here twelve hours, then they go up again. What would ye have the lads to do after twelve hours in the pit? What can they do, Robert, if they don't take to the quoits?"

I listened, hoping that the question which has so long baffled philosophers would then and there receive a rough and ready solution: that a way, desirable to the rudest capacity would be shown, to divert the throng from that broad highway which leadeth—ah! whither? which is so delicious, and so fatal; which entices alike millionnaires and miners. And while listening I wished for the ready pencil that could have taken a sketch of the group, as we stood there leaning upon the wagon: the two men with broadbrimmed round-crowned hats; the two boys just tall enough to show their heads above the lumps of coal, their teeth and eyes glistening in the candle-light in strange contrast with their black faces, and looking from one to the other with a wicked expression; the black roof and walls shutting us in-a dimly-lighted group in a vast darkness.

Old Robert looked at me, looked at his mate, looked at the boys; shook his head sadly; breathed out a hoarse sigh; but said nothing. And I, who hoped to hear in the sunless mine the answer which philosophers have been unable to give satisfactorily in the sunshine, was disappointed.

As we retraced our steps, Old Robert took pains to show me that the huge pillars are left at regular intervals, so that the mine thereabouts might have been likened to streets bordered by rows of detached blocks; and wherever coal was to be brought out, there ran a branch from the tramway. Here the seam had been thick and profitable. Commonly, in sinking

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a pit in these parts, clay is first met with; then sandstone; then perhaps a seam of coal about six inches thick; then more sandstone and shale intermixed with thin seams of coal; and under these lies the great bed or seam of coal, known as the High Main: it is that from which most of the coal is got in the valley of the Tyne. In some places it is six or eight feet thick; in others it proves capricious and disappears without any assignable cause. Below the High Main, there is a repetition of the sandstone and shale, in some places five hundred feet thick, and under that is found the Low Main, a seam from two to three feet thick. There are places where the High Main lies within fifty feet of the surface; others, where it lies twelve hundred feet below. This northern coalfield extends from the Tees to the Coquet, about fifty-five miles; and the deepest mine within it is on the banks of the Wear, near Sunderland, which is sunk to the depth of fifteen hundred and ninety feet-more than a quarter-mileand pierces altogether forty feet of coal.

Holywell pit, as before observed, is forty-eight fathoms deep nowhere did I find the temperature disagreeable; and as no explosive gas has yet been met with, naked candles can be used in all the workings. The absence of gas is, however, a sign of inferior quality in the coal; hence the best coal is the most dangerous to the miner.

We met a small boy travelling along all alone, and at sight of him Old Robert brightened up a little. "Ha! that was a good lad. A little one, truly; but in love with school, fond of his book, a first-rate reader, and able to work out a sum in Vulgar Fractions. Ha! if all the lads in the mine were but such as he! but his father takes a deal of pains with him."

Then we came up to an elderly man, who was mending the roadway, an accident having incapacitated him for other work, and he also was a hopeful subject. Old Robert had a word of encouragement for him; for here was one who, having trained his own boys up to cock-fighting, now began to see that he had made a mistake, and to discover that life has a significance beyond mere food and raiment, or merrymaking and labour. Well for him that he has had a friend at hand to build him up in steadfastness, or a kind neighbour to read to him occasionally, that is his greatest comfort; for, as he said to me, "I canna make much oot o' the readin' mysel'."

When we emerged into the main way, and came once more to the foot of the shaft, everything looked so distinct, that there seemed something absurd in the recollection of the blindness and bewilderment that troubled the commencement of my plunge. We passed the shaft, and turned into a recess behind the wall where the two lamps hung, and there I saw the furnace fire; a great glowing heap of coal, big enough to roast a couple of oxen, which maintains a rapid and steady current of air from the mine, and is kept burning night and day. A little farther, and I saw the stables where— at a guess-some thirty or forty horses and ponies are comfortably lodged, with stalls and manger and plenty to eat. This was the warmest part of the mine-that is, which I had seen; and even here the temperature was not oppressive, for the ventilation is not overtaxed by neglect of cleanliness.

Then we went back to the shaft, stepped into the cage, and shot up into the glorious sunshine. The surveyor had calculated the time of my re-appearancewe had been underground about three hours-and was

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waiting for me: water and towels were placed ready in the office, and a few minutes sufficed for the removal of my coaly husk. I shook hands with Old Robert; begged him to send me a word now and then about the Infant School, and walked back to Earsden, where Mr. Taylor rounded off his favours in my behalf, by the hospitable rite of a dinner.

L

CHAPTER XI.

Walking Northwards-Seaton Delaval-Hartley-Seaton Sluice-A Curious Port-An Honest Place The Sea-beach-Sand-hoppers-A Feast for Curlews-Gull-shooters-Beautiful eating-Sand-hills-Blyth— Great Coal Trade-Camboise-The Wansbeck-The Links-Newbiggin -Night by the Sea-The Village by Daylight-The Church on the Point-Epitaphs-Aspects of the Shore-Snab Point-Druridge BaySkeleton of a Whale-Inside a Whale's Mouth-Cresswell Sands-A Walk on the Links-Flowers-Coquet Island-Cottage PhilosophyHampshire versus Northumberland-Amble-More Coal TradeWarkworth-A Friendly Surprise-The Castle-Glimpses of the Past -The Charming Coquet-The Hermitage.

LATE in the afternoon I took up my knapsack and walked away northwards by a winding road between wheatfields and wild roses, where we see at once a specimen of the fertile strip of level land, from four to six miles in width, which Northumberland has for its seaward margin. But we shall find it here and there broached by quarries and traversed by industry and enterprise. About a mile inland appears Seaton Delaval

-a house built by Vanbrugh, half hidden by woods; and presently we come to Hartley, a pitman's village; the usual low pantiled cottages, but all so clean that to look at them is a pleasure. It is Saturday afternoon, and some of the women are giving the finishing touch to the cleanliness by sweeping the pathways. And now the smoking glasshouses of Seaton appear in the view, and the refreshing saline breath of the sea salutes our nostrils.

Then to Seaton, or Seaton Sluice, as it is called; a village on the cliff, traversed by colliery railways that