“Her dusky hair in many a tangle clings About her, and her looks,
though stern and cold, Grow tender with the dreams of by-gone days.”
—_W.W. Tomlinson_.
The outward signs of “by-gone days,” in the Newcastle of to-day,
with the one notable exception of the Castle, must be diligently
sought out amongst the overwhelming mass of what is often called
“rampant modernity,” of which the town to-day chiefly consists. The
modernity, however, is not all bad, as this favourite phrase would
imply; much of it is doubtless regrettable and a very little of it
perhaps inevitable; but no one will deny either the modernity or
the beauty of Grey Street, one of the finest streets in any English
town; or the fine appearance of Grainger Street, Blackett Street,
Eldon Square, or any other of the stately thoroughfares with which
Grainger and Dobson enriched the town within the last eighty
years—no one, that is, who has learned to “lift his eyes to the
sky-line in passing along a thoroughfare” instead of keeping them
firmly fixed at the level of shop windows.
The grim old building which, when it was new, gave its name to the
town, is one for which no search needs to be made; its blackened
and time worn walls are seen from the train windows by every
traveller who enters the city from the south. So near is it to the
railway, that in the ultra-utilitarian days of sixty or seventy
years ago, it narrowly escaped the ignoble fate of being used as a
signal-cabin. It was rescued, however, by the Society of
Antiquaries, and carefully preserved by them—more fortunate in this
respect than the castle of Berwick, for the platform of Berwick
railway station actually stands on the spot once occupied by the
Great Hall of the Castle.
The site of the New Castle, on a part of the river bank which
slopes steeply down to the Tyne, had been occupied centuries before
by a Roman fort, constructed by order of the Emperor Hadrian, who
visited Britain A.D. 120. He also constructed a bridge over the
Tyne at this spot, fort and bridge receiving the name of Pons
AElii, after the Emperor (Publius AElius Hadrianus). This became
the second station on the Great Wall erected by Hadrian’s orders
along the line of forts which Agricola had raised forty years
before. This station shared the fate of others on the abandonment
of Britain by its powerful conquerors, who had now for more than
two hundred years been its no less powerful friends and protectors.
Pons AElii fell into ruins; but so advantageous a site could not
long be overlooked, and we read of a Saxon settlement there,
apparently that of a religious community, from which fact it was
known as Monkchester. All the records of this period seem to have
perished, for we hear nothing of the settlement during the Danish
invasions; but a Saxon town of some kind was evidently in existence
at the time of the Conquest, though in 1073 three monks from the
south who came to York, and, obtaining a guide to “Muneche-cester,”
sought for some religious house in that settlement, could find
none, and were prevailed upon by the first Norman Bishop of Durham,
Walcher, to stay at Jarrow. The years from 1069 to 1080 were evil
years for Northumberland, for at the first-named date the Conqueror
devastated the North, and left neither village nor farm unscathed;
and, as the desolated land was beginning to recover again, Odo of
Bayeux and Robert of Normandy relentlessly laid it waste once more,
partly in revenge for the murder of Bishop Walcher at Gateshead,
and partly to punish Malcolm of Scotland for his invasion of Norman
territory.
It was on his return from this expedition, which had penetrated as
far north as Falkirk, that Robert, by his father’s orders, raised a
stronghold on the Tyne on the site of the old Roman fort, in the
year 1080. His brother, William Rufus, erected a much stronger and
better one, the Keep of which, re-built by Henry II., stands to-day
dark and grim, looking out over river and town, as it has stood
since the Red King ruled the land, and, like his father, the
Conqueror, found it desirable to have a stronghold at this northern
point of his turbulent realm, around which a town might grow up in
safety.
The roof and battlements of the Keep are modern, but the rest of
it—the walls, 12 to 18 feet thick; the dismal dungeon, or guard
chamber, with iron rings and fetters still fastened to the walls
and central pillar; the beautiful little chapel, with its
finely-ornamented arches; the little chambers in the thickness of
the walls; the well, 94 feet deep, sunk through the solid masonry
into the rock beneath; the arrow slits in the walls; the stones in
the roof scored with frequent bolts from the besiegers’ crossbows,
one of which bolts is firmly embedded in the wall opposite one of
the narrow windows; the ancient weapons and armour—all these
breathe of the days when the Red King’s castle took its part in the
doings of our hardy ancestors in those stormy times in which they
lived and fought.
