33 chapters
8 hour read
Selected Chapters
33 chapters
PREFACE.
PREFACE.
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
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
LONDON AND NORTH WESTERN RAILWAY.
LONDON AND NORTH WESTERN RAILWAY.
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. Euston, including its dependency, Camden Station, is the greatest
12 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
EUSTON STATION.
EUSTON STATION.
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 pas
10 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE MIXED TRAIN.
THE MIXED TRAIN.
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. Carriages require very careful packing on a truck. At the principal statio
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CAMDEN STATION.
CAMDEN STATION.
But thus gossiping, we have reached Camden Station, and must take advantage of an unusual 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. 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 fo
17 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
AYLESBURY.
AYLESBURY.
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. Among other changes, the Aylesbury butchers often
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
WOBURN AND BEDFORD.
WOBURN AND BEDFORD.
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. 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. It was at Woburn that Francis, Duke of Bedford, held his sheep-shearing feasts, and by patronising, in conjunction with Coke of
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE BUCKS RAILWAY.
THE BUCKS RAILWAY.
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, execute
34 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
BANBURY.
BANBURY.
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— “Ride a cock horse To Banbury Cross,” is sung. Unfortunately, the Puritans, in the time of Edward VI., pulled this famous cross down. They were in great force there; for as
22 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CONSTITUTION AND COSTUME OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD.
CONSTITUTION AND COSTUME OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD.
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. 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.
8 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
WOLVERTON STATION.
WOLVERTON STATION.
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. 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 d
15 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
BLISWORTH, NORTHAMPTON.
BLISWORTH, NORTHAMPTON.
From Blisworth branches out the line to Peterborough, with sixteen stations, of which we name above the more important. 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. The first station is Northampton. NORTHAMPTON, on a hill on the banks of the river Nene, is a remarkably pleasant town, with several fine old building
9 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
WEEDON.
WEEDON.
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. BRIDGE IN THE BLISWORTH EMBANKMENT 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 se
55 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
RUGBY AND ITS RAILWAYS.
RUGBY AND ITS RAILWAYS.
Rugby, 83 miles from London, the centre of a vast network of railways, is our next halting place. 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. 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.
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
“ARNOLD AND HIS SCHOOL.”
“ARNOLD AND HIS SCHOOL.”
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 discip
10 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
COVENTRY TO BIRMINGHAM,
COVENTRY TO BIRMINGHAM,
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 Lichfiel
2 hour read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
HEALTH AND EDUCATION.
HEALTH AND EDUCATION.
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.” 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 healthie
11 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
WARWICK, LEAMINGTON, KENILWORTH, STRATFORD ON AVON.
WARWICK, LEAMINGTON, KENILWORTH, STRATFORD ON AVON.
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
13 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
SOHO. WATT, BOULTON, MURDOCH.
SOHO. WATT, BOULTON, MURDOCH.
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 comfor
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE BLACK COUNTRY. WALSALL, DUDLEY, WEDNESBURY, DARLASTON.
THE BLACK COUNTRY. WALSALL, DUDLEY, WEDNESBURY, DARLASTON.
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,
27 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
STAFFORD.
STAFFORD.
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 an
20 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
LIVERPOOL.
LIVERPOOL.
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. 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. Liverpool has no antiquities of any mark; the public buildings
53 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
MANCHESTER MANUFACTURES.
MANCHESTER MANUFACTURES.
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 t
18 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE ROAD TO YORKSHIRE.
THE ROAD TO YORKSHIRE.
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. The visit requires no distant journey. It
8 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
YORKSHIRE.
YORKSHIRE.
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. 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
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
LEEDS.
LEEDS.
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 s
18 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THROUGH LINCOLNSHIRE TO SHEFFIELD.
THROUGH LINCOLNSHIRE TO SHEFFIELD.
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. The aldermen of Hull are of the ancient kind—“ slow ,” in the most emphatic sense of the term. For proof,—we have only need to examine their d
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
SHEFFIELD.
SHEFFIELD.
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. 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. The town is very ugly and gloomy; it is scarcely possible to say that there is a single good street, or an imposing or inte
15 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
DERBYSHIRE.
DERBYSHIRE.
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 wa
19 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
FROM CHESHIRE TO NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE.
FROM CHESHIRE TO NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE.
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, Tria juncta in uno , 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 ra
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE LAKES.
THE LAKES.
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. 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), via Park
27 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
HOME.
HOME.
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 carrie
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
NOTES.
NOTES.
{67} 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 introduce
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter