Hull, England

“ From this time forward he became one of the best-known preachers of the new society, and his labours in most of the northern counties of England, as well as in London and Cornwall, were most successful in adding members to the church. In 1819 he visited Hull, where primitive methodism was as yet unknown, and such was the force and earnestness of his preaching that in six months three hundred persons joined the society. ”

“ In England up to this time no king had reigned over the whole country; there had been separate rulers for East Anglia, Wessex, Northumbria, etc., sometimes as many as seven kings reigning at the same time in different parts of the country, in what was called the “Heptarchy.” It was only when the need of a powerful and capable ruler was felt, and there chanced to be a man fitted to meet this need, as in Alfred’s time and that of his son, Edward the Elder, that the kingdoms drew together under one sovereign. ”

“ The old town of Hull is the largest shipping port. Scarboro, on the coast, is the great watering-place for the north of England. Leeds, Sheffield, Hull and Bradford are the largest towns. It is the principal seat of the woollen manufacture in Great Britain. The people are self-reliant and progressive. In Yorkshire to-day are to be found the oldest co-operative corn-mills and the oldest co-operative stores in England. The practice of dividing profits among purchasers in proportion to their trade at the store was first adopted by a Yorkshire society. ”

“ On returning to Hull, and detailing the overture to the governor, it was determined to appear to favour the design. Fawkes wrote, saying that all promised well. A correspondence was kept up with the parties in Beverley, and at length it was fixed that on a certain night the king should send one thousand horse to Hull, with five hundred foot soldiers riding behind the horsemen, and that they should be admitted at two o'clock in the morning. ”

“ The Manlius Times, quoted in the New England Palladium of October 22, 1813, stated that "The Proclamation campaign has again commenced upon the Niagara frontiers" (p. 2-1) . In the Salem Gazette of December 3, 1813, appeared the following: "The same Collectors will be employed next winter to execute the same duties in the Moon, which, it is expected, will be 'looked down' during the next campaign!" (p. 3-2) .
On August 16, 1812, Hull ignominiously gave up himself, his army, and Detroit, and incidentally enriched the language with a new verb. ”

“ There is in English history no character which combines so many great qualities as that of Alfred. Within and without he found his kingdom in peril and misery, crushed down, ignorant and without religion; he left it a flourishing and peaceful country, united and at rest. When his son, Edward the Elder, succeeded him on the throne, not only Wessex but the whole North of England, with the Scots, took him “for father and lord”; that is, they accepted him, for the first time in history, as king of a united England. ”

“ The townspeople were languid; the castle had been newly entrenched; the black mouths of cannon gaped between the parapets. The insurgents stood gazing for a few hours on their hopeless enterprise, and at the end Lumley stole away out of the town, and left his men to shift as they could. Hull and Beverley were [Pg 185] to be attempted on the same day by Hallam and Bigod. In both cases they hoped to succeed by a surprise. At Hull it happened to be the market day. Hallam went thither in a farmer’s dress, with twenty men, the party going in two and two to avoid causing suspicion. ”

“ This time they made a compact with a Dutch captain at Hull—they would not trust an Englishman. [32] The plan now was, that the men should assemble on a wild common, between Grimsby and Hull, a place chosen on account of its remoteness from any town; the women, the children, and the property of the exiles were to be conveyed to that part of the coast in a barque. The men made their way thither, in small companies, by land. The barque reached its destination a day sooner than the foot travellers ”

“ Now it is come so far that King Canute, who rules over England and Denmark, and the most part of Scotland as well, claims also my paternal heritage, and then perhaps will promise some moderation after that. Does he wish to rule over all the countries of the North? Will he eat up all the kail in England? He may do so if he likes, and make a desert of the country, before I kneel to him, or pay him any kind of service. And now ye may tell him these my words: I will defend Norway with sword and battle-axe as long as life is given me, and I will pay scat and tribute to no man for my kingdom. ”

“ What a proud revolution of soul and language had sprung forth in the nation from the slumbering deeds of Magna Charta, through the dauntless labours and patriotic devotion of such men as Pym, Hampden, Selden, Hollis, Elliot, Haselrig, and Cromwell. They proceeded to inform him of their knowledge of the traitorous endeavours making abroad, and thereupon justified their refusal to put Hull into his power.
Having failed in one stratagem to secure this important seaport, Charles and his advisers now sought another. A lieutenant Fawkes, serving in Hull, had married the daughter of a Mr. ”

“ The Expansion of England While Harald Fairhair was occupied in settling the Hebrides and Orkneys with inhabitants from Norway, and Rollo and his successors were possessing themselves of the larger part of the North of France, England and Ireland were enjoying a period of comparative repose. The twenty-three years of Edward the Elder’s reign were devoted largely to building up the great kingdom which his father, Alfred, had founded, but not consolidated; he brought Mercia more immediately into his power, and subdued East Anglia and the counties bordering on the kingdom of Wessex ”

“ Their arrival disgusted the royal forces under Newcastle in the north, who declared that they would not fight with catholics and Irish rebels.
Whilst the Scotch were mustering to enter England, the marquis of Newcastle was bearing hard on the parliament forces in Yorkshire. He had cleared the country of them except Hull, which he was besieging; and Lincolnshire was also so overrun with his forces, that lord Fairfax, governor of Hull, was obliged to send his son, Sir Thomas, across the Humber, to the help of the earl of Manchester. ”

“ After Gorm the Englishman’s submission to Alfred many of the Danes from England seem to have joined these fresh bands of marauders, advancing up the Seine to Paris, and devastating the country as far as the Meuse, the Scheldt, and the Marne on the east and Brittany on the west. In time to come, under Rollo’s descendant, William the Conqueror, these people were once more to pour down upon English shores and reconquer the land that their forefathers had lost through Alfred’s bravery and statesmanship. ”

