ROUTES.

The names of places are printed in italics only in those routes where the places are

described.

PAGE ROUTE

1. Blackwell, where a stone bridge crosses the Tees. A murder of one Christopher Simpson near this, in 1624, is described in a pretty local ballad known as The Baydayle Banks Tragedy.' A suspected person was committed, because when he touched the body at the inquest,

tion of the Tees with the Skerne, in | Hell Kettles means simply "water the district of Oxen-le-field, are the kettles." natural curiosities known as the Hell Kettles, being four round pools, filled with water strongly impregnated with sulphur, like that of the neighbouring spas of Croft and Dinsdale. The three larger pools are 30 yds., the smaller 28 yds. in diameter. They have always held a prominent place in the superstitions of the neigh-"upon his handlinge and movinge, bourhood. Brompton, abbot of Jer- the body did bleed at the mouth, vaux, thus describes their origin: nose, and ears," and he turned out On Christmas Day, 1179, a won- to be the murderer. Blackwell Hall derful matter fell out at Oxenhale, (Robert Henry Allan, Esq.) is finely viz. that in the land of Lord Hughe, situated above the Tees. Behind an Bishop of Duresme, the ground rose old tithe-barn are the "Wedded up to such a height that it was Trees," a large ash and sycamore, equal to the tops of the highest which spring together from one hills, and higher than the spires and trunk. Blackwell Grange, now detowers of the churches, and so re-serted, was the residence of George mained at that height from nine of the morning till sunset. But at the setting sun the earth fell in with such a horrid crash, that all who saw that strange mound, and heard its fall, were so amazed that for very fear many died, for the earth swallowed up that mound, and where it stood was a deep pool." A local tradition runs, that "the owner of the field was going to lead his hay on St. Barnabas' day (June 11), and on being remonstrated with on the impiety of the act, used a rhyme, which has since passed into a by-word,

'Barnaby yea, Barnaby nay!

I'll hae my hay, whether God will or nay.'

Instantly he, his carts and horses, were all swallowed up in the pools, where they may still be seen on a fine day and clear water, floating midway many fathoms deep."

It is still believed that the pools are fathomless, and that, if one of the cows or sheep which come to drink there were to fall into them, it would be always "going." Another story tells that a duck which disappeared in one of the Hell Kettles

me out at the Tees. The name

Allan, the antiquary, and publisher of the Allan Tracts, well known to topographical book-collectors. His valuable museum of British antiquities and birds (many of which were those engraved by Bewick) was sold in 1822, and purchased by the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle.

The house contains à "haunted chamber," richly adorned with old oak carving.

254 m. Darlington Junct. Stat., from which rlys. branch off to Barnard Castle (Rte. 2), to Bishops Auckland, Wolsingham, and Stanhope (Rte. 3), and to Stockton and Hartlepool (Rte. 5). The Engine House is part of the late Exhibition Building at Manchester. An omnibus is in waiting to convey travellers into the town m. distant.

1. Darlington (pop. 15,789) (Inn : Queen's Head) has much increased in prosperity since De Foe visited it, and wrote "Darlington, a posttown, has nothing remarkable in it but dirt, and a high bridge over little or no water." It is now a considerable place, divided by the river Skerne, and has been long celebrated for its woollen, and lately for its linen manufactures. A quantity

of leather is also made here. The | the general effect. The third porcentre of the town is occupied by the tion belongs to the Dec. period, and large and irregular market-place, is, as far as we know, unique. It is which has an ugly modern Townhall and a modern fountain at one end, and the magnificent old grey ch. at the other. A block of houses at the lower extremity divides the market-place into two parts, Skinner Gate and High Row. On the S. is Bull Wynd, so called from the sculpture of a bull which decorated a house formerly the property of the Nevilles. Below the entrance to this is the Deanery, and on the N. of the churchyard a curiously decorated old brick house.