The last time the old Keep was called upon to act as fortress and
refuge in time of war was in Stuart days, after the ten weeks siege
of Newcastle by the Scottish General Leslie, Earl of Leven, in
1644, when brave “Governor Marley” and his friends held out in the
castle for a few days longer, after the town was taken. In memory
of this stout defence and long resistance King Charles gave to the
town its motto—_Fortiter defendit triumphans_, which Bates gives as
having originally been _Fortiter defendendo triumphat_—“She glories
in her brave defence.”
Two of the original fireplaces still remain in the Castle, and
there are besides many objects of great interest which have been
bestowed there from time to time for safe keeping; and many more
are to be seen at the Black Gate, formerly the chief entrance to
the Castle Hall and its surroundings. The Great Hall of the Castle,
in which John Baliol did homage to Edward I. for the crown of
Scotland, stood on the spot now covered by the Moot Hall. The Black
Gate, the lower part of which is the oldest part of the building,
which has many times been altered and repaired, is now used as a
museum. There were nearly a dozen rooms in it, and not so many
years ago the Corporation of Newcastle let these out in tenements,
until this building also was rescued from degradation by the
Newcastle Society of Antiquaries, who took down most of the
dividing walls, and converted it into a museum. Here may be seen
stored many sculptured stones, altars, and statues, which have been
brought from the various Roman stations in the north.
Around the walls of one room are to be seen facsimiles of the
famous Bayeux tapestry; there is also a model of the Castle as
originally built, and there are many more exhibits and loans of the
very greatest interest.
Of the walls of Newcastle only fragments remain, the most
considerable portion being found between Westgate Road and St.
Andrew’s Churchyard; here are also remains of several of the
watch-towers that stood at intervals around the walls—the Heber
Tower, the Mordaunt or Morden Tower, and the Ever Tower. Between
the two first named towers may be seen a little doorway, walled up,
once used by the Friars, who obtained from Edward II. permission to
make the doorway in order that they might the more easily reach
their gardens and orchards outside; but they had to be ready to
build it up at a moment’s notice on the approach of an enemy. One
of the towers—the Carliol or Weaver’s Tower—was pulled down to make
room for the Central Free Library, opened in 1881. Many little
fragments of the Castle wall are to be seen near the High Level
Bridge, incorporated in other walls, as far as the South Postern of
the Castle, which is said to be the only remaining Norman postern
in England and is the oldest remaining part of the Castle.
The old streets of Newcastle are fast disappearing to make room for
the ever-increasing needs of commerce; at the moment of writing it
is being proposed to pull down more of the historic street called
the Side, to make room for new printing offices. At the head of
this curious old street, which curves downward from the Cathedral
to the river, stood the birthplace of Cuthbert Collingwood, who was
to become Admiral Lord Collingwood, and second in fame only to
Nelson himself. Both this house and the one where Thomas Bewick had
his workshop, near the Cathedral, have gone to make room for new
buildings.
At the foot of this street, where it curves to the river front, is
the Sandhill, facing the Swing Bridge. Here are several old houses
remaining, with many-windowed fronts, looking out on the river. One
of these was the house of Aubone Surtees, the banker, whose
daughter Bessie, in 1772, stole out of one of those little windows,
and gave herself into the keeping of young Jack Scott, who was
waiting for her below. The adventurous youth became Lord Chancellor
of England, and is best known as Lord Eldon; his brother William
became Lord Stowell, and was for many years Judge of the High Court
of Admiralty.
Opposite the old houses of the Sandhill, close to the river bank,
is the old Guildhall, greatly altered in appearance from the time
when John Wesley preached from its steps to the keelmen and
fishermen of the town. It was here that a sturdy fishwife put her
arms round him, when some boisterous spirits in the crowd
threatened him with ill-usage, and, shaking her fist in their
faces, swore to “floor them” if they touched her “canny man.”
