356
The Victoria Bridge, Montreal 357
Robert Stephenson's Burial-place in Westminster Abbey 369
The Stephenson Memorial Schools, Willington Quay 380

[Picture: Newcastle-upon-Tyne and the High-level Bridge]

CHAPTER I.
NEWCASTLE AND THE GREAT NORTHERN COAL-FIELD.

In no quarter of England have greater changes been wrought by the
successive advances made in the practical science of engineering than in
the extensive colliery districts of the North, of which
Newcastle-upon-Tyne is the centre and the capital.

In ancient times the Romans planted a colony at Newcastle, throwing a
bridge across the Tyne near the site of the low-level bridge shown in the
prefixed engraving, and erecting a strong fortification above it on the
high ground now occupied by the Central Railway Station. North and
north-west lay a wild country, abounding in moors, mountains, and
morasses, but occupied to a certain extent by fierce and barbarous
tribes. To defend the young colony against their ravages, a strong wall
was built by the Romans, extending from Wallsend on the north bank of the
Tyne, a few miles below Newcastle, across the country to Burgh-upon-Sands
on the Solway Firth. The remains of the wall are still to be traced in
the less populous hill-districts of Northumberland. In the neighbourhood
of Newcastle they have been gradually effaced by the works of succeeding
generations, though the "Wallsend" coal consumed in our household fires
still serves to remind us of the great Roman work.

[Picture: Map of Newcastle District]

After the withdrawal of the Romans, Northumbria became planted by
immigrant Saxons from North Germany and Norsemen from Scandinavia, whose
Eorls or Earls made Newcastle their principal seat. Then came the
Normans, from whose _New_ Castle, built some eight hundred years since,
the town derived its present name. The keep of this venerable structure,
black with age and smoke, still stands entire at the northern end of the
noble high-level bridge--the utilitarian work of modern times thus
confronting the warlike relic of the older civilisation.

The nearness of Newcastle to the Scotch Border was a great hindrance to
its security and progress in the middle ages of English history. Indeed,
the district between it and Berwick continued to be ravaged by
moss-troopers long after the union