enough to inform me that he had
seen some letters on this subject, which exculpated Lady Mary W.
Montague. The correspondence was destroyed, but it conveyed to the mind
of that accomplished and erudite gentleman, who saw it, the impression
that the charge against Lady Mary Wortley was groundless.

JAMES, EARL OF DERWENTWATER.

In the vale of Hexham, on the summit of a steep hill, clothed with wood,
and washed at its base by a rivulet, called the Devil's Water, stand the
ruins of Dilstone Castle. A bridge of a single arch forms the approach
to the castle or mansion; the stream, then mingling its rapid waters
with those of the Tyne, rushes over rocks into a deep dell embowered
with trees, above a hundred feet in height, and casting a deep gloom
over the sounding waters beneath their branches.

Through the arch of the bridge, a mill, an object ever associated with
peace and plenty, is seen; and, beyond it, the eye rests upon the bare,
dilapidated walls of the castle. Its halls, its stairs, its painted
chambers, may still be traced; its broken towers command a view of
romantic beauty; but all around it is desolate and ruined, like the once
proud and honoured family who dwelt beneath its roof.

This was once the favourite abode of the Ratcliffes, or Radcliffes,
supposed to be a branch of the Radcliffes in Lancashire,[173] from whom
were, it is said, descended the Earls of Sussex,[174] who became the
owners of Dilstone in the days of Queen Elizabeth.

During several generations after the Conquest, a family of the name of
Devilstone was in possession of Dilstone, until the time of Henry the
Third. The estates then passed to many different owners; the Tynedales,
the Crafters, the Claxtons, were successively the masters of the castle;
and it was not, according to some accounts,[175] until the tenth year of
Queen Elizabeth's reign, that it first owned for its lord one of that
unfortunate race to whom it finally belonged, until escheated to the
Crown. But certain historians have asserted that, so early as the reign
of Henry the Sixth, Dilstone was the seat of Sir Nicholas
Radcliffe.[176] At this period, too, other estates were added to those
already enjoyed by the Radcliffes. Sir Nicholas married the heiress of
Sir John De Derwentwater, to whom had belonged, for several centuries,
the manors of Castlerigg and Keswick, and who, since the time of Edward
the First, had enjoyed great consideration in the county of Cumberl