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The Holyhead Road Vol 2 by Charles G Harper PDF

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Holyhead Road, Vol 2, by Charles G. Harper This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. Title: The Holyhead Road, Vol 2 The Mail-coach road to Dublin Author: Charles G. Harper Release Date: February 8, 2019 [EBook #58841] Language: English Character set encoding: UTF-8 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOLYHEAD ROAD, VOL 2 *** Produced by Richard Tonsing, Chris Curnow and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) THE HOLYHEAD ROAD EARLY DAYS ON THE LONDON AND BIRMINGHAM RAILWAY. The Holyhead Road: THE MAIL-COACH ROAD TO DUBLIN By Charles G. Harper Author of “The Brighton Road,” “The Portsmouth Road,” “The Dover Road,” “The Bath Road,” “The Exeter Road,” “The Great North Road,” and “The Norwich Road” Illustrated by the Author, and from Old-Time Prints and Pictures Vol. II. BIRMINGHAM TO HOLYHEAD London: Chapman & Hall ltd. 1902 [All rights reserved] PRINTED BY HAZELL, WATSON, AND VINEY, LD. LONDON AND AYLESBURY. List of ILLUSTRATIONS SEPARATE PLATES PAGE Early Days on the London and Birmingham Railway. Frontispiece Bull Ring. (From a Print after David Cox) 5 Old Birmingham Coaching Bill. 13 Dudley. (After J. M. W. Turner, R.A.) 31 High Green, Wolverhampton, 1797. (After Rowlandson) 47 High Green, Wolverhampton, 1826. (From an Old Print) 51 High Green, Wolverhampton, 1860. (From a Contemporary Photograph) 55 Shiffnal. 67 The Council House. 141 The Honourable Thomas Kenyon. (From an Old Print) 153 The Vale of Llangollen. 177 Llangollen. 183 Llangollen. (After J. M. W. Turner, R. A.) 187 Valle Crucis Abbey. (After J. M. W. Turner, R.A.) 207 Cernioge. 227 The Swallow Falls. (From an Old Print) 247 Llyn Ogwen and Trifaen Mountain. 255 Penmaenmawr. (After J. M. W. Turner, R.A.) 275 The Old Landing-Place on the Anglesey Shore. 283 ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT Vignette: Prince Rupert Title Page List of Illustrations: The Black Country vii The Holyhead Road 1 The “Hen and Chickens,” 1830 18 The “Old Royal” 24 Wednesbury 37 Old Hill, Tettenhall 59 vii viii ix The Sabbath-breaking Seamstress 60 Snedshill Furnaces 71 Haygate Inn 76 The Wrekin 79 The “Old Wall” 84 Wroxeter Church 85 Atcham Bridge 91 Lord Hill’s Monument 92 The English Bridge 97 Wyle Cop and the “Lion” 107 The “Lion” Yard 132 The Market-Place, Shrewsbury 138 Shelton Oak 144 The Breidden Hills 147 Queen’s Head 156 Offa’s Dyke 176 The Ladies of Llangollen. (From an Old Print) 198 Plas Newydd 203 Owain Glyndwr’s Mount 211 Cerrig-y-Druidion 224 The Waterloo Bridge 232 The Old Church, Bettws-y-Coed 234 Sign of the “Royal Oak” 238 Pont-y-Pair 245 Cyfyng Falls 250 Capel Curig 252 The Falls of Ogwen 257 Nant Ffrancon. (After David Cox) 258 Nant Ffrancon 260 Penrhyn Castle 263 Lonisaf Toll-House 264 x The Penrhyn Arms 266 Penrhyn Castle and Snowdonia, from Beaumaris. (After David Cox) 278 Deserted Stables, Menai Village 290 The Menai Bridge and the Isle of Benglas 291 The Anglesey Column 296 The Britannia Bridge 299 Near Mona Inn 303 Llangristiolus 304 Caer Ceiliog 306 The South Stack. (After T. Creswick, R.A.) 323 Holyhead Mountain 325 THE HOLYHEAD ROAD xi BIRMINGHAM TO HOLYHEAD MILES Birmingham (General Post Office) 109¼ Hockley 110½ Soho 111¼ Handsworth 111¾ West Bromwich 114½ Hilltop 116 Wednesbury 117¼ Moxley 118½ Bilston 119½ Wolverhampton 122¼ Chapel Ash 122¾ Tettenhall 124 The Wergs 125¼ Boningale 129½ Whiston Cross 130¼ Shiffnal 134¼ Prior’s Lee 137½ Ketley 139 Ketley Railway Station 139½ (Junction of Watling Street with Holyhead Road.) Wellington (“Cock”) 140½ Haygate 141½ Burcot Toll-House 143 Norton 146½ Tern Bridge 147½ (Cross River Tern.) Atcham 148¼ (Cross River Severn.) Shrewsbury (Abbey Foregate) 151¼ (Cross River Severn.) Shrewsbury (Market House) 152 Shrewsbury (Welsh Bridge and Frankwell) 152¼ (Cross River Severn.) Shelton Oak 154 Bicton 154½ Montford Bridge 156¾ (Cross River Severn.) Nesscliff 160½ West Felton 165¼ Queen’s Head 166¼ Oswestry 170 Gobowen 172¾ Chirk 175 (Cross River Ceiriog.) Whitehurst Toll-House 177 Vron Cysylltan 179¾ Llangollen 182½ Berwyn Railway Station 184¼ Glyndyfrdwy 188 Carrog 189 Corwen 192½ (Cross River Dee.) Maerdy Post Office 196 Pont-y-Glyn 197¾ Tynant 198¼ Cerrig-y-Druidion 202 Glasfryn 204½ Cernioge 205¾ Pentre Voelas 207¾ xii xiii Bettws-y-Coed 214½ (Cross River Conway) Swallow Falls 216 Cyfyng Falls 218½ Tan-y-Bwlch 219 Capel Curig 220 Llyn Ogwen 224 Ogwen Falls} 225 Pass of Nant Ffrancon} Tyn-y-Maes 228 Bethesda 229¼ Llandegai 232¾ Bangor (Cathedral) 234½ Upper Bangor 236 Menai Bridge 237 (Cross Menai Straits) Menai Village 237¼ Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerchwyrndrobwlltysiliogogogoch 239¼ Gaerwen 242½ Pentre Berw (Holland Arms) 243 Llangristiolus 245½ Mona 247½ Gwalchmai 249¾ Bryngwran 252½ Caer Ceiliog 255 Valley 256 Stanley Sands 256¼ (Cross Stanley Sands Viaduct to Holy Island) Holyhead (Admiralty Pier) 260½ xiv THE OLD ROAD FROM MENAI VILLAGE TO HOLYHEAD MILES Menai Village 237¼ Braint 239½ Ceint 242½ Llangefni 244¾ Bodffordd 247 Gwyndû and Glanyrafon 249¾ Llynfaes 250¼ Trefor 251¼ Bodedern 254 Llanyngenedl 255¼ Valley and Four-Mile Bridge 258¼ Trearddur Bay 261½ (Cross Causeway over Straits to Holy Island) Holyhead 263½ The Holyhead Road 1 BIRMINGHAM TO HOLYHEAD I There are said to be no fewer than a hundred and forty different ways of spelling the name of Birmingham, all duly vouched for by old usage; but it is not proposed in these pages to recount them, or to follow the arguments of those who have contended for its derivation from “Bromwicham.” It is singular that in the first mention we have of the place, in Domesday Book, it is spelt “Bermingham,” almost exactly as it is to-day, and this lends much authority to the view that we get the place-name from an ancient Saxon tribe or family of Beormingas. When the original Beormingas, the Sons of Beorm (whoever he may have been), settled here, in the dim Saxon past, they founded better than they knew; but they chose a hill-top, a place where no river runs, unless we choose thus to dignify the little stream called the Rea. This lack of watercourses mattered nothing at all to mediæval Birmingham, but when, in spite of all disabilities, the place rose into commercial importance, the want began to be severely felt, and herculean have been the efforts in modern times to effect a proper water-supply. Little but scattered mention is heard of Birmingham and its smiths before the Civil War, but when that struggle broke out, they were heard of to some purpose. Its 4000 inhabitants in 1643 were Puritans to a man, and warlike. They furnished 15,000 sword-blades for Cromwell’s troops, and at a convenient opportunity waylaid the King’s carriage and seized it, his furniture, and his plate. For these enormities Prince Rupert came later from Daventry and punished them severely in a battle on Camp Hill, overlooking the town. Many Birmingham men were slain that day, and eighty houses burnt; the whole affair piteously related in a tract of that time called “The Bloody Prince; or, a Declaration of the Most Cruell Practises of Prince Rupert and the rest of the Cavaliers, in fighting against God and the true Ministers of his Church.” A woodcut intended to portray that sanguinary Prince appears on the cover, with Birmingham flaming furiously in the background; Daventry in the rear. The rest of the Cavaliers appear to be manœuvring somewhere else; at any rate, Rupert is alone, on horseback, with a mild expression of countenance and a big pistol. Twenty-two years later the Plague depopulated the town, but in another twenty-three years it had grown to double its former size, and by 1791 numbered between 70,000 and 80,000. Yet it had no Parliamentary representation until 1832. That Birmingham is seated on a hill is not so evident to railway travellers, but he who comes to it by road is well advised of the fact at Bull Ring, where the hilly entrance confronts him. Bull Ring is old Birmingham of a hundred years and more ago; the nucleus of the town, and little altered since David Cox drew his picture of the market there. The market remains, but there has come about since his day an extraordinary popular appreciation of the beauty of flowers, so that, instead of the fowls pictured largely in his view, the crowded stalls are radiant with blooms of every sort; cut flowers, and growing plants. Here stands, as ever, St. Martin’s, the mother-church of Birmingham, where the ancient manorial lords of the place lie; those de Berminghams whose last representative was choused out of his rights in 1545. Here is that statue of Nelson for whose proper cleansing a patriotic tradesman left by will sixpence a week; and here occurred the Wesley riots of 1742 and the Chartist Riot of 1839. When Charles Wesley sought to preach, the people set the church bells a-ringing to drown his voice, and then began to pelt him with dirt and turnips; but the political riot was a much more serious affair, resulting in the pillaging of shops and houses, and immense damage. 2 3 II In Birmingham, close upon four hundred years ago, Leland found but one street, yet that street was full of smiths, making knives and “all manner of cuttinge tooles, and many loriners that make bittes, and a great many naylors. Soe that a great part of the towne is maintained by smithes, who have their iron and sea-cole out of Staffordshire.” Not only has Birmingham grown out of all knowledge since that time, but it has largely changed its trades. Sheffield has taken away the pick of the cutlery trade, and that of the loriners has its chief seat at Walsall; but Birmingham now makes everything, from a monster engine to a pin’s head, and in the murderous art of manufacturing fire-arms is pre-eminent. “She is,” observed an enthusiastic writer, “in the truest sense the benefactress of the universal man, from the crowned head to the savage of the