By an inquisition taken in 1447, the 25th Henry VI. the river Tyne and the soil thereof, from Sparrow Hawk in the sea, to Hedwin Streams, belonged, under the crown, to the corporation of Newcastle, which also received a royal grant of the conservatorship of the river in 1454. On June 30, 1528, Arthur Plantagenet, Vice-admiral under Henry, Earl of Nottingham, Lord High Admiral, made an acknowledgment of admiral jurisdiction granted by King John, and confirmed by succeeding princes, to the mayor and burgesses of Newcastle upon Tyne, on the view and inspection of their several grants and privileges.

In the year 1530, the conservatorship of the river Tyne was confirmed to the mayor and burgesses of Newcastle, by an act of parliament prohibiting the shipping, loading, or unloading of any goods to be sold into or from any ship at any place within the limits of Sparhawk and Hedwin Streams, but only at the town aforesaid, and impowering the mayor, burgesses, and commonalty of that town, and their successors, to pluck down all wears, gores, and engines, that should be made in the river, to the great obstruction of the navigation thereof, between the places aforesaid.

In the year 1547, the soil of the river, from high water mark to the low, was settled upon the corporation of Newcastle; and in 1553, a third part of the river Tyne, and of the bridge over it at Newcastle, was restored, by act of parliament, to Tunstal, bishop of Durham. Queen Elizabeth, in 1589, granted the reversion of the office of the high admiralty of the port and river of Tyne to the mayor and burgesses of Newcastle, which was held by patent by Lord Howard, Lord High Admiral of England, who died January 26, 1618, but

who assigned his authority in the port of Newcastle to the corporation thirteen years before his death.*

In 1603, a commission of conservatorship of the river Tyne was sent to the mayor and burgesses of Newcastle. By order of council in 1613, this jurisdiction was granted to the same corporation, jointly with the bishop of Durham and certain justices of the peace for the counties of Durham and Northumberland. But in 1616, the mayor, aldermen, and jury of the burgesses of Newcastle, exhibited a grievous complaint to the king and council, through the neglect or breach of trust of the commissioners. In consequence of this, the council, by an order dated February 14, 1616, appointed a new set of commissioners, consisting of the mayor for the time being, and 16 others, one of them an alderman, and the rest apparently burgesses of Newcastle. Thirteen new articles were added to the former nine, for the better conservation of the river Tyne, which was strictly enjoined them to provide for, under the pain of forfeiting all the liberties of the town of Newcastle into the hands of the king. How long the conservatorship remained in these commissioners does not distinctly appear; but from the circumstance of their being burgesses of the town, and the mayor for the time being placed at their head, the probability is that it soon fell into the hands of the corporation; for, in 1630, the prescriptive right of the mayor and burgesses of Newcastle to the conservatorship of the river was allowed in the court of King's Bench, and in the court of Exchequer the following year. In 1646, there were several orders of common council made for the preservation of the river Tyne.t

The banks of the Tyne are crowded with artificial mountains of

This appears to be the first trace of any criminal jurisdiction of the town upon the river, which, notwithstanding the personal exemption granted to the burgesses by Henry VI. had always been within the High Admiralty jurisdiction. The great charter of Elizabeth, by conferring the full power of justices of the peace and gaol delivery npon the mayor, recorder, and aldermen, seems to have completely established that criminal jurisdiction, and fixed its limits co-extensively with the conservatorship, which were distinct jurisdictions, and totally unconnected and independent of each other.

The Lord High Admiral of England, in 1614, granted to the mayor and aldermen of Newcastle a commission, empowering them to fit out against pirates "on shipp or more, warlikelie appointed with men, ordnaunce, and victual sufficient for the enterprize.”

+ The corporation, as conservators of the Tyne, appoint a River Jury, to whom the following oath is administered:-"You swear that you shall from time to time, as often as there shall be just cause, true presentment make of all nuisances done in this port of Newcastle upon Tyne, between Sparrow Hawk and Hedwin streams, in the river Tyne, and you shall do this at the admiralty, before the mayor, recorder, and aldermen of the said town, for the time being, and that without all respect of love and hatred to the persons so offending. So help you, God."

ballast, which begun to be formed when the coal trade first began to be of consequence. The corporation have generally claimed the right of depositing this ballast where there is least danger of its damaging the river, by prescription, as conservators of the Tyne, strengthened by the statute 34 Henry VIII. cap. 9. The Ropery Banks at the east end of Sandgate, was, according to Bourne, the first ballastshore out of the town.

