Highbury

“ Through divine mercy we arrived safe in London, on Seventh-day evening, and lodged with our beloved relations at Highbury, who received us with all possible affection. Our spirits on meeting, mingled in silent sorrow, while we were enabled to rejoice in God our Saviour. On First-day morning we went over to Stamford-hill, and soon were introduced to our beloved brother, who was perfectly sensible, but extremely weak. The peace and serenity which we were favored to feel by him was an inexpressible comfort to our sorrowful hearts. ”

“ Within half an hour it was known all over Highbury. It was the very event to engage those who talk most, the young and the low; and all the youth and servants in the place were soon in the happiness of frightful news. The last night's ball seemed lost in the gipsies. Poor Mr. Woodhouse trembled as he sat, and, as Emma had foreseen, would scarcely be satisfied without their promising never to go beyond the shrubbery again. ”

“ Upon the whole, Emma left her with such softened, charitable feelings, as made her look around in walking home, and lament that Highbury afforded no young man worthy of giving her independence; nobody that she could wish to scheme about for her.
These were charming feelings—but not lasting. Before she had committed herself by any public profession of eternal friendship for Jane Fairfax, or done more towards a recantation of past prejudices and errors, than saying to Mr. Knightley, "She certainly is handsome; she is better than handsome!" ”

“ Hornsey is a corruption of “Harringe,” or meadow of hares. Canonbury received its title from the residence of the Prior of [154] the Canons of St. Bartholomew, built in this neighbourhood soon after the Conquest. Bury is Saxon for a town or enclosed habitation, equivalent to the Celtic don, and Old English ton. In days of old, Highbury contained a Priory of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, built in 1271. The establishment was called High-bury, because it stood upon higher ground than their previous residence which had borne the name of Tolentone, or lower town. ”

“ The name is commonly applied to the southern part of the borough, which, however, includes the districts of Holloway in the north, Highbury in the east, part of Kingsland in the south-east, and Barnsbury and Canonbury in the south-central portion. The districts included preserve the names of ancient manors, and in Canonbury, which belonged as early as the 13th century to the priory of St Bartholomew, Smithfield, traces of the old manor house remain. The fields and places of entertainment in Islington were favourite places of resort for the citizens of London in the 17th century and later ”

“ The sale of Vauxhall Gardens in August 1859, or perhaps the closing of Highbury Barn in 1871, may be held to mark the final disappearance of the London Pleasure Gardens of the eighteenth century. “St. George’s Fields are fields no more!” and hardly a tree or shrub recalls these vanished pleasances of our forefathers. The site of Ranelagh is still, indeed, a garden, and Hampstead has its spring and Well Walk. But the Sadler’s Wells of 1765 exists only in its theatre, and its gardens are gone, its spring forgotten, and its New River covered in. ”

“ There was a strange rumour in Highbury of all the little Perrys being seen with a slice of Mrs. Weston's wedding-cake in their hands: but Mr. Woodhouse would never believe it. ”

“ I do correspond with effusiveness and punctality through the obliging medium of a young intimate Indian acquaintance of mine, who does actually reside at Highbury, and has kindly undertaken to forward my billets doux.
This stratagem is necessitated by the circumstance that (as a matter of fact) I am dwelling under a rose at Hereford Road, Westbourne Grove, which is in convenient proximity to Prince's Square and the stately home of the Allbutt-Innett family, with whom I am now promoted to become the tame cat. ”

“ This sale does not, however, necessarily imply any change in the management of Highbury Barn, which may at that time have been only rented by Willoughby from the owner of Highbury House and the adjoining property.
[176] A few years previous to 1811 Willoughby cultivated at one end of the gardens a small plantation of hops, and afterwards erected a brewery on the premises. ”

“ The third division of the London gardens consists of those that were mainly tea-gardens. Many of these though small and unpretending possessed a distinctly rural charm. Such were Highbury Barn, and the Canonbury House tea-gardens, Hornsey with its romantic wood, and Copenhagen House standing alone in the hay-fields. Bagnigge Wells and White Conduit House, the classic tea-gardens of London, were prettily laid out and pleasantly situated, but in their later days became decidedly cockneyfied. The great day at these gardens was Sunday, especially between five and nine o’clock. ”

