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diff --git a/13271-h/13271-h.htm b/13271-h/13271-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..33f6bbe --- /dev/null +++ b/13271-h/13271-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,9699 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>Rides on Railways</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4 { + text-align: left; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h2> +<a href="#startoftext">Rides on Railways, by Samuel Sidney</a> +</h2> +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Rides on Railways, by Samuel Sidney + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Rides on Railways + +Author: Samuel Sidney + +Release Date: August 25, 2004 [eBook #13271] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RIDES ON RAILWAYS*** +</pre> +<p><a name="startoftext"></a></p> +<p>This eBook was prepared by Les Bowler, St. Ives, Dorset.</p> +<h1>RIDES ON RAILWAYS<br /> +by Samuel Sidney.</h1> +<h2>PREFACE.</h2> +<p>The following pages are an attempt to supply something amusing, instructive, +and suggestive to travellers who, not caring particularly where they +go, or how long they stay at any particular place, may wish to know +something of the towns and districts through which they pass, on their +way to Wales, the Lakes of Cumberland, or the Highlands of Scotland; +or to those who, having a brief vacation, may wish to employ it among +pleasant rural scenes, and in investigating the manufactures, the mines, +and other sources of the commerce and influence of this small island +and great country.</p> +<p>In performing this task, I have relied partly on personal observation, +partly on notes and the memory of former journeys; and where needful +have used the historical information to be found in cyclopædias, +and local guide-books.</p> +<p>This must account for, if it does not excuse, the unequal space devoted +to districts with equal claims to attention. But it would take +years, if not a lifetime, to render the manuscript of so discursive +a work complete and correct.</p> +<p>I feel that I have been guilty of many faults of commission and omission; +but if the friends of those localities to which I have not done justice +will take the trouble to forward to me any facts or figures of public +general interest, they shall be carefully embodied in any future edition, +should the book, as I hope it will, arrive at such an honour and profit.</p> +<p>S. S.</p> +<p>LONDON, AUGUST, 1851.</p> +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> +<p>LONDON AND NORTH WESTERN RAILWAY<br /> +EUSTON STATION<br /> +THE MIXED TRAIN<br /> +CAMDEN STATION<br /> +AYLESBURY<br /> +WOBURN AND BEDFORD<br /> +THE BUCKS RAILWAY<br /> +BANBURY<br /> +OXFORD<br /> +WOLVERTON STATION<br /> +BLISWORTH, NORTHAMPTON<br /> +WEEDON<br /> +RUGBY AND ITS RAILWAYS<br /> +ARNOLD AND HIS SCHOOL<br /> +COVENTRY TO BIRMINGHAM<br /> +BIRMINGHAM<br /> +WARWICK, LEAMINGTON, KENILWORTH, STRATFORD-ON-AVON<br /> +SOHO<br /> +THE BLACK COUNTRY (WALSALL, DUDLEY, WEDNESBURY, DARLASTON)<br /> +STAFFORD<br /> +LIVERPOOL<br /> +MANCHESTER<br /> +THE ROAD TO YORKSHIRE<br /> +YORKSHIRE<br /> +LEEDS<br /> +THROUGH LINCOLNSHIRE TO SHEFFIELD<br /> +SHEFFIELD<br /> +DERBYSHIRE<br /> +FROM CHESTER TO NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE<br /> +THE LAKES<br /> +HOME</p> +<h2>LIST OF ENGRAVINGS.</h2> +<p>EUSTON SQUARE, LONDON<br /> +HARROW-ON-THE-HILL<br /> +VIADUCT OVER THE RIVER COLNE, NEAR WATFORD<br /> +LOOKING FROM THE HILL ABOVE BOXMOOR STATION TOWARDS BERKHAMSTED<br /> +BERKHAMSTED STATION<br /> +LEIGHTON BUZZARD<br /> +DENBIGH HALL BRIDGE<br /> +THE WOLVERTON VIADUCT<br /> +BRIDGE IN THE BLISWORTH EMBANKMENT<br /> +VIEW FROM TOP OF KILSBY TUNNEL, LOOKING TOWARDS RUGBY<br /> +COVENTRY<br /> +THE SHERBORNE VIADUCT, NEAR COVENTRY<br /> +THE AVON VIADUCT<br /> +THE ASTON VIADUCT<br /> +ASTON HALL<br /> +NEWTON ROAD STATION, NEAR BIRMINGHAM<br /> +THE RAILWAY NEAR PENKRIDGE<br /> +STAFFORD<br /> +VIEW NEAR WHITMORE<br /> +VALE-ROYAL VIADUCT<br /> +EXCAVATION AT HARTFORD<br /> +VIADUCT OVER THE MERSEY AND MERSEY AND IRWELL CANAL, KINGSTON<br /> +THE DUTTON VIADUCT<br /> +THE WARRINGTON VIADUCT</p> +<h2>LONDON AND NORTH WESTERN RAILWAY.</h2> +<p>According to Mr. Punch, one of the greatest authorities of the day +on all such subjects, the nearest way to Euston Station is to take a +cab; but those who are not in a hurry may take advantage of the omnibuses +that start from Gracechurch Street and Charing Cross, traversing the +principal thoroughfares and calling at the George and Blue Boar, Holborn, +the Green Man and Still, Oxford Street, and the Booking Offices in Regent +Circus.</p> +<p>Euston, including its dependency, Camden Station, is the greatest +railway port in England, or indeed in the world. It is the principal +gate through which flows and reflows the traffic of a line which has +cost more than twenty-two millions sterling; which annually earns more +than two millions and a-half for the conveyance of passengers, and merchandise, +and live stock; and which directly employs more than ten thousand servants, +beside the tens of thousands to whom, in mills or mines, in ironworks, +in steam-boats and coasters, it gives indirect employment. What +London is to the world, Euston is to Great Britain: there is no part +of the country to which railway communication has extended, with the +exception of the Dover and Southampton lines, which may not be reached +by railway conveyance from Euston station.</p> +<p>The Buckinghamshire lines from Bletchley open the way through Oxford +to all the Western counties, only interrupted by the break of gauge. +The Northampton and Peterborough, from Blisworth, proceeds to the Eastern +coast of Norfolk and Lincoln. At Rugby commences one of several +roads to the North, either by Leicester, Nottingham, and Lincoln, or +by Derby and Sheffield; and at Rugby, too, we may either proceed to +Stafford by the direct route of the Trent Valley, a line which is rendered +classical by the memory of Sir Robert Peel, who turned its first sod +with a silver spade and honoured its opening by a celebrated speech; +or we may select the old original line through Coventry, Birmingham, +and Wolverhampton, passing through a network of little railways leading +to Warwick and Leamington, the result of unprofitable competition. +A continuation of the Trent Valley line intersects the Pottery district, +where the cheapest Delft and the most exquisite specimens of China ware +are produced with equal success; and thus we reach Liverpool and Manchester +by the straightest possible line.</p> +<p>At Stafford we can turn off to Shrewsbury and Chester, or again following +the original route arrive at Crewe, the great workshop and railway town +of the London and North Western. Crewe affords an ample choice +of routes—1st, to Leeds by Stockport (with a branch to Macclesfield) +and Huddersfield, or from Leeds to York, or to Harrogate, and so on +by the East Coast line through Durham, Newcastle, and Berwick, to Edinburgh; +2dly, direct to Manchester; 3rdly, to Warrington, Newton, Wigan, and +the North, through the salt mining country; and, 4thly, to Chester. +At Chester we may either push on to Ireland by way of the Holyhead Railway, +crossing the famous Britannia Tubular Bridge, or to Birkenhead, the +future rival of Liverpool.</p> +<p>At Liverpool steamers for America warranted to reach New York in +ten days are at our command; or, leaving commerce, cotton, and wool, +we may ride through Proud Preston and Lancaster to Kendal and Windermere +and the Lake district; or, pressing forward through “Merry Carlisle,” +reach Gretna at a pace that defies the competition of fathers and guardians, +and enter Scotland on the direct road to Glasgow, and, if necessary, +ride on to Aberdeen and Perth.</p> +<p>A short line from Camden Station opens a communication with the East +and West India Docks and the coast of Essex, and another, three miles +and a half in length, from Willesden Station, will shortly form a connexion +with the South Western, and thereby with all the South and Western lines +from Dover to Southampton.</p> +<p>The railway system, of which the lines above enumerated form so large +a part, is barely twenty-five years old: in that space of time we have +not only supplied the home market but taught Europe and America to follow +our example; even Egypt and India will soon have their railways, and +we now look with no more surprise on the passage of a locomotive with +a few hundred passengers or tons of goods than on a wheelbarrow or Patent +Hansom Cab. Grouse from Aberdeen, fat cattle from Norfolk, piece +goods from Manchester, hardwares from Sheffield, race horses from Newmarket, +coals from Leicestershire, and schoolboys from Yorkshire, are despatched +and received, for the distance of a few hundred miles, with the most +perfect regularity, as a matter of course. We take a ticket to +dine with a friend in Chester or Liverpool, or to meet the hounds near +Bletchley or Rugby, as calmly as we engage a cab to go a mile; we consider +twenty miles an hour disgustingly slow, and grumble awfully at a delay +of five minutes in a journey of a hundred miles. Millions have +been spent in order to save an hour and a half between London and Liverpool; +yet there are plenty of men not much past thirty who remember when all +respectable plain practical common sense men looked upon the project +for a railway between London and Birmingham as something very wild if +not very wicked; and who remember too, that in winter the journey from +London to Liverpool often occupied them twenty-two hours, costing £4 +inside and £2 out, besides having to walk up the steepest hills +in Derbyshire,—the same journey which is now completed in six +hours at a cost of £2 5s., and in twelve hours for 16s. 9d., by +the Parliamentary train in an enclosed carriage.</p> +<p>It may be perhaps a useful wholesome lesson to those who are in the +habit of accepting as their just due—without thought, without +thankfulness—the last best results of the industry and ingenuity +of centuries, if, before entering the massive portals of Euston Station, +we dig up a few passages of the early history of railways from dusty +Blue Books and forgotten pamphlets.</p> +<p>In 1826, the project of a railway from Liverpool to Manchester came +before a Committee of the House of Commons, and, after a long investigation, +the principle was approved, but the bill thrown out in consequence of +defects in the survey. The promoters rested their case entirely +on a goods’ traffic, to be conveyed at the rate of six or seven +miles an hour. The engineer was George Stephenson, the father +of the railway system, a man of genius, who, although he clearly foresaw +the ultimate results of his project, had neither temper nor tact enough +to conciliate the ignorant obstinacy of his opponents; in fact, he was +a very bad witness and a very great man. It is curious, in reading +the evidence, to observe the little confidence the counsel for the bill +had in their engineer, and the contempt with which the counsel for the +opposition treated him. The promoters of the railway expected +few passengers, hoped to lower the rates of the canals, and had not +made up their minds whether to employ locomotives or horses; George +Stephenson looked forward confidently at that same period to conveying +the greater portion of the goods and passenger traffic by a complete +railway system; but he either would not or could not explain the grounds +of his confidence, and therefore we find Mr. Harrison, the most eminent +Parliamentary counsel of that day, speaking in the following insolent +strain of a man whose genius he and his friends were unable to appreciate:—</p> +<p>“Every part of this scheme shows that this man (George Stephenson) +has applied himself to a subject of which he has no knowledge, and to +which he has no science to apply. . . . . When we set out with +the original prospectus, we were to gallop at the rate of twelve miles +an hour, with the aid of the devil in the form of a locomotive, sitting +as postillion on the fore horse. But the speed of these locomotives +has slackened. The learned Sergeant would like to go seven, but +he will be content with six miles an hour. I will show that he +cannot go six. Practically, or for any useful purposes, they may +go at something more than four miles an hour. The wind will affect +them: any gale of wind which would affect the traffic on the Mersey, +would render it impossible to set off a locomotive engine, either by +poking the fire, or keeping up the pressure of the steam until the boiler +burst. A shower of rain retards a railway, and snow entirely stops +it.”</p> +<p>In reply, Mr. Adams modestly observed, “I should like my learned +friend to have pointed out any part of the publication in favour of +the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, which justified his statement +that we professed that goods were to be carried at the rate of twelve +miles an hour; we have proved that they can be carried at seven miles +an hour, and it was never intended they should be conveyed at a higher +rate.”</p> +<p>In the following year the Liverpool and Manchester Bill was carried, +and in 1830 the career of the civilizing locomotive commenced, but it +took many more years to convince “<i>Practical men</i>” +that the Railway would successfully compete with the Coach and Canal.</p> +<p>When, in 1831, the scheme of a Railway between London and Birmingham +was made public, a very clever pamphlet appeared under the title of +“Beware the Bubbles,” in which we find the following comical +prognostications of the results of Railways:—</p> +<p>“After all, what advantage does the London and Birmingham Railway +hold out? Only one,—celerity of motion; and, after all, +the ten miles an hour is absolutely slower than the coaches, some of +which go as fast as eleven or twelve miles an hour; and, with the length +of time that the engine and its cumbrous train requires ere it can stop, +and the other contingencies, there would be little difference in the +time of a twelve miles an hour coach and a fifteen miles an hour engine, +supposing twenty or thirty stoppages, to pick up little parcels, between +London and Birmingham. The conveyance is not so safe as by coach.”</p> +<p>After enumerating a series of theoretical dangers, he proceeds. +“Another consideration, which would deter invalids, ladies, and +children from making use of the Railway, would be want of accommodation +along the line, unless the Directors of the Railway chose to build inns +at their own expense. But those inns the Directors would have, +in great part, to support, because they would be out of the way of any +business except that arising from the Railway, and that would be trifling. +Commercial travellers would never, by any chance, go by the Railroad. +The occasional traveller, who went the same route for pleasure, would +go by the coach-road also, because of the cheerful company and comfortable +dinner.</p> +<p>“Not one of the nobility, the gentry, or those who travel in +their own carriages, would really like to be drawn at the tail of a +train of waggons, in which some hundreds of bars of iron were jingling +with a noise that would drown all the bells of the district, and in +momentary apprehension of having his vehicle broken to pieces, and himself +killed or crippled by the collision of those thirty-two ton masses. +Even if a man had no carriage of his own, what inducement could he have +to take so ungainly a conveyance. Three hours is more than the +maximum difference by which the ordinary speed of coaches could be exceeded; +and it is not one traveller in a thousand to whom an arrival in London +and Birmingham three hours sooner would be of the slightest consequence.</p> +<p>“Then as to goods. The only goods that require velocity +in coming to London, are ribands from Coventry. Half the luggage +room of a coach, on a Saturday night, is quite adequate to the conveyance +of them. The manufacturers of Coventry will never be such fools +as to send their property on an errand by which it must travel further +and fare worse. For heavy goods, the saving by canal would be +as twelve to one, beside the perfect safety. In the canal boat +there is no danger of fracture, even to the most delicate goods; whereas, +if fine China goods were to be brought by the rapid waggons, the breakage +would probably be twenty-five per cent.</p> +<p>“As to the profits of the undertaking let us be extravagantly +liberal. Suppose that the Railway was to get one-third of the +goods, as well as one-third of the passengers, see what they would make +of it:—</p> +<pre>One-third of the Goods . . . £96,540 +One-third of the Passengers . 30,240 + -------- + £126,780 + -------- +Annual expenses . . . . . £385,000 +Returns. . . . . . . . 126,780 + -------- +Annual deficiency . . . . £258,220 + -------- + To meet an outlay of £7,500,000.</pre> +<p>“But the probability is that canals would reduce their rates +one-half; and thus, competing wholesomely, extinguish the railway. +The coach-masters would do the same thing—run for twelve months +at half the present fares, and then not one man in his senses would +risk his bones on the railway. The innkeepers would follow a course +precisely similar, and give nice smoking dinners, foaming tankards and +bottles of beeswing at so cheap a rate, and meet their customers with +so good humoured faces, and do so many of those kind offices that legions +would flock to the hospitable road. And while all this was going +on, and the thousands of men which the authors of this ridiculous scheme +had expected to send upon the parish were thriving, the solitary stranger +who had nobody to tell him better would go swinging at the tail of the +engine, bumping first on the iron plates on this side and then on the +iron plates on that side; and if he escaped being scalded to death by +the bursting of his engine, or having all his bones broken by collision +with another, he would be fain to rest for the night within some four +bare walls and gnaw a mouldy crust which he brought in his pocket, or, +as an alternative of luxury, wade some ten miles through the mire, and +feast upon a rasher of rusty bacon and a tankard of the smallest ale +at the nearest hedge alehouse.”</p> +<p>All this now sounds inexpressibly droll, and yet this prophet of +evil was not entirely wrong; nay, in some important particulars he was +more right than the railway promoters, whom he so heartily detested. +The railway did cost nearly seven millions instead of four millions +as calculated by the projectors, and the cost of working before the +amalgamation with the Grand Junction did amount to £380,000 per +annum: two figure facts which would have effectually crushed speculation +could they have been proved in 1831; but then the <i>per contra</i> +of traffic was equally astounding in its overflow, instead of one-third +of the existing traffic, or £126,780 a-year allowed by the pamphleteer, +the London and Birmingham earned a gross revenue of nearly £900,000, +while still leaving a traffic in heavy goods on the canals sufficient +to pay from £6 to £30 per cent. to the proprietors, in spite +of a reduction of rates of upwards of £50 per cent. Indeed +this traffic actually increased on the Grand Junction Canal, since the +opening of the Birmingham Railway, from £750,000 in 1836, to £1,160,000 +in 1847.</p> +<p>Perhaps on no point would the expectation of the most sanguine among +the early projectors of railways been more satisfactorily exceeded than +in regard to safety. Swiftness, and cheapness, and power, acute +intelligent engineers foresaw; but that millions of passengers should +be whirled along at a speed varying from twenty to fifty miles an hour +with more safety than they could have secured by walking a-foot, would +have seemed an anticipation of the very wildest character. Yet +such is the case. In 1850, upwards of seventy millions of souls +were conveyed by railway; when eleven passengers were killed and fifty-four +injured, or less than one to each million of passengers conveyed.</p> +<p>Even at the risk of seeming trite, prosy, and common-place, it is +right to remind the young generation who consider the purchase of a +railway ticket gives them a right to grumble at a thousand imaginary +defects and deficiencies in railway management, how great are the advantages +in swiftness, economy, and safety, which they enjoy through the genius, +enterprise, and stubborn perseverance of George Stephenson and his friends +and pupils in 1825.</p> +<h2>EUSTON STATION.</h2> +<p>This station was an after-thought, the result of early experience +in railway traffic. Originally the line was to have ended at Camden +Town, but a favourable opportunity led to the purchase of fifteen acres, +which has turned out most convenient for the public and the proprietors. +It is only to be regretted that it was not possible to bring the station +within a few yards of the New Road, so as to render the stream of omnibuses +between Paddington and the City available, without compelling the passenger +to perspire under his carpet-bag, railway-wrapper, umbrella, and hat-box, +all the way from the platform to the edge of Euston Square.</p> +<p>The great gateway or propylæum is very imposing, and rather +out of place; but that is not the architect’s fault. It +cost thirty thousand pounds, and had he been permitted to carry out +his original design, no doubt it would have introduced us to some classic +fane in character with the lofty Titanic columns: for instance, a temple +to Mercury the winged messenger and god of Mammon. But, as is +very common in this country,—for familiar examples see the London +University, the National Gallery, and the Nelson Column,—the spirit +of the proprietors evaporated with the outworks; and the gateway leads +to a square court-yard and a building the exterior of which may be described, +in the language of guide books when referring to something which cannot +be praised, as “a plain, unpretending, stucco structure,” +with a convenient wooden shed in front, barely to save passengers from +getting wet in rainy weather.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/ill1b.jpg"> +<img alt="EUSTON SQUARE, LONDON" src="images/ill1s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>As Melrose should be seen by the fair moonlight, so Euston, to be +viewed to advantage, should be visited by the gray light of a summer +or spring morning, about a quarter to six o’clock, three-quarters +of an hour before the starting of the parliamentary train, which every +railway, under a wise legislative enactment, is compelled to run “once +a-day from each extremity, with covered carriages, stopping at every +station, travelling at a rate of not less than fifteen miles an hour, +at a charge of one-penny per mile.” We say wise, because +the competition of the Railway for goods, as well as passengers, drove +off the road not only all the coaches, on which, when light-loaded, +foot-sore travellers got an occasional lift, but all the variety of +vans and broad-wheeled waggons which afforded a slow but cheap conveyance +between our principal towns.</p> +<p>At the hour mentioned, the Railway passenger-yard is vacant, silent, +and as spotlessly clean as a Dutchman’s kitchen; nothing is to +be seen but a tall soldier-like policeman in green, on watch under the +wooden shed, and a few sparrows industriously yet vainly trying to get +breakfast from between the closely packed paving-stones. How different +from the fat debauched-looking sparrows who throve upon the dirt and +waste of the old coach yards!</p> +<p>It is so still, so open; the tall columns of the portico entrance +look down on you so grimly; the front of the booking-offices, in their +garment of clean stucco, look so primly respectable that you cannot +help feeling ashamed of yourself,—feeling as uncomfortable as +when you have called too early on an economically genteel couple, and +been shown into a handsome drawing-room, on a frosty day, without a +fire. You cannot think of entering into a gossip with the Railway +guardian, for you remember that “sentinels on duty are not allowed +to talk,” except to nursery maids.</p> +<p>Presently, hurrying on foot, a few passengers arrive; a servant-maid +carrying a big box, with the assistance of a little girl; a neat punctual-looking +man, probably a banker’s clerk on furlough; and a couple of young +fellows in shaggy coats, smoking, who seem, by their red eyes and dirty +hands, to have made sure of being up early by not going to bed. +A rattle announces the first omnibus, with a pile of luggage outside +and five inside passengers, two commercial travellers, two who may be +curates or schoolmasters, and a brown man with a large sea-chest. +At the quarter, the scene thickens; there are few Hansoms, but some +night cabs, a vast number of carts of all kinds, from the costermonger’s +donkey to the dashing butcher’s Whitechapel. There is very +little medium in parliamentary passengers about luggage, either they +have a cart-load or none at all. Children are very plentiful, +and the mothers are accompanied with large escorts of female relations, +who keep kissing and stuffing the children with real Gibraltar rock +and gingerbread to the last moment. Every now and then a well-dressed +man hurries past into the booking-office and takes his ticket with a +sheepish air as if he was pawning his watch. Sailors arrive with +their chests and hammocks. The other day we had the pleasure of +meeting a travelling tinker with the instruments of his craft neatly +packed; two gentlemen, whose closely cropped hair and pale plump complexion +betokened a recent residence in some gaol or philanthropic institution; +an economical baronet, of large fortune; a prize fighter, going down +to arrange a little affair which was to come off the next day; a half-pay +officer, with a genteel wife and twelve children, on his way to a cheap +county in the north; a party of seven Irish, father, mother, and five +grown-up sons and daughters, on their way to America, after a successful +residence in London; a tall young woman and a little man, from Stamford, +who had been up to London to buy stone bottles, and carried them back +rattling in a box; a handsome dragoon, with a very pretty girl,—her +eyes full of tears,—on his arm, to see him off; another female +was waiting at the door for the same purpose, when the dragoon bolted, +and took refuge in the interior of the station. In a word, a parliamentary +train collects,—besides mechanics in search of work, sailors going +to join a ship, and soldiers on furlough,—all whose necessities +or tastes lead them to travel economically, among which last class are +to be found a good many Quakers. It is pleasing to observe the +attention the poor women, with large families and piles of packages, +receive from the officers of the company, a great contrast to the neglect +which meets the poorly clad in stage-coach travelling, as may still +be seen in those districts where the rail has not yet made way.</p> +<p>We cannot say that we exactly admire the taste of the three baronets +whom a railway superintendent found in one third-class carriage, but +we must own that to those to whom economy is really an object, there +is much worse travelling than by the Parliamentary. Having on +one occasion gone down by first-class, with an Oxford man who had just +taken his M.A., an ensign of infantry in his first uniform, a clerk +in Somerset House, and a Manchester man who had been visiting a Whig +Lord,—and returned third-class, with a tinker, a sailor just returned +from Africa, a bird-catcher with his load, and a gentleman in velveteens, +rather greasy, who seemed, probably on a private mission, to have visited +the misdemeanour wards of all the prisons in England and Scotland; we +preferred the return trip, that is to say, vulgar and amusing to dull +and genteel. Among other pieces of information gleaned on this +occasion, we learned that “for a cove as didn’t mine a jolly +lot of readin and writin, Readin was prime in winter; plenty of good +vittles, and the cells warmed.”</p> +<p>It must be remarked that the character of the Parliamentary varies +very much according to the station from which it starts. The London +trains being the worst, having a large proportion of what are vulgarly +called “swells out of luck.” In a rural district the +gathering of smock-frocks and rosy-faced lasses, the rumbling of carts, +and the size, number, and shape of the trunks and parcels, afford a +very agreeable and comical scene on a frosty, moonlight, winter’s +morning, about Christmas time, when visiting commences, or at Whitsuntide. +No man who has a taste for studying the phases of life and character +should fail to travel at least once by the Parliamentary.</p> +<p>The large cheap load having rumbled off from the south side of the +station, about nine o’clock preparations are commenced for the +aristocratic Express, which, on this line, is composed of first-class +carriages alone, in which, at half the price of the old mail coach fares, +the principal stations on the line are reached at railway speed.</p> +<p>To attend the departure of this train, there arrive not only the +republican omnibi and cabs, from the damp night crawler to the rattling +Hansom, but carriages, with coronets and mitres emblazoned, guarded +by the tallest and most obsequious of footmen, and driven by the fattest +and most lordly of coachmen; also the neatest of broughams, adorned +internally with pale pink and blue butterfly bonnets; dashing dogcarts, +with neat grooms behind, mustached guardsmen driving; and stately cabriolets +prance in, under the guidance of fresh primrose-coloured gloves.</p> +<p>But, although the passengers by the Express train are, in every respect, +a contrast to those by the Parliamentary, the universal and levelling +tendency of the railway system is not less plainly exhibited.</p> +<p>The earl or duke, whose dignity formerly compelled him to post in +a <i>coupé</i> and four, at a cost of some five or six shillings +a mile, and an immense consumption of horse-flesh, wax-lights, and landladies’ +curtsies on the road, now takes his place unnoticed in a first-class +carriage next to a gentleman who travels for a great claret and champagne +house, and opposite another going down express to report a railway meeting +at Birmingham for a morning paper. If you see a lady carefully +and courteously escorted to a carriage marked “engaged,” +on a blackboard, it is probably not a countess but the wife of one of +the principal officers of the company. A bishop in a greatcoat +creates no sensation; but a tremendous rush of porters and superintendents +towards one carriage, announces that a director or well-known engineer +is about to take his seat. In fact, civility to all, gentle and +simple, is the rule introduced by the English railway system; every +porter with a number on his coat is, for the time, the passenger’s +servant. Special attention is bestowed on those who are personally +known, and no one can grumble at that. Some people, who have never +visited the continent, or only visited it for pleasure, travelling at +their leisure, make comparisons with the railways of France and Germany, +unfavourable to the English system. Our railways are dearer than +the foreign, so is our government,—we make both ourselves; but +compare the military system of the continental railways; the quarter +of an hour for admission before the starting of the train, during which, +if too early or too late, you are locked out; the weighing of every +piece of baggage; the lordly commanding airs of all the officials if +any relaxation of rules be required; the <i>insouciance</i> with which +the few porters move about, leaving ladies and gentlemen to drag their +own luggage;—compare all this with the rapid manner in which the +loads of half-a-dozen cabs, driving up from some other railway at the +last moment, are transferred to the departing Express; compare the speed, +the universal civility, attention, <i>and honesty</i>, that distinguish +our railway travelling, and you cannot fail to come to the conclusion +that for a commercial people to whom time is of value, ours is the best +article, and if we had not been a lawyer-ridden people we might also +have had the cheapest article.</p> +<p>Before starting the Express train, we must not fail to note one new +class of passengers, recruited by the speed of railways, viz., the number +of gentlemen in breeches, boots, and spurs, with their pinks just peeping +from under their rough jackets, who, during the season, get down to +Aylesbury, Bletchley, and even Wolverton, to hunt, and back home again +to dinner. But the signal sounds. The express train moves +off; two gentlemen at the last moment are, in vain, crying out for <i>Punch</i> +and the <i>Times</i>, while an unheeded hammering at the closed door +of the booking-office announces that somebody is too late. There +is always some one too late. On this occasion it was a young gentleman +in a pair of light top-boots, and a mamma and papa with half-a-dozen +children and two nursery-maids in a slow capacious fly.</p> +<p>We cannot bestow unqualified praise upon the station arrangements +at Euston. Comfort has been sacrificed to magnificence. +The platform arrangements for departing and arriving trains are good, +simple, and comprehensive; but the waiting-rooms, refreshment stand, +and <i>other conveniences</i> are as ill-contrived as possible; while +a vast hall with magnificent roof and scagliola pillars, appears to +have swallowed up all the money and all the light of the establishment.</p> +<p>The first-class waiting-room is dull to a fearful degree, and furnished +in the dowdiest style of economy. The second-class room is a dark +cavern, with nothing better than a borrowed light.</p> +<p>The refreshment counters are enclosed in a sort of circular glazed +pew, open to all the drafts of a grand, cold, uncomfortable hall, into +which few ladies will venture.</p> +<p>A refreshment-room should be the ante-room to the waiting-room, and +the two should be so arranged with reference to the booking-office and +<i>cloak-rooms</i>, that strangers find their way without asking a dozen +questions from busy porters and musing policemen.</p> +<p>Euston Station reminds us of an architect’s house, where a +magnificent portico and hall leads to dungeon-like dining-room, and +mean drawing-room. Why are our architects so inferior to our engineers?</p> +<p>On the platform is the door of the telegraph office, which also has +offices for receiving and transmitting messages at all the principal +stations.</p> +<h2>THE MIXED TRAIN.</h2> +<p>The Mixed train on this line holds an intermediate rank between the +Parliamentary and the Express, consisting as it does of first and second-class +carriages, at lower fares than the one and higher than the other, stopping +at fewer stations than the Parliamentary, and at more than the Express; +but worth notice on the present occasion, because it is by these trains +only that horses and carriages are allowed to be conveyed.</p> +<p>Carriages require very careful packing on a truck. At the principal +stations this may be very well left to the practised porters, but at +road-side stations it is a point which should be looked to; for it has +not unfrequently happened that the jogging, lateral motion of the railway +has heated the axles of a carriage or truck, so that at the end of the +journey the wheels have been found as fast as if they had been welded, +and quite unfit to travel.</p> +<p>Travelling in a carriage on a truck is by no means safe: some years +since Lady Zetland and her maids were nearly burned to death, sparks +from the engine having set fire to their luggage. The maid threw +herself off the truck, and had an extraordinary escape.</p> +<p>The arrangements of the boxes for carrying horses are now very complete, +and when once a horse, not of a naturally nervous disposition, has been +accustomed to travel by rail, it will often be found better to take +him on to hunt at a distance than to send him overnight to a strange +place with all the disadvantages of change of food, and temptations +to neglect in the way of the groom. It is, however, a class of +traffic to which few of the railway companies have paid much attention; +yet, in our opinion, capable of great development under a system of +moderate fares, and day tickets. The rates are not always stated +in the time tables, but on the London and North Western a day ticket +for a horse costs fourteen shillings for thirty miles.</p> +<p>Besides horses, packs of hounds, and even red deer are occasionally +sent by rail. But deer travel in their own private carriages. +Hounds are generally accompanied by the huntsman, or whip, to keep them +in order. And on the Great Western line a few years ago a huntsman +was nearly stifled in this way. The van had been made too snug +and close for travelling comfortably with twenty couple of warm fox-hounds.</p> +<p>If there is the slightest doubt about a horse entering the van quietly, +the best way is to blindfold him before he becomes suspicious. +Among other pursuits, horse racing has been completely revolutionised +by the rail. The posting race-horse van was a luxury in which +only the wealthiest could indulge to a limited extent, but now the owner +of a string of thoroughbreds, or a single plater, can train in the South +or the North, and in four and twenty hours reach any leading course +in the kingdom; carrying with him, if deemed needful, hay, straw, and +<i>water</i>.</p> +<p>As we move slowly off toward Camden Station, by the fourth of the +eighteen passenger trains which daily depart from Euston, and emerging +with light whirl along within sight of rows of capital houses, whose +gardens descend to the edge of the cuttings, we are reminded that under +the original act for taking up Euston, it was specially provided, at +the instance of Lord Southampton, that no locomotive should be allowed +to proceed further to the south than Camden Town, lest his building +land should remain neglected garden land for ever. This promise +was accepted with little reluctance by the company, because in 1833 +it was popularly considered that the ascent to reach Camden Town could +not be easily overcome by a heavily loaded locomotive. Consequently +a pair of stationary engines were erected at Camden Town, and a pair +of tall chimneys to carry off their smoke and steam.</p> +<p>But the objections in taste, and difficulties in science, have vanished. +On this line, as on all others, tenants are readily found for houses +fringing a cutting; locomotives run up even such ascents as the Bromsgrove +Lickey, between Worcester and Birmingham, with a load of 500 tons. +So ten minutes have been saved in time, and much expense, by doing away +with the rope traction system. The stationary engines have been +sold, and are now doing duty in a flax mill in Russia, and the two tall +columns, after slumbering for several years as monuments of prejudices +and obstacles overcome, were swept away to make room for other improvements.</p> +<p>It is, however, very odd, and not very creditable to human nature, +that whenever a railway is planned, the proprietors are assailed by +unreasonable demands for compensation, in cases where past experience +has proved that the works will be an advantageous, and often an ornamental +addition.</p> +<p>In 1846 a Sheffield line was vehemently opposed by a Liverpool gentleman, +on the ground that it would materially injure the prospect from a mansion, +which had been the seat of his ancestors for centuries. The tale +was well told, and seemed most pitiful; an impression was produced on +the committee that the privacy of something like Hatfield, or Knebworth, +was about to be infringed on by the “abominable railway.” +A stiff cross-examination brought out the reluctant fact, however, that +this “house of my ancestors,” this beautiful Elizabethan +mansion had been for many years let as a <i>Lunatic Asylum</i> <i>at +£36</i> <i>per annum.</i></p> +<p>In another instance a railway director sold a pretty country seat, +because the grounds were about to be intersected by a railway embankment; +two years after the completion of the railway he wished to buy it back +again, for he found that his successor, by turfing and planting the +slope, had very much increased the original beauty of the gardens.</p> +<h2>CAMDEN STATION.</h2> +<p>But thus gossiping, we have reached Camden Station, and must take +advantage of an <i>unusual</i> halt to look into the arrangements for +building waggons and trucks, and conveying coals, merchandise, goods, +and all live stock included between pigs and bullocks.</p> +<p>Not without difficulty did Mr. Robert Stephenson succeed in inducing +the directors to purchase thirty acres of land here; it was only by +urging, that, if unused, the surplus could be sold at a profit, that +he carried out his views. Genius can foresee results which, to +ordinary capacities, are dark and incomprehensible. Since 1845 +it has been found necessary to take in an additional plot of three more +acres, all now fully occupied.</p> +<p>In no respect were the calculations of parties engaged in the construction +of railways more at fault than with regard to the station accommodation +needed for goods traffic, which, on the principal lines, has added full +twenty-five per cent. to the original estimates. George Stephenson +calculated the cost of getting over Chat Moss at £40,000; his +opponent proved that it would cost four hundred thousand: but it was +executed at exactly the sum Stephenson set down, while the capital involved +in providing Station Room for merchandise at Liverpool and at Manchester, +has probably exceeded the original estimate for the whole line.</p> +<p>On this railway the increase of the goods traffic has been of very +recent date. At a very early period after the opening of the line, +the merchandise department became the monopoly of the great carriers, +who found it answer their purpose to divide the profits afforded by +the discount allowed to carriers by the railway company, without seeking +to develop an increase of occupation. Under this system, while +carriers grew rich, the goods traffic remained stationary. But +when the amalgamation with the Grand Junction, which had always been +its own carrier, took place, a great reduction in rates was made, as +well as arrangements for encouraging the conveyance of every kind of +saleable article. The company became a common carrier, but employing +Messrs. Pickford, and Chaplin and Horne to collect goods.</p> +<p>The result was a marvellous increase, which has been progressing +ever since.</p> +<p>A regular trade is now carried on between London and the most remote +parts of the kingdom in every conceivable thing that will bear moving. +Sheep have been sent from Perth to London, and Covent Garden has supplied +tons of the finer description of vegetables to the citizens of Glasgow; +every Saturday five tons of the best fish in season are despatched from +Billingsgate to Birmingham, and milk is conveyed in padlocked tins, +from and beyond Harrow, at the rate of about one penny per gallon. +In articles which are imported into both Liverpool and London, there +is a constant interchange, according to the state of the market; thus +a penny per pound difference may bring a hundred chests of congou up, +or send as many of hyson down the line. All graziers within a +day of the rail are able to compete in the London market, the probability +of any extraordinary demand increases the number of beasts arriving +weekly at Camden Station from the average of 500 to 2000, and the sheep +from 2000 to 6000; and these animals can be brought from the furthest +grazing grounds in the kingdom without any loss of weight, and in much +better condition than the fat oxen were formerly driven to Smithfield +from the rich pastures round Aylesbury, or the Valley of the Thames.</p> +<p>Camden station, under the alterations effected in 1848-9, has a double +line, for goods waggons only, 2,500 feet in length, entirely clear of +the main line. The length of single lines, exclusive of the main +line, exceeds twelve miles.</p> +<p>To describe it in detail would be a very unsatisfactory task; because, +in the first place, it can ill be understood without a map, and in the +next, changes are constantly taking place, and still greater changes +will be forced on the company by the increase of goods traffic, which, +great as it is, is only in its infancy. Even now freights are +paid to the London and North Western for all the way to China. +But, as an agricultural implement of commerce, the locomotive has been +comparatively as little used as the stationary engine, although hundreds +of trades of a semi-rural character are drawing toward the railway lines, +and away from the country towns, which were formerly the centre of rural +commerce, because standing on the highways or near canals. But +such a revolution can only be effected slowly.</p> +<p>At Camden will be found a large yard for the reception of the Midland +Counties’ coal, the introduction of which has had a considerable +effect in bringing down the price of sea-borne coal.</p> +<p>The cattle pens have lately been altered and enlarged. Just +before Christmas this place is almost as amusing and exciting as a Spanish +bull-fight; although, as a general rule, the silence of a place where, +during every quarter of an hour, of day and night, so enormous a business +is being carried on, is very surprising.</p> +<p>Twenty-four steam waggon horses, or engines, for heavy loads are +kept in a circular engine-house, or stable, 160 feet in diameter, with +an iron roof. This form renders every engine accessible at a moment’s +notice. The steam race-horses for the passenger work are kept +in an oblong building opposite the carters. The demand being more +regular, there is no need for the expensive circular arrangement of +stables for this class of engines. In a large boiler-house, boiling +water and red-hot coke are kept ready night and day, so that on the +occasion of any sudden demand no time need be lost in getting up steam. +There is besides a waggon-building department, a shop for executing +such trifling repairs in the locomotives as need no reference to the +great workshop at Wolverton. The passenger carriages are most +of them built at Euston station, by Mr. Wright.</p> +<p>The carrying department is very conveniently situated close to the +Regent’s Canal, so as to have easy communication with inland as +well as sea navigation. A series of sheds occupy an area of 135,000 +superficial feet, and the platforms to receive goods from railway trucks +on one side and from waggons on the other, occupy 30,000 feet. +These platforms and sheds are provided with 110 cranes, for loading +and unloading, with a power varying from one ton and a half to twenty +tons. By these appliances, work of the most miscellaneous character +goes on all day, and part of the night.</p> +<p>The railway trucks and waggons are moved about by horses: it is amusing +to see the activity with which the heavy brutes often bring a waggon +up at a trot, jump out of the way just at the right moment, and allow +the waggon to roll up to the right spot by its own momentum.</p> +<p>The horses are lodged in stables in the underground vaults, which +we cannot commend, as they are dark, damp, full of draughts, and yet +ill ventilated; but it was necessary to use these vaults, and difficult +to find stabling for such a number of horses close at hand.</p> +<p>The carrying department at Camden is very miscellaneous, and moves +everything, from the contents of a nursery ground to a full grown locomotive, +but they do not impress a stranger so much as the arrangements at Manchester +and Liverpool. The annual consumption of gas at Camden exceeds +six million cubic feet.</p> +<p>Under the railway system the certainty and rapidity with which merchandise +can be transmitted, changes and simplifies more and more every year +the operations of trade. For instance, Southampton is the great +port for that part of our Indian, South American, and Mediterranean +trade which is conducted by steamers. When a junction has been +effected between the London and North Western and the South Western, +costly packages of silk, muslin, gold tissue, jewellery, may be sent +under lock from the Glasgow manufacturers to the quay alongside at Southampton +in a few hours, without sign of damage or pilferage, and <i>at the last +moment</i> before the departure of the steamer. The communication +between the docks on the Thames and Camden Town, will enable a grocer +in Manchester to have a hogshead of sugar or tobacco sent in answer +to a letter by return of post, at a saving in expense which may be imagined +from the fact, that it costs more to cart a butt of sherry from the +London Docks to Camden Town, than to send it by rail all the way to +Manchester.</p> +<p>To provide for the enormous and annually increasing traffic in passengers +and merchandise, there are:—</p> +<pre> 1 State carriage. 260 Horse boxes. +555 Locomotives and tenders. 132 Sheep vans. +494 First-class mails. 7385 Goods waggons. +420 Second-class carriages. 14 Trolleys. +342 Third-class. 1155 Cribb rails. + 25 Post-offices. 5150 Sheets. +242 Carriages,—trucks for 162 Cart horses. + letters and newspapers. 41 Parcel carts. +201 Guards’ brakes. + Making a grand total rolling stock of 10,663.</pre> +<p>The passenger carriages afford eleven miles of seat room, and would +accommodate 40,196 individuals, or the whole population of two such +towns as Northampton.</p> +<p>The loading surface of the goods equals eleven acres, and would convey +40,000 tons.</p> +<p>If the tires of all the company’s wheels were welded into one +ring, they would form a circle of seventy-two miles.</p> +<p>To keep this rolling stock up in number and efficiency, there are +two establishments, one at Camden Town, and one at Wolverton.</p> +<p>Camden Town is the great coach house of the line, where goods waggons +are built and repaired in one division, where sound locomotives, carriages +and trucks are kept ready for use in another.</p> +<p>The waggon building department of Camden is worth visiting, especially +by railway shareholders.</p> +<p>Every one is interested in railways being worked economically, for +economy gives low rates and increased profits, which both increase trade +and multiply railways. Hitherto the details of carrying, especially +as to the construction of waggons and trucks, have been much neglected.</p> +<p>On one line running north, it is said that the loss in cheese stolen +by the railway servants, amounts to as much as the whole sum paid for +carrying agricultural produce, and on the line on which we are travelling, +breakages have sometimes amounted to £1,200 a-month.</p> +<p>The fact is, that railway carriers have been content to use rude +square boxes on wheels, covered when loaded, if covered at all, with +a tarpaulin, without any precautions for draining off the wet, to which +it was constantly exposed when out of use,—without “buffers” +or other protecting springs, so that the wear and tear of the waggon +and its load, from inevitable shocks, was very great.</p> +<p>The imperfect protection of a tarpaulin was, and is, a great temptation +to pilferage. These sources of expense, in wear and tear of conveyances, +loss of tarpaulin coverings, each worth £6 6s., breakage, pilferage +of goods, combine to sum up a formidable discount from the profits of +railway carrying, and, in the case of certain goods, lead the owners +to prefer the slower transit of a canal boat. Even iron suffers +in market value from exposure to the weather; porcelain and glass are +liable to perpetual smashes, on waggons without buffers, in spite of +the most careful packing; while tea, sugar, cheese, and all untraceable +eatables are pilfered to an enormous extent, besides more valuable goods.</p> +<p>It was hoped that railway transit would put an end to the dishonesty +which was carried on wholesale on the canals; but, where open trucks +are used, this expectation has been only partly realised, for the temptation +of opportunity has been too strong, for even the superior class of men +employed on railways.</p> +<p>In order to meet these evils, Mr. Henson, who has the charge of the +waggon-building department at Camden, has built and patented a covered +waggon with buffers, which unites with great strength, safety, capacity, +and smoothness of motion. The scientific manner in which these +waggons are framed, gives them strength in proportion to their weight. +The buffers with which they are fitted, and the roof, protecting from +the weather, render them altogether durable, and therefore economical; +while the construction, as will be seen from our vignette, renders pilferage, +unless by collusion with the respectable party who overlooks the unloading, +almost impossible.</p> +<p>A diminution of the cost for repairs of rolling stock (on an average +equal to £12 per ann.), and of the cost for compensation to customers +for breakage and pilferage, should be a leading object with every sensible +railway director. Indeed these losses, with deadweight, and lawyer’s +bills, are the deadly enemies of railway directors.</p> +<p>Further improvements in these waggons have been effected by the use +of corrugated iron, which is light and strong at the same time; and +the iron waggons have been again improved by employing iron covered +with a thin coating of glass, under a new patent, which renders rust +impossible and paint unnecessary. The simple contrivance by which +the door and moveable roof is locked and unlocked by one motion, is +worthy of the notice of practical men. 600 of these lock-up waggons, +with springs and buffers, are in use on the London and North Western +Railway.</p> +<p>Mr. Henson has also succeeded in establishing a traffic in gunpowder, +by inventing a carriage of sheet iron, lined with wood, in which four-and-a-half +tons of gunpowder can be conveyed without fear of explosion either from +concussion or external combustion.</p> +<p>The shops at Camden have room for building or repairing 100 waggons. +They are to be seen in every stage of progress.</p> +<p>The great object is to combine strength with lightness. If +the strength being the same, the saving of a ton can be effected in +a waggon, it will amount to from thirty to ninety tons in an ordinary +goods train. An important consideration, for deadweight is the +great enemy of the railway, and ninety tons of useless weight is equivalent +to a loss of £90 in sending a goods train a journey to Birmingham. +British oak is the favourite wood for the frames of railway waggons; +teak, if of equal quality, is dearer, and the inferior is heavier, without +being so strong. If in any of the many countries with which we +trade a wood can be discovered as good and as cheap as English oak, +the railways which are constantly extending their carrying stock, can +afford a steady demand.</p> +<p>About the passenger carriages, which every one can see and examine +for himself, there is not much to be said. On the Continent, where +they cannot afford to use mahogany, they use sheet-iron and papier-machee +for the panels; in England, mahogany chiefly in the first class. +When we began, stage coaches were imitated; there are some of the old +cramped style still to be seen on the Richmond line; then came enormous +cages—pleasant in summer, fearfully cold in winter, without fires, +which have not been introduced in England, although they are found in +the north of Europe and America. A medium size has now come into +favour, of which some fine specimens are to be seen in the Hyde Park +Exhibition.</p> +<p>On the Great Northern line some second-class carriages have been +introduced, varnished, without paint, and very well they look. +Economy again, and the increase of branches, have led to the use of +composite carriages for first and second-class passengers all on one +body. These, which were in use years ago on the northern coal +lines, are now revived and improved.</p> +<p>The Camden station has received an entirely new feature by the completion +of the line to the docks and to Fenchurch Street, with stations at Islington, +Hackney, and Bow. Already an immense omnibus traffic has been +obtained—a sort of traffic which produces the same effect on engines +as on horses. They are worn out rapidly by the continual stoppages. +But horses show wear and tear directly, whereas iron and brass cannot +speak except through increased expenses and diminished dividends.</p> +<p>Leaving Camden, at which trains stop only on arriving, we swiftly +pass Kilburn, where an omnibus station is to be established for the +benefit of the rising population of citizens, to Willesden, where the +junction line through Acton to the South Western is to commence. +Willesden has been rendered classic ground, for the Hero-worshippers +who take highwaymen within the circle of their miscellaneous sympathies, +by Mr. Harrison Ainsworth’s “Jack Sheppard,”—the +“cage” where this ruffian was more than once confined still +remains in its original insecurity.</p> +<p>Sudbury affords nothing to detain us. The next station is within +a mile of Harrow-on-the-Hill, with its beacon-like church spire. +Rich pasture lies around, famous for finishing off bullocks fed in the +north. Harrow school is almost as much one of the institutions +of England as Oxford and Cambridge Universities. It is one of +the great public schools, which, if they do not make the ripest scholars, +make “<i>men</i>” of our aristocracy. This school +was founded by one John Lyon, a farmer of the parish, who died in 1592.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/ill2b.jpg"> +<img alt="HARROW-ON-THE-HILL" src="images/ill2s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>Attached to it there are four exhibitions of £20 each, and +two scholarships of £50 each.</p> +<p>The grand celebrity of the school rests upon the education of those +who are not on the foundation. The sons of noblemen and wealthy +gentlemen, who in this as in many other instances, have treated those +for whose benefit the school was founded, as the young cuckoo treats +the hedge sparrow. Among its illustrious scholars Harrow numbers +Lord Byron and Sir Robert Peel.</p> +<p>An old saw runs: “Eton fops, Harrow gentlemen, Winchester scholars, +and Westminster blackguards.”</p> +<p>Since the palmy days when Dr. Drury was master and Byron and Peel +were pupils, Harrow has declined to insignificance, and been by the +abilities of Dr. Wordsworth raised again. The term of Harrow gentlemen +still deservedly survives, Harrow being still the gate through which +the rich son of a <i>parvenu</i> family may most safely pass on his +way to Oxford, if his father desires, as all fathers do in this country, +that his son should amalgamate with the landed aristocracy.</p> +<p>At Pinner, the next station, we pass out of Middlesex into Hertfordshire.</p> +<p>Watford, a principal station, is within a mile of the town of that +name, on the river Colne. Here Henry VI. encamped with his army +before the battle of St. Albans. Cassiobury Park, a favourite +spot for picnics, is close to the station. It was the opposition +of the late proprietor, the Earl of Essex, that forced upon the engineer +of the line the formidable tunnel, which was once considered an astonishing +railway work,—now nothing is astonishing in engineering.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/ill3b.jpg"> +<img alt="VIADUCT OVER THE RIVER COLNE" src="images/ill3s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>Near King’s Langley we pass the Booksellers’ Provident +Retreat, erected on ground given by Mr. Dickenson, the great paper maker, +who has seven mills on the neighbouring streams, and reach Boxmoor, +only noticeable as the first station opened on the line.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/ill4b.jpg"> +<img alt="LOOKING FROM THE HILL ABOVE BOX MOOR STATION TOWARDS BERKHAMSTED" src="images/ill4s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>The next station is Berkhamsted. Cowper the poet was born here, +his father was rector of the parish. Berkhamsted Castle is part +of the hereditary property of the Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall. +At this castle William the Conqueror, after the battle of Hastings, +met the Abbot of St. Albans with a party of chiefs and prelates, who +had prepared to oppose the Norman, and disarmed their hostility by swearing +to rule according to the ancient laws and customs of the country. +Having, of course, broken his oath, he bestowed the castle on his half-brother, +Robert Moreton, Earl of Cornwall. King John strengthened the castle, +which was afterwards besieged by the Dauphin of France. When Edward +III. created the Black Prince Duke of Cornwall, the castle and manor +of Berkhamsted were bestowed upon him “to hold to him, and the +heirs of him, and the eldest sons of the kings of England, and the dukes +of the said place;” and under these words through civil wars and +revolutions, and changes from Plantagenet to Tudor, from Tudor to Stuart, +with the interregnum of a republic, an abdication, and the installation +of the Brunswick dynasty. The castle is now vested in Albert Prince +of Wales.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/ill5b.jpg"> +<img alt="BERKHAMSTED STATION" src="images/ill5s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>The Chiltern Hills, including the Chiltern Hundreds, the only office +under the crown always open to the acceptance of all without distinction +of parties, lies within a short distance of Berkhamsted. Ashdridge +Park, formerly the seat of the Duke of Bridgewater, the originator and +author, with the aid of Brindley and Telford, of our great canal system, +lies about a mile to the eastward. The scenery of the park and +gardens are fine. The house is modern.</p> +<p>Tring station, a mile and a half from the town, may be reached from +London, 31½ miles, in less than an hour by the express train, +and the traveller arrives in as wild a district as any in England. +Three miles north of Tring lies the town of Ivinghoe, possessing a large +cruciform church, worthy of a visit from the students of “<i>Christian +architecture</i>,” with an old sculptured timber roof, and containing +a tomb with a Norman French inscription,—according to some the +tomb of Henry de Blois, Bishop of Winchester, brother of King Stephen. +At the Rose and Crown we are informed venison is to be had in perfection +at moderate charges during the season. The station is the highest +point on the line, being 420 feet above the sea, 300 above Camden Town, +and 52 above Birmingham.</p> +<p>In the course of the Tring excavation in the gravel deposits above +the chalk, the tusk and teeth of an elephant were found, and in crossing +the Icknield or Roman Way, about thirty-three miles, were sixteen human +skeletons, and several specimens of Roman pottery: two unique urns are +now in the possession of the Antiquarian Society.</p> +<p>Two miles from Tring we pass from Hertfordshire into Buckinghamshire. +It remains a disputed point whether the name of the county is derived +from bucken or boccen, a <i>deer</i>, according to Spelman, or with +Lysons, boc, a <i>charter</i>, or with Camden from bucken, <i>beech +trees</i>, which, as in his time, still abound and flourish. Unfortunately +the state of agriculture does not allow the pastors of the country to +take the ease and rest that was enjoyed by the celebrated Mr. Tityrus +before the repeal of the Roman corn laws, an ease which has cost many +an unfortunate schoolboy a flogging.</p> +<p>Our next halt, Cheddington, is noticeable only because it stands +on the fork, of which a short branch, nine miles in length, leads to +Aylesbury.</p> +<h2>AYLESBURY.</h2> +<p>Aylesbury, standing on a hill, in the midst of one of the richest, +if not the richest, tracts of pasture lands in England, is very ancient +without being venerable. The right of returning two members to +Parliament is found periodically profitable to the inhabitants, and +these two MP’s with a little lace, constitute its only manufactures. +The loss of the coaching trade by the substitution of the railroad, +was a great blow to its local prosperity.</p> +<p>Among other changes, the Aylesbury butchers often go to London to +buy meat, which has passed in the shape of oxen through the town to +ride to London.</p> +<p>The Berry field, said to be the best field in England, lies in the +Vale of Aylesbury. The saying of “good land bad farmers,” +is not belied among the mass of those who meet in the markets of Aylesbury. +With a few exceptions the farming is as bad as it can be, the farmers +miserably poor, and the labourers ignorant to a degree which is a disgrace +to the resident clergy and gentry. We had some experience of the +peasantry during the railway surveys of 1846, 1847, and found them quite +innocent of thinking and reading, with a timid hatred of their employers, +and perfect readiness to do anything not likely to be found out, for +a pot of beer. They get low wages, live low, and work accordingly. +It was round Aylesbury, that for many years, the influence of the insolvent +Duke of Buckingham was paramount.</p> +<p>To city sportsmen, Aylesbury has interest as the centre of Baron +Rothschild’s (stag) hunt; to politicians, because of great meetings +of the country party held there.</p> +<p>We must not omit to notice the duck trade carried on by the poorer +order of people round the town. They hatch the ducks under hens +generally in their living rooms, often under their beds, and fatten +them up early in spring on garbage, of which horse flesh not unfrequently +forms a large part. The ducks taste none the worse if for the +last fortnight they are permitted to have plenty of clean water and +oats, or barleymeal. Most of the Aylesbury ducks never see water +except in a drinking pan. The cheap rate at which the inferior +grain can be bought has been a great advantage to these duck feeders.</p> +<p>The many means now open of reaching the best markets of the country +will probably change the style and make the fortunes of a new race of +Bucks farmers. Those of the present generation who have neither +capital nor education can only be made useful by transplantation.</p> +<p>Returning from Aylesbury, and gliding out of the deep cuttings over +a fine open country, we approach the Leighton Buzzard station, and see +in the distance the lofty octagonal spire of the Leighton Buzzard church.</p> +<p>The town is half a mile from the station, and commands the attention +of the church antiquary from its fine church and cross.</p> +<p>The church, says a very competent authority on such matters, “is +one of the most spacious, lightsome, and well-proportioned perpendicular +churches, cruciform, with a handsome stone spire. The roof, stalls, +and other wood-work very perfect. The windows, some ironwork, +and other details, full of interest.”</p> +<p>The cross stands in an open area in the centre of the market place, +and is twenty-seven feet high above the basement, which is raised by +rows of steps about five feet.</p> +<p>At Leighton Buzzard a branch line of seven miles communicates with +DUNSTABLE.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/ill6b.jpg"> +<img alt="LEIGHTON BUZZARD" src="images/ill6s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>Dunstable is situated in the centre of the Dunstable Chalk Downs, +where the celebrated Dunstable larks are caught which are made mention +of in one of Miss Edgeworth’s pretty stories. The manufactures +are whiting and straw hats. Of an ancient priory, founded in 1131, +by Henry I., and endowed with the town, and the privileges of jurisdiction +extending to life and death, nothing remains but the parish church, +of which the interior is richly ornamented. Over the altar-piece +is a large painting representing the Lord’s Supper, by Sir James +Thornhill, the father-in-law of Hogarth. In a charity school founded +in 1727, forty boys are clothed, educated, and apprenticed. In +twelve almshouses twelve poor widows are lodged, and in six houses near +the church, called the Maidens’ Lodge, six unmarried gentlewomen +live and enjoy an income of £120 per ann. With this brief +notice we may retrace our steps.</p> +<p>On leaving Leighton, within half a mile we enter a covered tunnel, +and we strongly recommend some artist fond of “strong <i>effects</i>” +in landscape to obtain a seat in a <i>coupé</i> forming the last +carriage in an express train, if such are ever put on now, sitting with +your back to the engine, with windows before and on each side, you are +whirled out of sight into twilight and darkness, and again into twilight +and light, in a manner most impressive, yet which cannot be described. +Perhaps the effect is even greater in a slow than in an express train. +But as this tunnel is curved the transition would be more complete.</p> +<p>At Bletchley the church (embowered in a grove of yews, planted perhaps +when Henry VIII. issued his decrees for planting the archer’s +tree) contains an altar tomb of Lord Grey of Wilton, A.D. 1412. +The station has now become important as from it diverge the Bedford +line to the east, and the lines to Banbury and Oxford to the west.</p> +<p>A branch connects Bletchley with Bedford 16¼ miles in length, +with the following stations:-</p> +<p>FENNY STRATFORD. LIDLINGTON.</p> +<p>WOBURN SANDS. AMPTHILL.</p> +<p>RIDGMOUNT. BEDFORD.</p> +<h2>WOBURN AND BEDFORD.</h2> +<p>Woburn is one of those dull places, neat, clean, and pretentious +in public buildings, which are forced under the hot-house influence +of a great political family.</p> +<p>We pass it to visit Woburn Abbey, the residence of the Russell family, +with its extensive and magnificent gardens, its model farms, its picture +gallery, and other accessories of a great nobleman’s country seat.</p> +<p>It was at Woburn that Francis, Duke of Bedford, held his sheep-shearing +feasts, and by patronising, in conjunction with Coke of Norfolk and +Mr. Western, improvements and improvers in agriculture and stock-breeding, +did so much to promote agricultural improvement in this county, and +to create that large class of wealthy educated agriculturists, which +confers such great benefits on this country.</p> +<p>Now that every country gentleman has at least one neighbour who is, +or professes to be, an agricultural improver, it is difficult to give +an adequate idea of the benefit we have derived from the agricultural +enthusiasm of the noblemen and gentlemen who first made the science +of cultivating breeding <i>fashionable</i>, we must be excused the word, +among a class which had previously been exclusively devoted to field +sports or to town life. They founded that finest of all modern +characters—the English country gentleman, educated, yet hearty, +a scholar and a sportsman, a good farmer, and an intelligent, considerate +landlord; happy to teach, and ready to learn, anything connected with +a pursuit which he follows with the enthusiasm of a student and the +skill of a practical man.</p> +<p>The other stations have nothing about them to induce a curious traveller +to pause. Not so can we say of BEDFORD.</p> +<p>Bedford has been pauperised by the number and wealth of its charities. +A mechanic, or small tradesman, can send his child if it be sick to +a free hospital; when older to a free school, where even books are provided; +when the boy is apprenticed a fee may be obtained from a charity; at +half the time of apprenticeship, a second fee; on the expiration of +the term, a third; on going to service, a fourth; if he marries he expects +to obtain from a charity fund “<i>a portion</i>” with his +wife, also educated at a charity; and if he has not sufficient industry +or prudence to lay by for old age, and those are virtues which he is +not likely to practise, he looks forward with confidence to being boarded +and lodged at one of Bedford’s fifty-nine almshouses.</p> +<p>The chief source of the charities of Bedford is derived from an estate +of thirteen acres of land in the parish of St. Andrew, Holborn, London, +bequeathed by Sir William Harpur, an alderman of that city, in the reign +of Edward VI., for founding a free school for instructing the children +of the town in grammar, and good manners. This land, now covered +with valuable houses, produces some £16,000 per annum.</p> +<p>On this fund there are supported, 1st. a Grammar School, with eighty +boys on the foundation, and as many private boarders; a Commercial School, +containing 100 to 150 boys; a National School, of 350 boys, where on +the half holidays 170 girls are received, a regular Girls’ School +and an Infant School.</p> +<p>Beside which, the girls in the hospital for poor children, another +branch of the charity, are taught household duties, needlework, reading +and writing. In these schools the children of all resident parishioners +of Bedford’s five parishes are entitled to receive gratuitous +instruction. In the National School twenty-five boys are clothed +from a fund left by Alderman Newton, of Leicester.</p> +<p>The Warden and Fellows of New College, Oxford, are visitors, and +appoint the master and second master of the Grammar School. There +are four masters, viz., the head, with two assistant masters; a mathematical +master, and a writing master. The scholars enjoy the advantage +of eight exhibitions, of £80 per annum each, six of which must +be bestowed on town boys, the remaining two may go to boarders.</p> +<p>The cheap and good education attainable as a matter of right in this +borough, have rendered it a favourite resort of half-pay officers and +unbeneficed clergymen, blessed with large families.</p> +<p>The church of St. Paul is large, with a nave and a south aisle, divided +by early English piers and arches. A stone pulpit, ornamented +with gilt tracery, on a blue ground, has been removed in favour of an +oak one, with the chancel. The church of St. Peter has an old +Norman door, a fine antique front, and some curious stained glass in +the windows.</p> +<p>John Bunyan, author of the “Pilgrim’s Progress,” +was co-pastor in a Baptist Meeting House, in Mill-lane, from 1671 until +his death in 1688. The chair in which he used to sit is still +preserved in the vestry as a relic.</p> +<p>A few miles from Bletchley, is a forgotten, but once celebrated spot, +Denbigh Hall, over which the traveller whirls without notice, yet worthy +of remembrance, because it affords a name and date for tracing the march +of railway enterprise.</p> +<p>In 1838, a gap in the intended railway from London to Birmingham +extended from an obscure public-house, called Denbigh Hall, to Rugby. +At either point travellers had to exchange the rail for the coach or +chaise.</p> +<p>On June 28, 1838, when Queen Victoria was crowned, for days before +the coronation, the coaches for the intermediate space were crammed; +the chaises and post horses were monopolised, and at length, to cover +thirty odd miles, every gig, standing waggon, cart, and donkey cart +that could be obtained in the district, was engaged, and yet many were +disappointed of their journey to London.</p> +<p>On this London and Birmingham line, in addition to, and without disturbing +the ordinary traffic, 2,000 souls have been conveyed in one train, at +the rate of thirty miles an hour.</p> +<p>Truly Queen Victoria can set the railway conquests of her reign against +the glories of the war victories of Queen Anne and her grandfather, +King George.