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Index:First impressions of England and its people.djvu

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Title First Impressions of England and its People
Author Hugh Miller
Year 1873
Publisher Gould and Lincoln
Location Boston
Source djvu
Progress To be proofread
Transclusion Index not transcluded or unreviewed
Pages (key to Page Status)
- - - - - - - Frontispiece - - Title - v vi vii viii ix x xi xii xiii xiv xv xvi xvii xviii xix xx xxi xxii xxiii xxiv 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 - - - - - -

CONTENTS.


CHAPTER I.

Led to convert an intended Voyage to Orkney into a Journey to England—Objects of the Journey.—Carter Fell.—The Border Line.—Well for England it should have been so doggedly maintained by the weaker Country.—Otterburn.—The Mountain Limestone in England, what it is not in Scotland, a true Mountain Limestone.—Scenery changes as we enter the Coal Measures.—Wretched Weather.—Newcastle.—Methodists.—Controversy on the Atonement.—The Popular Mind in Scotland mainly developed by its Theology.—Newcastle Museum; rich in its Geology and its Antiquities; both branches of one subject.—Geologic History of the Roman Invasion.—Durham Cathedral.—The Monuments of Nature greatly more enduring than those of Man.—Cyathophyllum Fungites.—The Spotted Tubers, and what they indicated.—The Destiny of a Nation involved in the Growth of a minute Fungus

25
CHAPTER II.

Weather still miserably bad; suited to betray the frequent Poverty of English Landscape.—Gloomy Prospects of the Agriculturist.—Corn-Law League.—York; a true Sacerdotal City.—Cathedral; noble Exterior; Interior not less impressive; Congreve's sublime Description.—Unpardonable Solecism.—Procession.—Dean Cockbarn; Crus.ule against the Geologists.—Cathedral Service unworthy of the Cathedral.—Walk on the City Ramparts.—Flat Fertility of the surrounding Country.—The more interesting Passages in the History of York supplied by the Makers.—Robinson Crusoe.—Jeanie Dean3.—Trial of Eugene Aram.—Aram's real Character widely different from that drawn by the Novelist

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CHAPTER III.

Quit York for Manchester.—A Character.—Quaker Lady.—Peculiar Feature in the Husbandry of the Cloth District.—Leeds.—Simplicity manifested in the Geologic Framework of English Scenery.—The Denuding Agencies almost invariably the sole Architects of the Landscape.—Manchester; characteristic Peculiarities; the Irwell; Collegiate Churv a; light and elegant Proportions of the Building; its grotesque Sculptures; these indicative of the Scepticism of the Age in which they were produced.—St. Bartholomew's Day.—Sermon on Saints' Day.—Timothy's Grandmother.—The Puseyite a High Churchman become earnest.—Passengers of a Sunday Evening Train.—Sabbath Amusements not very conducive to Happiness.—The Economic Value of the Sabbath ill understood by the Utilitarian.—Testimony of History on the point

55
CHAPTER IV.

Quit Manchester for Wolverhampton.—Scenery of the New Rad Sand stone; apparent Repetition of Pattern.—The frequent Marshes of England; curiously represented in the National Literature; Influence on the National Superstitions.—Wolverhampton.—Peculiar Aspect of the Dudley Coal-field; striking Passage in its History.—The Rise of Birmingham into a great Manufacturing Town an Effect of the Development of its Mineral Treasures.— Upper Ludlow Deposit; Aymestrj Limestone; both Deposits of peculiar Interest to the Scotch Geologist - The Lingula Lewisii and Terebraiula Wilsoni.—General Resemblance of the Silurian Fossils to those of the Mountain Limestone.—First-born of the Vertebrata yet known.—Order of Creation.—The Wren's Nest.—Fossils of the Wenlock Limestone; in a State of beautiful Keeping.—Anecdote.—Asaphus Caudatus; common, it would seem, to both the Silurian and Carboniferous Rocks.—Limestone Miners.—Noble Gallery excavated in the Hill

