 9. The poem of the White Dough of Rylstone is founded on a local tradition, and on the ballad in Purse's collection entitled The Rising of the North. The tradition is as follows. About this time, not long after the dissolution, a white dough, say the aged people of the neighborhood, long continued to make a weekly pilgrimage from Rylstone over the fells of Bolton, and it was constantly found in the Abbey Churchyard during Divine service, after the close of which she returned home as regularly as the rest of the congregation, Dr Whittaker's History of the Deenery of Craven. Rylstone was the property and residence of the Nortons, distinguished in that ill-advised and unfortunate insurrection which led me to connect with this tradition the principal circumstances of their fate, as recorded in the ballad which I have thought it proper to annex. 9. The Rising in the North. The subject of this ballad is the great northern insurrection in the twelfth year of Elizabeth, 1569, which proved so fatal to Thomas Percy, the seventh Earl of Northumberland. There had not long before been a secret negotiation entered into between some of the Scottish and English nobility to bring about a marriage between Mary, Queen of Scots, at that time a prisoner in England, and the Duke of Norfolk, a nobleman of excellent character. This match was proposed to all the most considerable of the English nobility, and among the rest, to the earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, two noblemen very powerful in the north. As it seemed to promise a speedy and safe conclusion of the troubles in Scotland, with many advantages to the crown of England, they all consented to it, provided it should prove agreeable to Queen Elizabeth. The Earl of Leicester, Elizabeth's favourite, undertook to break the matter to her, but before he could find an opportunity, the affair had come to her ears by other hands, and she was thrown into a violent flame. The Duke of Norfolk, with several of his friends, was committed to the tower, and summons were sent to the northern earls instantly to make their appearance at court. It is said that the Earl of Northumberland, who is a man of mild and gentle nature, Camden expressly says that he was violently attached to the Catholic religion, was deliberating with himself whether he should not obey the message, and rely upon the Queen's candour and clemency, when he was forced into desperate measures by a sudden report at midnight, November the 14th, that a party of his enemies were come to seize his person. The Earl was then at his house at Topcliff in Yorkshire, when, rising hastily out of bed, he withdrew to the Earl of Westmoreland at Branspeth, where the country came into them and pressed them to take up arms in their own defence. They accordingly set up their standards, declaring their intent was to restore the ancient religion, to get the succession of the crown firmly settled, and to prevent the destruction of the ancient nobility, etc. Their common banner, on which was displayed the cross, together with the five wounds of Christ, was borne by an ancient gentleman, Richard Norton Esquire, who, with his sons, among whom Christopher Marmaduke and Thomas are expressly named by Camden, distinguished himself on this occasion. Having entered Durham, they tore the Bible, etc., and caused mass to be said there. They then marched on to Cliffordmore near Weatherby, where they mustered their men. The two Earls who spent their larger states in hospitality, and were extremely beloved on that account, were masters of little ready money. The Earl of Northumberland, bringing with him only eight thousand crowns, and the Earl of Westmoreland nothing at all for the subsistence of their forces, they were not able to march to London as they had first intended. In these circumstances Westmoreland began so visibly to despond that many of his men slunk away, though Northumberland still kept up his resolution, and was master of the field till December the 13th, when the Earl of Sussex accompanied with Lord Hunston and others, having marched out of York at the head of a large body of forces, and being followed by a still larger army under the command of Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick, the insurgents retreated northward towards the borders, and their dismissing their followers made their escape into Scotland. Though this insurrection had been suppressed with so little bloodshed, the Earl of Sussex and Sir George Bowes, marshal of the army, put vast numbers to death by martial law, without any regular trial. The former of these caused at Durham sixty-three constables to be hanged at once, and the latter made his boast that for sixty miles in length and forty in breadth betwixt Newcastle and Weatherby, there was hardly a town or village wherein he had not executed some of the inhabitants. This exceeds the cruelties practised in the West after Monmouth's rebellion, such as the accounts collected from Stowe, Speed, Camden, Guthrie, Cart and Rappin. It agrees in most particulars with the following ballad, apparently the production of some northern minstrel. Listen, lively lordlings all, live and listen unto me, and I will sing of a noble Earl, the noblest Earl in the North Country. Earl Percy is into