“ But if I accept his offer what will he give the King of Norway for his trouble?”
“He has also spoken of this,” replied the horseman. “This will he give him: seven feet of English ground to lie in, or as much more as he may need if he be taller than other men.”
“If that is so,” said Tosti, “go back and tell Harold to prepare for battle; for never shall it be said that Tosti failed the King of Norway when he came to England to fight for him. Rather we will resolve to die with honour if we may not gain England by a victory.” ”

“ All, who were professedly warm friends of the king, were extremely civil to Fawkes, and said they were certain that he and his captain could mean no disloyalty to the king, but consented to do what they did in Hull as soldiers. They told him that if he and his captain would find some way of surrendering the king's own town to him, the king would guarantee one thousand pounds a year to the captain, and five hundred pounds a year to himself, as well as one thousand pounds in money. ”

“ It would scarcely have been possible that any{105} survivals of the Edwardian port could have been retained in the astonishing commercial development the city has witnessed, particularly in the last century; and Hull, despite its interesting history, lays no claim to even the smallest suggestion of picturesqueness. The renaissance of English architecture is beginning to make itself felt in the chief streets, where some good buildings are taking the places of ugly fronts ”

“ Edward found them full of friendship, and they swore to support their own princes, while every Danish king they declared to be a foreigner and outlaw from England for ever. When he heard this, Ethelred, flattered by the joyful greetings of his subjects, set to work to gather together an army against Canute, people flocking to him from every quarter. Among those who brought vessels to support him was Olaf the Thick, afterwards King Olaf of Norway. ”

“ He was one of the noblest born of the Danish men, and King Olaf the Saint of Norway was not ashamed to enter into partnership with him. In 1009 he sailed over to England with a vast army, and landed at Sandwich, taking Canterbury and overrunning all the south-east of England. Ethelred was so terrified by this fresh incursion that he called the whole nation out against the invaders; but in spite of this they marched about wherever they pleased, taking Canterbury and settling down upon East Anglia, from which point Thorkill the Tall ravaged the country. ”

“ The old red-brick Grammar{107} School bears the date 1583, and is a pleasant relief from the dun-coloured monotony of the greater part of the city. Of the walls, besieged in a half-hearted fashion during the ‘Pilgrimage of Grace’ trouble, and in a most determined fashion during the Civil War, nothing remains, and, our interest slackening, we suddenly realize that we have been long enough in this shipping city. It is not altogether easy to leave Hull behind, for Hessle, four miles further on, is in the suburban area. ”

“ By the end of the winter Newcastle had got possession of the whole county except Hull, and the cluster of manufacturing towns in the West Riding and on the Lancashire border. He had raised an army of 10,000 men, and controlled the whole countryside from the borders of the Scots as far as Newark-on-Trent. But in the Midlands the first campaign settled nothing; districts that held for the king and districts that held for the Parliament were intermixed in hopeless confusion. It would obviously need much further fighting before any definite result could be secured. ”

“ The Danes immediately elected him king, and he lay at Lindsey with his fleet when Ethelred returned to claim the kingdom. Canute was one of the greatest kings who ever ruled in England. Though he began his reign with an exhibition of ruthless cruelty by mutilating the high-born young nobles whom Sweyn had placed in his charge, cutting off their ears and noses, and afterwards boasting of his act, which made the English fear that they had in him a cruel master, as time went on his mind seems to have widened out into channels of broad and humane government. ”

“ The Danish army elected Canute, son of Sweyn, who was then in England, king in place of his father.
186
Chapter XXIII
The Battle of London Bridge “London Bridge is broken down” When it became known that Sweyn was dead, it was agreed at a meeting of the Angles to send for Ethelred out of Normandy; for the people thought it would be wiser to have their own lord, if only he could conduct himself better, rather than another foreigner for their king; so they sent messengers to invite him to return. Ethelred was, however, as little trustful of his own subjects as he was of the Danes ”

“ The rebellion was finished. The flame was trampled out, and a touch of human pathos hangs over the close. A brief entry among the records, relates that 'the bodies were cut down and buried by certain women.' [29] Hallam and several of his followers were executed at Hull. Bigod, Lumley, and six others were sent to London, to await their trial with the Lincolnshire prisoners who were still in the Tower.
The turn of events promised ill for Reginald Pole, and the nature of his mission was by this time known in England. The fame had spread of the consecrated sword ”

“ This was before St Olaf had gained his kingdom of Norway from young Earl Hakon. They sent Olaf’s foster-father, a man called Hrane, into England to sound the people and to collect money and arms for the expedition. Hrane was all winter in England, and several of the thanes joined him and promised their aid; for they would have been glad again to have a native king. But others had become so accustomed to the Danish rulers that they were not inclined to revolt and bring about fresh war and bloodshed in the country. ”

“ The first mention of Hull occurs under the name of Wyke-upon-Hull in a charter of 1160 by which Maud, daughter of Hugh Camin, granted it to the monks of Meaux, who in 1278 received licence to hold a market here every Thursday and a fair on the vigil, day and morrow of Holy Trinity and twelve following days. Shortly afterwards Edward I., seeing its value as a port, obtained the town from the monks in exchange for other lands in Lincolnshire and changed its name to Kingston-upon-Hull. To induce people to settle here he gave the town a charter in 1299. ”

“ In approaching nearer to Hull, we soon find ourselves in the outer zone of its penumbra of smoke, with fields on each side of the road waiting for works and tall shafts, which will spread the unpleasant gloom of the city still further into the smiling country. The sun becomes copper-coloured, and the pure, transparent light natural to Holderness loses its vigour. ”