The Cathedral Towns and Intervening Places of England, Ireland and Scotland:: A Description of Cities, Cathedrals, Lakes, Mountains, Ruins, and Watering-places.Silloway, Thomas W. (Thomas William)
History
The Cathedral Towns and Intervening Places of England, Ireland and Scotland:: A Description of Cities, Cathedrals, Lakes, Mountains, Ruins, and Watering-places.
Silloway, Thomas W. (Thomas William)
Great Britain -- Description and travel
At 10.20 A. M., Friday, we left for Leeds. These three
places, Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds, are an epitome of English
manufactures, and we can hardly pass without examining them, though we
confess to a daintiness obtained from the beauties amidst which we had
been passing the weeks; and we feel that we shall be glad when our tour
through the manufacturing districts ends, for we are impressed anew
with the proverb, "God made the country, but man made the town."
LEEDS
is situated on both sides, but chiefly on the left side, of the River
Aire, and has a population of 259,212. The site was once a Roman
station, and the mediæval name was Loidis. As a manufacturing town it
dates back to the sixteenth century. The larger part of the city has
an old look. The streets generally are narrow and crooked, but well
kept. The new streets are wide and contain many fine buildings; and the
tramways and omnibuses give it a Bostonian appearance. The spacious
town-hall was completed in 1858. Like all the principal English cities,
it has its share of statues, and a fine one of Robert Peel is in front
of the court-house. It is said to have 225 places of public worship.
In woollen manufactures and leather-tanning Leeds surpasses all other
places in the kingdom. 12,000 persons are employed in manufacturing
woollen goods alone. The city is a railroad centre. There are 200
collieries in the surrounding district. It is reported that one quarter
of the inhabitants are engaged in manufactures of some kind, and yet
pauperism flourishes fearfully. There is a library founded in 1768,
by the renowned Dr. Priestley, of scientific as well as theologic
fame. He was pastor of a church in Leeds, and gave much attention to
religious subjects. After an industrious life of some years here,--a
large portion of which was employed in scientific pursuits and
authorship,--he removed to Birmingham, and was pastor of a church
there. At length he went to America, arriving in New York, June 4,
1794, and dying at Northumberland, Pa., Feb. 6, 1804. A celebration,
in honor of his discovery of oxygen, was inaugurated by American
chemists at the place of his death, Aug. 1, 1874, and on the same day
his statue was unveiled in Birmingham, England. In 1860 another statue
was placed in the museum of Oxford University. A catalogue of his
publications, prepared for the library of Congress, for the Centennial
of 1876, comprises more than three hundred works on chemistry, history,
theology, metaphysics, politics, and other subjects.
The markets of Leeds are large. New potatoes, May 31, were for sale,
smaller than English walnuts. The fish markets are supplied with more
varieties than we have seen anywhere else. The flower marts have great
displays of perfect plants, especially pelargoniums and geraniums.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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