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or THE I'mxcirAi aoads &•<• 
 MINING DISTRICTS^ 
 
 of . 
 
 and the ailjoiiiing<lales 
 
 NORTH MID I ir a OT 
 TO n K S H 1 H K 
 
 20JEle 
 
 — # 
 
AN ACCOUNT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 MINING DISTRICTS 
 
 OF 
 
 ALSTON MOOR, 
 WEARDALE, AND TEESDALE, 
 
 IN 
 
 COMPRISIIfG 
 
 DESCRIPTIVE SKETCHES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SCENERY, ANTIQUITIES, GEOLOGY, 
 
 AND 
 
 MINING OPERATIONS, 
 
 IN THE UPPER DALES OF THE RIVERS 
 
 TYNE, WEAR, AND TEES. 
 
 BY T. SOPWITH, 
 
 LAND AND MINE SURVEYOR, 
 
 ALNWICK: 
 
 PRINTED BY AND FOR W. DAVISON. 
 
 SOLD ALSO BY THE BOOKSELLERS IN NORTHUMBKK 
 
 LAND, DURHAM, CUMBERLAND, &c. 
 
 MDCCCXXXIII. 
 
 1-. 
 
% 
 
 u 
 
 %A/ 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The Lead-Mining Districts of the north of England 
 comprise an extensive range of highly picturesque 
 scenery, which is rendered still more interesting by 
 numerous objects which claim the attention of the 
 antiquary, the geologist, and the mineralogist, and, in 
 short, of all who delight in the combined attractions 
 of nature, science, and art. Of these districts no 
 detailed account has been given to the public; and a 
 famihar description of the northern lead-mines, in 
 which so many persons in this part of the kingdom 
 are concerned, has long been a desideratum in local 
 literature. The present volume aspires not to the 
 merit of supplying this want; but, by descriptive 
 notices of the principal objects of attraction, is intended 
 to convey some general ideas of the nature of the 
 lead-mining districts, and to afford some information 
 which may serve as a guide to those who visit them. 
 The red lines on the small frontispiece map denote the 
 routes, which are more particularly described. These 
 are, from Hexham to Alston, both in the vale of 
 Tyne ; from Alston down the Tees to Barnard-Castle, 
 the first point where the dale is traversed by public 
 conveyances; and from the city of Durham, the highest 
 coaching place on the Wear, to Alston. In these 
 routes, which comprise in all a distance of about 100 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 miles (including the journey from Barnard-Castle to 
 Durham) the antiquary and architect may find the 
 following objects deserving of notice. 
 
 The venerable remains and beautiful architecture of 
 Hexham Abbey Chui*ch ; — the stately Castle of Lang- 
 ley, and the romantic fortalice of Staward Peel ; — the 
 vast and exceedingly perfect remains of a Roman sta- 
 tion covering nine acres of ground, and having the bold 
 contour of seven ditches in excellent preservation ; — 
 the massive pavement of a long unbroken line of 
 Roman road; — the stately ruins of Barnard-Castle in 
 Teesdale, and the more perfect castellated mansions of 
 Auckland, Durham, Brancepeth, and Stanhope, seated 
 in the mining dale of Wear ; — one of the finest English 
 Cathedrals, abounding in rich examples of the Norman 
 style, and numerous other architectural and antiqua- 
 rian objects, which abound throughout these interesting 
 districts. 
 
 The geologist and mineralogist have ample stores 
 for inquiry and admiration, presented by the geological 
 structure and mineral treasures of the mining dales, 
 and the lover of landscape scenery will find a succession 
 of views which cannot fail to afford the liveliest grati- 
 fication. Among these may be briefly enumerated the 
 fine scenery of the Tyne above Hexham, and near 
 West-Boat Chain-bridge; the romantic cliffs and woody 
 banks at Cupula and Whitfield ; — the magnificent pros- 
 pects from Cross Fell and Hartside; — the waterfalls 
 of Nentforce, Eshgill, Cauldron Snout, and Tees 
 Force ; — the scenery of Teesdale and Weardale, 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 abounding in the greatest variety of landscape views, 
 from the wild and solitary mountains, whence the 
 sister streams of Tees and Wear arise, to the more 
 fertile and umbrageous lands through which they pass 
 on their way to the German Ocean. 
 
 The machinery and curious processes used in pre- 
 paring the ore for smelting, and the beautiful specimens 
 of subterranean riches displayed in the shops of mineral 
 dealers, all tend to combine the most rational enjoyment 
 with the most agreeable exercise, and to fill up a 
 succession of those intellectual treats which it is the 
 object of the tourist to obtain. 
 
 This rapid sketch may evince, that the mining 
 districts possess numerous sources of gratification to 
 the inquiring traveller, and the author of these 
 pages is convinced, from the opinion of highly intel- 
 ligent persons who have visited Alston Moor and 
 its vicinity, that it deserves more notice than it has 
 hitherto received. The situation of this district renders 
 it particularly suited for summer excursions. An easy 
 and pleasant day's journey conducts the tourist from 
 the heart of the mining districts to Newcastle, Dur- 
 ham, or Barnard-Castle on the one hand ; or, on the 
 other, to Carlisle, or Appleby, or to the far-famed and 
 much-frequented Lakes of Cumberland. The readi- 
 )iess of access to most of the objects deserving attention, 
 and the civility and intelligence of the inhabitants, 
 together with the comfort of the inns, greatly 
 enhance the pleasure of traversing this alpine range 
 of country. 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 The following notices were chiefly collected in a 
 private diary kept by the author during a residence of 
 four years in Alston Moor, and have been arranged at 
 leisure times in their present form. The ascent of 
 Cross Fell and the visit to Ale-Burn Cavern are retained 
 in the narrative style in which they were written at 
 the time. The progress of the work (trifling as it is) 
 has been delayed by various causes, and the entire 
 manuscript is presented by the author to his much- 
 esteemed friend, the printer and publisher, who, with 
 more of admiration of the country it describes, than 
 any prospect of pecuniary recompense, offers it to the 
 public in its present shape. 
 
 T. S. 
 
 Nejvcastle, May, 1833. 
 
 Erratum — In page 25, line 22, for 12,000/. read 1200/. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 General Situation and Extent of the Mining Districts Of the 
 
 Penine Chain of Mountains, and of the principal Dales. — 
 Characteristic Features of the Scenery. — Limit of Cultiva- 
 tion Rivers and Mountain Streams — Hills. — Duration of 
 
 Snow. — Storms. — Climate. — Roads, &c. ... .1 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 FROM HEXHAM TO ALSTON. 
 
 West-Boat Chain-Bridge. — Haydon Bridge. — Langley Castle. 
 —Smelt Mills. — Staward Banks.— Whitfield. —Vale of 
 South Tyne. 11 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 ALSTON MOOR. 
 History. — Royal Charters.* — Privileges of Royal Mines. — 
 
 Decay of Forests, &c — Form and Extent of the Manor 
 
 General Description — Town of Alston. — Church Curious 
 
 Inscription. . . . . . . . .19 
 
 CHAP III. 
 
 TYNEHEAD, NENTFORCE LEVEL, &c. * 
 
 Geological Phenomena Clargill Force Eshgill Force. — 
 
 Waterfall. — Dimensions and Extent — Nentforce Level. — 
 Romantic Entrance. — Subterraneous Excursion in Boats, &c. 2S 
 
 CHAP IV. 
 
 ROMAN STATION AT WHITLEY. 
 
 Walk by Tyne Side Bed of the River.— Randalholme Hall — 
 
 History, Antiquities, and Inscriptions of the Station 
 
 Maiden Way, or Roman Military Road. . . .33 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 CROSSFELL MOUNTAIN. 
 
 Ascent Prospect; — Sunrise. — Western Descent. — Dufton 
 
 Pike, &c 43 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 HARTSIDE. 
 
 Prospect. — Comparison of other Mountain Views at Stirling, 
 Edinburgh, Eildon Hills, and Cheviot — Helm Wind, &c. 53 
 
 * Hodgson's Northumberland. 
 
Vni CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 Ale-Burn Cavern. — Hudgill-Burn Cavern, • . . .64 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 GEOLOGY. 
 
 Comparative magnitude of the Earth, and its Strata.— Brief 
 
 notice of Geological Theories Importance and interest 
 
 of the Science Primary and Secondary Formations, &c. 76 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 STRATA OF THE MINING DISTRICTS. 
 Familiar Illustration of the Arrangement of Strata, — Rise and 
 Dip of Strata. — General Division of Strata. — Grindstone 
 
 Sill. — Fell-top Limestone. — Coal Upper Coal Sill. — Upper 
 
 and Lower Slate Sills — Firestone Sill Pattinson's Sill — 
 
 Little Limestone. — Great Limestone. — Tuft. — Limestone 
 
 Post. — Quarry Hazel — Girdle or Till Bed Four-fathom 
 
 Limestone Coal. — Nattrass Gill Hazel. — Three-yards 
 
 Limestone. — Six-fathom Hazel. — 'Five-yards Limestone — 
 
 Slaty Hazel. — Scar Limestone Cockle-Shell Limestone 
 
 Tyne-Bottom Plate — Tyne-Bottom Limestone. — Whet- 
 stone Bed Great Whin Sill. 85 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 MINERAL VEINS. 
 
 Comparative Magnitude of Veins. — Various Names of Veins. 
 
 — Prior Formation of Veins or Cross Veins Hade and 
 
 Throw of Veins — Contents of Mineral Veins Great 
 
 Sulphur Vein Spar Galena — Silver. — Copper Slip 
 
 Vein Gash Vein Flats 101 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 
 LEAD MINES. 
 
 Progress of Mining Old Method of working Mines — Nent- 
 
 i^orce Level. — Ventilation of Mines — Discovery of Hudgill 
 
 Burn Mine Present Mode of working Mines. — Mine 
 
 Shops Visit to a Lead Mine. . . . . .116 
 
 TEESDALE. 
 
 Yadmoss. — Cauldron Snout. — Tees Force — Winch Bridge 
 
 Middleton in Teesdale Barnard-Castle. . . 143 
 
 WEARDALE. 
 
 Durham — Cathedral — Neville's Cross — Brancepeth Castle — 
 
 Bishop-Auckland Stanhope. — Head of Weardale. — Nent 
 
 Head — Nent Hall Hudgill Burn — East and West Allen. 
 
 —Vale of Derwent, &c. ] 66 
 
ACCOUN T 
 
 OF THE 
 
 MINING DISTRICTS, &c. 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 General Situation and Extent of the Mining Districts — Of the 
 Penine Chain of Mountains, and of the principal Dales — 
 Characteristic Features of the Scenery — Limit of Cultivation 
 — Rivers and Mountain Streams — Hills — Duration of Snow 
 — Storms — Climate — Roads, &e. 
 
 Those parts of England which adjoin the Scottish bor- 
 der possess many considerable attractions to interest 
 the stranger. Some of these have long been celebrated, 
 and much frequented by visitors from various parts of 
 the kingdom ; while others have remained compara- 
 tively unknown. The stupendous barrier erected 
 across this portion of the island by the Romans, and 
 the numerous vestiges of antiquity scattered over the 
 northern counties, have been the subjects of much and 
 able illustration. Still more has the romantic and sub- 
 lime scenery of the Lakes in Cumberland and West- 
 moreland attained a celebrity which justly renders the 
 tour of that district one of the most deserving objects of 
 the traveller's attention. Besides these, however, the 
 northern counties of England are distinguished by 
 another and very prominent range of scenery and re- 
 markable objects, which, though scarcely at all known, 
 
 B 
 
Z INTRODUCTION. 
 
 yet possess both importance and interest to render 
 them deserving of attention. These are to be found 
 in the lead-mining districts, which occupy the central 
 portion of the island of Great Britain ; and, from the 
 gratification derived by many intelligent strangers who 
 have visited them, it may be safely affirmed that they 
 only require to be known, to be much more generally 
 attended to than they have hitherto been. 
 
 The features of the scenery in these districts are 
 alike removed from the rich luxuriance of the culti- 
 vated low lands of Great Britain, and from the alpine 
 steepness and rugged grandeur of the mountains in the 
 highlands of Scotland and in the vicinage of the Cum- 
 berland and Westmoreland Lakes. Those who have 
 visited these celebrated resorts will at least in the 
 mining districts find the charm of novelty, and enter on 
 an entirely new scene of speculation and inquiry. 
 
 The principal portion of the mining districts in this 
 part of the kingdom may be considered as extending 
 about twenty miles from north to south, and the same 
 distance from east to west. The square of 400 miles 
 thus formed, and lying equally about the junction of 
 the counties of Northumberland, Cumberland, West- 
 moreland, Durham, and Yorkshire, comprises the manor 
 of Alston Moor — the mountain ridge of Crossfell, and 
 the dales of the Tees, Wear, East and West Allen, and 
 the Derwent. Besides the tract of country thus included, 
 there are other extensive and important mining fields, 
 which, being separated by tracts of cultivated land, can- 
 not be considered as forming one district: these extend 
 considerably into Yorkshire, and the other adjoining 
 counties, in various detached parts of which mineral 
 veins have been wrought : some of the principal of 
 these will be afterwards noticed ; but the scenery and 
 characteristics of the mining districts now to be de- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 tailed must be considered as chiefly limited to that 
 portion of them already alluded to. 
 
 A lofty range of mountainous moorlands stretches 
 from the borders of Scotland, with little interruption, 
 to Derbyshire. It has been variously called by differ- 
 ent writers the Back-bone of England, — the English 
 Appenines, &c. ; but the most appropriate name is that 
 derived from a passage in Richard of Cirencester's de- 
 scription of the Roman state of Britain, " the Peiiine 
 Chain," This range of hills attains considerable height 
 at the King's Forest of Geltsdale, and Hartleyburn and 
 Coanwood Commons, in Northumberland; from thence, 
 stretching in a southern direction, it increases in wild- 
 uess and sterility, attains its greatest elevation at the 
 mountain of Crossfell in Cumberland, and continues in a 
 direction nearly south-east, occupying a very consider- 
 able part of the district above mentioned. The average 
 width of this portion of the Penine Chain may be con- 
 sidered as varying from 20 to 25 miles, but its 
 extremes are in many places difficult to determine. 
 The coach road from Hexham to Penrith enters it 
 immediately after having passed Whitfield Hall in 
 Northumberland, and crosses it obliquely for 20 miles 
 to Melmerby in Cumberland. 
 
 The river Tees rises at the south end of the summit 
 of Crossfell mountain. Four miles down this stream, 
 and within a mile north of it, is the source of the South 
 Tyne river, into which on one occasion the water of 
 the Tees was conveyed for mining purposes. These 
 rivers run in exactly opposite courses, so that, but for 
 the intervening high land of Tynehead Common and 
 Yadmoss, the vales of Tyne and Tees would be conti- 
 nuous in one line. About 10 miles east of the source 
 of these rivers, the Wear and East and West Allen 
 rivers have their rise ; the first running nearly 
 
4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 parallel with the Tees, and the others with the Tyne, 
 form the principal mining dales, and comprise the 
 richest and most important part of the northern mining 
 district. 
 
 The elevations of this part of the Penine Chain are 
 not bold and rugged, but very high, massive, and 
 rounded, rising, in most instances, gradually from the 
 east and descending more steeply on the western side. 
 In the numerous valleys which occur throughout, the 
 cropping or bassett of the strata is very obvious, and 
 affords peculiar facilities for geological research. The 
 influence of calcareous strata on the soil is very con- 
 spicuous. The bassett of the great limestone, which 
 is the thickest and nearly the highest calcareous stra- 
 tum, forms, in many instances, the limit of cultivated 
 land and of human habitations. Below it, the hill 
 sides in spring and autumn present a beautiful green 
 surface, and in summer an abundant and flowery pro- 
 duce in the meadows. While on the same hill above 
 the limestone, bare short grass, ling, and moss impart 
 the brown and dreary aspect which characterizes all 
 the higher portion of the mining district, rendered, in 
 moist weather or in winter, still more dreary by hang- 
 ing mists on the summits, or wasting snows scattered 
 over the wide expansive sides of the hills ; but, from 
 the massive character of the scenery, rendered beauti- 
 ful and even sublime by the blue shades of evening, 
 or the subdued effect of moonlight. . 
 
 In the midst of these dales numerous streams of 
 water are seen pursuing a somewhat rapid course over 
 rocky beds or blocks of various kinds of stone ; some 
 of immense size tumbled from the scars above, and 
 others which have been carried downward by violent 
 floods. Their waters vary from the angry torrent 
 rolling along with g,lmost resistless force, to the gentle 
 
INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 Stream which murmurs along its rocky channel or is 
 swallowed up in the fissures which frequently occur in 
 the limestone rocks, and these transitions, owing to the 
 extent and steepness of the hills, are often very sudden 
 A portion of the refuse excavations of the mines is 
 frequently carried down by the stream, and fills the 
 beds of the rivers with great variety of rocky and 
 mineral substances. 
 
 The average slope of the hills is from 8° to 10". 
 Their summits, it has been stated, are, " for a great 
 part of the year, covered with snow ;" but this obser- 
 vation is too extended ; the hills here, as in most other 
 countries where the mountains are not very high, re- 
 taining their wintry mantle only a few days longer 
 than the neighbouring valleys ; and even the " alpine 
 snows" of Crossfell soon waste away to a few drifted 
 patches, which, on the appi'oach of summer, become 
 very small, and usually disappear in May. In former 
 times, however, there is no doubt that both the quantity 
 and duration of snow were much greater than at pre- 
 sent. In several instances, partial remains of snow 
 have been found on Crossfell at midsummer. In 
 the latter end of May, I8O9, the weather was very fine 
 and warm ; but on the last day of that month and on 
 the 1st of June, there fell a considerable quantity of 
 snow, accompanied with a strong wind ; many sheep 
 were overblown on the moors, and the whole country 
 was covered several inches thick on level ground. As 
 it disappeared, the contrast of the snow and the 
 green pastures and hedges had a remarkable appear- 
 ance ; but such exceptions have only occurred in 
 these elevated districts in common with other and 
 more favoured portions of the kingdom, increased, 
 in some degree, by the altitude of even the valleys, and 
 by the tempestuous influence of storms on the sum- 
 B 3 
 
O INTRODUCTION. 
 
 mits of the adjoining fells. Here the traveller or 
 miner, who at such times had occasion to cross these 
 high lands, was exposed without shelter to all the fury 
 of the storm, and hence the name of Alston Moor (the 
 principal mining manor in the district) has long been 
 associated with an idea of extreme wildness and severity 
 of climate. To this, the brief account of it appended in 
 a note to Hutchinson's History of Northumberland has 
 contributed. That historian unfortunately visited it in 
 stormy weather, and so combines the howling of the 
 winds, and the violence of the rains, with his notice of 
 the country, that he scarcely leaves room for the sup- 
 position that it may appear to greater advantage in 
 more favourable weather. The note alluded to has 
 been transcribed into recent works, and contributes to 
 the agreeable surprise of those who, judging from this 
 source of information, expect in Alston Moor to find 
 only a dreary wilderness and inclement storms. 
 
 As great severity of climate and prevalence of rainy 
 weather are yet very generally considered among the 
 characteristics of the raining districts, the following 
 statement of the weather at Alston in 1825, founded 
 on accurate observation, shows that the proportion of 
 fair weather is not very widely different from less 
 elevated countries. In that year, the respective varie- 
 ties of weather may be classed as follows : — 
 
 days. days. 
 
 Very fine and sunny, 107g 
 Fair but dull, 143 
 
 
 
 250^ 
 
 Very wet, 
 
 541 
 
 
 Moderate rain, 
 
 48| 
 
 
 Snow, 
 
 114 
 
 114| 
 
 Balance of fair weather, 135M 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 The number of very fine days, sunny throughout, 
 was 68; of fine clays, little clouded and without rain, 
 96; of cloudy days with little or no rain, 71 ; of mode- 
 rately rainy or snowy days, 52 ; of very stormy days, 
 24 ; and of days partly so, 54. The fairest months were 
 March, July, and August ; the most rainy were May, 
 October, and November. 
 
 Situated, however, as these districts are, in the most 
 elevated portion of one of the narrowest parts of the 
 kingdom, the atmosphere is necessarily subject to con- 
 siderable changes. On the dreary summits of the high 
 fells, which abound in them, and which must in one 
 direction or another be crossed to gain access to the 
 inhabited valleys, the pitiless pelting of the storm often 
 rages with a violence which those who have lived only in 
 milder climes can scarcely appreciate. Being further 
 distant from the sea, very sudden and heavy falls of rain 
 occur less frequently than in the district of the Lakes, 
 and in winter the quantity of snow, falling with a north- 
 east wind, is frequently less than in the neighbourhood 
 of Newcastle and the eastern coast of Northumberland, 
 In summer the heat, powerfully reflected from the 
 inclined surface of the hills, is sometimes very oppres- 
 sive, and especially on those bare moors which afford 
 no shelter from the scorching rays of a burning sum- 
 mer sun. Hence the traveller who in one month 
 ranges over the fells with hands and face blistered with 
 heat, may, a few months after, ti'averse them with eye- 
 lashes covered with icicles, and a mass of frozen snow 
 and ice suspended from his horse's head. The inha- 
 bited parts of the mining districts are not, however, 
 exposed to these violent extremes. The air is some- 
 what colder, and the weather, generally speaking, 
 somewhat less mild and settled than the low lands on 
 each side of the Penine Chain ; but the difference is by 
 
8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 no means so great as is commonly imagined. It may 
 be observed, however, that, from the peculiar character 
 of the scenery, rainy weather shrouds it with a very 
 cheerless and uncomfortable aspect, while, on the con- 
 trary, in fine weather many of the valleys have a fresh- 
 ness and beauty that render them highly interesting, 
 and agreeably surprise those who expect to find nothing 
 but bare and dreary wastes. 
 
 The want of good or even of tolerable roads was for 
 a long period the principal cause of the mining districts 
 being so little known. About 50 years ago, scarcely a 
 regularly formed road was to be found in them ; goods 
 were chiefly conveyed on horses or galloways, which 
 followed the soundest track over the moors ; the lead- 
 ing horse, having a bell attached to it, was called the 
 bell -horse. The roads which have since been made 
 have in many instances followed these tracks in the 
 most inconvenient and circuitous directions. Some of 
 these yet remain in use, and in several places present 
 a steepness of ascent perfectly terrific to those unaccus- 
 tomed to mountainous districts. The period is not 
 far distant when carriages could not be brought into 
 the interior vales, and it was so late as ] 824, when 
 Lord Lowther travelled from Alston to Teesdale, by 
 Yadmoss, in the first carriage that had passed over that 
 dreary and exposed fell, on which, some four hundred 
 years ago, the Scottish army escaped from Edward III. 
 then encamped in VVeardale, by laying boughs to pre- 
 vent their sinking in the inoss. In addition to bad 
 roads, the traveller on this and other adjoining fells 
 had too often to encounter the bewildering effect of 
 mist or snow storms, and very lamentable results in 
 the loss of human life were till lately not unfrequent. 
 In the course of the last six years a vast improvement 
 has been made by the formation of new lines, and all 
 
INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 the most interesting portions of the district are now 
 traversed by roads which, for gradual ascents and 
 smoothness of surface, are equal to any in the king- 
 dom. 
 
 This improvement, which forms a new and impor- 
 tant sera in the mining districts, has been chiefly 
 effected under the auspices of the Commissioners of 
 Greenwich Hospital. The personal inspection of their 
 able secretary, Edward Hawke Locker, Esq , enabled 
 him, in reporting on the hospital's estates in these 
 parts, to point out the great advantages which would 
 be derived from such an undertaking. The services 
 of the celebrated Mr. MacAdam were put in requisition, 
 and in the following four years considerable progress 
 was made in constructing new, and improving portions 
 of the old, lines of road. These together extend from 
 Hexham to Penrith, from Brampton to Alston, and 
 from thence by the vales of Nent and Tyne to Weardale 
 and Teesdale; and they are so far completed as to 
 afford safe and convenient facilities for travelling in 
 all these directions. One of the first fruits of the 
 greatly improved state of the roads was the establish- 
 ment of a post coach, which commenced running be- 
 tween Hexham and Penrith, by way of Alston, where, 
 on the 29th of September, 1828, a band of music and 
 a large concourse of people assembled to witness the 
 first public conveyance that had ever traversed this 
 part of the country. In the following spring the pro- 
 prietors introduced a new and elegant four-horse coach 
 from Newcastle to Penrith, by which visitors have a 
 pleasant and easy access to the mining districts, and 
 considerable advantage is also afforded by the great 
 saving of distance between these towns, instead of the 
 former circuitous route by Carlisle. 
 
10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The scenery throughout this line of road is 
 fraught with objects of interest. In dear weather the 
 delightful variety of the prospects between Nev/castle 
 and Hexham is truly enchanting, and to those who 
 are not limited to time, the road on the south of the 
 Tyne presents a succession of incomparably beautiful 
 views ; perhaps in no ride of equal extent is there a 
 greater diversity of objects and different kinds of 
 scenery than what is afforded by this journey. Even 
 those who have not an opportunity of spending a few 
 days in closer examination, cannot, when passing in fine 
 weather, fail to be highly gratified with the singular and 
 interesting objects which present themselves; and those 
 who have leisure to visit them will find much that is 
 worthy of attention. To direct the tourist, by pre- 
 senting concise descriptions of the scenery and re- 
 markable places of the mining districts, is the object 
 of the present work. 
 
CHAP. I. 
 
 FROM HEXHAM TO ALSTON. 
 
 West-Boat Chain-Bridge — Haydon Bridge — Langley Castle — Smelt 
 Mills— Staward Banks— Whitfield— Vale of South Tyne. 
 
 This is one of the most frequented approaches to the 
 raining districts, and possesses considerable attractions 
 not only in the hasty transit of a stage coach, but many 
 which well repay a more leisurely examination. The 
 town of Hexham contains little to occupy the atten- 
 tion of the tourist, except the remains of its vener- 
 able church. In the interior the transepts and 
 choir deserve examination, and present on a small 
 scale some of the finest characteristics of cathedral 
 architecture. The vicinity of Hexham is extremely 
 beautiful, and the views from the neighbouring emi- 
 nences are fraught with variety and interest. The 
 group of old towers in the midst of the town, and the 
 luxuriant effect of the gardens which adorn it, render 
 Hexham very picturesque. Those who spend a little 
 time here will greatly enjoy the beautiful scen- 
 ery of the Tyne, whose wide, smooth, and placid 
 surface for some distance above the bridge gives it, 
 especially at evening, much of the sublime effect of 
 lake scenery ; and this effect is still more observable 
 from the side of the river about a mile above the town. 
 A pleasant walk of another mile brings the tourist to 
 the Suspension Bridge at West Boat, erected in 1825-6 
 under the direction of Captain Brown, R. N., by whom 
 
12 HEXHAM HAYDON BRIDGE. 
 
 also the Union Suspension Bridge over the Tweed was 
 projected. The piers of West-Boat Bridge are distant 
 313 feet 8 in. The deflection of catenary was intended 
 to be 1 foot, but, owing to the chain yielding when 
 the floor of the bridge was laid, it is now perfectly 
 straight. The bridge is supported by four pair of chains, 
 two on each side ; the links are 10 feet long, and from 
 their junction depend iron rods which support the 
 frame- work of the bridge floor, the construction of 
 which may be seen by walking under the bridge. It 
 contains about one-fourth part less timber and iron 
 than the Union Bridge, and cost nearly 5000/. It is a 
 curious and interesting object, and both it and the 
 neighbouring scenery amply repay a visit. 
 
 From hence to Haydon Bridge is in fair weather a 
 tolerably pleasant walk or ride, but without any re- 
 markable objects to detain the traveller. The river 
 Tyne is here crossed by a long and narrow bridge of 
 six arches ; adjoining the inn, at the south end of 
 which, are apartments for the use of the Receivers of 
 Greenwich Hospital when they transact business rela- 
 tive to the extensive estates in the vicinity belonging 
 to that institution. The bank south of the inn has 
 lately been ornamented by the erection of a long line 
 of high wall with embrasures ; and on the same emi- 
 nence are the Free School and Almshouses founded in 
 1685 by the Rev. John Shaftoe, A. M., Vicar of Ne- 
 therwarden, who endowed them by deed of gift with 
 his estate of Mouson, near Belford. This deed was 
 afterwards confirmed in chancery, on account of a sub- 
 sequent will, dated 1693. The estate then let for 80/. ; 
 but upwards of forty years ago it had risen in value to 
 more than 400Z. per annum. Pursuant to the will of 
 the donor, the trustees purchased a paixel of land on 
 which they erected the school-rooms, with dwellings 
 
LANGLEY CASTLE. 13 
 
 for the masters and ushers, and apartments for twenty 
 alms-people ; the latter of whom are to be poor persons 
 born in Hay don chapel ry, and receive 9,s. 6d. each 
 weekly, and a supply of coals. The school is muni- 
 ficently endowed for the education of both sexes, under 
 the superintendence of four teachers, but none can 
 claim its benefits unless they reside in the chapelry of 
 Hay don, or in the constable wick of Wood- Shields. 
 There are generally about 140 boys and 90 girls re- 
 ceiving instruction at this large seminary. The head 
 master must be of the degree of master of arts ; and, 
 according to an act passed in 1819, he is to perform 
 morning service every alternate Sunday at the chapel 
 of ease. The trustees are empowered to raise or 
 decrease the salaries of the teachers, but the master's 
 is not to be less than 250/. per annum. The yearly 
 stipend now paid to the others are, 64/. to the first 
 usher ; 63l. to the second usher ; and 30/. to the 
 mistress ; besides which, each of the teachers has 
 a house and garden. 
 
 On leaving this village, the route to Alston intersects 
 a narrow and romantic valley, through which the 
 road winds in a circuitous course ; a wall of rocks on 
 one side, and a very steep and high woody bank on the 
 other, with a small stream between, have a roman- 
 tic and secluded effect, oftener found in the deep and 
 lone recesses of forest scenery than immediately adjoin- 
 ing a turnpike. Proceeding about two miles up this 
 road the stately ruins of Langley Castle burst upon the 
 view. This structure is one of the most perfect remains 
 of its style of building in the county. The interior 
 is 80 feet long and 24 wide ; at each corner is a strong 
 square tower 66 feet high, and 14 feet square in the 
 inside ; the walls are 7 feet thick, and the rooms arch- 
 ed with stone. Some of the buttresses are light and 
 C 
 
14 LANGLEY CASTLE. 
 
 elegant, the windows are larger than are commonly 
 found in ancient baronial edifices, and have some 
 remains of circular tracery and of small perpen- 
 dicular mullions. A small door with a portcullis 
 on the east side leads to a circular staircase ; 
 the entrance to the hall or principal room from this 
 staircase is by a door with a pointed arch and orna- 
 mented capitals to the shafts which support it. The 
 foundation of Langley Castle is scarcely sunk below 
 the level of the ground, the interior is red with marks 
 of fire, and the whole of the stone is remarkably fresh. 
 This is the more surprising from the length of time it has 
 been a ruin. It is mentioned in 1542 as follows : — 
 
 " All the roofs and floors thereof be decayed, wasted, 
 and gone, and nothing remaining but only the walls ; 
 it stands in a very convenient place for the de- 
 fence of the incourses of the Scotts of Lyddesdale and 
 the theves of Tyndale, Gyllesland, and Bowcastle, 
 when they ride to steal or spoil within the bishopric of 
 Durham." 
 
 This fine structure was formerly the capital seat of 
 the barony of Tyndale. It was held of the crown in 
 the time of King Henry I. by Adam de I'yndale, and 
 continued in his male descendants till the time of 
 Henry III. And hence by a succession of female 
 heirs it became the property of the Boltebys, Lucys, 
 Umfranville, and Percys ; it afterwards became the 
 property of the Eadcliffes of Dilston, and was forfeited 
 in 1715 by James, the last Earl of Derwentwater. It 
 now belongs to Greenwich Hospital, and has by occa- 
 sional repairs been kept carefully preserved. 
 
 About a mile from Langley Castle another very 
 curious and different scene is presented by the Smelt 
 Mills at Langley, belonging to Greenwich Hospital, 
 where the greater portion of the ore raised in Alston 
 
LANGLEY SMELT MILLS — "WHITFIELD. 15 
 
 Moor is converted into lead and silver. The buildings 
 are numerous and extensive, and, from having been 
 erected at different periods without any regular plan, 
 have the appearance of a village. Leaving these on the 
 left, the road continues by heathy moors and elevated 
 bare land, and in tw^o miles approaches the Allen at 
 Staward. The romantic and picturesque banks of that 
 river nearly covered with wood are then seen receding 
 in beautiful perspective, — the rocky bed of the river, 
 at a very considerable and nearly perpendicular depth 
 below, and the ruins of Staward Castle above,— form a 
 scene which never fails to excite the liveliest admira- 
 tion, and far exceeds any encomiums that can be 
 bestowed on it. 
 
 After passing along this lofty terrace, the road winds 
 by a zigzag course down the almost precipitous and 
 rocky face of Cupula Bank, and commands a fine view 
 of the beautiful vale of Whitfield on the left, while, on 
 the other hand, the wild and lofty rocks and hilly 
 banks form a subject fit for the pencil of Salvator Rosa. 
 A handsome stone bridge of three arches is here built 
 over the united streams of East and West Allen. The 
 bed of the river is formed by a stratum of limestone, 
 supposed to be what in the mining districts is com- 
 monly called the Great Limestone ; and the steep scar 
 of Cupula Bank presents the abrupt escarpment of 
 alternating siliceous and argillaceous strata. 
 
 The ride through the vale of Whitfield is fraught 
 with beautiful and highly romantic scenery. The 
 retrospect of Cupula Bank is to the stranger a sight of 
 wonder and amazement, forming so sudden and stu- 
 pendous an obstacle to a direct line of road as is per- 
 haps unequaled in these kingdoms. On each side of 
 the West Allen river the banks are for the most part 
 either fringed with natural copse wood or covered with 
 
16 WHITFIELD. 
 
 plantations, the wide surface and verdant foliage of 
 which sweetly adorn the narrow vale. The grouping 
 of the scenery may be varied into the most beautiful 
 combinations from several points of view, and espe- 
 cially from parts of the new road leading past Whit- 
 field Church to Haltwhistle. The Church and Rec- 
 tory House stand on elevated ground about half a mile 
 from the road. The cemetery and gardens adjoining 
 the house are laid out with great taste and judgment ; 
 the former being planted and the surface kept in 
 excellent ordei', while the latter possess all the attrac- 
 tions that can be combined in so limited a space. 
 These improvements have been chiefly effected by the 
 Rev. Anthony Hedley, A. M,, during his residence 
 here in the absence of the Rev. T. H. Scott, Archdea- 
 con of New South Wales, and Rector of Whitfield ; and 
 it may be added, that they are in unison with Mr. 
 Hedley's zeal and attention in promoting the best 
 interests of his parishioners, especially of the children, 
 in the education of whom he has long exhibited an 
 amiable and praise-worthy interest. 
 
 Blueback Inn, in the midst of the vale of Whitfield, 
 is delightfully situated near a romantic bridge across 
 the Allen, beyond which, its steep banks, with a 
 winding road and still more winding footpath, are 
 crowned by a large extent of beautiful plantations on 
 the summit of the hill, and form an admirable subject 
 for the pencil. A little further west, seated on a com- 
 manding terrace amid fine park scenery, but almost 
 entirely concealed from the road by luxuriant foliage, 
 is the mansion-house of William Ord, Esq., M. P. It 
 was erected about forty years ago on the site of the 
 ancient hall of the family of Whitfield ; and for seques- 
 tered retirement and beauty of scenery is perhaps equal 
 to any residence in the north of England. The vale 
 
VALE OF SOUTH' TYNE. 17 
 
 of West Allen, the broad surface of foliage of Monk- 
 wood, and the distant summits of the Penine Chain, 
 form interesting objects in the prospect from the Hall, 
 while in another direction the eye is delighted with 
 " the pomp of groves" that extend in a long and nar- 
 row vista, terminated by one of the neat little cottages 
 with which Mr. Ord has ornamented his estate, a scene 
 that cannot fail to excite many of the most pleasing 
 associations and poetical images of retirement and 
 peace. 
 
 Soon after passing Whitfield Hall, the traveller 
 enters on the range of hills, the general extent and di- 
 rection of which have been already described. The 
 road gradually ascends for several miles to the bleak 
 and lofty summit of Whitfield Fell, affording first a 
 panoramic view of nearly the whole course of the West 
 Allen river, and afterwards a more extended prospect 
 over the north-east part of Northumberland, bounded 
 by the hills of Cheviot, Hedgehope, of Rimside and 
 Simonside Moors, and in very clear weather the Ger- 
 man Ocean may be clearly distinguished. On reach- 
 ing the top of the Fell, the mountain of Crossfell gra- 
 dually unfolds its gigantic summit, stretching in a kind 
 of table land foe nearly a mile in length ; and proceed- 
 ing further the whole ridge of this highest portion of 
 the Penine Chain appears. Before commencing the 
 descent of the western part of the hill, a stone wall 
 forms the boundary of the county of Northumberland 
 and of the manor of Whitfield, and the traveller at 
 once enters into the county of Cumberland and the 
 manor of Alston Moor. 
 
 The vale of South Tyne here opens to tlie view, and 
 
 the features of the mining districts already alluded to 
 
 present themselves. The houses scattered over the 
 
 lower parts of the hills are nearly all whitewashed^ anci 
 
 c 3 
 
18 VALE OP SOUTH TYNE. 
 
 thus impart some liveliness to a scene in which wild- 
 ness and sterility much prevail. It has been justly 
 observed that the appearance of these districts is pecu- 
 liarly affected by different kinds of weather. On a 
 fine sunny day most strangers are pleased and highly 
 interested by the prospects throughout this part of the 
 vale of South Tyne, while, on the contrary, a rainy 
 day, especially if accompanied with wind and hanging 
 mists on the fell, presents a spectacle of extreme 
 dreariness, which has contributed to the erroneous but 
 very prevailing idea of Alston Moor being a treeless, 
 miserable waste. About a mile from Alston, the road 
 is carried along a terrace on the side of a steep hill, 
 and the extensive view from thence is much admired. 
 A nursery on the flat holmes near the river, and nu- 
 merous plantations scattered along the sides of the vale, 
 present a much more beautiful scene than is usually 
 anticipated. Lowbyer Inn adjoins the road about a 
 quarter of a mile from the town of Alston, and, as a 
 contrast to Hutchinson's description of an Alston Inn, 
 it is but justice to say that it has been much extolled 
 by noblemen, and other highly respectable indivi- 
 duals, as combining the pleasantness of a country 
 residence with the comfort and retirement of a " home." 
 The town also contains some good inns, of which the 
 Crown and Blue Bell are the principal. 
 
