“From sea to sea, from shore to shore,
  Seven years Saint Cuthbert’s corpse they bore
  They rested them in fair Melrose,
  But though alive he loved it well
  Not there his relics might repose,
      For, wondrous tale to tell,
  In his stone coffin forth he glides,
  A ponderous bark for river tides,
  Yet light as gossamer it glides
      Downward to Tillmouth cell.

* * * * *

Chester-le-Street and Ripon saw
His holy corpse, ere Wardilaw
Hailed it with joy and fear;
Till, after many wanderings past,
He chose his lordly seat at last
Where his cathedral, huge and vast,
Looks down upon the Wear.”

Sir W. Scott—­MARMION.

The “stone coffin” was boat-shaped, “ten feet long, three feet and a half in diameter, and only four inches thick, so that, with very little assistance, it might certainly have swum; it still lies, or at least did so a few years ago, in two pieces, beside the ruined chapel at Tilmouth.”—­Sir W. Scott’s Notes to “Marmion."

Three or four miles from Tillmouth, south-westward up the valley of the Tweed, and just beyond Cornhill, lies the village of Wark, near which the remains of the famous Border castle are still standing.  The castle was built on a stony ridge of detritus called the Kaim, which stretches from Wark village towards Carham.  In the reign of Henry I. all those who owned land in the North were seemingly animated simultaneously by a lively desire to secure their Borders; Bishop Flambard began to build Norham Castle, Eustace Fitz-John, husband of Beatrice de Vesci, built the greater part of Alnwick Castle, and Walter Espic raised the mighty fortress, the great “Wark” or work (A.S. were or weare) on the steep ridge above Tweed, in “his honour (seignieury) of Carham.”

From that time the castle of Wark went through a greater succession of sieges, assaults, burnings, surrenders, demolitions, and restorations than any other place in England, except, perhaps, Norham Castle or Berwick-upon-Tweed.  In an age and situation where hard blows given and returned, desperate adventures and equal chances of life or death were the common-places of everyday existence, Wark was probably the place where these excitements were to be had oftener than anywhere else.

The romantic episode which gave rise to the establishment of the Order of the Garter is generally allowed to have taken place at Wark Castle.  The young king of Scotland, David Bruce, had “ridden a raid” into England, and ravaged and plundered on his way as far as Auckland, after having burnt the town of Alnwick, amongst others, but having been repulsed before the castle.  King Edward III. was at Stamford when he heard of the invasion; but hurrying northward he reached Newcastle in four days.  The Scots, retreating before him, passed Wark Castle, which was held by the Countess of Salisbury and her nephew, in