Part 4

is usually called Wearmouth. It possesses two very interesting charters, dated respectively 1180-83 and 1634; nevertheless, it did not rise above the level of a manorial borough until 1835, when it was included in the Municipal Corporations Act. During the Civil War Sunderland was the principal centre of the Parliamentarians in Durham, which was on the whole a Royalist county. The fact that Sunderland was an exception was due to the influence of the family of Lilburne in the town, George Lilburne, the uncle of the famous John Lilburne, being the only magistrate in the borough during the war. At the same time the siege of Newcastle diverted the coal trade to Sunderland, and thus laid the foundation of its present prosperity. The town is famous in naval and military history as the birthplace of two heroes--Jack Crawford, who "nailed the colours to the mast" at the Battle of Camperdown, 1797, and Sir Henry Havelock, who relieved Lucknow in 1857. The Sunderland Orphan Asylum was founded in 1853 by the Freemen and Stallingers of Sunderland, and endowed with the proceeds of the sale of the Town Moor, which had become exceedingly valuable in consequence of the building of the railway. The road crosses the Wear, and enters the parish of Monkwearmouth.

The history of Monkwearmouth goes back to 674, when Benedict Biscop founded there the monastery of St. Peter. The early history of the monastery was recorded by the Venerable Bede, who relates how Benedict brought over foreign masons and glass-workers to build his church, and beautified it with sacred pictures brought from Rome. It was destroyed by the Danes towards the end of the ninth century, refounded by Bishop Walcher, _circa_ 1075, and finally annexed to the Convent of Durham by Bishop William de St. Carileph in 1083. A cell of the convent was maintained there until the Reformation, and Monkwearmouth continued to be a manor belonging to the Dean and Chapter of Durham until it was incorporated with Sunderland.

From Monkwearmouth the road runs parallel with the coast-line to South Shields. Shield Lawe, at the mouth of the Tyne, was occupied in pre-Roman times; an important Roman camp was built there; and later it was one of the fortresses of the Saxon Kings of Northumbria, and the site of St. Hilda’s first religious house, founded _circa_ 650. The little convent was overshadowed by Benedict Biscop’s great monastery of St. Paul at Jarrow, and both fell before the onslaughts of the Danes. Jarrow subsequently became a cell of the Convent of Durham, and the Chapel of St. Hilda at South Shields kept alive the name of the foundress. After centuries of struggle with the burgesses of Newcastle, who put down the trade of South Shields with a high hand, the borough obtained Parliamentary representation in 1832, and incorporation in 1850. In the seventeenth century the salt-pans of South Shields were a flourishing industry, but its chief importance is now its harbour. The first lifeboat was built and used there in 1790.

_Durham to Hartlepool._

The twenty miles of road between Durham and Hartlepool is of an uninteresting character; but the town of Hartlepool itself has a long history, which begins in 640, when St. Hieu founded a convent there, of which St. Hilda was afterwards abbess. The house was destroyed by the Danes, and Hartlepool disappears from history, to reappear at the end of the twelfth century as a flourishing port belonging to Robert de Bruce, Lord of Annandale. Hitherto it had not been included in the Bishopric of Durham, but in 1189 the overlordship of the whole district of Hartness was bought by Bishop Hugh Pudsey from Richard I. The succeeding Bishop, Philip de Poitou, obtained possession of the town, but not until the burgesses had bought a charter from King John in 1200, granting to them the customs of Newcastle-on-Tyne, while the same King granted to William de Bruce, Lord of Hartlepool, the right to hold a weekly market and a fair at the Feast of St. Lawrence (August 10). The burgesses obtained another charter from Bishop Richard le Poore in 1230, in which he conceded to them the right to form a Merchant Gild and to elect a mayor. From this time the burgesses of Hartlepool were able to manage their own affairs in their own way, and enjoyed more independence than there was in any of the other towns of Durham. Their chief misfortunes befell them after Robert de Bruce became King of Scotland in 1305. Hartlepool escheated to the King of England, and in consequence the Scots felt a special enmity against it. The town was attacked more than once in the ensuing wars, but the walls and ramparts, which had been built by Robert de Bruce (1245-95) made it one of the strongest places in the Bishopric. At the beginning of the nineteenth century these fortifications were still among the finest specimens of Edwardian architecture in the kingdom, but when the trade of the town revived later in the century, the ancient walls were pulled down to make way for the new pier and docks, and hardly any trace of them now remains. In 1599, by the good offices of Lord Lumley, the burgesses of Hartlepool obtained from Queen Elizabeth a charter of incorporation, under which the town was governed until 1834, when the conditions of the charter were not fulfilled, and it lapsed. The present governing charter of the town was obtained in 1850. The borough of West Hartlepool has grown up in the nineteenth century on the south side of the bay on which Hartlepool stands.

