Anniversary Address, 35 



modern furniture and all the domestic appliances of the nineteenth 

 century appeared in quaint and comfortable contrast with the 

 thick walls, small windows, deep recessed window seats, wide fire 

 places, narrow passages and tortuous stairs, which spoke of other 

 manners and customs among the dwellers within, and of the 

 dangers to be warded off from hostile visitants without. Those 

 of the party who scrambled through a trap-door and reached the 

 roof, were rewarded by a wide panoramic view to the south and 

 west over the valley of the Tyne, and the hollow in which Hex- 

 ham stands, rich in woods, away to the heights of Allendale and 

 Alston Moor. 



On the walls of the Oastle, and at their base, overhanging the 

 dean, were observed Wallflower ( Cheiranthus GheiriJ, and Pelli- 

 tory, (Parietaria officinalis J, Malva sglvestris, and Companula lati- 

 folia — the last in profusion, and splendid flower. In the inner 

 court-yard grew in the crevices and on the cope of the wall, 

 Chelidonium majus, Linaria Cymbalaria, Arenaria trinervis, Galium 

 Mollugo, Asplenium Adiantum-nigrum, and Cytisus Scoparius, 

 (Common Broom.) 



I am indebted to Mr Hardy for the following valuable inf orm- 

 mation regarding this most interesting house. * 'The latest account 

 of the place, in Mr J. Hudson Turner's " Domestic Architecture 

 in England from the Conquest to the end of the 13th Century," 

 is not readily to be met with, and may be given here. The 

 account is illustrated with engravings of the exterior of the castle, 

 and the most of its architectural peculiarities outside and in- 

 side : — 



" Although this building is now, and has been for some time, 

 called a castle, it was known in the 13th and 14th centuries by 

 the name of ' Aydon Halle,' as was also its dependent manor. 

 It is indeed only a Border house carefully fortified. The general 

 plan is a long irregular line with two rather extensive enclosures 

 or courts formed by walls, besides one smaller within. On two 

 sides is a steep ravine, on the others the outer wall has a kind of 

 ditch, but very shallow. The original chief entrance is yet by an 

 external flight of steps, which has a covered roof to the upper 

 story, and so far partaking of the features of the earlier houses 

 of the preceding century ; it contains at least four original fire- 

 places. Some of the windows are square-headed, with two lights. 

 The stable is remarkable for the total absence of wood in its con- 

 struction, the mangers being of stone, and as Hutchinson 



