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CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
--
Led to convert an intended Voyage to Orkney into a Journey to England.
-Objects of the Journey. -Carter Fell. - The Border Line. - Well
for England it should have been so doggedly maintained by the weaker
Country. Otterburn. - The Mountain Limestone in England, what it
is not in Scotland, a true Mountain Limestone.-Scenery changes as
we enter the Coal Measures. - Wretched Weather. - Newcastle.
Methodists. Controversy on the Atonement.-The Popular Mind in
Scotland mainly developed by its Theology. - Newcastle Museum ; rich
in its Geology and its Antiquities; both branches of one subject. —
Geologic History of the Roman Invasion. - Durham Cathedral. - The
Monuments of Nature greatly more enduring than those of Man. —Cya-
thophyllum Fungites. - The Spotted Tubers, and what they indicated.
The Destiny of a Nation involved in the Growth of a minute
Fungus.
25
CHAPTER 11.
-
Weather still miserably bad; suited to betray the frequent Poverty of
English Landscape. — Gloomy Prospects of the Agriculturist. — Corn-
Law League. - York; a true Sacerdotal City. - Cathedral; noble Ex-
terior; Interior not less impressive; Congreve's sublime Description.
Unpardonable Solecism. Procession.
Dean Cockburn; Crusade
against the Geologists. - Cathedral Service unworthy of the Cathedral.
- Walk on the City Ramparts. - Flat Fertility of the surrounding
Country. The more interesting Passages in the History of York sup-
plied by the Makers. — Robinson Crusoe. - Jeanie Deans. - Trial of
Eugene Aram. - Aram's real Character widely different from that drawn
by the Novelist.
42
CHAPTER III.
Quit York for Manchester. A Character. Quaker Lady. - Peculiar
Feature in the Husbandry of the Cloth District. - Leeds. - Simplicity
manifested in the Geologic Framework of English Scenery. — The De-
nuding Agencies almost invariably the sole Architects of the Landscape.
Manchester; characteristic Peculiarities; the Irwell; Collegiate
Churn; light and elegant Proportions of the Building; its grotesque
Sculptures; these indicative of the Scepticism of the Age in which they
were produced. - St. Bartholomew's Day. -- Sermon on Saints' Day.
-- Timothy's Grandmother. — The Puseyite a High Churchman become
- Passengers of a Sunday Evening Train. - Sabbath Amuse-
ments not very conducive to Happiness. The Economic Value of the
Sabbath ill understood by the Utilitarian. -- Testimony of History on
the point. .
earnest.
55
CHAPTER IV.
Quit Manchester for Wolverhampton. - Scenery of the New Red Sand-
stone; apparent Repetition of Pattern. The frequent Marshes of Eng-
land; curiously represented in the National Literature; Influence on
the National Superstitions.- Wolverhampton. - Peculiar Aspect of the
Dudley Coal-field; striking Passage in its History. - The Rise of Bir-
mingham into a great Manufacturing Town an Effect of the Develop
ment of its Mineral Treasures. - Upper Ludlow Deposit; Aymestry
Limestone; both Deposits of peculiar Interest to the Scotch Geologist.
-The Lingula Lewisii and Terebratula Wilsoni. · General Resem-
blance of the Silurian Fossils to those of the Mountain Limestone.
First-born of the Vertebrata yet known. - Order of Creation. - The
Wren's Nest.-Fossils of the Wenlock Limestone; in a State of beauti-
ful Keeping. - Anecdote. - Asaphus Caudatus ; common, it would seem,
to both the Silurian and Carboniferous Rocks. - Limestone Miners. -
Noble Gallery excavated in the Hill.
72
CHAPTER V.
Dudley; significant Marks of the Mining Town. - Kindly Scotch Land-
lady. - Temperance Coffee-house. - Little Samuel the Teetotaller.
Curious Incident. — Anecdote. — The Resuscitated Spinet. - Forbear-
ance of little Samuel. - Dudley Museum; singularly rich in Silurian
Fossils. Megalichthys Hibberti. - Fossils from Mount Lebanon; very
modern compared with those of the Hill of Dudley. - Geology pecu-
liarly fitted to revolutionize one's Ideas of Modern and Ancient. Fos-
sils of extreme Antiquity furnished by a Canadian Township that had
no name twenty years ago. - Fossils from the Old Egyptian Desert found
to be comparatively of Yesterday. - Dudley Castle and Castle-hill.
