THE MIRROR
OF
LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.
| VOL. XX, NO. 578.] | SATURDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1832. | [PRICE 2d. |
TANFIELD ARCH, DURHAM.
TANFIELD ARCH, DURHAM.Tanfield is a considerable village, situated seven miles from Gateshead,in the county of Durham, and eight miles in a south-west direction fromNewcastle-on-Tyne. The above arch is about a mile from the village, andcrosses a deep dell, called Causey Burne, down which an insignificantstreamlet finds its sinuous course. The site possesses some picturesquebeauty, though its silvan pride be
After a season gay and brief,
Condemn'd to fade and flee.
It has much of the poet's "bosky bourne," and beside
The huddling brooklet's secret brim,
his pensive mind may feed upon the natural glories of the scene; while,attuned to melancholy,
In hollow music sighing through the glade,
The breeze of autumn strikes the startled ear,
And fancy, pacing through the woodland shade,
Hears in the gust the requiem of the year.
KIRKE WHITE'S Early Poems.
The ARCH was an architectural wonder of the last century. It was builtin the year 1729, as a passage for the wagon-way, or rail-road for theconveyance of coals from collieries in the vicinity of Tanfield, whichwere the property of an association called "the Great Allies." It is amagnificent stone structure, one hundred and thirty feet in the span,springing from abutments nine feet high, to the height of sixty feet:a dial is placed on the top with a suitable inscription. The expenseof its construction is stated to have amounted to 12,000l.; themasonry is reputed to be extremely good, and the arch itself is nearlyperfect, though it is now only known as a foot-way, the collieries forthe use of which it was built, being no longer worked: previously it wasbut a private road-way. In Cooke's Topography we find it stated,(though it is not mentioned upon what authority,) that the architectbuilt a former arch which fell, and that the apprehension of the secondexperiencing the same fate induced him to commit suicide.
Before the building of the New London Bridge, the arch at Tanfield issaid to have been the largest stone arch in existence. The span of thecentral arch of the bridge is 152 feet; and that of the arches on eachside of the centre, 140 feet: the span of the arches of Waterloo Bridgeis 120 feet; so that the reader may form a tolerably correct estimate ofthe arch at Tanfield.
THE RESTING-PLACE.
Where shall this wounded, aching breast.
Find a couch of soothing rest—
A respite from its woes?
Friend! mark'st thou that grassy bed,
The cold, clay dwelling of the dead—
Ther