indicating a strong feeling of animosity between the Scotch and
English borderers. We observe also that the Newcastle dogs--to this
day a very numerous fraternity--were at times quite unmanageable, and
caused, either by their ravenous exploits, or their downright madness,
no small uneasiness to the town and neighbourhood. It must be
confessed, that in its marriage-notices, at least, the _Chronicle_ was
far superior to anything that journalism can now exhibit in Newcastle
or in Great Britain. These interesting announcements must have
intensely delighted our grandmothers; and, we fear, have frequently
tempted our grandsires into a somewhat precipitate plunge into the
gulf of matrimony. Instead of barely specifying, as papers now do,
that Mr Smith married Miss Brown, the _Chronicle_ uniformly tantalised
its bachelor readers with an account of the personal, mental, and, if
such there were, metallic charms of the bride; so that how any single
gentleman, in the teeth of such notifications, could retain his
condition for long, is really marvellous. Most of the young ladies who
had thus bestowed themselves on their fortunate admirers, are
described as 'sprightly,' and many as 'genteel and agreeable;' some
have 'a genteel fortune,' other's 'a considerable fortune,' and
others, again, rejoice in the possession of 'a large fortune:' one man
gains 'a well-accomplished young lady, with a fortune of L.1000;'
another takes unto himself 'an agreeable widow lady, with a fortune of
L.2000;' a third marches off with 'a young lady endowed with every
accomplishment to make the marriage state happy, with a fortune of
L.5000;' while a fourth _Benedict_, more lucky still, obtains 'a most
amiable, affable, and agreeable young lady, with a fortune of
L.10,000.' We suppose that the best excuse newspaper editors now have
for being less florid in their matrimonial announcements is, that
where the papers formerly had one, they have now at least a dozen of
these interesting notices; so that their brevity may be less owing to