As the lead-mining industry has decreased, Allendale has turned its attention to other methods of living, and now caters for the army of visitors who, each summer, climb its hills and wander through its woods and lanes, and by its riverside, as did the Allendale maid whose memory is perpetuated in the simple lines of the little poem, “Lucy Gray of Allendale.”

  “Say, have you seen the blushing rose,
  The blooming pink, or lily pale? 
  Fairer than any flower that blows
  Was Lucy Gray of Allendale.

  Pensive at eve, down by the burn,
  Where oft the maid they used to hail,
  The shepherds now are heard to mourn
  For Lucy Gray of Allendale.”

Not far from the village of Catton, the name of “Rebel Hill” reminds us that it was a vicar of Allendale, Mr. Patten, who joined young Derwentwater in the rising of “The Fifteen,” and was appointed chaplain of the little army.  He met some half-dozen men of the neighbourhood at this hill, when they set off together to join the rest of the forces at Wooler.

On the West Allen is the lonely little hamlet of Ninebanks, with Ninebanks Tower, concerning which little is known with certainty; and on this stream also are two of the most strikingly beautiful places in Northumberland—­the delightfully picturesque village of Whitfield, and the well-known Staward-le-Peel.

The ruins of the “Pele” tower stand on a high grassy platform, safeguarded on three sides by tall cliffs and tumbled boulders; the remains of a ditch may also be traced.  From this point a splendid view of the river valley, with its steep precipices, overhanging pinewoods intermingled with trees of less sombre hue, and the bright course of the river, may be obtained.  At a point a little higher up the valley, where the waters of the stream are held back by some huge rocks, they form a deep pool, and then flow onwards through a narrow gorge called Cyper’s Linn.  Following the stream now until it has merged its waters in those of the South Tyne, we turn eastward with the main stream and come to Haydon Bridge.

This considerable village, gradually growing to the proportions of a small town, lies on both sides of the river, which is here crossed by the substantial bridge from which the village takes its name; for the original village of Haydon stood at some distance up the hill on the north side of the stream.  On the hillside may still be seen the ruins of the old church, in which services are occasionally held in the summer time.  The chancel, apparently dating from the twelfth century, and a later little chapel to the south of it, are all that are left of the building.  Some very quaint inscriptions are to be seen in the churchyard, and there are many sculptured grave-covers within the church.  Many of the stones used in the building have evidently been brought from the great Wall, or probably from the Roman station of Borcovicus, some six or seven miles to the north; and what a rush of bewildering fancies crowds upon one’s mind on first discovering that the font was originally a Roman altar!