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uncivilised, and life and property were insecure. But we are not going to trace the history of Naworth Castle through those "dark ages." After having been possessed by the martial Dacres for two hundred and sixty years, it came with the barony of Gilsland to Lord William Howard, by his marriage to Lady Elizabeth Dacre, who inherited these possessions in 1569; and here it is perhaps worthy of remark that the Naworth property seems to have been fated to pass by an heiress-for, by the heiress of the Norman lords the estates were carried-in the reign of Henry III.—to the family of De Multon, and by the heiress of Thomas de Multon to the family of Dacre.

"Belted Will"-the last and the most picturesque of the Border lords, and the most famous of all the lords of Naworthwas the third son of that popular Duke of Norfolk who was beheaded by "good Queen Bess" for his endeavours on behalf of her royal captive, Mary Queen of Scots, whom he wished to marry, being then a widower for the third time. Lord William's mother (a second wife) was Margaret, daughter and sole heiress of Thomas Lord Audley of Walden, Lord Chancellor of England. His grandfather was the accomplished and ill-fated Surrey. He was born on the 19th of December, 1563, within a few weeks from which time his mother died; and in 1566 the duke, his father, married the widow of Thomas Lord Dacre of Gilsland and Greystoke, whose three daughters and co-heiresses—one of whom was the Elizabeth Dacre before mentioned-came in ward to the duke, and were prudently destined by him for his three sons. Lord William and his bride were born in the same year, were brought up together, and married at the early age of fourteen; and after a union of more than sixty years, he died in little more than twelve months from her death. The tyranny and malice of Queen Elizabeth, which continued him under forfeiture after the attainder of the duke, and a costly litigation for recovery of his wife's magnificent inheritance, sadly embittered his early life; but adversity in his case served to develope those qualities of energy and courage, of prudence and perseverance, which afterwards distinguished his character. The accession of James opened fairer prospects to the house of Howard, which had suffered so deeply for the attachment of the Duke of Norfolk to the ill-fated

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mother of that monarch, and for the traditional fidelity of his family to the Roman Catholic faith. The king made Lord William his lieutenant and a warden of the Marches; and he was no sooner reinstated in his property than he began the repair of the old stronghold at Naworth, which during the years of cution had fallen into decay. He seems to have been about forty years of age when he settled on the patrimony of his wife at Naworth, and the turbulent borderers soon felt the rule and presence of a great man. strengthening his castle, recovering his alienated rights by law, and prudently managing the great inheritances in Cumberland, Northumberland, and Yorkshire, which had centered in his rule, he captured and hung felons, and made his power felt by the sword. Of the lawless state of the Borders when King James came to the throne of England, we can form some idea from the mere fact that in, or not long before, those days, Northumbrian gentlemen of note employed and supported thieves and outlaws, and levied what was called "Black Mail" on those who submitted to purchase protection from the marauders, so that the Border country was a scene of rapine and desolation. Lord William maintained a garrison of a hundred and forty men, and made his name a terror to the lawless and disobedient. A dark prison-vault at the basement of the principal tower of Naworth Castle, upon the walls of which some rings remain, is a grim monument of the severity experienced by the prisoners who were

Doomed in sad durance pining to abide

The long-delay of hope from Solway's further side.

Yet, when Camden (the great antiquary) went to visit the formidable chieftain, he was found living a life of learned seclusion in his tower amid a garrison of warders. His private tastes and public charge so blended the character of scholar and soldier, that it might be said of him (as poets feigned of Sir Philip Sidney) that Mars and Mercury fell at variance whose servant he should be. Camden speaks of him as "an attentive and learned searcher into venerable antiquity." He had collected the Roman altars of the vicinity, and he copied their inscriptions for Camden. He was a lover of books and a collector of manuscripts (the spoils

of the monasteries), many of which MSS., once his property, are now treasured in the Arundel collections in the Heralds' College and British Museum, formed by the great Earl of Arundel, Lord William's nephew. Books afforded solace in the troubles of his early life, and remained dear to him in his prosperity; and the same hand that drew up a list of sixty-eight felons taken by him, and executed, edited the chronicle of Florence of Worcesterone of our old ecclesiastical historians. A large number of his books remain in his tower at Naworth; many of them are rare and early printed works, and some are grim and ponderous old volumes. He seems to have gladly exchanged strife of arms for the shadows of the tranquil Past, and to have renounced the political power and distinction that could be gained only in the dangerous precincts of a court.

