100 A NEW PLOKA OF 



sloping short, wooded hollow shaped like the letter Y. There are 

 not here, as in Allendale, many fir plantations at a considerable 

 height on the moor, little crag is to be seen, but the stream is 

 broad, and its channel pleasantly diversified by shelves and 

 boulders of massive blue limestone rock. The population of 

 the dale is considerable; neat, wide- spreading villages, with 

 churches, chapels, and school-houses succeeding each other ra- 

 pidly at the bottom of the valley, while farm-houses dot the 

 green fields that extend up the hill-side. The ridge in this part 

 is 1000 feet above the stream and the bank is tolerably steep, 

 the distance between the watershed line on the north and south 

 being generally about 6 miles. The upper part of "Weardale 

 resembles Wensleydale or Swaledale far more than it does Tees- 

 dale, Allendale, or l^orth or South Tynedale. Teesdale is much 

 wilder in its scenery, and altogether exceptional in its botany, 

 and none of the Northumbrian dales have the limestone in their 

 upper part. The village of St. John's Chapel, 2 miles east from 

 "Wear Head, is perhaps the most convenient centre for exploring 

 the upper part of the dale ; the neighbouring ravine of Harthope, 

 where a little stream tumbles over a succession of limestone 

 edges, is the most picturesque bit of scenery in the neighbour- 

 hood. Prom St. John's Chapel eastward to Stanhope, a distance 

 of 6 miles, the villages are fewer. On the south the glens of 

 Swinhope, "Westenhope, and Snowhope, each about 3 miles in 

 length, open out into the main dale, and on the north the more 

 considerable dale of Eookhope, 8 miles in length from the north- 

 west, beginniag within a very short distance of AUenheads. In 

 Eookhope are the valuable mines of the Weardale Iron Company, 

 and the limestone shows itself at 1100 feet. 



The bridge over Stanhope Burn, at the west end of the town, 

 is 670 feet above sea-level, and the limestone crops out on the 

 hill-side at 800 to 850 feet. The moor upon the north of the 

 town is still 1000 feet above it, the highest point being 1712 feet 

 above sea-level, whilst on the south Monk's Moor, in the direction 

 of Middleton, attains 1854 feet. Prosterley, which is situated 

 2 miles lower down, is about 500 feet high, and the limestone 

 150 yards. Above it BoUihope, a glen from the south-west 