“ In the neighbouring Hoxton there are many poor untaught, and for their souls the church in Highbury cares. There a City missionary is employed, whose labours are not in vain. They have organized a Mothers’ Meeting, a Bible Class, Penny Weekly Readings and Musical Entertainments, a Singing Class, and a Band of Hope. Last year their missionary conducted 156 in-door and 21 out-of-door meetings, 2100 district visitations for Scripture reading, &c., 500 district visitations to the sick and dying, besides the distribution of a large number of religious tracts. ”

“ In 1822 he was invited by Prince Alexander (Galitzin) to assist the Russian Bible Society in translating the Scriptures into various languages spoken in the Russian empire. After twenty years of foreign labour Henderson returned to England, and in 1825 was appointed tutor of the Mission College, Gosport. In 1830 he succeeded Dr William Harrison as theological lecturer and professor of Oriental languages in Highbury Congregational College. In 1850, on the amalgamation of the colleges of Homerton, Coward and Highbury, he retired on a pension. ”

“ Austen’s heroines that they have “a certain gentle self-respect, and humour, and hardness of heart,” she must have had Emma in her mind. Humour hardens the heart, at least to the point of sanity; and Emma surveys her little world of Highbury very much as Miss Austen surveyed her little world of Steventon and Chawton, with a less piercing intelligence, but with the same appreciation of foibles, and the same unqualified acceptance of tedium. To a modern reader, the most striking thing about the life depicted in all these novels is its dullness. ”

“ In December 1838 he was appointed to a station at Chittúr in Madras, but in the following February the directors of the society decided that he was physically unfit for foreign work, and he accepted the charge of Highbury Chapel, Cheltenham. During the three years of his ministry there the congregation was increased fourfold, and a large debt discharged. ”

“ But if for once in a way we sally forth together for a day or a night of “popular” amusement, I find that quality is no longer an element for consideration. From comic songs to science; from Leotard to light literature; from Cornhill to Cremorne; from the high art of South Kensington or Trafalgar Square to the high rope of the Crystal Palace or Highbury Barn, the price is still the same, and when once we have made up our mind to expend each our shilling, the world. seems all before us where to choose. ”

“ While you considered me as having sinned against Emma Woodhouse, I could deserve nothing from either. Acquit me here, and procure for me, when it is allowable, the acquittal and good wishes of that said Emma Woodhouse, whom I regard with so much brotherly affection, as to long to have her as deeply and as happily in love as myself.—Whatever strange things I said or did during that fortnight, you have now a key to. My heart was in Highbury, and my business was to get my body thither as often as might be, and with the least suspicion. ”

“ Highbury Assembly House, near Islington, kept by Mr. Willoughby, 1792, print published in 1792 by Sayer (W. Coll.; also Crace. Cat. p. 603, No. 182) .
[166]
3. “Highbury Barn, Islington,” engraving published May 1, 1819, for R. Ackermann.
4. Highbury Barn (exterior) (circ. 1835) , engraving in Cromwell’s Islington, p. 247, J. and H. S. Storer, del. et. sc.
5. “The Leviathan Platform, Highbury Barn,” woodcut in Illustrated London News, July 1858.
6. Two views of “The Gardens, Highbury Barn Tavern” (circ. 1851) , in Tallis’s Illustrated London, ed. Gaspey. ”

“ HARRIS, WILLIAM (1776?–1830) , independent minister, born about 1776, was pastor of the meeting-house in Downing Street, Cambridge, from about 1805, until he was appointed divinity tutor at the Hoxton academy in 1818. He became minister of the meeting-house in Church Street, Stoke Newington, at Michaelmas 1820, and subsequently theological tutor of Highbury College. ”

