STREETS, &c.

From the local fituation of Newcastle, the old freets and alleys feem to have been very irregular; thofe of a more modern date are a little better planned, paved, and executed,

QUAY, OR KEY-SIDE

The wall that was here being taken down, the quay, in confequence, has been fo enlarged and improved as to become one of the largest, longest, and moft commodious wharfs in the kingdom. It meafures, fays Bourne, 103 rods; yet fo prodigious has the fhipping of the port of Newcastle encreased of late years, from almost all nations, particularly the northern, that, extenfive as it is, it is found often infufficient, and the veffels can only come to the Quayfide to unload in their turns. A scheme has lately been handed about, to make it ftill more commodious, by ordering all the wherries to unload above the bridge, making a quay from the Skinnerbourn foundery to the Lead Stairs, to include two arches of the bridge, and to have the dwelling-houses there converted into warehouses. The above plan would be more especially neceffary, fhould a canal from the east to the weft fea ever be cut. The names of the chares leading from this place to the Butcher Bank, Pandon, &c. are familiar enough to the inhabitants; and it would afford fmall gratification to others to be told that one is called Broad Chare, another Grindon Chare, another Peppercorn Chare, &c. They are twenty-one in number; but, although

their appearance has little to recommend them, yet there are abundance of storehouses and lofts for corn, and indeed for valuable commodities of every kind. The west end joins the bridge, and about the middle of the quay is the custom-house, a stately building, which shall be defcribed in its proper place.

SAND-HILL.

This part of the town, the scene of fo much bufinefs, derives its name, we are told, from its being a bill of naked fand, where the inhabitants used to affemble for recreation. We are also informed, that at high water the tide used to carry finall veffels up part of the Side to the foot of the Dean, (now Deanftreet) over which the Roman wall paffed, by the Low Bridge. By this it would appear that the Tyne was broader and larger in former times than it is now. Nor is this at all improbable. We all know that the whole island was almoft covered with wood, when the Romans firft invaded Britain. Philofophers tell us, that trees and forefts are powerful alembics, and that their foliage ftrongly attracts the moisture in the clouds, which, diftilling on the ground, forms rills, rivulets, and flowing inceffantly into rivers, greatly encreases their quantity of water. We are told, that fince the cutting down of the huge forefts of America, and clearing the grounds, on the banks of their large rivers, the waters are conftantly decreafing, in proportion as these natural alembics are removed. This may have been the cafe with the river Tyne. However, the Sand-hill has fuffered a happy transformation, as from a hill of barren fea fand, it has become the great market-place of New

castle,

caftle, furrounded with rich and fpacious fhops, abounding with every kind of valuable and useful merchandize.

On the fouth fide of the Sand-hill stood the hospital called Maifon de Dieu, or House of God. Here were maintained a warden, being a priest, nine poor men, brethren, and four poor women, fisters. This ancient edifice was founded about the beginning of the reign of Henry the Fourth. The celebrated Roger de Thornton, the munificent benefactor of Newcaftle, and its representative in Parliament, was the founder of this charitable inftitution. The house was dedicated to St. Catharine.

A royal licence was obtained from king Henry IV. dated February 12th, 1403, to enable Roger de Thornton, burgefs of Newcastle upon Tyne, to alien in mortmain, to the mayor, fheriff, aldermen, and commonalty of that town, a piece of ground, one hundred feet in length, and twenty-four in breadth, within faid town, wherein certain poor perfons were to be provided with meat and clothing, in a "House of God," to be built by the faid Thornton; and where they should pray daily for the health of the faid mayor, fheriff, &c.; as alfo for that of the founder, while he lived; and, after their refpective deaths, for their fouls, and the fouls of the father and mother of the founder, and thofe of all the benefactors of that intended hofpital.

By the name of the warden, brethren, and fifters of the hofpital of St. Catharine, called Thornton's Hospital, they might plead, and be impleaded, in all courts, and have a common feal. In fubfequent reigns, there were additional emoluments beftowed upon the Maifon de Dieu of Thornton, till fir Rich

ard

ard Lumley, of Lumley Cattle, in the county of Durham, knight, a defcendant of Thornton, by the female line, conveyed, June the 1, 1624, to the mayor and burgeffes of Newcastle upon Tyne, and their fucceffors, forever, all that building of stone, covered with lead, ftanding near to the water of Tyne, and to the eaft part of the chamber of the faid town of Newcastle, being anciently part of and belonging to the hofpital of St. Catharine the virgin, commonly called Thornton's hofpital. This grant is evidently made after the diffolution of the hofpital itself.

It seems by Speed's plan of Newcastle, that the Maifon de Dieu was the first public place, or building, marked on the Sand-hill, through which Lorkburn is reprefented as paffing, on the caft fide. It has fince that time been arched over.

In this place ftand the Exchange and Town-court, (fee public buildings) built between the years 1655 and 1658. Bourne fays, that an old town-houfe was firit built, where the prefent one ftands, by the fame powerful and benevolent Roger Thornton.

In the middle of the Sand-hill, fronting the Exchange, there was erected a flatue of king james II. caft in copper, of the fize of the famous equeftrian ftatue of Charles I. at Charing-crols, London. In the convulfed ftate of the nation, the inhabitants, incenfed at the tyranny of James, pulled down his ftatue, and threw it into the river, in the year 1688, the celebrated æra of the restoration of British liberty. The flatue, however, was faid to be a maf terly piece of art, caft by Mr. William Larfon, and approved of by Sir Chriftopher Wren. It coft the town eight hundred pounds. Upon the acceffion of

William prince of Orange to the throne of Britain, when the ferment of men's minds had fubfided, the magiftrates ordered the ftatue to be taken out of the river; but not thinking it prudent to replace it in its former fituation, they probably put it to a better ufe, by converting it into a fet of bells. Before the alterations made upon the Exchange, a few years ago, and while the fteeple was ftanding, a ftatue of Charles II. in Roman habit was placed in a niche upon a pedestal, in the front of the Town-house. On pulling down the fteeple, the ftatue was removed, and placed in the weft end of the Exchange, in the area where gentlemen meet for bufinefs and converfation.

Paffing the entrance to the quay, where was the Water-gate, there is now a lofty pile of buildings, eight ftories high, for the purpofe of depofiting goods of different kinds, which, by means of a powerful crane, are eafily either taken on board the fhips at the quay, or conveyed to the wharf. The prefent warehouses were erected in confequence of the former buildings being, a few years ago, nearly destroyed by fire.

Adjoining to the Exchange, and clofe to the bridge, is the chapel of St. Thomas the Martyr.(See churches, &c.

THE OLD BRIDGE.

It is obferved by Mr. Bourne, that the building now under confideration was of great antiquity, undoubtedly as old as the times of the Romans. It was an invariable rule in the policy of that people to cement all the provinces of their vaft empire by mo

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