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Lime being thought a sufficient manure for the arable land, the consequence was the gradual deterioration of the latter, without a proportional improvement of the meadows. But a better system has been introduced. The lime is now usually put on when old grass land is broken up or converted; and where arable land has been repeatedly limed, good rich dung is found to be more profitably employed, when ploughed in, than when used as a top-dressing for grass. There is little or no marl found in the county.

The rotation usually adopted on the better soils includes two or three years of grass, and begins invariably with turnips, well manured, and drilled according to the Northumberland method. [DRILLING.] The convertible husbandry described in the account of the agriculture of BERWICKSHIRE is very generally adopted by the best farmers, and found most profitable in the end.

The occupations are not, in general, very large. There are some few extensive farms; hut the average size is from 150 to 200 acres of inclosed land. There are many small occupations of 40 and 50 acres, which is as small a farm as can be cultivated with profit, unless the spade husbandry be adopted, which is not yet done to any extent in this county. The implements of husbandry have nothing peculiar in them. The ploughs are chiefly of the improved kind: the old heavy clumsy ploughs are scarcely ever seen in use. Horses are almost exclusively used for agricultural purposes; and an ox team is a rarity. It is found that oxen are more profitable when fatted at a young age for the butcher, than when used to work on the farm. Threshing-mills are common, and there is not in the northern counties that foolish prejudice of the ignorant labourers, which made many of them rise to destroy threshing-machines in more southern counties, and which still prevents the use of them where they would be highly advantageous, not only to the farmer, but also to the labourer, who would then not so often suffer the pains of rheumatism in his old age, the consequence of the continued exertions of his limbs on the threshing-floor.

Corn is sown by the drilling-machine wherever the soil is sufficiently friable, or is made so by good tillage. In heavy soils the broadcast method of sowing still prevails. There are many rich upland meadows and permanent pastures, where cattle and horses are bred to great advantage, and where oxen and sheep are fattened by grazing; but there are very few water-meadows, although there are many situations where they might very easily be established. The quantity of hay on the upland meadows is on an average 14 tons per acre: 2 tons is considered a heavy crop. They have a method of drawing together the cocks of hay, when it is fit to be stacked, which saves the loading on waggons. This is done by means of a wooden frame drawn by two horses. This frame is held in an oblique position, and partly drawn under the cock so as to scrape the surface and force the hay upwards. It slides on the mown grass, and is drawn to the stack, which is made to contain ten or twenty tons. It is but slightly thatched when completed: several small stacks used formerly to be placed in various parts of a large piece of grass land, and in winter the cattle were left in the fields, and pulled the hay out of the stacks all around, sheltering themselves near them. This was a great waste of hay, and a very unequal distribution of the manure. A better system prevails now, and the cattle are kept in yards, where the dung is more carefully collected and increased with straw, and where the hay is brought as it is cut out of the stack, by which means none of it is wasted. The best meadows are mown every year, and manured every third or fourth year. Some prefer mowing and feeding alternately, which keeps the land in good heart and the herbage fine. Horses are generally considered as detrimental to the pasture; their manure is too hot, and brings coarse weeds forward. Sheep greatly improve the pastures, and are in consequence preferred.

When grass land is ploughed up and converted into arable, the practice of paring and burning the surface is very generally adopted. The first crop after this is generally turnips, which seldom fail when sown with freshburnt ashes. The next crop is wheat or oats; after which,

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if the soil is very stiff, a clean fallow succeeds; if it is lighter, another crop of turnips, which brings the land in proper state for a regular course. This appears to be a most excellent practice, and far superior to the old Devonshire plan of taking as many crops of corn, after burning the sod, as can be made to grow. When the surface is not

burnt, the usual course is to plough the grass up in autumn, and let it lie all the winter to rot: it is then ploughed again in spring, and sown with oats: the next year it is fallowed, and prepared for the course which is thought to suit the nature of the soil.

This county is not remarkable for its gardens or orchards. The soil and climate are not very favourable to fruit-trees, and, except in the gardens of gentlemen of fortune, they are not much attended to.

