NORTHUAIBERLAND, the most northerly county of England, is bounded on the south by Durham, on the west bv Cumberland, on the north by the Scottish coun ties of Roxburgh and Berwick, on the east by the Ger man Ocean. In shape it approaches to rhomboidal; the longest diagonal from south-west to north-east measures 74 miles, the shortest 45 , the area amounts to 1871 square miles, or 1,197,440 acres. With regard to civil jurisdiction, it is dit ided into six wards, and 635 con stableries ; with regard to ecclesiastical, into 5 deane ries, and 73 parishes. It stands in the diocese of Dur ham ; contains 12 market-towns ; and sends 6 mernbcrs to Parliament.
The face of the country is rugged and hilly ; and the character of its scenery varies by many gradations from the extreme of wasteness to occasional beauty. On the northern side it is skirted by the Cheviots ; and the mountains of Cumberland are connected with it on the west. From these wild and elevated ranges, numerous secondary branches traverse the interior in various di rections ; in some places spreading out into moory tracts of extreme desolateness, in others exhibiting a rich and well cultivated expanse, rendered more striking by its undulating and varied aspect. Along the summits of the mountains, which contain the numerous sources of its rivers, little else is to be seen than broad heaths, or cold and deep morasses : but as the streams grow broader, the sides of the hills gradually asstnne a green er hue, affording at first a more abundant pasturage for flocks, and at last separating into broad valleys, which often display all the luxuriance of vegetation.
In so great a diversity of position, we of course find a corresponding diversity of soil. On the highest eleva tions, it is cold, spongy, and irrecoverably barren ; but the slopes of the mountains, particularly of the Cheviots, are of a firm consistency, and fertile, considering their situation. They are generally clothed with grass, and appear to have at one time been ploughed to a much greater height than at present. The finest districts are in the south, and along the coast from Bamborough to within some miles of the Tyne. The level tract around Belford, the uneven one in the neighbourhood of Wark. and the vale of Hexham, are distinguished for their beauty and productiveness. The harvests in this last quarter arc the earliest, and its fields and woods have the richest verdure of any in Northumberland.
As the general exposure of this county is to the east, its climate is rather hard than otherwise. Cold, wither ing east winds prevail during the months of Alarch, April, and frequently the greater part of May. When the western breezes set in, the progress of vegetation is rapid. It is not uncommon to see the trees in the be ginning of May as arid and leafless as in December, and yet, through the influence of mild westerly winds and kind rains, becoming quite clothed with foliage in the course of eight or ten days. When these westerly breezes increase into a hurricane, it is a sure indication that a deluge of rain is falling at the time in the west ern counties of England and Scotland. The autumn ol the year is the summer of Northumberland. During the months of September and October, it is usually fine settled weather ; but winter commences by the nnddle of November, and reigns, with great severity, till the frost and snow are succeeded by a languid spring, in the latter end of March.
Of the Northumberland rivers, the Tyne is the most important. Its name in Celtic is said to signify double ; and accordingly it springs from two sources, the South Tyne from behind Crossfell in Westmoreland, and the North Tyne from the borders of Scotland. The two streams unite beside Nether \Varden ; after which the river takes an easterly direction, and being joined by the Dill and the Dement, empties itself into the sea between this county and Durham. The Till, the Aln, and the Coquet, much smaller streams, rise among the Cheviot hills The two last flow directly into the German Ocean : the first mixes with the Tweed, which, during a considerable portion of its course, separates Northum berland from Berwickshire. Most of these rivers, hy means of the tide and their natural depth, are navigable several miles above their mouths. Ships of large bur den can ascend the Tyne to Newcastle, where its watcrs are deepened twelve feet every spring-tide. A few ar tificial helps might render the passage practicable much farther. In 1790, it was proposed to make the river navigable from Newburn to Hexham ; but the corpora tion of Newcastle opposed the measure, and it was finally dropped. A similar fate has, front various causes, attended more than one succeeding project; and North umberland is yet without any facilities for internal com munication, except what are afforded by nature.