Report of Meetings for 1888. By J. Hardy. 171 



look out on the cheerless brown waste ; but it is well screened 

 with Lombardy poplars, ashes, limes and other trees ; and flowers 

 thrive within the sheltered circuit, especially phloxes in autumn. 

 The grassy field outside is of old culture, with elevated wavy 

 ridges. Lower down, at a wide interval, is the church — so very 

 grey and old-like — with triangularly peaked tower, and low roof 

 and encircled by a grass-grown graveyard, seldom disturbed, as 

 is obvious from the paucity of tombstones ; for people on these 

 outskirts of cultivation, amongst pure air and untainted springs, 

 are doubtless long lived and healthy. Descending still farther 

 the stately old castle still stands erect, although in ruins, upon 

 its own mound of vantage, and environed with decayed ramparts 

 and filled-up fosse. It was more of a mansion house than a 

 fortalice so far as history is concerned. Its whiter stone betokens 

 its juvenility compared with the age of the venerable ecclesias- 

 tical edifice, but even upon its walls and battlements the storms 

 of centuries have beat. There was a castle here when Sir John 

 De Felton died in 1396 ; but from a large S. incised near the 

 eastern doorway, there is a presumption that the Swinburnes 

 had some hand in its enlargement or repairs. The pulling down 

 by mischievous boys of its curious fireplace has been long 

 deplored. As yet no effort has been made for its re-erection, 

 which might be effected at a moderate cost. 



Before the arrival of members from the north, the castle and 

 church had been surveyed by those who halted here on their 

 arrival from Alnwick. A paper on Edlingham Manor was read 

 by the Secretary in the old grey church. In this it was shown 

 that this district was in the Saxon period, the private property 

 of the branch of the race of Ida of Bamburgh, represented by 

 Ceolwulph. who afterwards became king of Northumbria, and 

 presented his lands, or a certain portion of them, to St. Cuthbert 

 and the monks of Lindisfarne ; that William the Conqueror 

 bestowed it on the restless Grospatrick, the Earl, from whom it 

 descended to his son Edward, whose posterity held it till the 

 reign of Edward II. Subsequently it was transferred to the De 

 Feltons, who were royal favourites; passed by marriage to the 

 De Hastings, and finally to the Swinburnes, in whose ownership 

 it still principally continues. 



The church also has its history. It was founded by Grospatrick 

 and his children. Competitive claims to its patronage and tithes, 

 between the rival monasteries of St. Albans and Durham, form 



