peesident's address. 195 



where the Great Whinstone Dyke crosses the lane on its course 

 from Howden-le-Wear to the neighbourhood of Hett, a march 

 past the Coke Ovens and cottages of Messrs. Bell Brothers' ex- 

 tensive Colliery, a stroll up the green lane leading fi'om the 

 bridge, by which the "Wear was crossed, to "Whitworth, where, 

 at the gate of the little Churchyard, we were met by the cour- 

 teous Yicar, the Eev. Charles Carr, the brother of our Yice-Pre- 

 sident and former President, Mr. Carr Ellison. Mr. Carr kindly 

 showed us his small but pretty Church, and the curious effigies 

 of crosslegged knight and lady in his Churchyard, which are 

 figured in Hutchinson and Surtees, but the originals of which, 

 to preserve whose memory they were sculptured, are not known. 

 Mr. Carr showed us also the blackened ruins of Whitworth Hall, 

 the seat of Mr. E. E. Huncombe Shafto, for eighteen years M.P. 

 for JSTorth Durham, consumed by fire in January, 1877. On 

 leaving "Whitworth the members proceeded to the Railway con- 

 necting Byers Green with Spennymoor, one of the oldest lines in 

 the iNforth of England, having been made about the year 1834, 

 and called the Clarence Railway, after "William 4th, Duke of Cla- 

 rence. Erom Spennymoor it runs to Port Clarence, once dreamed 

 of as a coining emporium for trade, before Middlesbrough rose 

 into greatness and wealth. Along the sides of a deep cutting 

 for this Railway two seams of coal are very marked for a consi- 

 derable distance, and were surveyed with much interest by the 

 members. Thence the route lay by Old Park, an ancient gothic 

 mansion, beautifully situated, long the residence of the Claxtons, 

 but now occupied by a farmer. Some fifty years ago it was a 

 Boarding School, kept by a Mr. Gillespie, and frequented by the 

 sons of gentry in the county. After that it was tenanted by the 

 Rev. Robert Gray, late Bishop of Capetown, at that time Yicar 

 of Whitworth. From Old Park we proceeded by fields to Bell- 

 burn Wood, obtaining from the summit of Byers Green Hill 

 on the way a very extensive and pleasing view, which em- 

 braced Durham Cathedral, Mcrrington Church, Brussellton Tower, 

 and the Hills of Wcardale above Stanhope, with the interven- 

 ing country. Before wo reached Bellburn Wood it began to 

 rain, which somewhat interfered, though not greatly, witli the 



