TOMORROW'S Memories may require a little background reading to enhance your enjoyment. It is about the Eldon estate which spread across much of south Durham.

A couple of years ago, I became puzzled by the existence of the Gretna Green Wedding Inn on the outskirts of Newton Aycliffe, which is nowhere near Gretna Green nor the Scottish border. This is how I explained the existence of both the inn and the Eldon estate: =================================== QUIETLY, cloaked by the dark of night, the two young men carried the ladder out of the shop on Newcastle's Quayside and leaned it against the wall of the half-timbered Jacobean house.

Today it is called Bessie Surtees' House and owned by English Heritage, and that night, November 18, 1772, sweet Bessie opened one of its heavily leaded windows. At the foot of the ladder was her forbidden lover. Down she climbed into his arms and away they sped over the border.

In Scotland someone under the age of 21 did not need their parents' permission before marrying, and so the following day 18-year-old Bessie wed her beloved John Scott at Blackshiels near Edinburgh.

She had met John when staying with relatives in Sedgefield, but he was entirely unsuitable for her. His father was prosperous, but he was a Newcastle coal dealer who owned a couple of keelboats and a pub. John himself was clever, but was studying at Oxford University to be a priest.

By contrast, her father was the grand Aubone Surtees, a wealthy merchant who had been the mayor of Newcastle. He wanted better than a coaly curate as a son-in-law. In fact, he wanted Sir Walter Blackett. Sir Walter was "the King of Newcastle", the five times mayor who had been the city's MP for nearly 40 years.

Such a match would secure the Surtess' fortune, even if Sir Walter was about 50 years older than beautiful young Bessie.

When Aubone discovered that Bessie was carrying on with the Scott boy, he sent her away to the south coast.

When the Scott boy discovered that her old man was fitting her up with an even older man, he hatched his plan. Fortunately, his friend worked in the clothes shop beneath the Surtees' luxury apartments and so they were able to hide the ladder until the fall of night.

After the wedding, the happy couple returned to Newcastle to face the music. Aubone was furious and disowned Bessie, but after a couple of weeks was talked round and the wedding was blessed in the cathedral on January 19, 1773.

Being married, though, meant that John couldn't qualify as a curate. He needed a new career, and studied law in London. He rose to become Attorney-General and for 20 years, under four different prime ministers, he was Lord Chancellor. A curmudgeonly Tory, he was opposed to freedom for Catholics and slaves, but he was one of the most important men in the kingdom. He was adored by George III and despised by the Liberals.

He was steadfastly loyal to Bessie, and to the corner of Durham in which they had met. In fact, he holidayed in the district, staying at what is now the Eden Arms at Rushyford where his consumption of Carbonell's Fine Old Military Port was legendary. Most nights, he and the landlord - "valiant topers" - had seven bottles; on Saturday night, as fortification for the following morning's church service, he did an eighth.

In 1792, he bought the Eldon estate which spread between Coundon and Sedgefield, and in 1821, George IV conferred upon him the title of the 1st Earl of Eldon (the great-great-grandson of Bessie and Sir John is the 5th earl and he apparently still owns the hamlet of Old Eldon).

The other day, I was driving down the Great North Road. There's the Eden Arms, where the Earl consumed his port, and then the Gretna Green Wedding Inn near Newton Aycliffe. This pub has long been a puzzle because it's nowhere near Gretna Green, but it turns out that it was named after a lord who once owned the nearby village of Preston-le-Skerne and who, in his youth, had used a ladder to elope with his beloved over the Scottish border.