"27. Sunday. Was present in the afternoon at the administration of the Presbyterian Sacrament in the open air, before an assembly of thousands, grouped circularly before four tables. The preaching and service all in Gaelic, under a burning sun, and with the broad Firth of Moray before us, and beyond the blue and snow-crowned head of Ben Nevis in the distance. This was a most remarkable spectacle.

"30. Embarked in the Rob Roy steamer up Loch Ness, to Falls of Foyers and Fort Augustus. Loch Oish in Glengarry's country, and the great mountains of Strath Glass. Then Loch Lochy, with Ben Nevis in full sight-snow-capped-and above 4,000 feet high. Then Inverlochy Castle and Fort William.

“July 1. Embarked again in Rob Roy from Fort William on Loch Eil. Passed the north of Loch Levin into Loch Lennhe. Islands of Storma and Lismore. Mull before us at a distance, but towering into the clouds. Dunstaffnage Castle. Then the island of Ke-ora, Dunolly Castle, and Oban, where we landed, and at 12 A.M. took a stage coach, which took us up the left bank of Loch Etive, past Dunstaffnage Castle, by Taynalt, up Glen Nent, passed the bare granitic head of Ben Cruachan, to the great inland lake of Loch Awe, which we crossed by a ferry to Senachan, and thence went to Inverary.

"July 2. Crossed from Inverary over Loch Fine to St. Catherine, and thence, in a coach and four driven in great style, through the narrow pass of Glen Beg, by Mony Brechin Bridge, into Glen Goyle, to Loch Goyle head, where we took our passage in the St. Catherine steamer down to Loch Goyle and Loch Long into the Firth of Clyde, and to Glasgow.

"July 3. From Glasgow to Lanark and the Falls of the Clyde. To Carnwath, Currie, and Edinburgh.

"July 4. All day at Edinburgh, in the Society of Arts, Royal and Antiquarian Societies, Parliament House, Advocates' Library, and the Record Office, with Mr. Thomson the keeper of which I dined.

"July 5. From Edinburgh to Hartburn.

"The minutes and sketches of this tour occupy 140 closely written pages in my note-book; but are not of much moment, as we went on wings.

"We are all well. William and Robert Hodgson from Carlisle have been here since the day after I set out on my journey.

"When are you coming? I wish you would bring John Wylam or Mr. Bourne with you, or both of them together.--Your most affectionate father, "JOHN HODGSON."

"DEAR SIR,

FROM J. HODGSON, Esq. M.P.

London, July 7, 1834.

"In the Inquisitiones Nonarum,' published by the Record Commissioners, the county of Northumberland amongst others is wanting. In arranging the documents in the Exchequer this has lately been found, and the Commissioners have been good enough to furnish me with a transcript, from which I have made a copy, which I send herewith. I am also getting a copy made of the Parliamentary Survey of Church Livings made in the time of the Commonwealth, so far as regards Northumberland, which I will send you in a few days. The latter record is of the greater value, as the Valor Ecclesiasticus' of Henry VIII. for Northumberland is not in existence; all that we know of being the Summa Valoris,' published in the last volume of the Valor. In a former volume of your History you have printed the Northumberland part of Pope Nicholas's Taxation; and if the 'Nonarum Inquisitiones' and the Parliamentary Survey were published, we should then have a complete set of the Ecclesiastical Surveys relating to Northumberland. If you think it desirable to have these documents printed as an Appendix, either to the forthcoming or any succeeding volume of your history, I shall be most happy to pay for the printing of the requisite number of copies of them as my contribution towards your valuable work. The None which I send include several parishes

out of the county, viz. the whole of North Durham, and Aldston and Denton in Cumberland. It would, however, undoubtedly be desirable to publish them entire, as it would then form a complete supplement to the the publication of the Record Commission. I am, dear Sir, very truly yours,

"JOHN HODGSON."

“1834, 25 Aug.-Knaresdale. A population here savage and cunning, unbenefited yet by civilisation or religion; but the rising generation

* Between our Mr. Hodgson and Mr. Hodgson of Elswick, afterwards Mr. Hodgson Hinde, there had for some time existed an intimacy, and a kindred feeling in the county of Northumberland and its history. They do not, however, appear to have had much epistolary correspondence with each other before this period. The above letter wil inform the reader of the able and zealous person to whom he is now introduced, and when he shall be given to understand that Mr. Hodgon Hinde is at the present time strenuously engaged in completing one volume at least of the first part of Hodgson's unfinished History of Northumberland, he will, with the above letter before him, at once come to the conclusion that the undertaking is in the most able hands.

are being regularly instructed. The cultivated land is broadest on the banks of the Knar; less so on the Thornhope; and the Mill-burn moor comes down nearly to the inn, brown and bristling with heather.

