president's address. 233 



jeopardy; and we were asked by an inmate of one of the threatened 

 dwellings to enter a room which she had occupied until then. 

 Having become quite uninhabitable, as she said, "by any human 

 being," the few articles of furniture had just been removed to the 

 door. The "stythe" came from the ceiling and the wall built 

 against the bank, and with the great heat was certainly beyond 

 endurance. "We noticed that the Corporation were making an 

 effort, at considerable outlay, to prevent the extension of the fire 

 by deep trenching the area included in its ravages, several men 

 being then employed in the work, which all will unite in hoping 

 may prove eventually successful. I was sorry to hear, however, 

 that in October last a large dwelling-house was destroyed, and 

 that so suddenly, that the family residing in it scarcely had time 

 to make their escape. Very recently also there seems to have 

 been another outburst, which has been checked. As the cause 

 and progress of this extraordinary underground fire has caused 

 much more than a local interest, it is a great advantage that one 

 of our members, Mr. George Lyall, has contributed a carefully- 

 prepared paper on the subject to the Transactions. 



Through the busy streets, past St. Hilda's Church, and the Mar- 

 ket-Place of the town, we now proceeded to the handsome Nautical 

 College or Marine School, founded by the late Dr. 'Winterbottom, 

 over which our guide, Dr. Hooppell, had worthily presided for 

 many years. Here we examined with much interest the col- 

 lection of Roman and Romano-British antiquities arranged in 

 the various apartments, and also in the garden, for facility of 

 inspection, which have since found an appropriate and permanent 

 home, I trust, in the Museum of the Free Library. These were 

 graphically explained to the members in the Lecture-room after- 

 wards by Dr. Hooppell, and Dr. Bruce gave us the full benefit 

 of his unrivalled knowledge of the Boman Age in Britain, both 

 here and at the " Lawe," which was next visited. 



On this great mass of boulder-clay, near the mouth of the 

 Tyne, a strong and important, but as yet nameless, Boman 

 Station had been placed. Probably, to judge from the massive 

 clamped masonry of the (Brarium or treasure-chamber, similar to 

 that of the Boman bridge at Chester, with its stone-lined cavity 



