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LANCASHIRE, the chief seat of the cotton manufacture, extends along the coast of the Irish Sea, and consists of two portions, a small northerly section being detached by the intervention of Morecambe Bay. This isolated tract is the hundred of Furness, also termed 'North of the Sands,' an integral part of the Cumbrian mountain-region. It contains Coniston Water, the third of the lakes in size, with Coniston Old Man, 2577 feet in height, and the small port of Ulverstone. Walney Island, ten miles long, and nowhere more than a mile broad, being very narrow and low, lies off the shore, stretching southsouth-east from the estuary of the Duddon. It contains a considerable extent of moss, the remains of an ancient forest. The remainder of the county has a coast-line broken with inlets, through which the Lune, Wyre, Ribble, and Mersey reach the sea; and a surface consisting of sandy maritime flats, numerous peat-mosses, and high grounds towards the

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Yorkshire border. The prime natural feature of the county is the great coal-field, which ranges in the form of a crescent, from the central to the southern districts, wrought upon an extensive scale for the supply of the manufacturing establishments upon its surface, and the domestic use of the vast population congregated in the locality. Though now more densely peopled than any other part of the realm after Middlesex, and a wonderful theatre of invention and activity, nearly the whole region was once very desolate, where scarcely penetrable forests alternated with moors, either clothed with heather and brushwood, or presenting a series of marshes and shaking bogs. In the time of James I., the antiquary Camden approached its frontier with dread, and commended himself to the Divine protection on entering its tangled wilds. In the early stages of parliamentary representation, through six successive reigns, the sheriffs made the return that there were no cities or boroughs within its bounds, from which any citizens or burgesses ought, or have been accustomed to come to parliament, by reason of their poverty.' Its many great towns and crowded parishes have been formed during the cotton-manufacturing era, and chiefly since the application of machinery and steam-power to production.

LIVERPOOL AND BIRKENHEAD.

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Liverpool, on the right bank of the Mersey, near the mouth of the river, which forms the harbour, is now second only to the metropolis in point of population. It is the chief port of entry for raw cotton, and of export for cotton fabrics, while carrying on a vast miscellaneous commerce with all parts of the kingdom, and every country of the globe. The public buildings are remarkable for magnitude and architectural execution, while the docks form a chain of basins extending from four to five miles along the river, with a total quay space fourteen miles in length. Seen from the bosom of the broad stream, the view of the forest of shipping, with the flags of all nations flying, with warehouses, churches, and other edifices, is in the highest degree imposing. It might be mistaken by a stranger for the capital of a powerful state, and is indeed excelled by few continental capitals, not merely in size and wealth, but in institutions as well for social and educational improvement, for the promotion of science, literature, and art. A Free Public Library, of recent foundation by one of its 'merchant princes,' has reached an average daily issue of several thousands of volumes. Few things are more surprising than the quick yet solid growth of its commercial greatness, with the increase of its inhabitants. According to the best accounts that can be obtained, the population somewhat exceeded five thousand at the commencement of the last century, and is now rapidly advancing

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to half a million. Liverpool shares with Manchester the distinction of having originated the First Grand British Experimental Railway, connecting the two places, opened September 15, 1830. The scheme was contemplated principally to facilitate the transit of raw produce and goods, which was so enormous, amounting to 1200 tons daily, that the canals and road wagons had long been utterly inadequate to accommodate manufacturers and merchants in reasonable time. Passenger traffic was a very subordinate consideration. In the execution of this work, Chat Moss, one of the most extensive and dangerous of the Lancashire bogs, deemed utterly irreclaimable, was drained. It consisted of a covering of long, coarse, sedgy grass and heath, overlying a spongy moss, in some places thirty feet deep, nearly the whole of which has now been turned to profitable account.

In the south-east quarter of the county, Manchester and Salford, though separate boroughs, form one continuous city, simply divided by the narrow stream of the Irwell, over which numerous bridges are thrown. The population falls slightly below that of Liverpool. Though of ancient date, having been a Roman station, if not an old British settlement, Manchester has no venerable structures, except a collegiate church, which became a cathedral by the constitution of the bishopric in 1847. But it is amply supplied with spacious streets, commodious commercial buildings, literary and benevolent institutes, and public parks, suitable to its character as a great industrial centre, the capital of the cotton-manufacturing district. Factories and warehouses are everywhere prominent. The latter are occasionally superb palatial structures, while the former are simply huge piles of brick studded with multitudinous windows, yet remarkable generally in the interior for cleanliness, ventilation, regulated temperature, and orderly economy. There are upwards of two hundred of the first-class, from five to eight stories in height. Besides cotton-mills; silk, flax, print, and

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chemical works are numerous, with brass and iron foundries, and almost every branch of industry is represented. A recent experiment, that of Public Dining Rooms for artisans, promises to be a great social improvement. Manchester has not been connected with many events of historical importance; but the first blood that stained its streets was shed in the contest between Charles I. and the parliament. At the beginning of the Georgian era, it was described by Dr Stukeley as 'the largest, most rich, populous, and busy village in England.' There were then four cumbrous private carriages in the place. Its prosperity is mainly due to the introduction of machinery, and the proximity of a rich coal-field. The first steam-engine was set up in 1790. Dalton, the great chemist, was a native. In the immediate vicinity Oldham and Ashtonunder-Lyme are remarkable for the rapidity with which they have advanced from small hamlets to great municipalities.

