Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume II.djvu/45

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Passing through the small post-town of Belford, borrowing all its beauty from the woods which wave over the contiguous mansion of the Hon. Mr. Onslow, now deserted and dilapidating, we continued for sixteen miles along the same dull and uniform but excellent road to Berwick-upon-Tweed, a town equally celebrated in the history of Scotland and in the annals of this country. Stretching itself up a gentle acclivity, which forms the northern bank of the river, Berwick enjoys a favourable southern aspect. It includes within its walls an area of little more than two miles in circumference; and consists of streets which for die most part are strag- gling and irregular, and not one of them boasting a tolerable pavement, an article of comfort that has as yet found its way into but very few of the northern provincial towns. Its principal buildings are the town-hall^ a very handsome modern freestone structure, with a beautiful portico of the Tuscan order, its pediment surmounted by a graceful spire, begun in 1 7 54 and finished in 1 7 6 1 ; the governor* s- house, an edifice of stone; the barracks, built of the same materials, strong and commodious; the church, erected by Cromwell, without a spire, ac- cording to the ridiculous notions of that tasteless Puritan; and the bridge, consisting of fifteen noble arches, and measuring one thousand one hundred

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