Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume II.djvu/82

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and the confinement and punishment of the moss- troopers in the sixteenth century. The cera of the ere&ion of Na worth-Castle is buried in remote an- tiquity ; though tradition attributes it to one of the first of the Dacre family, in the Norman times. Their descendants inhabited it till the year 1569, when George Lord Dacre of Greystoke, the ward of Thomas Lord Howard Duke of Norfolk, being- killed by an accident at that nobleman's seat, the castle became the property and residence of the guardian for some years. Lord William Howard succeeded him in the occupation of the Castle, which, during his time, exhibited the appearance of a mansion belonging to a giant of old romance, rather than the dwelling of an English nobleman. Being made Warden of the Borders by Elizabeth, and appointed to controul and chastise the mess- troopers, whose devastations were such as to awa- ken the notice of government, he prepared himself for the unthankful office by strengthening his castle, and securing his own apartments in every possible manner, to prevent attack from without, and filling it with one hundred and forty soldiers, to enable him to carry on his offensive operations. A winding stair-case, dark and narrow, admitting only one to ascend at a time, guarded by a succes- sion of strong doors plated with iron, which on

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