RAGGED SCHOLARS' SONG.

97

own choice. They stood in a row, put their hands behind their backs, and sang,

"Beautiful, sublime, and glorious,"

in a style which, though unadorned, sent me away filled with good wishes for prosperity to the Newcastle Ragged School.

H

CHAPTER VIII.

How Newcastle entertained a Lord-How it treats Steamboat Passengers -The Gateshead Gap-Embellishing the Quay-Sights on the Tyne -Town versus River-Ancient Boatmen-St. Anthony's-Locke and Blackett's Lead-works-Separating the Silver-Pattinson's ProcessRich Pigs and Poor Pigs-The Test-Refining the Silver-The Slag Furnace-Litharge and Red Lead-Slabs and Sheets-Pipes by Pressure-Annual Produce of Lead.

"His Lordship's Entertainment at Newcastle was very agreeable, because it went most upon the Trades of the Place, as Coalmines, Saltworks, and the like, with the Wonders that belonged to them, and the Magistrates were solicitous to give him all the Diversion they could: and one was the going down to Tinmouth Castle in the Town Barge. The Equipment of the Vessel was very stately; for ahead there sat a four or five Drone Bagpipe, the North Country Organ, and a Trumpeter astern; and so we rowed merrily along. The making Salt I thought the best Sight we had there."

What would honest Roger have written had the mouth of a drain been the starting-place of the barge, as it is of the steamers which ply between Newcastle and Shields, as if by the gratuitous sight of the turbid outflow, to stimulate your impatience to depart. On the Gateshead side I saw the gap made by the fire still open, a great slope of rubbish and ruin, amid crowding habitations and the stir of business, terminating upwards at the church. More room to live and breathe in was

ABOUT THE TYNE.

99

much wanted in that quarter, and though the discipline was fierce, the town will be the better for it; and the flames by leaping across the river made quick clearance of a site on which is to be erected a pile of buildings for mercantile purposes that will make Newcastle prouder than ever of her quay. Seen from hence there is something peculiarly effective in the view of the high-level bridge, for the low bridge appears stretching across the bases of the piers as an arched curving plinth.

To a stranger, even to one familiar with the Thames below London, there is something surprising in the sight of the Tyne, with its busy traffic, its fleet of keels and steam-tugs, coal-ships, and merchant vessels from the north of Europe. Furlongs of pine balks float on the margin; the banks are for the most part high and steep, rough and bare, or patched with ragged grass; pantiled cottages dot the slopes, or crowd the levels and hollows, and here and there dormer windows appear that look as if imported ready made from Holland. Here and there a rough and ready jetty intrudes on the stream, here and there a wharf opposes its walls, some looking as if left to take care of themselves, and everywhere are rough and queer landing-places, and everywhere you see the smoke rolling in murky clouds.

The steamers appeared to me but little improved from what I remembered them in former years; perhaps as remarkable for slowness and scow-like build as ever. In one respect there is a change for the better; you are not liable to a detention of two hours at Tyne Main or Hebburn by shoals where the ugly little vessels always ran aground at low water. Miserable detentions were those, especially on a wet day. Vain were the endeavours of the solitary fifer or bagpiper to enliven them. I was glad to find that race of

persevering minstrels still in existence: we had one on board our vessel who, for a collection amounting to twopence-halfpenny, treated us to unlimited music. It appears to me that the corporation of Newcastle having such a river as the Tyne flowing past their quay, and the sea within a distance of ten miles, might find it a worthy object of ambition to maintain a channel navigable even for large vessels at all times of the tide. Some people say that to spend less on the town and more on the river would be wise. Surely both can be properly cared for, judging from what has been accomplished on the Clyde below Glasgow, and on the Lagan at Belfast.

There are no regular stopping stations for the steamers, nor any proper landing-places where you can step on shore from the vessel between Newcastle and Shields. You notify your wish to disembark to the steersman, he takes your fare, and orders the bell to be rung to summon a boat. While landing at St. Anthony's, about three miles down the river, I heard that the ancient boatmen who once attended on passengers, or plied at the ferries, had all disappeared. Those tough, weatherbeaten old fellows were among the most remarkable phenomena of the Tyne; always ready with a lamentation over the hardship of knocking about on the river after fighting for their king and country. Many an additional penny did they win thereby from strangers, and I remembered how, being young and softhearted, I had on sundry occasions fallen into the trap, once to the full extent of sixpence; but that was given to a venerable oarsman clad in a suit of tarpaulin, who pleaded that "his pipe o' backer was the only thing as seemed to do him any good." Anthony's is not in appearance an inviting place.

St.

The

THE. OLD GARDENER.

101

bank is rough, the paths are rough and stony; and the cottages, which display many a broken pane, and the groups of dirty, half naked children playing or squatting about, harmonise with their environment. The cottages have an outer stair leading to the upper floor, and lodge two families, and though a few are very clean within, the general impression made on a stranger is unfavourable. There are a few good houses, but they look out of place on such a site where, what with the prevailing smoke, and the vapours from Pattinson's chemical works on the opposite side of the river, it is an affliction to open the windows. Not for a thousand pounds a year would I live in such a spot.

Guided by the towering chimney, I sought Locke and Blackett's lead-works. It was an agreeable surprise to find a garden inside the great gates, and an old gardener fondling his beds of pinks. The flowers came pretty well, he said, though 'twas smoky; and 'twas a pleasure to look after 'em when he was not wanted in the works. He thought the unthrifty-looking people I had seen at the cottages 66 didn't care much about sending their childer to school, and if they did, there wasn't any school in the place worth speaking of."

Presently Mr. Craig, one of the superintendents, came up. I presented my note of introduction, and was answered by such a ready compliance with my wishes, that I cannot deny myself the pleasure of repeating my thanks in print. His patience was exemplary; he neither hurried me, nor looked every ten minutes at his watch, and he talked down to my comprehension. The hour, indeed, was unusually propitious, for the works are so large, and the operations so various, that I saw much more than I had anticipated.