Some indications sccm to favour the conjecture that coal-mines wcrc worked by the Romans, and even by the Britons. Coal is mentioned as a well known species of fuel, in a grant dated A. D. 852, by which it is stipu lated that twelve cart-loads of that fossil were to be paid yearly to the Abbey of Peterborough. It seems, how ever, to have fallen again into disuse; for no mention oc curs of it till the beginning of the thirteenth century, when a charter was given to Newcastle, by Henry III., allowing liberty " to dig coals and stones on the common soil of that town, without the walls thereof, in a place called the Castle•field and the Forth." This was in 1239. Soon afterwards the use of it began to extend from the forf.r,c to the kitchen : it has ever since continued to in crease. In the latter end of Queen Elizabeth's reign, a duty of fourpence per chaldron produced 10,000/. a-vear. Above 400 ships were constantly employed in the trade ; a fleet of fifty sail went laden from Newcas tle to different ports of FraliCe ; While tile Dutch and Danes supplied those of Flanders. The unpopularity of Charles I. in London was greatly augmented by the taxes he imposed on this trade, and the monopolies he authorized in it. When the Scottish armies took New castle, the regulations of the Parliament lowered the price of coals greatly beneath the 41. per chalcIron, to which it had once risen : but the trade did not prosper under them. Still, however, thc consumption of the ar ticle continued to diffuse itself. In 1699, Newcastle had two-thirds of the coal trade, and 300,000 chaldrons went annually to London. The over-sea trade employed about 900,000 tons of shipping. In the whole trade were em played 600 vessels, of the average burden of 80 Newcas tle chaldrons, manned by 4500 sailors. On the Tyne, also, were employed 400 keels, and nearly 16 000 keel men. The inventions of Bolton and Watt, as well as the general improvement of the country, gave fresh vigour to the trade in coals. From the first of January, 1802, to the end of December, 1809, it appears that 4.713,476 chaldrons, or 12,490,707 tons, were exported from the Tyne alone.
The mineral wealth of Northumberland, and the trade occasioned thereby, have exerted a beneficial influence on its agriculture. For a soil and climate in general so little favourable, farming is carried on with industry and spirit, and the produce is considerable. Notwithstand ing its vast tracts of moory land, the annual value of a square mile, on the average, amounts to 5201. Landed property is a good deal subdivided : the rental of estates vat ies from the smallest sums to above 30,000/.; in one instance it exceeds 80,000/. Towards the sources of the Tyne, and in some other mountainous districts, the ground is parcelled into lots, woith from 30/. to 300/. a year, which are commonly farmed by their prop ietors. As those statesmen have in general received their pro perty through a long succession of generations, they are apt to show a strong attachment to the useless as well as to the useful, in ancient customs : they admire and imitate the honest, though rude independence of their fathers ; and give small countenance to innovation, whe ther it be improvement or the contrary. Farms are not less various in extent than estates are. In the southern and midland parts of the county, the rent is often from 50/. to 300/. : in the wards of Glendale and Bambo rough, it is from 2000/. to 4000/.
In such a diversity of circumstances, no one system of husbandry can be expected to prevail universally. On dry lands it is customary to adopt this rotation : turnips, barley, or wheat.; clover for one or two years ; oats, or wheat, if barley was grown previously. On strong loams, the usual course is, fallow, whcat, clover, for one or two years ; beans or oats. On moist thin loams, fal
low, wheat, clover ; grass-seeds for one or two ycars. And upon moory soils, fallow, oats, clover ; grass-seeds for two years. Some intelligent farmers in the north maintain that a course of three years tillage, and three ycars grass, is a much more profitable system than any other they have tried. Drill-sowing is generally pre ferred to broad cast ; and excellent manure, abounding over all the county, is copiously applied. Lime is found in almost every quarter, except in the porphyry districts of the Cheviots, and some of the coal-fields in the south. Both stonc-marle and shell-marle are likewise exten sively diffused ; sea-weeds, collected from the rocks, or washed ashore by the waves during the fall, are eagerly collected along the coast ; and a considerable supply of manure is annually brought from London, as ballast, by the ships employed in the coal trade.
The rearing of cattle is considerably attended to, par ticularly in the upland districts of the county. The cow is usually of the breed called Dutch; it grows rapidly ; at the the age of three years and a half, the carcass, when fattened, will weigh from 60 to 80 stones. Sheep are produced hi much greater numbers ; they form a prominent department in the stock of corn-farms, or range over large moory tracts, which, though mostly the property of private individuals, are seldom inclosed, or separated otherwise than by streams, ridges of hills, and other natural boundaries. The most common sorts are the CheNiot sheep, a beautiful breed, which weigh, when fattened, frorn 12 to 18 pounds per citirrter ; the heath sheep, which are reckoned fittest for living on the moun tains, and afford an excellently flavoured kind of mutton, weighing about 18 pounds in the counter ; and the long woolled or Dishly sheep, which are preferred in less elevated situations, being remarkable for fattening at a very early age. Thesc last are said to have been greatly improved here, by ingenious management; the carcass weighs from 18 to 26 pounds per quarter ; the fleece about seven and a half.
The exportation of its agricultural products gives em ployment to a few Northumberland ships, besides what are employed in the coal trade, the nature of which has already been described. As the exports of the country are mostly in a raw state; as coals, its greatest export, in addition to this, are very bulky ; the outward bound cargo is, of course, much more considerable than the in ward. The intercourse is chiefly with the ports along the adjoining. coast, and a few places on the Continent. The grain and the salted provisions prepared within the county, its vessels carry out to various British harbours; they bring in Baltic or colonial goods, and most of the manufactured articles which are consumed between the interior mountains and the sea. Newcastle sends three or four ships to the Greenland fishery. The internal manufactures are of no great cxtent, and little diffused over the county. Glass is the most prominent of them. It was introduced at Newcastle in 1619 ; at present there are 28 glass-houses on the Tyne ; the duties le vied on them amount to nearly 200,000/. a-year. Small potteries and founderies exist, likewise, in several quar ters ; and some establishments for working in gold and silver distinguish the county town.
According to the parliamentary returns, Northum berland, with the town of Berwick, in 1801, contained 26,518 houses, and a population of 157,091, whereof 23,190 were employed in agriculture, and 25,738 in trade and manufactures. In 181 1, the number of houses was 28,258 ; the population 172;561 ; the number of families employed in agriculture being 10,945, and in trade and manufactures 16,547.
See Beauties of England and Wales, vol. xii. part first.