The prison is well calculated to punish the prisoner before his guilt is proved: the dungeons, which are below each other, are dark, damp, and unwholesome. The ventilators, which ascend to the top of the gaol, are choked up. The prisoners sleep upon straw; the common room is small, and badly ventilated; and the male prisoners are let out only seven at a time into a smal yard for exercise, and that only twice a week, which yard is close to an inn, and commanded by it. It is additionally painful to reflect that the assizes are only held here once a year. keeper of the prison is a humane and respectable man, and much regretted that the building was so objectionable. The bridewell is in a shocking state. The sleeping-room of the prisoners is a great cave under the road, strewed at the bottom with straw, like the stables of the robbers in Gil Blas. Into this vault I was shown, in mid-day, by the aid of a lanthorn: it was dripping with wet on every side.

The

knight-fervice under the Bishop of Durham, and by an observance of the following fingular ceremony-At the first entrance of the Bishop into the country, the Lord of Sockburne, or his agent, meets him in the middle of the Tees at Neesham, where the water is fordable, or at Croft Bridge, when he prefents a falchion to the Bishop, as an emblem of his temporal power, and repeats the following words :-My Lord Bishop, I here prefent you with the falchion wherewith the champion Conyers flew the worm, dragon, or fiery-flying ferpent, which deftroyed man, woman, and child, in memory of which, the King then reigning, gave him the manor of Sockburne, to hold by this tenure, that, upon the first entrance of every Bishop into the country, this falchion should be prefented." The Bishop then takes the falchion in his hand, and immediately returns it to the person who prefents it, wishing the Lord of Sockburne health, and a long enjoyment of the manor.

In the ancient pedigree of the family of Conyers it is set forth, that "Sir John Conyers, Knt. who flew the monft'rous vennomous and poyfonous wyvern, afp, or worm, which overthrew and devoured many people in fight, and the fcent of the poyfon was fo ftrong that no perfon might abide it, and hereby p'vidence of Almighty God overthrew it, and it lyeth buried at Sockburne before the Conqueft. But before he did enterprife, having but one childe, went to the church in complete armour, and offered up his fonne to the Holy Ghoft, which monuments are yet to fee. Alfo the place where the ferpent lay is called Greystone." Tradition ftill points to the spot. where this mighty worm or dragon was entombed. The ftory, if literally taken, is more curious than fingular, in depicting the credulity of diftant times; but it is moft probable that this flying monfter was figuratively used to denote fome great rebellious Lord, who was fuccefsfully refifted by the gallant Conyers.

CHAPTER II.

A village of butchers-effect of habit-Ben Johnson's riddle-Spanish proverb-Newcafile-exportation of coals-curious anecdote of a shottower-the village of Lemington-Roman piece of plate-Greenwichhofpital lands-Hexham abbey-nature pretty equal in her gifts-Northumbrian dialect-French language traceable in Northumberland-a hint to the trustees of Greenwich hofpital-Roman wall-a Northumbrian fair-Watlin ftreet-anecdote of Simy Dod-Capheaton-Wallington boufe-a peel.

IN the road from Durham to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, I passed by Lumley Castle, a noble seat of Lord Scarborough, near Chester-le-street, a village which is nearly filled with butchers, who supply the adjoining collieries with meat. The spiral smoke of these collieries blackens the atmosphere to a great distance, and gives to the surrounding country the appearance of a collection of volcanos. Between Chester-le-street and Newcastle the traveller is carried over a very long and tedious hill, exposed and barren, called Gates-head-fell, (from the summit of which there is a fine view of the Tyne), when the road might, with the greatest ease, be carried through a beautiful vale. Upon this hill most of the grindstones, for which Newcastle is so famous, are found and manufactured, of which there are several depots, resembling so many piles of cheeses.

How full of accommodation is habit! a gentleman of New> castle, who travelled with me from Durham, observed, that he looked upon smoke as good for all disorders, and particularly efficacious in repelling the plague; and a gentleman who had a considerable property in the marshy part of Lincolnshire, before observed to me, that the fens were unusually wholesome.

Newcastle is a large and splendid town, but under a volcanic atmosphere, which threw a sombre tipt over every object. The inhabitants, I am told, are not conscious of this. The crown- like summit of the tower of St. Nicholas is well worthy of notice. Wallis, in his history of Northumberland, vol. ii. page 291, thus describes this steeple:-"Four stone images, at full 'length, adorn each corner of a square tower, out of which "rises a curious steeple, in height sixty-four yards, one foot, "and three quarters, decorated with thirteen pinnacles, two

"bold stone arches, supporting a large and beautiful lanthorn, "on which is a tall and stately spire." Ben Johnson, it is sup posed, made the following uncouth riddle upon this steeple, preserved in Gray's Chorographia

My altitude high, my body four-square;
My foot in the grave, my head in the air;
My eyes in my side, five tongues in my womb;
Thirteen heads upon my body, four images alone.
I can direct you where the wind doth stay,
And I tune God's precepts twice a day.

am seen where I am not, I am heard where I is not,
Tell me now what I am, and fee that ye miss not."

