having been discovered among the ruins. In the troubles that befell after the Conquest a fortress was built within its precincts, and the monks had unwelcome neighbours in the lawless men-at-arms quartered therein. And so it went on, the works of prayer interrupted from time to time by the noise of war, until the priory shared the fate of all other religious houses. Later, the site was granted to Dudley Duke of Northumberland; but on his attainder, it reverted to the Crown. In the great struggle between king and people, Tynemouth Castle, as it was called, was again put into a state of defence, and underwent a siege and capture by the Scots. Then it was strengthened and garrisoned by the Parliament, and Colonel Lilburn appointed governor. He, however, having declared for the King, Sir Arthur Haslerigg marched from Newcastle, stormed the fort, and cut down all opposition. Lilburn's head was stuck aloft on a pole, as a warning to the faithless.

From what remains of the ruin with its tall and graceful arches, some round, some pointed, and all richly red in colour, we can mentally rebuild the priory, and imagine its former pride and magnificence. Spoliation more than Time is to blame for the deplorable dilapidations; and it seems something like a mockery that the authorities should write up a warning to the mischievous, while the governor's house still stands but a few yards distant, a very model of ugliness, built of stone taken from the ancient walls. Looking thereon, you will wonder how the builder could ever convert that which was already beautiful into anything so unsightly. If it is left standing as a foil to the architectural graces of the ruin, the purpose is fully answered.

ST. OSWIN'S SHRINE.

133

A considerable portion of the choir remains, and is fitted up as a church. At the eastern end stands a small old edifice which might be taken for a chapel or oratory it is St. Oswin's shrine, a venerable relic, with stained glass windows, niches, and groins and carved bosses in the ceiling; all looking the better for the careful restoration which it has recently undergone at the cost of the Duke of Northumberland. And all around spreads the churchyard, covered with rank grass, and thickly heaped with graves.

Tynemouth is an open breezy place, abounding in lodging-houses, for it is much frequented by folk from Newcastle, especially on Sundays. To them, being only ten miles distant, it is an agreeable retreat where they can breathe air uncontaminated by smoke. The new streets and terraces that cross the heights towards the sea, indicate a growing love of healthful habitation.

CHAPTER X.

To Earsden-The Duke's Mining-agent-Plan of a Coal-pit-Blackness and Verdure-The School-Old Robert-The Pit-mouth-Down into the Darkness-Faintness, Blindness, Bewilderment-Noises-Begin to see-Shaft and Tunnel-A Walk Underground-Coal-trains-Dismal Doorkeepers-Aspects of the Mine-The Breathing ApparatusThe Broken-The Hewer-The Bonny Pit Laddie-The TroubleTwo Miles Underground-Fuel for Fifteen-hundred Years-Warning to Cock-fighters-A Remonstrance-There's no harm in Quoits-The Question of Questions-The Group round the Coal-wagon-A Sigh for Answer-Strata and Seams-The deepest Pit-A Hopeful Boy; A Thoughtful Man—The Stable—The Furnace-Up to the Sunshine.

A FEW miles along the Blyth and Tyne railway, and a short walk between wheatfields, brought me the next morning to the village of Earsden. Here we are to the eastward of the smoke, and among rural objects; but not out of sight of smoking chimneys and coalpits. There they rise, ever blacker towards the west.

At Earsden I called on Mr. T. J. Taylor, the Duke of Northumberland's mining-agent, and acquainted him with my wish to descend into a coal-pit. Though but short notice, he very kindly assented, and summoning one of his surveyors, instructed him to conduct me to East Holywell pit, and hand me over to the care of a certain viewer. But before starting, the plan of the pit was brought out, that I might have all needful explanation as to its extent and ramifications, and I was made aware that the situation and scope of the workings are as well known on the surface to the surveyors, as underground, and that even underground

the boundaries of the pit are accurately maintained; a thick, solid wall of coal or rock, which can only be pierced by special agreement. Were these boundaries not maintained, it would often happen that the water of one royalty would flow into and flood another.

We walked across fields about a mile to the pit, which, with its machinery, and tramways, and great heaps of coal, and small cottages, and black features generally, presents a marked contrast to hedgerows and fields of grain. The cottages are in the usual style of pitmen's dwellings; the offices stand apart, and near them is the Infant schoolroom, a clean and well-kept building, where seventy children receive instruction. Here I was introduced to Old Robert the viewer; a grave, serious-minded man, who spoke about the school in a way that showed how much he had its welfare at heart. He was himself a teacher in the Sunday school, and had long been of opinion that if pitmen are to be made sober and respectable, the way is to begin early enough with the children. Moreover, he had been a teetotaller for twenty years, and found every year more and more reason for thankfulness therein.

The office was to be my dressing-room, and there I put on a pitman's suit of coarse blue woollen, and was soon ready for the descent. The mouth of a pit in work is always a busy scene, owing to the rapidity with which the coal is hauled up and hurried away to the shoots or wagons; and here the laden trains and the already large heaps were growing every minute longer and larger with the supplies brought from underground. Holywell is not a large pit, and yet it was sending up four hundred tons of coal a day.

Up came the cage with its burden; then Old Robert,

bidding the brakesman pause, placed me on one side of the cage, himself on the other, told me to take hold of the bar that crossed between as a basket-handle, and -down we shot into the darkness and a depth of fortyeight fathoms. I felt a sensation as if about to faint, and thought it the result of want of practice; but speaking of it afterwards to the surveyor, he described himself as subject to the same faintness every time he goes down. The sudden deprivation of light was painful, and the more so in going from the full blaze of a July sun; and when the cage touched the bottom I could see nothing but what looked like two torches flaring in the distance, and the sense of bewilderment was increased by noisy cavernous rumblings, the hurried heavy tread of horses and shouts of boys. Old Robert spoke a word to some one whom I could not see; a rough hand took one of mine; I stepped from the cage and was led across a tramway to a wooden bench, and bidden to sit down. Then the noises multiplied by the shoving of wagons into the cage, and by the crash and shock with which the heavy machine descended, almost, as it seemed, before it could have risen to the top; and from far away in the darkness on the right, there came one heavy thunderous rumble after another; light twinkled from time to time in that dismal region, and ere I had ceased to wonder whether it was miles distant, up rolled another train of wagons, with a lantern hung on the foremost, and the boy alighting, unhooked the horse and led him away into gloom on the left.

Presently Old Robert said, perhaps imagining my thoughts, "I can't see a bit better than you can, at first; but I know where we are, and what it all means."

When we had sat about ten minutes, I began to see,