Page:Hermit of Warkworth.pdf/23

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.

23

NOTES.



(1) Robert Stuart, Duke of Albany.

(2) Ralph Neville, first Earl of Westmoreland, who chiefly resided at his two castles of Brancepeth and Raby, both in the bishopric of Durham.

(3) Joan, Countess of Westmoreland, mother of the young lady, was daughter of John of Gaunt, and half sister of King Henry IV.

(4) Adjoining to the cliff which contains the Chapel of the Hermitage, are the remains of a small building, in which the hermit dwelt. This consisted of one lower apartment, with a little bedchamber over it, and is now in ruins; whereas the Chapel, cut in the solid rock, is still entire and perfect.

(5) In the little island of Coquet, near Warkworth, are still seen the ruins of a Cell, which belonged to the Benedictine monks of Tynemouth Abbey.

(6) This is a Bull’s Head, the crest of the Widdrington family. All the figures, &e. here described are still visible, only somewhat effaced with length of time.

(7) Widdrington Castle, about five miles south of Warkworth.

(8) In Lower Normandy are three places of the name of Percy; whence the family took the surname De Percy.

(9) William de Percy, (fifth in descent from Galfred or Gaffrey de Percy, son of Mainfred) assisted in the conquest of England, and had given him the large possessions in Yorkshire of Emma de Porte, (so the Norman writers name her) whose father, a great Saxon Lord, had been slain fighting along with Harold. This young lady, William, from a principle of honour and generosity, married;— for having had all her lands bestowed on him by the Conqueror, “he,” to use the words of the old Whitby Chronicle, “wedded hyr that was very heire to them, in discharging of his conscience.” He died at Mountjoy, near Jerusalem, in the first Crusade.

(10) Agnes de Percy sole heiress of her house, married Josceline de Louvaine, youngest son of Godfrey Barbatus, duke of Brabant, and brother of Queen Adeliza, second wife of King Henry I, he took the name of Percy, and was ancestor of the Earls of Northumberland. His son, Lord Richard de Percy, was one of the twenty-six barons chosen to see the Magna Charta duly observed.

(11) Wark Castle, a fortress belonging to the English, and of great note in ancient times, stood on the southern bank of the river Tweed, a little to the east of Tiviotdale, and not far from Kelso. It is now entirely destroyed.