There are some good oak woods, and many new plantations, where the tenure is freehold. Where it is copyhold, under the bishop of Durham, one-third of the timber, above what is required for repairs of buildings, belongs to the bishop, which is an insurmountable obstacle to plantingand where the land is held on lease, renewable every seven years on an uncertain fine, every improvement increases the sum demanded. Many of these lands have been enfranchised by Act of Parliament, with the consent of the bishop; but many still remain on the old tenure. The cattle bred in the county of Durham are in great repute all over England and Scotland, and a great number are annually purchased at the different fairs in this county, and driven northward and southward. The Teeswater or Holderness breed is the finest of the short-horns. The cows are remarkable for the quantity of milk which they give, as well as their aptitude to fatten. The oxen are considered as the most profitable breed for stall-feeding, as they become fit for the butcher at an earlier age than most other breeds. The milkmen near London and other large towns scarcely ever have any but Durham cows, some of which will give twenty-five to thirty quarts of milk per day for several months. When they become dry they increase so fast in flesh and fat, that they are soon very advantageously disposed of. They are of a quiet disposition, and bear to be kept continually tied up in stalls; and they accommodate themselves readily to every kind of food, whether it be grass or hay, roots, grains, or distillers' wash. This breed came originally from Holland, as is asserted, and this appears probable: but it has been much improved by a careful selection of bulls to breed with. This may be attributed to a few skilful and zealous breeders. The famous Durham ox at ten years old weighed alive 34 cwt. He was slaughtered at eleven years old, in consequence of an accident by which he dislocated his hip joint; and although wasted by being eight weeks in great pain, his carcase produced 165 stones 12 lbs. net meat (14 lbs. to the stone), and above 21 stones of hide and tallow. In June, 1801, when he was five years old, the proprietor refused 20007. for him, and made a great deal of money by showing him all over the kingdom for six years. (Bailey's Agricultural View of the County of Durham.)

The milk of the Holderness cows, although abundant, is not so rich in cream as that of some of the smaller breeds. But quantity and quality are seldom united, and the dairymen who make butter or cheese prefer cows of different breeds, which give rich milk, but do not get fat so readily.

The horses bred in this county are of a superior description, both for draught and for the saddle. The Cleveland bays are preferred for their vigour and activity. For farming work and drawing loads of coal or lime few horses surpass them. A good horse will draw in a cart nearly a ton of coals from the distance of thirty, and even thirty-five miles, over hilly and rough roads; going and returning in the twenty-four hours, without any considerable rest, and often without being out of harness the whole time: he will do this three times in the week, and do light jobs the other days. Horses can take longer journeys in hilly countries than in flat, without being distressed, as is well known. Hunters of superior power are produced by crossing strong active mares with blood horses which have great bone as well as spirit; or better, by having a breed produced by selected half-bred stallions and mares. A good hunter is a more valuable horse for the breeder than a race-horse, which may prove a prize hereafter, but seldom remunerates the breeder for his risk and trouble.

The young stock are kept in rich and extensive pastures, where they have plenty of food and good water. The dry pastures on the limestone rock are peculiarly adapted to rear horses, the sound soil being very advantageous to the proper hardness of the hoof.

There was once a very large breed of sheep in the southeastern part of the county, which bore heavy fleeces, and

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when killed often weighed from 50 lbs. to 60 lbs. the quarter. But the improved Leicester breed has nearly superseded them, as being more profitable, and fattening at an earlier age. There is a small and hardy species of sheep on the heaths and moors, which is similar to those found in other counties on the same description of land. They cost little to maintain, and produce little, but when fatted at four or five years old, the flesh is rich and delicate.

There are some very large fairs held in the county: the following are the chief:

Durham fair, on the 21st of March; a great fair for horses, which continues a week; one of the principal horsefairs in the north. On the Saturday before the 12th of May, cattle and horses, and hiring servants; Whitsun-eve, cattle, horses, sheep; 15th of September, horses and cattle; Darlington, first Monday in March, a great fair for cattle, horses, sheep; Whitsun Monday, ditto; Monday fortnight after Whit Sunday, cattle, sheep; Barnard Castle, Easter Monday, Whitsun Monday, Maudlin-day (2nd of August), cattle, horses; Bishop Auckland, Thursday before Ascension day; Corpus Christi day, Thursday before 10th of October; South Shields, 24th of June, 1st of September, holiday fair; Sunderland, May 13th, October 11th, ditto; Hartlepool, May 14th, November 27th; Stockton, July 18th, Monday after October 13th; Wolsingham, May 18th, September 21st.

There are weekly markets at Durham, Wolsingham, South Shields, Barnard Castle, Stockton, Bishop Auckland, Sunderland, and Staindrop.

Divisions, Towns, &c.-The county of Durham is a county palatine, i. e., a county within which some lord had a jurisdiction as fully as the king had in his palace;' but a late Act of Parliament having transferred the palatinate jurisdiction from the bishop of Durham, by whom it was long held, to the crown, the distinction has been for most practical purposes abolished. Like the other three northern counties, Durham is divided, not into hundreds, but into wards of these wards there are four, as follows::

