(Vol. viii., pp. 539. 630.)
Peter Allan deserves more than a brief notice. His history is so full of
romance, the relics of his name and fame are so many, and he is withal so
little known, that I presume I may on this occasion trespass on more than
the ordinary space allotted to a "minor," but which should be a "major"
Query.
Peter Allan was born at Selkirk (?) in the year 1798. His parents were
peasants, and Peter in early life became valet to Mr. Williamson, brother
of Sir Hedworth Williamson. He afterwards became gamekeeper to the Marquis
of Londonderry, and in that capacity acquired a reputation as an unerring
shot, and a man of unusual physical strength and courage. He afterwards
married, and became a publican at Whitburn, and in the course of few years
purchased a little property, and occupied himself in the superintendence of
dock works and stone quarries. In this latter capacity he acquired the
skill in quarrying, on which his fame chiefly rests. Having a turn for a
romantic life, he conceived the strange project of founding a colony at
Marsden, a wild, rocky bay below the mouth of the Tyne, five miles from
Sunderland, and three from South Shields. The spot chosen by Peter as his
future home had been colonised some years before by one "Jack the Blaster,"
who had performed a series of excavations, and amongst them a huge round
perforation from the high land above to the beach below, through which it
is said many a cargo has passed ashore without being entered in the books
of the excise. Here the cliff is formed of hard magnesian limestone, and
rises perpendicularly from the beach more than a hundred feet. When Peter
set to work, the only habitable portions were two wild caves opening to the
sea, into which at high tide the breakers tumbled, and where during rough
weather it was impossible to continue with safety. On the face of the rock
Peter built a homestead of timber, and set up farm and tavern. In the rock
itself he excavated fifteen rooms, to each of which he gave an appropriate
name; the most interesting are the "Gaol Room," the "Devil's Chamber," the
"Circular Room," the "Dining Room," and the "Ball Room." The height of the
entire excavation is twenty feet, its breadth thirty, and its length, from
the ball room to the cottage, one hundred and twenty. Several parts of the
cave are lighted by windows hewn in the face of the rock, and these give
the cave a picturesque appearance as viewed frown the beach below. In
addition to these labours, Peter took possession of a huge table-rock,
which stands some distance from the cliffs opposite to the grotto. By dint
of extraordinary exertions he excavated a passage from the land side of
this rock through its substance to the surface, and by placing scaling
ladders against its face, made provision for ascent and descent at high
water. The three-quarters of an acre of surface he colonised with rabbits,
and built a shanty for himself and companions, where they dwelt for some
time thinning the wild fowl with their deadly shots, and raising many an
echo with their shouts of revelry.
To describe the strange scene presented by the grotto itself, the
farm-buildings on the face of the cliff, the huge table-rock and flagstaff,
the many quaint blocks, pillars and wild escarpments, and the numerous
domestic animals, such as mastiffs, pigs, ravens, and goats, all
congregated together in a small bay, and literally separated from the world
by the barren waste land above, and the huge cliffs and restless sea below,
would be beyond the scope of "N. & Q.," though it is worth a note in
passing, that for the tourist a visit to Marsden would be highly
remunerative.
Peter Allan endured many hardships in his cave at Marsden. He was accused
of smuggling, and annoyed by the excise. He and his family were once shut
in for six weeks by the snow, during the whole of which time it was
impossible for any human being to approach them. Yet in spite of many
hardships, Peter reared in the grotto a family of eight children, three
daughters and five sons, all of whom are living and prospering in the
world. The grotto is still kept by his widow, his {648} eldest son William,
and one daughter, assisting Mrs. Allan in the management The son William is
an experienced blaster, and occupies himself in excavations and
improvements; the daughter, a brunette, is a first-rate shot, and a girl of
extraordinary spirit and gaiety. She is the Grace Darling of the
neighbourhood, and both her and her mother have saved many lives by their
dexterity in boating and extraordinary courage. Peter himself was a bold,
determined, and honest man, fond of a joke, and passionately devoted to
bees, birds, pigs, and dogs, many of whom (pigs especially) used to follow
him to Shields and Sunderland, when he went thither. After twenty-two
years' possession of the caverns, the proprietor of the adjoining land
served him with a process of ejectment; Peter refused to leave the
habitation which he had formed by twenty years' unremitting toil, and which
he had actually won from the sea, without encroachment on an inch of the
mainland. After a tedious law-suit, judgment was given in his favour, but
he had to pay costs. The anxieties of this lawsuit broke his heart, and he
never recovered either health or spirits. He died on the 31st of August,
1849, in the 51st year of his age, leaving his wife and eight children to
lament him. He was buried in Whitburn churchyard, and over his grave was
placed a stone with the inscription:
"The Lord is my rock and my salvation."
Numerous memorials of Peter exist at the grotto, and in the neighbourhood
of Marsden. Particulars of these and other matters touching this romantic
history, may be obtained in No. 2. of _Summer Excursions to the North_,
published by Ward, of Newcastle; and in a paper entitled _A Visit to
Marsden Rocks_, contributed by myself to the _Peoples Illustrated Journal_,
No. XIV.