4 NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE. CHAP. I. 



of wood. Hence an old writer described Newcastle as 

 " the Eye of the North, and the Hearth that warmeth 

 the South parts of this kingdom with Fire." Fuel has 

 become the staple trade of the district, increasing from 

 year to year, until at length the coal raised from these 

 northern mines amounts to the extraordinary quantity 

 of upwards of sixteen millions of tons a year, of which 

 not less than nine millions of tons are annually conveyed 

 away by sea. 



Newcastle has in the mean time spread in all directions 

 far beyond its ancient boundaries. From a walled 

 mediaeval town of monks and merchants, it has been 

 converted into a busy centre of commerce and manu- 

 factures inhabited by nearly a hundred thousand people. 

 It is no longer a Border fortress a " shield and defence 

 against the invasions and frequent insults of the Scots," 

 as described in ancient charters but a busy centre of 

 peaceful industry, and the outlet for a vast amount of 

 steam-power, which is exported in the form of coal to 

 all parts of the world. 



Newcastle is in. many respects a town of singular 

 and curious interest, especially in its older parts, which 

 are full of crooked lanes and narrow streets, wynds, 

 and chares, 1 formed by tall, antique houses, rising tier 

 above tier along the steep northern bank of the Tyne, 

 as the similarly precipitous streets of Gateshead crowd 

 the opposite shore. A dense cloud of smoke constantly 

 hangs over the place', almost obscuring the sun's light. 

 North and south the atmosphere is similarly murky, 

 and all over the coal region, which extends from the 

 Coquet to the Tees, about fifty miles from north to 

 south, the surface of the soil exhibits the signs of exteii- 



1 In the Newcastle dialect, a chare | tioned the jury not to pay any regard 



is a narrow street or lane. At the 

 local assizes some years since, one of 

 the witnesses in a criminal trial swore 

 that "he saw three man come out of 

 the foot of a chare." The judge cau- 



to the man's evidence, as he must be 

 insane. A little explanation by the 

 foreman, however, satisfied his lord- 

 ship that the original statement was 

 correct. 