I. Chester ward, which occupies the northern part of the county: it is bounded on the north by the Tyne and Derwent rivers, on the east by the sea, on the south-east and south by the Wear, the Derness Beck, and a line drawn from the junction of the Hedley and Derness Becks to Shorngate Cross, on Cross Ridge. Above a fourth of the land in this ward is heath. II. Darlington ward, which extends from the boundary of Chester ward to the boundary of the county on the west and south: it is bounded on the east by an irregular line drawn from the junction of the Croxdale Beck with the Wear, to the junction of the Skerne and the Tees: a large proportion (four-ninths) of the land in this ward is heath. III. Easington ward, which is bounded on the north by Chester ward, on the west by Darlington ward, on the east by the sea, and on the south by a line drawn from Croxdale Beck eastward to the sea. IV. Stockton ward, which occupies the remaining portion of the county. Islandshire, Norhamshire, and Bedlingtonshire, which are usually termed the north bishopric,' are included in Chester ward: Craike is included in Stockton ward. Chester and Darlington wards are further subdivided into three divisions each, beside the outlying portions of the county which the former comprehends; Easington and Stockton into two divisions each. The area and population of these divisions are given in the population returns for 1831 as follows:

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The county includes one city, Durham on the Wear; seven borough towns, viz.-Auckland (Bishop), on the Wear, in Darlington ward, pop. 2859: Barnard Castle, on the Tees, in Darlington ward, pop. 4430: Darlington on the Skerne, in Darlington ward, pop. 9417: Gateshead on the Tyne, in Chester ward, pop. 15177: Hartlepool on the Sea, in Stockton ward, pop. 1330: Stockton on the Tees, in Stockton ward, pop. 7763: and Sunderland, at the mouth of the Wear, in Easington ward. To these we may add the new parliamentary borough of South Shields on the Tyne, in Chester ward, pop. 18,756. Some of these are described elsewhere. [AUCKLAND, BARNARD CASTLE, DURHAM (CITY), GATESHEAD, SHIELDS (SOUTH), STOCKTON, and SUNDERLAND.] Of the remainder, as well as of the four market-towns of Sedgefield, Staindrop, Stanhope, and Wolsingham, an account is here subjoined.

Darlington is in a rich fertile country on the banks of the Skerne, 241 miles from London, and about 18 from Durham. The parish contains 7630 acres: it had, in 1831, 1347 inhabited houses and a population of 9417. The parish is subdivided into four townships, of which that of Darlington with Oxenhall, or Oxneyfield (3470 acres, 1192 inhabited houses and 8574 inhabitants) contains the town. Darlington is situated on the eastern slope of a hill, at the foot of which the river flows, and consists of a square market-place, of which the church forms the eastern side, and several streets, or as they are designated 'gates,' branching from it. A bridge of three arches over the Skerne, near the church, communicates with the Yarm and Stockton roads. The church, dedicated to St. Cuthbert, is a cross church with a central tower, surmounted by a light spire. It is very antient, except the east end of the chancel and the spire, which are modern: the interior also is so blocked up with modern screens and galleries that the shape of the church is very imperfectly seen. The general character of the architecture is early English, some portions so early as to appear almost of Norman character: the west end, where is the principal entrance, and the ends of the north and south transepts, are fine compositions; the doors are plain but good. In the chancel are three stone stalls of a date considerably later than the walls of the chancel. The church was formerly collegiate; the principal clergyman was called dean. The college was dissolved in 1550, and the whole of the revenues vested in the crown, except a small stipend reserved for the officiating minister: the church lands, subject to some crown rents, are now vested in the duke of Cleveland, who is patron of the benefice, a perpetual curacy worth 2747. per annum. A former manor-house of the bishop of Durham is yet standing: after having been much neglected during the last century it was purchased of the see and converted into a parish work-house. The old toll-booth was removed and the present town-hall erected a few years ago. (Surtees's Hist. of Durham. London, 1823.) There are places of worship for Catholics, Methodists, and Protestant Dissenters.

The trade of Darlington is considerable: for a long period the principal manufactures were of camblets and other woollens: fifty years ago moreens and other like stuffs were made: the woollen manufacture was superseded in a great degree by that of linens, as huckabacks, diapers, sheetings, and checks; but this branch of industry has also experienced a declension, and the chief occupation of the inhabitants now is combing wool and making woollen yarn (which is applicable for imitation India shawls, Brussels carpets, &c.), spinning flax, grinding optical glasses, and founding iron. The market is on Monday for corn and provisions of all kinds; there is a great market for cattle every fortnight. 8,183 The population of the town has increased considerably 3,744 within the present century: in 1801 there were only 4670 88,878 inhabitants. The Darlington and Stockton railway has been already noticed. Darlington is a municipal borough 203,690 100,805 by prescription: its privileges are at least as old as the 12th century: it is governed by a bailiff, who is appointed by the 55,904 bishop: the limits of the borough comprehend only a part of the town.

