Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume II.djvu/35

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1 1lls without breaking his legs, he is then condemned to an equestrian adventure equally perilous; to ride round the manor, after changing his clothes, accompanied by two of the oldest inhabitants of the borough as his guides, a distance often miles, over a road rugged with precipices, deformed with bog, and obstructed with briar. If he do ail this, and live, he becomes a freeman of Alnwick.

An unbounded view of die Eastern Sea, or Ger- man Ocean, accompanied us as we journeyed on towards Belford, over a road unquestionably the best in England. But previously to visiting that town, we had determined to deviate to ;he right to Bamborough-Castle, which has been rendered ac- cessible from the Alnwick turnpike by anew road, three miles to the soul') of Belford. Standing upon a rock on the sea-shore, almost perpendicular, with which its foundations have been incorpora- ted, and only approachai le on the south-cast, th strength and situation of Ramborough . lie have enabled it to resist all lit! ragings of i he i ' ' m, centuries; and to preserve to ; nl ca\ si "
 * nal all the assaults of war, 'or twelve or thirteen

features of early Saxon ihi r\ architecture. Ii w. may give credit to some of ou.r ancient h.i ionans, a city as well as a castle flourished here : i liie : i : i century, which was afterwards be siege -.1 and taken

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