give it the name it still retains; yet, that its existence is coeval with the finishing of the castle, as we know many persons are disposed to imagine, we think is very disputable. Its construction, and the style of its architecture which is somewhat elaborate, certainly confirm it of a later date, but of how much later we know of no historic evidence to guide us even to a surmise. It may be proper, however, to notice, that there was a tower of the same kind, visible from the castle, standing on Hide hill, so far down as to the middle of the sixteenth century; and that in the year 1460 there were in Northumberland eighty-seven such towers, no town in that county of any consequence being without one. To enter, however, into, or to indulge in any surmises for what purposes they were raised, would be digres sing farther from the history we are principally engaged in, than would be prudent. Perhaps the Border feuds might have induced the necessity of them for the protection of the inhabitants of the

towns.

To advert again to the walls:-they_remained in the state Malcolm left them at his death, until king Robert Bruce added four feet to their height, and planted some towers around them, and this he saw the necessity of for the future defence of the town, after two or three violent assaults on it, in which he failed, by Edward II. They were again repaired, and some additional defence devised and executed by the order of James III., about the year 1480, only two years before Edward IV. made himself master of the town, and after which it never could be recovered from England by a Scottish monarch. Still further were these walls strengthened, at the expence of between five and six thousand pounds, by some bulwarks, in the short reign of Mary of England; but what these bulwarks were, and where placed, we can give no account, though we have not been indolent in our research to inform ourselves. One circumstance more, of historic fact, is only left us to relate regarding these walls, which is, that the first cannon fired by the English in warfare was pointed against them, and this happened in the reign of Henry IV. of England and Robert III. of Scotland, and no doubt sufficiently convinced both mo narchs of the necessity of other more effectual defence to towns, than walls ten feet high. Berwick had enjoyed perfect tranquillity during the whole reign of Malcolm, who died A. D. 1165, having governed his kingdom with justice and mildness for thirteen years, leaving his throne to his brother William, designated, for his valour, the Lyon. His valour, however, it is more than probable, had better been wanting in him, as he failed in prudence and a due regard to the quiet and prosperity of his kingdom in the use he made of it. For no sooner was he seated on his throne, than he thought proper to urge claims to Northumberland as a portion of his inheritance, which not being listened to by Henry II. who was then sovereign of England, he hesitated not at an immediate invasion of it, and of Cumberland as well; and at a second invasion of the former county, (for he had failed in a previous one) he was surprised and taken prisoner at Alnwick, which he had been labouring for some days to blockade, by a party of English. To get himself freed from this disgraceful dilemma he instantly made over his kingdom to Henry, and now it was that the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, destined to become, as it were, the shuttlecock

of contention between the kingdoms of England and Scotland for future centuries, first fell under the sway of a monarch of the former. This took place A. D. 1174. Fifteen years after-when Henry II. was in his grave-Richard Cœur de Lyon who succeeded to his crown, to provide himself with the means of indulging his passion for a crusade he had been long meditating against Palestine, released William of the vassalage of Scotland, and put the fortress of Berwick into his possession for the paltry sum of ten thousand merks. England having, at Richard's demise, fallen under the government and regal sway of his brother John, this monarch attempted a serious annoyance to Berwick, by beginning an erection of a castle in Tweedmouth, from which, after two or three unavailing efforts to accomplish the task, he was finally obliged by William the Lyon to desist.

William lived not long after this; he died A. D. 1214, having reigned forty-nine years, and left his kingdom to his son, Alexander II., when John took it into his head, nor staid long ere he resolved, to lay claim to the paramountry of Scotland, notwithstanding the recent renouncement of it by his brother Richard. Being resisted in his extravagant demand by Alexander, he determined on invading the kingdom, which he did by way of Carlisle, and entered Berwick; but soon finding from the efforts of Alexander, of which he had quick intelligence, to oust him, that he should not be able to retain it for any length of time, he caused it to be set fire to, and much of the town fell a prey to the flames, but not before, consonant to the brutality of his disposition, of which he had given antecedent proofs on his way from Carlisle by laying waste all the country before him, he had caused numbers of the inhabitants of both sexes-sparing neither old nor young, no-not even children,-to be put to death. This monster dying A. D. 1216, after a reign of twenty years, Alexander recovered the possession of the town from Henry III., and immediately set about rebuilding the habitations that were then laying in ashes, which he did in a style far superior to that of the former ones; and the more to embellish the town, or possibly in gratitude to heaven on its being restored to him, founded two additional monasteries, and as these were the last monasteries with which Berwick was embellished, we think we cannot do better now, than to proceed to give what account we have been able to collect in our researches of all of them, as well as of the churches standing therein, and in its immediate vicinage, at the death of Alexander II. which took place A. D. 1249.