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26,820 18,810 158,060

282,480
10,260
120
77,120
87,500

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105,860

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Inhabit-
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10,135 The township of Darlington had, in 1833, one infant17,060 school with 50 or 60 children; a well-endowed grammar47,321 school, founded by Queen Elizabeth, containing 53 boys and 12 girls; a Lancasterian school of 148 boys with a lending 74,516 library attached; two national schools with 266 boys and 240 girls, and a lending library attached; three day-schools, 22,685 partly or wholly supported by charitable contributions, with 100 girls and 7 boys; eighteen other day-schools with 257 679,530 253,910 boys and 317 girls; five boarding and day-schools with 160

to 190 children of both sexes; a boarding-school for the sons of Catholic parents, with 43 scholars; and three Sundayschools, one supported by Independents, with 70 boys and 50 girls, and two supported by Wesleyan Methodists for 282 boys and 306 girls. There are two sets of almshouses. Between Darlington and the Tees are four round pools, popularly called 'Hell-kettles,' the three largest, which are near together, are nearly 120 feet in diameter and in depth 194, 17 and 14 feet respectively: the fourth, which is some way from the others, is only 28 feet in diameter and 5 or 6 deep. In all of them the water stands to the brim, and is quite cold, but impregnated with sulphur, curdling with milk, and refusing to mix with soap. Leland mentions these pits, and says that it was conjectured that there was a subterraneous communication between them and the Tees; but as they are not affected by the floods or other variations of that river, the conjecture is now discredited.

Hartlepool is built on a small peninsula jutting out into the sea, a few miles from the Tees' mouth: the peninsula is partly formed by a pool, dry at low water, into which flows a small beck; this pool is called the Slake. In forming drains in it, human bones, trees, the wood of which was very perfect, stags' antlers, and teeth supposed to be deers' teeth, have been found. Hartlepool is in Stockton ward, 253 miles from London through Stockton. The parish comprehends an area of 840 acres, and had, in 1831, 275 inhabited houses and a population of 1330. The peninsula forms one of the most marked features of the eastern coast; the town, now much decayed, is on its south-western side near the entrance of the Slake. There appears to have been a monastery early founded here, of which St. Hilda was abbess : it is mentioned by Bede. It took its name from the island which Bede calls heoptu or heontea, Hart's Water or Pool. Henry of Huntingdon calls it Insula Cervi, 'Hart's Isle.' This monastery was destroyed in the invasion of the Northmen, or Danes. The Normans, when they came into possession of the place, called it Hart-le-pol, the pool or slake of Hart, whence the modern designation. It appears to have been early a harbour of some consequence, for in 1171 Hugh, earl of Bar, son or nephew to Hugh Pudsey, then bishop of Durham, brought his fleet with an armament of Flemings (forty knights with their retinues and five hundred foot soldiers), intended to assist William of Scotland in his invasion of England, into the bay of St. Hilda.

In the thirteenth century, the territory of Hartlepool seems to have been in the family of De Brus of Annandale, the Bruces of Scottish history. King John, by charter A.D. 1200, erected it into a borough, and granted to Robert de Brus a weekly market and a yearly fair. In the course of the thirteenth century the walls were erected, and a small haven of nearly twelve acres formed. The walls inclosed and defended the town and haven on every side, except where the abrupt cliffs on the eastern side of the peninsula rendered defence needless: fifty years ago, these walls exhibited an almost perfect and interesting specimen of the defences of former times: a considerable part of them still remains. The old haven is now quite disused: the present harbour is formed by a pier run out on the south side of the town: it is the only safe harbour between Sunderland and Bridlington, easily accessible in every wind to light vessels or to laden vessels under 100 tons, which ride secure from the storms most frequent and destructive on the eastern coast, and in moderate weather can sail out with all winds. The town rises from the edge of the old haven towards the town moor, which occupies a considerable part of the peninsula, and on which the burgesses have right of common. It consists of one principal and several smaller streets. Its general appearance, when the corporation commissioners visited it, was mean, and little trade was carried on; but they state in their report, Wet docks are now forming under the provisions of a local act, and railways are proposed to be made from the coal-fields in the neighbourhood of the town. The formation of docks will probably make this port a considerable one. The estimate of the cost of the works commenced is 220,0007. Within the last ten months 120 new houses have been built, and others are constantly being erected. Ground for building sells at from 10s. to 17. per square yard.' From the demand for building-land the town moor is estimated to be worth 20,000l. There is town-hall, a mean building, erected about the middle of the last century. The market is on Saturday. The inhabitants are chiefly engaged in fishing many tons of fish are

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salted for exportation. Hartlepool is a place of some resort for sea-bathing.

The church, dedicated to St. Hilda, is on an elevated site at the south-east end of the town. It is a large and curious building, chiefly in the early English style: the south door has some late Norman enrichments. The chancel has been shortened, and various modern alterations made. The tower on the west end is tolerably lofty, with an embattled parapet and crocketed pinnacles: it is supported by very large and bold flying buttresses. The benefice is a perpetual curacy, in the gift of the vicar of Hart (Hart is the mother church of Hartlepool), of the yearly value of 1437. There was formerly a monastery of Franciscan or Grey friars. What is now called the Friary is an old house built after the dissolution by those to whom the site was granted; but some traces of older masonry are visible in the fragments of walls which surround the friary. There are meeting-houses for Wesleyan Methodists and Ranters. The corporation is governed by a charter granted by Elizabeth. It is not enumerated in the schedules of the Municipal Reform Act.

