140 REPORT OF MEETINGS FOR 1904 



of a single stone. An old piscina under a trefoil-headed 

 canopy was more recently discovered in the South wall of 

 the South transept, proving that prior to the Reformation 

 that portion of the building had been used as a chantry. 

 The present building consists of a nave, North and South 

 aisles, a restored chancel, baptistery, South porch and 

 Western tower. An ancient stone Latin cross, which may 

 have served as a boundary or churchyard cross, was found 

 in the North wall of the churchyard, and has been 

 transferred to the wall adjoining the East stile.* 



Two miles distant from the parish church, and situated 

 on the North bank of the river Aln, lies 

 Eslington Eslington, the seat of the Earl of Ravens- 

 Park, worth. This ancient manor was formerly the 

 possession of a family who took the surname 

 of EslingtoQ, but it afterwards passed through the hands 

 of the Hesilriggs, the Herons, and latterly the Collingwoods, 

 who each in turn took part in the numerous warlike enter- 

 prises associated with the history of Northumberland. 

 In 1335 its owner was licensed to fortify his dwelling 

 there, but of this crenellated structure no trace is left, 

 the only architectural relic in the neighbourhood being a 

 fine Jacobean doorway now built into the North wall of 

 the kitchen-garden. On account of the part taken by its 

 owner, George Colling wood, in the Jacobite rising of 1715, 

 the estate was forfeited to the Crown, from whose Com- 

 missioners it was purchased by Sir Henry Liddell in 1719. 

 From the date of its purchase, six members of the Liddell 

 family have held possession. In 1821 Sir Thomas Henry 

 Liddell, sixth Baronet, was raised to the peerage, and one 

 of the hatchments in the parish church testifies to 

 his having reached the age of eighty years. To him there 

 succeeded his son, the Hon. Henry Thomas Liddell, the late 

 Earl of Ravensworth, who died in 1878, lamented by all 

 on the Eslington estate, and was followed in the estates by 

 the present Exrl, whose youth was marked by his devotion 

 to all manly sports. Through the kindness of the present 

 lessee, Mrs Mitchell, the Club were permitted to enter the 



* " Whittingham Vale" (D. D. Dixou), pp. 194-220. 



