28 REPORTS OF MEETINGS FOR 1909 



The chief object of interest in Doddington, however, was the 

 ancient Bastle, through neglect rapidly becoming a ruin, whither 

 their steps were then directed. Unfortunately it could only be 

 examined from the outside, and even such examination was 

 hindered by the proximity and confusion of farm buildings. In 

 the circumstances it is matter for congratulation that a coloured 

 drawing of the tower, as it appeared when roofed, has been 

 put at the Club's disposal by Mr Robert Middlemas, Alnwick, 

 and has been reproduced (Plate III.), and that recourse may 

 be had for a full description of its characteristic features to an 

 exhaustive paper contributed by Mr W. H. Knowles, F.S.A., 

 in a recent number of Archaeologia uEliana* from which the 



following facts have been obtained. Before 

 Doddington being surrounded with agricultural buildings this 

 Bastle. ancient tower must have proved a prominent 



landmark, for even now it commands the district. 

 It was erected in 1584 by Sir Thomas Gray of Chillingham, 

 in the possession of whose successor it still remains. The 

 period of its construction was one of considerable distrust, 

 the owners of the lands in the Northern part of Northumber- 

 land being suspected of leanings towards papacy, and being 

 accounted unduly austere in their relations with their tenants 

 and dependents. In this connection a " Note of the gentry 

 on the Borders," extracted from State Papers covering the 

 period from 1580 to 1625,t supplies the corr-oborative state- 

 ment : — " Most of those in Northumberland are cruel oppressors 

 of their tenants, and as a great number of the latter are 

 Scots, if there were any need of service, there would be a 

 great want of both horse and foot. The greater part of 

 the gentry are papists or addicted to papistry, as Sir Cuthbert 

 Collingwood, Sir Thomas Gray, and his brother, Ralph Gray, 

 Carr of Ford, Thomas Swincowe of Gosewick, Mr Haggerstone 

 of Haggerstone, and Mr Phenicke of Wallington, a suspected 

 priest. Cuthbert Armourer knows and told Sir George Carey 

 how many of these entertained Brierton and other Jesuits. 

 No one in the town or garrison of Berwick can be justly 



* Archaeologia /Eliana, 2nd Series, Vol. xxi. 



t Calendar of State Papers (Dom.), Addenda, p. 231. 



