which shelter it on all sides save one, and
near the brink of the little Aln, whose banks are thickly covered with
wild flowers, while the steep slope on the opposite side of the river is
overhung with shady woods. The extent of the parks may be judged from
the fact that the enclosing wall is about five miles long. At the foot
of Bailiffgate, on the edge of a steep ridge above the descent to
Canongate and the banks of the river, the ancient parish church,
dedicated to St. Mary and St. Michael stands in a commanding position.
The present building dates from the fourteenth century, and occupies the
site of an earlier one, whose few remaining stones have been built into
the present structure. Two other reminders of long-past days are to be
found in Alnwick; one is the large stone in the Market Place to which
the bull ring used to be fixed in the days when bull-baiting and
bear-baiting took place; and the other, a relic of days still further
back in the distant years, is the sounding of the Curfew Bell, which is
still rung here every evening at eight o'clock. Altogether there is the
quaintest and most unexpected mingling of the ancient and modern in the
little feudal town.

Between Alnwick and the sea, the Aln winds its way past Alnmouth
Station, formerly known as Bilton Junction, and past Lesbury, a pretty
little tree-shaded village, to the sandy flats by Alnmouth where it ends
its journey in the North Sea.

The Till, by whose side we shall next wander, flows in the opposite
direction, for that historic stream is a tributary of "Tweed's fair
river, broad and deep," and curves from the Cheviots round to the
North-west, where it enters the larger stream at Tillmouth. It begins
life as the Breamish, tumbling down the slopes of Cushat Law within
sight of all the giants of the Cheviot range. The Linhope Burn, a fellow
traveller down these steep hillsides, forms in its course the Linhope
Spout, one of the largest waterfalls to be found amongst the Cheviots,
before it joins the Breamish, which then flows through a country of
green slopes and grassy levels to Ingram. This village possesses an old
church with massive square tower and windows which suggest the fortress
rather than the church. The heights which stretch eastward from the
Cheviots and bound the valley of the Till add not a little to the beauty
and variety of the scenery in this district.

The little stream, which turns northward near Glanton railway station,
moves