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/ill7b.jpg"> +<img alt="DENBIGH HALL BRIDGE" src="images/ill7s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h2>THE BUCKS RAILWAY.</h2> +<p>A recent extension from Bletchley traverses Buckinghamshire, and +by a fork which commences at Winslow, passes through Buckingham and +Brackley to Banbury by one line, and by Bicester to Oxford by the other. +We need not pause at Brackley or Winslow. Buckingham is notable +chiefly as being on the road to Princely Palatial Stowe, the seat of +the Buckingham family, now shorn of its internal glories in pictures, +sculptures, carvings, tapestry, books, and manuscripts. Its grounds +and gardens, executed on a great scale in the French style, only remain +to delight the traveller; these would require, and have been often described +in, illustrated volumes. Here we shall not dwell upon the melancholy +scene of grandeur, power, and wealth frittered away in ignoble follies.</p> +<h2>BANBURY.</h2> +<p>Banbury is more celebrated than worth seeing. Commercial travellers +consider it one of the best towns in England, as it is a sort of metropolis +to a great number of thriving villages. Banbury cakes are known +wherever English children are bred, and to them, where not educated +in too sensible a manner, the Homeric ballad of—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Ride a cock horse<br /> +To Banbury Cross,”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>is sung. Unfortunately, the Puritans, in the time of Edward +VI., pulled this famous cross down.</p> +<p>They were in great force there; for as Drunken Barnaby, in his tour, +tells us:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“There I found a Puritan one,<br /> +Hanging of his cat on Monday<br /> +For killing of a rat on Sunday.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>At Banbury was fought, after the English fashion, one of the great +fights that preceded the carrying of the Reform Bill. Previous +to that change, sixteen electors had the privilege of sending a member +to Parliament.</p> +<p>During the Reform excitement six of these privileged gentlemen seceded +from their usual compact, and determined to set up on their own account. +For want of a better man, they pitched upon Mr. Easthope, of the <i>Morning +Chronicle</i>, since that period, much to his own astonishment no doubt, +pitchforked into a baronetcy. The old original M.P. was Colonel +Hutchinson, the companion of Sir Robert Wilson in carrying off Lavalette. +On entering the town, ten thousand Reformers set up such a howling, +that Colonel Hutchinson, thinking his last hour at hand, drew a dagger. +Upon which more groans and shrieks followed, with such threats as made +it prudent for the friends of the Colonel to compel him to retreat. +Under these circumstances, the streets of the town were crammed full +with an excited mob; the poll was opened; the <i>six</i>, amid tremendous +plaudits, voted for Easthope, and Reform; the ten very discreetly staid +at home, and thus, by six votes, a baronetcy was secured to the unopposed +candidate.</p> +<p>It is droll to look back upon the movement which led public opinion +to prefer a stockjobber to a gallant soldier.</p> +<p>Banbury manufactures horse girths and other kinds of webbing, as +well as excellent ale. There are two inns, both good.</p> +<p>The Buckinghamshire Railway has reduced the price of coal to the +inhabitants from 22s. to 15s. per ton, on 150,000 tons per annum.</p> +<p>BICESTER, commonly pronounced Bister, is thirteen miles by the road +from Oxford, a town as ancient as the Heptarchy; famous for a well once +sacred and dedicated to St. Edburgh, for its well attended markets and +cattle fairs, and especially for its excellent ale. It is in the +centre of a capital hunting country. The women make a little bone +lace.</p> +<h2>OXFORD.</h2> +<p>Oxford is one of the great gates through which our rich middle classes +send their sons to be amalgamated with the landed and titled aristocracy, +who are all educated either there or at Cambridge.</p> +<p>To say of any one that he is an “<i>Oxford man</i>,” +at once implies that he is a gentleman, and when a well-looking, well-mannered, +and even moderately endowed young gentleman has passed respectably through +his <i>curriculum</i> at Christchurch or Magdalen, Balliol, Oriel, University, +or any other of the <i>correct</i> colleges, it rests with himself whether +he runs the race of public life in England on equal terms with the sons +of the oldest of the titled and untitled aristocracy, even though his +father were an eminent retired dust contractor, and his mother laundry +maid or factory girl. But money alone won’t do it, and the +pretension, the display, the coxcombry permitted in a peer, must be +carefully avoided by a <i>parvenu</i>. Thus Oxford interests classes +who care very little for its educational, antiquarian, or architectural +resources, as one of the institutions of the country by which any capable +man may cut off his plebeian entail, and start according to the continental +term “<i>noble</i>.”</p> +<p>The material beauty of Oxford is great—the situation, in a +rich valley bounded by softly flowing rivers, fine—the domes, +and spires, and old grey towers rising in clusters, prepare the mind +of the approaching traveller for the city where the old colleges and +churches, planting out and almost composing it, afford at every bend +of the long streets, at every turn of the narrow thoroughfares, some +grand picture, or charming architectural effect; even our Quakers are +proud of Oxford in England when they travel in America. Then Oxford +is so decorously clean, so spotlessly free from the smoke of engines +and the roar of machinery; the groves and gardens, and trim green turf +seen through richly-carved and corbeled archways, give such a feeling +of calm study, and pleasant leisure, that we will defy the bitterest +radical and the sourest dissenter not to be softened and charmed by +his first impressions.</p> +<p>To those who arrive prepared to be pleased, stored with associations +of the past, fortunate enough to have leisure and introductions to some +affable don long resident, and proud to display the treasures and glories +of his beloved Alma Mater, Oxford affords for many days a treat such +as no other city in the world can supply to an Englishman.</p> +<p>The best known route from London is by the Great Western Railway, +which, according to the original plan, would have passed close to the +city. But all the University and ecclesiastical dignitaries were +up in arms; they saw, in their mind’s eye, the tender, innocent +undergraduates flying from the proctor-guarded precincts, where modesty, +virtue, and sobriety ever reign, to the vice-haunted purlieus of London, +at all hours of the night and day. The proctors and professors +triumphed; the railway was obliged to leave a gap of ten miles of common +road between its invading, unhallowed course, and the sacred city; and +great was the rejoicing in the Convocation Chamber, and many the toasts +in the Senior Common Rooms to the health of the faithful sons of Oxon, +who in Parliament had saved the city from this commercial desecration.</p> +<p>But as even Grosvenor-square was at length glad to admit gas after +abiding longest of all in the genteel gloom of oil lamps, so was Oxford +in the end glad to be put on a branch, as it could not be put on a main +line; and now, beside the rail on which we are travelling, Worcester, +Banbury, and Wolverhampton, and two roads to London and Birmingham are +open to the wandering tastes of the callow youth of the University; +as may be ascertained by a statistical return from the railway stations +whenever a steeple-chase or Jenny Lind concert takes place in or near +any of the towns enumerated.</p> +<p>The entrance from Bletchley is, perhaps, the finer, as rolling round +a semicircle, we sweep into sight of the dome of Radcliffe Library and +the spire of St. Mary’s Church, descend, enter the city by the +Cheltenham-road, and passing through an inferior suburb, reach the head +of High-street, of which a great German art critic declared, “that +it had not its equal in the whole world.” Wide, long, and +gently curving, approached from either end, it presents in succession +the colleges of Lincoln, Brasenose, University, All Souls, Queen’s, +St. Mary’s Church, with peeps of gardens with private houses, +and with shops, which do not detract, but rather add, to the dignity +and weight of the grand old buildings.</p> +<p>Having slowly sauntered up and down, and scanned the various characters +peculiar to the City of Universities—as, for instance, an autocrat +in the person of a Dean of Christchurch, a Principal of Balliol, or +a Master of Jesus, a Proctor newly made, but already endowed with something +of the detective police expression; several senior fellows, plump, shy, +proud, and lazy—walking for an appetite, and looking into the +fishmongers on their way to the parks; a “<i>cocky</i>” +Master of Arts, just made, and hastening to call on all his friends +and tradesmen to show off his new dignity, and rustle the sleeves of +his new gown; three lads, just entered from a public school (last month +they laid out tip in Mother Brown’s tarts), on their way to order +three courses and dessert at the Mitre, where very indifferent fare +is provided for fashionable credit prices; a pale student, after Dr. +Pusey’s own heart, in cap and gown, pacing monk-like along, secretly +telling his beads; a tuft (nobleman) lounging out of the shop of a tailor, +who, as he follows his lordship to the door, presents the very picture +of a Dean bowing to a Prime Minister, when a bishop is very sick.</p> +<p>A few ladies are seen, in care of papas in caps and gowns, or mammas, +who look as if they were Doctors of Divinity, or deserved to be. +The Oxford female is only of two kinds—prim and brazen. +The latter we will not describe; the former seem to live in perpetual +fear of being winked at, and are indescribable.</p> +<p>From these street scenes, where the ridiculous only is salient, for +the quiet and gentlemanly pass by unnoticed, while pompous <i>dons</i> +and coxcombical undergraduates are as certain of attention as turkeycocks +and bantams, we will turn into the solemn precincts of a few of the +colleges.</p> +<p>At the head stands Christchurch in dignity and size, founded by Cardinal +Wolsey, Pope Clement VII. consenting, in 1525, on the revenues of some +dozen minor monasteries, under the title of Cardinal College. +The fall of Wolsey—England’s last Cardinal, until by the +invitation of modern mediæval Oxford, Pius IX. sent us a Wiseman—stopped +the works. One of Wolsey’s latest petitions to Henry was, +“That his college at Oxford might go on.” And by the +King, after some intermediate changes, it was finally established as +Christchurch.</p> +<p>The foundation now consists of a dean, eight canons, eight chaplains, +a schoolmaster, an organist, eight choristers, and 101 students, of +whom a considerable number are exhibitioners from Westminster School. +It is in symbolism of these students that the celebrated Great Tom of +Christchurch clangs each evening 101 times. Besides these students, +there are generally nearly 1000 independent members, consisting of noblemen, +gentlemen commoners, and commoners. To be a gentleman commoner +of Christchurch, all other advantages being equal, is the most “correct +thing” in the University; none can compete with them, unless it +be the gentlemen commoners of Magdalen. The Christchurch noblemen, +or tufts, are considered the leaders of fashion, whether it be in mediæval +furniture, or rat hunting, boating, or steeple-chase riding, old politics +or new religions.</p> +<p>Among the illustrious men it claims as pupils are, Sir Philip Sydney +and Ben Jonson, Camden and South, Bolingbroke and Locke, Canning and +Sir Robert Peel, whom Oxford rejected. The front is in Aldate’s-street, +for which consult Mr. Spier’s pretty guide card, the entrance +under the lofty clock tower, whence, at ten minutes past nine every +evening, the mighty tom peals forth his sonorous summons. The +“Tom Gateway” leads into the quadrangle familiarly termed +“quad,” 264 feet by 261, the dimensions originally planned +by Wolsey; but the buildings which bound it on three sides were executed +after the destruction of the old edifice in the great civil wars from +designs by Sir Christopher Wren in 1688.</p> +<p>The Hall on the south side is ancient; we ascend to it by a flight +of steps under a handsome groined roof supported by a single pillar. +The Hall is 115 feet long, 40 wide, and 50 high. The open roof +of oak richly carved, decorated with the arms of Wolsey and Henry VIII. +Other carvings adorn the fire-place and a fine bay window.</p> +<p>On the sides of the rooms are hung a series of 120 portraits of ecclesiastics, +poets, philosophers (these are few), statesmen, and noblemen, representing +distinguished students of the College.</p> +<p>The dinner hour, when the dean and chief officers sit in state on +the dais, masters and bachelors at the side tables, and undergraduates +at the lower end, is an impressive sight, recalling feudal times. +The feeding is the worst of any in Oxford, much to the advantage of +the taverns and pastrycooks.</p> +<p>When in 1566 Queen Elizabeth visited Oxford, a play was performed +before her in this hall by the students, in the course of which, “a +cry of hounds belonging to themselves” having been counterfeited +in the quadrangle, the students were seized with a sudden transport; +whereat her Majesty cried out, “O excellent! these boys in very +truth are ready to leap out of the window to follow the hounds.”</p> +<p>Amid the many changes of taste and opinion since the days of Queen +Bess, the love of hunting still prevails in Christchurch, not one of +the least healthy tastes, in an age of perpetual competing work; and +the Christchurch drag is one of the stock amusements anathematized toward +the end and permitted at the beginning of every hunting term, for the +glory of the chief tuft and the benefit of hard-reading men, who cannot +waste their time in trotting from cover to cover dependent on the vagaries +of such an uncertain animal as a fox, and are therefore content to hunt +a “<i>cad</i>” armed with a red herring over the stiffest +country he can pick.</p> +<p>After the Hall, the Kitchen should be visited. It is the most +ancient part of the building, for Wolsey, with a truly ecclesiastical +appreciation of the foundation of all sound learning, began with the +kitchen, and it survived him. Agriculture, gardening, cooking, +and confectionery, were among the civilizing arts brought to great perfection +by religious houses and lost for a long period after the Reformation, +which, like other strong medicines, cleared our heads at the expense +of our stomachs.</p> +<p>In Wolsey’s kitchen may be seen the huge gridiron on which +our ancestors roasted sheep whole and prepared other barbarous disgusting +dishes.</p> +<p>In the Peckwater Quadrangle are to be found the Library and the Guise +collection of pictures, which contains curious specimens of that early +school which the mad mediævalists are now fond of imitating, and +a few examples of the famous Italian masters who rose on the force of +genius, which did not disdain study but did disdain imitation.</p> +<p>Wickliff was a warden, and Sir Thomas More a student, in Canterbury +Hall, which was amalgamated in Wolsey’s College.</p> +<p>The Chapel of Christchurch is the Cathedral of Oxford. The +oldest parts belonged to the church of St. Frideswide’s Priory, +consecrated A.D. 1180. Wolsey pulled down fifty feet of the nave +and adapted it to the use of his college. The stained glass windows, +without which every Gothic cathedral has a bare, naked, cold appearance, +and which were peculiarly fine, nearly all fell a sacrifice to puritanical +bigotry.</p> +<p>For the many curious and beautiful architectural features we must +refer in this instance, as in all others, to the architectural guides, +such as Parker’s, with which every one who feels any interest +in the subject will provide himself.</p> +<p>Leaving Christchurch by the Canterbury Gate up Merton-lane, we pass +on one hand Corpus Christi, founded in the reign of Henry VIII., where +Bishop Sewel, author of “The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity,” +and Richard Hooker, a Protestant whom even a Pope praised, were bred; +on the other, Oriel, where studied Walter Raleigh, one of England’s +greatest men, a poet and philosopher, soldier and statesman, mariner +and historian; not guiltless, yet worthy of pity in his fall and long +imprisonment, and of honour in his brave and Christian death,—the +victim of the ever feeble treacherous Stuarts. What other line +of kings has had the fate to sign away the lives of two such men as +Raleigh and Strafford? Oriel also claims as students Prynne, who, +with his libels and his ears, laid the foundation of our liberty of +the press; Bishop Butler, whose “Analogy” showed how logic +and philosophy could be applied to support the cause of Christian truth; +Dr. Arnold, the reformer of our modern school system, whom Oxford persecuted +during life and honoured in death; and lastly, the clever crotchety +Archbishop Whateley, who has not only proved that Napoleon Bonaparte +never existed, but that Mr. Gibbon Wakefield’s bankrupt schemes +of colonization were triumphant successes. Next we come to Merton, +the most ancient of all the colleges, founded 7th January 1264. +The oldest of its buildings now standing is the library, the oldest +in England, erected 1377. Wickliff was a student of Merton. +University College, which next falls in our way, claims to date from +King Alfred, but has no charters so ancient as those of Merton. +The buildings are not more early than Charles I., but the chapel contains +some of Grinling Gibbons’s best carvings, and a monument by Flaxman +of Sir William Jones, who was a fellow of this University. The +modern part, fronting High-street, is from the designs of Barry, the +architect of the Palace of Westminster.</p> +<p>University College has one of the old customs, of which several are +retained in Oxford, called “chopping at the tree.” +On Easter Sunday a bough is dressed up with flowers and evergreens, +and laid on a turf by the buttery. After dinner each member, as +he leaves the hall, takes up a cleaver and chops at the tree, and then +hands over “largess” to the cook, who stands by with a plate. +The contribution is, for the master half a guinea, the fellows five +shillings, and other members half a crown each. In like manner, +at Queen’s College, which stands opposite University, on Christmas +day a boar’s head is brought into the hall in procession, while +the old carol is sung—</p> +<blockquote><p>The boar’s head in hand bear I<br /> +Bedecked with bays and rosemary,<br /> +And I pray you, my masters, be merry.<br /> +Qui estis in convivio,<br /> +Caput apri defero,<br /> +Reddens laudes Domino.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>While on New Year’s day the bursar presents to every member +a needle and thread with the words, “Take this and be thrifty.” +We have not been able to obtain a statistical return of the standing +of the Queen’s men in the books of the tradesmen of Oxford as +compared with members of other colleges, but we recommend the question +to Mr. Newdegate or some other Oxonian figure monger.</p> +<p>This college was founded by Philippa, queen of Edward III. +It was directed by the statutes that there should be twelve fellows +and seventy poor scholars, who were to be summoned to dinner by the +sound of a trumpet; when the fellows, clothed in scarlet robes, were +to sit and eat, while the poor scholars, kneeling in token of humility, +were to dispute in philosophy. The kneeling, disputing, and scarlet +robes have been discontinued, but the trumpet still sounds to dinner. +There are usually about 300 members on the books of this college.</p> +<p>Lower down the High-street is All-Souls, whose two towers are picturesque +centres of most views of Oxford. The buildings are various in +character and merit, and well worth examination. The grand court +was designed by Hawksmoor rather on the principles of a painter than +an architect; he wished it to make a good picture with the existing +buildings, and he succeeded. All-Souls is composed entirely of +fellows, who elect from other colleges gentlemen whose qualification +consists in being “<i>bene nati, bene vestiti, et moderater docti +in arte musica</i>.”</p> +<p>With so easy a qualification as that of being well born, well dressed, +and able to sing the Old Hundredth Psalm, Old King Cole, or Kilruddery, +it may be imagined that All-Souls has never done anything to disturb +the minds of kings, cabinets, or reviewers, or even of the musical critics. +Pleasant gentlemanly fellows, when they do get into parliament it is +usually as the advocates of deceased opinions. Had Joanna Southcote +been genteel, the fellows of All-Souls and some other colleges would +have continued Joanna Southcotians fifty years after her decease.</p> +<p>All-Souls, too, has its legend and its commemorative ceremony. +The diggers of the foundations found in an old drain a monstrous mallard, +a sort of alderman among wild ducks, thriving and growing fat amid filth. +On being cooked he was found first-rate, and, in memory of this treasure-trove +and of the foundation-day, annually on the 14th January the best mallard +that can be found is brought in in state, all the mallardians chanting—</p> +<blockquote><p>O the swapping swapping mallard, etc.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>From Queen’s we proceed to New College, built in the palmiest +days of Gothic architecture by William of Wykeham, also architect of +Windsor Castle and of Winchester Cathedral, of which he was bishop, +as well as Chancellor of England under Edward III. He was indeed +a learned, pious, earnest man. “A worker-out of the glorious +dreams he dreamed.” According to his plan, a certain number +of poor boys, of origin as humble as his own, were to receive a training +in the best learning of the age; from these, the ablest were to be selected +annually and sent to New College, with the enjoyment of such an income +as would support them while studying philosophy and theology. +At present, after a year’s probation, youths at eighteen or nineteen +become actual fellows, in enjoyment of an income varying from £190 +to £250 per annum, until such time as they marry or are provided +with a college living.</p> +<p>“Wykeham laid the first stone of his new college on the 5th +March 1380. Being finished, the first warden and fellows took +possession of it April 14, 1386, at three o’clock in the morning.” +The original buildings consist of the principal quadrangle, containing +the hall, chapel, and library, the cloisters, and the tower. Additions, +quite out of keeping with the rich simplicity of the original design, +were made by Sir Christopher Wren. The chapel, first shorn of +its ancient splendour by puritan zeal, and since restored in mistaken +taste, is still one of the most beautiful edifices of the kind in England,—perhaps +in Europe. Weeks of study will not satisfy or exhaust the true +student of Gothic architecture here. We trust that, sooner or +later, some of the funds now spent on guttling and guzzling will be +devoted to substituting facsimiles of ancient coloured glass for the +painted mistakes of Sir Joshua Reynolds, and restoring the ancient glories +of gilt and colour to the carved work.</p> +<p>If possible, the stranger should attend the service, when he will +hear grand singing and accompanied by a magnificent organ. The +silver gilt crozier of Wykeham, formerly studded with rich gems, is +one of the few relics of value preserved by New College. Charles +I. received the greater part of a rich collection of plate as a contribution +to his military chest in the great civil war. This crozier interests, +for, gazing on it, we are carried back five centuries, when it was not +a bauble made in Birmingham, but a symbol of actual power and superior +intelligence. The sceptre of a prince of a church which then absorbed +almost all the intellect and all the learning of the age. The +garden with its archery-ground, and the “<i>Slipe</i>,” +with its stables and kennels, complete what was meant to be a temple +of sacred learning and active piety, but which has become a very Castle +of Indolence, a sort of Happy Valley, for single men. Winchester +School still retains its ancient character for scholarship. (It +is said to be almost impossible to “pluck” a Wykehamist); +but the foundation has been grossly abused, the elected being not poor +boys but the sons of wealthy clergymen and gentlemen, as indeed they +had need be, for, by another abuse, the parents of boys on the foundation +have to pay about £40 a-year for their board. But, when +a boy, distinguished for diligence and ability among his fellows, has +been, at eighteen or nineteen years, elected to a Fellowship of New +College, his work for life is done,—no more need for exertion,—every +incentive to epicurean rest. Fine rooms, a fine garden, a dinner +daily the best in Oxford, served in a style of profusion and elegance +that leaves nothing to be desired, wine the choicest, New College ale +most famous, a retiring-room, where, in obsequious dignity, a butler +waits on his commands, with fresh bottles of the strong New College +port, or ready to compound a variety of delicious drinks, amid which +the New College cyder cup and mint julep can be specially recommended. +Newspapers, magazines, and novels, on the tables of both the junior +and senior common rooms, and a stable for his horse and a kennel for +his dog, form part of this grand club of learned ignorance. And +so, in idle uselessness, he spends life, unless by good fortune he falls +in love and marries; even then, we pity his wife and his cook for the +first twelve months,—or, by reaction, flies into asceticism and +becomes a father of St. Philip Neri or a follower of Saint Pusseycat.</p> +<p>But, after all this virtuous remonstrance on the misdirection of +William of Wykeham’s noble endowment, we must own that, of our +Oxford acquaintance, none are more agreeable than those New College +fellows of the old school, “who wore shocking bad hats and asked +you to dinner.” Much better than the cold-blooded “monks +without mass” who are fast superseding them, just as idle and +more ill-natured.</p> +<p>From New College we will go on to Magdalen, the finest—the +wealthiest of all: it cannot be described, it must be seen; with its +buildings occupying eleven acres and pleasure-grounds a hundred acres, +its tower whereon every May morning at daybreak a mass used to be and +a carol is still sung, and its deer-park. Here we may say, as +of New College, is too much luxury for learning.</p> +<p>The sons of dukes have become mathematicians; we have known an attorney’s +clerk, the son of a low publican, become an accomplished linguist in +his leisure hours,—but such men are mental miracles, almost monsters: +a fellow of Magdalen or New College who works as hard as other men deserves +to be canonized.</p> +<p>We have not space to say anything of the other Colleges. St. +John’s is noted for its gardens, Pembroke because Samuel Johnson +lodged there for as long a space as his poverty would permit.</p> +<p>The Colleges visited, we proceed to “The Schools,” which +contain the Bodleian Library, founded by Sir Thomas Bodley in 1573, +and by bequests, gifts from private individuals, by the expenditure +of a sum for the last seventy years out of the University chest, and +the privilege of a copy of every new British publication, has become +one of the finest collections in Europe; especially rich in Oriental +literature. The books are freely open to the use of all literary +men properly introduced, and the public are permitted to view the rooms +three times a week.</p> +<p>The Picture Gallery contains a collection of portraits of illustrious +individuals connected with the University, by Holbein, Vandyke, Kneller, +Reynolds, Wilkie, and others. Among these are Henry VIII., the +Earl of Surrey, and Sir Thomas More, by Holbein. Among the sculptures +are a bust of the Duke of Wellington by Chantrey, and a brass statue +of the Earl of Pembroke, Chancellor of the University from 1616 to 1630, +which is said to have been executed from a design by Rubens.</p> +<p>There is also a chair made from timber of the ship in which Drake +sailed round the world, and the lantern of Guy Fawkes.</p> +<p>On the ground floor are the Arundel marbles, brought from Smyrna +in the seventeenth century by the earl of that name.</p> +<p>The Theatre, close at hand, built by Sir Christopher Wren, will contain +three thousand persons, and should be seen to be appreciated when crowded +by the <i>élite</i> of the University and of England, on the +occasion of some of the great Oxford festivals, when the rich costumes +of the University, scarlet, purple, and gold, are set off by the addition +of England’s beauty not unadorned; as, for instance, on the last +visit of the Queen and Prince Albert.</p> +<p>The Clarendon Press, built from designs of Vanbrugh out of the profits +of the University (garbled) edition of “Clarendon’s History +of the Great Rebellion,” and the Ashmolean Museum, where may be +seen the head of the dodo, that extinct and deeply to be regretted bird, +are close at hand, as also the Radcliffe Library, from the dome of which +an excellent view of the city may be obtained.</p> +<p>The University Galleries, which present an imposing front to St. +Giles-street, contain, beside antique sculpture, the original models +of all Chantrey’s busts, and a collection of original drawings +of Michael Angelo and Raffaelle, made by Sir Thomas Lawrence, and purchased +after his death by the University, the present Earl of Eldon contributing +two-thirds of the purchase-money.</p> +<h3>CONSTITUTION AND COSTUME OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD.</h3> +<p>The University is a corporate body, under the style of “The +Chancellor, Masters, and Scholars of the University of Oxford.” +It includes nineteen Colleges and five Halls, each of which is a corporate +body, governed by its own head and statutes respectively.</p> +<p>The business of the University, as such, is carried on in the two +Houses of Convocation and of Congregation; the first being the House +of Lords, and the other, which includes all of and above the rank of +Masters of Arts, the House of Commons.</p> +<p>The Chancellor—elected by Convocation, for life—never, +according to etiquette, sets his foot in the University, excepting on +occasions of his installation, or when accompanying Royal visitors. +He nominates as his representative a Vice Chancellor from the heads +of colleges, annually, in turn, each of whom holds his office for four +years.</p> +<p>The Vice Chancellor is the individual who may occasionally be seen +walking about in state, preceded by a number of beadles carrying maces, +or, as they are profanely called, “pokers.”</p> +<p>The two proctors are next in authority to the Vice Chancellor. +Their costume is a full dress gown, with velvet sleeves, and band-encircled +neck. They are assisted by two deputies, or pro-proctors, who +have a strip of velvet on each side of the gown front, and wear bands. +The proctors have certain legislative powers; but are most conspicuous +as a detective police force, supported by “bulldogs,” <i>i.e</i>., +constables. A proctor is regarded by an undergraduate, especially +by a fast man, with the same affection that a costermonger looks on +a policeman. In the evenings, it is their duty to prowl round, +and search, if necessary, any house within three miles, for so far does +their authority extend. The dread of the proctor compels tandem +drivers to send their leaders a distance out of town; and many an excited +youth, on the day of a neighbouring steeplechase, is stopped, when driving +out of the city, with—“Your name, sir, and of what college?”</p> +<p>“Lord R. Christchurch.”</p> +<p>“Go back to your rooms, my lord, and call on me in an hour +at Worcester.”</p> +<p>The members of the University are divided into those who are on the +foundation and those who are not. Those on the foundation are +the dean, president, master, warden, according to the charter of the +College; the fellows, scholars, called demies at Magdalene, and post-masters +at Merton; chaplains, bible-clerks, servitors, at Christchurch and Jesus. +The qualifications for these advantages vary; but leading colleges—Oriel +and Balliol—have set an example likely to be followed of throwing +fellowships and scholarships open to the competition of the whole university, +so that the best man may win. The disadvantage of the system lies +in the fact, that having won, the incentives are all in the direction +of idleness.</p> +<p>The degree was formerly obtained by passing first through a preliminary +examination termed a “little go,” and afterwards through +the “great go.” The latter, successfully performed, +entitles, at choice, to the title of B.A. (Bachelor of Arts), or S.C.L. +(Student of Civil Law). With time and money, the degrees of M.A. +or B.C.L., and eventually D.C.L., may be obtained, without farther examination. +But very recently an intermediate examination has been imposed.</p> +<p>A candidate for a degree in music has only to perform an exercise +previously approved by the professor of music in the music schools.</p> +<p>Doctors of Divinity and Masters of Arts wear a stuff gown, with two +long sleeves, terminating in a semicircle. The full dress of Doctors +of Divinity is scarlet, with sleeves of black velvet—pink silk +for Doctors of Law and Medicine.</p> +<p>Bachelors wear a black stuff gown, with long sleeves tapering to +a point, and buttoned at the elbow; noblemen undergraduates a black +silk gown, with full sleeves, “coupéd” at the elbows, +and a velvet cap with gold tassel; scholars the same shaped gown, of +a common stuff, with ordinary cloth cap; gentlemen commoners a silk +gown with plaited sleeves, and velvet cap; if commoners, a plain black +gown without sleeves, which is so hideous that they generally carry +it on their arm.</p> +<p>The expense of maintaining a son at the University may be fixed at +from £200, as a minimum, to £300 a-year; the latter being +the utmost needful. But a fool may spend any amount, and get nothing +for it. The fashion of drinking has gone out to a great extent; +and the present race of undergraduates are not more random and extravagant +than any set of young men of the same age and number would be if thrown +together for two or three years.</p> +<p>At the same time, it is not the place to which a father to whom economy +is an object should send a son, least of all one previously educated +on the milk and water stay-at-home principle.</p> +<p>As a general rule, it is not among the nobility, and sons of the +wealthy gentry, that much excess is found to prevail; but among those +who at the University find themselves for the first time without control, +with money and with credit at command.</p> +<p>In a summer or autumnal visit, Christchurch Meadow, and some of the +many beautiful walks round Oxford, should be sought out and visited +alone; on such occasions, on no account be tormented with one of the +abominable parrot-like guides. These horrid fellows consider it +their duty to chatter. We have often thought that a dumb guide, +with a book for answering questions, would make a great success.</p> +<p>In winter, when the flooded meadows are frozen over, those who love +to see an army of first-class skaters will find an Oxford day ticket +well worth the money—youth, health, strength, grace, and manly +beauty, in hundreds, cutting round and round, with less of drawback +from the admixture of a squalid mob than in any other locality.</p> +<p>And then again in the hunting season, take the ugliest road out of +Oxford, by the seven bridges, because there you may see farthest along +the straight highway from the crown of the bridges, and number the ingenuous +youth as on hunters they pace, or in hack or in dogcart or tandem they +dash along to the “Meet.” Arrived there, if the fox +does get away—if no ambitious youngster heads him back—if +no steeplechasing lot ride over the scent and before the hounds, to +the destruction of sport and the <i>master’s</i> temper—why +then you will see a fiery charge at fences that will do your heart good. +There is not such raw material for cavalry in any other city in Europe, +and there is no part of our social life so entirely novel, and so well +worth exhibiting to a foreigner, as a “Meet” near Oxford, +where in scarlet and in black, in hats and in velvet caps, in top-boots +and black-jacks, on twenty pound hacks and two hundred guinea hunters, +finest specimens of Young England are to be seen.</p> +<p>On returning, if the sport has been good, you may venture to open +a chat with a well-splashed fellow traveller on a beaten horse, but +in going not—for an Oxford man in his normal state never speaks +unless he has been introduced.</p> +<p>The only local manufactures of Oxford, except gentlemen, are boots, +leather-breeches, and boats; these last in great perfection. The +regattas and rowing-matches on the Isis are very exciting affairs. +From the narrowness of the stream, they are rather chases than races; +the winners cannot pass, but must pursue and <i>bump</i> their competitors. +The many silent, solitary wherries, urged by vigorous skilful arms, +give, on a summer evening, a pleasing life to river-side walks, although +that graceful flower, the pretty pink bonnet and parasol, peculiar to +the waters of Richmond and Hampton, is not often found growing in the +Oxford wherry. Comedies, in the shape of slanging matches with +the barges, are less frequent than formerly, and melodramatic fistic +combats still less frequent.</p> +<p>But old boatmen still love to relate to their peaceable and admiring +pupils how that pocket Hercules, the Honourable S--- C---, now a pious +clergyman, had a single combat with a saucy six foot bargee, “all +alone by they two selves,” bunged up both his eyes, and left him +all but dead to time, ignorant then, and for months after, of the name +of his victor.</p> +<p>Oxford sometimes contends with Cambridge on neutral waters in an +eight-oared cutter match, but is generally defeated, for a very characteristic +reason—Cambridge picks a crew of the best men from the whole University; +Oxford, more exclusive, gives a preference to certain colleges over +men. Christchurch, Magdalene, and a few others, will take the +lead in all arrangements, and will not, if they can help it, admit oarsmen +from the unfashionable colleges of Jesus, Lincoln, or Worcester!</p> +<p>It is worth knowing that in the long vacation, commencing on July +6, there is no place like Oxford for purchasing good dogs and useful +horses. Oxford hacks have long been famous, and not without reason. +Nothing slow would be of any use, whether for saddle or harness; and +although the proportion of high-priced sound unblemished animals may +be small, the number of quick runners is large. There is an establishment +in Holywell Street which is quite one of the Oxford sights. There, +early in winter mornings, more than a hundred stalls are to be found, +full of blood cattle, in tip-top condition, and on summer afternoons +no barracks of a cavalry regiment changing quarters are more busy.</p> +<p>We must not leave Oxford without visiting Blenheim, the monument +of one of our greatest captains and statesmen, with whom, perhaps, in +genius and fortune, none can rank except Clive and Wellington. +Blenheim should be seen when the leaves are on the trees. The +House is only open between eleven o’clock and one. The better +plan is to hire a conveyance, of which there are plenty and excellent +to be had in the city, at reasonable charges. When we remember +this splendid pile—voted by acclamation, but paid for by grudging +and insufficient instalments by the English Parliament—was finished +under the superintendence of that beautiful fiery termagant, Sarah Duchess +of Marlborough, who was at once the plague and the delight of the great +Duke’s life, every stone and every tree must be viewed with interest. +We should advise you, before passing a day at Blenheim, to refresh your +memory with the correspondence of the age of Queen Anne and her successors, +including Swift, Bolingbroke, Pope, and Walpole; not forgetting the +letters of Duchess Sarah herself, and Disraeli’s “Curiosities +of Literature,” for the history of the building of Blenheim, and +how the Duchess worried the unfortunate architect, Vanbrugh.</p> +<p>Blenheim contains a large number of first class paintings, including +an altar-piece by Raffaelle, several good Titians, a very fine collection +of Rubens, choice specimens of Vandyke and Sir Joshua Reynolds. +After returning to Bletchley our next halt is at Wolverton station.</p> +<h2>WOLVERTON STATION.</h2> +<p>Wolverton, the first specimen of a railway town built on a plan to +order, is the central manufacturing and repairing shop for the locomotives +north of Birmingham.</p> +<p>The population entirely consists of men employed in the Company’s +service, as mechanics, guards, enginemen, stokers, porters, labourers, +their wives and children, their superintendents, a clergyman, schoolmasters +and schoolmistresses, the ladies engaged on the refreshment establishment, +and the tradesmen attracted to Wolverton by the demand of the population.</p> +<p>This railway colony is well worth the attention of those who devote +themselves to an investigation of the social condition of the labouring +classes.</p> +<p>We have here a body of mechanics of intelligence above average, regularly +employed for ten and a-half hours during five days, and for eight hours +during the sixth day of the week, well paid, well housed, with schools +for their children, a reading-room and mechanics’ institution +at their disposal, gardens for their leisure hours, and a church and +clergyman exclusively devoted to them. When work is ended, Wolverton +is a pure republic—equality reigns. There are no rich men +or men of station: all are gentlemen. In theory it is the paradise +of Louis Blanc, only that, instead of the State, it is a Company which +pays and employs the army of workmen. It is true, that during +work hours a despotism rules, but it is a mild rule, tempered by customs +and privileges. And what are the results of this colony, in which +there are none idle, none poor, and few uneducated? Why, in many +respects gratifying, in some respects disappointing. The practical +reformer will learn more than one useful lesson from a patient investigation +of the social state of this great village.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/ill8b.jpg"> +<img alt="THE WOLVERTON VIADUCT" src="images/ill8s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>Those who have not been in the habit of mixing with the superior +class of English skilled mechanics will be agreeably surprised by the +intelligence, information, and educational acquirements of a great number +of the workmen here. They will find men labouring for daily wages +capable of taking a creditable part in political, literary, and scientific +discussion; but at the same time the followers of George Sand, and French +preachers of proletarian perfection will not find their notions of the +ennobling effects of manual labour realised.</p> +<p>There are exceptions, but as a general rule, after a hard day’s +work, a man is not inclined for study of any kind, least of all for +the investigation of abstract sciences; and thus it is that at Wolverton +library, novels are much more in demand than scientific treatises.</p> +<p>In Summer, when walks in the fields are pleasant, and men can work +in their gardens, the demand for books of any kind falls off.</p> +<p>Turning from the library to the mechanics’ institution, pure +science is not found to have many charms for the mechanics of Wolverton. +Geological and astronomical lectures are ill attended, while musical +entertainments, dissolving views, and dramatic recitations are popular.</p> +<p>It must be confessed that dulness and monotony exercise a very unfavourable +influence on this comfortable colony. The people, not being Quakers, +are not content without amusement. They receive their appointed +wages regularly, so that they have not even the amusement of making +and losing money. It would be an excellent thing for the world +if the kind, charitable, cold-blooded people of middle age, or with +middle-aged heads and hearts, who think that a population may be ruled +into an every-day life of alternate work, study, and constitutional +walks, without anything warmer than a weak simper from year’s +end to year’s end, would consult the residents of Wolverton and +Crewe before planning their next parallelogram.</p> +<p>We commend to amateur actors, who often need an audience, the idea +of an occasional trip to Wolverton. The audience would be found +indulgent of very indifferent performances.</p> +<p>But to turn from generalities to the specialities for which Wolverton +is distinguished, we will walk round the workshops by which a rural +parish has been colonised and reduced to a town shape.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>WOLVERTON WORKSHOPS.—To attempt a description of the workshops +of Wolverton without the aid of diagrams and woodcuts would be a very +unsatisfactory task. It is enough to say that they should be visited +not only by those who are specially interested in machinery, but by +all who would know what mechanical genius, stimulated as it has been +to the utmost during the last half century, by the execution of profitable +inventions, has been able to effect.</p> +<p>At Wolverton may be seen collected together in companies, each under +command of its captains or foremen, in separate workshops, some hundreds +of the best handicraftsmen that Europe can produce, all steadily at +work, not without noise, yet without confusion. Among them are +a few men advanced in life of the old generation; there are men of middle +age; young men trained with all the manual advantages of the old generation, +and all the book and lecture privileges of the present time; and then +there are the rising generation of apprentices—the sons of steam +and of railroads. Among all it would be difficult to find a bad-shaped +head, or a stupid face—as for a drunkard not one. It was +once remarked to us by a gentleman at the head of a great establishment +of this kind, that there was something about the labour of skilled workmen +in iron that impressed itself upon their countenances, and showed itself +in their characters. Something of solidity, of determination, +of careful forethought; and really after going over many shops of ironworkers, +we are inclined to come to the same opinion. Machinery, while +superseding, has created manual labour. In a steam-engine factory, +machinery is called upon to do what no amount of manual labour could +effect.</p> +<p>To appreciate the extraordinary amount of intellect and mental and +manual dexterity daily called into exercise, it would be necessary to +have the origin, progress to construction, trial, and amendment of a +locomotive engine from the period that the report of the head of the +locomotive department in favour of an increase of stock receives the +authorization of the board of directors. But such a history would +be a book itself. After passing through the drawing-office, where +the rough designs of the locomotive engineer are worked out in detail +by a staff of draughtsmen, and the carpenters’ shop and wood-turners, +where the models and cores for castings are prepared, we reach, but +do not dwell on the dark lofty hall, where the castings in iron and +in brass are made. The casting of a mass of metal of from five +to twenty tons on a dark night is a fine sight. The tap being +withdrawn the molten liquor spouts forth in an arched fiery continuous +stream, casting a red glow on the half-dressed muscular figures busy +around, which would afford a subject for an artist great in Turner or +Danby-like effects.</p> +<p>But we hasten to the steam-hammer to see scraps of tough iron, the +size of a crown-piece, welded into a huge piston, or other instrument +requiring the utmost strength. At Wolverton the work is conducted +under the supreme command of the Chief Hammerman, a huge-limbed, jolly, +good-tempered Vulcan, with half a dozen boy assistants.</p> +<p>The steam-hammer, be it known, is the application of steam to a piston +under complete regulation, so that the piston, armed with a hammer, +regularly, steadily, perpendicularly descends as desired, either with +the force of a hundred tons or with a gentle tap, just sufficient to +drive home a tin tack and no more. At a word it stops midway in +stroke, and at a word again it descends with a deadly thump. On +our visit, an attempt was being made to execute in wrought, what had +hitherto always been made in cast iron. Success would effect a +great saving in weight. The doors of the furnace were drawn back, +and a white glow, unbearable as the noon-day sun, was made visible, +long hooked iron poles were thrust in to fish for the prize, and presently +a great round mass of metal was poked out to the door of the fiery furnace—a +huge roll of glowing iron, larger than it was possible for any one or +two men to lift, even had it been cold. By ingenious contrivances +it was slipped out upon a small iron truck, dragged to the anvil of +the steam-hammer, and under the direction of Vulcan, not without his +main strength, lodged upon the block.</p> +<p>During the difficult operation of moving the white-red round ball, +it was beautiful to see the rapid disciplined intelligence by which +the hammerman, with word or sign, regulated the movements of his young +assistants, each armed with an iron lever.</p> +<p>At length the word was given, and thump, thump, like an earthquake +the steam-hammer descended, rapidly reducing the red-hot Dutch cheese +shape to the flatter proportions of a mighty Double Gloucester, all +the while the great smith was turning and twisting it about so that +each part should receive its due share of hammering, and that the desired +shape should be rapidly attained, sometimes with one hand, sometimes +with the other, he interposed a flat poker between the red mass and +the hammer, sharing a vibration that was powerful enough to dislocate +the shoulder of any lesser man. “Hold,” he cried: +the elephant-like machine stopped. He took and hauled the great +ball into a new position. “Go on,” he shouted: the +elephant machine went on, and again the red sparks flew as though a +thousand Homeric blacksmiths had been striking in unison, until it was +time again to thrust the half-welded cheese into the fiery furnace, +and again it was dragged forth, and the jolly giant bent, and tugged, +and sweated, and commanded,—he did <i>not</i> swear over his task. +At length having succeeded in making the unwieldy lump assume an approach +to the desired shape, he observed, in a deep, bass, chuckling, triumphant +aside, to the engineer who was looking on, “I’m not a very +little one, but I think if I was as big again you’d try what I +was made of.”</p> +<p>Since that day we have learned that the experiment has been completely +successful, with a great diminution in the weight and an increase of +the strength of an important part of a locomotive.</p> +<p>We have dwelt upon the picture because it combined mechanical with +manual dexterity. A hammerman who might sit for one of Homer’s +blacksmith heroes, and machinery which effects in a few minutes what +an army of such hammermen could not do.</p> +<p>If our painters of mythological Vulcans and sprawling Satyrs want +to display their powers over flesh and muscle, they may find something +real and not vulgar among our iron factories.</p> +<p>After seeing the operations of forging or of casting, we may take +a walk round the shops of the turners and smiths. In some, Whitworth’s +beautiful self-acting machines are planing or polishing or boring holes, +under charge of an intelligent boy; in others lathes are ranged round +the walls, and a double row of vices down the centre of the long rooms. +Solid masses of cast or forged metal are carved by the keen powerful +lathe tools like so much box-wood, and long shavings of iron and steel +sweep off as easily as deal shavings from a carpenter’s plane. +At the long row of vices the smiths are hammering and filing away with +careful dexterity. No mean amount of judgment in addition to the +long training needed for acquiring manual skill, is requisite before +a man can be admitted into this army of skilled mechanics; for every +locomotive contains many hundred pieces, each of which must be fitted +as carefully as a watch.</p> +<p>If we fairly contemplate the result of these labours, created by +the inventive genius of a line of ingenious men, headed by Watt and +Stephenson, these workshops are a more imposing sight than the most +brilliant review of disciplined troops. It is not mere strength, +dexterity, and obedience, upon which the locomotive builder calculates +for the success of his design, but also upon the separate and combined +intelligence of his army of mechanics.</p> +<p>Considering that in annually increasing numbers, factories for the +building of locomotive, of marine steam-engines, of iron ships, and +of various kinds of machinery, are established in different parts of +the kingdom, and that hence every year education becomes more needed, +more valued, and more extended among this class of mechanics, it is +impossible to doubt that the training, mental and moral, obtained in +factories like those of Wolverton, Crewe, Derby, Swindon, and other +railway shops, and in great private establishments like Whitworth’s +and Roberts’ of Manchester, Maudslay and Field’s of London, +Ransome and May of Ipswich, Wilson of Leeds, and Stephenson of Newcastle, +must produce by imitative inoculation a powerful effect on the national +character. The time has passed when the best workmen were the +most notorious drunkards; in all skilled trades self-respect has made +progress.</p> +<p>A few passenger carriages are occasionally built at Wolverton as +experiments. One, the invention of Mr. J. M’Connel, the +head of the locomotive department, effects several important improvements. +It is a composite carriage of corrugated iron, lined with wood to prevent +unpleasant vibration, on six wheels, the centre wheels following the +leading wheels round curves by a very ingenious arrangement. This +carriage holds sixty second-class passengers and fifteen first-class, +beside a guard’s brake, which will hold five more; all in one +body. The saving in weight amounts to thirty-five per cent. +A number of locomotives have lately been built from the designs of the +same eminent engineer, to meet the demands of the passenger traffic +in excursion trains for July and August, 1851.</p> +<p>It must be understood that although locomotives are built at Wolverton, +only a small proportion of the engines used on the line are built by +the company, and the chief importance of the factory at Wolverton is +as a repairing shop, and school for engine-drivers.</p> +<p>Every engine has a number. When an engine on any part of the +lines in connection with Wolverton needs repair, it is forwarded with +a printed form, filled up and signed by the superintendent of the station +near which the engine has been working. As thus—“Engine +60, axle of driving-wheel out of gauge, fire-box burned out,” +etc.</p> +<p>This invoice or bill of particulars is copied into a sort of day-book, +to be eventually transferred into the account in the ledger, in which +No. 60 has a place.</p> +<p>The superintendent next in command under the locomotive engineer-in-chief, +places the lame engine in the hands of the foreman who happens to be +first disengaged. The foreman sets the workmen he can spare at +the needful repairs. When completed, the foreman makes a report, +which is entered in the ledger, opposite the number of the engine, stating +the repairs done, the men’s names who did it, and how many days, +hours, and quarters of an hour each man was employed. The engine +reported sound is then returned to its station, with a report of the +repairs which have been effected. The whole work is completed +on the principle of a series of links of responsibility. The engineer-in-chief +is answerable to the directors for the efficiency of the locomotives; +he examines the book, and depends on his superintendent. The superintendent +depends on the foreman to whom the work was entrusted; and, should the +work be slurred, must bear the shame, but can turn upon the workmen +he selected for the job.</p> +<p>In fact, the whole work of this vast establishment is carried on +by dividing the workmen into small companies, under the superintendence +of an officer responsible for the quantity and quality of the work of +his men.</p> +<p>The history of each engine, from the day of launching, is so kept, +that, so long as it remains in use, every separate repair, with its +date and the names of the men employed on it, can be traced. Allowing, +therefore, for the disadvantage as regards economy of a company, as +compared with private individuals, the system at Wolverton is as effective +as anything that could well be imagined.</p> +<p>The men employed at Wolverton station in March, 1851, numbered 775, +of whom 4 were overlookers, 9 were foremen, 4 draughtsmen, 15 clerks, +32 engine-drivers, 21 firemen, and 119 labourers; the rest were mechanics +and apprentices. The weekly wages amounted to £929 11s. +10d.</p> +<p>Of course these men have, for the most part, wives and families, +and so with shopkeepers, raise the population of the railway town of +Wolverton to about 2,000, inhabiting a series of uniform brick houses, +in rectangular streets, about a mile distant from the ancient parish +church of Wolverton, and the half-dozen houses constituting the original +parish.</p> +<p>For the benefit of this population, the directors have built a church, +schools for boys, for girls, and for infants, which are not the least +remarkable or interesting parts of this curious town.</p> +<p>The clergyman of the railway church, the Rev. George Waight, M.A., +has been resident at Wolverton from the commencement of the railway +buildings. His difficulties are great; but he is well satisfied +with his success. In railway towns there is only one class, and +that so thoroughly independent, that the influence of the clergyman +can only rest with his character and talents.</p> +<p>The church is thinly attended in the morning, for hard-working men +like to indulge in rest one day in the week; in the evening it is crowded, +and the singing far above average.</p> +<p>To the schools we should like to have devoted a whole chapter now, +but must reserve an account of one of the most interesting results of +railway enterprise.</p> +<p>There is a literary and scientific institution, with a library attached. +Scientific lectures and scientific books are very little patronized +at Wolverton; astronomy and geology have few students; but there is +a steady demand for a great number of novels, voyages, and travels; +and musical entertainments are well supported.</p> +<p>The lecture-room is extremely miserable, quite unfit for a good concert, +as there is not even a retiring room, but the directors are about to +build a better one, and while they are about it, they might as well +build a small theatre. Some such amusement is much needed; for +want of relaxation in the monotony of a town composed of one class, +without any public amusements, the men are driven too often to the pipe +and pot, and the women to gossip.</p> +<p>In the summer, the gardens which form a suburb are much resorted +to, and the young men go to cricket and football; but still some amusements, +in which all the members of every family could join, would improve the +moral tone of Wolverton.</p> +<p>Work, wages, churches, schools, libraries, and scientific lectures +are not alone enough to satisfy a large population of any kind, certainly +not a population of hard-handed workers.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>WOLVERTON EMBANKMENT was one of the difficulties in railway making, +which at one period interested the public; at present it is not admitted +among engineers that there are any difficulties. The ground was +a bog, and as fast as earth was tipped in at the top it bulged out at +the bottom. When, after great labour, this difficulty had been +overcome, part of the embankment, fifty feet in height, which contained +alum shale, decomposed, and spontaneous combustion ensued. The +amazement of the villagers was great, but finally they came to the conclusion +expressed by one of them, in “Dang it, they can’t make this +here railway arter all, and they’ve set it o’ fire to cheat +their creditors.”</p> +<p>On leaving Wolverton, before arriving at Roade, a second-class station, +after clearing a short cutting, looking westerly, we catch a glimpse +of the tower of the church of Grafton, where, according to tradition, +Edward IV. married Lady Gray of Groby. The last interview between +Henry VIII. and Cardinal Campeggio, relative to his divorce from Catherine +of Aragon, took place at the Mansion House of this parish, which was +demolished in 1643.</p> +<p>About this spot we enter Northamptonshire, and passing Roade, pause +at Blisworth station, where there is a neat little inn.</p> +<h2>BLISWORTH, NORTHAMPTON.</h2> +<pre>Miles. Miles. + BLISWORTH. 34½ OUNDLE. + 4¾ NORTHAMPTON. 40¾ WANSFORD. +15¾ WELLINGBOROUGH. STAMFORD by Coach. +20 HIGHAM FERRERS. 47¼ PETERBOROUGH. +26 THRAPSTON.</pre> +<p>From Blisworth branches out the line to Peterborough, with sixteen +stations, of which we name above the more important.</p> +<p>The route presents a constant succession of beautiful and truly English +rural scenery, of rich lowland pastures, watered by the winding rivers, +and bounded by hills, on which, like sentinels, a row of ancient church +towers stand.</p> +<p>The first station is Northampton.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>NORTHAMPTON, on a hill on the banks of the river Nene, is a remarkably +pleasant town, with several fine old buildings, an ancient church, an +open market square, neat clean streets, and suburbs of pretty villas, +overlooking, from the hill top, fat green meadows, flooded in winter. +Shoemaking on a wholesale scale, is the principal occupation of the +inhabitants. For strong shoes Northampton can compete in any foreign +market, and a good many light articles, cut after French patterns, have +been successfully made since the trade was thrown open by Peel’s +tariff. There are several factories, in which large numbers of +young persons are employed, but the majority work by the piece at home +for the master manufacturers.</p> +<p>Northampton is also great in the fairs and markets of a rich agricultural +district, and rejoices over races twice a year, in which the facilities +of the railroad have rendered some compensation to the inn-keepers for +the loss of the coaching trade. Northampton was originally intended +to be a main station of the railway between London and Birmingham. +The inhabitants were silly enough to resist the bestowal of this benefit +upon them, and unfortunate enough to be successful in their resistance. +In after years, when experience had rendered fools wise, they were glad +to obtain the present branch through to Peterborough; but the injury +of the ill-judged opposition can never be cured.</p> +<p>The church of All Saints, in the centre of the town, has an ancient +embattled tower which escaped the great fire of 1675. St. Peter’s, +near the West Bridge, a remarkably curious specimen of enriched Norman; +St. Sepulchre’s, a round church of the twelfth century, all deserve +enumeration. There are also two hospitals, the only remains of +many religious houses which existed before the Reformation. St. +John’s consists of a chapel and a large hall, with apartments +for inferior poor persons; St. Thomas’s is for twenty poor alms-women. +No vestiges, beyond the earthworks, remain of the castle built by Simon +de St. Liz, who was created Earl of Northampton by William the Conqueror. +Northampton was a royal residence during the reigns of Richard I., John, +and Henry III.; a battlefield during the wars of the Barons and the +wars of the Roses; but the ancient character of the town was almost +entirely destroyed by the great fire of 1675,—not without benefit +to the health, though at the expense of the picturesqueness of this +ancient borough.</p> +<p>Northampton is important as the capital town of one of our finest +grazing and hunting counties, where soil and climate are both favourable +to the farmer.</p> +<p>Large numbers of the Scotch, Welch, and Herefords sold in Smithfield, +are fed in the yards and finished in the pastures of Northamptonshire.</p> +<p>The present Earl of Spencer keeps up, on a limited scale, the herd +of short-horns which were so celebrated during the lifetime of his brother, +better known as Lord Althorpe,—at his seat of Althorpe, six miles +from the town, and also carries on a little fancy farming. The +late Earl of Spencer was much more successful as a breeder than as a +farmer; indeed, it may be questioned whether the prejudices of that +amiable and excellent man in favour of pasture land, did not exercise +an injurious influence over the proceedings of the Royal Agricultural +Association.</p> +<p>Northampton returns two members to Parliament, and has a mayor and +corporation.</p> +<p>The railway route from Northampton to Peterborough presents a series +of pleasant views on either side,—so pleasant that he who has +leisure should walk, or ride on horseback, along the line of Saxon villages, +visit the series of curious churches at Wellingborough, Higham Ferrers, +with its collegiate church and almshouse, Thrapston and Oundle, and +other stations. Within two miles of Thrapston is Drayton House, +Lowick, the seat of the Sackville family, which retains many of the +features of an ancient castle, and has a gallery of paintings by the +old masters. The church of Lowick contains several monuments, +brasses, and windows of stained glass. Near Oundle is to be found +the earthwork of Fotheringay Castle, where Mary Queen of Scots was confined, +tried, and executed. The castle itself was levelled to the ground +by order of her son, James I. On leaving Oundle we pass a station +appurtenant to Wansford in England, of which we shall say a word presently.</p> +<p>Here we may take coach across to Stamford in Lincolnshire (<i>see +Stamford</i>), unless we prefer the rail from Peterborough. There +is a point somewhere hereabouts where the three counties of Northampton, +Lincoln, and Huntingdon all meet.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>WANSFORD IN ENGLAND.—If about to investigate the antiquities +of Stamford or Peterborough, the traveller will do well to stop at Wansford +for the sake of one of the best inns in Europe, well known under the +sign of “The Haycock at Wansford in England.” This +sign represents a man stretched floating on a haycock, apparently in +conversation with parties on a bridge. It is intended to illustrate +the legend of Drunken Barnaby, who, travelling during the time of the +plague from London northward, tasting and criticising the ale on the +road, drank so much of the Northamptonshire brewst that he fell asleep +on a haycock, in one of the flat meadows. In the night time, as +is often the case in this part of the country, a sudden flood arose, +and our toper awaked to find himself floating on a great tide of water, +which at length brought him to a bridge, upon which, hailing the passengers, +he asked, “Where am I?” in full expectation of having floated +to France or Spain; whereupon they answered, “at Wansford.” +“What!” he exclaimed in ecstacy, “Wansford in England!” +and landing, drank the ale and gave a new name to the inn of this village +between three counties. The inn (which belongs to the Duke of +Bedford) affords a sort of accommodation which the rapid travelling +and short halts of railways have almost abolished. But an easy +rent, a large farm, and a trade in selling and hiring hunters, enables +the landlord to provide as comfortably for his guests, as when, in old +posting days, five dukes made the Haycock their night halt at one time. +On entering the well carpeted coffee-room, with its ample screen, blazing +fire, and plentiful allowance of easy chairs, while a well appointed +tempting dinner is rapidly and silently laid on the spotless table-cloth,—the +tired sportsman or traveller will be inclined to fancy that he is visitor +to some wealthy squire rather than the guest of an innkeeper. +When we add that the bed-rooms match the sitting-rooms, that the charges +are moderate, that the Pytchley, Earl Fitzwilliam’s, and the Duke +of Rutland’s hounds (the Beevor), meet within an easy distance; +that the county abounds in antiquities, show-houses like Burleigh, that +pleasant woodland rides are within a circle of ten miles, that good +pike-fishing is to be had nearly all the year round, while in retirement +Wansford is complete; we have said enough to show that it is well worth +the notice of a large class of travellers,—from young couples +on their first day’s journey, to old gentlemen travelling north +and needing quiet and a bottle of old port.</p> +<p>The last station, Peterborough, presents an instance of a city without +population, without manufactures, without trade, without a good inn, +or even a copy of the <i>Times</i>, except at the railway station; a +city which would have gone on slumbering to the present hour without +a go-a-head principle of any kind, and which has nevertheless, by the +accident of situation, had railway greatness thrust upon it in a most +extraordinary manner.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>PETERBOROUGH is one of the centres from which radiate three lines +to London, viz., by the Northampton route, on which we have travelled; +by the direct line, through Herts, of the Great Northern; and by the +Eastern Counties, with all its Norfolk communications. From Peterborough +also proceeds an arm of the Midland Counties, through Stamford, Oldham, +and Melton Mowbray, and the best Leicestershire grass country, to Leicester +or to Nottingham,—while the Great Northern, dividing, embraces +the whole of Lincolnshire and makes way to Hull, by the Humber ferries, +on the one hand, and to York on the other. There is, therefore, +the best of consolation on being landed in this dull inhospitable city, +that it is the easiest possible thing to leave it.</p> +<p>Peterborough dates from the revival of Christianity among the Saxons; +destroyed by the Danes A.D. 870, rebuilt by Edgar in 970, it was attacked +and plundered by Saxon insurgents from the fens under Hereward the Wake, +in the time of William the Conqueror. At the dissolution of religious +houses under Henry VIII., Peterborough was one of the most magnificent +abbeys, and, having been selected as the seat of one of the new bishoprics, +the buildings were preserved entire. In the civil wars, the Lady +Chapel and several conventual buildings were pulled down and the materials +sold. At present the cathedral is a regular cruciform structure +of Norman character, remarkable for the solidity of its construction.</p> +<p>It was commenced 1117, by John de Saiz, a Norman. The chancel +was finished, A.D. 1140, by Abbot Martin de Vecti. The great transept +and a portion of the central tower were built by Abbot William de Vaudeville, +A.D. 1160 to 1175, and the nave by Abbot Benedict 1177-1193. +The fitting up of the choir is of woodwork richly carved. The +greater number of the monuments, shrines, and chantry chapels, were +destroyed by the Parliamentary troops. Two queens lie buried here, +Catherine of Aragon and Mary of Scotland, without elegy or epitaph, +monument or tombstone.</p> +<p>The Cathedral viewed, nothing remains to detain the traveller in +this peculiarly stupid city. Within a pleasant ride of five miles +lies Milton House, the seat of Earl Fitzwilliam.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>STAMFORD.—Although Stamford is not upon this line of railway, +travellers passing near should not fail to visit so ancient and interesting +a town. Few English boroughs can trace back more distinctly their +antiquity. Six churches still remain of the fifteen which, beside +many conventual buildings, formerly adorned it. For Stamford was +one of the towns which, had not the Reformation intervened, would have +been swallowed up by the ever hungry ecclesiastical maw. Stamford +awakens many historic recollections. It has a place in Domesday +Book, being there styled Stanford: King Stephen had an interview there +with Ranulph, Earl of Chester. In 1190, the Jews of Stamford were +plundered and slain by the recruits proceeding to the crusades; and, +ten years afterwards, when Edward I. expelled the Jews from England, +“their synagogue and noble library at Stamford were profaned and +sold.” Many of the books were purchased by Gregory of Huntingdon, +a monk of Ramsey Abbey, a diligent student of ancient languages; and +thus the result of much learning, collected in Spain and Italy, and +handed down from the times when the Jews and Arabs almost alone cultivated +literature as well as commerce, was sown in England, the last of European +kingdoms to become distinguished in letters. Stamford was the +refuge of Oxford students on the occasion of disturbances in 1333. +It was taken by the Lancastrian army of the North under Queen Margaret +in 1461, and given up to plunder; and, in 1462, when thirty thousand +Lincolnshire men marched, under the command of Sir Robert Wells, against +Edward IV., under the walls of Stamford they were defeated, and, flying, +left their coats behind. But the latest battles of Stamford have +been between Whig and Tory, and even these have ceased.</p> +<p>The houses and public buildings are all built of a rich cream-coloured +stone, which gives an air of cleanliness and even distinction, which +is an immense advantage. There are two fine hotels. The +borough returns two members, both nominated by the Marquis of Exeter, +who owns a large proportion of the vote-giving houses. The bull-running +has been abolished here, as also at Tutbury, in Staffordshire; but those +who are curious to see the ceremony may have occasional opportunities +in the neighbourhood of Smithfield market, where it is performed under +the especial patronage of the aldermen of the city of London.</p> +<h2>WEEDON.</h2> +<p>The next station after Blisworth is Weedon, properly, Weedon Bec, +so called because formerly there was established here a religious house, +or cell, to the Abbey of Bec in Normandy. The Church, a very ancient +building, contains portions of Norman, and various styles of English, +architecture.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/ill9b.jpg"> +<img alt="BRIDGE IN THE BLISWORTH EMBANKMENT" src="images/ill9s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>The importance of Weedon rests in its being the site of a strongly +fortified central depot for artillery, small arms, and ammunition, with +extensive barracks, well worth seeing, but not to be seen without an +order from the Board of Ordnance. In passing, a few mild soldiers +may be seen fishing for roach in the canal, and a few active ones playing +cricket in summer. The Weedon system of fortification eschews +lofty towers and threatening battlemented walls, and all that constitutes +the picturesque; so that Weedon Barracks look scarcely more warlike +than a royal rope manufactory.