This spot, where the Swing Bridge unites the lower banks of the
stream, seems always to have been the most convenient point for
crossing the river, for the present bridge is the fifth that has
spanned the Tyne at this point: Hadrian’s bridge, Pons Aelii; a
mediaeval bridge destroyed by fire in 1248; the Old Tyne Bridge,
swept away in the flood of 1771; the successor of this, which was
found too low to allow of the passage of such large vessels as were
able to sail up the Tyne after the deepening of the river bed; and
the present Swing Bridge, which is worked by hydraulic machinery,
the invention of Lord Armstrong. We do not know how long Hadrian’s
bridge lasted, but William the Conqueror, when returning from his
expedition into Scotland in 1071, was obliged to camp for a time at
“Monec-cestre,” as the Tyne was in flood, and there was no bridge.
Some ancient houses are to be found in Low Friar Street, one of
which, with winged heads and dolphins carved on it, is said to be
the oldest house in Newcastle. Turning up an opening on the west
side of this street, all that is left of the ancient Blackfriars’
Monastery may be seen; some of its rooms are used as the meeting
places of various Trade Guilds, and the rest form low tenement
houses, in the walls of which are many Gothic archways and ancient
window-openings built up. Over the door of the Smith’s Hall is a
carving of three hammers, and the inscription:—
“By hammer and hand All artes do stand.”
This Hall was formerly the Great Hall of the monastery; and here
Edward Baliol did homage to Edward III. for his crown of Scotland.
Nun Street, leading out of Grainger Street, reminds us of the days
when the Nunnery of St. Bartholomew stood in this part of the town,
and the Nun’s Moor was part of the grounds belonging to the
establishment. In High Friar Street, which was not then the
dilapidated lane it now appears, Richard Grainger was born.
Another part of the town which has fallen from its former high
estate is the Close, which lies along the river front, westward
from the Sandhill. Here, at one time, lived many of the principal
inhabitants of Newcastle—Sir John Marley, Sir William Blackett, Sir
Ralph Millbank, and others equally important; and here, too, was
the former Mansion House of the city, where the Mayors resided, and
where they could receive distinguished visitors to the town.
Amongst those who have been entertained there were the Duke of
Wellington and the first King of the Belgians. But in 1836 the
Corporation of Newcastle sold the house, with the furniture, books,
pictures, plate, and everything else it contained.
Eastward from the Sandhill is Sandgate, immortalised in the
“Newcastle Anthem”—The Keel Row. Its present appearance is very
different from the green slope and sandy shore of former days; the
keelmen, too, have vanished, and their place in the commercial
economy of the Tyne is taken by waggon-ways and coal-shoots. The
old narrow alleys of the town, called “chares,” are fast
disappearing; the best known is Pudding Chare, leading from Bigg
Market to Westgate Road. Many and various are the explanations that
have been offered to account for its curious name, but the true one
does not seem yet to have appeared.
Pilgrim Street owes its name to the fact that it was the route of
the pilgrims who came in great numbers to visit the little chapel
or shrine of Our Lady of Jesmond, and St. Mary’s Well. In Pilgrim
Street was the gateway of a stately mansion, surrounded by
beautiful gardens, called Anderson Place, from a Mr. Anderson who
bought it from Sir Thomas Blackett in 1783. It had been built by
another Mr. Anderson in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, on the site
where once stood the monastery of the Grey Friars; he, however, had
named his mansion “The Newe House.” In this house Charles I. lived
when a prisoner in Newcastle. Anderson Place no longer exists, but
the Newcastle of to-day has a constant reminder of its last owners,
for Major George Anderson, son of the Mr. Anderson who purchased it
in 1783, gave to the Cathedral of St. Nicholas the great bell—known
on that account as “The Major”—whose deep reverberant “boom” can be
heard for a distance of ten miles. The bell was re-cast in 1891,
and in 1892 a new peal of bells was consecrated by Canon Gough.
Westgate Road is another interesting street; the old West Gate
stood near the site of the present Tyne Theatre, and from this
point onward the street follows, almost exactly, the line of the
Roman Wall.
Some noteworthy houses in Newcastle are—No. 17, Eldon Place, where
George and Robert Stephenson lived in the years 1824-25; No. 4, St.
