REPORT OF MEETINGS FOR 1905 287 



on the North bank of the Wansbeck, now familiarly known 

 as Scotch Gill. The monastery was dissolved in 1535, when 

 its revenues were apportioned by succeeding Sovereigns among 

 the proprietors of the adjacent lands. 



Leaving the grounds of Newminster by the High House 

 lane, and noting the great outside chimney attached to one of 

 the Abbey cottages, the party resumed the drive to Mitford 

 along the course of the Wansbeck, which receives near the 

 village of that name the waters of the Font, spanned by a 

 single-arched bridge. This hamlet, consisting of only a few 

 cottages, is said to have at one time outstripped Morpeth in 



importance, and certainly its neighbouring for- 

 Mitford tress suggests the likelihood of a considerable 



Castle. population having settled here. This formidable 



stronghold, raised on an eminence to the South 

 of the road, owes its origin to William Bertram, the founder 

 of Brinkburn Priory, and was built by him in the twelfth 

 century. Though now only a frowning ruin, encircled by 

 walls which afford protection to a peaceful orchard, Mitford 

 Castle played its own part in the eventful centuries that 

 followed its erection. Most of all did it sulfer at the hands 

 of the marauding Scots, who in 1216 and 1318. under the 

 leadership of their Kings, Alexander II. and III., besieged 

 and dismantled it, leaving it in such a state of hopeless ruin 

 as to compel its lords to forego any attempt at restoration. 

 The family, taking their name from the place, can 

 trace their history from a period as remote as the time of 

 Edward the Confessor, and though for a time dispossessed 

 in consequence of political intrigue, they were favoured by 

 Charles II., and reinstated in their ancient patrimony. The 

 fact of their occupancy of the lands of Mitford is strikingly 

 attested at once by this feudal stronghold, by a Jacobean 

 Manor-house, and a modern Mansion on the North side of 

 the public road, each of them bearing the family name. The 

 second of these consists of only a two-storeyed battlemented 

 tower with six-light windows, over the arched entrance of 

 which are carved the arms of the family, and the date 1637. 

 A portion of the hall has been transformed into a cottager's 

 dwelling, permission to enter which was obtained to view the 

 old dog-spit at the side of the stately fireplace of the kitchen. 



