D

OWN in a northern vale wild flowrets grew, And lent new sweetness to the fummer gale ; The Muse there found them all remote from view, Obscur'd with weeds, and scattered o'er the dale.

O Lady, may so flight a gift prevail,
And at your gracious hands acceptance find?
Say, may an ancient legendary tale,
Amufe, delight, or move the polish'd mind?

Surely the cares and woes of human kind,
Tho' fimply told, will gain each gentle ear:
But all for you the Mufe her lay defign'd,
And bade noble ancestors appear;

your

She feeks no other praise, if you commend
Her great prote&trefs, patronefs, and friend.

MDCCLXX.

ADVERTISEMENT.

W

ARKWORTH CASTLE in Northumberland, ftands very boldly on a neck of land near the fea-fhore, almost surrounded by the river COQUET, (called by our old latin hiftorians Coqueda) which runs with a clear rapid ftream, but when fwoln with rains becomes violent and dangerous.

About a mile from the Caftle, in a deep romantic valley, are the remains of a HERMITAGE; of which the Chapel is fill intire. This is hollowed with great elegance in a cliff near the river; as are alfo two adjoining appartments, which probably ferved for the Sacrifty and Veftry or were appropriated to fome other facred uses; for the former of thefe, which runs parallel with the Chapel, appears to have had an Altar in it, at which Mafs was occafionally celebrated, as well as in the Chapel itself.

Each of these apartments is extremely fmall; for that which was the principal Chapel does not in length exceed eighteen feet; nor is more than feven feet and a half in breadth and height: it is however very beautitifully defigned and executed in the folid rock'; and has all the decorations of a complete Gothic Church or Cathedral in minature.

But what principally diftinguishes the Chapel, is a fmall Tomb or Monument, on the fouth fide of the altar; on the top of which lies a Female Figure extended in the manner that effigies are usually exhibited praying on ancient tombs. This figure, which is very delicately defigned, fome have ignorantly called an image of the Virgin Mary; though it has not the least resem, blance to the manner in which fhe is reprefented in the Romish Churches; who is ufually erect, as the object of adoration, and never in a poftrate or recumbent pofture. Indeed the real image of the bleffed Virgin probably stood in a fmall nich, ftill vifible behind the altar: whereas the figure of a Bull's Head, which is rudely carved at this Lady's feet, the ufual place for the Creft in old monuments, plainly proves her to have been a very different perfonage.

About the tomb are feveral other Figures; which, as well as the principal one abovementioned, are cut in the natural rock, in the fame manner as the little Chapel itfelf, with all its Ornaments, and the two adjoining Apartments. What flight traditions are scattered through the country, concerning the origin and foundation of this Hermitage, Tomb, &c. are delivered to the Reader in the following rhimes.

It is univerfally agreed, that the Founder was one of the Bertram family, which had once confiderable poffeffions in Northumberland, and were anciently Lords of Bothal Caftle, fituate about ten mile from Warkworth. He has been thought, to be the fame Bertram, that endowed Brinkburn Priory, and built Brenkfhaugh Chapel which both ftand in the fame winding

valley, higher up the river.

But Brinkburn Priory was founded in the reign of K. Henry I.* whereas the form of the Gothic win

*Tanner's Notitia Monaft.