ALNWICK, the county town of Northumberland, is situated on the south bank of the river Alne, 310 miles N. of London, 34 N. of Newcastle, and 29 S. of Berwick. There are remains of the old wall which surrounded the town, and one of the four gates still exists; but most of the houses are comparatively modern, and are laid out in well-paved spacious streets. In the market-place there is a large town-hall, and a handsome building containing an assembly-room and a reading-room. Besides the parish church, Alnwick possesses a beautiful district church, a Roman Catholic chapel, and several Protestant dissenting places of worship. The chief employments are brewing, tanning, and brickmaking, but these manufactures are here of little importance. A small export trade is carried on through Alnmouth in corn, pork, and eggs, and a market is held every Saturday chiefly for these articles. The local government consists of a bailiff, nominated by the Duke of Northumberland, and twenty-four common councilmen, four of whom are elected annually as chamberlains; the councilmen fill up vacancies in their body from the freemen, who usually are about 300 in number. The ceremony of making freemen is of a very peculiar kind. The candidates, mounted on horseback, assemble in the market-place very early in the morning of St Mark’s day— the 25 th April—clad in white from head to foot, with swords by their sides, and attended by the bailiff and chamberlains, who are mounted and armed in the same manner. From the market-place they proceed, with music playing before them, to a large pool called Freeman’s Well, where they dismount and draw up in a body at some distance from the water, and, on a given signal from the bailiff, rush into the pool, and scramble through the mud as fast as they can. ...