By eleven o"clock we had done ten miles and entered Morpeth.
Now, O ye health-seekers or intending honeymoon enjoyers! why not go for a month to Morpeth? It lies on the banks of the winding Wansbeck, it is but four miles from the ocean; it is quaint, quiet, curious, hills everywhere, wood and water everywhere; it has the remains of a grand old castle on the hill top, and a gaol that looks like one. Accommodation?
did you say. What a sublunary thought, but Morpeth has capital lodging-houses and good inns, so there!
We caught our first glimpse of the sea to-day away on our right.
We had hoped to stay at Felton, a romantic little village on the river.
Partly in a deep dell it lies, partly on a hill; rocks and wooded knolls with shady walks by the streamlet-side make it well suited for a summer resort, but it is hardly known. Not to Londoners, certainly.
Stabling we could have here, but so hilly is the place that a flat meadow was looked for in vain. After spending a whole hour searching for accommodation I returned to the glen where I had left the Wanderer, and our poor tired horses had to go on again.
Hills, hills, hills, that seemed as if they never would end; hills that take the heart, and life, and spirit out of the horses and make my heart bleed for them. The beauty of the scenery cannot comfort me now, nor the glory of the wild flowers, nor the blue sea itself. We but lag along, hoping, praying, that a hostelry of some sort may soon heave in sight.
I am riding on in front, having often to dismount and push my cycle before me.
All at once on a hilltop, with a beautiful green valley stretching away and away towards the sea, I come upon the cosiest wee Northumbrian inn ever I wish to see. I signal back the joyful tidings to the weary Wanderer.
Yee, there is stabling, and hay, and straw, and everything that can be desired.
"Hurrah! Come on, Bob, I feel as happy now as a gipsy king."
_July 15th_.--The drag began this morning in earnest. We were among the banks of Northumbria. [Bank--a stiff hill.] With a light carriage they are bad enough, but with a two-ton waggon, small in wheel and long "twixt draughts, the labour, not to say danger, reaches a maximum. The country here is what a c.o.c.kney would term a mountainous one, and in some parts of it even a Scotchman would feel inclined to agree with him. At one time we would be down at the bottom of some gloomy defile, where the road crossed over a Gothic bridge, and a wimpling stream went laughing over its rocky bed till lost to sight among overhanging trees.
Down in that defile we would eye with anxious hearts the terrible climb before us.
"Can we do it?" That is the question.
"We must try." That is the answer.
The roller is fastened carefully behind a back wheel, and "Hip!" away we go, the horses tearing, tottering, sc.r.a.ping, almost falling.
And now we are up, and pause to look thankfully, fearfully back while the horses stand panting, the sweat running in streamlets over their hoofs.
The short banks are more easily rushed. It is a long steep hill that puts us in danger.
There is hardly probably a worse hill or a more dangerous hollow than that just past the castle gate of Alnwick.
It needed a stout heart to try the descent. Easy indeed that descent would have been had a horse fallen, for neither the brake, which I now had sole charge of, nor the skid, could have prevented the great van from launching downwards.
But the ascent was still more fraught with danger. It was like climbing a roof top. Could the horses do it this time?
Impossible. They stagger half way up, they stagger and claw the awful hill, and _stop_.
No, not stop, for see, the caravan has taken charge and is moving backwards, dragging the horses down.
The roller and a huge stone beneath the wheels prevented an ugly accident and the complete wreck of the Wanderer. Twelve st.u.r.dy Northumbrians went on behind and helped us up. The road ascends higher and higher after we pa.s.s Alnwick, until at last we find ourselves on the brow of a lofty hill. There is an eminence to the right covered with young firs; near it is a square tower of great strength, but only a ruin. The traveller who does not see the country from this knoll misses one of the grandest sights in England. From the lone Cheviot mountains on the left to the sea itself on the far-off right round and round it is all beautiful.
I had stayed long enough in Alnwick to see the town and "sights;" the latter is a hateful word, but I have no better ready.
I was greatly impressed by the ma.s.sive grandeur of the n.o.ble old castle, the ancient home of the Percys. The figures of armed men on the ramparts, some holding immense stones above the head, as if about to hurl them on an a.s.sailant, others in mail jackets with hatchet and pike, are very telling. I could not help thinking as I pa.s.sed through the gloomy gateways and barbican of the many prisoners whose feet had brushed these very stones in "the brave days of old."
CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
THE CREW OF THE "WANDERER," ALL TOLD.
"His hair, his size, his mouth, his lugs, Showed he was nane o" Scotland"s dogs."
Burns.
While perusing these memoirs of my gipsy life, I should be more than delighted if my readers could to some extent think as I thought, and feel as I felt.
In an early chapter I gave a sketch of the Wanderer herself; let me now give a brief account of its occupants by day. Why I say by day is this: my coachman does not sleep in the caravan, but takes his ease at his inn wherever the horses are stabled. Doubtless, however, when we are far away in the wilder regions of the Scottish Highlands, if it ever be our good fortune to get there safely, John G, my honest Jehu, will have sometimes to wrap himself in his horse rugs and sleep upon the _coupe_.
And we have so many awnings and so much spare canvas that it will be easy enough to make him a covering to defend him from the falling dew.
Having mentioned John G, then, it is perhaps but right that I should give him the preference even to Hurricane Bob, and say a word about him first.
My Jehu John.
When I advertised for a coachman in the _Reading Mercury_ I had no lack of replies. Among these was one from a certain Major B, recommending John. He gave him an excellent character for quietness, steadiness, and sobriety, adding that when I had done with him he would be happy to take him back into his employment.
This was virtually offering me John on loan, and having a soft side for the Queen"s service, I at once sent for John G.
When John returned that forenoon to Mapledurham he was engaged. If John could speak Latin, he might have said,--
"Veni, vidi, vici."
But, with all his other good qualities, John cannot talk Latin.
I was naturally most concerned to know whether my coachman was temperate or not, and I asked him. "I likes my drop o" beer," was John"s reply, "but I know when I"ve enough."
John and myself are about ages, ie, we were both born in her Majesty"s reign. John, like myself, is a married man with young bairnies, of whom he is both proud and fond.
John and I have something else in common. We are both country folks, and therefore both love nature. I do not think there is a shrub or tree anywhere about that is not an old friend, or a bird or wild creature in meadow or moorland or wood that we do not know the name and habits of.
If we see anything odd about a tree or come to one that seems somewhat strange to us, we stop horses at once, and do not go on again until we have read the arboreal riddle.
John is very quiet and polite, and thoroughly knows his place.
Finally, he is fond of his horses, most careful to groom them well and to see to their feet and pasterns, and if ever the saddle hurts in the least on any particular spot, he is not content until he has eased the pressure.
Next on the list of our crew all told comes--
Alfred Foley.