Asia -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; Mongols -- History; Polo, Marco, 1254-1323?; Voyages and travels
At Berwick-on-Tweed he notes the old ramparts of the town: “These,
erected in Elizabeth’s time, are interesting as being, I believe, the
only existing sample in England of the bastioned system of the 16th
century.... The outline of the works seems perfect enough, though both
earth and stone work are in great disrepair. The bastions are large
with obtuse angles, square orillons, and double flanks originally
casemated, and most of them crowned with cavaliers.” On the way to
Durham, “much amused by the discussions of two passengers, one a
smooth-spoken, semi-clerical looking person; the other a brusque
well-to-do attorney with a Northumbrian burr. Subject, among others,
Protection. The Attorney all for ‘cheap bread’— ‘You wouldn’t rob the
poor man of his loaf,’ and so forth. ‘You must go with the _stgheam_,
sir, you must go with the stgheam.’ ‘I never did, Mr. Thompson, and I
never will,’ said the other in an oily manner, singularly inconsistent
with the sentiment.” At Durham they dined with a dignitary of the
Church, and Yule was roasted by being placed with his back to an
enormous fire. “Coals are cheap at Durham,” he notes feelingly, adding,
“The party we found as heavy as any Edinburgh one. Smith, indeed,
evidently has had little experience of really stupid Edinburgh parties,
for he had never met with anything approaching to this before.” (Happy
Smith!) But thanks to the kindness and hospitality of the astronomer,
Mr. Chevalier, and his gifted daughter, they had a delightful visit
to beautiful Durham, and came away full of admiration for the (then
newly established) University, and its grand _locale_. They went on
to stay with an uncle by marriage of Yule’s, in Yorkshire. At dinner
he was asked by his host to explain Foucault’s pendulum experiment.
“I endeavoured to explain it somewhat, I hope, to the satisfaction of
his doubts, but not at all to that of Mr. G. M., who most resolutely
declined to take in _any_ elucidation, coming at last to the conclusion
that he entirely differed with me as to what North meant, and that
it was useless to argue until we could agree about that!” They
went next to Leeds, to visit Kirkstall Abbey, “a mediæval fossil,
curiously embedded among the squalid brickwork and chimney stalks of
a manufacturing suburb. Having established ourselves at the hotel, we
went to deliver a letter to Mr. Hope, the official assignee, a very
handsome, aristocratic-looking gentleman, who seemed as much out of
place at Leeds as the Abbey.” At Leeds they visited the flax mills
of Messrs. Marshall, “a firm noted for the conscientious care they
take of their workpeople.... We mounted on the roof of the building,
which is covered with grass, and formerly was actually grazed by a
few sheep, until the repeated inconvenience of their tumbling through
the glass domes put a stop to this.” They next visited some tile and
brickworks on land belonging to a friend. “The owner of the tile works,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account