The Ports, Harbours, Watering-places and Picturesque Scenery of Great Britain Volume I Part 12

[Ill.u.s.tration: NEW BRIDGE AND BROOMIELAW GLASGOW.]

THE BROOMIELAW, GLASGOW.

The river Clyde, in a commercial point of view, is of the greatest importance, not only to the city of Glasgow, but to the whole western district of Scotland. Till the beginning of the sixteenth century, however, the channel of this n.o.ble river was so incommoded by fords and shoals, as to be hardly navigable even for the small craft of that day.

Sensible of this great evil, and aware that it admitted of a remedy, the inhabitants of Glasgow, Renfrew, and Dumbarton entered into an agreement to excavate the channel of the river, and, by working six weeks alternately, succeeded in their enterprise. The princ.i.p.al ford and several others of less importance were removed, so that by the middle of the sixteenth century, flat-bottomed lighters could be floated with ease and safety to the landing-sh.o.r.e at the Broomielaw, which, in the process of time and events, has become the great commercial port of Glasgow.

A few years ago, the harbour of Broomielaw was only seven hundred and thirty feet long on one side; it is now 3340 feet long on the north side of the river, and 1260 on the south. Till of late years there were only a few _punts_ and ploughs for dredging the river; there are now four dredging-machines, with powerful steam-apparatus and two diving-bells.

The shed accommodation on both sides of the river is most ample; and one of the cranes made by Messrs. Claud, Girdwood, and Co., for shipping steam-boat boilers, is capable of sustaining a weight of _thirty tons_, and may, for the union of power with elegance of construction, challenge all the ports in the kingdom. For the s.p.a.ce of seven miles below the city the river is confined within narrow bounds, and the sloping banks, formed of whinstone, in imitation of ashlar, are unequalled as a work of beauty and utility.

From the Broomielaw, till it begins to expand into an estuary, the Clyde is everywhere overlooked, at short intervals, by the rising hulls and finished decks of steam-boats and other craft preparing for the launch.

Compared with the bulk of its waters, and the breadth of its stream, this river is unequalled for the amount and stir of its navigation. Here it is seen bearing along ships of heavy burden and deep draught of water; there plentifully dotted with yawls and wherries, and kept in a constant state of foaming agitation by large steam-ships, freighted with heavy cargoes from the sh.o.r.es of England and Ireland--by numerous coasting steam-vessels, careering over its surface with thousands of human beings, and by steam tug-boats, dragging behind them trains of sailing craft, too unwieldy to pilot their own way within its narrow channel. First in the practical working of steam-ship architecture, the Clyde may be safely said to maintain its pre-eminence over every other river in the world.

THE BROOMIELAW BRIDGE, which forms so prominent a feature in the engraving, was begun after a design by Mr. Telford, the late celebrated engineer, and built by Messrs. Gibb and Son. It is faced with Aberdeen granite, and has a very gentle acclivity. It is 560 feet in length over the _newals_, and sixty feet in width over the parapets: it has seven arches, and is wider than any river-bridge in the kingdom.

_Tides._--The tide at Greenock is two hours earlier than at Glasgow. At places situated near the ocean, the tide flows nearly as long as it ebbs. At Greenock it flows generally about six hours, but at Glasgow it flows only for five hours and ebbs in about seven; this, however, is modified by the winds. High winds in the Clyde affect the time and elevation of high-water; and by considering the form and course of the Frith of Clyde, it is obvious that a gale from a northerly quarter, by opposing the flow of the tide, will cause the _time_ of high-water to be earlier, and the _height_ of the water to be less, than would otherwise be the case; while a gale from an opposite direction, acting in concert with the flowing tide, will produce a contrary effect.

The merchants and citizens of Glasgow have ever been characterised as a loyal, patriotic, and generous people. When the country was suffering under civil war, they raised an armed force in defence of their civil and religious liberties, and when menaced by the enemies of their country they stood n.o.bly forward in its defence. In times of local distress their liberality knows no bounds; and their support of religious and benevolent inst.i.tutions has never been surpa.s.sed in any community. That the citizens of Glasgow have done honour to departed worth is abundantly proved by the monuments and statues erected in the city; and that their grat.i.tude is not confined to the dead is daily evinced by their respect and admiration of living merit. Such is the testimony borne to them by one of their fellow-citizens. Such they are known to be in their intercourse with strangers; and none, we will venture to say, have ever spent a week in the precincts of the Broomielaw, and shared in its hospitalities, without a cordial a.s.sent to the city motto--_Let Glasgow flourish!_

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE SOLWAY.

(from Harrington Harbour)]

THE SOLWAY FRITH,

FROM HARRINGTON PIER.

"The sun sets with a rosy smile On Criffel's peak and Mona's isle; The wave a.s.sumes a deeper blue, The mountain wears a brighter hue, And many a seaman on the mast Unfurls his canvas to the blast."

