Then all ye Philosophers, Mathematicians,

Who long have been buried in dreams and in visions,
Compar'd to these men, ye are nothing but Owls,
And all the whole Royal Society, fools.

You must know that a project has long been on foot,
For cleansing that harbour, and scouring it out;
And so long they talk'd on't, that, to hasten the thing,
They got an act pass'd that it ne'er should begin.

Derry, &c.

Derry, &c.

Commissioners were chosen, a rare band of men,

Right able to wrangle, or fight with a pen,

And prone to do nothing, a famous cabal,

Of some Knights and some 'Squires and some no 'Squires at all.

Derry, &c.

And for close consultation, and speaking their mind,
They hir'd a large room where they reason'd and din'd,
And that we might think they did nothing in vain,
They still met to appoint their next meeting again.

Derry, &c.

They elected a Chairman, that all might go fair,
That is, they put somebody into a Chair,

Who so wisely might talk, when the room it was full,
That from thence it was called the place of a scull.

Derry, &c.

Their business was first, strange proposals to hear,
About mending the harbour and building a pier,
And then they agreed to confer the best sum
On him, who best offer'd what was ne'er to be done.

Derry, &c.

Don Alleno 1 came first in the list, and he saith,
He had found out a way, by the strength of his faith;

1 Thomas Allan, of Ayres Quay, Gent. whose proposal "for the making of fourteen feet of water into and out of the harbour at Sunderland, in the lowest neap tide, in case the Commissioners would allow him two and one half per cent. for the money to be laid out therein," is agreed to on certain conditions, 6th December, 1749.

They desire he'll disclos't, he his bosom unlocks;
'Twas to force a new River, thro' mountains and rocks.

The committee sat mute for a while, then declare,
That for such a great job they'd not money to spare;
But if he was sure it would bring him in gains,
They'd give him the ground he'd remove for his pains.

Derry, &c.

Derry, &c.

Jacobo 2 then next, not so pert as the other,

But of aspect more grave, tho' in scheming a brother,

Begs leave to exhibit a wonderful Plan,

Of a thing that out-did the out-doings of man.

Derry, &c.

The members agree to't, and desire he'll begin,
Then grant him a sum to complete the strange whim,
But he laugh'd in his sleeve (now secure of the Pelf)
To think that some there were as wise as himself.

Derry, &c.

A blind man 3 was next, who desir'd to bring in
A comical kind of a whirligig thing;

2 Jacob Spencely. He is desired, (3rd Jan. 1749) at the expense of the commissioners, to prepare models of machines for his Scheme, and he receives a reward of two guineas in the same year. A vessel, boat and machine were made, according to his directions, for dredging the harbour, which were successfully employed for many years afterwards.--Spencely's Landing is immortalized in the local song of Spottee :—

"The auld wives of Whitburn doesn't know what to dee;

They dare not come alang the sands wi' the lang tailed skaites in
their hands, to Jacob Spencely's landing as they used for to dee;
"For they com alang the sands, wi' their swills in their hands;
"But now they're forced to take a coble and come in by the sea."

3 Robert Haxby was a clock maker, and had a variety of curious clocks, which he frequently exhibited for a trifling sum, giving notice himself, by beat of drum, of the time of the intended exhibitions. He was blind, and consequently his ingenuity was considered the more surprising. In 1750 he received a reward of ten guineas, for making the model of a machine for removing ballast out of the river. He was living in 1770, and is still recollected by some of the elders of Sunderland. He frequently presented petitions to the Commissioners; amongst their loose papers, the following occurs pettitioner proposed to be engineer about thirty years agoe, and Mr. Winfield, he being chairman at that time, told you that you would never get such another, think on him as littel as you please. I both maid an engin for you then, and at the same time I drew a

"That your

His parts they admir'd, and declar'd, great and small,
That, tho' blind, he saw better than the best of them all.

Don Michael, who long had been forming his plan,
A Projector himself, and a friend to the Clan,
Found out, that if once they the river could clear,
It would lose the Projectors some hundreds a year.

Derry, &c.

Derry, &c.

And loth that the tribe should be robb'd of their pay,
Which would soon be the case, if the sand went away,
He repairs to his study, and, thanks to his skill,
Has invented an Engine, to keep it there still.

Derry, &c.

Then a health to Don Michael, and eke to Don Allen,
You'll pledge me, I know, if I take off a gallon;
The one can move mountains with spade and wheelbarrow,
And t'other can scratch them away with a harrow.

