846 On the Pele Tower at North Sunderland, 8fc. 



had consisted of two stories, the lower one of which was 

 perfect, having an arched roof of stone, with a large doorway 

 to the north, and communicating with the upper by a hang- 

 ing stair in the south-west angle of the building. Of this 

 upper story, portions of the walls were standing, but it was 

 roofless, with an accumulation of debris on the floor which 

 was overgrown with grass and weeds. Its interior measure- 

 ment, so far as I can find, was about twenty-four feet. An 

 outer erection had, in later years, been built on to the south 

 side, which was, to the time of demolition, used as a dwell- 

 ing in connexion with the lower part of the Pele. One 

 cannot but regret that this ancient structure, standing, as it 

 did, only a little to the east of the modern buildings, was not 

 restored and utilized as a coach-house and granary, and thus 

 preserved as a solid link connecting the present with the 

 past. A hammered cannon-ball was found by the sexton 

 when digging a grave, about fifteen years ago, within twenty 

 yards of the site of the old Pele. 



The English coins, which are silver, are of the reigns of 

 Elizabeth (1585), James I. (1603), Charles I., James II., 

 and of Queen Anne (1703 ?). The Dutch coin is of the 

 province of Zealand; date 1700? The smaller coins, which 

 with the above were shown to the Club at Bamburgh, were 

 picked up at Budle Hill, and which Mr Hardy has kindly 

 read, are of the time of Edward I., and II., coined at London 

 and Canterbury ; and a curious three-penny (?) token of 

 Elizabeth, coined at London, on which she is belauded as 

 " Rosa sine spina " — on which Mr Hardy remarks, " I 

 rather fancy she was as prickly as our Scots thistle " ; a 

 remark which most of us will now-a-days think not very 

 wide of the truth*. 



No trace of the Tower being left, and old folk who knew 

 it being fast passing away, it may be well that we should 

 take note of it, and chronicle the fact of its former existence 

 in our records. 



* Elizabeth coined u pieces of three-pence, three-halfpence, and three- 

 farthings/' with this inscription.— Camden's " Remaines concerning Britaine." 



