OviNGHAM.
PRUDHOW
CASTL£»
and to keep watch at the end ; and when the enemy approach!
to make hue-and-cry to rouze the people to fave their property*!
As this was a dangerous county to travel through, the tenants !
every manor were bound to. guard the judge through the pi
cincts, but no farther. Lord chief juftice North defcribes hisiat-
tendants -with long beards, ihort cloaks, long baiketrhiked, brad
fwords, hanging from broad belts, and mounted on little horH
fo that their legs and fwords touched the ground at every turning]
His lordlhip alfo informs us, that the Iheriff prefented' his trai|
with arms, i. e. a dagger, knife, penknife, and fork, all ton
ther -f\
A little beyond Bywell are the piers of an old bridge. J have
been informed, that workmen have remarked, that thefe piers ne^
ver had any fpriag of arches, the fuperftrufture therefore mult W
been of wood. Two or three miles farther is the village of OofJ
ham,, in which was a cell of three black canons j;, belonging to the]
monaftery of Hexham, founded by Umfranvil, baron of P r u d h o i j
the ruins of whofe caftle make a fine objeft on the oppofia
bank of the river. This family came into England with the Com
quero'r, who beftowed on Robert with the Beard the lordlhip pi
Riddefdale, to be held for ever by the fervice of defending tbej
country againft thieves and wolves with the fame fword with wj
William entered Northumberland-§, and the barony of PrudhvwrfM
the fervice of two knights fees and a half.' Odonel de UinfnnwJis
* W allh II. 148.
-f it.ifc o f Lord Keeper Guild/ora, 139,
J Tanner's Monaft. 394.
§ Dugdale?s Baron. L. 504»
140^.
r i
I, fupported in this caftle a fiege againft William I. of Scotland,
L ’was obliged to retire from before the place: but probably
¡[without damaging the caftle; for, we find this fame Odonel,
Lied of oppreffing and plundering his neighbors in order to
teir the roof. It continued in the family till the reign of Henry
when on the death of the laft, it fell by entail to the * Tallboys,
biort-lived race; for on the execution of Sir William, after the
Lie of Hexham, it became forfeited to the crown. The Duke of
ktbmnberland is the prefent owner, his right is derived from the
‘mes, who poflefied it for fome ages (admitting a few interruptions
bin attainders, to which the - name was fubjeft) but from which
ity had the merit of emerging with Angular honor.
|Ride for fome miles along the rail-roads, in which the coal is conned
oyer to the river; and pafs by numbers of coal pits. The
jkole road from Corbridge is the moft beautiful imaginable, on the
ianks of the river, which runs through a narrow vale, inclofed and
jighly cultivated. In fome parts, the borders are compofed of mean's
or corn-fields, flanked by Hopes, covered with wood. In
thers, the banks rife fuddenly above the water, cloathed with hanging
¡roves. The country is very populous, and leveral pretty feats
mbelliih the profpefts : the back view to the fouth- foon alters to
)arren and black moors, which extend far into Durham, and are, as
j f f l informed, almoft pathlefs..
Reach Newburn, a place of note preceding the conqueft. In thefe
¡arts prefided Copji, created, b y . William, Earl of Northumberland,
fcr expelling Ofulf, a governor, fubftituted by Morkar, the preced-
ngEarl. Ofulf, being defeated, and forced into woods and delerts,
* Idem. 508- :
gathered
N ew b v r k >