uilding is still standing, and few sites chosen by the old
monks, who had an unerring eye for beauty as well as safety and
convenience in their choice of abode, can surpass this one, surrounded
by fair meadows, and standing on the green hill-side, with the rippling
Aln flowing through the levels below. In Hulne Park is also the
Brislee Tower, erected by the first Duke of Northumberland in 1781, on
the top of Brislee Hill.

[Illustration: ALNWICK CASTLE]

Alnwick itself, with its quaint, uneven, narrow streets, and grey stone
houses, looks the part of a Border town even in these days; and the grim
old Hotspur tower, bestriding the main street like an ancient warrior
still on guard, helps to give the illusion an air of reality. The tower,
however, was not built by Hotspur, but by his son. The names of the
streets, too, are redolent of the days when the only safety for the
inhabitants of a town worth plundering lay in the strength of its walls
and gateways. Bondgate, Bailiffgate, and Narrowgate, still speak of the
days of siege and sortie, of fierce attack and stout defence.

The magnificent castle which dominates the town stands majestically at
the top of a green slope above the Aln, its vast array of walls and
towers far along the ridge, fronting the North as though still looking,
albeit with a seemingly languid interest, for the coming of the Scots
who were such inveterate foes of its successive lords. The principal
entrance, however, the Barbican, faces southwards to the town, and here
the massive gateway, with portcullis complete, and crowned by quaint
life-size figures of warriors in various attitudes of defence, conveys
the impression that the huge giant is still alert and on guard. The
history of Alnwick is the history of the castle and its lords, from the
days of Gilbert Tyson, variously known as Tison, Tisson, and De Tesson,
one of the Conqueror's standardbearers, upon whom this northern estate
was bestowed, until the present time. After being held by the family of
De Vesci (of which the modern rendering is Vasey--a name found all over
south-east Northumberland) for over two hundred years, it passed into
the hands of the house of Percy. The Percies, who hailed from the
village of Perce in Normandy, had large estates in Yorkshire, bestowed
by the Conqueror on the first of the name to arrive in England in his
train. The family, however, was represented by an heiress only in the
reign of Henry II., whose second wi