his garden gone, and after him walks his fair lady, I heard a bird sing in my ear, that I must either fight off Lee. Now heaven forfend, my dearest lord, that ever such harm should happen to thee, but go to London to the court, and fair fall truth and honesty. Now nay, now nay, my lady gay, alas, thy council suits not me, mine enemies prevail so fast, that at the court I may not be. O go to the court yet, good my lord, and take thy gallant men with thee, if any dare to do you wrong, then your warrants they may be. Now nay, now nay, thou lady fair, the court is full of subtlety, and if I go to the court, lady, never more I may thee see. Yet go to the court, my lord, she says, and I myself will ride with thee. At court, then, for my dearest lord, his faithful borough I will be. Now nay, now nay, my lady dear, far lever had I lose my life, than leave among my cruel foes, my love in jeopardy and strife. But come thou hither, my little foot-page, come thou hither unto me, to my stern orton thou must go, in all the haste that ever may be. Commend me to that gentleman, and bear this letter here from me, and say that earnestly I pray he will ride in my company. One while the little foot-page went, and another while he ran, until he came to his journey's end, the little foot-page never bland. When to that gentleman he came, down he kneeled on his knee, and took the letter betwixt his hands, and let the gentleman it see. And when the letter it was read, before that goodly company, I wish, if you the truth would know, there was many a weeping eye. He said, come hither, Christopher Norton, a gallant youth thou seem to be, what dost thou counsel me, my son, now that the good earls in jeopardy? Father, my counsel's fair and free, that earl he is a noble lord, and whatsoever to him you height, I would not have you break your word. Gramercy, Christopher, my son, thy counsel well it likeeth me, and if we speed and scape with life, well advanced shalt thou be. Come you hither, my nine good sons, gallant men I trough you be, how many of you, my children dear, will stand by that good earl and me. Eight of them did answer make, eight of them spake hastily, O Father, till the day we die, we'll stand by that good earl and thee. Gramercy now, my children dear, you show yourselves right, bold and brave, and where so ere I live or die, a Father's blessing you shall have. But what says thou, O Francis Norton, thou art mine eldest son and heir? Somewhat lies brooding in thy breast, whatever it be, to me declare. Father, you are an aged man, your head is white, your beard is gray. It were a shame at these your years for you to rise in such a fray. Now, fire upon thee, coward Francis, thou never learns this of me. When thou wert young and tender of age, why did I make so much of thee? But, Father, I will wend with you unarmed and naked will I be, and he that strikes against the crown, ever an ill death may he dee. Then rose that reverend gentleman, and with him came a goodly band to join with the brave Earl Percy and all the flowerer Northumberland. With them the noble Neville came, the Earl of Westmoreland was he. At Wetherby they mustered their host, thirteen thousand fair to see. Lord Westmoreland his ancient raised, the Dunbull he raised on high, and three dogs with golden collars were there set out most royally. Earl Percy there his ancients spread, the half-moon shining all so fair. The Norton's ancients had the cross, and the five wounds our Lord did bear. Then to George Bose he straight away rose, after them some spoil to make. Those noble earls turned back again, and I they vowed that night to take. That barren he to his castle fled to Barnard Castle, then fled he. The uttermost walls were eath to win, the earls have won them presently. The uttermost walls were lime and brick, but though they won them soon and on, longer they won their innermost walls, for they were cut in rock and stone. Then news on to leave London came, in all the speed that ever might be, and word is brought to our royal queen of the rising in the North Country. Her grace she turned her round about, and like a royal queen she swore, I will ordain them such a breakfast, as never was in the North before. She caused thirty thousand men be raised, with horse and harness fair to see. She caused thirty thousand men be raised, to take the earls of the North Country. With them the false Earl Warwick went, Earl Sussex and the Lord Hunsdon, until they to York Castle came, I wish they never stint neblan. Thou spread thy ancient Westmilland, thy Dunbull feign would we spy, and thou the Earl of Northumberland, now raise thy half-moon on high. But the Dunbull is fled and gone, and the half-moon vanished away. The earls though they were brave and bold, against so many could not stay. Thee, Norton, with thine eight good sons, they doomed to die, alas, for Ruth. By reverend locks they could not save, nor them, their fair and blooming youth. With them full many a gallant white, they cruelly bereaved of life, and many a child made fatherless, and widowed many a tender wife. Bolton Priory, says Dr Whittaker in his excellent book, The History and Antiquities of the Deenery of Craven, stands upon a beautiful curvature of the wharf, on a level sufficiently elevated to protect