Sir C. Sharp's Collections.

plan for you, and nobody could say anything against it: but in my way of thinking, it would have taken up three or fore keels in an hour by the purchase of fore horses-but Rob. Walker put them of that, as he said thare was the same thing making at Newcastle,* and when they was done with it they would get it, but I never heard tell that it is maid yet. Now you have had fore or five Engineers and all to no service, and the pier that you are building now, if you carry it East, or East and be South, it will fling such a tumbling sea in if the storm come on betwixt North and East, that no ships can ride in the harbour, besides the ballest and rubish that it will through in, which will chock the harbour up. Gentlemen it is not only my judgment, but it is the oppenion of the sea faring men in general, and Gentlemen, I have the plan now lying by me if you will be pleased to examine it, and look it over, for I dont pretend to medell no more concerning it.” "I am, Gentlemen, your humb. Servt. ROBERT HAXBY."

5 Michael Harrison, the innkeeper, at whose house the Commissioners held their meetings. He is certainly entitled to be named in the list of Projectors, as he is desired (21 Dec. 1751) to provide harrows and with them make the experiment by him proposed, for removing sand out of the harbour." He was not enriched by his experiments

however, for in 1768, he presents to the board a petition, stating his indigence; and, as a title to reward, he adds, that he was the identical person that first proposed the opening of the South channel in the manner it was done,” which would have been done in Mr. Vincent's time, but that "he was too fond of his boring scheme," He also states, that

he caught a fever by too great application in forming the second cut,

"Oct. 19, 1765, a new machine of a particular construction, built under the direction of Mr. Robson, an able and experienced engineer, for clearing the river Tyne, was launched off the Quay at Newcastle."-Newcastle Papers.

RADITION says that KING JAMES scolded BISHOP JAMES to death; scolded him so roundly and roughly, on the 8th of May, 1617, in his own castle at Durham, that he retired to Auckland, and died of a violent fit of stone and stranguary, brought on by perfect vexation, three days

afterwards. The cause of this royal objugation was probably Bishop James's contest with the citizens of Durham, relative to their borough privileges, and to parliamentary representation, though "Mickleton, in one of his MS. volumes, lays the blame upon some stale beer which had excited the king's indignation."

This Bishop James (says the same authority) was a little inclined to hoard his money and save an estate for his family, but, bating this, as kindly and quiet a bishop as ever lived, hurting nobody, thwarting nobody, jostling nobody of the king's high road, but quietly ambling along on his own episcopal pad, with rather shabby lack lustre purple housings. Well when poor Bishop James had been scolded to death, and lay cold in the Abbey, the palatine lieges soon found out that his successor Neile was not a whit better, for he seldom entertained the gentry, no, not even at the Quarter Sessions; Neile kept only one or two servants in his absence at the castle, and small beer was brewed on the spur of the moment on any emergency; yet was Neile a liberal patron of letters.-Surtees, &c.

St. Gregory the Great,

AND

THE NORTHUMBRIAN CAPTIVES.

A Legend.

BY JAMES HENRY DIXON, ESQ.

T is recorded of the celebrated Gregory, that struck with the youth and beauty of some Saxon girls, offered for sale in the Roman Forum, he enquired who they were, and being told that they were Angles, he replied, "they would not be Angles, but ANGELS, if they were Christians! He then asked from what part of Angle-land they came, and was informed from DEIRI a province of Northumberland, whose King was called ELLA or ALLA. "Alleluia!" quoth the Saint, catching at the word, "that is good! we must teach them to sing Alleluia, and free them from (Dei irá) the wrath of God."

ES they were fair-divinely fair!

Those pale young girls in the Forum there
And the old man gazed on the graceful flow
Of the golden tress o'er the virgin snow,
Till he deemed them creatures of heavenly birth,
Missioned in mercy to visit earth.

A passing thought! for the clanking chain

O! it breathed sad tales of the battle plain

Of the childless sire-the desert cot

The home where the loved one's voice was not.

The laurel wreath on the victor's brow,

Seemed the brand of CAIN to that old man now.

"From what sweet clime?" did the old man say-
From the isle in the north seas far away,
Where the warrior's cairn, and the Druid's stone,
And the cromlech stand mid the moorlands lone-
A land with its own calm beauty bright,
Yet dim in the rays of Gospel-light.