_Durham to Stockton._

The Durham and Stockton road passes through Bishop Middleham, where one of the Bishop’s manor-houses used to stand, and through Sedgefield, about eleven miles from Durham, a market-town which received the grant of a weekly market and fair at the Feast of St. Edmund the Bishop (November 16) from Bishop Kellaw in 1312.

The borough of Stockton lies on the north bank of the Tees, twenty miles south of Durham. It is situated in the district which in early times formed the wapentake of Sadberg, and comprised all the lands lying along the north bank of the river. The wapentake, which was purchased by Bishop Pudsey in 1189, at the same time as Hartlepool, had a separate organization from the rest of the Bishopric, and its courts were held at Sadberg, which is now a small village about three miles east of Darlington. Stockton itself, however, seems to have come into the Bishop’s hands before the purchase of the wapentake, as it is included in the Boldon Book, 1183. The date of the incorporation of the borough is unknown, but there are grants by several of the Bishops, dated 1310, 1602, and 1666, of a weekly market and a fair at the Feast of St. Thomas à Becket (December 29). There is also an interesting letter relating to the customs practised both at Newcastle and at Stockton, which was sent by the Mayor of Newcastle

[Illustration: THE PALACE, BISHOP AUCKLAND.]

to the Mayor of Stockton in 1344 in reply to certain questions which the people of Stockton had addressed to Newcastle as their mother town. The municipal government of the borough was in the hands of the mayor and the borough-holders, seventy-two in number, until Stockton was included in the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835.

_Durham to Barnard Castle._

The road to Barnard Castle branches off from the North Road about a mile south of Sunderland Bridge, and travels south-west into Aucklandshire. This district included Binchester, Escomb, Newton, and all the Aucklands, Bishop Auckland, St. Andrew’s Auckland, St. Helen’s Auckland, and South Auckland. Aucklandshire lay on the borders of the Bishop’s great forest of Weardale, and the services of the tenants, as described in Boldon Book, were closely connected with the Bishop’s great hunting-parties in the forest. All the tenants had to provide ropes for snaring the deer, and to help to build the Bishop’s hall in the forest, with a larder, a buttery, a chamber, a chapel, and a fence round the whole encampment, when the Bishop went on the great hunt. They also kept eyries of falcons for the Bishop, and attended the roe-hunt when summoned. In return for their services at the great hunt they received a tun of beer, or half a tun if the Bishop did not come, and 2s. "as a favour." The little town of Bishop Auckland was called a borough in the fourteenth century, when the weekly markets and the fairs held on Ascension Day, Corpus Christi Day, and the Thursday before October 10, formed the chief commercial centre of the neighbourhood, but it has never been incorporated, and is now an urban district.

To the south of Aucklandshire lies the barony of Evenwood, about a quarter of a mile west of the road. This was one of the early baronies of the Bishopric, held by the family of Hansard. Evenwood was bought by Bishop Bek in 1294, and his successors maintained a manor-house and park there. After passing by Evenwood, the road leads through Raby Park to Staindrop.

