Thomas Langton de Wynyard and of Sibil Langton, his wife. They are
admirably carved in a rather soft alabaster, and the delicacy and
clearness of detail in the costumes is very remarkable. The lady’s hair
is dressed in the extraordinary horns which were fashionable in the days
of Henry V. She wears a long, loose kirtle, with a surcoat and mantle;
round her neck is a string of pearls, and round her waist is a jewelled
belt. The knight wears a suit of plate armour, probably of Italian make,
the fashion of which suggests that the effigy was carved several years
after the death of Thomas de Langton in 1440.
Effigies of men who had devoted themselves to a religious life, but who
died before attaining the order of priesthood, are very rare. There is
one of a deacon within the altar-rails of Ryton Church, carved in green
marble from Stanhope.
Whitburn Church holds a singular effigy of comparatively late date.
Attired in the full stiff dress of the time of William and Mary lies a
plump, elderly gentleman. He wears a full periwig, a neckcloth with
square ends, a coat with large buckramed skirts and wide sleeves, rolled
breeches, and square-toed laced shoes ornamented with immense bows of
ribbon. His head rests on a pillow, and his right hand holds a book,
which is open at the text, "I shall not lye here, but rise." There is a
skull between the feet. On the uprights of the tomb the same figure is
carved in bas-relief, kneeling, and on each side of him is a lady in
the dress of the same period. A tablet on the wall states that this is
"the burial-place of Mr. Michael Mathew of Cleadon, and his wife, who
had issue three sons and two daughters, of which only Hannah survives."
BRASSES.--In many of the older churches of the county there are
remaining the stone matrices which formerly held monumental brasses, but
in most cases the brasses themselves have disappeared, the sanctity of a
church, and the contiguity of a Table of the Ten Commandments not having
prevailed against the temptation to steal a substance so portable and so
readily saleable as brass.
In the floor of the chapel at Greatham Hospital there is a large slab of
stone, 90 by 43 inches in size, with an inscription in brass Lombardic
letters round the edge commemorating William de Middleton, a master of
the Hospital in 1312. On the wall is another inscription, in raised
black-letter with chasing, asking for prayers for the souls of Nicholas
Hulme, who was master in 1427, of John Kelyng, 1463, and of William
Estfelde, who died in 1497.
At Sherburn Hospital there is a small brass let into the chancel steps,
which reads: "THOMAS . LEAVER . PREACHER . TO KING EDWARD . THE . SIXTE.
HE . DIED . iN . iVLY . i577."
In the church at St. Andrew’s Auckland there is a finely cut brass with
the figure of a priest, of which the head is, unfortunately, missing.
There is no inscription, but the date of it is probably about 1400. In
the same church there is a unique brass, small in size, but about ½ inch
thick; it bears a small Greek cross with a backing of plant decoration,
and it has three lines of inscription across the plate and a legend
round the margin. It is dated April 8, 1581, and was put up to the
memory of Mrs. Fridesmond Barnes, who was the wife of the second
Protestant Bishop of Durham, Richard Barnes. We know the cost of this
brass, for in the Bishop’s accounts there is the entry, "To the
gould-smyth at Yorke for a plate to sett over Mrs. Barnes, 32ˢ."
At St. Helen’s Auckland there is a brass which portrays the figure of a
man in a long tunic edged with fur; his wife lies by his side, and below
are figures of his sons and daughters. The inscription is lost, but the
date of it is probably about 1460.
In Sedgefield Church there is a curious brass giving the crest of
William Hoton, 1445, with a black-letter inscription below: "<f>Hic iacet
will[=m]s Hoton . qui . obijt . xviº die Septebr’ Anno . dni . Mill[=m]o .
ECCCº . xlvº . cui’ aie ppicietur de’ ame’</f>." In the same church there are
two of the objectionable brasses which were not uncommon in the
fifteenth century, which portrayed skeletons in shrouds.
Chester-le-Street Church has a very pleasing brass, giving the
full-length figure of a woman attired in the costume of the first half
of the fifteenth century. The lines of the composition are simple and
bold, and the effect is very graceful. The brass has no inscription, but
it is known that it was put up to the memory of Alice Salcock of Salcock
in Yorkshire, who married William Lambton, and who died in 1434.
At Dinsdale, on the southern margin of the county, close to the River
Tees, there is in the church a late, small, but beautifully worked
brass, only about 11 inches by 8 inches in size. It bears the coat of
arms of eight quarterings, and records the merciful benefactions to the
poor of the parish of Dinsdale of Mary, the wife of Thomas Spennithorne.
She died in 1668, and was buried at Spennithorne.
