Anniversary Address 31 



Many of the visitors arrived by train from Newcastle, and as 

 they walked across the level ground which lies between the rail- 

 way and the river, the little town presented an attractive appear- 

 ance in the bright morning light. Immediately under Corbridge 

 the ground falls in rapid descent to the Tyne, and the steep slope 

 is divided into long parallel gardens, admirably placed to catch 

 the sun, and on this side giving quite a picturesque character to 

 the place. On farther acquaintance we found that Corbridge had 

 thoroughly mended its ways since 1776, when a writer says it 

 " was dirty and disagreeable." Now the streets are well kept ; 

 many modern villas have been erected ; gardens and shrubberies 

 are seen on all sides ; and signs of comfort and prosperity are 

 prominent. If old industries such as flax-spinning and weaving, 

 shoemaking, lime-burning, and market- gardening for the supply 

 of Newcastle, have died out, obviously the labouring population 

 have found other profitable outlets for their industry, while not 

 a little money must be made by the letting of houses and lodg- 

 ings, the place having become a favourite resort for summer 

 visitors. 



From the low haugh-land on the south side of the river the 

 town is entered by a bridge of seven arches, built in 1674, re- 

 markable as the only bridge which withstood a high and destruc- 

 tive flood in 1771. The bridge, the widening of which was 

 finished in April, 1881, is a substantial structure; and the views 

 from it, both eastward and westward, interested the party. 

 Downward, to the east, it could be seen that an enormous 

 deposit of drift, running from S.W. to N.E., had at one time 

 quite closed up the valley, and must have held back the water 

 of the river to form a lake along the wide and level space four 

 miles westward to Hexham. On this level ground, once the 

 bottom of the lake, the soil is rich and many feet deep, and in 

 the neighbourhood of Hexham is appropriated to market gardens, 

 which are very productive. The great ridge of drift has been 

 cleft by the action of the river, the opposing scaurs corresponding 

 to each other at the point where the stream has cut its way 

 through the obstacle, about a mile below Corbridge, and allowed 

 the waters of the lake to drain off. Upward and westward from 

 the bridge the eye ranged over a varied and beautiful prospect. 

 On the north bank of the river the ground rising rather rapidly 

 displayed much cultivated land, with the mansions of Beaufront 

 Castle, Sandhoe, and Stagshaw, surrounded by their parks and 