CHAP. 11. 
 
 ALSTON MOOR. 
 
 History — Royal Charters — Privileges of Royal Mines — Decay of 
 Forests, &c Form and Extent of the Manor — General De- 
 scription — Town of Alston — Church — Curious Inscription. 
 
 Of the early history of this important mining field, few- 
 materials have been collected. That it was occupied 
 by the Romans is sufficiently testified by their works 
 which yet remain in very perfect pi*eservation, and 
 from silver denarii having been found at Hallhill 
 near the town of Alston. It is improbable that so 
 extensive a work as the Maiden Way or great Military 
 Road, constructed by that warlike people, would be 
 prosecuted without discovering lead ore in some of the 
 numerous veins which it crosses ; and at the Roman 
 station at Whitley in Northumberland, pieces of lead 
 have been found as well as in numerous other places. 
 In early periods the process of smelting ore was very 
 simple. Piles of stones were placed in situations ex- 
 posed to the west, which is here the most prevailing 
 wind, and several places in the mining districts where 
 these rude and imperfect furnaces were erected, retain 
 the name of Boles or Bayle hills. That mining in this 
 district is of great antiquity, appears from mention of 
 several charters granted to the miners of " Alderston" 
 nearly 600 years ago. They had royal protection 
 granted in 1233, again in 1236, and again in 1237. 
 In 1282 the king granted to Nicholas de Veteripont 
 
20 DECAY OF FORESTS. 
 
 (the original of the family name of Vipond) the manor 
 of Alderston to hold in fee of the King of Scotland, re- 
 serving to himself and the miners various privileges, 
 especially such as belonged to the franchise of Tindale, 
 within which Alston was then comprised. 
 
 At that period the aspect of the country must have 
 been widely different to what it now is, for many of 
 the dreary wastes which yet retain the name of Parks 
 and Forests were then covered with trees. The re- 
 mains of these are often found in peat mosses, and the 
 miners who farmed their mines of the king, and 
 worked veins containing silver ore, claimed a right to 
 take any wood that should be near to, and convenient 
 for their said works, and also at their will and pleasure 
 use and dispose of such wood for burning and smelting, 
 for paying the workmen their wages, and to give to the 
 poor workmen of the mines. These claims were, how- 
 ever, admitted by Henry de Whitby and Joan his wife, 
 who impleaded several of the miners for cutting down 
 and carrying away their trees; and further charged that 
 they had sold large quantities of wood from which the 
 king received no kind of benefit. From the wood thus 
 sold, in addition to that used in the mines, which right 
 the miners stated they had exercised from time imme- 
 morial, it is obvious that these forests must have been 
 very extensive, and it furnishes some explanation of 
 the entire removal of these once beautiful adornments 
 of a hilly country. On the other causes which have 
 contributed to the decay of forests on what are now 
 waste lands, some highly interesting observations have 
 been made in the writings of Sir Walter Scott. 
 
 King Edward III., in the seventh year of his reign, 
 confirmed several of these privileges to Robert, son of 
 Nicholas de Veteripont, and in the following year the 
 monetarii or coiners had their liberties confirmed by 
 
ROYAL CHAKTEUS, 2l 
 
 the king ; so that it appears Alston in these olden times 
 had not only mines but a mint also. 
 
 In the 24th of the same reign the crown exempli- 
 fied some charter of privileges formerly given to the 
 Alston mines, and again in 1356 granted very large 
 privileges to the same. 
 
 Henry V. let the manor and mines of Alston to 
 William Stapleton, Esq., at an annual fee-farm rent of 
 10 marks, payable at the exchequer in Carlisle ; and 
 in the same reign the said William Stapleton and his 
 tenants had their liberties and privileges confirmed to 
 them for the said manor and mines. 
 
 The nature of mining was in those times very im- 
 perfectly understood. Science had not emerged from 
 those visionary theories and idle speculations which so 
 long cramped the energies of the human mind. As 
 to Geology, it was alike unknown and unthought of, 
 and it is highly amusing to take a reti'ospect of the 
 whimsical notions which were gravely advanced and 
 no doubt at that time implicitly received as profound 
 wisdom. Thus in Sir John Petties' History, Laws, and 
 Places of the chief Mines and Mineral Works in Eng- 
 land, &c. (London, 1670), we find the following sin- 
 gular account of the formation of hills and valleys, and 
 the use of the magical rod in discovering mines : — 
 
 " The usual method of historians is to begin with the 
 creation, wherein I might tell you that when God 
 breathed upon the face of the waters, that was a putrid 
 fying * breath, and that such waters as were quiet and 
 calm turned into plains or levelled earth, and the boister' 
 ous waters into hills and mountains, according to the 
 proportion of the billows, and their spaces into valleys, 
 which have ever since continued in their wonderful 
 
 * Evidently an error of the press for petrifying. 
 
22 ANCIENT MINING. 
 
 and pleasant dimensions, the seminal virtues of all sub- 
 lunary things being locked up and more durably pre- 
 served in them ; and yet from thence they are trans- 
 mitted through terrene pores, either from their own 
 exhuberancies or the sun or stars extractio7is, into various 
 a?id visible forms." " Such superjicial excrescencies 
 whether vegetable or minerals do direct the miners in 
 their knowledge of the nature of the metals under them ; 
 which sometimes also is done by the virgula divina or 
 magical rod, being no other than a hazel stick cut in a 
 certain season of the stars' aspects, still showing what 
 rare contiguity there is between the stars, plants, ani- 
 mals, and minerals, as if they were but the soft pro- 
 ducts of those meditullian putrif actions," 
 
 The same writer then proceeds to a somewhat forced 
 interpretation of Adam's histoi-y, " of whom," he says, 
 " I might tell you that he may be esteemed a miner 
 from the text, where 'tis said that God placed him in 
 paradise, and commanded him to dig or till the earth, 
 as also a rejiner, &c. &c." The work contains some 
 curious information, from which the following extracts 
 are made as illustrative of the state of mining at that 
 period, 
 
 " The adit is from the Latin word aditus, that is to 
 say, an entry, passage, or approach to a thing. And 
 this is usually made on the side of the hill, but towards 
 the bottom about 4, 5, or 6 feet high and 8 feet ivide 
 in the tiature of an arch, sometimes cut in the rock, 
 and sometimes supported with timber, so that the 
 sole or bottom of this adit may answer the bottom of 
 the shaft but somewhat lower, so that the water may 
 have sufficient current to pass away, which is exactly 
 known by the ordinary ways of dialling or the work- 
 man's keeping the water at his foot when there is any. 
 And he is directed toward the shaft by a needle touched 
 
ROYAL MINES. 2^ 
 
 with a loadstone, the using whereof is called dialling, 
 and by this and other arts the water is conveyed away 
 with more ease and less charge than by pumps. And 
 by these adits the fumes, damps, and unwholesome 
 vapours are better dispersed, which otherwise might 
 endanger the miners ; but if any of them be surprised 
 with such a damp, so as for the present he may be 
 deprived of his senses, he is drawn up out of the mine, 
 and they dig a little hole in the earth, and lay him on 
 his belly with his mouth to the fresh earth of that hole 
 which speedily recovereth him." 
 
 The following particulars on royal mines at that 
 period are interesting data in the history of mining, 
 
 " When the ore digged from any mine doth not 
 yield, according to the rules of art, so much gold or 
 silver as that the value thereof doth exceed the charge 
 of refining and loss of the baser metal wherein it is 
 contained, then it is called poor ore or a poor mine." 
 
 " On the contrary, when the ore yields so much gold 
 or silver as to exceed in value the charge of refining 
 and loss of the baser metal in which it is contained, 
 then it is called rich ore or a Mine Royal ; appertain- 
 ing to the king by his prerogative, and herein consists 
 the honesty of the refiner, for some have made very 
 great products from that very ore from which less skil- 
 ful essayers could extract nothing." 
 
 In the remainder of this, and in some other works, 
 much curious information is afforded respecting the 
 state of mining, and the various grants and immunities 
 confirmed on mining adventures by the crown ; but 
 these particulars are in a great measure too minute and 
 technical to be generally interesting in the present 
 work. 
 
 Alston afterwards became the property of the Hyl- 
 tons, of Hylton Castle, in the county of Durham ; and 
 
24 MANOR OF ALSTON MOOR, 
 
 in 1611 a considerable portion of the lower parts of the 
 manor adjoining the rivers Tyne and Nent, was grant- 
 ed in leases for 999 yearSj by Henry Hylton, subject 
 to the payment of certain annual rents which amounted 
 to 64/., but, with some encroachments taken off, are 
 now 53L, and a fine of twenty times the rent every 21 
 years. 
 
 The lead-mines, on a survey made about this time, 
 were reported to be nearly exhausted, and in I629 the 
 whole manor, — including all the lord's rents and 
 minerals, 120 acres of demesne land, with houses at 
 Lowbyer and Mack Close, and a corn-mill at Alston, — 
 was sold to Sir Edward Radcliffe for 2500/., and 
 remained in that family till the confiscation of the 
 estates of James, Earl of Derwentwater, in 1716. It 
 was gi'anted by the crown, in 1734, to the Royal Hos- 
 pital for Seamen, at Greenwich, and has since remain- 
 ed in the possession of the commissioners and gover- 
 nors in trust for that institution. Several other estates 
 in the manor, and the adjoining manors of Whitley 
 and Ale, have since been purchased in addition to this 
 valuable property. 
 
 In form the manor of Alston Moor nearly resembles 
 a square of about 6f miles, containing about 45 square 
 miles or 29OOO acres. It consists, as its name imports, 
 chiefly of wild and barren land ; a considei-able portion 
 of the elevated land in it affording only subsistence for 
 the hardier breeds of sheep, and an ample range for the 
 sportsman. The division of common has in the course 
 of the last twenty years greatly improved the appear- 
 ance of the country, and in that period also several fine 
 plantations have been reared, especially on the lands 
 belonging to Greenwich Hospital, A narrow range 
 of rich loam extends along the lower part of the val- 
 leys, producing luxuriant crops of fine meadow and 
 
MANOR OF ALSTON MOOR. 25 
 
 rich pasture with some few sheltered patches of corn, the 
 extensive growth of which is prevented by the climate. 
 Numerous gardens and an extensive nursery furnish 
 ample proofs of the fertility of the soil in the valleys, 
 which, if intersected with hedges in the place of naked 
 stone walls, or scattered over with hedge-row trees, 
 would yield to few situations for picturesque beauty. 
 Newshield Bank, on the east side of the Tyne, com- 
 paratively speaking, may in so bare a country be said to 
 be extensively wooded ; it has a fine appearance from 
 some points of view, and the addition of a few belts 
 of plantation on the opposite hills would be a very 
 considerable addition to the general appearance of the 
 country. As it is, some of the scenery which it affords 
 is considered highly interesting by most strangers, 
 especially when the blue shades of evening impress a 
 character of sublimity on the surrounding hills. 
 
 This manor is described in one of Mr. Locker's 
 reports, in 1821, as the most valuable and interesting 
 part of the landed property of Greenwich Hospital. 
 The mines then yielding an annual produce of 100,000/. 
 and the lands producing a rental of about W^G^J,ZP<f 
 per annum. These latter are divided into small farms 
 and allotments for the convenience of the miners, 
 and are generally let to persons who obtain part of 
 their livelihood by carrying ore from the mines to the 
 smelting mills. In the same report Mr. Locker has 
 sketched with spirit and fidelity an outline of the 
 general character of the country and its inhabitants. 
 " In reference to its population," he observes, " this 
 manor is a highly interesting possession. The valley 
 lies secluded from the rest of the country by the sur- 
 rounding moors, and the inhabitants are an industrious 
 and loyal people, moral and intelligent, and of simple 
 ' habits. The nature of their occupation as miners leads 
 
 D 
 
26 TOWN OF ALSTON. 
 
 them to inquiries which greatly quicken their under- 
 standing, and urges them to seek from books such 
 parts of practical philosophy as are applicable to their 
 profession. They are excited to industry by the pros- 
 pect of independence, the successful adventures of 
 other miners acting as a powerful stimulus to the pur- 
 suit." This favourable testimony has been often con- 
 firmed by the observation of intelligent strangers, who 
 have been alike surprised and gratified by the well-in- 
 formed minds and plain but courteous behaviour of the 
 miners. The unassuming manners and great hospitality 
 of all classes in this and the neighbouring dales are 
 such as to call forth a high degree of respect and 
 esteem for the moral worth and social feelings which 
 accompany and direct them. 
 
 The town of Alston stands on the steep base of the 
 mountain of Middlefell, adjoining the confluence of the 
 rivers Tyne and Nent, which are both crossed by sub- 
 stantial stone bridges. It contains about 400 houses, 
 and is on the whole rather meanly built. The streets 
 are inconveniently steep and narrow. A market-place 
 of triangular form in the midst of the town has an old 
 and somewhat clumsy cross in it ; and the weekly 
 market on Saturday presents a scene of busy activity 
 not usual in country towns. It has been proposed to 
 make a new market-place on the site of the Vicar's 
 Croft, a small field in the lower part of the town, 
 the completion of which, and the erection of some 
 buildings on a uniform plan, would greatly im- 
 prove the appearance of the place. The church 
 is dedicated to St. Austin, and stands on a commanding 
 situation ; it was erected in 1770, is a plain and neat 
 edifice, the interior remarkably so. The tower con- 
 tains a good clock and bell. The latter was formerly 
 the dinner bell of Dilston Castle, and its sound can 
 
TOWN OF ALSTON. 27 
 
 scarcely fail to recall a melancholy remembrance of that 
 unfortunate nobleman. In the church-yard is the fol- 
 lowing singular epitaph, erected at the expense of the 
 sons of Crispin to commemorate an eccentric brother :— - 
 
 My cutting board's to pieces split, 
 My size-stick will no measures meet, 
 My rotten lasts turned into holes, 
 My blunted knife cuts no more soles. 
 My hammer's head is from the haft ; 
 No more St. Mondays with the craft. 
 My nippers, pincers, stirrup, and rag. 
 And all my kit have got the bag. 
 My lapstone's broke, my colors o'er, 
 My gum-glass froze, my paste's no more. 
 My heel's sewed on, my pegs are driven, 
 I hope I'm in the road to heaven. 
 
 There are four meeting-houses in the town belong- 
 ing to the Independents, Quakers^ Methodists, and 
 Primitive Methodists or Ranters ; a charity school sup- 
 ported by subscription, where 100 children are edu- 
 cated gratuitously ; an endowed grammar school, re- 
 built in 1828, among the holiday sports of which in 
 the olden time was that of a main of fighting cocks for 
 a prayer-book at Easter. Some of the books thus won 
 are yet in possession of some of the surviving scholars. 
 A band of music, supported by public patronage, usually 
 perform one or two evenings every week at Lowbyer 
 Inn, or in fine weather make the neighbouring hills 
 resound with melody. 
 
CHAP. III. 
 
 TYNEHEAD, NENTFOllCE LEVEL, &c. 
 
 Geological Phenomena — Clargill Force — Eshgill Force — Water- 
 fall — Dimensions and Extent — Nentforce Level — Romantic 
 Entrance — Subterraneous Excursion in Boats, &c. 
 
 The manor of Alston Moor contains also the popu- 
 lous villages of Garrigill and Nenthead. The former is 
 situated on the river Tyne, three and a half miles 
 above Alston, on the road to Tynehead, and is some- 
 times visited by persons Avishful to see the source of 
 that river, which rises seven miles further south- 
 The stranger, by following the road through Garrigill, 
 will have no difficulty in finding guides to conduct 
 him to the place, near which also is a curious whin 
 dyke or wall 70 feet wide, thrown up through the 
 other secondary strata which form the bed of the river. 
 Near Tynehead Smelt-mill may be seen the great whin 
 sill or basaltic rock which underii.ys the Alston 
 Moor strata, and, if time permit, the stranger may 
 spend an hour in walking a short distance to Clargill 
 force, close to which a mineral vein has been partly 
 excavated and left in a condition which gives as 
 clear an idea of the nature of veins as can be seen 
 in the country. The bed of the rivulet, two or three 
 hundred yards lower down, presents a remarkably 
 clear view of various entrochi and other organic re- 
 mains imbedded in a calcareous stratum, which is 
 locally called the cocHle-shell limestone In this 
 
ESHGILL FORCE. 29 
 
 neighbourhood are the principal copper mines of 
 the district, to which access may be had by applying 
 to the agents, and some further notices of which will 
 be introduced in describing the mines generally. About 
 a quarter of a mile below Garrigill, a vein containing 
 lead ore may be seen crossing the bed of the Tyne, and 
 which has been worked to within a few feet of the 
 surface. In this excursion up the Tyne, the rich 
 lead mine of Holyfield may be visited. These objects, 
 together with an excursion to Crossfell from Garrigill 
 when the atmosphere is clear, furnish sufficient em- 
 ployment for one long and arduous summer's day, but 
 would in most cases be better extended to two, in order 
 to allow time for examination and inquiry. There are 
 few to whom the inspection of such various and inter- 
 esting scenes as are thus comprised would not prove 
 highly gratifying : — the source of the principal river 
 in the north of England — the geological interest of its 
 vicinity — the curious and novel phenomena of the 
 interior of lead and copper mines — the peculiar and 
 characteristic scenery of the dale — and the magnifi- 
 cent prospect from the summit of Crossfell in clear 
 weather, well repay the fatigue which attends mining 
 and mountain excursions. To these may be added 
 also the fine waterfall of Eshgill force, which, after 
 heavy rains, is well deserving of a near inspection, but 
 at other times the quantity of water is so inconsiderable 
 that the general view of it from the road to Tynehead 
 will be thought sufficient, and as it is mostly then that 
 the weather is favourable for visiting Crossfell, any 
 nearer approach to Eshgill would probably encroach 
 on the time required for this extensive mountain ram- 
 ble. 
 
 From the confluence of the rivers at Alston, the vale 
 of Nent extends in an eastern direction for about five 
 D 3 
 
30 NENTFORCE LEVEL. 
 
 miles. This river, at ca short distance from the town, 
 and at only a few minutes' walk from Lowbyer Inn, 
 falls over a precipice of limestone, which, though con- 
 siderably worn by the water, is yet, and especially in 
 wet weather, a fine waterfall, rendered more so by the 
 romantic little valley which is formed by the precip- 
 itous escarpment of the rocks and woody banks ad- 
 joining. Large masses of limestone have fallen at 
 different periods into the bed of the stream, over which 
 the tremendous rushing of the great volume of water 
 produced by heavy rains in so confined and rugged a 
 channel, accompanied by the roar of the waterfall, form 
 a terrible and sublime spectacle. On the south side of 
 the outlet of this valley stands a large spinning factory 
 worked by water brought from above the fall. Op- 
 posite to it is an assay office, in which the value and 
 contents of the ores raised in the manor are ascertained, 
 and near it is a depository for part of the ores either 
 purchased by, or paid as duty to, Greenwich Hos- 
 pital. 
 
 But the most interesting object in this place is the 
 entrance to Nentforce Level, a stupendous aqueduct 
 made by the Lords of the Manor for the discovery of 
 mineral veins, and for draining the water from the 
 mines above. This level was projected by Mr. Smea- 
 ton, the celebrated engineer, when one of the receivers 
 of the Greenwich Hospital estates in 1775, was com- 
 menced in the following year, has been regularly pro- 
 secuted since that time, and is now carrying forward 
 to the important mining field at Nenthead, the extent 
 originally proposed. From the entrance already men- 
 tioned near Nentforce, it extends under the course of 
 the I'iver Nent for a distance of three and a quarter 
 miles to Nentsbury engine shaft. Its dimensions are 
 9 feet in height and the same in width, but in many 
 
MENTFORCE LEVEL. 31 
 
 places, owing to the nature of the beds, it is con- 
 siderably larger, and in a few places is so much 
 as from l6 to 20 feet in height. It is navigated 
 in boats SO feet in length, which are propelled in four 
 feet water by means of sticks projecting from the sides 
 of the level ; and thus may be enjoyed the singular 
 novelty of sailing a few miles underground, and 
 beholding with perfect safety the various rocks 
 which it passes through, owing to the rise or inclina- 
 tion of the strata, and also the numerous mineral veins 
 which it intersects. The hanging rocks suspended 
 over the entrance with the romantic scenery adjoining, 
 and the neighbouring waterfall, render a visit, even to 
 the exterior, highly interesting ; but this is much 
 increased by a subterraneous excursion, which is fre- 
 quently undertaken by strangers, and not unfrequently 
 by parties of young persons resident in the neighbour- 
 hood. The old and often grotesque dresses worn on such 
 occasions add to the mirth and cheerfulness which pre- 
 vail — while the fine effect of vocal or instrumental 
 music, and the exercise of propelling the boat, add to 
 the singular feeling which is excited by the idea of 
 so bold an adventure. 
 
 A voyage of about a mile in length, with the return, 
 occupies as much time as will generally be devoted to 
 such an excursion. More than this becomes tedious — 
 the spirits flag, and the current of air, which is some- 
 times up the level, and sometimes down, might prove 
 unpleasant by a longer stay. As a number of candles 
 are usually taken up, a variety of beautiful effects may 
 be produced by leaving short pieces of them burning 
 at intervals ; the reflection of them in the water pre- 
 sents a fine spectacle, and, by this means also, some 
 idea is afforded of the vast extent of the level by the 
 receding vista of lights. In the day-time the level 
 
32 NENTFORCE LEVEL. 
 
 mouth is seen from upwards of a mile up the level ; in 
 sunshine seeming like a brilliant star with radiat- 
 ing beams. At such times also, the faint and 
 straggling day-beams which enter the level give to 
 the ruggeil outline and green mosses of the roof and 
 sides the same subdued but silvery brightness, which, 
 in immediate contrast with surrounding darkness, has 
 the same poetical character, the same inimitable effect, 
 as that with which the beautiful ruins of Melrose are 
 now for ever associated. 
 
 Such to the general observer is Nentforce Level. 
 To the geologist and the miner it possesses still more 
 and peculiar attractions ; but these will be more appro- 
 priately introduced in a future part of the volume. 
 At present we proceed to notice such other objects iti 
 the neighbourhood as are deserving of attention, and 
 possess general as well as local or scientific attractions. 
 
CHAP. IV. 
 
 ROMAN STATION AT WHITLEY. 
 
 Walk by Tyne Side— Bed of the River— Randalholme Hall— His- 
 toty, Antiquities, and Inscriptions of the Station — Maiden 
 Way, or Roman Military Way. 
 
 The Roman station at Whitley, distant two miles 
 from Alston, and lying near the turnpike leading from 
 that town to Brampton, may be very soon and conve- 
 niently visited on horseback ; but when time admits, 
 and the river is not swollen, the walk to it from Alston 
 or Lowbyer inn by Randalholme and Kirkhaugh is 
 exceedingly pleasant ; and varying the walk by re- 
 turning on the opposite side of the Tyne is almost 
 equally so. A footpath leads from Lowbyer inn past 
 the old manor-house, and by stepping a short distance 
 from it to the river side, may be seen the entrance of 
 a horse level or adit driven for the discovery of veins. 
 This situation also alFords a view of the confluence of 
 the rivers Tyne and Nent, and of the town of Alston. 
 A few yards from the level mouth a mineral vein may 
 be seen crossing a small syke; to strangers it is not 
 very obvious, and may require to be pointed out. If 
 any of the miners are present, the strangers' attention 
 may be directed to an instance which here occurs of 
 what is called the throw of veins — the limestone rock 
 be ing several feet higher on one side of the vein than 
 the other. But this and other similar details v/ill be 
 more fully explained afterwards. 
 
 The visitor may either return to the footpath, or 
 pursue a briery but romantic walk along the edge 
 
34 CATS-SCAR. 
 
 of the river, past a nursery belonging to Greenwich 
 Hospital, containing about seven acres of land, in 
 which the numerous plantations now rising in several 
 parts of the manor have been reared. This path 
 joins the former at a deep bathing place, called 
 the tui'nwheel, where the river sides are formed by 
 the same scar limestone stratum that Nentforce falls 
 over. The footpath continues through a few fields or 
 holmes, the luxuriant and flowery crops of meadow in 
 which, render them exceedingly beautiful in summer. 
 The adjoining banks are steep, for the greater part 
 covered with wood, and form a romantic amphi- 
 theatre, which has excited great admiration even in 
 travellers who have explored distant continents. Before 
 ascending the steep and woody bank through which 
 the footpath ascends, the lover of fine scenery or of 
 natural history will spend a little time on the banks 
 and rocky bed of the Tyne near this place. About 
 fifty yards lower down the stream, is a steep precipice 
 called Cats-Scar, and near it the scar limestone, on 
 which the river flows, is curiously worn into lozenge- 
 shaped prisms, traversing which may be seen a great 
 number of what are called, by some geologists, con- 
 temporaneous veins, — and which present in miniature 
 so many of the phenomena attendant on the important 
 mineral veins as to form, with a little explanation, an 
 interesting illustration, or rather elementary lesson, in 
 this department of geology. 
 
 From the top of Cats-Scar, is an interesting and 
 beautiful prospect of the Tyne and its curiously-fretted 
 channel below, of the hanging woods on the left, with 
 a full view of the town of Alston. Behind it rise 
 the extensive and dreary moors of Rodderup, and 
 beyond them the mountain of Crossfell rears its gigan- 
 tic head. 
 
RANDALHOLME HALL CASTLENOOK. 35 
 
 An ancient peel-house, now white-washed, with an 
 armorial escutcheon of stone on the north front, stands 
 near the foot-path. This is Randalholme Hall, for- 
 merly the seat of the family of Randals, one of whom, 
 William Randal Featherstonhaugh Ricardson Randal, 
 is buried in the parish church. The estate has been 
 recently purchased by the Commissioners and Gover- 
 nors of Greenwich Hospital. The substitution of a 
 slated roof and gables in place of the old flat lead roof 
 and battlements, and its occupation as a farm-house, 
 have materially lessened the antiquity of its appearance, 
 which well comported with its massive walls, some of 
 which are upwards of seven feet in thickness. 
 
 On the north side of these premises a small bridge 
 crosses Ale Burn, which here forms the boundary of 
 Northumberland, and a pleasant woody road leads from 
 hence by the east side of the Tyne to Kirkhaugh church. 
 About a hundred yards above this humble edifice are 
 stepping stones across the river, after passing which, 
 a cart-road somewhat to the right leads through a few 
 fields to the farm-house of Castlenook, so called from 
 its contiguity to the Roman station, which lies toward 
 the common, about a furlong south-west. 
 
 This interesting remain of antiquity is lozenge- 
 shaped in form. The angles included by the sides are 
 65° and 120°, and the length of the sides on the 
 summit of the station is 150 yards by 128 yards; 
 but the total area included by the escarpments and 
 ditches amounts to nine acres. On the north are four, 
 and on the west seven ditches in remarkably good 
 preservation. The former extending in breadth from 
 the summit of the station about 40 yards, and the 
 latter 90. Still further north are the remains of the 
 Hypocausta or baths — the supposed cemetery of the 
 station — and, what is rather a variety in antiquarian 
 
36 
 
 noMAN ALTAR. 
 
 researches, the perfect remains of a Roman viidden- 
 stead, which, strange as it may appear, has furnished 
 many loads of excellent manure to the neighbouring 
 fields, and been hitheilo the productive mine of seve- 
 ral interesting curiosities. 
 
 The history of the station is obscure. Mr. Horsley 
 supposed it to be Alione garrisoned by the third cohort 
 of the Nervii, but this opinion has been refuted, says 
 Mr. Hodgson, by subsequent discoveries. Its former 
 importance is however fully testified, as well by its 
 extensive works as by the inscriptions and other vesti- 
 ges of antiquity which have been found. Several of 
 these are said to have been removed from the station 
 about a century ago, and taken by Sir Thomas Robin- 
 son to his seat at Rookby in Huntingdonshire. Among 
 those that have been subsequently discovered, may be 
 enumerated — 
 
 An altar found about twenty-five years ago in the 
 cemetery, a few yards from the north-east corner of 
 the station, with the following inscription : — 
 
 DEO 
 
 HERCVLI 
 
 C. VITELLIVS 
 
 ATTICIANVS 
 
 C. LEG. VI 
 
 V. P. F. 
 
 The inscription on this altar may be read as 
 
 follows : — 
 
ROMAN INSCRIPTIONS. 37 
 
 DEO HERCULI 
 
 CAIUS VITELLIUS 
 
 ATTICIANUS 
 
 CENTURIO LEGIONIS SEXT^ 
 
 VICTRICIS PONENS FECIT, 
 
 Or, SEXTiE VOTUM PERFICIENS FECIT. 
 
 Signifying that this altar was erected to the God 
 Hercules, by Caius Vitellius Atticianus. 
 
 On the right-hand corner of the inscription side of 
 the altar, a serpent is represented coiled round a tree, 
 and attacked by a rude figure intended to represent 
 Hercules with a club, which is cut on the adjoining 
 side of the altar. On the other side is a similar figure 
 representing the same deity strangling a serpent in 
 each hand. It was found fixed in a pedestal. On the 
 top is a square hole, in which it is probable a statue of 
 Hercules was fixed, as the head, a hand, and feet of a 
 colossal statue were found at the same time and place. 
 The head is yet preserved at the neighbouring farm- 
 house, — the altar was purchased for 7I. about ten years 
 ago, and taken to London. 
 
 Camden gives the following inscription found at this 
 station: — 
 
 IMP. CAES. Lucii Septimi Severi Ara 
 
 BICI. ADIABENICI PARTHICI, 
 
 MAX. FIL. DIV[ ANTONINI Pii Germanici 
 
 SARMA. NEP. DIV. ANTONINI PII PRON 
 
 DIVI HADRIANI ABN DIVI TRAIANI 
 
 PARTH. ET DIVI NERViE ADNEPOTI 
 
 M. AVRELIO ANTONINO PIO 
 
 FEL. AVG. GERMANICO PONT. MAX. 
 
 TR. POT . . X . . IMP .... COS. IIII. P. P. . . . 
 
 PRO PIETATE AEDE .... VOTO .... 
 
 COMMUNI CYRANTE 
 
 LEGATO AVG. 
 
 PR COH, III. NERVIO .... 
 
 RVM . . G. R. POS. 
 
 E 
 
38 ROMAN INSCRIPTIONS. 
 
 The original is probably destroyed. Mr. Horsley 
 gives the following reading of it from a copy which 
 he found at Appleby : — 
 
 IMPERATORIS CAESARIS LUCII SEVERI ARABIC! 
 
 ADIABENICI PARTHICI 
 
 MAXIMI FILIO DIVI ANTONINI PII 
 
 SARMATICI NEPOTI DIVI ANTONINI PII PRONEPOTI 
 
 DIVI HADRIANI ABNEPOTI DIVI TRAJANI 
 
 PARTHICI ET DIVI NERV^E ABNEPOTI 
 
 MARCO AURELIO ANTONINO PIO 
 
 FELICI AUGUSTO GERMANICO PONTIFICI MAXIMO 
 
 TRIBUNITItE POTESTATIS DECIMUM . . IMPERATORI 
 
 CONSULI QUARTUM PATRI PATRIAE 
 
 PRO PIETATE ^DEM EX VOTO 
 COMMUNI CURANTI 
 LEGATO AUGUSTALI 
 COHORS TERTIA NERVIORUM 
 GENIO ViOUM POSUIT. 
 
 Mr. Horsley found a fragment of an inscription 
 which referred to Caracalla, and there was, in his time, 
 a centurial stone here inscribed VEX. LEG. xx VV. 
 REFEC. And in the church-yard at Kirkhaugh an 
 altar dedicated DEAE MINERVAE ET HERCULI 
 VICTOR. 
 
 A small altar, on which are carved a patera and 
 urceolus, is fixed above the stable door at the east end 
 of the farm-house ; and a pegasus or winged horse, 
 rudely carved on a small stone, is built into the wall 
 of one of the outhouses. 
 
 About twenty-two years ago, the remains of a fine 
 sudatory were found at the north-east corner of the 
 station^ out of which issues a clear and plentiful spring. 
 
 In 1810, Mr. Hodgson found many of the pillars of 
 the Hypocaustum standing covei*ed with large thin 
 slabs of freestone and a strong calcareous cement, but 
 most of them have been removed at different times for 
 
ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 39 
 
 building materials, so that few vestiges of this part now 
 remain. 
 
 In 1825, Mr. Henderson, the proprietor of the estate 
 in which this part of the station is situated, in cutting 
 a drain, discovered a large quantity of manure under 
 a slight covering of soil, and, on trying a few experi- 
 ments, found it useful as such, and laid considerable 
 quantities on the adjoining land. In excavating it a 
 number of curious remains were found, several of 
 which are yet preserved at the farm-house. Among 
 these were a great number of shoe-soles of various 
 shapes and sizes ; the larger one, now in Wallington 
 Museum, measures 7^ inches, and the other 5i inches 
 in length. They are fastened by leather thongs and 
 round-headed nails. A boot found at the same place 
 is also preserved in the Museum at Wallington. 
 
 A copper breast-pin was found here, and is now in 
 the possession of Wm. Crawhall, Esq., of Allenheads. 
 A spoon, apparently of the same metal, was found in 
 
 1829. 
 
 Various fragments of earthen red tile, and of vessels 
 of different kinds, have been found from time to time, 
 many of them containing groups of horses and human 
 figures in relief. Fragments also of leaden pipe, glass 
 bottle necks, spring rings, a wooden comb, numerous 
 Roman querns or handmills, the stone of some of which 
 has been brought from quarries on the Rhine in Ger- 
 many, and a huge battle-axe, are among the heteroge- 
 neous mass of antiquities thus singularly preserved. 
 
 The vast extent of the station, and of its numerous 
 breast- works and ditches, forcibly impress a conviction 
 of the prowess of the mighty people whose occupation 
 of the country is thus perpetuated. Great indeed must 
 be the want of susceptibility in the mind which can 
 view ruins so stupendous without feelings of extreme 
 
40 ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 
 
 interest. The contemplative mind, surrounded with 
 such visible traces of so distant a period, -will revert to 
 the past history of the sixteen centuries which have 
 since transpired, will mourn for the brave spirits who 
 here, as in nearly the whole world as then known, 
 erected their standard and left such gigantic memorials 
 of their triumphs, — will rejoice in the concurring events 
 which have converted the desolated field of war into a 
 peaceful and happy country, — and in the immediate as- 
 sociation of long-departed glories, with the solitary ruin 
 which now prevails, will find no ordinary lesson of the 
 fleeting and shadowy nature of earthly renown. Such 
 impressions are much strengthened by the familiar 
 nature of many of the fragments recently found. The 
 ruined station and heathen altars remind us of a war- 
 like, superstitious, and powerful race of people, regard- 
 ed without any congenial feelings of sympathy. But 
 on examining such articles as shoes, combs, spoons, 
 and breast-pins, — their familiar and every-day nature 
 induces that social feeling which is always inspired by 
 similar usages or wants ; and it is singularly interest- 
 ing to contemplate them remaining in so perfect a state 
 after those who constructed and wore or used them 
 have slept the sleep of death for sixteen hundred 
 years. 
 
 A house formerly stood on the east side of the sta- 
 tion, in which John Wallis, the historian of Northum- 
 berland, was born in 1714. 
 
 The present farm-house stands on the Maiden Way, 
 or Roman military way, which extends from Caervorran 
 on the Roman wall to Kirkby Thore in Westmoreland, 
 where it joins the great Roman road called Watling 
 Street, Its course may be plainly traced in the fields 
 south of the house, past the village of Whitley to 
 Gilderdale Burn, whex-e it enters Cumberland. It may 
 
ROMAN WAY. 41 
 
 be observed, that an old road from Brampton to Alston 
 passed considerably nearer the station than the present 
 one, and as only imperfect traces of it remain, it might 
 possibly be mistaken for the Roman road. It passed 
 on the west side of the station, crossed the Maiden 
 Way near Whitley village, and had a bridge over 
 Gilderdale Burn, only a few hundred yards below 
 where the Maiden Way crosses. Thenceforth their 
 courses southward are very different. The turnpike 
 may be traced very plainly through a large pasture 
 called Wanwood Bent, passing rather eastward and to- 
 ward the town of Alston. The track of the Maiden 
 W^ay is more obscurely seen v.inding obliquely and 
 rather to the west up Gilderdale Forest : it continues 
 between Park Fell and Scarberry, and may again be 
 very distinctly seen for a considerable distance from 
 the turnpike leading to Hartside, which crosses it 
 within a few yards of the western boundary of the 
 manor of Alston Moor. It is here about seven yards 
 wide, and formed of large stones. After crossing Row- 
 gill Cleugh, it ascends and passes over the highest 
 ridge of the Penine Chain, about a mile north of the 
 summit of Crossfell Mountain, continuing down the 
 steep escarpment of that mountain to Milburn, and 
 thence to Kirkby Thore. 
 
 On returning by the turnpike to Alston, Gilderdale 
 Burn, at the distance of about half a mile from the 
 station, divides the counties of Northumberland and 
 Cumberland. On the 24.th of July, 1829, these parts 
 were visited by a dreadful storm of thunder and rain, 
 which continued the whole of the afternoon and even- 
 ing. The sides of the neighbouring mountains, not- 
 withstanding their rapid declivity, were literally cover- 
 ed with sheets of water, which rolled down with 
 resistless violence, in many places tearing up the sur- 
 E '6 
 
42 GILDERDALE BURN. 
 
 face, and in a great measure destroying the bridges 
 over Gilderdale, Lort, and Thornhope Burns. The 
 latter was entirely taken away, and the former had 
 only the wall on one side left standing. Gilderdale 
 Burn runs on a stratum of limestone, which, above 
 Garrigill, forms the bed of the Tyne for upwards 
 of four miles, and is hence called the Tyne bottom 
 limestone. A little below the bridge, Gilderdale Burn 
 sinks in this limestone, and pursues a subterraneous 
 channel for some distance. About three quarters of 
 a mile from this bridge, a footpath leads past a 
 farm-house called Harbetlaw, and through fields to 
 Tyne bridge at Alston ; near which is a shot tower, 
 which, with embrasures at the top and a house adjoin- 
 ing, has much the appearance of a church. It is 56 
 feet high, and is built over a shaft of nearly the same 
 depth. The shot is brought out by a level at the base 
 of the steep hill on which the tower is built. 
 
