CHIPCHASE CASTLE, XORTH TYKEDALE. 305 



gather strength for another rise, when the time of adversity is 

 ended. 



It might be thought that many other traditions, supernatural 

 and otherwise, connected with the old historic tower of Chip- 

 chase, ought to cluster around the grey time-worn building, 

 which bore the brunt of Border foray and Scottish invasion 

 for so many centuries. Though there is no ghostly visitant, 

 like "the "White Lady of Blenkinsopp, " to vainly endeavour to 

 guide mortals to the treasure she took so much pains to hide in 

 her lifetime ; yet there is one legendary story at least connected 

 with the ruinous Pele-tower, similar to that of the Mother and 

 Child of Chillingham Castle. It tells of an unfortunate knight, 

 Sir Beginald Pitz-Urse, who, being forgotten by the lord of the 

 castle and his retainers, perhaps intentionally, as was not un- 

 common in these barbarous times, perished by starvation in one of 

 the dark prison- chambers of the great Keep. Por hundreds of 

 years, it is said, the ill-fated Sir Beginald has " re-visited the 

 glimpses of the moon," and the scene of his own miserable end; 

 revenging himself first on his cruel captors, and then on their 

 successors, by haunting the old Pele, where the startled passer- 

 by may yet sometimes hear the clang of armour mingled with 

 groanings of a dying man, issuing from its dreary recesses at the 

 weird midnight hour.* 



As with most of the ancient Border Towers and Abbeys, there 

 is here a popular tradition of an underground passage, or secret 

 mode of egress from the castle, which, in this case, seems to be 

 founded on fact. A low subterranean way has been traced from 

 the level of the present cellar for a considerable distance south- 

 wards, beneath the carriage -drive at the front, and leading 

 towards the site of the ancient village of Chipchase. This is 

 the traditional direction which recent research has quite lately 

 verified. In case of siege, (though the Pele-tower is said to 

 have been twice besieged, but never taken), such a mode of 



* There is another legend, which ha-; just been told to me, of similar tragical import. 

 It relates that a knight or warrior, whose name is now unknown, met a violent death in 

 one of the intramural chambers, where he had vainly sought refuge from the murderous 

 band who were pursuing him. The cause of their deadly enmity is likewise unknown. 



