ON THE FIFTH FIELT) MtETINO. 323 



cently discovered in tlie station, and conducted the party over the 

 ne-wly exposed streets of its former warlike inhabitants. The in- 

 telligence and zeal evinced by Mr. Coulson were gratifying to 

 the members, who returned by way of Horsley to a late dinner 

 at Mr. Coward's, by whom they were accommodated with sleeping 

 quarters. 



On the morning of the 3rd, Mr. Coward accompanied the party 

 to Elsdon Tower, the parsonage mansion of the Rector of Elsdon, 

 the Eev. Percy Gilpin, by whom they were kindly shewn over 

 the entire building, and also over the Mote Hills, and the church. 

 The tower, or, as it is called, " Elsdon Castle," is a fortified resi- 

 dence modernized, but still retaining many interesting vestiges 

 of its antiquity, and of the manners of the age in which it was 

 built. When it was built is unknown, but it was repaired circa 

 1470, and a tablet of arms placed in the battlement of the south 

 front. They are the arms of Umfreville, with the inscription 

 "l;i 13 tl TC)5e" (Robertus Dominus de Rede). Sir Walter 

 Taylboys assumed the arms of Umfreville, on his inheriting, in 

 1436, in right of his great grandmother Elizabeth Umfreville, the 

 lordship of Rede, per regalem jpotestatem. His successor, Sir 

 William Taylboys, was at the battle of Towton, on the side of 

 Hen. VI., and at the battle of Hexham (1464), whence he fled to 

 his own franchise of Redesdale, where he was taken, carried to 

 Newcastle, and there beheaded, and his estates confiscated. Sir 

 Robert Taylboys was restored to the possession of the family 

 estates under the style of Lord of Redesdale and Kyme, and the 

 arms on the castle are supposed to be the Toat of this Sir Robert 

 Taylboys, who repaired or re-built it ; and there is a shield simi- 

 larly emblazoned on Whitton Tower, the parsonage of Rothbury, 

 in which place the Taylboys were lords of Hepple. The Mote 

 Hills are a very interesting feature, both in the appearance and 

 in the history of Elsdon ; and the town green must not pass 

 unnoticed, its peculiarly beautiful verdure was very striking ; it 

 is a large open space of several acres, sloping upwards towards 

 the north. On the upper side stands the church, overlooked by 

 the town beyond, which again is flanked by the mote hills. The 

 church has recently undergone extensive repairs, which are in 