CHAP. V. 
 
 CROSSFELL MOUNTAIN. 
 
 Ascent — Prospect — Sunrise — Western Descent — Dufton Pike, &c. 
 
 The usual ascent of this gigantic mountain by stran- 
 gers is from Garrigill Gate, between three and four 
 miles from Alston. From this village an awkward road 
 climbs in a very zigzag manner to the dark brow of a 
 steep mountain fell called the Black-band Edge, which 
 commands a fine view of the adjoining vale of Tyne. 
 The road is continued in a nearly direct line over a flat 
 and heathy moor, presenting a wild and sterile pros- 
 pect, void of any remarkable feature save that of wide 
 and solitary desolation. Even Crossfell does not seem 
 greatly elevated, so much does its immense bulk and 
 long flat summit destroy the effect of its altitude at a 
 distance. But on a nearer approach, its huge and 
 rugged sides assume a noble aspect, and when covered 
 with snow a very sublime one. The admiration of 
 this, however, as well as the unpleasing effect of so 
 dreary a view, are alike counteracted by the care re- 
 quired in riding along a road of the most miserable 
 description, the greater part of it being made entirely 
 for the use of the mines, consists merely of rough stones 
 loosely thrown on to prevent ore galloways sinking in 
 the moss. The horses or ponies on which strangers 
 usually ascend the greater part of the mountain, are 
 left either at the Smelt Mill, four miles and a half from 
 
4<4! CUOSSFELL MOUNTAIN. 
 
 Garrigill, or at Lang Kate Lock mining shop, which 
 is a mile and a half further along the side of the moun- 
 tain. By continuing three-quarters of a mile past 
 this place, and then ascending the steep face of the 
 mountain due south for the same distance, the highest 
 summit is gained at a stone currock, erected by Col, 
 Mudge when engaged with the trigonometrical sur- 
 veys. The entire distance from Alston by this route 
 is ten miles and a half. 
 
 To the tourist who is so fortunate as to be here in a 
 clear atmosphere, a prospect is afforded which richly 
 repays the laborious journey required to gain it. All 
 the most prominent features of one of the most inter- 
 esting portions of England are seen spread out in end- 
 less variety — hundreds of square miles of rich culti- 
 vated land, diversified with forests and innumerable 
 and variously-coloured fields, lying like a map beneath 
 the spectator, present a scene of unparalleled richness 
 and beauty. No details, however minute, can convey 
 an idea of the magnificent spectacle, and if the weather 
 only prove favourable for the view, the tourist here 
 runs no risk of being disappointed by overdone des- 
 cription, for no account, however florid, can equal, 
 much less exceed, the attractions here presented to the 
 delighted and astonished observer. 
 
 The following extracts are from notes of an excursion 
 to Crossfell and the western declivities of the adjoining 
 mountain ridge, by one of a party who spent a night 
 on the summit of this mountain a few summers ago. 
 
 " We left Alston in the afternoon, and walked in an 
 hour and a half to the summit of Rodderup Fell. The 
 atmosphere was hazy, and the heat very oppressive. 
 From this place Crossfell has a commanding ap- 
 pearance. We proceeded leisurely to the summit of this 
 mountain, where we arrived at 7 o'clock, and found 
 
CROSSFELL MOUNTAIN. 45 
 
 the rest of our party who had gone by Garrigill Gate. 
 A hazy atmosphere still obscured the beautiful low 
 countries west of the mountain. Soon after the sun's 
 bright and fiery orb assumed a deep crimson colour, 
 and sunk among dark and heavy clouds in the distant 
 horizon, 
 
 "Alston Moor appeared perfectly clear, and pre- 
 sented a wide and sterile prospect ; its naked moors 
 being fully exposed to view, and its cultivated portions 
 too distant, and too much bui-ied in the valleys, 
 to impart a cheerful contrast to the dreary and exten- 
 sive hills. Nothing remarkable appeared, save white 
 volumes of mist, which slowly rose from the deep val- 
 leys at the base of the mountain. 
 
 " Having pitched a tent one hundred yards north of 
 Col. Mudge's currock, we sat down at 9 o'clock to a 
 very comfortable repast, and had the satisfaction of 
 supping on one of the most elevated stations in the 
 kingdom. Our coffee boiled with water fresh from the 
 mountain spring, mixed with excellent cream, and 
 drank with appetites heightened by mountain air and 
 arduous exertion, had a truly delightful relish, — the 
 more so as we had provided every comfort in abun- 
 dance, and felt the highest gratification in accomplish- 
 ing the journey. At 10 we were joined by some other 
 friends, and spent an hour in rambling along the out- 
 skirts of the summit, in visiting Gentleman's Well, and 
 surveying the stupendous masses of stone piled in tre- 
 mendous confusion at the north extremity of the 
 mountain, and which form the steep ascent or peak so 
 observable from Alston. On some of these immense 
 blocks we sat down, and viewed the western plains 
 below, the luxuriant features of which were just dis- 
 cernible by the moonlight shining through a hazy 
 atmosphere. 
 
46 CROSSFELL MOUNTAIN. 
 
 " The cold * was now as severe as the heat of the 
 preceding day had been oppressive, but for this we 
 had provided by sending on horseback extra suits of 
 clothes, which, with great coats, plaids, comforters, and 
 mittens, a good covering over the tent, a blazing fire 
 in front, and some excellent grog, sufficed to render 
 us very comfortable. An amusing tale, by the Ettrick 
 Shepherd, was read by one of the party till midnight, 
 when, putting out our lights, we lay down, but only 
 reposed, not slept. This was not owing to want of 
 comfort, but to the interest of the scene around us ren- 
 dered impressively sublime by deep midnight silence, 
 and the moon's stately course through the clear canopy 
 above ; admiration of these dispelled all thoughts of 
 sleep. At one the morning began to dawn, and soon 
 shed its ' genial rays' along the distant horizon, 
 formed by the Cheviot, Rimside, and Simonside hills, 
 the deep purple hue of which, contrasted with the 
 golden sky behind, had a sublime effect. The thin 
 grey clouds floating in the clear blue sky above gra- 
 dually assumed the most exquisite tints, until at 3 
 o'clock a long and thin dark cloud, which stretched 
 along the horizon, suddenly became a brilliant line of 
 refulgent light, a beautiful harbinger of the scarcely 
 more brilliant sun which soon after rose with inex- 
 pressible grandeur amid the silence and sublimity of 
 the vast scene before us. All nature seemed to re- 
 spond the deep and solemn feeling impressed by so 
 sublime a spectacle ; the ' wilderness and solitary place' 
 again became glad, and the desert seemed once more 
 to rejoice in the commencement of another day. With 
 
 * The Thetmometer at Midnight was 42 degrees. 
 At 1 in the Morning, - - 43 degrees. 
 At 2 in the Morning, - - 41| degrees. 
 At Sunrise, . - ... 44 degrees. 
 
CROSSFELL MOUNTAIN. 47 
 
 such feelings we silently gazed on this glorious 
 scene, until the solar beams illuminating the western 
 portion of the island, we turned to contemplate its 
 beauties as the lessening shade of the mountain pre- 
 sented them to our view. 
 
 " It is quite impossible to convey to those who 
 have not witnessed it, a correct or even a tolerable idea 
 of the view from Crossfell. So vast in extent — so rich 
 in detail — so various in its features. The Cumbrian 
 mountains piled in stupendous grandeur, range along 
 the western horizon, and with Stanemoor and the 
 mountains of Westmoreland on the south, and those of 
 Scotland on the north, form a panorama of the most 
 stupendous and magnificent scenery. The cultivated 
 lands of Westmoreland and Cumberland have an ex- 
 ceedingly beautiful appearance, fraught with all the 
 variety which can adorn the face of nature. Lakes and 
 mountains, hills and valleys, fields and forests, towns 
 and villages, heathy moors and flowery gardens, halls 
 and cottages, the stately and the humble ' homes of 
 England,' the ' tall ancestral trees' and the deep 
 woody dells, the venerable cathedral and the village 
 spire ; these and innumerable other details are spread 
 over the vast expanse so fully exposed to view from 
 the signmit of Crossfell mountain. 
 
 " A little after sunrise, the air being very cold and 
 piercing, we struck our tent and formed with it a screen 
 to the windward of a large stone flag, which we raised 
 for a table, and placed stone seats around. After par- 
 taking of an excellent breakfast, we repaired to Gen- 
 tleman's Well ; here we washed and dressed, and after 
 packing up our superfluous clothing, made by active 
 exercise a gradual transition from the cold of a Cross- 
 fell night to the increasing warmth of a burning mid- 
 summer day. After examining the country through 
 
48 CROSSFteLL MOUNTAIN. 
 
 glasses, assisted in the local topography of the districts 
 by maps of the neighbouring counties, we commenced 
 the descent of the western escarpment of the mountain. 
 This sid,e is much steeper than the other, a prominent 
 and very prevailing feature in this chain of mountains, 
 and indeed of mountains generally. After a gradual 
 descent of about a mile, we arrived at the edge of a 
 very steep declivity of great depth, and nearly covered 
 with tremendous masses of broken rock and projecting 
 cliffs. At the bottom of this rolls the fierce and rumb- 
 ling torrent of Crowdundle Beck, which here divides 
 the counties of Westmoreland and Cumberland. To 
 the left, the desolate ravine through which it flows 
 passes the mountain side, and, widening on the other 
 hand, forms a fearful but sublime amphitheatre of 
 great height and steepness. The descent of these rug- 
 ged steeps by those unaccustomed to them can only be 
 effected by digging with the heels a support for each 
 succeeding step — holding by masses of stone or by the 
 short and slippery grass, or by climbing over the screeds 
 or immense masses of broken stone. On the opposite 
 side we encountered similar difficulties, stretching wide 
 paces from rock to I'ock, or among large loose blocks, — a 
 false step, an infirm grasp, or a yielding stone, might 
 have precipitated us to the bottom. After leaving this 
 ravine, we again proceeded on our descent to near the 
 base of the mountain, three miles from the summit. 
 Here we rested, and viewed with much admiration 
 the prospect of the mountain we had descended. Suc- 
 cessive ranges of steep projecting hills form the fore- 
 ground. Beyond these rise the tremendous and pre- 
 cipitous cliffs of the north side of the ravine we had 
 passed — their surface beautifully varied by the visible 
 bassett of the strata — the pale hazel and the dark 
 mountain limestone ; and in the midst may be traced 
 
DUFTON PIKE. 4^ 
 
 the bold rising and solidity of the Great Rundle bed 
 or Melmerby scar limestone. Above these rose the 
 extreme summit of the mountain, at this time beau- 
 tifully clear, and tinged with a delicate purple shade, 
 which, like a royal robe, invested the highest sum- 
 mit of the Penine Alps, 
 
 " Our route was now directed to Dufton Pike, a 
 steep and lofty hill distant apparently about two, but 
 in reality seven miles from the top of Crossfell, so very 
 deceiving is distance among these mountains, which, 
 by their immensity, confound all ideas of proportion. 
 Hill after hill, vale after vale, were passed, and at every 
 eminence we reached, our distance from Dufton Pike 
 seemed increased, instead of lessened ; and when at 
 length one only moor extended between its base and 
 us, it seemed as far distant, if not more so than it had 
 appeared, four hours before, from the commanding 
 summit of Crossfell. 
 
 " Our path lay along the western base of the Penine 
 Chain, and was crossed by numerous ravines. Down 
 the steep sides of these we ran or climbed as best 
 suited, and sometimes slid with great ease and velocity 
 when the ground would admit. At one place the 
 leader sat down on the edge of a steep brae, and slid 
 about 150 feet, followed by the rest of the party, 
 who in less than a minute looked with some surprise 
 at the eminence so swiftly and pleasantly descended. 
 The heat, now increased by the reflection of bai"e hills, 
 became very oppressive, and a partial bathe in the 
 rivulets which we crossed occasionally afforded an 
 agreeable refreshment. 
 
 " Arrived at the north part of Dufton Pike, a per- 
 fect hay-stack or pyramid of a mountain, we found 
 that the shortness and dryness of the burnt-up grass 
 F 
 
50 DUFTON PIKE. 
 
 rendered the ascent both difficult and dangerous, and, 
 after proceeding some distance up, we abandoned the 
 intention of gaining the summit, which the excessive 
 warmth, with our previous fatigue, would have ren- 
 dered an arduous undertaking. We therefore sat down, 
 and dined where we were, and afterwards slid with 
 great speed to the base. 
 
 " Crossfell commands an exceedingly fine view, so 
 does Dufton Pike, and with this great advantage, that 
 while the foreground of the one is formed by dreary 
 fells, that of the other consists of the luxuriant tresses 
 of fertility which embrace the very sides, not of a 
 brown and dreary moor, but of a steep green hill ris- 
 ing suddenly from well-cultivated land. Far as the 
 eye can reach, it beholds verdure smiling over an ex- 
 tensive and beautiful country — the soil is tinged 
 with the ruddy colour of the prevailing stratum of 
 red sandstone — the waters of the Eden and other 
 streams sparkled like molten silver with the reflection 
 of meridian rays, and flowed through a landscape of 
 such inimitable loveliness as to seem a perfect paradise 
 — while the huge and rugged but sublime formation of 
 the distant Cumbrian mountains as forcibly bespoke 
 the wreck of a disjointed world. Such was our pros- 
 pect from this place, a prospect so rich and gay — so 
 bright and fair in some respects, and so terribly sub- 
 lime in others, that our enthusiastic admiration of its 
 beauties was only equalled by the surprise that any 
 portion of this earth should present so brilliant a 
 spectacle." 
 
 An account of Crossfell Mountain, published in the 
 Gentleman's Magazine for 174.7, commences thus : — 
 " A mountain that is generally ten months buried in 
 snow and eleven in clouds cannot fail of exciting the 
 attention and curiosity of a traveller." U these 
 
CROSSFELL MOUNTAIN. 51 
 
 dread features then constituted its only claims to 
 attention and curiosity, they are, however inviting, 
 now entirely forfeited. Winter indeed slowly and 
 reluctantly withdraws his hoary mantle from the 
 bosom of this alpine hill, and mists and clouds delight 
 to hover round its summit ; but these form poor 
 attractions for a stranger, and their comparative dura- 
 tion as stated above is greatly exaggerated. Indeed 
 the waiter himself humorously enough adds, " Being 
 the 13th of August, and a long drought and hot season, 
 we were not able to find the least relics of snow in 
 places most likely for it, which is very extraordinary." 
 The same writer describes the ascent of Crossfell from 
 Blackburn as follows : — " We are now so much en- 
 vironed with large and extended morasses, rocks, and 
 mountains, that they exhibit a very frightful appear- 
 ance ; not the vestige of a house, except some old 
 shiels, where, in former ages, the people had resorted, 
 like the Asiatic Tartars, to graze their cattle in sum- 
 mer — a practice now disused. There were a few sheep, 
 but no deer that we could see, though there are 
 several on the heights ; and, notwithstanding the ex- 
 traordinary drought, the water followed our horses' 
 footsteps for miles together, except where the ground 
 was rotten." 
 
 " We had now ascended gradually about three miles 
 through very broken morassy wastes, when the moun- 
 tain began to rise in three very formidable ascents, 
 very steep, in the manner of Mount Lebanon, piled one 
 above another, with large and extensive plains to each 
 of them, and loose shivery stones on brows, very trou- 
 blesome to the horses, which we were obliged some- 
 times to quit. This continued for two miles more, 
 when we got on the edge of the highest, which forms a 
 capacious plain of several hundred acres if you reckon 
 
52 CROSSFELL MOUNTAIN. 
 
 from the east ascent, but of such barren soil that there 
 was not so much as a single leaf of grass, herb, or plant 
 to be found in so large a plain, exclusive of a few of 
 those rings attributed to fairies, some of which are 
 perfect circles of the gramen glumis variis in botany, 
 ascribed by Linnseus, in his description of the Baltic 
 isles, to a particular quality of its affecting the dirtiest 
 soil, where no grass can thrive. This immense plain 
 has no other verdure, therefore, but a venerable aspect 
 from the moss or down, and this can hardly draw a 
 subsistence to support itself, so inconceivably barren 
 is this distinguished eminence." 
 
 The height of Crossfell is variously stated, and has 
 probably not been ascertained with great exactness. 
 Donald makes it 3390, Pennant 3839, and Col. Mudge 
 only 2901 feet above the level of the sea. Its latitude 
 is stated, in Hutchinson's History of Cumberland, to 
 be 54" 42' 05" north ; and in computing its height, the 
 Rev. William Richardson, in an account of the moun- 
 tain, says, " its elevation from Lazonby Bridge, near 
 Kirkoswald, is 9IO or 912 yards, and allowing 6 yards 
 more for the height of the bridge over the river Eden, 
 it will be about 9I8 yards, and if you allow 80 yards 
 for the fall of the river Eden into Solway Frith, the 
 hill will even then be scarcely 1000 above the level of 
 the sea. Its distance from Kirkoswald is 1 1 miles and 
 1040 yards." 
 
 He adds, " The most delightful sight — the most 
 noble spectacle I ever saw, was the sun rising when I 
 was on the summit of Crossfell, on the 18th day of 
 June. It is infinitely grander than a setting sun." 
 
CHAP. VI. 
 
 HARTSIDEs 
 
 Prospect — Comparison of other Mountain Views — Helm 
 Wind, &c. 
 
 Those who have not time or inclination to undertake 
 the laborious excursion to Crossfell, may enjoy a con- 
 siderable portion of the view which it commands from 
 where the turnpike road from Alston to Penrith crosses 
 the highest ridge of the same mountainous chain at 
 Hartside — distant about six miles from the former 
 town. The excellent state and very gradual ascent 
 of the road render this station easily accessible, though 
 the summit level is probably the highest turnpike in 
 England. Here a prospect of almost boundless extent, 
 comprising a large portion of the county of Cumber- 
 land, is presented to the view. The most varied and 
 luxuriant cultivation extends over immense plains and 
 gently undulated hills as far as the eye can distinguish 
 these lesser features of the landscape — chequered with 
 innumerable divisions, with waving forests and the 
 richest variety of corn lands, fertile meadows, and 
 bright green pastures intersected with fine hedge- 
 rows. The dark umbrage of village trees contrasted 
 by the lively aspect of the whitewashed houses, while 
 mountain streams, lakes, and rivers may be traced as 
 on a map. The features of the distant view are un- 
 commonly grand ; the mountains of the lake district 
 F 3 
 
S4i HARTSIDE. 
 
 extend along the western horizon, presenting a spec- 
 tacle of unequalled magnificence; the lake of UUs- 
 water, at twenty miles distance, is clearly distinguished 
 in the midst of the romantic recesses, while the tower- 
 ing forms of Skiddaw and Saddleback, powerfully 
 impress the character of sublimity on this tremendous 
 and precipitous chain of mountains; in the north-west, 
 the city of Carlisle, and the fine scenery adjoining, are 
 plainly seen ; behind them, the Solway Frith stretches 
 across the country, and beyond its smooth and silver 
 surface, rise the shores and distant hills of Scotland, 
 forming the horizon of this inimitable prospect, which 
 in favourable weather excites the unqualified astonish- 
 ment and admiration of every beholder. It may be 
 observed that the atmosphere is seldom so perfectly 
 clear as to afford a distinct view of this extensive scene 
 in every direction ; but though a sight of the innu- 
 merable minute details which are then visible is ex- 
 tremely interesting, yet the general effect is often not so 
 fine as when some portions of it are partially obscured. 
 Clouds floating on the mountain summit — oceans of 
 dense mists floating over the immer^se plains below, 
 here and there pierced by little eminences which seem 
 like islands — and often by evaporating gradually, 
 unfold the beauties of the scene in a most sublime 
 manner. The shades of evening add depth and 
 blueness to the mountainous horizon, and the reflection 
 of the setting sun in the Solway Frith, at such 
 times, seems like a broad line of fire drawn across the 
 country. These are a few of the varieties which often 
 fully compensate for the want of an extremely clear 
 atmosphere. The best station for commanding this 
 prospect is on a projecting brow of the hill at Toot- 
 hope, close to the edge of, and about half a mile along 
 the old road which branches to the left from the new 
 
HAIITSIDE. 55 
 
 line beside a small shieling immediately on gaining the 
 summit of the fell. 
 
 As a mountain view, the spread-out, map-like cha- 
 racter of the country and great variety of prospect 
 afiforded by Hartside, are probably unequalled in these 
 kingdoms. It is, however, difficult, if not presump- 
 tuous, to award such a distinction amidst the varied 
 and magnificent scenes which nature in this favoured 
 isle so often presents. Much admiration had this 
 prospect ever afforded to the writer of these notices of 
 it, but it was not until after witnessing other remark- 
 able and far-famed prospects from other mountains 
 that he was led to form so favourable an estimate of 
 the comparative merits of the view from Hartside. 
 
 To many of these, indeed, a high degree of admira- 
 tion must be awarded. The wide extended plains and 
 gently undulated hills near Stirling, silvered with the 
 tortuous windings of the Forth, and " gloomed" with 
 the frowning barrier of the Ochils, and in the blue 
 aerial distance the faintly-seen Ben Lomond and the 
 chain of the Grampians, even in the dimness of this vast 
 distance indicating by their rugged outline the terrible 
 grandeur of their romantic solitudes. Arthur's Seat, 
 looking proudly down on a city of palaces — combining 
 at once the attractions of picturesque beauty and of 
 architectural magnificence ; on one side, the Montpelier 
 of Scotland, its fine lake, smooth lawns, and shady 
 trees, on another, the rocky scars of Salisbury crags — 
 beyond them, a beautiful country scattered over with 
 pleasant fields, and villages, and trees, and the tame 
 flatness of part of the distant horizon varied by the 
 bolder outline of the Pentlands. Eildon Hill, near 
 Melrose, commands an almost perfect panoramic pros- 
 pect of one of the fairest portions of Scotland, which, 
 however grand and extensive as it is, has no horizon 
 
56 MOUNTAIN VIEWS 
 
 of sea or mighty mountain to complete the " sublime" 
 of this species of landscape. The rounded acclivities 
 and want of varied profile in the eastern portion of the 
 Cheviots, and the long and dark extended moors of 
 Ettrick, form an interesting but certainly not a grand 
 horizon. 
 
 The highest of the Cheviots commands an almost 
 boundless extent of view. If hills, like heads, have 
 phrenological bumps, then on Cheviot may we look for 
 a large developement of " extensiveness," for such con- 
 stitutes the principal feature of the view which it 
 affords. Mere extent, however, is more calculated to 
 employ the judgment, or please the imagination, than 
 to delight the eye. The most picturesque objects or 
 finely cultivated land, when far removed, are too 
 minute and indistinguishable to afford much beauty. 
 From Cheviot, the cultivated portions of the view are 
 very distant, and the intervening space is filled with a 
 dreary range of dark and flat moors and hills, — bai'e, 
 without the redeeming ruggedness of diluvial wreck 
 to impart a stubborn grandeur or suddenness of eleva- 
 tion, to create that picturesque variety which so beau- 
 tifully characterizes the western portion of the Cheviot 
 range. 
 
 Such is a rapid sketch of the general features of 
 some deservedly admired prospects, but a high degree 
 of admiration of them has served only to confirm an 
 unqualified preference to the views afforded by the 
 Penine range of hills — combining, as they do, an almost 
 boundless extent, luxuriant cultivation, — a sublime 
 amphitheatre of stupendous mountains — the placid lake 
 in the bosom of their deep recesses, and the lofty hills of 
 Scotland rising beyond the broad and silvery sea. 
 Whether such a prospect deserves the eminent distinc- 
 tion of being the finest in all England, must be left to 
 
MOUNTAIN VIEWS. 57 
 
 abler judges and more experienced eyes to determine. 
 It is, however, probably beyond all doubt, that no view 
 in these kingdoms, any way comparable to it, is of so 
 easy access, the summit of Hartside being crossed by 
 an excellent turnpike, which, though it leaves the best 
 station somewhat to the south, yet presents a consider- 
 able extent of the amazing view thus imperfectly at- 
 tempted to be described. 
 
 The mere sight of such extensive prospects, how- 
 ever interesting, is the least delightful part of the plea- 
 sure they afford. Deep and solemn veneration of the 
 Great Framer of so beautiful a world, either is, or 
 ought to be, impressed on every one who is permitted 
 to enjoy such evidences of the goodness and power of 
 the Author of nature. Every portion of the ample 
 page there spread before the astonished eye utters one 
 voice of silent but impressive praise, and cold and dark 
 must be the chambers of his heart who responds not 
 to it, — who rejoices not in the richness and beauty of 
 the fertile plains, admires not the august image of 
 Deity impressed in the glory of His works, and rises 
 not from the contemplation of them, to the beneficent 
 Being whose presiding care sustains them all ! — who 
 not only adorned the earth with beauty, and enriched 
 it with fruitfulness, but even in the barren hills poured 
 hidden treasures of wealth for the service of His crea- 
 tures. 
 
 Sentiments thus vividly impressed by the contem- 
 plation of such scenes, have an ennobling tendency, 
 and afford the most agreeable subjects of future medi- 
 tation. It has been very beautifully observed, that 
 " book learning is perhaps the least part of the educa- 
 tion of the species. Nature is the mightiest and kindli- 
 est of teachers. The rocks and unchanging hills give 
 to the mind a sensation of existence beyond that of the 
 
58 THE HELM WIND. 
 
 perishable body. The flowing stream images to the 
 soul an everlasting continuity of tranquil enjoyment. 
 I'he brave o'erhanging firmament imparts, even to the 
 most rugged swain, some consciousness of the universal 
 brotherhood of those over whom it hangs. The affec- 
 tions ask not leave of the understanding to glow, and 
 spread, and kindle, to shoot through all the frame a 
 tremulous joy, or animate to holiest constancy. We 
 taste the dearest blessedness of earth without being 
 able to express it in mortal language. The purest 
 delights grow tenderly beneath our feet, all who will 
 stoop may gather them, and, gifted with divine imagi- 
 nation, may walk in glory and in joy upon the moun- 
 tain side." 
 
 The helm wind is a curious local phenomenon, which 
 occurs along several miles of the western side of these 
 mountains, and to the violence of which the traveller 
 will be occasionally exposed. It derives its name from 
 being accompanied by a long band or cloud stretching 
 like a helmet over the summit of the hills, and occurs 
 more frequently in the spring and autumn than at other 
 times. Its duration is very various, from a few hours 
 to a few days. 
 
 The following interesting notices of this singular 
 phenomenon are chiefly extracted from Hutchinson's 
 History of Cumberland. 
 
 " Upon the summits of this lofty ridge of moun- 
 tains there frequently hangs a vast column of clouds, 
 in a sullen and drowsy state, having little movement ; 
 this heavy collection of vapours frequently extends 
 several miles in length, and dips itself from the 
 summit, half way down to the base of these emi- 
 nences; and frequently, at the same time, the other 
 mountains in view are clear of mist, and shew no 
 signs of rain. This helm or cloud, exhibits an aw- 
 
THE HELM WIND. 59 
 
 ful and solemn appearance, tinged with white by the 
 sun's rays that strike the upper parts, and spreading a 
 gloom below, over the inferior parts of the moun- 
 tains, like the shadows of night. When this collec- 
 tion of vapour first begins to gather upon the hills, 
 there is to be observed, hanging upon it, a black 
 strip of cloud, continually flying off and fed from 
 the white part, which is the real helm ; this strip 
 is called the helm bar, as, during its appearance, the 
 winds are thought to be resisted by it, for, on its 
 dispersion, they rage vehemently upon the valleys 
 beneath. The direction of the helm bar is parallel 
 to that part of the main cloud or collection of va- 
 pour that is tinged with white by being struck with 
 the sun's rays, the bar appears in continual agita- 
 tion, as boiling or struggling with contrary blasts ; 
 while the helm all this time keeps a motionless sta- 
 tion. When the bar is dispersed, the winds that issue 
 from the helm are sometimes extremely violent ; but 
 that force seems to be in proportion to the real cur- 
 rent of the winds which blow at a distance from the 
 mountains, and which are frequently in a contrary 
 direction, and then the helm mind does not extend 
 above two or three miles ; without these impediments 
 it seldom sweeps over a larger tract than twelve miles, 
 perhaps from the mere resistance of the lower atmos- 
 phere. It is remarkable, that at the base of the moun- 
 tain the blasts are much less violent than in the mid- 
 dle region ; and yet the hurricane is sometimes im- 
 petuous even there, bearing every thing before it, 
 when, at the distance of a few miles, there is a dead 
 calm, and a sunny sky. The spring is most favour- 
 able to this phenomenon. The hehn tvind will some- 
 times blow for a fortnight, till the air in the lower re- 
 
60_ THE HELM WIND. 
 
 gions, warmed before by the influence of the sun, is 
 thereby rendered piercing cold. 
 
 Mr. Ritson thus speaks of the helm wind:- — "the 
 hebn wind is generated in that enormous cloud, which, 
 like a helmet, covers the summit of Crossfell. It is 
 there particularly favoured by circumstances ; for on 
 one side there is a plain of about thirty miles in breadth, 
 in some places ; and on the other no hills to rival that 
 from whence it comes. This wind is not much taken 
 notice of in natural history : yet the Dutch, by the 
 iron chains with which they are obliged to moor their 
 ships at the Cape of Good Hope, bear ample testimony 
 to the fury of such a one. It has been inet with by the 
 late voyagers in the south seas ; it is said to have been 
 felt in the straits of Gibraltar ; and I have no doubt 
 but mariners and travellers have found it in many 
 other places, though they may not have observed it 
 with care, or may have given it other names." 
 
 Mr, Richardson remarks, "that in the vicinity of these 
 mountains the air is generally very clear and healthy, 
 owing perhaps to the violent helm wind in the months 
 of December, January, February, March, and April; 
 but the inhabitants of the counties immediately influ- 
 enced by that wind are more subject to rheumatic com- 
 plaints than those at a greater distance. The summit 
 of Crossfell and the regions a little lower are some- 
 times clear, when the vale is covered with a foo- ; I 
 have been upon the mountain when that has happened, 
 and the spectacle is curious, as the clouds appear firm, 
 though uneven, like a boisterous, disturbed ocean, 
 all distant sounds are at that time heard distinctly, 
 and strike the ear in a very singular manner, as they 
 seem to issue under your feet. As to the helm, the 
 cloud does not always rest upon the top of the hills, 
 but is sometimes several degrees higher, and does 
 
THE HELM WIND. 6l 
 
 not always preserve a regular form ; neither is there 
 always a helm bar, for that phenomenon only appears 
 when the wind at a little distance blows from the west. 
 I have sometimes observed four or five of these helm 
 bars within five miles of the hills, and then the wind 
 blew irregularly, sometimes from the east and some- 
 times from the west. It appears to me to be the same 
 kind of phenomenon as that at the Cape of Good 
 Hope, described by Sparman. When the snow appears 
 upon the hills the winds then blow with great vio- 
 lence. Swinburne, I think, mentions something simi- 
 lar in Sicily, and Volney at Alexandria. May it not 
 be accounted for by the air being considerably colder 
 on the summit of these hills, than in the country 
 whither it rushes with so much violence ? I have 
 found by a thermometer, that it is 14° colder on the 
 top of Crossfell than at the bottom, indeed I did but 
 prove that once, but three or four times I found it 12° 
 and frequently 1 0°. The name of helm seems to be 
 derived from the Saxon, and implies, in our language, 
 a covering. Its appearances, according to my remarks, 
 have been that of a white cloud resting upon the 
 summits of the hills, extending even from Brough to 
 Brampton ; it wears a bold, broad fi'ont, not unlike a 
 vast float of ice standing on edge ; on its first appear- 
 ance, there issues from it a prodigious noise, which, in 
 grandeur and awfulness, exceeds the roaring of the 
 ocean. Sometimes there is a helm bar, which consists 
 of a white cloud ranged opposite to the helm, and holds 
 a station various in its distances, sometimes not more 
 than half a mile from the mountain, at others, three or 
 four miles : sometimes it is in breadth a quarter of a 
 mile, at others a mile at least ; this cloud prevents the 
 wind Blowing further westward. The sky is generally 
 visible between the helm and the bar, and frequently 
 G 
 
62 THE HELM WIND, 
 
 loose bodies of vapours or small specks of clouds are 
 separated from the helm and the bar, and flying across 
 in contrary directions, both east and west, are seen to 
 sweep along the sky with amazing velocity. When 
 you arrive at the other side of the bar cloud, the wind 
 blows eastward, but underneath is a dead calm, or 
 gusts of wind from all quarters. The violence of the 
 wind is generally greatest when the helm is highest 
 above the mountains. The cold air rushes down the 
 hill with amazing strength, so as to make it very diffi- 
 cult for a person to walk against it. I have frequently 
 been under the necessity of turning my back to take 
 breath at every ten yards at least ; it mostly comes in 
 gusts, though it sometimes blows with unabated fury 
 for twenty-four hours ; and continues blowing at inter- 
 vals for three, four, five, and even six weeks. T have at 
 different times walked into the cloud, and found the 
 wind increase in violence, till I reached the mist float- 
 ing on the side of the hill ; when once entered into 
 that mist I experienced a dead calm. If the helm is 
 stationed above the mountain, and does not rest upon 
 it, it blows with considerable violence immediately 
 under the helm. I once walked so far on the Alston 
 Moor side, till the wind blew from the mountain ; 
 hence I supposed that the wind rushes down on each 
 side, and shepherds have frequently told me they 
 have observed it to be so." 
 
 To these interesting notices of so very remarkable 
 a phenomenon, it may be added, that the appearance 
 of the helm bar nnay be considered as chiefly appear- 
 ing only to those on the western side of the moun- 
 tain. At such times, Crossfell, as seen from Alston 
 Moor, does not present any of the remarkable 
 features so fully described in the preceding accounts, 
 with the exception of what is a very common cha- 
 
THE HELM WIND, 63 
 
 racteristic, a covering of dark and heavy mists. It 
 has been thought by some that the violent gusts of the 
 he\va -wind flow in separate streams as it were through 
 the atmosphere. In riding on horseback or in a gig 
 along the western base of the Penine Chain, the air has 
 been found almost perfectly calm eight or ten feet from 
 the ground, while at the same time the tops of the 
 neighbouring trees have been violently bent to and fro 
 with the force of a very powerful wind. 
 
 Charles Slee, Esq., in a paper on this subject, 
 read before the Royal Physical Society, in January, 
 1830, observes, " I have no theory to offer by way of 
 explaining the helm, inasmuch as some of the facts 
 relative to it, appear to me hardly compatible with the 
 laws of matter and motion. Such, for instance, as 
 the perfect repose of the bar when the current is 
 strongest. Such also is the very circumscribed limits 
 within which it exerts its action. It does not appear 
 to have any dependance on the presence of the sun, 
 for it happens during the night as well as during the 
 day. The circumstance of the helm only occurring 
 when the wind is easterly has led me sometimes to 
 conjecture that an accumulation of air takes place on 
 the eastern side of the mountain, which after a time 
 overcomes the weight of the superincumbent atmos- 
 phere, and forces itself over the summit and down the 
 opposite side." 
 
 These and other circumstances attending it require 
 further investigation before much can be said with 
 correctness as to the cause of so remarkable a pheno- 
 menon. 
 
CHAP. VII. 
 
 ALE BURN CAVERN— HUDGJLL BURN CAVERN. 
 
 It has already been observed that the great limestone 
 is the thickest and nearly the highest calcareous stra- 
 tum that occurs in these mining districts, and that its 
 bassett or outcrop forms in many places the limit of 
 cultivated land and of human habitations. These cha- 
 racteristics may be readily observed in the steep hills 
 on the north side of Ale Burn, which, rising on the 
 verge of Whitfield Fell, falls by a steep and rocky 
 channel into the river Tyne near Randalholme, and 
 forms part of the southern boundary of the county of 
 Northumberland. A walk of about two miles from 
 Alston to some parts of this burn, presents to the 
 
ALE BURN CAVERN. 65 
 
 geologist a good opportunity of examining this stra- 
 tum ; and the less scientific tourist may probably find 
 some interest in the rocky scenery and singular caverns 
 which here occur. The principal of these is situated 
 in the great limestone ; and the entrance to it is by a 
 level from the north side of Ale Burn, a few yards 
 above where it is crossed by a bridge near Clargill. 
 This level is drawn in a direction nearly north and 
 south ; at the distance of about fifty fathoms is a small 
 opening at the roof communicating with what in min- 
 ing phraseology is called a rise, and which, awkward 
 and inconvenient as it is, is the only mode yet dis- 
 covered of gaining access to the cavern. The follow- 
 ing notes descriptive of this singular place were made 
 during a subterraneous survey of its dark and gloomy 
 chambers. 
 
