Page:History and characteristics of Bishop Auckland.djvu/117

 90 HISTOBT OF BISHOP AUCKLAITD. concerning the four northern counties ; and, in the service of that Prince, was at last slain in Normandy. A further account adds that the recognizance of the chained stag, which still appears on the east part of Hylton Castle, and in the chapel, was granted to the family for some reason or other by the Conqueror. The general tendency of these traditions go to show that the Hiltons were settled in the Coimty of Durham before the conquest The first of tie race, however, of whom there is direct historical evidence, though he is not mentioned by tradition, was Eomanus de Helton, who held three knights' fees in the return of Bishop Hugh, 1166, and was witness to the charter of the same Bishop to Archetel Bolmer. Alexander de Helton, expressly named as a baron of the Bishopric in charters of Bishop Hugh, made a convention with the Prior of Durham relative to the chapel of Hylton, in 1172, and was witness to several charters. " In the pedigree of the Hiltons," says Hutchinson, " there are several names remarkable for their learning and piety, but almost innumerable are the names of those highly renowned for their martial deeds. War seems to have been the pleasure, genius, and recreation of the Hiltons ; nor has any family been more lavish of their blood in defence of their countr/s cause. Since the conquest^ it has been remarked of the Hiltons that one was slain at Feversham, in Kent ; one in Normandy ; one at Metz, in Lorraine ; three in the holy wars, under Richard L ; one in the same, under Edward L ; three at the battle of Bordeaux, under the Black Prince ; one at Agincourt ; two at Berwick-upon-Tweed, against the Scots ; two at the battle of St Albans ; five at Market Bos worth ; and four at Flodden Field.'' Sir William Hilton, Knight, was one of the few northern gentry who, during the rebellion of 1569, adhered steadily to the Queen, unto whose service he brought one hundred horsa The Hiltons were the last of the gentry in Durham who kept a domestic fooL On one occasion, the Baron, dressed in the fashion of the day, was met by his fool, who, staring at his master's bedizened clothes, exclaimed, " Wha's fule now ?" Most people have heard of, or read, the wild local legend of " The Cauld Lad o' Hylton." Numerous and varied are the traditions relative to this ghostly visitant of the ancient Castle of Hylton; but the one most accepted is, that one of the ancient barons had, on an important occasion, ordered his horse, which was not brought out as soon as he expected. He went to the stable, found the boy loitering, or asleep, and, seizing a hay-fork, struck him, though not intentionally, a mortal blow. It is added that he covered his victim with straw till night ; and he then threw him into a pond, where the skeleton of a boy was found (in confirmation of the tale) in the last baron's time. The disembodied spirit of this lad was long supposed to have nightly visited the Castle to the terror of its inhabitants. He was seldom seen, but was jfrequently heard by the servants who slept in the great halL If the kitchen had been left in perfect order, they heard him amusing himself by breaking plates and dishes, hurling the pewter in all directions, and throwing everything into confusion. If, on the contrary, the apartment had been left in disorder (a practice which the servants found it most prudent to adopt), the indefatigable goblin Arranged everything with the greatest precision. The servants, however, at length grew weary of his pranks, and began to devise means for banishing him ; but the " Cauld Lad," having caught an inkling of their design, amused himself, in the dead of the night, with chanting, in a melancholy strain, the following consolatory lines : — Wae's me ! wae's me ! The *com is not yet Qrown upon the tree — That's to grow the wood, That's to make the cradle, That's to rock the bairn, That's to grow the man, That's to lay me. Digitized by Google