On Ascension-day, every year, the mayor and burgesses of Newcastle survey the boundaries of the river Tyne. This annual festive expedition, during the occupation of the Mansion house by the chief magistrate, started from the Quay in front of that building, and proceeded to or near the place in the sea called Sparhawk, returning up the river to the utmost limits of the corporation westward, at Hedwin Streams, accompanied by the brethren of the Trinity-house and the River Jury in their barges. When the chief magistrate is popular, the boats are numerous, and the scene beautiful and exhilirating.

The following account of Ascension day in May 1818, was written by an eye witness, and may be taken as a very accurate exhibi

tion of the general characteristics of this annual civic pageant, as seen many years ago :-"I rose early this morning, having resolved upon accompanying the 'barges,' as they are popularly termed. The morning dawned beautifully, giving promise of fine weather for the festive occasion. I sauntered down to the Quayside, where great numbers of persons were engaged in decorating the various boats which were intended to take part in the procession. As I did not possess a boat, I took a seat in one of the wherries, which from being vessels of considerable size, could accommodate a great number of persons. At five o'clock the boats began to arrive from various parts of the river, and to throng about the front of the Mansion house, where the embarkation was to take place. There were observable at the oars of the various boats, a host of fine athletic fellows in clean white shirts and trousers, dashing their slim vessels over the smooth surface of the stream with admirable ease and dexterity. Almost every boat had secured some itinerant musician, no matter of what talent, and at intervals the dissonnance of their music would be hushed for the purpose of listening to the wild but melodious strains of Jack, the Howden Pans fifer, whose notes sounded sweetly along the surface of the swelling river. At a little before six o'clock. the guns of the old fortress above sent forth their thunder, the

bells of St. Nicholas rang their merry peals, and the shipping hoisted their flags: every boat's oar fell from its perpendicular into the water, and the clear drops glistened in the sun, as the procession began to move eastward to the harmony of a party of musicians on board of the mayor's barge. On reaching the bridge, and on approaching the shipping, the music struck up Rule Brittannia,' gladdening the

hearts of the spectators who, even at so early an hour, lined the edge of the Quay to the amount of some hundreds. As the barges with a numerous retinue of smaller craft sailed down the river, the men were repeatedly saluted with shouts of gratulation and the report of cannon from the numerous founderies and other manufactories, which constitute one of the chief features of the banks of the Tyne. While passing 'bonny Sandgate,' the band played 'Weel may the keel row,' which elicited much cheering, together with a due share of squalling approbation from a numerous concourse of 'keel deeters,' 'kelp carriers,' and 'market lasses.' The royal standard floated majestically from the summit of Hawks's iron works, and their artillery thundered away with military regularity and precision. One cannon they had, which, being of larger dimensions, they always fired the last, and by way of distinction denominated Great Neddy.' I shall never forget him, for in the midst of the booming of his comparatively puny companions, off went his greatness, filling the air with smoke, oakum, and brown paper, making the surrounding hills to echo, and the old casements to clatter in their seats, to the no small jeopardy of the many gilded spice-babies and sticks of barley sugar, with which the honest hucksters of the North Shore had bedizened their windows, for the double purpose of profit and shew. Passing the glass houses, we approached Wincomlee quay, which, Mr. Simon Danson, (who resides there as ballast assessor and governor of the powder magazine,) has rendered one of the prettiest spots on the banks of the Tyne. My heart warmed on beholding the worthy old fellow standing viewing the pageant, and making no little stir with his gunnery, and with the flapping of his flags. The barges now went briskly forward, receiving the customary salutations from the coal staiths, and by eight o'clock the procession reached the sand end of North Shields. The barge of the river jury pulled out to the Sparr Hawk, being the extent of the boundary, and, on her return, the men scattered large quantities of figs and prunes, which gave the youngsters of Shields no small employment, both on the shore and in the river. And now the pageant began to return in more measured pace, as antient usage had rendered it imperative that every salute received, should be returned by the giving of three hearty cheers from all afloat. But the compliment was more conspicuously rendered at old Danson's, for his guns roared away in eloquent testimony of well rammed waddings and begreased muzzles. The worthy old fellow was seen bustling about, his stick in one hand and his hat in the other, and he was greeted with a shout that