180 WHAT ONE MAN CAN DO. Out of this have arisen the following:-nine new streets, extending collectively one mile 289 yards; the new market, the central exchange, new theatre, new dispensary, music hall, lecture room, two chapels, incorporated company's hall, two auction marts, ten inns, twelve public houses, forty private houses, and 325 houses with shops. Annual rent of occupied houses and shops, £17,416 Value of property, 40,000 800,000 This with former new erections, amounts to £995,000. Thus nearly a million has been added to the value of the town by one man in five years, confining the estimate to the narrowest pecuniary consideration of the case. The value of other property in the town has risen, and is rising. The common complaint of the place is, that there are no houses to be had. The other architects and builders of Newcastle have more to do, the more Mr. Grainger does. The importation of Baltic timber has become considerable. Two thousand workmen at a time have been employed by Mr. Grainger alone, and the presence of their prosperous families is, in every way, an advantage to the town; the population of which is, at this time, increasing at the rate of 1,500 a year. It would be thought on the continent, a great credit to a state to have done in the same period, what we now witness at the hands of this charity boy." All these new streets are built in the Grecian style, of solid stone, and have a most imposing effect. The day was spent in rambling about the town. Had THE MAN OF ONE THING. 181 time allowed, I should have paid a visit to the lower regionsthe coal mines. This subterranean excursion I was compelled to reserve for some other occasion. On returning to the hotel, I asked a few questions of the waiter who served up our dinner respecting the trains which were to leave on the next morning. The reply was, 'I don't know, sir, I will call Boots.' I found universally that Mr. Boots, who besides taking care of the boots proper was also the porter, was the only authority respecting the trains. The waiter attended to his own business, and did not appear to know any thing beyond that. General curiosity, and the capacity of giving information on all subjects, distinguish the Yankee. The English plod, on each one in a beaten track. Entrance into Scotland. TIE train from Newcastle to Berwick-upon-Tweed, passes within a few miles of Alnwick and Warkworth— the celebrated castle of the Percys. Connected with the last is the beautiful hermitage of Warkworth. I have already remarked that a limited time compelled us to calculate with exactness the different parts of our route. We were out on a summer excursion, taking our first taste of Europe, with the expectation at some future day of making a more deliberate and thorough tour. Indeed, an entire summer ought to be devoted to England and Wales and Scotland. In this land of the Percys alone, many days might be spent in the most delightful excursions; and they ought to be excursions on foot. And so, with what we had before us, and the necessity of keeping time with the Rotterdam steamer, we were constrained to pass by Alnwick. CHANGE OF IDEAS. 183 Every spot here is full of associations with history and border tales. The names of the Percy and the Douglas are title-pages of histories; and their very sounds seem like the blast of a trumpet. Unless when the eye lights upon the ruins of some old castle, one cannot realize the bloody scenes that have been here enacted. But these hoary chroniclers tell the tale. Now the open country, rich in cultivation, shows only the arts of peace. The change in the appearance of men and things is not greater than the change in prevailing ideas and character. What a stern race once lived here! War and bloody raids were then the most noble employments; and booty won by the strong arm was more valued than the products of honest labor in the field, or the gains of peaceful trade. Even fair ladies looked upon bloody deeds as knightly pastime, and bestowed their favors in proportion to the display of what was then called noble prowess, but what we would now call ferocious bloodshed. And yet it must be confessed that the ideas under which those knightly barbarities were perpetratedideas of courage, bravery, endurance, highmindedness, and loyalty, made them widely different from base cruelty and ferocity, and gave them a glory and a grace, the influence of which we are still alive to. There was often, too, a pathos and tenderness thrown around them which represent the actors as men, who, with generous affections, were unavoidably the victims of magnanimous but mistaken sentiments. The old ballad of "Chevy Chase," or the "Hunting at 184 CHEVY CHASE. the Cheviot," of which Sir Philip Sidney has remarked, “I never heard the old song of the Percy and Douglas, that I found not my heart more moved than with a trumpet," affords an illustration of this. The fight has been carried on with sore slaughter. At length Percy and Douglas meet. They fought until they both did sweat, Until the blood, like drops of rain, They trickling down did feel. Yield thee, Lord Percy, Douglas said, Where thou shalt high advanced be, Thy ransom I will freely give, Thou art the most courageous knight That ever I did see. No, Douglas, quoth Earl Percy then, Thy proffer I do scorn I will not yield to any Scot That ever yet was born. .With that there came an arrow keen Out of an English bow, Which struck Earl Douglas to the heart, A deep and deadly blow: Who never spoke more words than these: For why? my life is at an end: |