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DURHAM.

The county of DURHAM is in form a triangle. According to the earliest account Durham formed part of the country inhabited by the BRIGANTES; and during the SAXON HEPTARCHY it formed part of the kingdom of the NORTHUMBERS.

It is bounded on the east by the German Ocean, on the west by Westmorland and Cumberland, and on the south by the river Tees, which divides it from Yorkshire. It is about forty-five miles in length, thirty-five in breadth, and 107 in circumference.

That part of the county which borders on Cumberland consists chiefly of naked hills and barren moors, but possessed of very rich and numerous mines, particularly of Lead. The eastern and more central parts have an ex'cellent soil, and, for the most part, a level aspect. Though nearly all kinds of agricultural produce are raised here in abundance and perfection, the chief attention of the Durham farmers is directed to the breeding of cattle. The Durham oxen, which are of uncommon size, are in very great demand in the southern counties, as also are its sheep, of which there are two distinct breeds, the long wooled, and the short wooled. It is watered by the rivers Derwent, Wear, and Tees, with some other streams of less note.

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THIS County has two hornlike projections to the east and west of its northern border, which measure sixty miles across, but its main land does not exceed forty miles in length, and is about thirty in breadth.

The greater part of its northern side is bounded by the Mersey and Tame, and the remainder of that side by Lancashire; on the east, by the counties of Derby and Stafford; on the south, by Shropshire; and on the west, by Flintshire and the Irish Sea, which separates it from Ireland.

The most important town of this county is its capital, DURHAM, which is most picturesquely situated upon the Wear. Some part of this city is very ancient, but much of it has been erected within the last century and a half. Though like all cities to which additions have been made from time to time, it is very irregularly built; yet, from its peculiarity of situation, upon the craggy rocks of the river, and surrounded by woods, Durham has a very handsome The greater portion of this county is very level, but towards appearance. To this the general elegance and neatness of the eastern extremity there are several hills, which form a its buildings greatly contribute. Its cathedral is particu- continuation of those of Staffordshire and Derbyshire. larly magnificent. Some woollen goods are manufactured Though the land is so flat it is almost uniformly good; at DURHAM to a considerable extent; but its chief source for, making allowance for the hills of which we have spoken, of profit is Mustard, which is grown in its vicinity in great there is not in the entire county above one acre of waste in abundance, and of a very superior quality. In the neigh- twelve; which, whether with reference to the whole of bourhood of this city, in 1346, was fought a tremendous England, or to almost every selected county, is an exbattle between the English army and that of Scotland, tremely small proportion of waste. This county is still when the latter was utterly defeated, and their king, farther favoured in being well and picturesquely watered. DAVID BRUCE, was made prisoner. This action is com- The rivers Mersey, Dee, Waver, Dove, and Wenlock, all memorated by a stone monument, called NEVILLE'S CROSS, water it; and, in addition to these, it is fertilized and which is still standing in the vicinity of the city. Ten beautified by almost innumerable lakes and rivulets. One miles from Durham, and like it pleasantly and pictu- valuable commodity of this county is salt, which is exresquely situated on the Wear, is Bishop Auckland, ported in vast quantities. The chief places noted for near which the Bishop of Durham has a very fine pa- their salt works are called the three witches; viz., Northlace and park. In addition to that advantage, this wich, Nantwich, and Middlewich; but, there are many town is greatly benefited by its manufactures of cot- other, though less considerable, salt-works in this county. ton goods; and is at once a neat, pleasant, and prosper-But the grand source of wealth to the Cheshire farmers is ous place.

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cheese. The land is peculiarly fit for pasture, and accordingly full three-fourths of the land adapted for cultivation are appropriated for that purpose. Almost the only exceptions to this mode of employing the land in Cheshire are those parts in which the soil is either very light sand, or tolerably light loam. In the former kind of soil carrots, and in the latter kind, potatoes, are the chief articles of production. In some of the more sterile parts coals are abundantly found, and serve, not only for the use of the inhabitants, but also to a considerable extent for exportation.

But the chief manufacturing town of this county is Darlington, where a particular kind of linen, called Huckubuck, is made in the greatest perfection. Woollen stuffs and camlets are also made at this town; and as the Its chief town is CHESTER, which, though only of a wool used here is bought of the farmer in the immediate small size, is a very ancient and a very wealthy city. Forneighbourhood. and the manufactures sent direct to the merly, it was one of the strongest and most important

garrisons in England; and its walls are still kept up, though they only serve for a promenade for the inhabitants. As a port it is very inconsiderable, and its only manufacture of any consequence is that of gloves. But it seems as a kind of capital for the gentry of the surrounding parts of Wales, and is consequently possessed of a very con

siderable domestic trade.

THE HEATHEN MYTHOLOGY.

SECTION.I.

