DUNSTANBROUGH CASTLE.
MOONLIGHT.
In the vignette engraving of Dunstanbrough by moonlight, the incident of a wreck coming ashore among the rocks at the foot of the castle is introduced with striking effect. The masts of the vessel are seen dashing against the rocks. To the left are fishermen assisting such of the crew as have escaped to ascend the cliff; while to the right are seen people with torches from the adjacent country hastening towards the scene of destruction. The moon appears as if "wading"[8] through the clouds, and the old tower—itself the wreck of time—appropriately occupies the centre of the view.
"On the brink of the cliff, to the sea," says a writer, describing Dunstanbrough Castle, "appear the remains of a very strong wall; indeed it is probable the whole area was originally so enclosed. The heavy seas which break upon the rocks of the north-west point have torn them much, and it appears as if the area had been originally of greater extent than at present, many separate columns of rock standing near the cliffs, which, some ages ago, may have been joined to the mainland. … Immediately below this tower" [that which is seen in the engraving] "is a gully or passage, of perpendicular sides, formed in the rocks, about sixty yards in length, and forty feet deep, where the sea makes a dreadful inset, breaking into foam with a tremendous noise: the spray occasioned thereby is driven within the Castle walls. This place is called by the country people the Rumble Churn[9]." It is to this chasm that Sir Walter Scott alludes when he speaks of "Dunstanbrough's caverned shore," in the popular poem of Marmion.
In the neighbourhood of Dunstanbrough there is a legendary tale yet current, though no longer at its ancient value, of a knight who, many centuries ago, discovered a place of enchantment in the vaults of the castle, but who, failing to break the spell, through inattention to certain mysterious instructions given to him, was doomed to seek for ever amid the ruins for the entrance to the enchanted apartment. Mr. G. Lewis, in the Tales of Wonder, has versified this story under the title of "Sir Guy, the Seeker," adding to it certain embellishments of his own, and among other matters, introducing a description of the Rumble Churn.
The principal parts of Dunstanbrough Castle at present standing are the outer walls to the south and west, with the tower overlooking the sea, and a gateway towards the south, defended by two circular towers. The area inclosed by the walls and the cliff is about nine acres. It is under cultivation; and in the additions to Camden, it is said to have produced in one year two hundred and forty bushels of corn, besides several loads of hay.
Howick House, the seat of Earl Grey, is situated in the vicinity of Dunstanbrough. It is a noble mansion, built in 1787 from designs by Paine; and is surrounded by a beautiful park, watered by two streams which unite in the grounds. Near the eastern side of the park are the remains of a Roman encampment, where numerous coins and antiquities have been found. The family of Grey is ancient in Northumberland; and first obtained the peerage in the reign of Edward IV. It is observable that the Greys of this district bear the same heraldic distinction as the Grey family in Scotland, and are both probably descended from the same stock—one of the martial followers of the Norman conqueror.
Alnwick Castle, about seven miles from Dunstanbrough, is the residence of the Duke of Northumberland: it is an immense pile covering nearly five acres of ground; and built upon an elevated spot on the southern side of the river Aln.
BAMBROUGH CASTLE.
FROM THE SOUTH-EAST.
Sir Walter Scott, in his description of the voyage of the abbess of Whitby and her nuns to Holy Island, in the second canto of Marmion, thus speaks of them as noticing Bambrough Castle:
"Thy tower, proud Bambrough, marked they there,
King Ida's castle, huge and square,
From its tall rock look grimly down,
And on the swelling ocean frown."
The view which Balmer, with his usual effect, has given of Bambrough Castle from the south-east, is that which the reverend mother and her five fair nuns might be supposed to contemplate on entering the channel between the Great Farn Island and the mainland, and when about half a mile from the shore. The stranded vessel, however, must not be supposed to be of the age of Henry VIII., when the abbess made her voyage; for she is evidently a light collier of the present day, whose captain, probably, in running for Skate Roads in a strong south-east gale, had stood too close in shore in passing through the Fareway, and laid her snugly up on Bambrough Sands. The Holy Island fishing-boats that are seen—for no fishermen dwell at the village of Bambrough—would seem to indicate that their owners expect a job in assisting to get her off.
These hardy and industrious men follow an occupation in which the hazards and dangers are but poorly recompensed by their gains; and the sums they occasionally obtain from the owners of colliers and other coasting vessels, form rich prizes in the humble lottery of their life. Having in our remarks on "Bambrough, from the north-west," described the principal features of this sea-girt fortress, we cannot better employ the present page than in a notice of the fishery which is carried on in its vicinity. The boats principally used for this purpose are called cobles, and their fishing ground is from eight to sixteen miles from the shore. In winter, however, they do not venture so far out as in summer, but usually shoot their lines between six and ten miles from the shore. There are usually three men to a coble. When the wind is not favourable and they cannot set their sail, they use their oars; the two men seated nearest the head of the boat row each a single large oar, while the man on the thwart nearest the stern rows a pair of smaller size. The fish are not caught, as on some parts of the south-western coast of England, by hand-lines, which are suspended over the side of the boat, and pulled up when the fisherman feels that he has a bite. The mode of proceeding is to make fast a number of lines together, and shoot them across the tide; and after they have lain extended at the bottom of the sea for several hours—usually during the time of a tide's ebbing or flowing, that is about six hours—they are hauled in. While the lines are shot, one man keeps a look-out, and the other two usually wrap themselves in the sail, and go to sleep in the bottom of the coble. Each man has three lines, and each line is from 200 to 240 fathoms long. The hooks, of which there are from 240 to 300 to each line, are tied, or whipped, as the fishermen term it, to lengths of twisted horse-hair called snoods; each snood is about two feet and a half long, and they are fastened to the line at about five feet apart. Each man's lines, when baited, are regularly coiled upon an oval piece of wicker work, something like the bottom of a clothes-basket, called by the Yorkshire fishermen a skep, at Hartlepool, in the county of Durham, the same thing is called a rip. In this mode of fishing the hooks are all baited, generally by the fishermen's wives and children, before the coble proceeds to sea. The lines when shot are all fastened together; and when each is 240 fathoms long, the length of the whole is nearly two miles and a half. There is an anchor and a buoy at the first end of the line, and the same at the end of each man's set of lines. There are thus four anchors and four buoys to each coble's entire line. The buoys at the extremities of the line are usually formed of tanned dog-skin,