"Ah Lord God! that creatures of thine can traverse and live upon this beautiful earth and not see all the wonders with which it abounds, and the traces of the labours of the races of men that fed upon its bounty, where they now till it and live upon it little more thankfully than the cattle that assist them in their labours.

"Nature here frowns, but not austerely, in her high mountain brows; but her feet and her footstool are lovely."-(Journal.)

“1834, Nov. 28.—In returning from Durham to Newcastle by coach this morning, I walked out of the town a short way, and was taken up by the coach.

66 Yesterday as I walked past the east end of the cathedral I was struck with the mightiness of the mass of the tower, and the grandeur of the mind that designed it, and the command of means there must have been to finish such a work. To be sure, the whole building was the work of successive ages, and each part frequently of many years, and of more than one episcopate.

"This morning, a little after eight, the sun was up, and a pale mild light showed the beauty of the fine new broad road,* its two footpaths and walls winding off and disappearing between green banks to great advantage. The meadows too on the left beautifully tossed up into wavy forms, green as in May, pastured upon by groups of cows and sheep, and alive with the jocund and responsive voices of several parties of boys playing at cricket and other games; browed and hemmed with old brushwood and young plantations and hedges, all just now gilded with the sweet light of one of the most lovely November mornings that I ever saw; these all opened in me a fountain of joy and gratitude, which, however 1 may have been scowled upon by pride or sneered at by scorn, will I hope still continue to pour from my soul a stream of pleasure, which the keenest winds of adversity and persecution can never dry up -which contempt cannot blow out of its bed, and will always be too warm for neglect to freeze."-(Journal.)

"TO THE REV. J. RAINE.-Hartburn, 8 Dec. 1834.-You mentioned Newminster Chartulary as a fit subject for the Surtees Society press.

* A new road from Durham for a mile in the direction of Newcastle, to avoid the steep street of Framwellgate.

I have got a sight of it, and have negotiated, as far as I can at present, for a copy of it. In a fortnight's time I can tell you the result of my diplomacy in this matter. It is a small quarto of about 150 folios; but parts of it have had gallic acid spread over them to bring up the writing, and they are now nearly defaced. It has marginal references on the side, in the handwriting of the celebrated William Howard (Belted Will); and you will see that I mentioned it in a note under Blakemoor in my last published volume, as well as the Lawson MS., which I shewed you in the Durham Library, with a view of identifying the handwriting of it with that of the Philosopher Harrison. To-day I have had an intimation that my woodcuts will be done in time for my volume now in the press being published before the close of the year."

Mr. Hodgson does not appear to have devoted much time during this year to magazines or periodical publications, save that he contributed a report on Housesteads to the Antiquarian Society of Newcastle, and to the Newcastle Courant a notice of the Brief Account of Durham Cathedral.

CHAPTER XIII.-1835.

Death of Mr. Hedley-Publication of Part III. vol. III.-The Northumberland Pipe Rolls-Correspondence-Journal-Commencement of a new Volume of History— Journal-Visit to Carham-Minor Publications.

In the beginning of the year 1835, before Hodgson had resided twelve months at Hartburn, he found himself oppressed with difficulties, the result of expenses incurred in his History and in taking possession of his new preferment. "Your mother," writes he to his son Richard on the 13th of January, "I think, makes improvement. The time of year for her is bad, and there is no doubt the miserable state of our affairs is a heavy pressure upon her. What we are to do I cannot tell.- -To part with my books would be to part with my life, for without some literary employment I fear I could not live."--I willingly omit the greater portion of this letter, as its only tendency would be to give great pain to any reader in possession of a feeling heart.

To add to Hodgson's affliction, the hand of death, in the opening of this year, interrupted the faithful and affectionate intercourse which had so long existed between him and his friend Mr. Hedley. This sudden and melancholy event took place on the 17th of January from the effects of a cold caught in superintending the workmen who were engaged in disinterring the rudera of the Roman station of Vindolana, within which Hedley had built a house for his future residence.

That Hodgson deeply felt his loss during the remainder of his life is certain, and how thoroughly he understood the merits and excellences of this gentleman may be gathered from the memoir of him which he soon afterwards placed upon record in the volume of his History upon which he was then entering.* Hedley's epitaph at Beltingham is also by his pen; a brief but comprehensive sketch of the life and character of his friend.

The early Pipe Rolls for the county of Northumberland have

* Hist. Part. II. vol. iii. p. 330, &c. See also Gent. Mag. for October 1835 for another short memoir from Hodgson's pen.