a county palatine in the north of England. The ancient names, boundaries, form, extent, rivers, and the civil and ecclesiastical divisions of Durham, have been largely and correctly described in the *Encyclopædia*, to which we refer the reader.
This is the only county palatine remaining in England; and it is called *palatine*, from a *palatio*, because the owners thereof had, in this county, the authority to use the royal prerogative, as fully as the king had in his palace. The palatine privileges were granted to this county, probably on account of its bordering upon the inimical kingdom of Scotland, in order that the inhabitants, having justice administered at home, might not be obliged to go out of their county, and leave it open to an enemy's incursions; and that the owners, being encouraged by so large an authority, might be the more watchful in its defense. There is a Court of Chancery in this county; and the bishop is at the head of the administration of justice.
The western angle of the county of Durham is surface-hilly and mountainous, with black, naked, and barren regions, crossed by a ridge of high hills, from whose sides issue numerous streams flowing to the sea. There are some beautiful and fertile valleys in the eastern and central parts, pleasantly varied with hill and dale, and alternately appropriated to corn and pasture. The waste lands occupy nearly 120,000 acres of the western part of the county; in the southern districts, many hundred acres have been enclosed and cultivated within the last forty years. The common fields are now but few; for the land belonging to the townships has been enclosed above a century. There is a great portion of wet ground still remaining, although draining is carried on to a great extent.
Near the river Tees, and in some spots bordering on the other rivers, the soil is loam or a rich clay. At a further distance from these rivers, the soil is of an inferior quality, marshy, with patches of gravel interspersed. The hills between the sea, and an imaginary line drawn from Barnard Castle on the Tees, to Alansford on the Derwent, are covered with a dry loam, the fertility of which varies with its depth. From this line westward, the summits, as well as the sides of the hills, are moorish wastes.
The woodlands of Durham are not of very considerable extent, trees being chiefly confined to the roads, parks and seats of the nobility and gentry; but many plantations have been made of late years. The banks of the rivers and brooks, however, particularly in the vicinity of Durham, are fringed with wood of long growth, and much value. The public roads are in general good; but those belonging to private districts and townships want improving.
The port of Stockton-upon-Tees is well situated for commerce. Hartlepool, situated on a promontory, nearly encompassed by the German Ocean, which, on the south side of the town, forms a capacious bay, is advantageously placed for the reception of vessels, and landing of troops from the Continent. And South Shields sends out many ships.
The mineralogical substances found in Durham minerals are numerous and valuable. The coal mines are some of the most extensive and productive in the kingdom; and the quantity of this important article is so great as to exceed all calculation. At Sunderland the coal trade furnishes employment for 520 vessels, independent of the keels which convey the coal from the staiths to the ships, and are 492 in number. This coal is chiefly conveyed to the metropolis, though great quantities are sent to the different ports of the Baltic; and in time of peace to France and Holland. The whole quantity annually exported from Sunderland alone amounts to about 315,000 Newcastle chaldrons, each chaldron equal to 53 cwt. The number of persons dependent on this trade is very great; and some years ago, when the consumption was by no means so great as it is at present, amounted to upwards of 26,000 on the river Wear only. The seams, or strata, now worked, are five in number, extending horizontally for many miles, and are from twenty to one hundred fathoms beneath the surface; each stratum is from three to eight feet thick. Below these are several other seams of coal; and many parts of the county, besides those where the pits are now open, abound with this substance.
Lead.
The principal lead mines of Durham are situated in Tees Dale and Wear Dale; those of the former place have not been very productive, but the produce of the latter is of considerable value. The general method of working them is similar to that pursued in other mining counties. The ore of Wear Dale is melted by the blast-hearth, but in Tees Dale air-furnaces have been introduced with much success.
Iron.
Ironstone is found in the neighbourhood of Swalwell and Winstanley, where are the first iron-works in England.
Quarries.
Some excellent quarries of slate for buildings have been opened in different parts of the county. A beautiful black spotted limestone is dug up near Walsingham, and made into hearths, chimney-pieces, and other ornaments. This neighbourhood abounds also with fine mill-stones. The Newcastle grindstones are procured at Gateshead Fell; and firestone of high estimation for building ovens, furnaces, &c., is obtained in various parts of Durham, and exported in immense quantities.
Salt Works.
Several extensive works for manufacturing salt from sea-water have long been established in the neighbourhood of South Shields; but, owing to the discovery of a very singular salt spring at Birtley in this county, that process is not so much attended to now. This water rises at the depth of seventy fathoms, in an engine pit, constructed for drawing water out of coal mines. It has, for many years, produced 20,000 gallons per day, four times more strongly impregnated with salt than any sea-water. In consequence of the discovery of this spring, about twenty-five years ago, a large and extensive manufactory of salt has been established near the spot, the quality of which is excellent. At Butterby, near Durham, is another salt spring, which issues from a rock in the river Wear, and is visible when the water is low only; it contains more of the sulphate of magnesia, or Epsom salt, than the spring at Birtley.
Chalybeate Spring.
