateshead there are two large grave-covers bearing incised crosses. One of them, a fourteenth-century slab, has at one side of the stem of the cross a key, and at the other side a fish. Most authorities think that the fish is the mystic symbol of our Saviour, which was so dear to the early Christians, and which is frequently found on the gravestones in the catacombs at Rome; but other antiquaries consider that the stone is to be more literally interpreted, and that it covered the remains of a fish-wife.

The earlier grave-covers were stone lids for stone coffins, but after the use of stone coffins was discontinued, and wooden coffins were substituted, the remains of the dead were often covered by these carved stone slabs. The larger part of them are uninscribed, but grave-covers with a few lines cut on them are by no means uncommon. At Gainford there is a perfect grave-cover of the fourteenth century which bears a chalice and three floreated crosses, one large and two small. It has been suggested that these prove this to have been the burial-place of an ecclesiastic and two children, for burial in a monk’s frock or in the grave of a priest was long considered by all classes of people to be desirable. This stone, though it is of early fourteenth-century period, bears an inscription to Laurence Brockett, Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge, who died in 1768. His executors seem to have thought that an old gravestone was just as good as a new one.

Of quaint sepulchral inscriptions there are many in the county. The one in Monkwearmouth Church to the memory of a Mrs. Lee is on a small marble tablet on the vestry wall. It reads:

HEERE VNDER LYETH Yᴱ BODDYE OF MARY LEE DAVGHTER TO PETER DELAVALE LATE OF TINMOVTH GENT SHEE DIED IN CHYLDBED YE 23 OF MAY 1617 HAPIE IS Yᵀ SOVLE Yᵀ HEERE ON EARTH DID LIVE A HARMLESS LYFE & HAPPIE MAYD Yᵀ MADE SOE CHAST AN HONNEST WIFE.

It is strange that a lawyer "of ability and integrity" should not be able to make himself a sound will. In Greatham Chapel there is an inscription: "In memory of Ralph Bradley, Esq. an eminent Councillor at Law, born in this parish, who bequeathed a large fortune, acquired in a great measure by his abilities and integrity, to the purchasing of books calculated to promote the interests of virtue and religion, and the happiness of mankind. He died the 28th day of December 1788, in the 72d year of his age...." Below, on a copper plate, is: "By a decree of Edward Lord Thurlow, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, on the 2ᵈ day of August 1791, the charitable intention mentioned above was set aside in favour of the next of kin."

In Stockton Church we may read that on "Wednesday the 19th of May 1773 was here interred the body of Mrs. Sarah Baker ... aged 59. Do thou reflect in time; death itself is nothing, but prepare to be you know not what, to go you know not where."

At Houghton-le-Spring stands the massy altar-tomb of the great Bernard Gilpin, "the apostle of the North," that sweet-natured, fearless, and humble-minded man who so narrowly escaped a martyr’s death at the stake. The tomb bears his coat of arms and the following:

BERNERD OBIT QVA GILPIN RE [A bear with a crescent on its side, RTV DIE M CTOR HV leaning against a tree.] ARTII AN. IVS ECCLIÆ DOM. 1583.

See here his Dust shut up whose Generous mind No stop before in Honours path could find. Truth Faith and Justice, and a Loyall Heart In him Showd Nature, which in most is Art.

In the same church of Houghton-le-Spring there is the following epitaph: "Here Lyes interr’d the Body of Nicolas Conyers Esqʳ. High Sheriff of this County Chiefe of yᵉ Family of Conyers of the House of Boulby in Yorkshire. He dyed at South Biddick Mar: 27 A.D. 1689 his age 57." Below is his crest.

At Houghton Hall Robert Hutton, a zealous Puritan and a Captain in Cromwell’s army, was buried in his own orchard, where his altar-tomb is inscribed: "HIC JACET ROBERTVS HVTTON ARMIGER QVI OBIIT AVG. DIE NONO 1681 ET MORIENDO VIVIT."

