WILTON CASTLE.

Durham.

WILTON Castle is one of those ancient mansions of whose foundation we have no account. Like most other buildings of this class, it has been erected in times when the sword was held in greater estimation than the pen, when strength constituted right, and when the passions of the turbulent possessors of the soil, unchecked by respect for the laws, or the common principles of justice and humanity, avenged themselves on whole districts, for the real or fancied aggressions of the neighbouring chieftains, and thus produced a necessity for making the residence of every great proprietor, or chieftain, a strong hold, with a capacious court yard, into which the cattle and other property of the surrounding tenantry might be collected upon every alarm.

This Castle formerly consisted only of one large square tower, on the north side of a capacious court, enclosed within a high and embattled wall, terraced on the inside for troops to act when occasion required, and turreted at the four corners. Three of these turrets were circular, the other square, possessing embrasures and loop-holes, and projecting so boldly from the angles of the walls that it does not immediately appear how they are supported.—The principal tower is strengthened at the north-east and south-east corners by massive buttresses, with embrasures and machicolations on the top. The machicolations are perpendicular apertures, introduced in towers, turrets, and over gateways, for the purpose of annoying a besieg

ing enemy with fire and other missiles, when a gate or the foundations of the building were too closely attempted. The south-west and north-west corners of the great tower are also strengthened by two smaller square towers, which form a part of the main building but are carried considerably above it. In the turret to the south are two small figures of uncouth workmanship. The whole of the adjoining buildings to the left of this turret are entirely new, and added by its late possessor I. T. H. Hopper, Esq. who has so thoroughly altered and beautified the interior that it is now a handsome and convenient residence.

Camden speaking of this castle says it belonged to "the Lords d'Eures, an ancient and noble family of this county (as being descended from the Lords of Clavering and Warkworth, as also by daughters from the Vesires and the Altons, Barons) who as Scotland can testifie, have been famous for their warlike gallantry; for Ketenes, a little town in the further part of Scotland, was bestowed upon them by King Edward I. for their great services; and in the last age King Henry VIII. honoured them with the title of Barons (Ralph of this family being created Baron Eure of Wilton); from them it passed by sale to the Darcies, in whose possession it now remains." Mr. Grose observes relative to this place, that "in the reign of Henry VIII., Sir Ralph Eures was warden of the marshes, and did so many valiant exploits against the Scots at Tiviotdale, that the King gave him a grant of all lands he could win from them; whereupon he invaded Scotland, but engaging with the Earl of Arran, at Hallydown hill, was thus slain, together with the Lord Ogle and many other persons of note. William Eure, brother of the second Ralph Lord Eure, was Colonel in the army of King Charles I. and was killed at the battle of Marstone Moor in Yorkshire, A. D. 1645. The last Lord Eure, who was living A. D. 1674, leaving no male issue, that family became extinct. In the time of the civil wars this castle was in the hands of Sir William Darcy; he being a royalist, it was besieged and taken by Sir Arthur Hazlerigg, governor of Auckland Castle, who sequestered the goods, but did not destroy the building, which was afterwards demolished by James Lord Darcy, of Havan, in the kingdom of Ireland, about the year 1689, who took away the lead, timber, and chimney-pieces to Sadbergh, near Richmond, with a design to build another house there, but the greatest part of the materials was afterwards sold by auction for much less than the sum paid for

pulling down and removing, &c." This castle is about four miles to the west of Bishop's Auckland, and thirteen south of Durham. About one mile to the north and west of Wilton Castle, on the opposite side of the valley, stands an ancient tower of great strength, but on a smaller scale, called Wilton Hall. This tower, with its various outbuildings, is beautifully situated on the side of a hill that rises gently from the narrow flat vale of the Wear, and commands a delightful prospect of the river, woods, castle, and high grounds, on the opposite side of the valley. It is not known by whom or when this tower was built, but its origin may safely be ascribed to nearly the same times in which Wilton Castle was erected. Wilton Hall, and the grounds about it, have lately received great embellishments from the judicious improvements and highly cultivated taste of their present possessor, Newbey Lowson, Esq.

