which purpose the bay, called Prior's Haven, on the fouth fide of the castle, is exceedingly well adapted, The usual morning walk of the company is among the extensive and venerable ruins of the cattle and monastery, the light of which fills all visitants of taste with emotions of veneration and sympathy; exclaiming with a figh, Sic tranfit gloria mundi--So passes the glory of all human things. HISTORICAL EVENTS. A fuccinct Account of the most remarkable Events which have happened in Newcastle. : A TOWN, which, for ages, made so great a figure for its political, and in our times for its commercial consequence, must have been subject to various re. volutions, and given birth to many very striking events. On a flight retrospect of its hittory, many occurrences present themselves, fingular, and in a manner peculiar to itself. At an early period, we have feen, that its fituation, adjoining to one of the finest rivers of the island, foon attracted the attention of the Romans. The fitness of the river Tyne for the purposes of navigation did not long escape the notice of a commercial people; nor can we doubt but that the most ancient Britons chose their refidence on its fertile and delightful banks, The mightiest and most enterprising of the Roman em perors, upon their fubduing the fouthern parts of the island, turned their attention to make it a depot of arms, and a barrier against the intrepid and restless tribes of northern barbarians. : Julius Julius Agricola, governor under the emperor Titus Vefpafian, established a garrifon here about A. D. 80; and made it one of that chain of military stations which extended from the eastern to the western fea. Hadrian, the Roman emperor, built his wall or tampart nearly from the Irish sea to the German ocean, terminating at this part of the river; over which also he threw a bridge, at this place a circumstance which gave a new appellation, that of Pons Eli, (derived from his family name Ælius) to the Roman station, the fite of which is at present included within the walls of Newcastle. Severus was here in person, and began to erect his famous wall: of stone, A. D. 207. which was extended across the ifland, nearly from sea to fea. This stupendous monument of the Roman people passed through the fite of the present Newcastle eastward, ending at the station of Segedunum, near the village of Wallsend.s This celebrated place, after historical filence of nearly two hundred years, occurs again, under the new appellation of Ad Murum, (at the wall) and the refidence of a Northumbrian king During the heptarchy, which continued near three hundred years, it had the name of Monkchester, and was one of the principal fents of the Northumbrian princes. The conqueror William frequently visited this town, in his wars with his refractory barons, or the restless Scots. His fon Rufus built the strong fortress, from which it exchanged its nanie once more to that of Newcastle, which it retains to the present times.> A. D. 1068, Northumberland was invaded and Newcastle: taken by Edgar Etheling, heir to the crown of England, together with Malcolm, king of Scotland, whom the conqueror engaged in perfon, and overthrew on a heath adjoining to that place, now called Gateshead-fell. The enraged Norman laid. Newcafile almost level with the ground, to prevent its becoming, in future, an asylum to his enemies. A. D. 1072, William the conqueror passed again through Newcastle, on his way to Scotland. Malcolm met him at Ber wick upon Tweed, where he did him homage. About the beginning of the reign of king. Stephen, the town of Newcastle appears to have been feized into the hands of David, king of Scots; in whose possession, or rather perhaps in that of prince Henry his fon, it seems to have continued for a long time. In the year 11.73, William, king of Scots, taking advantage of the unnatural rebellion raised against Henry II. in his family and kingdom, kingdom, appears to have invaded England. After having committed the most dreadful devastation, as far as the banks of the Tyne, he retreated, and fat down before Alnwick Castle, in a place adjoining to which, amidst a troop of between fixty and feventy horsemen, apprehending no danger, and diverting himself with the exercises of chivalry in an open plain, he was taken prifoner by Ranulph de Glanville, sheriff of Yorkshire, with a band of horse, in which were about 400 knights. This gallant party, who had set out from Newcastle early on the morning of the 12th of July, returned the fame evening, bringing the grand enemy my of their royal matter along with them This William king of Scots, furnamed the Lion, was afterwards confined in the cattle of Richmond, till king Henry removed him, and imprisoned him at Rouen, in Normandy. The Scottish king was afterwards delivered up at York, for the ranfom of 4,00ol. and a dreadful rencounter took place at the bridge of Newcastle, on his return to his kingdom, between his own guards and the commons of that town, who, doubtless, were highly exasperated at the redemption of an enemy whom they had fo great cause both to hate and fear. About the year 1209, there was a conference held at Newcastle between king John and William king of Scots. In the year 1213, king John marched through the town of Newcastle, on his route against Scotland with his army; but the Scottish king met him on the borders, and, by the mediation of common friends, the quarrel was made up for fome time between the two kingdoms. A. D. 1234, there was a grievous plague at Newcastle, which continued for three years. In the year 1236, king Henry III. had