THOUGH the heathen mythology abounds with gross errors, and though much of it originated in the grossest imposture on the one part, and was received with the most Its other chief towns are Stockport, Macclesfield, Con- pitiable credulity on the other, yet it is so interwoven with g.eton, and Knutsford, and they have nothing worthy of the histories of past times, and of great people who now any particular mention, excepting that they and their sub-exist only in history, and has been so abundantly used by urbs mantain a very considerable population, who are the great, sublime, and beautiful poets of antiquity, busily engaged, like the inhabitants of Manchester, in the cotton manufacture.

On the mouth of the Dee, in this county, there is a village called Parkgate. Formerly, this place was fast rising into opulence, and extending itself in size, from the influx of persons embarking for, or landing from, Ireland. But Holyhead has proved a too successful rival to it; and this village having now scarcely any profit except that which it derives from the few people who resort to it as a bathing-place, it is gradually sinking into its native insignificance.

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that it is impossible to read either the history or the poetry of the ancients with any considerable degree of advantage, without possessing some knowledge of mythology from which they have so largely borrowed. We cannot believe one syllable of the story of the gods and goddesses taking a part in the quarrels between the Greeks and Trojans: because we know very well that no such gods and goddesses ever had, or could have, any other than an imaginary existence. But, if we would read Homer with advantage, we must know what was fabled of those gods and goddesses. We know that their actions were fabled; but, if we wish to read the Iliad, or any other of the Greek or Latin classics, with profit and pleasure combined, we must know what those actions were fabled to be; and what attributes, station, and relative power were peculiarly assigned to the respecUnder the SAXONS, it formed part of the kingdom of tive deities. This knowledge, for the reasons already MERCIA; by the DANES it was made an earldom; and, assigned, is absolutely necessary to a classical reader; lastly, by WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, it was erected into and it is on that account that we intend to give a sketch a county PALATINE, enjoying under the crown all the rights of the Heathen Mythology. We shall make it as full as of sovereignty; the EARLS OF CHESTER holding parlia-our limits will permit us; but it will necessarily be conments and courts of justice by their patent. These ex-fined to a sketch.

Of this county were the celebrated historians HOLLING

SHED and SPEED.

During the time the ROMANS were in Britain, this county, together with Shropshire, Staffordshire, and Worcestershire, was inhabited by the CORNAVII.

tensive privileges seem to have been granted with the view The Heathen Mythology treats of the history of the of encouraging and enabling them to make a firmer fabulous gods and goddesses; but more especially of stand against their neighbours, the WELSH. HENRY VIII. those of Greece and Rome. This arises, probably, in retrenched the power of this grant; it still, however, re-part from Greece having derived much of her mythology tains authority to determine, by its own judges, in all cases, except high treason.

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The ancient Romans called elephants" Lucas boves," Lucanian oxen, because they first saw them in Lucania in Italy, during the war with Pyrrhus.

A dog at sea is always sensible when land is near. Dogs were anciently sacrificed to Hecate.

from the Egyptians, and the Romans from the Greeks; and partly, perhaps, from those being the only ancient nations with whose Literature we are at all intimately acquainted.

The Mythology was firmly believed among the uninformed mass of the community both in Greece and in 1,325 Rome; though the educated and philosophical few had just ideas of the one true God+. But all those attributes which the philosophers justly ascribed to the one Almighty God, the creator, preserver, and ruler of the world, were separately ascribed by the popular Mythology to as many deities. In addition to the numerous gods thus called into an imaginary existence the Greeks, and still more their conquerors and disciples the Romans, created a deity for various purely humane affairs, such as love, war, marriage, hospitality, &c.; and even gave to the very Cloace a tutelar divinity. Those mortals, too, who in their lives were singularly eminent, were deified after their deaths; and thus a Mythology was formed so comprehensive and so complex that the mere catalogue of deities, without any explanation of their various attributes and dispositions, must have been a considerable task upon the memories of their superstitious worshippers. The young reader, having his mind duly imbued with Christian knowledge, will not

A horse breathes through his nostrils, and not through his mouth.

The Greeks sacrificed horses to the sun.

Cows were anciently consecrated to Ceres, because they were supposed to have been the first animal eaten by man.

A camel has been known to carry 1200 pounds weight. By means of the camel, the trade of Turkey, Egypt, Persia, Arabia, and Barbary, is principally carried on.

The Sun, the common centre of the planetary system,

883,246 miles in diameter.

Fire is a fluid, and the chief agent in nature.

is

To have torches, or fire, carried before them, was an honour peculiar to the Roman emperors.

Lightning is the explosion of electric matter in the clouds.
Thunder is the report with its echoes.

Thunder bears the same relation to lightning, as the report, to the flash of a cannon.

Among the ancient Greeks, all persons killed by lightning were buried apart, they being thought hateful to their gods.

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