362 A TOPOGRAPHICAL 



cotton trades have lately been established. The streets are mostly 

 well-paved, and remarkably wide, and the houses are in general 

 well-built. 



This town is on the direct road from London and Birmingham 

 to Liverpool and Manchester, and it possesses other great advan- 

 tages in point of local situation, from the abundance and cheap- 

 ness of fuel, and its vicinity to the important and populous dis- 

 trict of the Potteries ; and it has an immediate communication 

 by water with the Trent and Mersey or Grand Trunk Canal. 



In 1775 an Act passed for enabling the late Sir Nigel Gresley to 

 make a Canal to Newcastle from his Coal Mines at Apedale, dis- 

 tant about two miles, and the town has been since supplied with 

 those coals at a price limited by Parliament. The supply having 

 been defective another Act was obtained in 1812, in consequence of 

 which other mines in the same estates were opened and a small ad- 

 vance was made in the price. As the term, during which the pro- 

 prietors of these mines are restricted as to price, and are bound to 

 furnish a sufficient quantity of coals to the town, will expire in two 

 years, it seems unnecessary to add the particulars of the prices, &c. 

 A navigable Canal from the south end of this town to the Grand 

 Trunk Canal at Stoke-upon-Trent, a distance of four miles, has 

 been made in pursuance of an Act which passed in 1795: and a com- 

 munication by Canal and Railway is also made between the first- 

 named Canal and the late Sir Nigel Gresley's Canal under the au- 

 thority of another Act passed in 1798. These Canals were made by 

 subscription, and afford great accommodation to the town, although 

 th.ey have not hitherto paid any dividends to the proprietors. 



A piece of waste land called the Marsh, lying in this Borough, and 

 containing about twenty-three acres, was inclosed and leased out 

 for building upon by virtue of two Acts which passed in 1782 and 

 1783. The rents are applied in aid of the Poor's Rates, and pro- 

 duce at present about ,=200 per annum. An elegant Theatre, and 

 Ladies' Boarding School, both built by subscription, besides a hand- 

 some Hotel and Assembly-room, with many excellent houses, are 

 already built on this land. 



But the improvement from which the greatest benefit is likely to 

 be derived to Newcastle, is the Inclosure of some open Fields sur- 

 rounding the town, and containing about six hundred acres, which 

 are the property of many individuals, subject to Rights of Common 

 exercised periodically by the Burgesses of Newcastle. An Act for 

 fleeting this Inclosure, as well as the Inclosure of a Common called 



