57 



Mock Hall. By the Rev. R. W. Bosanqtjet, A.M. 



The remarks I have to make on this old place I will divide 

 into two portions, viz. : — 



1. That which relates to the building, the actual structure 

 of what I believe to he properly called " The Old Hall." 



£. That which concerns the inhabitants of the same, from 

 time to time, during several centuries. 



I have some notes by me relating to the ancient Norman 

 chapel and the apparent changes in the constitution of the 

 chapelry, but they cannot conveniently be brought within the 

 compass of the present paper. 



PART I. 



About the nature of the actual structure of the Old Hall 

 at Rock, what it has been and at what time probably formed, 

 I cannot find in any of the lists of castles or towers which 

 are to be met with in Mr. Hodgson's History of Northum- 

 umberland and in other places, that there ever was either 

 castle or tower registered as such at Rock ; and Mr. Tate's 

 experience on this point, I believe, is the same as my own. 

 So far as I know, Greenwood's large map of Northumber- 

 land, published previously to the Ordnance Survey having 

 been made, is the principal or the best known place in which 

 the name of Rock castle is to be found. I also find that Sir 

 Bernard Burke, in his Pedigree of Lawsonof Brough, speaks 

 of Swinhoe of Rock castle ; but in a point not bearing upon 

 pedigree, I should not consider that circumstance of any 

 great weight. I do not recollect ever to have heard the 

 inhabitants of the country, either gentry or labourers, speak 

 of Rock castle, and had there really been a castle here the 

 tradition would have hardly died out. Well, then, if the old 

 building has not been, and is not either a tower or a castle, 

 what is it ? and what is the date of it ? I think there is 

 every reason to believe that it is a very ancient mansion ; 

 and considering first, its position with respect to the Scottish 

 Border, and secondly the solidity of the central, which is the 

 most ancient, portion of the structure, that it was built with 

 a view to self-defence. It is quite probable that in very 

 ancient times there was here one of those solid rectangular 

 pele towers, with which the Border country was studded till 

 after the union of the crowns ; but that having been early 

 added to, and having become the constant residence of a 



B.N.C. — VOL. VII. NO. I. H 



