ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 119 



of that island as the early centre of Northumbrian 

 Christianity, and the site of a Church that has been 

 rightly described as " the Mother Church of more than 

 the half of England, and nearly the half of Germany." 

 Even when divided, as it was on the consecration of the 

 great St. Cuthbert as bishop, the diocese of Lindisfarne 

 extended North and South from the Forth to the Aln. 

 The spiritual, and to some extent temporal, jurisdiction 

 of the bishops of Lindisfarne has to be taken into account 

 in estimating the political situation North of the Tweed, 

 and the gradual and final limitation of the Border line. 

 The kingdom of Northumberland practically came to 

 an end as such with the death of King Eric in 954. 

 During the four hundred years of its existence, in spite 

 of the gradual encroachment of the Picts and Scots on 

 the North and West, the Forth remained, nominally at 

 least, its Northern frontier. This continued to be the 

 case for some seventy years longer, even after the kingdom 

 had become an earldom. But in September 1018, in 

 consequence of the victory gained by Malcolm, king of 

 Scots, over the Northumbrians at Carham, Scottish 

 influence became supreme in the Lothians, and the river 

 Tweed virtually the boundary between Northumberland 

 and Scotland. From this time onward, the history of 

 the Border, as we know it to-day, really begins. It was 

 not, however, until a century later that the first of our 

 existing Border castles on the South side of the Tweed 

 was built. In 1121, the Bishop of Durham (whose See 

 included the territory of the ancient diocese of Lindisfarne 

 as far North as the Tweed) built a castle at Norham, 

 much of the masonry of which probably still exists in 

 the noble ruin of to-day. During the following twent}^ 

 years the castles of Bamburgh and Alnwick would seem to 

 have been founded ; and about the same time the important 

 castle of Wark on the Tweed, destined to play such a 

 stirring part in Border warfare, was erected by Walter 

 Espec. Scottish influence, however, continued to spread 



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