In the Galilee Chapel at the west end of Durham Cathedral there is a stone on the floor inscribed:

JOHN BRIMLEIS BODY HERE DOTH LY, WHO PRAY SED GOD WITH HAND AND VOICE; BY MUSICKES HEAVENLY HARMONIE DULL MINDS HE MAID IN GOD REJOICE. HIS SOUL INTO THE HEAVENS IS LYFT TO PRAISE HIM STILL THAT GAVE THE GYFT.

This Brimley was master of the Song School at Durham Cathedral.

That mighty builder, Hugh Pudsey, who was Bishop of Durham from 1153 to 1195, seems to have had a fellow-worker who pleased him in the person of Christian the Mason, whose grave-cover is at Pittington. One wonders whether it was after Christian had built for the Bishop the stout fortifications of Durham Castle, or whether it was when he had finished the beautiful Galilee Chapel of the cathedral, that Pudsey gave him, as we know he did, forty acres in the moor at South Sherburn, besides other lands, "quit of all rent whilst he should remain in the service of the bishop." Pudsey’s own tomb in Durham Cathedral is broken and dispoiled, but Christian the Mason’s grave-cover at Pittington can still be read:

✠NOMEN ABENS CRISTI TVMVLO TVMVLATVR IN ISTO ✠QVI TVMVLVM CERNIT COMMENDET CVM PRECE CRISTO,

which may be interpreted: "One having the name of Christ is buried here. Let him who beholds the grave commend himself with prayer to Christ."

In the churchyard of St. Hild’s at Hartlepool, about 6 feet from the east wall of the modern chancel, there is an old altar-tomb covered with a very large slab of bluish stone. If it has ever been inscribed the lettering is now utterly weathered off, but it has the lion of Bruce on the uprights at the sides still faintly visible. This is the resting-place of the fathers of Robert Bruce. They owned Hart and Hartlepool for many generations before Robert Bruce claimed the crown of Scotland in 1306. His lands in the county of Durham were then seized and given to the Cliffords. In Easington Church there is an effigy of a lady in thirteenth-century costume, which probably represents Isabella, first wife of John Fitz-Marmaduke. She was the daughter of Robert de Brus of Skelton, and the sister of Robert Bruce, King of Scotland.

Coming last to the ordinary inscriptions on the tombstones and headstones of our churchyards, one of the first things that strikes an observer is the large number of cases where, though the stone remains, the inscription is wholly or partly weathered off and lost; such cases are an occasion of woe to the genealogist. In looking through a country churchyard it will often be found that 10 per cent. of the stones are unreadable. This is generally because a soft and unsuitable stone has been used. Some slate-stones stand well; limestones and marbles only last while they are in a church, rain and slight traces of acid in the atmosphere soon disintegrate them out of doors. Granite will probably endure very long, but it has been little used in Durham churchyards, and only since about 1860. Sandstones are most generally used, and some of these, of a close-grain and of a dark colour when old, stand exceedingly well. The fell sandstones, or hassells, used in the west of the county, are almost as hard as granite. They are very difficult to cut, so the lettering on them is often quite shallow; but stones 200 years old are quite unaffected by weather. Soft sandstones, which are easily cut, either crumble and decay gradually, or in some cases they scale off in flakes and perish very quickly. It is common to see two stones of about the same date, standing side by side, one of which is sound and clear, while the other cannot be read. Frequently one finds a stone where, owing to differences of hardness, one part of the inscription is sharp and legible, while other parts are completely gone.

Along the parishes on the coast of the county the wanderer cannot fail to be struck with the constant repetition of the words, "Lost at sea," and if he should turn to the registers of these parishes and read the many entries like, "A woman at ye sea side found drowned," "A man cast upon our sands by the sea," "Foure Duchmen wth a woman and a childe being drowned by shipwrack were buried in this Churchyard," he will learn what a heavy tithe the sea takes from the land, and how high is the price that man pays for the sovereignty of the sea.

Punning epitaphs are, fortunately, not numerous in the county. Here is one, from Stockton, to the memory of two masons, "Ralph Wood, who departed this life Oct. 22, 1730, in the 67th year of his age. Here lieth the Body of Ralph Wood, aged 67, 1743.

"We that have made tombs for others, Now here we lie; Once we were two flourishing Woods, But now we die."

