THE CRITICAL REVIEW. For SEPTEMBER, 1789. The Hiftory and Antiquities of the Town and County of the Town of Newcastle upon Tyne, including an Account of the CoalTrade of that Place, and embellished with engraved Views of the Public Buildings, Ec. By John Brand, M. A. Twe Vels. 4to. 31. 35, in Boards. White and Son. TO OPOGRAPHY may be ftyled more minute and limited history. We look at one spot and its events through a literary microscope, where every object is magnified, and examined in detail; an operation at first pleafing, but when purfued too clofely, unimportant, tedious, and difgufting. We fee the moft inconfiderable parts which connect the whole, but we fee them with all their rugged harfhnefs, for which the idea of their utility will hardly compenfate, and we look over ruins which ages have crumbled away till fcarcely a veftige is left, becaufe it is a part of that object which our duty has engaged us to examine. We mean not to say that labour of this kind is always unpleafing, and that in our furvey we meet with no objects that are interesting; but the pleasure and the intereft are often local; the advantages are fcarcely felt beyond the boundaries. which are described, and diminish almost in proportion to their diftance. Newcastle may probably be excepted from this general character. It was for a long time near the scene of obstinate contentions; and shared the fortunes of its party: bounteous nature has also bestowed on it natural riches in an excellent harbour, and a valuable falmon fishery; above all, inexhauftible poffeffions in its coal mines. Our author, fo far as we can judge at a diftance, has not fpared the labour of examining its recondite ftores of antiquity, or the drudgery of arranging these rude materials; but he muft excufe us, if in a work not generally interefting, we do not follow him fo minutely as perhaps the natural partiality of an author to his own productions might lead him to think requifite. Mr. Brand, in his preface, gives a very particular and fatisfactory account of the fources from whence his hiftory is drawn, which we cannot follow with any advantage. The first part is on the ancient fortifications, ftreets, churches, monafleries, VOL. LXVIII. Sept. 1789. N bridges, bridges, and other public edifices. Newcastle was certainly a walled town in 1216, and the walls are faid to have been built, or at least begun, in the time of Edward I. though they were not finished till that of Edward III. The walls are now generally taken down, and the ditch is filled up; but our author traces their history and their various fortunes. The different gates are next described, and they are usually illuftrated by plates : indeed thefe volumes are rich in ornaments of this kind, often well executed; but the engraver has fucceeded better in views of antiquity, than in representing distant profpects. He has not, fo far as we can perceive, been guilty of any very confiderable errors, though he has feldom rifen to very great excellence. The view of Newcastle, taken from Shieldfield, is in many refpects very good. The number of houfes rated to the window-tax was, in 1781, 2389; but feveral were returned poor.' Hutton supposes them 2450; and the inhabitants not less than 30,000. They are fupplied, he fays, annually, with 5000 oxen; 10,000 calves; 143,000 sheep and lambs.' We fufpect that the number of inhabitants must be greater, or the fupply lefs. Perhaps the proportion of lambs may be confiderable. The Tyne bridge has been fuppofed to be in the fituation of the old Roman bridge. There probably was a Roman way from London to Chester-le-ftreet; and from thence to Newcaftle. The opinion is greatly confirmed by the Itinerary of Richard of Cirencester, firit printed by Mr. Bertram, in Sweden. Some Roman mafonry was also confpicuous near it; but our author does not feem to be accurate or well founded in suppofing this to be the work of Hadrian, Pons Ælii cum feptem fornicibus.' It was destroyed by a great flood in 1771, and the laft arch of the new bridge was only closed in 1779. The grammar-school of Newcastle was endowed about the middle of the fixteenth century: an account of the masters and ushers, with fome biographical remarks and additions concerning scholarfhips, fellowships, and exhibitions, that may be enjoyed by the fcholars of Newcastle school' is fubjoined. The monastery of Black Friars, where Edward Baliol, king of Scotland, did homage to Edward III. is very particularly defcribed. Hadrian's vallum, fo far as its fituation and direction can be ascertained, is alfo defcribed at fome length. The castle, from which the town had its name, is undoubtedly the work of the son of William the Conqueror; but the name feems to show that fome ancient castle exifted before that period on the spot. The new caftle, we have been told, may be eafily diftinguished from the old one, which was round, and has been ince called the Half Moon Battery, fuppofed to have been a Roman Roman fortrefs, to command the pass of the bridge. The eventful hiftory of this caftle to the fale of the Caftle-Garth, 1779, when it was fold to Mr. Turner, one of the agents to Green. wich Hofpital, is detailed at length, and furnishes fome interefting and fome entertaining occurrences. The prefent remains of the caftle feem alfo to have been examined by our author with great attention. The monafteries, nunneries, and other religious eftablishments of Newcastle were very numerous; and indeed, from this circumftance, Monk Chefter was the name by which it was dif tinguifhed after its old appellation, Ad Murum,' was difufed. St. Nicholas, its earlieft church, is ftill confpicuous for its very fingular fpire, its extent, and antiquity. It was founded in 1091, the fourth year of William Rufus; and modernifed in 1783, when, it is said, almost all the funereal monuments were facrificed to the new embellishments and alterations. The hiftory of the church, its different monuments, particularly that of the late Matthew Ridley, efq. who died in 1778, executed by Mr. Bacon, with a fhort account of its different vicars, lectur ers, the chapels of cafe depending on it, form a confiderable part of the first volume; but these are chiefly local details, to which vicinity alone gives importance. The church of All Saints, with its chantries, chapels, &c. is also described at some ength; as well as the meeting-houfes, and fects of different denominations, according to their fituation, for Mr. Brand examines different