248 ON THE TRACK OF THE MAIL-COACH 



every shift of wind round went the nest ; yet the 

 rooks brought up their young, undismayed, and con- 

 tinued to do so for twelve consecutive years, until 

 nest and vane and spire were all pulled down 

 together. 



The keep of the antique castle stands — 



' Was I not yesterdaye at the Newe Castelle 

 That stoncls so faj're on Tj-ne ?' 



The Battle of Otterbourne. 



In the seventies the modern time-gun, fired by 

 a spark from the General Post-Office in London, 

 replaced its ancient artillery. But this piece of 

 ordnance has not been discharged for years, on 

 . account of the concussion resulting from its discharge 

 being deemed likely to injure old property in the 

 vicinity of the castle. A time-gun is let off daily, at 

 one o'clock, at North Shields instead. 



At one period not fewer than fort}^ mail and 

 other coaches were despatched daily from New- 

 castle. 



The London night mail - coach was continued 

 through Edinburgh to Inverness, and over the Muir 

 of Caithness to Thurso, 783 miles from London. 

 From Thurso the local mails were conveyed by pair- 

 horse conveyance, westward, to Tongue. I recollect, 

 in a very hot summer, travelling over the moor 

 during a heavy thunderstorm, when I witnessed the 

 phenomenon of the electric spark passing upwards 

 from the heated surface of the ground to the cloud 

 above — atmospheric conditions, I presume, reversing 



