E-ev. J. W. Dunn on Warkworth. 55 



aisle. The room above is remarkable as having been, until 

 within the last 70 years, the village school. 



I must not omit to tell you, that in the south-west corner 

 of the south aisle, there is a cross-legged effigy professing to 

 be the " effigies of Sir Hugh de Morwick who gave the com- 

 mon to this towne of Warkworth." 



As to the authenticity of this figure, I entertain, for many 

 reasons which it would be tedious to enumerate, the gravest 

 heresies. I fear, were Ave to enter into the subject too closely, 

 we should be as deeply quagmired as to this speechless stone 

 mystery, as I shudder to think it possible we might be in the 

 matter of our hermitage romance. 



But in this also, for one day more at least, let ignorance be 

 bliss, and let us choose rather to revel among the traditions 

 of the days of yore, than pryingly to dig out the anachron- 

 isms of such unquestionably old memorials. 



It remains only further for me to observe in respect to this 

 fine church, that in the year 1174, on the occasion of the dis- 

 astrous and murderous invasion of England, by Y/illiam the 

 Lion of Scotland, a division of his army under Earl Duncan, 

 burnt Warkworth, mercilessly maimed three priests and put 

 to death more than 100— another account says 300 — men be- 

 sides women and children who had taken refuge within the 

 church of St. Lawrence, and in the house of the clergyman of 

 that vilL* The excessive number of human bones which 



* *' Comes Tero Dunecanus statim exercitum ilium in tres partes divisit : 

 unam secum retinuit. — Et ipse cum parte exercitus quam sibi elegit, intravit 

 villam de Werkewrd et earn combussit, et interfecit in ea omnes quos invenit, 

 yiros et mulieres, magnos et parvos ; et fecit satellites suos frangere ecclesiam 

 sancti Laureniii, quss ibi erat, et interficere in ea et in domo clerici villae illius 

 plusquam centum viros, praster mulieres et parvulos." (Benedict. Petroburg. 

 Croyland Abbey transmitted to Edward I. a similar account.) 



"Let us allow our Scots to waste the sea-coast, 

 Woe to them if they leave standing a house or a church ; 



It was Thursday evening that the king spoke 



And Frenchmen and Flemings agreed to his words. 



Friday in the morning his trumpet was sounded ; 



This great host departed and his fierce baronage, 



And came to Alnwick, they did not delay longer ; 



gut the Scots burnt and wasted the country. 



The church of Saint Laurence was that day violated, 



Three priests in the church were by force emasculated, 



And three hundred men murdered, without a word of falsehood." 



(Jordan Fantosme.) The two chronicles must be read together, with a season- 

 ing of local knowledge, which will prevent the reader from confusing the church 

 of St. Laurence with Alnwick. The number of 300 probably includes the women 

 and children excluded in that of 100. 