Thomas’ Crescent, where the celebrated artist, Wm. Bell Scott lived
when he was headmaster of the School of Art, and to whom Swinburne
wrote a fine memorial poem; the Academy of Arts, in Blackett
Street, built for the exhibition of pictures by those well-known
painters T.M. Richardson and H.T. Parker, and for a short period
the home of the Pen and Palette Club, which, both here and in its
new home at Higham Place, has entertained many people distinguished
in letters, art, and travel who have visited the town of late
years; and No. 9, Pleasant Row, the birthplace of Lord Armstrong,
which has only recently been destroyed to make way for the N.E.R.
Company’s new ferro-concrete Goods Station in New Bridge Street.
The list of important buildings in Newcastle, exclusive of the
churches, is a long one; one of the most prominent is the Library
of the Literary and Philosophical Society, familiarly known as the
“Lit. and Phil.,” which stands at the lower end of Westgate Road, a
little way back from the roadway. It is built on the site of the
town house of the Earls of Westmoreland; and its fine Lecture
Theatre was a gift to the Society from Lord Armstrong. It is the
centre of the intellectual life of the city as a whole, apart from
the work of the justly famed Armstrong College, a teaching
institute of University rank. This was formerly known as the Durham
College of Science, and, with the Durham College of Medicine, forms
part of the University of Durham.
Other seats of learning in the town are the Rutherford College, in
Bath Lane, and the Royal Grammar School, which dates from the reign
of Henry VIII. It was reconstituted by Queen Elizabeth, and has had
many changes of abode. At one time it occupied the buildings of the
Convent of St. Mary, which covered the space where Stephenson’s
monument now stands. While the Grammar School was located there,
the boys Cuthbert Collingwood, William Scott, and John Scott, who
afterwards became so famous, attended it; and other distinguished
scholars were John Horsley, author of _Britannia Romana_, and John
Brand and Henry Bourne, the historians of Newcastle. The school is
now situated in Eskdale Terrace and its splendid playing fields
stretch across to the North Road.
One of the most interesting buildings in Newcastle is the Hancock
Museum of Natural History, at Barras Bridge. It contains a
matchless collection of birds, and some unique specimens of extinct
species; also the original drawings of Bewick’s _British Birds_,
and other works of his. The famous Newcastle naturalist, John
Hancock, presented his wonderful collection, prepared by himself,
to the museum. Here, too, is a complete set of fossils from the
coal measures, including some fine specimens of Sigillaria. These
are only a few of the treasures contained in the museum, which was
built chiefly through the generosity of the late Lord and Lady
Armstrong, Colonel John Joicey of Newton Hall, Stocksfield, and Mr.
Edward Joicey of Whinney House.
The new Victoria Infirmary, on the Leazes, is a magnificent
building, and was opened by King Edward VII. in 1906. It was
erected by public subscription, and when £100,000 had been
subscribed, the late Mr. John Hall generously offered a like sum on
condition that the building should be erected either on the Leazes
or the Town Moor. Arrangements were made to do so, and another
£100,000 given by the present Lord and Lady Armstrong.
But fine as all these buildings are, the pride of Newcastle is one
much older than any of them—the Cathedral church of St. Nicholas,
with its exquisitely beautiful lantern steeple. This wonderful
lantern was the work of Robert de Rhodes, who lived in the
fifteenth century. The arms of this early benefactor of the church
may yet be seen on the ancient font. The present church was
finished in the year 1350, says Dr. Bruce; but there was a former
one on this site to which the crypt is supposed to belong. It has
undergone many alterations at different times, and has sheltered
within its walls many and various great personages.
[Illustration: Newcastle-upon-Tyne.]