</p> +<p>After Weedon we pass through Kilsby Tunnel, 2,423 yards long, which +was once one of the wonders of the world; but has been, by the progress +of railway works, reduced to the level of any other long dark hole.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/ill10b.jpg"> +<img alt="VIEW FROM THE TOP OF KILSBY TUNNEL" src="images/ill10s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h2>RUGBY AND ITS RAILWAYS.</h2> +<p>Rugby, 83 miles from London, the centre of a vast network of railways, +is our next halting place.</p> +<p>That is to say, First, an arm of the Midland to Leicester, to Burton, +to Derby, to Nottingham, and through Melton Mowbray to Stamford and +Peterborough; thus intersecting a great agricultural and a great manufacturing +district.</p> +<p>Second, the Trent Valley Line, through Atherstone, Tamworth and Lichfield, +to Stafford, and by cutting off the Birmingham curve, forming part of +the direct line to Manchester.</p> +<p>Third, A line to Leamington, which may be reached from this point +in three-quarters of an hour; and fourth, a direct line to Stamford, +by way of Market Harborough; which, with the Leamington line, affords +the most direct conveyance from Norfolk, and Lincolnshire, through Peterborough +to Birmingham, Gloucester, and all that midland district.</p> +<p>The Oxford and Rugby Line, which was one of the subjects of the celebrated +Battles of the Gauges, has not been constructed; and it may be doubted +whether it ever will.</p> +<p>The town lies about a mile from the station on the banks of the Avon, +and owes all its importance to Laurence Sheriff, a London shopkeeper +in the time of Queen Elizabeth, who, in 1567, endowed a school in his +native village with eight acres of land, situated where Lamb’s +Conduit-street, in London, now stands, whence at present upwards of +£5000 a year is derived.</p> +<p>Rugby was long considered the most snobbish of English public schools, +a sad character in a country where style and name go so far. Some +twenty years ago, when the Rugbæans had the “presumption” +to challenge the Wykehamists to play at football, the latter proudly +answered, that the Rugbæans might put on worsted stockings and +clouted soles, and the Wykehamists in silk stockings and pumps would +meet them in any lane in England. But, since that time, the Harrow +gentlemen, the Eton fops, the Winchester scholars, and the Westminster +blackguards, have had reason to admit that Arnold, a Wykehamist, long +considered by the fellows of that venerable institution an unworthy +son, succeeded in making Rugby the great nursery of sound scholars and +Christian gentlemen, and in revolutionizing and reforming the educational +system of all our public schools.</p> +<p>The following, by one of Arnold’s pupils, himself an eminent +example of cultivated intellect and varied information, combined with +great energy in the practical affairs of life and active untiring benevolence, +is a sketch of</p> +<h2>“ARNOLD AND HIS SCHOOL.”</h2> +<p>In the year 1827, the head mastership became vacant of the Grammar +School at Rugby, and the trustees, a body of twelve country gentlemen +and noblemen, selected, to the dismay of all the orthodox, the Rev. +Thomas Arnold, late fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, and then taking +private pupils at Laleham, Middlesex. Transplanted from Oriel, +the hotbed of strange and unsound opinions, out of which the conflicting +views of Whateley, Hampden, Keble, and Newman, were struggling into +day; himself a disciple of the suspected school of German criticism; +known to entertain views at variance with the majority of his church +brethren on all the semipolitical questions of the day; an advocate +for the admission of Roman Catholics to Parliament, for the reform of +the Liturgy and enlargement of the Church, so as to embrace dissenters; +the distrust with which he was regarded by all who did not know him +may be imagined.</p> +<p>It was a critical time, the year 1827; the mind of the country was +then undergoing that process of change which shortly afterwards showed +itself in the emancipation of the Roman Catholics, the passing of the +Reform Bill, the foundation of the London University, and the publications +of the Useful Knowledge Society. Old opinions were on all sides +the objects of attack. At such a period, public schools, with +their exclusively classical teaching and their “fagging” +systems, were naturally regarded as institutions of the past not adapted +to the present. It seemed probable that a remodelling, or, according +to the phrase of the day, a “reform” of them, would be attempted +by the new intellectual school of which Lord Brougham was regarded as +the type. It was the views of this party which, it was anticipated, +Dr. Arnold would hasten to introduce into Rugby.</p> +<p>We now know that he did not do this, although he did reform not only +the school of Rugby, but gave a bias to the education of the sons of +what is still the most influential class in this country, which has +lasted to the present day, and that in a direction and in a manner which +surprised his opponents, and at one time provoked even his friends.</p> +<p>It may not be uninteresting to such of our readers as love to trace +the origin of those changes of opinion, which are at times seen to diffuse +themselves over portions of society from an unseen source, to learn +how this original man commenced his task of training the minds committed +to him in those peculiar tendencies, both as to feeling and thinking, +which enter appreciably into the tone of the upper classes of the present +generation.</p> +<p>Dr. Arnold, from the day on which he first took charge of the school, +adopted the course which he ever after adhered to, of treating the boys +like gentlemen and reasonable beings. Thus, on receiving from +an offender an answer to any question he would say, “If you say +so, of course I believe you,” and on this he would act. +The effect of this was immediate and remarkable; the better feeling +of the school was at once touched; boys declared, “It is a shame +to tell Arnold a lie, because he always believes you;” and thus, +at one bold step, the axe was put to the root of the inveterate practice +of lying to the master, one of the curses of schools. In pursuance +of the same views, when reprimanding a boy, he generally took him apart +and spoke to him in such a manner as to make him feel that his master +was grieved and troubled at his wrong-doing; a quakerlike simplicity +of mien and language, a sternness of manner not unmixed with tenderness, +and a total absence of all “don-ish” airs, combined to produce +this effect. Nor were his personal habits without their effect. +The boys saw in him no outward appearance of a solemn pedagogue or dignified +ecclesiastic whom it was a temptation to dupe, or into whose ample wig +javelins of paper might with impunity be darted; but a spare active +determined man, six feet high, in duck trousers, a narrow-brimmed hat, +a black sailor’s handkerchief knotted round his neck, a heavy +walking-stick in his hand,—a strong swimmer, a noted runner; the +first of all the masters in the school-room on the winter mornings, +teaching the lowest class when it was his turn with the same energy +which he would have thrown into a lecture to a critical audience, listening +with interest to an intelligent answer from the smallest boy, and speaking +to them more like an elder brother than the head master. <a name="citation67"></a><a href="#footnote67">{67}</a> +They soon perceived that they had to deal with a man thoroughly in earnest, +acute, active, and not easily deceived; that he was not only a scholar +but a gentleman, who expected them to behave as the sons of gentlemen +themselves. Their attention was awakened, and, although their +fears were somewhat excited, their sympathies and interest were at the +same time aroused. This was a good commencement; but Arnold was +ready with other means no less effectual for engaging their thoughts. +He opened out to them at once “fresh fields and pastures new,” +in the domain of knowledge; he established periodical examinations, +at which (if a tolerable proficiency in the regular studies was displayed) +a boy might offer to be examined in books on any subject he might prefer, +and prizes were awarded accordingly. The offer was eagerly seized; +modern history, biography, travels, fiction, poetry, were sought after; +the habit of general reading was created, and a new intellectual activity +pervaded the school. The writer well remembers the effect produced +on him when he heard that Arnold had lent one of the boys <i>Humphrey +Clinker</i>, to illustrate a passage in his theme. He felt from +that time forth that the keys of knowledge were confided to him, and, +in proof of this, his own little library, and those in the “studies” +of many of his neighbours, shortly doubled their numbers. French, +German, and mathematics, were encouraged by forming distinct classes +on these subjects, and by conferring for high standing in them some +of the privileges as to exemption from fagging, which previously had +only attached to a similar standing in classics. Modern history +was also introduced as a recognised branch of school study. The +advantage of this was, that many of the boys, who, from deficient early +training or peculiar turn of mind, were unable to bring themselves to +proficiency in the regular Latin and Greek course of the school, and +consequently were idle and listless, found other and more congenial +paths in which intelligence and application would still meet with their +reward.</p> +<p>By these simple means, now generally adopted in classical schools, +but up to that time supposed to be incompatible with high accomplishments +in classical learning, the standard of intelligence and information +was incalculably raised, and the school, as a place of education in +its wider sense, became infinitely more efficient.</p> +<p>We should have stated that Dr. Arnold’s skill as a teacher +was unrivalled; he imparted a living interest to all he touched, to +be attributed mainly to his habit of illustrating ancient events by +“modern instances.” Thus, Thucydides and Napier were +compared almost page by page; thus the “High Church party” +of the Jews was pointed to as a type of “the Tories.” +By means of his favourite topic, physical geography, he sought to bring +the actual theatre of events before his pupils. Thus he would +describe (when living at Laleham), the Vatican and Janiculum hills of +Rome, as being “like the hills on the right bank of the Thames +behind Chertsey;” the Monte Marie as being “about the height +and steepness of Cooper’s Hill,” and “having the Tiber +at the foot of it like the Thames at Anchorwick.”</p> +<p>To philology even, the deadly science of dead languages, and the +great business of public schools, he contrived to impart life by continually +pointing out its bearing on the history of the races of mankind. +The interest thus given to study was something before unknown in schools.</p> +<p>So far we have confined ourselves to the effect of Arnold’s +system on the mind, but the source of his most anxious thoughts and +constant solicitude lay deeper than this; it related to the spiritual +condition, or, according to the German phrase, “the inner life,” +of the boys. With his usual indifference to personal labour he +assumed the preachership of the chapel, declining however, also, with +characteristic disinterestedness, the salary attached, hitherto given +to increase the stipend of a junior master, and his famous “quarter +of an hour” sermons, into which he threw all the power of his +character and his intellect, no doubt gave him an opportunity of confirming, +on certain minds, that influence which was primarily due to his earnest +acts of heart and head.</p> +<p>We here approach a portion of his career on which difference of opinion +must always exist. Impressed with an abiding conviction that all +earthly things were subordinate to the relation between man and his +Maker; keenly appreciating all that was “of good report,” +and impatient of evil, or what seemed to him to be of evil tendency, +even to intolerance, it must be admitted that in Arnold there was something +of the zealot. With his acute sense of responsibility as to the +spiritual state of the boys, it was natural that he should seek to impress +those with whom he was brought in contact, and he did so. The +personal notice he bestowed on boys of serious tendencies, asking them +to his house and conversing with them on solemn subjects had this effect, +and soon engendered “a sect” in the school. Now, the +boys who were thus susceptible and formed this sect, were generally +of the milder order of character, and not of that precocious virility +which always gives influence in a great school; hence arose among the +natural leaders of the school, the strong in character and the stout +in heart and hand, a reaction against Arnold and against Arnold’s +views, as being opposed to the traditional notions of the school. +This reaction was strengthened by the peculiar nature of some of these +views, such, for instance as those on the subject of the code of honour. +Arnold, although himself a man actuated by a nice sense of honour, felt +it his duty to set himself strongly in words against the code of honour; +it was the constant object of vituperation on his part, even from the +pulpit. His notions on this point, however, never gained ground +with his hearers, who could not be brought to believe that their master +(himself as true a knight errant as ever drew sword or pen,) was serious +when he told them that the spirit of chivalry was “the true Antichrist.”</p> +<p>The attempt to introduce a more highly-wrought tone of religious +feeling than was perhaps of wholesome growth in very young minds was, +therefore, not without its drawbacks; the antagonism to some of his +own views which it called forth, combined with the utter disregard to +established views which characterized his own teaching, and which the +school caught from him, told upon the boys’ minds. The direct +and indirect effect of Arnold’s school of thought may indeed, +now, we think, be traced in the general distrust of hitherto received +opinions, which, but little tinged in England it is true with either +licentiousness or irreverence, is nevertheless characteristic of the +present generation.</p> +<p>These effects are also more manifest now that Arnold’s personal +influence can no longer be exercised. So long as he was at his +post, his earnest simplicity of character, his purity of life, his intellectual +vigour, his fearless seeking after truth, carried away the sympathies +of all who were brought in contact with him; not one of whom but will +say, on looking back to the impression he left on them, “Behold +an Israelite indeed in whom there was no guile!”</p> +<p>Thus the reform introduced into Rugby by Arnold, and indirectly into +other public schools through him, was then very different from that +which was anticipated from him. He did, it will be seen, none +of the things he was expected by his party to do. He strenuously +inculcated the views of Christian doctrine most opposed to those of +the Latitudinarian party. <a name="citation71"></a><a href="#footnote71">{71}</a> +He stoutly adhered to the system of “fagging,” as being +the best mode of responsible government for the school “out of +school,” founding his opinion on his own experience at Winchester, +on which he often dwelt. He raised and improved the standard of +classical learning in its wider sense, so that the scholars of Rugby +gained a high standing at the universities; and by showing that this +was attainable consistently with acquirements in other branches of learning, +and with the utmost amount of intelligent interest in the knowledge +of the day, he confirmed that opinion in favour of the advantage of +classical learning, as a sound philosophical means of training the faculties +for worldly affairs, which we have seen lately advocated and applauded +even in the heart of Manchester itself, at the opening of Owen’s +College.</p> +<p>The change he introduced was thus more thorough, more deep and comprehensive, +than any which the suggestions of his partisan supporters would have +accomplished. It was a change in the very spirit of education, +reaching beyond the years of boyhood or the limits of school walls.</p> +<h2>COVENTRY TO BIRMINGHAM,</h2> +<p>Instead of turning off from Rugby by the new route to Leamington, +we will keep the old road, and so push on straight to the great Warwickshire +manufactory and mart of ribands and watches. First appears the +graceful spire of St. Michael’s Church; then the green pastures +of the Lammas, on which, for centuries, the freemen of Coventry have +fed their cattle, sweep into sight, and with a whiz, a whirl, and a +whistle, we are in the city and county of Coventry—the seat of +the joint diocese of Lichfield and Coventry—which return two members +to Parliament, at the hands of one of the most stubbornly independent +constituencies in England; a constituency which may be soft-sawdered, +but cannot be bullied or bribed.</p> +<p>A railroad here branches off to Nuneaton, distant ten miles, a sort +of manufacturing dependency of the great city; and on the other, at +the same distance, to Leamington, with a station at Kenilworth.</p> +<p>In addition to its manufacturing importance, an importance which +has survived and increased in the face of the changes in the silk trade +and watch trade, commenced by Huskisson, and completed by Peel, Coventry +affords rich food for the antiquarian, scenes of deep interest to the +historical student, a legend for poets, a pageant for melodramatists, +and a tableau for amateurs of <i>poses plastiques</i>.</p> +<p>Once upon a time Kings held their Courts and summoned Parliaments +at Coventry; four hundred years ago the Guilds of Coventry recruited, +armed, clothed, and sent forth six hundred stout fellows to take part +in the Wars of the Roses; at Coventry the lists were pitched for Mary +of Lancaster, and Phillip Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, to decide in single +combat their counter-charges before the soon-to-be-dethroned Richard +II.</p> +<p>At Coventry you will find the effigy of vile Peeping Tom, and can +follow the course through which the fair Godiva rode naked, veiled by +her modesty and flowing tresses, to save her townsmen from a grievous +tax. To be sure, some English Niebuhrs have undertaken to prove +the whole story a legend; but, for our parts, we are determined to believe +in tradition and Alfred Tennyson’s sonnet.</p> +<p>There are three ancient churches in Coventry, of which St. Michael’s, +built in the reign of Henry I., is the first; the spire rising 303 feet +from the ground, the lofty interior ornamented with a roof of oak, curiously +carved, and several windows of stained glass.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/ill11b.jpg"> +<img alt="COVENTRY" src="images/ill11s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>St. Mary’s Hall, a large building, now used for corporation +council meetings, and festivities, erected in the reign of Henry VI., +is one of the richest and most interesting vestiges of the ornamental +architecture of England. The principal room has a grotesquely-carved +roof of oak, a gallery for minstrels, an armoury, a chair of state, +and a great painted window, which need only the filling up of royal +and noble personages, their attendants, and the rich burgesses of Coventry, +to recall the time when Richard II. held his Court in this ancient city, +and, with “old John of Gaunt,” settled the sentence on Harry +of Hereford, and Philip of Norfolk.</p> +<p>In this chamber is to be seen a beautiful piece of tapestry, executed +in 1450, measuring thirty feet by ten, and containing eighty figures.</p> +<p>In the free school, founded by John Moles, in the reign of Henry +VIII., Sir William Dugdale, the antiquarian and historian of Warwickshire, +was educated. The income is about £900 a-year, and the scholars +have open to competition two fellowships of St. John’s College, +Oxon, one at Catherine’s Hall, Cambridge, and six exhibitions +at either University. Previous to the investigations of the Charity +Commissioners, the fine school-room was locked up, and the books of +the library torn for waste paper to light fires. At present, under +the reformed system, the school is attended by a large number of scholars.</p> +<p>There are more than a dozen educational and other charities for the +benefit of the poor, enjoying a revenue of many thousands a-year.</p> +<p>There are also several curious specimens of domestic architecture +of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to be found in Coventry. +It is, however, on the whole, a dark, dirty, inconvenient city. +The surrounding belt of Lammas lands on which the freemen have the right +of pasturing their horses and cows, has prevented any increase in the +limits of the city.</p> +<p>In the middle ages Coventry was celebrated for its “<i>mysteries +and pageants</i>,” of which an account has been published by Mr. +Reader, a local bookseller.</p> +<p>The chief manufactures are of ribands and of watches, both transplantations +from the Continent. The electors of Coventry distinguished themselves +by their consistency during the Free-trade agitation. They exacted +a pledge from their members in favour of Free-trade, <i>except in watches +and ribands</i>. More recently these same Coventry men have had +the good sense to prefer a successful man of business, the architect +of his own fortunes, to a Right Honourable Barrister and ex-Railway +Commissioner.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/ill12b.jpg"> +<img alt="THE SHERBORNE VIADUCT, NEAR COVENTRY" src="images/ill12s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>One thing needful to preserve the manufacturing position of Coventry +is, a first-rate School of Design—labour, and coal, and ample +means of conveyance they have, east and west, and north and south; and +now the manufacturers only need the cultivation of true principles of +taste among the whole riband-weaving population. For taste is +a rare article, and many draughts of small fry must be made before one +leviathan salmon can be caught. Great advances have been made +recently in the production of the best kinds of ribands. A specimen +produced by subscription for the Hyde Park Exhibition of 1851, proved +that Coventry was quite able to rival the choicest work of France in +the class of machine-made ribands. The application of steam power +to this class of manufactures is of but recent date. Coventry +surveyed, and this may be done in a few hours, unless the traveller +is able and willing to examine its rich manufactories, it is difficult +to resist the invitation of the railway porter, bawling, to Kenilworth, +Leamington, and Warwick, names calling up a crowd of romantic associations, +from Shakspeare to Scott and Bulwer; but for the present we must keep +steadily on to Birmingham, where steam finds the chief raw materials +of poetry and fashioner of beauty.</p> +<h2>BIRMINGHAM.</h2> +<p>A run of nineteen miles brings us to what the inhabitants call the +Hardware Village, a healthy, ugly town, standing upon several hills, +crowned with smoke, but free from fog.</p> +<p>The old railway station stands at the foot of one of these hills, +leaving a drive of a quarter of a mile through a squalid region, almost +as bad as the railway entrance into Bristol, before entering into the +decent part of the town; but the new station, now in course of rapid +completion, will land passengers behind the Grammar School, in New Street, +the principal, and, indeed, only handsome street of any length in Birmingham.</p> +<p>At the old station there is an excellent hotel, kept by Mr. Robert +Bacon, who was so many years house steward to the Athenæum Club, +in Pall Mall; and at the refreshment-rooms a capital table d’hote +is provided four times a-day, at two shillings a-head, servants included, +an arrangement extremely acceptable after a ride of 118 miles.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/ill16b.jpg"> +<img alt="NEWTON ROAD STATION, NEAR BIRMINGHAM" src="images/ill16s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>At the new station similar refreshment-rooms are to be provided, +and it is to be hoped that the architect will plan the interior first, +and the exterior afterwards, so that comfort may not be sacrificed, +as it usually is in English public buildings, to the cost of an imposing +portico and vestibule.</p> +<p>As a railway starting point, Birmingham has become a wonderful place. +In addition to those main lines and branches passed and noted on our +journey down, it is also the centre at which meet the railroads to Derby +and Sheffield; to Worcester, Cheltenham, Gloucester, and Bristol; to +London through Oxford, by the Broad Gauge Great Western, to Shrewsbury +and Chester through Wolverhampton, beside the little South Staffordshire +lines, which form an omnibus route between Birmingham, Walsall, Dudley, +and Lichfield, and other iron nets “too tedious to describe.”</p> +<p>To a stranger not interested in manufactures, and in mechanic men, +this is a very dull, dark, dreary town, and the sooner he gets out of +it the better. There are only two fine buildings. The Town +Hall, an exact copy externally of the Temple of Jupiter Stator at Rome, +built of a beautiful grey Anglesey marble, from the designs of Messrs. +Hansom and Welch, who also undertook to execute it for £24,000. +It cost £30,000, and the contractors were consequently ruined. +A railway company would probably have paid the difference; but, in such +cases, communities have no conscience, so the people of Brummagem got +the Hall of which they are justly proud “<i>a bargain</i>.”</p> +<p>The interior is disappointing, and wants the expenditure of some +more thousand pounds in sculptures and decorative details, to bring +it into harmony with its noble external effect. The great room, +145 feet in length, by 65 feet in width and height, will contain upwards +of 8,000 persons.</p> +<p>Musical meetings are held here periodically, for the benefit of certain +charities; but the sight best worth seeing, is the Hall at the period +of an election, or of political excitement, crowded with a feverish +army of workmen, cheering, groaning, swaying to and fro, under the speeches +of their favourite orators. Then in this Pagan temple may be seen +a living specimen of a Brummagem Jupiter, with a cross of Vulcan, lion-faced, +hairy, bearded, deep-mouthed swaggering, fluent in frank nonsense and +bullying clap-trap, loved by the mob for his strength, and by the middle +classes for his money. The lofty roof re-echoes with applause.</p> +<p>The temple, the man, and the multitude, all together, are well worth +a journey to Birmingham to see.</p> +<p>There is also the Free School of King Edward VI., in New Street, +a stately pile, built by Barry, before he had become so famous as he +is now; which supplies first-rate instruction in classics, mathematics, +modern languages, and all branches of a useful English education, after +the plan introduced into our public schools by Dr. Arnold, to the sons +of all residents, at an extremely cheap, almost a nominal rate. +Ten exhibitions of £50 each for four years at Oxford or Cambridge +are open to the competition of the scholars.</p> +<p>The salary of the Head Master is £400 a-year, with a residence, +and the privilege of boarding eighteen pupils. Of the Second Master, +£300. Beside Under Masters.</p> +<p>These liberal appointments have secured a succession of competent +masters, and cannot fail to produce a permanent and favourable change +in the character of young Birmingham. The diffusion of sound classical +learning was much needed to mitigate the coxcombical pretensions of +the half-educated, and the vulgar coarseness of the uneducated. +The inhabitants of manufacturing towns are apt to grow petty Plutocracies, +in which after wealth, ignorance and assumption are the principal qualifications. +Brass turns up its nose at iron, and both look down upon tin, although +half an hour in the world’s fire make all so black as to be undistinguishable.</p> +<p>Besides this, which we may term the High School, there are four schools +supported out of King Edward VI.’s foundation, where reading, +writing, and arithmetic, are taught.</p> +<p>The funds on which these magnificent ecclesiastical establishments +are supported, arise from lands in the neighbourhood which originally +produced only £21 a year, and were part of the estates of the +Guild of the “Holy Cross.” After being occupied first +as fields and then as gardens, the rise of manufactures and extension +of the town of Birmingham, converted a great portion into building land. +The present revenue amounts to about £11,000 per annum, and are +likely to be still further increased.</p> +<p>Twenty years ago, school lands which are now leased for terms of +years, and covered with buildings, were occupied as suburban gardens +at trifling rents. Eventually the Birmingham Free School will +enjoy an income equal to the wants of a university as well as a school. +Meagre accounts of the income and expenditure of this noble foundation +are published annually, under the regulations of an Act of Parliament +passed in 1828; but no report of the number of scholars, or the sort +of education communicated, is attached to this balance sheet. +It would be very useful; and we hope that the self-elected corporation, +who have the management, will see the propriety of supplying it.</p> +<p>Birmingham also possesses a chartered college, “Queen’s +College,” similar to that at Durham; first established as a medical +school by the exertions of the present dean, Mr. Sands Cox, since liberally +endowed by the Rev. Dr. Warneford to the extent of many thousand pounds, +and placed in a position to afford the courses in law, physic, and divinity, +required for taking a degree at the University of London. Also +a Blue Coat School, and School for the Blind.</p> +<p>In a picturesque point of view there are few towns more uninviting +than Birmingham; for the houses are built of brick toned down to a grimy +red by smoke, in long streets crossing each other at right angles,—and +the few modern stone buildings and blocks of houses seem as pert and +as much out of place as the few idle dandies who are occasionally met +among the crowds of busy mechanics and anxious manufacturers. +What neatness—cleanliness—can do for the streets, bell-pulls, +and door-knockers, has been done; the foot-pavements are, for the most +part flagged, although some of the round pebble corn-creating footways +still remain in the back streets. One suburb, Edgbaston, is the +property of Lord Calthorpe, and has been let out on building leases +which entirely exclude all manufactories and inferior classes of houses. +The result has been a crop of snug villas, either stucco or polished +red brick; many of them surrounded by gardens and shrubberies, and a +few of considerable pretension. Of this suburb the Birmingham +people think a great deal; but, as it is built upon a dead flat in long +straight lines, its effect is more pleasing to the citizen after a hard +day’s work, than to the artist, architect, landscape gardener, +or lover of the picturesque.</p> +<p>Birmingham is, in fact, notable for its utility more than its beauty,—for +what is done in its workshops, rather than for what is to be seen in +its streets and suburbs. Nowhere are there to be found so numerous +a body of intelligent, ingenious, well educated workmen. The changes +of fashion and the discoveries of science always find Birmingham prepared +to march in the van, and skilfully execute the work needed in iron, +in brass, in gold and silver, in all the mixed metals and in glass. +When guns are no longer required at the rate of a gun a minute, Birmingham +steel pens become famous all over the world. When steel buckles +and gilt buttons have had their day, Britannia teapots and brass bedsteads +still hold their own. No sooner is electrotype invented, than +the principal seat of the manufacture is established at Birmingham. +No sooner are the glass duties repealed than the same industrious town +becomes renowned for plate glass, cut glass, and stained glass; and, +when England demands a Palace to hold the united contributions of “The +Industry of the World,” a Birmingham banker finds the contractor +and the credit, and Birmingham manufacturers find the iron, the glass, +and the skill needful for the most rapid and gigantic piece of building +ever executed in one year.</p> +<p>In order to appreciate the independent character and quick inventive +intelligence of the Birmingham mechanic, he should be visited at his +own home. A system of small independent houses, instead of lodgings, +prevails in this town, to the great advantage of the workmen.</p> +<p>It is only within a very few years that the working classes have +had, in a local School of Design, means of instruction in the principles +of taste, and arts of drawing and modelling; while, until the patent +laws are put upon a just foundation, their inventive faculties can never +be fully developed. When the artizans of Birmingham have legislative +recognition of their rights as inventors, and free access to a first-rate +school of design, their “cunning” hands will excel in beauty +as well as ingenuity all previous triumphs.</p> +<p>The wealthier classes have, from various causes, deteriorated within +the last sixty years, while the workmen have improved within that time. +Men who have realized fortunes no longer settle down in the neighbourhood +of their labours. They depart as far as possible from the smoke +of manufactures and the bickerings of middle class cliques, purchase +estates, send their sons to the universities, and in a few years subside +into country squires. Professional men, as soon as they have displayed +eminent talent, emigrate to London; and the habit, now so prevalent +in all manufacturing towns, of living in the suburbs, has sapped the +prosperity of those literary and philosophical institutions and private +<i>reunions</i>, which so much contributed to raise the tone of society +during the latter half of the last century. The meetings of an +old Literary and Philosophical Society have been discontinued, and the +News Room was lately on the brink of dissolution. Instead of meeting +to discuss points of art, science, and literature, the middle classes +read the <i>Times</i> and <i>Punch</i>, and consult the <i>Penny Cyclopædia</i>. +The literary and scientific character which Birmingham acquired in the +days when Boulton, Watt, Priestly, Darwin, Murdoch, and their friends, +met at the Birmingham Lunarian Society, to discuss, to experiment, and +to announce important discoveries, have passed away never to return; +and we are not likely to see again any provincial town occupying so +distinguished a position in the scientific world. The only sign +of Birmingham’s ancient literary pre-eminence is to be found in +several weekly newspapers, conducted with talent and spirit far beyond +average. It is an amusing fact, that the sect to which Priestly +belonged still trade on his reputation, and claim an intellectual superiority +over the members of other persuasions, which they may once have possessed, +but which has long been <i>levelled</i> <i>up</i> by the universal march +of education. The richer members publish little dull books in +bad English on abstruse subjects, and, like Consuelo’s prebendary, +have quartos in preparation which never reach the press.</p> +<p>In fact, the suburban system of residence and the excessive pretension +of superiority by the “pots over the kettles” have almost +destroyed society in Birmingham, although people meet occasionally at +formal expensive parties, and are drawn together by sympathy in religion +and politics.</p> +<p>Nothing would induce an educated gentleman to live in Birmingham +except to make a living, yet there are residing there, seldom seen out +of their factories, men of the highest scientific and no mean literary +attainments.</p> +<p>There are a number of manufactories, which, in addition to their +commercial importance, present either in finished articles, or in the +process of manufacture, much that will interest an intelligent traveller.</p> +<p>GLASS.—Messrs. F. & C. Oslers, of Broad Street, have attained +a very high reputation for their cut and ornamental, as well as the +ordinary, articles of flint glass. The have been especially successful +in producing fine effects from prismatic arrangements. Their gigantic +chandeliers of great size, made for Ibrahim Pacha, and the Nepalese +Prince, were the steps by which they achieved the lofty crystal fountain, +of an entirely original design, which forms one of the most novel and +effective ornaments of the Crystal Palace. The manufactory as +well as the show-room is open to the inspection of respectable strangers.</p> +<p>Messrs. Rice and Harris are also extensive manufacturers of cut and +coloured glass; and Messrs. Bacchus and Sons have been very successful +in their imitations of Bohemian glass, both in form and colour. +Messrs. Chance have acquired a world-wide reputation by supplying the +largest quantity of crown glass in the shortest space of time for Paxton’s +Palace. These works, in which plate and every kind of crown glass +is made, are situated at West Bromwich. The proprietors have benevolently +and wisely made arrangements for the education of their workmen and +their families, which are worthy of imitation in all those great factories +where the plan, which originated in Lancashire, has not been already +adopted. A letter of introduction will be required in order to +view Messrs. Chance’s establishment, of which we shall say more +when noting the social state of the Birmingham operatives.</p> +<p>PAPIER MACHÉ.—Messrs. Jennens and Bettridge’s +works are so well known that it is only necessary to refer to them for +the purpose of saying that in their show-rooms some new application +of the art which they have carried to such perfection is constantly +to be found. Pianos, cradles, arm-chairs, indeed complete drawing-room +suites, cornices, door-plates, and a variety of ornaments are displayed, +in addition to the tea-trays and tea-chests in which the art of japanning +first became known to us.</p> +<p>Although Messrs. Jennens and Co. have the largest establishment in +Birmingham, there are several others who produce capital work; among +them may be named Mr. Thomas Lane and Messrs. M’Callum and Hodgson, +who both exhibited specimens of great merit at the last Birmingham Exhibition +of manufactures.</p> +<p>But metals afford the great staple of employment in Birmingham, and +we shall avail ourselves, in describing the leading trades, and touching +on the social position of the workmen, of the admirable letters on Labour +and the Poor in Birmingham which appeared in the <i>Morning Chronicle</i> +in the course of 1850. <a name="citation81"></a><a href="#footnote81">{81}</a></p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>BIRMINGHAM BUTTONS.—“A Brummagem Button” is the +old-fashioned nickname for a Birmingham workman. The changes of +fashion, and the advances of other manufactures, have deprived that +trade of its ancient pre-eminence over all other local pursuits; but +the “button trade,” although not the same trade which made +great fortunes in a previous generation, still employs five or six thousand +hands, of which one-half are women and children.</p> +<p>In the middle of the eighteenth century a plain white metal button +was made, which may occasionally be seen in remote rural districts, +on the green coats of old yeomen, wearing hereditary leather breeches. +At that period the poorer classes wore coarse horn or wooden buttons, +chiefly home made, and the tailor made, as well as the clothes, buttons +covered with cloth. By degrees very handsome gilt buttons came +into wear, and continued to employ many hands, while the blue coat which +figures in the portraits of our grandfathers remained in fashion.</p> +<p>In 1826, the Florentine, or covered button, now in almost universal +use, which is manufactured by machinery with the aid of women and children, +was introduced, and by 1829 the gilt button trade had been almost destroyed.</p> +<p>The change produced great distress, vast numbers of persons were +thrown out of work, who could not at once turn to any other employment. +In 1830 a deputation from the gilt button trade waited upon George IV. +and the principal nobility, to solicit their patronage. The application +succeeded, coloured coats with metal buttons came into fashion, and +dandies of the first water appeared in bright snuff-coloured, pale green, +and blue coats, such as are now only worn by Paul Bedford or Keeley, +in broad farce. In 1836 a cheap mode of gilding, smart for a day, +dull and shabby in a week, completely destroyed the character of gilt +buttons, and brought up the Florentine again. This change was, +no doubt, materially assisted and maintained by Bulwer’s novel +of “Pelham,” which set all young men dressing themselves +up like crows with white shirts.</p> +<p>In 1840 a deputation to Prince Albert attempted another revival of +the gilt button trade, and at the same time the silk stocking weavers +waited on the Prince to endeavour to drive out the patent leather boots, +and bring in the low shoe. Both attempts failed. At present +there are symptoms of a turn of fashion toward coloured coats and bright +buttons, which may be successful, because the fashionable world abhors +monotony. The flame coloured coats, long curls, and pink under +waistcoats of George IV., were succeeded by the solemn sables of an +undertaker; the high tight stock made way for a sailor’s neckcloth. +For a time shawl waistcoats, of gay colours, had their hour. Then +correct tight black yielded to the loosest and shaggiest garments that +could be invented. Perhaps the year 1852 may see our youth arrayed +in blue, purple and pale brown.</p> +<p>But a very little consideration will prove that these artificial +changes, although they may benefit a class, are of little advantage +to the community. If a man gives 10s. more for a coat with gilt +buttons than for one with plain buttons, he has 10s. less to expend +with some other tradesman.</p> +<p><i>The Florentine Button</i>, first invented in 1820, and since much +improved, is a very curious manufacture. It is made—as any +one may see by cutting up a button—of five pieces; <i>first</i>, +the covering of Florentine, or silk; <i>second</i>, a cover of metal, +which gives the shape to the button; <i>third</i>, a smaller circle +of mill-board; <i>fourth</i>, a circle of coarse cloth, or calico; <i>fifth</i>, +a circle of metal, with a hole punched in the centre, through which +the calico or cloth is made to protrude, to form the shank, to be sewed +on to the garment.</p> +<p>“Ranged in rows on either side of a long room of the button +factory, (says the correspondent of the <i>Morning Chronicle</i>) are +from 50 to 100 girls and young women, from the age of fourteen to four +or five and twenty, all busily engaged, either at hand or steam presses, +in punching out metal circles slightly larger than the size of the button +which is to be produced. Before each press the forewoman is seated, +holding in her hand a sheet of zinc or iron, about two feet long, and +four inches broad. This she passes rapidly under the press if +worked by hand, and still more rapidly if worked by steam, punching +and cutting at the rate of from fifty to sixty disks in a minute. +As they are cut they fall into a receptacle prepared to receive them. +The perforated sheets are sold to the founder to be melted up, and made +into other sheets. In other rooms younger women are engaged in +cutting up Florentine cloth, or other outside covering material, paste +board and calico. Of these a young woman can punch 57,000 a-day, +and of metal, 28,000 a-day. The upper discs are submitted by another +set of girls to presses from which each receives a blow that turns up +an edge all round, and reduces it to the exact size of the button. +The lower disk is punched for the shank to come through, stamped with +the maker’s name, <i>or the name of the tailor</i> for whom the +buttons are made, and coated with varnish, either light or black.</p> +<p>“The five pieces then pass into a department where a woman +superintends the labours of a number of children from seven to ten years +of age.</p> +<p>“These little creatures place all five pieces, one after another, +in regular order, in a small machine like a dice-box, constructed to +hold them, which is placed under a press, when a firm touch compresses +the whole together in the neat form, which any one may examine on a +black dress coat, without stitch or adhesive matter.”</p> +<p>This patent was the subject of long litigation between rival inventors, +to the great benefit of the lawyers, and loss of the industrious and +ingenious.</p> +<p>Within the last twelve months Messrs. Chadbourne, button-makers, +of Great Charles Street, have adapted this Florentine button to nails +for furniture and carriages.</p> +<p><i>The Patent Linen sewn-through Button</i> is another recent invention, +which has superseded the old wire button for under garments, than which +it is cheaper, neater, and more durable. It is composed of linen +and circles of zinc.</p> +<p><i>Horn Buttons</i>, with shanks, which are extensively used for +cloth boots and sporting jackets, are made from the hoofs of horned +cattle, which are boiled, cut, punched, dyed, stamped when soft, and +polished by brushes moved by steam power; the chief part of the work +being done by women and children.</p> +<p><i>Pearl Buttons</i> have become an important part of the Birmingham +manufactures, partly on the decline of metal buttons. They are +extensively used on coats and waistcoats, where gilt buttons were formerly +employed.</p> +<p>The shell used in the manufacture of buttons, studs, card counters, +etc., is the mother of pearl, the <i>Concha margaritifera</i> of naturalists. +Five kinds of shell are employed:—First. The Buffalo Shell, +so named because it arrived packed in buffalo skins; it comes chiefly +from Panama, is the smallest and commonest, and sells to the trade at +about £15 a ton.—Second. The Black Scotch, from the +Sandwich Islands, whence it is sent to Valparaiso and to Sydney, New +South Wales, worth from £15 to £30 a ton. The large +outer rim is of a blackish, or rather greenish, tint, the centre only +being white. The outer rim was formerly considered worthless, +and large quantities were thrown away as rubbish. Change of fashion +has brought the prismatic hues of the dark pearl into fashion for shooting-coats, +waistcoats, and even studs. It used to be a standing story with +a Bristol barber that a square in that city had been built on thousands +of pounds worth of tobacco stalks, thrown away as useless, until it +was discovered that that part of the plant was capable of making a most +saleable snuff. And so in Birmingham; the Irvingite Church, on +New Hall Hill, is said to be built on hundreds of tons of refuse shell, +which would now be worth from £15 to £20 per ton. +The third shell is the Bombay, or White Scotch, worth from £20 +to £50 per ton. The fourth comes from Singapore, and is +brought there to exchange for British manufactures by the native craft +which frequent that free port. It is a first-rate article, white +to the edge, worth from £80 to £90 per ton. The fifth +is the Mother of Pearl Shell, from Manilla, of equal value and size, +but with a slight yellow tinge round the edge.</p> +<p>Pearl buttons are cut out and shaped by men with the lathe, polished +by women with a grinding-stone, and sorted and arranged on cards by +girls.</p> +<p><i>Glass Buttons</i> were formerly in use among canal boatmen, miners, +and agricultural labourers, in certain districts. They are now +chiefly made for the African market. The process of making them +and studs is well worth seeing.</p> +<p>Beside the buttons already enumerated, they make in Birmingham the +flat iron and brass buttons, for trowsers; steel buttons, for ladies’ +dresses; wooden buttons, for overcoats; agate buttons, for which material +is imported from Bohemia; and, in fact, every kind of button and stud, +including papier maché.</p> +<p>The manufacture of brass shanks is a separate trade, and the writer +of the letters already quoted, states the annual production at, or upwards +of, three millions per working day. Of these, part are made by +hand, but the greater number by a shank-making machine, wrought by steam +power, and only requiring the attendance of one tool-maker.</p> +<p>“The machine feeds itself from a coil of brass or iron wire +suspended from the roof, and cuts and twists into shanks, by one process, +at the rate of 360 per minute, or nearly 75,000,000 per annum. +Some button manufacturers employ one of these machines; the majority +buy the shanks.”</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>GUNS AND SWORDS.—According to Hutton, the historian of Birmingham, +the town was indebted for its occupation in supplying our army with +fire-arms, to an ancestor of a gentleman who now represents a division +of Warwickshire, a Sir Roger Newdigate, in the time of William III.</p> +<p>The story, however, seems only half-true. Hutton would imply +that the first muskets manufactured in England were made in Birmingham. +It seems more likely, that the connexion with William III. arose from +the desire of that monarch to have the flint-lock, which was superseding +the match-lock on the Continent, made in his own dominions.</p> +<p>At any rate, the revolution of 1688, which the romantic anti-commercial +party of Young England so deeply regret, gave Birmingham its gun trade, +as well as Hampton Court its asparagus beds.</p> +<p>When Walpole gave us peace, the attention of the manufacturers was +directed to fowling-pieces, and from that time forward Birmingham has +contained the greatest fire-arm factory in the world, although, of course, +subject to many fluctuations. Twenty years ago, “A long +war soon,” was as regular a toast at convivial meetings of Birmingham +manufacturers, as at any mess-room or in any cock-pit in her majesty’s +service.</p> +<p>The government has made several attempts, by establishing manufactories +with public money and under official control, to become independent +of Birmingham, but the end has invariably been great loss and pitiful +results in the number of arms produced.</p> +<p>We hope to live to see the time when our navy will be built as economically +as our guns are made—by private contract—and our public +ship-yards confined to the repairing department.</p> +<p>During the war which ended at the battle of Waterloo, the importance +and prosperity of the gun-makers were great. It was calculated +that a gun a minute was made in Birmingham on the average of a year, +but the Peace threw numbers out of work and reduced wages very considerably.</p> +<p>Time has brought the trade to a level; indeed, it is one of the great +advantages of Birmingham, that the prosperity of the town does not rest +on any one trade; so that if some are blighted others are flourishing, +and when one fails the workmen are absorbed into other parallel employments.</p> +<p>The gun trade now depends for support on the demand for—<i>first</i>, +cheap muskets for African and other aboriginal tribes; <i>secondly</i>, +on cheap fowling-pieces, rifles, pistols, blunderbusses, etc., for exportation +to America, Australia, and other countries where something effective +is required at a moderate price; <i>thirdly</i>, on the home demand +for fowling-pieces of all qualities, from the commonest to those sold +at the West End of London, at fancy prices; <i>fourthly</i>, on that +for fire-arms required by our army and navy; and, <i>lastly</i>, on +occasional uncertain orders created by wars and revolutions on the Continent.</p> +<p>There are a vast number of guns, or parts of guns, made in Birmingham, +which bear the names of retailers in different parts of the kingdom. +Even very fashionable gun-makers find it worth their while to purchase +goods in the rough state from Birmingham manufacturers on whom they +can depend, and finish them themselves.</p> +<p>This is rendered easy by the system. No one in Birmingham makes +the whole of a gun. The division of labour is very great; the +makers of the lock, the barrel, and the stock, are completely distinct, +and the mechanics confine themselves to one branch of a department. +The man who makes the springs for a lock has nothing to do with the +man who makes the nipple or the hammer; while the barrel-forger has +no connexion with the stock-maker or lock-maker.</p> +<p>The visitor who has the necessary introductions, should by no means +omit to visit a gun-barrel factory, as there are a good many picturesque +effects in the various processes, beside the mechanical instruction +it affords.</p> +<p>The following is the order of the fabrication of a common gun:—</p> +<p>The sheets for barrels are made from scraps of steel and iron, such +as old coach-springs, knives, steel chains, horse shoes and horseshoe +nails, and sheets of waste steel from steel pen manufactories.</p> +<p>These, having been sorted, are bound together, and submitted first +to such a furnace, and then to such a steam hammer as we described in +our visit to Wolverton, until it is shaped into a bar of tough iron, +which is afterwards rolled into sheets of the requisite thickness.</p> +<p>From one of these sheets a length sufficient to make a gun barrel +is cut off by a pair of steam-moved shears, of which the lower jaw is +stationary and the upper weighs a ton, of which plenty of examples may +be seen in every steam engine factory.</p> +<p>The slip of iron is made red hot, placed between a pair of rollers, +one of which is convex and the other concave, and comes out in a semicircular +trough shape; again heated, and again pressed by smaller rollers, by +which the cylinder is nearly completed. A long bar of iron is +passed through the cylinder, it is thrust into the fire again, and, +when red hot, it is submitted to the <i>welder</i>, who hammers it and +heats it and hammers it again, until it assumes the form of a perfect +tube.</p> +<p>Damascus barrels are made by incorporating alternate layers of red +hot steel and iron, which are then twisted into the shape of a screw +while at white heat. The bar thus made is twisted in a cold state +by steam power round a bar into a barrel shape, then heated and welded +together.</p> +<p>These are the barrels which present the beautiful variegated appearance +which gives them the name of Damascus.</p> +<p>The barrels, whether common or twisted, are then bored by a steel +rod, kept wet with water or oil, and turned by steam. The process +occupies from two to three hours for each barrel.</p> +<p>The next operation is that of grinding the outside of the barrel +with sandstone wheels, from five to six feet in diameter when new, driven +by steam. These stones chiefly come from the neighbouring district +of Bilston; in four months’ work, a stone of this size will be +reduced to two feet.</p> +<p>The employment is hard, dangerous from the stones often breaking +while in motion, in which case pieces of stone weighing a ton have been +known to fly through the roof of the shop; unwholesome, because the +sand and steel dust fill eyes, mouth, and lungs, unless a certain simple +precaution is taken which grinders never take.</p> +<p>After grinding, a nut is screwed into the breech, and the barrel +is taken to the <i>proof house</i> to be proved.</p> +<p>The proof house is a detached building, the interior of which is +lined with plates of cast iron.</p> +<p>The barrels are set in two iron stocks, the upper surface of one +of which has a small gutter, to contain a train of powder; in this train +the barrels rest with their touchholes downwards, and in the rear of +the breeches of the barrels is a mass of sand. When the guns, +loaded with five times the quantity of powder used in actual service, +have been arranged, the iron-lined doors and windows are closed, and +a train extending to the outside through a hole is fired.</p> +<p>Some barrels burst and twist into all manner of shapes; those which +pass the ordeal are again examined after the lapse of twenty-four hours, +and, if approved, marked with two separate marks, one for viewing and +one for proving. The mark for proving consists of two sceptres +crossed with a crown in the upper angle; the letters B and C in the +left and right, and the letter P in the lower angle. For viewing +only, V stands instead of P underneath the crown, the other letters +omitted.</p> +<p>After proving, the <i>jiggerer</i> fastens the pin, which closes +up the breech.</p> +<p>In the mean time the construction of the lock, which is an entirely +different business, and carried on in the neighbouring towns of Wednesbury, +Darleston, and Wolverhampton, as well as in Birmingham, has been going +on.</p> +<p>The gun lock makers are ranged into two great divisions of <i>forgers</i> +and <i>filers</i>, beside many subdivisions.</p> +<p>The forgers manufacture the pieces in the rough, the filers polish +them and put them together. In the percussion lock, there are +fifteen pieces; in the common flint lock, eight.</p> +<p>By a process patented about eleven years ago, parts of a gun lock +formerly forged by hand are now stamped with a die. The use of +this invention was opposed by the men, but without success.</p> +<p>The barrel and lock next pass into the hands of the <i>stocker</i>.</p> +<p>The stocks, of beechwood for common guns, of walnut for superior, +of which much is imported from France and Italy, arrive in Birmingham +in a rough state. The stocker cuts away enough of the stock to +receive the barrel, the lock, the ramrod, and shapes it a little.</p> +<p>The next workman employed is the <i>screw-together</i>. He +screws on the <i>heel plate</i>, the <i>guard</i> that protects the +trigger, puts in the <i>trigger plate</i>, lets in the <i>pipes</i> +to hold the ramrod, puts on the <i>nozzle cap</i>, and all other mountings.</p> +<p>After all this, a <i>finisher</i> takes the gun to pieces, and polishes, +fits all the mountings, or sends them to be polished by women; the lock +is sent to the <i>engraver</i> to have an <i>elephant</i> and the word +“<i>warranted</i>,” if for the African market, put on it; +a <i>crown</i> and the words “<i>tower proof</i>,” if for +our own military service; while the stock is in the hands of the <i>maker +off</i> and <i>cleanser</i>, it is carved, polished, and, if needful, +stained.</p> +<p>Common gun barrels are polished or browned to prevent them from rusting, +real Damascus barrels are subjected to a chemical process, which brings +out the fine wavy lines and prevents them from rusting.</p> +<p>All these operations having been performed, the barrel, the lock, +and the stock, are brought back by the respective workmen who have given +them the final touch, and put together by the finisher or gun maker, +and this putting together is as much as many eminent gunmakers ever +do. But, by care and good judgment, they acquire a reputation +for which they can charge a handsome percentage.</p> +<p>For these reasons, with local knowledge, it is possible to obtain +from a Birmingham finisher who keeps no shop, a first-rate double gun +at a very low figure compared with retail prices.</p> +<p>Belgium and Germany compete with Birmingham for cheap African guns, +and even forge the proof marks. Neither in quality nor in price +for first-rate articles can any country compete with us.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p><i>SWORDS AND MATCHETTS</i>.—The sword trade of Birmingham +is trifling compared with that in guns. The foreign demand has +dwindled away until it has become quite insignificant, and the chief +employment is afforded by our own army and navy. Nevertheless, +good swords are made in Birmingham, which is the only town in England +where any manufacture of the kind exists, although the blades often +bear the names of more fashionable localities.</p> +<p>It is among the traditions of the Birmingham trade, that in 1817, +when our Government was about to transfer its orders for swords to Germany, +in consequence of the inferiority of English swords, a Mr. Gill claimed +to compete for the contract; and that in order to show what he could +do, he appeared before the Board of Ordnance with a sword, which he +tied round his thigh, and then untied, when it immediately became straight. +In the end Mr. Gill was the means of retaining the sword trade in Birmingham.</p> +<p>Sword-grinding is worth seeing. Sword-makers find their principal +employment in producing Matchetts, a tool or weapon very much like the +modern regulation cutlass, but stronger and heavier, with a plain beech-wood +handle, worth wholesale from 6d. to 9d. each. They are used in +the East and West Indies, Ceylon, and South America, for cutting down +sugar-canes and similar uses. We take the name to be Spanish; +it is used by Defoe and Dampier. We only mention the article as +one of the many odd manufactures made, but never sold retail, in England.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>STEEL PENS.—All the steel pens made in England, and a great +many sold in France, Germany, and America, whatever names or devices +they may bear, are manufactured in Birmingham. In this respect, +as in many others of the same nature, the Birmingham manufacturers are +very accommodating, and quite prepared to stamp on their productions +the American Eagle, the Cap of Liberty, the effigy of Pio Nono, or of +the Comte de Chambord, if they get the order, the cash, or a good credit. +And they are very right; their business is to supply the article, the +sentiment is merely a matter of taste.</p> +<p>There are eighteen steel pen manufacturers in the Birmingham Directory, +and eight penholder makers. Two manufacturers employ about 1,000 +hands, and the other seventeen about as many more.</p> +<p>We can most of us remember when a long hard steel pen, which required +the nicest management to make it write, cost a shilling, and was used +more as a curiosity than as a useful comfortable instrument. About +1820, or 1821, the first gross of three slit pens was sold wholesale +at £7 4s. the gross of twelve dozen. A better article is +now sold at 6d. a gross.</p> +<p>The cheapest pens are now sold wholesale at 2d. a gross, the best +at from 3s.6d. to 5s.; and it has been calculated that Birmingham produces +not less than <i>a thousand million steel pens every year</i>. +America is the best foreign customer, in spite of a duty of twenty-four +per cent; France ranks next, for the French pens are bad and dear.</p> +<p>Mr. Gillott, who is one of the very first in the steel-pen trade, +rose by his own mechanical talents and prudent industry from a very +humble station. He was, we believe, a working mechanic, and invented +the first machine for making steel pens, which for a long period he +worked with his own hands; he makes a noble use of the wealth he has +acquired; his manufactory is in every respect a model for the imitation +of his townsmen, as we shall show when we say a few words about the +condition of the working population; a liberal patron of our best modern +artists, he has made a collection of their works, which is open to the +inspection of any respectable stranger.</p> +<p>The following description of his manufactory, which is not open to +strangers without special cause shown, will be found interesting in +a social as well as a commercial and mechanical point of view.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>GILLOTT’S STEEL-PEN FACTORY.—In the first department, +sheets of steel received from Sheffield are passed through rolling mills +driven by steam, under charge of men and boys, until they are reduced +to the thinness of a steel pen, to the length of about thirty inches, +and the breadth of about three inches. These steel slips are conveyed +to a large roomy workshop, with windows at both sides, scrupulously +clean, where are seated in double rows an army of women and girls, from +fourteen to forty years of age, who, unlike most of the women employed +in Birmingham manufactories, are extremely neat in person and in dress. +A hand press is opposite each; the only sound to be heard is the bump +of the press, and the clinking of the small pieces of metal as they +fall from the block into the receptacle prepared for them. One +girl of average dexterity is able to punch out one hundred gross per +day. Each division is superintended by a toolmaker, whose business +it is to keep the punches and presses in good working condition, to +superintend the work generally, and to keep order among the workpeople.</p> +<p>The next operation is to place the blank in a concave die, on which +a slight touch from a concave punch produces the shape of a semitube. +The slits and apertures which increase the elasticity of the pen, and +the maker’s or vendor’s name, are produced by a similar +tool.</p> +<p>When complete all but the slit, the pens are soft and pliable, and +may be bent or twisted in the hand like a piece of thin lead. +They are collected in grosses, or great grosses, into small square iron +boxes, and placed by men who are exclusively employed in this department +in a furnace, where they remain until box and pens are of a white heat. +They are then taken out and immediately thrown hissing into oil, which +cures them of their softness, by making them as brittle as wafers. +On being taken out they are put in a sieve to drain, and then into a +cylinder full of holes, invented by Mr. Gillott, which, rapidly revolving, +extracts the last drop of moisture from the pens, on a principle that +has been successfully applied to drying sugar, salt, and a vast number +of other articles of the same nature. By this invention Mr. Gillott +saves in oil from £200 to £300 a-year.</p> +<p>The pens having been dried are placed in other cylinders, and polished +by mutual friction, produced by reverberatory motion. They are +then roasted or annealed, so as to procure the requisite temper and +colour, whether bronze or blue. The last process is that of slitting, +which is done by women, with a sharp cutting tool. One girl, with +a quick practised finger, can slit as many as 28,800 pens in a day. +They are now ready for the young girls whose duty it is to count and +pack them in boxes or grosses for the wholesale market.</p> +<p>It has lately been stated by one of a deputation to the Chancellor +of the Exchequer, on the subject of the paper duties, that steel pens +for the French market are sent in bags instead of arranged on cards +to the loss of paper makers and female labour, in consequence of the +heavy excise duty on card board.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>BRASSWORK.—Birmingham is by far the greatest producer of ornamental +and useful brasswork. In the directory will be found a list which +affords some idea of the number and varieties of the brass trade, as +all these employ a certain number of working hands, varying from two +or three apprentices to many hundred skilled workmen. It includes +bell-founders, bottle-jack makers, brass founders, bronze powder makers, +brass casters, clasp makers, coach lamp furniture, ornament makers, +cock founders, compass makers, copper-smiths, cornice pole makers, curtain +ring, bronze wire fender, gas-fitting, lamps, chandeliers (partly brass, +partly glass), ecclesiastical ornament, lantern, letter-clip, mathematical +instrument, brass and metallic bedstead, military ornament, brass nail, +saddlers’ ironmonger, (chiefly brass), scale, beam, and weighing +machines, stair rod, moulding and astrigal, brass thimble makers, tube, +brass and copper-wire drawers, wire workers and weavers, and many other +trades less directly connected with brass.</p> +<p>New articles are made in this metal every day. One manufacturer, +who first hit upon the hand-clip for papers, made a very handsome sum +by it. The Registration of Designs Act has been a great stimulus +to certain branches of this trade. Lucifer boxes are quite a new +article, unknown the other day, now manufactured in thousands for all +quarters of the globe, Germany, Russia, Holland, India, Australia, California. +Then there are ornaments for South American and Cuban saddles and harness; +rings for lassos, and bells for sheep, cattle, and sledges, brass rings, +as coins for Africa; and weights for weighing gold in California.</p> +<p>Among the branches of the brass trade which have become important, +since the increase of emigration about 5000 <i>ship lamps</i> have been +made in one year, at a cheap rate; and within the last five years brass +egg cups have been sent in enormous numbers to Turkey, where they are +used to hand round coffee. South America is a great mart for cheap +brass ware.</p> +<p>Of this trade, it may be said, in the words of a vulgar proverb, +“as one door shuts another opens.”</p> +<p>The use of china and glass, in conjunction with brass for house furniture +and chandeliers, has also created a variety, and afforded an advantageous +impetus to the trade.</p> +<p>Mr. Winfield is one of the manufacturers in brass whose showrooms +are open to the public. He also has claims on our attention for +the wise and philanthropic manner in which he has endeavoured to supply +the lamentable deficiency of education among the working classes.</p> +<p>He holds a very leading position as a manufacturer of balustrades, +tables, window-cornices, candelabra chandeliers, brackets, curtain-bands, +and above all of metal bedsteads, which last he has supplied to some +of the chief royal and princely families of Europe, besides Spain, Algeria, +and the United States. In all these works great attention has +been paid to design as well as workmanship, as was amply proved both +at the local exhibition in 1849, where a large gas bracket, in the Italian +style, of brass, with Parisian ornaments, excited much admiration; and +in 1851, in Hyde Park, where we especially noted an ormolu cradle and +French bedstead in gilt and bronze, amid a number of capital works of +his production.</p> +<p>Mr. Winfield is patentee of a curious process for drawing out the +cylinders used in making bedsteads.</p> +<p>Messrs. Messengers and Sons have one of the finest manufactories +in ornamental iron, brass, and bronze, for lamps, chandeliers, and table +ornaments. For a long series of years they have spared no expense +in obtaining the best models and educating their workmen in drawing +and modelling. In their show-rooms will be found many very pleasing +statues in gold-colour, in bronze, and copies from antique types of +vases, lamps, candelabra, etc.</p> +<p>Messrs. Salt and Lloyd are also eminent lamp makers, and generally +exhibit, beside table-lamps, the last and best carriage-lamps.</p> +<p>Messrs. Ratcliffes are another enterprising firm.</p> +<p>All such of these manufactories as have show-rooms open to strangers, +will be found by an inquiry at any hotel; for although Birmingham is +a large town, everybody knows everybody, and the cab drivers will usually +be found competent to guide through the voyage of investigation.</p> +<p>Next, after brass, we will take steel, divided into heavy and light +steel toys.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>HEAVY STEEL TOYS.—Heavy steel toys are the name by which, by +a sort of Brummagem Bull, a variety of articles which are the very reverse +of toys, and which are often not made of steel at all, are designated. +Heavy steel toys are tools or articles of an implement nature, used +in domestic economy.</p> +<p>The list includes nearly 600 articles. Among these are included +the tools of carpenters, coopers, gardeners, butchers, glaziers, farriers, +saddlers, tinmen, shoemakers, weavers, wheelwrights, as well as corkscrews, +sugar-tongs, sugar-nippers, boot-hooks, button-hooks, door-scrapers, +calipers, printing-irons, dog-collars, chains, whistles, tinderboxes, +and tobacco-stoppers.</p> +<p>Hammers occupy a leading place, of which there are two or three hundred +varieties, belonging to different trades, each of which is divided into +eight or ten different weights. Birmingham has the largest share +of the heavy toy trade, although there are extensive manufacturers in +Sheffield and Wolverhampton. Fine edge tools are chiefly and best +made at Sheffield.</p> +<p>This trade increases annually in importance, as it consists of articles +which are greatly in demand in new countries; and new markets are opened +by every new colonising enterprise of the Anglo-Saxon race. The +manufacture includes a great deal of wood-work for handles, as well +as iron and steel. For although many axes are made for the American +market, after special patterns, and with national mottoes, no handles +are ever sent, as the backwoodsmen have better wood for their purpose +at command. Our axe handles are stiff; a backwoodsman must have +a flexible handle or haft.</p> +<p>The Germans once tried to compete with us in the home market, but +the attempt was a failure.</p> +<p>As an instance of the odd accidents that affect the Birmingham trade, +about three years ago, when flounces were in fashion, a great demand +sprang up for <i>pinking irons</i>, previously only used for ornamenting +the hems of shrouds. A workman informed the correspondent of the +<i>Morning Chronicle</i> that he had earned about £3 a week for +two years at making them.</p> +<p>The scientific tools of housebreakers are known to be made by certain +journeymen in the steel toy trade. On the other hand, hand-cuffs, +leg-irons, and similar restraining instruments are manufactured for +home use and exportation.</p> +<p>Occasionally, London and Liverpool houses in the Brazilian or Cuban +trade have ordered suits of chains, intended for the use of slave-ships. +These are cheap, coarse, painted black, and horrid looking. Among +the orders on the books of a manufacturer, were several dozen pair of +hand-cuffs for ladies.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>THE EDGE TOOL MANUFACTURE, which is increasing in Birmingham, probably +in consequence of the repeated strikes at Sheffield, added to the superior +position of Birmingham as regards coal, and the markets of London, Liverpool, +and Bristol, is often carried on in conjunction with that of steel toys. +There are forty-five different kinds of axes; fourteen for the American +market, twelve adzes, twenty-six bills and bill-hooks, and upwards of +seventy hoes for different foreign countries—Spain, Portugal, +South America, the United States, and Australia, which will soon consume +as much hardware as America did fifty years ago.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>LIGHT STEEL TOYS.—These include chatelains, watch chains, keys, +seals, purses, slides, beads, waist buckles, dress swords, steel buttons +for court dresses, bodkins, spectacle frames, knitting and netting implements, +and steel snuffers. Shoe and knee buckles, which were once universally +worn, alone employed five thousand persons in their manufacture, when +it was the staple trade of the town. The expense and inconvenience +of shoe buckles sent them out of fashion. Dragoons hung in the +stirrup, and cricketers tore the nails of their fingers in picking up +cricket balls, from the inconvenient buckle.