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planned and constructed by one man, in five years, at a fair rental, is about a million sterling; and that about two thousand persons were regularly engaged on them for many years!

Let us now, shortly, see what are the appearances which this new world of buildings presents. First, for the Market. This sumptuous building occupies an oblong parallelogram, bounded by Grainger, Clayton, Nelson, and Nun Streets, and having twelve openings to those streets from its interior area. It lies in the very heart of Mr. Grainger's scene of improvements, and is worthy of them. The market is about three hundred and forty feet long by two hundred and fifty wide covering an area of more than nine thousand square yards, or nearly two acres; neither London, Birkenhead, Birmingham, nor Liverpool, can present such an area of covered market as this. The area is divided into a number of avenues, or bazaars, appropriated as meat, vegetable, poultry, and butter-markets. the Meat Market consists of four long avenues, crossed by four shorter ones, mostly with arched ceilings, and well ventilated. The Vegetable Market is one noble apartment, larger than Westminster Hall, having a carved oak roof, supported by two rows of iron pillars, and a lantern-light running along the centre. length is 318 feet, the width 57, and the height 40; and the whole appearance is so far beyond the general characteristics of such buildings, that a local guide

book claims for it the designation of " a gorgeous hall, of vast extent, rather resembling the nave of some mighty cathedral than a market for the sale of the fruits of the earth." Without soaring to so lofty a height as this, we can well imagine how Newcastle may well be proud of such a market-and of the mind that planned it.

But Grey Street (Cut, No. 3,) is the great work. This street is, by the crossing of other smaller streets, divided into sections, each of which is made to comprise a distinct architectural design, worthy of study, independent of the rest. All, however, agree in thisthat the front and entire decorations of the houses are in solid stone; that the stone is of a warm, rich colour; that the ranges excel those of Edinburgh, in being more ornate; and that they excel those of Regent Street, in London, as truly as good stone excels shabby stucco.

Taking the west side of Grey Street, we find it divided into three compartments by the crossing of High Bridge and Market Street. The south compartment comprises a Corinthian design in the centre, with two wings; derived, in many of its details, from the interior of the Pantheon at Rome. The entablature of the centre front rests on eleven lofty Corinthian columns; and the whole is surmounted by a double range of balustrades. This central portion is occupied by the offices of two banking companies. The next

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group, or compartment, about half the length of the southern, presents an Ionic design, after the Temple on the Ilyssus at Athens: the middle portion is occupied by a large inn. The northern compartment (the The northern compartment (the shortest of the three) comprises one side of a triangle of houses, the area of which triangle is occupied by the Central Exchange. This spot is perhaps the most central and the most magnificent in the whole group of new buildings. The Exchange is a rich and beautiful semicircular building, imbedded in a triangle of noble houses, whose fronts are in Grey Street, Grainger Street, and Market Street. Seven entrances lead from these streets to the Exchange. It is a semicircle, about a hundred and fifty feet long by a hundred in width, wholly lighted from above, as the building is encased in a triangle of houses. The roof is supported by fourteen Ionic columns, twelve of which form a semicircle; and within the columned area of this semicircle is the News-room; on the outside of the semicircle are the corridors, entrances, and staircases leading to the Coffee-room and other apartments. Above the entablature, round the top of the semicircle, spring a series of curved ribs, one over each column: and these ribs form the skeleton for a magnificent glass dome, through which descends ample light into the area of the room. In an upper part of the building are apartments for the School of Design. The triangle of houses, within which the Exchange is thus singularly

placed, are of uniform design; the fronts presented towards the three streets are each an adaptation of the design of the Corinthian Temple of Vesta, at Tivoli: and the three points of the triangle are each finished by a dome springing from a nearly circular range of Corinthian columns.

Next taking a glance at the east side of Grey Street, we find the entire length distributed into five architectural compartments, separated by the crossing of other streets. The first or southern compartment, from Mosley Street to Shakspere Street, has in the centre a colonnade of lofty Corinthian columns, with wings having pilasters and balustrades. The second compartment, from Shakspere Street to Market Street, is almost wholly occupied by the front of the new theatre. This theatre is one of the largest and most beautiful out of London; as the portico projects completely over the foot-pavement, and is formed wholly of highlyenriched stone-work, it constitutes one of the greatest ornaments of Grey Street. Continuing our route up this street, we come to the third architectural compartment, lying between Market Street and Hood Street. Here, according to Mr. Grainger's original plan, would have been a splendid range of buildings, occupied by the Town and County Courts, Council Chamber, Town Clerk's, and other corporate offices and chambers, and a residence for the mayor; but difficulties interfered with the carrying out of the plan;

and Mr. Grainger has made a portion of his architectural design available for other purposes. The centre of this compartment, as now completed, is occupied by a banking company; it presents a highly-enriched façade in the upper stories, supported by more sober Doric pilasters beneath. The fourth compartment, occupying the space between Hood Street and High Friar Lane, is of the Ionic order, with recessed columns in the centre, and pilastered wings. The fifth and last compartment, ending at Blackett Street, is more simple than all the others.