In 1451, a treaty between England and Scotland was ratified in the
vestry. In the reign of Henry VII., his daughter, Princess
Margaret, attended mass here, with all her retinue, when she stayed
in the town on her way to Scotland to be married to the gallant
young king James IV. She was entertained at the house of the Austin
Friars, which stood where now stands the Holy Jesus Hospital at the
Manors, near to the Sallyport Tower. When James I. became king of
England, he attended service here, as he passed through Newcastle
on his way to his southern capital. In the reign of his ill-fated
son, Charles I., Newcastle was occupied by the Scots, under General
Leslie, for a year after the battle of Newburn in 1640; and again
in 1644 was besieged by them for ten weeks. On this occasion the
town nearly lost its chief ornament and pride—the lantern of the
church; for “There is a traditional story,” says Bourne, “of this
building I am now treating of, which may not be improper to be here
taken notice of. In the time of the Civil Wars, when the Scots had
besieged the town for several weeks, and were still as far as at
first from taking it, the General sent a messenger to the Mayor of
the town, and demanded the keys and the delivery up of the town, or
he would immediately demolish the steeple of St. Nicholas.
“The Mayor and Aldermen, upon hearing this, immediately ordered a
certain number of the chiefest Scottish prisoners to be carried up
to the top of the old tower, the place below the lantern, and there
confined. After this, they returned the General an answer to this
purpose, that they would upon no terms deliver up the town, but
would to the last moment defend it; that the steeple of St.
Nicholas was indeed a beautiful and magnificent piece of
architecture, and one of the great ornaments of the town, but yet
should be blown to atoms before ransomed at such a rate; that,
however, if it was to fall it should not fall alone; that at the
same moment he destroyed the beautiful structure he should bathe
his hands in the blood of his countrymen, who were placed there on
purpose, either to preserve it from ruin or to die along with it.
This message had the desired effect. The men were kept prisoners
during the whole time of the siege, and not so much as one gun was
fired against it.”
In 1646, when Charles I. was a prisoner in Newcastle for nearly a
year (from May, 1646, to February 3rd, 1647), this was the church
he attended; and we may picture him listening perforce to the
“admonishing” of the stern Covenanters. In this connection occurs
the oft-told story of his ready wit, when one of the preachers
wound up his discourse by giving out the metrical version of the
fifty-second Psalm, with an obvious allusion to his royal hearer:—
“Why dost thou, tyrant, boast abroad, Thy wicked works to praise?”
Charles quickly stood up and asked for the fifty-sixth Psalm
instead:—
“Have mercy, Lord, on me, I pray, For man would me devour.”
The good folk of Newcastle with willing voice rendered the latter
Psalm, doubtless to the discomfiture of the preacher.
Gray, who published his _Chorographia_, or Survey of
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, just three years after this, describes St.
Nicholas’ as having “a stately, high, stone steeple, with many
pinakles, a stately stone lantherne, standing upon foure stone
arches, builded by Robert de Rhodes.... It lifteth up a head of
Majesty, as high above the rest as the Cypresse Tree above the low
Shrubs.”
The church underwent a terrible despoliation at the hands of the
Scots in 1644; but more terrible still were the injuries it
received, a little more than a century later, from those who ought
to have been its friends. In the years 1784-7 there were many
alterations made in the building, during which almost all the old
memorials and monuments perished, or were removed; those which were
not claimed by the living representatives of the persons
commemorated being ruthlessly sold, or destroyed; and the brasses
were disposed of as old metal. The modern alterations and
restorations have been more happy in their effect, and one of the
notable additions to the church is the beautiful carved oak screen
in the chancel, the work of Mr. Ralph Hedley.
There are many beautiful memorial windows in the church, and many
memorials in other forms to the various eminent North-country folk
who have been connected with Newcastle and its chief place of
worship. The Collingwood cenotaph is the most interesting of all;
the brave Admiral’s body, as is well known, lies beside that of his
friend and commander, Nelson, in St. Paul’s Cathedral, but this
memorial of him is fittingly placed in the Cathedral of his native
town, within whose walls he worshipped as a boy. There are two
monuments by Flaxman—one of the Rev. Hugh Moises, the famous master
of the Grammar School when Collingwood was a boy; and the other of
Sir Matthew White Ridley, who died in 1813. Of the newer monuments,
those of Dr. Bruce, of Roman Wall fame, and of the beloved and
lamented Bishop Lloyd, are particularly fine.
Near the east end of the church, which was raised to the rank of a
Cathedral in 1881, is hung a large painting by Tintoretto, “Christ
washing the feet of the Disciples”; this was presented to the
church by Sir Matthew White Ridley in 1818. There are many more
things of interest in the Cathedral, but mention must be made of a
wonderful MS. Bible, incomplete, it is true, but beautifully
written and illuminated by the monks of Hexham, and other
manuscript treasures carefully kept in the care of the authorities.