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CHAPTER V.
Dudley; significant Marks of the Mining Town.—Kindly Scotch Land* lady.—Temperance Coffee-house.—Little Samuel the Teetotaller.—Curious Incident.—Anecdote.—The Resuscitated Spinet.—Forbearance of little Samuel.—Dudley Museum; singularly rich in Silurian Fossils.—Megalichthys Hibberti.—Fossils from Mount Lebanon; very modern compared with those of the Hill of Dudley.—Geology peculiarly fitted to revolutionize one's Ideas of Modern and Ancient.—Fossils of extreme Antiquity furnished by a Canadian Township that had no name twenty years ago.—Fossils from the Old Egyptian Desert found to be comparatively of Yesterday.—Dudley Castle and Castle-hill.—Cromwell's Mission.—Castle finds a faithful Chronicler in an old Serving-maid.—Her Narrative.—Caves and Fossils of the Castlehill.—Extensive Excavations.—Superiority of the Natural to the Artificial Cavern.—Fossils of the Scottish Grauwacke.—Analogy between the Female Lobster and the Trilobite 92
CHAPTER VI.
Stourbridge.— Effect of Plutonic Convulsion on the surrounding Scenery.—Hegley; Description in the "Seasons."—Geology the true Anatomy of Landscape. - Geologic Sketch of Hagley.—The Road to the Rices—The old Stone-cutter.—Thomson's Hollow.—His visits to Hagley—Shenstone's Urn.—Peculiarities of Taste founded often on a Substratum of Personal Character.—Illustration.—Rousseau.—Pope's Haunt.—Lyttelton's high Admiration of the Genius of Pope.—Description.—Singularly extensive and beautiful Landscape; drawn by Thomson.—Reflection.— Amazing Multiplicity of the Prospect illustrative of a Peculiarity in the Descriptions of the " Seasons."—Addison's Canon on Landscape; corroborated by Shenstone. 119
CHAPTER VII.
Hagley Parish Church.—The Sepulchral Marbles of the Lytteltons.—Epitaph on the Lady Lucy.—The Phrenological Doctrine of Hereditary Transmission; unsupported by History, save in a way in which History can be made to support anything.—Thomas Lord Lyttelton; his Moral Character a strange Contrast to that of his Father.—The Elder Lyttelton; his Death-bed.—Aberrations of the Younger Lord.—Strange Ghost Story; Curious Modes of accounting for it.—Return to Stourbridge.—Late Drive.—Hales Owen 138
CHAPTER VIII.
Abbotsford and the Leasowes.—The one place naturally suggestive of the other.—Shenstone.—The Leasowes his most elaborate Composition.—The English Squire and his Mill.—Hales Owen Abbey; interesting, as the Subject of one of Shenstone's larger Poems.—The old anti-Popish Feeling of England well exemplified by the Fact.—Its Origin and History.—Decline.—Infidelity naturally favorable to the Resuscitation and Reproduction of Popery.—The two Naileresses.—Cecilia and Delia.—Skeleton Description of the Leasowes.—Poetic filling up.—The Spinster.—The Fountain 157
CHAPTER IX.
Detour.—The Leasowes deteriorated wherever the Poet had built, and improved wherever he had planted.—View from the Hanging Wood.—Stratagem of the Island Screen.—Virgil's Grave.—Mound of the Hales Owen and Birmingham Canal; its sad Interference with Shenstone's Poetic Description of the Infancy of the Stour.—Vanished Cascade and Root-house.—Somerville's Urn.—"To all Friends round the Wrekin."—River Scenery of the Leasowes; their great Variety.—Peculiar Arts of the Poet; his Vistas, when seen from the wrong end, Realizations of Hogarth's Caricature.—Shenstone the greatest of Landscape Gardeners.—Estimate of Johnson.—Goldsmith's History of the Leasowes; their after History 175
CHAPTER X.
Shenstone's Verses.—The singular Unhappiness of his Paradise.—English Cider.—Scotch and English Dwellings contrasted.—The Nailers of Hales Owen; their Politics a Century ago.—Competition of the Scotch Nailers; unsuccessful, and why.—Samuel Salt, the Hales Owen Poet.—Village Church.—Salt Works at Droitwich; their great Antiquity.—Appearance of the Village.—Problem furnished by the Sal Deposits of England; various Theories.—Rock Salt deemed by some 8 Volcanic Product; by others the Deposition of an overcharged Sea; by yet others the Produce of vast Lagoons.—Leland.—The Manufacture of Salt from Sea-water superseded, even in Scotland, by the Rock Salt of England 193
CHAPTER XI.
Walk to the Clent Hills.—Incident in a Fruit Shop.—St. Kenelm's Chapel. -Legend of St. Kenelm.—Ancient Village of Clent; its Appearance and Character.—View from the Clent Hills.—Mr. Thomas Moss.—Geologic Peculiarities of the Landscape; Illustration.—The Scotch Drift.—Boulders; these transported by the Agency of Ice Floes.—Evidence of the Former Existence of a broad Ocean Channel.—The Geography of the Geologist.—Aspect of the Earth ever Changing.—Geography of the Palaeozoic Period; of the Secondary; of the Tertiary. —Ocean the great Agent of Change and Dilapidation. 209
pearance and Character.—View from the Clent Hills.—Mr. Thomas Moss.—Geologic Peculiarities of the Landscape; Illustration.—The Scotch Drift.—Boulders; these transported by the Agency of Ice Floes.—Evidence of the Former Existence of a broad Ocean Channel.—The Geography of the Geologist.—Aspect of the Earth ever Changing.—Geography of the Palaeozoic Period; of the Secondary; of the Tertiary. —Ocean the great Agent of Change and Dilapidation. 209
CHAPTER XII.
Geological Coloring of the Landscape.—Close Proximity in this Neighborhood of the various Geologic Systems.—The Oolite; its Medicinal Springs; how formed.—Cheltenham.—Strathpeffer.—The Saliferous System; its Organic Remains and Foot-prints.—Record of Curious Passages in the History of the Earlier Reptiles.—Salt Deposits.—Theory.—The Abstraction of Salt from the Sea on a large Scale probably necessary to the continued Existence of its Denizens.—Lower New Red Sandstone.—Great Geologic Revolution.—Elevation of the Trap.—Hills of Clent; Era of the Elevation.—Coal Measures; their three Forests in the Neighborhood of Wolverhampton.—Comparatively small Area of the Birmingham Coal-field.—Vast Coal-fields of the United States.—Berkeley's Prophecy.—Old Red Sandstone. —Silurian System.—Blank. 229
CHAPTER XIII.
Birmingham; incessant Clamor of the Place.—Toy-shop of Britain; Serious Character of the Games in which its Toys are chiefly employed—Museum.—Liberality of the Scientific English.—Musical Genius of Birmingham.—Theory.—Controversy with the Yorkers.—Anecote.—The English Language spoken very variously by the English;
in most cases spoken very ill.—English Type of Person.—Attend a Puseyite Chapel.—Puseyism a feeble Imitation of Popery.—Popish Cathedral.—Popery the true Resting-place of the Puseyite.—Sketch of the Rise and Progress of the Puseyite Principle; its purposed Object not attained; Hostility to Science.—English Funerals. 252
CHAPTER XIV.
Drive from Birmingham to Stratford rather tame.—Ancient Building:'n a modern-looking Street; of rude and humble Appearance.—" The Immortal Shakspeare born in this House."—Description of the Interior.—The Walls and Ceiling covered with Names.—Albums.—Shakspeare Scott, Dickens; greatly different in their Intellectual Stature, but yet all of one Family.—Principle by which to take their Measure.—No Dramatist ever draws an Intellect taller than his own.—Imitative Faculty.—The Reports of Dickens.—Learning of Shakspeare.—New Place.—The Rev. Francis Gastrall.—Stratford Church.—The Poet's Grave; his Bust; far superior to the idealized Representations.—The Avon.—The Jubilee, and Cowper's Description of it.— The true Hero Worship.—Quit Stratford for Olney.—Get into bad Company by the way.—Gentlemen of the Fancy.—Adventure. 276
CHAPTER XV.
Cowper; his singular Magnanimity of Character; Argument furnished Dy his latter Religious History against the Selfish Philosophy.—Valley of the Ouse.—Approach to Olney.—Appearance of the Town.—Cowper's House; Parlor; Garden—Pippin-tree planted by the Poet. Summer-house written within and without.—John Tawell.—Delightful Old Woman.—Weston-Underwood.—Thomas Scott's House.—The Park of the Throckmortons.—Walk described in 'The Task'— Wil
derness.—Ancient Avenue. —Alcove; Prospect which it commands. as drawn by Cowper.—Colonnade.—Rustic Bridge.—Scene of the "Needless Alarm."—The Milk Thistle 297
CHAPTER XVI.
Yardley Oak; of immense Size and imposing Appearance.—Cowper's Description singularly illustrative of his complete Mastery over Language.—Peasant's Nest.—The Poet's Vocation peculiarly one of Revolution.—The School of Pope; supplanted in its unproductive Old Age by that of Cowper.—Cowper's Coadjutors in the Work.—Economy of Literary Revolution—The old English Yeoman.—Quit Olney.—Companions in the Journey.—Incident.—Newport Pagnell.—Mr. Bull and the French Mystics.— Lady of the Fancy.—Champion of all England.—Pugilism.—Anecdote. 315
