NEW AND POPULAR PICTORIAL DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, IRELAND, WALES, AND THE BRITISH ISLANDS. EMBELLISHED WITH SEVERAL HUNDRED HANDSOME ENGRAVINGS, ILLUSTRATING THE NATURAL SCENERY, CURIOSITIES, ANTIQUITIES, DRUIDICAL AND CAREFULLY COMPILED FROM THE BEST AND LATEST SOURCES, BY ROBERT SEARS. SIXTH THOUSAND. NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY ROBERT SEARS, 128 NASSAU STREET, BOSTON: SAXTON & KELT, WASHINGTON ST. SOLD ALSO BY AUTHORIZED AGENTS THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES AND BRITISH PROVINCES. MDCCCXLVII. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1846, BY ROBERT SEARS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for the Southern District of New York. STEREOTYPED BY REDFIELD & SAVAGE, 13 Chambers Street, N. Y. 625 .5455 1847 P R E F A СЕ. Books describing cities and countries have ever held a high rank among works of general utility and interest. The reasons are obvious: man naturally feels a sympathy with his own species, and reads of his fellow-beings, their habits, manners, and actions, with a reference to his own people and to himself. The places inhabited by other men have attractions for us far above any desert waste; and the cities they have built, and the houses they inhabit, present an irresistible appeal to our national curiosity. Hence it ever has been, and ever must be the fact, that books which de scribe such objects are popular in proportion to the truth and judgment with which they are written, and the taste and intelligence of the readers. Even a traveller in Africa, or any other uncivilized region of the earth, finds much to say which we are willing and happy to hear; but how much more material for record and perusal is afforded by a country inhabited by men in a refined state of society. If to this be added the memorials of former ages, and a long course of striking events, important in their present consequences, the attractions and value of the work are greatly enhanced. And where would it be possible to find a part of the world more abounding in such points of interest than that which forms the subject-matter of this volume? In all these respects, GREAT BRITAIN stands pre-eminent. the most active, powerful, and refined state in Europe; exercising the most mechan. ical skill, carrying on the most extensive commerce; controlling the widest empire; practising, advocating, proclaiming, and propagating, many of the soundest principles, offers to our view a country, small in extent, and therefore the more easily inspected and studied, abounding no less in the interesting and instructive memorials of many past ages, than in the most admirable productions of modern science and art. The antiquities, curiosities, and scenery, of the parent land, are surely of the deepest interest to the millions who speak the language of "Old England," scattered through every quarter of the habitable globe. The antiquities of England are the antiquities of North America, and of Australia-of mighty continents and fertile islands, where the descendants of the Anglo-Saxon have founded "new nations." They are of especial interest to the YOUNG who are seeking for information on these subjects. So abundant, indeed, are these objects, that many large works have been written on each separate class of them: but as they are far too voluminous and minute for an American reader, it has been our design to select and arrange the most prominent in different departments; and thus to present, in a single volume, all that is of primary interest and importance. The University of lowa It will be observed, that a large space has been devoted to LONDON,* BUSY, CLAMOROUS, CROWDED, IMPERIAL LONDON; and for doing this, scarcely a word of explanation is needed. It is the abode of intelligence and industry; the centre of trade and commerce; the resort of the learned and the inquiring. Here the poet has sung his sweetest strains, the historian produced the most authentic records, the philosopher made his most elaborate research, and communicated its most satisfactory results. Here has dwelt a POPE, a HUME, a BACON, a LOCKE, a DAVY, a BOYLE, and a PRIESTLEY. Here a MILTON produced the sublimest of all human compositions; and here a SHAKSPERE portrayed the passions in all their various moods, and a GARRICK gave them life and a startling reality. Here, too, NEWTON found opportunity to explore and lay open the deepest mysteries of Nature, while the glowing canvass of a LAWRENCE gives a present existence to the events of long-past ages. It contains traces of almost every code in history from the age of the Romans to the present day-edifices erected by the most distinguished artists, in different styles; and which have been the residences of whole lines of monarchs, or of more eminent statesmen, scholars, and philanthropists; courts of law, and houses of legislation, which have not only had their influence on past generations and distant countries, BUT HAVE SERVED AS MODELS FOR THOSE UNDER WHICH WE OURSELVES LIVE. In London, also we find an impressive epitome of English history and the greatness and frailty of man, in the solemn aisles of Westminster abbey. The very streets of the metropolis, as well as some of its most obscure and humble districts, are celebrated as the abodes or resorts of men, distinguished for learning, taste, or moral worth; for eloquence at the bar or the forum; for courage or conduct in the field. In London have occurred a large share of those actions by which the destiny of the nation has been influenced or decided; and whose effects we feel to the present day. An acquaintance with these scenes and objects is not to be regarded as a means of mere literary recreation. England has not struggled through the trials of successive ages for naught. She does not, like Spain or Italy, or even France, boast of slow improvements in a few matters of secondary importance, while the chief objects of national progress are disregarded. England early accomplished her emancipation. from Rome, and has ever maintained it; and not only religion, but literature, art, and the whole civil, and social condition of the people, have received benefits innumerable and inestimable. In the arts and sciences, London has many memorials and specimens to exhibit. Some of the public edifices are works of the best architects of the kingdom; and the * We are apt to imagine here in the United States, that the growth of our towns and cities greatly surpasses in rapidity and extent those of any part of the old world. Some facts about London would seem to contradict this notion. It is stated, for instance, in a recent report to the government, that in a little more than twelve years, twelve hundred new streets have been added to London, which is at the rate of one hundred streets a year. These twelve hundred new streets contain forty-eight thousand bouses, most of them built on a large and commodious scale, and in a style of superior comfort. With all this wonderful increase, it is said that the demand for houses instead of diminishing, continues to increase, and that while in many towns of the interior the number of unoccupied houses is augmenting, scarcely is a new street finished, before almost every house in it is fully occupied. One great reason assigned for the rapid growth of London, is the extraordinary facility and despatch with which people are now transported over railroads terminating there. Owing to this cause, it is estimated that the daily influx of individuals is five times greater than it was fifteen years ago. London is now about forty miles in circumference, and numbers about two millions of innabitants. |