The oldest church in the town is St. Andrew’s, supposed to have
been built by King David of Scotland at the time when that monarch
was Lord of Tynedale, in the reign of King Stephen. It suffered
greatly in the struggle with the Scots, whose cannon, planted on
the Leazes, did it great damage, and some of the fiercest fighting,
at the final capture of the town, took place close by, where a
breach was made in the walls. In such a battered condition was it
left that the parish Registers tell us that no baptism nor “sarmon”
took place within its walls for a year (1645). But a marriage took
place, the persons wedded being Scots, who, we learn from the same
authority, “would pay nothing to the Church.”
In the church is buried Sir Adam de Athol, Lord of Jesmond, and
Mary, his wife. It is supposed that this Sir Adam gave the Town
Moor to the people of Newcastle, though this has been disputed. A
fine picture of the “Last Supper,” by Giordano, presented by Major
Anderson in 1804, hangs in the church.
St. John’s Church ranks next to St. Andrew’s in point of age; there
are fragments of Norman work in the building, and it is known to
have been standing in 1297. To-day the venerable pile, with its age
worn stones, stands out in sharper contrast to its environment than
does any other building in the town, surrounded as it is by modern
shops and offices. The memories it evokes, and the past for which
it stands, are such as the citizens of Newcastle will not willingly
let die; and when, a few years ago, a proposal was made for its
removal, the proposition aroused such a storm of popular feeling
against it that it was incontinently abandoned.
All Saints’ Church was built in 1789, on the site of an older
building which was in existence in 1296, and which became very
unsafe. Here is kept one of the most interesting monuments in the
city—the monumental brass which once covered the tomb of Roger
Thornton, a wealthy merchant of Newcastle, and a great benefactor
to all the churches. He died in 1429. He gave to St. Nicholas’
Church its great east window; but, on its needing repair in 1860,
it was removed entirely, and the present one, in memory of Dr.
Ions, inserted; and the only fragment left of Thornton’s window is
a small circular piece inset in a plain glass window in the
Cathedral. He gave much money to Hexham Abbey also.
Besides the famous men already mentioned in connection with the
town, Newcastle possesses other well-known names not a few. In the
Middle Ages, Duns Scotus, the man whose skill in argument earned
for him the title of “Doctor Subtilis,” owned Northumberland as his
home, and received his education in the monastery of the Grey
Friars, which stood near the head of the present Grey Street. He
returned to this monastery after some years of study at Oxford; in
1304 he was teaching divinity in Paris.
Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of London in the reign of Edward VI., whose
Northumbrian birthplace at Willimoteswick has already been noted,
received his early education at the Grammar School in Newcastle,
and on going to Cambridge was a student at Pembroke. We are told he
was the ablest man among the Reformers for piety, learning and
judgment. As is well known, he died at the stake in 1555.
William and Elizabeth Elstob, who lived in Newcastle at the end of
the seventeenth century, were learned Saxon scholars, but were so
greatly in advance of the education of their times that they met
with little encouragement or sympathy in their labours.
Charles Avison, the musician and composer, was organist of St.
John’s in 1736, and afterwards of St. Nicholas’.
It was he to whom Browning referred in the lines—
“On the list Of worthies, who by help of
pipe or wire, Expressed in sound rough
rage or soft desire, Thou, whilom of
Newcastle, organist.”
These lines have been carved on his tombstone in St. Andrew’s
churchyard. He is best known as the composer of the anthem “Sound
the loud timbrel.”
Mark Akenside, the poet, was born in Butcher Bank, now called after
him Akenside Hill. His chief work “The Pleasures of Imagination,”
is not often read now, but it enjoyed a considerable reputation in
an age when a stilted and formal style was looked upon as a true
excellence in poetry.
Charles Hutton, the mathematician, was born in Newcastle in 1737.
He began life as a pitman; but, receiving an injury to his arm, he
turned his attention to books, and taught in his native town for
some years, becoming later Professor of Mathematics in the Royal
Military Academy at Woolwich.