66

The Collegiate Ch. of St. Cuthbert, which stands on the S. bank of the Skerne, is the finest ecclesiastical edifice in the county after Durham Cathedral. The college was originally founded by Carileph Bishop of Durham, for a vicar and four prebends, but was remodelled by Bishop Hugh Pudsey (1153-1195), and was dissolved in 1550. The building of the ch. has been generally attributed to Pudsey; but," says Billings, "this must be a mistake, because the whole building is of the E. E. style, which was not completely developed before the year 1230. Pudsey founded the establishment, and, it is said, provided the funds for its completion; hence the erection of the building has been ascribed to him. There are three portions of later date than the original building of the ch. These are, firstly, the walls of the nave aisles after the year 1400, the square-headed windows of the late Dec. period bearing evidence of this date. Secondly, the tower and spire erected towards the latter end of the 14th centy. A large portion of the spire was destroyed by lightning in 1750, and it was rebuilt from the part indicated by the small roll or bead moulding at the angles of the octagon. The omission of this simple decoration in the new portion considerably injures

The

a massive stone gallery or platform
of the ancient roodloft, the whole
width of the great chancel arch,
some 13 ft. in height and 7 in depth,
having a wide ribbed archway in its
centre leading from the nave to the
chancel." Except the rood-loft, the
interior of the ch. contains little of
interest, and its proportions are ob-
scured by ugly pews and galleries.
N. of the altar is an ornamented
arch for the Easter Sepulchre. The
massive but mutilated stalls in the
chancel are carved with the arms
of Cardinal Langley (1430).
length of the ch. is 127 ft., but its
W. end is partitioned off as an ante-
chapel, which contains the font,
with a handsome, though debased,
Gothic cover, and a mutilated female
effigy of the 12th cent. standing
erect against the wall. The ch. is
built of hard gritstone, from the
quarries of Cockfield Fell.
spire is called "Darlington Broach,"
from the fact of its being simply
placed upon the tower without a
guard. One of the pillars under the
tower has lately shown symptoms of
decay, which has alarmed the con-
gregation, and it is hoped may ulti-
mately lead to the restoration of the
ch., now closed.

The

The Free Grammar School (near the ch.) was founded by Q. Elizabeth in 1563, but the present paltry buildings only date from 1813.

Bp. Pudsey built a manor house here, long a residence of the Bishops of Durham, and a resting-place of Margaret, bride of James IV. of Scotland, and daughter of Henry VII., in her splendid progress through the county. The building was restored by Bp. Cosin in 1668. It was celebrated for the ghost-story of Lady Jerratt, who was murdered there, when she "left on the wall ghastly impressions of a thumb and fingers in blood for ever," and always after

appeared with one arm, the other having been cut off for the sake of a valuable ring on one of the fingers.

The site of the manor, on S. of the churchyard, is now occupied by the Union Workhouse.

The town will still convey the impression it gave to James I., who, when he passed through in 1617, on looking out of an inn window in Tubwell Row, asked the name of the place, and being told "Darneton," exclaimed "Darneton! I think it's Darneton i' th' Dirt." Surtees suggests that the river might formerly have been called Darn, hence the name of "the town on the Darn."

measures upon the Emperor Nicholas before the Crimean War.

At Cockerton, 1 m. N.W., is Carmel House, occupied as a convent by an order of Carmelite or Theresian nuns, a branch of which, exiled from England at the Reformation, established themselves in Belgium, but fled back from the horrors of the French Revolution in 1795, and came hither in 1830. Their chapel is richly ornamented.

1 m. N.E. is Houghton le Skerne, so called from the river on which it is situated. Bewick the painter resided here.

260 m. Aycliffe Stat. The names of Aycliffe (Oak-hill) and the neighDarlington gave, in 1685, the title bouring village of Woodham bear of Baroness to Catherine Sedley, witness to the forests of oaks which mistress of James II., and in 1722 once covered this district. These that of Countess to Sophia Charlotte were destroyed during the Civil Baroness Kilmansegg, mistress of Wars, when Cromwell sent to order George I. From the connexion of John Eden, the then proprietor, to Mary Clements, daughter of a Dar- cut down the oak woods to mend lington post-master, with Sir Edward the roads for his cannon to pass Walpole, son of the Prime Minister, over. The Ch. retains its pews of descended the late Duke of Glou- the year 1600, with balustraded cester and the Princess Sophia backs. In the chancel is the figure Matilda. Bewick, the favourite pupil of a cross-legged knight. The of Haydon, was a native of this place. churchyard contains two very reThe Inn at Darlington is described markable fragments of Saxon Crosses. in Rob Roy.' They are both covered with intricate tracery. One of them has on one side a representation of the Crucifixion, with the piercing the side and giving the vinegar to drink; on another side is the crucifixion of St. Peter; on another, 5 figures, 2 in the upper row, 3 in the lower.` Some suppose that these crosses commemorate Synods which were held at Aycliffe in 782 and 789.