</p> +<p>The trade is extremely fluctuating, and depends very much on inventive +taste in which we are manifestly inferior to the French. Some +articles we can make better than they can, but they are always bringing +out something new and pretty. In small beads they undersell us +enormously, while in beads of 1/6th of an inch in diameter, and upwards, +we can undersell them.</p> +<p>A visit to a manufactory of light steel toys will afford a great +deal of amusement and instruction.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>MEDALLING.—DIE SINKING.—Here again are trades by which +Birmingham keeps up its communication with all the civilised, and part +of the uncivilised world. The first great improvements in coining +the current money of the realm originated at Soho, near Birmingham, +at the manufactories of two men whose memory Englishmen can never hold +in sufficient respect—Matthew Boulton and James Watt. They +were the inventors of the machinery now in use in the Royal Mint; for +a long period they coined the copper money, as also some silver money +for the United Kingdom, as well as money of all denominations for many +foreign countries, tokens, and medals innumerable. They made coins +for the French Convention.</p> +<p>During the war, when money was scarce and small notes were in circulation, +many tradesmen, and several public establishments issued “<i>tokens</i>,” +which were, in fact, metal promissory notes, as they were seldom of +the intrinsic value stamped on them. By this expedient retailers +advertised themselves, and temporarily increased their capital. +Some successful speculators made fortunes, others were ruined by the +presentation of all their metal notes of hand at periods of panic.</p> +<p>At any rate, the manufacture of these articles had a great deal to +do with the education of workmen for the medal manufacture which is +now so extensively carried on.</p> +<p>The dies from which coins and medals are struck, are, of course, +all executed by hand, and the excellence of each coin or medal depends +on the skill of each individual workman; therefore there has been no +great improvement in execution—indeed, some medals and coins struck +two thousand years ago, rival, if they do not excel, the best works +of the present day. The improvements of modern mechanical science +are all in the die presses, and in producing cheap metal. These +improvements have enabled Birmingham to establish a large trade in cheap +medals, which are issued in tens of thousands on every occasion that +excites the public mind. Jenny Lind and Father Mathew were both +excellent customers of the medallists in their day.</p> +<p>The medallists are not confined to the home market; France has been +supplied with effigies of her rival Presidents, Louis Napoleon and Cavaignac, +and we should not be surprised to find that some day a contract has +been taken for the medals which the Pope blesses and distributes. +Schools and Temperance Societies are good customers, and occasionally +a good order comes in from a foreign state or colony, for coins. +In 1850 Mr. Ralph Heaton made ten tons of copper coin for Bombay, called +cock money, so called because bearing a cock on the obverse, from dies +purchased at the sale at Soho.</p> +<p>The late Sir Richard Thomason was a considerable manufacturer of +medals, and a very curious collection may be seen at the showrooms of +his successor, Mr. G. R. Collis, who carries on the same trade, and +is consul for a number of countries between Turkey and Timbuctoo.</p> +<p>The most important part of the die-sinking trade, is that for making +patterns in brass, mixed metal, and iron in curtain bands, pins, lamp +pillars, cornices, coffin furniture, and all articles in which stamping +has superseded the more expensive process of hammering out.</p> +<p>Within the last twenty years, and notably within the last ten years, +public taste has required an increased amount of ornament in all domestic +manufactures; stimulated by this demand, great improvements have been +made in stamping, and excellence in the art of die-sinking has become +more widely diffused. The Birmingham die-sinkers admit that they +are inferior to the French in design, while in the execution of cutting +heavy steel dies, they are decidedly superior. Die-sinking is +an art, like painting or sculpture, which requires personal aptitude +to enable an apprentice to acquire excellence.</p> +<p>It is carried on in Birmingham by men who work themselves, employing +two or three journeymen. The names of these artists seldom appear. +A London or Parisian tradesman undertakes an order which is passed to +some noted Birmingham House, which transmits it to a hard-handed man +in a back street.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>COFFIN ORNAMENTS.—The manufacture of ornaments for coffins +is a very important part of the trade, and it is curious to find, that +even in this last concession to human vanity, there is a constant demand +for new designs.</p> +<p>Who is it that examines and compares the ornaments of one coffin +with that of another? We never heard of the survivors of a deceased +examining an undertaker’s patterns. And yet, a house which +consumes forty tons of cast iron per annum for coffin handles, stated +to the gentleman to whose letters we are indebted for this information, +“Our travellers find it useless to show themselves with their +pattern books at an undertaker’s, unless they have something tasteful, +new, and uncommon. The orders for Ireland are chiefly for gilt +furniture for coffins. The Scotch, also, are fond of gilt, and +so are the people in the west of England. But the taste of the +English is decidedly for black. The Welsh like a mixture of black +and white. Coffin lace is formed of very light stamped metal, +and is made of almost as many patterns as the ribbons of Coventry. +<i>All our designs are registered, as there is a constant piracy going +on, which it is necessary to check.”</i></p> +<p>Dies are cut in soft metal and then hardened.</p> +<p>Die-sinking is one of the arts so interesting in all its branches, +from the first design to the finished coin or ornament, that every intelligent +traveller should endeavour to see it.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>PLATERS, GILDERS, AND ELECTRO-PLATERS.—Large fortunes have +been made in Birmingham by plating copper, “in the good old times;” +but Sheffield was, until within the last ten years, the principal seat +of the manufacture. Sheffield plate was a very superior article, +and for years would look and stand wear like silver. Plating was +effected by laying a thin film of silver on a sheet of copper, which +was afterwards shaped into tea or coffee services, forks, spoons, candlesticks, +trays, tea urns, and other articles for house use. It was also +applied to harness, saddlery, and every thing formerly made of silver +alone. A great impetus was given to this trade by our intercourse +with the continent at the close of the war, which sent steel pronged +forks out of fashion. The first inroad upon the plates on copper +was made by the invention of white metal, called German silver. +The next was the discovery of the art of plating by galvanic instead +of mechanical agency, now known as electro-plating. The result +of the application of electric power to plating, however, has been to +transfer a large share of the Sheffield plate business to Birmingham. +It is a curious fact that a veterinary surgeon (of the name of Askew) +invented the first German silver manufactured in England, and that a +Dr. Wright, of the same town, discovered the practicability of electro-plating +about the same time that several other persons had discovered that metal +could be deposited by a galvanic current, but had not thought of applying +it practically to manufactures.</p> +<p>The old system of plating is still carried on both in Sheffield and +in Birmingham; improvements have been introduced by the employment of +a white metal instead of copper as the foundation, and by grafting on, +as it were, silver tips to forks and silver edges to prominent ornaments; +but the balance of advantage in economy and facility are so greatly +in favour of the electro-plating process, that, no doubt, when the patents +under which it is now worked expire, its use will become universal.</p> +<p>Since the first patent was published, important improvements have +been made in France, Germany, and America, which the original patentees +have incorporated. Copperplates cast from wood cuts and stereotypes +can be reproduced with great facility and economy, and the exact touches +of an artist in clay or wax can be reproduced in metal without the translation +of casting. Nothing is too small or too large,—the colossal +statue of an Amazon on horseback spearing a lioness, by Kiss, the Berlin +sculptor, exhibiting in the Hyde Park Exhibition of 1851, was copied +in zinc and bronzed by this process; and, by the same means, flowers, +feathers, and even spiders’ webs have been covered with a metal +film.</p> +<p>At present, a handsome electro-plated teapot, exactly resembling +silver, may be purchased at what a Britannia metal one cost fifteen +years ago.</p> +<p>Messrs. Elkington and Mason, the purchasers of the secret from the +original discoverer and authors of valuable improvements, are at the +head of one of the finest and most interesting silver and electroplating +establishments in the kingdom.</p> +<p>In commencing this new manufacture, the commercial difficulties they +had to overcome, in addition to those of a practical and mechanical +nature, were very formidable.</p> +<p>The Messrs. Elkingtons originally intended to confine themselves +to plating for the trade. But the prejudice against the new process +was so great, that the manufacturers of the needful articles could not +be induced to try it. Messrs. Elkington were, therefore, very +unwillingly, compelled to invest a capital in becoming manufacturers +of plated forks, spoons, cruets, candlesticks, tea services, and all +the et ceteras of imitation silver. The additional venture did +not serve their purpose. The retail dealers, equally prejudiced, +refused or neglected to push off the new plate. More anxiety and +more expenditure of capital followed, for the patentees were obliged +to establish retail establishments in several cities in this country, +America, and our Colonies. The struggle ended in complete success; +the use of electro plate has become universal, and the manufacture is +not confined to Messrs. Elkington, but is carried on, under licence +from the Patentees, by a vast number of firms. The result, however, +has been, as already stated, to transfer a good deal of the plated trade +of Sheffield to Birmingham, for the former town has slowly and unwillingly +adopted the new method, which has deprived its manufacturers of their +ancient pre-eminence. Electro-plating has not, as was imagined +on its first discovery, lessened the demand for manual labour in the +plate trade; on the contrary, it has largely increased it, while extending +the sale of a superior, and superseding an inferior, class of goods.</p> +<p>Although for all ordinary articles, such as forks, spoons, teapots, +etc., there are, no doubt, many manufacturers in Birmingham quite equal +to Messrs. Elkingtons, their manufactory is especially worth visiting; +because, in the first place, the whole manufactory is open, and conveniently +arranged for the inspection of visitors; and, in the next place, the +firm pay great attention to the artistic merit of their more expensive +work. They spare no expense to obtain copies from the best antique +models, and original designs from living artists, beside keeping up +a staff of draughtsmen and modellers.</p> +<p>In the manufactory may be seen the whole history of a plated dinner +service, from the pickle fork to the epergne, or vase, which crowns +the centre of the table at a grand banquet.</p> +<p>In one room men are at work in cutting out forks and spoons from +flat sheets of white metal, which is afterwards shaped, ornamented, +engraved, and then, if to be covered with silver, subjected to the action +of a current of electricity, produced by an immense pair of magnets—if +to be coated with gold, to the action of galvanic batteries; this process +requires explanation which must be sought in works, like Mr. Alfred +Smee’s, especially devoted to the subject. Then comes the +burnishing, by the action of leather-covered wheels and wire brushes, +in steam-driven motion, and then the burnishing by hand, which is chiefly +performed by young girls and women. And an agreeable and profitable +occupation it seems to be.</p> +<p>The manufacture of such articles as teapots is equally interesting. +In the process of joining such parts as the handle and spout by <i>hard +solder</i>, that is to say, solder as difficult to melt as the main +body of the object, one of the most valuable inventions for chemical +processes, the <i>blow-pipe</i>, is employed with the aid of two other +great scientific aids of modern times. The flame of the blow-pipe +is made by a stream of gas, and driven, instead of by a man’s +breath, by a steam blast, so that the mechanic has a power and a facility +of manipulation which would be unattainable under the old system of +working with a lamp and puffed out cheeks. There is great matter +for reflection in the sight of the hundreds of ingenious industrious +workmen and workwomen under one roof, employed mainly through the agency +of three powers, which, if not discovered, were utilised in the last +years of the eighteenth, and early years of the nineteenth century—<i>Steam, +Gas</i> and <i>Electricity</i>.</p> +<p>In one series of the workshops of this same establishment, a considerable +manufacture of genuine silver plate is carried on, and it is curious +to find mechanics engaged in hammering out or chasing plate, using exactly +the same tool that was employed in the fifteenth century, or perhaps +in Roman times. No improvement has, or, as it would appear, can +be, effected; all superiority now, as then, depending on the workmen.</p> +<p>A great deal of ornamental work, of a stereotype character, is done +by stamping instead of chasing. The steel dies for this purpose +form a very costly stock in trade. A single pair of dies for a +sacramental cup will sometimes cost £150.</p> +<p>Among the modern improvements, we must not fail to note the patent +seamless teapots of Britannia metal, and white metal, electrotyped—capital +things for bachelors, the spouts are not likely to melt off on the hob.</p> +<p>The show rooms of this establishment contain, in addition to the +ordinary contents of a silversmith’s shop, a number of exquisite +copies in gold, silver, and bronze electro-plate of cups and vases of +Greek and Etruscan execution, and of chased work by Benvenuto Cellini, +and other master goldsmiths of the fifteenth century.</p> +<p>The Messrs. Elkington have doubled their trade since the Birmingham +Exhibition in 1848, and there is reason to believe that, instead of +displacing labour as was anticipated, this invention has increased the +number and the wages of the parties employed.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>The <i>Britannia Metal</i> manufacture is closely allied to the plate +trade; an ingenious improvement, well worth examination, has recently +been introduced by Messrs. Sturgis of Broad Street, by which teapots +are cast whole, instead of having the spouts and handles soldered on.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p><i>The Gilt Toy and Mock Jewellery Trade</i>, once one of the staple +employments of Birmingham artizans, has dwindled away until it now occupies +a very insignificant place in the Directory. Bad cheap articles, +with neglect of novelty and taste in design, ruined it. In cheap +rubbish foreigners can always beat us, but the Birmingham gilt toy men +made things “to sell” until no one would buy.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>FOX AND HENDERSON’S MANUFACTORY.—The London works conducted +by Messrs. Fox, Henderson, and Co., who have become known to all the +world by their rapid and successful erection of the Crystal Palace, +are situated at Smethwick, about four miles from Birmingham on the Dudley +Road. They were established after the commencement of the London +and Birmingham Railway, for the manufacture of iron and machinery required +in the construction of railways.</p> +<p>The shops, which are of large dimensions, are built in a quadrangle, +enclosing a large area or open space, which is employed as a yard for +material or finished goods as may be accidentally required. The +first place into which the stranger is shown is called the Truck shop, +and will accommodate three hundred carriage builders and carpenters. +Adjoining it is the Boiler Makers’ shop, or, more properly, a +shop for workers in plate-iron, for boilers are not made in the establishment, +but iron doors, navy casks, and wrought iron railway carriages are produced +in this department. These shops form one side of the quadrangle.</p> +<p>The forges, which are very numerous, occupy the first department +of another side of the range of buildings. The forges, as is now +usual, are supplied with air by the motion of a fan worked by the engine, +and by the side of them many strong and stalwart arms are wielded with +as much skill and ingenuity as distinguished some of the smiths of the +middle ages. The Mechanical Engineering shops join the forges, +and in them will be found many of those beautiful self-acting tools +for which this age is so remarkable. There are drilling, planing, +screwing, and slotting machines of various designs and adapted to different +purposes, as well as numerous expensive and very perfect lathes. +Here the switches used for conducting trains from one line to another +are made, as well as all kinds of machine work. Connected with +this is the Turntable shop, which is, to a stranger, as interesting +as any part of the establishment, from the magnitude of the machinery +and the ease with which gigantic masses of iron are carried about by +the traveller to and from the planing and other machines. The +Wheel shop, which is next visited, is chiefly used for the manufacture +of railway carriage wheels, of which, as must be well known, there are +many varieties. The Foundry and Anchor manufactory must not be +omitted in an enumeration of the departments.</p> +<p>The other two sides of the quadrangle are occupied by saw-pits, painters’ +shops, stores, offices, and all the conveniences required for carrying +on a business which frequently gives employment to eleven or twelve +hundred men.</p> +<p>The reputation of Messrs. Fox, Henderson, and Co., has been long +established among engineers for the construction of railway bridges, +iron roofs, and works of a similar kind; but it has been made European, +if not universal, by the rapidity and skill with which they have constructed +the Industrial Exhibition.</p> +<p>Strangers, if introduced, are permitted to see the works.</p> +<p>Besides the manufactures we have enumerated and described, there +are many others of more or less importance; and new inventions and the +spur of enterprise are creating new manufactures in Birmingham every +day.</p> +<p>There are manufacturers of steam-engines and other machinery, of +stoves, grates, and other iron foundry. One firm (Messrs. Hardman +Iliffe) employs a great number of workmen in making every kind of church +furniture, from the most approved mediæval models and the designs +of Mr. Pugin. Another executes stained-glass windows. Saddlery +and harness, or parts of saddles and whips, employ a certain number +of hands; and not only imitation but a good deal of real jewellery is +made. There is one large and curious manufactory of gold chains.</p> +<p>In a word, there is no town in the world in which the execution of +work, however new or complex, in metal, wood, horn, or ivory, can be +so certainly effected as in Birmingham.</p> +<p>There are not many merchants in Birmingham, in the large sense of +the term. The chief mercantile business is done by parties termed +factors, who in effect are, if not actually, the agents of great merchants. +These “factors” purchase what they need for their wholesale +customers from the manufacturers. About 2,000 of the Birmingham +manufacturers are what are termed garret-masters; they work themselves, +and employ a few hands. The “factor” buys as few as +half-a-dozen tea-pots, or a hundred gross of pearl buttons, from these +little men, until he makes up his number. His business partakes +more of the character of retail than wholesale, and the grinding—technically +<i>slaughtering</i>—system of the factors of Birmingham has an +unfavourable Yankeefying effect on their character.</p> +<p>The principal mercantile houses are in direct communication with +American houses, if not actual partners or agents. A panic in +New York finds an immediate echo in Warwickshire and Staffordshire, +just as a fall or rise of cotton in New Orleans is immediately felt +in Lancashire.</p> +<p>It is worth observing, that in some instances great transactions +are carried on with wonderfully little show in Birmingham, and no state. +We could not give a better instance of the difficulty of “judging +by appearances” than in the following sketch from nature.</p> +<p>There is a broad street of tall mean houses, which, except at the +workmen’s dinner hour, seems always empty.</p> +<p>In this street is a large house of a dirty, faded appearance; the +cobwebbed windows blocked up; the door with a broken knocker and a sad +want of paint. It is evidently the <i>ci-devant</i> residence +of a Birmingham manufacturer of the old school, before the suburbs of +Edgbaston and Handsworth sprang up, now turned into a warehouse or receptacle +for lumber. As to apply to the front door would be useless, you +turn up a dark passage at the side, and reach another dingy door, which +gives way with a rattle at your touch, and closes with a rattle and +a bang; passing through you ascend a flight of creaking deal stairs, +and reach a suite of low rooms, about as imposing in appearance as a +deserted printing-office. A few juvenile clerks—the very +converse of the snug merchants’ clerks of the City of London—are +distributed about. A stranger would not give £50 for the +furniture, capital, and credit, of the whole concern.</p> +<p>And yet, in this strange place, is conducted a trade of many tens +of thousands per annum, with branches in all the principal towns of +Germany, Spain, Portugal, South America, and British India!</p> +<p>A rapid idea of the Birmingham hardware trade may be obtained from +the extensive show-rooms of Messrs. Herbert, in the Bull-ring.</p> +<p>If we have failed to do justice to any branch of manufacture, we +have a very sufficient excuse in the difficulty we experienced in obtaining +access to manufactories, or even information as to what was worth examination.</p> +<h3>HEALTH AND EDUCATION.</h3> +<p>After detailing at such length the material advantages of this interesting +and important community, we should not be doing right if we did not +present the reverse of the medal in certain drawbacks and deficiencies +which seriously interfere with the prosperity and progress of “the +hardware village.”</p> +<p>The Birmingham public are so often in the habit of hearing from their +favourite orators that they are the most intelligent, moral, and intellectual +people in the world,—that their town is the healthiest, and their +opinions the soundest, of any community in England, that it is not extraordinary +if they overlook blots which are plain enough to a stranger. Perhaps +they are quite right; perhaps they are more honest, more sensible, more +sound politicians, than any other British community. Perhaps, +too, they are cleaner, more sober, and better educated than the towns +of A, B, and C; but, without entering into comparisons, which, in such +cases, are of no practical benefit, we shall proceed to show that, with +all their excellent industrious, intelligent, and ingenious qualities, +the people of Birmingham are much more dirty, drunken, and uneducated +than they ought to be, considering that the town is in a very healthy +situation; that the mass of the population is engaged in skilled employments, +and that patriots, bearded and unbearded, are plentiful, who seem to +have a great deal of influence, for good or evil.</p> +<p>First, then, as to drunkenness, the great parent of British poverty +and crime—drunkenness, which is a greater tax upon us than the +National Debt; let us see what share that has in the grievances of Birmingham.</p> +<p>It appears that in 1850 there were, including hotels, taverns, gin-shops, +and beer-shops, altogether 1293 establishments for the supply of intoxicating +liquors. The total number of houses in the borough being 43,000, +it results that in every 33 houses one is a wine, beer, or spirit shop. +That as the number of bakers’ and chandlers’ shops is only +871, there are 422 more shops engaged in selling drink than in selling +bread, and if only four persons be supposed to be supported by selling +liquors, that will be more than twice as many as are engaged in the +gun trade, viz., 2400. Or to put the calculation in another form, +if we allow the sum of £50 per annum as the wages of the five +thousand persons who live by the sale of intoxicating drinks, it will +be found that the people of Birmingham must expend at least a quarter +of a million on wine, beer, and spirits.</p> +<p>That too much is so expended is proved by the police returns, which +show that out of 3400 persons taken into custody in 1849, nearly half +the offences arose from intoxication.</p> +<p>In other respects, considering the population, the crime of Birmingham +is rather below than above average. It cannot be said that it +is either a brutal or dishonest, but it is essentially a drunken town. +The causes of the prevalence of this degrading vice are several, and +may be traced out very clearly.</p> +<p>Metal work is hard and thirsty work, but it may be doubted whether +what is really drunk while at work, or immediately after work, does +harm. But it has long been, and still is, the habit of the mechanics +in a number of trades, to make a holiday of Monday; it has even a local +name—it is called Shackling day, “<i>Shackling</i>” +being a term which can be perfectly translated by the French verb, <i>flaner</i>. +A Shackler must drink, if not smoke.</p> +<p>The more plentiful and pressing the work is, the more determined +are the men engaged to make Saint Monday, and very often Tuesday and +Wednesday also.</p> +<p>The time so lost when trade is at high water, and the losses imposed +on the manufacturer by the consequent non-fulfilment of contracts, eventually +form a second drawback on the earnings of the workman, in addition to +the day’s wages lost, and the days’ wages spent on “shackling +days.”</p> +<p>Secondly, it has been proved that a large percentage of the married +women engaged in work factories are compelled so to work to support +their families in consequence of the improvidence of their husbands.</p> +<p>Thirdly, in the same way children, from a very early age,—seven +years, and even younger,—work in order to support their improvident +parents.</p> +<p>Women engaged in work all day cannot keep comfortable houses for +their husbands. An uncomfortable home drives a husband, no matter +of what rank, to the tavern or the club.</p> +<p>The custom of sending children to work from the time they can earn +sixpence a-week, renders education impossible. In the evenings +they are only fit to sleep: on Sundays, in fine weather, the majority +very naturally prefer walking in the fields to the dry task of acquiring +knowledge, the value of which they are not sufficiently educated to +appreciate.</p> +<p>The effect of the want of education and the habit of idle Mondays +on the male population is sufficiently lamentable. A man who can +neither read nor write, in addition to the abstract pleasure Saxons +have in drinking, finds an occupation and a substitute for ideas in +a pot and pipe. The effect on the female population is even more +baneful. They are so fully occupied that they have neither time +to write, nor to cook, to read nor to sew, and they become wives and +mothers with no better qualification for their important duties than +girls educated in a fashionable school, without being able to obtain +the assistance of servants and governesses.</p> +<p>Wives engaged in factories are obliged to leave their children to +the care of strangers or elder children, themselves scarcely above the +age of children.</p> +<p>One consequence is, that according to the report of a committee of +physicians and surgeons in 1840: “The ratio of infant mortality +in Birmingham is very considerable, greatly exceeding that of the metropolis, +and of the agricultural districts, though not as high as in some provincial +towns.” “Severe burns and scalds, particularly the +former, are so numerous, that in the general hospital two rooms are +devoted for their reception.”</p> +<p>We have not been able to obtain any precise statistics of education +among the operative classes; but we find that among criminals upwards +of ninety per cent. are either totally or very imperfectly educated, +and that of 15,000 young persons between the age of ten and fifteen +engaged in manufacture, not more than 1,000 have an opportunity of education, +except from Sunday schools.</p> +<p>In Sunday schools the instruction is confined to reading the scriptures +and religious books, except in the schools attached to the meeting-houses +of the Society of Friends and the Unitarians, the conductors of which +have had the good sense to accommodate their plans to the peculiar wants +of a manufacturing district.</p> +<p>No general movement seems to have been attempted to correct this +crying evil of infant employment and neglected education, none of the +patriots, bearded or shaven, have ventured to exert their strong lungs +in so unpopular a cause: it is so much easier to stand on your own dunghill +and abuse the lord of the manor than to put on an apron and a cap, mix +up the lime and water, and whitewash your own cottage. But several +manufacturers have honourably distinguished themselves by beginning +the work of reformation at home.</p> +<p>Mr. Gillet, the pen manufacturer, whose work is principally done +by females, admits no girls into his shops under thirteen; he makes +ability to read indispensable, and gives a preference in obtaining employment +to those who can write; and requires a certificate of regular attendance +from a Sunday school teacher.</p> +<p>Mr. Winfield, who employs nearly five hundred hands, of whom few +are women, established an evening school in 1844, at a charge of a penny +a week, for his own work people, in which reading, writing, arithmetic, +English grammar, geography, and drawing, are taught, with occasional +lectures on the principles of mechanics, natural philosophy, and history. +A small library is attached to the school.</p> +<p>“When the school was first established, it was remarked that +scarcely a boy knew his companion except by a nickname, and that fights +on entering and leaving school were of common occurrence. At present +the practice of nicknames has disappeared, and a fight does not take +place once in three months.</p> +<p>“The proceedings of the evening commenced with a hymn. +An orphan boy, fourteen years of age, a self-taught musician, placed +himself before a small organ, provided by Mr. Winfield, and played the +evening hymn. All the boys accompanied him with their voices, +and sang very creditably; after this they were formed into their usual +classes.</p> +<p>“The school labours under great disadvantages; the hours of +attendance are not sufficiently long; even these few hours are infringed +on when trade is brisk, and the men, working over-hours, require the +boys to assist them; and from physical exhaustion of the boys after +the labour of the day, they sometimes fall asleep over their books.</p> +<p>“A hymn is sung, a prayer said, and the bible read without +comment, no catechism or doctrinal point is introduced. The school +includes the sons of people of the Church of England, Roman Catholics, +Wesleyans, Presbyterians, and Unitarians.”</p> +<p>Messrs. Peyton & Barlow, metal-bedstead makers, Mr. Bacchus, +glass-maker, Mr. Middlemore, currier, and Messrs. Chance, glassmakers, +have also established schools for the parties in their employ.</p> +<p>Mr. William Chance is an earnest philanthropist; he has established +a ragged school, at his own expense, in Birmingham, open to all, and +at his works in Spon Lane, West Bromwich, one school for his workmen +alone, and another open to the neighbourhood.</p> +<p>The first school, in Spon Lane, is divided into three departments, +for infants, for girls, and for boys. A weekly charge of 3d. is +made, for which books and stationery are provided; punctual attendance +and cleanliness are conditions insisted upon. The number of scholars, +of whom one-third are from Messrs. Chance’s works, has steadily +increased from the time of opening. The boys are instructed in +reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, geography, and the elements of +drawing. The girls are taught plain needlework instead of drawing. +No catechism is taught, but the bible is read without comment. +One-half are the children of parents in communion with the Church of +England, and the other half of Dissenters. In 1850 it contained +190 boys, 80 girls, and 150 infants.</p> +<p>It is difficult to rate too highly the advantage the operative classes +obtain from the preliminary training afforded by infant schools. +But infant schools are useless, if the education is to cease at seven +years old.</p> +<p>The other school is strictly confined to the boys and men employed +in the glass works. It opened July, 1850, with 110 scholars, all +boys from twelve years of age, before which none are admitted into the +manufactory. By degrees the men, at first deterred by shame, began +to attend, and at present a considerable number avail themselves of +the advantage for commencing or extending the imperfect education they +had obtained at Sunday Schools.</p> +<p>These schools are not self-supporting, but are found, even in a commercial +point of view, to repay the philanthropic firm by whom they have been +founded and supported.</p> +<p>The Birmingham Free and Industrial School, founded in 1847 by the +energetic exertions of the Hon. and Rev. Grantham Yorke, Rector of St. +Philip, includes a day school for boys and girls above seven years of +age; two industrial classes; and an asylum for deserted and orphans. +The scholars are not of the class to which we are specially calling +attention. We shall, therefore, content ourselves with mentioning +the existence of such a School for the refuse population of this large +town.</p> +<p>The deficient education of the working classes, consequent on unregulated +infant labour, would alone be sufficient to account for the prevalence +of the idle custom of losing at least one day every week in busy times, +and the drinking habits, which are a blot upon a population of superior +intelligence. But a still more demoralizing influence exists in +the state of the dwellings of the working classes in Birmingham, which, +although at first sight very attractive in appearance, forming neat +courts of cottages, compared with the crowded lodging-houses of many +manufacturing towns, are, nevertheless, lamentably deficient in two +essentials for health and decency, viz., efficient drainage, and a sufficient +supply of wholesome water.</p> +<p>In two thousand courts, inhabited by fifty thousand people, the supply +of water is either obtained at great loss of time from wells, often +dirty, sometimes fetid, or purchased at an extravagant rate from itinerant +water-carriers.</p> +<p>A Private Water Company exists, but has scarcely been called upon +at all to supply the houses of the working classes. Under these +circumstances, with a clean external appearance, the filth in which +fifty thousand people live seems to be only understood by the local +Medical Inspectors, whose reports have hitherto produced so little effect, +it is not extraordinary that after long hours of toil, the inhabitants +fly to the bright saloons of gin shops, and the snug tap-rooms of beer +shops.</p> +<p>We have dwelt thus at length upon the moral, and educational, and +sanitary shortcomings of a town which can, no doubt, draw comparisons, +very much to its own advantage, with other manufacturing district towns, +because Birmingham is in a position to set an example, to lead the way +in an all-important reform without consulting the opinions of the Ministers +or the Parliament of the day. Birmingham may, if it pleases, go +far toward affording every working man the means of drinking and washing +in an ample supply of clean water, of living in a well-drained cottage, +and of sending his children to school for two hours every day, without +waiting for the decision of Parliament upon all the crotchets of the +Chartists, or plans of the Financial Reform Association.</p> +<p>Pity it is that none of the well-applauded Brummagem patriots have +pluck enough to battle a little unpopularity in so honest a cause. +But clap-trap costs less trouble than work, and gets more cheers.</p> +<p>It is the misfortune of Birmingham to be sacrificed to the disagreements +of two rival factions, one calling itself Conservative, and the other +Radical, both filling the pockets and doing the work of lawyers at the +expense of the ratepayers.</p> +<p>Nothing can be done until the municipal Corporation obtains the powers +now vested in several sets of virtually irresponsible Commissioners. +When these wars of the Pots and Kettles are ended, the ratepayers will +be able to turn their undivided attention to local reforms without having +their minds distracted by those little legal squabbles, under cover +of which business is neglected, and pockets are picked. It is +to be hoped that the session of 1851 will settle this point.</p> +<p>The whole kingdom is interested in the good government and prosperity +of its greatest inland town. <a name="citation113"></a><a href="#footnote113">{113}</a></p> +<h2>WARWICK, LEAMINGTON, KENILWORTH, STRATFORD ON AVON.</h2> +<p>Before leaving Birmingham, it will be convenient to say something +about Warwick, Leamington, Kenilworth, and Stratford on Avon, of which +the one is the assize town, another the watering place, and the third +and fourth the antiquarian or rather romantic lions of the county in +which Birmingham stands first, for wealth, population, manufacturing, +and political importance. Warwick, in spite of its parliamentary, +municipal, and assize honours, would soon be as much forgotten as a +hundred other dull little country towns, without local trade or local +attractions, if it were not for the castle, the church, and the river, +which, in connection with striking epochs in England’s history, +will ever render it a favourite pilgrimage.</p> +<p>After being destroyed by the Danes, Warwick was restored by Ethelfreda, +the daughter of Alfred the Great, who built a fort there, A.D. 913. +At Domesday Survey it was a borough, and contained 261 houses, of which +126 belonged to the king. Members were sent to Parliament in the +time of Edward I., when also the paving of the town and the erection +of a wall round it were commenced. In the time of Philip and Mary, +the first charter of incorporation was granted.</p> +<p>The town stands on the west side of the river Avon,—Shakspeare’s +Avon, from which it is separated by Warwick Castle and grounds. +It was formerly a little county metropolis, many of the families of +rank and fortune had winter residences there; the Warwick balls were +frequented by a select and exclusive set; a small theatre was well supported, +and few races assembled more distinguished company than used to throng +the Warwick course once a year, in family coaches and four-in-hands. +All this grandeur has departed, Leamington has absorbed the wealth and +fashion of Warwick, the town mansions have fallen into plebeian hands, +the theatre has ceased to be a training school for the London boards, +the streets are silent except when a little temporary bustle is produced +by an influx of Birmingham attorneys, their clients, and witnesses, +at the assizes, of stout agriculturists and holiday labourers on “fair +days,” or the annual “<i>mop</i>,” when an ox is roasted +whole, and lads and lasses of rosy rural breed range themselves along +the pavement to be hired, or at the races twice a year, when, although +the four horses with postilions and outriders are seldom seen, railroads +from a distance, and Leamington from close at hand, pour a variegated +stream of sightseers and gamblers on one of the prettiest pieces of +ground in England.</p> +<p>Warwick has no manufactures, but, being a borough very evenly balanced +between the two contending political parties, its inhabitants have enjoyed +a fuller share of the favours of Government than has fallen to the lot +of towns of more commercial importance.</p> +<p>Warwick stands on solid rock, in which the cellars are excavated; +and this circumstance, added to its position on the top of a hill, renders +it particularly dry and clean.</p> +<p>There are several excellent inns, supported by the surrounding’ +farmers, which are much to be preferred to more fashionable hotels. +The roast geese to be found at the farmers’ ordinaries on market +days about Michaelmas time, are worthy of commendation; and the farmers +themselves, being of a jovial and hospitable turn of mind, render these +dinners pleasanter to a stranger who can dine at an unfashionable hour, +than the eternal “anything you please, sir; steak or chop, sir,” +in a solitary box, which haunts us for our sins in the coffee-rooms +of English hotels.</p> +<p>Warwick deserves a long journey, if it were only for the sake of +the fine woodland scenery which surrounds it for ten miles, but the +castle is the especial object of attraction,—a castle which realizes +almost more than any other those romantic ideas of a feudal abode which +were first put into circulation by the “Castle of Otranto,” +and became part of the education of our youth under the influence of +the genius of Sir Walter Scott.</p> +<p>The castle rises upon the brink of the river, which foams past over +the weir of an ancient mill, where once the inhabitants of the borough +were bound by feudal service to grind all their corn. The best +approach is from the Leamington Lower Road, over a bridge of one arch, +built by a late Earl of Warwick. Cæsar’s and Guy’s +towers rise into sight from a surrounding grove. The entrance +is through an arched gateway, past a lodge, where the relics of Earl +Guy, the dun cow slayer, are preserved; and a winding avenue cut in +solid rock effects a sort of surprise, which, as the castle comes again +suddenly into view, is very pleasing. The exterior realizes a +baronial abode of the fourteenth or fifteenth century; the interior +has been modernized sufficiently to be made comfortable, still retaining +many striking features of its ancient state. A closely cropped +green sward covers the quadrangle, which was formerly the tilting ground.</p> +<p>The date of Cæsar’s tower, the oldest part of the building, +is uncertain. Guy’s tower, of the latter part of the fourteenth +century, is in fine preservation.</p> +<p>The great entrance hall, a grand old room sixty-two feet by thirty-seven, +is adorned with armour and other appurtenances to feudal state. +At a great fire-place with fire dogs, room might be found for a cartload +of faggots. A suite of rooms, commanding views of delightful scenery, +are adorned with ancient tapestry, armour, and pictures by Rubens, Vandyke, +Velasquez, and other eminent painters. Among the portraits are +Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, Prince Rupert, and Charles +I. on horseback, by Vandyke.</p> +<p>Hours may be profitably and agreeably spent in investigating the +treasures of Warwick Castle. The grounds, although not extensive, +are picturesquely arranged; in one of the greenhouses, the Warwick vase, +an antique celebrated for its size and beauty, will be found. +The numerous copies in various materials, but especially in metals, +cast in Birmingham, have rendered the form of this relic of classic +art well known.</p> +<p>After the Castle, St. Mary’s Church must be visited for its +beautiful chapel with altar tomb, on which lies prostrate in humble +prayer the effigy of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, styled “the +Good.” This Beauchamp was Regent of France in 1425, during +the absence of the Duke of Bedford, and carried on the war there with +signal success. He was afterwards governor of the infant king, +Henry VI. While a second time ruling over France, he died at Rouen +on the 30th April, 1439. It was the daughter of the Good Earl +who married Richard Nevil, created, on succeeding to the Warwick estates +through his wife, Earl of Warwick, known as “the king maker;” +a grand character in Shakspeare’s Henry VI., and the hero of Sir +Bulwer Lytton’s “Last of the Barons.”</p> +<p>Then there is Leicester Hospital, founded in the time of Richard +II., as two guilds, in honour of the Virgin and St. George the Martyr, +which, after the Reformation, was re-established under its present name +by Queen Elizabeth’s favourite, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, +as an almshouse for a master and twelve brethren, “being impotent +or infirm men.” These last have been, in consequence of +the improved value of the trust-funds, increased to twenty, and receive +each an allowance of £80 per annum: the master has £400. +The buildings of this charity consist of a quadrangle, formed by the +brethren’s lodgings and public kitchen, of a chapel of ancient +architecture over the west gate of the town, and an ancient hall.</p> +<p>Previous to the Reform Bill, the influence of the Warwick family +returned two members for the borough of Warwick: since that period they +have as yet only returned one; but, in the absence of the countervailing +influence of any manufactures, it seems likely that a popular Earl, +of whatever politics, would be able to resume the ancient influence +of the house, and again return two.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>LEAMINGTON, about two miles distant, may be reached by two turnpike +roads and a pleasant footpath; the distance of all being about two miles.</p> +<p>Mineral waters, fashion, a clever physician, the Warwickshire hounds, +the surplus capital of Birmingham, speculative builders, and excellent +sanitary regulations have contributed to the rapid rise of this picturesque +and fashionable watering-place; in what proportions it would be difficult +to say.</p> +<p>The waters, which resemble mild Epsom salts, first brought the village +into notice in 1794, although the existence of mineral springs at Leamington +Priory had been recorded by Camden and Dugdale. In 1794 people +drank harder than they do now, read less, played cards more, were altogether +“faster,” and had more need of purifying waters and pump-room +amusements. A long war shut out our idlers from the Continent, +and created an additional demand for our native mineral produce. +At a later period the talents of Dr. Jephson attracted an army of invalids +and would-be invalids; Sir Walter Scott’s novels brought Kenilworth +and Warwick Castle into fashion, just as Garrick, like a second Peter +the Hermit, preached up a pilgrimage to Stratford-on-Avon. So +land-jobbers and builders rushed to prepare tempting abodes for the +armies of the sick, the sporting, and the romantic, who gathered round +the springs.</p> +<p>Although the beautiful stone which has made Bath the queen of watering-places, +was not to be had, the materials for Roman cement, then lately invented, +were plentiful. With these aids the town authorities had the good +sense to enforce cleanliness, and all manner of rules for making the +streets fit for the lounging promenades of the well-dressed. Water-carts +and brooms were kept in active employment; beggars and dust-heaps were +under the eye of a vigilant police.</p> +<p>The result was, that at the expense of many ruined builders and speculators, +Leamington grew from a pretty village into a fine town, peopled not +only by invalids in the water-drinking season, and sportsmen in the +winter season, but by a number of permanent residents of independent +fortune, of all ranks between retired manufacturers and Irish peers. +Attached to the manufacturing districts, it has become what Brighton +is to the London Stock Exchange.</p> +<p>As hunting quarters, Leamington is convenient for men with few horses, +as the meets are near and the railways convenient. An ill-natured +opinion prevails that the scarlet coat is more worn there by fortune-hunters +than fox-hunters, and that the tailor is a person of more importance +with the majority of the field than the huntsman; but this story probably +originates in the number of carriages full of pretty faces to be found +at the cover sides round Leamington. The country cannot be compared +with Northamptonshire or Leicestershire, or even Oxfordshire. +The farmers are better sportsmen than agriculturists. Warwickshire +landlords think more of the politics of their tenants, than of their +intelligence or capital. Great improvements have, however, been +effected within the last ten years, and we must not forget to mention +that the Birmingham Agricultural and Poultry Show, which is the finest +local exhibition in the kingdom, draws a great many of its exhibitors +from this county.</p> +<p>Leamington, long without direct railway communication, is now wrapped +up between the broad-gauge and the narrow-gauge, like a hare in a bottle-spit. +The opening of the line to Rugby affords a new short way to London. +The population will henceforward increase at the expense of its gentility, +but the police and sanitary arrangements before alluded to, will always +make Leamington a favourite with invalids, hypochondriacs, and <i>flaneurs</i>.</p> +<p>The multiplicity of these railroads compels us to abandon the plan +of describing, as we pass, the more celebrated towns, mansions, or castles, +because it would be impossible to follow out such a zig-zag of topography. +It is better to take it for granted that the traveller will stop at +certain places, and from them make excursions to everything worth seeing +in the neighbourhood.</p> +<p>In this manner, as Birmingham gave occasion for an examination into +the leading manufactures, we presume that Leamington will be the best +central encampment for a survey of everything within a circle of ten +miles interesting to the Antiquarian, the Historian, the Artist, the +Poet, the Agriculturist, and the happy beings who have a taste for all +these pursuits.</p> +<p>The number of interesting places within an easy walk or drive of +Leamington, forms one of its great advantages as a watering place.</p> +<p>Either on foot or in a carriage (and Leamington is extremely well +provided with carriages for hire), Warwick Castle, or Stratford-on-Avon, +or Guy’s Cliff, and Kenilworth, or Stoneleigh Abbey, may be visited +in the course of a day, or part of a day.</p> +<p>The detailed beauties of these places will be found fully set forth +in county histories and local guides. A brief reference, sufficient +to enable a traveller to make up a plan of campaign, will be all we +shall attempt.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>STONELEIGH ABBEY, the residence of Lord Leigh, is noticeable for +its fine woodland scenery,—splendid oaks adorn the Park, and as +having been the subject of a series of very extraordinary trials at +the suit of claimants of the estate and ancient title. The true +heirs of this estate have never been discovered; many claimants have +successively appeared, and endeavoured to prop up their claims by extraordinary +fabrications of evidence. For instance, a certain tombstone, bearing +inscriptions of great importance, was not only described and sworn to +by a cloud of witnesses, as having been at a certain year in Stoneleigh +Church, but other witnesses, with equal circumstantiality, related how, +on a particular occasion, this said tombstone was taken down and destroyed. +And yet, it was clearly proved before the House of Lords that no such +tombstone ever existed.</p> +<p>The present family are now secure in the estates under the Statute +of Limitations, but the late Peer, up to a short period before the old +title was revived in his favour, occupied Stoneleigh as a trustee, as +it were, for want of a better claimant.</p> +<p>In the incidents of the Leigh Peerage, are the materials of half-a-dozen +romances.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>GUY’S CLIFF—where Guy, Earl of Warwick, and slayer of +the Dun Cow, lived and died as a hermit, fed daily by his Countess, +little knowing whom she fed—is situated on the banks of the Avon, +about a mile from Warwick, on the high road to Kenilworth, and may also +be approached by footpaths across the fields leading to the same village. +The pictures of Guy’s Cliff have been extravagantly praised, but +the natural and artificial beauties of its gardens and pleasure grounds +constitute its chief attraction. For, says Dugdale, it is “a +place of so great delight in respect to the river gliding below the +rock, the dry wholesome situation, and the fair grove of lofty elms +overshadowing it, that to one who desireth a retired life, either for +his devotions or study, the like is hardly to be found.”</p> +<p>What Dugdale said two hundred years ago may truly be repeated now, +especially in a warm autumn or summer evening, when the click of a water-mill +adds sound to the pleasure to be derived from the thick shade of the +lofty trees overhead, mossy turf under the feet, and the sight of flowing +water. Henry V. visited this hermitage; and Shakspeare, on what +authority we know not, is said to have frequented it.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>KENILWORTH follows Guy’s Cliff, once a retired country village +of one street, one church, and one inn, now vulgarized by being made +the site of a railway station. At the risk of offending the Kenilworthians, +we strongly advise the romantic youths and maidens inspired by Sir Walter +Scott’s romance not to visit the ruins, which, although an excellent +excuse and pleasant situation for a picnic, have nothing romantic about +them beyond grey walls. The woods and waters which formed so important +a part of the scenery during Queen Elizabeth’s visit, have disappeared, +as well as all the stately buildings.</p> +<p>At the same time, imagination will go a long way, and it may not +be a day ill spent after reading Laleham’s “Princely Pleasures +of Kenilworth,” in which he describes what he himself saw when +Queen Elizabeth visited the Earl of Leicester there in 1575, to journey +over, especially if accompanied by a cold collation, including a salad +of the Avon crawfish, and a little iced punch. It would be still +better for good pedestrians to walk the distance by the fields and push +on to the inn for refreshment, without which all tame scenery is so +very flat. In the sublimity of the Alps, the Pyrenees, or even +the great Highland hills, a man may forget his dinner; but, when within +the verge of the horizon church-towers and smoking chimneys of farm-houses +continually occur, visions of fat, brown, sucking pigs, rashers of ham +and boiled fowls, with foaming tankards, will intrude unbidden after +an hour or two of contemplation.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>STRATFORD ON AVON, with SHOTTERY, where Ann Hathaway was courted +by Shakspeare and CHARLECOTE, the residence of the Sir Thomas Lucy whom +the poet immortalised as Justice Shallow, are all within ten miles of +Leamington. On all these so much has been written that we will +not venture to “pile up the agony” any higher. The +best companion on the road to Stratford is Charles Knight’s <i>Life +of Shakspeare</i>, which colours all the scenes of the poet’s +life in Warwickshire with the atmosphere of the sixteenth century, and +summons to meet us in the streets of Stratford costumes and characters +contemporary with Falstaff, Shallow, and Dogberry so well, that we do +not see the Clods in corduroys, the commercial Gents in paletots, and +the Police in trim blue, whom we really meet.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/ill13b.jpg"> +<img alt="THE AVON VIADUCT" src="images/ill13s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h2>SOHO.<br /> +WATT, BOULTON, MURDOCH.</h2> +<p>On leaving Birmingham, the railway almost immediately passes from +Warwickshire into Staffordshire, through two parishes, Handsworth and +Aston, which, presenting nothing picturesque in natural scenery or remarkable +in ancient or modern buildings, with one exception, yet cannot be passed +over without notice, because they were residences of three remarkable +men, to whom we are largely indebted for our use of the inventions which +have most contributed to the civilisation and advance of social comfort +in the nineteenth century.</p> +<p>Two miles from old Birmingham, now part of the modern town, lies +Soho, in the suburb of Handsworth, which, in 1762, was a bleak and barren +heath.</p> +<p>In that year Matthew Boulton, the son of a wealthy Birmingham hardwareman, +purchased Soho, and erected on it a mansion, with pleasure grounds, +and a series of workshops, for carrying on the then staple trades of +the town, in shoe buckles, buttons, and other articles included in the +general title of “toys.” In 1774, Boulton entered +into partnership with James Watt, and commenced, in concert with him, +the experiments in which Watt had been for some years engaged for improving +Savary’s imperfect Steam-Pumping Engine. After years of +the concentrated labour of genius of the highest order, and the expenditure +of not less than £47,000, their success was complete, and Watt’s +inventions, in the words of Lord Jeffrey, rendered the Steam Engine +“capable of being applied to the finest and most delicate manufactures, +and its power so increased, as to set weight and solidity at defiance. +By his admirable contrivances, it became a thing stupendous alike for +its force and its applicability, for the prodigious power it can exert, +and the ease and precision, and ductility with which that power can +be varied, distributed, and applied. The trunk of an elephant +that can pick up a pin or rend an oak, is as nothing to it. It +can engrave a seal, and crush masses of obdurate metal like wax before +it; draw out, without breaking, a thread as fine as gossamer, and lift +a ship of war like a bauble in the air. It can embroider muslin, +and forge anchors, cut steel into ribands, and impel loaded vessels +against the fury of the winds and waves.”</p> +<p>The march of death and time have removed all the men who were engaged +in assisting James Watt and Matthew Boulton in their great works. +The numerous mechanical trades in coining, plating, and other Birmingham +manufactures, in addition to the construction of steam engines, which +first turned the waste of Soho into the largest workshop in Europe, +have passed into other hands, and been transplanted. The manufactory +of steam engines, removed to another site, still exists under the name +of the old firm; but within a very recent period the pleasure grounds +in which James Watt often walked, in earnest converse with the partner +to whose energetic and appreciative mind he owed so much, have been +invaded by the advances of the neighbouring town, and sliced and divided +into building lots. Aston Hall and Park must soon suffer the same +fate.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/ill14b.jpg"> +<img alt="ASTON VIADUCT" src="images/ill14s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>Very soon there will be no vestiges of the homes of these great men, +but they need no monuments, no shrines for the reverence of admiring +pilgrims. Every manufactory in the town of Birmingham is a monument +of the genius which first fully expanded within the precincts of Soho. +Thousands on thousands find bread from inventions there first perfected +or suggested.</p> +<p>When Watt explained to Smeaton, the architect of Eddystone Lighthouse +and the greatest engineer of the day, the plan of his steam engine, +he doubted whether mechanics could be found capable of executing the +different parts with sufficient precision; and, in fact, in 1769, when +Watt produced, under the patronage of Dr. Roebuck, his third model, +with a cylinder of block tin eighteen inches in diameter, there were +only one or two men capable of giving the requisite truth of workmanship +to air-pump cylinders of two inches in diameter. At the present +day, as before observed in reference to Wolverton, there are thousands +of skilled workmen employed at weekly wages, to whom the most difficult +problems of Watt’s early experiments are familiar handiwork.</p> +<p>At Handsworth, too, working for a long life in the Soho manufactories +as the servant, confidential assistant, and friend, lived another remarkable +man, William Murdoch, the inventor of illumination by gas, and the author +of the first locomotive steam engine, and of several important contributions +to practical science, to which justice has scarcely been done.</p> +<p>William Murdoch employed coal gas so early as 1792, for the purpose +of lighting his house and offices at Redruth, in Cornwall, when he was +superintending the pumping engines erected there by Messrs. Boulton +and Watt; for it was he who erected for them in that district the first +Cornish pumping engine, with separate condenser. He had at that +time in regular use a portable gas lantern, formed by filling a bladder +with gas, and fixing to it a jet, which was attached to the bottom of +a glass lantern, which he used for the purpose of lighting himself home +at night across the moors from the mining engines.</p> +<p>His locomotive engine, made upon the non-condensing principle (since +adopted in all engines for that purpose), was constructed, in consequence +of a lameness which confined him to the sofa, and set to work at Redruth +in 1784. It is still in existence in perfect working order, and +was exhibited before a meeting of the Mechanical Engineers at Birmingham, +in the year 1850, when a memoir of Mr. Murdoch was read, which has been +kindly forwarded to us by the President, John M’Connell, Esq., +C.E.</p> +<p>It is among the traditions of Redruth, that one night William Murdoch, +wishing to try an experiment with his new invention, lighted the lamp +under the boiler, and set it a-going on a narrow, smooth, hard-rolled +gravel walk leading to the church, a mile distant. The little +engine went off at a great pace, whistling and hissing as it went, and +the inventor followed as fast as he could in chase. Soon he heard +cries of alarm, horror, despair, and came up to the worthy clergyman +of the parish cowering up against the hedge, almost in a fainting fit, +under a strong impression that it was the Evil One in person who just +hissed past him in a fire-flaught.</p> +<p>Those of this generation who remember their first encounter with +a locomotive in a dark night, can realize the terror of a country clergyman +on encountering so strange an apparition in a night walk.</p> +<p>It speaks as highly for Messrs. Boulton and Watt, in whose service +he passed all the active years of his life, as for Mr. Murdoch, that +on leaving Cornwall, he refused £1000 a-year, which was offered +him by the mining adventurers to remain in the county, in charge of +the steam-pumping engines. Liberal as the offer seems, it would +have paid them well, for on his departure the engines lost twenty-five +per cent. of their working power.</p> +<p>Handsworth Church, near Soho, contains a marble statue of James Watt, +by Chantrey, a copy of that erected in Westminster Abbey.</p> +<p>The railway passes Aston Hall, where James Watt and his only surviving +son lived until his death a few years ago. The park contains some +fine trees, and the house is a good specimen of the domestic architecture +of the time of Elizabeth.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/ill15b.jpg"> +<img alt="ASTON HALL" src="images/ill15s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>It was sold for a trifling sum, with an imperfect title, which time +has cured, to a speculating banker; and, after having been let to the +late James Watt on a long lease, is now likely to exchange mansion and +park for a congeries of cottages in rows, forming forty-shilling freeholders.</p> +<p>The passion which the mechanics of Birmingham have for investing +in land has rendered land near that town dearer than in parallel situations +near London.</p> +<h2>THE BLACK COUNTRY.<br /> +WALSALL, DUDLEY, WEDNESBURY, DARLASTON.</h2> +<p>The first diverging railway after leaving Handsworth, on the road +to the north, is what, for want of a better name, is called the South +Staffordshire, which connects Birmingham with Dudley, Walsall, Lichfield, +and Tamworth, thus uniting the most purely agricultural with the most +thoroughly manufacturing districts, and especially with that part of +the great coal-field which is locally known as the “Black Country.” +In this Black Country, including West Bromwich, Wednesbury, Dudley, +and Darlaston, Bilston, Wolverhampton, and several minor villages, a +perpetual twilight reigns during the day, and during the night fires +on all sides light up the dark landscape with a fiery glow. The +pleasant green of pastures is almost unknown, the streams, in which +no fishes swim, are black and unwholesome; the natural dead flat is +often broken by huge hills of cinders and spoil from the mines; the +few trees are stunted and blasted; no birds are to be seen, except a +few smoky sparrows; and for miles on miles a black waste spreads around, +where furnaces continually smoke, steam-engines thud and hiss, and long +chains clank, while blind gin-horses walk their doleful round. +From time to time you pass a cluster of deserted roofless cottages of +dingiest brick, half-swallowed up in sinking pits or inclining to every +point of the compass, while the timbers point up like the ribs of a +half-decayed corpse. The majority of the natives of this Tartarian +region are in full keeping with the scenery—savages, without the +grace of savages, coarsely clad in filthy garments, with no change on +week-days and Sundays, they converse in a language belarded with fearful +and disgusting oaths, which can scarcely be recognized as the same as +that of civilized England.</p> +<p>On working days few men are to be seen, they are in the pits or the +ironworks, but women are met on the high-road clad in men’s once +white linsey-woolsey coats and felt hats, driving and cursing strings +of donkeys laden with coals or iron rods for the use of the nailers.</p> +<p>On certain rare holidays these people wash their faces, clothe themselves +in decent garments, and, since the opening of the South Staffordshire +Railway, take advantage of cheap excursion trains, go down to Birmingham +to amuse themselves and make purchases. It would be a useful lesson +for any one who is particularly well satisfied with the moral, educational, +and religious state of his countrymen, to make a little journey through +this Black Country. He will find that the amiable enthusiasts +who meet every May at Exeter Hall to consider on the best means of converting +certain aboriginal tribes in Africa, India, and the Islands of the Pacific, +need not go so far to find human beings more barbarous and yet much +more easily reclaimed.</p> +<p>The people of this district are engaged in coal-mining, in ironworks, +in making nails, and many other articles, or parts of articles, for +the Birmingham trade. Their wages are, for the most part, good; +fuel is cheap; well supplied markets, and means of obtaining the best +clothing are close at hand. But, within sixty years a vast dense +population has been collected together in districts which were but thinly +inhabited as long as the value lay on the surface, instead of in the +bowels of the earth. The people gathered together and found neither +churches, nor schools, nor laws, nor customs, nor means for cleanliness +at first, nor even an effective police to keep order. And thus +they became one of the most ignorant, brutal, depraved, drunken, unhealthy +populations in the kingdom, unless it be a set of people in the same +occupations in the neighbourhood of Manchester.</p> +<p>We shall never forget, some five-and-twenty years ago, passing near +Bilston on a summer’s holiday, and seeing a great red, pied bull +foaming, and roaring, and marching round a ring in which he was chained, +while a crowd of men, each with a demoniacal-looking bulldog in his +arms, and a number of ragged women, with their hair about their ears, +some of them also carrying bull-dog pups, yelled about the baited bull. +It gave us an awful fright, and haunted our childish dreams for years +after.</p> +<p>The first change forced upon the governing classes, by feelings of +self-protection was an organized police, and the “Black” +people are now more disgusting than dangerous. The cholera of +1832, which decimated Bilston and Wednesbury, did something toward calling +attention to the grievous social and sanitary wants of this district. +In that pestilence several clergymen and medical men died, like heroes, +in the discharge of their duties. Some churches were built, some +schools established; but an immense work remains to be done. Bull-baiting +has been put down, but no rational amusements have been substituted +for that brutal and exciting sport.</p> +<p>In the northern coal fields, near Newcastle-on-Tyne especially, we +have noticed that when the miner ascends from the pit in the evening, +his first care is to wash himself from head to foot, and then to put +on a clean suit of white flannel. As you pass along the one street +of a pitman’s village, you will see the father reading a <i>Chambers’ +Journal</i> or a cheap religious magazine at the door of his cottage +while smoking a pipe, and nursing a child or two on his knee; and through +the open door, a neat four-post bed and an oak or mahogany chest of +drawers bear witness to his frugality.</p> +<p>In Wednesbury, Bilston, and all that district, when work is over +you find the men drinking in their dirty clothes and with grimy faces +at the beer-shop of the “Buttey,” that is to say, the contractor +or middleman under whom they work, according to the system of the country, +and the women hanging about the doors of their dingy dwellings, gossiping +or quarreling,—the old furies and the young slatterns.</p> +<p>In the face of such savagery, so evidently the result of defective +education, two opposite and extreme parties in the State, the anti-church +Mialls and the pro-church Anthony Denisons, combine to oppose the multiplication +of education that teaches decency if it teaches nothing else.</p> +<p>One great step has been made by the Health of Town’s Act, which +is about to be applied to some of these coal towns; and railways have +rendered the whole district so accessible that no foul spot can long +remain unknown or unnoticed.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>WALSALL, eight miles from Birmingham, the first town in our way, +which may be reached directly by following the South Staffordshire, +or by an omnibus, travelling half-a-mile from Bescot Bridge, lies among +green fields, out of the bounds of the mining country, although upon +the edge of the Warwickshire and Staffordshire coalfield,—indeed +the parliamentary borough includes part of the rough population just +described. It is very clean, without antiquities or picturesque +beauties, and contains nothing to attract visitors except its manufactures, +of which the best known is cheap saddlery for the American, West Indian, +and Australian markets. They make the leather and wooden parts, +as well as stirrups and bridles; also gunlocks, bits, spurs, spades, +hinges, screws, files, edge tools, and there is one steel-pen manufactory, +besides many articles connected with the Birmingham trade, either finished +or unfinished, the number of which is constantly increasing. Walsall +is celebrated for its pig-market, a celebrity which railroads have not +destroyed, as was expected, but rather increased. Special arrangements +for comfortably disembarking these, the most interesting strangers who +visit Walsall, have been made at the railway station.</p> +<p>The principal church, with a handsome spire, stands upon a hill, +and forms a landmark to the surrounding country. The ascent to +it, by a number of steps, has, according to popular prejudice, produced +an effect upon the legs of the inhabitants more strengthening than elegant, +which has originated the provincial phrase of “Walsall-legged.” +But this is, no doubt, a libel on the understandings of the independent +borough.</p> +<p>The houses are chiefly built of brick, but it seems as if some years +ago the inhabitants had been seized with an architectural disease, which +has left its marks in the shape of an eruption of stucco porticoes, +and one or two pretensious mansions, externally resembling jails or +infirmaries, internally boasting halls which bear the same proportion +to the living rooms as Falstaff’s gallon of sack to his halfpennyworth +of bread. No doubt there are persons whom this style of house +exactly suits, the portico represents their pride, the parlour their +economy. What was intended for the Walsall public library consists +of a thin closet behind a gigantic Ionic portico, now tottering to its +fall; and in like manner a perfectly dungeon-like effect has been given +to the principal hotel by another portico, which affords a much better +idea of the charges than of the accommodation to be found within.</p> +<p>As a general rule in travelling, we pass by all hotels with porticoes +to take refuge in more modest Green Dragons or Blue Boars.</p> +<p>Walsall has a municipal corporation of six aldermen and eighteen +councillors. The Reform Bill, to increase the troubles of this +innocent borough, placed it in schedule B, and gave it the privilege +of making one M.P.</p> +<p>Fierce contests at every general election have been the result, in +which some blood, much money, and more beer, have been expended. +But neither party has thought it worth while to make the education of +the savages of the Black Country a piece of politics, and, if any one +did, he would only be torn to pieces between Church and Dissenters.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>DUDLEY in Worcestershire, about six miles from Walsall by the South +Staffordshire Railway, has a castle and more than one legend for the +antiquarian, a cave, and limestone pits full of fossils for the geologist, +and especial interest for the historical economist, being the centre +of the district where the first successful attempts were made to smelt +iron by coal,—a process which has contributed, almost as much +as our success in textile manufactures, to give this small island a +wealth and power which a merely agricultural non-exporting community +could never have attained.