Eev. S. A. Fyler on the Village of Cornhill. 847 



The Rev. Robert Lamb, formerly vicar of Norham, gives 

 the exact dimensions of this boat, which it is calculated (on 

 hydrostatical principles) might not only have floated but 

 carried the body of the saint, provided that it did not exceed 

 12 stones in weight. It is stated to have been 9 feet in length, 

 4 broad at the widest part, and 15 inches deep, and its sides 

 and bottom to have been 4 inches thick. 



Writing in 1773, the Rev. Robert Lamb further remarks, 

 that **not many years since a farmer at Cornhill coveted 

 the saint's stone-boat, in order to keep pickled beef in. Be- 

 fore this profane loon could convey it away, the saint came 

 in the night and broke it in pieces, which now lie at St. 

 Cuthbert's Chapel, to please the curious and confute the un- 

 believer." A portion of it has since been reported to have 

 been employed by a farmer at St. Cuthberts to repair his pig 

 sty. The writer of this, many years ago, saw at Tilmouth 

 Park what were said to be parts of this boat. 



During the last century the late Sir Francis Blake erected, 

 on the site of the former chapel, a small edifice with pointed 

 windows, now a ruin. 



The banks of the river Till, which divides this parish from 

 Norham, are very beautiful on both sides, being steep and 

 well covered with rock and hanging wood. On a high and 

 rocky eminence, near Twizel bridge, is a large castle of 

 modern Gothic, commenced by the father of the late Sir 

 Francis Blake, Bart., ths exterior of which has recently been 

 completed by Mrs. Stag Blake, the sister of the last baronet. 

 A little to the left of Twizel bridge, near the banks of the 

 river, is St. Helen's Well, commonly called the " wishing 

 well," where St. Cuthbert was supposed, in superstitious 

 times, to have granted the desires of those who drank thereof 

 with becoming devotion to his name ; and of its waters the 

 English army is reported to have drank, on its way to Flod- 

 den Field. About a mile to the west of Tilmouth was, 

 anciently, an encampment, now called ^^Haly Chesters." 



The history of the manor of Tilmouth commences from a 

 very early date. Osbert, who succeeded to the throne of 

 Northumberland in 854, took it by force from the ancient 

 see of Lindisfarne ; but this sacrilegious monarch having been 

 slain by the Danes it reverted to the church. It subsequently 

 belonged to the family of Rydell. In the partition of the 

 estates of Sir Wm. Rydell, in 1335, the chief part thereof 

 fell to Sir Clavering j but Sir Francis Blake, Bart., appears 

 to have possessed the whole about the middle of last century. 



