Warkworth. 30 1 



of choosing the spot where we should spend the two 

 most charming months of the year, we are not sure but 

 we should say Felton, and would give it a fair trial, sin- 

 cerely hoping that it would not verify the truth of the 

 line, that "distance lends enchantment to the view." 



There is not much more to make note of till we reach 

 Acklington, which is rather a cold-looking little village, 

 and here we leave the river to return to it when we 

 reach Warkworth. This is one of the quaintest of old 

 towns. Driven from the station, we find the road goes 

 right round the greater half of the town, and you enter 

 it by the further side, crossing the river, which almost 

 winds round the little town, by an old two-arched 

 bridge with many angles, and passing under an old 

 and picturesque gateway that directly recalls mediaeval 

 times. Going forward, you come to the main street, 

 and the Castle lies on the height right in front of you 

 on a flat greeny knoll. It is much more of a ruin than 

 might be fancied from the picture. The keep, built 

 on an artificial mound and thus overtopping the rest, 

 is the portion in best preservation, if we except the 

 great gateway on the opposite side from the town, 

 which is one of the oldest parts, if not the very oldest ; 

 and by its powerful build and fine machicolation tells 

 how in these days use and ornament went hand in 

 hand. The keep was built on the site of an earlier 

 one by the son of that Hotspur celebrated by Shake- 

 spe'are in " Henry IV.," between the years 1415 and 

 1454. Mr. Freeman says "it is a good study of the 

 process by which the purely military castle gradually 

 passed into the house fortified for any occasional 

 emergency." All round the Castle, in the olden days, 

 there ran a wall ramparted and with round towers at 

 certain points, but this wall has been in parts destroyed, 



