Dovenby – a rural village past and present
Here is one of England’s proud sights, the home of the Earl of Carlisle and all the Howards before him, and before that of the Dacres, whom we are always meeting in Cumberland. Of all the great castles of the border there is perhaps none more beautifully situated or more striking. Magnificent it stands, below the Carlisle-to-Newcastle road, and above the rocky cliffs of a deep wooded ravine. Green lawns lie about it, including one of the few oval bowling greens we have seen, and among very fine trees in the park are quaint oaks and beeches.
We enter the outer courtyard by a massive gateway. and come to the inner courtyard round which the castle is built. The entrance is a small archway with no ornament save the shields of the Howards, but the old entrance was by a lofty archway high enough for horse-men to ride through without lowering their banners. In it is still a massive lattice gate, and near by are steps down to the dungeons.
Above the gateway rises one of the comer towers, a huge pile with a queer stone man looking over the battlements as if to watch for the enemy. The foundations of this tower are thought to be older than the Conquest, and it may well have been the nucleus round which the rest of the fortress grew up from the 14th century onwards.
Up a flight of stone steps and through a massive door we come to the Great Hall, a fine room 100 feet long and famous for its treasures. Its little windows look on to the courtyard; and its fireplace, 15 feet wide, has an arch like a stone bridge.
Cherished here are beautiful French tapestries, a Flemish tapestry screen of the 17th century, and four strange beasts, like Alice-in-Wonderland characters. They are heraldic figures in oak, five or six feet high and holding banners, and they represent the Red. Bull of Dacre, the Griffin of De Vaux, the Stag of Multon, and the Dolphin of Greystoke.
Several things in this Hall remind us of one of the most famous lords of Naworth, Lord William Howard, the Belted Will in Scott’s Lay of the Last Minstrel. Among the suits of armour is one he is said to have worn, and among the pictures are full-length portraits by Janssen of him and his gracious wife Elizabeth Dacre. Here, too, are three little figures said to have been carved for Belted Will, who, according to the story, set them on the battlements to deceive the enemy. Dressed in armour, about half life size, maimed and halt and sadly battered, they are yet so droll that he would be dull indeed who does not laugh with them. We remember them as the three jolliest little men in Cumberland.
As interesting as anything the castle has is the old tower, with its thick walls and small spiral staircase, known as Belted Will’s Tower. In it is his bedroom, a panelled room looking finely on to the park; and above is the old library with a magnificent oak ceiling, richly moulded and adorned with foliage and shields, reminding us of the ceiling in the Dean’s house at Carlisle. The new library has a carpet made in the William Morris factory, and a remarkably fine overmantel showing in gesso work the Battle of Plodden, with Lord William Dacre heading a valiant charge. It is a spirited piece of work designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones and Sir Edgar Boehm.
There is a fascinating little chapel with a tiny window, a still smaller peephole, a rough wooden chest for an altar, and some valuable fragments of carved alabaster thought to have belonged to the altar screen in the fine church of Lanercost Priory a mile away. All sorts of scenes and figures they show-St Michael and a dragon; John the Baptist; the Madonna amid angels; God as the Ancient of Days, with a crucifix in His hand; the apostles watching the Ascension of the Madonna, with Thomas holding her girdle; and a nun holding a spear while a wretched figure writhes at her feet with a dagger in his heart. Especially fine is a scene of the Betrayal of Our Lord, with the servants of the High Priest crowding round Him, and Judas leaning forward to give the fatal kiss.
One of the walls is enriched with painting of over 400 years ago, in which we see the scourging of Jesus, a pathetic Crucifixion, and a dramatic Resurrection with the soldiers standing in every attitude of horror and amazement.
The famous lord of Naworth was unlike most mighty men of these parts in that he strove to keep the peace and not to break it.
LORD WILLIAM HOWARD, the Belted Will of Scott’s Lay of the Last Minstrel, is a historic figure accurately portrayed by the poet, but in reality a little late for the scene in which he is made to figure. He was born at Audley End, Essex, a son of the fourth Duke of Norfolk, who was executed for plotting to marry Mary Queen of Scots, leaving him an orphan at nine.
At 14 he was married to an even younger daughter of Lord Dacre, so that those who knew and loved them in later life said that the pair could not number 25 years between them at their wedding but that when they numbered 140 years they were hearty, well, and merry.
There were many years of trial and tribulation. Elizabeth feared and hated the Howards, and connived at the seizure of young Lady Howard’s estates. William’s brother was imprisoned when seeking to flee the country as a Roman Catholic, and William was made captive with him. Eventually Lady William was permitted to buy back her own estates for £10,000 and her husband settled down with her at Naworth Castle, to rebuild the old feudal home and live as a model border chieftain, rich in books and manuscripts. though so short of money that for long he dared allow himself only twenty shillings a month pocket money. They had started life together as mere children, but were without regrets in all their domestic relations, for they loved each other and were happy.
In a lawless age Howard was a power enforcing law and order along the border. He kept many retainers, and when he travelled it was with a small army, not to raid or ravage, but to insist on the maintenance of the peace, and to punish wrongdoing.
His procedure did not gain unanimous favour, for to raid and harry, to besiege and plunder, were long-established industries 00 both sides of the Border. His castle was at once fortress and palace, where armed men guarded the way to the upper chamber in the tower where he delighted to pore over his books and keep his diary and household accounts.
All his treasures and records, the furniture he used, the sword he wielded, and the altar before which he prayed were preserved so completely until fire destroyed them last century that Scott, visiting the scene nearly two centuries after Howard’s death, declared he could imagine him ascending the turret stair to greet him.