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A NATURALIST'S RAMBLE ON THE FARNE ISLANDS. 



T. H. NELSON, M.B.O.U., 

 Bishop A uckla7id and Redcar. 



Having made arrangements with some friends for a visit to the 

 Farne Islands, we accordingly met at the Central Station, Newcastle, 

 one fine morning early in June, and, after a pleasant journey of about 

 an hour and a half, arrived at Belford, where a conveyance in waiting 

 carried us to Bamburgh, five miles distant. We had secured quarters 

 at the * Crewe Arms,' a most comfortable hotel, where, I may 

 here say, we received every attention during our stay from Miss 

 Arthur, the amiable hostess. In the evening, Cuthbertson, the 

 boatman from North Sunderland, came along to receive instructions 

 for taking us out to the islands on the morrow, and having satis- 

 factorily settled that business, we took a stroll through the village 

 to have a look at the Castle and the surrounding neighbourhood. 



Bamburgh is a beautifully-situated little place, built in the form 

 of a triangle, with a grove of trees in the centre, and the church, in 

 the grave-yard of which is the tomb of Grace DarUng, at the corner 

 of the Belford Road. At the top of the village is the ancient manor- 

 house, familiar to readers of ' Dorothy Forster,' whilst one can almost 

 imagine that the opening scene of the story is laid in the kitchen of 

 the ' Crewe Arms.' The grand old Castle, Ida's Keep — in former 

 ages a fortress of mighr, now a house of charity — towering aloft on 

 a high basaltic rock, stands between the village and the sea, like a 

 huge lion keeping guard over the inhabitants of the hamlet. 



We walked up the carriage drive on the south-east of the Castle, 

 where there is a magnificent view of the coast fringed with yellow 

 sands ; Holy Island, with the ruins of Lindisfarne Priory looming in 

 the distance to the northward, and the Fames lying out seaward to 

 the north-east. The latter consist of a group of low basaltic islets, 

 some dozen or fifteen in number, extending over an area of about 

 three miles by three and a half ; some of them are mere isolated 

 rocks, others are partly covered with a coarse herbage, but, excepting 

 the Inner Farne, none of them supply any means of sustenance to 

 the persons connected with the Hghthouses or the preservation of the 

 countless thousands of sea-birds which assemble there in the breeding 

 season. The nearest island, the Inner Farne, is two miles from the 

 mainland ; adjoining it are the East and West Wide-opens and the 

 Knoxes ; then, crossing a channel a mile and a half wide, where at 

 times the tide runs with fearful rapidity and, meeting the wind, 

 raises a very nasty sea, we come to the Staples with the Pinnacles, 



Naturalist, 



