“ The ancient town of Barnard Castle, Eggleston Abbey, and Rokeby Hall, well known through Sir Walter Scott's poem, are passed; and then the valley begins to open out, and the river traverses in sweeping curves the rich plain east and south of Darlington. The course of the valley hitherto has been generally E.S.E., but it now turns N.E. and, nearing the sea, becomes an important commercial waterway, having on its banks the ports of Stockton-on-Tees, Thornaby-on-Tees and Middlesbrough, and forming an outlet for the rich ironworking district of Cleveland in the North Riding of Yorkshire. ”