 " After climbing from the level roof by an opening 
 barely sufficient to admit our passage, we ascended a 
 rise of about 30 feet in height, by means of sticks or 
 stemples placed alternately at two opposite sides of the 
 rise. On gaining the top, we entered with some 
 difficulty into a small circular opening in the limestone, 
 just large enough to permit our creeping along it on 
 hands and knees. On proceeding a few fathoms in 
 this uncomfortable posture, the noise of rushing waters 
 was heard increasing until it became very loud, and 
 we soon found ourselves near the summit of a spacious 
 vault or natural cavern 23 feet high, 13 feet wide, and 
 16 feet long. We climbed down the nearly perpen- 
 dicular side to a stream of water which passes the 
 whole length of the cavern, and at this time containing 
 as much water as Ale Burn. This rivulet seems partly 
 fed by the springs of Ale Burn, and in rains is much 
 increased by the surface water poured into it by means of 
 
 3 
 
66 ALE BURN CAVERN. 
 
 numerous swallow holes. Having descended, we turned 
 past a projecting screen of rock, and from thence 
 gained access to the continuation of the cavern west- 
 ward. Here the natural curiosities which present 
 themselves, if they deserve not the very lavish expres- 
 sions of surprise and admiration often bestowed on 
 similar scenes, at least deserve this, that they well 
 repay the difficulty experienced in visiting them, and 
 which to persons unaccustomed to mining excursions 
 is by no means inconsiderable. It must be kept in 
 mind that it is merely a limestone cavern, which, 
 though exceedingly curious as such, is not possessed 
 of the varied and splendid attractions of some cele- 
 brated caverns. Its dimensions vary considerably, 
 being in some places from 20 to 30 feet high, and in 
 others it is nearly filled with large loose blocks of 
 limestone, the passage through the interstices of which 
 is both awkward and dangerous. The sides present a 
 curiously-fretted surface, moulded by the long-con- 
 tinued action of water into a variety of singular forms, 
 some of which are truly remarkable. It is interesting 
 to observe the process of this slow but constant opera- 
 tion, for the water gradually wearing the channel by 
 which it first enters the cavern, falls successively on 
 different portions of the rock below, until, in the course 
 of years, the whole of the sides of the cavern have been 
 subjected to this fantastic chisel of nature. Man}' of 
 these grotesque forms, especially when dimly seen, 
 need little aid from the imagination to represent the 
 images of various animals and other objects. In 
 one place we observed an almost exact profile of the 
 human face. The idea of the head and neck of foxes 
 and eagles was often suggested by projecting pieces of 
 rock ; and in a small cavern, branching from the main 
 one, four or five singularly-shaped pieces of limestone 
 
ALE BURN CAVERN. 6? 
 
 seemed like a consultation of various animals suddenly 
 changed to stone. 
 
 " After proceeding upwards of a hundred yards 
 along the cavern, we saw a vein of lead ore which 
 crosses it, and from which some of our party worked 
 a few specimens o( galena. From this place westward 
 the cavern becomes much straiter, so that in some 
 places where the roof had fallen, we could only pro- 
 ceed by lying on our breasts, and getting forward 
 through the narrow chasm as well as we could. At 
 length the stream of water entered a very low and nar- 
 row passage, into which we waded on our hands and 
 knees until nearly all our lights being lost, we were 
 compelled to return. Chaff put into the water here is 
 said to have come out at the surface at Barhagh about 
 three miles distant. 
 
 " On returning to where we first entered the cavern, 
 we proceeded along the first chamber, and by a low 
 passage entered a second 26 feet wide, of very irregular 
 width, but at breast height about 26 feet in one direc- 
 tion. At the east end of this is a double entrance to a 
 third cavern 30 feet long, 22 feet high, and 13 feet 
 wide. This entrance is divided by a curious natural 
 pillar (represented in the annexed wood cut) about 
 13 feet high, and measuring at the base not quite 
 4^ feet in circumference. This slender support ap- 
 pears to be shrinking, and will probably soon yield 
 to the immense weight of the massive rock which 
 it supports, A waterfall at the west end of this cavern 
 presents a fine spectacle. The water falls over a ledge 
 of rock in an equal stream 9 feet wide and 5^ feet 
 high. Above it huge blocks of limestone are tum- 
 bled in magnificent ruin, which, with the reverberated 
 noise of the falling stream, excite sensations in which 
 terror and sublimity are strongly blended." 
 
6s ALE BURN CAYERN. 
 
 The bassett of the great limestone for about a quar- 
 ter of a mile above the level mouth exhibits numerous 
 indications of the cavern, the course of which indeed 
 is discernible at some distance by the numerous swal- 
 low holes along it. Some of these open into small 
 caverns, doubtless communicating with the principal 
 one ; and to those who have not an opportunity or want 
 the courage to view the interior, some of these lesser 
 caverns may afford a faint idea of its nature. In them 
 also the water may be seen silently modeling their 
 fretted sides, but the few specimens in them are very 
 inferior to those in the main cavern. Exactly opposite 
 the old road to Allendale is one of these smaller caverns 
 near a sheep-wash in Ale Burn, where the rude face 
 of limestone scars, the blocks which impede the 
 rapid stream, and the falls of the latter in its steep 
 descent, form some interesting scenery. The sides of 
 this cavernous grotto abound with various mosses and 
 brachia; in one corner is an opening which appears to 
 communicate with the main cavern, and by which it is 
 probable that an easy access might be had into it. 
 
 The level by which the present entrance was 
 discovered, was driven by the London Lead Com- 
 pany about fifty years ago, when one of the workmen 
 named Rumney lost his life by a massive piece of rock 
 falling on him. A party who subsequently explored 
 the cavei'n were placed in imminent danger by the loss 
 of their lights. 
 
 In the celebrated lead mine of HudgilJ Burn is 
 another but less curious and picturesque cavern in the 
 great limestone. It was discovered in the spring of 
 1S16 by a rise of six fathoms high from the level, 391 
 fathoms from the entrance of the mine. This rise was in 
 a vein (supposed to be Hudgill Burn third sun vein) at 
 this place not exceeding 4 inches in width. The 
 
HUDGILL BURN CAVERN. 
 
 69 
 
 cavern was found to be terminated to the north by this 
 vein, which at the extremity presented a crust of the 
 burnt-Iike matrix or rider common in veins, and con- 
 tained a thin rib of galena rich in silver. This vein 
 improved to the eastward so much, that, at 30 fathoms 
 from the shake or cavern, it was worked at seven shil- 
 lings a bing, and continued rich until cut off by the 
 thick alluvial deposit of the side of the mountain. On 
 the west side of the cavern the same vein in 10 fathoms 
 dwindled to nothing. It is stated by some of the 
 miners that no veins have been discovered to come 
 through the cavern, and that no traces of veins are to 
 be seen in it as at Ale Burn. 
 
 The following notes, descriptive of this cavern, are 
 extracted from the Newcastle Magazine, Sept. 1S20. 
 They are attributed to a military gentleman, who ex- 
 plored it with a party in Feb. 1818. 
 
 " At about 4 p. M. being dressed in the working 
 habiliments of the miners, and seated in ore waggons, 
 two in each, vis a vis, we were hurled along into the 
 interior region of the mountain of Middle Fell. 
 
 '' A lighted candle folded round with clay to prevent 
 its melting by the heat of the hand, was carried by 
 each person, and the ponies trudged in steady pace 
 along the adit or level, with each its own candle sus- 
 pended at the collar, beneath the breast. In this 
 order the whole proceeded in silence, gazing upon the 
 different sti'ata that appeared in the roof and sides of 
 the level for perhaps nearly half a mile. When we 
 arrived at a part where another adit branches off to a 
 different working in the mine, the boys conducting the 
 horses then stopped, and the party got out to walk on 
 foot along the right-hand level, with each his own light. 
 In this passage there is a running stream of water 
 drawn off from the mine, and the working parts are 
 
70 HUDGILL BURN CAVERN. 
 
 dry. We passed air pipes, rising sumps or shafts, 
 and some large masses of rich ore, piled up in open 
 spaces on the side of the level, ready to be conveyed 
 out to the bank. 
 
 " The party advanced, viewing with much curiosity 
 and pleasure the signs of persevering energy and art 
 which the mining works presented. 
 
 " Pursuing the subterraneous route by direction of 
 two of the owners of this rich mine, for a distance we 
 supposed to be nearly a quarter of a mile farther, our 
 attention was arrested by a clattering noise a little way 
 in front, occasioned, as we soon understood, by the 
 stones and rubbish, from working, falling down a shaft 
 upon cross-sticks, fixed alternately, a long step, one 
 above each other at right angles, serving as a ladder, 
 by which the workmen ascended to a vein above this 
 shaft which opened into the cavern. Up this shaft we 
 had to scramble near 30 feet from one cross rafter to 
 another, by hands and feet ; an exertion of some diffi- 
 culty, for these cross sticks were in places so far distant 
 as to require all the active agility of youth to mount 
 them, and some of our party were somewhat wearied 
 by the progress they had already made. Having ac- 
 complished this our most arduous task, the entrance 
 into the cavern or chasm was perceived. During our 
 clambering up to this part the working ceased, and 
 the men offered their hands and assistance with be- 
 coming and manly civility. They then conducted us 
 into the cavern, at the entrance of which they were 
 pursuing their trial of a vein of no great promise. The 
 wonderful art attained in splitting the hard limestone 
 rock by blasting, &c., to unfold the stores of nature, 
 and to realize her treasures, strikes the senses of those 
 unaccustomed to such work with astonishment. 
 
HUDGILL BURN CAVERN. 71 
 
 " We entered the cavern — a light was sent forward, 
 which showed the direction to be in a straight line for 
 a great distance. The light appeared dim, and like a 
 star peeping through a dingy cloud. The width varies 
 from about three to six feet, as I thought, but we did 
 not then measure either the width or the height. The 
 roof has along its centre an indentation the whole 
 length, and the chasm appeared somewhat wider at the 
 top than it is at the bottom ; which, with the groove 
 or rent in the middle of the roof, impressed a concep- 
 tion on the mind, of the sides having been thrown to 
 recline backwards by some convulsion of nature. The 
 groove is shallow, and appears like a wound healed up, 
 leaving the scar as a mark of the injury formerly re- 
 ceived. 
 
 " Advancing about half way, we came to a thin 
 rock which divided our passage into two. We pur- 
 sued the right-hand passage, now become so narrow, 
 that a bulky man could scarcely get through, but it 
 widened a little farther on. As we passed along, 
 several openings and small recesses on our right and 
 left were seen, but not of a sort to exite much interest, 
 until we reached the far end of this passage, where 
 there is an open space equal to a room of ordinary 
 size, with a beautiful cabin on one side, nearly square, 
 lined with smooth jet-black walls, richly spangled 
 with stalactites, that sparkle equal to brilliants of the 
 first water. The solemn grandeur of this place inclined 
 the whole to pause, and contemplate the sublimity of 
 the novel scene around us. We I'ested on the floor of 
 solid limestone, and gazed on this charm of nature 
 with awe and wonder. When I beheld a scene so 
 superior to what can be produced by all the arts of 
 man on earth, I could not conceal my regret that such 
 
7S5 HUDGILL BURN CAVERN. 
 
 treasures should be made so difficult of access, that 
 they should be where — 
 
 " At each step 
 " Solemn and slow the shadows darker fall, 
 " And all is awful, list'ning gloom around." 
 
 *' The substance of so jet a black with which this 
 charming little cabin is lined, is called by miners 
 'black jack.' It contains a portion of the ore of 
 zinc, and is smelted for its valuable produce, in great 
 demand throughout this realm for potteries, medical 
 purposes, brass, &c. In this beautiful little room? 
 there are two openings, in form nearly square, from 
 the floor upwards, about 1^ foot each side, lined with 
 substance the same, and embellished with glittering 
 spar, of exquisite brilliancy. These transparent par- 
 ticles are very regularly distributed over the walls, 
 neither too thick nor too thin, to give the effect of 
 genuine taste and finish : but the process of nature is 
 going on, and that brilliant spar will most probably 
 become a thick crust, if not impeded by the hand of 
 the workman, and will in time attain to a solid mass 
 of quartz, of which numerous large pieces are found 
 in these mines. 
 
 " While we rested here, men were sent farther in ad- 
 vance, to explore the extent and nature of the several 
 low and narrow passages and openings in the rock, 
 which communicated with this open space ; and having 
 taken hold of the end of a clew of pack-thread, to direct 
 their retrograde steps by the same way, they tried to 
 advance : — they proceeded on hands and knees, or feet 
 as necessity dictated, a considerable way forward in 
 the largest openings they could find, until they were 
 called back by the voice and a tug of the line. They 
 found no end to these numerous intersecting open- 
 ings in the rock, the passages of which are extremely 
 
HUDGILL BURN CAVERN. 73 
 
 intricate and dangerous, without proper precautions 
 taken ; for, to retrace exploring steps in such a laby- 
 rinth, if lights should fail, without a clew or their 
 companions stationed as we were in the main track, 
 would be to hazard their lives. 
 
 " Our curiosity on that occasion being gratified, we 
 commenced on our return, by the same passage before 
 described, but discovered some other passages which 
 communicated with it, and in which some of our fel- 
 low travellers ventured to wander, and were able to 
 join us again, without being obliged to return to the 
 part where they entered the by-way. 
 
 " The length of the main chasm is 320 yards. 
 Evident signs would seem to prove that this cavern 
 and all its communicating fissures have been filled, at 
 no very distant period, with water, and the probabi- 
 lity is, it has been drained off by the adits in the mine, 
 in which there runs, as I said before, a constant stream 
 from some contiguous part of the works. The rocks 
 of the cavern are covered by a sooty mucus in nearly 
 a dried state, which, it may be presumed, was gene- 
 rated by the stagnant water and impure air, previous 
 to its draining. There is a little mud left on the bot- 
 tom of the cavern in a moist state, and the smell tends 
 to confirm the conjecture of these concavities having 
 been a reservoir for thousands of years, and drained 
 off by the level of the mine. It appeared to me that 
 some little ventilation passes through the whole, which 
 might have been so ever since the water was let off ; 
 for the air from the level would follow the vent of 
 the stream, and since the opening to the cavern was 
 effected, a slight circulation of air would probably be 
 created. 
 
 " There were, I think, nine of us altogether ; we 
 were in the cavern upwards of half an hour, and we 
 H 
 
74 HUDGILL BURN CAVERN. 
 
 felt no material difficulty in breathing, while our can- 
 dles, one to each, burnt sufficiently clear; which, with 
 the animal breathing, must together have consumed a 
 considerable quantity of pure air, such as to have 
 made a scarcity perceptible, if no fresh air had been 
 supplied." 
 
 This graphic description supersedes the necessity 
 of the author saying more than that his own inspec- 
 tion of this remarkable cavern enables him to state 
 that its details are as correct as they are highly in- ' 
 teresting. 
 
 Near Gilderdale Burn, and about three miles from 
 Alston, is a limestone cavern which some accounts say 
 has been explored for above a mile. This, however, 
 is very apocryphal ; and, admitting that it has been 
 entered for any considerable extent, yet distance, 
 unless actually measured, is extremely deceptive in 
 such precarious journeys. Other caverns of a similar 
 nature are to be found in various parts of the mining 
 districts; the preceding descriptions will, however, 
 convey a sufficiently correct idea of these features 
 of the mountain limestone. The pencil of the artist 
 has not been much employed on the romantic scenery 
 of these districts, but the mountain streams and water- 
 falls, and the interior of some of the limestone caverns 
 and mines, furnish abundant and highly interesting 
 pictorial subjects, which, now that the country is of 
 so easy and pleasant access, will, it is hoped, ere long, 
 be pourtrayed by some of our local artists. 
 
 Having, in this and the preceding chapter, noticed 
 such objects as are of common interest, and to be found 
 more or less in other parts of the kingdom, we come 
 now to describe the local peculiarities of Alston and its 
 vicinity. The Roman antiquities, mountain views, and 
 remarkable caverns, which are here to be found, inter- 
 
ALSTON MOOR. 75 
 
 csting as they certainly are, are yet of secondary 
 importance to the gcoiogical features and mining 
 interests of the country. Towards these, the inves- 
 tigations of science and the active speculations of 
 commerce have long been directed, and the mines of 
 Alston Moor are, with a large class of society in the 
 north of England, the objects of more than ordinary 
 interest. 
 
 The following notices of geology and mining are 
 intended to aiford occasional visitors such information 
 as may enable them to understand what they see, 
 without entering into minute scientific or practical 
 details. Other readers, who have not had opportu- 
 nities of viewing the mining districts, may perhaps by 
 these brief descriptions be enabled to form a tolerably 
 correct idea of the nature of the country — the forma- 
 tion of its hills — the phenomena of its veins and. 
 mineral treasures, — and of such other objects as con- 
 stitute the more remarkable features of Alston and 
 its adjoining dales. 
 
CHAP. VIII. 
 
 GEOLOGY. 
 
 Comparative magnitude of the Earth, and its Strata. — Brief 
 notice of Geological Theories. — Importance and interest 
 of the Science. — Primary and Secondary Formations, &c. 
 
 Geology signifies a discourse or reasoning respecting 
 the earth. Surely a more modest and appropriate term 
 for the science it designates than that of Geognosy, or 
 knowledge of the earth, which Werner and some other 
 writers have adopted. For supposing the semi-diameter 
 of the earth to be nearly four thousand miles, the greatest 
 possible extent of human kfiorvledge \s included inavertical 
 distance of five miles, and this includes the highest 
 mountains as well as the deepest mines. If, therefore, 
 with a common scale and compasses, we draw pai't of 
 a circle of eight inches radius, and make the circum- 
 ference one hundredth part of an inch in thickness, 
 a tolerably correct estimate may be formed of the 
 exceedingly small portion of the earth of which we 
 can possibly ktiow any thing. It is most essential, 
 in considering Geology, carefully to remember this 
 very small proportion, as well as that which the 
 human race bears to this apparently large, but really 
 insignificant portion of the globe. Many things, 
 which to our limited view seem so stupendous that 
 we cannot comprehend any agency powerful enough 
 to effect them, will, on proper consideration, be 
 found very different from what we at first conceived. 
 Thus, for instance, a stratum of limestone, 50 feet in 
 thickness, being intersected by a vein, may be on 
 
COMPARATIVE MAGNITUDE OF THE EARTH. 
 
 77 
 
 one side raised (or, in mining phraseology, thrown) 
 the height of its whole thickness, so that the bottom 
 of the stratum on one side of the vein coincides with 
 the top at the other. The view of so apparently great 
 a disruption will give a very exaggerated idea of the 
 agency which caused it, to what will be derived from 
 a consideration of the subject on an extensive scale. 
 
 'SiffS. 
 
 .IMlle 
 
 .10 Miles. 
 
 The annexed diagram represents a person viewing 
 such a phenomenon ; and it may readily be sup- 
 posed that a precipice of one hundred feet in height, 
 
78 MAGNITUDE OF THE EARTH AND ITS STIIATA. 
 
 with its strata so much deranged, would, to so dimi- 
 nutive a being, seem a very stupendous object. 
 But in Fig. 2, where the stratum is represented 
 for a mile in length, the disruption appears far less 
 formidable. And when, as in Fig. 3, a length of ten 
 miles with the thickness of 50 feet in proportion, is re- 
 presented, it not only loses all appearance of vastness, 
 but seems absolutely trifling in comparison with its 
 extent. Hence it will be readily comprehended that 
 if a model of a county, say of Northumberland, was 
 made on a scale of an inch to a mile, the above stratum 
 would be less than a hundredth part of an inch in 
 thickness, and a disruption of that extent would of 
 course be scarcely perceptible. If the model consisted 
 of exceedingly thin laminae of different kinds of clay 
 and stone, and was for a few minutes covered with 
 water, and afterwards suffered to dry, it is obvious 
 that that contraction in drying would produce various 
 cracks or fissures, which would become more or less 
 disjointed, and thus very simply produce a miniature 
 fac simile of results, which, on a larger scale, appear 
 so enormous. 
 
 On this model, be it remembered, the space repre- 
 sented by one square inch would contain all the people 
 of England ; and if animalculae were existing on the 
 model, and capable of thinking, they would be as 
 much staggered at these little, and, to the human eye, 
 almost imperceptible cracks, as we are at the cracks of 
 the great globe itself. What amusement would we 
 derive by knowing the various schemes of these ani- 
 malculian philosophers to account for the mighty 
 changes which the model they lived on had undergone 
 —whereas a little water for a deluge — a few gentle 
 knocks for earthquakes, — and the application of fire 
 for subterranean heat, — would dissolve, and distort, 
 
GEOLOGICAL THEORIES. 79 
 
 and vitrify as imicli as any geologist, whether Hut- 
 tonian or Wernerian, could desire. 
 
 Without entering, therefore, into minute details, it 
 yet seems desirable to annex some account of the 
 general features and divisions of geological science to 
 these notices of the mining districts — not for the infor- 
 mation of the scientific reader, but to give some general 
 ideas to those unacquainted with geology, which may 
 enable them better to understand the nature of mininor 
 
 o 
 
 operations. 
 
 That the knowledge of geology was extremely 
 imperfect in the seventeenth century, may have been 
 already inferred from Sir John Pettus' singular theory 
 of the formation of hills and valleys. Scarcely less 
 ridiculous are many of the fancies which, in later 
 periods and with equal gravity, have been advanced 
 as profound speculations on this infant science* 
 During the progress of the last century, however, a 
 new light dawned on this hitherto mysterious subject, 
 and philosophical inquiry, while it dispelled the chi- 
 meras of former visionaries, was directed to the only 
 means by which any science can be successfully cul- 
 tivated. The investigation of facts already known, 
 and patient and laborious research into the great 
 volume of nature, led to the discovery of many 
 curious and important phenomena in the construction 
 of the rocks and strata which constitute the outward 
 covering of the globe. At length the celebrated 
 Werner first laid a solid foundation for geology as a 
 science. By comparing the local rocks and strata 
 which he had observed with the geological structure 
 of foreign countries, he finally succeeded in arranging 
 the different strata of the earth into separate divisions 
 or formations. Some approach was thus made to 
 systematic order, accompanied by much theoretical 
 
80 GEOLOGICAL THEORIES. 
 
 speculation, in which the various phenomena of" 
 geology were chiefly referred to an aqueous origin. 
 Another theory was advanced by Dr. Hutton and 
 his followers, who chiefly differed from Werner, in 
 maintaining Jire to be the great secondary cause in 
 the formation of the shell of the earth. Hence the 
 two opposing doctrines, which, under the names of 
 Wernerian and Huttonian theories, have caused so 
 much controversy. Other writers have taken the 
 literal Mosaic account as the foundation of their 
 opinions, considering other theories as opposed to the 
 authority of the Scriptures. It is well known how 
 much a similar regard for the literal acceptation of 
 descriptive passages of Holy Writ not only impeded, 
 but violently opposed, the progress of astronomy. In 
 geology, as in astronomy, it is now generally admitted 
 that the details of the sacred Volume were written 
 for and addressed to the common understanding of 
 mankind, and not to solve the intricate perplexities 
 of science. How few cottagers understand the sim- 
 ple astronomical facts, that the sun is stationary, and 
 that the revolution of the earth alone causes its 
 apparent motion ! But who, either in the abodes 
 of the humble, or the schools of philosophy, can 
 fail to admire the sublime simile of the sun's 
 coming forth as a bridegroom, and rejoicing as a 
 giant to run his coiii'se ? The book of Genesis, ia 
 brief but magnificent poetry, informs us, that " in 
 the beginning God created the heaven a?id the earth." 
 Whether the Beginning here spoken of was the same 
 period as the creation of mankind, or antecedent by 
 many ages, there is no means of deciding ; though, 
 from many considerations, the latter is the more 
 probable conjecture. After all that has been devised 
 to account for the formation and successive changes 
 
IMPORTANCE OF GEOLOOY. 81 
 
 of the Strata which compose the outer portion of the 
 globe, the subject yet remains involved in many diffi- 
 culties; and of all, even the most ingenious theories, 
 it may too truly be said that " shadows, clouds, and 
 darkness rest upon them." 
 
 But if we smile at the humorous fancies of some, or 
 turn with doubt and dissatisfaction from the imperfect 
 theories of others, let us not, therefore, consider the 
 subject unworthy of attention or beyond the attain- 
 ment of human intellect. On the contrary, much real 
 importance must be attached to this study by every 
 one who considers how much the well-being both of 
 individuals and of nations depends on the improvement 
 of every means, whether of knowledge or power, com- 
 mitted to our trust. In this country, where so much 
 depends on the mineral products of the earth, too 
 much attention cannot be given to a science so imme- 
 diately connected with interests so important ; and it 
 is. gratifying to perceive how rapidly a taste for this 
 and similar departments of science has lately increased. 
 
 The institution of a Natural- History Society in 
 Newcastle has already been the means of collecting 
 many valuable additions to our local stores of geolo- 
 gical knowledge ; and it may be confidently hoped 
 that, by its instrumentality, a series of facts will be 
 collected, which may lead to the most valuable results. 
 
 Even a casual observer cannot fail to perceive that 
 both fire and water have had, at some former period, 
 a powerful agency, of which almost every rock and 
 every vein bears testimony ; but as to the precise period 
 or operation of geological changes, mere theoretical 
 discussions can lead to little or no practical use. In- 
 stead, therefore, of idle disputes on Neptunian and 
 Plutonist dreams, let future researches be confined to 
 the collection of carefully -observed facts. When these 
 
82 
 
 GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS. 
 
 have been accumulated by industry and greatly in- 
 creased by time, some Newton in geology may discover 
 important and general laws guiding the successive 
 changes of the strata. In the mean time we may rest 
 assured that records of a patient and constant attention 
 to actually existing phenomena are the most valuable 
 additions which, at this period, can be made to the 
 science of geology. 
 
 The general arrangement of what are called " forma- 
 tions" of the various rocks and strata which constitute 
 the outward covering of the globe, is clearly exhibited 
 in the following table, taken from the introduction 
 to Conybeare and Phillips' Geology. It conveys not 
 only a comprehensive view of the general character of 
 each formation, but also a comparison of the arrange- 
 ment of Werner and of other writers. 
 
 Character. 
 
 Proposed 
 Names. 
 
 Wernerian 
 Names. 
 
 Other 
 Writers. 
 
 1. Formations chief- 
 ly of sand and clay. 
 
 Superior 
 Order. 
 
 Newest Floetz 
 Class. 
 
 Tertiary Class. 
 
 2. Ciialk.-Sandand 
 
 clay Calcareous 
 
 freestones (oolites) 
 & argillaceous beds 
 New red sandstone. 
 Conglomerate and 
 magnesian limesto. 
 
 Superme- 
 (lial Order. 
 
 Floetz Class. 
 
 Secondary 
 Class. 
 
 3. Carboniferous 
 rocks, comprising 
 coal measures. — 
 Carboniferous lime- 
 stone. Old red 
 
 sandstone. 
 
 Medial Or- 
 der. 
 
 Sometimes referred to the 
 preceding and sometimes 
 to the following class. 
 
 Very often the coal measures 
 are referred to the former, 
 the subjacent limestone and 
 sandstone to the latter. 
 
 4. Roofing slate, &c. 
 
 Submedial 
 Order. 
 
 Transition 
 Class. 
 
 Intermediate 
 Class. 
 
 5. Mica, Gneiss, 
 Granite, &c. 
 
 fnferior 
 Order. 
 
 Primitive 
 Class. 
 
 Primitive 
 
 Class. 
 
GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS. 83 
 
 Primitive rocks may be considered as the foundation 
 of all that we know of the covering of the earth. They 
 are destitute of organic remains, and appear to have 
 undergone few changes, which are supposed to have 
 occurred before the existence of animals and vegetables. 
 They are chiefly found in the central chains of great 
 ranges of mountainous land, and generally form the 
 foundation on which the other strata rest, though in 
 them, as in every feature of geology, great irregularity 
 is occasionally found. 
 
 The Secondary Formation, which rests on the Tran- 
 sition Class, is distinguished from the primary rocks by 
 the presence of petrifactions in great number and 
 variety. In this formation are included the extensive 
 series of strata which form the coal measures, and also 
 the carboniferous or mountain limestone of the lead- 
 mining districts. The latter and its accompanying 
 strata will be more minutely described in the following 
 chapter. It may here be observed that the lead strata 
 lie under the coal measures, and many who have visited 
 Alston have been surprised on learning that the strata 
 of its lofty hills lie, as regards geological position, 
 under the deepest coal-mines of Newcastle. Particular 
 details of the various formations named in the preceding 
 table are contained in Conybeare and Phillips' Geology 
 of England and Wales, — a work replete with plain 
 and solid information, founded on actual observation, 
 and entirely free from the flimsy and useless theories 
 which have too long been the bane of this science. 
 
 Having thus briefly defined the general position of 
 the strata in which the mines of Alston and its neigh- 
 bourhood are worked, it may be observed that the 
 proposed limits of these brief notices do not admit of 
 more minute geological details. For the tourist and 
 general reader enough space has probably been occupied 
 
S4 GEOLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 on the subject. Those who desire to inquire more 
 largely on these topics may find abundant sources of 
 information in many geological works recently publish- 
 ed. The Transactions of the London and Cornwall 
 Geological Societies, and of the Cambridge Philosophical 
 Society, furnish a copious fund of general information 
 on this subject, and in the first volume of the Transac- 
 tions of the Natural-History Society of Newcastle will 
 be found some highly interesting papers and coloured 
 sections, chiefly illustrative of the coal-fields. Occasional 
 articles in the Quarterly and Edinburgh Reviews, * 
 and various philosophical and scientific journals, are 
 ever adding to the rapidly accumulating stores of in- 
 formation on geology. The third part of Williams' 
 Mineral Kingdom contains much curious matter, from 
 which readers of this class of works cannot but derive 
 instruction blended with no small share of amusement. 
 The author combines great practical knov/ledge with 
 very confident theoretical notions, and describes the 
 original formation and arrangement of the strata and 
 mineral veins with a minuteness and decision more 
 nearly resembling the style of an actual observer of 
 the whole pi-ocess, than that of a plausible though 
 certainly most ingenious theorist. 
 
 • October 1830. 
 
CHAP. IX. 
 
 STRATA OF THE MINING DISTRICTS. 
 
 Familiar Illustration of the Arrangement of Strata. — Rise and 
 
 Dip of Strata — General Division of Strata Grindstone Sill. 
 
 — Fell-top Limestone — Coal — Upper Coal Sill Upper and 
 
 Lower Slate Sills. — Firestone Sill Fattinson's Sill. — Little 
 
 Limestone — Great Limestone. — Tuft Limestone Post— 
 
 Quarry Hazel — Girdle or Till Bed — Four-fathom Limestone. 
 
 — Coal — Nattrass Gill Hazel Three-yards Limestone 
 
 Six-fathom Hazel. — Five-yards Limestone. — Slaty Hazel. 
 
 Scar Limestone — Cockle-Shell Limestone Tyne-Bottom 
 
 Plate Tyne-Bottom Limestone Whetstone Bed.— Great 
 
 Whin Sill. 
 
 Rocks or other mineral bodies lying successively in 
 layers upon each other, either horizontally or more or 
 less inclined to the horizon, are designated by the 
 terms stratum (plural strata). A number of quires of 
 brown, blue, and yellow paper in successive layers 
 form a humble model of stratification ; and if a 
 few sheets of one colour, a quire of another, two or 
 three quires of another, and so on, be arranged alter- 
 nately, so as to correspond with the various thicknesses 
 of the strata, they will form a tolerabl}'^ correct model 
 of a section of strata in the mining districts. The blue 
 paper may represent limestone ; the yellow, sandstone ; 
 and the brown, slate beds or indurated clay. This 
 model would represent the strata of Alston, as it is 
 supposed they once existed, that is, without any undu- 
 lation of surface, — without hills, dales, rivers, — without 
 veins or any other of those numerous dislocations 
 which now exist. For, from the exact coincidence of 
 
 I 
 
86 ARRANGEMENT OF STRATA. 
 
 the strata on the opposite sides of valleys, it is inferred 
 that they were once continuous^ and that the hollowing 
 of them, or the formation of valleys, was the result of 
 subsequent changes on the surface of the globe. 
 
 Having thus obtained an idea of the position of the 
 strata, in what may be supposed their original state, it 
 may be observed that they now lie in an inclined posi- 
 tion, which varies considerably, but on the line of the 
 greatest acclivity forms an angle of about 2° 15'. The 
 average bearing of this rise is 30° west of south from the 
 true meridian. This inclination of the strata is very con- 
 spicuous on the sides of Ale Fell, opposite the turnpike 
 road from Hexham to Alston. At a little distance 
 above Clargill House, the great limestone is seen 
 emerging from and forming the bed of the rivulet; 
 from thence, with a gradual ascent marked by deep 
 swallow-holes and by the limits of cultivated land, it 
 climbs the mountainous brow of Ale Fell, and bassetts 
 or crops out at the western extremity of the hill, after 
 attaining a considerable elevation. This inclination 
 of the strata is commonly known by the familiar terms 
 of rise and dip. 
 
 In 1800, an engraved Section was published by W. 
 Millar, Miner, of Carlisle, exhibiting the various suc- 
 cession of the sti-ata, from the highest in Alston Moor 
 to the lowest on the north-east side of the Keswick 
 hills. Since that time, a Treatise on a Section of the 
 Strata from Newcastle to the Mountain of Crossfell, 
 by Westgarth Forster, has gone through two editions, 
 the latter published in 1821. These, and engraved 
 plans of Holyfield and Hudgill Cross- Vein Mines, with 
 coloured sections of the strata and workings, published 
 in 1828, by Dickinson and Sopwith, Surveyors, are 
 the only publications relating solely to Alston Moor 
 that the author is acquainted with. 
 
GENERAL DIVISION OF STRATA. 87 
 
 The great limestone may be considered as dividing 
 the strata of this district into two portions ; the upper 
 one consisting of alternate siliceous and argillaceous 
 bedsj with only two very thin beds of limestone, while 
 the under portion contains several calcareous strata of 
 considerable thickness. In the following notices of 
 these several strata, some reference has been made to 
 Mr. Forster's work, but for the greater portion of them 
 the Editor has to express his obligation to Mr. John 
 Leithart, of Alston, an intelligent mining agent, who 
 has communicated several interesting particulars. 
 
 One of the highest of the siliceous strata is 
 called grey millstone or greystone, a coarse stone, 
 sometimes quarried for millstones. It appears on 
 the mountains between Wolsingham and Stanhope, 
 but does not occur near Alston. Though coarser, it 
 resembles in character the lower part of the Nattrass 
 Gill hazel. 
 
 The Grindstone Sill is about four fathoms thick, 
 and less porous and hard than the millstone. In some 
 places it is hewn into grindstones, and is the highest 
 stratum at Allenheads, Coalcleugh, and Rampgill : it 
 is also nearly the highest stratum on Crossfell moun- 
 tain. Near Alston, neither this stratum nor the grey 
 millstone possesses any value in a mining point of 
 view, but in Derwent some veins have been found 
 to be productive in it. 
 
 The Fell-top Limestone is the first or highest 
 calcareous stratum that occurs in the mining district. 
 Near Alston it is sometimes called Tiillas green limeslone, 
 from its being at the surface of an allotment of that 
 name on the summit of the mountainous range called 
 Middle Fell. It contains magnesia, is of a laminated 
 structure, and remarkable for the sonorous quality of 
 the musical stones found in it, which are capable of 
 
88 COAL AND SLATE SILLS. 
 
 producing various tones. It affords excellent lime, 
 but is too thin to be of consequence in mining, seldom 
 exceeding four or five feet. 
 
 Under this limestone is a thin seam of Coal, which, 
 with most of the other seams in the district, is com- 
 monly called crow coal. It is of inferior quality, and 
 is sold at about half the price of good coals, which 
 are chiefly brought to Alston from Hartleyburn. In 
 consuming, the crow coal emits sulphureous effluvia, 
 and its flame is of various shades of blue and green. 
 The broken portion of the seam near its bassett is fre- 
 quently mixed with clay by trampling them together 
 with the feet, — the mixture is then formed into round 
 balls called cats, a useful, though homely fuel, which is 
 used by the poorer classes. 
 
 The Upper Coal Sill, a siliceous stratum so called, 
 varies from one to two fathoms in thickness. Under 
 it is a plate bed of considerable thickness, (from five to 
 eight fathoms) ; and under this another hazel occurs 
 of a close texture, used for sharpening scythes, and 
 from thence called the Whetstone Sill. Its particles 
 are hard and globular; but when angular particles are 
 mixed with it, they render it unfit for use as a whet- 
 stone, either in a compact or a sandy state. 
 
 The Upper and Lower Slate Sills are about four 
 fathoms in thickness ; their structure is a medium 
 between the coarse and fine hazels, and is more lami- 
 nated than any other in Alston Moor. These strata are 
 very extensively quarried for roofing slates and flags in 
 several parts of Alston Moor. They are commonly 
 called grey slate, and form the massive covering of 
 nearly all the houses in the neighbourhood. In mining 
 they have not been productive of much lead, except 
 at Bampgill vein, which, by its richness in nearly 
 
FIRESTONE AND PATTINSON's SILLS. 89 
 
 every stratum, forms an exception to the general na- 
 ture of veins in the district. 
 
 The Firestone Sill is a coarse siliceous stratum 
 about six fathoms in thickness, similar in structure to 
 the lower part of Nattrass Gill hazel. It is frequently 
 quarried for fencing and building. Its colour is a red- 
 dish grey, and it is softer than most of the hazels. 
 Both the earthy and the metallic contents of veins in 
 traversing this stratum attain their maximum specific 
 gravity, and in it also the sulphate of barytes is a more 
 frequent component of mineral veins than in any other 
 stratum in Alston Moor. 
 
 Pattinson's Sill lies from ten to twelve fathoms 
 below the firestone, and derives its name from the per- 
 son who first sunk into it at Rampgill vein. Its thick- 
 ness is about two fathoms, and in structure it is hard 
 and refractory. It is of a dull white colour streaked 
 with black, and is frequently united with the girdle 
 beds above, which occasions its variable thickness. 
 Veins have often been productive in it, but it is 
 seldom used for building purposes. 
 
 The Little Limestone is the second calcareous 
 stratum of this mining field, lying about forty-six 
 fathoms below the fell-top limestone, and from ten to 
 twelve fathoms above the great limestone. It is a 
 hard, impure, and brownish-blue-coloured limestone, 
 of a contorted structure, about three yards thick, and 
 has no regular flats in it. Many veins have been very 
 productive in this stratum, and in general its metallic 
 contents in traversing it are accompanied by few of 
 the earthy minerals. 
 
 Between this stratum and the great limestone are 
 two hazels called the High and Low Coal Sills, accom- 
 panied with thin seams of coal, mostly of inferior qua- 
 lity. The range of these strata may frequently be 
 
 3 
 
90 THE GREAT LIMESTONE. 
 
 discovered at a distance by the indications of the smaH 
 coal workings along the sides of the hill where they 
 crop out to the day. 
 
 The Great Limestone is so called by way of pre- 
 eminence, being the thickest limestone wrought in 
 Alston Moor, and by far the most productive in mine- 
 ral treasures. 
 
 This limestone, including the tumbler beds upon it. 
 preserves a nearly uniform thickness of from nine to 
 eleven fathoms. The tumblers are alternating beds or 
 layers of limestone and famp beds, loose and confused 
 in their arrangement, and in thickness about five yards. 
 Between these and the main body of the limestone, is 
 an earthy layer or famp bed, called the black bed ; it 
 is softer and darker than the other adjacent layers of 
 a similar nature. 
 
