same by theirs. Considerable
and continuous pressure had to be brought to bear on the civic
authorities at Newcastle before they finally took action; but having
once done so, the future of the Tyne was assured. Now it ranks second
only to the Thames in the actual number of vessels entering and leaving,
and owns only the Mersey its superior in the matter of tonnage.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER IV.

NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE.

"Her dusky hair in many a tangle clings
About her, and her looks, though stern and cold,
Grow tender with the dreams of by-gone days."

--_W.W. Tomlinson_.

The outward signs of "by-gone days," in the Newcastle of to-day, with
the one notable exception of the Castle, must be diligently sought out
amongst the overwhelming mass of what is often called "rampant
modernity," of which the town to-day chiefly consists. The modernity,
however, is not all bad, as this favourite phrase would imply; much of
it is doubtless regrettable and a very little of it perhaps inevitable;
but no one will deny either the modernity or the beauty of Grey Street,
one of the finest streets in any English town; or the fine appearance of
Grainger Street, Blackett Street, Eldon Square, or any other of the
stately thoroughfares with which Grainger and Dobson enriched the town
within the last eighty years--no one, that is, who has learned to "lift
his eyes to the sky-line in passing along a thoroughfare" instead of
keeping them firmly fixed at the level of shop windows.

The grim old building which, when it was new, gave its name to the town,
is one for which no search needs to be made; its blackened and time worn
walls are seen from the train windows by every traveller who enters the
city from the south. So near is it to the railway, that in the
ultra-utilitarian days of sixty or seventy years ago, it narrowly
escaped the ignoble fate of being used as a signal-cabin. It was
rescued, however, by the Society of Antiquaries, and carefully preserved
by them--more fortunate in this respect than the castle of Berwick, for
the platform of Berwick railway station actually stands on the spot once
occupied by the Great Hall of the Castle.

The site of the New Castle, on a part of the river bank which slopes
steeply down to the Tyne, had been occupied centuries before by a Roman
fort, constructed by order of the Emperor Hadrian, who visited Britain
A.D. 120. He also constructed a bridge over the Tyne at this spot, fort
and