Pennant's Tour 1773 |
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Page 168:- |
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| Kirkoswald Castle | from his wife Helwise, daughter of a Stotevil. Hugh de Morville was one of the murderers of Thomas Becket, the turbulent priest of the reign of Henry II. who a thousand times had merited a legal death: but the manner was as horrible, as the scene was impious. No peculiar judgments followed the assassins, as superstition feigned; no tails issued from behind, to mark them as so many Cains, as the monks alleged; no sudden deaths overtook them. William de Tracy lived almost to the reign of King John, and Hugh de Morville till about the sixth year of that monarch*. In the second he obtained a licence to inclose his woods at Kirk-Oswald, to fortify his manor-house, and to have there an annual fair and weekly market†. Nor did his remorse seem to have been very deep, if it is true that he preserved the sword with which he did the murder‡. A Thomas de Multon enlarged and strengthened the castle; John de Castro, who married his widow, gave it more security, by new works; Thomas Dacre added a large ditch, and beautified it at great expence. A Mr. Sandford, quoted by Dr. Burn, speaks of it as a most capital grand castle, and that it was the fairest fabric that eyes ever looked on; that the hall was an hundred yards long, and on the roof was por- |
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| trayed |
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| * Littleton, v. 354. |
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| † Dugdale's Baron. 1, 610, 611. Burn, 11, 424. |
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| ‡ Philemon Holland, in his edition of Camden, first mentions it. See page 777. |
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