Cromwell's Mission. - Castle finds a faithful Chronicler in an old
Serving-maid. Her Narrative. - Caves and Fossils of the Castle-
Extensive Excavations. Superiority of the Natural to the Arti-
hill.
ficial Cavern. - Fossils of the Scottish Grauwacke.
the Female Lobster and the Trilobite.
Analogy between
92
Stourbridge.
CHAPTER VI.
Effect of Plutonic Convulsion on the surrounding Scenery.
- Hagley; Description in the "Seasons.”— - Geology the true Anatomy
of Landscape. - Geologic Sketch of Hagley. The Road to the Races.
The old Stone-cutter. Thomson's Hollow. His visits to Hagley.
Shenstone's Urn. - Peculiarities of Taste founded often on a Sub-
stratum of Personal Character. Illustration. Rousseau. Pope's
Haunt. - Lyttelton's high Admiration of the Genius of Pope. — De-
scription. — Singularly extensive and beautiful Landscape; drawn by
Thomson. Reflection. — Amazing Multiplicity of the Prospect illus
trative of a Peculiarity in the Descriptions of the "Seasons.".
son's Canon on Landscape; corroborated by Shenstone.
Addi-
119
CHAPTER VII.
Hagley Parish Church. — The Sepulchral Marbles of the Lytteltons. —
Epitaph on the Lady Lucy. - The Phrenological Doctrine of Hereditary
fransmission; unsupported by History, save in a way in which His-
tory can be made to support anything. Thomas Lord Lyttelton; his
Moral Character a strange Contrast to that of his Father. - The Elder
Lyttelton; his Death-bed. Aberrations of the Younger Lord.
Strange Ghost Story; Curious Modes of accounting for it. Return to
Stourbridge. Late Drive. - Hales Owen.
1
138
CHAPTER VIII.
Abbotsford and the Leasowes. The one place naturally suggestive of
the other. Shenstone. The Leasowes his most elaborate Composi-
tion. The English Squire and his Mill. — Hales Owen Abbey; inter-
esting, as the Subject of one of Shenstone's larger Poems. - The old
anti-Popish Feeling of England well exemplified by the Fact. — Its
Origin and History. - Decline. — Infidelity naturally favorable to the
Resuscitation and Reproduction of Popery. The two Naileresses.
Cecilia and Delia. — Skeleton Description of the Leasowes. - Poetic
filling up.
The Spinster. The Fountain.
CHAPTER IX.
Detour. The Leasowes deteriorated wherever the Poet had built, and
improved wherever he had planted. — View from the Hanging Wood.
Stratagem of the Island Screen. - Virgil's Grave. - Mound of the
Hales Owen and Birmingham Canal; its sad Interference with Shen-
stone's Poetic Description of the Infancy of the Stour. Vanished
Cascade and Root-house. - Somerville's Urn. "To all Friends round
the Wrekin."- - River Scenery of the Leasowes; their great Variety. —
Peculiar Arts of the Poet; his Vistas, when seen from the wrong end,
Realizations of Hogarth's Caricature. — Shenstone the greatest of Land-
scape Gardeners. — Estimate of Johnson. — Goldsmith's History of the
Leasowes; their after History.
175
CHAPTER X.
Shenstone's Verses. The singular Unhappiness of his Paradise. - Eng-
lish Cider. Scotch and English Dwellings contrasted. The Nailers
of Hales Owen; their Politics a Century ago. - Competition of the
Scotch Nailers; unsuccessful, and why. - Samuel Salt, the Hales Owen
Poet. Village Church. Salt Works at Droitwich; their great Anti-
quity. Appearance of the Village. - Problem furnished by the Sal
Deposits of England; various Theories. - Rock Salt deemed by some a
Volcanic Product; by others the Deposition of an overcharged Sea; by
yet others the Produce of vast Lagoons.- Leland. The Manufacture
of Salt from Sea-water superseded, even in Scotland, by the Rock Salt
of England. .
193
CHAPTER XI.
Walk to the Clent Hills. Incident in a Fruit Shop. - St. Kenelm's
Chapel. - Legend of St. Kenelm. - Ancient Village of Clent; its Ap-