EPISCOPAL PALACE AT BISHOP-AUCKLAND, DURHAM.

This is the usual residence of the Bishop of Durham; the Castle, at the latter place, being only occasionally occupied by the right reverend prelate during his visits to the seat of his diocese. The present edifice, like that at Durham, is known indifferently by the name of the Castle, or the Palace. The original building is said formerly to have been a manor-house belonging to the see; afterwards castellated by Bishop Bek, who also built a large hall, and adorned it with pillars. During the commonwealth, this structure was placed in the hands of a violent partizan, Sir Arthur Hazelrigg; who, after demolishing nearly all the buildings, produced a magnificent mansion out of the ruins. At the Restoration, Bishop Cosins, who had been ejected from his palace by the puritans, was restored to his diocese; and by him the lordly erection of the before-named fanatic was levelled with the ground. The materials were then once more applied to their ancient uses, and great part of the now existing palace produced.

The building is somewhat irregular in its character, owing to the different periods in which the several parts were completed; and, having lost its castellated form, it now bears strong resemblance to some of the magnificent foreign Abbeys. The approach to the edifice is by an elegant gothic gateway, and skreen, erected by Bishop Trevor, after a design by James Wyatt, Esq. The principal apartments in the Palace are, a spacious old hall, and a magnificent dining-room, ornamented with excellent paintings of Jacob and the Twelve Patriarchs. The wainscoting, in one of the lower rooms, is decorated with the armorial distinctions of many potentates, contemporaries of Queen Elizabeth, together with those of sixteen peers attached to her court; and over all are emblazoned the heraldic bearings of every bishopric in England.

The approach to the Park, in which the Palace is situated, is particularly beautiful; the scene being varied by verdant slopes, rising grounds, woods, and deep precipices impending over the Wear, and enriched with landscapes composed of wild and irregular woodlands, bold cliffs, and eminences, mingled in the most picturesque manner.— It has been remarked, that "language is too weak, and but few pencils are sufficiently powerful to delineate the rich scenery of Auckland Park." From a descriptive poem, by one of Bishop Trevor's domestics, the following lines, happily illustrative of the subject, are extracted :

"When Spring, advancing, clothes the laughing grove

In robes of green, embossed with blossoms pale;
When Autumn tinctures every fading leaf
With vivid dyes, from the refulgent gold
To the full-bodied tint of russet brown;
Say, can the pencil's warmest touch convey
The varied richness of the glowing scene?"

P

BARNARD CASTLE,-DURHAM.

Barnard Castle, a market-town and township in the parish of Gainford, situated on the southern declivity of a hill, descending to the river Tees, is distant twenty-five miles south-west from Durham. It is a place of great antiquity, and, in common with many other ancient towns, originated with the fortified erection in the immediate neighbourhood.

About the year 1093, William Rufus gave to Guido Baliol, a follower of the Conqueror, "the forests of Teesdale and Marwood, together with the lordships of Middleton, in Teesdale, and Gainsford, with all their royal franchises, liberties, and immunities." A descendant of this knight, in 1178, erected the Castle, which, after the name of its founder, was called Barnard Castle. By him the inhabitants of the adjacent town were invested with certain privileges, which his son afterwards enlarged and confirmed by a written charter. The estates and liberty of Castle Barnard remained in the family of Baliol till the time of Edward I., when John Baliol, king of Scotland, having forfeited the possession, Edward bestowed them on Guy Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, in whose line they continued for five descents. They subsequently reverted to the crown in the reign of Henry VII.; and were afterwards granted by James I. to the unfortunate Robert, Viscount Branspath, Earl of Somerset. Ultimately they were purchased by an ancestor of the Duke of Cleveland ; and they now confer the title of Viscount Barnard on a member of that family.

The ruins of the Castle enclose an area of about six acres and a half. The strongest portion of the walls stands on the verge of a cliff, rising precipitously from the Tees to the height of seventy feet, and commanding a rich and extensive view of Teesdale. During the periods of feudal commotion, this fortification was a post of great importance. It is defended by a semicircular tower, the broken walls of which exhibit some appearance of maskings and outworks. In the area are the remains of several edifices; the most prominent of which is "Brackenbury's gloomy weed-capt tower," so named after the Lieutenant of the Tower of London, in the reign of Richard III. An arched vault, open in front, is all that now remains of the once darksome dungeon. The principal strongholds of the Castle stand on an elevated ground, surrounded by a dry ditch or covered way; with small gateways through the intersecting walls, and terminated by two sallyports. At the north-west corner of this area is a circular tower of excellent masonry, having a vault thirty feet in diameter, with a plain roof, without ribs or central pillar. This tower is in a fine state of preservation, having, some years ago, been repaired and fitted up as a shot manufactory. The inner area of the castle has been dug up, and converted into a spacious garden. At the present time, though the owl may occasionally sing her watch-song amid the ruins of Barnard Castle, the structure no longer wears the aspect of entire desolation; taste and industry have rendered it a pleasing seclusion, where the contemplative idler may sit and muse upon the past, and discover a local habitation for those things that have fallen away into a by-word and a tradition.