Jarrow may now be considered as advancing to importance, a very extensive Colliery having been opened here in September last, by Simon Temple, Esq. who has erected a handsome mansion for his own residence, and a row of low houses, extending in a curve line for upwards of half a mile, on the Newcastle road, for the abode of the pit-men. The celebration of the opening of the colliery was accompanied by a grand fete, to which Mr. Temple invited all the workmen employed in his various concerns, as well as friends, so that more than a thousand persons partook of the entertainment. The fete commenced by a procession headed by Mr. Temple, and three sons; and the early part of the day was passed in the benevolent acts of laying the foundations of three buildings, a School for children, a Seminary for females, and a Feverhouse, and Hospital; all for the benefit of the families of those employed by Mr. Temple, and to be supported at his expence. Several coal-waggons were then filled at the pit, and conveyed on ship-board, under the banners of the South Shields Volunteers, and a general discharge of artillery, with appropriate music; the remainder of the day was spent in feasting and rejoicing. The coals are of the best quality, and the annual receipts are expected to be immense.

Jarrow Slake, extending on the north-east towards Shields, and uniting with the Tyne, appears at high water like a capacious bay; but when the tide is down, it is left dry, and admits the passage of carriages round its whole extremity. This we are informed, by ancient authors, was the principal port of Egfrid, King of Northumberland, and where his entire navy lay moored. It has since been washed full of sand, and is not at present of any use; though various schemes have been projected to render the ground of service. Its extent from east to west is nearly a mile; its breadth about half a mile. A small rivulet, called by Leland the Done, rising in the Bolden Hills, flows through the midst of it, into the Tyne. The population of the township of Jarrow, Monkton, and Hedworth, as returned under the late act, was 1566: the number of houses 307: both the number of buildings, and of inhabitants, have since, however, greatly increased.

GATESHEAD,

GATESHEAD, the Gaetsheved of the Saxons, and supposed, by Camden and Baxter, to be the Gabrosentum of the Romans, principally consists of one long street, ranging along a steep descent, and terminated by the Bridge leading over the Tyne to Newcastle. The etymology of its name has occasioned various conjectures; some of these sufficiently fanciful: Mr. Brand, whose opinion seems most correct, derives it from the Saxon Gaetsheved, the head, or termination, of a military road, or way, which, in these parts, is commonly denominated gait. Being imme diately on the Roman road leading from Chester-le-Street, there is scarcely a doubt of its having been occupied by the Romans; and the opinion is corroborated by the discovery of an urn full of Roman coins, on widening the main road leading to the Tyne-Bridge a few years ago. Most of the coins were distributed among the workmen, and are lost; yet several of them, in good preservation, of the Emperor Adrian, are now in the hands of David Stephenson, Esq. Newcastle.

This is a borough by prescription, but not privileged to send members to Parliament. The earliest known record relating to it, occurs in the time of Bishop Pudsey, and is dated 1164, when that prelate granted by charter, to his burgesses of Gateshead, the liberty of his forest; and by the same charter, further, “that each shall have in right of his burgage similar liberties to those enjoyed by the burgesses of Newcastle in right of their burgages; and that they shall have free passage within the liberties of the palatinate with their goods, clear of all dues and exactions." Several succeeding prelates had their keepers of the park and castle here. In 1557, Bishop Tunstall granted a charter to the company of Glovers, within the borough of Gateshead; in 1602, Bishop Matthew incorporated sundry trades; and in 1661, Bishop Cosin incorporated them into one commonalty. During the reign of -Edward the Sixth, this borough was united to Newcastle; but in the succeeding reign it was re-united to the See of Durham. Previous to the act of the seventh of Edward the Sixth, by which Gateshead was annexed to Newcastle, it appears from Strype's Annals, that the Mayor and Burgesses of the latter place, had obtained

Vol. II. p. 432.

obtained a right, by purchase, from Thomas Sutton, founder of the Charter-House, in London, for 12,000l. to "the manor of Gateshead, with all the manors, coal-pits, and coal-mines, in Gateshead and Wickham, with the common wastes, &c." These had been alienated by Bishop Barnes to Queen Elizabeth, who gave them to the Earl of Leicester, and by him were sold to Mr. Sutton. In the reign of Queen Mary, when an act was passed for the re-incorporation of the dis-severed lands with the Bishopric, the opposition of the corporation of Newcastle, to the restoration of Gateshead, was taken off, by a grant made to the Mayor and Burgesses, dated March the seventeenth, 1554, by Bishop Tunstall, of a lease of the Salt Meadows for "ninety years, and so from ninety till the expiration of 450 years, with a way to be assigned for all persons, and the conveyance of wares and merchandize, and other things, to and from the Salt Meadows, and the high street of Gateshead, at a reserved rent of 21. 4s. annually; with a discharge from all tolls for that term, that had formerly been taken by the Bishop, or his lessees: reserved rent, 41. 6s. per annum." The Salt Meadows comprehend about eighty-three acres of very fine land, about half a mile down the river.

On the east side of the main street, about half a mile from the bridge, are the ruins of St. Edmund's Hospital, or Monastery, supposed to occupy the site of a monastery, which appears, from Bede, to have been established here before the year 653. This was probably destroyed at the time of the murder of Bishop Walcher, when the populace set fire to the Church. In the year 1247, Bishop Farnham founded the "Hospital of St. Edmund, in Gateshead," and endowed it for a Master and three Brethren: soon afterwards he united it to the "Chapel or Hospital of the Holy Trinity in Gateshead," and framed ordinances for its government. Bishop Langley, about 1438, on the petition of the Prioress and nuns of St. Bartholemew, in Newcastle, appropriated its revenues to the support of that house, to whom it belonged at the Dissolution. In the year 1610, James the First refounded it by letters patent, for the reception of three poor men, and ordered

* See p. 26.

that