it from inundations, and low enough for every purpose of picturesque effect. Opposite to the east window of the Priory Church, the river washes the foot of a rock nearly perpendicular, and of the richest purple, where several of the mineral beds which break out, instead of maintaining their usual inclination to the horizon, are twisted by some inconceivable process into undulating and spiral lines. To the south all is soft and delicious, the eye reposes upon a few rich pastures, a moderate reach of the river sufficiently tranquil to form a mirror to the sun, and the bounding hills beyond, neither too near nor too lofty to exclude, even in winter any portion of his rays. But after all the glories of Bolton are on the north, whatever the most fastidious taste could require to constitute a perfect landscape is not only found here but in its proper place. In front and immediately under the eye is a smooth expanse of park-like enclosure, spotted with native elm, ash, etc., of the finest growth, on the right a skirting oakwood with jutting points of grey rock, on the left a rising copse. Still forward has seen the aged groves of Bolton Park, the growth of centuries, and farther yet the barren and rocky distances of Simon Seats and Barden Fell, contrasted with the warmth, fertility, and luxuriant foliage of the valley below. About a half mile above Bolton the valley closes, and either side of the wharf is overhung by solemn woods, from which huge perpendicular masses of grey rock jut out at intervals. This sequestered scene was almost inaccessible, till of late, the drydings have been cut on both sides of the river, and the most interesting points laid open by judicious thinnings in the woods. Here a tributary stream rushes from a waterfall and bursts through a woody glen to mingle its waters with the wharf. There the wharf itself is nearly lost in a deep cleft in the rock, and next becomes a horned flood enclosing a woody island. Sometimes it reposes for a moment and then resumes its native character, lively, irregular, and impetuous. The cleft mentioned above is the tremendous strid. This chasm, being incapable of receiving the winter floods, has formed on either side a broad strand of naked grit stone, full of rock basins or pots of the lin, which bear witness to the restless impetuosity of so many northern torrents. But if here wharf is lost to the eye, it amply repays another sense by its deep and solemn roar, like the voice of the angry spirit of the waters, heard far above and beneath, amidst the silence of the surrounding woods. The terminating object of the landscape is the remains of Barden Tower, interesting from their form and situation, and still more so from the recollections which they excite. Canto First From Bolton's Older Monastic Tower It is to be regretted that at the present day Bolton Abbey wants this ornament, but the poem, according to the imagination of the poet, is composed in Queen Elizabeth's time. Formally, says Dr Whittaker, over the transept was a tower. This is proved not only from the mention of bells at the dissolution, when they could have had no other place, but from the pointed roof of the choir, which must have terminated westward in some building of superior height to the ridge. A Rural Chapel Neatly Dressed The nave of the church, having been reserved at the dissolution for the use of the Saxton Cure, is still a parochial chapel, and at this day is as well kept as the neatest English Cathedral. Who Sat in the Shade of the Prius Oak At a small distance from the Great Gateway stood the Prius Oak, which was felled about the year 1720, and sold for £70. According to the price of wood at that time, it could scarcely have contained less than 1,400 feet of timber. When Lady Aliza mourned The detail of this tradition may be found in Dr Whittaker's book, and in the foregoing poem, The Force of Prayer etc. The East End of the North Isle of Bolton Priory Church is a chantry belonging to Beth Messley Hall, and a vault where, according to tradition, the Claphems, who inherited this estate by the female line from the more liverers, were interred upright. John the Clapham, of whom this ferocious act is recorded, was a name of great note in his time. He was a vehement partisan of the House of Lancaster, in whom the spirit of his chieftains, the Cliffords, seemed to survive. Who Loved the Shepard Lord to Meet In the second volume of poems published by the author will be found one entitled, Song at the Feast of Broome Castle, Upon the Restoration of Lord Clifford the Shepard, to the estates and honours of his ancestors. To that poem is annexed in account of this personage, chiefly extracted from Burns and Nicholson's History of Cumberland and Westmilland. It gives me pleasure to add these further particulars concerning him from Dr Whittaker, who says, he retired to the solitude of Barden where he seems to have enlarged the tower out of a common keeper's lodge, and where he found a retreat equally favourable to taste, to instruction and to devotion. The narrow limits of his residence show that he had learned to despise the pomp of greatness, and that a small train of servants could suffice him, who had lived to the age of thirty, a servant himself. I think this nobleman resided here almost