The glimpses we obtain of his domestic life are very pleasing. When all their children were collected around the noble pair, sons with their wives, and daughters with their husbands, the family is said to have exceeded fifty in number. His domestic establishment was proportioned to his stately hospitalities, and he was accustomed to move about with a large body of armed retainers. He frequently visited London, and, when there, resided sometimes at Arundel House (then standing on the south side of the Strand), and sometimes in St. Martin's Lane. He seems to have travelled with at least eighteen attendants and twelve horses; and his expenses on each journey varied from 15l. to 30l. in the money of that time. The household book of his receipts and expenditure contains much curious information. His income seems to have been equivalent to about 10,000l. a-year in the money of our day, but it required all his prudent economy to make even that large sum sufficient for his great expenditure. In 1619, while the repairs of Naworth Castle were in progress, he was still so straitened that he allowed himself for pocket-money only twenty shillings a-month, which pittance he had increased in 1627 to the magnificent sum of 361. a-year! He visited the continent occasionally, in pursuit as it would seem, of health and of books; and he seems to have bought the special manufactures of the towns he passed through. He frequently (as appears from the household accounts) made

presents to his wife. "A watch for my lady," in 1624, cost four pounds; "a gown for my lady in summer," cost six pounds; "a black fan with silver handle," six shillings and eightpence; and "a fine felt hat for my lady," which cost seven shillings, occurs more than once in the steward's accounts. He bought trinkets for his daughters, and provisions for his house. "Six Turkey carpets," bought in 1619, cost six pounds three shillings; and a carpet made of "three yards of crimson velvet, with gold and silk fringe," cost altogether four pounds sixteen shillings. "Two saddle-cloths and horse-trappings for my lord," cost three pounds eighteen shillings; two silver candlesticks, ten pounds seventeen shillings; and a silver hand-bell, thirty-eight shillings. There are several payments of five shillings for "cutting and trimming my lord's beard;" a pair of silk hose for him cost thirty-eight shillings; a pair of boots, ten shillings; a silk belt for the sword, four shillings; and "a scarf for my lord to wear in riding," six shillings.

But Scott has already raised in the mind's eye a portrait of his costume by the well-known description:

Costly his garb-his Flemish ruff
Fell o'er his doublet shaped of buff,
With satin slash'd and lined;
Tawny his boot and gold his spur,
His cloak was all of Poland fur,

His hose with silver twined;

His Bilboa-blade-by March-men felt-
Hung in a broad and studded belt.

Having given peace to the Border country, and enforced the authority of law; having acquired the honourable title of "the Civiliser of the Borders;" and having consolidated a noble inheritance for his posterity, and seen his children grow to be the comfort of his age, he departed this life at Naworth, on the 20th of October, 1640, at the age of seventy-seven, leaving memories which should never fade, and a name that throws undying interest round one of the most picturesque monuments of Old England.

INCREASE OF THE ENGLISH EPISCOPATE.

["Durham County Advertiser," October 26, 1855.]

THE author of the address on which we propose to make a few remarks was for some time curate in the diocese of Durham, and is locally known for his zeal and diligence in parochial work, and for the earnestness with which his heart is given to the service and extension of the Church of England. Deploring the apathy of the people massed in great manufacturing towns, or scattered in remote country districts, with regard to the Church, and their ignorance of episcopal care, Mr. Lee has, in this pamphlet, addressed an exhortation to the Churchmen of England, with a view to an immediate increase of the episcopate, in accordance with the recommendation of the Commissioners :

:

"What untold blessings," he remarks, "might be effected among our heathen neighbours, if, in every large town, a bishop, surrounded by his staff of clergy, were at work amongst them; himself daily passing in and out, personally superintending their pastoral interests, counselling them in their difficulties, encouraging them in their trials, and supplying a centre of unity, by means of which clergy, schools, and churches, hitherto disunited and acting singly and alone, might be united in one, and made to present a compact, active, and energetic front to the mass of sin and infidelity by which they are surrounded."

A bishop so working with his staff of clergy in every great centre of population, would be a hopeful sight for England. It is one that was fully realised in this country in the early ages of her Church; and our forefathers would have shrunk with horror from the impiety of allowing the means of episcopal superin

* An Address to the Churchmen of England on the increase in the Episcopate proposed by the Cathedral Commissioners in their Third and Final Report. By the Rev. Alfred T. Lee. London: Masters.

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