 In the great limestone are three different flats, which 
 are a certain horizontal disposition of the strata, the 
 situation of which is well known in practical mining, 
 but the nature of which is yet imperfectly understood. 
 As they relate more to the veins than to the strata, 
 some further notices of them will be given when de- 
 scribing the phenomena of veins. That portion of the 
 great limestone called the high flat is about four feet 
 below the black bed. From the high to the middle 
 flat is about twelve feet, but the distance from this to 
 the low flat varies from fourteen to twenty feet. These 
 flats vary in thickness from one inch to six feet, and 
 there have been instances, says Mr. Leithart, of all the 
 flats being so thick at the same place as to form one 
 whole mass of flat from the top of the high flat to the 
 bottom of the vmdermost one. The subdivisions in 
 this limestone are similar to those of the scar lime- 
 stone, having one very thick post or layer about nine 
 feet from the bottom of the stratum called the thick 
 
THE TUFT OR WATER SILL. Ql 
 
 post, and usually from ten to thirteen feet in thickness. 
 Immediately above it are a number of very thin posts 
 from four to six inches in thickness. In the remainder 
 of the limestone upwards, the subdivisions are some- 
 what regular, the posts or layers being from eighteen 
 to thirty inches thick. 
 
 The Tuft or Water Sill is a soft, dull-red-coloured 
 siliceous stratum, lying immediately under the great 
 limestone. It is about nine or ten feet thick, and con- 
 tains much oxide of iron. Many veins that have been 
 productive in the great limestone have also been pro- 
 ductive in this. The tuft and the plate beds below it 
 have not that distinct separating plane between them 
 that usually marks the division of strata. The former 
 gradually becomes more and more argillaceous and 
 micaceous in its character until the quantities of silex, 
 argil, and mica become nearly equal, forming what 
 are termed, by miners, gre^ beds, about other nine or 
 ten feet thick. The lower portion of these grey beds 
 gradually blends with a plate bed nine or ten feet 
 thick, and in this and the incumbent strata upwards 
 to the great limestone, a vast proportion of the levels 
 in this mining field are driven, owing to the easy 
 access which they afford to the mine workings in the 
 great limestone. 
 
 Below the plate bed is a thin stratum of impure 
 limestone about eighteen inches thick. It is called the 
 limestone post, and in sinking through it great incon- 
 venience is often found from the quantity of water in 
 it. It lies immediately on 
 
 The Quarry Hazel, a dull-red-coloured sandstone, 
 somewhat harder and finer than the tuft, and con- 
 taining a less proportion of mica. It varies in thick- 
 ness from two to five fathoms. In some places it has 
 been productive of lead, but not generally so. Mr. 
 
92 THE QUARRY HAZEL. 
 
 Forster observes, that it is sometimes divided into two 
 parts by a famp bed, but in general this famp bed lies 
 at the bottom of the hazel, as the grey beds do at the 
 bottom of the tuft. It would be desirable to have some 
 definite idea of what constitutes the difference between 
 grey beds and famp beds, as understood by miners, 
 for at present the terms are often very vaguely applied. 
 Mr. Leithart defines grey beds to be very thin beds of 
 silex and argil in nearly equal proportions, or called 
 hard or soft grey beds as these components more or 
 less predominate. The term famp bed is applied to 
 layers of variable thickness from a foot to a fathom, 
 which are homogeneous, and have no regular divisions ; 
 they consist of mica, argil, and a little silex, and are 
 always softer than the grey beds. 
 
 Beneath the quarry hazel is a plate bed from three 
 to four fathoms in thickness, and under it lies the 
 Girdle or Till Bed, a kind of chert bed sometimes 
 divided into layers or posts, but more commonly ho- 
 mogeneous. Its colour is a brownish black, and it is 
 much harder than any of the plate beds, but not so 
 hard as the limestones. Veins that have been produc- 
 tive in the four-fathom limestone have also generally 
 been so in the till bed, there being no intervening 
 strata. The lower posts of the till bed and the upper 
 ones of the four-fathom limestone occasionally have so 
 close a resemblance that it is difficult to distinguish 
 them. In thickness the till bed varies from three to 
 five yards. Mr. Leithart observes that in this stratum 
 he has generally found the metallic contents of veins 
 pure and solid, that is, not much intermixed with the 
 usual accompanying earthy minerals. 
 
 The Four-Fathom Limestone derives its name 
 from its thickness, which it preserves more uniformly 
 than any other stratum in Alston Moor. It does not 
 
THE FOUR-FATHOM LIMESTONE. QS 
 
 possess the bright hue of the great and scar limestones, 
 having a brown rusty appearance, and its bassett is 
 unaccompanied with the external indications of swallow 
 holes, which mark the course of the other limestones ; 
 neither are there in it any flats, as in the great and the 
 scar limestones. It contains much magnesia, especially 
 the upper part, which is readily decomposed by expo- 
 sure to the air. 
 
 This stratum is more equally divided into separate 
 layers or beds than either the scar or the great limestone. 
 The layers are from two to three feet in thickness, 
 and are divided by perpendicular joints into regular 
 rhomboidal blocks, and, when broken, the fragments 
 more or less resemble this form. 
 
 Veins which have been productive in the great 
 limestone have often proved less rich in lead in the 
 four-fathom limestone, but they frequently contain a 
 tolerable portion of the sulphuret of zinc, or, as it is 
 here commonly called, Black Jack. The distance be- 
 tween the containing sides or cheeks of veins in this 
 stratum is usually less than in the great and scar lime- 
 stones. The prevailing mineral substance of veins in 
 the four-fathom limestone is lime with oxide of iron, 
 while, in the scar limestone, quartz, and in the great 
 limestone, the carbonate of lime and fluate of lime, 
 more frequently prevail. In general, mining operations 
 in the four-fathom limestone are dry, owing to the 
 free drainage caused by its numerous joints or fissures. 
 Many workings, which in the incumbent strata have 
 been flooded with water, have been completely drained 
 immediately on reaching this limestone ; and this 
 release from much expense and inconvenience is 
 usually anticipated by miners. Many trials of veins 
 have been made in this stratum, but they have not 
 been generally productive ; and when they have been 
 
94 THE NATTRASS GILL HAZEL. 
 
 SO, the ore has proved rich in lead, but poor in 
 silver. 
 
 Under the four-fathom limestone is a seam of coal, 
 which is not workable in any part of Alston Moor, 
 except at Gilderdale Head and Hartside, where it is 
 not of so sulphureous a quality as the coal generally is 
 in the neighbourhood. Its average thickness is a foot, 
 and it is principally used for burning lime, being much 
 inferior to the Hartleyburn coal for household purposes. 
 Immediately under this coal lies 
 
 The Nattrass Gill Hazel, a coarse, dull red-and- 
 white-coloured stone. It is quarried on the road side 
 near the first milestone from Alston on the Hexham 
 road, and still more extensively at Nattrass Gill, from 
 whence it takes its name. It is divided into two parts 
 by a famp bed. Being the only stone in Alston Moor 
 that admits of superior workmanship, it is much used 
 for building, though, from its hardness, it is hewn 
 with difficulty. In a mining point of view, no stra- 
 tum is less important, veins in it being generally 
 barren, and consequently few trials of any extent have 
 been made in it. A considerable thickness of plate 
 bed intervenes between the last-mentioned stratum and 
 
 The Three-Yards Limestone, so called from its 
 thickness in some places, in contradistinction to another 
 lower limestone called in like manner the five-yards 
 limestone. These appellations, however suitable to 
 any particular mine, are very injudicious and incorrect 
 when applied to a district ; for, owing to the variable 
 thickness of these, as of all strata, the three-yards lime- 
 stone is in some places thicker than that which in 
 name so much exceeds it. 
 
 The three-yards limestone is a pure, somewhat ca- 
 vernous, and bright blue limestone, containing some 
 
SIX-FATHOM HAZEL, &C. §5 
 
 organic remains. Few veins have been productive in 
 it. Immediately under it lies 
 
 The Six-Fathom Hazel, a fine, hard, and quartzy 
 hazel, of a whitish colour. It makes good fences, but 
 it is too hard to dress well, and consequently is not 
 very suitable for building, yet the greater part of the 
 town of Alston is built with it. Veins in it have not 
 yet proved generally productive, but considerable 
 trials have of late been made in it in different parts of 
 the manor of Alston Moor. 
 
 The Five-Yards Limestone is an impure, flinty, 
 dark-blue-coloured limestone, divided into numerous 
 layers by thin argillaceous famp beds. Veins have not 
 been found productive in it. 
 
 The Slaty Hazel is coarse and laminated, from 
 whence it derives its name. It is frequently called 
 the Gossop-gate hazel, from having been extensively 
 quarried for building purposes at a place of that name. 
 It is in no way remarkable, and very few veins have 
 been found productive in it. 
 
 The Scau Limestone is in thickness inferior only 
 to the great limestone in this manor, being from five 
 to nine fathoms. Its name is derived fi-om the bold 
 precipitous face which it so frequently presents, and 
 which forms in many parts of the district a picturesque 
 and romantic feature. In some instances, this preci- 
 pitous bassett continues without interruption for more 
 than a mile in length. At Nentforce and Eshgill, it 
 appears in a remarkably interesting manner, and occa- 
 sions the waterfalls of which mention has already been 
 made. The tumblers at the top of it are about five 
 yards in thickness, and the remainder is nearly pure 
 limestone. In these tumblers there are two or more 
 argillaceous chert beds, the high one being fifteen 
 inches thick, the low one twenty inches, and the 
 
96 THE SCAR LIMESTONE. 
 
 Others, when they occur, are very thin, being only 
 two or three inches in thickness. 
 
 In the scar limestone there are thi-ee flats. The 
 highest is situated in a bed of limestone about five feet 
 thick, between the two chert beds above named, and 
 which is called by miners the high fiat post. From 
 the bottom of the low chert bed the limestone, for five 
 feet in thickness, is composed of thin beds of limestone 
 called the top posts. After these is the thick post, 
 from ten to thirteen feet thick, in which both the 
 middle and the low flats are situated, being separated 
 about three feet. Under this is the bottom post, about 
 six feet thick. 
 
 Veins have not been found very productive in this 
 stratum, but when so, have produced more lead in 
 flats than in perpendicular veins. 
 
 At Scarends, near Garrigill, the bassett of the scar 
 limestone presents a continuous precipitous face for 
 above one hundred yards in length, and in this natural 
 section the limestone in the situation of the flats has 
 a different character and stratum from what it has 
 above and below, exhibiting a cavernous appearance, 
 while the contiguous limestone upon and under the 
 flats is of a more laminated and close texture. 
 
 Wherever the scar limestone is the surface stratum, 
 the soil is of the richest quality in the district, produc- 
 ing very abundant crops of grass ; and the line of its 
 bassett, like that of the great limestone, is characterized 
 by numerous funnel-like hollows or swallow holes, 
 which occur in the tumbler beds, and do not enter the 
 main body of the limestone. No limestones in this part 
 of the country are accompanied by these holes, except 
 this and the great limestone; neither are any other 
 calcareous strata overlaid by the alternate beds of 
 limestone and famp beds that constitute the tumblers. 
 
COCKLE-SHELL LIMESTONE. <)7 
 
 A great number of thin alternating beds of hazel, 
 plate, &c. lie under the scar limestone, and are exposed 
 to observation in Nentforce Level. Among them is a 
 thin bed of limestone, which, from the conspicuous 
 appearance of its fossil contents, is called the Cockle- 
 Shell Limestone : these consist of entrochi, anomia, 
 ostrea, and other organic remains. Between this and 
 the next stratum of limestone, a number of thin beds 
 of plate, grey beds, &c. occur. One of them is 
 called the Tyne-Bottom Plate, and is extremely 
 hard, being of a closer and more laminated structure 
 than any other plate bed in Alston Moor. The bridge 
 at Garrigill Gate rests upon it. This plate bed first 
 crops out at Beldy, near Garrigill, where it is thrown 
 up by the Tyne-bottom great vein and several smaller 
 veins, and has an acclivity which here forms an angle 
 of 20'' with the horizon. From thence to Tynehead 
 House, a distance of three and a half miles, this stra- 
 tum forms a precipitous face on each side of the Tyne 
 nearly equal to its thickness, which is about three 
 fathoms. The metallic contents of veins in this stra- 
 tum are generally dense and pure, accompanied with 
 few earthy minerals, except a rider formed by an 
 incorporation of iron with the plate. Under this bed 
 is the lowest calcareous stratum in Alston Moor, 
 which is called 
 
 The Tyne-Bottom Limestone, from its forming 
 the bed of the South Tyne River for four miles above 
 the village of Garrigill Gate. It is a hard, flinty, dark- 
 blue- coloured limestone, contorted in structure, and 
 about four fathoms thick. It contains three flats. A 
 vein may be seen crossing this stratum a little below 
 Garrigill bridge, and further down the river it presects 
 some phenomena, which are highly interesting either 
 to the scientific or to the general observer. 
 K 
 
98 GREAT WHIN SILL. 
 
 The above form the series of strata which, with 
 great uniformity, extend over the important mining 
 district of Alston Moor. For the interests of mining, 
 it is to be regretted that they have not been subjected 
 to minute and careful scientific research. A chemical 
 analysis of the various strata, and of the contents of 
 mineral veins contiguous to each, would be a valuable 
 acquisition to science, and might in time afford some 
 insight into the inexplicable uncertainties which now 
 harass and impede mining operations. Some illustra- 
 tions of this subject will, it is to be trusted, be found 
 in the transactions of our local Natural-History Society. 
 
 Under the series of strata above described, a curious 
 geological feature appears in a stratified range of 
 basaltic rock. This is locally called the Great Whin 
 Sill, and is very conspicuous in the moors adjoining 
 the early course of the rivers Tyne and Tees. It is 
 extremely variable in thickness, being only four fa- 
 thoms at Hilton in Westmoreland, from seven to eight 
 fathoms at Dufton, at Silverband ?in Teesdale, it is 
 twenty, and at Cauldron Snout, a waterfall on the 
 Tees, nearly thirty fathoms. At Tyne-bottom mine, 
 near Garrigill, says Mr. Forster, it is sunk into nearly 
 twenty fathoms, and at Settlingstones lead-mines, near 
 Haydon Bridge, it occurs at the surface, and is pene- 
 trated to the depth of twenty-two fathoms. 
 
 The insertion of basaltic or whin rock between lay- 
 ers of regular strata for a considerable distance, is a 
 circumstance which has excited considerable attention. 
 Williams, who, it has already been hinted, advances 
 his opinions both with confidence and plausibility, 
 strongly opposes the Plutonist theories of Dr. Hutton, 
 and insists that basalt is " not a lava, but a real stone. 
 There are," he continues, " in several places many and 
 extensive strata of this stone, which are disposed in 
 
GREAT WHIN SILL. 99 
 
 their stations among other strata of different characters 
 and qualities, which are placed above and below the 
 several strata of basalt ; and these strata of basalt 
 spread out as wide and stretch as far every way as the 
 other different strata among which they are ranged." 
 " I would ask Dr. Hutton/' adds our author, " how he 
 is to lift up the superincumbent strata to a sufficient 
 and equal height from the strata below, for many miles 
 extent every way, and to keep them asunder until 
 such a quantity of melted lava is poured in as will fill 
 up all the extensive empty space to form the new- 
 inserted stratum." Williams refers, in proofs of his 
 views of the subject, to the fact of " a considerable 
 number of strata of basalt blended stratum super stra- 
 tum among various other strata, among which are 
 many seams of pit coal, and some of these coals are in 
 immediate contact with strata of basalt, forming the 
 immediate roof and floor of the coals, and these, with 
 their concomitant strata, stretch for many miles. — 
 Similar phenomena exist in West Lothian, in Ayrshire, 
 Fife, &c." * 
 
 The volcanic origin of the Whin Sill of Alston 
 Moor, Teesdale, &c. is now generally considered as an 
 established geological fact ; and the theory of Williams, 
 that such rocks were regularly deposited in the same 
 manner as the stratified series, is no longer admitted 
 in the creed of most geologists. The term of whin sill 
 is objected to by Professor Sedgewick, because sill 
 indicates a regular stratification of this rock, which he, 
 with much acute reasoning, endeavours to disprove. 
 Two highly-interesting papers in the second volume 
 of the Cambridge Philosophical Transactions, by this 
 able geologist, contain much valuable information on 
 
 * Williams' Mineral Kingdom. 
 
100 GKEAT WHIN SILL. 
 
 the subject, being written expressly on the phenomena 
 of the trap rocks in Yorkshire and Durham, and the 
 geology of High Teesdale. 
 
 The insertion of basaltic rocks among the regular 
 strata at Teesdale is a fact open to the observation of 
 every eye at the waterfall of High Force. In the mine 
 of Silverband, nearly two miles higher up the Tees, 
 the author has descended a shaft sunk through regular 
 strata to the whin sill, in which the miners were then 
 raising lead ore. The superincumbent strata here are 
 considered to correspond with those which rest on the 
 whin sill at Alston. 
 
 Miners generally are shrewd and observing, and 
 their interest is closely interwoven with a knowledge 
 of the strata, veins, &c., which indeed is forced upon 
 them by their occupation. The author has had many 
 opportunities of hearing the discussions of these p?-«c- 
 iical geologists, who, though unacquainted with the 
 technical language of science and the abstruse theories 
 of the learned, possess an ample knowledge of many 
 remarkable facts, which, if collected, would be of great 
 advantage to science. These conversations are chiefly 
 confined to themselves, and, however interesting, are 
 for the most part doomed to " waste their sweetness 
 on the desert air." An able reporter, concealed so as 
 to hear the discussions of a company of miners assem- 
 bled in a tavern, would often obtain information ex- 
 pressed with a clearness and energy which might in 
 vain be sought for in the formal investigations of 
 scientific inquiry. 
 
CHAP. X. 
 
 MINERAL VEINS. 
 
 Comparative Magnitude of Veins Various Names of Veins 
 
 Prior Formation of Veins or Cross Veins. — Hade and Throw 
 of Veins. — Contents of Mineral Veins. — Great Sulphur 
 
 Vein. — Spar. — Galena Silver. — Copper. — Slip Vein. — 
 
 Gash Vein Flats. 
 
 Having, in the preceding chapter, supposed successive 
 layers of different coloured paper to afford an idea of 
 the strata in the mining districts, and confined our 
 description to these strata only; we come now to 
 describe the other, features which accompany that 
 arrangement. The undulating surface of the country 
 presents a great variety of these strata bassetting or 
 cropping out on the inclined surface of the hills, which 
 corresponding hollows cut in the model, or layers of 
 paper, would very aptly represent. But with this ex- 
 ception, that the great mass of strata is not, like the 
 layers of paper, uniform in inclination, but subject to 
 many varieties of position, some of them abrupt and 
 unaccountable. The principal of these varieties are 
 caused by veins traversing the strata, and containing 
 more or less of metallic ores. These veins may be 
 briefly defined as greater or less cracks in the crust of 
 the earth, and are comparatively not greater in pro- 
 portion to the mass of the strata in the districts inter- 
 sected by them, than the minute cracks which would 
 be found in a small clay model of the district when 
 drying. In all speculations of this kind, we must con- 
 stantly remember the relative proportion which the 
 human race bears to the gigantic fabric of the earth, 
 
 3 
 
102 
 
 COMPARATIVE MAGNITUDE OF VEINS. 
 
 which cannot be more effectually done than by reducing 
 both to a scale easily comprehended. Alston Manor, 
 represented by a model in clay, on a scale of two 
 inches to a mile, would be about fourteen inches square. 
 The annexed sketch represents the veins of Hudgill 
 
 Burn Mine drawn to this scale, from which it will be 
 seen that the comparative size and position of these 
 celebrated veins have the same proportion to the sur- 
 rounding country as the small cracks have to the 
 model described at page 77- 
 
 Most veins in the mining district preserve a tolera- 
 bly direct course for a considerable distance, some, 
 indeed, for several miles. They are commonly desig- 
 nated veins, cross veins, and quarter-point veins. The 
 former are sometimes called right-rumiing veins, and 
 have a direction or bearing approaching nearly to east 
 and west, and slightly varying from that to a north- 
 east and south-west direction. Those which have a 
 bearing nearly north and south are called cross veins. 
 Nearly all the veins in the mining districts come under 
 one or other of these denominations. The few veins 
 which have a bearing between these are, on that ac- 
 count, called quartern-point veins. The "point" of a 
 vein is the usual phrase to designate its bearing. 
 
 Another distinction in the general name of veins 
 arises from their relative situation, as follows. If three 
 
NAMES OF VEINS. 103 
 
 east and west veins lie near each other, the middle one 
 is simply designated by its particular name, as, for 
 instance, Hudgill Burn Vein ; the vein north of this 
 is called Hudgill Burn North Vein, and that to the 
 south, Hudgill Burn Sun Vein, — sun, in mining phra- 
 seology, being invariably used for south. If more 
 veins lie nearly parallel, they are sometimes, as at 
 Hudgill Burn, denominated the Second Sun Vein, or 
 Third Sun Vein, according to their relative situation. 
 The particular names of veins, both in Alston and the 
 adjoining districts, are for the most part derived from 
 those of the estates, farms, or other conspicuous objects 
 in or near which they have been chiefly worked, though 
 in some few instances they have been called after the 
 names of individuals, and in others received their 
 designation from mere caprice. 
 
 Cross Veins, when near together, are distinguished 
 by the names of East and West Cross Veins. It may 
 be observed, that the names of veins do not extend to 
 their whole course, but only to a limited extent ; thus, 
 for instance. Sir John's Vein, Stowcrag Vein, Scar- 
 ends Vein, Leehouse Well Vein, &c., are all one 
 continued cross vein in different portions of its length. 
 High Coal Cleugh Vein, in Allendale manor, continues 
 westward into Alston Moor, where it takes the name 
 of Rampgill. On crossing the river Nent, it is called 
 Brigill Burn Vein, and afterwards Browngill Vein, 
 &c. — these names being, in most instances, limited to 
 what is called a lease length, which, in Alston Moor, 
 is usually about 1200 yards. 
 
 Much ingenuity, has been exercised on the theory 
 of veins, and it seems established from very conclusive 
 evidences, that all the strata have undergone very 
 important changes, among which are to be numbered 
 the formation of veins. After observing that the 
 
104 FORMATION OF VEINS. 
 
 greater part of veins approximate either to an east and 
 west or to a north and south bearing, and consequently 
 cross at nearly right angles, the next circumstance that 
 deserves attention is the fact that the cross veins usu- 
 ally preserve a continued course, w^hile east and west 
 veins at their intersection are very frequently carried 
 off their point, being removed farther north or south, 
 and then pursuing their former direction. From this 
 phenomenon arises a frequent query, whether cross 
 veins, or east and west veins, are of prior formation. 
 As far as argument is concerned, much has been ad- 
 vanced on both sides of the question. Werner's opinion 
 is as follows ; — " By the crossing and intersecting of 
 veins, the antiquity or relative age of each can be 
 easily assigned. Every vein which intersects another 
 is newer than the one traversed, and is of later forma- 
 tion than all those which it traverses. This crossing 
 of veins is of great importance, and deserves to be kept 
 in remembrance by all who wish to become acquainted 
 with the study of veins ; yet, till very lately, it has 
 always escaped the observation of mineralogists." On 
 the other hand, practical mining exhibits a seeming 
 refutation of this doctrine. " Cross veins," says a 
 highly intelligent miner, speaking on the subject, " I 
 suppose to be fissures, which were first formed, and 
 this easily accounts for the shifting of east and west 
 veins, by supposing the force which created these 
 second veins not strong enough to carry them directly 
 through the cross vein, but yet sufficient to continue 
 the fissure in the next weakest place. The Wernerian 
 system (he continues) seems absurd, because if the 
 east and west veins were first formed, it would require 
 the whole strata to be shifted along with them, which 
 alone could carry them off their point, besides which, 
 while one vein is carried off its point northward, ano- 
 
FORMATION OF VEINS. 105 
 
 ther lying near it is removed southward, whereas, if a 
 longitudinal shift of the strata occurred at the forma- 
 tion of the cross vein, all the other veins would be 
 removed in one direction." Nor is this general rule 
 of cross veins intersecting east and west veins without 
 exceptions, as Scaleburn Cross Vein, at Nenthead in 
 Alston Moor, is carried eighty feet off its point by an 
 east and west vein. 
 
 What chiefly bewilders all speculations on these 
 subjects, is our utter inability to form any but very 
 limited ideas even of a small portion of a district, far 
 less of a kingdom, or any material extent of the earth's 
 surface. The eye of man, as far as geology is con- 
 cerned, is powerfully microscopic, and many of the 
 theories which have been advanced, too much resemble 
 the supposed speculations of the fly on St. Paul's 
 Cathedral, which Addison describes as condemning 
 the architect for the roughness and irregular surface 
 of that structure. Whether veins were formed by a 
 gradual drying of the strata of the earth, or by some 
 sudden convulsion of nature, we cannot determine; 
 but in either case, conflicting powers, of which we can 
 form no adequate conception, may have caused the 
 various features which perplex the geologist, and baffle 
 all attempts to form a clear and uniform system. In 
 the present question, the fact of east and west veins 
 being often split on approaching, and then entirely 
 lost in a cross vein, seems an almost conclusive evidence 
 that the ruined vein is newer than that which has 
 caused its destruction. Accumulated evidence placed 
 in a clear and tangible fonn can alone throw light on 
 this and many other phenomena of mineral veins. 
 
 The Haue of veins is the mining term for that in- 
 clination which nearly all veins have from a perpen- 
 dicular direction. Thus a vein is said to hade to the 
 
106 HADE AND THROW OF VEINS. 
 
 north when it inclines further north as it deepens. In 
 Weardale the veins mostly hade to the south, and in 
 Allendale and Alston in the contrary direction. This 
 hade or inclination is not in one uniform direction, 
 but varies with the strata, being nearer a perpendicu- 
 lar direction in hard strata, and considerably more 
 inclined in plate beds, and its direction sometimes 
 varies in the same vein. The upper side of a hading 
 vein is commonly called the hanging cheek, or, more 
 briefly, " the hanger," The under side is named the 
 ledger cheek or " ledger." 
 
 The hade of veins is often of great consequence 
 when the course of a vein runs at a little distance from 
 and parallel with the boundary of another manor or 
 estate, of which a singular instance occurred in Wear- 
 dale about fifteen years ago. A freehold estate of 30 
 or 40 acres was purchased for £ 1500. A vein leased 
 by Mr. Jopling, under the Dean and Chapter of Dur- 
 ham, ran parallel with, and at a short distance from, 
 one of the boundaries of the purchase ; but the vein 
 hading into the royalty of the said estate, the propri- 
 etor received from Mr. Jopling one-fifth duty, which 
 amounted in all to about £ 800. 
 
 The Throw of veins is the usual mining term for 
 that vertical disruption of the strata which very gene- 
 rally occurs near veins of any considerable magnitude, 
 and is represented in Fig. 1, page 77. This perpen- 
 dicular distance between the corresponding strata on 
 the opposite sides of a vein, varies from a few inches 
 to thirty or forty fathoms, and in some instances to a 
 hundred fathoms. There is a remarkable correspond- 
 ence between the hade and throw of veins, to which, 
 though not without exceptions, the following rule 
 applies in Alston Moor. 
 
THROW OF VEINS. 107 
 
 If an east and west vein throws the strata up on the 
 south side of the vein, then the hade of that vein is to 
 the norths and the contrary strata are thrown up on 
 the north side, and so of all other veins. The hade is 
 usually opposite the side on which the strata are high- 
 est, or, in other words, the strata are highest on the 
 ledger side of the vein. The following is a curious 
 instance of the variable throw of veins. Old Carr's 
 Cross Vein, in Alston Moor, in raining language, is 
 weakest at the north end, and increases in strength 
 northwards. This powerful vein throws up the strata. 
 At Middle Cleugh Second Sun Vein, 42 feet. 
 At Middle Cleugh Vein, .... 48 — 
 
 At Carr's Vein, 60 — 
 
 At Broomsberry, 72 — 
 
 At Nentsberry Greens, . . . .162 — 
 It is easy to imagine how, when the strata were 
 separated by the formation of veins, some portions 
 should sink, or others be raised from the level they 
 occupied before; but it is not so easy to account for 
 the fact, that, however great may be the vertical dis- 
 ruption of the strata, no trace of it appears on the 
 surface ; for when the strata are removed a distance of 
 one or two hundred feet, it would be reasonable to 
 suppose that some lofty precipice on the surface would- 
 betoken the mighty rent. Such, however, is not the 
 case, and to offer reasons to account for it, seems but a 
 waste of words. It is yet among the hidden mysteries 
 of that mysterious agency which has effected this and 
 other changes in the mineral kingdom. 
 
 But by far the most important and interesting fea- 
 ture connected with the veins of a mining district are 
 their mineral contents, and especially those subterra- 
 nean treasures, in the pursuit of which so much capital, 
 labour, and ingenuity have been for many centuries 
 
108 CONTENTS OF MINERAL VEINS. 
 
 expended, and which have furnished so important and 
 valuable produce for the service of mankind. 
 
 Williams, the author of the Natural History of the 
 Mineral Kingdom, who, in the course of a professional 
 experience of forty years, had many opportunities of 
 acquiring the most minute information respecting 
 mineral veins, enumerates and describes the following 
 contents of veins: — Rider or vein stone, calcareous 
 spar, cauk spar, quartzy spar, druse, white mineral 
 soil, red fatty clay, bluish and greenish mineral soils, 
 yellowish ash-coloured and marbled soft soils, black 
 and blackish-brown soft soils, and brown mineral soil. 
 
 His detailed description of these would exceed the 
 limits proposed in this brief account of the mining 
 districts, and scarcely be of any interest to the general 
 reader. 
 
 In Alston the contents of the unproductive parts of 
 veins are chiefly described in mining phrase, as dowk 
 and rider. The former is a brown, friable, and soft 
 soil ; the latter a hard stony matter, varying much in 
 colour, hardness, and other characteristics. Veinstone 
 is the more appropriate name given to it by Williams. 
 In the Alston mines it is frequently mixed or marbled 
 with white and other variously-coloured minerals, the 
 whole forming a compact rocky substance. The rider 
 of veins in limestone strata is generally of a dark grey 
 colour, and sometimes black. A remarkable feature, 
 which has often attracted the attention of the writer of 
 these notices, is the almost incontestible evidence of the 
 agency of fire in mineral veins, many portions of which 
 exhibit either the appearance of having been actually 
 burnt, or an extremely close resemblance to it. Few 
 shareholders of mines are strangers to the terms thus 
 briefly described ; and as the firmness of the dowk and 
 certain favourable appearances of the rider in veins are 
 
GREAT SULPHUR VEIN. 109 
 
 often considered to be indications of the vicinity of ore^ 
 the news of '■^honny donk" and '^'■excellent rider" have 
 frequently proved the only solace of unsuccessful 
 adventurers, whose nearly exhausted patience, revived 
 by these slender threads of hope, has again been roused 
 into perseverance. 
 
 The rider of some strong veins, says Forster, is so 
 remarkably hard as to resist the action of the atmos- 
 phere, while the adjoining strata have, to a certain 
 extent, been removed by this constant and powerful 
 agency ; an instance of this occurs along the course 
 of the great sulphur vein at Nunstones, near Tynehead. 
 The summit of this hill is marked by conspicuous 
 rocky stones, observable at a considerable distance ; 
 but these must have been prominent objects from 
 a very remote period, if their name of Nun-sionea 
 bears the same antiquity as that of Priors-dalQ, the 
 name of the district. 
 
 It may here be remarked, that Nunstones Great 
 Copper Vein, (or, as it was denominated in a lease, 
 " the back hone of the earth"), is the largest and strong- 
 est vein in Alston. Where it passes Crossgill Burn, it 
 is no less than three hundred feet in width, and throws 
 up the strata eighty feet. It contains much amorphous 
 white quartz, several strong ribs of sulphur, and some 
 yellow copper ore. Trials have, of late years, been 
 made in this vein by the Commissioners of Greenwich 
 Hospital, but without much success. A shaft was sunk 
 from the middle of the scar limestone to the Tyne- 
 bottom plate, a depth of neai-ly one hundred and fifty 
 feet. John Taylor, Esq., of London, a gentleman of 
 great eminence and acknowledged skill in mining affairs, 
 describes this vein rather as a collection of branches 
 than one single continued vein, and supposes that 
 copper to a considerable amount may probably be 
 
110 SPAR, GALENA, SILVEK. 
 
 obtained from it, especially where it intersects the 
 continuation of Stowcrag vein. In this latter vein 
 Mr. Taylor viewed a rich deposit of copper ore, which 
 considerably increased his hopes as to the existence 
 and value of copper ores in the Alston district. 
 
 The beautiful spars which adorn the mantel-pieces 
 of many houses in the northern towns are often desig- 
 nated by the general name of Alston Moor spars. But 
 only a very small proportion of them are the product 
 of veins in this manor, by far the most beautiful and 
 abundant of these specimens being found in the 
 mines of Weardale and Allendale. Fluor spar of 
 different colours, quartz, and the ore of zinc, blend and 
 calamine, or Black Jack, as it is locally termed, are the 
 prevailing spars of Alston Moor, and are usually claim- 
 ed as a perquisite by the miners, by whom they are 
 sold. In the town of Alston are several mineral shops, 
 where not only the spars of the district, but many 
 others from a distance, are exposed for sale. 
 
 Of those minerals which are the especial objects of 
 the miner's search, and constitute the subterranean 
 wealth of the district. Galena, (Glance bleiglanz, of 
 Werner), from which is produced the well-known Lead 
 of commerce, is by far the most abundant. The colour 
 and mineral aspect of this ore are so familiar to 
 every one, as to require no description here. The spe- 
 cific gravity of galena is from 7 to 7'6, and the pro- 
 portion of lead contained in it varies from 40 to 85 
 per cent. The ores of Alston generally approach the 
 latter. The author was informed by an intelligent 
 smelting agent in Teesdale, that he never knew an 
 instance of galena entirely unmixed with silver, but 
 the proportion is frequently so small as not to repay 
 the expense of refining. When more than six or seven 
 ounces of silver can be produced from a fother of lead 
 
SILVER. Ill 
 
 (21 cwt.), it is refinable for the market; but the ores of 
 Alston vary from a content of little or no silver, to as 
 high a quantity as QS ounces per fother, an extraordi- 
 nary produce, and more than quadruple the produce 
 of what are considered tolerably rich silver ores. The 
 ores of Hudgill Bum Mine, in 1821, produced on the 
 average about 13 ounces per fother, which amounted 
 during that year to upwards of 32,000 ounces, worth, 
 at 5s, 3d. per ounce, £ 8400. 
 
 From assays made at various times, from thirty to 
 fifty years ago, the silver produce of some of the prin- 
 cipal mines is stated as follows : — 
 
 oz. dwt. 
 Thortergill Vein, - - - 
 Nentsberry Hags, 
 Windy Brow, - - - _ 
 Rampgill, - - _ - 
 Brownley Hill North Vein, 
 
 Blagill, 7 
 
 Carr's Vein, _ - - 
 
 Ores I'ich in silver are generally bright and shining, 
 while poor ores produce more iron. According to 
 some, the component parts of Galena consist of lead, 
 sulphur, carbonated lime, and oxide of iron ; the 
 various quantities of each analysis doubtless arising 
 from the various quality of the ores examined. The 
 following is the result of Dr. Thomson's experi- 
 ments ; — 
 
 Lead - - - 85-13 
 
 Sulphur - - 13-02 
 
 Oxide of Iron - -5 
 
 Loss 
 
 21 
 
 5 
 
 20 
 
 18 
 
 17 
 
 12 
 
 9 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 4 
 
 13 
 
 100- 
 The carbonate of lead has been found but sparingly 
 in Alston Moor. It is remarkable for being nearly 
 
112 COPPER. 
 
 white, and consists of oxide of lead, carbonic acid, and 
 water. 
 
 Yellow copper ore, which has been found in Stow- 
 crag mine, adjoining the southern boundary of this 
 manor, has not yet been produced in any considerable 
 quantities in this manor. The author had the pleasure 
 of viewing at Leehouse Well, a few years ago, the 
 most splendid specimen of a copper vein that has ever 
 been known in the manor, or probably in the north 
 of England. The level for trial of the vein Avas by a 
 singular chance driven into a remarkably rich deposit 
 of copper pyrites, which extended over the top and 
 sides of the level for above three feet in width, as well 
 as over the forehead. The brilliant effect imparted 
 by a number of lights on so large an extent of spark- 
 ling yellow ore was extremely imposing, and the 
 novelty of the scene and the brightness of the colours 
 rendered it highly interesting. 
 
 Williams, in his " Mineral Kingdom," enumerates 
 four different species of mineral veins. " The rake 
 vein or perpendicular mineral fissure ; the pipe vein ; 
 the flat or dilated vein ; and the accumulated vein. 
 The rake vein (he adds) is the most common and best 
 known among practical miners. Its origin and natu- 
 ral cause are the same as the slips or dikes in the coal- 
 mines." Thus what in the coal-mines disarranges the 
 regular course of the coal, and is the frequent source 
 of great perplexity and expense, forms in the mining 
 districts the only situation in which lead ore can be 
 obtained. Williams divides the rake vein into two 
 classes. One, which he calls the slip vein, is that 
 which commonly prevails in Alston Moor, and its 
 chief characteristic is, that the strata on each side do 
 not coincide, but one side is thrown higher than the 
 other, as has already been described. This throw or slip 
 
GASH AND FLAT VEINS. 113 
 
 he attributes to the escape of water during the formation 
 of the strata, by the weight of the accumulations upon 
 them. Caverns, he supposes, were thus formed, whereby 
 a portion of the incumbent strata fell, and left its corres- 
 ponding side more or less high, according to the depth 
 of the chasm. The space between the sides of this 
 fissure formed slip veins. The second class of veins, 
 Williams calls ''gash veins," which are open fissures 
 narrowing as they deepen. The account of pipe and 
 accumulated veins, in the " Mineral Kingdom," is well 
 worth perusal ; but they do not exist in the manor 
 now described, and the author wishes chiefly to limit 
 his description to what he has personally observed. 
 Extended details are better suited for the mate- 
 rials of a copious volume, than the brief limits of a 
 pocket tour-book. Flat Veins, or as in Alston they 
 are more commonly termed " jiats," are however too 
 important an accompaniment of veins in this manor to 
 be passed unnoticed. 
 
