Mr. Bourne fays, "On the place "On the place where the Crofs formerly tood, was a ciftern for receiving the water, which was called the New-water. This too, he adds, was pulled down, and there is now, on the place where the Crofs then stood, a pillar of ftone-work." In the year 1773, a Milk-market was eftablished at the White-crofs. In the year 1783 it was pulled down, and rebuilt after a defign by Mr. David Stephenson, architect, in the mayoralty of the late worthy alderman Atkinfon, whofe name it bears infcribed. It is a neat but low fabric, with a good clock, in a little pretty fpire, which is of great fervice to that part of the town. The fairs are alfo proclaimed at this Crofs. We have given a general account of the ancient places of ftrength, of reftraint for the unruly, and of amufement for the gay and lively part of the inhabitants of the town and its vicinity. We now turn our attention to the defcription of the numerous places of worship, for which it has been celebrated, during the revolution of many centuries. We shall begin with an account of ST. NICHOLAS' CURCH. The propriety of structures dedicated to the purposes of devotion has been denied and ridiculed by a certain clafs, many of whom are otherwife men of fcience and intelligence. Yet we prefume to obferve, and it may do no violence to metaphytical inveftigation to affert, that religion is natural to man; and that you may as well diveit him of his exiftence, as attempt to efface this indelible impreffion (tamped on his mind. It is interwoven in the conftitution of the enlight enlightened fage, and of the uncultivated barbarian. It pervades human nature in every age and clime; though the external expreffions of it may be found widely different, according to the education of the mind. Man certainly ftands high in the scale of being. His fublime afpect, his ardent afpiration after fuperior degrees of mental improvement, and confequently enjoyment, demonftrate him to have been formed the noblest and most perfect of all the works of the Deity, in the fyftem with which we are acquainted. So true is the obfervation of the old chronicler, of the debaucheries of his gods: Pronaque cum fpeclent animalia cætera terram; OVID. And whilst they (the gods) beheld other animals groveling upon the earth, to man was given an erect countenance; he was ordered to look up towards heaven, to lift his face towards the stars. The wide univerfe is one vaft volume, fpread out for his inftruction, and a motive for his devotion. Yet, to mortify his pride, he cannot fail to obferve, that, in feveral refpects, he is furpaffed by the brute. In his long imbecility, in infancy; his neceffity, through cuftom, for drefs; the neceflity of his food being transformed, by the action of fire, &c. In all these circumftances, his inferiority to the brute is inconteftible. But the principle termed inftinct in the brute, and which regulates its whole routine of actions, becomes reafon in man; and the powers of his mind, fo vaft, fo boundless, fet him at once, at the head of creation, and demonftrate him formed for the moft fublime contemplation, and the pureft intellectual pleasures. Indeed, Indeed, no one can confider the grand structure of the heavens without having his mind filled with the moft fupreme veneration for its glorious Author. He cannot fail to obferve, that even every portion of this earth, fea, and air, is full of fenfitive beings, capable, in their respective orders, of enjoying the good things God has prepared for their comfort. When philofophy informs us of the motion of a comet, running beyond the orbit of the Georgian ftar, attempting to escape into the pathlefs regions of boundless space; yet feeling, at its utmost distance, the attractive influence of the fun, hearing, as it were, the voice of God arrefting its progrefs, and compelling it, after a lapfe of ages, to reiterate its ancient courfe! The incompre. henfible distance of the ftars from the earth, and from each other! Our imaginations are confounded and loft, when we are told, that a ray of light, which moves at the rate of above ten millions of miles in a minute, will not, though emitted at this inftant, from the brightest ftar, reach the earth in less than fix years! But we are still more confounded in contemplating the goodness and condefcenfion of the Supreme Being, in rectifying the fatal errors which had convulfed and ruined the moral world. These excite, in a welldisposed mind, the mingled emotions of "wonder, love, and praise." He, therefore, who confiders, that "in Him we live, move, and have our being, may readily yield his affent to the propriety of either publicly or privately acknowledging his dependence upon that independent Being, and his humble fubmiffion to all the divine difpenfations. Hence arises the propriety of public or focial worship, and thankfulness to that great Firft Cause, from whom we derive all all our benefits; nor can man be engaged in an em. ployment fo dignifying, fo fublime, and fo truly noble. Contemplations fuch as thefe fill the mind with humble benevolence and piety. It arofe, as we ought charitably to fuppofe, from thefe and fimilar confiderations, that the early inhabitants of Newcastle crowded the town with places of worship. The river, the hills, the dales, and the adjacent ocean, would all tend to imprefs them with ideas at once fublime and devout. They might be mistaken in the leffer circumftances of mode and form, but the grand principle, the continued fenfation of acknowledgments of the power and benevolence of the Supreme Being, ever remains the fame. When we see the names of Roger Thornton, Lawrence Acton, Robert Rhodes, and many others, inscribed in public places of devotion, in marble and on brafs, but "whofe record is on high," we are infpired with a veneration for the fanctity of their characters and the fplendour of their virtues; and yet who (maugre the ample fortunes which they acquired and the high honours to which they attained) knew how to "ufe the world as not abufing it," as well as any scoffing infidel, either in their own times or in ours. Thefe introductory remarks on this important branch of our work, may not feem unneceffary, when we confider the ufes and defigns of churches; as, when we fee large and convenient ftructures, with curious and ingenious pieces of machinery, and are informed that they are intended for cafting iron, fmelting metals, fabricating filk, cotton, linen, woollen, &c. for the fervice of man, fo churches are for that of the Moft High, who inhabits that which is "not made with hands." The The ancient Perfians reprobated the idea of including the omniprefence of the Deity in temples made of ftone or marble, accounting the univerfe his temple. It was on that account that Xerxes, the Perfian emperor, upon his invading Greece, burnt down all the temples, as blafphemously reflecting upon the Divine Omniprefence; the Magian priests, who attended him in this expedition, inciting that prince to this act of religious zeal. And it is very remarkable, that the ancient Druids, had the places of their fimple, yet fublime worship, open at top: but their more general clach-fleachda', or "ftone of worship," was in a circular arrangement of huge ftones, and always on fome eminence, from whence they might have a prospect of the expanfe of the heavens, and the circumjacent country, in order to enlarge their ideas and elevate their ado. ration. It is a very curious circumftance, that at Calender, about twenty miles north of Stirling, is the mountain of Benledy,* one of the highest in Scotland; on the very fummit of which was a Druidical temple, confifting of huge ftones, in a circular form, and which probably have been erected for two thoufand years. Thither, at fet times, all the inhabitants ufed to attend, for the purposes of devotion; and to this day, as the worthy minifter (Mr. Robertson, of Calender) informed us, when the people enquire of one another, on Sunday mornings, if they mean to go to church? they fay, in Gaelic, "Are you going (do clachan) to the ftones to-day?" Referring, no doubt, to the practice of their progenitors, before the introduction of Christianity into the island. * Ben, hill, le Dia, of God ;---Hill of God. Gaelick. |