Charles Dickens’ Description of Tynemouth
“We escaped to Tynemouth for a two hours’ sea walk. There was a high wind blowing and a magnificent sea running. Large vessels were being towed in and out over the stormy bar with prodigious waves breaking on it, and spanning the restless uproar of the waters was a quiet rainbow of transcendent beauty. The scene was quite wonderful. We were in the full enjoyment of it when a heavy sea caught us, knocked us over and in a moment drenched us and filled even our pockets.”
No one but Dickens could craft such a delightful and evocative passage. This trip was in 1867, but he was a regular visitor to the region as his partner was Nelly Ternan, an actress from Newcastle. Clearly, he fell in love with the place.
No air-built castles, and no fairy bowers,
But thou, fair Tynemouth, and thy well-known towers,
Now bid th’ historic muse explore the maze
Of long past years, and tales of other days.
Pride of Northumbria!—from thy crowded port,
Where Europe’s brave commercial sons resort,
Her boasted mines send forth their sable stores,
To buy the varied wealth of distant shores.
Here the tall lighthouse, bold in spiral height,
Glads with its welcome beam the seaman’s sight.
Here, too, the firm redoubt, the rampart’s length,
The death-fraught cannon, and the bastion’s strength,
Hang frowning o’er the briny deep below,
To guard the coast against th’ invading foe.
Here health salubrious spreads her balmy wings,
And woos the sufferer to her saline springs;
And, here the antiquarian strays around
The ruin’d abbey, and its sacred ground.
Jane Harvey
From ‘The Castle of Tynemouth. A Tale’ (1806)
Photograph: Lee Stoneman
Photograph: Lee Stoneman
No air-built castles, and no fairy bowers,
But thou, fair Tynemouth, and thy well-known towers,
Now bid th’ historic muse explore the maze
Of long past years, and tales of other days.
Pride of Northumbria!—from thy crowded port,
Where Europe’s brave commercial sons resort,
Her boasted mines send forth their sable stores,
To buy the varied wealth of distant shores.
Here the tall lighthouse, bold in spiral height,
Glads with its welcome beam the seaman’s sight.
Here, too, the firm redoubt, the rampart’s length,
The death-fraught cannon, and the bastion’s strength,
Hang frowning o’er the briny deep below,
To guard the coast against th’ invading foe.
Here health salubrious spreads her balmy wings,
And woos the sufferer to her saline springs;
And, here the antiquarian strays around
The ruin’d abbey, and its sacred ground.
Jane Harvey
From ‘The Castle of Tynemouth. A Tale’ (1806)
Fascinating link between Dickens and Tynemouth, thankyou! Couldn’t resist googling “Nelly Ternan” – wikipedia reckons Ellen ernan was born in Rochester, Kent, not Newcastle… though of course, she may have performed in Newcastle. Best wishes, Neville
I stand corrected. Thank you Neville
That’s an interesting piece about Charles Dickens although although Nell Ternan wasn’t an actress from Newcastle. Her father managed the Theatre Royal when she was young but he had a breakdown and they moved back down to Kent. Nell met Dickens in Manchester when with her mother and two older sisters she took part in The Frozen Deep, a play by Dickens and Wilkie Collins. Nell was 17 when they met. She and her sisters are nburied in Highland Road Cemetery, Southsea, about 400 yards from where I live.
Oh wow. You know a lot about Dickens. Thank you!