NORTHERN MEMOIRS. 263 



out with age, or some other irregularities, that 

 prognostick time or war the fatal instruments to 

 deface her battlements. 



Theopli. What fair object is that before us ? 



Arn. This eminent object that we now dis- 

 cover, is the town of Newcastle, rich in mer- 

 chants, and many other gentlemen of valuable 

 estates ; the wealthy walls of this town are wash'd 

 with the profitable streams of Tine ; a river that's 

 not only considerably deep, but proportiona- 

 bly large and spacious, whose banks and shores 

 are sullied with coal ; whose product supplies all 

 the southern parts, and accommodates Kngland, 

 which otherwise would be all ice, were not New- 

 castle sun enough to thaw it ; and London, I per- 

 swade my self would be but a cold constellation, 

 did not this ignis fatuus shine in every corner of 

 her beautiful palaces. Nay, most of our mari- 

 time towns, and all her Cinque-Ports, would coa- 

 gulate into a concression, did not this blazing 

 comet shine in every chimney. But I must rer 

 linquish this mundane star, to climb up the south, 

 to those most pleasant and beautiful galleries of 

 Albion. 



TJieoph. What town is this ? 



Arn. This is Durham (and a palatinate) where 

 you may see an eminent but antient cathedral, 

 begirt with the self-same wall that encircles the 