There were, in 1833, two endowed day schools and three unendowed, containing in all about 230 children; and three Sunday-schools, with 380 or 390 children. One Sundayschool has a lending library attached.

The shore of the peninsula is marked by rocks or cliffs which do not exceed 40 feet in height, and by several caverns or excavations. One cavern may be explored for nearly 50 yards: there is a tradition that it communicated with the church. There are the remains of a breast-work on the town moor and of some batteries along the shore. There are two chalybeate springs near the town.

When De Brus declared his pretensions to the Scottish crown, his English possessions were forfeited, and the borough of Hartlepool was granted to the Clifford family, by which it was long held. It was plundered by the Scots in 1312, and again taken by them in 1315, a year after the battle of Bannockburn: on the latter occasion the inhabitants saved part of their property on board some vessels then in the harbour. Hartlepool furnished five ships and 145 seamen to the fleet of Edward III. before Calais. In the northern rebellion under the earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, in the time of Elizabeth, Hartlepool was taken by the rebels. The Scottish army, which came to the aid of the parliamentarians in the civil war of Charles I., took Hartlepool in 1644: it was retained by them till 1647, when they evacuated it, and it was occupied by a garrison of parliamentarians. Mr. Romaine, a well-known theological writer, was born at Hartlepool.

Sedgefield is in Stockton ward, on the road from Stockton to Durham, 251 miles from London, 9 from Durham, and 9 from Stockton. The parish contains 17,480 acres: it is divided into seven townships. The township of Sedgefield, which comprehends the town with the hamlets of Layton, Sands, and Hardwick, has an area of 6220 acres: it had, in 1831, 309 inhabited houses, and a population of 1429; of which about half was agricultural. The population of the whole parish was 2178. Sedgefield is a small neat town, with the appearance rather of a handsome village, and stands on an eminence commanding an extensive prospect over the vale of Tees and the Yorkshire hills beyond. The church, dedicated to St. Edmund, is one of the handsomest in this part of the county: the date and style of the architecture are different in different parts: there are some curious early English piers with enriched capitals, and some Decorated windows. The tower is in the Perpendicular style, turreted, and with four pinnacles. The chancel is divided from the nave by a rich screen of old oak with three stalls on each side: the chancel is wainscoted with old oak, and stalled with seven seats on each side. The font is a handsome octagon of black marble. The church yard is spacious and shaded with trees. The living is a rectory worth 18027. per annum, with a glebe house, on the lawn in front of which are some fine evergreen oaks. The bishop of Durham is patron of the living. There is a range of almshouses near the church, founded in 1702 by Mr Thomas Cooper, for five poor men and as many poor women. The market is on Friday. There were in the township of Sedgefield, in 1833, one boarding and day-school, and seven day schools, one endowed, containing in all about 270 clust dren; and two Sunday-schools, with 150 children. The ret of the parish contained two day-schools (one endowed), with 36 children.

once the manor-house of the Featherstonehaugh family. The market is on Friday: there were two annual fairs, but they are disused. The living is a rectory in the gift of the bishop of Durham, of the yearly value of 4848/., with a glebe-house. There were in the whole parish in 1833 one endowed day-school, with nearly 40 children; one national school, partly endowed, with 60 children; two day-schools, partly supported by endowment and subscriptions, with 136 children; and two other day-schools unendowed, with 115 children; five day and Sunday-schools, with nearly 500 children; and four Sunday-schools with 282 children. Several of the schools had lending libraries attached. Near the town on the north side is a remarkable cavern, said to be a mile long, and to abound with stalactites. Wolsingham is in Darlington ward, 256 miles from London on the road to Stanhope and Aldstone Moor. The parish comprehends an area of 24,780 acres, and had in 1831 439 inhabited houses, and a population of 2239. The town is pleasantly situated on a point of land formed by the confluence of the Wear and the Wescrow, on the north side of the former river. The church, dedicated to St. Mary and St. Stephen, is on the north side of the town, but has nothing remarkable about it: near it are the remains of a considerable building, supposed by some to have been part of a monastery founded by Henry de Pudsey; by others to have been an antient manor-house of the bishops of Durham. The market is on Tuesday, for butcher's meat, butter, potatoes, and corn. The quantity of corn sold is not great, but the prices are commonly as high as any in the county. It is chiefly for the supply of the lead-mine district, which commences between this town and Stanhope. The district is easily recognized by the large parcels of lead lying near the sides of the road, and by the blue unwholesome vapours which proceed from the smelting-houses. The views down the Wear from the hill above Wolsingham are very extensive and much diversified. The living of Wolsingham is a rectory in the gift of the bishop of Durham, of the yearly value of 7917., with a glebe-house.