Popular offenders here used not only to be subjected to the punishment of the cuckstool, but to be carried round the town fastened to the top of a high pole, amid the hootings of the mob. This was called "riding the stang." "He takes Darnton trod," being the road S., is figuratively said of any one further N., wishing to elude pursuit.

The sect of the Quakers is very numerous at Darlington. These have chiefly settled down in the neat villas and cottages which abound in the suburbs. One of them, John Kendricke, first applied the cotton jenny to the spinning of flax. Another, Joseph Pease, headed a deputation of the Peace Society to St. Petersburgh, to press pacific

264 m. Bradbury Stat. 2 m. E. Hardwick Hall (Christopher Bramwell, Esq.), possessing a park, which has a lake covering 36 acres, and a number of Gothic and Grecian temples, in the style of those at Stowe, but now rapidly falling into decay. The best of these, of the Ionic order, on the S. of the lake, was built by John Burdon, Esq.,

1754-1757. It is adorned with busts of celebrated men. At the E. end of the lake is the Banqueting House, of the Corinthian order, built from the designs of Payne, and gorgeously fitted up with paintings of Gods, Bacchanals, and Poets.

and carried off the bishop prisoner to Northumberland, till he was ransomed by his diocese.

5 m. 1. m. beyond Rushyford, Windlestone Hall (Sir William Eden, Bart.) has a lofty and well-lighted picture-gallery, containing a number m. E. of Hardwick is the hand- of very fine pictures, chiefly colsome and well-restored ch. of Sedge- lected in Spain by the present field, of which Billings says, "The owner. Among these are: Three quadrupled columns of the nave, Angels, part of a Gloria which with their exquisitely foliated capi- once surrounded a picture of the tals, are not to be surpassed. They Assumption in the Dominican conare the earliest specimens of their vent at Valencia, Espinosa of Vastyle in the county, and the columns lencia (1600-1680); the Last Judgand bands bear a striking affinity to ment, the Saviour throned above those in the circular part of the with his feet upon the world, the Temple Church in London, finished Virgin and St. John the Baptist before 1200. All the rest of the kneeling on either side amid an ch. (including a lofty tower at the army of saints and patriarchs, below W. end) is of much later date. The the separation of souls by good and N. transept was a chantry chapel, bad angels, Ribalta (1551-1628) ; built in 1379, and the S. transept, the painter showing a picture to formerly the chapel of St. Thomas, is of somewhat earlier construction. To the date 1379 the chancel may be assigned, but its seats and pannelling, its ceiling, and a fine canopied screen, of the same general style as that at Brancepeth (see Rte. 4), are all of the Elizabethan period." The font deserves notice.

N.W. of Sedgefield is the County Lunatic Asylum, a large brick building, opened 1861.

4 m. 1. Rushyford, a celebrated Inn of posting days (half-way between Darlington and Durham), where Lord Eldon used to pass vacations in the latter years of his life, and drink port (for which he kept a private cellar there) with Mr. Holt the innkeeper. The inn became deserted after the opening of the railway, and is now a farmhouse. It was here (1317) that Lewis Beaumont, cousin of Queen Isabella of Angoulême, on first entering the diocese after his consecration as Bishop of Durham, attended by two cardinal nuncios, was intercepted by Middleton, governor of Mitford Castle, who plundered the cardinals,

his wife (she was his master's daughter, and he was permitted to marry her in consequence of the skill he exhibited in completing a picture which her father had left unfinished) - Ribalta; Repose in Egypt,-the Virgin seated under a tree suckling the Child, Joseph standing behind with the ass, and a cherub bringing grapes in a basket, Paul Veronese; La Pescatrice, a lovely half-length female figure, usually attributed to Elisabetta Sirani; two pictures of the Virgin and Child by Murillo, the first with a rosary, the second with a pomegranate,-one is in the early or cold period of his colouring, the other in his rich and glowing period; Interior of a Picture Gallery, very highly finished, the figures being portraits, and one supposed to be the Elector Frederick, Judenich. Family portraits are, 1st Lord Baltimore, Under Secretary of State to James I., who first obtained a grant of the colony of Maryland, Mytens; Cæcilius, 2nd Lord Baltimore, and his son John, the colonizer of Maryland, which he named in honour of Henrietta Mari