Homes and Haunts of the Most Eminent British Poets, Vol. 2 (of 2)Howitt, William
General
Homes and Haunts of the Most Eminent British Poets, Vol. 2 (of 2)
Howitt, William
Literary landmarks -- Great Britain; Poets, English -- Homes and haunts
mill-girls go cleaner and smarter, all with colored handkerchiefs tied
over their heads, chiefly bright red ones, and look very continental.
Dirty rows of children sit on dirty stone door-sills, and there are
strong scents of oat-cake and Genoa oil, and oily yarn. There is a
general smut of blackness over all, even in the very soil and dust.
And Methodist chapels--Salems and Ebenezers--are seen on all hands.
Who, that has ever been into a cloth-weaving district, does not see
the place and people?
Well, up to the very back of Fulneck, throng these crowds and
attributes of cloth manufacturing. Leaving the coach and the
high-road, I walked on three miles to the left, through this busy
smoke-land, and a large village, and then over some fields. Everywhere
were the features of a fine country, but like the features o the
people, full of soot, and with volumes of vapor rolling over it.
Coming, at length, to the back of a hill, I saw emerging, close under
my feet, a long row of stately roofs, with a belfry or cupola, crowned
with a vane in the center. These were the roofs of the Moravian
settlement of Fulneck, the back of which was toward me, and the front
toward a fine valley, on the opposite slope of which were fine woods,
and a fine old brick mansion. That is the house, and that the estate
of a Mr. Tempest, who will have no manufactory on his land. This is
the luckiest tempest that ever was heard of; for it keeps a good open
space in front of Fulneck clear, though it is elbowed up at each end,
and backed up behind with factories, and work-people's houses; and
even beyond Mr. Tempest's estate, you see other tall, soot-vomiting
chimneys rearing themselves on other ridges; and the eternal veil of
Cimmerian smoke-mist floats over the fair, ample, and beautifully
wooded valley, lying between the settlement and these swarthy
apparitions of the manufacturing system, which seem to long to step
forward and claim all--ay, and finally to turn Fulneck into a
weaving-mill, as they probably will, one day.
The situation, were it not for these circumstances, is fine. It has
something monastic about it. The establishment consists of one range
of buildings, though built at various times. There are the school,
chapel, master's house, etc., in the center, of stone, and a sister's
and brother's house, of brick, at each end, with various cottages
behind. A fine broad terrace-walk extends along the front, a furlong
in length, being the length of the buildings, from which you may form
a conception of the stately scale of the place, which is one-eighth of
a mile long. From this descend the gardens, playgrounds, etc., down
the hill for a great way, and private walks are thence continued as
far again, to the bottom of the valley, where they are further
continued along the brook-side, among the deep woodlands. The valley
is called the Tong Valley; the brook, the Tong; and Mr. Tempest's
house, on the opposite slope, Tonghall.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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