184 Anniversary Address. 



also, for some time, held the advowson. On the suppression 

 of the monasteries, this right was vested in the crown, but 

 since the reign of Elizabeth, it has rested in the family of 

 Bates of Milbuin. 



The party then resumed their conveyances and proceeded 

 to Belsay Castle, which, by the courtesy of Sir Arthur 

 Monck, was shown to them by his land agent, Mr Goddard. 

 It consists of a square tower or keep, with four tiers of apart- 

 ments, 56J feet by 47 feet 3 inches. At each of the corners 

 of the battlements is a turret, projecting considerably over 

 the walls ; three of these are round, and the fourth over the 

 south angle is square, and contains the staircase. The view 

 from the battlements was wondrously fine, and the 

 party enjoyed it for some time. This old castle is (as Mr 

 Hodgson says) certainly one of the most perfect, and by far 

 the most imposing specimen of castellated architecture in 

 Northumberland. The family tradition is, that it was 

 erected in King John's reign ; but Hodgson, in his " History 

 of Northumberland," thinks that it was in that of Edward 

 III. The family of the Middletons of Belsay is of very 

 ancient origin, dating at least as far back as 1160. In 1278 

 they were honoured by a royal visit from Edward I. In the 

 succeeding reign, however, of his feeble successor, Edward 

 II., Sir Gilbert Middleton, the then representative of the 

 family, quarrelled with the Crown, raised a large army of 

 Border riders, ravaged Northumberland and Durham, and 

 seized upon two Romish Cardinals and the Bishop elect of 

 Durham, whom they were about to induct into his see, and 

 exacted from them a heavy ransom. He was, after consider- 

 able trouble, at last defeated and put to death, and his lands 

 confiscated. They were afterwards, however, recovered by 

 the marriage of one of his descendants with the heiress of the 

 grantee of the Crown, daughter of Sir John de Striveling. 

 Another member of the family married the heiress of the 

 Lamberts of Craven, descendants of William I. ; and another 

 married the heiress of the Moncks of Caenby, in Lincolnshire, 

 by whom respectively the names of Lambert and Monck 