 Veins in general are very far from preserving a 
 regular width, either in their height or length. In 
 the former they are often affected by the strata, being 
 compressed into narrow bounds in siliceous strata, and 
 extended to a considerably greater width in limestone. 
 So also lengthways they are subject to narrowings or 
 twitches, and to wide and sometimes very extensive 
 openings called bellies or caverns. The former perplex 
 and disappoint the miner, who knows not how far 
 these twitches may continue, producing a disappoint- 
 ment like that which is caused by a slip in a coal-mine. 
 The veins in Alston Moor do not contain any of those 
 extensive and splendid caverns which Williams 
 describes in such glowing terms, but of which some 
 specimens exist in the adjoining manors of Allendale 
 and Weardale. Some of the flats in the Alston mines, 
 
114 FLAT VEINS. 
 
 however, present a magnificent spectacle. Small- 
 cleugh Flats, at Nenthead, have been rich in ore for 
 many years, but are now less productive. They are 
 so easy of access that ladies can visit them, without 
 encountering the usual obstacles of a mining excursion. 
 The ore in these flats (as the name implies) lies hori- 
 zontally, and the excavations in them are several yards 
 in breadth. The sides in many places are encrusted 
 with spai*, and the whole seldom fails to interest the 
 visitor, though it affords no clear idea of the usual 
 modes of obtaining ore in veins. 
 
 Veins usually have cheeks, which, however irregular 
 in width, still preserve the character of a fissure ; but 
 in certain parts of some strata, especially in the great 
 and scar limestones, a vein branches off laterally into 
 jlatSj which are often very pi'oductive of ore, as, for 
 instance, those of Smallcleugh. These flats vary as 
 much in their size and nature as veins ; sometimes no 
 lateral extension of a vein occurs at those parts of the 
 strata where only flats occur. Sometimes the miners, 
 when in the region of the flats, discover caverns of 
 various extent, from a nut-shell to several feet ; these 
 contain more or less of spar, rider, clay, &c. A lateral 
 opening often terminates in a wedge-like form from 
 the vein, and here, in mining language, the vein is 
 said to Jind ease, and in these places often produces 
 much ore. Flats occasionally reach to a great extent 
 like a regular stratum, and terminate suddenly by 
 a back or joint in the strata, and not in wedge-like 
 shape. A flat of this kind was recently worked by the 
 London Lead-Company, 'and, after producing a consi- 
 derable quantity of ore, was terminated in this manner. 
 Whether the structure of the stratum is different at 
 the random or level of the flats is scarcely known. Mr. 
 Leithart states that, in the interior of mines, the strata 
 
FLAT VEINS. 115 
 
 adjoining the flats are hard and compact, and seem no 
 way different from the general body of limestone ; yet 
 the same observing and experienced miner is of opinion 
 that there exists, at the random of the flats, a certain 
 peculiar structure, which he has seen developed at the 
 basset of the scar limestone, near Scarends mine. Flats 
 have for some years been worked very extensively at 
 Holyfield mine, near the town of Alston. They are in 
 some places of considerable width, and accompanied 
 by numerous strings running obliquely through the 
 vein. Sometimes a flat, when separated from a large 
 vein, has numerous strings or leaders running into it; 
 the latter term is applied by miners, because, by fol- 
 lowing them, they are often led to the flats. 
 
 Finally, in this very brief and imperfect description 
 of lead veins, let it be our hope that numerous stores 
 are yet existing, to be for ages brought forth in plen- 
 teousness, productive alike of wealth to the adventurer 
 and comfort to the miner. And whoever has a share 
 of patriotic feeling in his breast, cannot but earnestly 
 hope that the produce of our native mines may speedily 
 obtain such a remunerating price, as may relieve the 
 mining districts from that distress which now, like 
 a dark and threatening cloud, hangs heavily upon 
 them. 
 
CHAP. XL 
 
 LEAD MINES. 
 
 Progress of Mining. — Old Method of working Mines. — Nentforce 
 
 Level Ventilation of Mines. — Discovery of Hudgill Burn 
 
 Mine. — Present Mode of working Mines. — Mine Shops.— 
 Visit to a Lead Mine. 
 
 The "sweet influence of the stars" is no longer studied 
 as a subterranean guide, and the miner has ceased from 
 wandering in search of hidden ti-easures with a hazel 
 or apple-tree stick in his hand. Utterly absurd as this 
 doctrine of the Virgula Divhia appears to be, it is not 
 perhaps generally known that so late as the year 1778 
 its efficiency in discovering veins was believed and 
 asserted by an able and experienced writer on the 
 Cornish mines. Pryce, in a large folio volume, includ- 
 ing a vast fund of information on practical mining, 
 devotes eleven pages and a plate to illustrate the vari- 
 ous properties of the " magical rod," which, however, 
 has long been disused, nor indeed are there any records 
 of its having ever been used in the district of which 
 we now treat. 
 
 Few and simple are the annals of mining, and 
 centuries have left only meagre traces of the history 
 of the secluded districts in which it has chiefly flou- 
 rished. A few memorials of successive charters 
 evince the importance of the mines upwards of 
 six hundred years ago. From thence a period of 
 four hundred years passed over, when the almost 
 boundless treasures of this extensive mining field were 
 supposed to be exhausted. (See p. 24.) Another cen- 
 tury and a half is almost, if not entirely, barren of any 
 
PROGRESS OF MINING. 117 
 
 interesting information on the mines,— the "memory 
 of man" from time to time has been the only historical 
 record of the mining operations of Alston Moor. 
 
 Separated from the rest of the world so much as 
 these districts have until lately been, it is probable 
 that the early processes of mining were rude and sim- 
 ple, and if not tinctured with superstition, at least 
 cramped with idle and pernicious theories. So late as 
 sixty years ago, a current opinion prevailed that a 
 judgment of veins might be formed from the nature 
 of the surface and the uppermost stratum. Under 
 clay and moss lying on a limestone, a vein was consi- 
 dered likely to be productive in limestone; and where 
 a hazel stratum was covered by hard, firm ground, the 
 vein passing through that part was to be rich only 
 in haxel strata. If clay and hazel, or firm ground and 
 limestone, united at the surface, the miner anticipated 
 a less fortunate result. But these visionary conceits 
 have long been discarded in practical mining. 
 
 The old method of working mines was chiefly by 
 means of shafts sunk into the vein, and, when neces- 
 sary, levels were driven to drain the water. The 
 work was brought along the drifts by boys, and drawn 
 up the shafts in kibbles or small tubs by a whimseij or 
 roller, worked by men or horses, according to the 
 extent of the mine. In very large mines, the principal 
 or day shaft was called the horse whimsey, while men 
 or boys raised the ore up the successive sumps, * which 
 communicated with the deep workings. The water 
 levels were made so as merely to admit the workmen, 
 and were from 4 to 5 feet high, 2 feet wide near the 
 top, and from 15 to 18 inches at the bottom. Though 
 called levels, their inclination often varied with the 
 
 * The mining term for a shaft in the interior of a mine. 
 
118 NENTFOnCE LEVEL. 
 
 Strata, and they sometimes rose so much as the rapid 
 ascent of 4:5°. Smeaton, the celebrated engineer, was 
 for three years one of the Receivers of the Greenwich 
 Hospital Estates, and, had he not been required in more 
 important pursuits, it is probable that the mines would 
 have derived great advantages from his talents. 
 
 The aqueduct of Nentforce Level was projected 
 and commenced under the direction of Smeaton, and, 
 though it has not yet produced the results he antici- 
 pated, the sound judgment and propriety of the design 
 are generally allowed. The undertaking has not yet 
 reached the most productive part of the manor at 
 Nenthead, where it is probable that this adventurous 
 and stupendous work may open out a world of wealth 
 in a new and deep mining field. Whatever the fuhire 
 advantages of Nentforce Level may be, it has already 
 been the means of introducing great improvements in 
 the practice of mining. Among these is the general 
 use of horse levels, by which an easy access is gained 
 to the mines. The work is brought out with great 
 facility, and the health of the miners preserved by the 
 improved ventilation thus obtained. This superior mode 
 of working mines is said to have been first introduced 
 into the country by Sir Walter Calverly Blackett, 
 about the year 176O, but was not generally adopted 
 for many years. Again, Nentforce Level set the ex- 
 ample of cast-iron railways, which, in the London 
 Lead Company's works and numerous other mines, 
 were speedily adopted in the place of wood rails. 
 
 Mr. Sraeaton, when receiver, surveyed the workings 
 of Rarapgill vein to decide the boundary between 
 Alston and Allendale Manors ; and the amazing value 
 of that important vein well deserved the inquiries of so 
 able an engineer. It is not improbable that the power- 
 ful mind of Smeaton, and the effective works planned 
 
VENTILATION OF MINES. ]19 
 
 by him, gave a stimulus to mining; for, since that 
 period, both practical skill and a spirit of adventure 
 have rapidly increased. In 1780, Messrs. Walton and 
 Co. bought a mine at Nenthead for £ 205, and, being 
 fortunate here, they engaged in other subterranean ad- 
 ventures in Alston, and thus commenced a nevr era in 
 mining. Many new companies soon after commenced 
 either the trial of veins or the re-working of old mines, 
 and, among others, two families in humble circumstances 
 began in the year 1782 to work in Farnberry vein, 
 which was supposed to be exhausted. These adven- 
 turers proceeded with great industry to explore the old 
 workings, and the success which rewarded their exer- 
 tions induced other working miners to enter on similar 
 undertakings. Up to this period, mines had been 
 worked only by capitalists, but now many miners 
 work the amount of their shares, while other partners 
 contribute their funds; and trials of this kind have 
 frequently been productive of considerable pi'ofit. One 
 minei', without either money or education, gained 
 ^ 8000 in a few years by mining adventure, and many 
 instances of more or less good fortune have occurred, 
 though not unmixed with a share of those disappoint- 
 ments which, in mining as in every other pursuit, are 
 the appointed lot of man. 
 
 The ventilation of extensive mines has been gradu- 
 ally improved at different periods, and by various 
 means. Tin pipes were first used by Lord Carlisle 
 and Co. at Tyne-bottom mine ; Mr. Stagg introduced 
 iron pipes at Rampgill ; and Mr. Thomas Dickinson, 
 the present agent or Moor Master of Alston, has made 
 use of lead pipes for the same purpose in ventilating 
 Nentforce Level. The first of these materials was 
 found to decay speedily, but both it and the others are 
 o-reat improvements on the wooden boxes formerly in 
 
150 WASHING OF ORES. 
 
 use. These not only rendered the air impure, but 
 could not be made air-tight. Lead is indeed the most 
 costly, but it is also the most durable, and most useful 
 when taken out. 
 
 In 1796, an improved mode of washing ores was 
 introduced by Richard Trathen, a Cornish miner, who 
 came in search of employment, and proposed to obtain 
 considerable quantities of ore from the refuse of the 
 then inexperienced washers. A stamp mill was erected 
 at the cost of the London Lead Company, who em- 
 ployed him, and Trathen fulfilled his engagements. 
 In a little time, Trathen's bargain per ton produced 
 him such good wages, that the agent endeavoured to 
 reduce them ; but the attempt was steadily resisted. 
 Trathen was therefore dismissed, and a whole summer 
 passed in the fruitless efforts of others to supply his 
 place. He was again employed, and continued in 
 the company's service until prevented by age and 
 infirmity. His sons supported him till his death, and 
 have since continued to follow the same business under 
 the company. 
 
 A few years after Trathen's arrival, another import- 
 ant improvement was introduced into Alston by Mr. 
 Utrick Walton, a respectable and successful miner. 
 This was the crushing mill, which now forms so con- 
 spicuous an object in the washing floors of large mines. 
 The circumstances connected with the introduction of 
 the mill not only exemplify the nature of mining, but 
 form a curious illustration how much experience and 
 judgment may be exercised in it. Mr. Walton selected 
 a vein which proved worthy of trial, he pursued it 
 under discouraging circumstances until rewarded by 
 its treasures, and he had either the sound judgment or 
 the good fortune to leave it when it was no longer 
 worth possessinsr. The particulars are these. Mr. 
 
CRUSHING MILL. 121 
 
 Walton, in returning from a mine to his residence at 
 the Nest, near Alston, discovered in a burn a vein 
 which had been laid bare by a recent thunder shower, 
 and on the same day he applied to the Moor Master 
 for leave to try it, which was soon after granted. Mr. 
 W.'s partners at another mine declined joining in this 
 adventure, and he therefore prosecuted the trial at his 
 own risk. He drove a level towards the vein at an 
 expense of about Si 1200, but in three or four years a 
 rich vein rewarded his perseverance, which in one year 
 not only defrayed all the previous cost, but also produc- 
 ed a clear profit of upwards of £ 1000. After working 
 the mine with success for several years, Mr, W. took 
 up the rails, sold them with the crushing mill and other 
 appendages, and bade a long farewell to what he 
 deemed no longer worth pursuing. 
 
 This crushing mill, after being used several years, 
 was sold for exactly the sum which it cost when new. 
 An engraving of one of these mills is given in Forster's 
 Section of the Strata, accompanied with a minute de- 
 scription, which precludes the necessity of any length- 
 ened description here. The general reader will best 
 understand its utility and mode of operation from a 
 comparison with a cofFee-mil], which it resembles on a 
 large scale ; hard lumps of ore and stone being crushed 
 between two rollers in the same manner as coffee is 
 ground by a hand mill. 
 
 The mine, on being abandoned by Mr. Walton, was 
 re-opened by a company, whose want of success testi- 
 fied the ripeness of their predecessor's judgment. It 
 is remarkable, that one of the partners had discovered 
 and applied for the vein only a feiv hours later than 
 Mr. W. , and now, after a lapse of many years, was 
 doomed to possess only the shell from which so rich a 
 kernel had been obtained. Such are the vicissitudes 
 
 M 
 
122 HUDGILL BURN MINE. 
 
 of mining, ever liable to uncertainty. But in this, as 
 in many other instances, it strikingly appears how- 
 much practical judgment and experience may be ex- 
 ercised in reducing that uncertainty to a great degree 
 of probability. 
 
 A spirit of enterprise and increasing intelligence has 
 made rapid progress during the present century. At 
 the commencement of it, a Mineralogical Author * 
 bears testimony that " the mines in Alston and Allen- 
 dale are conducted on the most scientific principles, 
 and the agents are men of skill and well versed in 
 mechanics." 
 
 About this time the operations commenced which 
 subsequently led to the discovery of Hudgill Burn 
 Mine, the celebrity of which has given a new and 
 powerful stimulus to mining adventure, and forms a 
 prominent feature in the history and prosperity of 
 Alston Moor. The following are some particulars 
 relative to the discovery and productiveness of this 
 important mine. 
 
 A trial for veins on the north side of the mountain 
 of Middle Fell was commenced by the Flow-Edge 
 Mining Company, who drove a level 250 fathoms in 
 the tuft under the great limestone, and found only two 
 weak veins. They sunk two shafts from the surface, 
 and a sump or interior shaft to the four-fathom lime- 
 stone, drove a flank level to the north, and made a rise 
 to the middle flat of the great limestone in a vein 
 which they discovered. This vein was explored for 
 20 fathoms, and produced a few trifling specimens of 
 ore, but never any quantity worth washing and smelt- 
 ing. Such was the untoward result of four years 
 mining adventure, and of an expenditure which may 
 be estimated as follows : — 
 
 * Mawe, vide his " Mineralogy of Derbyshire." 
 
HUDGILL BURN MINE. 123 
 
 250 Fathoms of Level, 
 Two Shafts, .... 
 Sump into Four-fathom Limestone, 
 Flank Level, .... 
 Rise, and Drift in Vein, ; 
 Shop for Miners, Smithy, &c. . 
 Wood Rails, .... 
 Waggons, Shaft Rollers, Kibbles, &c 
 Agency, ..... 
 
 1250 
 
 175 
 
 78 
 
 100 
 
 62 
 
 20 
 
 44 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 £1929 
 After thus losing nearly £, 2000, the company sold 
 the materials, abandoned the undertaking, and the 
 mine lay neglected for about eight years. In 1812, 
 Messrs. John and Jacob Wilson, with some other ex- 
 perienced miners, obtained leave to pursue the trial, 
 and accordingly having arched the entrance to the 
 level, cleai'ed out the old workings, and laid new rails, 
 they continued the main level of the former company, 
 but altered its direction a little to the south. Four 
 men were employed to drive 20 fathoms of level in the 
 tuft, at four guineas per fathom, by which they made 
 \6s. or 17.y. per week. This partnership (two of whom 
 had shares and became wealthy proprietors of the 
 mine) continued working a year and three quarters ; 
 the bargains being on an average about ol. lOs. per 
 fathom, and in that time they drove about 70 fathoms 
 of level. In April, ISl'i, a vein was discovered which 
 had a good appearance, considering the sti'atum which 
 the level was then in, (the grey beds under the tuft), 
 but which would not in that situation pay for working. 
 After driving through the vein, which was 2 feet wide, 
 a rise was made to the low flat of the great limestone, 
 where the vein was nearly filled with carbonate of lead 
 or white ore. The partnership of four miners took a 
 bargain to work the vein at 18*. per bing until mid- 
 summer (9 weeks), and in that time raised 300 bings 
 
124 HUDGILL BURN MINE. 
 
 of ore, and cleared £ 80 per man. This was followed 
 by another bargain at 16,?, per bing, by which the 
 same partnership cleared £25 each in three months. 
 
 Thus commenced, at wages of nearly £ 10 per week, 
 the working of those immense stores of wealth which 
 raised the proprietors to opulence, and have been a 
 source of extensive employment to the labouring classes 
 in Alston Moor. The veins of Hudgill Burn have 
 since produced ore from 10 to 12 feet wide, and in 
 some places even as much as 20 feet. The ease with 
 which it has generally been obtained is one great 
 cause of its value, being entirely worked by the pick 
 without the aid of blasting, at from 8*. to 10*. per bing. 
 For these wages the miner finds candles, conveys the 
 ore to the dai/, and pays for washing the ore, which 
 is very rich in quality. 
 
 The company spent about £ S6"0 before they reached 
 the vein, making altogether a sum of nearly £ 2300 
 expended in the discovery of this noble mine. Of the 
 extent and value of Hudgill Burn Mine some idea 
 may be formed from the following circumstances : — 
 Its produce in 1820 was above 9000 bings of ore, in 
 1829 the horse levels exceeded four miles in length, 
 the value of silver produced in 1821 was £ 8400, and 
 the clear profit to the proprietors is supposed for many 
 years to have averaged about £ 30,000 per annum. 
 
 In 1812 the Commissioners of the Hospital agreed 
 to purchase the ore of those mining adventurers who 
 had no smelting establishment, and were without capi- 
 tal to abide the fluctuations of the market. Mining 
 companies were thus alike sure of disposing of their 
 ore and receiving payment, an accommodation which 
 has had a highly beneficial effect in encouraging mining 
 speculation. 
 
 In 1817 a company took part of Langley Mills, 
 
PUESENT MODE OF WORKING VEINS. 125 
 
 chiefly erected for their accommodation, for the purpose 
 of smelting the ores of zinc, which are found in abund- 
 ance in some of the Alston veins. These works were 
 successfully prosecuted for a few years ; but the price 
 suddenly falling from ^70 to £40 per ton, the concern 
 became a losing speculation, and was forthwith aban- 
 doned. This metal is now furnished from Germany 
 at a less price than the English smelter can compete 
 with. 
 
 After this rapid sketch of the recent history of Alston 
 raining, it is proposed to give such a familiar descrip- 
 tion of the general nature and appearance of mines and 
 subterranean operations as may be intelligible to those 
 Avho have not had the opportunity of viewing them. 
 
 It has already been described that veins usually pre- 
 serve a tolerably direct course, therefore the miner is of- 
 ten induced to follow the line of bearing, and to search for 
 the vein in some situation where it has yet been untried. 
 Sometimes a vein appears at the surface and especially 
 on the face of precipitous rocks, while mineral waters 
 and other external signs often indicate the presence 
 of mineral treasures. The next point is to ascertain 
 whether a vein is likely to be productive, and in this 
 the experience of the practical miner is essential. 
 When a vein in Alston Moor is considered woi-thy of 
 trial, application is made to the agents foi' leave to try 
 the same, which is usually granted forthwith, (except 
 in extraordinary cases), for a specified period, commonly 
 of six months. If, at the expiration of that time, the 
 trial is unsatisfactory, an extension of the term is 
 generally granted. The parties making the trial are 
 bound to observe the following conditions: — To com- 
 mence the trial within a month from the date of the 
 grant ; the trial to be regularly continued till the end 
 of the term, and at least two pickmen daily employed 
 
126 PRESENT MODE OF WORKING MINES. 
 
 or an equivalent of labour ; one-fifth part of any ore 
 raised to be paid as duty or rent to the Hospital, and 
 to observe all other conditions required in the leases 
 of lead-mines in this manor. When a mine assumes a 
 promising and permanent aspect, a lease of the vein, 
 and, in some instances, a general grant of a parcel of 
 ground, including several veins, is obtained from the 
 Hospital. 
 
 In some particular situations the miner is compelled 
 to commence the trial of a vein by sinking a shaft, 
 but, owing to the hilly nature of the country, in nearly 
 every case a level or adit is driven from a hill side, and 
 in as favourable a stratum as the situation affords. 
 A level is a passage cut in the solid rock large enough 
 for the easy passage of men and horses, the usual di- 
 mensions being 3 feet wide at the bottom, gradually 
 widening to the middle height, where it is o\ or 4 
 feet wide, and from thence it has an arched form to 
 the top, which is from 6 to 7 feet high. Levels are 
 most easily driven in plate beds, though they require 
 more support than in harder strata. The cost of driv- 
 ing levels in different strata varies much according to 
 circumstances. Even in plate beds the cost varies from 
 £ 1 to £ 6 per fathom, while hazel may cost £ 10 or 
 £ 12, and limestone still more. A horse level seldom 
 departs from a very gentle and imperceptible rise, just 
 sufficient to allow the water to run along, and thus 
 a level begun in soft plate may by a rapid rise of strata 
 penetrate a hard stratum. In some instances the 
 level is made to rise with the top of a hard stratum, 
 as at Nentforce High Level, which has a rapid ascent 
 to avoid penetrating the scar limestone. On the floor 
 of levels, wood or iron rails are laid at the sides, which 
 greatly facilitate the passage of the waggons ; the for- 
 mer convey sound to a great distance in the interior 
 
PRESENT MODE OF WORKING MINES. 127 
 
 of names. Levels are driven either above or below 
 the stratum intended to be worked, but, according to 
 the improved practice of mining, if possible, below, 
 in order that the work may fall down, and at one side 
 of the vein, because the strata there are firmer than 
 close to the vein. 
 
 From the level, access is had to the vein by a Rise, 
 which is a shaft communicating from one side of the 
 level to the vein. At the bottom there is usually a 
 short level space left, 3 feet above the level sole or floor, 
 for more conveniently putting the work into waggons. 
 These rises are made at 15 or 20 fathoms distance from 
 each other. But when it is necessary to descend either 
 to the workings of a vein or for exploring lower strata, a 
 shaft is sunk, sometimes walled, and sometimes formed 
 irregularly in the rugged rock. This, which if com- 
 menced from the surface would have been called a 
 shaft, is when underground denominated a sump. 
 
 When the vein is reached either by a rise or a sump, 
 a drift is made about 6 feet high, and at least 2^ or 3 
 feet wide. The working of the vein is then prosecuted. 
 If poor, the drift is continued in search of ore ; if rich, 
 the contents are regularly worked. This, and indeed 
 nearly all mining work, is done by partnerships of four, 
 six, or eight men, seldom of two, but sometimes, in 
 very wet shafts or sumps, of twelve each. In driving 
 levels or working veins, these partnerships have a cer- 
 tain length allotted them, generally 15 or 20 fathoms, 
 and they either all work at different parts, or relieve 
 each other altei-nately. The^' partnerships bargain 
 with the master to work at a certain price for a speci- 
 fied period, and as these bargains are regulated by the 
 present appearance and prospect of the strata or veins, 
 a sudden and unexpected change may occur, produc- 
 tive either of gain or loss to the miner, as has been 
 
128 COST OF LEAD MINING. 
 
 already instanced in the case of Pludgill Burn Mine. 
 The bargain usually includes not only the labour in 
 the mine, but also for gun-powder and candles, for the 
 conveyance of the stone or ore, &c. to the day or out- 
 side of the mine, and also for washing and preparing 
 it so as to be fit for smelting. It is by the bing of 8 
 cwt. of ore in this state, that the price of working is 
 fixed. In some veins ore is easily obtained in a per- 
 fectly pure state; in others blasting with gun-powder 
 is required. It generally happens that the ore is more 
 or less mixed with veinstone, and sometimes the vein 
 itself, however pure, is so thin, perhaps only 3 or 4 
 inches, that a great quantity of stone must be cut away 
 for drift room, to allow space for working it. By all 
 these circumstances the prices of raining labour are 
 estimated, and it may easily be perceived how much 
 it is the interest of the working miner to be well ac- 
 quainted with the various appearances of strata and 
 veins, that he may judge of and make his bargains 
 accordingly. Hence a spirit of inquiry is created, 
 which naturally extends to other subjects, and the 
 miners generally possess a degree of shrewdness and 
 intelligence rarely found in a labouring class of people. 
 Many of the rich veins of Hudgill Burn have been 
 worked for 8*. or 10,y. per bing; in Holyfield Mine at 
 14*. and iQs., while many veins cost from 34*. to 40*. 
 and even a still greater sum ; but the average in Alston 
 Moor is generally estimated at rather above than under 
 ?>0s. per bing. Four bings of ore are usually considered 
 to pi'oduce a fother of lead ; for this the mine owners 
 raise 5 bings, one being paid as duty or rent to the 
 Hospital. To this is to be added the cost of carriage 
 to the smelt-mill, which, from the Alston mines, is 
 usually to Langley, a distance of 13 miles, and costs 
 4*. or 5s. per bing. After this comes the charge for 
 
PRESENT MODE OF WORKING MINES. 129 
 
 roasting and smelting, and for conveyance to the depot 
 at Newcastle, to constitute the cost of the production 
 of lead. This cost is, however, to be doubled, or nearly 
 so, to remunerate the mine owner for the original out- 
 lay incurred by the trial, and for the dead worh, or that 
 which produces no return, as driving levels, drifts, 
 and other works. Mr. Taylor, one of the most expe- 
 rienced mining directors in England, states, that, judg- 
 ing of raining on a large scale, he is convinced that as 
 much is paid for dead work as for raising ore. 
 
 After working a length in a productive vein, the ex- 
 cavation is filled up with deads, i. e. loose stones, rub- 
 bish, &c. from adjacent parts of the mine, * leaving 
 only a rise, from which another drift, called a heading, 
 is made, and the same operation is repeated to the 
 top of the stratum, and above it if the vein conti- 
 nues productive. The rises are thus frequently 8 or 
 10 fathoms high, and have stemples or pieces of wood 
 placed at two opposite sides, 4 or 5 feet above each 
 other. These form a rude and apparently dangerous 
 staircase, which the miner climbs with great ease and 
 security, and down which the work is thrown from 
 above to the rise foot below. Workings continued 
 downwards under the first-made drift are called stoups, 
 and in them the vein is worked downward from the 
 bottom of the drift. 
 
 When a vein either continues productive or is ex- 
 pected to be so below the horse level, a sump is sunk 
 to the required depth, which, if in soft strata, is walled, 
 but in hai'd is left rugged and irregular. From the 
 sump a drift is made, and the vein, if rich, is worked 
 by headings and stoups as before, — the work being 
 
 * At Hudgill Burn Mine the workings have been so extensive 
 that materials to fill them had to be brought from the day. 
 
130 PRESENT MODE OF WORKING MINES. 
 
 drawn up the sump by a hand whimsey, similar to 
 what is used at draw-wells. In a flat vein the 
 workings frequently run to a great extent, and the 
 roof being supported by substantial posts of timber, 
 the whole, especially when dimly lighted, presents a 
 receding vista, which reminds the spectator of the 
 aisles and pillars of a cathedral. When well lighted, 
 the lowness of the roof destroys this effect, but the 
 glittering treasures which adorn its sides are then 
 presented to view, and are often exceedingly beau- 
 tiful. 
 
 When the strata or veins are too hard for pick- work, 
 recourse is had to blasting with gun-powder, which is 
 done as follows. A round iron bar, called a jumper, 
 having the end edged like a chisel, is held by one inan 
 while another strikes on the end until a hole is bored 
 in the stone, usually 10 or 12 inches deep. A proper 
 quantity of gun-powder is then placed in the hole, 
 and a small iron rod or pricker is placed in it until 
 plate or indurated clay is strongly pressed on the gun- 
 powder, and the hole filled up. The pricker is then 
 replaced by a paper squib tightly rolled up, and to 
 this a slow match is applied, so as to leave time for the 
 nniners to retire to a safe distance, while the explo- 
 sion effects in a single moment what long and laborious 
 efforts would otherwise be required to accomplish. 
 
 The operation of blasting is sometimes one of almost 
 inconceivable difficulty, and requires the most unwea- 
 rying perseverance, combined with very arduous ex- 
 ertion. In most instances the result obtained is such 
 as very amply to repay the labour, however great ; 
 for, by the exertion of a few hours added to a small 
 quantity of gun-powder, large masses of hard rock are 
 detached. Some of the borings in the copper ores of 
 foreign countries seem comparatively to render the 
 
PRESENT MODE OF WORKING MINES. 131 
 
 ordinary work of this kind in the English lead-mines 
 a mere amusement. One account, extracted from a 
 proces verbal, states, that in the Hartz Mountains, a 
 workman was employed 88 hours in boring a hole 4 
 inches deep, during which time 201 boring augers 
 were re-hardened, 26 remounted with steel, and 126 
 entirely destroyed. Instances ot almost equal diffi- 
 culty sometimes occur in the coal district, near New- 
 castle. 
 
 The ventilation of mines is now so much attended 
 to, that choke damp or foul air is very rarely found in 
 them. Among the improved methods of forcing pure 
 air into lead-mines, the water blast is found to be one of 
 the most efficient. The contrivance simply consists of a 
 wooden pipe placed in a shaft, and down which a 
 stream of water is kept running, while a quantity of 
 fresh air is carried with it. From the bottom of this 
 wooden pipe, another pipe of wood, iron, or lead is 
 carried along the level, and the air being stopped by 
 the water in a cistern at the bottom of the shaft pipe, 
 and prevented rising by the downward current of air 
 and water, is forced along the pipe into the workings 
 of the mine. The water blast at Nentsbury eno-ine 
 shaft carries the air along a leaden pipe 600 yards, and 
 at Scears Mine, in Teesdale, Mr. Stagg applied a hy- 
 draulic engine which ventilated a level a mile lono-, 
 together with a rise of 65 fathoms, without any shafts 
 being sunk from the surface. Other machines are in 
 use for the same purpose, but to describe fully these 
 various minutiae would swell the subject to an unsuit- 
 able length. 
 
 Nearly all the waggons used in the lead-mines are 
 made of strong oak, and run on metal wheels. Their 
 dimensions are nearly as follows : — 
 
132 PRESENT MODE OF WORKING MINES. 
 
 
 ft. in. 
 
 Inside length at the top, 
 
 . 6 
 
 Ditto .... bottom, 
 
 . 4 4 
 
 Ditto Breadth at the top, . 
 
 . 1 6 
 
 Ditto .... bottom, 
 
 . 10 
 
 Ditto Depth, .... 
 
 . 2 6 
 
 Height of the top of waggon from the ground, 4 
 
 At the bottom is a trap for letting out the contents, 
 but some are made to cant or turn up like a common 
 cart. Of late iron waggons have been tried in some 
 mines, but they have not been much introduced in this 
 manor. The partnership of miners pay the waggoners 
 so much per shift of 8 waggon loads, according to the 
 length of level, but the price is determined by propo- 
 sals given in to the masters of the mine, whose interest 
 it is to have the work done with the least expense to 
 their workmen. The waggons are provided by the 
 masters, but the horses are supplied by those to whom 
 the drawing of the work is let. Sometimes a horse 
 brings only one, but generally, on good metal rails, 
 two waggon loads at a time, and will draw from 2 to 
 3 shifts (i. e. l6 to 24* waggons) in a day. The cost 
 of drawing work usually varies from 3s. to 8^^ per shift, 
 and no difference is made whether the contents be solid 
 ore, or light earth and stone. The price includes the 
 labour of filling the waggons in the mine, and after- 
 wards depositing their contents either on the bouse 
 teams or the dead heap. 
 
 All the work wrought in mines is included in the 
 terms ore, house, and deads. The first of these has been 
 already described. Bouse comprehends all the work 
 that contains any portion of ore, and the term deads 
 expressively denotes the stone, earth, and other sub- 
 stances excavated in the level or vein, &c. from which 
 no profit is derived. The bing stead, bouse team, and 
 
MINE SHOPS, 133 
 
 dead heap, are the places where these different kinds 
 of work are deposited at the outside of the mine. 
 
 In some places, where either the stratum or vein is 
 hard, a partnership of six or eight men will scarcely- 
 work a shift of 8 waggons in a week, while in others 
 two men can work that quantity, or even more, in a 
 day. In a tolerably good vein a waggon will hold 
 bouse containing a bing of ore, and in very rich veins 
 two bings. 
 
 Early on a Monday morning, the streets of Alston 
 ring with the clanking noise of heavy iron-shod clogs, 
 and numerous groups of miners are seen departing to 
 their subterranean labours, laden with jumpers, picks, 
 &c. : many of them carrying an ample store of 
 provisions for the week. They generally work eight 
 hours a day, and 4, 5, or 6 days a week, according to 
 circumstances. Some miners have small farms, which 
 occupy their leisure time, while gardening and read- 
 ing, these most delightful of all recreations, also form 
 the leisure occupation of many. 
 
 Some of the mines are so near the residence of the 
 workmen as to admit of their returning home between 
 shifts, while others are situated amid wild and exten- 
 sive hills and moors, far from any human habitation. 
 Near the entrance of such remote mines is a house or 
 mining shop with accommodation not only for the 
 miners, but also for the smiths and joiners employed 
 in making and repairing waggons, railways, &c. In 
 the miners' apartment a number of beds are crowded 
 in different parts ; but it would be difficult by any de- 
 scription to convey an idea of the want of cleanliness 
 and comfort which prevails in some of them. If 
 Ledyard, who so beautifully and justly eulogized wo- 
 men for kindness and hospitality, had visited certain 
 of these mining abodes, he would have praised them 
 
 N 
 
134 MINE SHOPS. 
 
 with equal eloquence for the order and cleanliness 
 which we chiefly owe to their presiding care, and 
 which by the rougher sex are here so lamentably neg- 
 lected. To this description, however, there are some, 
 and it is to be hoped, increasing exceptions. The 
 author recollects having seen in a mining shop on Cross- 
 fell, a set of very orderly regulations, and since then 
 has been much gratified by the clean and comfortable 
 arrangements of a large mining shop in Teesdale, lately 
 built under the direction of Mr. Stagg. The discom- 
 forts of English mining, however, are few in comparison 
 with those of other countries. The following account, 
 for instance, abridged from private letters of miners 
 who emigrated from Alston, gives a lamentable picture 
 of the Mexican miners, 
 
 " Their houses and clothing are of little value, the 
 former, for the most part, being miserable huts, which 
 it would be no hard task to erect in a single day. In 
 families of seven or eight individuals, the furniture, 
 cooking utensils, in short, the whole contents of several 
 huts belonging to the labouring class which we exa- 
 mined, we never found to exceed twenty shillings in 
 value. Not one house in twenty contained either knife, 
 fork, or spoon, and even in several whole villages they 
 could not be had. As for beds, they never think of 
 such a thing, but lie down on the bare floor in a corner 
 of the hut. The dress of the labouring man, when 
 new, would be thought dear for six shillings, and this 
 he wears at all times and in all places, in the mine and 
 out of it, on Sunday as well as ' every day ;' and at 
 night it serves both for bed and bed-clothes, until torn 
 off" piece by piece." 
 
 If the Mexican miner falls short of English com- 
 forts and cleanliness, it appears that he much ex- 
 ceeds our miners in devotion; for the same intelligent 
 
VISIT TO A LEAD MINE. 135 
 
 correspondent adds the following singular particu- 
 lars : — "Sixty fathoms down the Despache, one of 
 the entrances to Valenciana Mine, is a church, where 
 lamps are continually lighted ; the workmen often 
 spend half an hour in it on going to or retiring from 
 work, and none of them pass without bowing before 
 the painted images. They usually spend an hour in 
 smging before they begin and the same after they leave 
 off work." 
 
 VISIT TO A LEAD MINE. 
 
 Parties of ladies and gentlemen desirous of visiting 
 the mines, can have suitable dresses provided by the 
 landlord of the inn. A coat, pair of trowsers, and hat 
 suffice for a gentleman, while the softer sex are often 
 indebted to the landlady's wardrobe. Old shawls, 
 hats, aprons, and even bedgowns, are taken to the 
 mining shop, and the fair form of beauty and fashion is 
 there disguised in such heterogeneous garments as to 
 create no small share of amusement. The grotesque 
 and novel appearance, both of ladies and gentlemen, 
 frequently contributes not a little to the mirth of the 
 company, and also tends to dissipate any timorous 
 feeling. As mines, like states and empires, " have 
 their periods of declension, and feel in their turn what 
 distress and poverty are," it is thought better not to 
 limit this sketch of a subterranean visit to any particular 
 mine, but rather to describe such features as are gene- 
 rally presented in the Alston Mines. Permission to 
 view the mines is in most instances readily obtained. 
 
 The author ventures from his own observation to 
 premise, that visitors will generally be gratified with 
 the rustic but kind civility and attention of the miners, 
 and in some instances also with their intelligence, due 
 allowance being made for local dialect and limited 
 education. Their readiness to afford information and 
 
135' VISIT TO A LEAD MINE. 
 
 to render assistance greatly contributes to the interest 
 and comfort of the excursion, by imparting knowledge 
 to the inquirer, and confidence to the timorous. 
 