THE CASTLES AND HALLS OF DURHAM

BY HENRY R. LEIGHTON

Although the county of Durham is not studded with castles and peels like its northern neighbour, nor decked with many ancient homes in a still picturesque and habitable condition, like the moors and valleys of York, it is still fairly rich in buildings of historic and antiquarian interest.

The banks of the Wear alone, if followed from the source to the mouth, may be compared to some miniature Rhine in picturesqueness. The mountainous scenery of Weardale, and the frequent woods and plantations that ornament the banks of its lower reaches, the castles of Stanhope, Witton, Auckland, Brancepeth, Durham, Lumley, Lambton, and Hilton, rising in a stately succession, to say nothing of the glorious old cathedral, the monastic ruins of Finchale, and the grey old tower of Wearmouth, make a panorama unrivalled in its way. It may, however, be remarked in all fairness that almost every English stream can tell a similar story, and for a vision, in homely and familiar buildings, of a glorious past our England stands unrivalled.

The first-named of the above mansions, Stanhope Castle, stands upon the site of a fortified house existing in the time of Bishop Anthony Bek. The present building is, however, a Georgian structure erected about a century ago by Cuthbert Rippon, M.P. for Gateshead. The old home of

[Illustration: WITTON CASTLE IN 1779.]

the Fetherstonhaughs, so long associated with this district, Stanhope Hall, is an Elizabethan mansion with several panelled rooms, and is now divided amongst a number of tenants.

Witton Castle, erected by the great baronial house of Eure, stands on the south side of the river, not very far from Witton-le-Wear. It was erected somewhere about 1410, for in that year Bishop Langley granted a pardon to Sir Ralph Eure for having commenced to embattle his manor-house at Witton. It originally consisted of a square bailey, surrounded by an outer wall, with a projecting keep on the north side.

The keep has been considerably altered at various periods. It is oblong in shape, with corner turrets rising above the roof. The basement consists of one barrel-vaulted apartment, with adjoining chambers in the north-west, south-west, and south-east turrets; the entrances to two of these were originally fastened on the outer side. The first floor is the great hall, and has doorways leading into chambers in the turrets. Another door in the north-east corner leads to a newel staircase ascending to the battlements. The room immediately over the east end of the great hall has a doorway opening into a small mural chamber, originally a latrine, in the north-east turret. This floor has a passage in the thickness of the west wall. The parapets are reached by the staircase already referred to. The turrets at the north-east and south-east corners project like angle buttresses, and the latter has two figures in armour, similar to those at Hilton Castle, standing on the parapet. The north-west turret is larger, and its sides are parallel with the walls of the keep. The south-west turret is still larger, and it projects beyond the south front, having its west wall continued in line with that of the main building. All the turrets have crenellated parapets. The eastern turrets have their alternate sides machicolated on double corbels.

The outer wall has two gateways, one on the east, and the other on the west side, leading into the courtyard. Both are defended by machicolated galleries above, the parapet being carried outwards on double corbels. The whole wall is defended by a broad battlement with a high parapet round the top. There are embrasures at intervals, each originally defended by movable shutters; a round socket on one side, and a slot on the other, remain to show where the pivots moved. A number of round holes in the walls were intended to support woodwork on which platforms could be erected, thus enabling the garrison to strike at attackers below.

Each angle of this outer or curtain wall was originally strengthened by a bartizan. Three of these were circular, but one, that at the north-west corner, was pulled down in the early days of last century. The fourth bartizan, that at the south-west corner of the wall, is almost square in shape, with the outer walls projecting and resting on corbels. It contains a guardroom, with a fireplace, and two doors opening on to the adjoining battlements. The south-east bartizan also contains a room, circular in shape, with a loopholed wall. About a century ago the castle was unfortunately damaged by fire. It was afterwards restored by Mr. J. T. H. Hopper, the owner.

Tracing the river eastwards, the ancient home and palace of the Bishops and Lords Palatine stands close to the river and to the east of Auckland town.

Robert de Graystanes, one of the early chroniclers, states that Bishop Anthony Bek erected the manor-house at Auckland, but from several entries in the Boldon Book it is evident that the Bishops had a residence there at the time that record was drawn up.