Romford

“ Near to the still independent market town of Romford, for instance, is the village of Havering-atte-Bower, that gives its name to the ancient Liberty, including the extensive parishes of Romford, Havering, and Hornchurch, and is built on the site of a royal palace, once the favourite resort of Edward the Confessor, and of many of his successors. The name of Havering has been very variously explained, the most poetic and also the most probable interpretation {75} being that it commemorates a beautiful legend relating to the saintly founder of Westminster Abbey to the effect that he gave to St. ”

“ Romford (8) , an old market-town of Essex, on the Bourne or Rom, 12 m. NE. of London; noted for its cattle and corn markets; industries include brewing, market-gardening, foundries, &c.
Romilly, Sir Samuel, English lawyer, born in London, of a Huguenot family; was a Whig in politics, and was Solicitor-General for a time; devoted himself to the amendment of the criminal law of the country, and was a zealous advocate against slavery and the spy system (1751-1818) .
Romney, George, English portrait-painter, born in Lancashire ”

“ The Drill Inn at Romford is, however, probably a military sign. At Boxted there is a beer-house with the very strange and probably unique sign of the Wig and Fidget. Inquiry has elicited the fact that the house was built about forty years ago by a man who was a Whig in his political views. His neighbours regarded him also as a “fidgety man;” hence, when the house was opened the people of the parish, having regard to its owner’s peculiarities, named it the Whig and Fidget, otherwise the Fidgety Whig. In Stapleford Tawney is a beer-shop with the sign of the Mole Trap. ”

“ Communications.—Railway communications are supplied principally by the Great Eastern railway, of which the main line runs by Stratford, Ilford, Romford, Brentwood, Chelmsford, Witham, Colchester, and Manningtree. The Cambridge and northern line of this company, following the Lea valley, does not touch the county until it diverges along the valley of the Stort. The chief branches are those to Southend and Burnham, Witham to Maldon, Colchester to Brightlingsea, to Clacton and to Walton, and Manningtree to Harwich, on the coast ”

“ Lady help! Jesus!’ ” Taylor, in his Catalogue of Tavernes, mentions a White Hart at *Romford in 1636, probably the hotel of that name still existing there. An inn with this sign at Colchester is mentioned in one of the old Corporation records, dated 1603, as being an “auncyent inne” at that time. In old deeds Mr. H. W. King finds mention of a White Hart—either inn, shop, or tenement—at Horndon-on-the-Hill in both 1704 and 1719. There does not seem to be any apparent reason why the white hart should have become so common a device as a sign as it has done. ”

“ I did not exactly go there for enjoyment."
"Or at Romford, where you were before?"
"Women seem to think that men have no purpose but amusement when they go about their daily work," said Mr. Furnival; and then he threw himself back in his arm-chair, and took up the last Quarterly.
Lucius Mason soon perceived that all the harmony of the evening had in some way been marred by the return of the master of the house, and that he might be in the way if he remained; he therefore took his leave.
"I shall want breakfast punctually at half-past eight to-morrow morning," said Mr. ”

“ They must have been there for a considerable period, as it is beyond the memory of any of the good old country-folks living in the locality to tell when first erected. At a little distance from the toll-house occurs a similar pair, set up over the carriage entrance to a residence.”
Afterwards (1878, p. 397) “S. P.” wrote as follows:—
“When I was a boy, there stood by the roadside, about two miles west of Romford, at the east end of the long straggling village of Chadwell Heath, and on the left hand going from London, a tremendous pair of bones, forming an arch. ”

“ Larwood and Hotten suggest that the Rising Sun was, perhaps, adopted as a sign “on account of the favourable omen it presents for a man commencing business.” The Sun at *Thaxted seems to have existed since the year 1786 at least, for it is mentioned in the Chelmsford Chronicle for January 20th in that year. The Sun Inn at Romford bears the monogram “T. W. L.” and the date 1632. The Sun Inn in Church Street, Saffron Walden, was once a house of note, but is now a private residence. ”

“ In 1779 Count Rumford, adventurer, soldier, and scientist, was elected Fellow. Sir Benjamin Thompson's life reads like a romance. A poor New England lad, he at the outbreak of the Revolution sailed to England, where he spent the greater part of his life. He held many positions of honor and trust, both in England and Bavaria, and displayed marked ability as a statesman and as a general. But he is chiefly remembered for his scientific attainments. He founded the Rumford medal of the Royal Society, and enjoyed the unique distinction of being its first recipient. ”

“ In most people’s minds there is a sort of wonder whether he could be a real Count if his business in life was—stoves. Some of us elders of our day had fathers who knew Count Rumford, and who remembered and talked of him, not in connection with stoves, but as a nobleman of great knowledge, of an active inquiring spirit, of great administrative faculty, and the most indefatigable, resolute, vigilant and enterprising benevolence. Whenever society needs the largest amount of comfort at the smallest cost, the name and memory of Count Rumford come up again. ”

“ He was a man of great kindness and benevolence, by which he was prompted to establish a reformatory institution for the mendicants of Bavaria, and so great was its success that it became renowned all over Europe. The sovereign conferred one honor after another upon him, and finally "created him a count by the name of Rumford, in honor of Concord, New Hampshire, whose original name was Rumford."
His writings upon philosophical subjects were valued highly, and widely circulated. He was a leader in founding the Royal Society of Great Britain. ”

“ If Romola had been less drawn by the longing that was taking her away, it would have been a hard moment for her when she walked along the village street for the last time, while the Padre and Jacopo, with the mule, were awaiting her near the well. Her steps were hindered by the wailing people, who knelt and kissed her hands, then clung to her skirts and kissed the grey folds, crying, "Ah, why will you go, when the good season is beginning and the crops will be plentiful? Why will you go?" ”

