houses an afcent is gained to the Castle-yard and its precincts by feveral lofty flights of stairs. This eminence terminates exactly in front of the bridge, which was formerly defended by a half-moon battery, an outwork from the Caftle, placed upon its fummit; but this is now loaded with an unfightly mass of miferable tenements, five ftories high, which feems to threaten deftruction to the houses and street below. The eastern and north-eaftern fides of the Castle Mount are in like manner crowded with buildings, which being all the way ftuck close one above another to the very gate of the Castle, have obtained, from this circumftance, the appropriate name of The Side.

"The eastern parts of the town were feparated from the Close and Side by a deep ravine, formed by a small brook or rivulet, which falls into the river a little below the bridge. The lower part of this dean or burn (for both these provincial terms are applied to it) must have been arched over for feveral centuries, at least as long fince as the open marketplace, called the Sand-hill, has been embanked from the river, and enclosed with buildings. The upper part was left in its original flate till about fifteen years ago, when the courfe of its channel was judiciously chofen to form a paffage through the town, on which paffengers fhould not be liable to the inconvenience of afcending either the western bank, through a narrow winding paffage in the Side, or the eaftern (fhorly to be mentioned) by a fimilar ftrait and steep approach. If the ingenious projector had been allowed to begin his plan a little lower, the afcent would have been more gradual, and the improvement more complete.

"Oppo

"Oppofite to the Caftle Mount, but at a greater distance from the river, the eaftern ridge terminates with the handfome modern edifice of All Saints' church; and along the back of it, which runs nearly north, is built (within and without the walls) the longest and moft regular ftreet in the town. Farther eaftward, another deep ravine is formed by a somewhat more confiderable brook, which, after running for fome time, enters the town for a fhort fpace, though it nearly feparates the whole of Newcastle, properly fo called, from its extenfive eaftern fuburbs.

"The whole of the level tract within the walls, between All Saints' church and the river, is, perhaps, more closely crowded with buildings than any equal space of ground in his majefty's dominions. It is occupied by no less than twenty-one wynds or alleys (here called chares*), only one of which, called, by pre-eminence, the Broad-chare, will admit the paffage of carts. All the rest may easily be reached acrois by the extended arms of a middlefized man, and many even with a fingle arm. feveral of them, however, are fome of (till lately) the best houses in the town, which in the last age were inhabited by the more opulent merchants; particularly thofe engaged in the coal-trade. One of thefe chares can boast of being the birth-place

In

of

A laughable mifunderstanding happened at our affizes fome years ago, when one of the witneffes in a criminal trial fwore, that " he saw three men come out of the foot of a chare!"—" Gentlemen of the Jury," exclaimed the learned judge, " you must pay no regard to that man's evidence; he must be infane." But the foreman, fmiling, affured the judge, that they understood him yery well; and that he fpoke the words of truth and foberness.

of the present Lord Chancellor, and his able brother, Sir William Scott, But, of late years, the fuburbs have been widely extended in all directions, particularly to the north and east; and the buildings in the chares are every day fast converting into offices, warehouses, breweries, &c. Many of them are ftill inhabited by thofe more immediately engaged in the bufinefs on the quay, as well as by failors, keelmen, and carpenters; thofe latter claffes chiefly dwell in the eastern suburbs.

"The town may fairly be reckoned to extend along the banks of the river (from the Skinner Burn to St. Peter's Quay) at least two miles from east to west about one half of this may be taken for the base of a triangle, the northernmost point of which is near a mile from the bridge; within which, tho' with feveral irregularities and vacant fpaces, the great body of the town may be conceived to be comprehended. The streets in the upper part, at a distance from the river, are fpacious and well built; particularly Weftgate, Pilgrim, and Northumberland-streets, and the rows and fquares which adjoin them. The grey colour, however, of the bricks, and the general (though not now univerfal) covering of bright red pantile roofs, certainly take off much from their appearance. The pavements are in general very good, and there are excellent accommodations for foot paffengers; but it must be acknowledged, that too little attention is paid to the enforcement of the regulations established by act of parliament for keeping them clean and neat. Nor can it be faid that it is well lighted; the few lamps fcattered here and there ferving, as has been well obferved, only to make " darkness vifible."

It

It is certain, that, from its fite, which rifes gradually, and in fome places more boldly, from the Tyne, the regularity of the buildings is in a great measure rendered impracticable.

GEOGRAPHICAL SITUATION.

Grey, in his Chorographia, page 27, tells us, that Camden makes Newcastle upon Tyne 22 degrees 30 minutes longitude, and 54 degrees 57 minutes latitude. But, by Dr. Hutton's plan of Newcastle, it is placed precifely in 55 degrees north latitude, and about 1 degree 17 minutes longitude, weft from London.

NAME.

About the year 445 of the Chriftian æra, this town occurs under the appellation of Pons Elii, a Roman ftation, where a cohort of the Cornovii was then in garrifon. This name is evidently derived from that of Elius Hadrianus, the founder of the first wall, which that warlike prince affixed frequently to his works.

After a filence of near two hundred years, mention (fays Mr. Brand) again occurs of this place under the new appellation of Ad Murum (at the Wall), and the refidence of a Northumbrian king. It is probable, that, in the time of the Ronians, it confifted only of a few ftraggling houses on the banks of the Tyne, and before the discovery of the coalmines, and other minerals, the principal employment of the inhabitants might be fishing. But, upon the Romans quitting the island, the weak and feeble natives (who, under the protection of their

masters,

mafters, enjoyed poffeffion of the more fertile provinces, but were, by their cruel policy, deprived of the ufe of arms) eafily became a prey to foreign invaders, and to none more than the Saxons and Danes. The Christian religion had been for a long series of years introduced into the island; but in the fifth and fixth centuries, had affumed the gloomy form of folitude and retirement, from the bufy and civil haunts of man, to caves and deferts, and its most rigid votaries affumed the name of Monachi, or Monks. The town we are now describing, from the winding of the Tyne, whofe banks were covered with woods, drew a number of thefe reclufes to the place, and from this circumftance, and its vicinity to the Roman wall, all antiquaries agree that it got the name of Monkchefter.

It was not (says Mr. Bourne) till after the departure of the Romans, that the town got the name of Monkchefter, as being a place of ftrength, or garrifoned fort, during the invafions of the Danes and Saxons. It is to be obferved, once for all, that the names of all towns or places ending with chefter got that appellation from being a Roman encampment, caftrum, or caftra, being the Latin words from whence chefter is derived. He adds, that this name it retained, till after the conqueft by William the Norman.

An ecclefiaftical hiftorian, (Eachard) in his hiftory of England, fays, that Monkchefter was fo called from certain monks, who lived in great aufterity there. And the Monafticon gives us the following account: "In the year 1074, a certain monk, named Aldwin, a prior from the province of the Mercians, preferring a voluntary poverty and contempt of the world

E