_To the Editor._
The legend of “Syr Delavalle and the Moncke” is “owre true a tale.” The
stone syr Delavalle was compelled to erect in commemoration of this
“horryd dede” is (or rather the shattered remains of its shaft are)
still lying close to a neat farmhouse, called Monkhouse, supposed to be
built on the identical spot on which the “flagellrie” was effected, and
is often bent over by the devout lovers of monkish antiquity.
The poem was found amongst the papers of an ingenious friend, who took
pleasure in collecting such rhymes; but as he has been dead many years,
I have no means of ascertaining at what period it was written, or
whether it was the original channel through which the story has come
down to posterity. I have some confused recollection, that I heard it
stated my friend got this, and several similar ballads, from a very old
man who resided at a romantic village, at a short distance from
Tynemouth Priory, called “Holywell.” It is possible that there may be
some account of its source among my lamented friend’s papers, but as
they are very multitudinous and in a confused mass, I have never had
courage to look regularly through them. There are several other poems of
the like description the labour of copying which I may be induced to
undergo should I find that this is within the range of the _Table Book_.