350 A SEPTEMBER RAID IN NORTHUMBERLAND. [Oct. 



A SEPTEMBER RAID IN NORTHUMBERLAND. 



ONCE more at Eiccarton Junction, in a bright September sunset, 

 and amidst the clear air of the Cheviots, making glad the 

 heart of fugitive from crowded city. We shunt off from the main 

 route to Carlisle by the valley of the Liddle, and pass many miles 

 of treeless, houseless bog-land, ere arriving at the commencement of 

 the northern branch of the tree-like course depicted on the map by 

 the North and South Tyne and their affluents, ere uniting to form 

 one river a few miles above Hexham, whither we too are bound. 



The South Tyne has the distinction of passing the highest in- 

 habited house in England, as well as having a fall four times greater 

 than that of the Thames from its source, in a distance four times 

 less in extent. Both Tynes fall in a distance of thirty-four miles 

 or so to their junction. The joining line from Peel to Cross Fells 

 marking their risings, engirdles an area many square miles in extent 

 of laud, worth to the farmer in many cases some 2s. 6d. an acre or 

 less, lying mostly on the lower carboniferous and millstone grit 

 formations ; and our inquiries are to embrace its worth to the 

 forester. Down the route to Hexham, many remnants of old 

 natural woods adorn the ravines through which ever and anon a 

 rushing burn crosses the railway to join the North Tyne, dividing 

 the attention of the tourist with other relics of Eoman invasion, 

 Scotch and English combats, as well as cattle-lifting of more recent 

 times. But we meddle meanwhile with none of these. Around 

 Hexham itself, which, though in a valley, is yet built on a hill, the 

 plough has everywhere conquered the heath. Indeed, the pro- 

 gress of the cereal crops was far before those below Newcastle ; 

 whilst the growth of rare shrubs and crowded fruit-trees in the 

 nurseries of Wm. Fell & Co., adjoining the station, may be seen by 

 the traveller on his way to the town. But the abrupt tablelands 

 on either side of the river, with many a characteristic " fell " to 

 break the monotony of those plateaux, the northernmost of which 

 skirts the Northumberland sea-coast, and the other bounds the nearly 

 parallel course of the river Wear, stand out prominently in the 

 landscape. The industrialist may mark, too, how railways skirt the 

 course of the rivers. Ascending some six hundred feet or so above 

 the town to the high nurseries of William Fell & Co., specially 

 devoted to the propagation of conifers and other forest trees, and 

 from which most of the material was supplied, we saw in a radius 

 of six or eight miles sites of recent efforts in reafforesting. On much 

 of the estate of Dilston, known by the agricultural improvements of 

 John Grey, tree-planting has been profitably undertaken. Some 



