Page:Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Lands.djvu/166

 ROMAN VESTIGES. 141

the Tyne, are loaded with their products, which, both in excellence and abundance, are remarkable. This fine river, about eight or ten miles above its confluence with the German Ocean, bears, on its north bank, Newcas tle, and on its south, Gateshead, which being united by bridges, form an aggregate population of more than 100,000. Beside the staple trade in coal, there are manufactories of iron, glass, and lead. A busy and thriving place, is this Northumbrian city. Portions of it are extremely well built, though strong contrasts exist between the old and modern divisions. The churches of All Saints and St. Nicholas are grand structures, and the spire of the last very lofty and beau tiful.

Newcastle, it is well known, was an ancient Roman station. The Emperor Adrian spanned the Tyne by a stone bridge, as early as 120; and soon after con nected, by earthen rampart, the line of forts which had been erected, forty years before, by Julius Agricolre. Vestiges are still visible of the wall with which Seve- rus, in 207, strengthened the fortifications of Adrian ; and of a still more stupendous one erected by the com bined action of Rome and Britain, to repel their perse vering and incursive neighbors, the Scots and Picts.

Our entrance to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, was during the shades of evening. Lights flickered here and there among the environs, gliding and disappearing, as if WiU-of-the-Wisp was dancing among the coal-beds. At length we discovered those mystic torches marked an encampment of gipsies. Occasional spots of more

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