The prison of this town has not participated in its improvements. It has no sick room, no chapel. In one small room were three felons, two of whom slept in one room, and the third under. The debtors were shockingly crowded: the only place allowed them fór exercise was the leads on the roof. The felons have no place to take the air in. A miserable female convict some years since attempted to make an escape, by descending from the battlements (where she was permitted to walk) by a cord, which was too weak to sustain her, and she fell into a small yard adjoining, and died in consequence a few days after. The assizes are here also held only once a year. It is a matter of surprise, that, in a town so opulent and flourishing, a suitable prison should not be erected. It has been long in contemplation to build a new one, but the gentlemen of the corporation should be reminded of the Spanish saying, that Heaven will be filled with those who have done good things, and the lower regions with those who intended to do them."

.

There are several very handsome buildings in this town, particularly the theatre, the assembly-rooms, (which were built about forty years since), and the town-hall, by the quay side, on the weather-cock of which a rook used, during many years, to build its nest. There are very large glass-works carried on here, and manufactories of white and red lead; there are also manufactories of broad and narrow cloths, wrought iron, several soap-boileries, and potteries. The grindstones which I have mentioned are so frequently shipped from this place, that there is a proverb, "that a Scotchman and a Newcastle grindstone travel all the world over."

But its principal exportation is that of coal, the annual amount of which from the port of Newcastle, is estimated at four hundred thousand Newcastle chaldrons, equal to seven hundred and

seventy-five thousand London chaldrons.* As I am upon this subject, it may not be uninteresting to mention that the annual importation of this valuable mineral into the port of London, is averaged at nine hundred and fifty thousand London chaldrons; which, deducting about one-twentieth part, say fifty thousand chaldrons, consumed in the counties, in the neighbourhood of London, forms the annual consumption for London, Westminster, Southwark, and the environs, in which about two thousand six hundred chaldrons are consumed every day, for the whole year, which is doubled in very cold weather.

At Newcastle there is a patent-shot tower of great height, with which the following extraordinary anecdote is connected. Some time since it sunk on one side, and was alarmingly out of its perpendicular, which it recovered by an enterprising ingenuity of the persons employed, who dug away the earth from its opposite and more elevated side, until it recovered its level.

In the road to Hexham is the village of Lemington, where there are several glass-houses for window-glass, and a considerable iron manufactory; and nearly opposite, on the south side of the Tyne, are Smallwell iron-works, which are very extensive. In crossing the Tyne at Corbridge I passed by the place where a noble piece of silver Roman plate, richly embossed, was found some years since, now in the possession of the Duke of Northumberland, and which is frequently exhibited upon his Grace's sideboard. Above Corbridge, at low water, may be seen the remains of a Roman bridge. Roman coins are frequently found here, and in the neighbourhood. Near Dilstone, or Devil's Stone, are the remains of the ancient seat of the Derwentwaters, now in the possession, with the rest of the property of that family, of the trustees of Greenwich Hospital. The friend and admires of that magnificent asylum for the support of naval valour in its declining days will be happy to hear that the farm at Dilstone, comprising about five hundred acres, which about twenty years before was let at 500l. per annum, was lately re-let for 1,780. per annum, and that most of the Greenwich-hospital estates have risen in proportion.

Hexham is a considerable town, in which a large manufacture of gloves is carried on. The inhabitants appeared to be very idle; and every other house in the town is an alehouse. Colonel Beaumont has lately repaired and altered the old abbey,

* Before the laft war, for feveral years, it was nearly 448,000 Newcastle chaldrons at which time confiderable cargoes used to be annually freighted for Holland, and other parts of the north of Europe.

:

which with the rich lead mines, and all the other property now in the possession of the Beaumonts in Northumberland and Durham, belonged to the family of the Blacketts. Most of the lead from the mines is brought to Hexham, and thence sent to the smelting-mills in the neighbourhood for extracting the silver. The grounds about the abbey have been levelled, to group with the alterations, in consequence of which the bones of many a holy friar have been disturbed. This building is close to the church, which unites the Gothic and Saxon architecture; a large and venerable pile. The view from Hexham along the vale, over the Tyne, commanding a very handsome bridge, through which that beautiful river meanders, with numerous sloping gardens on one side, and richly planted woods and ele gant country houses on the other, is extensive and very fine.

O! ye dales

Of Tyne, and ye most ancient woodlands! where,
Oft as the giant flood obliquely strides,
And his bands open and his lawns extend,
Stops short the pleased traveller, to view,
Presiding o'er the scene, some rustic tow'r,
Pounded by Norman or by Saxon hands.

AKENSIDE.

At Hesleyside, the seat of my friend W. J. Charlton, Esq. I was received with great hospitality, and, with him and his amiable mother and aunt, renewed in retrospection the scenes which, as accident brought us together, we had visited in various parts of the north of Europe. I leave to those who have thus agreeably met abroad and at home to conceive the pleasures of such an interview. This part of Northumberland abounds with more charms for the sportsman than for the lover of rural nature. But Providence is always equal in the distribution of its favours, though divided into infinite variety. In this bare and rugged soil, the poor peasant may, with very little trouble and as little expense, procure as much coal as he requires, so that throughout the year the humblest cottage is rendered comfortable by the blaze of a cheerful fire. For two shillings and sixpence he can procure a two-horse cart-load of this valuable mineral, which lies horizontally, frequently only half a yard below the surface. In the neighbourhood of Hesleyside the Scottish character begins to appear, and the Scottish dialect commences. The ear cannot easily encounter sounds more horrible than those in which the language of the North