wilderness.” To the crowned heads, for example—or to their governments—Birmingham supplies stands of arms and ammunition; and to the savage, guns warranted to hurt no one but he who uses them. Civilisation is thus heavily indebted to Birmingham, and religion too; for if the heathen, who “in his blindness bows down to wood and stone,” is no longer restricted to those two materials, by reason of Birmingham industriously supplying little tin and brass gods by wholesale, and at extremely low prices, to Africa or India, yet on Sundays the godly folks of her hundred churches and chapels liberally subscribe to missionary funds for spreading Christianity in strange lands, and thus help to discredit the heathen Vishnus, Sivas, Hanumans, and assorted Mumbo-Jumbos they export. BULL RING. From a Print after David Cox. “Birmingham,” said Burke, a hundred years ago, “is the toyshop of Europe.” Fancy articles in steel and paste; buckles, sword-hilts, buttons, and a thousand other trifles were made, for home or export; among them the sham, or “Brummagem” jewellery, and the base coin that long cast a slur upon the town. Things coming from Birmingham were in those times rightly suspect. One of its industries was the making of “silver” buckles of a villainous kind of cheap white metal, called from its nature “soft tommy.” A tale is told of the owner of the factory where this precious stuff was made up, going through one of the workshops and hearing a workman cursing the man who would chance to wear the pair of buckles he was making. “Why,” asked the astonished employer, “do you do that?” “Well,” replied the workman, “whoever wears these buckles is bound to curse the man that made them, and so I thought I would be the first.” Those were the days when it was said that if you gave a guinea and a copper kettle to a Birmingham manufacturing jeweller he would turn you out a hundred guineas’ worth of jewellery! Things are very different now. The trades of Birmingham seem almost countless in their number; many of them conducted on a scale large enough for each one to suffice a small township of workers. Brass-founding, tube-making, gun-smithing, pin-making, wire-drawing, screw-turning, gold-smithing, electro-plating, tinplate working, coining (in the legitimate kind), steel pen-making—these are but a few of the countless industries to whose skirts clings for livelihood a population of half a million. When Mr. Pickwick visited Birmingham, he repaired to the “Old Royal” hotel. Where is the “Old Royal” now? Ask of the winds—nay, consult the histories of Birmingham, and you shall learn. But if the old hotel and many of its fellows be gone, at least the description of the entrance to the town holds good, and “the dingy hue of every object visible, the murky atmosphere, the paths of cinders and brick-dust” are phrases that awake echoes of recollection in the breasts of those who know the town of old: but “the dense smoke issuing heavily forth from high toppling chimneys, blackening and obscuring everything around,” is not so descriptive of the Birmingham of to-day. For fully realising that picture, and the added touches of the “deep red glow of furnace fires, the glare of distant lights, the ponderous wagons laden with clashing rods of iron, or piled with heavy goods,” one must journey to Dudley, where such things may be seen and heard in a hellish crescendo: Birmingham has largely put those things in the background. In Mr. Pickwick’s time “the hum of labour resounded from every house, lights gleamed from the long casement windows in the attic storeys, and the whirr of wheels and noise of machinery shook the trembling walls, and the din of hammers, the rushing of steam, and the dead, heavy clanking of engines was the harsh music that arose from every quarter”; but most of these things are nowadays decently hid in purlieus remote, or masked from the chief streets by the towering modern buildings of hotels, banks, assurance offices, and all the hundred-and-one parasitical things of a limited liability age, that fasten like vermin on the producing body. Birmingham became a City on January 11th, 1889. It is a City of two fine streets, surrounded by many miles of formless, featureless, dull and commonplace (or, at their worst, hideous and squalid) houses, workshops, and factories of every size and description. New Street was only new at a period over a century ago. Corporation Street was formed in 1871 by boldly cutting through a mass of slums. In those two thoroughfares, and the open space by the Town Hall to which they both lead, is included almost everything of architectural note. In their course are to be found the best and most attractive shops, and the principal banks and commercial offices. The rest is merely of a local and provincial character. The geographical, municipal, and political centre is, of course, that spot where the Town Hall stands, a 4 5 7 8 9 10

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Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.