Peter Allan was born at Selkirk (?) in the year 1798. His parents were peasants, and Peter in early life became valet to Mr. Williamson, brother of Sir Hedworth Williamson. He afterwards became gamekeeper to the Marquis of Londonderry, and in that capacity acquired a reputation as an unerring shot, and a man of unusual physical strength and courage. He afterwards married, and became a publican at Whitburn, and in the course of few years purchased a little property, and occupied himself in the superintendence of dock works and stone quarries. In this latter capacity he acquired the skill in quarrying, on which his fame chiefly rests. Having a turn for a romantic life, he conceived the strange project of founding a colony at Marsden, a wild, rocky bay below the mouth of the Tyne, five miles from Sunderland, and three from South Shields. The spot chosen by Peter as his future home had been colonised some years before by one "Jack the Blaster," who had performed a series of excavations, and amongst them a huge round perforation from the high land above to the beach below, through which it is said many a cargo has passed ashore without being entered in the books of the excise. Here the cliff is formed of hard magnesian limestone, and rises perpendicularly from the beach more than a hundred feet. When Peter set to work, the only habitable portions were two wild caves opening to the sea, into which at high tide the breakers tumbled, and where during rough weather it was impossible to continue with safety. On the face of the rock Peter built a homestead of timber, and set up farm and tavern. In the rock itself he excavated fifteen rooms, to each of which he gave an appropriate name; the most interesting are the "Gaol Room," the "Devil's Chamber," the "Circular Room," the "Dining Room," and the "Ball Room." The height of the entire excavation is twenty feet, its breadth thirty, and its length, from the ball room to the cottage, one hundred and twenty. Several parts of the cave are lighted by windows hewn in the face of the rock, and these give the cave a picturesque appearance as viewed frown the beach below. In addition to these labours, Peter took possession of a huge table-rock, which stands some distance from the cliffs opposite to the grotto. By dint of extraordinary exertions he excavated a passage from the land side of this rock through its substance to the surface, and by placing scaling ladders against its face, made provision for ascent and descent at high water. The three-quarters of an acre of surface he colonised with rabbits, and built a shanty for himself and companions, where they dwelt for some time thinning the wild fowl with their deadly shots, and raising many an echo with their shouts of revelry.
To describe the strange scene presented by the grotto itself, the farm-buildings on the face of the cliff, the huge table-rock and flagstaff, the many quaint blocks, pillars and wild escarpments, and the numerous domestic animals, such as mastiffs, pigs, ravens, and goats, all congregated together in a small bay, and literally separated from the world by the barren waste land above, and the huge cliffs and restless sea below, would be beyond the scope of "N. & Q.," though it is worth a note in passing, that for the tourist a visit to Marsden would be highly remunerative.
Peter Allan endured many hardships in his cave at Marsden. He was accused of smuggling, and annoyed by the excise. He and his family were once shut in for six weeks by the snow, during the whole of which time it was impossible for any human being to approach them. Yet in spite of many hardships, Peter reared in the grotto a family of eight children, three daughters and five sons, all of whom are living and prospering in the world. The grotto is still kept by his widow, his
eldest son William, and one daughter, assisting Mrs. Allan in the management The son William is an experienced blaster, and occupies himself in excavations and improvements; the daughter, a brunette, is a first-rate shot, and a girl of extraordinary spirit and gaiety. She is the Grace Darling of the neighbourhood, and both her and her mother have saved many lives by their dexterity in boating and extraordinary courage. Peter himself was a bold, determined, and honest man, fond of a joke, and passionately devoted to bees, birds, pigs, and dogs, many of whom (pigs especially) used to follow him to Shields and Sunderland, when he went thither. After twenty-two years' possession of the caverns, the proprietor of the adjoining land served him with a process of ejectment; Peter refused to leave the habitation which he had formed by twenty years' unremitting toil, and which he had actually won from the sea, without encroachment on an inch of the mainland. After a tedious law-suit, judgment was given in his favour, but he had to pay costs. The anxieties of this lawsuit broke his heart, and he never recovered either health or spirits. He died on the 31st of August, 1849, in the 51st year of his age, leaving his wife and eight children to lament him. He was buried in Whitburn churchyard, and over his grave was placed a stone with the inscription:
"The Lord is my rock and my salvation."
Numerous memorials of Peter exist at the grotto, and in the neighbourhood of Marsden. Particulars of these and other matters touching this romantic history, may be obtained in No. 2. of Summer Excursions to the North, published by Ward, of Newcastle; and in a paper entitled A Visit to Marsden Rocks, contributed by myself to the Peoples Illustrated Journal, No. XIV.
Shirley Hibberd.
"COULD WE WITH INK," ETC.
(Vol. viii., pp. 127. 180. 422.)