diftricts in the proper order. In the fuburbs, the Infirmary, firft opened in October 1752, is a striking object; and a very good view of it is fubjoined, from which it appears that its fituation is airy, though its form is not the most commodious, for a fquare is not compatible with a very free ventilation. The Firth, formerly the fcite of a fort belonging to the caftle, is a public walk, or place of recreation in the fuburbs. In the fuburbs of Pilgrim-treet, among the charitable inftitutions, is one for the lepers, ftyled the Hofpital of St. Mary Magdalen, the patron faint, in almost every city in England where fuch inftitutions exift, of thefe unhappy objects. The fuburbs of Pandon, perhaps the pant (pond or fountain) hill afford the town its supply of water; but the high hills in the neighbourhood of Newcastle are more probably its real fource; and in this spot the old capacious refervoir feems to have been placed. Plenty of water was undoubtedly always an object of great importance; but thofe who are acquainted with the works of our ancestors for this purpose, know that they were usually executed, not only with an anxiety which the object would require, but with a skill which the most enlightened modern furveyors can rarely excel, and fometimes not equal N 2 The The keelmen, at present an important body, who work at the keels (boats), or lighters, occur first as a fraternity in 1539, but they appear to be dependants on the hoftmen, a fraternity whofe origin and whofe employments we cannot ascertain. If, with our author, we explain the term to mean Ealmen, formerly ftyled Efterlings, we muft fuppofe that the colleries and the barges were once in the hands of this enterprifing and forward race. But his explanation, though in part fupported by Camden, is not, we think, well founded: it is at least inconfiftent with the following claufe of an act, 43 of queen Elizabeth, by which the hoaftemen, for this is the proper fpelling, were incorporated. 11th Ace-Yt is further ordered by th'aucthoryte aforefaide the faide daye and yeare that no free brother of this fellofhip of holmen fhall henceforth either himself or his fervants or any other for him goe or fend to the fhecles or the ballist-shores or within any parte of the ryver of Tyne or any place without the walles of the faide towne to talke or fpeake with the owner, mr. or purfer of any fhipp, hoie, or other veffell whatsoever upon the water to learne whofe oafte he is, therby to procure him to be his oafle or to withdrawe him from his old oafle by any kind of meanes, &c.' It is perhaps more probable that the term was the common one of hoft*, from the French hofte, altered a little by a broad Northumbrian pronunciation. The existence of a body, how ever, with this title is fufficiently afcertained, long before its incorporation, by the act juft referred to in 1600; and they were the patrons or mafters of the keelmen. The keelmen occur in 1450, petitioning the hoftmen to provide them with a chapel and a minifter; and, in 1700, they petitioned the common council of Newcastle for a piece of ground on which they might build an hofpital: even in this inftance, the hoftmen were their trustees and guardians. The hofpital was built in 1701, at the expence of above 2000 pounds, which was defrayed by the keelmen; but we are forry to add that various difputes have been the confequence, and nothing has been done to re-eftablifh the hofpital effectually. Gateshead, in the county of Durham, either Goat's head, or from gote, the old word for way, and head (viæ caput, the end of the Roman road), next occupies Mr. Brand's attention. St. Edmund's Hofpital is its principal inftitution. Some account of the town of Gateshead, which was formerly a dif Why may not the term fhip's-hoft, or the perfon who tranfacts the bufinefs for the captain while it is in a foreign port, be as natural and proper as fhip's-hufband? The employment of the hoaftmen, is faid in the act to be the loading and better difpofing the different parts of the cargo. tin one, and feems to have had its feparate jurifdiction, with its church, the different chantries, &c. is fubjoined; and with this description the volume is concluded. The appendix to this volume confifts of original documents, acts of parliament, antiquarian refearches, and defcriptions of different remains of antiquity. The fecond volume commences with a description of the Tyne, which is variously derived. Mr. Whitaker contends that it is an abbreviation of Avon, T'Avon, T'Aun, Tyne; but this author's acquaintance with the ancient British is not very accurate. Aven may, however, be traced in many different appellations of rivers, and it was pretty certainly the Celtic term for water. Ock is another Celtic word of a fimilar fignification, and may be found wherever any traces of the Celtic remain; but Tyne is fcarcely farther removed from the one than from the other. Bullet's Celtic etymology from tyn, double, is at once obvious and appropriated, fince there are two rivers of almost equal fize, the one from the high ground near the Scottish borders, and the other from near the confines of Cumberland, which unite a little to the north of Hexham. If the river had the name of the Double' River from this union, the two parts would be naturally ftyled North and South Tyne. The history of this river, and the various disputes which so valuable a property as its navigation has occafioned, fill many pages. We are forry that our author has done fo little more, in his accounts of the imports and exports to and from the Tyne, than copy Hutton. We shall felect, as well as we can, the fcattered limbs. * In Hutton's Plan of Newcastle, dated January 10th, 1772, it is related, that the number of fhips entered inwards every year in the port of Tyne is nearly as follows: Ships 8.0 77,880 tons, from the coaft with goods. 140 18,650 tons, from foreign parts. 950 96,530 in all. The trade and shipping of this place,' continues that authority, are very confiderable, and have always made it of the utmost confequence. Besides its neceffary fervices in fupplying a great part of the nation with coals, &c. and the very great revenues arising from thence, it is of the greatest confequence as a nursery for brave and hardy feamen, who have always ftruck fuch a terror into the hearts of all the enemies of Great-Britain, that, whenever a rupture happened with any foreign power, attacks upon this branch of commerce, and body of N 3 men, |
