CITY OF DURHAM 



now cleaning and repairing.' ^^ More elaborate 

 printed accounts appear in books published at 

 intervals. The North of England and Scotland in 

 1704 describes the city and speaks of the badly- 

 weathered stone of the cathedral." In 1720 

 Magna Britannia gives valuable information 

 about the then fairly recent rebuilding of the 

 prebendal houses.** In 1724 H. Mell's New 

 Description of England and Wales speaks of the 

 good trade and the many gentry residing in 

 Durham.'* Pennant's description of Durham 

 in his Tour to Scotland, 1769, has often been 

 quoted. Grose's Antiquities with one or two 

 pictures executed in 1775 gives some historical 

 details."® The Beauties of England, IJJJ, has 

 some account of the place."' Sullivan's Obser- 

 vations during a tour through parts of England, 

 Scotland, and IV ales, in a series of Letters 1780 has 

 a gossiping reference to the city "* in which he 

 says that ' some of the inhabitants . . . com- 

 plain of being priestridden.' Allusion is made by 

 SuUivan to the banks of the river : ' the good 

 people have not been inattentive to their 

 improvement . ' "* Dr. Spence, Prebendary of Dur- 

 ham (1754-68), has the credit of laying out or 

 improving the banks.*"" Grimm's drawings 

 taken about 1790 illustrate many interesting bits 

 in Durham buildings and Durham life.* 



No time of invasion or straitness afflicted the 

 city in the i8th century like the Scottish occupa- 

 tion of former days. Life was more secure. 

 Yet more than one trial befel the populace in 

 the lower parts of the district. In 1722, for 

 instance, there was a severe flood long remem- 

 bered as ' Slater's Flood.' There were also 

 floods nearly as bad in 1752 and 1753, but these 

 three visitations paled before the calamity of 

 1 771, which swept away or greatly damaged 

 most of the bridges in the county, and at Dur- 

 ham broke down three arches from Elvet Bridge, 

 carried avs'ay the Dean and Chapter Bridge 

 (100 yds. above the present Prebend's Bridge), 

 the Abbey Mill on the left bank, and buildings 

 on Framwellgate Bridge.^ In the winter of 

 1739-40 a severe frost continued for many 

 weeks. The ice on the Wear was strong enough 



S2 Portland MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), vu, 182. 



•3 Op. cit. z6. 



M Cox and Hall, Mag. Brit, i, 638. 



»» Mell's New Description, 307. 



'* Grose's Antiquities. 



" Brayley and Britton, Beauties of Engl, ii, 165-6. 



'* Op. cit. Letter 22. 



*" There arc no trees shown on the cathedral side 

 of the river about 1700 in a picture at the Castle. 

 Grose's Antiquities shows none there in 1 775. 



100 ^ celebrated classical scholar and Professor of 

 Modern History at Oxford. 

 1 Add. MSS. 15537-48. 



* A tract by W. M. Egglestone called the Weardale 

 Nick-Stick preserves a list of local floods, t^c. 



to bear skaters from Durham to Chester-le- 

 Street, and a fair was held on the frozen river.* 

 The harvest of the following summer failed, and 

 food was scarce, entailing much suffering on the 

 poor. Grain merchants in the neighbourhood 

 took advantage of their extremity to make a 

 ' corner ' in wheat in Durham and in New- 

 castle.* At the latter place local riots broke 

 out which occasioned a good deal of trouble. 

 Durham again took no part in the famous '45,* 

 but the billeting of soldiers in and near the 

 city was once more resorted to. Local volun- 

 teers were raised, and the Militia were called 

 out. The Duke of Cumberland hurrying up 

 to meet the Pretender passed through Durham, 

 and the opportunity was taken by mayor and 

 corporation to escort the prince through the 

 town.* In 1749 the great cattle-plague 

 occasioned a vast loss of beasts despite the 

 prompt measures taken in the county generally 

 to check the distemper. Riots had attended the 

 first attempts to put into force the Militia Act 

 of 1757 when Pitt made his re-entry upon office 

 conditional on the raising of a territorial force to 

 repel invasion.' This movement, however, 

 chiefly affected counties south of the Tees, but 

 when in 1761 local ballots were being taken, 

 resistance developed, and a meeting held in 

 Durham pledged the resisters to oppose any 

 enlistment for service outside the county.* 

 Durham had no concern with the spread of the 

 rebellion which presently took place in North- 

 umberland. In 1765 the first recorded coal- 

 strike took place, and lasted for several weeks ; 

 but although it must have affected Durham city 

 it left no permanent impression.® 



The city buildings bore the impress of the 

 years now in review. In 1715 the old workhouse 

 or factory on the south of Elvet Bridge con- 

 nected with the house of correction at the 

 northern end ** was repaired and made over 

 to the woollen manufactory already mentioned. 

 In 1729 the Neptune which still adorns the 

 present Pant was first set up in the centre of the 

 market place beside the conduit.** Rather 

 later than this a good deal of building was in 

 progress at the castle when Bishop Butler set 

 Sanderson Miller to work on the northern 



' Table Book, sub anno. 



* Ibid. See I'.C.H. Dur. ii, 64. Cadogan's life 

 of Romaine refers to the riots in the county (op. cit. 2). 



^ In fact one Swallow, a Durham jeweller, got 

 into difficulty for even toasting the Pretender. 



* Details as for 1715 in An .4ccount of the Rebellions 

 with an account of the local disposition of troops. 



' Summary in Table Book, sub anno. 

 8 Ibid. » Ibid. 



*" See the order in Surtees, op. cit. iv, 56. 

 ** Ibid. The tradition is that it signalized the 

 proposed union between Durham and the sea, as 

 recorded above, p. 43. 



47 



