136 
STATE AGEICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 
the best drained sections are clothed with excellent crops. * 
The twilight comes, and I have not yet reached the end of my day’s jour¬ 
ney. But at last we know by the distant glimmer, of a thousand lights that 
we are near to it. Newcastle lies on the left bank of the river Tyne, and 
about eight miles from the German Ocean, while on the right bank is the 
dingy old manufacturing town of Gateshead ; the two connected by the 
famous “ high level bridge. ” Gate.shead is announced! And now we are 
crossing the bridge. It looks to be far down to the water (and it is some 118 
feet), and seems very long as the stout locomotive draws the heavy train 
over it. What if the bridge should give way under its mighty load ! George 
Stephenson, chief of the world’s engineers, made it; there is no danger. 
From the magnifcent Central Railway Station I make my way to a hotel, 
and wait for the morning light. The coal mines, an hundred extensive 
factories, the old Castle, famous in history, and many other things of great 
interest await me. Prof. McChesney, of Chicago, is American consul here, and, 
I trust, will be my exploring companion. * * 
In company with the genial Professor, have made the rounds, visiting the 
factories, one of the deepest and most interesting mines, and spent a part 
of the evening at the fine old castle of Lord Ravensworth. 
NEWCASTLE TO EDINBURGH. 
Good bye, old Newcastle ! I would tarry longer, but my eyes long for the 
hills and heather of classic old Scotland. I am to go by the way of Hawick, 
Melrose, Abbottsford to Edinburg; thence through the Highlands and back 
via Glasgow. 
The train moves off in its majesty, and Newcastle recedes. Splendid cul¬ 
tivated fields—showing that the farmers of Northumberland know what they 
are about—and beautiful scenery flit past in pleasing panorama. The agri¬ 
cultural portions of this northernmost county of England seem to equal any¬ 
thing that I have yet seen in Europe. Towns unimportant. 
Now we approach the Cheviot Hills. At the U. S. Fair at Richmond, Va., 
in 1858, Lord Napier, then British Minister, (and at home President of an 
Association for the Improvement of Cheviot Sheep) gave me an interesting 
account of this mountainous district. The hills, with their dark and rugged 
sides are still here, and the sheep are here with their tinkling bells, grazing 
in quiet comfort, but the noble Lord, whose efforts have so much contributed to 
the improvement of the one and the other, has himself been gathered into the 
fold of the Great Shepherd. At length, with the glory of the setting sun 
gilding the tops of the eastern summits, the train passing through deeply 
shaded defiles, we cross the intangible line which separates the once rival 
but now reconciled parts of the realm. It is better that they are one, and so 
may they ever remain. God so willed it. Peace to the ashes of their res¬ 
pective heroes 
A rush of thoughts strangely blended, as the mind returns in retrospect to 
the small but grand and heroic kingdom left behind. By what mighty strug¬ 
gles has it fought and worked its way through many long centuries to this 
glorious present, wherein it ranks first in the perfection of its agricul¬ 
ture, first in manufactures, first in commerce, first in wealth, first in pow¬ 
er I Move on, noble realm, giving the laws, literature, science, and 
Christianity of an advancing civilization to the great needy world ! The 
thunder of thy workshops shall ever be welcome music; thy beautiful ver¬ 
dant fields and thy magnificent fleets of shuttle ship?, weaving the commerce 
of the world on all the seas, shall be a welcome sight to all peoples. As 
God’s sun of light and fire never leaves all parts of thine empire in night, so 
may the sun of thy prosperity never go down, leaving thee in the darkness 
of departed greatness and glory ! 
The whistle of the locomotive startles me, stops my musings, and notifies 
me that we are entering the old town of Hawick. A place of some 7,000 in¬ 
habitants, near the confluence of the rivers Teviot and Sletterich, and chiefly 
engaged in the ivoolen, lambswool and cotton hose manfacture and trade. 
Time will not permit me to tarry, and yet this train will convey me to Jed- 
burg, quite out of my intended line of travel. No train more direct until 
