Alnwick, a town, a castle, a township, and a parish in Northumberland. The town stands on the river Alne, and has a station on the N.E.R., 3 miles from Alnmouth Junction. It is 34 miles by road, and 37 1/2 by railway, N by W of NewcastIe-on-Tyne. Acreage, 4777; population of town, 6746. Its name signifies “the town on Alne." The town probably dates from the time of the Romans; or, at least, grew up as a dependency of a strong baronial mansion, the original castle, in the time of the Saxons. The barony belonged to Gilbert Tysen, who fell at the battle of Hastings. It was given by the Conqueror to Ivo de Vesci, the ancestor of the De Vescis; and it passed in 1310 to the family of Percy, the ancestors of the Dukes of Northumberland. Malcolm III. of Scotland besieged the town in 1093, and was killed before its walls in 1098. David of Scotland captured it in 1135. William the Lion besieged it in 1174; but was surprised by Ralph de Glanville, and taken prisoner to London. King John burnt it in 1215. Gualo, the Pope's legate, convoked a meeting of the Scottish bishops at it in 1220. Robert Bruce's nobles, Douglas and Randolph, besieged it without success in 1328. Additional fortifications of both the town and the castle were made in 1411. The Scots took the town and burnt it in 1448, in revenge for the burning of Dumfries. The Earl of Warwick laid siege to the castle in 1463, after the battle of Hexham; and Sir George Douglas, with a considerable force, came to its relief, and enabled its garrison to retire unmolested.

The town stands chiefly on a declivity on the south bank of the Alne. It is well laid out, and has a spacious marketplace in the centre. The streets are wide and well paved. The houses are chiefly modern, mostly built of freestone, many of them of considerable elegance. Four gates formerly pierced the town walls, and one of them, Bondgate, is still standing, and gives name to a street. Handsome stone bridges take the highway over the Alne. The town-hall, on one side of the market-place, is a large edifice, surmounted by a square tower. Another building, on another side, is a modern structure, disposed below in meat and fish market, and containing above an elegant assembly-room and a spacious reading-room. The corn exchange was opened in 1862. The parish church is a large edifice, of the 14th century, with a richly arched chancel and carved stalls, and was restored by the fourth Duke of Northumberland, at a cost of £6000. St Paul's Church was built in 1846, at a cost of £20,000. It is a handsome edifice, in the Decorated English style; has a memorial window to the third Duke of Northumberland, produced at Munich in 1856, and contains an effigy of the Duke in Caen stone by Carew. The English Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Wesleyan Methodists, New Connexion Methodists, Baptists, and Roman Catholics have places of worship; and there are a mechanics’ institute, a dispensary, and infirmary.

Alnwick has a head post and telegraph office, and several banks. A weekly market is held on Monday, and a lamb and wool fair is held on the first Monday after July 5, and fairs for hiring servants on the first Saturday in March, first Monday in May, and the first Saturday in November. Trade in corn and cattle is extensive; brewing is carried on, and there are tobacco and snuff manufactories. Two weekly newspapers are published. The town gives the title of baron to the Northumberland family. The Friar Martin of Alnwick and the Bishop William of Alnwick were natives.

Alnwick Abbey, beautifully situated on the north bank of the Alne, was the first house of the Premonstratensian canons in England. It was founded in 1147 by Eustace Fitz-John, and dedicated to the Virgin; and at the dissolution of monasteries it had about 13 canons, and was valued at £190. It became the seat of successively the Brandlings and the Doubledays, and then was sold to the Duke of Northumberland. A gateway tower of it still stands, and has armorial shields of the Percys, crosses, and a niche richly canopied with open Gothic work.

Alnwick Castle, the seat of the Duke of Northumberland, situated on an eminence on the south side of the Alne, is a most imposing pile. It retains some vestiges of Norman architecture, part of the original castle; and after having passed almost to ruin by the shocks of war and the wear of time, it was reconstructed and embellished in 1750 to 1766. The Prudhoe tower was built in 1854, and in the ten years from that date the castle underwent extensive renovations, after designs by Mr. Salvin of London and the Commendatore Montiroli of Rome. It consists mainly of freestone or moorstone, covers or encloses about five acres, is disposed in three courts, exhibits sixteen towers and turrets, and is altogether a most noble and magnificent specimen of a great baronial seat. The grand staircase forms the approach to the vestibule, the frieze of which is filled with illustrations of the ballad of Chevy Chase. Satin damask hangings line the walls of the domestic apartments. The drawing-rooms have a ceiling of carved wood, gilt and coloured. The dining-room, 60 feet by 24, stands on the site of the old banqueting-hall. The high-roofed chapel, Early Englisn, has a stone vault and an apsidal west end, and is furnished with marbles and mosaics from Rome. In the state apartments are exquisite carvings; copies, by Nucci, of slaves from Constantine's Arch and the Greek Canephora, and coloured friezes by Mantovani; inlaid wood, pure white marbles, and carved walnut panels contribute to the magnificence of these rooms. A vaulted kitchen has been built on the SE side. The octagonal Donjon tower contains a square dungeon, 11 feet by 9 3/4. The grounds connected with the castle lie along both sides of the Alne, are upwards of 5 miles long, exhibit great wealth and variety of both natural and artificial beauty, and contain the remains of Alnwick and Hulne abbeys, a picturesque cross on the spot where King Malcolm of Scotland fell, a monument on the spot where William the Lion was taken prisoner, and the tower of Brislee, 66 feet high, erected in 1762, and commanding a superb and extensive view. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Durham; value, £318 with residence. The church of St Paul's is a vicarage; value, £339, in the patronage of the Duke of Northumberland. The parish comprises 16,749 acres; population of the civil parish, 7428; of the ecclesiastical—St Michael, 3405, and St Paul, 3948.