522 ANTIQUITIES OF NORTHUMBERLAND. 



build a dwelling-houfe, now alfo in decay. The large fquare 

 Tower of the church, a fmall fpire or fteeple, many noble pillars 

 and arches, fome of the fide-walls, and the dormitory, lately 

 convened to a cellar, are ftill {landing. The church-bell was re- 

 moved to Durham. The walls are fringed with various plants, 

 with Pellitory of the Wall, and the greater Celandine, and among 

 them the tall flowering Elder lives and flourifhes in ftrength and 

 vigour *, 



Six miles fouth-weft from Rothbury, we crofs the rivulet of Font 

 by a (lone-bridge of one arch, and from the brow of the hill, 

 above the fmall hamlet of Eiv/lee, on the left hand, we have a 

 profpeft of 



Nether-Wittcn, the feat and manour of the antient family of 

 the Thorntons ; of Roger Thornton, the celebrated patron of the cor- 

 poration of Neivcaftle upon Tyne (k), who died, 8 K. Henry VI, 

 1429, after building his caftle or Tower of Wit ton (1) ; of Sir Ro- 

 gr Thornton, his fon, who married Elizabeth the daughter of John 

 Lord Grcyjlock, Baron of Morpeth (m), and was high flieriff of Nor- 



* Sine? tins was written, a Brief has been obtained for rebuilding part of this facred 

 fabric. 



(k) See Kewcajlle. 



See the chapter of tmintnt men, in, vol. i. 



(1) Anno domini 1429, in craftino circumcifionis, obiit Rogtrut de Thornton, burgenfis villae 



N'JVI Ca/iri) & Donainusde/^7//o } qut c-iftrum ibidem conftruxit, et dedit nobis plumbum, 



quo operitur navis ecclefix noftrze ; pro quo Rogcra et Agnett uxore ejufdem, et liberis, dici- 



mus quotidiam mirLm pro defundlis ; et jacent in ecclefu omnium fanctoruui in Neva Coflra. 



Ex Martyrologio Novi Monofleril, de furvdatore et praecipuis benefacSoribus ejufdem } 



citat. Monad. Angl, p. 916-17-18. 



(in) Anno Domini 1440, in vigilia S. Katb. Virginia obiit Elizab. uxor Rcgeri Thornton, 

 arnaiger!, quas fuit filia domini Jthannis baronis de Grayjiocke.- Ibid. 



thnmbcrland) 



