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Unpardonable Solecism.
against the Geologists.
Procession. Dean Cockburn; Crusade
Cathedral Service unworthy of the Cathedral.
Flat Fertility of the surrounding
- Walk on the City Ramparts.
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
Church; 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
earnest. - 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. .
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. — Analogy between
the Female Lobster and the Trilobite.
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
Lyttelton's high Admiration of the Genius of Pope. - De-
Singularly extensive and beautiful Landscape; drawn by
Reflection. - Amazing Multiplicity of the Prospect illus
trative of a Peculiarity in the Descriptions of the "Seasons." — - Addi-
son's Canon on Landscape; corroborated by Shenstone.
Haunt.
scription.
Thomson.
119
Hagley Parish Church.
CHAPTER VII.
The Sepulchral Marbles of the Lytteltons. -
Epitaph on the Lady Lucy. — The Phrenological Doctrine of Hereditary
Transmission; 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.
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.
157
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.
J
175
Shenstone's Verses.
CHAPTER X.
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-
Appearance of the Village. Problem furnished by the Salt
quity.
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-
pearance and Character. - View from the Clent Hills. Mr. Thomas
Moss. - Geologic Peculiarities of the Landscape; Illustration. — The
Scotch Drift. - Boulders; these transported by the Agency of Ice Floes.
-Evidence of the Former Existence of a broad Ocean Channel. The
Geography of the Geologist. - Aspect of the Earth ever Changing. -
Geography of the Paleozoic Period; of the Secondary; of the Ter-
tiary. - Ocean the great Agent of Change and Dilapidation.
209
CHAPTER XII.
Geological Coloring of the Landscape. - Close Proximity in this Neigh-
borhood of the various Geologic Systems. The Oolite; its Medicinal
Springs; how formed. Cheltenham. - Strathpeffer. The Saliferous
System; its Organic Remains and Foot-prints. - Record of Curious
Passages in the History of the Earlier Reptiles. Salt Deposits.
Theory. — The Abstraction of Salt from the Sea on a large Scale prob-
ably necessary to the continued Existence of its Denizens. - Lower
New Red Sandstone. Great Geologic Revolution. - Elevation of the
Trap. Hills of Clent; Era of the Elevation. Coal Measures; their
three Forests in the Neighborhood of Wolverhampton. - Comparatively
small Area of the Birmingham Coal-field. — Vast Coal-fields of the
United States. - Berkeley's Prophecy. - Old Red Sandstone. -Silurian
System.Blank.
229
CHAPTER XIII.
Birmingham; incessant Clamor of the Place. Toy-shop of Britain; Se-
rious Character of the Games in which its Toys are chiefly employed.
Museum. - Liberality of the Scientific English. Musical Genius
of Birmingham. - Theory. Controversy with the Yorkers. - Anec-
dote. The English Language spoken very variously by the English;