events either unnoticed or but slightly sketched by the older chroniclers; to revive a taste for the provincial poetry of our local legends; and to rescue from oblivion some of the traditionary and venerable associations of our father-land ;-for "Time hath a wallet at his back, The Editor has attempted to make a nosegay of a few of the poetic flowers that Fancy has strewed in the romantic land of Northumbria; and, though he has brought "little of his own but the thread that ties them," he entertains a confident hope that these "Legends of Northumberland" will be received with indulgence. J. S. Chatton, March, 1834. CONTENTS. 75 95 134 SIR GUY, THE SEEKER; A LEGENDARY TALE. BY M. G. LEWIS. INSCRIBED TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EARL GREY. "Io son l'occasione, a pochi nota. "E' Penitenza! e pero, nota e intende, MACHIAVEL. Sir Guy, the Seeker, Is founded upon a tradition current in Northumberland.Indeed, an adventure nearly similar to Sir Guy's, is said to have taken place in various parts of Great Britain, particularly on the Pentland Hills in Scotland, (where the prisoners are supposed to be King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table), and in Lancashire, where an ale-house near Chorley still exhibits the sign of a Sir John Stanley following an old man with a torch, while his horse starts back in terror at the objects, which are discovered through two immense iron gates -the ale-house is known by the name of the "Iron Gates," which are supposed to protect the entrance of an enchanted cavern in the neighbourhood. The female captive, I believe, is peculiar to Dunstanborough Castle; and certain shining stones, which are occasionally found in its neighbourhood, and which are called "Dunstanborough Diamonds," are supposed, by the peasants, to form part of that immense treasure, with which the Lady will reward her Deliverer.-In Wallis's "History of the Antiquities of Northumberland," the castle is described as follows::-"It stands on an eminence of several acres, sloping gently to the sea, and on the north and north-west edged with precipices in the form of a crescent: by the western termination of which are three natural stone pyramids of a considerable height, and by the eastern one an opening in the rocks made by the sea, under a frightful precipice, called Rumble Churn, from the breaking of the waves in tempestuous weather and high seas. Above this is the main entrance, and by it the ruin of the chapel : at the southwest corner is the draw-well, partly filled up. It is built with rag and whinstone." This Romance was written during my residence in the castle's neighbourhood at Howick, the seat of the present Earl Grey; to whose ancestor, Sir William Grey, Dunstanborough Castle was granted by James the First. It is now the property of the Earl of Tankerville. |