st in their faces, swore to "floor them" if they touched
her "canny man."

This spot, where the Swing Bridge unites the lower banks of the stream,
seems always to have been the most convenient point for crossing the
river, for the present bridge is the fifth that has spanned the Tyne at
this point: Hadrian's bridge, Pons Aelii; a mediaeval bridge destroyed
by fire in 1248; the Old Tyne Bridge, swept away in the flood of 1771;
the successor of this, which was found too low to allow of the passage
of such large vessels as were able to sail up the Tyne after the
deepening of the river bed; and the present Swing Bridge, which is
worked by hydraulic machinery, the invention of Lord Armstrong. We do
not know how long Hadrian's bridge lasted, but William the Conqueror,
when returning from his expedition into Scotland in 1071, was obliged to
camp for a time at "Monec-cestre," as the Tyne was in flood, and there
was no bridge.

Some ancient houses are to be found in Low Friar Street, one of which,
with winged heads and dolphins carved on it, is said to be the oldest
house in Newcastle. Turning up an opening on the west side of this
street, all that is left of the ancient Blackfriars' Monastery may be
seen; some of its rooms are used as the meeting places of various Trade
Guilds, and the rest form low tenement houses, in the walls of which are
many Gothic archways and ancient window-openings built up. Over the door
of the Smith's Hall is a carving of three hammers, and the
inscription:--

"By hammer and hand
All artes do stand."

This Hall was formerly the Great Hall of the monastery; and here Edward
Baliol did homage to Edward III. for his crown of Scotland. Nun Street,
leading out of Grainger Street, reminds us of the days when the Nunnery
of St. Bartholomew stood in this part of the town, and the Nun's Moor
was part of the grounds belonging to the establishment. In High Friar
Street, which was not then the dilapidated lane it now appears, Richard
Grainger was born.

Another part of the town which has fallen from its former high estate is
the Close, which lies along the river front, westward from the Sandhill.
Here, at one time, lived many of the principal inhabitants of
Newcastle--Sir John Marley, Sir William Blackett, Sir Ralph Millbank,
and others equally important; and here, too, was the former Mansion
House of the city, where the Mayors resided, and where they could
receive distinguished visitors to the town. Am