houses an ascent is gained to the Castle-yard and its precincts by several lofty flights of stairs. This eminence terminates exactly in front of the bridge, which was formerly defended by a half-moon bat. tery, an outwork from the Castle, placed upon its summit; but this is now loaded with an unsightly mass of miferable tenements, five stories high, which seems to threaten destruction to the houses and street below. The eastern and north-eastern fides of the Castle Mount are in like manner crowded with buildings, which being all the way stuck close one above another to the very gate of the Castle, have obtained, from this circumstance, the appropriate name of The Side.

"The eastern parts of the town were separated from the Close and Side by a deep ravine, formed by a small brook or rivulet, which falls into the river a little below the bridge. The lower part of this dean or burn (for both these provincial terms are applied to it) must have been arched over for several centuries, at least as long since as the open marketplace, called the Sand-hill, has been embanked from the river, and enclosed with buildings. The upper part was left in its original state till about fifteen years ago, when the course of its channel was judiciously chosen to form a passage through the town, on which passengers should not be liable to the inconvenience of afcending either the western bank, through a narrow winding passage in the Side, or the eastern (shorly to be mentioned) by a fimilar strait and steep approach. If the ingenious projector had been allowed to begin his plan a little lower, the ascent would have been more gradual, and the improvement more complete.

"Oppo

"Opposite to the Castle Mount, but at a greater distance from the river, the eastern ridge terminates with the handsome modern edifice of All Saints' church; and along the back of it, which runs nearly north, is built (within and without the walls) the longest and most regular street in the town. Farther eaftward, another deep ravine is formed by a fomewhat more confiderable brook, which, after running for fome time, enters the town for a short space, though it nearly separates the whole of Newcastle, properly so called, from its extensive eastern fuburbs.

"The whole of the level tract within the walls, between All Saints' church and the river, is, perhaps, more closely crowded with buildings than any equal space of ground in his majesty's dominions. It is occupied by no less than twenty-one wynds or alleys (here called chares*), only one of which, called, by pre-eminence, the Broad-chare, will admit the paffage of carts. All the rest may easily be reached across by the extended arms of a middlefized man, and many even with a single arm. several of them, however, are some of (till lately) the best houses in the town, which in the last age were inhabited by the more opulent merchants; particularly those engaged in the coal-trade. One of these chares can boast of being the birth-place

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of the present Lord Chancellor, and his able brother, Sir William Scott. But, of late years, the fuburbs have been widely extended in all directions, particularly to the north and east; and the buildings in the chares are every day fast converting into offices, warehouses, breweries, &c. Many of them are still inhabited by those more immediately engaged in the business on the quay, as well as by failors, keelmen, and carpenters; those latter claffes chiefly dwell in the eastern fuburbs.

"The town may fairly be reckoned to extend along the banks of the river (from the Skinner Burn to St. Peter's Quay) at least two miles from east to west: about one half of this may be taken for the base of a triangle, the northernmost point of which is near a mile from the bridge; within which, tho' with several irregularities and vacant spaces, the great body of the town may be conceived to be comprehended. The streets in the upper part, at a distance from the river, are spacious and well built; particularly Westgate, Pilgrim, and Northumberland-streets, and the rows and squares which adjoin them. The grey colour, however, of the bricks, and the general (though not now univerfal) covering of bright red pantile roofs, certainly take off much from their appearance. The pavements are in general very good, and there are excellent accommodations for foot passengers; but it must be acknowledged, that too little attention is paid to the enforcement of the regulations established by act of parliament for keeping them clean and neat. Nor can it be said that it is well lighted; the few lamps scattered here and there serving, as has been well observed, only to make " darkness visible."

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It is certain, that, from its fite, which rises gradually, and in some places more boldly, from the Tyne, the regularity of the buildings is in a great measure rendered impracticable.

GEOGRAPHICAL SITUATION.

Grey, in his Chorographia, page 27, tells us, that Camden makes Newcastle upon Tyne 22 degrees 30 minutes longitude, and 54 degrees 57 minutes latitude. But, by Dr. Hutton's plan of Newcastle, it is placed precisely in 55 degrees north latitude, and about I degree 17 minutes longitude, west from London.

NAME.

About the year 445 of the Christian æra, this town occurs under the appellation of Pons Ælii, a Roman station, where a cohort of the Cornovii was then in garrifon. This name is evidently derived from that of Ælius Hadrianus, the founder of the first wall, which that warlike prince affixed frequently to his works.

After a filence of near two hundred years, mention (fays Mr. Brand) again occurs of this place under the new appellation of Ad Murum (at the Wall), and the refidence of a Northumbrian king. It is probable, that, in the time of the Ronians, it confifted only of a few straggling houses on the banks of the Tyne, and before the discovery of the coalmines, and other minerals, the principal employment of the inhabitants might be fishing. But, upon the Romans quitting the island, the weak and feeble natives (who, under the protection of their masters, masters, enjoyed poffeffion of the more fertile provinces, but were, by their cruel policy, deprived of the use of arms) easily became a prey to foreign invaders, and to none more than the Saxons and Danes. The Christian religion had been for a long series of years introduced into the island; but in the fifth and fixth centuries, had affumed the gloomy form of folitude and retirement, from the bufy and civil haunts of man, to caves and deferts, and its most rigid votaries affumed the name of Monachi, or Monks. The town we are now defcribing, from the winding of the Tyne, whose banks were covered with woods, drew a number of these recluses to the place, and from this circumstance, and its vicinity to the Roman wall, all antiquaries agree that it got the name of Monkchester.

It was not (says Mr. Bourne) till after the departure of the Romans, that the town got the name of Monkchester, as being a place of strength, or garrifoned fort, during the invafions of the Danes and Saxons. It is to be observed, once for all, that the names of all towns or places ending with chester got that appellation from being a Roman encampment, caftrum, or caftra, being the Latin words from whence chefter is derived. He adds, that this name it retained, till after the conquest by William the

Norman.

An ecclefiaftical historian, (Eachard) in his hiftory of England, says, that Monkchester was so called from certain monks, who lived in great austerity there. And the Monasticon gives us the following account: "In the year 1074, a certain monk, named Aldwin, a prior from the province of the Mercians, preferring a voluntary poverty and contempt of the world

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