Harrington is a small maritime village, about two miles from Workington, with a commodious harbour opening on St. George's Channel, which is a prolific source of industry to this portion of the coast. The outward trade consists chiefly of coal and lime, in both of which the immediate district abounds. The limekilns of Dissington, and the coal-mines of Workington are the sources from which these exports are obtained in excellent quality, and which employ a great number of hands in the several departments of mining, burning, carting, and exportation to the opposite coasts of Scotland, Ireland, and the Isle of Man, where the cargoes are readily disposed of, and such articles selected for importation as the season, or the peculiar state of the markets at home, appear to recommend. In this manner a degree of local prosperity is insured, and another efficient nursery of seamen kept up by the spirited ship-owners in their regular intercourse with the neighbouring coasts.

It is by the combined influence of such nurseries that the maritime power of England first acquired, and still maintains, her supremacy at sea; and to the thousand harbours by which she is encircled she is indebted for those naval victories which, under Providence, have preserved her integrity and independence amidst the shock of surrounding nations. The humblest fisherman on the waters of the Solway, if thoroughly skilled in the management of his trim-built craft, is not without his importance in the scale of national utility; for the same qualifications which give him superiority among the comrades of his hardy calling, would procure him distinction on the deck of a seventy-four. No effort should be spared to encourage nautical science wherever men and ships are to be found on our coasts. "Britannia rules the waves" only by those "hearts of oak" which have been so long and devotedly at her command, and her real strength and security consist, not in the number of her ships or their weight of metal, but in the education and discipline of her native seamen, whose uncompromising gallantry has long pa.s.sed into a proverb. But from this digression we return to the subject more particularly under notice.

Harrington, it appears, was the hereditary domain of the ancient and baronial family of that name, the t.i.tle of which became extinct in 1457.

It was proposed to carry the railway, alluded to in our notice of Maryport, across the upper part of Harrington, by means of a bridge or viaduct; but the objections to such a measure, so far as it would affect the maritime interests of this place are insurmountable. The report of the committee appointed by the Lords of the Treasury to examine this subject on the spot is as follows: "The whole extent of this harbour is only seven hundred and sixty-two feet in length, and two hundred and twenty in breadth, and as it is used as well for a port of refuge as for lading, and there is an insufficiency of s.p.a.ce for vessels to anchor and swing in, an artificial beach has been formed at the eastern or upper end, on which they are enabled to bring up. The proposed viaduct would cut off about a third of the harbour. This would not only be objectionable on account of its diminishing the capacity of the port, but also by its depriving the shipping of the artificial beach to which we have just alluded. The objection to curtailing the size of the harbour will be apparent, when we state that the harbour-master supplied us with a return, verified by the Custom-house officer, by which we find that in the course of the year, 1839, no fewer than _five hundred and ten_ vessels used this port; and that during the gales of wind it was frequently so full that they were in actual contact from side to side.

After well considering this part of the subject, we are of opinion that, whatever expense or other inconvenience it might cause, it would be necessary to adopt some other mode of carrying the railway past Harrington than that proposed."

The population of this port is gradually increasing. The number of shipping is also increased; and altogether Harrington may be p.r.o.nounced as in a flourishing condition. The light now at the pier-head was first used in 1797, and is always exhibited when there is a depth of eight feet water in the harbour. It is a fixed light, hoisted upon a mast forty-four feet above high water, and in clear weather may be seen at the distance of ten miles at sea.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ALLONBY.]

ALLONBY.

c.u.mBERLAND.

"Why droops my Flower of Allerdale!

So sad, so pensive, and so pale; Whence the tear that dims thine eye-- That downcast look and frequent sigh!

The breeze of ALLONBY shall bring Back to thy cheek the rose of Spring."

The banks of the Solway are much frequented during the summer months by families from the interior, who resort thither for the benefit of sea-bathing, to which great importance is attached as a preventive, no less than a curative, process in the economy of health. Among the various localities selected for this enjoyment, Allonby bears a long-established reputation, and is annually resorted to by many families of distinction and respectability, from both sides of the Channel, who seek, in the invigorating air of the sea, the pleasures of social intercourse, and in the delicious walks and drives with which the coast abounds, the restoration of health or temporary relaxation from business. Several of the distinguished public characters of the day have here spent the recesses of Parliament, and found in the tranquillising atmosphere of Allonby a safe remedy for the enervating influence of the capital, and the cares and irritations of public life. It was long a favourite resort of the Scottish gentry, and still maintains a degree of pre-eminence as an attractive watering-place. The accommodation at the hotels is excellent, and they are furnished with every convenience for hot-baths.

Allonby is only five miles from Maryport, and ten from Wigton, and is flanked by a fine undulating country, celebrated as a field for rural sports, and industriously cultivated by a numerous and thriving population. The village itself is small, its permanent inhabitants being considerably under a thousand, most of whom depend upon the annual visitors, and a share in the herring-fishery, for the means of life. The latter, however, has become much less productive than formerly; the herrings are very capricious in their visits, and, according to Hutchinson, after continuing the same annual track for ten years, change their route, and only resume their visit after an interval of ten years.

