A short distance from Amble, and practically encircled by the Coquet
which here makes a wide sweep, we come upon Warkworth, prettiest of
villages, combining the beauties of sea-shore and river scenery, and
rich in the possession of that romantic castle, the ruins of which carry
the mind back to Saxon times; for they stand on the site of an older
fortress erected by Ceolwulf, a Saxon King of Northumbria. He was the
patron of Bede, who dedicated his "Ecclesiastical History" to his royal
friend. Ceolwulf built both the fortress and the earliest church at
Warkworth, and a few stones of this latter building are still to be
seen. In 737, two years after the death of Bede, this royal Saxon laid
aside his kingly state and became a monk on Lindisfarne,

"When he, for cowl and beads, laid down
The Saxon battle-axe and crown."

It was when the castle was bestowed by Edward III. upon Lord Percy of
Alnwick that it became, for more than two hundred years, the chief
residence of that illustrious family; becoming in the next reign of
historical value as the home of that Hotspur whose valour and gallantry
made Henry IV. envy the Earl of Northumberland, in that he "should be
the father of so blest a son." In Act II., Scene 3 of "Henry IV.," Part
II., Shakespeare has laid the scene at Warkworth Castle, where Hotspur's
wife, troubled by her lord's moody abstraction, tries to win from him
the reason of his secret care. And after the battle of Shrewsbury,
Rumour, flying with the news of Hotspur's death, says:--

"Thus have I rumoured through the peasant towns,
Between the royal field of Shrewsbury
And this worm-eaten hold of ragged stone,
Where Hotspur's father, old Northumberland,