Staindrop is in Darlington ward, 2473 miles from London, | about 7 miles to the right of the Glasgow and Carlisle mailroad, and about 19 miles from Durham. The parish contains 14,990 acres, and had, in 1831, 2395 inhabitants (besides some few who were included in the return from another parish); it comprehends six townships and part of a seventh. The township of Staindrop contains 1810 acres, and had in 1831 a population of 1478. Staindrop is an antient town situated in a beautiful vale, and was originally a royal demesne. Many of the houses are well built and chiefly form one wide street ranging east and west. Staindrop Beck runs at the east end of the town. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, is near the Beck; it is an antient fabric, consisting of a nave, side aisles, and chancel, with an embattled tower at the west end. The tower opens to the nave and south aisle; it is very plain. The church has some portions of early English character: the chancel has some good stone stalls and a fine monument in the Decorated English style: there is also in the church a rich monument of later date, to the memory of Ralph Nevill, earl of Westmoreland, and his wives. The church was formerly collegiate the dwelling-place of the collegiate clergy and other beneficiaries was on the north side of the church. The revenues of the college were, at the dissolution, 1707. 4s. 6d. a year gross revenue, or 1267. 58. 10d. clear. The market, which has been revived after long discontinuance, is on Saturday, for provisions: there is very little or no corn sold. The living is a vicarage united to the neighbouring rectory of Cockfield; their joint yearly value is 3541. with a glebe house; they are in the gift of the duke of Cleveland. There are congregations of Methodists and Independents at Staindrop. There were in the township of Staindrop in 1833 two infant or dame schools, with 40 children; seven day, or boarding and day-schools, with about 180 children, and three Sunday-schools with 230 children. The rest of the parish contained two day-schools (one partly supported by the duke of Bedford), containing nearly 60 children. Close to Staindrop is Raby Castle, the seat of the duke of Cleveland. The castle is on the east side of the park, which is very extensive. The principal part of the building was erected by John Nevill, earl of Westmoreland, in the fourteenth century; one part is even more antient. Many alterations have been made in the castle by subsequent possessors, but they have not materially affected its outward form, the general effect of which, from its extent, grandeur, and preservation, is very imposing. Its situation is fine: it occupies a rising ground, with a rocky foundation, and is inclosed with an embrasured wall and parapet. In this outer wall there is only one entrance, a gateway defended by two square towers. Several of the smaller apartments have been hollowed out in the walls, which are of great solidity and strength. This castle was the residence of the powerful family of the Nevills, earls of Westmoreland; but on the rebellion raised by the last of that family against Elizabeth his estates were forfeited. They afterwards came by purchase to Sir Harry Vane, from whom they have descended to the present owner. Many parts of the pleasure-grounds command extensive and beautiful views.

Stanhope is in Darlington ward, 262 miles from London, by a road which enters the county at Pierce Bridge, and runs through West Auckland and Wolsingham to Stanhope, and on to Aldstone Moor, in Cumberland. The parish, which comprehends 55,030 acres, is one of the largest in England: it had in 1831 a population of 9541. It is divided into four townships, of which Stanhope quarter township, in which is the town, comprehends an area of 13,010 acres, and had in 1831 233 inhabited houses and a population of 2080, chiefly engaged in the lead mines. The town is on the northern bank of the Wear. The church, dedicated to St. Thomas, is on a rising ground on the north side of the town; it is a plain and antient building. On the west side of the town is an eminence called the Castle Hill, rising to the height of 108 feet perpendicular from the bank of the Wear. The summit is of an oblong figure, thirty paces wide, divided by a ditch into two irregular parts; another ditch defends the acclivity on the north and east; the summit is supposed, from foundations discovered many years since, to have been once surrounded by a wall of ashler work strongly cemented. The tradition is that it was a fortress of remote origin demolished in an incursion of the Scots. At a short distance from the town on the west is a spacious old building called Stanhope Hall,

There were in Wolsingham parish in 1833 one school, partly supported by endowment, with 52 children; another, partly supported by charitable contributions, with 28 children; a third supported by a private benefaction, with 48 children; these were all day-schools, and there were six other day-schools, with 144 children; there were also three Sunday-schools, with 130 children. There is a Baptist congregation in the parish. Wolsingham parish is divided into seven quarters, or hamlets.