“ The riotous behaviour, late at night, of many frequenters of the gardens caused annoyance to the neighbours, who regularly opposed the renewal of the license. In October 1870 the dancing license was refused, and next season Mr. E. T. Smith took the place of Giovanelli as manager, but the license being again refused in October 1871, Highbury Barn was finally closed. The flowerbeds became choked with grass and weeds, and nightshade luxuriated around the dismantled orchestra. ”

“ For twenty-five years he was principal and proprietor of a prosperous private school. The College, Highbury New Park. Ordained deacon in 1885 and priest in 1889, he held a curacy at All Souls, Langham Place (1885–9) , and was rector of Holy Trinity, Minories, from 29 March 1889 until the closing of the church on 1 Jan. ”

“ The four years I spent at Highbury were marked by much political excitement. In 1828 the Corporation and Test Acts were repealed. The Catholic Relief Bill was carried in 1829. In 1830 William IV. succeeded his brother. The “three days of July” the same year occurred in Paris: the abdication of Charles X., and the accession of Louis Philippe, swiftly followed each other; and a fresh impetus was thus given to the cause of English liberalism. The Duke of Wellington’s protest against reform, the defeat of the Ministry on the Civil List, and the introduction of the Reform Bill the next year, p. ”

“ In January 1834 he went as tutor in J. S. Buck's school at East Dereham, Norfolk, and late in the following year he obtained a post in the banking house of Messrs. Gurney at Great Yarmouth. Through the influence of friends at East Dereham he became strongly attracted to the congregational ministry, and on coming of age left Yarmouth and went to study under W. Legge at Fakenham, Norfolk, and the Rev. Mr. Drane at Guestwick, Norfolk. In 1838 he entered as a student at the newly established Highbury College, London, and graduated B.A. London, 17 June 1841. ”

“ I find here about 2000l. is annually raised for religious purposes. The pastor has a salary of 700l. a year. Attached to the place is a Young Men’s Literary Institute, a Young Men’s Christian Fellowship Association, a Missionary Association, a Psalmody Association, a Ladies’ Working Association. In Highbury New Park there are no poor people, and, consequently, there is no missionary agency or Sunday-school in connexion with that district; but the church, consisting of between four and five hundred members, is not idle nor neglectful of its special privilege and p. ”

“ Joseph's Retreat. The Hyde was never satisfactory; it was suited neither to our spirit nor its working. At last Providence guided us to a most suitable position. Our rule prescribes that the houses of the Order should be outside the town, and near enough to be of service to it. Highgate is wonderfully adapted to all the requisitions of our rule and constitutions. Situated on the brow of a hill, it is far enough from the din and noise of London to be comparatively free from its turmoil, and sufficiently near for citizens to come to our church. ”

“ The wanderer in no hurry should by all means keep on to the west end of Mill Hill, and thence mount to Highwood, a height running across to the next ridge, thus gained most pleasantly when the clay bottom between is well soaked. Highwood itself is a select hamlet, about the gates of three mansions and their grounds. The gardens of the Moat Manor make a sight open on Sundays, and here is another relic of old London, ex-neighbour of Temple Bar, the Hall of Serjeants’ Inn, re-erected by the late Serjeant Cox, on the dissolution of the society. ”

“ CONSIDERING the distance of place where I now write, London, and the distance of time that I lived in this county, I am not able to give a satisfactorie account of the husbandry thereof. I will only say of our husbandmen, as Sir Thom. Overbury does of the Oxford scholars, that they goe after the fashion; that is, when the fashion is almost out they take it up: so our countrey-men are very late and very unwilling to learne or be brought to new improvements. ”

“ From the railway station we walked up into Salisbury, with the tall spire (four hundred feet high) of the cathedral before our eyes. Salisbury is an antique city, but with streets more regular than I have seen in most old towns, and the houses have a more picturesque aspect than those of Oxford, for instance, where almost all are mean-looking alike,—though I could hardly judge of Oxford on that hot, weary day. ”

“ Aylesbury, after he had left Oxford, became secretary to Charles Howard, earl of Nottingham, lord high admiral of England, and in 1618, when the latter resigned his office, was continued in the same employment under Howard’s successor, George Villiers, then marquis, and afterwards duke of Buckingham. ”