 Arrived at the mine, the visitor has a full view of 
 the various apparatus used in washing the ore. A lofty 
 heap of stones, clay, and other earthy substances, called 
 the dead heap, forms a prominent feature at the entrance 
 of all extensively wrought mines. A railway carried 
 on a frame- work gallery over several deposits of bouse, 
 or mixed stone and ore, forms the house teams, and the 
 work of the separate partnerships of miners is divided 
 by partitions. From these bouse teams the contents 
 are carried away to undergo the various and, it may 
 be said, amusing processes of washing ; for strangers 
 who have leisure to examine them are usually much 
 entertained with the ingenious and cunning devices 
 to obtain every particle of ore. In stone recesses, 
 called bing steads, sundry heaps of shining ore are laid, 
 some in broken lumps, and others in fine powder. 
 These are ready to be conveyed to the smelt-mills, 
 there to be converted into lead and silver, provided 
 the latter exists in sufficient proportion to repay the 
 expense of refining. 
 
 The party being suitably arrayed, have sometimes 
 to wait a little until the waggons come out, and in the 
 mean time are each furnished with a candle, round 
 which a piece of clay is fixed to hold it by. At length 
 the rumbling noise of the approaching waggons rapidly 
 increases, and their contents having been deposited, 
 they are prepared for the visitors, the inside being 
 cleaned, and a board placed at each end for a seat. 
 The entrance to the mine, or the level mouth, resembles 
 an open arched door- way, into which the waggons are 
 driven at a moderate pace, and the visitors experience 
 the novel sensations which so unusual a conveyance is 
 
VISIT TO A LEAD MINE. IS? 
 
 apt to create. The jolting, hottering motion of the 
 waggon, the splashing of the water, and the dark and 
 narrow passage, all concur to produce a strange effect, 
 which, however, soon wears off, and the subterranean 
 traveller finds leisure to observe the rugged roof and 
 walls of the level, or to listen to the guide urging for- 
 ward his horse, in tones which the echoes of the mine 
 often render musical. Even the fragment of a song 
 from the driver sometimes enlivens the journey, but, 
 on no account, is whistling allowed to be heard in 
 a mine. The same prejudice exists among seamen, 
 but whence its origin is probably unknown. 
 
 After advancing some distance into the interior, the 
 visitor passes the rise foots, in some of which a store 
 of bouse is laid ready to be taken away, and at length 
 the waggons stop, and the company get out at one of 
 these openings. A powerful vociferation of " jyiit 
 nought down," is sent forth as a warning to those above 
 to throw no work down, and a further summons brings 
 a few miners to render their assistance. When a signal 
 is to be made to some distance, it is done by beating 
 on the rails or posts, five beats, the first two slow, the 
 other three quick, and this is repeated several times. 
 The same signal is used in the Newcastle coal-mines, 
 where it is denominated "Jowling." 
 
 The ascent of a rise is frequently attended with some 
 difficulty, especially to ladies ; but the gallantry of the 
 gentlemen and the effective civility of the miners soon 
 overcome the apparent dangers, and, one by one, they 
 are raised into the workings of the vein. Hence the 
 party are conducted along the mine drift of the vein, 
 and this part of the expedition must of course greatly 
 vary in different mines ; in all, however, the stranger 
 is apt to be impressed with feelings of awe at the idea 
 of being so far under-ground. The contemplative 
 
138 VISIT TO A LEAD MINE. 
 
 mind cannot but find many interesting subjects of re- 
 flection on the distribution of so much wealth in a 
 country otherwise so barren — the various uncertainties 
 which are the means of so extensive employment — the 
 fluctuations of fortune so often resulting from mining 
 adventures, and the ingenuity displayed in prosecuting 
 them, are all circumstances which may engage the 
 attention of a reflecting mind. To the mineralogist, 
 the interior of a mine, especially if it contain any spar- 
 encrusted caverns, is a sort of " home, sweet home," 
 where the lovers of that science and of geology may 
 derive copious stores of intellectual enjoyment. 
 
 Blend and calamine, the ores of zinc, are sometimes 
 found spreading their glossy sparkling blackness in 
 tlie veins ; and fluor spar and quartz are the principal, 
 almost the only, sparry ornaments that abound. The 
 traveller at Alston is not gratified by the sight of such 
 beautiful caverns as are found in the Coalcleugh and 
 Allendale mines. The latter, however, being private 
 property, and worked by the proprietor, cannot be 
 considered as generally accessible to public curiosity, 
 though intelligent strangers of scientific pursuits will 
 doubtless receive every attention from the hospitality 
 and liberal-minded feeling of the resident agents. 
 
 The progress along vein workings is often " with 
 cautious steps and slow," especially among the intri- 
 cacies of flat workings. The friendly caution of " take 
 care ye dinna fall down the rise, sometimes calling the 
 visitor's attention (absorbed perhaps in other thoughts) 
 to a yawning gulf not to be passed over without some 
 caution. Sometimes an almost perfect stillness is 
 suddenly broken by a noise like distant thunder, the 
 report of a blast, which, rolling through the workings 
 of the mine, at length, after many reverberations, dies 
 away. The noise of work "falling down a rise" and 
 
VISIT TO A LEAD MINE. 139 
 
 the rumbling of waggons occasionally salute the ear ; 
 the sound of the latter, gradually increasing and less- 
 ening, resembles the solemn effect of distant thunder. 
 
 The process of blasting has been already described. 
 The miners usually describe this and other modes of 
 ■working the ore, and frequently fire a shot for the 
 entertainment of the visitor ; but, when near at hand, 
 the effect is by no means so striking as when distance 
 softens the noise and adds repeated echoes to it. At 
 length arrived at the far end or forehead of the vein, the 
 party usually rest, and a pleasant company is occasion- 
 ally formed by the accession of two or three partner- 
 skips. Spirits or other refreshments are sometimes 
 taken by the visitors ; and those who choose to spend 
 half an hour in the company of miners may frequently 
 derive both information and amusement. Most of the 
 miners are well acquainted with practical mining, and 
 with this is necessarily blended a knowledge of many 
 facts in geology and mineralogy. But many of them 
 are also tolerably well informed on other subjects, and 
 a friend of the author's was much surprised in one of 
 these forehead meetings, to hear Blackstone's Com- 
 mentaries quoted by a miner both with accuracy and 
 direct reference to the subject of discussion. 
 
 The miners work by what is often in other trades 
 called piece-work, so that the time spent with strangers 
 is taken from their own labour, and the prodigal ex- 
 penditure of light is also at their own cost. By the 
 latter is meant the custom of miners of not putting 
 out their candles, however numerous the company may 
 be, and a forehead assemblage presents a brilliant illu- 
 mination, twenty or thirty candles being sometimes 
 placed against the wall. If any partners of the mine 
 are present, many are the speculations on the good- 
 ness and improving prospects of the grove. The 
 
140 VISIT TO A LEAD MINE. 
 
 honny dorvk and excellent rider, as well as the ore, come 
 in for a share of gratulation, and ai'e often considered 
 harbingers of the vein being still more productive. 
 Many a lively song and joke are often added to the 
 entertainment of such an assemblage as we are now 
 describing. One example, spoken by a miner, may 
 suffice as a specimen of dialect and humour. " An 
 folk wad nobbit let folk like folk as weel as folk wad 
 like to like folk, folk wad like folk as weel as folk ever 
 liked folk sin folk was folk \" It may here be remarked, 
 that the conversation of miners sometimes has a curious 
 effect from their assuming, as it were, a sort of volition 
 in the mineral world. Thus they speak of a vein 
 being frightened to climb the hill, and that she there- 
 fore sTvins away to the sun side, (a feminine appella- 
 tion being generally used). The throw of the strata 
 is attributed, as it were, to an act of the vein, — 
 " she throws the north cheek up." These are homely 
 but they are also expressive modes of describing what 
 they have frequent occasion to speak of, and they 
 save a world of words. 
 
 Ladies seldom pursue a subterranean excursion fur- 
 ther than the main workings, or such others as are 
 easily accessible, while their more adventurous com- 
 panions frequently accompany the guides into other 
 parts of the mine. In so doing, obstacles present 
 themselves more difficult of accomplishment than those 
 already described. Lofty rises with rude and slippery 
 stemples * are sometimes found extremely awkward to 
 climb, and still more so to descend. It sometimes 
 happens that the stemples are covered over with boards 
 to prevent their being injured by the falling ore, &c. 
 thrown from the workings above, and the only foot- 
 
 * See page 129. 
 
VISIT TO A LEAD MINE. 141 
 
 holds then to be had are the spaces between these 
 boards. The attention of the miners, however, who 
 climb and descend with perfect confidence, prevents 
 any real danger, though to a stranger the idea of 
 climbing fifty or a hundred feet on so perilous a footing 
 is seldom unattended with some sense of fearful ap- 
 prehension. 
 
 Journeying through the drifts of a narrow vein is a 
 less dangerous but often equally fatiguing task, espe- 
 cially if, by reason of accumulated work, the hands 
 and knees are to be put in requisition for several fa- 
 thoms over sharp angular blocks of rock, which all but 
 fill the narrow passage. At the end or forehead of 
 such drifts, buried as it were in a deep and lonely 
 cavern, a single miner is often found pursuing his 
 solitary labours at a string or thin vein of ore, which, 
 like a bright silvery stream, is seen traversing the rock. 
 It is considered that in general a solid rib of ore two 
 or three inches wide, will pay for working, and as a 
 much greater space is required for vei?i room, the pro- 
 curing of this slender thread of ore is attended with a 
 great proportion of unprofitable labour, hence the incon- 
 venient but economical narrowness of the drift. The 
 persevering visitor, who would explore every part of 
 a mine, after descending the rise to the level, is probably 
 next taken to a sump head, where he is required to 
 trust his person to a substantial rope hung on the axle 
 of a hand whimsey, * often of seemingly frail construc- 
 tion, and is thus lowered down into the deeper work- 
 ings of the mine, the aspect of which is similar to 
 those above. 
 
 The subterranean researches of our visitors being at 
 length completed, the waggons are again entered, and 
 
 * A roller and handle similar to what are commonly used for 
 draw-wells. 
 
1 12 VISIT TO A LEAD MINE. 
 
 the eye accustomed to such scenery surveys with 
 greater clearness the strata of the roof and sides, — 
 pendent drops are seen hanging from above, and the 
 wooden posts, which in some places support the level 
 roof, are covered with woolly snow-like fungi. The 
 timorous sensations felt on entering are now dissipated, 
 and the party can fearlessly look at these and other 
 swiftly passing objects, on which at length a faint 
 white gleam of light is seen to blend with the yellower 
 rays of the candles. The rocky prominences become 
 more and more illuminated, and the solar light, 
 together with the sparkling drops of water impart so 
 bright and silvery an aspect as to excite the greatest 
 admiration. This rapidly increases vmtil, amid the 
 splashing of water and the noisy rattling of their rug- 
 ged cars, the party emerge from the dark chambers 
 of the earth to the magnificent and almost overpower- 
 ing brightness of " the day." 
 
TEESDALE. 
 
 Yadmoss.— Cauldron Snout — Tees Force.— Winch Bridge.— 
 Middleton in Teesdale. — Barnard Castle. 
 
 The barrier between Alston Moor and the extensive 
 and romantic dale of the river Tees is formed by lofty 
 moors; the summit or "heaven's water division" of 
 which, and a mountain rivulet called Crookburn, form 
 the boundary between the counties of Cumberland 
 and Durham, and the parishes of Alston and Middleton 
 in Teesdale. That part of the moors which is crossed 
 by the new road, is called Yadmoss, a name which, 
 until lately, carried with it, to all who knew it, many 
 associations of a wild and barren country, of boisterous 
 weather, of bewildering mists, of snow storms, and of 
 the loss of human life. * 
 
 The almost impassable state of this dreary fell is 
 matter of historical record so far back as the reign of 
 Edward III. (see p. 8), and until a few years ago the 
 
 * One remarkable storm, about sixty 3'ears ago, was long 
 remembered by the name of the " Stoury Sunday." On this day 
 a young woman was lost in the snow on the adjoining moor. 
 A few weeks after, a person, going from Alston to visit his friends 
 in Yorkshire, was overtaken by a storm, and perished on Yad- 
 moss. Other two persons were lost here about the same time. 
 The last person who lost his life in this unfortunate way was a 
 young man named Walton, who, visiting Middleton and return- 
 ing the same day, missed his way on Yadmoss, and sunk exhausted 
 from the effects of storm and fatigue. The neighbouring fells 
 also have often been the scene of such calamities, and of still 
 more frequent personal hazard ; for in such boisterous winds and 
 heavy falls of snow as often occur on these elevated moors, it was 
 almost impossible not to wander from the right path. 
 
144 TEESDALE. 
 
 roads were of the most wretched description. But 
 now on this as well as on the moors of Whitfield and 
 Hartside, a good road has been constructed, guide 
 posts have been erected, and the traveller may traverse 
 the dreary heights of Yadmoss with ease and safety. 
 
 From Yadmoss the present road descends by the 
 side of Harewood Beck, but will shortly be superseded 
 by a new line, which, winding to the north, descends 
 with a more gradual inclination, and then crossing the 
 old road, passes near Tees Force, and joins the pre- 
 sent road at Bowlees, near Newbiggin. From thence 
 by Middleton and Barnard Castle to the Abbey Bridge 
 at Rokeby, improvements on the present road, with 
 occasional deviations, will complete an excellent line 
 of road through the extensive district of Teesdale, and 
 form an uninterrupted communication from Greta 
 Bridge to either Brampton or Haydon Bridge by way 
 of Alston. 
 
 In descending from Yadmoss, the tourist has, in 
 clear weather, a commanding view of the vale of Tees. 
 Around him are lofty round-topped fells, intersected 
 by mountain streams, and in some few places dis- 
 coloured by mine wastes. The lands in the middle 
 distance have cottages scattered over numerous fai'ms, 
 consisting chiefly of pasture and meadow land, the 
 bright green aspect of which imparts no unfavourable 
 idea of the soil. These farms, and indeed the whole 
 dale from thirty to forty miles in length, are the pro- 
 perty of the Duke of Cleveland, and the tenancy is 
 said to be scarcely less hereditary than the proprietor- 
 ship, several farms having been transmitted from 
 father to son for many generations. The houses are 
 for the most part extremely rude in their construction, 
 very picturesque withal, but somewhat too much in 
 the style of Morland. Their being whitewashed 
 
TEESDALE. 145 
 
 partly redeems the poverty of their aspect, and this 
 operation is said to be always performed, with becom- 
 ing loyalty, on the approach of the most noble Duke 
 to the moors in the shooting season. 
 
 The new roads will doubtless open the way to 
 improvements in this interesting district, the capabili- 
 ties of which are far superior to the condition which 
 it is now in. At the present time, the dale head is so 
 retired, and the ancient manners still so prevalent, that 
 the tourist may find an interesting subject of speculation 
 in the contrast which is thus afforded to a more crowded 
 and artificial state of society. The clergyman of this 
 secluded spot has resided here above thirty years, 
 teaching a school during the week, and officiating 
 twice in the Chapel every Sunday ; establishments 
 which are maintained by the Duke and Duchess 
 of Cleveland. The general character of his humble 
 flock would seem to indicate that he has been a useful 
 labourer in this lonely vineyard. 
 
 A friend of the author's * has given the following 
 graphic description of the scenery in High Teesdale, 
 
 " We pursued our way, sometimes scrambling over 
 bold elevations, and at others plunging into deep and 
 hidden recesses, until we reached the fell top, where 
 we made a breathless pause. Here an extended pros- 
 pect opened to our view. The romantic and varied 
 scenery of Teesdale lay stretched out before us ; the 
 Tees seen in various points had a curious and pictur- 
 esque appearance, — at one place it made a bold curve, 
 at another a right angle, then was lost in a chasm, then 
 sprang over a precipice, and then, as if tired of gam- 
 boling, swept proudly on in a straight line. The 
 scenery was congenial to the stream ; here a line of 
 
 • Mr, George Pearson, of Long Marton, in Westmorland. 
 O 
 
146 TEESDALE. 
 
 terrific basaltic precipices carried the eye to the black 
 and boundless wilds that stretched beyond, — there 
 smiling woods, villages, white-washed hamlets, with 
 the fugitive rivulets that were coming in from the 
 mountains, mingled beautifully with each other, and 
 formed a scene, that, to a poet's eye, might have been 
 fraught with inspiration. How different was the view 
 on our left. Nothing but a far-extended waste of 
 heath was to be seen, bounded by a chaos of lowering 
 and tremendous clouds, whose alpine ridges, catching 
 the sunbeams at partial openings, produced a mimic 
 representation of mountain scenery in all its fantastic 
 and dismaying forms." 
 
 The farms in High Teesdale are chiefly occupied by 
 miners, and however rustic the outside of their dwell- 
 ings, the interior not unfrequently presents an admira- 
 ble specimen of neatness, cleanliness, and order. The 
 strength and activity of the hardy race of men who 
 inhabit them are often equalled by kindness of disposi- 
 tion ; and no one who has experienced their civilities 
 can readily forget them, or attribute them to any other 
 source than a well-meaning mind. As to women, as 
 Ledyard says, they every where are kind and attentive. 
 In this district they are remarkably so. If it be 
 pleasing to contemplate excellence in works of fiction, 
 it is still more refreshing and instructive to witness it 
 in real life. A comely matron presiding in a humble 
 but clean and neat abode, — the mother of blooming 
 and athletic children, — a form and countenance retain- 
 ing much of the grace and vivacity of youth, — a ready 
 smile at once bespeaking a hospitable welcome and a 
 cheerful mind, — manners free from awkwardness on 
 the one hand, and from forwardness on the other, and 
 apparently regulated by the influence of real kindness 
 and genuine good sense. Such is a rapid sketch of 
 
TEESDALE. 147 
 
 female character, drawn in the lonely wilds of Tees- 
 dale, and the fidelity of the portrait was approved at 
 the time by other and more competent judges than 
 the artist. 
 
 The most interesting object that presents itself in a 
 view of High Teesdale is the range of precipitous 
 scars, which appear on the south side of the river. 
 These columnar rocks, extending from behind the vil- 
 lage of Holy wick for several miles up the Tees, and 
 forming a rugged promontory at Cronkley scars, are 
 the basset of a range of basalt, which is inserted be- 
 tween the regular strata of the mountain limestone for- 
 mation. Professor Sedgwick has devoted some time to 
 the examination of this basalt or whin sill, and pub- 
 lished, in the Cambridge Philosophical Transactions, 
 an elaborate paper on the geology of High Teesdale. 
 Besides being a most prominent and picturesque object 
 in the general scenery of the dale, the whin sill is 
 interesting to the tourist, inasmuch as it is the cause 
 of, and the principal feature in, three of the most 
 remarkable objects which, in High Teesdale, claim 
 the traveller's attention. These are. Cauldron Snout, 
 Tees Force, and Winch Bridge. 
 
CAULDRON SNOUT. 
 
 Pedestrian tourists accustomed to mountain travel- 
 ling may readily find their way from the descents of 
 Yadmoss to this remarkable waterfall, but most visitors 
 will do well to engage a guide, who may readily be 
 procured by inquiry at any of the farms or " onsteads." 
 From Harewood, access may nearly at all times be 
 had on foot ; but only in dry weather by horses. In 
 either case it is a fatiguing journey of about three 
 miles, chiefly over the steep and rugged sides of 
 Harewood Fell. On gaining the summit of this lofty 
 moor, an expansive but dreary prospect bursts upon 
 the view. Wide and moss-covered moors extend in a 
 gradual slope to the Tees, which here winds its way 
 through a wilderness of the most stern and desolate 
 aspect. In the distance a vast amphitheatre is formeil 
 by successive ranges of mountains in Yorkshire, 
 Westmorland, and Cumberland, and which, towards 
 the north, seem blended like waves into each other. But 
 the bright spot and redeeming interest of this prospect 
 
CAULDRON SNOUT. 14,9 
 
 is the Weel, whose waters, spread in the hollow of a 
 vast and dreary basin, present a beautiful contrast to 
 the dark heath of the barren moors which surround 
 it, while its width and serpentine form give it the 
 appearance of a broad river flowing through the midst 
 of a desert. 
 
 The Weel is a sullen lake, in breadth about half a 
 mile, and three or four times that length, formed by 
 the interception of the Tees by basaltic rocks, over 
 which the water flows into a deep and rapidly 
 descending gorge, and forms the waterfall of Caul- 
 dron Snout. 
 
 On approaching the foot of the Weel, the rough 
 road, over moss and ling, is suddenly more roughened 
 by numerous projecting points and edges of basalt, 
 which render either riding or walking both trouble- 
 some and somewhat dangerous. The author of an 
 interesting little guide-book, the " Tour in Teesdale," 
 gives the following testimony concerning the aspect 
 of the adjacent scenery. " The conception of a scene 
 so wild and magnificent, is difficult. Its extreme 
 stillness and the desolate air of all you see are even 
 oppressing. Not a house, a tree, nor inclosure of any 
 kind interrupts the boundless waste; — not one dash 
 of cheerful green animates the black and dreary heaths- 
 Chaos alone could be more terrific." 
 
 On descending the rocks at the foot of the Weel, 
 the visitor beholds the waters of the Tees rushing 
 with impetuous force down a steep basaltic chasm of 
 two or three hundred yards in length. Near the top 
 is a wooden bridge, thirty feet long, over the fall, 
 from whence the visitor may view the swift and foam- 
 ing current beneath. The fall is interesting at any 
 time, even in very dry weather, the stream gamboling 
 in its descent among the various channels which the 
 
150 CAULDRON SNOUT. 
 
 rocks afford. But when the Tees is swoln with rains, 
 it rushes down in one impetuous and unbroken torrent 
 of ahiiost resistless force, and, with its sides of frown- 
 ing tower-hke chffs, forms a spectacle truly terrible 
 and sublime. 
 
 Those who delight in the minor beauties of nature 
 will here find them united with her boldest works. 
 The variously-coloured lichen on the surface of the 
 basalt is extremely beautiful, and not less so are the 
 wild flowers which spring from the sides of the chasm. 
 The examination of these, and viewing the fall from 
 various situations, will, to most persons, afford much 
 gratification. But it must be admitted that to some, 
 and especially to ladies, the attractions of Cauldron 
 Snout may scarcely repay the difficulties of the jour- 
 ney to it. A good horseman with a skilful guide 
 may enjoy a ride on the rocky edges of scars, and 
 over loose basaltic stone, deep moss-ruts, and frequent 
 banks, both deep and stony ; but it is well that the 
 tourist should be apprised of this before he undertakes 
 a jaunt in which such fatigues must necessarily be 
 encountered. 
 
 Following the course of the Tees by rugged banks 
 for nearly five miles, the tourist reaches the well- 
 known cataract of High Force. 
 
HIGH FORCE. 
 
 The river Tees, in traversing the mountainous 
 country which has just been described, becomes 
 rapidly augmented by various tributary streams, and, 
 after its junction with Hare wood Beck, assumes a 
 wide and noble aspect. The fall of such a river, at 
 fifteen miles fi'om its source, over a precipice of 
 upwards of fifty feet in height, may readily be con- 
 ceived to be an object of the highest interest as 
 regards remarkable and sublime scenery; and it is 
 scarcely less interesting to the geologist from the clear 
 developement of the strata it displays. 
 
 The river immediately above the fall is divided by 
 a lofty rock into a greater and a less channel, the 
 former of which in dry weather contains the whole 
 stream, while at other times both channels are filled 
 with impetuous torrents, which, rushing over the 
 
152 HIGH FORCE. 
 
 precipice, form a cataract on each side of the central 
 mass of cliffs,— 
 
 " That rear their haughty head 
 
 " High o'er the river's darksome bed. " 
 
 The principal channel is worn into a rugged descent at 
 the edge, but the greater part, probably about 40 or 
 50 feet, is quite perpendicular, and over this the 
 descent of so large a body of water at all times insures 
 a gratifying treat to the lovers of natural scenery. 
 The less channel is considerably worn, so that when 
 dry a person may without much difficulty climb up it, 
 and examine the junction of the basalt with the 
 adjoining strata. 
 
 Hutchinson describes the main channel as having 
 a perpendicular fall of 82 feet, but this is much over- 
 rated. The height of the central rock is stated in the 
 " Tour of Teesdale" to be only 63 feet, the entire 
 perpendicular height of the fall probably does not 
 exceed 50 feet, and the inclining falls above may be 
 15 or 20 feet more. Nearly one-half of the entire 
 depth of the adjacent rocks consists of basalt, which, 
 in the middle of the stream, towers up into a rugged 
 but picturesque summit. Except in high floods, this 
 station may easily be gained, and from thence the 
 spectator can look down and behold the rolling tor- 
 rent precipitated into the abyss below. Being on the 
 giddy verge of so lofty a rock, the rapidity of the 
 stream, the thundering noise with which it mingles 
 with the deep sullen waters below, and the clouds of 
 foam which often reflect the iris' lovely hues, alto- 
 gether combine to produce mingled sensations of 
 terror, astonishment, and delight. 
 
 Having taken this inverted view of the Force, the 
 tourist, by walking about two hundred yards along 
 the top of the banks on the north side of the river. 
 
WINCH BRIDGE. 153 
 
 will find a somewhat rugged but not very difficult 
 descent down the rocks and underwood, and from 
 the sides of the river may command a view of the 
 falls at various distances. Here lofty precipices on 
 each side form a magnificent amphitheatre, on the 
 sides of which may be traced the rapid rise of the 
 strata in a north-west direction, and the basalt regu- 
 larly ranging with the other strata. The upper part 
 and summit are more or less covered with brushwood 
 and a few ash and yew trees, while, at the extremity 
 of the vista, the ceaseless roar of the descending flood 
 completes the majestic character of the scene. 
 
 WINCH BRIDGE. 
 
 A more slender, rickety, dangerous-looking struc- 
 ture than the old Winch Bridge, it would be difficult 
 to conceive, and the stranger possessed some courage 
 who ventux'ed across, although the neighbouring 
 inhabitants were in the habit of passing along it, to 
 the number of fifty or sixty daily. It has been lately 
 replaced; and though the present structure possesses 
 not the claims of its predecessor either to antiquity or 
 craziness, yet the situation and romantic scenery of 
 the river and its basaltic rocks on each side may well 
 repay so short a walk as a quarter of a mile from the 
 turnpike road at Bowlees House. 
 
 The old bridge is said to have been the earliest 
 suspension bridge in Europe ; but the claim to this 
 distinction must of necessity be very uncertain, as 
 similar structures may have existed in mountainous 
 and secluded situations at an earlier period. The 
 author learnt from respectable authority in Teesdale, 
 that Winch Bridge was known to have been built 
 upwards of eighty years ago, and though the wood- 
 
154- WINCH BRIDGE. 
 
 work has been frequently replaced^, the nearly worn- 
 out chains bore testimony of long decay. 
 
 The dimensions of this singular structure, and its 
 height from the surface of the river, have been greatly 
 exaggerated in most descriptions. Thus Hutchinson 
 calls the chasm 60 feet in depth, and the bridge 70 
 feet long. The " Tour in Teesdale" gives the depth 50 
 feet, and the length 63 feet. The correct dimensions 
 are as follows : — * 
 
 ft. in. 
 Length of bridge between the rocks, . . 59 4 
 Length of chain supported by the rock on the ^ i g r, 
 
 north side, ..... 5 
 
 Length of ditto on the south side not visible, } 
 
 being covered with earth, . . ^ 
 
 Centre of bridge lower than the ends, about . 3 
 Height of bridge above the surface, . .210 
 
 Depth of the river, . . ... 8 6 
 
 The links were about 6 in. long and If in. broad, 
 and the iron bar of which they were formed was ^ in. 
 and f in. thick. These chains were fixed by bolts 
 into the rock at each end, and on them were laid 
 wooden cross-rails 3| feet distant; on these were laid 
 deals lengthwise, forming a floor 1 ft. 9 in- broad, 
 with a hand-rail 2 ft. 9 in. high on each side. Less 
 chains were placed near the ends, and fixed to the 
 rocks at a little distance to prevent the swinging, but 
 most imperfectly was their office performed. 
 
 Let the reader then imagine so flimsy a fabric in so 
 ruinous a state ; the chains decaying, the floor in some 
 parts open, in others rotten, and the broken hand-rail 
 
 * See " Description of Winch Bridge, the oldest suspension 
 bridge in England ; by W. C. Trevelyan, Esq." In Brewster's 
 Philosophical Journal, 1828. Some of the iron links, almost 
 worn through, are preserved in the Museum at Wallington. 
 
WINCH BRIDGE. 155 
 
 on each side yielding as soon as touched ; to these let 
 him add the unearthly creaking and the trembling 
 instability of the whole, bending at every step, and 
 he may form some idea of a structure which far more 
 resembled a trap for human life than a regular com- 
 munication between two counties. 
 
 In August 1820, one of the chains gave way while 
 eleven persons were passing over, most of whom were 
 on it at the same time. Two of them fell into the 
 river and were saved ; but one, falling on the rocks, 
 perished. The bridge was soon after repaired by the 
 late Earl of Strathmore, and is now entirely replaced 
 by a more substantial fabric. 
 
 The village of Holwick and its adjoining scenery 
 are worthy of the tourist's attention. He will there 
 find the whin sill in that prominent station which it 
 occupies in all the most interesting scenery of High 
 Teesdale. 
 
 Having in these descriptions diverged considerably 
 from the main road, the following distances may be 
 useful : — 
 
 Present Road. New Road, 
 
 From Alston to Eshgill Burn, 
 
 5 miles. 
 
 5 miles, 
 
 . Crookburn, . 
 
 81 do. 
 
 8i do. 
 
 . Langdown Beck, 
 
 14 do. 
 
 141 do. 
 
 . Bowlees, 
 
 18 do. 
 
 181 do. 
 
 . Middleton, . 
 
 21 do. 
 
 214 do. 
 
 The land about High Force and Winch Bridge 
 presents a kind of intermediate scenery between the 
 barren mountain and the richly cultivated vale. 
 Stone walls and rustic hamlets are superseded by 
 hedges and comfortable farm-houses, while that most 
 beautiful of all nature's ornaments, the tree, begins to 
 enrich the aspect of the country, and the eye looks 
 forward to increasing fertility and beauty. After 
 
l.OS MIDDLETON IN TEESDALE. 
 
 passing the village of Newbiggin, the tourist proceeds 
 by a pleasant ride of 2| miles to 
 
 MIDDLETON IN TEESDALE. 
 
 Contrasts have great influence in our judgment of 
 comparative objects, and this is strikingly exemplified 
 in the different effects produced by ascending and by 
 descending an extensive dale. A tourist from the 
 rugged heights of Yadmoss, and another from the 
 luxuriant scenery down the vale, form very different 
 ideas of the situation of Middleton. The former, 
 pleased with the approaching signs of cultivation, will 
 probably admire the adjacent scenery ; while the 
 latter, with the author of the " Tour in Teesdale," 
 may consider it "in the midst of a wild and unculti- 
 vated region." 
 
 Middleton, usually called Middleton in Teesdale, 
 to distinguish it from another place of the same name 
 near Darlington, may be considered the capital of 
 High Teesdale, and is a market town, containing 
 about 1820 inhabitants, of whom the greater number 
 are employed in the neighbouring mines. The scenery 
 in the immediate vicinity of the town is extremely' 
 pleasant, and the moss-clad moors impart to it a 
 romantic aspect. On the left, on entering the town, 
 is the handsome residence of Robert Stagg, Esq., 
 agent to the London Lead-Company, who has greatly 
 improved the adjoining ground, and transformed an 
 uneven boggy waste into smooth and beautiful lawns. 
 The houses of the town are spread over a considerable 
 extent, and the river and trees being often seen through 
 the various openings, give it a lively and pleasant 
 appearance. The church is a plain and very ancient 
 structure, and the living is a rectory in the gift of the 
 king. The river Tees is here crossed by a handsome 
 
MIDDLETON IN TEESDALE. 157 
 
 bridge of one arch, of 80 feet span, built about 20 
 years ago on the ruins of a former new bridge, which, 
 in the winter of 1811, fell when nearly completed. 
 
 The tourist will be much gratified by an inspection 
 of what may be called the new town of Middleton. 
 This consists of a number of extremely neat and com- 
 fortable dwelling-houses built in several uniform rows 
 in a spacious garden, entered by a handsome stone 
 arch ; each cottage has its respective portion of gar- 
 den ground. The whole is the work of the London 
 Lead-Company, executed from the chaste and appropri- 
 ate designs of Mr. Bonomi, under the direction of their 
 active and highly intelligent manager, Mr. Stagg, 
 whose exertions to promote at once the interests of the 
 company, and the comforts of the miner, cannot be 
 too highly commended. 
 
 A national school has been erected, and is chiefly 
 supported by the Lead Company, whose workmen 
 obtain the advantages of education at a very moderate 
 rate. A library is also attached to it for the use of 
 the miners. 
 
 Forster, in his Section of the Strata, enumerates 38 
 mines in Teesdale; and, with a few exceptions, the 
 whole of the mineral district is now in the occupation 
 of the London Lead-Company. The mines at Manor 
 Gill and Lodge Syke, near Middleton, have been im- 
 mensely rich, and both the subterranean workings and 
 the machinery at the washing-floors well deserve the 
 attention of the curious, " who may," says the author 
 of the * Tour in Teesdale,' " by proper application be 
 allowed to visit the interior," It is obvious, however, 
 that the mining concerns of individuals or private 
 companies cannot be considered accessible to mere 
 public curiosity, the frequent intrusion of which would 
 be extremely inconvenient. Intelligence and science 
 
 P 
 
158 MIDDLETON IN TEESDALE. 
 
 may doubtless be assured of due attention to their 
 objects; but it may be observed, that the general 
 regulations of the company indicate a wish to avoid 
 notoriety or much interruption to the usual routine of 
 their works. 
 
 It would greatly exceed our limits to enter into a 
 minute description of every remarkable feature or 
 interesting prospect which merits attention. The 
 tourist who spends a few days of fine weather at 
 Middleton, and can leisurely examine the country 
 from thence to Barnard-Castle, may rest assured of 
 enjoying many a rare example of the charms 
 
 "Which Nature to her votary yields." 
 The road on the Yorkshire side abounds in rich 
 woody scenery and pleasant villages ; that on the 
 other side passes over high lands, and commands more 
 extensive and distant prospects. In the former route 
 the tourist passes through the villages of Mickleton, 
 Romaldkirk, Cotherstone, and Lartington. In these 
 many neat and comfortable and some very handsome 
 houses, shaded by " tall ancestral trees," bring to mind 
 Mrs. Hemans' beautiful little poem — " The Homes of 
 England." Nor can we view the cheerful home, the 
 stately trees, and the lively village green, without 
 feeling a cordial and enthusiastic sympathy with the 
 concluding apostrophe : — 
 
 " And green for ever be the ground, 
 
 " And bright the flowery sod, 
 "Where first the child's glad spirit loves 
 
 " Its country and its God !" 
 
 During summer and autumn, Lartington is ex- 
 tremely beautiful from the abundant foliage in and 
 near it. The Hall is a handsome residence, with a 
 spacious lawn in front, and, as well as the neighbour- 
 ing estate, is the property of H. Witham, Esq. From 
 
MIDDLETON IN TEESDALE. 159 
 
 thence is a short and pleasant ride or walk to Barnard- 
 Castle. On the north side the scenery at Egglestone 
 claims attention. The Hall (the seat of G. Hutchinson, 
 Esq.) is surrounded by beautiful pleasure-grounds, 
 comprising a lofty waterfall and subterranean walk, 
 and the church stands in the middle of what was 
 laid out by the late Mr. Hutchinson as a botanical 
 garden. 
 
 Egglestone smelt-mill, the property of the London 
 Lead-Company, was erected a few years ago, under 
 the immediate direction of Mr. Stagg, and is undoubt- 
 edly the most complete establishment of the kind in 
 the north of England. The author, with Mr. Stagg's 
 permission, had the satisfaction of seeing the whole 
 interior ; and no one in viewing it can fail to be much 
 gratified with the regularity and economy of labour 
 with which the various processes are conducted. The 
 situation is so chosen, and the building so constructed, 
 that the ore may require no lifting, but desce?id from 
 process to process until it is brought out as lead at the 
 lower part of the mill. 
 
 The high lands over which the road passes to Bar- 
 nard-Castle command prospects both up and down 
 the Tees, which the eye may rest on for some time 
 with great pleasure, but which the mind can form a 
 very faint idea of from any delineations either of the 
 pen or the pencil. Suffice it to say, that on the one 
 hand is seen an extensive view of High Teesdale, 
 bounded by lofty hills, covered by the summit of 
 Cross-Fell; and on the other the umbrageous and 
 fertile lands through which the Tees pursues its way 
 to the German Ocean. 
 
l60 BARNARD-CASTLE. 
 
 BARNARD-CASTLE. 
 
 The august and venerable walls of a once-powerful 
 fortress attract the attention of the tourist, who, for the 
 first time, approaches this ancient and interesting town. 
 Nor is the beauty of the adjacent scenery less calculated 
 to excite his admiration, presenting, as it does, a variety 
 of inimitable prospects, which, to every lover of nature, 
 afford the promise of rich enjoyment. A picturesque 
 bridge, which, in conjunction with the castle ruins, 
 has often been the subject of the artist's skill, forms 
 the south entrance into the town. The two pointed 
 and ribbed arches of this bridge are of unequal size, 
 and their ancient aspect, so much in unison with the 
 adjacent rocks and ruins, present a striking contrast 
 to the more formal structures of the present day. 
 