Such, then, is Grey Street; and this detailed view of its architectural features will serve as a general representative of all Mr. Grainger's beautiful streets. A somewhat less ornate version of this magnificent street will serve to describe each of the others. At the point where three of them meet, at the top of Grey Street, is Bailey's statue of Earl Grey, on a lofty

column.

The Old Town: THE QUAYS, CHARES, AND STAIRS. It may not be amiss to take this galaxy of new streets as a centre, from which we can radiate in different directions, to view some of the other notable features of the town.

Let us suppose, then, that the reader, taking the south and south-east directions from this centre, finds himself near the foot of the bridge-the bridge over which so many a mail-coach has passed on its way from London to Edinburgh. Among the odd twistings and contortions of Newcastle, one of the oddest is the non-existence of any main line of thoroughfare in continuation of the bridge. We see before us a steep, absolutely insurmountable by streets or vehicles of any kind. This was the ground first built upon, and it became gradually a dense mass of courts and alleys "a vast hanging-field," as one topographer has designated it, "of sombre and cheerless houses, huddled mobbishly into a confused and pent-up mass, packed and squeezed by mutual pressure into panic retreat from the approach of wheeled carriages." But though we can see no streets, we have almost interminable flights of stone steps before us, as if they were climbing up the face of a hill. There is one such flight, very near the bridge, which contains more steps than we have succeeded in counting; and the drollery of the matter is, that it forms a veritable Monmouth Street or Field Lane-boots, boots, boots, at every yard. Whether Newcastle sends all its second-hand boots and shoes to this staircase, we do not know; but, as we ascend, we are tempted and attracted as much as it be possible by the well-polished array of boots and shoes-now the lofty Wellingtons, now the lowly Bluchers; here the classic Oxonians, and there the Royal Clarence or Alberts; while the single soles,' and 'goloshes,' and 'prunellas,' for the gentler wearers, also occupy their places in the display. Little houses or shops, or stalls or nests (for it is hard to know what to call them), line the sides of the staircase; and how

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the indwellers manage to avoid tumbling down stairs when they come out of their shop doors, is a matter

for marvel.

If, then, there be no regular street opposite the bridge, there must be a detour so as to surmount the ascent in some other way. This detour is towards the right, or east, where we come to an irregular open space of ground, denominated, at its northern part, the Sandhill, abutting at its southern part against the river, and having a large building in the centre called the Exchange. It is said that the higher part of this open space is formed by a heap of sand thrown up by the tide: whence the name of Sandhill. In the midst of this spot once stood an equestrian statue of James II. ; but the unfortunate bronze monarch falling a victim to popular fury, was metamorphosed into bells for the churches of St. Andrew and All Saints'. The middle of the vacant space is now occupied by the Exchange, built nearly two centuries ago; the architect of which was Robert Trollope. Whether Trollope will be most

enduringly remembered by this Exchange, or by his
epitaph in Gateshead Churchyard, is for the future
to show; but the effusion is certainly a curiosity in
its way:
"Here lies Robert Trollope,

Who made yon stones roll up;
When Death took his soul up,
His body filled this hole up."

The lower portion of this building is appropriated as a
fish-market. In Cut No. 4, we see the old Exchange
and the Market.

The houses which surround the Sandhill, on all but the water-side, are many of them highly picturesque, having survived the changes which have run through their course of fashion since the days of half-timbered and carved-gabled houses. It was from one of these houses that Lord Eldon, when a young man, stole away his bride on a runaway match to Scotland. Turning out of this open space, at its northern extremity, we come to the Side, a street running northwestward. This street is also quite picturesque in its house-architecture, and so steep, that both man and horse think it rather a serious affair to be obliged to make the ascent; and until 1696, it was a still more serious affair; for Lort Burn at that time ran in a gully at the bottom of the Side, which was not arched over until the year named. When we make the ascent of the Side, and reach the top, we soon emerge into the open space which contains St. Nicholas' Church. On our way we pass Dean Street, which branches out on the right towards the north, and which shows that the Newcastle people, sixty years ago, had to display some of the same kind of ingenuity which Mr. Grainger has recently so signally exhibited. Where this street of good-looking houses now runs, there was formerly a dean, or glen, through which a brook, crossed by a Roman bridge, once flowed. The street hangs on the sides of, or rather surmounts, this filled-up ravine.

