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Notices of the Ancient Vill of Warkworth. By the Rev. 

 J. W. Dunn, M.A., Vicar of Warkworth. 



"old times are changed, OLD MANNERS GONE." 



Since the date of my last paper some years have elapsed ; — 

 years which have not been uneventful, even when they are 

 regarded with simple reference to our own neighbourhood. 



Within the period of those years, among other things, the 

 jurisdiction of Courts Baron, long in permitted abeyance, has 

 been for all practical purj^oses done away. 



As a patient gatherer up of the reminiscences of the olden 

 time, I propose then, first of all, to place on record a few 

 scattered memorials, all but forgotten, of our baronial court of 

 Warkworth. For indeed its incidentals — by which I mean 

 the things which it has from time to time evolved out of itself, 

 few in number and of little value perchance, but yet too good 

 to throw utterly away, — unless picked up now, will be for 

 ever lost amidst the rapid whirl of human affairs. 



I am well aware that our society is a very grave one, and a 

 very learned one, and that its pleasure lieth chiefly among 

 stones and bones, and animals of strange type, and queer 

 plants with odd names, and mosses, and such like, which few 

 of us will ever have a chance of finding. Nay, verily, it 

 seems an insult to its motto — " 3Iare et tellus, e'c quod tegit 

 omnia, cesium" — and moreover somewhat of an intrusion, to 

 bring you down from such high converse to a level so homely 

 and so low as the gossiping records of a remote village. And 

 yet — for it is a poor heart that never relaxes, and a sorry 

 mouth that never smiles — come away for once again, and we 

 will dream that our lazy lengths are stretched along upon 

 some sunny bank, such as I know well, — at our feet, but far 

 below, brown Coquet, her lovely solitudes, made cheerful 

 by the leaping play of many a trout ; — come away, I say, and 

 despite of stones and bones, et quod tegit omnia, coelum, come 

 away and rest awhile, and listen, half awake, and I will 

 supplement my former tale. 



The constitution of the Courts Baron of these northern 

 districts has been so ably discussed by late writers, and especi- 

 ally by our Secretary in his interesting History of the Barony 

 of Alnwick, that any account of the origin or authority of the 

 Court of Warkworth, is from me uncalled for. I shall there- 

 fore confirie myself to a few local incidents to which it has 

 given rise, trifling, as I have said, in themselves, but yet, I 

 trust, not all unworthy of preservation. 



