Sir Walter then upstarted strayghte At Pyrkyne's harshe decree, Cry'd, If that be a poore mann's fate, For he had many a want I weene, His rayment thynne, his stomache keene, But I'll desemble now no more, I was the beggar at thy doore, Who su'd with pytyous cryes. Who drench'd with rayne, and pynch'd with colde, Who feygn'd to be bothe poore and olde, Confusion flush'd on Pyrkyne's face, He had no worde to saye, Guilte made him feele his owne disgrace, Sir Walter then coulde playnly see, That Pyrkyne was afrayde, He looked on him steedfastlye And thus to him he sayde. Well may'st thou blushe, well may'st thou bende, While I thy shame reveale; If thou wou'dst wish me still thy friende, This fayre young damsell give to me, There is no other waye To recompence the injurie Thou didst me yesterdaye. I ask no treasure thou cans't give For had I myllyons to receive, I value Rachel more. She has a mynde that's rycher farre If lovely Rachel can approve She to a stately hall shall move, At lengthe the tymorous Rachel spake If you would make her ladye fyne Where qualitie in splendoure shyne, When they shall meete with one so lowe Sir Walter then in warmth reply'de, When I thy wealthe shall bring to view Thy qualities so rare, Foul Envie shall their hearts bestrewe, To see such virtue there. It is too much then, Rachel cry'de, If you in others vyrtue love, You must have vyrtue too; If truthe in others you approve, Then if my father yields consente, My hand shall readie be; For ladies fine would sore repente Now Pyrkyne he uplifted was If this be not the happiest day May ev'ry rising hope decay, To that fayre mayde shall praise be sung, Around her neck shall gems be hung, STOCK OF NEVILL, EARLS OF NORTHUMBERLAND, AND OF ITS DESCENDANTS, EARLS OF WESTMORELAND, &C., AND TERRITORIAL LORDS OF RABY, BRANSPETH, AND BARNARD CASTLES, IN THE PALATINATE. BY W. E. SURTEES, ESQ., D. C. L. HE primitive and continued connection of the house of Nevill with the northern districts of this country, and the influence which at one time it exercised over the destinies of England,† will demand or justify the appending here a somewhat lengthened notice of it. Its chief genealogical peculiarity, is that, when all else that was illustrious around it was derived from a Norman origin, it con tinued to preserve, in the male line, an unbroken Saxon descent. Waltheof, the elder, who was earl of Northumberland in the reign of Ethelred, A. D. 969, had two sons: Uchtred, who succeeded his father; and Edulph the first, who was made the earl afterwards, by Canute the Dane. The elder of these sons, earl Uchtred, whose * ARMS :-Neville, old, Or, fretty Gules, on a canton Sable, an ancient Ship; 2nd Nevill or Fitz-Maldred, Gules, a saltier Argent. CREST: out of a ducal coronet Or, a bull's head Sable, armed Or. Motto of the house of Raby: "Esperance me comfort." + The historian Hume, gives at the commencement of the reign of Henry VI, a sketch of the family of Nevill, in which he speaks of it, as "perhaps, at that time, the most potent, both from their opulent possessions and from the character of the men, that has ever appeared in England." second wife was Elgiva, daughter of king Ethelred, was married three times, and his descendants formed the stock from which during the next century the earls of Northumberland were principally taken. By his first wife he was father of Aldred, who eventually became earl, and had several daughters: of these the youngest, Aldgi was married to Lyulf and was ancestor of the great Northern family of Lumley, earls of Scarborough; the eldest, Aelfled, was married to Siward who, after slaying Edulph the second, the brother of his then deceased father-inlaw, who had become earl, obtained for himself the earldom of Northumberland with an authority extending from the Humber to the Tweed. This was the doughty Siward whose prowess was so extraordinary that the romancers of the following age, in order to account for it, invented for him a most fantastic genealogy. His grandmother, a Danish princess, had, they said, been ravished by a bear, and, in order to carry conviction to the most incredulous they added, that his father bore visible traces of his geniture in long hairy ears, whence he was called Berne. In the time of Edward the confessor he (the earl Siward of Shakspere) commanded the English forces in Scotland which assisted in vanquishing Macbeth and placing Malcolm, the rightful heir, on the throne. He had by Aelfled a son, Osbern, called young Siward in the play, who was killed by the Scots:* and the exclamations over his body, put in the mouth of the father by our great dramatist, are said to have had a foundation in history.† Siward. Why then, God's soldier be he! Had I as many sons as I have hairs, I would not wish them to a fairer death.‡ But to return to earl Uchtred, the grandfather of Siward's wifeDescended from him, as genealogists agree, though they differ as to the line through which the descent is to be traced, was Dolfin, to whom the prior of Durham, in 1131, granted the district of Staindropshire, subject to the annual reserved rent of £5.§ His grandson, * Siward had, by the same wife, another son who after an interval succeeded to his father's earldom, under the name of Waltheof II; the daughter and coheiress of whom married king David I. of Scotland. Hodgson suggests that the title to the possessions the kings of Scotlaed long held in Tynedale, which is partly in Cumberland, and partly in Northumberland, may have originated in this marriage. History of Northumberland, Part 3. Vol iii. p. 5. + See Historical Division, Vol. I. p. 38. § It soon became, whether originally from right or courtesy, a part of the tenure of Raby, that its Lord should also offer to the prior of Durham a stag, on Holy Rood Day, accompanied with the blowing of horns. The skill in this accomplishment of Robert |