In the magnificent cathedral of Durham most of the sepulchral monuments
were destroyed either at the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the reign
of Henry VIII., or when the cathedral church was used as a prison for
Scotch prisoners of war after the Battle of Dunbar in 1650. In 1671
Davies wrote his book on _The Rites and Monuments of the Church of
Durham_, with the motto _Tempora mutantur_--on the title-page, giving a
sad description of the past glories of the church. "Lodovic de bello
Monte, Bishop of Durham," he says, "lieth buried before the high Altar
in the Quire, under a most curious and sumptuous Marble stone, which he
prepar’d for himself, before he died, being adorned with most excellent
workmanship of Brass, wherein he was most excellently and lively
Pictur’d, as he was accustomed to sing, or say Mass." This Bishop de
bello Monte, or Beaumont, died at Brantingham, near Hull, in 1333. His
gravestone, which was said to be the largest in England, still lies
before the high-altar in Durham Cathedral, but the "most excellent
workmanship of Brass" has utterly disappeared.
In Hartlepool Church there is a brass with the figure of a lady in a
large hat, with ruff and farthingale; on another brass below it is the
inscription:
HERE VNDER THiS STONE LYETH BVRiED THE BODiE OF THE
VERTVOUS GENTELLWOMAN IANE BELL, WHO DEPTED THiS LYFE THE
. vi. DAYE OF IANVARIE 1593 BEiNGE THE DOWGHTER OF LAVERANCE
THORNELL OF DARLINGTON GENT & LATE WYFE TO PARSAVAL
BELL, NOWE MAiRE OF THIS TOWEN OF HARTiNPOOELL. MARCHANT
whos vertues if thou wilt beholde
peruse this tabel hanginge bye
which will the same to thee vnfold
by her good lyfe learne thou to die.
In Haughton-le-Skerne Church there is a curious figure on a brass,
representing a lady, who holds a baby on each arm. She was Dorothy, the
wife of Robert Perkinson of Whessey, and she died, with her twin sons,
in 1592.
At Houghton-le-Spring there is a brass to the memory of Margery, wife of
Richard Bellasis. It pictures the kneeling figure of a woman with her
eight sons and three daughters behind her. The Bellasis coat of arms is
on the brass: the date is 1587.
In Sedgefield Church there is a rudely engraved, early brass, probably
cut about the year 1300. It shows a small female figure, kneeling, and
it has a coat of arms on both sides of the figure. From the shape of
the two coats of arms, and from the conventional treatment of the
features of the face, which is more carefully executed than the rest of
the figure, it is believed that this is one of the oldest sepulchral
brasses now remaining in England.
The tombstone to Dean Rudde, which lies in the floor of the chancel of
Sedgefield Church, still carries its inscribed brass. The stone is a
very large one. The black-letter epitaph is so much worn by the tread of
the feet of many generations that it can only be read with some
uncertainty. It seems to run:
<f>Orate p aīa [=m]ri Jo[=h]is Rudde in decretis baccalarii quond[=m]
decani hui’ loci qui obiit xxix die decēbr’ Anno d[=n]i Mº CCCCº
lxxxx cui’ āīē ppiciet de’ amen.</f>
This John Rudde gave to the church of Esh the only medieval service-book
belonging to any church in the diocese of Durham which is now known to
exist. It is in the library of the Roman Catholic College of Ushaw, near
Durham.
The beautiful memorials to the dead which were known as grave-covers
were used in England and Ireland from the ninth to the sixteenth
century. Though they are abundant in the county, Durham cannot boast of
the possession of specimens equal in merit to those found in some
other parts of England. At Sedgefield Church there is a fine
thirteenth-century grave-cover with a double, eight-rayed cross; it has
the rare feature of a double row of dog-tooth ornament at the head; and
it is the only stone known in the county which has the whole surface
covered with a tracery of foliage. It is, unfortunately, much weathered.
Built into the tower of the same church, and only partly visible, is
another richly ornamented cover, dating probably from the middle of the
fourteenth century, the foliated ornament being more naturally shown, or
less conventionalized, than in earlier examples. It bears a sword and a
cross moline on a small shield.
The symbolism used on grave-covers is not well understood. A key is said
to indicate a woman, a sword a man; shears sometimes represent a woman,
sometimes a wool-stapler; a chalice or a book, or both, are placed on
the gravestone of a priest or other ecclesiastic. Craftsmen are often
indicated by some sign of their business, as a square for a mason, a
horseshoe or a hammer for a smith. Sometimes a merchant uses his
trade-mark much as an armigerous person uses his coat of arms. Built
into the south porch of St. Mary’s Church in Gateshead there are two
large grave-covers bearing incised crosses. One of them, a
fourteenth-century slab, has at one side of the stem of the cross a key,
and at the other side a fish. Most authorities think that the fish is
the mystic symbol of our Saviour, which was so dear to the early
Christians, and which is frequently found on the gravestones in the
catacombs at Rome; but other antiquaries consider that the stone is to
be more literally interpreted, and that it covered the remains of a
fish-wife.