entirely when in Yorkshire, for all his charters which I have seen are dated at Barden. His early habits and the want of those artificial measures of time, which even Shepards now possess, had given him a turn for observing the motions of the heavenly bodies, and, having purchased such an apparatus as could then be procured, he amused and informed himself by those pursuits with the aid of the cannons of Bolton, some of whom I said to have been well versed in what was then known of the science. I suspect this nobleman to have been sometimes occupied in a more visionary pursuit than probably in the same company, bore from the family evidences I have met with two manuscripts on the subject of alchemy, which, from the character spelling etc., may almost certainly be referred to the reign of Henry VII. If these were originally deposited with the manuscripts of the Cliffords, it might have been for the use of this nobleman. If they were brought from Bolton at the dissolution, they must have been the work of those cannons whom he almost exclusively conversed with. In these peaceful employments, Lord Clifford spent the whole reign of Henry VII and the first years of his son. But in the year 1513, when almost sixty years old, he was appointed to a principal command over the army, which fought at Flodden, and showed that the military genius of the family had neither been chilled in him by age, nor extinguished by habits of peace. He survived the battle of Flodden ten years, and died April the 23rd, 1523, aged about seventy. I shall endeavour to appropriate to him a tomb, vault and chantry, in the choir of the Church of Bolton, as I should be sorry to believe that he was deposited when dead at a distance from the place, which in his lifetime he loved so well. By his last will he appointed his body to be interred at Shapp if he died in Westmoreland, or at Bolton if he died in Yorkshire. With respect to the cannons of Bolton, Dr Whittaker shows from manuscripts that not only alchemy but astronomy was a favourite pursuit with them. Canto III Yee Watchman upon Bransbeth Towers Bransbeth Castle stands near the River Weir, a few miles from the city of Durham. It formerly belonged to the Neville's Earls of Westmoreland. See Dr Purse's account. Have mitered Thurston what a host he conquered. See the historians for the account of this memorable battle usually denominated the battle of the standard. In that other day of Neville's Cross In the night before the battle of Durham was struck and begun, the 17th day of October, Anno 1346, there did appear to John Fossa, then prior of the Abbey of Durham, commanding him to take the Holy Corporax cloth, wherewith St Cuthbert did cover the chalice when he used the same mass, and to put the same holy relic like to a banner cloth upon the point of a spear, and the next morning to go and repair to a place on the west side of the city of Durham called the Red Hills, where the maids bower want to be, and there to remain and abide till the end of the battle, to which vision the prior obeying, and taking the same for a revelation of God's grace and mercy by the mediation of Holy St Cuthbert, did accordingly the next morning with the monks of the said Abbey, repair to the said Red Hills, and there most devoutly humbling and prostrating themselves in prayer for the victory in the said battle, a great multitude of the Scots running and pressing by them with intention to have spoiled them, yet had no power to commit any violence under such holy persons so occupied in prayer, being protected and defended by the mighty Providence of Almighty God, and by the mediation of Holy St Cuthbert, and the presence of the Holy Relic, and after many conflicts and warlike exploits, there had and done between the Englishmen and the King of Scots and his company, the said battle ended and the victory was obtained, to the great overthrow and confusion of the Scots, their enemies, and then the said prior and the monks accompanied with Ralph Lord Neville and John Neville his son, and the Lord Percy and many other nobles of England returned home and went to the Abbey Church, there joining in hearty prayer and thanksgiving to God and Holy St Cuthbert for the victory achieved that day. This battle was afterwards called the Battle of Neville's Cross from the following circumstance. On the west side of the city of Durham, where two roads pass each other, a most notable famous and goodly cross of stonework was erected, and set up to the honour of God for the victory there obtained in the field of battle, unknown by the name of Neville's Cross, and built at the sole cost of the Lord Ralph Neville, one of the most excellent and chief persons in the said battle. The relic of St Cuthbert afterwards became of great importance in military events, for soon after this battle says the same author, the prior caused a goodly and sumptuous banner to be made, which is then described at great length, and in the midst of the same banner cloth was the said Holy Relic and Corporax cloth enclosed etc etc, and so sumptuously finished and absolutely perfected, this banner was dedicated to Holy St Cuthbert of intent and purpose, that for the future it should be carried to any battle as occasion should serve, and was never carried and showed