Within a few yards of the Water-gate, on the south side of the town of Hartlepool, is a chalybeate spring, covered every tide by the sea. It is impregnated slightly with sulphur, which evaporates very quickly, leaving a sediment with salt of tartar; a gallon will yield 120 grains of sediment, two parts of which are nitrous, the rest limestone.
Agriculture.
Improvements in agriculture have been pursued with considerable spirit and success, in the environs of Darlington, chiefly through the patronage of a society of respectable gentlemen, who hold their meetings in the town, and bestow premiums upon merit. The usual rotation of crops in this county is, after summer fallow, wheat, oats, beans, or peas. On some spots of gravelly soil, turnips and barley are grown in almost perpetual succession; a crop of clover being sometimes interposed. The produce of wheat, on good land, is from twenty to thirty bushels per acre; the produce of barley is from thirty to forty; of oats from twenty to forty. The manures are chiefly lime, and the produce of the fold-yard; and though abundance of sea-weed might be collected on the coast, the farmers make but little use of it. The farms are of a middling size, few of them exceeding 200 acres. The largest portion of each farm is appropriated to tillage; but towards the western extremity of the county the whole is applied to pasture. The leases seldom exceed six years, and are, too frequently, rendered of little value by injudicious restrictions. The leases held of the see of Durham are generally for lives, or for twenty-one years, renewable every seven years, on payment of a fine. The farm-houses are well situated and commodious; and improvements in farming, and farming machinery, become more and more common.
The cattle of Durham are, at present, in great repute; as, for form, weight, produce of milk, and quickness of fattening, there are none better. The sheep also, particularly the Tees water breed, stand high in estimation. It is the largest breed in the island; the legs being longer, finer boned, and supporting a thicker and more firm and heavy carcase than the Lincolnshire. They are also much wider on the backs and sides, and afford a fatter and finer grained mutton. The weight per quarter, in two years' old wethers, is from 25 to 35 lbs.; and, in particular instances, 55 lbs. or more. The wool is shorter and lighter than some other English breeds. The Wear Dale sheep are small, but the meat finely flavoured. When fat the quarters seldom weigh more than fourteen or eighteen pounds each.
Durham, taking its dimensions into consideration, is inferior to no county in Great Britain for its numerous manufactures. It has cast-metal foundries, iron manufactories, potteries, glass-houses, copperas works, coal-tar, and salt-works, quarries of marble, &c.; besides linen and woollen manufactories.
At the distance of about three miles from Darlington, at Oxenhall, are cavities in the earth, denominated Hell-setles, to the origin of which are attached many fabulous conjectures. The diameter of the largest is not less than 114 feet, and that of the least 75. About five miles from Hartlepool is one of the most singular and romantic clusters of rocks in the north of England, called Black Halls; formed by the force and constant action of the waves, which have separated enormous masses from the coast, washing some entirely away, but leaving others standing, like the vast towers of a cathedral: in some places the rock is perforated so as to resemble a fine pointed archway.
Near the north wall of the church-yard at Ryton British Antiquities is a large barrow, about twenty feet in perpendicular height, now planted with trees. It does not appear to have been opened; but a similar one, near Bradley Hall, in the same parish, inspected about 35 years ago, was found to contain a square cavity, formed by stones placed edge-ways, in which a hu- man body was interred. Between one and two miles north of Brancepeth is Brandon Hill, a lofty eminence, on the summit of which is a remarkable tumulus, of an oblong form, 120 paces in circumference at the base, and about twenty-four feet in perpendicular height. It does not appear to have been opened. One mile north of Eggleston is an ancient structure, called the Standing Stones. This originally consisted of a cairn in the centre, surrounded by a trench, and that again encompassed by a circular arrangement of rough stones; many of which have been removed and broken, to repair the roads. Near a brook, at a small distance, is a large barrow, crossed from east to west by a row of stones.
On Fullwell Hill, a gigantic skeleton and two Roman coins were discovered about fifty-five years ago, together with a small urn of unbaked clay. Several copper coins have been found at the village of Whitburn. Some coins of the Emperor Adrian were found while widening the road near Gateshead, which is supposed to have been a Roman station.
South Shields was the ad finam of Richard of Cirencester's itinerary, as appears from the Roman altars, coins, and other relics found there. Evchester, a small irregular village, is supposed to be the Vindomara of Antoninus; many Roman inscriptions, and an urn of uncommon form, nearly a yard high and seven inches wide, and having in the centre a small cup, have been found there. Chester-le-Street has been supposed to be the Condercum of the Romans, situated on the military way leading to Newcastle. Glanibanta, near the village of Lanchester, is another Roman station, which has survived the ravages of cultivation in an extraordinary degree, and is one of the most perfect in the kingdom. It occupies a fine eminence, is of an oblong figure 174 paces from north to south, and 160 from east to west, within the vallum. In some parts, the wall still remains perfect; the outside is perpendicular, twelve feet in height, built of ashlar work in regular courses, each stone being about nine inches thick, and twelve long. The site of the Pretorium is clearly distinguishable. Binchester, the seat and manor of the Wren family, is the site of the Roman station called Vinovium by Antoninus. Its figure and extent seem nearly similar to those of the station just mentioned; but the walls have been destroyed, and the area enclosed and cultivated. A military way, it is supposed, issued from it, leading towards Chester-le-Street. Innumerable fragments have been discovered here.