The earlier grave-covers were stone lids for stone coffins, but after
the use of stone coffins was discontinued, and wooden coffins were
substituted, the remains of the dead were often covered by these carved
stone slabs. The larger part of them are uninscribed, but grave-covers
with a few lines cut on them are by no means uncommon. At Gainford there
is a perfect grave-cover of the fourteenth century which bears a chalice
and three floreated crosses, one large and two small. It has been
suggested that these prove this to have been the burial-place of an
ecclesiastic and two children, for burial in a monk’s frock or in the
grave of a priest was long considered by all classes of people to be
desirable. This stone, though it is of early fourteenth-century period,
bears an inscription to Laurence Brockett, Regius Professor of Modern
History at Cambridge, who died in 1768. His executors seem to have
thought that an old gravestone was just as good as a new one.
Of quaint sepulchral inscriptions there are many in the county. The one
in Monkwearmouth Church to the memory of a Mrs. Lee is on a small marble
tablet on the vestry wall. It reads:
HEERE VNDER LYETH Yᴱ BODDYE OF MARY LEE
DAVGHTER TO PETER DELAVALE LATE OF
TINMOVTH GENT SHEE DIED IN CHYLDBED
YE 23 OF MAY 1617
HAPIE IS Yᵀ SOVLE Yᵀ HEERE
ON EARTH DID LIVE A HARMLESS LYFE
& HAPPIE MAYD Yᵀ MADE
SOE CHAST AN HONNEST WIFE.
It is strange that a lawyer "of ability and integrity" should not be
able to make himself a sound will. In Greatham Chapel there is an
inscription: "In memory of Ralph Bradley, Esq. an eminent Councillor at
Law, born in this parish, who bequeathed a large fortune, acquired in a
great measure by his abilities and integrity, to the purchasing of books
calculated to promote the interests of virtue and religion, and the
happiness of mankind. He died the 28th day of December 1788, in the 72d
year of his age...." Below, on a copper plate, is: "By a decree of
Edward Lord Thurlow, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, on the 2ᵈ
day of August 1791, the charitable intention mentioned above was set
aside in favour of the next of kin."
In Stockton Church we may read that on "Wednesday the 19th of May 1773
was here interred the body of Mrs. Sarah Baker ... aged 59. Do thou
reflect in time; death itself is nothing, but prepare to be you know not
what, to go you know not where."
At Houghton-le-Spring stands the massy altar-tomb of the great Bernard
Gilpin, "the apostle of the North," that sweet-natured, fearless, and
humble-minded man who so narrowly escaped a martyr’s death at the stake.
The tomb bears his coat of arms and the following:
BERNERD OBIT QVA
GILPIN RE [A bear with a crescent on its side, RTV DIE M
CTOR HV leaning against a tree.] ARTII AN.
IVS ECCLIÆ DOM. 1583.
See here his Dust shut up whose Generous mind
No stop before in Honours path could find.
Truth Faith and Justice, and a Loyall Heart
In him Showd Nature, which in most is Art.
In the same church of Houghton-le-Spring there is the following epitaph:
"Here Lyes interr’d the Body of Nicolas Conyers Esqʳ. High Sheriff of
this County Chiefe of yᵉ Family of Conyers of the House of Boulby in
Yorkshire. He dyed at South Biddick Mar: 27 A.D. 1689 his age 57." Below
is his crest.
At Houghton Hall Robert Hutton, a zealous Puritan and a Captain in
Cromwell’s army, was buried in his own orchard, where his altar-tomb is
inscribed: "HIC JACET ROBERTVS HVTTON ARMIGER QVI OBIIT AVG. DIE NONO
1681 ET MORIENDO VIVIT."
In the Galilee Chapel at the west end of Durham Cathedral there is a
stone on the floor inscribed:
JOHN BRIMLEIS BODY HERE DOTH LY,
WHO PRAY SED GOD WITH HAND AND VOICE;
BY MUSICKES HEAVENLY HARMONIE
DULL MINDS HE MAID IN GOD REJOICE.
HIS SOUL INTO THE HEAVENS IS LYFT
TO PRAISE HIM STILL THAT GAVE THE GYFT.
This Brimley was master of the Song School at Durham Cathedral.
