nd, past Garrygill and Alston,
until it enters Northumberland where the Ayle Burn on the one hand, and
the Gilderdale Burn on the other, flow into it. Here is Whitley Castle,
where was a small Roman station called Alio, and Kirkhaugh Church,
charmingly placed on the bank of the river, which continues its course
northward past Slaggyford, Knaresdale, Eals, and Lambley, till it flows
past the fine Castle of Featherstone, and the ruins of Bellister, where
it turns eastward to Haltwhistle.

The little streams which enter the South Tyne up to this point flow
through wild and romantic glens, two of them owning the Celtic names of
_Glen Cune_ and _Glen Dhu_.

The family of Featherstonehaugh is one of the oldest in the North; and
it was concerning the death of one of this family--Sir Albany
Featherstonehaugh, who was High Sheriff of Northumberland in the days of
Henry VIII.--that Mr. Surtees, the antiquary, wrote the well-known
ballad, which, when Surtees gave it him, deceived even Sir Walter Scott
into thinking it genuinely ancient. The first verse of the ballad shows
with what a verve and swing the lines go.

"Hoot awa', lads, hoot awa'
Ha' ye heard how the Ridleys, an' Thirlwalls, an' a'
Ha' set upon Albany Featherstonehaugh;
And taken his life at the Deadmanshaw?
There was Willimoteswick,
And Hard-riding Dick,
An' Hughie o' Hawdon, an' Will o' the Wa'
I canno' tell a', I canno' tell a'
And mony a mair that the de'il may knaw."

The ruins of Bellister Castle stand against a sombre background of
woods, only a little way from Haltwhistle. The Castle once belonged to
the Blenkinsopp family, who also owned Blenkinsopp Castle, about two
miles away. The name was formerly spelt Blencan's-hope--the hope being
valley or hollow--and the Castle, like many other places, has its
legendary "White Lady."

Haltwhistle is a little straggling town lying on both sides of the main
road above the South Tyne, where it is joined by the Haltwhistle Burn.
By going up the valley of this pretty little stream we shall arrive near
the Roman station of AEsica, on the Wall. The town of Haltwhistle is
peaceful enough now, but it had a stirring existence in the days when
Ridleys, Armstrongs, and Charltons, to say nothing of the men of
Liddesdale and Teviotdale, had so strong a partiality for a neighbour's
live-stock and so ready a hand with arrow and spear. In the old ballad
of "The Fray of Hautwessel," we are told that

"The