Within the lines of the camp, and protected by a moat of its own, is a dark and frowning castle; it is tersely described in an ancient manuscript, ‘as a strength against the Scots in time of warre.’ The captain of Bewcastle was a military chief of considerable power; he is frequently mentioned in Border minstrelsy. The castle is built with the stones of the station. Its masonry is very rude; the mortar which has been used is rough, containing, besides gravel and sand, pieces of coal, charcoal, burnt clay, and broken bricks. A tower, apparently added after the main structure was reared, guards the entrance-gateway.
This, or some previous building, gives name to Bewcastle—Bueth’s-castle.
Bueth was, before the conquest, lord of Bewcastle and Gilsland. After some previous changes, Henry II., by a grant, dated ‘_apud Novum Castrum super Tynam_,’ gave the manor of Gilsland to Hubert de Vallibus, one of his Norman retainers. The Saxons were not men quietly to submit to wrong. Gilbert Bueth, son of the dispossessed proprietor, collecting a band of followers, made frequent incursions into his ancient patrimony. Robert de Vallibus, son of Hubert, the former possessor, suggested a conference, at which he basely assassinated the unarmed Saxon. Expiation was easy; the[Sidenote: ORIGIN OF LANERCOST PRIORY.] priory of Lanercost was founded and richly endowed. It is traditionally said that part of the expiatory ceremony consisted in the demolition of the walls of his castle at Castle-steads (Cambeck-fort), and sowing the site with salt. The baronial residence was transferred to Irthington, where, as already observed, some traces of it remain. Robert de Vallibus was afterwards employed by Henry II. as a judge of assize. How lax must the state of morality have been, when a murderer was allowed to sit upon the bench! His ill-gotten lands were not permitted to descend to his posterity, William, his only child, dying before him.
The far-famed Runic cross, respecting which so much has been written, holds its ancient place in the church-yard of Bewcastle. The inscription, which is now hardly legible, is pronounced by Kemble (Archæologia xxviii. 347) to be an Anglo-Saxon, not a Norse one. Two Roman inscriptions, not now to be found, have been described as belonging to this station. One of them, which Camden saw used as a grave-stone, bore the letters,