That mighty builder, Hugh Pudsey, who was Bishop of Durham from 1153 to
1195, seems to have had a fellow-worker who pleased him in the person of
Christian the Mason, whose grave-cover is at Pittington. One wonders
whether it was after Christian had built for the Bishop the stout
fortifications of Durham Castle, or whether it was when he had finished
the beautiful Galilee Chapel of the cathedral, that Pudsey gave him, as
we know he did, forty acres in the moor at South Sherburn, besides other
lands, "quit of all rent whilst he should remain in the service of the
bishop." Pudsey’s own tomb in Durham Cathedral is broken and dispoiled,
but Christian the Mason’s grave-cover at Pittington can still be read:
✠NOMEN ABENS CRISTI TVMVLO TVMVLATVR IN ISTO
✠QVI TVMVLVM CERNIT COMMENDET CVM PRECE CRISTO,
which may be interpreted: "One having the name of Christ is buried here.
Let him who beholds the grave commend himself with prayer to Christ."
In the churchyard of St. Hild’s at Hartlepool, about 6 feet from the
east wall of the modern chancel, there is an old altar-tomb covered with
a very large slab of bluish stone. If it has ever been inscribed the
lettering is now utterly weathered off, but it has the lion of Bruce on
the uprights at the sides still faintly visible. This is the
resting-place of the fathers of Robert Bruce. They owned Hart and
Hartlepool for many generations before Robert Bruce claimed the crown of
Scotland in 1306. His lands in the county of Durham were then seized and
given to the Cliffords. In Easington Church there is an effigy of a lady
in thirteenth-century costume, which probably represents Isabella, first
wife of John Fitz-Marmaduke. She was the daughter of Robert de Brus of
Skelton, and the sister of Robert Bruce, King of Scotland.
Coming last to the ordinary inscriptions on the tombstones and
headstones of our churchyards, one of the first things that strikes an
observer is the large number of cases where, though the stone remains,
the inscription is wholly or partly weathered off and lost; such cases
are an occasion of woe to the genealogist. In looking through a country
churchyard it will often be found that 10 per cent. of the stones are
unreadable. This is generally because a soft and unsuitable stone has
been used. Some slate-stones stand well; limestones and marbles only
last while they are in a church, rain and slight traces of acid in the
atmosphere soon disintegrate them out of doors. Granite will probably
endure very long, but it has been little used in Durham churchyards, and
only since about 1860. Sandstones are most generally used, and some of
these, of a close-grain and of a dark colour when old, stand exceedingly
well. The fell sandstones, or hassells, used in the west of the county,
are almost as hard as granite. They are very difficult to cut, so the
lettering on them is often quite shallow; but stones 200 years old are
quite unaffected by weather. Soft sandstones, which are easily cut,
either crumble and decay gradually, or in some cases they scale off in
flakes and perish very quickly. It is common to see two stones of about
the same date, standing side by side, one of which is sound and clear,
while the other cannot be read. Frequently one finds a stone where,
owing to differences of hardness, one part of the inscription is sharp
and legible, while other parts are completely gone.
Along the parishes on the coast of the county the wanderer cannot fail
to be struck with the constant repetition of the words, "Lost at sea,"
and if he should turn to the registers of these parishes and read the
many entries like, "A woman at ye sea side found drowned," "A man cast
upon our sands by the sea," "Foure Duchmen wth a woman and a childe
being drowned by shipwrack were buried in this Churchyard," he will
learn what a heavy tithe the sea takes from the land, and how high is
the price that man pays for the sovereignty of the sea.
Punning epitaphs are, fortunately, not numerous in the county. Here is
one, from Stockton, to the memory of two masons, "Ralph Wood, who
departed this life Oct. 22, 1730, in the 67th year of his age. Here
lieth the Body of Ralph Wood, aged 67, 1743.
"We that have made tombs for others,
Now here we lie;
Once we were two flourishing Woods,
But now we die."
THE CASTLES AND HALLS OF DURHAM
BY HENRY R. LEIGHTON
Although the county of Durham is not studded with castles and peels like
its northern neighbour, nor decked with many ancient homes in a still
picturesque and habitable condition, like the moors and valleys of York,
it is still fairly rich in buildings of historic and antiquarian
interest.
The banks of the Wear alone, if followed from the source to the mouth,
may be compared to some miniature Rhine in picturesqueness. The
mountainous scenery of Weardale, and the frequent woods and plantations
that ornament the banks of its lower reaches, the castles of Stanhope,
Witton, Auckland, Brancepeth, Durham, Lumley, Lambton, and Hilton,
rising in a stately succession, to say nothing of the glorious old
cathedral, the monastic ruins of Finchale, and the grey old tower of
Wearmouth, make a panorama unrivalled in its way. It may, however, be
remarked in all fairness that almost every English stream can tell a
similar story, and for a vision, in homely and familiar buildings, of a
glorious past our England stands unrivalled.
