Salford

“ If we cross the Irwell to Salford, we find on a peninsula formed by the river, a town of eighty thousand inhabitants, which, properly speaking, is one large working-men’s quarter, penetrated by a single wide avenue. Salford, once more important than Manchester, was then the leading town of the surrounding district to p. ”

“ Educated at the Rev. J. H. Smithson's Swedenborgian school, Salford, William and his younger brother Thomas (1827-1883) , who adhered through life to their father's Swedenborgian faith, early joined their father's business, which rapidly developed under their control. They were partners from 1850, when the firm took the style of Thomas Agnew & Sons. ”

“ At the general election of Dec. 1868 he was returned as one of the conservative members for Salford, and he retained his seat in Feb. 1874. At the general election, however, of April 1880 he was defeated, and he was an unsuccessful candidate at Ipswich in 1883 and 1885. ”

“ But where do they get these torches?"
"Bog-oak, steeped in petroleum," I said. "It is, now that you recall it, very beautiful and picturesque. Our people will never allow a priest, with the Blessed Sacrament with him, to go unescorted."
"Now that you have mentioned it," he said, "I distinctly recall the custom that existed among the poor of Salford. They would insist always on accompanying me home from a night sick-call. I thought it was superfluous politeness, and often insisted on being alone, particularly as the streets were always well lighted. But no. ”

“ Like its neighbour. Liverpool. Manchester was exposed to the assaults of the Civil Wars in 1462, the country about it haring been laid waste by the Earl of Derby, who, however, after a spirited assault and several days' seige, was unable to take the town, and obliged to retire. Manchester has now two Members of Parliament, and Salford (which may be considered as part of Manchester) one ”

“ Salvington (a little village which is gained by leaving the main road two miles beyond Cissbury and bearing to the west) is distinguished as the birthplace, in 1584, of one who was considered by Hugo Grotius to be the glory of the English nation—John Selden. Nowadays, when we choose our glories among other classes of men than jurists and wits, it is more than possible for even cultured persons who are interested in books to go through life very happily without knowledge at all of this great man, the friend of great men and the writer best endowed with common sense of any of his day. ”

“ Where Kyrle and Saville and their happiness were safe from the tempest shut,
And the cheery lamp shed a kindly glow over the humble place,
And the nets and the bits of coral and spar lent it a simple grace.
“If only this cottage were ours, Saville! if this our idyl might be
Played for a white half-year divine down by the ice fringed sea!
But alas! the sable curtain must drop, and the actors perforce must flee!” ”

“ The properly constituted Salopian as he stands upon the western outskirts of his town, where his famous school has in recent times perched itself above the high banks of Severn, sees his past laid out before him, like a page of history; the fat Saxon lowland spreading westward for a dozen miles, and the sharp rampart of Wales from north to south as far as the eye can see, height after height, range after range, almost precisely delimiting the outworks behind which for centuries lay a{15} vigilant, unforgetting, and alien people, ready to strike at the first sign of over-confident negligence. ”

“ The crew gathered round. The Irishman seized a heavy iron pump-handle as a weapon, and Salvé a handspike; and Salvé kept his word. He pulled the boots off as the other lay senseless on the deck, and took them down to the Spaniard.
In point of physical strength, Salvé was far from being the equal of many of these men, who, he knew very well, were now only looking out for an occasion to get the better of him. His only chance was to take the initiative on all occasions, and to seem the most reckless and the most careless of life, and the most eager to fight of them all. ”

“ Upon the melancholy shore a sea-gull or two were circling round some old black stumps of wreck that protruded from the sand; while beyond lay the dismal expanse of the western sea, without a sail upon its leaden waste of waters, so shunned by all. Dreariness, wreck, and desolation were on every side; and it seemed to Salvé that it was only a reflection of his own life. He had got to be the owner of a brig, and there it lay, what remained of it, buried in the sand. He had succeeded in making Elizabeth his own, but had he thereby added anything to the happiness of his life? ”

