Rev. J. W. Dunn on Warhwortli. 51 



solemn, and not unmixed with, wonder at the strange changes 

 which a few generations have made, you will pass on to the 

 so-called confessional,* with its second altar and hagioscope, 

 and dilapidated but most graceful window. You must stay 

 to examine as you pass the shield over the doorway, between 

 the chapel and the confessional, which contains, distinctly 

 traceable, the emblems of the passion of our Blessed Lord — 

 "^the cross, the crown, the spear," and, I may add, the nails 

 and sponge. 



The third apartment is supposed to have been the dormi- 

 tory of the hermit. From the railing which crosses the rock 

 at this point, and where may once have been the chief en- 

 trance, you will look down upon the remains of a residence 

 to all appearance of later date, whose owners probably took 

 a brighter view of mundane affairs than the solitary who 

 may have first secluded himself amidst these pleasant shades. 

 Here it was, no doubt, that the produce of the " Sondaie 

 haul " of ^^ Trinetye draught" aforesaid, was cooked and 

 feasted on, and other things besides the esculents of the her- 

 mit's garden, to which, on leaving the Hermitage, I shall 

 invite you to clamber. 



After a somewhat hasty survey you will, I know, come 

 back to linger longest of all before a little window in tbe 

 chapel on the south of the altar, where a stone figure with 

 upraised hand for ever prays before an unsightly stone lady, 

 whose feet for ever rest by the side of an equally unsightly 

 bull's head. 



The genius of the poet has clothed these time-worn figures 

 with the garments of high romance. The lady was a Wid- 

 drington, as the symbol of the bull's head indicates — the 

 hermit was a Bertram of Bothal, an early friend of the father 

 of Hotspur. 



Alas ! for poesy — alas ! for all our cherished fancies. There 

 may be after all no more truth in the story of the Hermit of 

 Warkworth as sung in one of the most graceful of our poems, 

 than there is in the legend of the ** seven sleepers," who con- 

 tinue their gaunt and stark repose among the weird recesses 

 of rock -based Dunstanborough. 



It has been disputed whether the bull's head is more or 

 less than the common effigy of a dog, the emblem of fidelity. 

 Besides, it has been said that the foot is not the probable 

 place for a crest,t the usual position of which is stated to be 



* This room occupies the precise place of hermitages in parish churches, 

 t Crests were usually under the head of male figures and wanting in the 