a conference with Alerander, king of Scotland, at the town of Newcastle. In the year 1244, the sister kingdoms had nearly come to an open rupture, the king of England being at Newcastle with an army, and the king of Scots with another at Ponteland; a peace, however, was agreed upon by the mediation of the archbishop of York, and some of the nobility, on the eve of the Afsumption of the Blessed Virgin. Rapin tells us, that Alexander fubmitted to the fame homage that he himself had paid on a former occafion, and which his ancestors had been accustomed to pay. So perfect a reconciliation took place between the contending parties on this secafion, that, before their departure, a marriage was agreed up ! on between the fon of Alexander, king of Scots, and Margaret, the eldest daughter of the king of England. A remarkable event distinguished the feast of St. Stephen, in the year 1292, at Newcastle; John Baliol, king of Scotland, hav. ing, against the will of his own nobles, if we may credit Boethius, done homage, on that day, for his crown, to the king of England, in the hall of his palace, within the castle of that town: the cere mony was conducted with much folemnity, and in the prefence of a number of great personages of both nations. In the year 1297, the Scots renewed their former hostilities, by making an inroad into England, flaying the inhabitants of Northumberland, and burning and laying waste the country; the in habitants, with their wives, children, furniture, and cattle, fled to Newcastle upon Tyne, whither also the enemy marched down the northern bank of the river: the townsmen having made every neceffary preparation for resistance, fallied forth in order to fight them, upon which the Scots turned another way In the year 1322, a general rendezvous of the king's forces was ordered to be held at Newcastle upon Tyne, on the feast of the Holy Trinity. A rendezvous was also ordered to be at the fame place on the eve of St. Luke that year, which was prevented by another incursion of the Scots into England, who penetrated as far as Yorkshire, and nearly took the king of England, then refiding at Byland, in that county, a prisoner. They are faid to have besieged Newcastle on this occasion, but met with a vigorous repulse. On the execution of Andrew de Hartcla, earl of Carlifle, whe had fuffered death for treason, one quarter of his body was order ed to be put up on the keep of the castle of Newcastle upon Tyne. The queen of king Edward III. having followed the king to Durham, was conducted to him through the gate of the abbey to the prior's lodgings; where having fupped, and gone to bed with her royal lord, she was foon disturbed by one of the monks, who rudely intimated to the king, that St. Cuthbert by no means loved the company of her sex. The queen upon this got out of bed, and having hastily dressed herself, went to the castle for the remaining part of the night, asking pardon for the crime she had inadvertently been guilty of against the patron saint of their church. Soon after the return of David, king of Scots, to his own. country, where he arrived June 2d, 1342, he invaded England by the eastern border with an immenfe army, and coming to Neweaftle Newcastle upon Tyne, lay about it all night. Early the next morning the townsmen fallied forth to reconnoître the enemy, of whom they flew great numbers by surprise, and brought back with them the carl of Murray, whom they took a prisoner in his tent. The next morning the Scots affaulted the town, but Sir John Nevil, then captain of the castle, making a most vigorous defence, they were compelled to raise the fiege, and marched on towards Durham. In the year 1388, while the English were unhappily occupied by the civil diffentions between the king and his parliament, the Scots invaded England. All the military perfons of the country were ordered to assemble, on this occafion, at Newcastle upon Tyne, which was fo full of people, that, as Froissard tells us, they wyst not where to lodge." The enemy having, as usual, marked their way by rapine and destruction, as far as Durham, returned and fat down two days before Newcafile, on both of which they had skirmishes with the defendants within that town. Sir Henry and Sir Ralph Percy, the gallant fons of the earl of Northumberland, as the fame authority words it, were ever foremoft at the barriers of the town to skirmish. In one of thefe rencounters, Sir Henry Percy, fighting hand in hand with the earl of Douglas, loft his standard, which he made a vow to recover, and for that purpose purfued the Scots on their return as far as Otterbourn, where a most bloody battle was fought, in which the English army were rather unfortunately than dishonourably defeated. December 1, 1428, king Henry VI. issued an order for the fafe conduct of the king of Scots, to be escorted as far as Newcastle upon Tyne or Durham, by one thousand of his own horse, to a personal conference with Henry Beaufort, bishop of Winchefter, in order to prevent hoftilities between the two kingdoms.. A convention for a marriage between James, then duke of Rothefay, heir apparent of the king of Scotland, and Ann, daughter of the duke of Suffolk, and niece of the English king, as foon within three years as the parties came of fit age, was agreed upon to be ratified December 6, 1483, in the church of St. Nicholas in Newcastle upon Tyne; but it was a felicity not destined to this Ann, but referved for Margaret, daughter of Henry VI. by a marriage with the king of Scotland, to lay the foundation of a real, and we trust everlasting, coalition between king |