From the railway
bridge we had a good view over the town, which looks ancient, with red
roofs on all the gabled houses; and it being a sunny afternoon, though
bleak and chill, the sea-view was very fine. The Tweed is here broad,
and looks deep, flowing far beneath the bridge, between high banks. This
is all that I can say of Berwick (pronounced Berrick), for though we
spent above an hour at the station waiting for the train, we were so long
in getting our dinner, that we had not time for anything else. I
remember, however, some gray walls, that looked like the last remains of
an old castle, near the railway station. We next took the train for
NEWCASTLE,
the way to which, for a considerable distance, lies within sight of the
sea; and in close vicinity to the shore we saw Holy Isle, on which are
the ruins of an abbey. Norham Castle must be somewhere in this
neighborhood, on the English shore of the Tweed. It was pretty late in
the afternoon--almost nightfall--when we reached Newcastle, over the
roofs of which, as over those of Berwick, we had a view from the railway,
and like Berwick, it was a congregation of mostly red roofs; but, unlike
Berwick (the atmosphere over which was clear and transparent), there came
a gush of smoke from every chimney, which made it the dimmest and
smokiest place I ever saw. This is partly owing to the iron founderies
and furnaces; but each domestic chimney, too, was smoking on its own
account,--coal being so plentiful there, no doubt, that the fire is
always kept freshly heaped with it, reason or none.
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