 The principal road through the town continues north- 
 ward by a wide and well-built street, which steeply 
 ascends to a large octangular building, the basement 
 of which is formed by a piazza of plain Tuscan columns, 
 inclosing a market-place for the sale of poultry, &c. 
 Within this is a common prison, and above it are spa- 
 cious rooms for the magistracy. It was erected in 1 T*?. 
 While its uniform appearance certainly constitutes it an 
 ornament of the town, its situation in the middle of a 
 public thoroughfare, like the corresponding buildings 
 at Berwick upon Tweed and Stockton, in some measure 
 interferes both with the convenience and the beauty 
 of the street. From the town-hall a pleasant street 
 leads past the church, a venerable structure dedicated 
 to St. Mary. Some of the windows merit the attention 
 of those who admire English, or, as it is more com- 
 monly called, Gothic architecture. Against the outside 
 of the wall, at the east end of the chancel, is a curious 
 monumental stone, a wood cut of which is inserted in 
 Surtees' History of Durham, together with a beautiful 
 
EARNARD-CASTLR ifil 
 
 engraving of the church. The building is in good 
 preservation, and the interior no longer deserves the 
 severe animadversion which the spirited pen of 
 Hutchinson so liberally bestowed upon it. " The 
 inside of the church," he observes, " is wretch- 
 edly stalled, the pavement broken and uneven, and 
 the whole appearance slovenly and offensive." New 
 pews erected in 1813, the addition of a fine-toned 
 organ in 1823, and other additions and repairs, have 
 restored this once ruinous interior to a respectable and 
 venerable aspect. The tower is 60 feet high, contains 
 8 bells, and had formerly a leaden spire, which was 
 removed 40 years ago. The living is a curacy, in the 
 patronage of the Vicar of Gainford, of which parish 
 Barnard- Castle is a chapelry. 
 
 At the corner of the street leading from the town- 
 hall eastward is a curious and seemingly very ancient 
 stone about 4 feet high, on which, in bold but ruinous 
 relief, is an apparently ecclesiastical figure. His fea- 
 tures have yielded to the silent ravages of time, aided 
 not a little perhaps by the rude attacks of boyish 
 thoughtlessness ; and, in more legible preservation, — f 
 
 " A beard descending sweeps his aged breast." 
 On each side is a boar rampant, M'hich appear on the 
 most friendly terms with their venerable companion. 
 These singular figures probably represent some monk^ 
 ish legend. 
 
 Near the town-house are the two principal inns and 
 posting-houses, the King's Head and the Rose and 
 Crown, where the traveller may depend on enjoying 
 all the accustomed ease and comforts of " mine inn ;" 
 and northward from thence the street is very wide, 
 and contains many large and well-built houses with 
 excellent shops. These, with the surprising bustle 
 and activity of the weekly market (held on Wednes^ 
 
1&2 
 
 BARNARD-CASTLE. 
 
 days) are strongly characteristic of what Barnard- 
 Castle really is, the metropolis of a large portion of the 
 vale of Tees and an extensive range of the adjacent 
 mountainous region. 
 
 The ruins of the castle occupy a space of nearly seven 
 acres, lying between the market-place and the river. 
 The usual access to them is by a short lane between 
 the inns referred to above, which leads to the ruins 
 of one of the castle gates. This opens to a spa- 
 cious gi'een, bordered towards the south end by small 
 gardens and the imperfect ruins of part of the castle 
 walls, while in front and towards the north-west appear 
 more extensive and important remains. Interesting 
 from their antiquity and history, these walls, now so 
 desolated, present few details of architectural interest. 
 This part of the castle area is separated from the green 
 by a fosse, and is thrown into gardens, occupied by 
 different individuals. Into one of these gardens the 
 western port or gate of the castle opens, and in another 
 is a fine window, evidently of much later date than 
 the castle, and which has also been improved by modern 
 repair. This window, of what some would style 
 Elizabethian architecture, is commonly called the Boar 
 Window, from the insignia of a boar inserted in the 
 upper part of it. 
 
 The eye may tire with beholding dark and gloomy 
 walls, and the mind may be saddened by the melancholy 
 reflections which are apt to arise amid the desolation 
 of once royal halls. For the soul of music and the 
 revelry of stately feasts have for ever departed, and 
 the once proud fortress, which frowned defiance from 
 its rock-built basis, now resembles an aged and wi- 
 thering oak, trembling on a precipice, and seeming 
 ever ready to fall; but, though many a branch is 
 riven, and though its trunk is reft by the lightning's 
 
BARNARD-CASTLE. l63 
 
 arm of fire, yet still it stands, and future generations 
 may behold the scarcely lessened vestige of its ruins. 
 
 But at the Boar Window neither the eye nor the 
 mind need long be oppressed; for a small square win- 
 dow on the left affords a speedy relief. On entering the 
 rustic door of this opening, a beautiful and extensive 
 prospect bursts on the view. One wide and fair feature 
 of it has been drawn with pictorial truth. A stately 
 stream spread before the eye, and receding in beau- 
 tiful perspective in the midst of rocky and woody 
 banks, unfolds to the delighted eye 
 
 "Where Tees, full many a fathom low, 
 " Wears with his rage no common foe, 
 " For pebbly bank nor sand-bed here, 
 " Nor clay-mound checks his fierce career; 
 " Condemned to mine a channel'd way 
 " O'er hardest sheets of marbled grey." 
 
 Of the surrounding landscape it may be sufficient to 
 add, that, owing to the height of the rock on which 
 the castle stands, the prospect is extensive ; that the 
 surface is diversified by several rounded hills, abound- 
 ing either in masses or belts of wood, while the fields 
 to a considerable distance have hedge-row trees, which 
 impart great beauty. The distance unfolds the blue 
 moors of the west, and the fore-ground the rocky 
 steeps of the castle base, with waving trees and the 
 broad and noble stream of Tees. Such are the rough 
 and imperfect outlines of a scene which the pencil of 
 Turner or Swinburne * would inimitably pourtray. 
 
 * The powerful charms of Turner's landscape are well known 
 through the medium of the London exhibitions and of many 
 splendidly engraved works. The drawings of Edward Swinburne, 
 Esq., senr. (brother to Sir J. E. Swinburne, Bart- of Capheaton) 
 are inimitably beautiful, and exhibit the finished and delicate 
 touch of an experienced and accomplished artist. 
 
l64 BARNARD-CASTLE. 
 
 A wide footpath from the bridge climbs by a gradual 
 ascent the abrupt and precipitous steeps on which the 
 castle stands, and, extending past the western gate of 
 the castle, communicates with the town. Midway on 
 this picturesque walk, the spectator looks up and 
 beholds with terror the upright walls of a lofty tower 
 standing on the very brink of the precipice. From 
 this footpath several others descend to the narrow 
 holmes adjoining the river, and from thence the castle 
 is seen to great advantage. A large round tower on 
 the left is called Bracken bury 's Tower, and from it the 
 walls and towers extending along the rock, tinted with 
 the venerable hue of age and partially covered with 
 ivy, with the ancient bridge, a prominent object in the 
 distance, form a scene at once interesting to the anti- 
 quary and to the admirer of fine scenery. This view 
 is very beautifully delineated in an exquisite engraving 
 in Surtees' splendid History of Durham, in which also 
 the scenery of the Tees is illustrated by engravings 
 from drawings by Edward Swinburne, Esq. 
 
 At Barnard- Castle the tourist has fairly emerged 
 from the barren wildness of the mining districts, and 
 entered on a fair and fertile region. Here, for the first 
 time, the route down the vale of Tees is intersected by 
 public conveyances, and this accommodation renders 
 Barnard-Castle a suitable place for the commencement 
 or the termination of a mining tour in Teesdale. 
 
 It would far exceed the limit of these pages to offer 
 any description of the numerous and attractive objects 
 of attention which abound in this interesting district. 
 The romantic woods at Rokeby have attained a wide 
 celebrity, and who ever viewed the secluded grandeur 
 of its scenery without the liveliest feelings of pleasure. 
 Rock piled upon rock, and trees rising above trees to 
 a stupendous height, with smooth green lawns and the 
 
BARNARD-CASTLE. l65 
 
 murmuring waters of the Greta tinged with the brown 
 hue of the mossy hills. The ivy tendrils hanging in 
 vnidway air, and the tall grey cliffs crowned with 
 majestic foliage. The grey ruins of Egglestone, and, 
 in short, the whole of this vicinity is sacred ground to 
 the worshiper of Nature, The pens of Scott and 
 Surtees, and the pencils of Turner and Swinburne, 
 have been employed, with an excellence far beyond 
 encomium, in illustrating the splendid attractions and 
 interesting history of Teesdale, and 
 
 Well may my feeble pencil shun 
 
 A task which master hands so well have done. 
 
WEAEDALE. 
 
 Durham. — Cathedral. — Bishop-Auckland — Stanhope. — Head 
 of Weardale. 
 
 Having ended the descriptive notices of Teesdale at 
 Barnard-Castle as the highest place in the valley which 
 affords public conveyance to the traveller, the city of 
 Durham claims a similar notice, for no coaches traverse 
 the valley of Weardale west of this ancient and pictur- 
 esque seat of episcopacy. There are not perhaps in all 
 England three contiguous dales of greater interest and 
 beauty than the mining dales of Tyne, Wear, and Tees, 
 and yet they are comparatively unknown to the public. 
 Our venerable and respected townsman, William 
 Turner, (a name which will be long perpetuated 
 by all who duly regard the union of moral worth with 
 the constant and useful exertion of superior talents), 
 in a paper written forty years ago thus justly comments 
 on the scenery of these fine rivers. " The views down 
 the Wear from the hill above Wolsingham were suffi- 
 cient to excite an ardent curiosity to trace that beautiful 
 river from this place to its junction with the sea. 
 Indeed, so great are the beauties of this fine stream, 
 which so delightfully meanders through this palatinate, 
 while its sister streams, rising from the same point and 
 separating themselves at nearly equal distances, mark 
 for the most part the boundaries of the county to the 
 north and south, that I am persuaded a painter of 
 taste would here find ample employment for his pencil ; 
 and that the encouragement of the public would render 
 it not only a pleasing but a lucrative task to sketch 
 
DURHAM. 167 
 
 out the picturesque beauties of the rivers Tyne, Wear, 
 and Tees." 
 
 The object of the present volume is not to offer a 
 detailed description of the extensive districts included 
 within the compass of these vales, but by brief sketches 
 to convey a feeling of scenery and other attrac- 
 tions which are little known, but which so eminently 
 deserve more general notice and admiration. Several 
 works already before the public afford minute details 
 of the history and topography of Weardale. The 
 following are, therefore, merely brief memoirs of such 
 subjects and places as seemed most interesting to the 
 author in a pedestriaii tour from the city of Durham to 
 the head of Weardale, together with extracts relative to 
 the principal objects which claim the tourist's attention. 
 
 Durham has been called " The Zion of England." 
 He that hath eyes to see, and ears to hear, may, from 
 the scenery of its banks and the music of its cathedral, 
 derive the highest pleasures that these inestimable gifts 
 enable us to enjoy. The contemplative traveller will 
 need little recommendation to 
 
 " Spend some lone and pleasant hours 
 By Durham's stately woods and towers, 
 And with delighted gaze admire 
 Each castled steep and lofty spire, 
 Where on each time-v/orn wall is told 
 A tale of ages venerably old. 
 
 Mean time the Abbey's tinkling bell, 
 Like some monastic chapel's knell, 
 Tolls through the woods, and bids repair 
 To choral songs and chanted prayer, 
 Where the loud organ's sweet-ton'd chord 
 Accompanies the sacred word. 
 Till the vast temple all rebounds 
 With solemn and majestic sounds, 
 That roll in stately thunders through 
 Each, long-drawn aisle and vaulted avenue." 
 
168 DURHAM CATHEDRAL. 
 
 The architectural composition of the eastern portion 
 or choir, and chapel of the Nine Altars in Durham 
 Cathedral is uncommonly grand. The marble floor, — 
 the beautifully-carved stalls, surmounted with splendid 
 tabernacled spires, — the elevated throne of the prelate, 
 and rich adornments of Bishop Hatfield's monument, — 
 the light and elegant screen of the chancel, — the lofty 
 marble pillars and richly-clustered foliage on the 
 walls, — the massive and deeply-cut Norman pillars,— 
 the lofty roof and magnificent wheel window of the 
 Nine Altars present a spectacle of awful, venerable 
 grandeur, that stamps a deep impressive feeling on 
 every contemplative mind. 
 
 And these attractions, powerful as they are, are 
 increased by the effect of Divine Service as daily 
 performed here.— Vibrated with the chords of the noble 
 organ, accompanied by the sweet music of the choir, — 
 the tender cadence — the deep pathos and mournful 
 sublimity of the chanted responses, the ear is filled 
 with perfect music, which leaves a delightful remem- 
 brance on which ihe mind dwells with pleasure;— so 
 exquisitely perfect is the Choir of Durham Cathedral 
 in this department of the musical service. 
 
 Durham Castle is more curious than beautiful. The 
 interior, particulai'ly the north front, is uncommonly 
 picturesque, but the interior is far exceeded in beauty 
 by many places of much less importance. The en- 
 trance hall is a large and lofty room, paneled with 
 oak, adorned with paintings of the Apostles, and a 
 good one of Charles I. From this the visitor enters a 
 room with a dark oak floor, in which is a large Italian 
 painting "Cupid in a forest," also some curious repre- 
 sentations of the Great Church of Milan and other 
 structures. The Bishop's Gallery is a long plain 
 apartment, adorned with numerous engravings of 
 
DURHAM CATHEDRAL. 
 
 Cathedrals. At one end is a small private Chapel, 
 with some curious wood carving. From this gallery 
 a door-way was opened out a few years ago by the 
 discovery of a fine Norman arch adorned with splendid 
 architectural enrichments ; an engraving of which 
 forms one of the elegant illustrations to Surtees' 
 Durham. Some of the rooms are hung with tapestry 
 of great age, and the mansion contains many objects 
 well deserving the attention of the tourist. 
 
 From Durham, the traveller who intends to explore 
 the beauties of Weardale will make Bishop-Auckland 
 his first place of destination, and, accordingly as time 
 and mode of travelling admit, may devote more or less 
 attention to the several objects which claim inspection. 
 The views in the neighbourhood of Durham will prove 
 highly interesting from the beautiful combinations of 
 the Castle and Cathedral with the rich foliage of the 
 adjacent banks. About a mile west of the city are 
 the remains of Neville's Cross, on the side of the turn- 
 pike road. Of this once lofty and ornamented cross 
 little remains except the steps which formed its base. 
 May its hastening to oblivion be emblematical of 
 the forgotten horrors of war, from which this isle has 
 so long been preserved, and the angry spirit of 
 which seems yielding to that influence of time which 
 effects so many changes. The cross was erected by 
 Ralph Lord Neville, in commemoration of a battle 
 fought at this spot between the English and Scottish 
 armies, on October 17th, 1346. Davies, in his "Rights 
 and Monuments," thus describes it when perfect, 
 
 " On the west side of the city of Durham, where 
 two roads pass each other, a most famous and elegant 
 cross of stone-work was erected to the honour of God, 
 for the victory there obtained, known by the name of 
 Nevill's Cross, and built at the sole cost of Lord Ralph 
 
 Q 
 
170 Neville's cross. 
 
 Nevill; which cross had seven steps about it, every 
 way squared to the socket wherein the stalk of the 
 cross stood, which socket was fastened to a large square 
 stone ; the sole or bottom stone being of a great thick- 
 ness, viz. a yard and a half every way : This stone 
 was the eighth step. The stalk of the cross was in 
 length three yards and a half up to the boss, having 
 eight sides all of one piece; from the socket it was 
 fixed into the boss above, into which boss the stalk 
 was deeply soldered with lead. In the midst of the 
 stalk in every second square, was the Nevill's Cross ; 
 a saltire in a scutcheon being Lord Nevill's arms, finely 
 cut; and at every corner of the socket was a picture of 
 one of the four Evangelists, finely set forth and carved. 
 The boss at the top of the stalk was an octangular 
 stone, finely cut and bordered, and most curiously 
 wrought; and in every square of the nether side, was 
 Nevill's Cross in one square, and the bull's head in 
 the next, so in the same reciprocal order about the 
 boss. On the top of the boss was a stalk of stone, 
 (being a cross a little higher than the rest) whereon 
 was cut, on both sides of the stalk, the picture of our 
 Saviour Christ, crucified; the picture of the Blessed 
 Viro-in on one side, and St. John the Evangelist on 
 the other ; both standing on the top of the boss. All 
 which pictures were most artificially wrought together, 
 and finely carved out of the entire stone ; some parts 
 thereof thorough carved work, both on the east and 
 west sides of the cross, with a cover of stone likewise 
 over their heads, being all most finely and curiously 
 wrought together out of the same hollow stone ; which 
 cover had a covering of lead. It remained till the 
 year 1589, when the same was broken down and de- 
 faced by some lewd and wicked persons." 
 
 From Neville's Cross a pleasant road leads to the 
 
BRANCEPETH CASTLE. 171 
 
 village of Brancepeth, where a venerable Church and 
 stately Castle deserve the tourist's attention. The 
 following account of this fine baronial mansion is 
 extracted from a local guide-book. * 
 
 Brancepeth Castle, the magnificent residence of 
 William Russell, Esq., was originally erected by the 
 Bulmers, a family of great antiquity, and who were 
 seated here for many generations. The castle of 
 Brancepeth has been strongly fortified, and defended 
 by a cantonment of towers. Leland in his Itin. vol. 
 1. p. 6'2. 71j Sec. says — "Strongly set and buildid, 
 and hath 2 courtes of ^high building. — There is a little 
 mote that hemmith a great piece of the first court. — In 
 this court be 3 towers of logging, and three smaule 
 adornaments. — The pleasure of the castelle is in the 2 
 court, and entering into it by a great toure, I saw in 
 schochin, in the fronte of it a lion rampaunt. On the 
 southewest part of the castelle curamith doune a little 
 bek out o' the rokkes and hilles not far of. Sum say 
 that Rafe Nevile, the first Erie of Westmerland, buildid 
 much of this house, A. D. 1398. The Erie that now 
 is hath set a new peace of work to it." 
 
 Hutchinson, describing the castle as it was in his 
 day, and prior to the late alteration, says, " Within 
 the works is a spacious area, which you enter from 
 the north, by a gate with a portcullis, and defended 
 by two square towers. The area is of no regular 
 figure, and the works which surround it, though very 
 strong, have no distinguishing marks, by which a 
 conjecture can be formed as to their age. The parts 
 now inhabited lie on the south-west side of the area, 
 and appear to have been connected by works of various 
 ages ; the original plan in that part seems to have 
 
 • Historical and Descriptive View of the City of Durham. 
 
172 - BRANCEPETH CASTLE. 
 
 consisted of four distinct square towers, whose angles 
 project as buttresses, with a small turret at the top of 
 each angle, hanging on corbies, open at the sides, and 
 not in front. From the gate, on the east side, is a 
 long stretch of wall, with a parapet, which communi- 
 cates with a large square tower, having projecting 
 angles, turreted like those described ; from this tower 
 the wall communicates, at no great distance, with 
 another large tower similar to the last, and thence the 
 wall stretches to the inhabited part of the castle, 
 broken only by a small turret, square in front, but 
 octagonal towards the court. From the gate on the 
 west is a high wall, the parapet in many parts hangs 
 on corbies ; where the wall forms angles, it is gar- 
 nished with small square turrets, on the area side 
 supported by an arch ; and in the floor of each is a 
 square aperture to receive materials from persons 
 below, whereby the guard should annoy those who 
 assailed the wall. Towards the north and east the 
 castle has been defended by a moat ; to the south and 
 west the walls rise from a rock, nearly forty feet 
 in height, watered by a small brook. The hills to the 
 west are lofty. It is probable the whole fortress con- 
 sisted originally of a race or series of towers, of similar 
 form ; for the west wall and angular turrets are much 
 more modern than the fortifications on the east. If 
 this conjecture is allowed, then the fortress would 
 contain a cantonment of eight large towers, exclusive 
 of those defending the gateway. One matter, which 
 seems necessary to observe, points out the great anti- 
 quity of this castle, that our records furnish us with 
 no licence for fortifying and embattling ; which is not 
 the case of any other in the county, except Barnard- 
 Castle : And so early as the 27th year of Bishop 
 
BRANCEPETH CASTLE. , 173 
 
 Hatfield, it is styled in the records, the barony of 
 Brancepeth." 
 
 The old castle, with the surrounding wall, was 
 almost entirely pulled down, and a new one was begun 
 during the life of the present possessor's highly re- 
 spected and much-lamented father, the late Matthew 
 Russell, Esq., M. P., which, from all appearance, is 
 likely to equal in magnificence and grandeur, any of 
 the noble residences in the north of England. That 
 portion of the old castle, which was suffered to remain 
 entire, has been fitted up to afford a present residence 
 to the family. In this part, the apartments are of a 
 very noble description ; amongst them is the Baron's 
 Hall, lighted at the sides by stained glass windows, 
 and at the west end by a richly-painted window, in 
 three beautiful compartments, representing three dis- 
 tinct views of the memorable battle of Neville's Cross, 
 fought between the English and Scotch, in 1346. 
 These windows were erected in 1821, by Mr. Collins, 
 of London. Considerable alterations have been made, 
 and are likely to take place, in the disposition of the 
 gardens, pleasure grounds, &c. The park is well 
 stocked with fine deer, and has been lately enlarged 
 by the addition of upwards of 100 acres of land. 
 
 From Brancepeth tolerably good roads, shaded with 
 lofty hedges and numerous trees, lead through the 
 village of Willington, and from thence ascend an 
 eminence called Rumby Hill ; and here the prospect, 
 which all the way from Durham has been exceedingly 
 fine, becomes more expanded ; the eye ranges with 
 delight over an extensive survey of well-cultivated 
 and wooded ground. Croxdale Abbey is a fine 
 object from many parts of the road. Its plan- 
 tations form an agreeable contrast to the long and 
 thickly-intersecting lines of hedges and hedge-row 
 
n4 BISHOP-AUCKLAND. 
 
 trees, which give the adjacent hills an appearance of 
 cultivation exceeding the quality of the land, which, 
 however, near to the river is very good. But the 
 higher portions, though much inferior, seem, on a 
 distant view, very fertile from the wood so plentifully 
 stretched along the inclosures of the gently-sloping 
 sides of the vale. 
 
 On reaching the summit of Rumby Hill at a toll- 
 house, there opens suddenly to view a new and 
 unexpected prospect, formed by a hollow or basin, 
 with slopes apparently descending on every side, and 
 presenting the same wooded and varied features which 
 appear in the distant prospect, 
 
 Bishop-Auckland stretches along a commanding 
 eminence, and is surrounded with rich and lovely 
 scenery. The western extremity consists of mean 
 cottages, occupied by a numerous vagrant tribe, who, 
 from this centre of seldom-inhabited homes, issue forth 
 to vend their brooms, mugs, and other commodities. 
 
 From hence a spacious street extends eastward, and 
 branches into two or three smaller streets, continuing 
 in the same direction, which terminate in a handsome 
 square. Here is a chapel of ease, with a tower and 
 decorated pinnacles, and a school, a neat stone building, 
 erected by that munificent patron of good works, the 
 venerable Barrington, of whom the remembrance 
 appears to be gratefully cherished by the neighbouring 
 inhabitants. 
 
 From this square or market-place, an avenue, 
 formed by very respectable houses, continues east- 
 ward to the gateway or entrance to the Bishop's 
 Park, which exhibits a variety of rich scenery. The 
 Bishop's Palace is finely situated on an eminence. 
 The exterior is plain, and its appearance derives 
 great beauty from a stone screen with open pointed 
 
bishop's palace. 175 
 
 arches at a little distance from the buildings. The 
 chapel is more enriched, and the exterior bears some 
 resemblance in its general form to King's College in 
 Cambridge. The corner turrets are less, and formed 
 like those of King Henry the Seventh's Chapel at 
 Westminster, but terminate with balls, instead of the 
 rich fineals of the latter. The windows are beautiful, 
 and the numerous buttresses surmounted with pinnacles 
 give it an air of great lightness and elegance, which is 
 enhanced by its commanding situation on the summit 
 of the fine sloping lawn which descends to the river, 
 and along which a terrace with embrasures contributes 
 to the general effect of the whole. 
 
 The palace is formed by a line of irregular square 
 masses of buildings, combining the character of the old 
 English mansion with some features of the castellated 
 style ; several portions of which are rich with heraldic 
 and other ornaments. 
 
 The principal apartments are distinguished by a 
 character of plain and simple elegance, and derive 
 great beauty from their loftiness. The breakfast-room 
 contains portraits of Bishops Cosins, (a fine engraving 
 of which is one of the illustrations to Surtees' Durham), 
 Crewe, Butler, Barrington, and of the present venera- 
 ble and munificent prelate. In an adjoining room is 
 a painting of Niagara falls. 
 
 The dining-room is adorned with paintings of Jacob 
 and the twelve Patriarchs, — the four Evangelists, — 
 Cornaro by Titian, and of four Fathers. From thence 
 the visitor is shewn to the drawing-room, a fine 
 apartment, 62 feet long and 27 high. The furniture 
 is appropriate and beautiful, and the floor is of oak. 
 On the upper landing of the stair-case a window filled 
 with plate glass from mullion to muUion, is so transpa- 
 rent that the stranger scarcely suspects it to be glazed. 
 
176 WOLSINGHAM. 
 
 and fancies he feels the open air on approaching it. 
 The prospect is beautiful. 
 
 The chapel, both exterior and interior, is the lion of 
 the place. A handsome screen runs along near the west 
 end of the interior, against which is a fine monument ^ 
 of Bishop Butler by Nollekins, 1775. The windows 
 have been renewed, and the chapel ventilated with 
 flues by the present bishop. Its great extent and 
 loftiness have an imposing effect, which accords with 
 the sentiments of devotion which the place is intended 
 to inspire. 
 
 Following the Durham and Wolsingham turnpike, 
 the brow of a hill commands a fine view of the 
 latter town and of the fertile and well-wooded slopes 
 of the vale, which stretch away to a considerable 
 extent. The road winds pleasantly down the hill, 
 and along the north side of the Wear to Wolsing- 
 ham ; the situation of which seems less beautiful on 
 a near than on a distant inspection. It contains 
 many good houses. The church is a plain and 
 venerable-looking structure. The route continues 
 westward through a somewhat less pleasing country ; 
 the vale is yet fertile and well wooded ; but wants the 
 luxuriance which is so much admired further down. 
 The hills become more suddenly elevated, and bare 
 oreen pastures and heathy moors increase. At Frost- 
 erly is a commanding eminence with a crushing-mill 
 and washing places, — the first indications of mines 
 which appear. The rocky bed of the river — the 
 precipitous face of limestone quarries — the diminished 
 verdure of the hills and their abrupt formation, now 
 indicate the Geology of the Lead Measures, and 
 gradually combine to form the characteristic features 
 of a raining district. 
 
STANHOPE. 177 
 
 Stanhope derives great beauty from the broad foliage 
 which here adorns the vale. The opposite bank is 
 studded over with trees, which give it a chequered 
 and beautiful appearance. Some of them are ranged 
 in hedge-rows, which have a formal appearance, 
 while others are less regularly arranged in masses, of 
 breadth and variety, much more interesting than the 
 other portion. Their contrast affords a simple but 
 useful lesson in ornamental planting, which the 
 improved taste of the present day has discovered to be 
 much more dependant on the freedom and simplicity 
 of nature than the formal rules of art. 
 
 There are some fine walks by the water side. A 
 walk to the foot of the rectory garden affords a limited 
 but very beautiful view of Stanhope Castle and of the 
 Rectory House, which stand on a fine terrace com- 
 manding the gardens below, in which are extensive 
 green-houses with quadrant roofs, &c. The adjoining 
 masses of wood are happily arranged, and there are 
 some large trees in the gardens, which have a noble 
 effect. The castellated residence of Cuthbert Rippon, 
 Esq. M. P. is seen to great advantage, and forms a fine 
 contrast to the dark umbrage behind. * Some very 
 neat houses continue eastward along the same terrace, 
 behind which, in the street, is a short avenue of lofty 
 trees. 
 
 A small plain cross stands in the midst of the town, 
 and near it is the Church, an ancient edifice. The 
 living is one of the richest in the kingdom, being 
 principally derived from the minerals in this extensive 
 parish, and was recently held by that celebrated 
 
 * A mezzotinto engraving of this view, which gives an excellent 
 idea of the scenery, has lately been executed by Mr. Collard, of 
 Newcastle. 
 
17S STANHOPE. 
 
 champion in political controversy. Dr. Philpotts, now 
 Bishop of Exeter. 
 
 A steep hill on the north of Stanhope terminates in 
 a heathy eminence of considerable height, which may 
 be considered as the commencement of the barren and 
 lofty ridges which crown the sides of the upper part 
 of Weardale. Near the village of Eastgate the forma- 
 tion of the opposite banks resembles that of the banks 
 of Tyne at Kirkhaugh in Northumberland, and 
 historical associations contribute to strengthen the 
 resemblance. The encampments of the Scottish army 
 in Weardale, when opposed to Edward III., remain 
 on the one, and on the other are still more observable 
 traces of the Romans when encamped at Whitley Castle. 
 
 From Stanhope the traveller rapidly advances into 
 the interior of the mining district ; but many a pleasant 
 spot beguiles the way, and many a hospitable home is 
 to be found in this and the adjoining dales. Mr. 
 Pearson, whose animated sketch of Teesdale has been 
 quoted, (see page 145), spent some years in the adja- 
 cent vale of Nent, and, on leaving it, indulged a poetic 
 vein at the expense of the severer features of the 
 climate and scenery. But however uninviting to a 
 stranger, the attractions of a native place are ever 
 powerful in the human breast ; and that such attrac- 
 tions are here to be found, may be readily conceived 
 from Mr. Pearson's eulogium on the inhabitants. 
 
 "Yet, ah ! as I depart; 
 The starting tears betray my anguished heart ; 
 For there are some that on these mountains dwell. 
 Whose breasts with friendship's purest feeling swell, 
 And though the clime I justly may condemn. 
 Oh ! my heart bleeds to bid farewell to them." 
 
 Continuing this route, cultivation at length skirts 
 only the sides of the river, the mountains assume a 
 
NENT HEAD. — NENT HALL. 179 
 
 huge massive character, and the prospect becomes wild 
 and sohtary. The road follows close by the side of a 
 mountain stream, and by a long and tiresome ascent 
 gains the summit of a lofty ridge, at which the tourist 
 again enters the manor of Alston Moor. 
 
 The traveller now descends steeply over wastes of 
 barren and dreary aspect to the mining village of 
 Nent Head, which has been almost entirely rebuilt by 
 the London Lead-Company, under the able manage- 
 ment of Mr. Stagg. Here is a market-house with a 
 clock tower, a Methodist chapel, a good inn, and very 
 extensive washing-floors, where excellent arrangements 
 are made for carrying on the various processes of 
 washing the ore. Brigalburn Hush is in the immediate 
 neighbourhood, and merits a visit from the geologist 
 and from the lover of romantic scenery. The yawning 
 aspect of the rocks, torn asunder by repeated torrents, 
 is uncommonly imposing. 
 
 Continuing along the road to Alston, the tourist mid- 
 way passes Nent Hall, a i-esidence of John Wilson, Esq. 
 of Shotley Hall, in the county of Northumberland, under 
 the able management of whom, and of his son, Thomas 
 Wilson, Esq., the mines of Hudgill Burn were pro- 
 ductive of subterranean treasures almost unexampled 
 in the annals of mining. The same skill and perse- 
 verance which won this store of wealth, have been 
 unremittingly exercised in conducting the extensive 
 works connected with it, and afford a convincing proof 
 how much a judicious spirit of enterprise is calculated 
 to promote the most important interests. 
 
 It has been very justly observed, that " a knowledge 
 of our subterranean wealth would be the means of 
 furnishing greater opulence to the country than the 
 acquisition of the mines of Mexico and Peru ;" yet 
 the several aids which science affords towards this 
 
180 HUDGILL BURN. 
 
 desirable object have never met with that attention in 
 England which foreigners so zealously bestow upon 
 them. The subject, however, is now becoming more 
 understood, and it is reasonable to hope that many 
 advantages may at future periods be derived from 
 regular and methodical records of subterranean works, 
 and that, aided by such materials, philosophy may 
 unfold to geologists and miners such discoveries as may 
 tend to the more certain and successful prosecution 
 of adventures in the mineral world. Hudgill-Burn 
 mine stands forth as a memorable instance of judicious 
 and persevering enterprise, and its dazzling riches 
 gave a fresh impulse to mining in Alston Moor. While 
 it has contributed an ample store to the funds of 
 Greenwich Hospital, its respectable proprietors also 
 have derived princely incomes from it ; and, as forming 
 one of the features of the society of these mining 
 districts, it ought not to be omitted that generous 
 hospitality and social worth have ever formed a bond 
 of union among the Hudgill-Burn Masteis, to many of 
 whom the Author cannot but express his acknowledg- 
 ments for frequent permission to view the interior of 
 the mine, and for much personal kindness during his 
 residence in its vicinity. 
 
 On the broad expansive slope of the north-east 
 declivity of the mountain of Middle Fell, and about 
 half a mile west of Nent Hall, is the principal entrance 
 of Hudgill-Burn mine, and near it are the bing-steads, 
 washing-floors, and machinery of the establishment. 
 From thence the turnpike continues along the side of 
 the hill, and, at the distance of two miles, the traveller 
 reaches the town of Alston, and completes a tour of 
 some of the most interesting portions of the Northern 
 Mining Districts. 
 
 The dales of the rivers East and West Allen present 
 
VALE OF DEKWENT. 181 
 
 many interesting objects of attention, both in mining 
 and in natural scenery ; any detailed notices of which 
 would exceed the limits of this work. From Allen- 
 heads a very excellent line of road has been formed to 
 Allendale Town, preserving nearly a uniform level, 
 while the old road followed a circuitous course over 
 hill and dale of the most inconvenient steepness. 
 From AUenheads this road is continued to Weardale, 
 and the tourist, instead of re-entering Alston Moor, 
 may continue down East Allendale, to join the Hexham 
 and Alston turnpike near Cupula Bank, or may follow 
 the more wild and romantic ride by Coalcleugh and 
 West Allen as delineated on the map. 
 
 Such are a few of the principal features of the lead- 
 mining regions of the North of England. The tourist 
 who has visited the upper dales of Tyne, Wear, and 
 Tees, will be able to form a tolerably correct idea of 
 the mining districts; but there are ntiany other detach- 
 ed mineral places throughout this portion of the king- 
 dom which have many claims on the tourist's attention. 
 From the lead-mines near Blanchland, a valley of 
 most romantic scenery extends nearly to Newcastle ; 
 and, like the celebrated vale of Matlock, has a river 
 Derwent flowing throuffh the midst of it. This fine 
 scenery will ere long be opened to more general 
 observation, a new road being about to be made along 
 the banks of the river, which will form an addition to 
 the many picturesque roads of England, and at the 
 same time open out an extensive and highly interesting 
 district. Lead-mines are also spread over the range 
 of the Penine Alps to a great extent; but the want 
 of good roads and of concentrated objects of interest 
 renders them unsuited as places for general observa- 
 tion. Buried in deep and romantic recesses among 
 the mountains of the Cumbrian group, the tourist, in 
 R 
 
182 SCENERY OF THE MINING DALES. 
 
 traversing their wild and grand but solitary scenery, 
 may find the miner pursuing his laborious searches 
 for lead and copper. At Roughtengill and Silvergill 
 the character of the landscape is truly alpine, and some 
 of the approaches to the mines are perfectly terrific. 
 Swaledale, in Yorkshire, is an interesting mining vale, 
 and presents a great variety of scenery, from the 
 luxuriance of fertile and woody lands to the lofty heath- 
 clad mountains which crown the middle range of the 
 chief mineral districts of the north. Of this valley 
 an excellent description is given in the " Beauties of 
 England and Wales," in the appendix to Yorkshire. 
 
 The lead-mines of Derbyshire also are situated in 
 the midst of magnificent scenery, so that in the north 
 of England, the mineral districts may be considered as 
 comprising the most interesting and romantic portion of 
 the island. From the brief notices here collected, which 
 are for the greater part original, and have not before 
 been offered to thepublic, it may be seen, that, considered 
 as mineral districts, they not only afford most interest- 
 ing subjects of attention in their mines and subterranean 
 treasures, but also lead the tourist in those directions 
 Avhere nature assumes her wildest and most romantic 
 forms — to the lofty mountain and expansive view — the 
 rapid stream — the rolling cataract, and all the other 
 majestic accompaniments of alpine scenery. Leaving 
 these districts, towards the more level and expanded 
 regions nearer to the coast, the traveller is led through 
 valleys, whose umbrageous riches and deep seclusion 
 afford the highest delight to a lover of nature. Whether 
 as regards the importance of its mines and the accom- 
 modation of access to them, the goodness of the roads 
 and constant communication from neighbouring towns, 
 or the number and interest of its several objects of 
 attention, the manor of Alston Moor holds a distin- 
 
SCENERY OF THE MINING DALES. 183 
 
 guished place in the mineral geography of the kingdom, 
 and is consequently better adapted than others for 
 popular description. Its antiquarian and various other 
 attractions are comparatively unknown, and thousands 
 have passed on either side of the mining districts, on 
 their way to the mountains and lakes of Scotland, 
 unconscious that nature, science^ and art have combined 
 to invest with peculiar interest the neglected, but grand 
 and interesting scenery of the mining dales of the 
 north of England. 
 
 A residence of four years in Alston Moor, and 
 frequent opportunities of visiting the mines and 
 scenery of this and neighbouring mining districts, 
 afforded by extensive surface and mineral surveys, 
 have left a vivid impression, which has not been 
 effaced by subsequent visits to some of the most 
 celebrated landscape scenery in the kingdom ; nor 
 less indelibly recorded on that page where every 
 day the leaf is turned to read them, are a grateful 
 remembrance and unfeigned esteem for many of the 
 excellent inhabitants of the mining districts, whose 
 genuine worth and hospitable kindness will be found 
 one of the chief attractions by those who shall deem 
 this hitherto neglected portion of the kingdom deserv- 
 ing of their attention. 
 
 FINIS, 
 
 Printed by W. Davison, Alnwich, 
 
PUBLISHED BY 
 W. DAVISON, ALNWICK. 
 
 A PLAN OF THE MINING DISTRICT OF ALSTON 
 MOOR, with part of the Dales of Tyne, Wear, and Tees, and 
 the several new Lines of Road recently made in these Districts. 
 Drawn by T. Sopwith, Land and Mine Surveyor. Price 1.?. 
 6d. plain, or 2s. coloured. 
 
 THE HISTORY OF ALNWICK. ALNWICK CASTLE, 
 ABBEYS, &c., with numerous Engravings of Views, Plans, 
 Antiquities, &c. Price 10.9. 6d. Demy 8vo, or 21*. Post 4to. 
 
 THE HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES OF HEXHAM, 
 with Engravings. B\' A. B. Wpight. 1 vol. 8vo, 6.5. 6rf.