Aug 11 1818 Carlisle Assizes #2 - Description of Cumberland & Northumberland - Cumberland and Westmorland Newspaper Transcriptions

Aug 11 1818 Carlisle Assizes #2 - Description of Cumberland & Northumberland

The Times, Tuesday, Aug 11, 1818; pg. 3; Issue 10432; col B

CARLISLE ASSIZES, Friday, Aug. 7. [continued]
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Throughout the counties of Northumberland and Cumberland, the crops look
remarkably well. No want of rain appears to have been experienced. The hay crop
is abundant. The counties seem to combine all the advantages of mountainous and
champaigne countries; their hills are high enough to attract the passing
showers, and not too high to exclude cultivation and rich pasturage even from
their summits; the declivities of the hills, and the banks of the rivers and
smaller streams, afford such a variety of soil, and such changes of sunshine and
shade, as enable the agriculturist to rear every kind of crop with the greatest
success. Nothing can exceed the pleasure of travelling through these lands. On
every elevation, and the road in all directions is but a succession of
elevations, you have a wide view of green hills, running waters, woods of
various extent, rich fields of corn, and, at due distances, elegant country
mansions in the most favoured spots. The effect of the scenery is much increased
by the rustic appearance of the habitations of the peasantry: their houses are
substantial and well-secured against wind and rain, but they are not remarkable
for neatness: the inmates seem to possess the character which their country and
their houses prepare the stranger to expect. They feel no particular anxiety for
neatness of their dress or cleanliness in their houses, but their simplicity and
good-natured confidence at once attach and familiarize you.

Newcastle, the principal town in Northumberland, is beautifully situate on the
banks of the Tyne. The Castle is interesting from its antiquity and elevated
site; the court houses for the county, built close by it, are elegant and
capacious. The circumstances that chiefly strike a stranger in Newcastle are the
extreme irregularity of the streets, and the extraordinary inequality of the
ground. The ascent from the river to the principal streets of the town is as
precipitous as the ascent of any hill in the kingdom. There are beautiful walks
in the environs of the town, particularly on both sides of the river; but
certainly there is not a town in England where the unguarded nose is more
violently annoyed.

Carlisle, the capital of Cumberland, is finely situate on the south side of the
Eden. It is a small town. It has one large street and a market-place. The
race-ground to the north-east of the town is inferior only to that of Doncaster,
and even that it surpasses in having the Eden on its east and north sides. The
Cathedral, if so it must be called, seems to have been a kind of compromise
between the grandeur of the Catholic church and the meanness (we speak only of
architecture) of the Presbyterian kirk. The Castle is in ruins, save a small
part, which is converted into barracks. A very considerable part of the wall
still remains, and affords on its summit, and at its base, the principal
promenade for the genteeller portion of the inhabitants of Carlisle. This
ancient border-strong-hold is now entirely dismantled of its gates and
portcullises. Of the north, or Scotch gate, the traces can still be viewed: but
where the great south gate stood there is not a vestige of it remaining; instead
are two circular buildings for civil and criminal trials at the Assizes. They
are not yet finished.