86 Mr. Tate on Dunstanburgh Castle. 



covers and indurates sandstones and shales; and a mass of 

 limestone, nearly enveloped in the basalt, is converted into 

 white crystalline marble. On the top of the basalt, too, are 

 patches of indurated shales and sandstones ; and near the 

 east point of the cliff there is a fissure, filled with highly 

 inclined metamorphosed shales. At Cullernose, however, 

 more extensive displacements of strata have been effected by 

 this basaltic eruption. Bamburgh Castle stands on a similar 

 craggy eminence of basalt, which is there 75 feet in thick- 

 ness, overlying strata of sandstone. 



Leaving the geology of the place we turn to its history. 

 Dunstan was a member of the barony of Emeldon, or as it is 

 now erroneously written Embleton, which was granted to 

 the family of le Visconte by Henry T. by service of three 

 knights' fees ;* and in that family it continued till the death 

 of John le Visconte in 1244, when it passed to his daughter 

 and heir, Ramet, the wife of Everard Teutonicus.t After his 

 death, she along with her second husband, Hereward de 

 Marisco, s.old the barony to Simon de Montfort, the great 

 earl of Leicester; % with whom, however, it did not long 

 remain, for, rebelling against the king, his estates were for- 

 feited and the barony of Emeldon was granted to Edmund, 

 younger son of Henry III., who created him earl of Lancaster. 

 Thomas, the eldest son of Edmund, succeeded to his father's 

 estates in 1294, and by him Dunstanburgh Castle was built. 

 From the name Dunstan, which may mean, the stone fortress, 

 it has been supposed that there had been on the site an 

 Ancient British Camp ; but of this there are no traces, and 

 the name most probably signifies stony hill. 



The hamlet of Dunstan has the honour of having been the 

 birth-place of John Duns, who was called Scotus, because he 



* Testa de Neville, p. 383. The barony then included Emeldon, Buiton, 

 "Warnham ( Warenton near Belford), Craster, and Dunstan 



t Rot Fin. I. 28., II. 104. 



% The Court of the Manor was held at Staunford or Stamford, " to which town 

 came Sir Richard Marin and in the presence of Ramet and of her husband 

 Everard de Marisco and of the whole court of Staunford took possession of the 

 whole barony of Emeldon, on the behalf of feimon de Montford Earl of Leicester, to 

 whom they released the barony." According to the Fscheats, 30 Edw. III., Stam- 

 ford Manor included Emeldon, Dunstan. Burton. Warndam, Hiipp'ey, Craun- 

 cestre, Fenton, Newton-on-the-Moor, and Cartington. At the present time it 

 comprises Warenton, Cocklaw, Cartington, Whittle, Dunstan. Christon Hank, 

 Embleton, Low Newton, bhipley, I^ewton by-the-tea, Dunstan Hill and Stam- 

 ford ; and it is singular, one house in Alnwick is within this manor, and the 

 owners of it were regularly summoned to attend the Courts of fctamford. 



