A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



controversy was reopened in 1900.^ The shrine 

 of Bede was examined in 1830, and the present 

 inscription on the slab was added in 1831.^' 

 One or two other contemporary alterations 

 may be mentioned. In 1828 the approach to 

 Framwellgate bridge was improved, and the 

 old battlements were taken down.*" In 1829 

 the cathedral churchyard was levelled, the earth 

 being removed to the western end, and helping 

 to form the rise in the ground which is so 

 observable.*' In the autumn a public meeting 

 in Durham proposed the construction of a new 

 road from Framwellgate bridge towards Dry- 

 burn. The immediate occasion was the rumour 

 of a plan to run a road from Farewell Hall on 

 the Darlington Road to Neville's Cross, which 

 would divert traffic on the Great North Road 

 from the city. It was urged that the menace 

 to trade and property was considerable.*- Event- 

 ually King Street *^ was formed, and was opened 

 in 1 83 1, so called in the coronation year from 

 King William IV. It did not, however, obviate 

 the making of the road from Farewell Hall. 



These last matters were coincident with the 

 Reform agitation. Durham itself did not rise 

 to any great enthusiasm. At the outset, the 

 cholera scare checked it, and although the city 

 did not suffer, the very severe visitation at 

 Newcastle and in Sunderland** brought fear 

 to the inhabitants. The fast day in 1832 was 

 observed in the city with great sincerity.*^ The 

 protest meeting, which was held in Old Elvet, 

 after the Lords' rejection of the Reform Bill 

 a few months earher, was a highly decorous 

 affair, though attended by more than 8,000 

 persons.** So was a second meeting held 

 after the resignation of the Ministry in 

 May 1832,*' and a third in June.** Mean- 

 while, the dean and chapter by an Act of 

 chapter in 1831 had approved the foundation of a 

 university, and the bill received the royal assent 

 in July 1832, whilst the charter bears date 

 1837. It will still be debated by some whether 

 the new foundation endowed by dean and chap- 

 ter and bishop was a sop to Cerberus, or the 

 long deferred realization of a plan which was 

 as old as the days of Henry VIII.** From the 

 point of view of the city at large, it was hailed 

 with great satisfaction, and it must be admitted 



** V.C.H. Dur. i, 250. See Dr. Fowler's account 

 in Arch. lix. Canon Brown's articles in the Ushaw 

 Magazine on ' Where is St. Cuthbert's Body ? ' 

 give the sceptical view. 



*9 Arch. Ael. iv, 26. 



*" Table Book, sub anno. 



" Sykes, Local Rec. ii, 385. 



*^ Table Book, sub anno. 



*' Now North Road. 



** Sykes, Local Rec. ii, 322-33. *^ Ibid. 347. 



6* Ibid. 333. «7 Ibid. 358. «8 Ibid. 366. 



«» F.C.H. Dur. ii, 72. 



that the scale of expense for many years must 

 have brought considerable profit to local trade.™ 

 Builders, furnishers, purveyors, tailors, and 

 others all received benefit from the new in- 

 stitution." The rapid increase of railway 

 communication after a very few years rather 

 damped the hopes of the promoters of the 

 scheme, who expected the new university to 

 rival the older foundations of Oxford and 

 Cambridge, not only in learning, but in numbers. 

 These years which saw the birth of the 

 university, and the altered scheme of cathedral 

 establishment, also witnessed the inauguration 

 of the modern civic constitution under the 

 Municipal Reform Act. From this point we 

 started for this general chronological review 

 of Durham history, and with it we now conclude 

 our survey. We have seen the boundary 

 commission of 1832 and its provisions. In 

 1833 ^ fresh commission was appointed, in 

 that epoch of commissions, to carry out an 

 exhaustive inquiry into local conditions. Two 

 years were occupied in this thorough investiga- 

 tion of the various municipalities. The report 

 made curious disclosures. The dependence of 

 the city upon the bishop was now regarded 

 as an anachronism, and, unless Durham were 

 to be excepted from the unifying procedure 

 recommended by the commission, the annexation 

 of the palatine jurisdiction to the crown was 

 bound to follow the provisions of the Municipal 

 Corporations Act. The most important clauses 

 in modifying the old constitution are the follow- 

 ing. The corporation was no longer styled 

 ' Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty of the 

 City of Durham and Framwellgate,' but 

 ' Mayor, Aldermen, and Burgesses of the City 

 of Durham.' '^ The Aldermen were now to be 

 six, the Councillors eighteen, and there were to 

 be three wards. The time-honoured Mayor's 

 day was changed to 9 November. Constables 

 superseded the old arrangement of 1790 and 

 1822. A police-office was erected. A com- 

 mission of peace for the borough was formed. 

 A clerk of the peace was appointed. The 

 Reform Act had given the franchise to many 

 who were not freemen of the city. The latter 

 were confirmed in their electoral privileges, 

 and in such property right as they had prior 

 to the passing of the Act. All gift or purchase 

 of the freedom of the city gilds was abolished. 



'" The report of the Commission of 1863 gives 

 some details as to the general scale of living. 



'1 The old and ruined keep, uninhabited since 

 the days of Bishop Fox (1501), was rebuilt 1839-41, 

 and fitted with rooms for undergraduates. Verdant 

 Green, written by a Durham graduate with the 

 sobriquet Cuthbert Bede (note the Durham names), 

 but really Edward Bradley, was originally a picture of 

 Durham life, but was adapted by the author to Oxford. 



'2 Stat. 5 & 6 Will. IV, cap. 76. 



52 



