English UK

Strange things are happening in the editing world. A friend has recently come up against her present editor changing every ‘on to’ to ‘onto’. Many years ago a copy editor would not allow ‘onto’ in any circumstance and replaced them all with ‘on to’.

Naworth Castle courtyard

It is rather like the 'in to' and 'into' argument. There is a difference. The window was open so the cat climbed in to get his milk and fell into a bucket carelessly left there. I’m sure you can all see the difference.

Something my American friends are always correcting in my chapters is when I use 'different to'. They insist it should be 'different than.' Now, if enough people tell you a thing, you begin to believe it. So I looked up the grammar books and found that typical British usage is 'different to' when it introduces a clause and 'different from' when preceding a noun or pronoun. British usage doesn't include 'different than' at all.

I know it is unwise to generalise, and it is possible that all editors are not a) American or b)young twenty-somethings, (as if that is somehow a reason or an excuse, though I’ve it put forward as both!) but it is a shame that British English seems to be slowly caving in to American English. Why do British newspaper journalists and tv presenters think it is ‘cool’ to use the language of another culture? Why have I used the shorthand language ie ‘cool’, rather than think out a phrase that will describe what is meant by the slang phrase ‘cool’? Can it be that I am a) lazy or b)already indoctrinated?

Is grammar not taught in schools anymore? Have the teachers themselves got confused? Or is it the herd instinct, the reason that the less confidant follow the more confidant by adopting their style, their way of speaking? Food for thought, I think.

Naworth's White Lady

entrance in the south facade

Some say a ‘ White Lady’ haunts Naworth.

Gatehouse

The spirit, so they say, is of a girl who was seduced by Lord Dacre. She became pregnant and upon discovering Lord Dacre’s rank and social standing realised they would never be together. She threw herslf into a stream on his wedding day and drowned. The body was discovered by Lord Dacre, his bride to be and the dead girl’s mother. The girl’s mother put a curse upon Lord Dacre, resulting in his death and that of his heirs.
The trick is to know which Lord Dacre was the culprit. In about 1315 Randolf de Dacre married Margaret of Multon (having first abducted her) and the Dacre name became associated with Lanercost Priory as well as Naworth. 172 years later Thomas Dacre, 2nd Baron Gilsland, married Elizabeth Greystoke, gaining the title 1st Baron Greystoke. Thomas would have been twenty at the time. A typical age, some would say, for a little amorous adventuring.
In addition to his legitimate offspring, Thomas, the 2nd Baron, also has an illegitimate son, Capt. Thomas Dacre, from whom the Lanercost Dacres are descended. In 1538 Henry VIII and Cromwell dissolved the monasteries, and Lanercost Priory was given to the Dacre family who had served him so well at Flodden. The main branch of the family continued to live at Naworth Castle, and the Lanercost Dacres took up residence in the west range of the monastic buildings in what is now known as Dacre Hall. They created a dwelling of some style.
Thomas's grandson, Thomas Dacre, 4th Baron Gilsland and 3rd Baron Greystoke married twice, firstly to Elizabeth Neville, and the second time to Elizabeth Leyburne. When he died he left a son, George, and three daughters, Anne, Mary and Elizabeth.
It seems it took some time for the lady's curse to work on the family, and it has to be said that though George died young in a fall from a vaulting horse, the girls all married a sprig of the Howard family and went on to produce offspring. So it was also a rather selective curse.
If you believe in such things.

Naworth

Can you see the squirrel? Perched on top of the helmet? I'd love to know the reason its there. After browsing around a little, we ventured through the doorway and into a long passageway which brought us out into a sunny courtyard.

This would be the inner bailey, and the heart of the castle. Buildings range round it on all four sides, with a bigger gateway to my left. People are heading to a small doorway tucked underneath a set of steps with a right angle in them, which must lead up into the grand hall. Today only the antique dealers are allowed up there. So we step into another doorway, and I really got a sense of stepping into rather than through, for the worn flag stones were a little below the threshold. Notices warned of uneven floors.

Gaunt stone walls, odd shaped doors, even odder internal windows without glass so from the corridor we could look into a couple of dark rooms taken over by the inevitable coffee and scone cafe. Then  we took the stone stairs and arrived at the start of the antiques fair. Lots of stalls, with eight foots screens forming small rooms and spaces but unfortunately hiding a good deal of the castle structure! Lots of lovely things on display but the least expensive things we found were copies of John Speed's early maps - for £55. There was a wonderful sculpture of a green bronze dragon with gold-tipped horns and claws, perhaps three foot tall, and priced at £8,000, lots of jewellery and glossy 18th and 19th century furniture. 

Antiques and Old things



Naworth Castle

On Sunday, which luckily happened to be a beautiful day, we drove west to Naworth Castle near Brampton. Normally it is not open to visitors, but Sunday was the last day of a Three Day Antique and Fine Art Fair, which is not the kind of event that regularly has me beating at the doors. But since my wip features both castle and owner, I couldn't stay away.

So, through the archway, once the gate in a curtain wall that no longer exists, straining my neck back to look up at the armourial bearings on the wall above. I would swear there's a squirrel seating atop the helmet. Going through, its more of a tunnel than an archway, and about ten or twelve feet long. There's a small wooden door on the left, and a glance to the left show that there was once access to what was presumably a guard room overlooking the entry.

From here we can look up at the facade of the castle proper, and see one or two people disappearing through the doorway that has a smaller shield set in the lintel. I notice how different the stone is in colour to the stone in the eastern side of the country. This is a delicious soft red shading down to brown and pink and grey. The grey reflects the sunlight, so the overall effect is light, pretty and fawnish pink.

Will be continued tomorrow. (I haven't checked yet with this new version of blogger, but I hope clicking on the pictures gives an enlarged view.)