Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/583

561 species have been found. Cypripedium, Epipactis, Pyrola Ophrys, under the yews of Castle Eden, are visited t butterflies found nowhere else in England, asOreinablandinct Polyommatus salmacis, and the little moth Acidalic blomeraria. The most interesting birds left are the dottere (Charadrius monnellus), pied flycatcher (Muscicapa luc tuosa), and crossbill (Loxia curvirostra), which still breec occasionally in the west of the county. The siskin (Chrysomitris spinus) and black redstart (JKtiticilla tithys) have reared their young near the city of Durham. The stockdove hasAvithin the lastfewyearsbecomenotuncommon. Red grouse and black game are abundant in suitable localities, and one heronry still remains. But the shores of Durham are deserted by the sea fowl, which 200 years ago were so abundant by Tees and Tyne that, as an old writer says, &quot; iu tyme of breeding one can hardly sett his foote so warylye that he spoylenot many of theyr nestes.&quot; The badger and the otter still linger in one or two nooks ; the last marten was killed in Weardale 30 years ago, and meantime the squirrel has become common. Stockton is almost the last retreat in England of the native black rat. Of the former abundance of deer, wild ox, and boar every peat bog testifies by its remains ; the boar appears to have existed in the reign of Henry VIII., and records of red deer in the county may be traced down to the middle of the last century. Antiquities of pre-Roman date, whether implements of stone or bronze, or sepulchral remains, are scarcely found except in the valley of the Wear. A very remarkable dis covery was made some years ago at Heathery Burn Cave, near Stanhope, where, under a coating of stalagmite, were preserved a great many bronze weapons and other objects, including almost every article which appears to have been known in Britain at that remote period. One mile north of Eggleston are some remains of an ancient structure called the Standing Stones. This originally consisted of a cairn in the centre, surrounded by a trench, and that again encompassed by a circular arrangement of rough stones, many of which have been removed and broken to repair the roads. Near a brook, at a small distance, is a large barrow, crossed from east to west by a row of stones. There are frequent references to &quot; Standing Stones &quot; now gone in old charters, where they are referred to as marking boundaries. The principal Roman remains are connected with the ancient Watling Street, which entered the county by crossing the Tees at Pierse-bridge, and left it on crossing the Derwent just north of Ebchester. The boundaries of the four stations of Pierse-bridge, Binchester, Lanchester, and Ebchester, on the line of this road, may still be clearly discerned. At Lanchester there are considerable remains of masonry, and at Binchester the most perfect hypocaust in the north of England. Chester-le-Street, as its name indicates, occupies the site, now obliterated, of a Roman station, on a subsidiary Roman road ; and there was a camp, still partly to be recognized, on &quot; Maiden Castle Hill,&quot; near the city of Durham. Many Roman altars and sculptured stones from Lanchester and elsewhere are preserved in the chapter library at Durham. Roman altars, coins, &amp;lt;fec., have been found at South Shields, as well as about the above-mentioned stations. To the Anglo-Saxon period are to be referred portions of the churches of Monk- Wearmouth and Jarrow, and numerous sculptured crosses, two of which are in situ at Aycliffe. The best remains of the Norman period are to be found in Durham Cathedral (the finest Norman building in England) and in the castle, also in some half-dozen parish churches. Of the Early English period are the eastern portion of the cathedral (see below), the fine churches of Darlington, Hartlepool, and St Andrew, Auckland, and portions of a few other churches. The Decorated and Perpendicular 561 periods are very scantily represented, on account, as is supposed, of the incessant wars between England and Scotland in the 14th and 15th centuries. The principal monastic remains, beside those surrounding Durham Cathedral, are those of its subordinate house or &quot;cell,&quot; Finchale Priory, situated in a lovely valley by the Wear. The most interesting castles are those of Durham, Raby, Brancepeth, and Barnard. There are ruins of castelets, or peel-towers, at Dalden, Ludworth, and Langley Dale. The hospitals of Sherburn, Greatham, and Kepyer, founded by early bishops of Durham, retain but very few ancient features. The principal noblemen s seats are Raby Castle (duke of Cleveland), Lambtou Castle (earl of Durham), Wynyard Castle (marquis of Londonderry), Ravensworth Castle (earl of Ravensworth), Brancepeth Castle (Viscount Boyne), and Whitham Hall (Sir Hedworth Williamson, Bart.) The county is divided for parliamentary purposes into two divisions (North and South Durham), each of which returns two members. The northern division includes 20 polling-places, and the southern 33. The population has greatly increased within the last thirty years. In 1851 the inhabitants numbered 390,997; in 1861, 508,666 ; and in 1871, 685,089353,117 males and 331,972 females. The increase between 1851 and 1871 amounts to 72J per cent. The population is estimated at upwards of 850,000 in 1877. History. Before the .arrival of the Romans the county formed part of the British territory of the Brigantes, which comprised all between Tyne and Humber. Then it became part of the Roman province Maxima Csesariensis. In Anglo-Saxon times it was included in Bernicia, in the kingdom of Northumbria. After the Norman Conquest it gradually acquired in one way or another that peculiar independence which was attached to &quot;Counties Palatine.&quot; The bishops of Durham were temporal princes as well as spiritual rulers, exercising most of the royal prerogatives, such as paramount pro perty in all lands, and supreme jurisdiction both civil and military, as in making war, right of forfeiture, levying of taxes, &c. These privileges would be the more readily conceded to this county on account of its remoteness from the metropolis, and its proximity to the hostile kingdom of Scotland, in order that the inhabitants, having justice administered athome, might not be obliged to go out of their county, and leave it open to an enemy s incursions. For they pleaded privilege not to pass over Tees or Tyne for military service, their special charge being, as was alleged, to keep and defend the sacred body of St Cuthbert, whence they were called &quot;Haliwer folc &quot; (Holy war folk). By an Act passed in the 27th year of Henry VIII. a heavy blow was struck at the regal powers which the bishops of Durham had enjoyed, and at the deatli of Bishop Van Mildert in 1836, an Act was passed whereby all temporal jurisdic tions and privileges were declared to be for ever removed from the bishopric. Up to that time the bishops opened the assizes in person, as being still at the head of the administration of justice, the judges sitting by virtue of the bishop s writ. Durham is now included in the province of York, and in the north-eastern circuit. The principal county histories are those by Hutchinson and Surtees, the latter incomplete, but, so far as it goes, it is a noble work, one of the very best of that class ever published. Murray s handbooks to the county and to the cathedral, though occasionally inaccurate, are full of interesting and valuable information. DURHAM CITY, a municipal and parliamentary borough of England, and the chief town of the county of Durham, is situated on the River Wear (which is crossed there by Four bridges), 14 miles S. of Newcastle and 60 miles N.N.W. of York. Though there was a small Roman camp at Maiden Castle Hill, about a mile distant, Durham itself dates only from the end of the 10th century, when the monks of Lindisfarne rested there with the body of St Cuthbert, after wandering about with it almost all over the north of England. Soon afterwards a church was built by Bishop Ealdhune, and the removal of the see from Lindisfarne hither, together with, the growing fame of the incorruptible )ody of the saint, led to the rise of the city. The rocky )eninsula on which Ealdhune s church was founded, about 80 feet above the rive^ was called Dunholme (Hill Island), VII 71