Staindrop was one of the vills over which the Bishop and the Convent of Durham disputed at the beginning of the twelfth century. Bishop Ralph Flambard restored it to the monks by the charter of restitution which he executed on his death-bed; and they kept it out of the clutches of succeeding Bishops by granting it in 1131 at an annual rental of £4 to Dolphin, son of Ughtred, one of the progenitors of the family of Neville. Henceforward, Staindrop remained part of the Neville estates in the Bishopric. In 1378 Bishop Hatfield granted to John Lord Neville the right to hold a weekly market and a fair there at the Feast of St. Thomas the Martyr (December 21). The whole of the Neville estates were confiscated in 1570, after the rebellion of the Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland in 1569, and Staindrop remained in the hands of the King until 1632, when it was purchased by Sir Henry Vane, from whom the present owner, Lord Barnard, is descended.

Barnard Castle is twenty-five miles from Durham, and lies on the north bank of the Tees. It did not form part of the Bishopric at the time of the Conquest, and was granted by William Rufus to Guy Balliol in 1093. Barnard Balliol, his son, built the castle _circa_ 1132, and apparently founded the borough, for the first extant charter, granted by his son Barnard to the burgesses of Barnard Castle _circa_ 1167, refers to the elder Barnard’s concessions to them. By this charter the burgesses were granted the customs of Richmond (Yorks). Barnard Castle was a manorial borough, and is now an urban district. The burgesses obtained charters from Hugh (1212-28), John (_circa_ 1230), and Alexander, third son of John. All the Balliol estates in England were forfeited by John Balliol, sometime King of Scotland, in 1295. Barnard Castle was claimed by Bishop Bek, but Edward I. granted it to Guy

[Illustration: BARNARD CASTLE.]

Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. The Bishops of Durham made frequent efforts to obtain possession of the town, and although they were unsuccessful, they obtained Parliamentary recognition of the fact that Barnard Castle was part of the Bishopric. Richard III., by his marriage with Lady Anne of Warwick, became lord of the town, which Lady Anne inherited from her father, the King-maker. Barnard Castle escheated to the crown in 1485, and was finally granted to the Earl of Westmorland. In 1569, on receiving the news that the northern Earls had risen against the Queen, Sir George Bowes of Streatlam seized and garrisoned the castle, where he was besieged by the rebels; and although he was forced to surrender after a ten days’ siege, the delay had given the royal troops time to come up, and insured the defeat of the insurgents. After the rebellion Barnard Castle escheated to the crown again, and was leased to the valiant Bowes. It was finally purchased by Sir Henry Vane in 1632 (see above).

_Durham to Alston._

The road from Durham to Alston, in Cumberland, passes by the field of the Battle of Neville’s Cross, fought on St. Luke’s Eve, October 17, 1346, in which David of Scotland, who had invaded England while Edward III. and all his forces were in France, was defeated by the troops which he contemptuously called "an army of women and priests," because they were raised by Queen Philippa, and the four divisions were commanded by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and the Bishops of Lincoln and Durham. The cross which Ralph, Lord Neville, erected on the battle-field was destroyed in 1589.

The next place of interest on the road is Brancepeth, which lies four and a half miles south-west of Durham. The family of Bulmer of Brancepeth held one of the early baronies of the Bishopric (see under Evenwood); the estate finally descended to an heiress, the first of the many noble ladies whose stories lend interest to the place. She married Geoffry de Neville, _circa_ 1150. Sixty years after, in 1227, there was again a sole heiress to Brancepeth; she married Robert FitzMeldred, Lord of Raby, and her son assumed his mother’s name, becoming the first Neville of Raby and Brancepeth. When the Neville estates were forfeited in 1570, the Countess of Westmorland was allowed to remain at the castle, and there, though beset by spies, she contrived her husband’s escape to Flanders. The surveys of the estate that were made in 1597 and 1614 mention that wild cattle were preserved in Brancepeth Park, as they still are at Chillingham. The escheated lands passed from one owner to another. In 1769 they were again inherited by an heiress, Bridgit, the only daughter of William Bellasis. She died five years after coming into her inheritance. The story goes that she pined away for love of a neighbouring squire, Robert Shafto, who had wooed and forsaken her; and the old Bishopric song of "Bobby Shafto" is said to be the record of the brief happiness of the lovelorn lady.