“ Salvé's patience was exhausted. He had been sitting all this time squeezed up in the narrow space between the bench and the wall with people on both sides of him, preventing his getting out; but now grasping his neighbour violently by the shoulder, he sprang all at once across the table and over to the unabashed Yankee, with an irresistible feeling that, come what might, he would get out into the freedom of the open air once more. ”

“ Your voice breaks down in a heartstruck wail at a failure abrupt and complete,
I could not survive the cruel shock,—I should drop down dead at your feet!”
“Nay now, Saville, thou art far too bold,—why, what shall it profit me
The fleecy flocks of the sky to mark, the crocus and primrose to see,
Ay, even my first love, ‘Rupert’s Trust,’ and not—O Saville! not thee?
Yet thou shalt never ask boon in vain,—I will thine almoner be,
A warden most lenient,—Go, dear heart! for a score of hours thou art free!” ”

“ Saville had responded to Kyrle’s wild prayer, and so was permitted to save
His wounded faith and his breaking heart from the dusty dark of the grave,
And the days like white-winged birds wheeled by, and nearer and nearer they grew,
And each was a light in the other’s life, tinging its grayness through
With a cordial warmth, as in winter wolds vermilion barberries do,—
Ah me! ’tis a world of shadows we walk in, and happy is he who can cling
In the midst of the vacillant spectres secure to one real true thing. ”

“ After several Sundays given up to fruitless and ill-organised excursions into other suburbs, he heard by chance of a village buried far away in what seemed to him, whose England consisted of Hampstead Heath, Hampton Court, and, once, Southend, a savage and uninhabited district in Cambridgeshire, where the man who kept its one shop was weary of solitude, and wanted to come nearer London. What could be nearer London than London itself? Mr. Pinner hurried to{9} Woodles, leaving Sally under the strictest vows not to put her terribly complicating nose out of doors. ”

“ You seem to be particularly charmed with the fortune of Major Sanford, with the gayety of his appearance, with the splendor of his equipage, with the politeness of his manners, with what you call the graces of his person. These, alas! are superficial, insnaring endowments. As to fortune, prudence, economy, and regularity are necessary to preserve it when possessed. Of these Major Sanford is certainly destitute—unless common fame (which more frequently tells the truth than some are willing to allow) does him great injustice. ”

“ For an hour or twain ’twas enough to enjoy, merely that God had said
“Let there be light!” for him once more, and had summoned his eyes from the dead,
But quickly the rift crept widening in,—’twas but a mere broken toy,
A splintered gem, a goblet cracked, if Saville did not share in his joy.
He blamed himself for granting her prayer,—she should have remained beside
Her husband and bravely fronted with him what weal or woe should betide,—
Alone? ”

“ He was a clever boy who was not afraid of work, and the vicar discovered in himself an unsuspected genius for teaching. Arthur’s progress not only filled him with delight, but brought the offer of other pupils, so that he was but the forerunner of a succession of bright, handsome boys, who came from far and wide to be prepared for college, and to make their home at the vicarage. They were honest, healthy-minded lads, and Mrs Asplin loved them all, but no one had ever taken Arthur Saville’s place. ”

“ I feel as if I could face a whole regiment myself. The spirit—the spirit of my ancestors is in my breast, Arthur Reginald, and woe betide that enemy who tries to wrest from me my native land!” Peggy went off into a shriek of laughter, in which Arthur joined, until the sound of the merry peals reached Mrs Asplin’s ears as she lay wearily on her pillow, and brought a smile to her pale face. ”

“ This country is very woody, and affords a fine prospect every where, bounded by high and distant hills. A conflux of the many roads at this place gave origin to the town. Saltford is a large town; a broad and very strait street leading to Warington, probably Roman: a very good bridge over the river. Ten yards west from the castle is a natural precipice, which the Romans disregarded, trusting to their walls, but more to their own valour. A cavity cut in the rock by the river, under the south-west angle. ”

