ry, Lord Derwentwater was
not blameless of undue influence and oppression. The instances, indeed,
of threats and absolute compulsion being used to augment the forces of
the Jacobites, and to draw unwilling dependants into participation, are
very numerous; they may be collected from various petitions, borne out
by evidence, among the State Papers for 1715 and 1716. It is true that
such excuses were certain to be alleged by many persons unjustly; but,
where the charges were substantiated, we must with pain confess that the
virtues of the Earl of Derwentwater, as well as those of other
Jacobites, are sullied by a violent exercise of power over their
tenantry. One man, named George Gibson, afterwards, in memorialising
Lord Townshend from Newgate, affirms that upon his refusal to carry a
message from Lord Derwentwater to Mr. Forster, two days before the
insurrection, and returning to his own house instead, he was one night
dragged out of bed by seven or eight men, and hurried off to serve in
the said insurrection without a single servant of his own attending him.
It was proved also, by King's evidence, that the unfortunate man did all
in his power to escape from Kelso, and really made the attempt; but it
was defeated, for he was ever an object of suspicion to the Earl of
Derwentwater and Mr. Forster, whose watchfulness kept him among the
rebel troops.[190] Party may do much to blunt the feelings; yet there
was too much of what was good in the character of Lord Derwentwater for
him, in the solitude of his own prison, not to remember in after days
the heavy responsibilities which even by one act of this nature he had
incurred, in compelling a man to act against his will and conscience.

Warkworth was probably chosen as a resting-place for the insurgents, on
account of its strength. Situated only three-quarters of a mile from the
sea, on the river Coquet, over which is thrown a bridge, guarded by a
lofty tower, the Castle of Warkworth, which guards the town, commands a
view both varied with objects of interest and importance.

From a lofty turret of the castle a great extent of land and ocean is to
be seen. The great Tower of the Percys, from which this turret rises, is
decorated with the lion of Brabant, and is seated on the brink of a
cliff above the town. From this lofty structure the eye, stretching
along the coast, may discern the castles of Dunstanbrough and
Bamborough: the Fern Islands, dotted upon the face of the waters