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on the following morning, he was surprised to see his servant in the charge of a mounted horseman, who was turning into a lane which branches off from the main road to the left, leading to Sandhoe. He advanced, and addressing the young man, enquired the cause of his being thus taken into custody. The servant replied, his visage brightening at the same time, that he knew of no cause whatever; but while awaiting his arrival, according to the instructions received on the previous day, the stranger on horseback came up to him-told him he was his prisoner, and dragged him away in the manner he now witnessed. This stranger, Hall knew to be a Widdrington and on questioning him as to the circumstances, the fellow replied, he would not be interfered with in discharge of his duty, or if he was it would be at Hall's peril; that the youth was in his keeping, and to no person would he be accountable, save only, to her gracious Majesty the Queen. * The previous misdeeds of the Widdringtons now crowded on Hall's recollection, who, at once perceiving that the whole scope and design of the unfeeling wretch before him, was to get the poor lad conveyed away as a slave to the West Indies, interceded for his liberation, with all the eloquence of which he was master, urging that the youth had an aged mother and a sister relying upon him for support. But the other was inexorable: he only requested the supplicant would not trouble him with his entreaties. Hall however was not to be thwarted after this fashion: his pride was somewhat chafed, and conceiving that justice was on his side, he drew up his horse in front of that of Widdrington, and commanded him to produce credentials proving that, in the present instance, he acted conformably to the law. Any man in those days who could afford to purchase arms, wore them at his pleasure, and Widdrington, unsheathing his piece of pointed steel, held it before him, and exclaimed, "This is my commission." "Then we will test its truth," said Hall, and ere another word was spoken, he alighted from his horse.

The lane in which this parley took place, being confined where it joined the main road, owing to some inclosures bordering upon it, gradually grew wider as the party advanced; and now where they stood the road crossed a piece of level green sward that might, in other times, have served as the scene of a more splendid chivalric spectacle. Unfastening from his neck the clasp of a large cloak, such as horsemen at that period were in the habit of wearing, Hall flung it from his shoulders and, drawing his trusty Ferrara, the basket hilt of which was like a ram's head, stood ready for battle. Widdrington in compliance with the laws of honour, likewise dismounted and confronting his

* Queen Anne.

opponent manfully, threw himself on his guard. To work they went, and though Hall was an admirable swordsman, he found himself for a time sharp enough beset by his adversary; yet he was cunning as well as skillful, and when he had given him play for a brief period, he watched an opportunity, and catching in his hilt the point of Widdrington's weapon, by a sudden jerk, wrenched it from his grasp, throwing it behind him to a distance of nearly twenty yards. The defenceless man now supplicated for mercy, and Hall was too much of a gentleman to deny him the request.

Widdrington had scarcely partaken of the clemency of his conqueror when his life was again put in the most imminent peril, and in a much more disgraceful way. The encounter had drawn around a large concourse of people, to the greater part of whom his evil practices were known and by whom he was thoroughly detested, and these witnessing or making known to each other the whole affair, attacked him so fiercely with sticks and stones that he had great difficulty to escape.

The poor people in Northumberland were thenceforth permitted to live unmolested, none of the odious clan ever daring to shew face among them; and Hall for his prompt resistance, and exposure of the infamous system which the scoundrels had practised, received the most cordial expressions of praise and gratitude.-R. White's MSS.

BARTHRAM'S DIRGE.

The following beautiful fragment was taken down by the late R. Surtees, of Mainsforth, from the recitation of Anne Douglas, an old woman, who weeded in his garden. It is imperfect, and the words within brackets were inserted by Mr. Surtees, to supply such stanzas as the chantress's memory left defective. The hero of the ditty, if the reciter be correct, was shot to death by nine brothers, whose sister he had seduced, but was afterwards buried at her request, near their usual place of meeting; which may account for his being laid, not in holy ground, but beside the burn. The name of Barthram, or Bertram, would argue a Northumbrian origin, and there is, or was, a Headless Cross, among many so named, near Elsdon in Northumberland. But the mention of the Nine-Stane Burn, and Nine-Stane Rig, seems to refer to those places in the vicinity of Hermitage Castle, which is countenanced by the mentioning our Lady's Chapel. Perhaps the hero may have been an Englishman, and the Lady a native of Scotland, which renders the catastrophe even more probable.

BARTHRAM'S DIRGE.

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HEY shot him dead at the Nine-Stone Rig,
Beside the Headless Cross,

And they left him lying in his blood,

Upon the moor and moss.

They made a bier of the broken bough,
The sauch of the aspin gray,

And they bore him to the Lady Chapel,
And waked him there all day.

A lady came to that lonely bower,
And threw her robes aside,
She tore her ling [long] yellow hair,

And knelt at Barthram's side.

She bathed him in the Lady-Well

His wounds so deep and sair,

And she plaited a garland for his breast,

And a garland for his hair.

They rowed him in a lily-sheet,

And bare him to his earth,

[And the Gray Friars sung the dead man's mass, As they pass'd the Chapel Garth.]

They buried him at [the mirk] midnight,

[When the dew fell cold and still,

When the aspin gray forgot to play,

And the mist clung to the hill.]

They dug his grave but a bare foot deep,

By the edge of the Ninestone Burn,

And they covered him [o'er with the heather-flower,] The moss and the [Lady] fern.

A Gray Friar staid upon the grave,

And sang till the morning tide,

And a friar shall sing for Barthram's soul,

While the Headless Cross shall bide.

THE WILD CATTLE.

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HERE was formerly a very singular species of wild cattle in this country, which is now nearly extinct; those which are kept in the park at Chillingham Castle, Northumberland, belonging to the earl of Tankerville, being, probably, the only remains of the true and genuine breed. The late Mr. Bailey, agent to

his lordship, has given the following curious

and picturesque description of this singular race of animals: "Their colour is invariably white, muzzle black; the whole of the inside of the ear, and about one-third of the outside from the tip, downwards, red; horns white, with black tips, very fine, and bent upwards; some of the bulls have a thin upright mane, about an inch and a half, or two inches long the weight of the oxen is from thirty-five to forty-five stone; and the cows from twenty-five to thirty-five stone, the four quarters; fourteen pound to the stone. The beef is finely marbled, and of excellent flavour.

"From the nature of their pasture, and the frequent agitation they are put into, by the curiosity of strangers, it cannot be expected they should get very fat; yet the six-years old oxen are generally very good beef; from whence it may be fairly supposed that, in proper situations, they would feed well.

"At the first appearance of any person they set of at full speed, and gallop to a considerable distance; when they make a wheel round, and come boldly up again, tossing their heads in a menacing manner; on a sudden they make a full stop, at the distance of forty or fifty yards, looking wildly at the object of their surprise; but upon the least motion being made, they again turn round, and gallop off with equal speed; but forming a shorter circle, and returning with a bolder and more threatening aspect, they approach much nearer, when they make another stand, and again gallop off. This they do several times, shortening their distance, and advancing nearer, till they come within a few yards, when most people think it prudent to leave them.

"The mode of killing them was, perhaps, the only modern remains of the grandeur of ancient hunting. On notice being given that a wild bull would be killed upon a certain day, the inhabitants of the neighbourhood came in great numbers, both horse and foot: the horsemen rode off the bull from the rest of the herd until he stood at bay, when a marksman dismounted and shot. At some of these huntings, twenty

or thirty shots have been fired before he was subdued: on such occasions, the bleeding victim grew desperately furious, from the smarting

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of his wounds, and the shouts of savage joy that were echoing from every side. From the number of accidents that happened, this dangerous mode has been seldom practised of late years, the park-keeper alone generally shooting them with a rifled gun at one shot.

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