The following account of an old English hall, in one of the notes to the poem of Rokeby, is so admirably given, that I shall insert it, as affording an excellent specimen of the interior of the ancient houses of our nobility and gentry, such as they existed in times, although not very remote, considered not sufficiently settled to admit their houses being left totally defenceless. "Little-cote House stands in a low and lonely situation. On three sides it is surrounded by a park that spreads over the adjoining hill: on the fourth by meadows which are watered by the river Kennet. Close on one side of the house is a thick grove of lofty trees, along the verge of which runs one of the principal avenues to it through the park. It is an irregular building of great antiquity, and was probably erected about the time of the termination of feudal warfare, when defence became no longer an object in a country mansion. Many circumstances, however, in the interior of the house, seem appropriate to feudal times. The hall is very spacious, floored with stones, and lighted by large transom windows, that are clothed with casements. Its walls are hung with old military accoutrements, that have long been left a prey to rust. At one end of the hall is a range of coats of mail and helmets, and there is on every side abundance of old-fashioned pistols and guns, many of them with matchlocks. Immediately below the cornice hangs a row of leathern jerkins, made in form of a shirt, supposed to have been worn as armour by the vassals. A large oak table, reaching nearly from one end of the room to the other, might have feasted the whole neighbourhood, and an appendage to one end of it made it answer

at other times for the old game of Shuffleboard. The rest of the furniture is in a suitable style, particularly an arm chair of cumbrous workmanship, constructed of wood, curiously turned, with a high back and triangular seat, said to have been used by Judge Popham, in the reign of Elizabeth. The entrance into the hall is at one end by a low door, communicating with a passage that leads from the outer door in the front of the house to a quadrangle within: (I think there is a chapel on one side of it, but am not sure). At the other it opens upon a gloomy staircase, by which you ascend to the first floor, and, passing the doors of some bed chambers, enter a narrow gallery, which extends along the back front of the house from one end to the other of it, and looks upon an old garden. This gallery is hung with portraits, chiefly in the Spanish dresses of the sixteenth century."-Little-cote House is two miles from Hungerford in Berkshire, through which the Bath road Of the buff coats alluded to in the above description, Grose says, in his Military Antiquities:"In the reign passes. of king James the First, no great alterations were made in the article of defensive armour, except that the buff coat, or jerkin, which was originally worn under the cuirass, now became frequently a substitute for it, it having been found that a good buff leather would of itself resist the stroke of a sword; this, however, only occasionally took place among the light armed cavalry and infantry, complete suits of armour being still used among the heavy horse. Buff coats continued to be worn by the city trained bands till within the memory of persons now living, so that defensive armour may, in some measure, be said to have terminated in the same materials with which it began; that is, the skins of animals or leather." A dispute, which took place immediately after the restoration between a justice of the peace and an old captain of Oliver Cromwell's, throws great light on the estimation in which these leathern garments were held. It is mentioned, in the memoirs of Captain Hodgson, as follows:-" A party of horse came to my house, commanded by Mr. Peebles; and he told me he was come for my arms, and that I must deliver them. I asked him for his order. He told me he had a better order than Oliver used to give; and, clapping his hand upon his sword hilt, he said that was his order. I told him if he had none but that, it was not sufficient to take my arms; and then he pulled out his warrant, and I read it. It was signed by Wentworth Armitage, a general warrant to search all persons they suspected, and so left the

power to the soldiers at their pleasure. They came to us at Walley-hall, about sun-setting; and I caused a candle to be lighted, and conveyed Peebles into the room where my arms were: my arms were rear the kitchen fire; and there they took away fowling-pieces, pistols, muskets, carbines, and such like, better than £20. Then Mr. Peebles asked me for my buff coat; and I told him they had no order to take away my apparel. He told me I was not to dispute their orders; but if I would not deliver it, he would carry me away prisoner, and had me out of doors. Yet he let me alone unto next morning, that I must wait upon Sir John at Halifax; and, coming before him, he threatened me, and said, if I did not send the coat, for it was too good for me to keep. I told him it was not in his power to demand my apparel; and he, growing into a fit, called me rebel and traitor, and said, if I did not send the coat with all speed, he would send me where I did not like well. I told him I was no rebel, and he did not well to call me so before these soldiers and gentlemen, to make me the mark for every one to shoot at. I departed the room; yet, notwithstanding all the threatenings, did not send the coat. But the next day he sent John Lyster, the son of Mr. Thomas Lyster, of Shipden Hall, for this coat with a letter verbatim, thus—' I admire you will play the child so with me as you have done, in writing such an inconsiderate letter; let me have the buff coat sent forthwith, otherwise you shall so hear from me as will not very well please you.' I was not at home when this messenger came; but I had ordered my wife not to deliver it; but if they would take it let them look to it; and he took it away, and one of Sir John's brethren wore it many years after. They sent Captain Butt to compound with my wife about it; but I sent word I would have my own again; but he advised me to take a price for it, and make no more ado. I said it was hard to take my arins and apparel too; I had laid out a good deal of money for them; I hoped they did not mean to destroy me, by taking my goods illegally from me. He said he would make up the matter if I pleased betwixt us; and it seems had brought Sir John to a price for my coat. I would not have taken £10. for it; he would have given about £4. but wanting my receipt for the money he kept both sides, and I had never satisfaction."