Page:History and characteristics of Bishop Auckland.djvu/35

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18 mSTORT OP BISHOP AUCKLAOT). We give, also, the following extract jfrom a letter, dated 1551, the year in which Tunstall was committed to the Tower on a charge of treason, which is sufficiently expressive of its purport, without any comment : — We went to the Bnsahop's house at AnkLund, and came secretly and shortley, so no man knew, and calling the Chancelloi^s Surveyor and Dr. Ridley, which only had the hole ordre of the house and were most privy to their doings^ and immediatle toke of them the keyes of my Lord's lodgmgs, and their own chambers, and sent two trusty gent, to kepe the Bp's house at Stockton, and let no man enter — ^the boke De different a regis et ecclesics poUstate^ and a boke he had himself penned — sent all the writings to the King's Grace and you, enclosed in a basket, and afterwards weni to Duresme, and found in a very secret place in the Abbei ccc]j7. 2J«. v^W., taking an inventory. We marvelled we found so little value — he must have mad all things dere therfor beforehand- --only found in money at Aukland £11. lU. Westmoseland, Hbnst Combbeland, To the worshipful Mr. Tho. Cbumwell. Thomas Cliffobd. From the account rolls of Bishop Tunstall, which are very lengthy and contain a perfect enumeration of all the various offices of the See, with their respective emoluments, it would appear that he built many additions to the Manor-house at Auckland, and finished much which Kuthall had begun. In his will he says : — Wheras I found the houses and dwellings of the landes belonging to the Bishoprick of Duresme in such and almost total ruin, that I had not one house at my first coming to lye drye in, which I have by grete cost and labour so repared as bothe the county doth knowe, and the thinge will shew itself, and had never one peny of dilapidacions of any of my predecessors, and for my brief time have made so grete coste, I think I ought of reason not to pay any thing for dilapidacion to my successors. Under the date 1537-8, we find the following : — For maykinge of the barrys overthwerde the hall in Awklande, wher the prisoners was reyngnyd (arraigned), on day, after 8d. the day, 8d. For nayles for the same, 2d. '^ For maykyng the barre for reyngnyng of the prisoners." The prisoners above alluded to were, no doubt, persons who had been concerned in the rebellion (which was a movement for the restoration of the monasteries) that was raging in the Northern Counties the year previous, called " The Pilgrimage of Grace," and for whose trial a commission sat at Auckland TunstaU contributed much to the learning and science of his country. He was driven into exile, and died in solitude and beggary in London, shorn of everything but his kindly heart and honest fame. He was succeeded in the See of Durham by. a man, if history speaks true, of a very different stamp. James Pilkington, who was appointed to the See in 1561, is described as a man strict even to austerity — ^whose manners were cold and forbidding, and who detested cap and surplice even more than anti-Christ During the time of his episcopate he demolished and defaced most of the ancient manor-houses belonging to the See, and broke the beUs of the college at Auckland and sold and converted them to his own use. In the lower part of the college, where divine service had been duly celebrated, he made a bowling alley; and in the house above the college, which before that time had been used for divine service upon general festival days, he built a pair of butts, in which two places he allowed both shooting and bowling. The same old writer (whom we have been quoting) further says, after enumerating many more dilapidations committed by him — " And finally he sold all the great woods in Bentfehyd, so that, in conclusion, he built nothing, but plucked down in all places, saving a certain odd reparation of the wooden gates, and a stable at Auckland." 1561-2. Manor of Awkland. For building a bame there of v^'. roomes of post and panne. Sum £27 15a Id. — For a gryndstone with an aasell tre of yron and a croke, 3s. 8d. — For working tymber for the gaits at Awkland, 228. — For making a new stare and a dore out of the greate chamber into the courte, 7s. 2d. The Eaxl of Winchester held the office of ^^ Capitalis pincerna under the Crown at this tune, and writes the following letter in that capacity : — Digitized by Google