Romance legend
The Bessie Surtees Elopement
Dog Leap Stairs.
See it clearly
- What's there
- Timber-framed merchants' house
- Legend from
- Newcastle upon Tyne
- Tone
- Romantic
Out of the window, up the stairs.
In 1772 Bessie Surtees, a banker's daughter, eloped from her family's house on Sandhill with John Scott, later Lord Chancellor and 1st Earl of Eldon. They fled on horseback up Dog Leap Stairs to marry in Scotland at Blackshiels on 19 November 1772; the marriage was blessed two months later at St Nicholas's Church.