Beside the above market-towns, Hutchinson (History of Durham, 4to., Carlisle, 1794, vol. iii. p. 285) speaks of a market being held at the chapelry of St. John, in Weardale. The chapel of St. John is on the south side of the Wear, about seven miles from Stanhope, on the road to Aldstone Moor: it is a handsome building, rebuilt several years ago by Sir Walter Blacket. The benefice, which is a perpetual curacy, worth 1867. a year, is in the gift of the rector of Stanhope, or rather the inhabitants nominate and the rector approves. The market, which is on Saturday, was established for the benefit of the miners, of whom, when Hutchinson wrote, 800 were employed in the neighbourhood, and the number has probably increased since. The valley of the Wear is here deep and narrow; there is a stone bridge of one arch over the river.

Beside the market-towns, there are in the county several villages of sufficient importance, historical or commercial, to require notice.

Chester-le-Street is on the high north road between Durham and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, six miles from Durham, and eight and a half from Newcastle. The parish comprehends an area of 31,260 acres: it is mostly in Chester ward, to which it gives name, but extends into Easington ward: its population in 1831 was 15,478. It is divided into several chapelries or townships, of which the principal, with their areas and population in 1831, are as follows:-Chester-leStreet (chapelry), 2940 acres, 1910 inhabitants; Tanfield (chapelry), including Beamish and Lintz Green (townships), 6760 acres, 2498 inhab.; Birtley (township), 1480 acres, 1520 inhab.; Harraton (township), 2090 acres, 2171 inhab.; Lamesley (chapelry), 3390 acres, 1910 inhab.; and Great Lumley (township), 1730 acres, 2301 inhab.; the last, with the two smaller townships of Lambton and Little Lumley, is in Easington ward; the others in Chester ward.

The name of Chester-le-Street gives this place a two-fold claim to be considered a Roman station; yet neither the

the Tyne, and comprehended a portion of Northumberland; but all connection with this part has long ceased.

name nor the exact site of the station (which some would remove as much as a mile from Chester) has been determined. The Saxons called Chester, from the name of the Jarrow was very early the seat of a monastic establishbrook, Cone, which flows past it, Coneceastre, or Cuneceastre: ment of the Benedictine order. An inscription stone states it became A.D. 882 the seat of the bishopric, which was that the original church was founded A D. 685. The moremoved hither from Lindisfarne, and it retained its epis-nastery was established A.D. 681, by Benedict, a noble Saxon, copal rank until 995, when a Danish invasion drove away who had previously founded the monastery of Monk Wearthe bishop and his clergy, who afterwards settled at Durham. mouth, and the fabric was completed four years afterwards. The church, after losing its rank as a cathedral, became Jarrow derives its chief interest from its connection with first rectorial, afterwards collegiate: the manor has been the Venerable Bede [BEDA], whose birth is fixed by an constantly vested in the see of Durham. The revenue of antient and probable tradition at the hamlet of Monkton, the college at the dissolution was 77l. 128. 8d. The present which nearly adjoins Jarrow. In A.D. 870 the monastery village extends nearly a mile along the north road; another was burned by the piratical Northmen, or Danes, but rising more irregular line of houses runs along the brook at right from its ruins, was again destroyed in the ravage of the angles to the main street. The church consists of a nave country north of the Tyne by William the Conqueror, A.D. with side aisles, a chancel, and a tower at the western end, 1070. It again revived, but in A.D. 1083 William, bishop surmounted with a lofty spire rising to the height of 156 of Durham, removed the monks to Durham, and reduced feet from the ground. The lower part of the tower is of Jarrow to the condition of a cell to the Benedictine monasEarly English, with a Perpendicular west door and window tery of St. Cuthbert there. Its yearly revenues at the disof later insertion, and with massy buttresses: the upper solution were valued at 407. 78. 8d. gross, 381. 14s. 4d. clear. part of the tower, which is of later date, is octagonal; it The site of the monastery is near the western side of the has an embattled parapet and four pinnacles; the spire is Slake,' not far from the bank of a small beck which flows also octagonal. The interior of the church and many of into the Tyne. Many ruins of the monastery still remain, the windows have been modernized: there are some re- but they are so scattered and confused that it is difficult to mains of painted glass: the north aisle contains the monu- form a conjecture as to the original appearance and the ments of the Lumley family: there are fourteen altar tombs arrangements of the convent, or even to distinguish them with as many stone effigies, mural tablets, &c. The living from the remains of a lay mansion that was erected upon is a perpetual curacy, worth 3771. per annum. The deanery- its ruins. The church adjoins the centre of the monastic nouse, so called as being built in place of the former resi- buildings immediately on the north. The tower rises from dence of the dean of the collegiate church, is a handsome the centre of the church, between the nave and the chancel. brick house; there are no vestiges of the antient buildings. The church was rebuilt, with fe exception of the tower and Lumley Castle, in the township of Great Lumley, is on a part of the church, in 1783. The tower retains some curious fine gradual elevation above the Wear. It is a quadrangle Norman features. It has round-headed double lights on of yellow freestone, with an open court or area in the centre, every side. A rude oaken seat, which appears to have been with four uniform towers. It is an antient building, and hewn out with an axe, is exhibited in the vestry as Bede's the east front retains its former magnificence: a noble gate-chair: the boards which form the back are modern; the house projects from the centie, with overhanging turrets: rest is doubtless very antient. Roman inscriptions and this front overhangs a ravine through which the Lumley pavements have been dug up near Jarrow, and it is conBeck flows; on the west and south the ground slopes gra- jectured, from the appearance of some of the stones, that dually down to the Wear. The castle was probably built the church and monastery were partly constructed of the in the latter part of the fourteenth century. The pictures fragments of a Roman building. There are large coal works are chiefly portraits of the antient family of the Lumleys. at Jarrow: a row of houses for the colliers extends nearly The village of Great Lumley is a mile and a half from a mile to the west of the church. The living is a perpetual Lumley Castle. It contains an almshouse or hospital for curacy of the annual value of 1977. The chapelry of Monktwelve poor women, founded in 1686 by John Duck, ton and Jarrow contained in 1833 nine day-schools, with alderman of Durham. 289 children; and five Sunday-schools, with 505 children.