MONASTERIES, &c.

THE first monastery upon record, said to have been at the period of Alexander's death, in existence in Berwick, was founded, but by whom we are without information, " pro ministro et Fratribus Sanctæ Trinitatis," for so runs its dedication. Its brotherhood were denominated Red, and sometimes Rented Friars, from their being endowed with several mortifications. They followed the rule of St. Augustin, and had a church, called the chapel of Ravendale, appropriated to their service; the brethren of the house, in the reign, we think, of Edward

III., were banished England, on what account we are ignorant; and they took their departure for the Continent. The Saxon period (the Scoto-Saxon) has been named by some authors as that of its foundation, yet if their information should be correct, we cannot, in our mind, fix it earlier than at the expiry of that period which the reign of Edgar of Scotland most certainly closed. It was this prince, as we have already noticed, that bestowed Berwick on the See of Durham, and to his piety and liberality was owing the restoration of the famed nunnery of Coldingham. He is more likely to have been the founder of the house in question. Its situation, as its dedication makes known, was near the bridge, where there had previously been seated a charitable foundation, titled Maison Dieu, from the Latin Domus Dei, and which was under the government or direction of a Magister (Master), as says the Rev. Mr. Johnston in his History of Berwick. What became of the Domus Dei, after the erection of the house of the monastery, we know nothing; the site on which they stood, was on the outside the walls of the town, as was clear to us from a sight of an old plan of Berwick thrown in our way some years ago by a friend in London; and which comprehended the square of habitations called sometimes Maison Dieu, and extended eastward as far as the granary on the Quay-walls now occupied by the Messrs. Clay. The chapel of Ravendale, recorded" prope Portem ad Pontem Berwic"-i. e. near the gate and bridge of Berwick, most probably had occupied the space covered now by Mr. James Forster's house and timber yard.

The next religious foundation history makes mention of, is an Hospital dedicated to Saint Mary the Virgin, supposed to have been founded at the same period as the monastery we have just given some account of. The government of it is said to have been given by Edward III. to Robert Bruton, one of the favourites of that monarch. What then, we may ask, had become of the Prioress? We have some recollection of having once seen the name of one of them, who was dignified with the title of Prioress of Berwick. But to return to the Hospital; we have never heard of the name of its founder, nor of what description were its inmates. It had a large chapel appropriated to its service which we shall hereafter have occasion to refer to. Its situation need hardly be described; for it cannot fail to be known to every individual resident in the town-that nuisance of a recess on the south-east side of Scotchgate, is doubtless a small portion of its remains, and is the only portion of remains existing above ground, of any of the monastic houses, which were once the pride of Berwick.

The hospital of Saint Mary Magdalene is supposed to have had its origin at the same period as the two preceding houses, but by whom it was founded no mention is made in any history that has yet fallen under our inspection. Had Dugdale's Monasticum Anglicanum been before us, it is very probable we should there have found the name not only of the founder of it, but also of the preceding two houses. Neither can we positively say for what description of individuals it was founded, but we have no manner of doubt that it was an hospital for lepers :-Dugdale's great work would render the matter no longer disputable. Its endowments had been considerable; the valuable pas

ture fields, now called the Magdalene Fields, were a portion thereof; -besides, there was annexed to it the Hermitage of Saint Austin of Segedon, we speak not with certainty, but are much disposed to the conjecture that Segedon could have been no other place than the town under that name on the Tyne, about three miles from Newcastle, where terminated the eastern boundary of the Picts' Wall, and now known by the name of Walls-End. About twenty years ago we visited this spot, and some ruins were pointed out to us by an inhabitant of the town, telling us at the same time, that tradition spoke of them as the remains of some monastic foundation, and such an appearance they certainly had to us. These ruins are at no great

distance from those of the station of the wall. John de Crew is recorded to have had the custos of the hospital the 13th of Edward III., and one Nicholas Newton on the 16th of Henry VI. We must not

fail to notice it had a church appropriated to it, and was seated without the walls, and from the circumstance of the discovery, about four years ago, of a Stone Coffin and many well chizzled stones in a field about two furlongs from the north-east angle of the ancient walls, we scruple not to fix the site there.

