NUNNINGTON. 167 



in *Chevy Chace for having fought upon his stumps, 

 was of the very noble and ancient family of the 

 Widdringtons, of Widdrington castle, in the county 

 of Northumberland ; and great grandson of the 

 brave Lord Widdrington, who was slain gallantly 

 fighting in the service of the crown ; at Wigan in 

 Lancashire, in 1651. William, his great grandson, 

 was unfortunately engaged in the affair of Preston, 

 in 1715; when his estate became forfeited to the 

 crown, and he afterwards confined himself to private 

 life. He married a daughter of the Lord Viscount 

 Preston, above mentioned, one of the co-heiresses 

 of the estate at Nunnington, and was in consequence 

 buried in the family vault, in 1743, aged 65. 



Beth these noblemen are mentioned in Bishop 

 Burnet's history of his own times, though not in the 

 same high terms of commendation. 



In the body of the church, a monument remark- 

 able for its neat, plain and chaste execution, records 

 the virtues and untimely death of Emily, niece of 

 the late Sir Godfrey Webster, Bart., and wife of 

 Edward Cleaver, Esq., of Nunnington ; who was 

 eut off in the bloom of life, at the early age of 23. 



" The purity of whose life was marked by that 



* For an account of the ballad of Chevy-chase, vide 

 2 numbers in Spectator, vol. 1st. Dr. Percy's old bal- 

 lads, 1. p. 24. ; and of the battle of Otterburne, which 

 is supposed to have given rise to the ballad of Chevy- 

 Chase : the fullest and best account may be found in 

 JVoissart, a cotemperary writer, who had it from Doug- 

 las's suite, book III. eh. 123 129. Camden, III. 496. 

 A short account of Widdrington Castle, and the family 

 of the WJddringtons 6r WitheriogtonSj may be seen in 

 Cough's Camden, 111. 496. 