at any battle but by the special grace of God Almighty, and the mediation of Holy St Cuthbert. It's brought home victory, which banner cloth after the dissolution of the Abbey fell into the possession of Dean Whittingham, whose wife was called Catherine. Being a French woman, as is most credibly reported by eyewitnesses, did most injuriously burn the same in her fire to the open contempt and disgrace of all ancient and goodly relics. Extracted from a book entitled Durham Cathedral as it stood before the dissolution of the monastery, it appears from the old metrical history that the above mentioned banner was carried by the Earl of Surrey to Floddenfield. Canto 5. An edifice of warlike frame stands single, Norton tower its name. It is so called to this day and is less described by Dr Whittaker. Rylston fell yet exhibits a monument of the old warfare between the Nortans and Cliffords. On a point of very high ground commanding an immense prospect and protected by two deep ravines are the remains of a square tower, expressly said by Doddsworth to have been built by Richard Norton. The walls are of strong grout work, about four feet thick. It seems to have been three stories high. Reaches have been industriously made in all the sides, almost to the ground, to render it untenable. But Norton tower was probably a sort of pleasure house in summer, as there are adjoining to it several large mounds. Two of them are pretty entire, of which no other accounts can be given than that they were buts for large companies of arches. The place is savagely wild and admirably adapted to the uses of a watch tower. Canto 7. Dispoil and desolation, or Rylston's fair domain have blown. After the attainder of Richard Norton, his estates were forfeited to the crown, where they remain to the second or third of James. They were then granted to Francis Earl of Cumberland. For an accurate survey made at that time, several particulars have been extracted by Dr W. It appears that the mansion house was then in decay. Immediately adjoining is a close, called the Veverie, so-called undoubtedly from the French vivier, or modern Latin, vivarium. For there are near the house larger remains of a pleasure ground, such as were introduced in the earlier part of Elizabeth's time, with topiary works, fish bonds, an island, etc. The whole township was ranged by 130 red deer, the property of the Lord, which together with the wood, had, after the attainder of Mr Norton, been committed to Sir Stephen Tempest. The wood, it seems, had been abandoned to depredations, before which time it appears that the neighbourhood must have exhibited a forest-like and silven scene. In this survey, among the old tenants, is mentioned one Richard Kitchen butler to Mr Norton, who rose in rebellion with his master, and was executed at Ripon. In the Deep Fork of Amadale At the extremity of the parish of Bernsel, the valley of Wharf forks off into two great branches, one of which retains the name of Wharfdale, to the source of the river. The other is usually called Lyttondale, but more agentally and properly Amadale. Dernbroek, which runs along an obscure valley from the northwest, is derived from a teutonic word, signifying concealment, Dr Whittaker. When the bells of Rylston played their Sabbath music, God us aid. On one of the bells of Rylston Church, which seems co-evil with the building of the tower, is this cipher, J N for John Norton, and the motto, God us aid. The grassy rock encircled pound, which is thus described by Dr Whittaker. On the plain summit of the hill are the foundations of a strong wall, stretching from the southwest to the northeast corner of the tower, and to the edge of a very deep glen. From this glen, the ditch, several hundred yards long, runs south to another deep and rugged ravine. On the north and west, where the banks are very steep, no wall or mound is discoverable, pailing being the only fence that would stand on such ground. From the minstrelsy of the Scottish border, it appears that such pounds for deer, sheep, etc., were far from being uncommon in the south of Scotland. The principle of them was something like that of a wire-mouse trap. On the declivity of a steep hill, the bottom and sides of which were fenced so as to be impassable, a wall was constructed nearly level with the surface on the outside, yet so high within that without wings it was impossible to escape in the opposite direction. Care was probably taken that these enclosures should contain better feed than the neighbouring parks or forests, and whoever is acquainted with the habits of these sequitious animals will easily conceive that if the leader was once tempted to descend into the snare and herd would follow. I cannot conclude without recommending to the notice of all lovers of beautiful scenery, Bolton Abbey and its neighbourhood. This enchanting spot belongs to the Duke of Devonshire, and the superintendents of it has for some years been entrusted to the reverend William Carr, who has most skillfully opened out its features, and in whatever he has added has done justice to the place by working with an invisible hand of art in the very spirit of nature. End of Part 9. End of the White Dough of Ryleston by William Wordsworth. Read by Phil Benson in Sydney, Australia.