We now come, in the order of time, to the period when the Nunnery on the south declivity of Halidon Hill had its rise. It was dedicated to Saint Leonard, and was of the Benedictine-according to others of the Bernardine or Cistertian order of Nuns, who followed the rule of Saint Bennet, by whose name they were called, and was founded and liberally endowed by that saintly prince David I. of Scotland, A. D. 1153. The Corporation of Berwick, we believe, are now possessed of what were the most profitable of the lands with which it was endowed, those lands having fallen to the Crown at the dissolution of the monasteries; and coming at length into the possession of James VI. when he ascended the throne of England, he included them in the extravagant gift of territory he bestowed on that body, and which is become to them of such great value at the present day; we say to them, for we are extremely doubtful that the gift has ever tended in any way to the benefit of the town-rather do we think it has had a very contrary tendency. To this Nunnery were also annexed,-1st, The Priory of Elbottle on the Forth in the shire of Haddington, by whom founded is not known to us:-2d, Gulane, near to Gulaness, in the shire of Haddington, founded by David I. :3d, Three Fountains, or Triafontana in Lammermuir, on the borders of Lothian, founded also by David I. :—and 4th, Saint Bathans on the water of White-adder, in the shire of Berwick, founded by one of the countesses of March in the reign of William the Lyon; but of these Cells the Nunnery was deprived by king Robert III., the second of the Stuart line of Scottish kings, by reason of its adherence to the English, and were disposed of in favour of the Premonstra tenses of Dryburgh. Robert's charter is dated at Scone, the 9th of March, and the first of his reign, A. D. 1390, which was in the 13th of that of Richard II. of England. Of the exact situation of this monastery and its church, for it had a large one attached to it, we cannot speak with certainty, but it cannot be an unreasonable conjecture to fix it on the land called at this day the Nuns' Leys.

The next monastery we have to notice was a house of Franciseans, or Grey Friars, a mendicant order, and founded by Sir John Grey, A. D. 1219. It was one of the convents of the custody of Newcastle, and Edward III. by charter the 13th of his reign, confirmed to it an allowance of twenty merks yearly, settled on the Friars by the kings of Scotland. This monastery-we know not that it had a church— was situated, we have reason to conjecture, in Western Lane, and part of its site is now covered by the Advertiser Office.

We now come to the monastery of the Dominicans, or Black Friars, a mendicant order, founded A. D. 1230, being but nine years after the first house in England was founded at Oxford. It had a large church appropriated to its service, which became famed, by having the first parliament assembled in it called by Edward I. of England to decide on the claims of Baliol and Bruce to the crown of Scotland; the three other parliaments called by Edward in Berwick for the like purpose, assembled in the great hall of the castle. The situation of this monastery was near the castle, but within the walls of the town, The brotherhood were removed to the house of the Friars of the Holy Trinity near the bridge, when the latter, as has been already noticed, were exiled by Edward III.

The next monastery, and the last founded in Berwick, was that of the Carmelites, or White Friars, who were, like those of the Dominicans, of the mendicant or begging order, and had their origin from Mount Carmel in Syria, renowned for the dwelling place of Elias and Elisha the prophets, who were their first founders, or at least they were always pretended to be so by the brotherhoods. Albertus, patriarch of Jerusalem, gave them rules A. D. 1205. When they were first seated in Berwick we can give no account. We know, however. they were removed to the house of the Dominicans, when the latter, as we have already had occasion to relate, took pos session of that of the Brethren of the Holy Trinity at the bridge. Those two monasteries were those we have already mentioned, and were founded by Alexander II.

The churches, or, as they were properly called, the chapels, attached to the preceding monastic houses and hospitals, having been all noticed, we are called to give what account we are able of the earliest Parish Church of this town, which stood, surrounded by its cemetery, on the spot now a garden, immediately behind the town reservoir in Castlegate. It was dedicated to Saint Lawrence, founded and liberally endowed by one Robert Fitzwilliams, by some historians supposed in the Scoto-Saxon period. But from the name of the founder, which is certainly of Norman extraction, this supposition is, in our mind, very doubtful-we should rather fix the first foundation of it at the æra of the Conquest of England, when the appanage of Berwick was in David Earl of Huntington, a progenitor of David I.

The church, with all its endowments, was bestowed by the saintly David on the abbey he had founded at Selkirk, and afterwards removed to Kelso; nor did this gift go unaccompanied by others from