</p> +<p>Iron was manufactured with charcoal in England from the time of the +Romans till the middle of the eighteenth century, when the timber of +many counties had been entirely exhausted by the process. In 1558, +in the reign of Elizabeth, it was enacted that “no timber of the +breadth of one foot square at the stub, and growing within fourteen +miles of the sea, or any part of the river Thames or Severn, or any +other river, creek, or stream, by the which carriage is commonly used +by boat or other vessel, to any part of the sea, shall be converted +to coal, or fuel for making iron;” <a name="citation125a"></a><a href="#footnote125a">{125a}</a> +and, in 1581, a further Act was passed to prevent the destruction of +timber. “For remedy whereof it was enacted that no new iron +works should be erected within twenty-two miles of London nor within +fourteen miles of the river Thames, nor in the several parts of Sussex +near the sea therein named. This Act not to extend to the woods +of Christopher Durrell, in the parish of Newdigate, within the weald +of Surrey, which woods have been coppiced by him for the use of his +iron works in those parts.”</p> +<p>At the same period, we find from a letter in the Stradling Correspondence, +<a name="citation125b"></a><a href="#footnote125b">{125b}</a> that, +while iron was made in Surrey, Sussex, and Kent, where not a pound is +now manufactured, in Glamorganshire, at present a great seat of iron +manufacture, iron was so scarce that an anvil was leased out at the +rent of 3s. 4d. a year, <a name="citation126"></a><a href="#footnote126">{126}</a> +a rent at which, taking the then value of money, a very tolerable anvil +could now be purchased.</p> +<p>When the woods of the kingdom began to be exhausted, attention was +turned to pit coal, which had long been in use for fuel in the counties +where it was plentifully found. A curious account of the first +successful experiments is to be found, told in very quaint language, +in the <i>Metallum Martis</i> of Dudley Dudley, son of Lord Edward Dudley +(an ancestor of the late Earl Dudley and Ward, and of the present Lord +Ward, who now enjoys the very estates referred to, and derives a princely +income from the mineral treasures, the true value of which was discovered +by his unfortunate ancestor), published in the reign of Charles II.</p> +<p>This Mr. Dudley was an early victim of the patent laws, which, to +this day, have proved to be for the benefit of lawyers and officials, +and the tantalization of true inventors and discoverers. The following +extracts contain his story, and enable us to compare the present with +the then state of iron manufacture:—</p> +<p>“Having former knowledge and delight in ironworks of my father’s +when I was but a youth, afterwards, at twenty years old, was I fetched +from Oxford, then of Baliol College, anno 1619, to look after and manage +three ironworks of my father’s, one furnace and two forges in +the chace of Pensnel, in Worcestershire; but wood and charcoal growing +very scanty, and pit-coals in great quantities abounding near the furnace, +did induce me to alter my furnace and to attempt by my new invention, +the making of iron with pit-coal, and found at my trial or blast, <i>facere +est addere inventioni</i>. After I had proved by a second blast +and trial, the feasibility of making iron with pit-coal and sea-coal, +I found by my new invention the quality good and profitable, but the +quantity did not exceed above three tons a week.”</p> +<p>After this, the inventor obtained a patent from King James I., for +thirty-one years in the nineteenth year of his reign. “But +the year following the grant there was so great a flood of rain,—to +this day called the great May-day flood,—that it ruined the author’s +ironworks and inventions, and at a market town called Sturbridge, in +comitatu Wigorniæ, one resolute man was carried from the bridge +in the day time.” “As soon as the author had repaired +his works, he was commanded to send all sorts of bar iron up to the +Tower of London, fit for making of muskets and carbines, <a name="citation127"></a><a href="#footnote127">{127}</a> +and the iron being so tried by artists and smiths, that the ironmasters +and ironmongers who had complained that the author’s iron was +not merchantable, were silenced until the twenty-first of King James.” +“At the then parliament all monopolies were made null, and divers +of the ironmeasters endeavoured to bring the invention of making iron +with pit-coal within the compass of a monopoly; but the Lord Dudley +and the author did prevail, yet the patent was limited to continue but +fourteen years.”</p> +<p>This exception in the Statute of Monopolies, which incontestably +proves the claim of the Dudley family to the honour of having invented +the art of smelting iron with coal, runs in the following terms:—“Provided +also that this Act shall not extend to, or be prejudicial to, a graunt +or priviledge for the melting of iron ewer, and of maling the same into +sea coals or pit coals, by His Majesties letters Patent under the Great +Seale of England, made or graunted to Edward Lord Dudley.”</p> +<p>After the passing of the Act, it seems that Dudley Dudley made “great +store of iron and sold it at £12 a ton, and also cast-iron wares, +as brewing cisterns, pots, mortars;” but, being ousted of his +works, he again set up a furnace at “Himley, in the county of +Stafford.” Himley Hall is the present residence of Lord +Ward, the representative of the Dudley family. From that time +forward, the life of the unfortunate inventor was but one series of +misfortunes. Under Charles I. he got into law-suits, was the victim +of riots set on by the charcoal ironmasters, and was eventually lodged +in prison in the Compter. Then came the Great Rebellion, during +which he had the disadvantage of being a Royalist as well as an inventor, +and of having “Cromwell, with Major Wildman and many of his officers, +as opponents in rival experiments tried in the Forest of Dean, where +they employed an ingenious glassmaster, Edward Dagney, an Italian then +living in Bristow,” but they failed. And so he was utterly +ruined. On the accession of Charles II., he petitioned, and eventually +sent in the statement from which the preceding extracts have been made, +but apparently without any success. The king was too busy making +dukes and melting the louis d’ors of his French pension, to think +of anything so common as iron or so tiresome as gratitude.</p> +<p>The iron manufacture, for want of the art of smelting by coal, and +of a supply of wood, which the march of agriculture daily diminished, +dwindled away, until, in the middle of the eighteenth century, it was +revived at Colebrook Dale by the Darbys. In the intermediate period, +we were dependent on Russia, Spain, and Sweden for the chief part of +the iron used in manufactures.</p> +<p>But one of the most curious passages in Dudley’s <i>Metallum +Martis</i>, is the following picture of the Dudley coal-field:—“Now +let me show some reasons that induced me to undertake these inventions. +Well knowing that within ten miles of Dudley Castle, there be near 20,000 +smiths of all sorts, and many ironworks within that circle decayed for +want of wood (yet formerly a mighty woodland country); secondly, Lord +Dudley’s woods and works decayed, but pit-coal and iron stone +or mines abounding upon his lands, but of little use; thirdly, because +most of the coal mines in these parts are coals ten, eleven, and twelve +yards thick; fourthly, under this great thickness of coal are very many +sorts of ironstone mines; fifthly, that one-third part of the coals +gotten under the ground are small, when the colliers are forced to sink +pits for getting of ten yards thick, and are of little use in an inland +country, unless it might be made use of by making iron therewith; sixthly, +these colliers must cast these coals and slack out of their ways, which, +becoming moist, heat naturally, and kindle in the middle of these great +heaps, often sets the coal works on fire and flaming out of the pits, +and continue burning like Ætna in Sicily or Hecla in the Indies.” +(<i>sic</i>.)</p> +<p>At present, for more than ten miles round Dudley Castle, iron works +of one kind or another are constantly at work; no remains of mighty +woodland are to be found. The value of the ten yard coal is fully +appreciated, but the available quantity is far from having been worked +out. The untouched mineral wealth of Lord Ward in this district +was valued, ten years ago, at a million sterling. The small coal +is no longer wasted, but carefully raised from the pits and conveyed +by the numerous canals, tram-roads, and railroads, to iron works, glass +works, and chemical works. But still heaps of waste, moistened +by rain, do smoke by day, and flaming by night in conjunction with hundreds +of fiery furnaces and natural gases blazing, do produce, on a night’s +journey from Dudley to Wolverhampton, not the effect of one Ætna +or Hecla, but of a broad “inferno,” from which even Dante +might have gathered some burning notions.</p> +<p>The political croakers who are constantly predicting that the last +inevitable change, whether it be a Municipal Corporation Reform, a Tithe +Commutation, or a Corn Tax Repeal, will prove the ruin of England, should +study the geographical march of our manufactures, and mark how, on the +whole population, the rise of a new staple in one district, or the invention +of a new art, constantly creates a new demand for labour. The +exhaustion of our forests, instead of destroying, founded one great +element of our world-wide commercial influence.</p> +<p>We make no apology for this digression, knowing that, to many minds, +facts connected with the rise of the iron trade will have as much interest +as notes on the scene of a battle or the birthplace of a second-rate +poet, besides, as we omit to say what we do not know, it is necessary +we should say what we do.</p> +<p>Besides mining and smelting iron ore, a considerable population in +and around Dudley is engaged in the manufacture of glass and of nails; +the latter being a domestic manufacture, at which men, women, and children +all work at home.</p> +<p>The castle dates from a Saxon prince, Dodo, A.D. 700; but, like the +bird of the same name, the original building is extinct. But very +interesting ruins of a Norman gateway, tower, and keep, are in existence; +and form, with the caves, a show-place leased by the South Staffordshire +as an attraction to their excursion trains. The caves are lighted +up on special occasions, and were honoured by a visit from the geologists +of the British Association when last they met at Birmingham. A +fossil, called the Dudley locust, is found in great quantities and varieties +in the limestone quarries, which form part of the mineral wealth of +the neighbourhood.</p> +<p>The broad gauge line through Birmingham and Oxford will shortly afford +Dudley a direct and rapid communication with London. To passengers +this will be a great convenience, but a mode of conveyance so unwieldy, +clumsy, and costly, is singularly ill fitted for a mineral district, +as experience among the narrow tram-ways of the north has amply proved.</p> +<p>Dudley returns one member to Parliament; whose politics must, it +is supposed, be those of the holder of the Ward estate.</p> +<p>Returning from Dudley through Walsall to Bescot Bridge, the rail +pursues its course through a mining country to Bilston and Wolverhampton. +On the road we pass in sight of the Birmingham canal, one of the finest +works of the kind in the kingdom. An enormous sum was spent in +improving the navigation, in order to prove that any railway was unnecessary. +The proprietors, under the influence of their officials, a snug family +party, shut their eyes and spent their money in opposing the inevitable +progress of locomotive power to the last possible moment. Even +when the first London and Birmingham railway was nearly open, a scheme +for a new canal was industriously hawked round the county; and, although +there were not enough subscribers found to execute the work, a small +percentage was sufficient to furnish a surveyor’s new house very +handsomely. Still, there is no probability of the canal ever ceasing +to be an important aid to the coal trade in heavy freights.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>WEDNESBURY, <a name="citation130"></a><a href="#footnote130">{130}</a> +pronounced Wedgebury, and spelt Wednesberie in Domesday Book, stands +in the very heart of the coal and iron district, and is as like Tipton, +Darlaston, Bilston, and other towns where the inhabitants are similarly +employed, as one sweep is like another. Birmingham factors depend +largely on Wedgebury for various kinds of ironwork and “heavy +steel toys.” The coal pits in the neighbourhood are of great +value, and there is no better place in the kingdom to buy a thoroughbred +bull dog that will “<i>kill or die on it</i>,” but never +turn tail. The name is supposed to incorporate that of the Saxon +god Woden, whose worship consisted in getting drunk and fighting, and, +to this day, that is the only kind of relaxation in which many of the +inhabitants ever indulge. The church stands upon a hill, where +Ethelfleda, Lady of Mercia, built a castle to resist the Danes, A.D. +914, about the time that she erected similar bulwarks at Tamworth and +other towns in the Midland counties, but there are no antiquities worth +the trouble of visiting.</p> +<p>Parties who take an interest in the progress of education in this +kingdom among those classes where it is most needed, that is to say, +masses of miners and mechanics residing in districts from which all +the higher and most of the middle classes have removed; where the clergy +are few, hard worked, and ill paid; where the virtues of a thinly peopled +agricultural district have been exchanged for the vices, without the +refinements, of a crowded town population, should traverse this part +of Staffordshire on foot. They will own that, in spite of the +praiseworthy labours of both Church and Dissent,—in spite of the +progress of Temperance Societies and Savings’ Banks,—a crowd +of children are daily growing up in a state of ignorance, dirt, and +degradation fearful to contemplate. To active philanthropists, +not to seekers of the picturesque, archæologists, and antiquarians, +do we address ourselves. Still we ought to add that, in the iron +works and rolling mills, there are studies of half naked men in active +motion at night, with effect of red firelight and dark shade, in which +the power of painting flesh and muscular development might be more effectively +displayed than in the perpetual repetition of model Eves and sprawling +nymphs.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>WOLVERHAMPTON formerly lay away from railroads, at a convenient omnibus +distance; but competition has doubly pierced it through and through. +One line connects it with Shrewsbury; another, on the point of completion, +will connect it with Dudley, Birmingham, and Oxford, and another with +Worcester,—add to these means of communication the canals existing +before railroads commenced, extending to Hull, Liverpool, Chester, and +London, and it will be seen that Wolverhampton is most fortunately placed.</p> +<p>The great railway battle of the gauges commenced at Wolverhampton, +and has been carried on ever since at the cost of more than a million +sterling in legal and parliamentary expenses, beside the waste of capital +in constructing three railways where one would have been sufficient, +and the extra cost of land traversed where a price was paid, 1st, for +the land; 2nd, for the revenue; 3rd, for compulsion; 4th, for influence, +and 5th, for vote, if the landowner were a member of either House of +Parliament.</p> +<p>At the end of the battle, a competing line to London has been established, +which will end shortly in a compromise; and, if one district has two +railways, others, much needing, have none. The shareholders on +both sides have lost their money, the engineers have reaped a harvest, +and the lawyers have realized a fortune.</p> +<p>The experience of water companies, gas companies, canal companies, +and railway companies, has distinctly been, that, between great monied +corporations with large capitals sunk in plant, competition is impossible +and must end in a compromise.</p> +<p>But these contests are profitable to lawyers, who must always win, +whether their clients do or not. It is no exaggeration to say +that, as surely as Spain and Portugal are priest-ridden, so surely is +Great Britain lawyer-ridden. No sooner does the science, the industry, +and the enterprise of the country carve out some new road to commercial +prosperity, than the attorney sets up a turnpike upon it and takes toll; +and, if dispute arises as to the right of road, however the contest +be decided, it ends in two attornies taking toll. In chancery, +in the laws affecting patents of inventions, in the law affecting canals, +in railways, a standing army of lawyers are constantly engaged in fighting +battles, which end in our bearing the wounds and their sharing the spoil. +So it was in these battles of the gauges.</p> +<p>But to return to Wolverhampton, the name of which recalled battles +wherein so much useful money has been wasted, the town, although of +rising importance in a commercial point, offers no other attraction +to the curious traveller than its numerous manufactories of hardware, +and machinery of various kinds, including firearms, tinned ware, locks +and keys, of extraordinary cheapness, gun locks, files, screws, and +japanned ware.</p> +<p>The tea trays, and other japanned ware of Wolverhampton, are equal +in taste and execution to anything produced in Birmingham; indeed, it +was at the manufactory of the Messrs. Walton that the plan of skilfully +copying the landscapes of our best artists on japan were originated. +The first tea-tray of the kind was copied from one of Turner’s +Rivers of France, by a gentleman who has since taken up a very important +position in applying the true principles of art to British manufactures.</p> +<p>Wolverhampton, and all the towns and villages in the coal and iron +district, are only so many branch-Birminghams; in that hardware metropolis +the greater part of the goods made are ordered and sold.</p> +<p>The town is of great antiquity, although with as few remains as most +flourishing towns built of brick, where manufactures have chased away +mansions. The name is derived from Walfrana, a sister of King +Edgar, who founded a monastery there in A.D. 996, and collected a village +round it named Walfrana Hampton, which was eventually corrupted into +Wolverhampton. In the oldest Church, St. Peter’s, there +is a pulpit formed of a single stone, elaborately sculptured, and a +font, with curious bas-relief figures of saints. The Church is +collegiate, and the College consists of a dean, who holds the prebend +of Wolverhampton, which was annexed by Edward IV. to his free chapel +of St. George, within the Castle of Windsor.</p> +<p>A Free Grammar School, supported by endowments, affords a head master +£400 a-year; the second master £200; and a third master +£120. Some years ago these gentlemen had only seventy scholars +to teach, but we trust this is, or will be, amended.</p> +<p>Wolverhampton was made a Parliamentary borough by the Reform Act, +returning two members from boundaries which include the townships of +Bilston, Willenhall, Wednesfield, and the parish of Sedgeley. +The population has increased more than five fold in the last forty years.</p> +<p>Bird, the artist, Congreve, inventor of the rockets which bear his +name, and Abernethy, the eminent surgeon, were natives of Wolverhampton; +Huskisson, who began the commercial reforms which Peel finished, was +born at Oxley Hall, in the immediate neighbourhood.</p> +<p>Close to the town is a good racecourse, well frequented once a year, +formerly one of the most fashionable meetings in the country. +The ladies’ division of the Grand Stand used to be a complete +parterre of the gayest flowers; but railroads, which have added to the +quantity, have very much deteriorated the quality of the frequenters +of races, and unless a change takes place, a Grand Stand will soon be +as dark, as busy, and as dull as the Stock Exchange.</p> +<p>From Wolverhampton a line nineteen miles in length, through Albrighton +(where Staffordshire ends and Shropshire begins) and Shifnal to Wellington, +shortens the route to Shrewsbury by cutting off an angle; but as there +is nothing to be said about this route except that at Albrighton are +the kennels of the hunt of that name, (a hunt in which the greater or +less luxury in horseflesh of the young ironmasters affords a thermometer +of the state of the iron trade,) we shall on this occasion take the +Stafford line.</p> +<p>Within an easy distance of Wolverhampton are a very large number +of the noblemen’s and gentlemen’s seats, in which Staffordshire +is so rich; more than one ancient and dilapidated family has been restored +by the progress of smoke-creating manufactures, which have added to +the wealth even more than they destroyed the picturesqueness of the +country.</p> +<p>If we were conducting a foreigner over England with the view of showing +him the wealth, the power, and the beauties of our country, we should +follow exactly the course we have hitherto pursued, and after an exhausting +inspection of the manufactories of the coal country, should turn off +the rail, after leaving Wolverhampton on our road to Stafford, and visit +some of the beautiful mansions surrounded by that rich combination of +nature and art which so eminently distinguishes the “stately homes +of England.”</p> +<p>For instance, before reaching Penkridge we pass—on the right +hand, Moseley Court, where the ancestors of the proprietors, the Whitgreaves, +concealed Charles II. after the Battle of Worcester,—on the left, +Wrottesley Hall, the seat of the scientific nobleman of that name, and +Chellington Park, the residence of the ancient Roman Catholic family +of the Giffords, where an avenue of oaks, the growth of centuries, with +a magnificent domain stocked with deer and game, afford the admirers +of English scenery delicious vistas of wood, water, and rich undulating +pasture.</p> +<p>The contrast between the murky atmosphere and continued roar of the +ironmaking country, and the silence of the deer-haunted green glades +is most striking, and most grateful to eye and ear.</p> +<p>As we rush along the valley of the Penk, too rapidly to drink in +its full beauties; on the right, Teddesley Hall, the mansion of Lord +Hatherton, rising above the tops of the trees, reminds us that the noble +lord’s farms are well worth a visit from any one taking an interest +in agriculture. Poor land has been rendered comparatively fertile, +and by a complete system of drainage, mere marshy rush-growing meadows +have been made capable of carrying capital root and wheat crops, while +the waste water has been carried to a head, and then by a large overshot +water wheel, working below the surface of the ground, made useful for +thrashing, chaff and root cutting, and other operations of the farm.</p> +<p>At Penkridge, a rural village of considerable antiquity, ten miles +from Wolverhampton, adorned by a Gothic Church, and several picturesque +houses of the Elizabethan style of domestic architecture, it will be +convenient to descend, if an expedition is intended, over Cannock Chase +to Beaudesert, the seat of the Marquis of Anglesey.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/ill17b.jpg"> +<img alt="THE RAILWAY NEAR PENKRIDGE" src="images/ill17s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>This Cannock Chase completes the singular variations of soil and +occupation to be found in Staffordshire. From the densely-populated +iron districts, and the model agriculture of disciples of the same school +as Lord Hatherton, we can turn our faces to a vast moorland, forty miles +square, stretching from where it is first seen on the banks of the railway +to the banks of the Trent, as wild as any part of Wales or Scotland, +intersected by steep hills, by deep valleys, covered with gorse and +broom, dotted with peat marshes, tenanted by wild deer and feathered +game, and fed over by the famous “<i>Kenk</i>” sheep, nearly +as wild as deer, and in flavour rivalling the best mountain mutton. +This great waste was once covered with dense forests, in which the wolf, +the bear, the wild boar, and the wild bull were hunted by our Saxon +Kings. It is not among the least wonders effected by the locomotive +that a short hour can transport us from the midst of the busiest centres +of manufactures to a solitude as complete as is to be found in the prairies +of America or Australia, unless we by chance stumble upon a prying gamekeeper +or an idle rustic seeking whortle-berries or snaring hares.</p> +<p>On this chase, begged by his ancestors from an easy king as a kitchen +garden, the hero of the Light Cavalry at Waterloo annually takes his +sport, mounted on a perfect shooting cob, and with eighty years upon +his shoulders, can still manage to bring down his birds right and left.</p> +<p>Long may such blanks of solitude and wild nature remain amid the +busy hum of commerce to remind us of what all England once was, to afford, +at a few holidays in the year, a free breathing place to the hardworking +multitude, and to the poet and student that calm delight which the golden +fragrance of a gorse-covered moor can bestow.</p> +<p>Before we reach Stafford we leave on the right, although not in sight, +Shugborough, the deserted mansion of the Earl of Lichfield, a descendant +of the Lord Anson who “sailed round the world but was never in +it.”</p> +<h2>STAFFORD.</h2> +<p>STAFFORD CASTLE, on the summit of a high hill, whose slopes are clothed +with forest trees, gives in the romantic associations it awakens a very +false idea of the town to be found below. The towers of the Castle +built by the son of Robert de Tonei, the Standard Bearer of William +the Conqueror, have survived the Wars of the Roses and the contests +of the Great Rebellion, while the remainder has been restored in an +appropriate style by the family of the present possessors, representatives +of the ancient barony of Stafford—no relation of the Staffords +who in another part of the county enjoy the Dukedom of Sutherland. +But the town, prosperous in spite of many changes of fashion, has completely +lost any antique air it may ever have enjoyed, and now, in all the smugness +of brick, quite realises the idea of a borough which at every election +is for sale to the highest bidder.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/ill18b.jpg"> +<img alt="STAFFORD" src="images/ill18s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>The principal manufacture is that of shoes for exportation. +Many remarkable men have represented Stafford, some as remarkable for +their talent as for their folly. Sheridan’s most brilliant +speeches, and Urquhart’s most undeniable failures in the House +of Commons, were both due to the borough of Stafford. It is, in +fact, a stepping-stone to the House of Commons, always ready for the +highest bidder and promiser, but whoever would sit for Stafford for +a series of Parliaments, would need the use of the Philosopher’s +Stone. The independent electors would exhaust California if they +had the chance.</p> +<p>As the Stafford shoemakers, to the deep disappointment of its agricultural +neighbours, have not yet been ruined by the influx of foreign boots +and shoes, its chief interest at present is derived from its being the +point from which several important railways radiate.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>STAFFORD TO MANCHESTER.—Beside the old Grand Junction line +to Crewe, the Trent Valley line, about which we intend to say a few +words on our return journey, ends, strictly speaking, at Stafford, after +passing by Atherston, Tamworth, and Lichfield; but, since the construction +of the North Staffordshire, which joins the Trent Valley at Colewich, +the most direct way to Manchester is through the pottery district and +Macclesfield, instead of by Stafford and Crewe. Direct lines have +generally proved a great mistake, except so far as they have accommodated +the local traffic through which they passed. To the shareholders +they have been most unprofitable wherever the original shareholders +were not lucky enough to bully the main lines into a lease, and, to +the average of travellers very inconvenient, by dividing accommodation. +But shareholders should look at the local traffic of a proposed direct +line, on which alone good dividends can be earned.</p> +<p>These <i>direct</i> projects were partly the result of the imperfect +manner in which, in consequence of opposition and from want of experience, +the original main branch lines were executed, and partly in that plethora +of money, which, in this thriving country, must be relieved from time +to time by the bleeding of ingenious schemers. We are enjoying, +in this year of 1851, the advantages derived from money spent, and lost +to the spenders, in our own country instead of being sunk in Greek or +Spanish bonds, South American mines, or the banks and public works of +the United States.</p> +<p>At one period, in the height of the ten per cent. mania, a school +of railway economists sprang up which advocated placing the construction +and the profits of railways in the hands of government, and they supported +their theories by <i>ex post facto</i> criticism on the blunders of +railway companies,—on the astonishing dividends of Mr. George +Hudson’s lines,—and on the hard terms on which capitalists +had agreed to execute French railways for the French government.</p> +<p>These ingenious reasons did not prevail. People were reminded +that the steam boats, the public works, the “Woods and Forests” +under government charge, were not managed with remarkable success or +economy. The tempting dividends melted away, and projects for +French railways, on the principle of the State taking profits and the +speculators the risk, which had excited the admiration of Cato Morrisson, +first hung fire and then exploded, so that rich districts of France +which, on the system of “<i>profits to private enterprise</i>,” +would have enjoyed railway conveyance ten years ago, are still left +to the mercy of the slow diligences and slower waggons to this hour.</p> +<p>To a commercial country like England, the waste of a few millions +on railways badly planned, are of little importance compared with the +national saving effected by the cheap conveyance of produce. The +great importance of the direct line between Rugby, Macclesfield, and +Manchester, is not that it saves an hour in the transit of an impatient +traveller, but that it places in easy communication purely agricultural +and thoroughly manufacturing communities, so as to render an interchange +of produce easy. Shareholders sometimes suffer, but the public +always gains. On the other hand, Parliament should take care that +railway extension to blank districts is not prevented by conceding parallel +lines to directors hunting for a dividend, by dividing instead of increasing +the existing traffic.</p> +<p>When an alteration of the law settlement has released from parish +bondage and vegetation those <i>adscripti glebæ</i> agricultural +labourers, the advantage of our network of railways will be still more +felt.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>STAFFORD TO SHREWSBURY.—The third line diverging from Stafford, +counting the continuation of the London as a fourth, is the railway +to Shrewsbury, passing through NEWPORT and WELLINGTON, where it joins +the direct line from Wolverhampton, and affording, by a continuation +which passes near Oswestry, Chirk, and Llangollen, <a name="citation138"></a><a href="#footnote138">{138}</a> +to Wrexham, Chester, and Birkenhead, another route to Liverpool, and, +through Chester, the nearest way to Holyhead and Ireland.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>NEWPORT.—The first station after leaving Stafford for Shrewsbury, +and immediately after crossing into Shropshire, is a small market town +and borough, with a corporation, which can be traced back to Henry III. +The church, of the fifteenth century, with an interior of great beauty, +has been frightfully disfigured by aisles built of bricks in a common +builders’ style of architecture.</p> +<p>This corporation offers an example which might be with advantage +followed by greater men holding the same office; they have but a small +income, and they apply it to keeping in order cisterns and conduits +which supply the town with water.</p> +<p>There is a free grammar school founded by one William Adams in 1756, +which has a library attached to the school and five scholarships. +The best, of £80 a year, to Christchurch, Oxford.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>WELLINGTON stands at the base of the Wrekin, is the centre of the +Shropshireman’s toast and the chief town of the coal and iron +district, and is the point where the line from Wolverhampton makes a +junction, affording the nearest road from Birmingham to Shrewsbury. +It was here that Charles I., on his march from Wellington to Shrewsbury, +assembled his troops, and, in order to allay the growing disaffection +among them, declared that he would “support the reformed religion, +govern by law, uphold the privileges of parliament, and preserve the +liberty of the subject.”</p> +<p>From Wellington you may proceed by omnibus to Coalbrookdale, where +the first iron bridge was built over the Severn, where the Darbys and +Dickensons have carried on iron works for more than a century, where +coal was first applied profitably to smelting iron, and where the fine +iron castings of Berlin have been rivalled, and successful attempts +have been made to introduce the principles of the fine arts into domestic +manufactures. The firm are members of the Society of Friends. +Fortunately their tenets do not prevent them from selling us coal-scuttles +of beautiful design, although their wives and daughters are bound, according +to the conservative principles of their sect, to wear bonnets of an +unvarying and hideous coal-scuttle shape.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>SHREWSBURY, 10 miles from Wellington, is, in more respects than one, +an interesting town, situated partly on a precipitous peninsula formed +by the swift clear waters of the Severn, united to the opposite side +by bridges, in one of which the huge undershot waterwheels of a corn +mill are for ever turning. A stranger without letters of introduction, +condemned to spend a few hours here with nothing to do, may easily pass +the time pleasantly in hunting out picturesque bits of river scenery, +or even in chucking pebbles into the stream, instead of drinking sherry +negus he does not want, or poking about the dull streets of a modern +town, while all the respectable inhabitants are lost in wonder “who +that strange man in the white hat is.” The manufactures +of Shrewsbury are not very important; thread, linen, and canvas, and +iron-works in the neighbouring suburb of Coleham; a considerable and +ancient trade is carried on in Welsh flannel and cloths from the neighbouring +counties of Denbigh, Montgomery, and Merioneth, and markets and fairs +are held for the benefit of the rich agricultural district around, in +which, besides fine butter, cheese, poultry, and live stock, a large +assemblage of the blooming, rosy, broad-built Shropshire lasses show +the advantage of a mixture of Welsh and English blood.</p> +<p>But Shrewsbury is most famous for its school, its cakes, its ale, +and the clock mentioned by Falstaff, for which on our last visit we +found an ingenuous Frenchman industriously searching.</p> +<p>The royal free grammar school, endowed by Edward VI., was raised, +by the educational talents of the late Dr. Butler, afterwards Bishop +of Lichfield and Coventry, to a very high position among our public +schools; a position which has been fully maintained by the present master, +Dr. Kennedy.</p> +<p>As for the cakes and ale, they must be tasted to be appreciated, +but not at the same time.</p> +<p>In the history of England and Wales, Shrewsbury plays an important +part.</p> +<p>It is supposed that the town was founded by the Britons of the kingdom +of Powis, while they were yet struggling with the Saxons, or rather +the Angles, for the midland counties, and, it is probable, was founded +by them when they found Uttoxeter (the Uriconiam of the Romans), no +longer tenable. On the conquest of the town by the Anglo-Saxons +it received the name of Scrobbes-byrig; that is to say Scrub-burgh, +or a town in a scrubby or bushy district, and, in the Saxon Chronicle, +Scrobbesbyrig-scire is mentioned, now corrupted or polished into Shropshire. +Ethelfleda, whose name we have so often had occasion to mention as the +builder of castles and churches, founded the collegiate church of St. +Alkmund; and Athelstan established a mint here. It is evident +that the “Athelstan the Unready,” mentioned in <i>Ivanhoe</i>, +must have very much degenerated from the ancestor who established a +mint for ready money.</p> +<p>According to Domesday-Book, Shrewsbury had, in Edward the Confessor’s +time, two hundred and fifty-two houses, with a resident burgess in each +house, and five churches. It was included in the Earldom of Shrewsbury, +granted by William the Conqueror to his kinsman, Roger de Montgomery, +who erected a castle on the entrance of the peninsula on which the town +now stands, pulling down fifty houses for that purpose. In the +wars between Stephen and the Empress Maude, the Castle was taken and +retaken; and in the reign of John the town was taken by the Welsh under +Llewellyn the Great, who had joined the insurgent Barons in 1215; and +again attacked and the suburbs burned by the Welsh in 1234. Shrewsbury +was again taken by Simon de Montfort and his ally, Llewellyn, grandson +of Llewellyn the Great, in 1266, the year before de Montfort fell on +the field of Evesham. And here, in 1283, David, the last Prince +of Wales, was tried, condemned, and executed as a traitor. Here, +too, in 1397, in the reign of Richard II., a Parliament was held, at +which the Earl of Hereford (afterwards Henry IV.) charged the Duke of +Norfolk with treason. The charge was to have been decided by a +trial of battle at Coventry. On the appointed morning, “Hereford +came forth armed at all points, mounted on a white courser, barded with +blue and green velvet, gorgeously embroidered with swans and antelopes +of goldsmiths’ work. The Duke of Norfolk rode a horse barded +with crimson velvet, embroidered with lines of silver and mulberries.”</p> +<p>At that time it took more days to travel from Shrewsbury to Coventry +than it now does hours. The cloth of gold was as splendidly, perhaps +more splendidly, embroidered than anything we can do now; but in the +matter of shirts, shoes, stockings, and the clothing necessary for health +and comfort, and of windows and chimneys, and matters necessary for +air and shelter, mechanics and day labourers are better provided than +the squires and pages of those great noblemen. Five years after, +the Harry of Hereford having become Henry IV. of England, assembled +an army at Shrewsbury to march against Owen Glendower, and the following +year he fought the battle of Shrewsbury against Hotspur, and his ally +the Douglas, which forms the subject of a scene in Shakspeare’s +play of <i>Henry IV</i>. At that battle Percy Hotspur marched +from Stafford toward Shrewsbury, hoping to reach it before the King, +and by being able to command the passage of the Severn to communicate +with his ally Glendower; but Henry, who came from Lichfield, arrived +there first, on the 19th July, 1403. The battle was fought the +next day at Hateley Field, about three miles from the town.</p> +<p>In the Wars of the Roses Shrewsbury was Yorkist. In the great +Civil War Charles I. came to Shrewsbury, there received liberal contributions, +in money and plate, from the neighbouring gentry, and largely recruited +his forces; and in the course of the war the town was taken and retaken +more than once. Thus it will be seen that Shrewsbury is connected +with many important events in English history.</p> +<p>The first Charter of incorporation extant is of Richard I.</p> +<p>Two members are returned to Parliament of opposite politics at present; +but a few years ago it was the boast of the Salopians, that the twelve +members returned by the different constituencies of the county were +all of that class of politics which, for want of a better name, may +be called “Sibthorpian.”</p> +<p>Shrewsbury is a good starting point for an expedition into Wales, +and we can strongly recommend the walk from Chirk, one of the stations +on the line to Chester, over the hills by footpaths to Llangollen: from +one point a view may be caught of the three great civilizers of the +eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. A splendid viaduct, carrying +the Shropshire Canal over a deep valley, in its day considered a triumph +of engineering art—the Holyhead mail road, perhaps the best piece +of work of the kind in the world, and the railway, which has partly +superseded both. There is more than one pleasant spot on the bye-path +we have suggested where a thoughtful pedestrian may sit down, and, smoking +a cigar in the presence of a sweetly calm landscape of grassy valleys +and round-topped hills, ponder over these things, not without advantage, +to the sound of bells borne by lively Welsh sheep, whose mutton has +been raised 2d. a pound in value by Stephenson’s steam-engines.</p> +<p>But our road lies by the English rail this time, therefore we must +return to Stafford.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>STAFFORD TO CREWE.—On leaving Stafford for Crewe we pass on +the right Ingestrie Park, the seat of the Earl of Talbot; the ruins +of Chartley Castle, the property of Earl Ferrers, the defendant in the +action brought by Miss Smith for breach of promise of marriage; and +Sandon Park, the seat of the Earl of Harrowby, who for many years, before +succeeding his father, represented Liverpool in the House of Commons +as Lord Sandon.</p> +<p>Soon after passing Norton Bridge Station, about seven miles from +Stafford, we come in sight of Swinnerton Hall, the seat of the ancient +family of Fitz-Herbert. The first lord of the manor of Swinnerton +received this name at the hands of the Norman Conqueror. One of +the farms of the present proprietor of Swinnerton Hall is held by a +Liverpool merchant, who has carried out modern agricultural improvements, +especially in stock feeding, with great success; having availed himself +of the facilities of the railroad and his commercial knowledge, to import +from Liverpool various kinds of nutritive pulse and grain.</p> +<p>Near the Whitmore Station the railway winds for two miles through +an excavation in solid stone, enclosed by intermediate slopes of turf, +ending, as it were in an arch, which, spanning the road, forms a sort +of frame to a wild region that stretches on beyond.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/ill19b.jpg"> +<img alt="VIEW NEAR WHITMORE" src="images/ill19s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>Without anything very important to induce a halt by the way, the +train runs into Crewe.</p> +<p>Crewe is a wonderful place; sixteen years ago, the quietest of country-villages, +now intersected in every direction with iron roads pointing from it +to almost every point of the compass.</p> +<p>A story is extant, with what foundation of truth we know not, of +a gentleman who purchased a small farm here, as a safe investment and +occasional retreat from the bustle of Manchester, and eventually realized +from it, when a railway station was erected, more hundreds than he had +paid pounds. At any rate, if it is not true, it might have been.</p> +<p>At present, besides the line formerly called the Grand Junction, +until its amalgamation with the London and Birmingham, there is a line +from Crewe to Chester and Birkenhead; another to Manchester direct, +by Macclesfield, formerly known as the Manchester and Birmingham—both +are now merged in the London and North Western; and lastly, a short +cross branch of fifteen miles, forming a union with Burslem on the North +Staffordshire.</p> +<p>In addition to the bustle created by the arrival and departure of +innumerable trains at Crewe, the London and North Western Company have +a large establishment for building and repairing the locomotives and +other machinery in use on their lines north of Birmingham. This +establishment is under the charge of Mr. Trevethick, C.E., a son of +the Trevethick who, in 1802, in conjunction with Vivian, took out the +first patent for a locomotive engine, which they executed the following +year. <a name="citation144"></a><a href="#footnote144">{144}</a></p> +<p>The railway village of Crewe is on the same plan as that of Wolverton, +but situated in much prettier scenery; and includes a church, infant, +boys’ and girls’ schools, a Library and Literary Institution, +held in the Town-hall, where a fine room is occasionally well filled +by popular lectures, and balls in the winter.</p> +<p>On one occasion, about three years ago, the name of a gentleman looking +over the works in company with a foreman was recognized as that of a +writer on a popular subject, and he was requested by a deputation of +the men to deliver a lecture the same evening in the Town-hall. +He consented; and a written notice, stuck up in the workshops at one +o’clock, assembled at six o’clock upwards of six hundred +of the mechanics and their wives and families, forming a most attentive +and intelligent audience.</p> +<p>This establishment was considerably reduced during the depression +in railway property, and several of the mechanics emigrated to the United +States. One of these, a Chartist politician, a Methodist preacher, +and a coach-spring maker, with a little taste for sporting, expressed +himself, in a letter which found its way into the “Emigrant’s +Journal,” well pleased with the people, the laws, and the institutions +amongst which he had transplanted himself; but when he came to speak +of the railroads, he considered them “not fit to carry hogs to +market.” So much for a man criticising his own trade.</p> +<p>We must not pause to describe as we could wish, in detail, the arrangements +of this interesting village; for we have heavy work before us, and must +press on.</p> +<p>Parties passing, who have leisure to stay a day, will find very fair +accommodation at the inn overlooking the station, and often, about one +o’clock, a fine hot joint of grass-fed beef of magnificent dimensions. +In winter, this hotel is one of the quarters of gentlemen going to meet +the Cheshire hounds, a first-rate pack, with a country which, if not +first-rate, is far from second-rate, including certain parts of grass +country which may be fairly compared to Leicestershire and Northamptonshire.</p> +<p>Crewe Hall, one of the “Meets,” is the seat of Lord Crewe, +the grandson of the beautiful Mrs. Crewe, so celebrated for her wit +and Buff and Blue politics, in the time of Charles James Fox, the Duchess +of Devonshire, the Westminster Election, and “All The Talents +of the last century.”</p> +<p>The Hall is picturesquely situated on a rising ground, well wooded, +near a small lake, and contains, among other pictures, portraits of +Fox, “Coke of Norfolk,” and several other political friends +with whom the first Lord Crewe was closely associated. The hounds +meet there occasionally, when a “<i>find</i>” is sure, and +a gallop through the park a thing to be remembered.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>NANTWICH, about five miles from Crewe, is one of the towns which +supplies Cheshire’s salt exports, Middlewich and Northwich being +the other two. In all, rich brine springs are found, but the celebrated +mines of rock-salt are found at Northwich only. It is vulgarly +imagined that the word wich has something to do with salt, these three +towns being often described as the “Wiches.” This +is an error; and wich is merely an Anglo-Saxon corruption of the Roman +word vicus, as in Harwich. The salt-works of Nantwich are mentioned +in “Domesday Book.” The town was more than once besieged +during the great civil wars, lastly by Lord Byron, unsuccessfully, with +an army chiefly Irish, which was compelled to raise the siege and defeated +by Sir Thomas Fairfax and Sir William Brereton.</p> +<p>Among the antiquities remaining is a cross Church, in a mixture of +styles, partly early English and partly decorated English, and a several +curious old houses of black timber and plaster.</p> +<p>The trade of this place has derived much advantage from the junction +of the Chester, Ellesmere, and Liverpool and Birmingham canals, close +by.</p> +<p>At the Nantwich yearly fairs, samples of the famous Cheshire cheese +made in the neighbourhood, of the best brands, may be found. Major-General +Harrison, one of the Regicides who was put to death on the Restoration +of Charles II., was a native of Nantwich, and Milton’s widow, +who was born in the neighbourhood, died there in 1726.</p> +<p>Just before reaching the Hartford Bridge Station, on the way to Chester, +we pass Vale Royal Abbey, the seat of the Cholmondeley family, pronounced +Chumleigh, whose head was created in 1821 Lord Delamere.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/ill20b.jpg"> +<img alt="VALE ROYAL VIADUCT" src="images/ill20s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>The Abbey lies in a valley sheltered by old trees, the remains of +a great forest; wood-covered hills rise behind it, closing in the vale; +below runs the Weaver, “that famous flood,” whose praises +were sung by Michael Drayton in his Polyolbion. In this instance, +as in many others, the “monks of old” showed their taste +in choosing one of the most beautiful and fertile sites in the county +for their residence. The Cheshire prophet, Nixon, lived as ploughboy +with the Cholmondeley family, according to tradition, for which we no +more answer than for his prophecies, doubts having recently been thrown +on both. A breed of white cattle with red ears are preserved at +Vale Royal, in memory of the preservation of part of the family by a +white cow when in hiding during the Civil Wars.</p> +<p>But we have not space to enter into the details of this, or the historical +reminiscences connected with the ruins of Beeston Castle, which also +falls in our way to Chester; for we must get on to Liverpool and leave +for the present Cheshire, with its cheesemaking pastures, ancient mansions, +and more ancient families, as well as its coal mines and cotton mills, +to visit the twin capitals of Liverpool and Manchester, which are at +once the objects of the contempt and sources of the rent of the Cheshire +territorial aristocracy.</p> +<p>The antiquarian and historical student may linger long in Cheshire, +which abounds in interesting architectural remains of several centuries, +particularly of the black and white timbered mansions, and is studded +with the sites of famous stories.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/ill21b.jpg"> +<img alt="EXCAVATION AT HARTFORD" src="images/ill21s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>We shall pass Hartford Station without notice, and shall not pause +to visit Northwich and the celebrated Marston Salt Pits, although well +worth visiting, for which purpose a cricketer’s suit of flannel +will be found the best costume, and a few good Bengal lights an assistance +in viewing the wonders of the salt caves. On across the long Dutton +viaduct, spanning the Weaver navigation, we drive until, crossing the +Mersey and Irwell canal and the river Mersey, we quit Cheshire and enter +Lancashire, to run into the Warrington Station.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/ill23b.jpg"> +<img alt="THE DUTTON VIADUCT" src="images/ill23s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>WARRINGTON may be dismissed in a very few words. It is situated +in the ugliest part of Lancashire, in a flat district, among coal mines, +on the banks of a very unpicturesque river, surrounded by a population +in character much resembling that described in the “Black Country” +of Staffordshire, and Worcestershire, and Shropshire. It was one +of the earliest seats of manufacture in Lancashire, and has the advantage +of coal close at hand, with canal and river navigation and railways +to Chester through Runcorn (nineteen miles), to Crewe, to Liverpool, +to Manchester, and thereby to all quarters in the north of England.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/ill22b.jpg"> +<img alt="THE WARRINGTON VIADUCT" src="images/ill22s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>Coarse linens and checks, then sailcloth, were its first manufactures; +at present, cotton spinning, power-loom weaving, the manufacture of +glass, machinery, and millwork, pins, nails, tools, spades, soap, hats, +and gunpowder, and many other trades, are carried on here. The +markets for live stock of the district and from Ireland are important, +and market gardening is carried on to a considerable amount in the neighbourhood +of the town. The Mersey is navigable up to Warrington at spring +tides for vessels, “<i>flats</i>,” of from seventy to one +hundred tons. A salmon and smelt fishery, which formerly existed, +has disappeared from the waters by so many manufactories.</p> +<p>Warrington, under the Reform Act, returns one member to Parliament. +Its ale is celebrated: it formerly returned an M.P. The inhabitants +enjoy the benefit of three endowed schools, one of them richly endowed. +Howard’s work on Prisons was first printed at Warrington.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/ill24b.jpg"> +<img alt="WARRINGTON" src="images/ill24s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>On leaving Warrington, a few minutes bring us to Newton junction, +upon the old Manchester and Liverpool Railway, where George Stephenson +established the economy of steam locomotive conveyance twenty-one years +ago.</p> +<p>In half an hour we are rolling down the Edgehill Tunnel into Liverpool.</p> +<h2>LIVERPOOL.</h2> +<p>When you land on the platform, if you can afford it, go to the Adelphi +Hotel, where the accommodation is first-rate, but the charges about +the same as in Bond Street or St. James’s Street, London.</p> +<p>There are others to suit all purses, and plenty of dining-houses +on the London system, so that it is not absolutely necessary to submit +to the dear and often indifferent dinners which are the rule in the +coffee-rooms of most English hotels.</p> +<p>Liverpool has no antiquities of any mark; the public buildings and +works worth seeing are few but important, although a page might be filled +with the names of Institutions of various kinds.</p> +<p>By far the most interesting, original, and important, are those connected +with the commerce of the town. That is to say, the docks and the +gigantic arrangements at the railways for goods’ traffic. +St. George’s Hall, a splendid building in the Corinthian style, +containing the Law Courts and a hall for public meetings, as a sort +of supplement to the Town-hall, meets the view immediately on leaving +the railway station. The Mechanics’ Institution in Mount +Street, one of the finest establishments of the kind in the kingdom, +provides an excellent education for the young, and for adults, at a +very cheap rate.</p> +<p>A Collegiate Institution, opened in 1843, for affording a first-class +education on the plan of the Durham and Marlborough Colleges, at a less +expense than at Oxford or Cambridge, is to be found at Everton in a +handsome Elizabethan building.</p> +<p>The Town-hall, with its auxiliary buildings, encloses the Exchange +on three sides. The vestibule contains a statue of George Canning +by Chantrey: in the centre of the Exchange stands a monument to Nelson, +which we cannot admire. On the occasion of an invitation to dinner +from the Mayor, or of a grand ball, it is worth while to penetrate beyond +the vestibule, otherwise the walk through tolerably handsome rooms is +scarcely worth the trouble, although it costs nothing.</p> +<p>The immense News-rooms of the Exchange, under one of the Arcades, +are open to every respectable stranger introduced,—we may almost +say without introduction. There are several other News-rooms with +libraries attached. The Lyceum in Bold Street, and the Athenæum +in Church Street, which was founded by purchases from the library of +William Roscoe, contain a number of valuable works of reference.</p> +<p>The Royal Institution of Science and Literature, founded by William +Roscoe in 1814, by the subscription of shareholders, contains a museum +of natural history of considerable value, some curious pictures, a set +of casts from the Ægina and Phigaleian marbles, and a collection +of philosophical instruments, with a laboratory and a theatre in which +lectures are occasionally delivered. This Institution is not flourishing. +It was lately offered to the Corporation as a free gift by the proprietors, +on condition that the museum, etc., were to be open free to the town. +The offer was declined by a small majority.</p> +<p>There are several cemeteries, one of which has been ingeniously arranged +in an exhausted stone quarry, and contains a marble statue of Huskisson, +by Gibson, commemorating the facts of his having represented Liverpool +in several Parliaments, and been killed on the 15th Sept., 1830, by +a locomotive, at the opening of the Manchester and Liverpool Railway. +On the last occasion of his election for Liverpool, in conjunction with +the late General Gascoigne, without opposition, the windows of Huskisson’s +friends were smashed by the High Tory mob which accompanied Gascoigne’s +chairing procession. Such are the changes of time. Where +could a High Tory mob be found now, or who now differs with the mild +liberalism of Huskisson?</p> +<p>A Workhouse on a very extensive scale, capable of affording indoor +relief to 1800; a Blind Asylum, celebrated for the singing of the inmates, +two Infirmaries, are far from completing the list of public institutions +of a town with nearly 400,000 inhabitants; but, in the greater number, +resemble all other institutions of the same kind, and, for the rest, +a local guide may be consulted.</p> +<p>The best part of the town may be seen in a walk from St. Lukes’ +Church at the top of Bold Street, a short distance from the Adelphi +Hotel, through Church Street, Lord Street, crossing Castle Street, down +to St. George’s Pier. By this line the best and the busiest +streets of Liverpool will be seen, with shops nearly equal to the finest +in London, and with customers in fine ladies, who are quite as pretty, +and much more finely dressed, than the residents of that paradise of +provincial belles, Belgravia. Indeed both sexes in this town are +remarkable for their good looks and fashionable costume, forming a strong +contrast to the more busy inhabitants of Manchester.</p> +<p>In Bold Street is the Palatine, a miniature copy of the Clubs of +Pall Mall: at the doors and windows may be seen, in the intervals of +business, a number of young gentlemen trying very hard to look as if +they had nothing to do but dress fine and amuse themselves. But +so far from being the idle fellows they would be thought, the majority +are hardworking merchants and pains-taking attornies, who bet a little, +play a little, dote upon a lord, and fancy that by being excessively +supercilious in the <i>rococo</i> style of that poor heathen bankrupt +Brummel, they are performing to perfection the character of men of fashion. +This, the normal state of young Liverpool, at a certain period the butterfly +becomes a grub, a money grub, and abandoning brilliant cravats, primrose +gloves, and tight shiny boots, subsides into the respectable heavy father +of genteel comedy, becomes a churchwarden, a patron of charities, a +capitalist, and a highly respectable member of society. The Manchester +man is abrupt, because his whole soul is in the money-making business +of the day; the Liverpool gentleman’s icy manners are part of +his costume. The “cordial dodge,” which has superseded +Brummel’s listless style in the really fashionable world, not +having yet found its way down by the express train to the great mart +of cotton-wool.</p> +<p>‘Change hours, which are twice a-day, morning and afternoon, +afford a series of picturesque groups quite different to those of any +other town, which should be kept in mind when visiting Manchester.</p> +<p>But perhaps the pleasantest thing in Liverpool is a promenade on +one of the piers, or rather quays (for they run along and do not project +into the river) when the tide is coming in, the wind fair for the Mersey, +and fleets of merchantmen are driving up with full-bellied sails to +take their anchorage ground before going into dock. An examination +of the Docks, with the curious Dock arrangements of the Railway Companies, +and the Sailor’s Home, of which Prince Albert laid the first stone +in 1846, will take a day. The Cheshire side of the Mersey forms +a suburb of Liverpool, to which steamers are plying every ten minutes +from the villages of Rock Ferry, Tranmere, Birkenhead, Monk’s +Ferry, Seacombe, Liskeard, Egremont, and New Brighton. The best +idea of the extent of the Liverpool Docks may be obtained from the Seacombe +Hotel, an old-fashioned tavern, with a bowling green, where turtle soup, +cold punch, and claret are to be had of good quality at moderate charges.</p> +<p>In fine weather a seat after dinner at the window of this tavern +is not a bad place for considering the origin, rise, progress, and prospects +of the commerce of Liverpool. There is the river, with its rapidly-flowing +muddy waters before you, ploughed in all directions by boats, by ships, +by steamers, by river barges and flats; on the opposite side five miles +of Docks, wherein rise forest after forest of masts, fluttering, if +it be a gala day, with the flags of every nation—Russian, Sardinian, +Greek, Turkish, French, Austrian, but chiefly, after our own, with the +stripes and stars of the Great Republic.</p> +<p>No better text for such a contemplation can be found than the following +inscription, copied from the model, contributed by Liverpool to the +Great Exhibition of Industry:—</p> +<pre> PROGRESS OF THE COMMERCE OF LIVERPOOL. +Under Queen Elizabeth, | Queen Anne, | Queen Victoria, + A.D.1570. | A.D.1710. | A.D.1850. + | | +Population. 800 | 8,168 | About 400,000 + | | +Tonnage <a name="citation151"></a><a href="#footnote151">{151}</a> 268 | 12,636 | 3,336,337 + | | +Number of 15 | 334 | 20,457 + Vessels | | + | | +Dock Dues. - | £600 | £211,743 + | | +Income of £20 | £1,115 | £139,152 + Corporation | | + | | +Customs Dues £272 | £70,000 | £3,366,284</pre> +<p>This extraordinary progress, of which we have far from seen the limits, +has been founded and supported by a position which every commercial +change, every new invention relating to sea-borne coasting trade, or +inland conveyance, has strengthened.</p> +<p>The discovery of the passage around the Cape of Good Hope, and improvements +in the art of navigation, destroyed the commercial importance of Venice, +and extinguished a line of river ports from Antwerp to Cologne. +In our own country, the Cinque Ports, Harwich, Great Grimsby, and other +havens, fell into decay when navigators no longer cared to hurry into +the first harbour on coming within sight of land. But Liverpool, +situated on the banks of a river which, until buoyed and improved at +a vast expense, was a very inferior port for safety and convenience, +has profited by the changes which have rendered the American the most +important of our foreign customers, and Ireland as easily reached as +Runcorn in a sailing flat.</p> +<p>The rise of the cotton manufacture has been as beneficial to Liverpool +as to those districts where the yarn is spun and woven. The canal +system has fed, not rivalled or “tapped,” the trade of the +Mersey. The steamboats on which the seafaring population of Liverpool +at first looked with dislike and dismay, have created for their town—first, +a valuable coasting trade, independent of wind or tide, which with sailing +vessels on such a coast and with such a river could never have existed; +and next, a transatlantic commerce, which, through Liverpool, renders +New York nearer to Manchester than Dublin was five and twenty years +ago; while, at the same time, the opposite coast of Cheshire has been +transformed into a suburb, to which omnibus-steamers ply every five +minutes. And yet little more than five and twenty years ago there +was only one river steamer on the Mersey, and that a flat bottomed cattle +boat, with one wheel in the centre.</p> +<p>Bristol took the lead in establishing transatlantic steamers; but +Liverpool, backed by Manchester, transplanted to her own waters the +new trade, and even the steamers that proved the problem.</p> +<p>Railways (the only great idea in this generation that Liverpool has +ventured to originate and execute) have not, as was promised, transferred +any part of the Liverpool trade to Manchester; but, on the contrary, +largely increased and strengthened their connection with the cotton +metropolis. An hour now takes the cotton broker to his manufacturing +customers twice a week, who formerly rose at five o’clock in the +morning to travel by coach in four hours to Manchester, and returned +wearied at midnight.</p> +<p>The Electric Telegraph, the next great invention of this commercial +age was not less beneficial to this port by facilitating the rapid interchange +of communication with the manufacturing districts, and settling the +work of days in a few hours. A hundred miles apart merchants can +now converse, question, propose, and bargain.</p> +<p>By all these improvements uncertainties have been reduced to certainties, +and capital has been more than doubled in value. On the expected +day, well calculated beforehand, the steamer arrives from America; with +the rapidity of lightning the news she brings is transmitted to Manchester, +to Birmingham, to Sheffield, to London, to Glasgow; a return message +charters a ship, and a single day is enough to bring down the manufactured +freight. Thus news can be received and transmitted, a cargo of +raw material landed, manufactured goods brought down by rail from the +interior of England, and put on board a vessel and despatched, in less +time than it occupied a few years ago to send a letter to Manchester +and get an answer.</p> +<p>And under all these changes, while commerce grows and grows, the +porters and the brokers, the warehousemen and the merchants, are able +to take toll on the consumption of England.</p> +<p>Even the old dangerous roadstead, and far-falling tides of the Mersey, +proved an advantage to Liverpool; by driving the inhabitants to commence +the construction of Docks before any other port in the kingdom, and +thus obtain a certain name and position in the mercantile world, from +having set an example which cities provided with more safe and convenient +natural harbours were unwilling to follow.</p> +<p>The first Dock ever constructed in England is now the site of the +Liverpool Custom House; a large building erected at a period when our +architects considered themselves bound to lodge all public institutions +in Grecian temples.</p> +<p>This Dock was constructed in 1708, and twelve others have since been +added, occupying the shore from north to south for several miles, including +one which will accommodate steamers of the largest class. These +Docks are far from perfect in their landing arrangements. Cargo +is discharged in all but one, into open sheds. The damage and +losses by pilferage of certain descriptions of goods are enormous. +Attempts have been repeatedly made to establish warehouses round the +docks into which goods might be discharged without the risk or expense +of intermediate cartage. But the influence of parties possessed +of warehouse property is too great to allow the execution of so advantageous +a reform. Whigs and Radicals are, in this instance, as determined +conservators of abuses which <i>are not</i> time-honoured as any Member +for Lincoln City or Oxford University.</p> +<p>In 1764 more than half the African slave trade was carried on by +Liverpool merchants. The canal system commenced by the Duke of +Bridgewater next gave Liverpool an improved inland communication. +After Arkwright’s manufactures stimulated the trade of America, +cotton imports into Liverpool soon began to rival the sugar and tobacco +imports into Bristol. The Irish trade was rising at the same time, +and the comparatively short distance between the midland counties, where +Irish livestock was chiefly consumed, soon brought the Irish traders +to Liverpool. The progress of steam navigation presently gave +new openings to the coasting trade of Liverpool. In 1826 the admirable +canal system, which united Liverpool with the coal and manufacturing +districts in the kingdom, was found insufficient to accommodate the +existing traffic, and the railroad was the result. By the railroad +system Liverpool has been brought within an hour of Manchester, two +hours of Leeds, and four hours of London; and into equally easy, cheap, +and certain communication with every part of England and Scotland; while +fully retaining all the advantages of being the halfway house between +the woollen districts, the iron districts, and the cotton districts, +and America—the intermediate broker between New Orleans, Charleston, +New York, and Manchester.</p> +<p>Six-sevenths of all the woollen imported into England comes through +Liverpool, besides a large trade in sugar, tobacco, tea, rice, hemp, +and every kind of Irish produce.</p> +<p>Thus Liverpool is in a position to take toll on the general consumption +of the kingdom; and this toll in the shape of dock dues, added to the +increase in the value of landed property, occupied by warehouses, shops, +and private residences, has enabled the municipal corporation to bestow +on the inhabitants fine buildings, and greatly improve the originally +narrow streets. Liverpool has no manufactures of any special importance. +Few ships are built there in comparison with the demands of the trade, +in consequence of the docks having taken up most of the space formerly +occupied by the building-yards. The repairs of ships are executed +in public graving docks, chiefly by workmen of a humble standing, called +pitchpot masters,—a curious system, whether advantageous or not +to all parties, is a matter of dispute.</p> +<p>The environs of Liverpool are particularly ugly, remarkably flat, +and deficient in wood and water. There are scarcely any rides +or drives of any kind. The best suburb, called Toxteth Park, although +no park at all, lies on the southern side of the town, parallel with +the Mersey. In this direction the wealthiest merchants have erected +their residences, some of great size and magnificence, surrounded by +pleasure-grounds and fancy farms, presenting very favourable instances +of the rural tastes of our countrymen in every rank of life. But +there is nothing in the environs of Liverpool to make a special ride +necessary, unless a stranger possesses a passport to one of the mansions +or cottages of gentility to be found on each side of the macadamized +road behind rich plantations, where hospitality is distributed with +splendour, and not without taste.</p> +<p>The north shore of the Mersey consists of flat sands, bounded on +the land side by barren sand hills, where, driven by necessity, and +tempted by a price something lower than land usually bears near Liverpool, +some persons have courageously built houses and reclaimed gardens. +On this shore are the two watering-place villages of Waterloo and Crosby, +less populous, but as pleasant as Margate, with salt river instead of +salt sea bathing, in shade and plenty of dust. The hard flat sands, +when the tide is down, afford room for pleasant gallops.</p> +<p>The best settlement on the opposite shore, called New Brighton, has +the same character, but enjoys a share of the open Irish sea, with its +keen breezes. It must be bracing, healthy, dreary, and dull.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>BIRKENHEAD is a great town, which has risen as rapidly as an American +city, and with the same fits and starts. Magical prosperity is +succeeded by a general insolvency among builders and land speculators; +after a few years of fallow another start takes place, and so on—speculation +follows speculation. Birkenhead has had about four of these high +tides of prosperous speculations, in which millions sterling have been +gained and lost. At each ebb a certain number of the George Hudsons +of the place are swamped, but the town always gains a square, a street, +a park, a church, a market-place, a bit of railway, or a bit of a dock. +The fortunes of the men perish, but the town lives and thrives. +Thus piece by piece the raw materials of a large thriving community +are provided, and now Birkenhead is as well furnished with means for +accommodating a large population as any place in England, and has been +laid out on so good a plan that it will be one of the healthiest as +well as one of the neatest modern towns. It has also the tools +of commerce in a splendid free dock, not executed so wisely as it would +have been if Mr. Rendel, the original engineer, (the first man of the +day as a marine engineer), had not been overruled by the penny-wise +pound-foolish people, but still a very fine dock. Warehouses much +better planned than anything in Liverpool; railways giving communication +with the manufacturing districts; in fact, all the tools of commerce—gas, +water, a park, and sanitary regulations, have not been neglected.</p> +<p>Some people think Birkenhead will be the rival of Liverpool, we think +not: it will be a dependency or suburb of the greater capital. +“Where the carcase is, there the eagles will be gathered together.” +Birkenhead is too near to be a rival; shipping must eventually come +to Birkenhead, but the business will still continue to be done in Liverpool +or Manchester, where are vested interests and established capital.</p> +<p>An hour or two will be enough to see everything worth seeing at Birkenhead. +To those who enjoy the sight of the river and shipping, it is not a +bad plan to stop at one of the hotels there, as boats cross every five +minutes, landing at a splendid iron pontoon, or floating stage, on the +Liverpool side, of large dimensions, constructed with great skill by +Mr. W. Cubitt, C.E., to avoid the nuisance of landing carriages at all +times, and passengers at low tides in boats.</p> +<p>At Liskeard, a ferry on the Cheshire side, Mr. Harold Littledale—a +member of one of the first firms in Liverpool—has established +a model dairy farm, perhaps one of the finest establishments of the +kind in the kingdom.</p> +<p>All the buildings and arrangements have been executed from the plans +and directions of Mr. William Torr, the well known scientific farmer +and short-horn breeder, of Aylsby Manor, Lincolnshire. No expense +has been spared in obtaining the best possible workmanship and implements, +but there has been no waste in foolish experiments; and, consequently, +there is all the difference between the farm of a rich man who spends +money profusely, in order to teach himself farming, and a farm like +that at Liskeard, where a rich man had said to an agriculturist, at +once scientific and practical, “Spare no expense, and make me +the best thing that money can make.”