The market-town of Wolsingham lies sixteen miles west of Durham. It was one of the Bishop’s forest vills, lying on the moors of Weardale; and in the entry about it in Boldon Book mention is made of Ralf the Beekeeper, who held six acres for his service in keeping the bees, which were sent out on to the blossoming heather in the twelfth century, as they are to this day. Wolsingham lies on the north bank of the Wear, and, after passing through the village, the road follows the course of the river westward to Stanhope, which lies in the lead-mining district of West Durham. Half-way between Wolsingham and Stanhope lies Frosterley, where are the quarries of Frosterley marble.

Stanhope itself lay in the heart of the forest of Weardale, and was the spot to which all those who owed hunting-service must make their way when the Bishop’s great hunt was proclaimed. In 1327 the English and

[Illustration: BRANCEPETH CASTLE IN 1777.]

Scottish armies, commanded on the one side by Edward III., and on the other by the Earl of Murray and Sir James Douglas, lay encamped for some days over against each other on the hills round Stanhope. No battle was fought, and the Scots withdrew by night, having deceived Edward by false intelligence. The remains of the earthworks in which the two armies entrenched themselves may still be seen.

St. John’s Chapel, seven miles west of Stanhope, is the last considerable village on the road to Alston before it crosses the boundary of Durham. The chapel is mentioned in the fifteenth century, and a market and annual fair were held there, but there were few inhabitants until the end of the eighteenth century. From St. John’s Chapel the road leads up over the moors, past the sources of the Wear, and crosses the county boundary on Killhope Moor.

FOLK-LORE OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM

BY MRS. NEWTON W. APPERLEY

Whoever makes a study of the folk-lore of a county will find that its customs, beliefs, and superstitions, have their origin in immemorial antiquity. To find out the reason for many a curious and apparently frivolous observance it is necessary to go back many centuries, to the time when a nature-worship, already immeasurably old, was practised; when the sun and moon, fire, water, and earth, were personified by gods and goddesses. Festivals were held in honour of each, and stones and trees, wells and rivers, had their temples and devotees. These were overlaid by and mingled with the successive rituals of Roman, Saxon, and Dane, and finally were almost, but not quite, conquered by Christianity. The older faiths made a stubborn resistance to the reformer, and though adapted and altered, many of their usages survive to this day.

The four great Fire Festivals of Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter were Christianized and dedicated anew; some of the gods and goddesses were re-named as saints; and many of the rites belonging to their worship were modified into Christian observances.

But the people kept their old superstitions, and placed their faith in the charms and amulets belonging to the ancient worship. In the North especially the old beliefs lingered long, and even now, in the twentieth century, many quaint customs are to be found. Most of the people who practise them could give no reason for so doing, and have certainly no knowledge of their origin. It is "lucky" to do this, and "unlucky" to do that, is all they can say.

The county of Durham, though the especial patrimony and property of St. Cuthbert, is particularly rich in legends and traditions, in places both haunted and hallowed, and in old-world observances of all kinds. Many are the stories of giants, brownies, fairies, ghosts, witches, and "worms" or dragons, told of and in it.

The Gabriel Hounds--those monstrous human-headed dogs, whose pause over a house is said to bring death or misfortune to its inmates--are still heard traversing the air, though they are seldom seen.

Tales of the Hand of Glory--that unhallowed taper made of the hand of a hanged man, holding a candle made of the fat of a murderer, whose light would send all the inhabitants of a house to sleep, and enable a burglar to make his easy way throughout it--are still told.

