42 REPORTS OF MEETINGS FOR 1909 



as neither of their coffins was discovered when in 1874 six 

 others were removed from the vault to the Roman Catholic 

 cemetery at Hexham. At this date the estates were purchased 

 by W. B. Beaumont Esq., M.P. ; and the remains of the 

 unhappy Earl, which had been enclosed in a crimson covered 

 chest with brass name-plate and placed in the vault at the 

 East end, where more than once they had been exposed to 

 vulgar curiosity, were removed to Thorndon in Essex, and 

 re-interred in the family vault of his kinsman. Lord Petre. 

 Though the Chapel was served by a chaplain, whose dwelling 

 stood hard by, the lords seem to have maintained their right 

 to seats in the Parish Church of Corbridge, where an entry in 

 the churchwardens' books, however misdated, of 11th May 1724, 

 attests that " at a vestry meeting of the four and twenty, 

 permission was given to Lord Derwentwater to enlarge his pew 

 on the North side of the Church." 



To the West of the Chapel is situated the picturesque ruin 



of Dilston Castle, whither the members were 

 Dilston conducted by Mr H. II. E. Craster, Oxford, 



Castle. who by the aid of excellent charts and etchings 



gave a lucid description of the three periods to 

 which the various portions of the building may be referred. 

 In approaching the ruin, which occupies the ridge of a steep 

 declivity above Devil's Water, and has of late been made 

 more conspicuous through the removal of a mass of debris 

 on the West side disclosing the foundations of an older building, 

 they passed under the gateway of the RadcliiFe mansion, which 

 tears the initials F.R. and LB. with the date 1616. The 

 tower still standing belongs to the 15th century, and consists 

 of a fovir-storeyed building, beneath which was a dungeon. 

 To this was added in 1621 a three-storeyed mansion, planned 

 by Mr John Johnson, Newcastle, who on the completion of his 

 contract received the sum of £205. The Castle so constructed 

 to the order of Sir Francis Badcliffe formed three sides of an 

 oblong square enclosing a court-yard paved with dark veined 

 limestone, the longest range of the buildings occupying the 

 Northern side. In the centre was a large entrance hall, built 

 of stone and approached from the paved court by a few steps. 

 On the Western side stood the present tower, against whose 



