h; and what a rush of
bewildering fancies crowds upon one's mind on first discovering that the
font was originally a Roman altar!

The old church must have looked down on many a wild and curious scene in
the days when Scot and Englishman sought only opportunities to do each
other an injury, and the river-valleys were the natural passes through
which the tide of invasion, raid, and reprisal flowed.

In the beginning of the reign of Edward III., about 24,000 Scots, under
Douglas and Murray, crossed the Tyne near Haydon Bridge, and rode on to
plunder the richer lands that lay to the south and west. They reached
Stanhope and encamped there for a time. The young king set out
northwards with a great army to punish these marauders, and he was told
by his scouts that they had hastily left Stanhope on his approach. He
and his army pushed on quickly until they reached Bardon Mill; and,
crossing the Tyne, marched down to Haydon Bridge, expecting the Scots to
return by the way they went. It was miserable weather, and the feeding
of so many thousands of men was no little problem. They scoured all the
country round for provisions, getting the most from the Hexham Abbey
lands. Meanwhile it rained and rained, and no Scots appeared. After a
week of waiting, Edward, in great disappointment, went to Haltwhistle,
while his followers reconnoitered in all directions. Finally, he had the
mortification of learning that the Scots were still at Stanhope, but
before anything more could be done, they betook themselves back to
Scotland by a different route, and there was nothing left for Edward but
to give up the expedition in despair.

The bridge at Haydon appears to have been the only one for some distance
up and down the river in the sixteenth century, for we read of its being
barred and chained, on various occasions of marauding troubles in
Tynedale, to prevent the free-booters re-crossing the river.

In the days of Charles I. Colonel Lilburn marched to Haydon Bridge in
command of some troops of the Roundheads, on his way to join their
comrades at Hexham as a counter-move to the operations of the Royalist
troops in the North. Little more than thirty years after this, when the
days of Cromwell's power had come and gone, and Charles II. ruled at
Whitehall, the old Grammar School was founded at Haydon Bridge in 1685
by a clergyman, the Rev. John Shafto. Various changes have taken place
in the school from time to time, necessitated by the gradua