And the Fairy Hills near Castleton, Hetton-le-Hole, Middridge, and other places where fairies used to dance their nightly rounds, are still pointed out. Cattle were often shot by their tiny arrows, and children frequently wore necklaces of coral or of peony seeds, as otherwise they might have been stolen and taken away to Fairyland.

Mr. Henderson, in his _Folk-lore of the Northern Counties_, is convinced that there is firm faith in ghosts and their power of revisiting the earth throughout the whole county of Durham.

Witchcraft is to some extent believed in. It is not long since an old woman reputed to be a witch died at Aycliffe, and charms against their power have been, and are still, practised; indeed, they are still "crossed-out" by those who make the sign of the cross on loaves before they are put in the oven, and by the butchers who make, or used to make, a cross on the shoulder before selling it. A crooked sixpence, a piece of rowan-wood, or a four-leaved clover worn in the pocket, will keep them away. A self-bored stone or a horseshoe hung over the bed or in the byre will prevent their evil influence from harming either person or property; and should you be so unfortunate as to meet a reputed witch, it is well to close your fingers round your thumb, and repeat the rhyme:

"Witchy, witchy, I defy thee, Let me go quietly by thee!"

And there were wise men, and especially wise women, who knew many spells of might to be used against them and against fairies.

It is clear that a child born into this haunted country, and surrounded from his birth by signs, portents, and auguries, must carry through his life a belief in the superstitions of his forefathers.

The day of birth is most important, for it always influences the character and fortunes of the child.

"Monday’s child is fair of face, Tuesday’s child is full of grace, Wednesday’s child is full of woe, Thursday’s child has far to go, Friday’s child is loving and giving, Saturday’s child works hard for its living; But the child that’s born on Sabbath-day Is wise and bonny and good and gay."

Children born during the hour after midnight see spirits, and this uncanny gift continues through life. If born with a caul, the child will always be lucky. Children born in May are said to be seldom healthy.

A cake and cheese should always be provided before the birth of an infant. These are cut by the doctor, and all present partake of them, on pain of the poor child growing up ugly. The nurse keeps some of this cake and cheese, and when she takes the child to be christened she gives them to the first person whom she meets of opposite sex to that of the child. If boys and girls are being christened at the same time, the boys must be christened first, as otherwise the girls would have beards, the boys none!

Baptism is thought to be good for a child, and it is often said that children never thrive till they are christened. It is well if they cry during the ceremony, for it means that "the devil is going out of them." There is some warrant for this belief, for until the time of Edward VI. a form of exorcism, in order to expel the evil spirit from the child, was still used in the Baptismal Service.

A child who does not cry at baptism will not live.

It is unlucky to call a child by its future name until it has actually received it, and most especially should one avoid naming it after a dead brother or sister. The child will probably die also, or, if it lives, will never prosper.

Some nurses will never put a child’s dress over its head until it is christened, but always draw it up over the feet. I never could hear why. And the inside of the hands should not be washed during this time. Some go so far as to say that the right hand should not be washed for a year, so as not to "wash the luck away."

But before taking a child out of its mother’s room the careful nurse will see that it does not go downstairs first, as that would mean a descent in life for it. If it is impossible for it to go upstairs, she must take it in her arms, and mount a chair or stool with it, thereby assuring it of a rise in life.

The mother should go nowhere till she has been churched, as she would carry ill-luck to the house she entered.

The baby should receive three, sometimes four, presents when it first visits another house. These are its "almison," and consist of an egg, bread, salt, and sometimes a piece of money. The bread and salt are things used in sacrifices; the egg has always been a sacred emblem; the money is for luck, and should be carefully kept.

Never rock a cradle when empty, or you may rock another baby into it. And this is very likely to be the case if the reigning baby cuts its teeth very early, for, as the proverb says, "Soon teeth, soon toes" (another set of them). If it tooths first in the upper jaw, that means death in infancy. Later, on losing a tooth, the cavity should be filled with salt, and the tooth thrown into the fire with the words: