Enfield

“ They all chatted away, and gibed each other and joked as they worked, and they would tell stories, and then all stop work to laugh uproariously. Fisher told one about Enfield. He said that one evening the boys had a little spread in their rooms, beer and sausage and cheese, and for a joke they had put the remains of the sausage and cheese in the pocket of Enfield’s coat. Enfield caught up the story here and finished it thus:
They all chatted away and jibed each other and joked as they worked, and would tell stories. ”

“ This part of Enfield, somewhat bevillaed in our time, must then have been close to the fringe of green by-ways of which Clarke speaks more lovingly than Lamb. One seldom knows how far to take seriously the whimsical humorist’s groans over the dullness of country life when fairly tried, nor his sighs for the “fresher air of London” ”

“ Enfield, on his revisiting Warrington in 1789, is the first of her poems which indicates deep feeling; and this was dictated by the tender recollections of departed youth, and the memory of an honoured parent, the first near connexion from whom she had been parted by death. ”

“ Of the other manor-houses of Enfield the memory alone survives, but the neighbourhood is still rich in fine old private mansions, of which the most note-worthy are Enfield Court and Foxhall, and on Chase side is an ancient cottage in which Sir Walter Raleigh is said to have lived for some time not far from which was the 'odd-looking gambogish house' in which Charles Lamb, writing in 1825, declared he would like to spend the rest of his life. ”

“ A real catechism exercise followed between pastor and “children” about everybody in Leominster in those bygone years.
We dined at Amherst the next day, and had a hard pull over the hills in the rain to Enfield in the afternoon. We had never been in Enfield before, and were surprised to find such a pleasant hotel there—more like a home. Sixteen miles next morning took us to the new hotel in Barre, which has quite an “air,” with its hard floors, rugs and attractive furnishings. ”

“ LETTER 458 CHARLES LAMB TO MRS. MORGAN Enfield, 17 June, 1828.
The gentleman who brings this to you has been 12 years principal assistant at the first School in Enfield, and bears the highest character for carefulness and scholarship. He is about opening an Establishment of his own, a Classical and Commercial Academy at Peckham. He has just married a very notable and amiable young person, our next neighbour's daughter, and I do not doubt of their final success, but everything must have a beginning and he wants pupils. ”

“ Its principal manufactures are gunpowder, carpets, brick, cotton press machinery, and coffin hardware. In Enfield and its vicinity much tobacco is grown. First settled in 1679, Enfield was a part of the township of Springfield, Massachusetts, until 1683, when it was made a separate township ”

“ No sir, I make it a rule of mine: the more it looks like Queer Street, the less I ask.”
“A very good rule, too,” said the lawyer.
“But I have studied the place for myself,” continued Mr. Enfield. “It seems scarcely a house. There is no other door, and nobody goes in or out of that one but, once in a great while, the gentleman of my adventure. There are three windows looking on the court on the first floor; none below; the windows are always shut but they’re clean. And then there is a chimney which is generally smoking; so somebody must live there. ”

“ Of the chief manor-house of Enfield all that has been preserved is a fireplace incorporated in the library of a private house in the so-called Old Park, whilst the mansion of Worcesters, the other royal demesne, is represented by a seventeenth-century house known as Forty Hall—in which, by the way, there is a fine collection of pictures—designed by Inigo Jones for Sir Nicolas Raynton, to whom the estate was given in 1616 by the then owner, the Earl of Salisbury. ”

“ At the ordinary fairs visited during the latter part of this year, Johnson and Lee exhibited a panorama of the coronation, painted by Marshall, which proved very attractive. Enfield Fair being spoiled by wet weather, application was made to the local magistrate for an extra day, which at Croydon was always conceded in such circumstances; but it was refused, the Enfield justice seeming to be of opinion that actors and acrobats were vagabonds who ought to be discouraged by every possible means. ”

“ Blaides at Enfield, a place which he describes as being very fashionable, near fifty coaches being kept in the parish. His chief subsequent employment was as a corrector of the press for works of learning, and several editions of Greek and Latin classics are said to have owed their accuracy to his care. ”

“ And as the slave talked with the high priest in the temple at A-lur the figure of a man groped its way around the shoulder of Pastar-ul-ved and the moonlight glistened from the shiny barrel of an Enfield that was strapped to the naked back, and brass cartridges shed tiny rays of reflected light from their polished cases where they hung in the bandoliers across the broad brown shoulders and the lean waist. ”

“ Enfield does not turn its best face to the Lea Valley, but the stretch of parks and shady roads to the north of it makes one of the pleasantest corners of Middlesex. And if the pedestrian seek a green ramble back to town, I can put him upon one which will show part of the country not so much changed from the days of Lamb’s wanderings. Let him take the Barnet Road, past the Great Northern Railway station and the spired church, a little beyond which, where the road drops from a turning marked “Chase Ridings,” he looks out for a field-path going off to the left. ”

“ A document on which she relied gave the later date.
If witnesses on either side were a year out in their reckoning, the discrepancies would be accountable; but Pratt, for example, could not forget when he left Enfield for Cheshunt, and Farmer [Pg 24] Smith and Mrs. Howard could be under no such confusion of memory. It may be prejudice, but I rather prefer the Enfield evidence in some ways, as did Mr. Paget. In others, the Dorset evidence seems better.
Elizabeth had sworn to having asked a man to point out the way to London after she escaped into the lane beside Mrs. Wells's house. ”

“ As I have said, this farce was never acted.]
LETTER 463 CHARLES LAMB TO CHARLES COWDEN CLARKE [Enfield, October, 1828.]
Dear Clarke,—We did expect to see you with Victoria and the Novellos before this, and do not quite understand why we have not. Mrs. N. and V. [Vincent] promised us after the York expedition; a day being named before, which fail'd. 'Tis not too late. The autumn leaves drop gold, and Enfield is beautifuller—to a common eye—than when you lurked at the Greyhound. ”

“ Edwin was nine when his father died, and during his mother's endeavours to carry on the business in a humble way her poverty was so great that for several years a cellar dwelling was her own and her son's home. She taught him, however, to read. His father had left a few books, and among the first which he read with avidity were Foxe's ‘Book of Martyrs,’ a compendium of English history, and Enfield's ‘Speaker.’ At seven he received some schooling, but it was of a fitful kind. Already he had to assist his mother at a shoe-stall which she kept in Rochdale market. ”

“ Enfield. After publishing many learned works, Dr. Enfield died in the 57th year of his age, on November 3rd, 1797. After his death, three volumes of his sermons were published by subscription; and among the subscribers were persons of almost every sect in Norwich, from the cathedral prebendary to the independent minister. More than twenty beneficed clergymen’s names appear in the list, and it is very well known that Dr. Enfield’s sermons have been heard from many pulpits of the established church. Professor Taylor, late of Gresham college, thus wrote in a supplementary memoir:—
p. ”

“ There are thirty-five youth under twenty-one years of age, of whom eight are boys and twenty-seven girls. In 1823 the Enfield Society had over two hundred members; thirty years ago it had three hundred and thirty members. They do not now receive many applications for membership, and of those who apply but few remain.
This society was "gathered" in 1793, and consisted then of but one family or community. It arose out of a general revival of religion in this region. A second family was formed in 1800, and the third, the "North Family," in 1812. ”

“ They are supplied with the necessaries of life; the boys are taught reading, writing, and accounts; and the girls reading, writing, and plain work.
Embroiderers, incorporated by the name of Broderers. See an account of this company under the article Broderers.
Emm’s yard, Broad street, Ratcliff.†
Emperor’s Head lane, Thames street.*
Enfield, a town in Middlesex near eleven miles from London. Almost in the center of Enfield Chace, are the ruins of an old house, said to have belonged to 275the Earls of Essex. ”

“ The sight of land which might bear corn and only produced ling vexes his very soul. He regarded Enfield Chase as a simple 'nuisance'—a scandal to the Government of the country,—and he calculates that Salisbury Plain might be made to grow food for the whole population. For sympathy, again, he looked to the country gentleman. Not one farmer in five thousand, he complains, ever read a book; he is not foolish enough to waste his missionary zeal upon them; but the country happily abounds with gentlemen-farmers, and they are the sources of all improvement. ”

“ We think ourselves most lucky. It is not our intention to abandon Regent Street, and West End perambulations (monastic and terrible thought!) but occasionally to breathe the FRESHER AIR of the metropolis. We shall put up a bedroom or two (all we want) for occasional ex-rustication, where we shall visit, not be visited. Plays too we'll see—perhaps our own. Urbani Sylvani, and Sylvan Urbanuses in turns. Courtiers for a spurt, then philosophers. Old homely tell-truths and learn-truths in the virtuous shades of Enfield. ”

“ Edwards’ famous sermon at Enfield in 1741 so affected his audience that they cried and groaned aloud, and he found it necessary to bid them be still that he might go on; but Davenport and many itinerants provoked and invited shouting and even writhing, and other physical manifestations. ”

“ The parting will be a price beyond the enjoyment." But if they could find a retired lodging for him at Enfield, "where he might not be known, and might have the comfort of seeing them both now and then, upon such a circumstance he could gladly give the days to solitude to have the comfort of half an hour now and then with them both for two or three weeks." ”

“ There is but one Shaker Society in Connecticut, at Enfield, Conn.
The Society is in Hartford County, about twelve miles from Springfield, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1792; and the meeting-house then built, of brick, is still standing, but is now used for other purposes. There were formerly five families, and in 1823 this society had two hundred members. At present there are but four families, one of which is small, and contains only a few aged people, too much attached to their old home to be removed. ”

“ Elsewhere the country is very slightly undulating or quite flat, as along the banks of the Thames and Lea. The Thames, however, beautifies its immediate neighbourhood, and rich sylvan scenery is not wanting in the higher districts. The greater part of the county was formerly densely forested and sparsely populated, and the name of Enfield Chase, a royal preserve in the north-east, still recalls this condition. In modern times the visible influence of London has spread over practically the entire county. Villages have grown into populous suburbs ”

“ Next we came to Henfield, a quiet and picturesque village. After Henfield we got into a sequestered land beyond railways and on to some pleasant by-roads and narrow lanes where in sunny nooks hosts of wild flowers flourished, and the hedges delighted in tangled disorder. We were again in a land of sleepy farmsteads of the old Sussex type, farmsteads of time-toned walls, weather-tinted tiling, long, low, lichen-laden roofs, and great chimney-stacks—always a great and shapely chimney-stack of much the same pattern, but of a very good and pleasing pattern. ”

“ His early studies were made at Enfield, where he resided for some years, but later the scenery of Devonshire chiefly occupied his pencil; and during his frequent visits to that county he enjoyed the friendship and patronage of the Duke of Bedford, Lord Mount-Edgcumbe, Sir T. D. Acland, Mr. ”

“ The Presbyterian congregation, comprising many individuals of station and influence in the city, took the lead in every movement of the dissenting body, who never appeared in a more united and honourable position than when Dr. Enfield was their acknowledged head. The state of society during his residence in Norwich, was eminently suited to his habits and tastes. Parr, Peel, Walker, Howes, and Smyth were his contemporaries. Parr was the head master of the grammar school, Potter was a prebendary of the Cathedral, and Porson was occasional resident at the house of his brother-in-law, Mr. ”

“ Three hundred yards of smooth, broad, white road leading from Henfield, a small town in Sussex. The grasses are lush, and the hedges are tall and luxuriant. Restless boys scramble to and fro, quiet nursemaids loiter, and a vagrant has sat down to rest though the bank is dripping with autumn rain. ”

“ A child on earth is made a saint in heaven.
Three miles east of Henfield, and a little to the north, is a farm the present tenant of which has made an interesting experiment. He found in the house an old map of the county, and identifying his own estate, discovered a large sheet of water marked on it. ”