Echoes of Old LancashireAxon, William E. A. (William Edward Armytage)
History
Echoes of Old Lancashire
Axon, William E. A. (William Edward Armytage)
Lancashire (England) -- History
avenue for the satisfaction of polite curiosity would be afforded by
the study of the wonderful work in which Tobias Swinden discourses at
large on the “Nature and Place of Hell,” and proves to his own
satisfaction that “the fire of hell is not metaphorical but real,” and
shows “the probability of the sun’s being the local hell.” At the end
of the catalogue is an advertisement of a proposed musical circulating
library, in which the neglect of church music is affirmed; “and if we
continue our present fondness for things in the sing-song way, ’tis
great odds but our present taste will be entirely changed, and, like
some of our modern religious sects, we shall be so distressed as to rob
the stage and playhouse to support and enrich our churches.” This is
supported by a reference to “the Methodists, as they are call’d,” and
their use of song tunes. The volume contains supplementary lists of
additions down to June, 1768. These include the first edition of
Chaucer and “The Vicar of Wakefield,” then in the early flush of fame.
For the members not satisfied with Glanvill’s speculations, there had
been added Berrow’s “Lapse of Human Souls in a State of Pre-existence,”
and the studious character of the Mancunians received a delicate
compliment by the purchase of Tissot’s “Treatise on the Diseases
Incident to Literary Persons.” The additional subscribers included Mr.
Nathaniel Philips, Rev. Mr. Dauntesey, and the Rev. John Pope. The
number of works in the library in June, 1768, was 586, representing
perhaps twice that number of volumes.
Hugh of Manchester:
A Statesman and Divine of the Thirteenth Century.[10]
“Let me be the remembrancer,” says Fuller when describing the worthies
of Lancashire, “that Hugh of Manchester in this county wrote a book in
the reign of King Edward the First, intituled, ‘De Fanaticorum
Deliriis’ (Of the Dotages of Fanatics). At which time an impostor had
almost made Eleanor the queen-mother mad, by reporting the posthume
miracles done by her husband, King Henry the Third, till this our Hugh
settled her judgment aright. I could wish some worthy divine (with such
Lancashire doth abound) would resume this subject, and shew how ancient
and modern fanatics, though differing much in their wild fancies and
opinions, meet together in a mutual madness and distraction.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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