The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-02-02
ALNWICK CASTLE.


A writer in the Contributors Club, in
the January Atlantic, tells of visit to
Alnwick, and it's historic castle:
No place under the sun better illus
trates the wise saying that the traveller
in foreign parts will only be able to find
there what he takes with him in his own
eyes and mind. The several guidebooks
that hold out false promises on their
covers prove to have been specially
planned to give no information whatever
worth having. and their tantaized buyer
has over and over again to repent that
he has left unlearned so many OF the
things he ought to have learned, to make
the recordc of medieval architecture an
open page to his eye.
The venerable porter, whose hale and
we'll fed old age would seem to insure
him for some time to come as the travel
er's guide around the inner and outer
baileys of this feudal pile of the Dukes
of Northumberland (Percies now only
through maternal descent and unforgiv
en- by Freeman for having renounced the
paternal Smithson), is entirely of one
mind with the guidebooks. THE 'orse
block. to get on 'orse back although it
be to ordinary eyes but wooden step
ladder, he may be relied on to point out,
for some occult reason Of his own, with
pride and Affection; SO, too, one after
another. the small lights set in the turf
to illuminate on it's subterranean pass
age the thrice wondrous car of hot steel
that carries its culinary burden from
kitchen to dining hall. But if steam car.
steam heat, and even electric light ap-
paratus are not to the sight seer's taste,
he must be ready to spy out for himself
the fine Norman doorway under the
keep, the rougher bits of the old mason
ry in the much-restored "curtain" wall,
and silently to note the immensely OF
proportion of this often assaulted and
raided but bravely impregnable border
fortress. By all means entreat the por-
ter gently however, and in spite OF cocka
ded hat shoulder, straps, and impeccable
broadcloth, he will lay aside authority
sufficiently to allow one to climb into
Hotspur's Seat. most picturesque of
"garrets," or watch-towers in the outer
wall, and to look at leisure through loop
hole and embrasure upon the serene
beauty of the parks beyond.
1t is after all the parks-the peaceful
home park close under the walls, and the
lordly deer and driving park beyond the
graceful stone bridge where the Percy
lion mounts guard-that keep the be-
holder in perpetual delight in Alnwick.
AS if the trimming Ain that winds
through them, the wide. horned cattle
wandering on it's banks. the flock of
Danubian geese that make sinuous lines
of feathery white, along the faultless
turf,-which slopes first softly, then
abruptly. up to the base of the gray COM
handing castle-and the aged, noble
trees we're not enough to satisfy omniv
orous craving for beauty, nature had
added to the background a moor. Be-
You'd the green hills and the stately tall
church tower embowered in foliage, it
lifts it's purple sides high into the clouds.
surprisingly lovely in scene where all
is loveliness. And if it is an object of
beauty from distance. it is equally
source of delight when approached. No
tremendous pedestrian effort is needed
to reach it, and no ungenerous keeper
patrols it to say one nay. The exhilar-
ating fragrance of its heather may be
breathed, and the feathery pink spikes
plucked without rebuke. More too, than
this is in store for the wayfarer who
reaches it's height. AS if to reprove him
for undue rapture over what he has been
telling himself is the most perfect seen
cry, it discloses at his feet vast field of
vision, in which are the Cheviot Hills,
stretching out into the still wider mag
nificence of Scotland.