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 Northumberland, a maritime county in the N of England, bounded on the NW and the N by Scotland, on the NE and the E by the North Sea, on the S by Durham, and on the SW and W by Cumberland. Its outline is irregularly pentagonal, with a long side toward the NW, a short side toward the NE, and long sides toward the E, the S, and the W. Its boundary, on the NW side, is formed mainly by a watershed of the Cheviots and by the river Tweed; on the S side, mainly by the rivers Tyne and Derwent; and on part of the W side, by the river Irthing. Its greatest length, from N to S, is nearly 70 miles; its greatest breadth, from N by W to E by S, is about 50 miles; its circuit is about 225 miles—90 of which are along the Cheviots and 50 along the coast; and its area is 1,289,756 acres. It exceeds in size all the counties of England except York, Lincoln, Devon, and Norfolk. The Cheviots project far within the border; occupy great part of the parishes of Wooler, Kirknewton, Ilderton, Ingram, Alnham, Alwinton, and Elsdon; form masses grouped skirt to skirt, or shoulder to shoulder, like clustering cones, with dome-shaped summits; and rise to altitudes of from 1280 to 2658 feet. The surface from their base, eastward to the sea and south-eastward to the Tyne, may be described generally as a hanging plain, but consists largely of either low tableau or low plain. The tracts in the SW, to the extent of about 25 miles from Highfield and Hareshaw moors to the S border, and from 10 to 28 miles eastward from the W border, are chiefly moor and mountain, beautifully intersected by the valleys of the North Tyne, the South Tyne, and the Alien, much diversified also by verdant hills and hanging plains, and rising at or near the boundaries to altitudes of from 1000 to nearly 2000 feet. Much of the scenery is wild, bare, or monotonous, but much also is richly and variedly picturesque. The chief rivers are the Tweed, the Till, the Alne, the Coquet, the Wansbeck, the Blyth, the Tyne, and the Derwent. The coast is mainly low and little diversified; -Coquet Island, the Fern Islands, and Holy Island lie off it; and the most remarkable of its features are noticed, in order from S to N, in the following lines:—
"And now the vessel skirts the strand
Of mountainous Northumberland;
Towns, towers, and halls successive rise,
And catch the nuns' delighted eyes.
Monkwearmouth soon behind them lay,
And Tynemouth's priory and bay.
They mark'd amid her trees the hall
Of lofty Seaton Delaval;
They saw the Blyth and Wansbeck floods
Rush to the sea through sounding woods;
They pass'd the tower of Widdrington,
Mother of many a valiant son;
At Coquet Isle their beads they tell
To the good saint who own'd the cell;
Then did the Alne attention claim,
And Warkworth, proud of Percy's name;
And next they cross'd themselves to hear
The whitening breakers sound so near,
Where boiling through the rocks, they roar
On Dunstanborough's caveru'd shore;
Thy tower, proud Bamborough, mark'd they there
King Ida's castle, huge and square,
From its tall rock look grimly down,
And on the swelling ocean frown;
Then from the coast they bore away,
And reach'd the Holy Island's bay."
Most of the Cheviots and a few tracts on the coast consist of igneous rocks, chiefly porphyritic trap; the tracts north-eastward and eastward of the Cheviots to the sea, and the tracts south-westward and southward of the Cheviots and of the previous tracts, all within a line drawn south-westward from Alnmouth to Haltwhistle, and thence nearly along the course of the Roman wall to the W border, consist of lower carboniferous rocks, chiefly carboniferous limestone and shale; a considerable belt along all the SE side of these tracts, to Hexham, narrowing thence to Haltwhistle, and bending southward up the W side of the South Tyne, together with a tract around Allendale, consists chiefly of Yaredale rocks and upper limestone shale; a narrower belt along the SE side of that belt, but expanding toward the S, particularly around Matfen, consists chiefly of millstone grit; and the tract between the latter belt and the sea, all down from Warkworth to the Tyne, narrow in the N but gradually expanding toward the S, and reaching from Tynemouth to Bywell along the Tyne, consists of the coal measures. Building stone of various kinds is comparatively plentiful, and is extensively quarried. Roofing, flag, and grind stones are quarried at Byker and other places. Limestone is plentiful throughout the great carboniferous limestone tract, and is extensively calcined for manure. The coalfield is continuous with the coalfield of Durham, and the two together occupy an area of about 700 square miles. The output of coal in Northumberland is nearly 10,000,000 tons per annum. Iron ore abounds in the coalfield, and lead ore in the limestone region round Allendale. Zinc and silver ore are also found. Fishing and fish-curing are carried on to some extent.
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