that people. The congregation is said to be numerous, and of decent deportment, with a stated pastor among them.---See churches and chapels.

Almost adjoining to the manfion, house, is another meeting-house, or place of worship, in which assemble a congregation, with their minister, attached to the principles of the church of Scotland, and is said to be numerous and respectable. Their terms of communion differ from those of the other difssenters in Newcastle.

But the edifice that principally draws the attention in the Close, is the MANSION-HOUSE.----See publicbuildings.

This building Mr Bourne terms, "A building grand and stately, and, confidering its situation, is very ornamental." Its foundation was laid in the year 1691, and cost the corporation 6000l. befides the necessary furniture and utenfils. Upon the election of a new mayor, annually at Michaelmas, he generally quits, for the year of his mayoralty, his own private house, and takes up his refidence in the manfion-house, commonly making no change among the male servants there. He is allowed a handsome statecoach, a barge, in which he, attended by numbers of other gentlemen of the corporation, perambulate the river, on Afcenfion-Thursday, and is supplied with a genteel salary, to support his expences, by the corporation.

It is in this mansion that the judges of afsize, with their attendants, are entertained, during the time of their refidence here on their circuit.

There used to be given by the newly elected mayor, a public entertainment, on Michaelmas Monday. The body of freemen at large generally thought themselves entitled to share in its good things; fo that, on many occafions, shameful excesses happened: to prevent which, the common council resolved, July 7, 1773, to discontinue the custom; the propriety of which was acknowledged by the sober and decent among the free burgesses of the town.

The regalia, or magisterial robes, are kept in the manfion-house, and used on public occasions.---They confift of a large mace of filver, gilt, having on it the following inscription : "Made for the corporation of Newcastle upon Tyne, anno regni Jacobi Secundi, tertio, annoq. Domini 1687, Nicholas Cole, Esq. mayor; Thomas Pace, Esq. sheriff. The arms of the town, with those of Cole, on the knob at the bottom: on the part under the crown, the rose, thistle, and fleurs-de-lis, and the harp, with a crown over each, and the initials I. R.---Under the mound, the king's arms, with I. 2. R. This principal piece of the regalia is carried before the mayor, on proceffions, by the water-bailiff. Here also are kept two fwords of state, of elegant workmanship; the one is covered with black, the other with scarlet, velvet: the former is used in ordinary proceffions, the latter on festivals: it is then that the magistrates wear scarlet gowns.

The manfion-house is like wise furnished with a rich and elegant service of plate.

On a filver bason and ewer, are the following inscriptions: "This bason and ewer were, by Sir Gil-. bert Gerrard, Bart. and his two fons, Gilbert and Samuel Gerrard, Esqrs. grand-children to the Rev. Father in God Dr. John Cofins, late bishop of Durham, presented to the right worshipful Sir Nathaniel Johnson, of the court of aldermen of the ancient town

of

of Newcastle, and is designed for the use of the mayor that annually governs; accordingly, to be delivered by the present mayor to the court of aldermen, and by them to the next mayor that shall be chosen, and so successively for ever. June 8, 1681." The arms of Newcastle, and of the family of Cole, are also engraven on these pieces of plate. On the ewer is the following inscription: "This ewer, with a bason, was presented by Sir Gilbert Gerrard, Bart. and his two fons, Gilbert and Samuel Gerrard, Efqrs. to the use of the annual mayor of the ancient town of Newcastle, for ever. June 8, 1681." Arms alfo of Johnfon and Gerrard, with those of the corporation, are engraven on the ewer. Here is also a large filver bason, with the following inscription : "Ex dono Lioneli Vane armigeri, majori et burgenfibus, villæ & comitatus Novi Castri super Tynam." Arms of the town, and those of Vane and Fenwick.

On a filver bowl, given by Mr Bowes, is inscribed, "The first royal purse of one hundred guineas run for at Newcastle upon Tyne, was won, June 25, 1753, by a bay horse, called Cato, belonging to George Bowes, Efq. who generously presented it to the corporation, to purchase a piece of plate, in remembrance of his majesty's grace and favour." The king's arms, with those of the town and of Bowes.

The mansion-house has also a gilt filver cup, of very elegant design and execution, in which it is usual to present mulled wine to the new mayor, at his first entrance into the mansion: for which purpose it is faid to have been given to the corporation.

In the grand saloon of the manfion-house are placed the fire-arms belonging to the corporation. Over the chimneychimney-piece, some fragments of ancient armour are well worth being seen by the curious antiquary.

The history of several other houses in the Close, which bear the marks of venerable antiquity, and probably were once the abodes of festivity and opulence, having fallen into decay, or been converted into warehouses, is, of consequence, uninteresting.---But it is to be observed, that it is near the place where the Close-gate stood, that the extenfive glassmanufactories are to be seen, and where the whiteglass is made in the most beautiful manner; which not only brings a large revenue to government, (as will be seen in its place) but, next to the coal, is a chief fource of the wealth of this opulent town.

WEST GATE,

Or the Street that leads to the West Gate.

It has been already observed, that on account of the vast number of religious that flocked to the town, the subject of this history, it got the name of Monkchester, or the town of the monks, with which it seems to have abounded, of all orders and denominations. In modern times, after the ancient and opulent families, for the most part, had quitted the lower streets on the Quay and in the Close, and retired to the higher parts of the town, both for the circulation of purer air, and for other conveniences, they chiefly settled in Westgate, which, till the buildings in Pilgrim-street, Savile Row, &c. was the principal place of refidence. The street itself is airy, and has many handsome and well-finished houses, generally inhabited by a fingle family, now having beautiful

beautiful pieces of ground flower plots, &c. backwards. We will only make some cursory remarks upon the private buildings. In this part of the town stood the

BLACK FRIARS.

This order, named, says Bourne, Black Friars, Preaching Friars, and Jacobine Friars, arrived in England A. D. 1262 and 1268. They took their name from St. Dominick, the founder of the order, a Spaniard by birth. Their monastery stood near the foot of Westgate-ftreet, near to White Friar Tower, and was called the House of the Friars of the Sac, or of the penance of Christ.

This very ancient monastery was founded by Sir Peter Scott, who was the first mayor of Newcastle in the year 1251, and by Sir Nicholas Scott, his fon, who was one of the four bailiffs of the town. But the fite was given by three sisters, whose names Mr Bourne laments are ungratefully loft.

The exact time of its being founded and finished is uncertain; but it must, adds the fame authority, have been earlier than the 8th of the reign of Edward I. as that prince granted a licence to the black friars to break a door through the new wall into their garden, and so their priory must have been built fome time before. The fame author observes, that it had been a stately and very beautiful building, as appears by its present remains. The area, or grass-plot, is about 87 feet in length, and the fame in breadth. On the east side was the chapel, which is now the hall of the company of smiths. On the west side was a curious old well, which served the monastery

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