“On the list
  Of worthies, who by help of pipe or wire,
  Expressed in sound rough rage or soft desire,
  Thou, whilom of Newcastle, organist.”

These lines have been carved on his tombstone in St. Andrew’s churchyard.  He is best known as the composer of the anthem “Sound the loud timbrel.”

Mark Akenside, the poet, was born in Butcher Bank, now called after him Akenside Hill.  His chief work “The Pleasures of Imagination,” is not often read now, but it enjoyed a considerable reputation in an age when a stilted and formal style was looked upon as a true excellence in poetry.

Charles Hutton, the mathematician, was born in Newcastle in 1737.  He began life as a pitman; but, receiving an injury to his arm, he turned his attention to books, and taught in his native town for some years, becoming later Professor of Mathematics in the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich.

John Brand, the antiquary and historian of Newcastle, was born at Washington, County Durham, but came to Newcastle as a child.  After attending the Grammar School, he went to Oxford, by the aid of his master, the Rev. Hugh Moises.  He was afterwards curate at the church of St. Andrew.

Robert Morrison, the celebrated Chinese scholar, was born near Morpeth, but his parents came to Newcastle when the boy was three years of age.  He died in China in 1834.

Thomas Miles Richardson, the well-known artist, was born in Newcastle in 1784, and was at first a cabinetmaker, then master of St. Andrew’s Free School, but finally gave up all other work to devote himself to his art.

Robert Stephenson went to school at Percy Street Academy, which for long has ceased to exist.  There he was taught by Mr. Bruce, and had for one of his fellow-pupils the master’s son, John Collingwood Bruce, who afterwards became so famous a teacher and antiquary.

Newcastle is not, as most southerners imagine, a dark and gloomy town of unrelieved bricks and mortar, for, besides possessing many wide and handsome streets, it has also several pretty parks, the most noteworthy being the beautiful Jesmond Dene, one of the late Lord Armstrong’s magnificent gifts to his native town.  The Dene, together with the Armstrong Park near it, lies on the course of the Ouseburn, which is here a bright and sparkling stream, very different from the appearance it presents by the time it empties its murky waters into the Tyne.  Besides these there are Heaton Park, the Leazes Park, with its lakes and boats, Brandling Park, and others smaller than these; and last, but most important of all, the Town Moor, a fine breezy space to the north of the town, of more than 900 acres in extent.

Of statues and monuments Newcastle possesses some half-dozen, the finest being “Grey’s Monument”—­a household word in the town and familiarly known as “The Monument.”  It was erected at the junction of Grey Street and Grainger Street in memory of Earl Grey of Howick, who was Prime Minister at the passing of the Reform Bill.  The figure of the Earl, by Bailey, stands at the top of a lofty column, the height being 135 feet to the top of the figure.  There is a stairway within the column, by which it can be ascended, and a magnificent view enjoyed from the top.