Page:History and characteristics of Bishop Auckland.djvu/49

 30 mSTOBY OF BISHOP AUGKLANB. was also built by Bishop Tunstall, the gates of which (fix>m their appearance in the sketch given by Buck, 1722), were of wood The present structure, from a design by Sir Thomas Bobinson, of Rokeby, is the work of Bishop Trevor, who expended £8,000 in improvements in and around the castle. The stone screen, which now encloses the south front of the castle, and which consists of a range of low-pointed arches, between the piers of which are ranges of iron palisading, having a large gateway in the centre, is the work of Bishop Barrington. The stately-looking old mansion-house, now used as a porter's lodge at the entrance of the Park, is said to have beea formerly the town mansion of the Crosiers, of Newbiggin, in the parish of Heighington. It stood at that time outside the Park, and when Bishop Trevor purchased it, had been converted into a woollen naanufactory. To enter into anything like a minute description of the interior of the castle, either in bygone times or at the present, lies beyond the limits of our prescribed plajL We, therefore, refer those who wish for further information to "Raine's Auckland Castle," before alluded to, from which many of the account rolls, as well as much of the information already given, has been derived. They will, also, find much interesting matter bearing upon the domestic, as well as the pubLLc, life of the various Bishops who have resided at the castie, amongst which will be found the expense roll of a journey to London, by Bishpp de Insula, in 1274, and that of Bishop Cosin, in 1667i from which many curious comparisons may be drawn ; also, an inventory, taken June, 1628, as well as extracts from the survey, taken preparatory to its sale during the Commonwealth, with numerous letters written to his steward, and other people, employed in the various repairs and alteration^ in and around the castle during his episcopate. CHAPTER VI. We must now return once more to our little town. Leland says (who wrote about a centuiy previous to the time we have been treating upon), " The town self of Akelande is of no estimation, yet is ther a praty market of come. It standith on a praty hill bytween two ryvers, wherof Were lyith on the north syde, and Gaimdelesse on the south ; and an arrow shot or more benethe they meete, and make one streame, and ren to the este, and each of these lyvers hath an hiQ by it." Camden, in his " Britannia," compiled about a century later, simply mentions " a fair bmlt house of Bishop's, witib turrets," and Newton Cap Bridge, but not one word respecting the town. In the "Magna Britannia," a book compiled about 1730, we find the foUowdng description of the town : — " This town is pleasantly seated upon the side of a hill, in a very good air, and hath a good market weekly, on Thursday. The Manor of this town belongs to the Bishop, and the houses are handsoma In fine, 'tis one of the best towns iii the county." To those who have only known Bishop Auckland during the last half centuiy, this description may seem strange ; nevertheless, it is strictiy true. Bishop Auckland, previous to that time, was a clean, quaint- looking old place, possessing many odd looking irni^ and buildings of considerable antiquity, dating from the times of H^iry and Elizabeth. Specimens of these buildings may still be found in Silver-street (abeady alluded to as being that of the old inn in which Qbarles L was lodged), and the " Queen's Head" in the Market-place. There is, also, the " Bay Horse" in Fore Bondgate, which has been kept by an ** Oswald Pearson, joiner," for upwards of three hundred years — a circumstance, perhaps unparalleled in the three kingdoms. The streets of the town, though narrow, and broken here and there by some more humble thatch-covered dwelling — ^but which brought out in still greater relief the more imposing ones — ^presented an air of respectability, quaintness, and uniformity which the patch-work of modem speculation and commerce has completely destroyed. Its principal inhabitants in those days were people who had retired from public life, upon a small competence, and who had selected Bishop Auckland as their place of residence from its healthiness, and the beauty of its situation ; or, perhaps, from the fetct of its Digitized by Google