ENGLAND AND WALES. 



county in itself, and a municipal and parliamen- 

 tary borough, returning two members to parliament. 

 The government is vested in 12 aldermen and 36 

 councillors, the chief of whom is the Lord Mayor. 

 The population in 1871 was 43,796 ; and in 

 1 88 1, 60,343. York is among the most ancient 

 of British cities. Before the Roman invasion, it 

 was one of the chief towns of the Brigantes, 

 the most numerous and powerful of British 

 tribes. It was constituted a Roman station, 

 under the name of Eboracum, by Agricola, 

 about 79 A.D. ; and it very soon became the 

 principal seat of Roman power in the north. 

 Here Hadrian lived, and Severus died. Here, 

 too, died Constantine Chlorus, the father of Con- 

 stantine the Great. Little is known concerning 

 the city for a century after the Romans had left it, 

 which they did about 409 A.D. ; but it suffered 

 much during the long conflict between the Britons 

 and the Picts. It afterwards became the capital 

 of Northumbria. The first metropolitan church 

 in England was built here by Edwin, the North- 

 umbrian king, whom Paulinus baptised ; and 

 here also Edgar, the first monarch of all England, 

 held, in the year 966, the Witena-gem6t William 

 the Conqueror was long unable to overcome this 

 stronghold of the north. One Norman garrison 

 of 3000 men was put to the sword in 1069 ; but 

 William took severe revenge in the following year, 

 when he laid waste the whole country between 

 York and Durham. The first English parliament 

 was held at York in 1160 by Henry II. and for 

 500 years afterwards, parliaments were occasionally 

 summoned to the ancient city. Under Henry 

 III. the courts of King's Bench and Exchequer 

 sat at York for seven years. During the insur- 

 rections consequent upon the dissolution of the 

 monasteries by Henry VIII. York was seized by 

 the insurgents of the ' Pilgrimage of Grace ; ' and 

 in the immediate neighbourhood, Fairfax, in 1644, 

 conquered Prince Rupert on Marston Moor. In 

 the city are many remains of Roman towers and 

 temples, and of the earliest British churches. 

 One of the most magnificent of the Anglo-Saxon 

 churches was here erected in the 8th century ; 

 this was burned, and a new building placed on its 

 site. This, enlarged and changed from time to 

 time, is now known as York Minster. A portion 

 of the original church was disinterred during the 

 excavations which followed the latest burning of 

 the minster in 1829. The present building ranks 

 with the finest specimens of Gothic architecture 

 in the world. It was mainly built in the I3th and 

 1 4th centuries. Its length, from base to base of 

 the buttress, is 524 feet, and its extreme breadth 

 250 feet ; being 24 feet longer than St Paul's 

 Cathedral, and 149 feet longer than Westminster 

 Abbey. The magnificent east window is 75 feet 

 high, and 32 feet broad ; and contains about 200 

 compartments, each a yard square, representing 

 scriptural subjects. War and fire have conspired 

 to deform this splendid cathedral. During the 

 Commonwealth, much damage was done by war 

 and wantonness, and many of its old monuments 

 were mutilated or broken. In 1829, it was set on 

 fire by Jonathan Martin, a maniac, and the roof 

 of the choir, 222 feet long, with all the woodwork 

 on each side, was destroyed. While this damage 

 was being repaired, a workman's candle was 

 carelessly left burning one night in 1840, and 

 again a terrible fire broke out, destroying the 



south-western tower, with its splendid peal of 

 bells, and the roof of the nave. The cost of the- 

 repairs exceeded .100,000. Whatever the trade 

 of York may have been in ancient times and old: 

 writers speak of it in glowing terms it is now 

 small. The making of leathern gloves, combs, 

 glass, &c. occupies many. Of late, the construc- 

 tion of railway carriages has become part of the 

 city industry. 



Newcastle-upon- Tynt, the chief town of North- 

 umberland, stands partly on an elevated plat- 

 form, and partly upon the north bank of the river. 

 The more ancient houses are chiefly built or 

 timber, the upper stories projecting beyond the 

 lower ; dormer windows and gable ends appearing 

 in the roof. It has the privileges of a county oF 

 itself. Gateshead, on the opposite side of the 

 river, though in a different county, and having a. 

 separate jurisdiction, is virtually a part of New- 

 castle. According to the census of 1881, the 

 population of the latter was 145,359, of Gateshead. 

 65,803; together, 211,162. Gateshead sends one 

 member to parliament, Newcastle two. The 

 Romans had a stationary camp here, called Pons- 

 Allii one of the chain of forts by which the wall 

 of Hadrian was fortified. On the withdrawal of 

 the Romans, the town became the residence of a. 

 colony of monks, and the town was called Monk- 

 chester. Robert, Duke of Normandy, a son of 

 the Conqueror, hastily built a castle here in trie- 

 lifetime of his father. Hence the modern name- 

 of Newcastle. William Rufus rebuilt his brother's 

 castle, surrounded the town with a wall, and gave 

 the inhabitants peculiar privileges. The present 

 castle, which shews better than any other ia 

 England the genius of Norman military architec- 

 ture, was erected by Henry II. between the years- 

 1172 and 1177. Newcastle having been the 

 rendezvous of the vast armaments which the first 

 three Edwards led into Scotland, it was in their 

 time surrounded with new walls of unusual strength 

 and magnitude. Portions of them yet remain. 



Chiefly owing to one man of humble origin,. 

 Richard Grainger, Newcastle has, in modern times,, 

 received the addition of many streets, squares,, 

 and public buildings, which, in point of architec- 

 tural effect, are scarcely to be excelled by any io, 

 the kingdom. An extensive conflagration in 1854. 

 led to more recent improvements. The river is- 

 crossed by three bridges the High-level Bridge, 

 the Redheugh Bridge, and a swing bridge (com- 

 pleted in 1874), one of the largest structures of the- 

 kind in the world. The High-level Bridge is one 

 of the engineering triumphs of Robert Stephenson. 

 It consists of six cast-iron arches, supported upon 

 piers of masonry. The length of the viaduct is 

 1337 feet, and the height of the railway above- 

 high-water mark, 112. Below the railway, this 

 gigantic structure carries a carriage-way for 

 ordinary traffic, by which the precipitous streets 

 on both sides of the river are avoided. All the 

 railways entering the town terminate in a large 

 station near its centre. Upwards of 250 passenger 

 trains arrive and depart daily. The trade of New- 

 castle consists chiefly in coal and in those articles- 

 which great heat is required to produce. Its 

 coal-trade began in the reign of Henry III. The 

 trade is not now confined to Newcastle, but is 

 spread over the greater part of the sea-board of 

 Northumberland, and the whole of Durham. 

 Upwards of thirty millions of tons of coal were 



