BARONESS PERCY, &c. &c. &c. DOWN in a northern vale wild flowrets grew, The Muse there found them all remote from view, O Lady, may fo flight a gift prevail, Surely the cares and woes of human kind, She feeks no other praife, if you commend Vol. I. 4. A ADVER ADVERTISEMENT. WA ARKWORTH CASTLE in Northumberland, flands very boldly on a neck of land near the feafhore, almoft furrounded by the river COQUET,( called by our old Latin Hiftorians, CoQUEDA) which runs with a clear rapid ftream, but when fwoln with rains become violent and dangerous. About a mile from the Caftle, in a deep romantic valley, are the remains of a HERMITAGE; of which the Chape! is ftill intire. This is hollowed with great elegance in a cliff near the river; as are also two adjoining apartments, which probably ferved for the Sacrifty and Veftry, or were appropriated to fome other facred uses: for the former of these, which runs parallel with the Chapel, appears to have had an Altar in it, at which Mafs was accafionally celebrated, as well as in the Chapel itself. Each of these apartments is extremely fmall; for that which was the principal Chapel does not in length exceed eighteen feet; nor is more than feven feet and a half in breadth and height: it is however very beautifully defigned and executed in the folid rock; and has all the decora tions of a compleat Gothic Church or Cathredral in minia ture. But what principally diftinguishes the Chapel, is a fmall Tomb or Monument, on the fouth fide of the altar on the top of which, lies a female figure extended in the manner that effigies are ufually exhibited praying on ancient tombs. This figure, which is very delicately defigned, fome have ignorantly 111 ignorantly called an image of the Virgin Mary; though it has not the leaft refemblance to the manner in which she is reprefented in the Romish Churches; who is ufually erect, as the object of adoration, and never in a proftrate or recumbent pofture. Indeed the real image of the Bleffed Virgin probably flood in a small nich, ftill vifible behind the altar: whereas the figure of of a Bull's Head, which is rudely carved at this Lady's feet, the ufual place for the creft in old monuments, plainly proves her to have been a very different perfonage. About the tomb are feveral other figures; which, as well as the principal one above-mentioned, are cut in the natural. rock, in the fame manner as the little Chapel itself, with all its ornaments, and the two adjoining, apartments. What flight traditions are fcattered through the country concerning the origin and foundation of this Hermitage, Tomb, &c. are delivered to the Reader in the following rhimes. It is univerfally agreed, that the founder was one of the BERTRAM family, which had once confiderable poffeflions in Northumberland, and were anciently Lords of Bothal Cafle, fituate about ten miles from Warkworth. He has been thought to be the fame BERTRAM, that endowed BRINKBURN Priory, and built BRENKSHAUGH Chapel : which both fland in the fame winding valley, higher up the river. But BRINKBURN Priory was founded in the reign o K. Henry I.* whereas the form of the Gothic windows in this Chapel, efpecially of thofe near the altar, is found raA 3 *Tanner's Notitia Monaft. ther iv ther to refemble the flyle of architecture that prevailed about the reign of K. Edward III. And indeed that the sculpture in this Chapel cannot be much older, appears from the cre which is placed at the Lady's feet on the tomb; for Camden + informs us, that armorial crefls did not become hereditary till about the reign of K. Edward II. Thefe appearances fill extant, frongly confirm the account given in the following poem, and plainly prove that the HERMIT of WARKWORTH was not the fame perfon that founded BRINKBURN Priory in the twelfth century, but rather one of the BERTRAM family, who lived at a later period. + See his Remains. * ** FIT was the word used by the old Minstrels to signify a Part or Divifion of their Hiftorical Songs, aud was peculiarly appropriated to this kind of compofitions. See Reliques of Ancient Eng. Poetry, Vol. II. p. 166 and 397. 2d. Ed. THE DARK was the night, and wild the storm, And loud the torrent's roar ; And loud the fea was heard to dafh Against the diflant shore. Mufing on man's weak hapless ftate, The lonely Hermit lay ; When, lo! he heard a female voice With hofpitable hafte he rofe, And wak'd his fleeping fire; And fnatching up a lighted brand, All fad beneath a neighbouring tree. A beauteous maid he found, Who beat her breast, and with her tears Bedewed the mofly ground. |