LIFE OF GEORGE STEPHENSON, &c. CHAPTER I. NEWCASTLE AND THE GREAT NORTHERN COAL-FIELD. IN no quarter of England have greater changes been wrought by the successive advances made in the practical science of engineering than in the extensive colliery districts of the North, of which Newcastle-upon-Tyne is the centre and the capital. In ancient times the Romans planted a colony at Newcastle, bridging the Tyne by the Pons Elii near the site of the present low-level bridge shown in the prefixed engraving, and erecting a strong fortification above it on the high ground now occupied by the Central Railway Station. North and north-west lay a wild and barren country, abounding in moors, mountains, and morasses, but occupied to a certain extent by fierce and barbarous tribes of Picts and Caledonians. To defend the young colony against the ravages of these dangerous neighbours, a strong wall was built by the Romans, extending from Wallsend on the north bank of the Tyne, a few miles below Newcastle, across the country to Burgh-upon-Sands on the shores of the Solway Frith. The remains of the wall are still to be traced in the less populous hill-districts of Northumberland. In the neighbourhood of Newcastle they have been gradually effaced by the works of succeeding VOL. III. B generations, though the "Wallsend" coal consumed in our household fires still serves to remind us of the great Roman work. A long period of obscurity followed the withdrawal of these colonists, during which Northumbria became planted by an entirely new race, principally Saxons from North Germany and Norsemen from Scandinavia, whose Eorls or Earls made Newcastle their principal seat. Then came the Normans, from whose New Castle, built some eight hundred years since, the town derived its present name. The keep of this venerable structure, black with age and smoke, still stands entire at the northern end of the noble high-level bridgebridge — the utilitarian work of modern times thus confronting the warlike relic of the older civilisation. The nearness of Newcastle to the Scotch Border was a great hindrance to its security and progress in the middle ages of English history. Indeed, the district between it and Berwick continued to be ravaged by mosstroopers long after the union of the Crowns. The gentry lived in their strong Peel castles; even the larger farm-houses were fortified; and bloodhounds were trained for the purpose of tracking the cattlereivers to their retreats in the hills. The Judges of Assize rode from Carlisle to Newcastle guarded by an CHAP. I. NORTHUMBERLAND ROADS. 3 A tribute called "dagger escort armed to the teeth. A tribute called and protection money" was annually paid by the Sheriff of Newcastle for the purpose of providing daggers and other weapons for the escort; and, though the need of such protection has long since ceased, the tribute continues to be paid in broad gold pieces of the time of Charles the First. Until about the middle of last century the roads across Northumberland were little better than horsetracks, and not many years since the primitive agricultural cart with solid wooden wheels was almost as common in the western parts of the county as it is in Spain now. The track of the old Roman road continued to be the most practicable route between Newcastle and Carlisle, the traffic between the two towns having been carried along it upon pack-horses until a comparatively recent period. When Marshal Wade attempted to march westward in 1745, to intercept the Highland rebels on their way south, he was completely baffled by the state of the roads, which were impracticable for wheeled vehicles. After the rebellion had been put down, the Marshal proceeded to construct a military road to connect Newcastle with Carlisle. He closely followed the line of the Roman wall for thirty miles west of Newcastle, and overthrew what remained of that work for the purpose of obtaining materials for his new "agger." Since that time great changes have taken place on the Tyne. When wood for firing became scarce and dear, and the forests of the South of England were found inadequate to supply the increasing demand for fuel, attention was turned to the rich stores of coal lying underground in the neighbourhood of Newcastle and Durham. It then became an article of increasing export, and "seacoal" fires gradually supplanted those 1 See Lives of the Engineers,' vol. i., Memoir of John Metcalf. |