The other cotton towns have similar general features; but in a few instances, points of particular interest are attached to them. Preston, on the north bank of the Ribble, near the head of its estuary, is of great antiquity, said to have its name, originally Priests Town, from the number of religious houses which it once

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contained. Guilds are celebrated every twenty years, when the trades meet, and hold a jubilee. Arkwright, the successful constructor of the water-frame, was a native, and made here his first attempt to improve the machinery. Blackburn, to the eastward, produced Hargreaves, the inventor of the spinning-jenny. Bolton, is similarly associated with Crompton, a poor weaver, who contrived the mule-jenny, after devoting every spare moment through five years to the task. He then occupied a garret at the Hall-in-the-Wood, an old manor-house, in a retired and beautiful spot, close to the town. During the great civil war Bolton suffered severely, especially when it was taken by storm by the Royalists under Prince Rupert and the Earl of Derby. In remembrance of this, the earl, when captured at the battle of Worcester, was removed to the town, and publicly beheaded. The production of woollen goods is largely combined with the staple manufacture of the county at Bury and Rochdale, with that of glass and small hardwares at Warrington. In connection with the former town, the first Sir Robert Peel made his fortune, and at Chamber Hall, in the neighbourhood, his son, the great statesman, was born. On a lofty adjoining height, commanding an extensive view, a monument to the memory of the latter has been erected. Wigan, Burnley

YORK MOORS AND YORKSHIRE WOLDS.

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and Staley Bridge have large artizan populations. Blackpool, Southport, Lytham, and Fleetwood are watering-places on the coast, the latter of very recent date, its site having been a rabbit-warren when the age of railways commenced.

Lancaster, the county town, towards the north extremity of the county, on the south bank of the Lune, is of little importance in comparison with the hives of industry in the centre and south, but retains a fine feudal castle on a commanding site, which renders it a striking feature in the general view of the town.

YORKSHIRE, the largest county of England, and the third in point of population, lies on the North Sea, between the estuaries of the Tees and the Humber; and has an area exceeding that of the continental kingdom of Saxony. It consists generally of a long

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central valley, stretching south-south-east from the northern frontier, and gradually widening till it terminates in a series of extensive and somewhat swampy levels. This valley is bounded by tracts of considerable elevation. Eastward are the York Moors and Yorkshire Wolds, separated by the vale of Pickering; and westward are the Pennine highlands, which rise in Whernside, Ingleborough, and Pennigant, to the respective heights of 2384, 2361, and 2270 feet above the sea. Nearly the whole drainage of the surface is conducted by the Ouse through the central valley to the Humber. The river has its remotest and principal source at Swalehead, on the mountain of Shunnor Fell, near the border-line towards Westmoreland. It is formed by the junction of the Swale

and Yore below the town of Boroughbridge, and receives on its flow the Nidd from Knaresborough, the Wharfe from Tadcaster, the Aire from Leeds, the Derwent from Malton, and the Don from Sheffield. Tidal water ascends the channel to a lock about four miles below York. Several of the affluents are connected with scenes of great natural magnificence in the upper parts of their course. The county consists of three principal divisions, the North, East, and West Ridings. Agriculture is chiefly pursued in the two former. Manufactures and collieries distinguish the latter. Its coal-field

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ranges from the north-east of Leeds southward into the counties of Derby and Nottingham, a distance of more than sixty miles. Iron ore in vast abundance is extracted from it, smelted at the spot, and worked up in great foundry establishments into massive hardwares. In addition to the large local consumption of the coal for this purpose, and for household use, it competes by means of the railways with sea-borne coal in the metropolitan market.

The city of York, on the banks of the Ouse, is centrally seated in the great river valley, at the convergence of the three ridings, but is associated with the northern for electoral purposes. Founded in the earliest historic times of Britain, it was a metropolis under the Romans, where died the Emperors Severus and Constantius Chlorus, and where the son of the latter, Constantine the Great, was born. In the primitive Saxon age, it was the capital of Northumbria, became an archiepiscopal see, acquired continental fame as a seat of learning, possessed a library which had few rivals abroad at the period, and produced Alcuin, the best scholar of his day, the pupil of Bede and the counsellor of Charlemagne. It has since been conspicuous in most of the great epochs and events of the nation's annals, and is now the second city of the kingdom in point of ecclesiastical rank, as the seat of the northern archbishopric. The walls to a considerable extent remain, forming an agreeable promenade; and four principal gates, with a few of the posterns, are extant. The castle, a restoration on the site of the old fortress, used as a prison, contains 'Clifford's Tower' within its enclosure, a memento of the past preserved with the most scrupulous care. But the object of special interest is the minster or cathedral, commenced in its present form in the twelfth century, and completed in the fifteenth, the finest ecclesiastical edifice in the empire. Five miles to the south-west of the city is Marston Moor, where the Royalists were disastrously defeated by Cromwell at the close of a summer day in 1644. A few miles further on, in the same direction, lies the battle-field of Towton, the scene of a murderous conflict during the Wars of the Roses, fought in a snow-storm on Palm Sunday 1461. Small

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