CITY OF DURHAM 



the changes associated with his name in the 

 castle, dating their conapletion, perhaps, by the 

 legend which is still to be seen over the kitchen 

 hatch, viz. 1499. This was the year in which he 

 was the means of concluding the prospective 

 marriage between James IV of Scotland and the 

 Princess Margaret of England. The bride's 

 youth postponed it for some four years, and Fox, 

 meantime appointed Bishop of Winchester, 

 came back in the royal retinue proceeding to 

 Scotland to give a royal feast to Margaret and 

 the noble company that assembled in the hall. 

 Possibly Fox's elaborate changes were designed 

 to make this banquet worthy of the match which 

 he had so largely brought about. A visit from 

 Lord Darcy, destined many years later to be a 

 rebel leader, gives an interesting side-light. He 

 said to Fox : ' My lord, both I and my lady was 

 in all your new works at Durham, and verily they 

 are of the most goodly and best cast that I have 

 seen after my poor mind, and in especial your 

 kitchen passeth all other.' 



Princess Margaret's visit to Durham is the 

 most picturesque event, perhaps, in the history 

 of the city ; it gives, moreover, a sort of farewell 

 description of the mediaeval monastery on a 

 festival occasion.*' In connection with it, 

 too, we find elsewhere for the last time recorded 

 how the shrine of St. Cuthbert was still visited, 

 and how cures were reputed to be worked there.'* 

 A far more detailed account of what the great 

 monastery was in its very latest years is given 

 in really fascinating detail by the author of 

 the Rites of Durham, which was written in 

 1593 by one whose memory went back to its 

 sunset days in the twenties and the thirties.'* 



After the visit of the princess, the next con- 

 spicuous event is the Scottish invasion of the 

 bishopric, and the great EngUsh victory at 

 Flodden-i"* Ruthall the bishop, who was with the 

 king in France, hurried back to Durham, and from 

 the castle superintended the Durham musters. 

 From the castle too he wrote to Wolsey a full 

 account of Flodden,* telling him how the 

 Durham people ascribed their triumph to the 

 intercession of St. Cuthbert, and how the King 

 of Scots' banner, sword, and ' gwyschys,' or 

 armour for the thighs, had been brought to 

 the cathedral. The banner was hung up near 

 the feretory.^ The signal triumph must have 



" It is given in Leland's Collectanea, iv, 258, 

 under the title of the ' Fyancells of Margaret.' 



^^ Hist. Dunelm. Script. Ires (Surt. Soc), 152-3. 



" Published by the Suttees Society. 

 loOBest local account in Arch. Ael. v. 



^ Quoted ibid, v, 175, from L. and. P. Hen. VIII, 

 i, 4461-2. See also ibid. 4523 for Ruthall's account 

 of his Auckland hospitality. 



* The general aspect of the feretory and its 

 surroundings is described in Rites of Durham (Surt. 

 Soc), 4-s, 94-5. 



brought much satisfaction to the city which 

 had been harassed by the Scots. 



Just before the Scottish war. Bishop Bain- 

 bridge had made a grant of some importance 

 to the people of Durham when he gave the 

 prior and convent all the right bank of the 

 river between Elvet and Framwellgate Bridges 

 below the castle and cathedral walls down to 

 the Wear, and also the river itself between 

 those points, reserving ingress and egress for 

 all the castle folk and right of winning stones 

 for the walls with full access to them. The 

 reason of the grant is ' lest the prior and convent 

 and their successors in time to come should be 

 troubled, disturbed, or annoyed by ill-disposed 

 persons in their prayers and other divine offices.' * 

 Then they were able to police and guard what 

 Durham calls ' the Banks ' on both sides, the 

 other side being theirs already. The bishop 

 lost what in later days, when trees were planted, 

 came to be the most beautiful part of the 

 peninsula.* 



From this we pass on to mention the classic 

 reference to Durham so often quoted from 

 Leland's Itinerary. The writer paid his visit 

 to the city on the eve of the great changes, 

 but probably before the demolition of the 

 shrine of St. Cuthbert in 1538. 



The town self of Durham standeth on a rocky lull, 

 and standeth as men come from the south country 

 on the ripe of Wear.^ The which water so with his 

 course natural in a bottom windeth about, that from 

 Elvet, a great stone-bridge of 14 arches, it creepeth 

 about the town to Framwellgate Bridge of three 

 arches * also on Wear, that, betwixt the two bridges, 

 or a little lower down at St. Nicholas, the town 

 except the length of an arrow-shot is brought in 

 insulam. And some hold opinion that of ancient 

 time Wear ran from the place where now Elvet 

 Bridge is straight down by St. Nicholas now standing 

 on a hill,' and that the other course part for policy, 

 and part by digging of stones for building of the town 

 and minster was made a valley, and so the water-course 

 was conveyed that way, but I approve not full this 

 conjecture.* The close itself of the minster on the 

 highest part of the hill is well walled, and hath 

 divers fair gates. The Church itself and the Cloister 

 be very strong and fair, and at the very east end is 



^ The grant is given in Hist. Dunelm. Script. Ires 

 (Surt. Soc), App. no. cccwiii. 



* Trees were not planted on the castle and cathedral 

 side until late in the l8th century. In Bainbridge's 

 day the land in question was ' vastum,' and the 

 ' Bishop's Waste ' sur\ived as a name until within 

 living memory. 



^ Coming in from Brancepeth through Crossgate 

 he has South Street pointed out to him as it runs 

 along the river bank. 



* Now shortened to two. 



' An intelligent anticipation of what geology has 

 told us ; see below, p. 63. 



* A wild theory : still the banks have been much 

 hollowed out for the sake of stone. 



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