Page:History and characteristics of Bishop Auckland.djvu/55

 34 HISTORY OF BISHOP AUCKLAIH). (brought from London) contained the other two. On the above day, about six weeks after her death, the procession began in the following order : — ^Two men on horseback in black, with caps and favours ; two kettle drums in mourning ; a horse led by a man on foot ; two trumpeters, the trumpets hung with rich gilt escutcheons of silk, a man on horseback displaying a very large escutcheon on a black pole ; two singing men from the choir of Durham ; two men in black doaks, caps and favours, bearing each a pole covered with black silk ; the hearse drawn by six horses ; three men on horseback on each side in black, with caps and favours ; two men behind after the same manner ; the undertaker (Mr. Walker, from Durham) ; the mourning coach drawn by six horses, in which were Mr. Drage, his daughter and two friends ; and, lastly, two men on horseback in black caps and favours. The procession passed very slowly through all the streets of Bishop Auckland, during which time the trumpets sounded and the drums beat in a solemn manner. The interment took place at York, between nine and ten o'clock in the evening, as follows : — Four branched lights, two and two ; two kettle drums ; two trumpets ; a branched light ; two pole bearers ; a man servant between two branched lights ; two men in cloaks ; two branched lights ; master and boys ; boys of the choir, two and two ; singing men, two and two, with branched lights on each side ; canons, two and two ; two branched lights ; two vergers ; prebendaries, two and two, with branched lights on each side ; the corpse, with pall flung up, and lights on each side ; child and maid mourners, with lights on each side ; lastly, two branched lights closed the procession. The wordB, "through all the streets," in the above extract, suggests at this point an inquiry into the origin of the names of the streets constituting Auckland in the olden times. It seems to be the general opinion of those who have studied the subject, that High Bondgate is the ground on which originally stood " North Aclet," and constituted the original germ from which the present town sprung. Its name carries us back into the days of the Boldon Buke, when its inhabitants were aU bondsmen and villans ; the word " Bondgate" meaning the gate of the bondBmen, or a gate which formed the boundary mark of their dwellings, or holdings ; and the word village, that of the dwellings of the villans. This part of the town, even in modem days, bore a striking resemblance to the villages described in the Boldon Buke, in the olden and feudal times. Many of the houses were detached, and had pieces of land attached answering the description of the " Toft and Croft" of the early viUana It had, also, a beautiful sloping green on each side of the road, giving it the appearance of a fine country viUaga In all probability, the small batch of houses at the extreme west end of the town, and a few very old ones which occupied a site at the foot of the hiU, immediately under the battle- ments of the bridge, formed the most ancient, and, consequently, the first part of Auckland. As the town gradually rose in importance, and as its inhabitants emerged from their state of bondage, they would, doubtless, extend their dwellings along the ridge of the hill at the north side, a parallel line being taken down the south side, thus forming one entire and open street, extending from the top of Bondgate to the site of the present Market-place. The two rows of houses forming the south side of Back Bondgate and the north side of Fore Bondgate, judging from their crowded and huddled-up appearance, have, probably, been erected at some subsequent period. The north side of Back Bondgate would then extend itself still farther eastward down the hiU (which, as before stated, was a piece of waste ground called " St. Ann's Green)," and form the north side of the Market-place towards the Wear Chara It would then be continued into the comer of Silver- street, at the end of which originally stood a gate-way, supposed to have been the back entrance into the old college mentioned in former pages. The portion occupied by the east side of Silver- street and the south side of the Market-place are, evidently, from their style of architecture, more modem, and, from their contiguity to the castle, their vicinity seems to have been the most aristocratic part of the town. We now come to Newgate-street, its name indicating a more recent origin than that of the Bondgates, though Newgate is mentioned as early as the year 1470. In the roll of expenses for making a fish-pond, in the time of Bishop Booth, we find the following entry : — Other expenses, such as carters, branch-wood cutters, watching the oxen and cart horses by night in " Newgateleyes." The word " leyes," implying enclosed groimds, comprised, no doubt, the sloping fields between Newgate and the Gaunless. Newgate-street has, evidently, extended itself from the Market- Digitized by Google