CHAPTER XVII.
Cowper and the Geologists.—Geology in the Poet's Days in a State of great Immaturity.—Case different now.—Folly of committing the Bible to a False Science.—Galileo.—Geologists at one in all their more important Deductions; vast Antiquity of the Ear.h one of these.—State of the Question.—Illustration.—Presumed Thickness of the Fossiliferous Strata.—Peculiar Order of their Organic Contents; of their Fossil Fish in particular, as ascertained by Agassiz.—The Geologic Races of Animals entirely different from those which sheltered with Noah in the Ark.—Alleged Discrepancy between Geologic Fact and the Mosaic Record not real.—Inference based on the opening Verses of the Book of Genesis. —Parallel Passage adduced to prove the Inference unsound.—The Supposition that Fossils may have been created such examined: unworthy of the Divine Wisdom; contrary to
the Principles which regulate Human Belief; subversive of the grand Argument founded on Design.—The profounder Theologians of the Day not Anti-Geologists.—Geologic Fact in reality of a kind fitted to perform important Work in the two Theologies, Natural and Revealed; subversive of the "Infinite-Series" Argument of the Atheist; subversive, too, of the Objection drawn by Infidelity from an Astronomical Analogy.—Counter-objection.—Illustration. 335
CHAPTER XVIII.
The Penny-a-mile Train and its Passengers.—Aunt Jonathan.—London by Night.—St. Paul's; the City as seen from the Dome.—The Lord Mayor's Coach.—Westminster Abbey.—The Gothic Architecture a less exquisite Production of the Human Mind than the Grecian.—Poets' Corner.—The Mission of the Poets.—The Tombs of the Kings.—The Monument of James Watt.—A humble Coffee-house and its Frequenters.—The Woes of Genius in London.—Old 110, Thames-street.—The Tower.—The Thames Tunnel.—Longings of the True Londoner for Rural Life and the Country; their Influence on Literature.—The British Museum; its splendid Collection of Fossil Remains.—Human Skeleton of Guadaloupe.—The Egyptian Room.—Domesticities of the Ancient Egyptians.—Cycle of Reproduction.—The Mummies. 366
CHAPTER XIX.
Harrow-on-the-Hill.—Descent through the Formations from the Tertiary to the Coal Measures.—Journey of a Hundred and Twenty Miles Northwards identical, geologically, with a journey of a Mile and a Quarter Downwards.—English very unlike Scottish Landscape in its Geologic Framework.—Birmingham Fair.—Credulity of the Rural English; striking Contrast which they furnish, in this Respect, to their Countrymen of the Knowing Type. -The English Grades of Intellectual Char-
acter of Immense Range; more in Extremes than those of the Scotch.—Front Rank of British Intellect in which there stands no Scotchman; probable Cause. —A Class of English, on the other Hand, greatly lower than the Scotch; naturally less Curious; acquire, in Consequence, less of the Developing Pabulum.—The main Cause of the Difference to be found, however, in the very dissimilar Religious Character of the two Countries.—The Scot naturally less independent than the Englishman; strengthened, however, where his Character most needs Strength, by his Religion.—The Independence of the Englishman subjected at the present Time to two distinct Adverse Influences,—the Modern Poor Law and the Tenant-at-will System.—Walsall.—Liverpool.—Sort of Lodging-houses in which one is sure to meet many Dissenters. 389
CHAPTER XX.
Dissent a Mid-formation Organism in England.—Church of Englandism strong among the Upper and Lower Classes: its Peculiar Principle of Strength among the Lower; among the Upper.—The Church of England one of the strongest Institutions of the Country.—Puseyism, however, a Canker-worm at its Root; Partial Success of the Principle.—The Type of English Dissent essentially different from that of Scotland; the Causes of the Difference deep in the Diverse Character of the two Peoples.—Insulated Character of the Englishman productive of Independency.—Adhesive Character of the Scotch productive of Presbyterianism.—Attempts to legislate for the Scotch in Chilian Matters on an English Principle always unfortunate.—Erastianism essentially a different thing to the English Churchman from what it is to the Scot.—Reason why.—Independent Scotch Congregation in a Rural District. —Rarely well based; and why.—Conclusion. 407