The bright clear stream of the Aln also begins its short journey across Northumberland from the heights of Cheviot, but in the narrower northern portion of the county.  Alnham, with its pele-tower Vicarage, ancient church, and memories of a castle, stands just at the foot of the hills, near the source of the river.  Some three or four miles eastward along its banks, a walk through leafy woods brings us to Whittingham—­the final syllable of which, by the way, one pronounces as “jam,” as one does that of nearly all the other place-names ending in “ing-ham” in Northumberland, contrary though it be to etymological considerations—­excepting, curiously enough, Chillingham, situated in the very midst of all the others.  The “ing” and “ham” are in themselves a historical guide to the days in which the various villages received their names, these two syllables being a certain indication of a Saxon settlement, the “home of the sons, or descendants of” whatever person the first syllable indicates.  Thus, Edlingham, only a few miles away, is the “home or settlement of the sons of Eadwulf”; Ellingham, the “home of the sons of Ella,” and so on.  How the “Whitt” syllable was spelled we do not know; most probably Hwitta or Hwitha—­for all our wh’s were hw originally—­hwaet, hwa, hwaether and so forth.

This ancient village is in these days a charming and peaceful place, lying in the midst of rich meadow lands, and surrounded by magnificent trees.  It had its romances, too, in the course of years; so long ago as the days of the early Danish invasions a certain widow in Whittingham, in the reign of King Alfred, had no less a person than a Danish prince among her slaves; he was ransomed, however, and made king of the Danes in the North, in consequence of a vision in which St. Cuthbert had directed the Abbot of Carlisle to see this done.  Young Prince Guthred’s gratitude showed itself in a substantial grant of land to St. Cuthbert at Durham.  Whittingham Church is supposed to have been founded by the Saxon king Ceolwulf, whose acquaintance we have already made at Holy Island, and he bestowed the lands of Whittingham on the church at Lindisfarne.  It still shows some of the original Saxon work at the base of the tower, and much more was to be seen before the so-called “restoration” of the church in 1840.  The pele-tower on the south side of the river, after its days of storm and stress are over, still serves as a shelter in time of need, for it is now used as an almshouse for the poor of the village, a former Lady Ravensworth having originated the quaint idea and seen it carried out.

Whittingham Fair, now Whittingham Sports, a well-known rendezvous of the whole countryside, has lost some of its former splendour, but is still looked forward to with great enjoyment in the surrounding district.  The old coaching road from Newcastle to Edinburgh passed through the village, crossing the Aln by the stone bridge, from whence it went on through Glanton and Wooler to Cornhill.