If we walk along the banks of the river eastward, we maintain a pretty general level, and find ourselves

immersed among the oldest, densest, and dirtiest parts | relates the following incident, in connection with the of the town. Ships and coals, coals and ships, leave their commercial impress on the houses of the quayside. The warehouses, the offices, the counting-houses, although resembling those of Hull and other sea-ports in respect to ships, have a character of their own in respect to the immense coal dealings carried on. One of the buildings in the Quay-side is the Custom-house, which received a new stone-facing about twenty years ago. The long dirty roadway on which we walk, from the bridge almost to the eastern extremity of Newcastle, presents us with the river and its shipping on the right-hand, and the warehouses and offices on the left. If we seek for any good streets to lead us up from this quay to the higher parts of the town, we shall find none; but a little industrial search detects a whole string of steep alleys, called chares, which lead up from Quay-side to the elegant precincts of Butcher Bank and Dog Bank. But though Butcher Bank is a narrow, crooked, odd-looking street, and though its name indicates how it has been (and, in part, still is) occupied, yet we must not forget that Akenside, to whom we owe the 'Pleasures of Imagination,' resided there: whether his imagination were ever kindled by the scenes of such a place, is another matter. Bucke tells us, that "Akenside is said to have been, in after life, very much ashamed of the comparative lowness of his birth; and it is also reported, that he could never regard a lameness, which impeded his walking with facility, otherwise than as an unpleasant memento of a cut on the foot, which he received from the fall of one of his father's cleavers when about seven years old." Mr. Bucke gives the following lines of Akenside, which resulted from his rambles to the country places near his native

town:

"Oh ye dales

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

The steep chares or alleys of Newcastle are close neighbours. Whether human ingenuity could wedge a greater number of houses into an equal space may well be doubted. "Cabined, cribbed, confined," they certainly are. Love Lane (one of these chares) is distinguished for having given birth to two ennobled lawyers, whose names are not likely to die out of remembrance; viz., Lord Eldon and Lord Stowell. The father of the two brothers was one of those whose occupation is closely associated with Newcastle; he was a coal-fitter; but the house where he once resided, and where the two great lawyers were born, has since been occupied as a bonded-warehouse.

While standing in, or looking up, this Love Lane, we can hardly avoid meditating on the singular rise of those two brothers. William, afterwards Lord Stowell, was born in 1745; while John, Lord Eldon, was born in 1751. Horace Twiss, in his 'Life of Lord Eldon,'

birth of William :- -"On the 17th of September, 1745, the city of Edinburgh had surrendered to the Pretender's army, whose road to London lay directly through Newcastle. The town walls were planted with cannon, and every preparation was made for a siege. In this state of things Mrs. Scott's family were anxious that she should remove to a quieter and safer place. The narrow lanes, or, as they are called, chares, of Newcastle, resembling the wynds of Edinburgh, communicate from the upper part of the town to the quay-side; and in one of these, named Love Lane, which is in the parish of All Saints', stood the residence of Mr. William Scott (the father), conveniently situate for the shipping, with which he was connected; but the line of the town-wall at that time ran along the quay between Love Lane and the river Tyne; and the gates having been closed and fortified, egress in any ordinary way appeared impossible. This obstacle, however, was overcome by the courage of Mrs. Scott, who caused herself to be hoisted over the wall in a large basket, and descended safely on the water-side, where a boat lie in readiness." She was conveyed to Heworth, three or four miles from Newcastle, where William, the future Lord Stowell, was born shortly afterwards. Mr. Twiss, however, gives two stories, which have been current on this subject; and though the above is the more romantic and more popularly-believed version, he accepts one, in which the contents of the basket are said to have been-not the lady, but the medical practitioner who was to attend her at Heworth. Lord Eldon, six years afterwards, was born in the family residence in Love Lane. Some of the few Chancery jokes of the sedate Earl, in later years, related to his having been born in a 'chare.'

But to resume our ramble. Passing beyond the quay-side, we come to another densely-built parallelogram of chares and houses. This parallelogram is bounded on the south, or river-margin, by the New Quay, and on the north by the New Road to Shields; a road which, like the New Roads,' and 'New Streets,' and New Cuts,' of London, has long outlived its newness. Parallel and between these two is Sandgate, a narrow lane, surrounded by still narrower courts. This Sandgate was one of the oldest entrances into Newcastle from the east; the Corporation have recently bought the whole south side of Sandgate, with a view to the construction of new offices and warehouses for merchants. In the New Road is the Keelmen's Hospital; an institution whose name at once indicates the peculiar local association with which it is connected. It is a large brick structure, enclosing a quadrangular court; and for nearly a century and a half it has afforded an asylum to disabled keelmen, and assistance to their widows. Most of the keelmen contribute a mite out of their own earnings for the support of the hospital. In the same line of road we meet with the Royal Jubilee School, St. Ann's Chapel, and one or two other chapels; and a continuation in this route would bring us to the multitude of collieries, potteries, glass-works, iron

works, chemical-works, &c., which lie between Newcastle and North Shields.