</p> +<p>The buildings, including a residence, cottages, and gardens, occupy +about four acres, and the farm consists of 350 acres of strong clay +land, which has been thoroughly drained and profusely manured, with +the object of getting from it the largest possible crops. Fifty +tons of turnips have been obtained from an acre.</p> +<p>Eighty cows are kept in the shippons, ranged in rows, facing the +paths by which they are all fed at the head. They are fed on turnips, +mangels, or potatoes, with cut chaff of hay and straw, everything suitable +being cut and steamed, in the winter—on green clover, Italian +ray-grass, and a little linseed-cake, in the summer. They are +curry-combed twice a day, and the dung is removed constantly as it falls. +The ventilation and the drainage has been better managed than in most +houses, so that the shippons have always a sweet atmosphere and even +temperature. The fittings, fastenings, and arrangements of the +windows, hanging from little railways, and sliding instead of closing +on hinges, are all ingenious, and worth examination. Mr. Littledale +makes use of a moveable wooden railway, carted over by a donkey in a +light waggon, to draw root crops from a field of heavy land.</p> +<p>The churn in use in the dairy makes eighty pounds of butter at a +time, and is worked by the steam-engine also used for cutting and steaming +the food of the cows. The milk and cream produced at this dairy +is sold by retail, unadulterated, and is in great demand. A brief +account of this farm appeared in the “Farmer’s Magazine” +of May, 1848, with a ground plan; but several improvements have been +made since that time. To parties who take an interest in agricultural +improvement, a visit to Liskeard Farm will be both interesting and profitable.</p> +<p>We believe that Mr. Torr also farms another estate, which he purchased, +in conjunction with friends, from Sir William Stanley, at Eastham, near +Hooton (a pleasant voyage of an hour up the river), and cultivates after +the North Lincolnshire style, in such a manner as to set an example +to the Cheshire farmers—not a little needed. The country +about Eastham is the prettiest part of the Mersey.</p> +<p>While on the subject of agricultural improvements, we may mention +that Mr. Robert Neilson, another mercantile notability, holds a farm, +under Lord Stanley, at a short railroad ride from Liverpool, which we +have not yet had an opportunity of examining, but understand that it +is a very remarkable instance of good farming, and consequently heavy +crops, in a county (Lancashire) where slovenly farming is quite the +rule, and well worth a visit from competent judges, whom as we are also +informed Mr. Neilson is happy to receive.</p> +<p>If, as seems not improbable, it should become the fashion among our +merchant princes to seek health and relaxation by applying capital and +commercial principles to land, good farming will spread, by force of +vaccination, over the country, and plain tenant-farmers will apply, +cheaply and economically, the fruits of experience, purchased dearly, +although not too dearly, by merchant farmers. A successful man +may as well—nay, much better—sink money for a small return +in such a wholesome and useful pursuit as agriculture, than in emulating +the landed aristocracy, who laugh quietly at such efforts, or hoarding +and speculating to add to what is already more than enough.</p> +<p>If a visit be paid to Mr. Neilson’s farm, it would be very +desirable to obtain, if possible, permission to view the Earl of Derby’s +collection of rare birds and animals, one of the finest in the world. +But permission is rarely granted to strangers who have not some scientific +claim to the favour. Lord Derby has agents collecting for him +in every part of the world, and has been very successful in rearing +many birds from tropical and semi-tropical countries in confinement, +which have baffled the efforts of zoological societies. The aviaries +are arranged on a large scale, with shrubs growing in and water flowing +through them. In fine weather some beautiful parrots, macaws, +and other birds of a tame kind, are permitted to fly about the grounds. +There is something very novel and striking in beholding brilliant macaws +and cockatoos swinging on a lofty green-leaved bough, and then, at the +call of the keeper, darting down to be fed where stately Indian and +African cranes and clumsy emus are stalking about.</p> +<p>The late Earl was celebrated as a cockfighter, and the possessor +of one of the finest breeds of game fowls in the kingdom. A few +only are now kept up at Knowsley, as presents to the noble owner’s +friends. Knowsley lies near Prescott, about seven miles from Liverpool. +The family are descended from the Lord Stanley who was created Earl +of Derby by the Earl of Lancaster and Derby, afterwards Henry IV., for +services rendered at the battle of Bosworth Field. An ancestress, +Charlotte de la Tremouille, Countess of Derby, is celebrated for her +defence of Latham House against the Parliamentary forces in the Great +Civil War, and is one of the heroines of Sir Walter Scott’s novel +of “Peveril of the Peak.” <a name="citation159"></a><a href="#footnote159">{159}</a></p> +<p>Liverpool is particularly well placed as a starting point for excursions, +in consequence of the number of railways with which it is connected, +and the number of steamboats which frequent its port, where a whole +dock is especially devoted to vessels of that class.</p> +<p>By crossing over to Birkenhead, Chester may be reached, and thence +the quietest route to Ireland, by Britannia Bridge and Holyhead; or +a journey through North Wales may be commenced. By the East Lancashire, +starting from the Station behind the Exchange, a direct line is opened +through Ormskirk to Preston, the lakes of Cumberland, and to Scotland +by the west coast line.</p> +<p>From the same station a circuitous route through Wigan and Bolton, +on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, opens a second road to Manchester, +and affords a complete communication with the manufacturing districts +of Lancashire and Yorkshire.</p> +<p>On the roads to London it is not now necessary to treat.</p> +<p>The steam accommodation from Liverpool has always been excellent, +far superior to that afforded in the Thames. No such wretched +slow-sailing tubs are to be found as those which plied between London +and Boulogne and Calais, until railway competition introduced a little +improvement. The interior fittings and feeding on board Liverpool +boats are generally superior. The proprietors have taken the Scotch +and Americans as models, and not the stingy people of the Thames.</p> +<p>It is very odd that while the French and Scotch can contrive to give +a delicious breakfast or dinner on shipboard, while the Germans on the +Rhine are positively luxurious, and while we know that a steam-boiler +offers every convenience for <i>petits plats</i>, the real old English +steam-boats of the General Steam Navigation Company never vary from +huge joints and skinny chickens, with vegetables plain boiled.</p> +<p>We remember, some years ago, embarking on a splendid French steamer, +afterwards run down and sunk in the Channel, to go to Havre, and returning +by Boulogne to London. In the French vessel it was almost impossible +to keep from eating,—soups, cutlets, plump fowls, all excellent +and not dear. On board the English boat it was necessary to be +very hungry, in order to attack the solid, untempting joints of roast +and boiled.</p> +<p>This is a travelling age, and both hotel keepers and steam-boat owners +will find profit in allowing the spirit of free trade and interchange +to extend to the kitchen. Our public cooks are always spoiling +the best meat and vegetables in Europe.</p> +<p>More than twenty lines of steamers ply from Liverpool to the various +ports of Ireland; the Isle of Man, which is a favourite watering-place +for the Lancashire and Cheshire people; Glasgow and other parts of Scotland, +Whitehaven and Carlisle, Bangor, Caernarvon, and other ports of Wales, +beside the deep-sea steamers to New York, Philadelphia, and Boston; +to Constantinople, Malta, and Smyrna; and to Gibraltar, Genoa, Leghorn, +Civita Vecchia (for Rome), Naples, Messina, and Palermo; so that an +indifferent traveller has ample choice, which is sometimes very convenient +for a man who wants to go somewhere and does not care where.</p> +<p>The amusements of Liverpool include two theatres, an amphitheatre +for horsemanship, and several sets of subscription concerts, for the +use of which a fine hall has been erected.</p> +<p>The race-course is situated at some miles distant from the town; +races take place three times a-year, two being flat races, and the third +a steeple-chase. They are well supported and attended, although +not by ladies so much as in the Midland and Northern Counties. +The Liverpool races are chiefly matters of business, something like +the Newmarket, with the addition of a mob. A large attendance +comes from Manchester, where more betting is carried on than in any +town out of London. Gambling of all kinds naturally follows in +the wake of cotton speculation, which is gambling.</p> +<p>The crashes produced in Liverpool by the <i>sacra fames auri</i> +are sometimes startling, and they come out in visible relief, because, +in spite of its size, gossip flourishes as intensely as in a village. +During one of the cotton manias a young gentleman, barely of age, in +possession of an income of some two thousand a-year from land, and ready +money to the extent of one hundred and fifty thousand pounds, joined +an ingenious penniless gentleman in speculating in cotton, and found +himself in less than twelve months a bankrupt; thus sacrificing, without +the least enjoyment, a fortune sufficient for the enjoyment of every +rational pleasure, or for the support of the highest honours in the +State.</p> +<p>Such instances are not uncommon, although on a less magnificent scale; +indeed, it is well to be cautious in inquiring after a Liverpool merchant +or broker after an absence of a few years; a very few years are sufficient +to render the poor rich and the rich poor, an eighth of a penny in the +pound of cotton will do it.</p> +<p>The Municipal Corporation of Liverpool is the wealthiest in England +after London, and virtually richer than London, inasmuch as the expenses +are trifling, the property is improving, and the Liverpool aldermen +and common-councillors have no vested claims to costly entertainments.</p> +<p>The majority is in the hands of the Conservative party, the Liberal +party having only enjoyed the sweets of power for a brief period after +the passing of the Financial Reform Bill; but the principle of representation +keeps down any inclination toward the inevitable jobberies of a close +self-elected body, and pushes local legislators on, quite up to the +mark of the public opinion of the locality they govern.</p> +<p>A stranger, who has no interest in party squabbles, must confess +that the funds of this wealthy estate are on the whole fairly and wisely +distributed.</p> +<p>The Irish population, amounting to many thousands of the poorest +and most ignorant class, who find a refuge from the miseries of their +own country in the first port from Dublin, and employment in the vast +demand for unskilled labour caused by the perpetual movement in imports +and exports, impose a heavy tax on the poor-rates and police-rates of +this borough.</p> +<p>In the education of this part of the community, the Liberal Corporation +made provision in the extensive Corporation schools, by adopting the +Irish Government scheme of instruction, permitting the Roman Catholics +to make use of their own translation of the Bible, and to absent themselves +from the religious instruction of the orthodox.</p> +<p>On this question the municipal elections were fought. The general +education party were eventually beaten. The Roman Catholics were +withdrawn from the schools, and thrown entirely upon the priests or +the streets for education, and great was the rejoicing among the party +who carried a large <i>wooden</i> Bible as their standard.</p> +<p>But subsequent events have induced those who have given any attention +to the state of the operative classes in Liverpool, of whatever politics, +to doubt whether it would not have been better to have been busy, for +the last fifteen years, in teaching those classes something, who, knowing +nothing, supply very expensive customers to the Liverpool courts of +law and jail.</p> +<p>Liverpool returns two members to the House of Commons.</p> +<p>The election contests were formerly wonderfully bitter and absurd, +for on one occasion, just before the passing of the Reform Bill, nearly +two hundred thousand pounds were spent by two parties, between whose +politics there was scarcely a shade of difference.</p> +<p>William Roscoe represented Liverpool for a short time, but was rejected +at a second election, in consequence of his opposition to the Slave +Trade. He was the son of a publican, and rose from an office boy +to be an attorney in large practice, and eventually a banker. +He was ruined by the stopping of his bank, which, after being for many +years under the taxing harrows of the old corrupt bankrupt system, paid +twenty shillings in the pound. William Roscoe was a voluminous +writer of political pamphlets and poetry, which are now quite forgotten; +his literary reputation deservedly rests upon his lives of Lorenzo de +Medici, published in 1796, and of Leo X; the former of which has recently +been republished by Mr. Bohn, in his cheap series of reprints.</p> +<p>Of even more value than his literary productions, was the school, +or party, which he founded in Liverpool, while he was still wealthy +and influential, embracing all who had a taste for literature and art. +At that period Liverpool was rising into wealth on a vigorous prosecution +of the Slave Trade, of which its parliamentary representatives were +the avowed supporters. At that time vulgar wealth was the only +distinction, and low debauchery the almost only amusement of the principal +merchants. Absurd as it may now seem, when all the well-to-do +world profess to be educated and temperate, Roscoe and his friends rendered +inestimable service by making elegant tastes and temperate habits respectable, +and by raising up an opposition to the old Slave Trade party, whose +paradise lay in turtle soup, port wine, and punch. He set an example +to merchants of stocking a library as well as a cellar, which has been +followed, until now it is considered a matter of course. William +Roscoe died in 1831, at a very advanced age. He was a remarkably +fine-looking man, with a grand aristocratic head.</p> +<p>In addition to Huskisson and George Canning, Liverpool once very +nearly had the honour of sending to Parliament Henry Brougham, in days +when the Chancellorship and the House of Lords could scarcely have been +expected by that versatile genius, even in a dream.</p> +<p>At present Liverpool interests are well represented in the House +of Commons. The borough has had the good sense to prefer a merchant +townsman, Sir Thomas Birch, and the son of a merchant, and friend and +co-minister of the late Sir Robert Peel, Mr. Cardwell, to a soldier, +and the dreamy poetical son of a Protectionist duke. A place like +Liverpool ought to find in its own body better men than young lords +or old soldiers. But young Liverpool dearly loves a lord, of any +politics; and a little polite attention from a duke will produce an +unconscious effect even on the trade report of a broker of “fashion.”</p> +<p>Mr. William Brown, at the head of the greatest American house in +the world, after Baring’s, represents South Lancashire, but on +Manchester influence, scarcely with the consent of Liverpool. +Mr. Brown, who is an Irishman by birth, has been entirely the architect +of his own fortune, and began business—on a very limited scale +indeed—within the memory of persons now living. The firm +has now agents in every town of any importance in the United States, +and is the means of keeping in active employment hundreds of traders +in all our manufacturing districts. The relations with Birmingham +and the hardware country are very close. Another Liverpool man +of whom the Liverpool people are justly proud, is the best debater in +the House of Commons, if he only knew his own mind, the Right Honourable +William Gladstone, the son of Sir John Gladstone, Bart., of Fasque, +N.B., formerly a Liverpool merchant. Sir John Gladstone is a Scotchman, +and in conjunction with another gentleman, also the head of a first-rate +Liverpool house, Mr. Sandbatch, went out to the West Indies (Demerara) +as journeymen bakers, in the same way that Mr. Miles, the grandfather +of the members for East Somerset and Bristol, and founder of the great +Bristol banking house, went out to Barbadoes as a journeyman cooper. +If we add to these instances that the first Sir Robert Peel and Mr. +Brotherton (who himself told the House, in a debate on the Factory Time +Bill, that he had commenced life as a factory operative), beside many +others, too numerous to mention, it will be found that our House of +Commons is not so far out of the reach of industrious merit as foreigners +usually imagine.</p> +<p>In conclusion, we may note that Liverpool, which gave very cold and +niggard support to the Great Exhibition (chiefly because the project +was ill received by the ducal house which patronizes the fashionables +of the town), sent a contribution which very completely represented +its imports, specifying the scientific and commercial name of each article, +country of production, and quantity imported.</p> +<p>This collection occupies a considerable space, but it will be found, +on examination, that a few staples employ the greater part of the shipping +inwards. Cotton occupies by far the largest place, the air is +filled with floating motes of cotton all round the business quarters +of the town; timber probably stands next in the tonnage it employs; +West Indian produce is less important than it was formerly; a great +trade is done with South America, in hides, both dry and salted; tobacco, +both from the United States and Cuba, arrives in large quantities. +There are several great snuff and cigar manufactories in Liverpool. +The hemp and tallow trade is increasing, as is the foreign corn trade. +The Mediterranean, and especially the Italian, trade, has been rendered +more important by steam communication. The China trade has not +increased as much as was expected.</p> +<p>When the Docks and Public Institutions have been examined, and the +places of interest on the Cheshire shore visited, Liverpool presents +nothing to detain the traveller who has no private claims on his attention.</p> +<p>It must be acknowledged that the general appearance of the town and +of the people is more agreeable than that of Birmingham or Manchester, +although Liverpool can claim none of the historical and antiquarian +interest in which Bristol and Chester are rich. There are parts +of the town devoted to low lodging houses, and accommodation for the +poor Irish and emigrants, as bad as the worst parts of St. Giles’s +or Spitalfields. Indeed, the mortality is greater than that of +any other town in England.</p> +<p>Liverpool is a great port for emigration to the United States and +Canada. On the line of packet ships the accommodation for those +who can pay £5 and upwards is excellent; in the timber ships they +are packed like herrings after being lodged like pigs. But what +can be expected for the fare. At £2 the shipowners undertake +to give a passage, and find two quarts of water and a pound of bread +per day. The Government Emigration Agents are indefatigable in +their efforts, municipal and Parliamentary regulations have been from +time to time applied to the subject, nevertheless the frauds and cruelties +inflicted on emigrants are frightful.</p> +<p>An attempt was made some short time since to have an Emigrant’s +Home as a sort of Model Barrack, erected in one of the New Docks, so +as to form a counterpoise to the frauds of emigration lodging-house +keepers, but local jealousies defeated a plan which would have been +equally advantageous to the town and the emigrants.</p> +<p>The state of poverty and crime in Liverpool, fed as it is by the +overflowings of many districts, is an important subject, which has excited +the anxious attention of several enlightened residents, among others +of the late Police Magistrate, Mr. Edward Rushton, who died suddenly +without being able to bring his plans to maturity.</p> +<p>In conclusion we may say of Liverpool, that it is a town which has +a great and increasing population, a wealthy Corporation, a thriving +trade, yet less of the materials of a metropolis than many other towns +of less commercial importance.</p> +<p>For further temporary information, a traveller may advantageously +consult the Liverpool papers, of which there is one for every day in +the week—that is to say, an <i>Albion</i>, a <i>Times</i>, a <i>Mail</i>, +a <i>Standard</i>, a <i>Mercury</i>, a <i>Journal</i>, a <i>Chronicle</i>—of +all shades of politics, of large size, conducted with great ability, +and affording, in addition to the news and politics of the day, a great +deal of general information, in the shape of extracts from popular works +and original articles.</p> +<p>If we would learn why the opinions of inhabitants of towns prevail +over the opinions of landowners and agriculturists, we have only to +compare the active intelligence of the two as exhibited by such journals +as are to be found in Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham with those +supported by the rural community. A single sect expends more on +the support of the press than all the farmers and farmers’ friends +united, who are more numerous, more wealthy, not wanting in intelligence +in their own pursuits, but quite without cohesion or combination.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>LIVERPOOL TO MANCHESTER.—There are two ways from Liverpool +to Manchester, one by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, through +Bolton, which has a station behind the Exchange, and one by the old +route, through Newton. The line by the new one has Bolton upon +its course, and renders the Aintree Racecourse half as near Manchester +as Liverpool.</p> +<p>For choice take a Tuesday or Saturday, and travel up by the early +Cotton Brokers’ Express to Manchester, so as to see one more phase +of the English commercial character. The Brokers are a jovial +set and hospitable, as keen as Yankees and as industrious. There +is a marked difference between them and the Spinners, but they are of +no particular country. Liverpool, like Manchester, although not +to the same degree, is colonised by strangers. Both Irishmen and +Scotchmen are to be found among the most respectable and successful, +and a considerable number of Americans are settled there as merchants +and shipping agents; indeed it is half American in its character.</p> +<p>In this year of 1851, to describe the Liverpool and Manchester Railway +would be absurd; acres of print, in all civilized languages, and yards +of picture-illustration, have been devoted to it. At Newton Station +you see below you a race-course of great antiquity, and what was once +a huge hotel, built to supply a room large enough for the Mother Partingtons +of Lancashire to meet and prepare their mops for sweeping back the Atlantic +tide of public opinion. There they met, and dined and drank and +shouted, and unanimously agreed that it was foolish legislation which +transferred the right of representation from the village of Newton to +the great city of Manchester; after which they went home, and wisely +submitted to the summons which found its speaking-trumpets at Manchester. +Fortunately for this country, a minority knows how to submit to a majority, +and the Conservative Hall, by a sort of accidental satire on its original +uses, has been turned into a printing office.</p> +<p>A little farther on is Chat-Moss, a quaking bog, which the opponents +of the first railway proved, to the satisfaction of many intelligent +persons, to be an impassable obstacle to the construction of any solid +road. We fly across it now reading or writing, scarcely taking +the trouble to look out of the window. But if we do, we may see +reclamation and cultivation, in the shape of root-crops and plantations, +extending over the wet waste.</p> +<p>William Roscoe was one of the first to attempt to reclaim this Moss; +and it is worthy of note, that it was among the literary and scientific +friends of Roscoe that George Stephenson’s idea of a railroad +from Liverpool to Manchester, through Chat-Moss, found its warmest supporters, +at a time when support was much needed; for the shares were hawked, +and even distributed among friends who were guaranteed against loss, +in order to make up a fitting parliamentary subscription to what has +proved one of the most successful speculations in public works, of this +century.</p> +<h2>MANCHESTER.</h2> +<p>As we roll into Manchester, and mark by what successive invasions +the city has been half-surrounded by railways, it is amusing to remember +the fears which landowners expressed in 1829, and really felt, lest +the new flaming and smoking carriage-apparatus should damage the value +of property which has been more than doubled in value by the new invention.</p> +<p>Manchester is the greatest manufactory in the world. The cradle +and metropolis of a trade which employs a million and a half of souls, +beside the sailors, the merchants, the planters and the slaves, who +grow or carry or buy the raw material, it is the second city in the +empire, and perhaps, considered in relation to the commercial influence +of Great Britain, scarcely second. Blot out the capital, the credit, +the living enterprise, the manufacturing power of Manchester, and we +have lost a century of commercial progress. Manchester is essentially +a place of work and action, carried on by men recruited from every district +where a mental grenadier of the Manchester standard is to be found. +Suffolk and Devonshire, Norfolk and Cornwall send their quota, as well +as the neighbouring manufacturing schools of Yorkshire, Cheshire, and +Lancashire. Scotchmen in great numbers, and some Irishmen, chiefly +from the north, are also at home there. We are speaking now not +of operatives, but of those who rise to be manufacturers or merchants. +The Americans are rather constant visitors than permanent residents; +but the Germans are sufficiently numerous to be able to form a society +of their own, the most agreeable in Manchester; and the commerce of +Greece is represented by a great number of houses, which are increasing +in number and importance.</p> +<p>Then Manchester, although only an inland canal port, trades largely +and directly, through Liverpool chiefly, to the most parts of the world, +consuming one-tenth of the whole imports of that town. The correspondence +of a first-class house for one morning would alone be a lesson in geography.</p> +<p>Then again, the ceaseless enterprise and enormous powers of manufacture +are supported by a constantly-improving mechanical ingenuity, which +seems to those unaccustomed to such works nothing less than miraculous: +as, for instance, some of the inventions of Mr. Whitworth and of Mr. +Roberts.</p> +<p>But all this is hidden from the eye of a stranger; and Manchester +is a dark and dingy ledger, closely clasped, unless he comes prepared +to open a good account, or armed with letters of introduction of a more +than ordinarily pressing nature. The gentleman who was all smiles +while accepting your civilities, and energetically amusing himself on +a tour of pleasure, has scarcely time to look up from his desk to greet +you when enthroned in his counting-house. The fact is, that these +Manchester men rise early, work hard, dine at one o’clock, work +again, and go home, some distance out of town, to work or to sleep,—so +they have no time for unprofitable hospitality or civility.</p> +<p>We do not say this by way of idle reproach to the people of Manchester, +who follow their vocation, and do work of which we as Englishmen have +reason to be proud, but partly by way of warning to travellers who, +armed with the sort of letters that have proved passports to everything +best worth seeing throughout the rest of Europe, may expect to pass +an agreeable day or two in the cotton metropolis; and partly by way +of hint to politicians who, very fond of inveighing against the cold +shade of aristocracy, would find something worth imitating in the almost +universal courtesy of modern nobility, which is quite consistent with +the extremest liberality of abstract opinions.</p> +<p>Dr. Dalton, the celebrated natural philosopher, for many years a +resident in Manchester, has proved that Manchester is not so damp and +rainy a place as is generally imagined; that the mean annual fall of +rain is less than that of Lancaster, Kendal, and Dumfries. Nevertheless, +it is better to expect rain, for although the day at Liverpool, Halifax, +or Sheffield may have been brilliantly fine, the probability is that +you will find the train, as it approaches the city, gradually slipping +into a heavy shower or a Scotch mist.</p> +<p>The walk from any of the stations is very disheartening; tall warehouses, +dingy brick houses, a ceaseless roar of carts and waggons in the main +streets, and a population of which all the better dressed march at double +quick time, with care-brent brows, and if pausing, only to exchange +gruff monosyllables and short words.</p> +<p>At one o’clock the factory hands are dismissed, and the masters +proceed to dinner on horseback and in all sorts of vehicles at a thundering +pace. The working-class population will be found less unhealthy +and better looking than would be expected. The costume of the +women, a cap and a short sleeved jacket fitting the waist, called a +Lancashire bedgown, is decidedly picturesque. For a quarter of +an hour some streets are almost impassable, and the movement gives the +idea of a population deserting a city. An hour’s silence +follows, after which the tide flows again: the footpaths are filled +with the “hands;” and the “heads,” with very +red faces, furiously drive their hundred guinea nags back to business. +Now this is one of the sights of Manchester.</p> +<p>Again, Tuesday is the business day at the Exchange, in St. Ann’s +Square. The room is one of the finest in the kingdom; the faces +and the scene generally afford much curious matter for the study of +the artist and physiognomist. Compare it with the groups of well +dressed dawdlers at Leamington, Cheltenham, Bath, with the very different +style of acute intellect displayed at a meeting of the Institute of +Civil Engineers, or with the merchants of Liverpool, part of whom also +attend Manchester.</p> +<p>The personal appearance of the Manchester manufacturers and their +customers, as seen on ’Change, fully justifies the old saw, “Liverpool +gentlemen, Manchester men, Rochdale fellows (<i>fellies</i>), and Wigan +chaps.”</p> +<p>In Liverpool all are equal,—merchant deals with merchant; in +Manchester the millowner is an autocrat, restrained by customs of the +trade and occasional strikes, and he carries his rough ways into private +life.</p> +<p>But facts show that, with all its plate and varnish, Liverpool is +as inferior to Manchester in an intellectual, as it is superior in an +external point of view.</p> +<p>In politics Manchester leads, and Liverpool and Lancashire unwillingly +follow,—in the education of the operative and middle classes,—in +literary, scientific, and musical associations,—in sanitary measures,—in +the formation of public parks and pleasure grounds, Manchester displays +an incontestable superiority; being more rapid, more energetic, and +more liberal than her more fashionable neighbours.</p> +<p>A list of a few of the institutions and public establishments will +show this.</p> +<p>The Royal Institution in Mosley Street occupies a large building, +established for the encouragement of the Fine Arts by exhibitions of +paintings and sculptures, and the delivery of lectures.</p> +<p>The Philosophical Society was established in 1781, and has numbered +among its members Dr. Dalton, Dr. Henry, and Dr. Percival, and has had +its Transactions translated into French and German.</p> +<p>The Natural History Society has filled a museum in Peter Street with +objects of natural history, and opens it during holiday seasons to the +public at a nominal charge, when thousands of visitors, chiefly operatives, +attend.</p> +<p>The Mechanics’ Institution, founded in 1824, after surviving +many difficulties, has become one of the most flourishing and useful +institutions of the kind in the kingdom. Its chief activity is +displayed in the education of the operative members in the class-rooms. +The library is large, well selected, and in constant requisition. +In one department the School of Design is carried on, and could not +be conducted in a more appropriate building.</p> +<p>This School of Design, supported by the Government for the purpose +of promoting design as applied to the staple manufactures, and diffusing +a general feeling for art amongst the manufacturing community, was formerly +accommodated within the walls of the Royal Institution as a tenant, +paying a rent, strangely enough, for the use of a building which had +ostensibly been erected for promoting art and science!</p> +<p>It was not until 1836, that, on the recommendation of a Committee +of the House of Commons, active steps were taken to establish in England +that class of artistic instruction applied to manufactures which had +been cultivated in France ever since the time that the great Colbert +was the minister of Louis XIV.</p> +<p>At Manchester, some of the leading men connected with the calico-printing +trade and looms of art, established a School of Design within the Royal +Institution, where two rooms were lent rent-free; but, as soon as Government +apportioned a part of a special grant to the Manchester School, the +Committee, who were also as nearly as possible the Council of the Royal +Institution, with that appetite for public money which seems incident +to men of all nations, all classes, and all politics, voted £100 +out of the £250 per annum for rent. This school did nothing +of a practical nature, and consequently did not progress in public estimation. +The master was a clever artist, but not up, perhaps he would have said +not <i>down</i>, to his work. A School of Design at Manchester +is meant, not to breed artists in high art, but to have art applied +to the trades of the city. The master was changed, and, at the +request of the local committee, the Council of the School of Design +at Somerset House sent down, in 1845, Mr. George Wallis, who had shown +his qualifications as an assistant at Somerset House and as master of +the Spitalfields school. At that time the Manchester school had +been in existence five years, and had done nothing toward its original +object. In two years from the time of Mr. Wallis taking the charge, +the funds of the school were flourishing; the interest taken in it by +the public was great, and nearly half the Institution was occupied by +the pupils, while the applications for admission were more numerous +than could be accommodated. Under this management the public, +who care little for abstract art, were taught the close connexion between +the instruction of the School of Design and their private pursuits.</p> +<p><i>This</i> is what is wanted in all our towns. It is not enough +to teach boys and girls,—the manufacturers and purchasers need +to be taught by the eye, if not by the hand.</p> +<p>According to part of Mr. Wallis’s plan, an exhibition was held +of the drawings executed by the pupils for the annual prizes, which +had a great influence in laying the foundation for the efforts made +by Manchester at the Great Exhibition of Industry in Hyde Park.</p> +<p>While matters were proceeding so satisfactorily, the Somerset House +authorities (who have since been tried and condemned by a Committee +of the House of Commons), proceeded to earn their salaries by giving +instructions which could not be carried out without destroying all the +good that had been done. The Manchester Committee and Mr. Wallis +protested against this <i>red tapish</i> interference. It was +persisted in; Mr. Wallis <a name="citation172"></a><a href="#footnote172">{172}</a> +resigned, to the great regret of his pupils and manufacturing friends +in the managing council.</p> +<p>The result was that the undertaking dwindled away rapidly to less +than its original insignificance,—the students fell off, and a +deficit of debt replaced the previously flourishing funds. Out +of evil comes good. The case of Manchester enabled Mr. Milner +Gibson, M.P. for Manchester, to get his Committee and overhaul the Schools +of Design throughout the kingdom.</p> +<p>Certain changes were effected. The school, no longer able to +pay the high rent required by the Royal Institution, was removed to +its present site in Brown Street, placed under the management of Mr. +Hammersley, who had previously been a successful teacher at Nottingham, +and freed from the meddling of incompetent authorities. And now +pupils anxiously crowd to receive instruction, and annually display +practical evidence of the advantages they are enjoying.</p> +<p>The Manchester Mechanics’ Institution was one of the pioneers +in the movement which led to the Great Exhibition. In 1831, was +held its first Polytechnic Exhibition for the purpose of showing the +connexion between natural productions, science, and manufactures. +Subsequent Exhibitions were carried out with great effect as a means +of instruction and education, and with such success as to pay off a +heavy debt which had previously cramped the usefulness of the Institution.</p> +<p>There are also several other institutions of the same class, amongst +others Salford, Ancoats, and Miles Platting Auxiliary Mechanics’ +Institutes.</p> +<p>The Athenæum constitutes a kind of literary club for the middle +classes, who are provided with a good library and reading-room in a +very handsome building.</p> +<p>The Manchester Library contains 10,000 volumes, the Manchester Subscription +Library, established 1765, has the most extensive collection of books +in the city.</p> +<p>A Concert Hall in Peter Street, exclusively used for the purposes +indicated by its name, is supported by 600 subscribers at five guineas +each.</p> +<p>The Chetham Society has been founded for the purpose of publishing +ancient MSS. and scarce works connected with the history of Lancashire.</p> +<p>The Exchange has upwards of two thousand subscribers.</p> +<p>By way of helping the body as well as the mind, in 1846 the inhabitants +of Manchester formed by subscription three public parks, called Queen’s +Park, Peel’s Park, and Philip’s Park, in three different +parts of the suburbs.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>THE FREE GRAMMAR SCHOOL was founded by Hugh Oldham, Bishop of Exeter, +in the early part of the sixteenth century. It was originally +founded for the purpose of furnishing simple and elementary instruction +to the poor. This design is sufficiently proved by the language +of the foundation deed, which describes those sought to be benefited +as persons who had been long in ignorance “on account of the poverty +of their parents.” The present income of the school is upwards +of £5000 a-year, leaving a considerable income over its expenditure, +notwithstanding that the operations of the school have been extended +by a decree of the Court of Chancery. In the year 1833 the Court +authorised the erection of a new building to include a residence for +the master. There are two schools, called the Higher and Lower. +The instructions given embrace the Greek and Latin, and the French, +German, and other modern languages; English literature, mathematics, +the modern arts and sciences, etc. A library is attached to the +school for the use of the pupils. There are twelve exhibitions, +of the annual value of £60 each, for four years, in the gift of +the Warden and High Master, who, however, respect the recommendations +of the Examiners. These gentlemen are three in number, being Masters +of Arts and Bachelors of Law of two years’ standing, two of them +appointed by the Professor, and one by the High Master. They each +receive £20 for their services. In addition to the twelve +exhibitions mentioned above, there are fifteen others connected with +the school, the bequest of a merchant named Hulme. These are appropriated +to under-graduates of Brasenose College, Oxford. Their value is +to be fixed by the patrons, but cannot exceed the sum of £220 +a year. They are to be held for four years from the thirteenth +term after matriculation. There are sixteen scholarships to the +same College; and sixteen to St. John’s, Cambridge, varying in +value from £l8 to £26, stand in rotation with the pupils +of Marlborough and Hereford Schools, and six scholarships of £24 +to Magdalen College, Oxford, Manchester pupils having the preference. +The Examiners have also the power of making awards of books or mathematical +instruments, to the value of £25, in any cases of great merit.</p> +<p>The High Master’s salary is fixed not to exceed £600, +with house-rent and taxes free. He is also allowed to take twenty +boarders. He has the assistance of an Usher (salary £300, +with house and fifteen boarders); an Assistant (salary £200, with +house and twelve boarders); an Usher’s Assistant (salary £150, +with house and ten boarders). There are, in addition, a Master +of the Lower School, a Writing, and a Mathematical Master, a teacher +of English literature, and another of foreign languages; all, with the +exception of the last, having houses, and their aggregate salaries amounting +to £800.</p> +<p>Four hundred scholars attended in 1850.</p> +<p>MANCHESTER NEW COLLEGE is an institution belonging to the Unitarian +body, on the plan of King’s College, London, and was opened for +the reception of students on the 5th October, 1840. The curriculum +of instruction embraces every department of learning and polite literature.</p> +<p>THE LANCASHIRE INDEPENDENT COLLEGE is one of the affiliated Colleges +of the London University, and was established for the education of candidates +for the Christian Ministry amongst Congregational dissenters. +There are three resident Professors, the principal being the Rev. Dr. +Vaughan, formerly Professor of History in the University of London.</p> +<p>OWEN’S COLLEGE has recently been opened on the testamentary +endowment of a Mr. Owen, for affording an education on the plan of University +College, London.</p> +<p>CHETHAM’S HOSPITAL, or, as it is more properly termed, “College,” +was founded by Charter in the year 1665, by Humphrey Chetham, a Manchester +citizen and tradesman, who had, during his lifetime, brought up, fed, +and educated fourteen boys of Manchester and Salford. He paid +a heavy fine to Charles I. for persisting in his refusal of a baronetcy, +and in 1634 was appointed Sheriff of his county. By his will Chetham +directed that the number of boys he had previously provided for should +be augmented by the addition of one from Droylsden, two from Crumpsall, +four from Turton, and ten from Bolton; and left the sum of £7000 +to be devoted to their instruction and maintenance, from six to fourteen +years of age, and for their apprenticeship afterwards to some trade. +The funds having since increased, 80 boys are now received, in the following +proportions, from the several places mentioned in the founder’s +will, viz.:—Manchester, 28; Salford, 12; Droylsden, 6; Crumpsall, +4; Bolton, 20; Turton, 10. They are clothed, fed, boarded, lodged, +and instructed in reading, writing, grammar, and arithmetic. The +boys are selected by the Feoffees in annual meeting at Easter, within +six days before the Monday in which week an application must be sent +in to the Governor, accompanied by a printed note of recommendation, +signed by the overseers and churchwardens of the place in which the +candidate resides.</p> +<p>THE COLLEGE LIBRARY is situated in the same old building in which +accommodation is found for the College, and is a fine collection of +upwards of 25,000 volumes. The germ of this library consisted +of the books bequeathed by Humphrey Chetham, many of them of great scarcity +and value. The collection contains comparatively few volumes of +modern date. The library is open to the use of the public without +charge or restriction, and a small, but convenient, reading-room is +provided for their accommodation. Books are not allowed to be +removed from the premises, and every reader is obliged to make an entry +of each volume he wishes to obtain. Notwithstanding the immense +population of Manchester and Salford, this valuable institution is comparatively +little used, the number of readers averaging less than twenty per day.</p> +<p>SWINTON SCHOOL.—In connexion with the Workhouse an Industrial +House and School has been erected at Swinton, five miles from the City, +which affords so admirable an example for imitation by all manufacturing +or crowded communities, that we are glad to be able to extract the main +facts concerning it from a graphic description in the first volume of +Dickens’s <i>Household Words</i>:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Swinton School cost sixty thousand pounds, and +is a handsome building in the Tudor style of architecture, with a frontage +of 450 feet, containing more than 100 windows. Pleasure grounds +and play grounds surround it, and it resembles more a nobleman’s +palace than the Home of Pauper Children. The inmates consist of +630 children, of whom 305 are orphans, and 124 deserted by their parents, +under charge of a Chaplain, a Head Master, a Medical Officer, a Roman +Catholic Priest, a Governor, a Matron, six Schoolmasters, and four School-mistresses, +with a numerous staff of officials, Nurses, and Teachers of Trades, +receiving salaries and wages amounting to £1,800 a-year, besides +board. Some in the institution are as young as one year and a +half.</p> +<p>All are educated, and those who are old enough are taught trades +and domestic employments. When they leave they are furnished with +two suits of clothes. The character of the Institution stands +so high, that the public are eager for the girls as domestic servants. +If it has not already been done, we hope that the cultivation of land +on the system of market gardens will be added to the trades, as affording +a more certain, and, in some respects, more generally useful employment. +Educated agricultural labourers are rare, much prized, and soon promoted +to be overseers and bailiffs.</p> +<p>The education at Swinton is conducted on the modern plan, which prevails +in the best schools under Government inspection. The children +are taught to love and look upon their masters and mistresses as friends, +to be consulted and applied to as they would to kind parents.</p> +<p>For instance take this bit, familiar to visitors of Infant Schools, +but still new to many:—</p> +<p>The children under six years of age, summoned by the sound of a whistle +from the play ground, trooped in glad groups to an anteroom, and girls +and boys intermixed, at a signal from the Master marched into the schoolroom +singing a tune.</p> +<p>Then followed such vivâ voce instruction as too many better +endowed children do not get for want of competent teachers. Indeed +a better education is now given in Workhouses than can be obtained for +children under twelve years of age at any paid school that we know of. +For instance:—</p> +<p>“What day is this?”<br /> +“Monday.”<br /> +“What sort of a day is it?”<br /> +“Very fine.”<br /> +“Why is it fine?”<br /> +“Because the sun shines, and it does not rain.”<br /> +“Is rain a bad thing, then?”<br /> +“No.”<br /> +“What is it useful for?”<br /> +“To make the flowers and the fruit grow.”<br /> +“Who sends rain and sunshine?”<br /> +“God.”<br /> +“What ought we to do in return for his goodness?”<br /> +“Praise him.”<br /> +“Let us praise him, then,” added the Master.</p> +<p>And the children altogether repeated, and then sang, a part of the +149th psalm.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Now all this is very fine, and a wonderful improvement on the old +dog-eared <i>Redinmadeasy</i>, but better follows. After a time +the children grew tired and sleepy, one fell asleep. Did the Master +slap them all round and pull the ears of the poor little fat <i>somnus</i>? +No. He marched them all out singing and beating time to play for +a quarter of an hour.</p> +<p>We commend Swinton to the consideration of the credulous disciples +of the firebrand school of economists, who believe that Manchester men +devour little children daily, without stint or mercy for their poor +little bodies or souls.</p> +<p>Manchester obtained a municipal corporation under the provisions +of the general act for that purpose, passed in the reign of his late +Majesty William IV. Gas works, established in 1817, are the property +of the town, and produce a surplus income amounting to between three +and four thousand pounds a year, which are devoted to public improvements. +The corporation have recently obtained power to establish water works, +and to purchase up the plant of an existing company.</p> +<p>The guardians of the workhouses of Manchester have a most difficult +task to perform, especially in times of commercial depression, as thousands +are thrown upon their hands at once. Among the most troublesome +customers are the Irish, who flock to Manchester through Liverpool in +search of work, and form a population herding together, very ignorant, +very poor, and very uncleanly.</p> +<h3>MANCHESTER MANUFACTURES.</h3> +<p>It is quite impossible to give the same sort of sketch of the manufactures +of this city as we gave of Birmingham, because they are on so much larger +and more complicated a scale. One may understand how a gun-barrel +or a steel-pen is made at one inspection; but in a visit to a textile +mill, a sight of whizzing machinery, under the charge of some hundred +men, women, boys, and girls, only produces an indefinable feeling of +confusion to a person who has not previously made himself acquainted +with the elements of the subject. To attempt to explain how a +piece of calico is made without the aid of woodcuts, would be very unsatisfactory. +Premising, then, that the cotton in various forms is the staple manufacture +of Manchester, and that silk, mixed fabrics of cotton and silk, cotton +and wool, etc., are also made extensively, we advise the traveller to +prepare himself by reading the work of Dr. Ure or the articles on Textiles +in the <i>Penny Cyclopædia</i>.</p> +<p>A visit to the workshops of the celebrated machinists Messrs. Sharpe, +Roberts, & Co. would probably afford a view of some parts of the +most improved textile machinery in a state of rest, as well as a very +excellent idea of the rapid progress of mechanical arts. Improvements +in manufacturing machines are so constant and rapid, that it is almost +a proverb—“that before a foreigner can get the most improved +machinery which he has purchased in England home and at work, something +better will be invented.”</p> +<p>A Manchester manufacturer, on the approach of a busy season, will +sometimes stop his factories to put in new machines, at a cost of twenty +thousand pounds.</p> +<p>Of equal interest with Messrs. Sharpe, Roberts, & Co., are the +works of Messrs. Whitworth, the manufacturers of exquisite tools, more +powerful than any elephant, more delicately-fitted than any watch for +executing the metalwork of steam-engines, of philosophical instruments, +and everything requiring either great power or mathematical nicety. +Some of these tools for planing, boring, rivetting, welding, cutting +iron and other metals, are to be found in great iron manufactories. +Indeed, Mr. Roberts and Mr. Whitworth are of a class of men who have +proved that the execution of almost all imitations of natural mechanics +are merely a question of comparative expense. If you choose to +pay for it, you may have the moving fingers of a man, or the prehensile +trunk of an elephant, perfectly executed.</p> +<p>From the manufacture of machines, the next step lies naturally to +some branch of cotton manufactures.</p> +<p>COTTON.—The rise of this manufacture has been wonderfully rapid. +In the time of Henry VIII., the spinning wheel came into use in England, +superseding the spindle and distaff, which may still be seen in the +south of France and Italy, and in India, where no other tools are used. +In the same reign Manchester became distinguished for its manufactures.</p> +<p>In the seventeenth century, Humphrey Chetham, whose name has already +been mentioned as the founder of a splendid charity, was among the eminent +tradesmen.</p> +<p>The barbarities of the Duke of Alva on the Protestants of the Netherlands, +and the revocation of the edict of Nantes, by which the persecutions +of the French Protestants was renewed, supplied all our manufacturing +districts with skilful Artisans and mechanics in silk and woollen.</p> +<p>In 1786, the importation of raw cotton only amounted to nineteen +million pounds weight, obtained from the West Indies, the French, Spanish, +and Dutch colonies, and from Turkey and Smyrna. Two years previously +an American ship which imported eight bags was seized, on the ground +that so much cotton could not be the produce of the United States!</p> +<p>So early as 1738, one Charles Wyatt, of Birmingham, took out a patent +for spinning yarn by machinery, which he tried at Northampton, but reaped +no profits from the invention, which was discontinued and forgotten. +In 1767, James Hargreaves, an illiterate weaver residing near Church, +in Lancashire, who seven years previously had invented a carding machine, +much like that in use at the present day, invented the spinning jenny,—by +which eighty spindles were set to work instead of the one of the spinning +wheel. Hargreaves derived no benefit from his invention; twice +a mob of spinners on the old principle rose and destroyed all the machinery +made on his plan, and chased him away. In 1769, Richard Arkwright +took out his first patent (having Mr. Need of Nottingham and Mr. Strutt +of Derby as partners,) for spinning with rollers.</p> +<p>Arkwright was born in the humblest class of life at Preston in Lancashire. +At “Proud Preston” he first followed the business of a barber, +then became a dealer in hair, travelling the country to collect it, +and selling it prepared to the wigmakers. Having accumulated a +little money, he set about endeavouring to invent perpetual motion, +and, in the search, invented, or sufficiently adapted and improved, +a cotton spinning apparatus to induce two practical men like the Messrs. +Need and Strutt to join him. His claim to original invention has +been disputed. That he was not the first inventor is clear, and +it is equally clear that he must have been a man of very considerable +and original mechanical genius.</p> +<p>With Arkwright’s patent, the rise of the cotton trade began.</p> +<p>In 1786, Mr. Samuel Crompton’s invention came into use, called +the mule jenny, because partaking of the movements of both Hargreaves’ +and Arkwright’s inventions, by which, for the first time, yarn +fine enough for muslins could be spun. Crompton did not, probably +could not, afford to take out a patent, but worked his mule jenny with +his own hands in an attic at Bolton, where he carried on a small spinning +and weaving business. Already, in 1812, there were between four +and five million spindles on this principle, but the inventor continued +poor and almost unknown. Mr. Kennedy (author of a brief memoir +of Crompton), and Mr. Lee, raised £500 for him by subscription, +and he afterwards received a grant of £8000 from Parliament, which +his sons lost in business. Mr. Kennedy again exerted himself and +raised an annuity of £63, which the unfortunate inventor only +lived two years to enjoy.</p> +<p>The spinning machines threatened to out-travel the weaving powers +of the country, when, in 1785, Dr. Cartwright, a clergyman of Kent, +with no previous knowledge of weaving, after an expenditure of £40,000, +invented the power-loom, for which he afterwards received a grant of +£10,000 from Parliament. To supply our cotton manufactures, +there were imported in 1849 1,900,000 bales of 330lbs. each. Of +this quantity, 1,400,000 bales came from the United States.</p> +<p>The Manchester manufacturers have lately raised a small fund by subscription, +and sent out Mr. Mackay, a barrister, author of <i>The Western World</i>, +to examine and report on the prospects of obtaining cotton from India; +and the son of the late Mr. John Fielden, a great manufacturer, has +embarked a considerable sum at Natal in the cultivation of cotton. +The dependence on the United States for such a staple has begun to render +our Manchester men uncomfortable. They have not, however, displayed +the spirit and energy that might have been expected either from their +usual political vigour or from the tone of their advice to the farmers +in distress.</p> +<p>The successive improvements in weaving by machinery we shall not +attempt to trace. To use the phrase of a Nottingham mechanic, +“there are machines now that will weave anything, from a piece +of sacking to a spider’s web.” But fine muslins and +fancy goods are chiefly woven by hand.</p> +<p>The power-loom has recently been adapted, under Bright’s patent, +to weaving carpets, which are afterwards printed.</p> +<p>With respect to spinning; fine yarns which cost twenty guineas a +pound have been reduced to four shillings by improved machinery, and +in the Great Exhibition of Industry Messrs. Houldsworth exhibited as +a curiosity, a pound of cotton spun 2,000 miles in length.</p> +<p>Arkwright, among the early improvers, was the only one who realized +a large fortune, which his patience, his energy, his skill, his judgment, +his perseverance well deserved, whether he was an original inventor +or not.</p> +<p>The large supplies of cheap coals by canal soon made Lancashire the +principal seat of the manufacture.</p> +<p>Among the many who realized great wealth by the new manufacture, +was the first Sir Robert Peel, who began life near Bolton as a labouring +man, by frugality accumulated enough money to commence first with a +donkey a small coal trade, and then to enter on a cotton mill, which +eventually placed him in a position to become a Member of Parliament +and a baronet, and to give his son that starting place in education +and society of which he availed himself so wisely and so patriotically, +to his own honour and the permanent benefit of his country.</p> +<p>There are several mills and factories in Manchester in which the +most perfect productions of mechanical skill may be seen in operation; +but it is a trade which will be seen under much more favourable circumstances +in some of those valleys near Manchester, where the masters of the mill +provide the cottages of their “hands,” or where the cottages +are held in freehold by the more frugal workmen themselves, with little +gardens attached, in pure air in open situations.</p> +<p>There are many cotton lords, and the number is increasing, who take +the warmest interest in the condition of the people in their employ, +and who do all they can to promote their health, their education, and +their amusements. A visit to one of these establishments, will +convince those who have taken their ideas of a manufacturing population +from the rabid novelettes and yet more rabid railings of the Ferrand +school, that there is nothing in the factory system itself, properly +conducted, opposed to the permanent welfare of the working classes. +On the contrary, in average times, the wages are sufficient to enable +the operatives to live in great comfort, and to lay by more than in +other trades; while between the comfort of their position and that of +the agricultural labourer there is no comparison, so infinitely are +the advantages on the side of the factory hand. There have also +been a series of legislative and other changes during the last twenty +years, all tending to raise the condition of this class. At the +same time, it is impossible not to observe that, quite irrespective +of political opinions, there is a wide gulf between the great mass of +the employers and the employed. There is dislike—there is +undefined distrust. Those who doubt this will do well to investigate +working-class opinions for themselves, not at election time, and in +such a familiar manner as to get at the truth without compliments. +Probably in times of prosperity this feeling is not increasing—we +are strongly inclined to think it is diminishing; but it is a question +not to be neglected. Manchester men, of the class who run at the +aristocracy, the army, and the navy just as a bull runs at a red rag, +will perhaps be very angry at our saying this; but we speak as we have +found mobs at fires, and chatty fustian jackets in third class trains +on the Lancashire and Yorkshire line; and, although a friend protests +against the opinion, we still think that the ordinary Manchester millhand +looks on his employer with about the same feelings that Mr. John Bright +regards a colonel in the guards. We hope we may live to see them +all more amiable, and better friends.</p> +<p>Manchester during the last seventy years, has been peopled more rapidly +than the “Black Country” which we have described, with a +crowd of immigrants of the most ignorant class, from the agricultural +counties of England, from Ireland, and from Scotland. These people +have been crowded together under very demoralising circumstances.</p> +<p>But we do not dwell or enter further into this important part of +the condition of Manchester, because, unlike Birmingham, the Corn Law +discussions have, to the enormous advantage of the city, drawn hundreds +of jealous eyes upon the domestic life of the poor; and because men +of all parties, Church and Dissent, Radicals and Conservatives, are +trying hard and as cordially as their mutual prejudices will allow them, +to work out a plan of education for raising the moral condition of a +class, who, if neglected in their dirt and ignorance, will become, in +the strongest sense of the French term, <i>Dangereuse</i>!</p> +<p>But to return to the Manchester of to-day; it has become rather the +mercantile than the manufacturing centre of the cotton manufacture. +There are firms in Manchester which hold an interest in woollen, silk, +and linen manufactures in all parts of the kingdom and even of the continent.</p> +<p>From a pamphlet published last year by the Rev. Mr. Baker, it appears +that there are five hundred and fifty cotton manufactories of one kind +or other in the cotton district of Lancashire and Cheshire. Of +these, in Ashton-under-Lyne, Dukinfield, and Mosley, there are fifty-three +mills, Blackburn fifty-seven, Bolton forty-two, Burnley twenty-five +spinning manufactories, at Heywood twenty-eight mills, Oldham one hundred +and fifty-eight, Preston thirty-eight, Staley Bridge twenty, Stockport +forty-seven mills, Warrington only four, Manchester seventy-eight.</p> +<p>The following is a brief outline of the stages of cotton manufacture +which may be useful to those who consider the question for the first +time.</p> +<p>When cotton has reached Manchester from the United States, which +supplies 75 per cent. of the raw material; from Egypt, which supplies +a good article in limited quantity; from India, which sends us an inferior, +uncertain, but increasing, quantity, but which with railroads will send +us an improved increasing quantity; or from any of the other miscellaneous +countries which contribute a trifling quota—it is stowed in warehouses, +arranged according to the countries from which it has come. It +is then “passed through the <i>willow</i>, the <i>scuthing machine</i>, +and the <i>spreading machine</i>, in order to be opened, cleaned, and +evenly spread. By the <i>carding engine</i> the fibres are combed +out, and laid parallel to each other, and the fleece is compressed into +<i>sliver</i>. The sliver is repeatedly drawn and doubled in the +<i>drawing frame</i>, more perfectly to strengthen the fibres and to +equalize the grist. The <i>roving frame</i>, by rollers and spindles, +produces a coarse loose thread, which the mule or throstle spins into +yarn. To make the warp, the twist is transferred from cops to +bobbins by the <i>winding machine</i>, and from the bobbins at the <i>warping +machine</i> to a cylindrical beam. This being taken to the <i>dressing +machine</i>, the warp is sized, dressed, and wound upon the <i>weaving +beam</i>. The weaving beam is then placed in the <i>power loom</i>, +by which machine, the shuttle being provided with cops with weft, the +cloth is woven.”</p> +<p>Sometimes the yarn only is exported, in other cases the cloth is +bleached, or dyed, or printed, all of which operations can be carried +on in Manchester or the surrounding auxiliary towns.</p> +<p>The best mode of obtaining a general idea of the trade carried on +in Manchester will be to visit two or three of the leading warehouses +in which buyers from all parts of the world supply their respective +wants. For instance, Messrs. J. N. Phillips and Co., of Church +Street; Messrs. Bannermans and Sons, York Street; Messrs. J. and J. +Watts and Co., of Spring Gardens; and Messrs. Wood and Westhead, of +Piccadilly. Next, to go over one of the leading Cotton Mills, +say Briley’s or Houldsworth’s; then Messrs. Lockett’s +establishment for engraving the plates used in calico-printing, and +Messrs. Thomas Hoyle and Son’s print works. This work completed, +the traveller will have some idea of Manchester, not without.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>SILK.—The silk trade of Manchester and of Macclesfield, which +for that purpose is a suburb of Manchester, arose in the restrictions +imposed upon Spitalfields, at the request of the weavers, by successive +acts of Parliament, for the purpose of regulating employment in that +district. In 1830 there were not 100 Jacquard looms in Manchester +and its neighbourhood, whilst at the present time there are probably +12,000 employed either on silk or some branch of figure weaving. +The most convenient silk manufactory for the visit of the stranger is +that of Messrs. James Houldsworth of Portland Street, near the Royal +Infirmary. This firm was established by a German gentleman, the +late Mr. Louis Schwabe, an intelligent German, who introduced the higher +class of silk manufacture with such success as to enable him to compete +with even the very first class of Lyons silks for furniture damasks.</p> +<p>In addition to the extensive application of the Jacquard loom, Mr. +Schwabe introduced, and Mr. Henry Houldsworth improved and perfected, +the embroidering machines invented by Mr. Heilmann of Mulhausen. +The improvements are so great that the original inventor cannot compete +with them. Rows of needles elaborate the most tasteful designs +with a degree of accuracy to which hand labour cannot approach.</p> +<p>Messrs. Winkworth and Proctor are also producers of high class silks +for ladies’ dresses and gentlemen’s waistcoats.</p> +<p>Manchester is particularly celebrated for plain silk goods of a superior +quality at a moderate price. There are also manufactories of small +wares, which include parasols and umbrellas. A parasol begins +at 4½d. wholesale.</p> +<p>In Manchester the tastes and costumes of every country are consulted +and suited. The brown cloak of the Spaniard, the poncho of the +Chilean, the bright red or yellow robe of the Chinese, the green turban +of the pilgrim from Mecca, the black blanket of the Caffre, and the +red blanket of the American Indian may all be found in bales in one +Manchester warehouse.</p> +<p>In passing through the streets, the sign “<i>Fents</i>” +is to be seen on shops in cellars. These are the odd pieces, of +a yard or two in length, cut off the goods in the manufactories to make +up a certain even quantity; and considerable trade is driven in them. +Selections are sometimes bought up as small ventures by sea captains +and emigrants.</p> +<p><i>Paper-making</i> is carried on extensively in the neighbourhood +of Manchester from cotton waste. This was formerly thrown away; +scavengers were even paid to cart it away. After a time, as its +value became quietly known among paper-makers, parties were found willing +to take on themselves the expense of removing it. By degrees the +waste became a regular article of sale; and now, wherever possible, +a paper-mill in this part of the country is placed near, or worked in +conjunction with, a cotton-mill. The introduction of cotton waste +has materially reduced the price of paper. No doubt, when the +excise is abolished, many other articles will be employed for the same +purpose.</p> +<p>To describe the railroads, which are every hour departing for every +point of the compass, would take up too much space. But the railway +stations, several of which have been united by works as costly, and +almost as extensive, as the Pyramids of Egypt, are not among the least +interesting sights. At these stations barrels of flour will be +found, literally filling acres of warehouse room, and cucumbers arrive +in season by the ton.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>THE CANALS must be mentioned, and remind us that at Worsley, near +Manchester, the Duke of Bridgwater, “the Father of Inland Navigation,” +aided by the genius of Brindley (another of the great men, who, like +Arkwright and Stephenson, rose from the ranks of labour, and directly +contributed to the rise of this city) commenced the first navigable +canal constructed for commercial purposes in Great Britain.</p> +<p>At the present day the construction of a canal is a very commonplace +affair, but it is impossible to doubt the high qualities of the mind +of the Duke of Bridgwater, when we consider the education and prejudices +of a man of his rank at that period, and observe the boldness with which +he accepted, the tenacity with which he adhered to, the energy and self-sacrifice +with which he prosecuted the plans of an obscure man like Brindley.</p> +<p>A disappointment in love is said to have first driven the Duke into +retirement, and rendered him shy and eccentric, with an especial objection +to the society of ladies, although he had once been a gay, if not dissipated, +young gentleman, fond of the turf. He rode a race at Trentham +Hall, the seat of his brother-in-law, the Marquis of Stafford.</p> +<p>When he retired from the pleasures of the fashionable world, his +attention was directed to a rich bed of coal on his estate at Worsley, +the value of which was almost nominal in consequence of the expense +of carriage. He determined to have a canal, and, if possible, +a perfect canal, and who to carry out this object he selected Brindley, +who had been born in the station of an agricultural labourer, and was +entirely self-educated. To the last he conducted those engineering +calculations, which are usually worked out on paper and by rule, by +a sort of mental arithmetic. Brindley must have been about forty +years of age when he joined the Duke. He died at fifty-six, having +laid the foundation of that admirable system of internal commerce which +is better described in Baron Charles Dupin’s <i>Force Commerciale +de la Grande Bretagne</i> than in any English work.</p> +<p>One often-told anecdote well illustrates the characters of the nobleman +and his engineer, if we remember that no such works had ever been erected +in England at that time. “When Brindley proposed to carry +the canal over the Mersey and Irwell Navigation, by an aqueduct 39 feet +above the surface of the water, he desired, for the satisfaction of +his employer, to have another engineer consulted. That individual, +on being taken to the place where the intended aqueduct was to be constructed, +said, that ‘he had often heard of castles in the air, but never +was shown before where any of them were to be erected.’” +But the Duke had faith in Brindley, persevered and triumphed, although, +before the completion of all his undertakings, he was more than once +reduced to great pecuniary difficulties.</p> +<p>The canal property of the Duke of Bridgwater, with the Lancashire +estates, are now vested in the Earl of Ellesmere, a nobleman who well +knows, and conscientiously works out, the axiom, “that property +has its duties as well as its rights.” A visit to Worsley +will prove what an enlightened and benevolent landowner can do for a +population of colliers and bargemen.</p> +<p>The educational and other arrangements of a far-sighted character +show that there are advantages in even such large accumulations of property +as have fallen to the share of the present representative of the Duke +of Bridgwater.</p> +<p>Those who desire to pursue closely the state of the operative population +in Manchester, will find ample materials in the annual reports of factory +inspectors, and school inspectors, under the Committee of the Council +of Education, and of the municipal officers of health.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>FIRES.—Dreadful fires occur occasionally in Manchester. +If such a catastrophe should take place during the stay of a visitor, +he should immediately pull on an overcoat, even although it be midnight, +and join in the crowd. An excellent police of 300 officers and +men renders the streets quite safe at all hours; and a fire of an old +cotton factory, where the floors are saturated with oil and grease, +is indeed a fearfully imposing sight. It also affords an opportunity +of some familiar conversation with the factory hands.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>In taking leave of Manchester, which is indeed the great heart of +our manufacturing system, we may truly say that it is a city to be visited +with the deepest interest, and quitted without the slightest regret. +On our political railroad we are under deepest obligations to the Manchester +stokers; but Heaven forbid that we should be compelled to make them +our sole engineers.</p> +<h2>THE ROAD TO YORKSHIRE.</h2> +<p>MIDDLETON.—And now, before taking a glance at the woollens +and hardware of Yorkshire, we suggest, by way of change from the perpetual +hum of busy multitudes and the whizzing and roaring of machinery, that +the traveller take a holiday, and spend it in wandering over an agricultural +oasis encircled by hills, and so far uninvaded by the stalks of steam-engines, +where the air is comparatively pure and the grass green, although forest +trees do not flourish.</p> +<p>The visit requires no distant journey. It is a bare six miles +from the heart of Manchester to Middleton. Nine times a-day omnibuses +ply there. These original, if not primitive vehicles, are constructed +to carry forty-five passengers, and on crowded market-days may sometimes +be seen loaded with seventy specimens of a note-worthy class.