“ Romuald, then twenty years of age, struck with horror at the crime that had been perpetrated, though he had concurred to it no further than by his presence, thought himself, however, obliged to expiate it by a severe course of penance for forty days in the neighboring Benedictine monastery of Classis, within four miles of Ravenna. He performed great austerities, and prayed and wept almost without intermission. His compunction and fervor made all these exercises seem easy and sweet to him: and the young nobleman became every day more and more penetrated with the fear and love of God. ”

“ Rumford had found that the work of a horse can produce heat, and heat, in a steam-engine, can do the work of a horse. Thus surely, though slowly, men were learning of the forces that move the world and do man's bidding.
Count Rumford, true to his adopted land, returned to London and became the founder of the Royal Institution in which Faraday and his successors have achieved such marvellous results. He believed that the poor can be helped in no better way than by giving them knowledge, so that they can better their own condition. ”

“ And that this increase might not be altogether empty walls without men, Romulus set up a sanctuary, to which were gathered a great multitude of men from the nations round about. All that were discontented and lovers of novelty came to him. Nor did he take any account of their condition, whether they were bond or free, but received them all. Thus was there added to the city great strength. And the King when he judged that there was strength sufficient, was minded to add to the strength counsel. Wherefore he chose a hundred men for counsellors. ”

“ Rumford's death took place at Auteuil, on the 21st of August, 1814, in the sixty-second year of his age. His only daughter by his first wife inherited the title of Countess of Rumford, with the continuation of her father's Bavarian pension. She married Cuvier the naturalist, and survived until a few years ago, forming a link between the age of Lavoisier and those of the middle of the nineteenth century.—Chambers' Miscellany, No. 161.—Encyclopædia Britannica, eighth edition.—Voyage de trois mois en Angleterre, en Ecosse, &c., par Marc-Auguste Pictet, F.R.S., &c. ”

“ The positions in which Remus and Romulus stood in respect to each other, and the feelings which were naturally awakened in their hearts by the circumstances in which they found themselves placed, were such as did not tend to allay any rising asperity which accident might occasion, but rather to irritate and inflame it. In the first place, they were both ardent, impulsive, and imperious. Each was conscious of his strength, and eager to exercise it. ”

“ Romola was waked by a tap at the door. The cold light of early morning was in the room, and Maso was come for the travelling wallet. The old man could not help starting when she opened the door, and showed him, instead of the graceful outline he had been used to, crowned with the brightness of her hair, the thick folds of the grey mantle and the pale face shadowed by the dark cowl.
"It is well, Maso," said Romola, trying to speak in the calmest voice, and make the old man easy. "Here is the wallet quite ready. You will go on quietly, and I shall not be far behind you. ”

“ One of the chief sights of Rothbury is the beautiful mansion of Cragside and the wonderful valley of Debdon and Crag Hill, as transformed by the first Lord Armstrong into a paradise of beauty, where art and nature are so blended as to make a romantically artistic whole. Another lovely spot on the banks of Coquet is at Brinkburn, where the famous Priory stands almost hidden at the foot of thickly wooded slopes. ”

“ If anything miraculous were happening, he felt there was no strong presumption that the miracle would be in his favour. He dared not run away; he dared not advance.
"Come down," said Romola, after a pause. "Do not fear. Fear rather to deny food to the hungry when they ask you."
A moment after the boughs were parted, and the complete figure of a thick-set priest, with a broad, harmless face, his black frock much worn and soiled, stood, bucket in hand, looking at her timidly, and still keeping aloof as he took the path towards the cow in silence. ”

“ On the eighth day from that memorable night Romola was standing on the brink of the Mediterranean, watching the gentle summer pulse of the sea just above what was then the little fishing village of Viareggio.
Again she had fled from Florence, and this time no arresting voice had called her back. Again she wore the grey religious dress; and this time, in her heart-sickness, she did not care that it was a disguise. A new rebellion had risen within her, a new despair. Why should she care about wearing one badge more than another, or about being called by her own name? ”

“ By great exertions the Medicean party had so far triumphed, and that triumph had deepened Romola's presentiment of some secretly prepared scheme likely to ripen either into success or betrayal during these two months of her godfather's authority. Every morning the dim daybreak as it peered into her room seemed to be that haunting fear coming back to her. Every morning the fear went with her as she passed through the streets on her way to the early sermon in the Duomo: but there she gradually lost the sense of its chill presence, as men lose the dread of death in the clash of battle. ”

“ Romola was accustomed now to be addressed in this fraternal way by ordinary citizens, whose faces were familiar to her from her having seen them constantly in the Duomo. The idea of home had come to be identified for her less with the house in the Via de' Bardi, where she sat in frequent loneliness, than with the towered circuit of Florence, where there was hardly a turn of the streets at which she was not greeted with looks of appeal or of friendliness. ”

“ At last one day, on occasion of a great review which took place at a little distance from the city, there came up a sudden shower, attended with thunder and lightning, and the violence of the tempest was such as to compel the soldiers to retire precipitately from the ground in search of some place of shelter. Romulus was left with a number of senators who were at that time attending upon him, alone, on the shore of a little lake which was near the place that had been chosen for the parade. After a short time the senators themselves came away from the ground, and returned to the city ”

“ But the die is cast, and the journey continues. They reach the modest parsonage where Romuald is to pass the rest of his days, and he is installed in his cure, Serapion returning to the city. Romuald attacks his work desperately, hoping to find peace there, but he very partially succeeds. The words of Clarimonde and the touch of her hand haunt him constantly, and sometimes even stranger things happen. He sees the flash of the sea-green eyes across his garden hedges; he seems to find the imprint of feet, which are assuredly not those of any inhabitant of the village, on the gravel walks. ”