THE UPPER TOWN: NORTH, EAST, AND WEST. Thus far, then, for the along-shore' quays, and streets, and chares, and stairs. Now for the upper parts of the town. Pilgrim Street and Northumberland Street form a nearly north and south barrier between Mr. Grainger's splendid town and the east town. Pilgrim Street was the main highway through the town, before the construction of Grey Street: it received its name from having in early days been in the route of the pilgrims towards the shrine at Jesus' Mount (now Jesmond), in the north-east vicinity of the town. Eastward of this line of street the respectabilities and the gentilities increase a little as we get further from the centre of the town. The poor streets cling pretty closely to the river; the commercial streets group themselves in and around Mr. Grainger's structures; while the private dwellings stretch themselves further and further away towards Pandon and Jesmond. The cricketers have contrived to secure a capital piece of ground to themselves, somewhat north-eastward of the town, which is used as a cricket-field; and a series of baths, a cricketers' club-house, and a hotel, near the ground, contribute something to the pleasantness of the spot.

Our northern margin speedily brings us to the open country; where Jesmond, with its pleasant cemetery; the extensive Town Moor; the open space, called the Castle Leazes, with its contiguous rows of fine houses; the open ground, called the Nun's Moor; the Westgate Cemetery, at the extremity of the long line of Westgate Street and Hill; the numerous streets of wellbuilt private houses; and the churches and chapels built within the last few years-all tend to show that it is in this direction that we must look principally for the private residences of the principal inhabitants.

West and south-west of the centre of the town, we find more buildings connected with the early history of Newcastle than in any other quarter. As in the eastern division, we will begin at the river, and ascend to the higher parts of the town. First, then, for the Close-the Thames Street of Newcastle, or a kind of hybrid between Thames Street and Bankside. This Close runs from Sandhill to the Forth Bank; it is a narrow street, crowded with manufactories, warehouses, and wharfs; and is about as clean as such a place can be expected to be. Yet it was not always such; in days gone by the leading families of the town dwelt in this street, among whom were the Earl of Northumberland and Sir William Blackett. One of the large buildings on the south side, now occupied as warehouses, was for many generations the Mansion House, in which civic festivities had run their career of glory. The houses on the north side of the street lie at the foot of the steep slope, before alluded to; and it is at this part that we meet with the numerous flights of steps which lead up to the higher town.

Immediately north of this close, and forming the nearest conspicuous objects from the two bridges, are the Castle and the County Courts, crowning the summit of the ascent. The two buildings are very near each other, and the open space of ground between and around them is called the Castle Garth. The County Court comprises the Moot Hall for Northumberland, where the assizes are held. It is a large and fine building, built about forty years age, on the site of a Roman station.

At what time and under what circumstances the castle was built, has been noticed in an earlier page. It remained Royal property, and went through the various vicissitudes of those times. In 1336, there was an inquisition appointed, to inquire into the condition of the castle; the result of which was, that the great tower, the great hall, the king's chamber, the queen's chamber, the king's chapel, the buttery-cellar, the pantry, the bridges within and without the gate, and one postern-were declared to be "£300 worse than before." The castle maintained its place among the fortifications of the north until the end of the sixteenth century; when its days of degradation began. From 1605 to 1616, it was farmed by the Incorporated Company of Tailors of Newcastle! What the tailors required of it does not appear to be known; but they paid an annual rental of one pound stirling: the keep, however, was still set apart as a prison. In 1618, King James I. granted, or let out, at a rental of forty shillings per annum, for fifty years, to Alexander Stevenson, one of his pages of the bed-chamber, “all that his old castle of the town of Newcastle-uponTyne, and the scyte and herbage of the said castle, as well within the walls of the same as without, with the rights, members, privileges, &c., thereto belonging :" those portions of the castle which had been used for corporate purposes seems to have been excepted from this grant. The subsequent history of the castle is anything but a royal or a feudal one: the bright days of the old structure were long departed. There has recently, however, a step been taken which will probably preserve the venerable relic from ruin. The Corporation has let the castle, at a nominal rent, to the Newcastle Antiquarian Society (one among many excellent literary and scientific associations with which Newcastle is provided); and the two bodies have agreed to spend a certain sum on the restoration of the interior. An Antiquarian Society could hardly have a more fitting locale.

The state of the castle at the present day (Cut, No. 5,) does not differ very greatly from that described by Brand, seventy years ago. The keep is still standing, nearly a hundred feet in height; with its immensely thick walls, and its lofty ranges of stone steps. There are nineteen steps from the ground up to the outer portal; twenty-four steps from thence to a sort of guard-room, which seems to have been highly embellished; and eight further steps up to the grand portal, which led at once to the state-apartments of the keep. A winding staircase, from the ground to the summit,

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