“ Nothing, I firmly believe; and that it is just you, Salvé, who are mad! Ah! if I could only really believe that there was nothing to quarrel about, after all! And I can believe it, if I have only been with her for a while," he sighed; and then added with a touch of self-contempt, "the fact is, I ought never to go away from home. I am like an anchovy; I don't bear taking out of the jar!
"She was so like the old Elizabeth as she stood there and told me all this; it is years since I have seen her like that. There's not her match to be found the whole world through. ”

“ Tell the King, Vane, the People follow Pym
To brave us at Whitehall!
Savile enters.
Savile. Not to Whitehall—
'Tis to the Lords they go: they seek redress
On Strafford from his peers—the legal way,
They call it.
Queen. (Wait, Vane!)
Savile. But the adage gives
Long life to threatened men. Strafford can save
Himself so readily: at York, remember,
In his own country: what has he to fear?
The Commons only mean to frighten him
From leaving York. Surely, he will not come.
Queen. Lucy, he will not come!
Lady Carlisle. Once more, the King
Has sent for Strafford. He will come. ”

“ And even Salvé, in moments of bitterness and indignation at the tyranny to which he was subjected by these men, whose lives were at the mercy of the crew, would sometimes entertain the thought of joining with the mutineers, who were restrained from carrying out their designs mainly by the fear which he had inspired, and by the refusal of his sanction. Many a desperate struggle with himself he went through when one of his tyrants passed him on deck in the dark, and the temptation to stick a knife into his back would rise strong within him, and almost master him. ”

“ O August imperial! night divine! O infinite passionate sea!
Each of itself is a gift so rich that well may the high gods be
Envying man the sweet low earth and their beautiful trinity!
Kyrle and Saville went wandering on, slow pacing the surf-beat shore,
And he stumbled not, for she chose the path, and heavy his arm hung o’er
Her delicate shoulders ”

“ For Arthur’s sake, as well as your own, we will say no more on the subject. It would be a pity if his visit were spoiled. Just one thing, Peggy, to show you that, after all, grown-up people are wiser than young ones, and that it is just as well to refer to them now and then, in matters of difficulty. Has it ever occurred to you that the mail went up to London by the very train in which you yourself travelled, and that by giving your parcel to the guard it could still have been put in the bag? ”

“ But in the Ghetto each day his cry is repeated, and through the heat and the foul air there arises from a thousand hearts the tearless murmur:
“Great is my affliction, O God of Israel, but Thou knowest best!”
217 THE SUN OF WISDOM “And therefore,” concluded Salvin, stroking his long, grey beard, “we are forced to accept the belief that the object of life is toil. We are the advance guard cutting out the road down which the next generation will travel, who, in turn, will carry the road further along. Our work done—our usefulness ends. ”

“ His eyes were blank, like those of a man in whom the springs of thought have been suddenly paralyzed.
"You must go home," repeated Salvers, his hand still upon his arm. "I will be with you in an hour. You must go."
Beneath his touch Anthony moved slowly into the hall, descending the stairs mechanically. Salvers gave him his hat and opened the outer door. Going to the sidewalk, he motioned to his coachman.
"Take Father Algarcife home," he said.
He slammed the door and looked after the carriage as it rolled down the block and rounded the corner. Then he turned and re-entered the house. ”

“ It was some miles to the fishing village; and they trudged on after it grew dark in silence, being too exhausted, and too dejected, to talk, their guides only keeping up a low conversation among themselves. Salvé carried the child, sheltering it from the pricking sand that blew in their faces when they came out upon the flat downs farther on, and supporting Elizabeth at the same time.
At last they saw the lights of a group of cottages. The largest of these belonged to Ib Mathisen; and into this Salvé and his wife were conducted, while the crew were distributed among the others. ”

“ Another hour was spent, waiting in vain for Tom. Then the order was given by the Captain:--
"Man and arm boats."
"May I go, sir?" said Kep.
"Most certainly."
And away the boats sped with all the way on them that lusty arms could lend.
There was now silence in the village, a stillness indeed, that was ominous. But fearing an ambush, Guilford advanced his men with great caution.
Every cottage was empty. The savages had fled to the forest, nor in its dark recesses could any trail be found visible to white men's eyes. ”