The first-named of the above mansions, Stanhope Castle, stands upon the
site of a fortified house existing in the time of Bishop Anthony Bek.
The present building is, however, a Georgian structure erected about a
century ago by Cuthbert Rippon, M.P. for Gateshead. The old home of
[Illustration: WITTON CASTLE IN 1779.]
the Fetherstonhaughs, so long associated with this district, Stanhope
Hall, is an Elizabethan mansion with several panelled rooms, and is now
divided amongst a number of tenants.
Witton Castle, erected by the great baronial house of Eure, stands on
the south side of the river, not very far from Witton-le-Wear. It was
erected somewhere about 1410, for in that year Bishop Langley granted a
pardon to Sir Ralph Eure for having commenced to embattle his
manor-house at Witton. It originally consisted of a square bailey,
surrounded by an outer wall, with a projecting keep on the north side.
The keep has been considerably altered at various periods. It is oblong
in shape, with corner turrets rising above the roof. The basement
consists of one barrel-vaulted apartment, with adjoining chambers in the
north-west, south-west, and south-east turrets; the entrances to two of
these were originally fastened on the outer side. The first floor is the
great hall, and has doorways leading into chambers in the turrets.
Another door in the north-east corner leads to a newel staircase
ascending to the battlements. The room immediately over the east end of
the great hall has a doorway opening into a small mural chamber,
originally a latrine, in the north-east turret. This floor has a passage
in the thickness of the west wall. The parapets are reached by the
staircase already referred to. The turrets at the north-east and
south-east corners project like angle buttresses, and the latter has two
figures in armour, similar to those at Hilton Castle, standing on the
parapet. The north-west turret is larger, and its sides are parallel
with the walls of the keep. The south-west turret is still larger, and
it projects beyond the south front, having its west wall continued in
line with that of the main building. All the turrets have crenellated
parapets. The eastern turrets have their alternate sides machicolated on
double corbels.
The outer wall has two gateways, one on the east, and the other on the
west side, leading into the courtyard. Both are defended by machicolated
galleries above, the parapet being carried outwards on double corbels.
The whole wall is defended by a broad battlement with a high parapet
round the top. There are embrasures at intervals, each originally
defended by movable shutters; a round socket on one side, and a slot on
the other, remain to show where the pivots moved. A number of round
holes in the walls were intended to support woodwork on which platforms
could be erected, thus enabling the garrison to strike at attackers
below.
Each angle of this outer or curtain wall was originally strengthened by
a bartizan. Three of these were circular, but one, that at the
north-west corner, was pulled down in the early days of last century.
The fourth bartizan, that at the south-west corner of the wall, is
almost square in shape, with the outer walls projecting and resting on
corbels. It contains a guardroom, with a fireplace, and two doors
opening on to the adjoining battlements. The south-east bartizan also
contains a room, circular in shape, with a loopholed wall. About a
century ago the castle was unfortunately damaged by fire. It was
afterwards restored by Mr. J. T. H. Hopper, the owner.
Tracing the river eastwards, the ancient home and palace of the Bishops
and Lords Palatine stands close to the river and to the east of Auckland
town.
Robert de Graystanes, one of the early chroniclers, states that Bishop
Anthony Bek erected the manor-house at Auckland, but from several
entries in the Boldon Book it is evident that the Bishops had a
residence there at the time that record was drawn up.
The existing buildings are extensive, and are approached from the
market-place through a castellated gateway. One of the most prominent
and interesting features is the chapel, which was originally the great
hall. It was adapted for its present purpose and consecrated by Bishop
Cosin. Prior to the great Civil War, there were two chapels, variously
referred to, and as early as 1338, as the major and the minor. One of
these was over the other, and they stood to the south of the castle
proper, near to a postern which opened on to a road outside the park.
When for a while the Episcopal Church was abolished by a Puritan
Government, and the old story of spiteful spoliation began, Auckland
Palace was sold to Sir Arthur Heslerigg for £6,102 8s. 11½d. This
redoubtable worthy appears to have dismantled a considerable portion of
the buildings. He blew up the chapels,[11] and commenced to alter the
place to suit his own ideas.
It seems probable that Sir Arthur left his projected buildings in an
unfinished state, for when Bishop Cosin came to his diocese at the
Restoration, he wrote that the castle "had been pul’d down and ruined."
The Bishop commenced an extensive restoration, and a number of
interesting letters and agreements have been preserved showing the
progress made.