Margaret, unconquerable by disaster, after the loss of the battle of Towton, losing all regard for her own personal safety in her anxious care for her adherents, engaged George Douglas Earl of Angus in the desperate attempt of removing the garrison from Alnwick, in the face of the enemy's forces. Advancing with a large body of Scotch horse, he drew up in order of battle before the English, who immediately made arrangements for the conflict. Whilst they were entirely engaged in these preparations, Douglas drew up a select body of his stoutest troopers to a back gate, out of which the garrison. issued; and each soldier mounting behind a horseman rode off securely from the castle, concealed from the sight of the English by the intervening array. Douglas having effected his purpose drew off his forces in good order, leaving the assailants at liberty to take possession of the deserted fortress.

In its present splendid state, fitted up at the immense expence of 200,000l. Alnwick-Castle.can afford but a faint idea of its appearance in the feudal ages; when it was dark and inconvenient, with every thing contrived for security, and nothing done for the sake of elegance. Under its present highly improved form, however, it must be confessed, that every thing has been made as congruous to ancient costume as possible; and all within and without

the mansion point out the judgment as well as taste of Messrs. Adams and Paine, who were employed to regenerate this magnificent place. The dwelling apartments form a castellated fabric, raised upon an artificial mound in the centre of the inclosed area. These consist of the state bed-chambers, magnificently fitted up; the grand stair-case, singular but beautiful in plan, expanding like a lady's fan, and ornamented with a chain of escutcheons running round the cornices, displaying one hundred and twenty quarterings and intermarriages of the Percy family; the saloon, an apartment forty-two feet long, thirty-seven feet wide, and twenty high; the drawing-room, a large oval, fortyseven feet by thirty-five, and twenty-two high; the dining-room, fifty-four feet by twenty, finished in a style of Gothic, superlatively beautiful; the library, sixty-four feet long and twenty-three feet wide, in the same happy and appropriate manner; and the chapel, an apartment in which expence has reached its utmost limits. It is fifty feet long, twenty-one wide, and twenty-two high, and presents such a dazzling picture of Gothic decoration as is not, perhaps, to be equalled in the kingdom. The great window of York Minster has been chosen as the model of the eastern one, the ceiling of King'sCollege chapel for the pattern of the coving, and

the painting and gilding of the mouldings and stucco are taken from those of the great church at Milan. We regretted that some of the ornaments were not as appropriate as elegant, and did not suspect ourselves of Puritanism, when we found our minds revolt at a sumptuous marble sarcophagus, dedicated to the memory of the late Duchess, and inscribed with her thousand titles, serving the purpose of an altar; and saw the walls of the apartment covered with armorial bearings, and genealogical tables of the illustrious family in whose possession the mansion has been so long, and at present is. It is not indeed the only instance in which we find religion and heraldry associated; but certainly the frequency of its occurrence can never make the humility of the creature and the pride of the noble congruous with each other.

The park of Alnwick, though for the most part naked of large timber, and borrowing almost all its shade from the plantations of the last Duke, offers occasionally some very fine views, as well as a pleasant ride round its boundary, which extends thirteen miles through a tract of country wisely applied to agricultural purposes, instead of being wasted in a deer-range. Not that Not that it wants its ornaments; a pleasing one of ancient days, Hulne

Abbey, founded in 1240 for Carmelite friars, by

Ralph Frisburn, is seen in the bottom, watered by the little river Aln, that flows through the park; and a grand modern Gothic tower, called Briesley's tower, of a circular form, one hundred feet high, crowns the summit of a hill, and affords a view of wonderful extent, including many august objects in a clear day-Edinburgh-Castle to the northwartd; Tyneworth-Castle, in an opposite direction; Bamborough and Warkworth Castles to the eastward; and the long line of the Grampian and Cheviot hills, and their circumjacent wastes; the scene of that great hunting of old, whose bloody termination has been recorded in the well-known popular ballad of "Chevy-Chace;" a tract formerly famous for game and timber, but now equally bare of wood, and despoiled of stags and roes.

On our return to Alnwick from the park, we passed a little free-stone monument, with an inscription upon it that commemorates the spot and the nature of William the King of Scotland's disaster and shame:

"William the Lion, King of Scotland, besieging AlnwickCastle, was here taken prisoner 1174."

Another monument of former warfare occurs near the town on the road to Belford-a beautiful cross, with the following inscription, which points out the occasion of its erection:

"Malcolm III. King of Scotland, besieging AlnwickCastle, was slain here Nov. 13, anno 1093. King Malcolm's Cross, decayed by time, was restored by his descendant Eliza Duchess of Northumberland, 1774.”

Alnwick itself has little beauty, being straggling and irregular. A few vestiges of its former walls are visible, and the late Duke's munificence is manifested in some modern public edifices in the Gothic style. The customs of this borough were formerly many and curious; one only remains now, but sufficiently singular in its nature to be mentioned. The candidate for the few existing rights attaching to a freeman in this disused borough has to pass through a purgatory little less alarming than the initiatory rites to the greater mysteries of Eleusis; clad in a white garment, he is led to a little stream which runs across a road on the town moor, anciently called the Forest of Aidon, whose waters are deepened for the purpose by a dam thrown across them, and bottom rendered as unequal and rugged as possible, by holes being dug, and stones cast therein. All these accommodating arrangements are made by a man who lives near the stream, and exacts five shillings from each of the freemen for his trouble. Through this water, without the aid of stick or staff, the candidate is to find his way; and provided he effect