In this respect, says our authority, they are as regular as the tides or the vicissitudes of the seasons: but, as annual "customers" for the net, these savoury visitors are not to be depended upon; and although, like Owen Glendower, the anxious fisherman may call up "spirits from the vasty deep," the question is, will they come?

Allonby has the benefit of good a.s.sembly-rooms, a reading-room, a free school, and two other daily schools; and here too that exemplary body of men--the Quakers--who are numerous and influential in this county, have a meeting-house. The character of these dissenters from the Established Church is generally praiseworthy; and in this part of c.u.mberland, where they have long been established, their reputation as a moral, peaceable, and industrious community, is established by the daily evidence of facts and the testimony of all who have enjoyed their intimate and personal intercourse. The Society of Friends--such as they are in this district--bear a closer resemblance to those primitive Christians secluded among the Alps of Piedmont than to any other religious body with which we are acquainted.

Allonby enjoys the honour of having given birth, in 1741, to Captain Joseph Huddart, of the Royal Society, a man of great scientific acquirements, and eminent as a naval engineer and hydrographer. The patronage of the chapel founded here by the Rev. Dr. Thomlinson, and consecrated in the eventful year 1745, is vested in the representatives of that distinguished churchman. The Gill, a seat of the Reay family; West Newton, the ancient residence of the Musgraves; Langrigg Hall, the fortalice of the Barwis family, are among the domestic relics of the "olden time," which give an interesting character to this district. But, with the fall of that despotism from which they rose, these feudal mansions have been left to decay, except in a few instances where the progress of dilapidation has been arrested by the taste of the proprietor, and the Border tower of his ancestors preserved as a landmark to indicate the vast progress which has been effected since then in all the departments of civilised life. Crookdake Hall, celebrated as the residence of "the worthy warrior, Adam of Crookdake,"

is now a farm-house; and in the very court, probably, where the knight and his retainers once donned their mail for the onslaught, or displayed their booty after a successful raid across the "marches," the spectator sees only the homely instruments of domestic husbandry, where the sword is literally "converted to a ploughshare, and the spear to a pruning-hook."

[Ill.u.s.tration: MARYPORT.]

MARYPORT,

c.u.mBERLAND.

"Here Solway's silver wave expands; There Scotia's mountains gleam; While Skiddaw's giant crest commands Hill, valley, lake, and stream."

Maryport derives its name from that of a patriotic lady in the neighbourhood, the wife of Mr. Humphry Senhouse, of Netherhall,[15] who, in 1750, took a lively interest in the place, and, with the a.s.sistance of her family connexion and the spirited inhabitants of the place, succeeded in raising it to the distinction of a port town; a t.i.tle to which it has added many additional claims within the last ten years. The original name was Ellenfoot, so called from its situation at the embouchure of the river Elne with the Solway. It is a chapelry of Cross Canonby, or Crosby--a parochial village about three miles distant; in the church, dedicated to St. John, are several ancient monuments of the Senhouse family, already mentioned, one of whom, Richard Senhouse, was bishop of Carlisle in 1624.

The commerce of Maryport, according to the last report, is decidedly on the increase; and the many advantages it possesses for ship-building and refitting are more and more appreciated by all trading-vessels frequenting this coast. The exports consist princ.i.p.ally of coal for Scotland and Ireland, which is furnished in great abundance by collieries in this district, and affords the means of comfortable subsistence to a hardy race of seamen, who, in the hour of danger, have often "done the state some service." The importations consist of timber, flax, and iron, from the Baltic, and various articles of domestic utility from the opposite coasts. The herring-fishery has. .h.i.therto been prosecuted with great success; upwards of twenty boats were lately engaged in this enterprise. In winter, the boat-crews are employed in the taking of cod-fish, which is here caught in great abundance, and finds a ready sale on the market-days of Tuesday and Friday. The river Ellen, or Elne, affords no inconsiderable supply of salmon-trout during the season; and as the daily steam-vessels running between Carlisle, the Scottish coast, and Liverpool, generally touch at Maryport for the convenience of pa.s.sengers, there is a constant air of bustle and activity about the pier that renders the place very agreeable as a sojourn in the summer months. The view across the Frith is one of the finest on the coast, and the inland scenery is proverbially beautiful.

It is only six miles from c.o.c.kermouth; and is further enlivened by the continual traffic along the great coast-road which connects it with Carlisle on the east, and with Workington and Whitehaven on the west.

The county of c.u.mberland abounds in vestiges of Roman domination, and to the eye of the antiquary presents a fertile field of investigation. Of all these, however, the Roman wall is the most remarkable. It was built by the Emperor Adrian early in the second century, as a barrier against the Caledonians, and extended across the whole island from sea to sea.

Its length was one hundred miles, and its breadth six feet, by twelve in height. In its course it had twenty-five strong castles, planted at regular distances; the foundations of which, as well as of the wall itself, can still be traced, and in some places present a solid ma.s.s of several feet above the ground. Besides these there are also Roman, Danish, or Saxon encampments, in various parts of the county, as well as ancient Roman and British causeways, and several remains of Druidical circles.