</p> +<p>Middleton, lately a dirty straggling town, of 15,000 inhabitants, +a number at which it has remained stationary for ten years, built without +plan, without drains, without pavement, without arrangements for common +decency, stands on the borders, and was the manorial village, of the +Middleton and Thornham estates, which had been in the family of the +late Lord Suffield for many hundred years. In the village, land +was grudgingly leased for building, and no steam-engine manufactories +were permitted. The agricultural portion of some 2500 acres of +good land for pasturage and root crops, celebrated for its fine supplies +of water and for its (unused) water-power, was divided into little farms +of from twenty to seventy acres, very few exceeding fifty acres, inhabited +by a race of <i>Farmer-Weavers</i>, who, from generation to generation, +farmed badly and wove cleanly in the pure atmosphere of Middleton. +They were, most of them, bound to keep a hound at walk for the Lord +of the Manor.</p> +<p>Now the old Lords of the Manor and owners of the estate of Middleton +(the Harbords, afterwards Barons Suffield), were proud men and wealthy, +who despised manufactures and resisted any encroachment of trade on +the green bounds within which their old Manor House had stood for ages. +So when the inventions of Crompton, Hargreaves, Arkwright, and Cartwright +began to coin gold like any philosopher’s stone, for well-managing +cotton manufacturers, speculators cast their eyes upon the pleasant +waters of Middleton and Thornham, proposing to erect machinery and spin +the yarn or thread, and otherwise to use the abundant water-power. +But the Lords of Middleton would have none of such profits, (and if +they could afford to reject them, we will not say that up to a certain +point they were not wise), and so they gave short answers to the applicants, +who went away and found, half-a-mile off, on the borders of Yorkshire, +similar conveniences and more accessible ground-landlords in the Byrons, +Lords of the Manor of Rochdale. And when, some time afterwards, +a like application met with a like answer, other manufacturers went +away to another corner, and built Oldham.</p> +<p>So the Middleton farms continued very pretty picturesque farms; Middleton +village grew into a miserable town, and was passed over in 1830, when +every population was putting forth its claims to a share in making the +laws of the United Kingdom; while Oldham, with 30,000 inhabitants, was +allotted two members, (an honour which cost the life of one of them, +our best describer of English rural scenery, in racy Saxon English, +William Cobbett); Rochdale, with 24,000, obtained one, and eventually +made itself loudly heard in the House, in the person of John Bright, +a gentleman of pluck not without eloquence, who has done a good deal, +considering the disadvantages he has laboured under, in <i>not</i> having +been brought to his level in a public school, and <i>in having</i> been +brought up in the atmosphere of adulation, to which the wealthy and +clever of a small sect are as much exposed as the scions of a “proud +aristocracy.”</p> +<p>A few years ago, the late lord, who had occasionally lived on the +estate, died. His successor pulled down the Manor House, became +an absentee, always in want of ready money, and introduced the Irish +system into the management of his estate. That is to say, good +farming became a sure mode of inviting an increase of rent—for +indispensable repairs no ready money was forthcoming, so tenants who +had an indisputable claim to such allowances, received a reduction of +rent instead; they generally accepted the reduction, and did no more +of the repairs than would just make shift. The land in the town +suitable for building was let at chief rents to the highest bidder, +with no consideration for the mutual convenience of neighbours, or the +welfare of future residents.</p> +<p>Thus mismanaged and dilapidated, the estates were brought into the +market, and purchased for Messrs. Peto & Betts, by their land agent, +Mr. Francis Fuller, for less than £200,000; and the lands of the +aristocracy of blood passed into the possession of the aristocracy of +trade. Here was a subject for a doleful ballad from “A Young +Englander,” commencing—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Ye tenants old of Middleton ye cannot need but +sigh,<br /> +Departed are the traces of your own nobility,<br /> +The Locomotivocracy have gone and done the trick,<br /> +And England’s aristocracy’s obliged to cut its stick.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>A visit to Middleton, however, will show that on this occasion the +tenantry have no reason either to sigh or weep, and the visit is worth +making, independently of the pleasantness of a change from town to country, +because it affords an opportunity of seeing what can be done with a +neglected domain when it passes into the hands of men of large capital, +liberal views, and a thorough determination that whatever they take +in hand shall be done in the best possible manner.</p> +<p>Messrs. Peto & Betts are managing this estate on the same principles +that they have conducted the undertaking by which, in a very few years, +they have acquired a large fortune and an influential position. +Not by avariciously grasping, and meritlessly grinding all the subordinates +whose services they required; not by squeezing men like oranges, and +throwing them away when squeezed; but by choosing suitable assistants +for every task they undertook, and making those assistants, or advisers, +feel that their interests were the same, that they were prepared to +pay liberally for services strenuously rendered. By this system +servants and sub-contractors worked for them with all the zeal of friends, +and by this system the tenantry of Middleton will attain a degree of +comfort and prosperity hitherto unknown, while the estate they occupy +will be largely increased in value.</p> +<p>It is most fortunate that, at a time when so much landed property +is passing into the hands of men of the class of which these gentlemen +may be considered the intellectual leaders, an example has been set, +by them, of liberal and judicious management.</p> +<p>For this reason we do not think these rough notes on Middleton will +be considered a useless digression.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>DRAINS AND REPAIRS.—Instead of the ordinary system of bit-by-bit +repairs and instead of arrangements for the tenants to execute drains, +as the first step after the change of proprietorship, a complete survey +was made of the defects and of the value of all the holdings. +On this survey the rents were fixed, with the understanding that while +no increase of rent would be imposed on a good tenant, lazy slovenly +farming would be forthwith taxed with an additional ten per cent.</p> +<p>The landlords have themselves undertaken to execute a complete deep +drainage of the whole property at a cost of £20,000. For +this they charge the tenants five per cent. on the outlay per acre occupied. +Farm buildings and farm houses are being put in thorough repair, and +tenants are expected so to keep them.</p> +<p>In the course of these repairs farm houses were found in which the +windows were fixtures, not intended to open! While as to the farming, +it is scarcely possible to imagine anything more barbarous. It +is not a corn-growing district, and what corn is grown these weaver +farmers, indifferent apparently to loss of time, first <i>lash</i> against +a board to get part of the grain out, and then thrash the rest out of +the straw!</p> +<p>Market garden cultivation, stall feeding, and root crops would answer +well, but at the time of the survey only two gardens were cultivated +for the sale of produce in the unlimited markets of Oldham, Rochdale, +and Manchester; and little feeding except of pigs.</p> +<p>Orchard trees are now supplied by the landlords, free of cost, to +all willing to take charge of them.</p> +<p>It will be very difficult to induce these people to change their +old slovenly style of farming, for their chief pride is in their weaving, +which is excellent, and many of them are in possession of properties +held for two and three generations without change. But the system +of encouraging the good, and getting rid of the lazy, will work a reformation +in time, especially as there are some very good examples on the estate. +For instance, Benjamin Johnson, who, paying the highest rent per acre, +has creditably brought up ten children <i>on nine acres of land</i>, +without other employment.</p> +<p>Middleton is a district especially suited for small farms, so much +so that it has been determined to divide one or two of the larger ones.</p> +<p>Altogether it is a very primitive curious place, with several originals +among the tenantry, and some beautiful natural scenery, among whom a +morning may be spent with profit and pleasure.</p> +<p>With the town and building land an equally comprehensive system has +been adopted.</p> +<p>The defects of the existing buildings are to be cured as soon as, +and in the best manner, that circumstances will admit; while all new +houses are to be built and drained on a fixed plan, and all roadside +cottages to have at least a quarter of an acre of ground for a garden.</p> +<p>It will take some years to work out complete results; it is, however, +gratifying to see a landowner placing himself in the hands of competent +advisers, planning not for the profits of the hour, but for the future, +for the permanent health, happiness, and prosperity of all dwelling +on his property.</p> +<p>The pecuniary results promise to be highly satisfactory; it is already +evident that increased rents will be accompanied by increased prosperity, +and it is thought in the neighbourhood that in the next ten years, the +property will, from the judicious expenditure of £30,000, be worth +at least £300,000.</p> +<p>So much for employing a scientific and practical agriculturist as +land agent, instead of a fashionable London attorney. <a name="citation193"></a><a href="#footnote193">{193}</a></p> +<h2>YORKSHIRE.</h2> +<p>From Manchester to Leeds is a journey of forty-five miles, and about +two hours. We should like to describe Yorkshire, one of the few +counties to which men are proud to belong. We never hear any one +say, with conscious pride, “I am a Hampshireman or an Essex man, +or even a Lancashireman,” while there are some counties of which +the natives are positively ashamed.</p> +<p>But we have neither time nor space to say anything about those things +of which a Yorkshireman has reason to be proud—of the hills, the +woods, the dales, the romantic streams,—above all, of the lovely +Wharfe, of the fat plains, the great woods, the miles of black coal +mines, where we have heard the little boys driving their horses and +singing hymns, sounding like angels in the infernal regions, the rare +good sheep, the Teeswater cattle, that gave us short-horns, of horses, +well known wherever the best are valued, be it racer, hunter, or proud-prancing +carriage horse; hounds that it takes a Yorkshire horse to live with; +and huntsmen, whom to hear tally-away and see ride out of cover makes +the heart of man leap as at the sound of a trumpet; foxes stanch and +wily, worthy of the hounds; and then of those famous dalesmen farmers, +tall, broad-shouldered, with bullet heads, and keen grey eyes, rosy +bloom, high cheek bones, foxy whiskers, full white-teethed, laughing +mouths, hard riders, hard drinkers, keen bargainers, capital fellows; +and besides those the slips, grafts, and thinnings from the farms, who +in factories, counting-houses, and shops, show something of the powerful +Yorkshire stamp. Everything is great in Yorkshire, even their +rogues are on a large scale; in Spain, men of the same calibre would +be prime ministers and grandees of the first class; in France, under +a monarchy, a portfolio, and the use of the telegraph, with no end of +ribands, would have been the least reward. Here the honours stop +short between two dukes, as supporters arm in arm; but still we are +obliged to own that no one but a Yorkshireman could have so bent all +the wild beasts of Belgravia and Mayfair, from the Countess Gazelle +to the Ducal Elephant, to his purpose, as an ex-king did. Our +task will be confined on the present occasion to a sketch of Huddersfield +and Leeds, centres of the woollen manufacture, which forms the third +great staple of English manufactures, and of Sheffield, famed for keen +blades.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>HUDDERSFIELD, twenty-six miles from Manchester, is the first important +town, on a road studded with stations, from which busy weavers and spinners +are continually passing and repassing. It is situated in a naturally +barren district, where previously to 1811 the inhabitants chiefly lived +on oaten cake, and has been raised to a high degree of prosperity by +the extension of the manufactures, a position on the high road between +Manchester and Leeds, intersected by a canal, uniting the east and west, +or inland navigation, and more recently by railroads, which connect +it with all the manufacturing towns of the north. An ample supply +of water-power, with coal and building stone, have contributed to this +prosperity, of which advantage has been taken to improve the streets, +thoroughfares, and public buildings. The use of a light yellow +building stone for the houses has a very pleasant appearance after the +bricks of Manchester and Liverpool.</p> +<p>The <i>Huddersfield Canal</i>, which connects the Humber and Mersey, +is a very extraordinary piece of work. It is carried through and +over a backbone of hills by stairs of more than thirty locks in nine +miles, and a tunnel three miles in length. At one place it is +222 yards below the surface, and at another 656½ feet above the +level of the sea.</p> +<p>When we examine such works, so profitable to the community, so unprofitable +to the projectors, how can we doubt the capability of our country to +hold its own in any commercial race? Men make a country, not accidents +of soil or climate, mines or forests. For centuries California +and Central America have been in the hands of an Iberian race, <i>fallow</i>. +A few months of Anglo-Saxon rule, and land and sea are boiling with +fervid elements of cultivation, commerce, and civilization. With +time the dregs will disappear, and churches and schools, cornfields +and fulling-mills, will supersede grizzly bears and wandering Indians.</p> +<p>All the land in Huddersfield belongs to the Ramsden family, by whom +the Cloth Hall was erected. Six hundred manufacturers attend this +hall every Tuesday.</p> +<p>The principal manufactures are of broad and narrow cloths, serges, +kerseymeres, cords, and fancy goods of shawls and waistcoatings, composed +of mixed cotton, silk, and wool.</p> +<p>The neighbourhood of Huddersfield was the centre of the Luddite outbreak, +when a large number of persons engaged in the cloth manufacture, conceiving +that they were injured by the use of certain inventions for dressing +cloth, banded together, traversed the country at night, searching for +and carrying off fire-arms, and attacking and destroying the manufactories +of persons supposed to use the obnoxious machines.</p> +<p>Great alarm was excited, some expected nothing less than a general +insurrection; at length the rioters were attacked, dispersed, a large +number arrested, tried, and seventeen hanged. Since that period +not one but scores of mechanical improvements have been introduced into +the woollen manufacture without occasioning disturbance, and with benefit +in increased employment to the working classes.</p> +<p>The case of the Luddites was one of the few on which Lord Byron spoke +in the Upper House, and Horace Smith sang for Fitzgerald . . .</p> +<blockquote><p>“What makes the price of beer and Luddites rise?<br /> +What fills the butchers’ shops with large blue flies?”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The population is about 30,000, and returns one member to the House +of Commons.</p> +<p>About half a mile from the town is Lockwood Spa, of strongly sulphurous +waters, for which a set of handsome buildings have been provided.</p> +<h2>LEEDS.</h2> +<p>LEEDS, seventeen miles from Huddersfield, is the centre of five railways, +by which it has direct connection with Hull, Liverpool, Manchester, +Newcastle, on the east, and Carlisle on the west coast, Sheffield, Nottingham, +Derby, and Birmingham, in the Midland counties, possesses one of the +finest central railway stations in the kingdom, and has also the advantage +of being in the centre of inland navigation (a great advantage for the +transport of heavy goods), as it communicates with the eastern seas +by the Aire and Calder navigation to the Humber, and westward by the +Leeds and Liverpool to the Mersey. The town stands on a hill, +which rises from the banks of the river Aire. Leeds has claims +to antiquity, but few remains. When Domesday Book was compiled +it appears to have been an agricultural district.</p> +<p>Wakefield was formerly the more important town. Lord Clarendon, +in 1642, speaks of Leeds, Halifax, and Bradford, “as three very +rich and populous towns, depending wholly upon clothing.”</p> +<p>The first charter was granted to Leeds by Charles I., and the second +by Charles II., on petition of the clothworkers, merchants, and others, +“to protect them from the great abuses, defects and deceits, discovered +and practised by fraudulent persons in the making, selling, and dyeing +of woollen cloths.”</p> +<p>The principal manufacture of Leeds is woollen cloth. Formerly +the trade was carried on by five or six thousand small master clothiers, +who employed their own families, and some thirty or forty thousand servants, +and also carried on small farms. But the extension of the factory +system has somewhat diminished their numbers. There are still, +however, in connection with Leeds, several small clothing villages, +in which the first stages of the operation are carried on, in spinning, +weaving, and fulling.</p> +<p>Large quantities of worsted goods are brought to Leeds to be finished +and dyed, which have been purchased, in an undyed state, at Bradford +and Halifax. The dye-houses and dressing-shops of Leeds are very +extensive. Goods purchased in a rough state in the Cloth Halls +and Piece Halls are taken there to be finished. There are also +extensive mills for spinning flax for linen, canvas-sailing, thread, +and manufactures of glass and earthenware. In connection with +Messrs. Marshall’s flax factory, the same firm are carrying on +extensive experiments near Hull in growing flax.</p> +<p><i>Cloth Halls</i>.—Previous to 1711, the cloth market was +held in the open street. In 1755, the present Halls were erected, +and in them the merchants purchase the half manufactured article from +the country manufacturers.</p> +<p>The Coloured Cloth Hall is a quadrangular building, 127½ yards +long, and 66 broad, divided into six departments called streets. +Each street contains two rows of stands, and each stand measures 22 +inches in front, and is inscribed with the name of the clothier to whom +it belongs. The original cost was £3. 3s. This price +advanced to £24 at the beginning of the present century; but it +has now fallen below its original value—not owing to a decrease +in the quantity of manufactured goods, but owing to the prevalence of +the factory system—in which the whole operation is performed, +from sorting the piece to packing the cloth fit for the tailor’s +shelves—over the domestic system of manufacturing. An additional +story, erected on the north side of the Coloured Cloth Hall, is used +chiefly for the sale of ladies’ cloths in their undyed state. +The White Cloth Hall is nearly as large as the Coloured Cloth Hall, +and on the same plan. The markets are held on Tuesdays and Saturdays, +on which days alone the merchants are permitted to buy in the Halls. +The time of the sale is in the forenoon, and commences by the ringing +of a bell, when each manufacturer is at his stand, the merchants go +in, and the sales commence. At the end of an hour the bell warns +the buyers and sellers that the market is about to close, and in another +quarter of an hour the bell rings a third time, and the business of +the day is terminated. The White Cloth Hall opens immediately +after the other is closed, and the transactions are carried on in a +similar manner.</p> +<p>The public buildings of Leeds are not externally imposing, and it +is, without exception, one of the most disagreeable-looking towns in +England—worse than Manchester; it has also the reputation of being +very unhealthy to certain constitutions from the prevalence of dye-works.</p> +<p>The wealthy and employing classes in Leeds (we know no better term) +have a reputation for charity, and good management of charitable institutions. +Howard the philanthropist visited the workhouse, and praised the management, +at a period when to deserve such praise was rare. The subscriptions +to public charities are large, and there is an ancient fund for pious +uses, said to amount to upwards of £5000 a-year, managed by a +close self-elected corporation, about the distribution of which they +do not consider themselves bound to give any detailed information. +Dr. Hook, the Vicar of Leeds, has organized a system of house-to-house +visitation, for the purpose of affording aid, in poverty and sickness, +to the deserving and religious, and educational instruction to all, +which has effected a great deal of good, and would have done more, had +not well known circumstances shaken the confidence of the Leeds public +in the honesty of some of the teachers. All parties agree, however +differing in opinions, that Dr. Hook himself is a most excellent, charitable, +self-sacrificing man.</p> +<p><i>A New Grammar School</i>—first founded in 1552 by the Rev. +Sir William Sheafield, and since endowed by several other persons—is +lodged in a building of ample size, with residence for the head master, +and enjoys an income of £2000 a-year; and there are four Exhibitions +of £70 a-year to Magdalen College, Cambridge, tenable till degree +of M.A. has been taken; one Exhibition of £100 a-year, tenable +for five years, at Queen’s College, Oxford, open to a candidate +from Leeds school; and four of £50 each, at Oxford or Cambridge, +for four years. There were 174 scholars in 1850. It is open +to the sons of all residents in Leeds, without any fee to the masters, +who are liberally paid. The elements of mathematics are taught. +The Charity Commissioners reported it to be satisfactorily and ably +conducted.</p> +<p>The Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, the Leeds Literary +Institution, and the Leeds Mechanics Institute, are all respectable +in their class. The Mechanics Institute forms the centre of a +union of Yorkshire associations of the same kind.</p> +<p>Three newspapers are published in Leeds, of large circulation, representing +three shades of political opinion.</p> +<p>The <i>Leeds Mercury</i>—which has, we believe, the largest +circulation of any provincial paper—was founded, and carried on +for a long life, by the late Mr. Edward Baines, who represented his +native town in the first reformed parliament, and for some years afterwards—a +very extraordinary man, who, from a humble station, by his own talents +made his way to wealth and influence. He was the author of the +standard work on the cotton trade, as well as several valuable local +histories. The <i>Mercury</i> is still carried on by his family. +One son is the proprietor of a Liverpool paper, and another, the Right +Honourable Matthew Talbot Baines, represents Hull, and is President +of the Poor-Law Board.</p> +<p>Among the celebrated natives of Leeds, were Sir Thomas Denison, whose +life began like Whittington’s; John Smeaton, the engineer of Eddystone +Lighthouse, the first who placed civil engineering in the rank of a +science; the two Reverend Milners (Joseph, and Isaac, Dean of Carlisle), +great polemical giants in their day, authors of “The History of +the Church of Christ;” Dr. Priestly, inventor of the pneumatic +apparatus still used by chemists, and discoverer of oxygen and several +other gases; David Hartley, the metaphysician whom Coleridge so much +admired that he called his son after him; and Edward Fairfax, the translator +of Tasso. Nor must we forget Ralph Thoresby, author of “Ducatus +Leodiensis, or the Topography of the Town and Parish of Leeds”—a +valuable and curious book, published in 1715; and of “Vicaria +Leodiensis, a History of the Church of Leeds,” published in 1724.</p> +<p><i>Wool Growing, and Woollen Manufactures</i>.—Yorkshire is +the ancient seat of a great woollen manufacture, founded on the coarse +wools of its native hills; but coal and cheap conveyance, with the stimulus +mechanical inventions have applied in the neighbouring counties to cotton, +have given Yorkshire such advantages over many ancient seats of manufacture, +that it has transplanted and increased a considerable portion of the +fine cloth trade formerly carried on in the west of England alone, besides +engrafting and erecting a variety of other and new kinds of textiles, +in which wool or hair have some very slight part.</p> +<p>It is quite certain that woollen garments were among the first manufactured +among barbarous tribes. We have seen this year, in the Exhibition +in Hyde Park, specimens of white felted cloth from India, equal, if +not superior, to anything that we can manufacture for strength and durability, +which must have been made with the rude tools, of the form which has +been in use for probably at least two thousand years.</p> +<p>English coarse wools have been celebrated, and in demand among foreign +nations, from the earliest periods of our history. In the time +of William the Conqueror, an inundation in the Netherlands drove many +clothiers over, and William of Malmesbury tells us that the king welcomed +them, and placed them first in Carlisle, where there are still manufactories, +and then in the western counties, where they could find what was indispensable +for their trade—streams for washing and plenty of wood for boiling +their vats. Very early the manufacturers applied to restrain the +exportation of English wool. In the time of Edward I., we find +a duty of twenty shillings to forty shillings per bag on importation. +Edward III. prohibited the export of wool, at the same time he took +his taxes and subsidies in wool, which became a favourite medium of +taxation with our monarchs, and sent his wool abroad for sale. +Under his reign, Flemish weavers were encouraged to settle here and +improve the manufacture, which became spread all over England thus—Norfolk +fustians, Suffolk baize, Essex serges and says, Kent broadcloth, Devon +kerseys, Gloucestershire cloth, Worcestershire cloth, Wales friezes, +Westmoreland cloth, Yorkshire cloth, Somersetshire serges, Hampshire, +Berkshire, and Sussex cloth: districts from a great number of which +woollen manufactures have now disappeared. We have Parliamentary +records of the mutual absurdities by which the woollen manufacturers, +on the one hand, sought to obtain a monopoly of British wool, and the +wool growers endeavoured to secure the exclusive right to supply the +raw material. Act after act was laid upon everything connected +with wool, so that it is only extraordinary that, under such restrictive +trammeling, the trade survived at all.</p> +<blockquote><p>“Odious! In woollen! ’twould a saint +provoke!<br /> +Were the last words that poor Narcissa spoke.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>In 1781, when, the price of wool being low, the Lincolnshire woolgrowers +met under the chairmanship of their great landowners, and resolved on +petitions praying “that British might be exported and that Irish +wool might be excluded from England;” thereupon the Yorkshire +manufacturers met and resolved that “the exportation of wool would +be ruinous to the trade and manufactures of England,” that the +manufacturers would be obliged to leave the kingdom for want of employment, +and that the importation of Irish woollen yarn ought to be interdicted.</p> +<p>The manufacturers were under the impression that no other country +than England could produce the long wools suitable for the manufacture +of worsted.</p> +<p>Some time afterwards the woollen manufacturers thought themselves +likely to be ruined by the introduction of cotton cloth, “to the +ruin of the staple trade of the kingdom,” and succeeded in placing +an excise duty upon the new fabric.</p> +<p>The contention between sheepowners and manufacturers continued until, +in 1824, when the influence of Mr. Huskisson’s opinions on trade +were beginning to be felt in Parliament, and to the disgust of both +parties, a compromise was effected by a reduction of all wool duties +to a uniform duty of ld. per lb. on the export of British and importation +of foreign wool. The last step was a total repeal of all duties.</p> +<p>English wools may be divided into long and short staples. The +long is used for worsted, which is finished when it leaves the loom; +the short for cloth, which is compacted together, increased in bulk +and diminished in breadth, <i>by fulling</i>; that is, so beating as +to take advantage of the serrated edges of the wool which lead it to +felt together.</p> +<p>Foreign wool, known as merino, has been used from an early period. +In the time of the Stuarts, an attempt was made to monopolize all the +Spanish wool exported.</p> +<p>Wars and bad government in Spain have destroyed the export trade +in merino wool, but the breed, transplanted into Germany, has multiplied +and even improved. Our finest wool is obtained from Silesia, and +the breed is cultivated with more or less success in many parts of the +European continent. In England, all attempts to cultivate the +merino with profit have failed. Next to Germany in quality, and +exceeding that country in quantity, we obtain our greatest supply of +fine wool from Australia, where, in the course of twenty-five years, +the merino sheep has multiplied to the extent of twelve or thirteen +million head, and is still increasing; thus doubling our supply of a +fine article, not equal to German, but, at the low price at which it +can be furnished, helping to create entirely new manufactures by intermixing +with our own coarse wools, which it renders more available and valuable. +We also obtain wool from the Cape of Good Hope, from India, from Egypt, +and from South America.</p> +<p>Besides pure wool, our manufacturers use large quantities of goat’s +hair, called mohair, from the Mediterranean, of camel hair, of Thibet +goat’s hair, of the long grey and black hair of the tame South +American llama and alpaca, and of the short soft red hair of the vicuna, +a wild animal of the same species. Indeed, almost every year since +the repeal of all restrictions on trade, has introduced some new raw +material in wool or hair to our manufacturers.</p> +<p>The alpaca and vicuna, now an important article of trade and manufacture, +although well known to the native Peruvians at the time of the conquest +by the Spaniards, has only come into notice within the last twenty years. +The first article of the kind that excited any attention was a dress +made for Her Majesty from a flock of llamas belonging to Her Majesty, +under the superintendence of Mr. Thomas Southey, the eminent wool broker.</p> +<p>The stock from the small flock of merinos taken out by Colonel Macarthur +to what was then only known as Botany Bay, now supports 300,000 souls +in prosperity in Australia, and supplies exports to the amount of upwards +of a million and a half sterling per annum.</p> +<p>The Great Exhibition afforded an excellent display of the variety +and progress of Yorkshire woollen manufactures, proving the immense +advantage they derived from choice and mixture of various qualities +and materials. In several examples the body was of stout English +wool, with a face of finest Australia,—in some cases, of mohair,—and, +in one instance, a most beautiful article was produced by putting a +face of vicuna on British wool.</p> +<p>As at present conducted, the process of a woollen factory up to certain +stages of machinery is the same as that of a cotton factory. But +it will be seen that a great deal depends on an ample supply of water +of good quality.</p> +<p><i>Cloth Manufacture</i>.—(1.) The first operation is that +of sorting the wool. Each fleece contains several qualities,—the +division and arrangement requires judgment; the best in a Silesian fleece +may be worth 6s. a pound, and the rest not worth half the money. +After sorting, wools are mixed in certain proportions.</p> +<p>(2.) The mixture is first soaked in a hot ley of stale urine and +soap, rinsed in cold water, and pressed between rollers to dry it.</p> +<p>(3.) If the cloth is to be dyed in that operation, next succeeds +the scouring. Supposing it dyed,</p> +<p>(4) <i>wyllying</i> follows, by which it is subject to the operation +of the spikes of revolving wheels, for the purpose of opening the fibres +and sending it out in a light cloud-like appearance, to where a stream +of air driven through it, clears away all impurities by a sort of winnowing +process, and sends it out in a smooth sheet.</p> +<p>(5.) If any impurities remain, it is hand picked.</p> +<p>(6.) It is laid on the floor, sprinkled with olive oil, and well +beaten with staves.</p> +<p>(7.) The operation of the <i>scribbling machine</i> follows, by which +it is reduced to a fleecy sheet and wound on rollers.</p> +<p>(8.) The <i>carding machine</i> next reduces it to hollow loose short +pipes. These are joined</p> +<p>(9) in the <i>slubbing machine</i> into a weak thread, and here we +see the use of the young hands, boys and girls, who piece one of these +pipes as they are drawn through the machine by a slow clockwork motion, +bending one knee every time as they curtsey sideways toward the machine. +They earn very good wages and look healthy; but, where the wool is dyed, +what with the dye and what with the oil, the piecers are all ready toileted +to sing to a banjo; and sometimes, with rubbing their faces with their +dirty hands, they get sore eyes.</p> +<p>(10.) <i>Spinning</i> hardens the thread.</p> +<p>(11.) <i>Weaving</i> is done by hand or by power-loom. The +power-looms are becoming more common. After weaving, it is washed +in soap-water and clean water by machinery,—then stretched on +tenterhooks and allowed to dry in a smooth extended state:</p> +<p>(l2) then examined for all hair and impurities to be picked off by +“<i>burlers</i>.” After this follows</p> +<p>(13) <i>fulling</i>, or felting, which gives woollen goods that substance +which distinguishes them. Every hair of wool is saw-edged, and +this by beating will mass together. Superfine cloth with a thick +solution of soap spread between each layer, and, folded into many piles, +is exposed to the long continued action of revolving wooden hammers +on wheels, three separate times, for four hours each time. This +process diminishes both breadth and length nearly one half.</p> +<p>After “<i>fulling</i>” cloth is woolly and rough; to +improve the appearance it is first</p> +<p>(14) <i>teazled</i>—that is, raked with cylinders covered with +the round prickly heads of the teazle plant. Many attempts have +been made to invent wire and other brushes for the same purpose, but +hitherto nothing has been found more effective and economical than the +teazle. To apply them the cloth is stretched on cloth beams, and +made to move in one direction, while the teazle cylinders turn in another. +When the ends of the fibres have been thus raised, they are</p> +<p>(15) <i>sheared</i> or clipped, in order to produce the same effect +as clipping the rough coat of a horse. Formerly this operation +was performed by hand. The introduction of machinery created formidable +riots in the west of England. At present the operation is performed +with great perfection and rapidity, by more than one process.</p> +<p>When the cloth has been raised and sheared once, it is in the best +possible condition for wear; but in order to give superfine cloth beauty, +it is sheared several times, then exposed to the action of steam, and +at the same time brushed with cylinder brushes. Other operations, +of minor importance, are carried on for the purpose of giving smoothness +and gloss. It may be observed that a brilliant appearance does +not always, in modern manufactures, betoken the best cloth. An +eminent woollen manufacturer having been asked what cloth he would recommend +for wear and warmth to a backwoodsman, answered quickly, “Nothing +can wear like a good blanket.” The small manufacturers generally +dispose of their cloth in the rough state.</p> +<p>The progress of machinery has called into existence a great number +of factories, especially in worsted and mixed stuffs, has given value +to many descriptions of wool formerly valueless, and, coupled with the +repeal of the duty, brought into the market many kinds unknown a few +years ago. “Properties once prized,” Mr. Southey remarks +in his Essay on Wools, “have given way to some other property +upon which machinery can better operate, and yield more desirable results. +Spanish wool, once deemed indispensable, is now little sought after. +It is supplanted by our colonial wool, which is steadily advancing in +quality and quantity, while angora goat, and alpaca wools are forcing +their way into and enhancing the value of our stuff trade.” . +. . “Machinery has marshalled before its tremendous power the +wool of every country, selected and adopted the special qualities of +each. Nothing, in fact, is now rejected. Even the burr, +existing in myriads in South America and some other descriptions of +wool, at one time so perplexing to our manufacturers, can now, through +the aid of machinery, be extracted, without very material injury to +the fibre.” . . . “In no description of manufacture connected +with the woollen trade has machinery been more fertile in improvements +than in what may be termed the worsted stuff trade.”</p> +<p>“The power-looms employed, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, +in the worsted stuff trade, increased from 2,763 in 1836, to 19,121 +in 1845 (and are probably not far from 28,000 at the present time). +Worsted goods formerly consisted chiefly of bombazets, shalloons, calamancoes, +lastings for ladies’ boots, and taminies. Now the articles +in the fancy trade may be said to be numberless, and to display great +artistic beauty. These articles, made with alpaca, Saxony, fine +English and Colonial wools, and of goats’ hair for weft, with +fine cotton for warp, consist of merinoes, Orleans, plain and figured +Parisians, Paramattas, and alpaca figures, checks, etc.”</p> +<p>The machines for combing and carding, of the most improved make, +will work wool of one and a half inch in the staple, while for the old +process of hand-combing four inches was the minimum.</p> +<p>But we must not enter further into these details, as it is our purpose +rather to indicate the interest and importance of certain manufactures +than to describe the process minutely.</p> +<p>The Yorkshire woollen manufacture is distributed over an area of +nearly forty miles by twenty, occupied by clothing towns and villages. +Leeds, Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield, Dewsbury, and Wakefield, are +the great manufacturing centres. Mixed or coloured cloths are +made principally in villages west of Leeds and Wakefield; white or undyed +cloths are made chiefly in the villages occupying a belt of country +extending from near Wakefield to Shipley. These two districts +are tolerably distinct, but at the margins of the two both kinds of +cloth are manufactured. Flannels and baizes are the principal +woollen articles made in and near Halifax, together with cloth for the +use of the army. Blankets are made in the line between Leeds and +Huddersfield. Bradford provides very largely the spun worsted +required for the various manufactures. Stuffs are made at Bradford, +Halifax, and Leeds, and narrow cloths at Huddersfield. Saddleworth +furnishes broadcloth and kerseymeres. As a specimen of the variety +of articles produced in one factory, take the following list, exhibited +in the Crystal Palace by a Huddersfield manufacturer:—“Summer +shawls; summer coatings; winter woollen shawls; vestings; cloakings; +table covers; patent woollen cloth for gloves; do. alpaca do.; do. rabbits’ +down do.; trowserings; stockingnett do.”</p> +<p>We may observe, that there is no more pleasant mode of investigating +the processes of the woollen manufacture, for those resident in the +south of England, than a visit to the beautiful valley of the Stroud, +in Gloucestershire, where the finest cloths, and certain shawls and +fancy goods, are manufactured in perfection in the midst of the loveliest +scenery. White-walled factories, with their resounding water-wheels, +stand not unpicturesque among green-wooded gorges, by the side of flowing +streams, affording comfortable well-paid employment to some thousand +working hands of men and women, boys and girls.</p> +<h2>THROUGH LINCOLNSHIRE TO SHEFFIELD.</h2> +<p>On leaving Leeds there is ample choice of routes. It is equally +easy to make for the lake districts of Cumberland and Westmoreland, +or to proceed to York, and on by Newcastle to Scotland, or to take the +road to the east coast, and compare Hull with Liverpool—a comparison +which will not be attended with any advantage to the municipal authorities +of Hull.</p> +<p>The aldermen of Hull are of the ancient kind—“<i>slow</i>,” +in the most emphatic sense of the term. For proof,—we have +only need to examine their docks, piers, and landing-places; the last +of which are being improved, very much against the will of the authorities, +by a Lincolnshire railway company.</p> +<p>From Hull there is a very convenient and swift railway road open +to London through Lincolnshire, which, branching in several directions, +renders easy a visit either to the Wolds, where gorse-covered moors +have been turned, within the last century, into famous turnip-land, +farmed by the finest tenantry in the world; or to the Fens, where the +science of engineers learned in drainage, greatly aided by the pumping +steam-engine, has reclaimed a whole county from eels and wild ducks.</p> +<p>Lincolnshire is not a picturesque county; both the wet half and the +dry half, both the Fen district and the Wold district, are treeless; +and the Wolds are only a line of molehills, of great utility, but no +special beauty. But it is the greatest producing county in England, +and the produce, purely agricultural, is the result of the industry +and intellect of the men who till the soil. In Devonshire and +Somersetshire we are charmed by the scenery, and amazed by the rich +fertility of the soil, while we are amazed by the stolidity of the farmers +and their labourers—nay, sometimes of the landlords—whose +two ideas are comprised in doing what their forefathers did, and in +hating every innovation. There fences, guano, pair-horse ploughs, +threshing machines, and steam-engines, are almost as much disliked as +cheap bread and Manchester politics. But on the Wolds of Lincolnshire +a race of agriculturists are to be found who do not need to be coddled +and coaxed into experiments and improvements by the dinners and discourses +of dilettanti peers; but who unite the quick intelligence of the manufacturer +with the hearty hospitality for which the English used to be famous. +Among the Lincolnshire farmers rural life is to be seen in its most +agreeable aspect. The labourers are as superior to the southern +peasantry as their employers to the southern tenantry. Books, +newspapers, and music may be found in the farm-houses, as well as old +ale and sound port wine. At Aylsby, six miles from Great Grimsby, +Mr. William Torr has a fine herd of short horns and a flock of pure +Leicester sheep, well worth a visit. The celebrated Wold farmers +are about ten miles distant. Any one of them is worth six Baden +barons.</p> +<p>After crossing from Hull, if a visit to these Wold Farms be intended, +Grimsby is the best resting-place, a miserable town of great antiquity, +which, after slumbering, or rather mouldering, for centuries on the +profits of Parliamentary privileges and a small coasting trade, has +been touched by the steam-enchanter’s wand, and presented with +docks, warehouses, railways, and the tools of commerce. These, +aided by its happy situation, will soon render it a great steam-port, +and obliterate, it is to be hoped, the remains of the squalid borough, +which traces back its foundation to the times of Saxon sea-kings. +We must record, for the credit of Great Grimsby, that it evinced its +improved vitality by subscribing a larger sum to the Exhibition of Industry +than many towns of ten times its population and more than ten times +its wealth.</p> +<p>The execution of the railway and dock works, which will render Great +Grimsby even more important than Birkenhead, has been mainly due to +the exertions of the greatest landowner in the county, the Earl of Yarborough, +who has wisely comprehended the value of a close connexion between a +purely agricultural and manufacturing district.</p> +<p>His patriotic views have been ably seconded by Mr. John Fowler, the +engineer of the Manchester and Lincolnshire Railways, and Mr. James +J. M. Rendel, the engineer of these docks as well as of those at Birkenhead.</p> +<p>The Grimsby docks occupy thirty-seven acres, cut off from the sea. +The work was courageously undertaken, in the midst of the depression +which followed the railway panic, by Messrs. Thomas, Hutchins, & +Co., contractors, and has been carried through in an admirable manner, +in the face of every kind of difficulty, without an hour’s delay. +They will open in March next. The first stone was laid by Prince +Albert in May 1849, when he electrified the audience at dinner by one +of those bursts of eloquence with which the events of the Great Exhibition +have made us familiar. It was on the occasion of his ride to Brocklesby +that Lord Yarborough’s tenantry rode out to meet the Prince, and +exhibited the finest farmers’ cavalcade for men and horses in +England.</p> +<p>Lord Yarborough has done for Lincolnshire what the Duke of Bridgwater +did for Lancashire; and, like the Duke, he has been fortunate in having +for engineering advisers gentlemen capable of appreciating the national +importance of the task they undertook. It is not a mere dock or +railway that Messrs. Fowler and Rendel have laid out—it is the +foundation of a maritime colony, destined not only to attract, but to +develop new sources of wealth for Lincolnshire and for England, as any +one may see who consults a map, and observes the relative situation +of Great Grimsby, the Baltic ports, and the manufacturing districts +of Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Cheshire.</p> +<p>For the sake of the future it may be well worth while to visit these +great works. It may be a pleasant recollection for the man who, +in some ten or twenty years, beholds the docks crowded with steamers +and coasters, and the railway busy in conveying seaborne cargoes, to +recall the fact that he saw the infancy, if not the birth, of that teeming +trade; for it is not to every man that it is given to behold the commencement +of such a future as seems promised to gloomy, swampy Great Grimsby.</p> +<p>At Great Grimsby we are in a position to take a large choice of routes. +We may go back to London by Louth, famous for its church, spire, and +comical coat of arms; <a name="citation209"></a><a href="#footnote209">{209}</a> +by Boston and Peterborough; or take our way through the ancient city +of Lincoln to Nottingham and the Midland Counties, where the famous +forest of Robin Hood and the Dukeries invite us to study woodland scenery +and light-land farming; but on this occasion we shall make our way to +Sheffield, over a line which calls for no especial remark—the +most noticeable station being East Retford, for the franchise of which +Birmingham long and vainly strove. What delay might have taken +place in our political changes if the M.P.’s of East Retford had +been transferred to Birmingham in 1826, it is curious to consider.</p> +<h2>SHEFFIELD.</h2> +<p>The approach to Sheffield from Lincolnshire is through a defile, +and over a long lofty viaduct, which affords a full view of the beautiful +amphitheatre of hills by which it is surrounded.</p> +<p>The town is situated in a valley, on five small streams—one +the “Sheaf,” giving the name of Sheffield, in the southern +part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, only six miles from Derbyshire.</p> +<p>The town is very ugly and gloomy; it is scarcely possible to say +that there is a single good street, or an imposing or interesting public +building,—shops, warehouses and factories, and mean houses run +zigzagging up and down the slopes of the tongues of land, or peninsulas, +that extend into the rivers, or rather streamlets, of the Porter, the +Riveling, the Loxley, the Sheaf, and the Don. Almost all the merchants +and manufacturers reside in the suburbs, in villas built of white stone +on terraces commanding a lovely prospect.</p> +<p>The picturesqueness, the wild solitude of the immediate neighbourhood +of Sheffield, amply compensates for the grimy gloom in which the useful +and disagreeable hardware trade is carried on. All around, except +where the Don opens a road to Doncaster, great hills girdle it in, some +of which at their summit spread out into heath-covered moorlands, where +the blackcock used lately to crow. Almost in sight of the columns +of factory smoke, others of the surrounding ridge are wood-crowned, +and others saddlebacked and turfed; so that a short walk transports +you from the din of the workshop to the solitude of “the eternal +hills.” We do not remember any manufacturing town so fortunately +placed in this respect as Sheffield. For an excellent and truthful +description of this scenery, we may turn to the poems of Ebenezer Elliott, +who painted from nature and knew how to paint in deep glowing colours.</p> +<p>“Hallamshire, which is supposed by antiquarians to include +the parish of Sheffield, forms a district or liberty, the importance +of which may be traced back to even British times; but Sheffield makes +its first appearance as a town some time after the Conquest. In +the Domesday Book the manor of Sheffield appears as the land of Roger +de Busk, the greater part held by him of the Countess Judith, widow +of Waltheof the Saxon. In the early part of the reign of Henry +I. it is found in the possession of the De Levetot family, and the site +of their baronial residence. They founded an hospital, called +St. Leonard’s (suppressed in the reign of Henry VIII.), upon an +eminence still called Spital Hill, established a corn mill, and erected +a bridge there, still called the Lady’s Bridge, from the chapel +of the Blessed Lady of the Bridge, which had previously stood near the +spot; and their exertions and protection fixed here the nucleus of a +town. The male line of the Levetots became extinct by the death +of William de Levetot, leaving an infant daughter, Maud, the ward of +Henry II. His successor, Richard, gave her in marriage to Gerard +de Furnival, a young Norman knight, who by that alliance acquired the +lordship of Sheffield. There is a tradition that King John, when +in arms against his barons, visited Gerard de Furnival (who espoused +his cause), and remained for some time at his Castle of Sheffield.</p> +<p>“On the 12th of November, 1296, Edward I. granted to Lord Furnival +a charter to hold a market in Sheffield on Tuesday in every week, and +a fair every year about the period of Trinity Sunday. This fair +is still held on Tuesday and Wednesday after Trinity Sunday, and another +on the 28th of November. The same Lord Furnival granted a charter +to the town, the provisions of which were of great liberality and importance +at that period, viz., that a fixed annual payment should be substituted +for the base, uncertain services by which they had previously held their +lands and tenements, that Courts Baron should be held every three weeks +for the administration of justice, and that the inhabitants of Sheffield +should be free from the exaction of toll throughout the entire district +of Hallamshire, whether they were vendors or purchasers.”</p> +<p>About this time Sheffield began to be famous for the manufacture +of falchion heads, arrows, files, and whittles. Chaucer tells +us of the miller that</p> +<blockquote><p>“A Sheffield thwytle bare he in his hose,<br /> +Round was his face, and camysed was his nose.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The ample water-power, the supply of iron ore close at hand, and +in after times, when its value for smelting was discovered, the fields +of coal—all helped Sheffield.</p> +<p>“Another only daughter, and another Maud, transferred by her +marriage the lordship of Sheffield to the more noble family of Talbot, +Earl of Shrewsbury. William Lord Furnival died 12th April 1383, +in his house in Holborn, where now stands Furnival’s Inn, leaving +an only daughter, who married Sir Thomas Nevil, and he in 1406 died, +leaving an only daughter, Maud, who married John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury. +George, fourth Earl of Shrewsbury, built the lodge, called Sheffield +Manor, on an eminence a little distance from the town, and there he +received Cardinal Wolsey into his custody soon after his apprehension. +It was on his journey from Sheffield Manor up to London, in order to +attend his trial, that the Cardinal died at Leicester Abbey. In +the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Mary Queen of Scots, who had been committed +to the custody of George, sixth Earl of Shrewsbury, after being confined +in Tutbury Castle, was removed in 1570 first to Sheffield Castle, and +then to Sheffield Manor House, where she spent fourteen years. +It was for the alleged intention of moving her hence that Thomas Duke +of Norfolk, an ancestor of the ducal family, still closely connected +with Sheffield, suffered on the scaffold. The grandson of this +Duke of Norfolk, at whose trial the Earl of Shrewsbury presided as High +Steward, afterwards married the granddaughter of the Earl, and thereby +became possessed of this castle and estate.” And now, in +1851, another son of Norfolk is about to acquire a large fortune by +a Talbot.</p> +<p>During the reign of Elizabeth, the Duke of Alva, whose persecutions +did more for extending and improving the manufactures of this country +than any amount of parchment protection, drove over, in addition to +the weavers of linen and fullers of cloth, artizans in iron and steel. +These, according to the wise rule of settling all one craft in one spot, +were by the advice of the Queen’s Chamberlain, the Earl of Shrewsbury, +settled on his own estate at Sheffield, and the neighbourhood thenceforward +became known for the manufacture of shears, sickles, knives of every +kind, and scissors.</p> +<p>About this time (1613), according to a survey, Sheffield contained +about 2207 inhabitants, of whom the most wealthy were “100 householders, +which relieve the others, but are poore artificers, not one of whom +can keep a team on his own land, and above ten have grounds of their +own, which will keep a cow.” In 1624, an act of the incorporation +of cutlers was passed, entituled “An act for the good order and +government of the makers of sickles, shears, scissors, and other cutlery +wares in Hallamshire and parts near adjoining.”</p> +<p>Gilbert, seventh Earl of Shrewsbury, the last of the male line of +the house of Talbot, who inherited the Hallamshire estates, died on +the 8th May 1616, leaving three daughters, co-heiresses. The Lady +Alethea Talbot, the youngest, married the Earl of Arundel, and the other +two, dying without issue in 1654, the whole estates descended to her +grandson, Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, who was restored to the title +of Duke of Norfolk by Charles II., on his restoration, and in that family +a considerable property in Sheffield remains to this day—not without +narrow escapes of extinction. Charles James Fox’s friend, +Jockey of Norfolk, was one of a family which seems to afford every contrast +of character in possession of the title.</p> +<p>In the great civil wars, Sheffield was the scene of more than one +contest. In 1644, on the 1st August, after the battle of Marston +Moor, the castle was besieged by twelve thousand infantry dispatched +by the Earl of Manchester, compelled to surrender in a few days, and +demolished by order of parliament.</p> +<p>The manor was dismantled in 1706 by order of Thomas Duke of Norfolk, +and the splendid park, shaven of its great trees, was converted into +building land, or accommodation land, part of which is still known by +the name of the Park.</p> +<p>During the eighteenth century the Sheffield trade was entirely confined +to the home market, and chiefly conducted by pack horses. In 1751 +a step toward extension was made by the completion of works, which rendered +the Don navigable up to Tinsley. In 1819 the Sheffield and Tinsley +Canal was completed; and now Manchester, Leeds, Hull, and Liverpool, +are all within a morning’s ride.</p> +<p>The art of silver-plating was invented at Sheffield by Thomas Bolsover, +an ingenious mechanic, in the latter half of the eighteenth century, +and extensively applied by Mr. Joseph Hancock. This trade has +been seriously affected by the invention of electro-plating, which has +transferred much of the Sheffield trade to Birmingham. The invention +of Britannia metal speedily followed that of plating.</p> +<p>In 1750 a direct trade to the continent was opened by Mr. Thomas +Broadbent. The example was soon followed. The first stage-coach +to London, started in 1760, and the first bank was opened in 1762.</p> +<p>At present the population can be little short of 120,000. The +passing of the Reform Bill gave to Sheffield two representatives. +The constituency is one of the most independent in the kingdom. +No “Man in the Moon” has any room for the exercise of his +seductive faculties in Sheffield.</p> +<p>What is still more strange, until after the enactment of the Municipal +Corporation Bill, Sheffield had no local authorities. The Petty +Sessions business was discharged by county magistrates, and the Master +Cutler acted as a sort of master of the ceremonies on occasions of festivity, +without any real power. That honorary office is still retained, +although Sheffield has now its aldermen and common councillors.</p> +<p>There is a “Royal Free Grammar School” founded in 1649, +with an income from endowments of about £150 a-year. Free +to thirty boys, as regards classics, subject to a charge of four guineas +per annum for instruction in the commercial department. In 1850 +there were eighty-one scholars.</p> +<p><i>Manufactures</i>.—Sheffield, through every change, has deservedly +retained its reputation for the manufacture of razors, surgical instruments, +and the highest class of cutlery, and a considerable number of carpenters’ +and other steel tools.</p> +<p>In the coarser steel articles Birmingham does a considerable and +increasing business, and Sheffield workmen settling in Germany and in +the United States have, from time to time, alarmed their native town +by the rivalry of their pupils; nevertheless, it may confidently be +asserted, that with its present advantages Sheffield can never lose +her pre-eminence in cutlery if her sons are only true to her and themselves.</p> +<p>The steel consumed in England is manufactured chiefly from iron imported +from Sweden and Russia. It has not been exactly ascertained whence +arises the superiority of this iron for that purpose. But all +foreign iron converted into steel is composed of magnetic iron ore, +smelted with charcoal. This kind of ore is found in several countries, +particularly in Spain. In New Zealand, at New Plymouth it is said +to be found in great quantities; but from the two countries first mentioned +we obtain a supply of from 12,000 to 15,000 tons, of which about 9000 +come from Sweden. The celebrated mines of Danemora produce the +finest Swedish iron, and only a limited quantity is allowed to be produced +each year. All the steel-iron used in England is imported into +Hull. Bar-steel is manufactured by heating the iron, divided into +lumps, in pots, with layers of charcoal, closely covered over with sand +and clay, for several days. By this means the iron is carbonized +and converted into what is commonly called blistered steel. The +heat is kept up a longer or shorter time according to the hardness required.</p> +<p>Bar-steel, as it comes from the furnace, is divided and sorted, and +the pieces free from flaws and blisters are rolled out and converted +into files, knives, coach-springs, razors, and common implements, according +to quality. It will be seen that there is a good deal of science +and judgment required to manufacture the best steel.</p> +<p><i>Sheer steel</i> is made from bar-steel by repeated heating, hammering, +and welding.</p> +<p><i>Cast steel</i>, a very valuable invention, which has in a great +degree superseded sheer steel for many purposes, was first made in 1770 +by Mr. Hunstman, at Allercliff, near Sheffield. It is made by +subjecting bar-steel, of a certain degree of hardness, to an intense +heat, for two or three hours, in a crucible, and then casting it in +ingots.</p> +<p><i>The Indian Wootz steel</i>, of which such fine specimens were +exhibited in the Exhibition, and from which extraordinary sabres have +been made, is cast steel, but, from the rudeness of the process, rarely +obtained perfect in any quantity. Whenever we have the good fortune +to intersect India with railroads, steel-iron will be among the number +of our enlarged imports.</p> +<p>The hard and elastic qualities of steel, known as “temper,” +are obtained by heating and then cooling rapidly. For this purpose +baths of mercury and of boiling oil are used. Some waters are +supposed to have peculiar virtues for tempering steel.</p> +<p><i>Case-hardening</i>, a process much used for tools and plough-shares, +consists in superficially hardening cast iron or wrought iron by heating +it in a charcoal crucible, and so converting it into steel.</p> +<p>The successful operations for converting steel into various kinds +of instruments, depends very much upon manual skill. The mechanics +are united in trades’ unions of great power, and have exercised +an influence over the manufacturers of the town of a very injurious +nature. At one period, the razor-grinders and superior mechanics +in several branches, were able to earn as much as five and six, and +even ten, pounds a-week. At that period, when they had almost +a monopoly of the cutlery trade, on a very trifling excuse they would +decide on taking a holiday, or, as it is termed, “playing.” +Strikes for higher wages generally took place whenever any good orders +from foreign markets were known to have reached the town. By these +arbitrary proceedings, arising from an ignorance of the common principles +of political economy, which it is to be hoped that the spread of education +will remove, the Sheffield cutlery trade has been seriously injured. +A few years ago large numbers of the cutlers emigrated.</p> +<p>Further depression was produced by the rivalry of Birmingham in the +electrotype process, which has, to a considerable degree, superseded +the Sheffield plate and other trades, the latter town being better placed +for the foreign trade, while the workmen are less turbulent.</p> +<p>Beside cutlery and Sheffield plate, Britannia metal, and other similar +ornamental and domestic articles, a good deal of heavy ironware is made +in Sheffield. We may notice the fire-grates, stoves, and fenders, +of which all the best, wherever sold and whatever name and address they +bear, come from Sheffield. In this branch of manufacture a great +deal of artistic taste has been introduced, and many scientific improvements +for distributing and economizing heat.</p> +<p>The firm of Stuart and Smith, Roscoe Place, distinguished themselves +at the Great Exhibition, by producing a series of beautiful grates, +at prices between two pounds and one hundred guineas.</p> +<p>There are some establishments for the manufactory of machinery.</p> +<p>Within the last year or two Sheffield has enjoyed a revival of prosperity, +especially in the article of edge tools.</p> +<p>The mechanics of Sheffield are a very remarkable and interesting +set of people, with a more distinct character than the mechanics of +those towns which are recruited from various parts of the country. +They are “Sheffielders.”</p> +<p>A public meeting at Sheffield is a very remarkable scene. The +rules of public business are perfectly understood and observed; unless +in periods of very great excitement, the most unpopular speaker will +receive a fair hearing. A <i>fair hearing</i> does not express +it. The silence of a Sheffield audience, the manner in which they +drink in every word of a stranger, carefully watching for the least +symptom of humbug, and unreduced by the most tempting claptrap, is something +quite awful.</p> +<p>A man with a good coat on his back must dismiss all attempts at compliments, +all roundabout phrases, and plunge into the middle of the business with +the closest arguments he can muster, to produce any effect on the Sheffield +blades. Although they look on all gentlemen with the greatest +distrust, and have a most comical fear of imaginary emissaries from +Government wandering to and fro to seduce them, they thoroughly understand +and practise fair play. The sterling qualities of these men inspire +one with respect, and regret that they should be imposed upon by such +“<i>blageurs</i>” as Feargus O’Connor and his troop. +Perhaps they are wiser now.</p> +<p>The Sheffielders, by way of relaxation, are fond of gardening, cricket, +dog fighting, and formerly of hunting. They are very skilful gardeners,—their +celery is famous. A few years ago, one of the trades hired land +to employ their unemployed members. Many possess freehold cottages.</p> +<p>Cricket and similar amusements have been encouraged by the circumstance +that, in summer droughts, the water-power on which the grindstones depend +often falls short, and then there is a fair reason for turning out to +play or to garden, as the case may be, according to taste.</p> +<p>Sheffield bulldogs used to be very famous, and there are still famous +ones to be found; but dog fighting, with drinking, is going out of fashion.</p> +<p>But, although other towns play at cricket, and love good gardening +and good dogs, we presume that the Sheffielders are the only set of +mechanics in Europe who ever kept their own pack of hounds. Such +was the case a few years ago, when we had the pleasure of seeing them; +and, if they are still in existence, they are worth going a hundred +miles to see. The hounds, which were old English harriers, slow +and deep-mouthed, were quartered at various cottages in the suburbs. +On hunting mornings, when the men had a holiday, the huntsman, who was +paid by a general subscription, took his stand on a particular hill +top and blew his horn.</p> +<p>In a few minutes, from all quarters the hounds began to canter up +to him, and he blew and blew again until a full complement, some ten +or twelve couples, had arrived.</p> +<p>The subscribers came up in twos and threes on the hacks of the well +known “<i>Shanks</i>,” armed with stout sticks; and then +off they set, as gay and much more in earnest than many dozen who sport +pink and leathers outside on hundred guinea nags.</p> +<p>Music is a good deal cultivated among all classes in Sheffield. +There are two scientific associations, but of no particular mark. +Sheffield has produced two poets of very different metal, James Montgomery +and Ebenezer Elliott, both genuine; and a sculptor, Chantrey, who was +apprenticed there to a wheelwright.</p> +<p>The railway communications of Sheffield were long imperfect,—they +are now excellent. The clothing districts of Yorkshire are united +by two lines. The North Midland connects it with Derbyshire, and +affords a short road by Derby and through Leicestershire to London on +one side, and by Burton to Birmingham on the other. The Lincolnshire +line has shortened the distance to Hull, whence the steel-iron comes, +and fat cattle; the Manchester line carries away the bars converted +into cutlery, and all the plated ware and hardware, by Liverpool, to +customers in America, North or South.</p> +<p>We must not forget that there are coal-pits close to the town, of +extensive workings, which are extremely well suited for the visit of +an amateur. Even a courageous lady might, without inconvenience, +travel underground along the tramways in the trucks, if she did not +mind the jolting.</p> +<p>The miners are not at all like our Staffordshire friends, but are +very decent fellows. There are a good many Wesleyan Methodists +among them, and hymns may be heard sometimes resounding along the vaulted +galleries, and rising from behind the air-doors, where children sit +all day on duty,—dull work, but not hard or cold.</p> +<p>A well managed coal mine is a very fine sight.</p> +<h2>DERBYSHIRE.</h2> +<p>From either Sheffield or Manchester a most delightful journey is +open through Derbyshire to a good pedestrian, or to a party of friends +travelling in a carriage with their own horses. For the latter +purpose an Irish outside car, fitted either with a pole or outrigger +for a pair of horses, is one of the best conveyances we know. +The front seat holds the driver; two ladies and two gentlemen fill up +the two sides. The well contains ample space for the luggage of +sensible people; umbrellas and waterproof capes can be strapped on the +intermediate cushion, and then, if the horses are provided with military +halters and nosebags, you are prepared for every eventuality. +To other <i>impedimenta</i> it is not amiss to add a couple of light +saddles, so that, if necessary, some of the party may ride to any particular +spot.</p> +<p>This mode of travelling is particularly well suited for Derbyshire, +Wales, Devonshire, and all counties where there are beautiful spots +worth visiting to which there are no regular conveyances, and which, +indeed, are often only accidentally discovered. By this mode of +travelling you are rendered perfectly independent of time and taverns, +so long as you reach an inn in time to go to bed; for you can carry +all needful <i>provant</i> for both man and beast with you.</p> +<p>Derbyshire is in every respect one of the most beautiful counties +in England, and deserves a closer investigation than can be obtained +from the outside of a coach, much less from the windows of a flying +train, whenever the promised railway line, which we propose to traverse, +shall be completed.</p> +<p>Derbyshire possesses two kinds of scenery totally distinct in character, +but both remarkably picturesque, several natural curiosities of a very +striking character, two very pleasant bath towns,—Buxton and Matlock; +beside the antiquarian glories of Hardwicke and Haddon, and the palatial +magnificence of Chatsworth, with its porticoes, its fountains, its pleasure +grounds, its Victoria Regia, and the House of Glass that has been the +means of making Joseph Paxton famous all over the civilized world.</p> +<p>While the country round the Peak is wild, bare, and rugged, the line +of valleys and dales on which lies the road from Matlock to Burton and +Manchester, presents the most charming series of pictures of undulating +woodland scenery, adorned by mansions and cottages, that it is possible +to imagine. The high road continually runs along the steep side +of valleys,—on one side are thick coverts climbing the rocky hill-sides, +all variegated with wild flowers, briars, and brushwood; on the other +side, sometimes on a level with the road, sometimes far below, a river +winds and foams and brawls along; if lost for a short distance, again +coming in sight of the road, enlivening and refreshing the scene.</p> +<p>In the main avenue of the Crystal Palace, Mr. Carrington exhibited +a model which represented with extraordinary accuracy all this country, +and which gave a very exact picture of Derbyshire, with all the undulations +of its hills and rivers worked to a scale. Those who have never +been in the county should endeavour to see it, as it will teach them +that we have a Switzerland in England of which they knew not.</p> +<p>One charm of this part of Derbyshire is the intermixture of cultivation +and wild nature, or woods so planted as to well emulate nature. +On bits of level space you meet a cottage neatly built of stone, all +covered with roses and woodbines, which flourish wonderfully on the +loose soil in the showery atmosphere. The cottages of Derbyshire +are so pretty that you are at first inclined to imagine that they are +for show,—mere fancy buildings. But no; the cheapness of +good building stone, the suitability of the soil for flowering shrubs, +and perhaps something in the force of example, create cottage after +cottage fit for the dwellings of Arcadian lovers. And every now +and then the landscape opens on a villa or mansion so placed that there +is nothing left for the landscape gardener to do.</p> +<p>The farm buildings, and corn mills, and silk mills, are equally picturesque: +game abounds. Early in the morning and in the evening you may +often see the pheasants feeding close to the roadside, and, in the middle +of the day, the sudden sharp noise of a detonating ball will set them +crowing in the woods all around.</p> +<p>We cannot say that the streams now swarm with trout and grayling +as they did when honest Isaac Walton sung their praises in quaint poetical +prose, although they still twine and foam along their rocky beds all +overhung with willows and tufted shrubs; but, where the waters are preserved, +there good sport is to be had.</p> +<p>The roadside inns are not bad. The half-mining, half-farming +people are quaint and amusing. The caverns of the Peak and the +lead mines, afford something strange and new. Altogether we can +warmly commend a trip through Derbyshire, as one affording great variety +of hill and dale, wood and stream, barren moors, and rich cultivation, +fine parks and mansions, and beautiful hamlets, cottages, and roadside +gardens, where English peasant life is to be seen under most favourable +aspects.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>HARDWICKE.—Supposing that we proceed from Sheffield, we would +take the railway to Chesterfield, which is not a place of any interest. +Thence make our way to Hardwicke, on the road to Mansfield.</p> +<p>Hardwicke Hall is a good specimen of the style of domestic architecture +in the time of Queen Elizabeth, which has remained unaltered since that +period. Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned here, and some remains +of tapestry worked by her are exhibited, as well as furniture more ancient +than the house itself. It belongs to the Duke of Devonshire.</p> +<p>From Hardwicke we proceed to Matlock, which may be reached by an +unfinished railway, intended to traverse the vales, and thence run into +Manchester.</p> +<p>The village and baths are in the centre of a dale through which the +river Derwent flows, along between overhanging trees, except where, +in some parts, its course lies through the narrow gut of perpendicular +rocks. On either side rise hills, for the most part adorned with +wood, to the height of three hundred feet.</p> +<p>The waters, which are supplied to several small and one large swimming +bath, have a temperature of from 66° to 68° of Fahrenheit. +They are not now much in fashion, therefore the village has continued +a village, and is extremely quiet or dull according to the tastes of +the visitor. At the same time, there are a number of delightful +expeditions to be made in the neighbourhood, on foot or horseback, and +on donkeys,—hills to be ascended and caves to be explored.