Lambton Hall, the seat of the earl of Durham, was built in 1797 on the site of the old house of Harraton, the former seat of the Hedworths: the grounds are pleasant, but the building displays many incongruities. Ravensworth Castle, the seat of Lord Ravensworth, is a modern building: its style is varied, being a selection from the castle architecture of different periods, not too remote however to be brought into contact. The park includes a heronry. In a private road near the castle there is a cross with a plain shaft and pedestal.

Lamesley and Tanfield chapels are modern buildings. Besides the noblemen's seats already mentioned, the parish contains the residences of several of the gentry.

Heworth is a chapelry in the parochial chapelry of Jarrow: it contains an area of 2190 acres; and had, in 1831, a population of 5424: it is divided into Upper and Nether or Low Heworth. The chapel at Low Heworth is a modern building, but probably occupies the site of one not less antient than the church at Jarrow. Some very antient coins of the Saxon kingdom of Northumberland were some years since dug up in the chapel-yard. One corner of this chapel-yard contains a monument, a neat plain obelisk, nine feet high, fixed on a stone base, to the memory of ninety-one persons killed in the explosion of Felling colliery, 1812. There is a parish school-house, built by subscription in 1815; this school contained in 1833 131 There were in the whole parish in 1833 seven day- children. There were at the same time eleven other dayschools with 243 children, wholly or in considerable part schools, with 351 children, and five Sunday-schools, with supported by endowments or other charitable contributions; 556 children. At Heworth Shore on the Tyne are manu forty-seven other day-schools with 1325 children; and four-factories of Prussian blue and other colours, one for coal teen Sunday-schools with 1220 children. Three of the tar, and an establishment for preparing alkali for soap endowed schools are Sunday-schools also, and are attended boilers; also ship-building yards, a pottery, a glass-house, by more children on Sunday than in the week. Two schools a lead refinery, wharfs for grindstones, a brown paper mill, have lending libraries attached. There are several congre- an establishment for preparing fish oil from the blubber gations of Wesleyan Methodists in the parish. brought by the Greenland ships, &c. Freestone of an open porous character, called from its excellence in enduring a strong heat, firestone, is quarried at High Heworth.

Jarrow, or Yarrow, is between Newcastle and South Shields: the church is 8 miles from Newcastle, and 2}; from Shields; but when the tide is out a mile may be saved between Jarrow and Shields by crossing the Slake, a recess in the south bank of the Tyne, dry at low water. The parochial chapelry of Jarrow is tolerably extensive, comprehending 8640 acres, and having in 1831 a population of 27,995. It is in Chester ward. It is divided into five chapelries or townships; two of which, the townships of South Shields and Westoe, constitute the parliamentary borough of South Shields. Of the remaining three divisions, Harton township contained in 1831 1000 acres and 217 inhabitants; Jarrow, with Monkton chapelry, 3690 acres and 3598 inha bitants; and Heworth chapelry 2190 acres and 5424 inhabitants. The parish of Jarrow antiently extended across

Winlaton is a manufacturing village between the Tyne and the Derwent. The township of Winlaton in the parish of Ryton in Chester ward comprehends an area 4540 acres, and had in 1831 a population of 3951 persons. Sir Ambrose Crowley, an alderman of London, established here about 1690 the extensive iron works which still bear his name. Sir Ambrose seems to have been peculiarly anxious for the well-being of his workmen, establishing regulations for their guidance, appointing a court of arbitrators to settle disputes, establishing schools, providing medical attendance for the sick, and advancing money to them, pensioning the superannuated, and providing for the families of the dead. All his charities, however, ceased

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