The most ancient part of Durham Castle is the keep, now a mere shell; the magnificent hall is fast going to decay. Hilton Castle, an ancient baronial residence of the Hyltons, is situated in a pleasant vale on the north side of the Wear, about three miles from Wearmouth; its present form is that of an oblong square; the interior consists of five stories; the rooms are small, and exhibit every symptom of neglect and decay. Ravensworth Castle, the seat of Sir Thomas Henry, occupies part of the site of an ancient castle, which seems to have formed a quadrangle, having a square tower at each angle, connected by a curtain wall. Two of the towers are built up in the offices, the others are partly in ruins. Lumley Castle, about a mile to the east of Chester-le-Street, is one of the seats of the Earl of Scarborough. It forms a quadrangle, with an area in the centre; at each angle are projecting turrets of an octangular form; it is a grand model of the taste of its age. Brancepeth Castle, an irregular, but stately pile, was erected about Stephen's reign, by the family of Bulmers. The original building has had many modern improvements added to it by the present proprietor. The castle of Bishop Auckland stands on the north angle of the town, and together with its courts and offices, covers about five acres of ground. Raby Castle, the magnificent seat of the Earl of Darlington, owes its splendour to the Earl of Westmorland, who enlarged a more ancient castle which stood here prior to the year 1379. The present mansion of Streatham Castle was erected on the foundation of the old castle at the beginning of the last century, and several of the apartments are retained in it. Barnard Castle is situated on the southern acclivity of an eminence, rising with a steep ascent from the river Tees; its ruins cover an extensive plot of ground.
Kepier Hospital, near Durham, was founded in Abbots 1112; but the only part of the monastic buildings now standing is the gateway, a strong and not unhandsome piece of masonry with pointed arches. The ruins of a monastery for Grey Friars may be seen at Hartlepool. Several remains of monastic buildings occur near the church at Monk Wearmouth. The monastery of Jarrow may still be traced in its ruins on the summit of an elevated ridge near the church. On the east side of the main street of Gateshead are the ruins of St Edmund's Monastery, which appears, from Bede, to have been established before the year 653. Finchall Priory was beautifully situated in a vale on the banks of the Wear; the ruins cover an extensive plot of ground, but are so much dilapidated, that the original appropriation of their respective parts can be traced only with great difficulty. The remains of a chapel at Bear Park are most perfect, and display some neat ornamental architecture. There is at Walsingham the ruins of a considerable building, enclosed with a deep moat, supposed, by some, to have been a part of a monastery.
The ecclesiastical buildings now remaining, and churches most worthy notice, are the following:—The Cathedral of Durham, begun in 1093, in the Saxon and Norman style; Sedgefield Church, in the Saxon style; Bishop Wearmouth Church, supposed to have been founded very soon after the restitution made by Athelstan; and the parish church of Brancepeth, an ancient structure of the conventual form, but apparently of different ages.
The county of Durham contains a great number of noblemen and gentlemen's seats. The following are some of the principal:—Streatham Castle, of the Earl of Strathmore; Shincliff-Hall, of R. Scott, Esq.; Croxdale-Hall, of W. Salvin, Esq.; Raby Castle, of the Earl of Darlington; Lumley Castle, of the Earl of Scarborough; Castle Eden, of R. Bardon, Esq.; Harwicke, of M. Russel, Esq.; Winkleston, of Sir John Eden, Bart.; Grange-Hall, of G. Allan, Esq.; Winyard, of Sir H. V. Tempest. Dussaux was a man of considerable literary attainments; and amiable, upright, and disinterested in his conduct. His translation of Juvenal is esteemed the best version of that poet in the French language. His other works are: — Memoires sur les Satiriques Latins. Lettres et Reflexions sur la fureur du Jeu, auxquelles on a joint une autre Lettre Morale, Paris, 1775. Discours sur la Passion du Jeu dans les differents Siecles. De la Passion du Jeu, depuis les temps anciens jusqu’a nos jours, 1779, 8vo. Vie de l’Abbé Blanchet, prefixed to the Apologues and Tales of that author, Paris, 1784, 8vo. De l’Insurrection Parisienne, et de la prise de la Bastille, Paris, 1790. Lettre au Citoyen Freron, 1796, 8vo. Voyage à Barrege, et dans les Hautes-Pyrénées, Paris, 1796, 2 vols. 8vo. De mes Rapports avec Jean-Jacques Rousseau, &c. Paris, 1798, 8vo,—a curious work, which throws considerable light on the character of that celebrated man.
Marie-Jeanne Lieutau, the widow of Dussaux, published Memoirs of his life, which are exceedingly interesting. See also Palissot, Memoires sur la Litterature; and Biog. Universelle.