</p> +<p>By permission of Sir Richard Arkwright of Willersley Castle, close +to Matlock and several other river preserves, good fishing may be obtained.</p> +<p>From Matlock, the next halt should be at Bakewell, where there is +an excellent inn, which is a good encampment for visiting both Chatsworth +and Haddon Hall.</p> +<p>Chatsworth is three miles from Bakewell. The present building +occupies the site of that which was long occupied by Mary Queen of Scots +during her captivity, and which was taken down to make room for the +present structure at the close of the seventeenth century.</p> +<p>The park is ten miles in circumference, and is intersected by the +river Derwent, which flows in front of the mansion.</p> +<p>This place has long been celebrated for its natural and artificial +beauties, but within the last few years the Duke of Devonshire has largely +added to its attractions, by alterations carried on at an immense expense, +under the direction of Mr. Joseph Paxton, which, among other things, +include the largest greenhouse in the world—the house where the +Victoria Regia was first made to flower, and a fountain of extraordinary +height and beauty.</p> +<p>These grounds, with the house, containing some fine pictures, are +open to the visits of all well-behaved persons. Indeed, from the +arrangements made for the convenience of visitors, it would seem as +if the Duke of Devonshire has as much pleasure in displaying, as visitors +can have in examining, his most beautiful domains, which is saying a +great deal.</p> +<p>Haddon Hall, one of the most perfect specimens of a mansion of the +fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, is situated on the left bank of the +Wye, at a short distance from Bakewell. The “interiors” +of Mr. Joseph Nash have rendered the beauties of the architecture of +Haddon Hall well known, but it also enjoys the advantage of a very fine +situation, backed by old trees. It is the property of the Duke +of Rutland, uninhabited, but perfectly preserved. Good fishing +is to be obtained near Bakewell, through the landlord of the hotel.</p> +<p>BUXTON may be the next halt, the Leamington of Manchester, but although +more picturesquely situated, it has not enjoyed anything like the tide +of prosperity which has flowed for the Warwickshire watering place. +The thermal waters of Buxton have been celebrated from the time of the +Romans.</p> +<p>The town is situated in a deep basin, surrounded by bleak hills and +barren moors, in strong contrast to the verdant valley in which the +village of Matlock lies. The only entrance to and exit from this +basin is by a narrow ravine, through which the river Wye flows on its +way to join the Derwent toward Bakewell.</p> +<p>The highest mountains in Derbyshire are close at hand, one of which +is one thousand feet above the valley in which Buxton stands, and two +thousand one hundred feet higher than the town of Derby. From +this mountain four rivers rise, the Wye, the Dove, the Goyt, and the +Dean.</p> +<p>Buxton consists of a new and old town. In the old town is a +hall, in which Mary Queen of Scots lodged whilst visiting the Buxton +waters for her health, as a prisoner under charge of the Earl of Shrewsbury. +A Latin distich, a farewell to Buxton, scratched on the window of one +of the rooms, is attributed to the hand of that unhappy princess.</p> +<p>The new part of the town commences with the Crescent, which contains +two houses, a library, an assembly-room, a news-room, baths, and other +buildings, and is one of the finest structures of the kind in the kingdom. +The stables, on a magnificent scale, contain a covered ride, a hundred +and sixty feet long. This immense pile was built by the late Duke +of Devonshire in 1781, and cost £120,000.</p> +<p>The public baths are very numerous and elegant; and indeed every +comfort and luxury is to be obtained there by invalids and semi-invalids, +except that perpetual atmosphere of amusement, without form, or fuss, +or much expense, which forms the great charm of German watering places.</p> +<p>We cannot understand why at the present moderate price of all kinds +of provisions in England, a tariff of prices, and a set of customs of +expense are kept up, which send all persons of moderate fortune to continental +watering places, or compel them to depart at the end of a fortnight, +instead of staying a month.</p> +<p>Why do we English,—after dining at a table d’hote, all +the way from Baden-Baden to Boulogne, for something not exceeding half-a-crown +a-head, without drinking wine, unless we like,—find ourselves +bound, the moment we set our foot in England, to have a private or stereotyped +dinner at five or six shillings a-head, and no amusement. In London, +for gentlemen only, there are three or four public dinners at a moderate +figure. When will some of our bell-wethers of fashion, to whom +economy is of more consequence than even the middle classes, set the +example at Leamington, Tunbridge Wells, Buxton, and Cheltenham, of dining +with their wives and daughters at the public table? How long are +we to be slaves of salt soup, fried soles, and fiery sherry?</p> +<p>The decayed watering places, ruined by the competition of the continent, +should try the experiment of commercial prices, as an invitation to +idlers and half-invalids to stay at home.</p> +<p>Another great help to our watering places and farmers, would be the +repeal of the post-horse tax. It brings in a mere trifle. +The repeal would be an immense boon to places where the chief attraction +depends on rides and drives. It would largely increase the number +of horses and vehicles for hire, and be a real aid to the distressed +agricultural interest, by the increased demand it would make for corn, +hay, and straw. Besides, near a small place like Matlock, or Ilfracombe, +in Devonshire, farmers would work horses through the winter, and hire +them out in summer. It is a great tax to pay four shillings and +sixpence as a minimum for going a mile in any country place where flies +and cabs have not been planted.</p> +<p>The environs of Buxton afford ample room for rides, drives, picnics, +and geological and botanical explorations. Beautifully romantic +scenes are to be found among the high crags on the Bakewell road, overhanging +the river Wye. Among the natural curiosities is a cave called +Poole’s Hole, five hundred and sixty yards in length, with a ceiling +in one part very lofty, and adorned with stalactites, which have a beautiful +appearance when lighted up by Roman candles or other fireworks. +As Buxton is only twenty-two miles from Manchester, travellers who have +the time to spare should on no account omit to visit one of the most +romantic and remarkable scenes of England.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>MACCLESFIELD.—From Buxton it will not be a bad plan to proceed +to Macclesfield, and again in Cheshire, on the borders of Derbyshire, +take advantage of the rail. The turnpike road to that improving +seat of the silk manufacture is across one of the highest hills in the +district, from the summit of which an extensive view into the “Vale +Royal” of Cheshire is had. The hills and valleys in the +vicinity of Whaley and Chapel-en-le-Frith are equally delightful. +Macclesfield has one matter of attraction—its important silk manufactories. +In other respects it is externally perfectly uninteresting. The +Earl of Chester, son of Henry III., made Macclesfield a free borough, +consisting of a hundred and twenty burgesses, and various privileges +were conferred by Edward III., Richard II., Edward IV., Elizabeth, and +Charles II.</p> +<p>One of the churches, St. Michael’s, was founded by Eleanor, +Queen of Edward I., in 1278. It has been partly rebuilt, but there +are two chapels, one the property of the Marquis of Cholmondeley, which +was built by Thomas Savage, Archbishop of York, whose heart was buried +there in 1508. The other belongs to the Leghs of Lyme. A +brass plate shows that the estate of Lyme was bestowed upon an ancestor +for recovering a standard at the battle of Cressy. He was afterwards +beheaded at Chester as a supporter of Richard II. Another ancestor, +Sir Piers Legh, fell fighting at the battle of Agincourt. We do +not know what manner of men the Leghs of Lyme of the present generation +are, but certainly pride is pardonable in a family with an ancestry +which took part in deeds not only recorded by history, but immortalized +by Shakspeare.</p> +<p>There is a grammar school, of the foundation of Edward VI., with +an income of £1500 a-year, free to all residents, with two exhibitions +of £50 per annum, tenable for four years. But there must +be some mismanagement, as it appears from Parker’s useful <i>Educational +Register</i>, that in 1850 only twenty-two scholars availed themselves +of these privileges; yet Macclesfield has a population exceeding thirty +thousand.</p> +<p>The education of the working classes is above average, and music +is much cultivated. We abstain from giving the figures in this +as in several other instances, because the census, which will shortly +be published, will afford exact information on all these points.</p> +<p>The establishment of silk factories on the river Bollen brought Macclesfield +into notice in the beginning of this century. Unhampered by the +restrictions which weighed upon the Spitalfields manufacturers, and +nurtured by the monopoly accorded to English silks, the silk weaving +trade gradually attained great prosperity between 1808 and 1825. +At that period the commencement of the fiscal changes, which have rendered +the silk trade quite open to foreign competition, produced a serious +effect on the prosperity of Macclesfield.</p> +<p>In 1832 the number of mills at work had diminished nearly one-half, +and the number of hands by two-thirds. Since that period, after +various vicissitudes, the silk trade has acquired a more healthy tone, +and we presume that the inhabitants do not now consider the alterations +commenced by Huskisson, and completed by Peel, injurious to their interests; +since, at the last election, they returned one free-trader, a London +shopkeeper, in conjunction with a local banker and manufacturer.</p> +<p>Macclesfield has now to contend with home as well as foreign competition, +for silk manufactories have been spread over the kingdom in many directions.</p> +<p>We may expect to see in a few years, as the result of the universal +extension of railway communication, a great distribution and transplantation +of manufacturing establishments to towns where cheap labour and provisions, +or good water or water-power, or cheap fuel, offer any advantages, There +is something very curious to be noted in the manner in which certain +of our principal manufactures have remained constant, while others have +been transplanted from place to place, and in which ports have risen +and fallen.</p> +<p>The glory of the Cinque Ports seems departed for ever, unless as +harbours of refuge, while Folkestone, by the help of a railway, has +acquired a considerable trade at the expense of Dover. The same +power which has rendered Southampton great has reduced Falmouth and +Harwich to a miserably low ebb. The sea-borne trade of Chester +is gone for ever, but Birkenhead hopes to rise by the power of steam.</p> +<p>No changes can seriously injure Hull, although railways will give +Great Grimsby a large share of the overflowings of the new kind of trade +created by large steam boats and the repeal of duties on timber; and +so we might run through a long list of commercial changes, past, present, +and to come.</p> +<p>Macclesfield has shared largely in these influences. Having +acquired its commercial importance as one of the glasshouses in which, +at great expense, we raised an artificial silk trade, when it lay at +a distance of at least three hours from Manchester for all heavy goods, +and at least three days from London; it has now communication with London +in five hours, and with the port of Liverpool, through Manchester, in +two hours if needful. Thus it enjoys the best possible means of +obtaining the raw material and sending off the manufactured article.</p> +<p>In the time of Queen Charlotte, the wife of George III., it was contrary +to the laws of the palace for any servant to wear a silk gown; but extended +commerce and improved machinery have rendered it almost a matter of +course for the respectable cook of a respectable lawyer or surgeon, +to afford herself a black silk gown without extravagance or impertinence,—which +is so much the better for the weavers and sailors.</p> +<p>We shall not attempt to describe the silk manufacture, which is on +the same principles as all other textiles, except that less work can +be done by machinery. But it is one of the most pleasant and picturesque +of all our manufacturing operations. The long light rooms in which +the weaving is conducted are scrupulously clean and of a pleasant temperature,—no +dust, no motes are flying about. The girls in short sleeves, in +the course of their work are, as it were, obliged to assume a series +of graceful attitudes. The delicacy of their work, and the upward +position in which they hold them, render their hands white and delicate, +and the atmosphere has something of the same effect on their complexion. +Many of the greatest beauties of Belgravia might envy the white hands +and taper fingers to be found in a silk mill.</p> +<p>Unfortunately this trade, which in factory work is healthy and well +paid, is, more than any other, subject to the vicissitudes of fashion. +The plain qualities suffer from such changes less than the rich brocades +and fancy patterns.</p> +<p>It must be remarked that, although the repeal of protective duties +to eighteen per cent. produced a temporary depressing effect on the +trade of Macclesfield, the general silk trade has largely increased +ever since 1826, and has spread over a number of counties where it was +before unknown, and has become an important article of export even to +France.</p> +<p>An example of the readiness with which, in these railroad days, a +manufacture can be transplanted, was exhibited at Tewkesbury four years +ago. The once-fashionable theatre of that decayed town was being +sold by auction; it hung on the auctioneer’s hammer at so trifling +a sum that one of the new made M.P.’s of the borough bought it. +Having bought it, for want of some other use he determined to turn it +into a silk mill. In a very short space of time the needful machinery +was obtained from Macclesfield, with an overseer. While the machinery +was being erected, a bevy of girls were acquiring the art of silk weaving, +and, in less than twelve months, five or six hundred hands were as regularly +engaged in this novel process, as if they had been so engaged all their +lives. Without railroads, such an undertaking would have been +the work of years, if possible at all.</p> +<p><i>Raw silk</i> is obtained from Italy, from France in small quantities, +as the exportation of the finest silk is forbidden, from China, from +India in increasing quantities, and from Brusa in Asia Minor through +Constantinople.</p> +<p>The raw silk, imported in the state in which it is wound from the +cocoons, has to be twisted into thread, after being dyed, so as to approach +the stage of yarn in the cotton manufacture. This twisting is +technically called <i>throwing</i>, and is one of the departments in +which the greatest improvements have been introduced, as shown by silk +throwers from Macclesfield in the machine department of the Great Exhibition; +and, by the improvements, the cost of <i>throwing</i>, or twisting, +has been reduced from 10s. per lb. to 3s.</p> +<p>It takes about twelve pounds of cocoons to make one pound of reeled +silk, and that pound will produce from fourteen to sixteen yards of +gros de Naples.</p> +<p>Many attempts have been made to naturalize the silk-worm in this +country, but, after rather large sums have been expended on it, it is +now quite clear that, although it be possible to obtain large quantities +of silk of a certain quality, the undertaking cannot be made to pay: +the climate is an obstacle.</p> +<p>For centuries the silk-worm was only known to the Chinese,—the +Greeks and Romans used the substance without knowing from what it was +produced or whence it came. In the sixth century, in the reign +of Justinian, the eggs of the silk-worm were brought secretly to Constantinople +from China by the Nestorian monks in a hollow cane, hatched, and successfully +propagated. For six centuries the breeding of silk-worms was confined +to the Greeks of the Lower Empire. In the twelfth century the +art was transferred to Sicily, and thence successively to Italy, Spain, +and France.</p> +<p>Great efforts were made in the reign of James I. to promote the rearing +of silk-worms in England, and mulberry trees were distributed to persons +of influence through many counties. The scheme failed. But +in 1718 a company was incorporated, with a like purpose, and planted +trees, and erected buildings in Chelsea Park. This scheme also +failed. Great efforts were made to plant the growth of silk in +the American colonies, and the brilliant prospects of establishing a +new staple of export formed a prominent feature in the schemes for American +colonization, of which so many were launched in the beginning of the +eighteenth century. But up to the present time no progress has +been made in it in that country, although silk-worms are found in a +natural state in the forests of the Union. Indeed, it seems a +pursuit which needs cheap attentive labour as well as suitable climate. +Some attempts have been made in Australia, but there again the latter +question presents an insurmountable obstacle. If the mulberry +would thrive in Natal, where native labour is cheap, it would be worth +trying there, although we cannot do better than develop the resources +of the silk-growing districts of India, where the culture has been successfully +carried on for centuries.</p> +<p>At the Great Exhibition an extremely handsome banner was exhibited, +manufactured from British silk, cultivated by the late Mrs. Whitby of +Newlands, near Southampton, who spent a large income, and many years +in the pursuit, solely from philanthropic motives, and carried on an +extensive correspondence with parties inclined to assist her views; +but, although to the last she was sanguine of success in making silk +one of the raw staples of England, and a profitable source of employment +for women and children, we have seen no commercial evidence of any more +real progress than that of gardeners in growing grapes and melons without +glass-houses.</p> +<p>Almost every country in Europe has made the same attempts, but with +very moderate success. Russia has its mulberry plantations, so +has Belgium, Austria Proper, Hungary, Bavaria, and even Sweden; but +Lombardy and Cevennes in France bear away the palm for excellence, and +there is an annual increase in the quantity and quality of silk from +British India. But no matter where it grows, we can buy it and +bring it to our own doors nearly as cheap as the natives of the country, +often cheaper.</p> +<p>In Macclesfield every kind of silk article is produced, including +ribbons, narrow and richly-ornamented satin, velvet, silk embroidered +for waistcoats and gown pieces.</p> +<h2>FROM CHESHIRE TO NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE.</h2> +<p>On leaving Macclesfield we are, as usual, embarrassed by a choice +of routes, due to the perseverance of Mr. Ricardo, one of the members +for the Potteries, who has endowed his constituents with a set of railways, +which cut through their district in all manner of ways. These +North Staffordshire lines, <i>Tria juncta in uno</i>, form an engineering +continuation of the Trent Valley, and are invaluable to the manufacturers +of porcelain and pottery in that district. To the shareholders +they have proved rather a disappointment. The ten per cent. secured +to the Trent Valley Company, by the fears of the London and North-Western, +has not yet rewarded the patriotism of the North Staffordshire shareholders. +But to our route, we may either make our way by Leek, Cheadle, Alton, +and Uttoxeter to Burton, famous for the ale of Bass and game of cricket +nourished on it, and through Burton to Derby. (The learned and +lively author of the “<i>Cricket Field</i>” remarks, that +the game of cricket follows malt and hops—no ale, no bowlers or +batsmen. It began at Farnham hops, and has never rolled further +north than Edinburgh ale.) Or by Congleton, Burslem, Hanley, and +Stoke upon Trent (the very heart of the Potteries), then either pushing +on to Uttoxeter to the north, or keeping the south arm past Trentham +to Norton Bridge, which will convey you to the Trent Valley Line, the +shortest way to London.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>CONGLETON is an ancient borough of Cheshire, on the borders of Staffordshire, +containing a number of those black and white oak frame and plaster houses, +which are peculiar to that county, and well worth examining. It +is situated in a deep romantic valley on the banks of the river Dane, +and enjoys a greater reputation for health than commercial progress. +The population does not appear to have increased between the two last +census. The Municipal Corporation dates from a remote period. +It appears from the Corporation Books that the Mayor and Aldermen patronised +every kind of sport—plays, cock fights, bear baiting, morris dancing. +So fond were they of bear baiting, that in 1621, by a unanimous vote, +they transferred the money intended for a bible to the purchase of a +bear.</p> +<p>Times are changed; every inhabitant of Congleton can now have his +own bible for tenpence. Bear baiting and cock fighting have been +discontinued; but we hope the inhabitants have grown wiser than they +were some fifteen years ago, when they allowed themselves, for the sake +of petty political disputes, to be continually drawn through the Courts +of Law and Chancery—a process quite as cruel for the suitors, +and more expensive and less amusing than bear-baiting.</p> +<p>At the Town Hall is to be seen a “bridle” for a scold, +which the ladies of the present generation are too well behaved ever +to deserve. President Bradshaw, the regicide, was a Cheshireman, +born and christened at Stockport. He practised as barrister, and +served the office of mayor in 1637, at Congleton, of which he afterwards +became high steward. At Macclesfield, according to tradition, +he wrote, when a boy, on a tombstone, these prophetic lines:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“My brother Henry must heir the land,<br /> +My brother Frank must be at his command,<br /> +Whilst I, poor Jack! will do that,<br /> +That all the world shall wonder at.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Bradshaw became Chief Justice of the County Palatine of Chester under +the Commonwealth, was dismissed by Cromwell for his Republican opinions, +died in 1659, was magnificently buried in Westminster Abbey, and disinterred +and gibbeted with Cromwell and Ireton at the Restoration. A piece +of vengeance on poor dead bones that remained unimitated until one of +the mobs of the first French Revolution scattered the bones of the French +Kings buried in the vaults of St. Denis.</p> +<h2>THE LAKES.</h2> +<p>Some of our readers may feel disposed to visit the charming scenery +with which Cumberland and Westmoreland abound; and that they may be +assisted in their route thereto, and in their rambles through that beautiful +district, we will furnish a few notes descriptive of the most convenient +and pleasant routes.</p> +<p>From Congleton an easy diversion may be made, by railway, to Crewe, +and from thence the journey, along the North-Western line, passing Northwich +(Cheshire) and Warrington (Lancashire), <i>via</i> Parkside, to Preston, +Garstang, and Lancaster, is rapid and agreeable. The approach +to Preston is remarkably pleasing, the railway being carried across +a magnificent vale, through which the river Lune, a fine, wide stream, +equalling in beauty the far-famed Dee, runs towards the Irish Channel.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>PRESTON is a populous manufacturing town, in which cotton-spinning +is carried on to a very large extent, and is surrounded by a rich agricultural +district, which furnishes in abundance every kind of farming produce. +The borough returns two members to Parliament, is a corporate town, +and has acquired a distinction by its Guilds, which are conducted with +great spirit every twenty years. The market, which is held on +the Saturday, is well supplied with fruits, vegetables, and fish, salmon +included, taken from the river Lune.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>LANCASTER, twenty miles northward, is also a borough town, returning +two members to Parliament, and is governed by a mayor and town council. +It is one of the ancient ports of Lancashire, and, being the county +town, the assizes for North Lancashire are held there. Some years +ago the assizes for the whole of Lancashire were regularly holden at +Lancaster, and in those palmy days, as the judicial sittings generally +extended to sixteen or twenty days, a rich harvest was reaped, not only +by “the gentlemen of the long robe,” but also by the numerous +innkeepers in the place. The assize business for South Lancashire +was at length removed to Liverpool, as the most convenient site for +the large number of suitors from that part of the county; and since +that period the town of Lancaster has lost much of its importance. +There are many objects of especial interest within the town and in the +immediate district. The ancient castle (now the county gaol), +once the residence of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster; the Nisi Prius +Court, an elegant and spacious building from a design by the late Mr. +Harrison of Chester; and the old parish church, are worthy of close +inspection; whilst from the castle terrace and churchyard delightful +views of the river, Morecambe Bay, and the distant hills of Cumberland +and Westmoreland, are commanded. The village of Hornby, a few +miles northward, situated on the banks of the Lune, is one of the most +picturesque and retired spots in the kingdom. The river, for several +miles from Lancaster, is studded with enchanting scenery, and is much +frequented by the lovers of the rod and line.</p> +<p>From Lancaster the tourist may proceed easily, <i>via</i> the Lancaster +and Carlisle railway, into the very midst of the Lake district. +Kendal is about twenty miles from Lancaster, and from the former pretty +town a branch line runs direct to Windermere, whence parties may proceed +to Bowness, Ambleside, Keswick, and other delightful and time-honoured +places in Westmoreland and Cumberland. From Kendal also Sedburgh, +Orton, Kirkby Stephen, Shap, Brough, and the high and low lands circumjacent, +may be visited. Ulverston, Ravenglass, Whitehaven, Cockermouth, +all nearly equally accessible from the Kendal railway station, will +furnish another interesting route to the traveller.</p> +<p>The midland part of Cumberland consists principally of hills, valleys, +and ridges of elevated ground. To the tourist the mountainous +district in the south-west is the most interesting and attractive. +This part comprises Saddleback, Skiddaw, and Helvellyn, with the lakes +of Ulleswater, Thirlmere, Derwent-water, and Bassenthwaite. Besides +these lakes there are several of smaller size, equally celebrated for +their diversified and striking scenery. Buttermere, whose charms +are sweetly sung by many of our poets, Crummock-water, Loweswater, Ennerdale, +Wast-water, and Devock-lake, are frequented by hosts of travellers, +and retain no small number of admirers. The most remarkable phenomena +connected with the Lakes are the Floating Island and Bottom-Wind, both +of which are occasionally seen at Derwent-water, and neither of which +has yet received a satisfactory explanation. Most of the lakes +abound in fish, especially char, trout, and perch; so that anglers are +sure of plenty of sport in their visits to these fine sheets of water. +In Cumberland there are several waterfalls, namely, Scale Force and +Sour Milk Force, near Buttermere; Barrow Cascade and Lowdore Cascade, +near Keswick; Airey Force, Gowbarrow Park; and Nunnery Cascade, Croglin. +The highest mountains in the same county are,—Scaw Fell (Eskdale), +3166 feet, highest point; Helvellyn (Keswick), 3055; and Skiddaw (Keswick), +3022. The climate of Cumberland is various; the high land cold +and piercing; the lower parts mild and temperate. The district +is generally considered to be healthy, and many remarkable instances +of longevity are noted by the local historians.</p> +<p>The oldest inhabitants on record are John Taylor, of Garrigall, who +died in 1772, aged 132 years, and Mr. R. Bowman, of Irthington, +who died June 13, 1823, aged 118 years. The oldest oak tree in +Cumberland of which there is any record—a tree which had stood +for 600 years in Wragmire Moss, Inglewood Forest—fell from natural +decay on the day of Mr. Bowman’s demise.</p> +<p>Cumberland is wholly in the diocese of Carlisle, with the exception +of the wood of Allerdale-above-Derwent, in the diocese of Chester, and +the parish of Alston, in that of Durham. It contains 104 parishes. +It is comprehended in the province of York, and in the northern circuit. +The assizes are held at Carlisle twice a-year. The principal coach +roads in Westmoreland are the old mail road from Lancaster to Carlisle +and Glasgow; and the road (formerly a mail road) through Stamford, Newark, +Doncaster, and Greta Bridge, to Carlisle and Glasgow. There is +a second road from Lancaster to Kendal, through Milnthorp. Roads +lead from Kendal south-westward to Ulverston and Dalton-in-Furness; +westward to Bowness, and across Windermere by the ferry to Hawkshead, +and Coniston Water in Furness, and to Egremont and Whitehaven in Cumberland; +north-westward by Ambleside to Keswick, Cockermouth, and Workington, +in Cumberland; north-eastward by Orton to Appleby, with a branch road +to Kirkby Stephen to Brough; eastward to Sedbergh, and onwards to Yorkshire.</p> +<p>The railways in the district are, the Preston and Carlisle, the Kendal +and Windermere, the Cockermouth and Workington, the Furness (between +Fleetwood, Furness Abbey, Ulverston, Broughton, and the Lakes), the +Maryport and Carlisle, Whitehaven Junction, and Whitehaven and Furness +Junction (between Whitehaven, Ravenglass, Bootle, and Broughton).</p> +<p>Wordsworth, whose soul, as well as body, was identified with this +district, says of the mountains of Westmoreland, that “in magnitude +and grandeur they are individually inferior to the most celebrated of +those in some other parts of the island; but in the combinations which +they make, towering above each other, or lifting themselves in ridges +like the waves of a tumultuous sea, and in the beauty and variety of +their surfaces and colours, they are surpassed by none.”</p> +<p>The lakes are numerous, beautiful, and extensive in size. Ulleswater +is embosomed in the centre of mountains, of which Helvellyn forms part. +The upper part of it belongs wholly to Westmoreland, while its lower +part, on the border of Cumberland and Westmoreland, is about seven miles +long, with an average breadth of half a mile. The higher portion +of the lake is in Patterdale. Haweswater is formed by the expansion +of the Mardale-beck; and all the larger affluents of the Eden, which +join it on the left bank, rise on the northern slope of the Cumbrian +ridge. The river Leven, which flows out of Windermere, belongs +to Lancashire; but the Rothay, or Raise-beck, which drains the valley +of Grasmere, the streams which drain the valleys of Great and Little +Langdale, and the Trout-beck, which all flow into Windermere, and may +be regarded as the upper waters of the Leven, belong to Westmoreland. +Elterwater, Grasmere, and Rydal Water, are connected with the streams +which flow into Windermere. This last-named lake has been described +as situated in Lancashire; whilst in a county survey, and in the court +rolls at Lowther Castle, it is included in Westmoreland. All the +lakes, large and small, have some distinguishing feature of beauty. +Their boundary lines are either gracefully or boldly indented; in some +parts rugged steeps, admitting of no cultivation, descend into the water; +in others, gently sloping lawns and rich woods, or flat and fertile +meadows, stretch between the margin of the lake and the mountains. +Tarns, or small lakes, are generally difficult of access, and naked, +desolate, or gloomy, yet impressive from these very characteristics. +Loughrigg Tarn, near the junction of the valleys of Great and Little +Langdale, is one of the most beautiful.</p> +<p>The county of Westmoreland is divided between the dioceses of Carlisle +and Chester. The parishes are only thirty-two in number. +The population in 1841 was 56,454. Of monumental remains there +are but few in the county. “Arthur’s Round Table,” +near Eamont Bridge, is worthy of a visit, as well as other fragments, +supposed to be druidical, in the same district. There are several +ancient castles which will attract the attention of the antiquary, if +he should be near, in his journeyings, to the site of any of them. +The most conspicuous remnant of other days in Cumberland is the druidical +temple near Kirkoswald, consisting of a circle of sixty-seven unhewn +stones, called Long Meg and her Daughters.</p> +<p>A brief description of the leading towns within the Lake District +will be useful.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>KENDAL, as we have already stated, is about twenty miles by railway +from Lancaster. It is a market-town, pleasantly situated on the +slope of a hill rising from the river Kent; contains two churches, and +several dissenting places of worship; the ruins of the old castle of +the barons of Kendal; and a town-hall, the town being governed by a +Corporation under the Municipal Reform Act.</p> +<p>The Kendal and Windermere Railway runs no farther than Birthwaite, +which is nine miles from Kendal, two from Bowness, and five from Ambleside. +From the railway terminus coaches and omnibuses meet all the trains +in the summer, and convey passengers onwards to Bowness, Ambleside, +and other places.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>BOWNESS is a picturesque village placed on the banks of Windermere, +and contains an ancient church, with square tower, dedicated to St. +Martin. In the churchyard are deposited the remains of the celebrated +Bishop Watson, author of “The Apology for the Bible,” he +having resided at Calgarth Park, in the neighbourhood, for several years. +In the vicinity are the residences of Professor Wilson (Elleray), the +Earl of Bradford (St. Catherine’s), and the Rev. Thomas Staniforth +(Storrs Hall, formerly the residence of Colonel Bolton, of Liverpool, +the intimate friend of the late Mr. Canning). From the school-house, +which stands on an eminence, delightful views of Windermere, and other +parts of the district, are seen to great advantage, Belle Isle, on the +lake, appearing to be part of the mainland. This island is more +than a mile in circumference, and comprises about thirty acres. +We may add, that Storrs Hall, whilst occupied by Colonel Bolton, was +frequently the retreat of many “choice spirits,” Canning, +Wordsworth, Southey, and Wilson, of the number. Mr. Bolton was +a princely merchant of Liverpool, and Colonel of a Volunteer Regiment +whilst England was in dread of French invasion. He was one of +Mr. Canning’s warmest political friends, and always took an active +part in the electioneering contests for Liverpool in which Canning was +engaged. Lockhart, referring to one of these “gatherings,” +says:—“A large company had been assembled at Mr. Bolton’s +seat in honour of the minister; it included Mr. Wordsworth and Mr. Southey. +There was high discourse, intermingled with as gay flashings of courtly +wit as ever Canning displayed. There were beautiful and accomplished +women to adorn and enjoy this circle. The weather was as Elysian +as the scenery. There were brilliant cavalcades through the woods +in the mornings, and delicious boatings on the lake by moonlight; and +the last day Professor Wilson (‘the Admiral of the Lake,’ +as Canning called him) presided over one of the most splendid regattas +that ever enlivened Windermere. The three bards of the lakes led +the cheers that hailed Scott and Canning.” Looking back +on that bright scene, of which nothing now remains but a melancholy +remembrance, Wilson remarks, “Windermere glittered with all her +sails in honour of the Great Northern Minstrel, and of him the Eloquent, +whose lips are now mute in dust. Methinks we see his smile benign—that +we hear his voice—silver sweet.”</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>WINDERMERE has been termed, not inaptly, the English Zurich. +Before its diversified beauties were “married to immortal verse,” +it was the favourite resort of thousands who admired external nature. +But the “Lake Poets,” as Wordsworth, Southey, Coleridge +and others were once derisively termed, have linked the Lake District +with the language of the nation. Windermere Lake is eleven miles +in length, and one mile in breadth. Numerous islands diversify +its surface, one of which (Belle Isle) we have already referred to. +Its depth in some parts is about 240 feet. “The prevailing +character of the scenery around Windermere is soft and graceful beauty. +It shrinks from approaching that wildness and sublimity which characterise +some of the other lakes.” It abounds with fish, especially +char (salmo alpinus), one of the epicurean dainties.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>AMBLESIDE, fourteen miles north-west of Kendal, is partly in Windermere, +but chiefly in Grasmere parish. This is one of the favourite resorts +of travellers in quest of pleasure. It has been compared to a +delightful Swiss village, the town reposing in a beautiful valley, near +the upper end of Windermere Lake; “no two houses being alike either +in form or magnitude,” and the entire place laid out in a rambling +irregular manner, adding to its peculiarity and beauty. The pretty +little chapel which ornaments the place was erected in 1812, on the +site of an older structure. The neighbourhood is studded with +attractive villas; but the most interesting of the residences is that +of the lamented Poet Wordsworth, at Rydal Mount.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>RYDAL VILLAGE is one mile and a quarter from Ambleside, and is planted +within a narrow gorge, formed by the advance of Loughrigg Fell and Rydal +Knab. Rydal Hall, the seat of Lady le Fleming, stands in the midst +of a finely-wooded park, in which are two beautiful waterfalls, shown +on application at the lodge. RYDAL MOUNT, Wordsworth’s residence +for many years, stands a little above the chapel erected by Lady le +Fleming. Mrs. Hemans describes it as “a lovely cottage-like +building, almost hidden by a profusion of roses and ivy.” +“From a grassy mound in front, commanding a view always so rich, +and sometimes so brightly solemn, that one can well imagine its influence +traceable in many of the poet’s writings, you catch a gleam of +Windermere over the grove tops.” “A footpath,” +Mr. Phillips says, “strikes off from the top of the Rydal Mount +road, and, passing at a considerable height on the hill side under Nab +Scar, commands charming views of the vale, and rejoins the high road +at White Moss Quarry. The commanding and varied prospect obtained +from the summit of Nab Scar, richly repays the labour of the ascent. +From the summit, which is indicated by a pile of large stones, eight +different sheets of water are seen, viz., Windermere, Rydal, Grasmere, +and Coniston Lakes, and Loughrigg, Easdale, Elterwater, and Blelham +Tarns. The Solway Firth is also distinctly visible.” +Knab, a delightful residence formerly occupied by De Quincy, “the +English Opium Eater,” and by Hartley Coleridge, eldest son of +Samuel Taylor Coleridge, is situated close by. In the walk from +Ambleside to Rydal, should the tourist pursue his course along the banks +of the Rothay, he will, having crossed the bridge, pass the house built +and inhabited by the late Dr. Arnold, Master of Rugby School.</p> +<p>Grasmere Village is a short walk from Rydal, and only four miles +from Ambleside. Wordsworth lived here for eight years, at a small +house at Town End; here he wrote many of his never-dying poems; to this +spot be brought his newly-wedded wife in 1822; and in the burial ground +of the parish church are interred his mortal remains. Wordsworth +quitted this sublunary scene, for a brighter and a better, on April +23, 1850. Gray once visited Grasmere Water, and described its +beauties in a rapturous spirit. Mrs. Hemans, in one of her sonnets, +says of it:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“--------------------- Fair scene,<br /> +Most loved by evening and her dewy star!<br /> +Oh! ne’er may man, with touch unhallowed, jar<br /> +The perfect music of the charm serene!<br /> +Still, still unchanged, may one sweet region wear,<br /> +Smiles that subdue the soul to love, and tears, and prayer.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>A comfortable hotel has recently been opened, from which, as it stands +on an eminence, a fine view is obtained; and at the Red Lion and Swan +Inns every necessary accommodation for tourists may be had.</p> +<p>In the neighbourhood there is some delightful panoramic scenery. +From Butterlip How and Red Bank the lake and vale are seen to great +advantage. “The Wishing Gate,” about a mile from Grasmere, +should be visited. It has been so called from a belief that wishes +indulged there will have a favourable issue. Helm Crag, a singularly-shaped +hill, about two miles from the inn, commands an extensive and delightful +prospect; Helvellyn and Saddleback, Wansfell Pike, the upper end of +Windermere, Esthwaite Water, with the Coniston range, and Langdale Pikes, +are all distinctly visible. The Glen of Esdaile, marked by highly-picturesque +features, lies in a recess between Helm Crag and Silver How, and the +ascent commands fine retrospective views. Throughout this district +the hills and dales are remarkably interesting, and offer numerous attractions +to the tourist. Delightful excursions may be made from Grasmere +into Langdale and Patterdale, and the ascent from Grasmere to the top +of Helvellyn, to Langdale Pikes, and to Dunmail Raise will be events +not easily to be forgotten. A heap of stones on the summit of +Dunmail Raise marks the site of a conflict in 945 between Dunmail, King +of Cumberland, and Edmund, the Saxon King. In descending this +hill Thirlmere comes into view. Thirlmere lies in the Vale of +Legberthwaite, and the precipices around it are objects of special admiration. +The ascent of Helvellyn is sometimes begun at the foot of Thirlmere.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>KESWICK is a market town, in the county of Cumberland, and parish +of Crosthwaite, and is situated on the south bank of the Greta, in a +large and fertile vale, about a mile from Derwent Water. Coleridge, +describing the scene, says:—“This vale is about as large +a basin as Loch Lomond; the latter is covered with water; but in the +former instance we have two lakes (Derwent Water and Bassenthwaite Mere), +with a charming river to connect them, and lovely villages at the foot +of the mountain, and other habitations, which give an air of life and +cheerfulness to the whole place.” The town consists only +of one street, and comprises upwards of two thousand inhabitants. +Some manufactures are carried on, including linsey-woolsey stuffs and +edge tools. Black-lead pencils made here have acquired a national +repute: the plumbago of which they are manufactured is extracted from +“the bowels of the earth,” at a mine in Borrowdale. +The parish church, dedicated to St. Kentigern, is an ancient structure +standing alone, about three-quarters of a mile distant, midway between +the mountain and the lake. Within this place of worship the remains +of Robert Southey, the poet and philosopher, lie buried. A marble +monument to his memory has recently been erected, representing him in +a recumbent position, and bearing an inscription from the pen of Wordsworth, +his more than literary friend for many years, and his successor to the +poet-laureate-ship. A new and beautiful church, erected at the +eastern part of the town by the late John Marshall, Esq., adds much +to the quiet repose of the scene. Mr. Marshall became Lord of +the Manor by purchasing the forfeited estates of Ratcliffe, Earl of +Derwentwater, from the Commissioners of Greenwich Hospital, to whom +they were granted by the Crown. The town contains a well-stocked +public library, purchased from funds left for that purpose by Mr. Marshall; +two museums, containing numerous specimens illustrating natural history +and mineralogy; and a model of the Lake District, made by Mr. Flintoff, +and the labour of many years. The residence of the poet Southey +(Greta Hall) is, however, perhaps the most interesting object in the +neighbourhood to visitors. The house is situated on an eminence +near the town. Charles Lamb, describing it many years since, says:—“Upon +a small hill by the side of Skiddaw, in a comfortable house, quite enveloped +on all sides by a nest of mountains” dwells Robert Southey. +The poet himself, who delighted in his beautiful and calm mountain-home, +and in the charming scenery by which he was surrounded, remarks:—“Here +I possess the gathered treasures of time, the harvest of so many generations, +laid up in my garners, and when I go to the window there is the lake, +and the circle of mountains, and the illimitable sky.” On +another occasion, when dallying with the muse, he says, in his finely-descriptive +verse:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“’Twas at that sober hour when the light +of day is receding,<br /> +And from surrounding things the hues wherewith the day has adorned them<br /> +Fade like the hopes of youth till the beauty of youth is departed:<br /> +Pensive, though not in thought, I stood at the window beholding<br /> +Mountain, and lake, and vale, the valley disrobed of its verdure;<br /> +Derwent retaining yet from eve a glassy reflection,<br /> +Where his expanded breast, then smooth and still as a mirror,<br /> +Under the woods reposed; the hills that calm and majestic<br /> +Lifted their heads into the silent sky, from far Glaramara,<br /> +Bleacrag and Maidenmawr to Grisedale and westernmost Wythop;<br /> +Dark and distant they rose. The clouds had gather’d above +them,<br /> +High in the middle air huge purple pillowy masses,<br /> +While in the west beyond was the last pale tint of the twilight.<br /> +Green as the stream in the glen, whose pure and chrysolite waters<br /> +Flow o’er a schistous bed, and serene as the age of the righteous.<br /> +Earth was hush’d and still; all motion and sound were suspended;<br /> +Neither man was heard, bird, beast, nor humming of insect.<br /> +Only the voice of the Greta, heard only when all is stillness.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The scenery in the neighbourhood of Keswick is replete with beauty, +and the numerous walks and rides possess brilliant attractions. +Villas and prettily-built cottages add grace and quietness to the landscape. +Gray, on leaving Keswick, was so charmed with the wonders which surrounded +him, that he felt great reluctance in quitting the spot, and said, “that +he had almost a mind to go back again.” From the eminence +near Keswick on which the Druidical circle stands a magnificent view +is obtained of Derwentwater, Latrigg, Skiddaw, Helvellyn, Dunmail Raise, +with the vale of St. John and the Borrowdale mountains.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>BUTTERMERE stands near the foot of the lake, and by Seatoller is +fourteen miles from Keswick. Taking the vale of Newlands by the +way, the distance is much less. In the vicinity of Seatoller is +the celebrated mine of plumbago, or black lead. “It has +been worked at intervals for upwards of two centuries; but, being now +less productive, the ore has been excavated for several years consecutively. +This is the only mine of the kind in England, and there are one or two +places in Scotland where plumbago has been discovered, but the lead +obtained there is of an inferior quality. The best ore produced +at the Borrowdale mine sells for thirty shillings a pound. All +the ore extracted from the mine is sent direct to London before a particle +is sold.” Buttermere is a mere hamlet, comprising a small +episcopal chapel, only a few farm-houses, with the Victoria and another +inn for the accommodation of visitors. De Quincy, who has long +been a resident of the Lake District, and a fervent admirer of its many +beauties, describes this secluded spot as follows:—“The +margin of the lake, which is overhung by some of the loftiest and steepest +of the Cumbrian mountains, exhibits on either side few traces of human +neighbourhood; the level area, where the hills recede enough to allow +of any, is of a wild, pastoral character, or almost savage. The +waters of the lake are deep and sullen, and the barren mountains, by +excluding the sun in much of his daily course, strengthen the gloomy +impressions. At the foot of this lake lie a few unornamented fields, +through which rolls a little brook, connecting it with the larger lake +of Crummock, and at the edge of this miniature domain, upon the road-side, +stands a cluster of cottages, so small and few, that in the richer tracts +of the island they would scarcely be complimented with the name of hamlet.” +The well-known story of Mary, the Beauty of Buttermere, with the beautiful +poem describing her woes, entitled, “Mary, the Maid of the Inn,” +has given to the village a more than common interest. As the melancholy +tale is told, Mary possessed great personal beauty, and, being the daughter +of the innkeeper, she fulfilled the duty of attendant upon visitors +to the house. Among these was a dashing young man who assumed +the aristocratic title of the Honourable Colonel Hope, brother of Lord +Hopeton, but whose real name was Hatfield, and who had taken refuge +from the arm of the law in the secluded hamlet of Buttermere. +Attracted by Mary’s charms, he vowed love and fidelity to her, +and she, in the guilelessness of her youth, responded to his overtures, +and became his wife. Soon after her marriage her husband was apprehended +on a charge of forgery—a capital crime in those days; he was convicted +at Carlisle of the offence, and forfeited his life on the scaffold. +Mary, some years afterwards, took to herself a second husband, a respectable +farmer in the neighbourhood, with whom she lived happily throughout +the remainder of her days. She died a few years ago amidst her +native hills.</p> +<p>While in this district the tourist will derive pleasure from visiting +Crummock Water, Lowes Water, and Wast Water.</p> +<p>A coach travels daily between Birthwaite (the terminus of the Kendal +and Windermere railway,) and Cockermouth, connecting the Whitehaven +and Maryport line with the former railway. By this or other conveyances +Cockermouth may easily be visited, as well as Whitehaven, Maryport, +etc.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>COCKERMOUTH is a neat market-town, and sends two members to Parliament. +The ancient castle was a fortress of great strength, but since the Civil +Wars it has lain in ruins. Traces of a Roman castrum, with other +antique remains, are to be seen in the neighbourhood. Wordsworth +was a native of Cockermouth, and Tickell, the poet, and Addison’s +friend, was born at Bridekirk, two miles distant. Inns:—The +Globe and Sun. Maryport is seven miles from the town, Workington +eight miles, Keswick (by Whinlatter) twelve miles, by Bassenthwaite +Water thirteen and a half miles, Whitehaven fourteen miles, Wigton sixteen +miles, and Carlisle twenty-seven miles.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>WHITEHAVEN, a market-town and seaport, in Cumberland, near the cliffs +called Scilly Bank, in the parish of St. Bees, contains about 16,000 +inhabitants. The Lowther family have large estates around the +town, with many valuable coal-mines. Coarse linens are manufactured +in the place; and a large maritime and coal trade is carried on there. +There is a spacious harbour, giving excellent accommodation to vessels +within it. “The bay and harbour are defended by batteries, +formerly consisting of upwards of a hundred pieces, but lately suffered +to fall into decay. These batteries received extensive additions +after the alarm caused by the descent of the notorious Paul Jones in +1778. This desperado, who was a native of Galloway, and had served +his apprenticeship in Whitehaven, landed here with thirty armed men, +the crew of an American privateer which had been equipped at Nantes +for this expedition. The success of the enterprise was, however, +frustrated by one of the company, through whom the inhabitants were +placed on the alert. The only damage they succeeded in doing was +the setting fire to three ships, one of which was burnt. They +were obliged to make a precipitate retreat, and, having spiked the guns +of the battery, they escaped unhurt to the coast of Scotland, where +they plundered the house of the Earl of Selkirk.” Among +the principal residences in the neighbourhood of Whitehaven are, Whitehaven +Castle, the seat of the Earl of Lonsdale, and Moresby Hall, built after +a design by Inigo Jones.</p> +<p><i>Inns</i>.—Black Lion and Golden Lion.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>ST. BEES, in which parish Whitehaven is situated, is four miles to +the south of Whitehaven. The church, dedicated to St. Bega, is +an ancient structure, and is still in tolerable preservation. +Until 1810 the chancel was unroofed, but in that year it was repaired, +and is now occupied as a college, for the reception of young men intended +for the church, but not designed to finish their studies at Oxford or +Cambridge. The grammar-school adjacent was founded by Archbishop +Grindal. Ennerdale Lake is nine miles to the east of Whitehaven, +from which town it is easily reached.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>MARYPORT is a modern seaport on the river Ellen. The town is +advancing in prosperity, and the population rapidly increasing: an excellent +maritime trade is carried on between Maryport, Liverpool, Dublin, and +other places. The village of Ellenborough, from which the late +Lord Chief Justice Law derived his title, is in the vicinity of the +town.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>WORKINGTON stands on the south bank of the Derwent. Workington +Hall afforded an asylum to Mary Queen of Scots when she visited the +town.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>PENRITH, an ancient market town, containing about 7000 inhabitants, +is on the line of the Preston and Carlisle railway. The ruins +of the Castle, supposed to have been erected by Neville, Earl of Westmoreland, +overlook the town from the west. It is built of the red stone +of the district, and has suffered much from the action of the weather. +The court is now used as a farm-yard. The parish church, dedicated +to St. Andrew, is a plain structure of red stone. There are several +ancient monuments within the church; and in the south windows are portraits +of Richard, Duke of York, and Cicely Neville, his wife, the parents +of Edward IV. and Richard III. In the churchyard is a monument +called the “Giant’s Grave,” said to be the burial-place +of Owen Cæsarius, who was “sole king of rocky Cumberland” +in the time of Ida. Not far distant is another memorial, called +the “Giant’s Thumb.” Sir Walter Scott, on all +occasions when he visited Penrith, repaired to the churchyard to view +these remains. The new church, recently built at the foot of the +Beacon Hill, is in the Gothic perpendicular style of architecture. +“The Beacon,” a square stone building, is erected on the +heights to the north of the town. “The hill upon which the +beacon-tower stands,” we are informed by Mr. Phillips, “is +one of those whereon fires were lighted in former times, when animosities +ran high between the English and the Scotch, to give warning of the +approach of an enemy. A fiery chain of communication extended +from the Border, northwards as far as Edinburgh, and southwards into +Lancashire. An Act of the Scottish Parliament was passed, in 1455, +to direct that one bale should signify the approach of the English in +any manner; two bales that they were coming indeed; and four bales that +they were unusually strong. Sir Walter Scott, in his “Lay +of the Last Minstrel,” has given a vivid description of the beacons +blazing through the gloom like ominous comets, and startling the night:—</p> +<blockquote><p> “A score of fires<br /> +From height and hill and cliff were seen;<br /> +Each with warlike tidings fraught,<br /> +Each from each the signal caught,<br /> +Each after each they glanced to sight<br /> +As stars arise upon the night.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The antiquities in the neighbourhood are numerous and interesting; +and the prospects from the heights are extensive and picturesque. +Ulleswater, Helvellyn, Skiddaw, Saddleback, some of the Yorkshire hills, +and Carlisle Cathedral can be distinctly seen on a clear day. +BROUGHAM CASTLE is situated one mile and three-quarters from Penrith. +It was one of the strongholds of the great Barons of the Borders in +the feudal times. At present it is in a very decayed state, but +still is majestic in its ruins. Its earliest owner was John de +Veteripont, from whose family it passed by marriage into the hands of +the Cliffords and Tuftons successively, and it is now the property of +Sir John Tufton. Tradition records, but on what authority we know +not, that Sir Philip Sidney wrote part of his “Arcadia” +at this baronial mansion. Wordsworth’s “Song at the +Feast of Brougham Castle” is one of his noblest lyrical effusions. +“The Countess’s Pillar,” a short distance beyond the +castle, was erected in 1656 by Lady Anne Clifford, as “a memorial +of her last parting at that place with her good and pious mother, Margaret, +Countess Dowager of Cumberland, the 2nd of April, 1616, in memory whereof +she has left the annuity of £4, to be distributed to the poor, +within the parish of Brougham, every 2nd day of April for ever, upon +a stone hereby. Laus Deo.” This was the Lady Anne +Clifford of whom it was said by the facetious Dr. Donne, that she could +“discourse of all things, from predestination to slea silk.” +Her well-known answer, returned to a ministerial application as to the +representation of Appleby, shows the spirit and decision of the woman:—“I +have been bullied by an usurper (the Protector Cromwell), I have been +neglected by a Court, but I’ll not be dictated to by a subject—your +man shan’t stand!”</p> +<p>About two miles from Penrith is the curious antique relic called +<i>Arthur’s Round Table</i>, already referred to. It is +a circular area above twenty yards in diameter, surrounded by a fosse +and mound. Six miles north-east of Penrith are the ancient remains, +<i>Long Meg and her Daughters</i>. DACRE CASTLE is situated five +miles west-south-west of Penrith. BROUGHAM HALL, the seat of Henry, +Lord Brougham and Vaux, stands on an eminence near the river Lowther, +a short distance from the ruins of Brougham Castle. It has been +termed, from its elevated position and the prospects it commands, “The +Windsor of the north.” The mansion and grounds are exceedingly +beautiful, and will repay the tourist for his visit thereto. LOWTHER +CASTLE, the residence of the Earl of Lonsdale, is in the same district, +and is one of the most princely halls in the kingdom, erected in a park +of 600 acres. Hackthorpe Hall, a farm-house, is contiguous, and +was the birth-place of John, first Viscount Lonsdale. Shap (anciently +Heppe), a long straggling village in the vicinity, and near which is +a station on the Preston and Carlisle Railway, has derived some note +from the elevated moors close by, known by the name of Shap Fells. +Shap Spa, in the midst of the moors, attracts crowds of visitors during +the summer season. The spring is said to yield medicinal waters +similar to those of Leamington.</p> +<p><i>Inns</i>.—Greyhound, and King’s Arms.</p> +<p>In closing this rapid sketch of the Lake District we may add, that +the leading mountains in Cumberland and Westmoreland are thirty-five +in number; the passes, five; the lakes, eighteen; and the waterfalls, +twelve. “WANDERINGS AMONG THE LAKES,” a companion +volume to this, now in preparation, will form a useful illustrated guide +to their most remarkable features.</p> +<h2>HOME.</h2> +<p>Following that plan of contrasts which travellers generally find +most agreeable, we should advise that tourists, taking their route southward, +will avail themselves of the North Staffordshire lines to visit two +of the most beautiful mansions, if they were foreign we should say palaces, +in England—Alton Towers, the seat of the Earl of Shrewsbury, and +Trentham Hall, the seat of the Duke of Sutherland, and conclude by investigating +the Porcelain Manufactories, which, founded by Wedgwood, are carried +on with excellent spirit and taste by a number of potters, among whom +Alderman Copeland and Mr. Herbert Minton are pre-eminent.</p> +<p>Alton Towers stand near Cheadle, on the Churnet Valley Line; Trentham +Hall not far from Stoke.</p> +<p>A day may be pleasantly spent in examining the elaborate gardens +of Alton, which are a magnificent specimen of the artificial style of +landscape gardening. Mr. Loudon gives a very elaborate description +of them in his large work on the subject of gardens to great houses.</p> +<p>At Cheadle the Earl of Shrewsbury has erected at his own expense, +Mr. Pugin being his architect, a small Roman Catholic Church, which +is a magnificent specimen of that gentleman’s taste in the “decorated” +style. “Heraldic emblazonments, and religious emblems, painting +and gilding, stained glass, and curiously-wrought metal work, imageries +and inscriptions, rood loft and reredos, stone altar and sedilia, metal +screenwork, encaustic paving, make up the gorgeous spectacle.”</p> +<p>The doors of the principal entrance are <i>painted red</i>, and have +gilt hinges fashioned in the shape of rampant lions spreading over nearly +their entire surface.</p> +<p>In one of the canopied niches is a figure, representing the present +Earl of Shrewsbury kneeling, with a model of the church in his hand +as the founder, with his “<i>patron</i>,” St. John the Baptist, +standing behind him.</p> +<p>This Cheadle Church, in which Mr. Pugin has had full scope on a small +scale for the indulgence of his gorgeous faith and fancies, reminds +us that at Oscot College, within sight of the smoke of Birmingham and +Wolverhampton, towns where the best locks, clasps, hasps, bolts, and +hinges can be made; the doors and windows, in deference to Mr. Pugin’s +mediæval predilections, are of the awkward clumsy construction +with which our ancestors were obliged to be content for want of better. +On the same principle the floors ought to have been strewed with rushes, +the meat salt, the bread black rye, and manuscript should supersede +print. But it is not so, there is no school in the kingdom where +the youth are better fed, or made more comfortable than at Oscot.</p> +<p>TRENTHAM has a delicious situation on the Trent, which forms a lake +in the park, inhabited by swans and monstrous pike. The Hall used +to be one of the hideous brick erections of the time of pigtails and +laced waistcoats,—the footman style of dress and architecture. +But the genius of Barry (that great architect whom the people on the +twopenny steamboats seem to appreciate more than some grumbling members +of the House of Commons) has transformed, without destroying it, into +a charming Italian Villa, with gardens, in which the Italian style has +been happily adapted to our climate; for instance, round-headed laurels, +grown for the purpose, taking the place of orange trees.</p> +<p>This Trentham Hall used to be one of the magical pictures of the +coach road, of which the railway robbed us. For miles before reaching +it, we used to look out for the wooded park, with its herds of mottled +deer, and the great lake, where the sight of the swans always brought +up that story of the big pike, choked like a boa, with a swan’s +neck. A story that seems to belong to every swan-haunted lake.</p> +<p>But what one railway took from us another has restored much improved. +So we say to all friends, at either end of the lines, take advantage +of an excursion, or express train, according to your means, and go and +see what we cannot at this time describe, and what exceeds all description. +For the hour, you may enjoy Trentham Hall as much as if it were your +own, with all the Bridgwater Estates, Mines, Canals, and Railways to +boot. And that is the spirit in which to enjoy travelling. +Admiration without envy, and pity without contempt.</p> +<p>From Trentham you may proceed through the Potteries. You will +find there a church built, and we believe endowed, by a manufacturer, +Mr. Herbert Minton. And then you may have a choice of routes. +But to London the most direct will be by Tamworth and Lichfield, on +the Trent Valley line.</p> +<p>To those who look below the surface, who care to know something about +the workman as well as the work, such a tour as we have traced could +not fail to be of the deepest interest. It embraces the whole +course of the emigration from low wages to higher that is constantly +flowing in this country. New sources of employment daily arising +in mines, in ports, in factories, demand labour; to supply that labour +recruits are constantly marching from the country lane to the paved +city.</p> +<p>The agricultural districts of Staffordshire have a population of +under two hundred souls per square mile. The pottery and iron +districts of the same county of over seven hundred. These swarms +of men are not had where they labour, they are immigrants. Take +another instance, in Kent and Devonshire, the wages of farm labourers +are eight to nine shillings a-week. In North Cheshire they are +fifteen. The cost of living to the labourer in both places is +about the same; fuel is cheap in Cheshire. What makes the difference +in the demand for labour in Cheshire but the steam-engines?</p> +<p>Towns must be prepared to lodge decently, and educate carefully, +children of rural immigrants, or woe betide us all. It is education +that has saved the United States from the consequences of the tide of +ignorant misery daily disembarking on the Atlantic shores.</p> +<p>Sometimes we hear fears for the condition of farmers under manufacturer +landlords. Those who express these fears must have travelled with +their ears shut. More than seventy per cent. of the great landowners +in the great travelling counties are manufacturers, or merchants, or +lawyers, by one or two descents. In Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire, +or Warwickshire, examine closely, and you will find it so. As +a general rule, a rich pawnbroker <i>retired</i> will make a better +landlord than a poor baronet. But in this country two generations +will make one of the baronet’s sons a successful shopkeeper, and +the pawnbroker’s a baronet, or even a peer.</p> +<p>“I tell you what, sir,” said a talkative stud groom once, +in charge of race horses for Russia, and travelling first class, “I’ve +been in Petersburg, in Vienna, and in Berlin, and I lived ten years +with the Earl of ----. For all the points of blood our aristocracy +will beat any of these foreign princes, counts, and dukes, either for +figure or for going; but it won’t do to look into their pedigree, +for the crosses that would ruin a race of horses, are the making of +the breed of English noblemen.”</p> +<p>Here our irregular imperfect guidance ceases. Perhaps, although +deficient in minuteness of detail, this <i>pot pourri</i> of gossip, +history, description, anecdote, suggestion, and opinion, may not only +amuse the traveller by railway, but assist him in choosing routes leading +to those scenes or those pursuits in which he feels an interest.</p> +<h2>NOTES.</h2> +<p><a name="footnote67"></a><a href="#citation67">{67}</a> The +operation of this personal influence on the individual boys with whom +he was brought into contact, was much assisted by the system which about +this time began to prevail at public schools, of giving each boy a small +room called “a study” of his own, in which he might keep +his books, and where he could enjoy privacy. The writer, who was +at a public school both when all the boys lived in one great school-room +in which privacy was impossible and after the separate studies were +introduced, would wish to record his earnest conviction of the advantage +of the present plan of separate studies,—of the vital influence +it has on the formation of character, no less than of habits of study +in the young. He can well remember how every better impression +or graver thought was effaced, often never to return, as the boy came +out from the master’s room or from reading a letter from home, +and was again immersed in the crowd and confusion of the one common +school-room of such a school as Winchester. He would here venture +to suggest that the plan of separate sleeping-rooms, like those in the +model lodging-houses, would present equal advantage with that of separate +studies, and might be introduced at little expense in public schools. +It has already been introduced in the Roman Catholic College at Oscot.</p> +<p><a name="footnote71"></a><a href="#citation71">{71}</a> He +appeared, in religious <i>feeling</i>, to approach the Evangelical party +at more points than any other; pungently describing them, nevertheless, +when he said—“A good Christian, with a low understanding, +a bad education, and ignorance of the world, becomes an Evangelical.” +He appears to have died before he came to the application of the rules +of German criticism (in which he followed Niebuhr in history) to theological +subjects. It is curious to speculate on what the result would +have been in the mind of this ardent Anglo-Protestant and lover of truth.</p> +<p><a name="footnote81"></a><a href="#citation81">{81}</a> These +letters, full of information and suggestion, are attributed to Charles +Mackay, Esq., LL.D., the well-known poet and prose writer.</p> +<p><a name="footnote113"></a><a href="#citation113">{113}</a> +We were happy to find, while these sheets were passing through the press, +that the Birmingham Corporation have introduced a Bill for absorbing +the petty commissionership of the suburbs, which, once distant villages, +now form part of the borough; and that they seek for power to compel +efficient drainage and ample supply of water. To do all this will +be expensive, but not extravagant; nothing is so dear to a town as dirt, +with its satellites, disease, drunkenness, and crime. We sincerely +trust that the Corporation will succeed in obtaining such ample powers +as will render thorough drainage compulsory, and cause clean water to +be no longer a luxury. Some of the opposition call themselves +Conservatives. In this instance it means of dirt, fees, and bills +of costs.</p> +<p><a name="footnote125a"></a><a href="#citation125a">{125a}</a> +1 Eliz., c.15.</p> +<p><a name="footnote125b"></a><a href="#citation125b">{125b}</a> +Edited by the Rev. Montgomery Maherne.</p> +<p><a name="footnote126"></a><a href="#citation126">{126}</a> +“Touchinge an anvyle wch he did sett for a yere. The bargayne +is witnessed by two persons, viz., John Wallis Clerke, minister of Porlocke, +and John Bearde of Selworthye, who sayeth that about our Lady-day last +past, R. H. did sell to heire the said anvyle to the said Thomas Sulley +at a rent of iii.s. iiii.d. for the yere.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote127"></a><a href="#citation127">{127}</a> +Showing that the manufactory of muskets had then commenced in England, +contrary to Hutton’s statement, see p.85 <i>ante</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote130"></a><a href="#citation130">{130}</a> +The best way to Wednesbury is by an iron Canal Boat, drawn by horses, +at ten miles an hour. The Inn is the Royal Oak, kept by a droll +character. The event of his life is having seen the Duke of Wellington +driving over Westminster Bridge in a curricle. To obtain a good +view, as the horses went slowly up the ascent, he caught hold of a trace +and hopped backwards for twenty yards with his mouth open.</p> +<p><a name="footnote138"></a><a href="#citation138">{138}</a> +See Cathrall’s <i>Wanderings in North Wales</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote144"></a><a href="#citation144">{144}</a> +See <i>Heberts on Railroads</i>, p.19.</p> +<p><a name="footnote151"></a><a href="#citation151">{151}</a> +We may add that, in 1850, about 160,000 emigrants embarked from the +port chiefly for the United States, employing 600 large vessels of 500,000 +tons.</p> +<p><a name="footnote159"></a><a href="#citation159">{159}</a> +The Earl of Derby has died while these sheets were passing through the +press.</p> +<p><a name="footnote172"></a><a href="#citation172">{172}</a> +At the Great Exhibition of Industry of 1851, Mr. G. Wallis, at +the suggestion of the Board of Trade, had the management and arrangement +of the department of manufactures.</p> +<p><a name="footnote193"></a><a href="#citation193">{193}</a> +Mr. Francis Fuller, whose plan of management on this estate affords +a model for both English and Irish landowners, is the gentleman, who, +after taking most active and vigorous means, in co-operation with Mr. +Scott Russell and Mr. Henry Cole, for bringing before the public Prince +Albert’s plan of a Great Exhibition of Industry of All Nations, +alone saved the whole scheme from being abandoned before it was made +public, by finding contractors in Messrs. Mundays to advance the £100,000, +and who did actually advance £21,000, without which the President +of the Board of Trade refused to issue the Royal Commission, on which +the whole success of the scheme rested. Until the scheme was safely +launched, Mr. Fuller, as a Member of the Executive Committee, devoted +his time, and freely expended his money, for the purpose of supporting +this great undertaking. When it was fairly launched the care of +his important business, of which Middleton forms a very small part, +occupied the greater part of his time, and hence his name has appeared +less in conjunction with that splendid triumph of Industry than those +of other gentlemen.</p> +<p><a name="footnote209"></a><a href="#citation209">{209}</a> +A little boy undergoing the operation of being flogged, in the manner +that Mother Hubbard performed the deed before sending the children to +bed.</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RIDES ON RAILWAYS***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 13271-h.htm or 13271-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/2/7/13271 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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