John Brand, the antiquary and historian of Newcastle, was born at
Washington, County Durham, but came to Newcastle as a child. After
attending the Grammar School, he went to Oxford, by the aid of his
master, the Rev. Hugh Moises. He was afterwards curate at the
church of St. Andrew.
Robert Morrison, the celebrated Chinese scholar, was born near
Morpeth, but his parents came to Newcastle when the boy was three
years of age. He died in China in 1834.
Thomas Miles Richardson, the well-known artist, was born in
Newcastle in 1784, and was at first a cabinetmaker, then master of
St. Andrew’s Free School, but finally gave up all other work to
devote himself to his art.
Robert Stephenson went to school at Percy Street Academy, which for
long has ceased to exist. There he was taught by Mr. Bruce, and had
for one of his fellow-pupils the master’s son, John Collingwood
Bruce, who afterwards became so famous a teacher and antiquary.
Newcastle is not, as most southerners imagine, a dark and gloomy
town of unrelieved bricks and mortar, for, besides possessing many
wide and handsome streets, it has also several pretty parks, the
most noteworthy being the beautiful Jesmond Dene, one of the late
Lord Armstrong’s magnificent gifts to his native town. The Dene,
together with the Armstrong Park near it, lies on the course of the
Ouseburn, which is here a bright and sparkling stream, very
different from the appearance it presents by the time it empties
its murky waters into the Tyne. Besides these there are Heaton
Park, the Leazes Park, with its lakes and boats, Brandling Park,
and others smaller than these; and last, but most important of all,
the Town Moor, a fine breezy space to the north of the town, of
more than 900 acres in extent.
Of statues and monuments Newcastle possesses some half-dozen, the
finest being “Grey’s Monument”—a household word in the town and
familiarly known as “The Monument.” It was erected at the junction
of Grey Street and Grainger Street in memory of Earl Grey of
Howick, who was Prime Minister at the passing of the Reform Bill.
The figure of the Earl, by Bailey, stands at the top of a lofty
column, the height being 135 feet to the top of the figure. There
is a stairway within the column, by which it can be ascended, and a
magnificent view enjoyed from the top.
In an open space near the Central Station, between the _Chronicle_
Office and the Lit. and Phil., there is a fine statue of George
Stephenson, by the Northumbrian sculptor, Lough. It is a full
length representation of the great engineer, in bronze, with the
figures of four workmen, representing the chief industries of
Tyneside, around the pedestal—a miner, a smith, a navvy, and an
engineer. At the head of Northumberland Street, on the open space
of the Haymarket, stands a beautiful winged Victory on a tall
column, crowning “Northumbria” typified as a female figure at the
foot of the column. This graceful and striking memorial is the work
of T. Eyre Macklin, and is in memory of the officers and men of the
North who fell in the Boer War of 1899-1902. Two other noteworthy
statues in the town are those of Lord Armstrong, near the entrance
to the Natural History Museum at Barras Bridge, and of Joseph
Cowen, in Westgate Road.
THE KEEL ROW
As I came thro’ Sandgate, Thro’ Sandgate, thro’ Sandgate, As I came
thro’ Sandgate, I heard a lassie sing “O weel may the keel row, The
keel row, the keel row, Weel may the keel row That my laddie’s in
“O who is like my Johnnie, Sae leish,[5] sae blithe, sae bonnie; He’s
foremost ’mang the mony Keel lads o’ coaly Tyne He’ll set and row sae
tightly, And in the dance sae sprightly He’ll cut and shuffle
lightly, ’Tis true, were he not mine!
“He has nae mair o’ learnin’ Than tells his weekly earnin’, Yet,
right frae wrang discernin’, Tho’ brave, nae bruiser he! Tho’ he no
worth a plack[6] is, His ain coat on his back is; And nane can say
that black is The white o’ Johnnie’s e’e
He wears a blue bonnet, Blue bonnet, blue bonnet, He wears a blue
bonnet, And a dimple in his chin O weel may the keel row, The keel
row, the keel row, Weel may the keel row That my laddie’s in.”
[5] Leish = lithe, nimble.
[6] Plack = a small copper coin, worth about one-third of a penny.
[Illustration]