306 OX THE BTSTOKY OF CHTPCHASE CASTLE. 



egress would be most desirable, and would certainly be resorted 

 to on extreme occasions. 



It may be added that Edward L, (the greatest of the Planta- 

 genets, perhaps of all our kings,) on one of his journeys into 

 Scotland, is traditionally said to have remained at Chipchase 

 Castle for one or two nights. If he did so, it must have been 

 on his way northwards into Scotland, on the same occasion as 

 that on which he heard Mass at the head of the vale of North 

 Tyne, above Keilder, in the " Bell Chapel," which is now 

 entirely demolished. 



The scene of the popular story of the "Long Pack," formerly 

 so well known and often reprinted, as a " chap-book" indis- 

 pensable to the wandering peddler of the North of England, is, 

 by tradition, laid at Chipchase, although Lee Hall, near Belling- 

 ham, is also supposed to have been the place where the tragical 

 incident happened, which James Hogg, the famous Ettrick 

 Shepherd, took for the foundation of his tale.* 



These notes, on the history and architecture of one of the most 

 interesting and beautiful of Northumbrian Castles, might have 

 been greatly extended. They were strung together to form a 

 slight memento of the Meeting of the Eield Club at Chipchase in 

 July last, and on a former occasion, in 1867, when the pleasure 

 derived from our visits to Chipchase Castle was much enhanced 

 by the presence of our fellow-member, the esteemed proprietor, 

 and by his munificent hospitality. Mr. Taylor has laid the Club 

 under further obligations by his kindness in presenting an ex- 

 cellent engraving to accompany the present memoir. 



* Swinburne Castle has also been mentioned, but without similar authority on which 

 to rest its claims to be the place where the intending burglar, secreted in a gi-eat bale or 

 peddler's pack, and then left by his comrades in the house, was accidentally shot by an 

 idiot lad, and the deeply-laid plot thus frustrated. 



