Sheffield

“ There is scarcely a street from which you cannot see the hills crowned by wood which environ the town—that is, at intervals only, through the thinnest streams of smoke. The town itself is hilly, and the more you see of the neighbourhood, the more will you agree with those who say, “What a beautiful place Sheffield would be, if Sheffield were not there!” ”

“ FAREWELL TO SHEFFIELD PLACE.
*For the names of Sheffelina, &c. are too playful for the serious temper of my mind. In the whole period of my life I do not recollect a day in which I felt more unpleasant sensations, than that on which I took my leave of Sheffield-place. I forgot my friend Deyverdun, and the fair prospect of quiet and happiness which awaits me at Lausanne. I lost sight of our almost certain meeting at the end of a term, which, at our age, cannot appear very distant; nor could I amuse my uneasiness with the hopes, the more doubtful prospect, of your visit to Switzerland. ”

“ But few of the streams which run among these hills can bear away the palm for picturesque beauty from this river, and in that part of its course immediately before it enters the parish of Sheffield; I mean in the neighbourhood of Wharncliffe Chase, where the hills are finely clothed with native woods, and rise boldly, though not abruptly, from its banks, till they place the visitor on an elevation from which he may command a prospect rich, varied, extensive, and beautiful as eye can behold. ”

“ ORVILLE DEWEY. [307] Nothing can be imagined more peaceful than the retirement of Sheffield. Removed from the main lines of traffic and travel, even now that a railroad passes through it, the village remains, as it has been for a hundred and fifty years, the quiet centre of the quiet farms spread for four or five miles about it. ”

“ This we can take to represent Zinder, for from London to Sheffield is about equidistant as from Kano to Zinder. If you would continue the journey as far as Edinburgh or Glasgow, you should imagine that you have passed from the scrub-wooded land into desert, and that either of those Scottish towns may represent Agades, for from Sheffield to Edinburgh is about equidistant as from Zinder to Agades. Therefore, to realise the solitude of Zinder, you require to imagine that Sheffield stands alone in her dignity in all the land between London and Edinburgh ”

“ There is not only a vast deal of industry in Sheffield, but there is an unusual abundance of history, as there might very well be in a place that began life, in the usual English fashion, under the Britons and grew into municipal consciousness in the fostering care of the Romans and the ruder nurture of the Saxons, Danes, and Normans. ”

“ Proceeding four miles through this region, which seemed to Have burst upon us preternaturally, we reached Sheffield, a large town situated near the borders of Derbyshire, on a gentle rise, at the confluence of the rivers Sheaf and Don. This place, you know, has long been famous for the manufactory of knives, razors, scissars, files, and other articles made from steel; as well as buttons and silver plated goods; a trade, however, which does not appear to be attended with any considerable benefit to those engaged in it, as few individuals in this place amass large fortunes. ”

“ The streets of Sheffield have the usual grimy, smoky appearance of a manufacturing place, and, apart from the steel and cutlery works, there is but little of interest here. One cannot help observing, however, the more abject squalor and misery which appear in some of the poorer neighborhoods, than is ever seen in similar towns or cities in America. ”

“ To the other inhabitants of the territory now forming the parish of Sheffield we may therefore with some confidence add a mixed multitude, a rude and intractable people, whose occupations were in working the iron-mines, or preparing for useful purposes the metal which was extracted from them. ”

“ Sheffield presents at this time the extraordinary spectacle of an immense town expanded from a village, without any additional arrangements for its government beyond what it originally possessed as a village. There is no corporation, not even a resident magistrate, and yet all live in peace, decorum, and advantageous mutual intercourse. ”

“ Sheffield, I suppose, could justly claim to be called the ugliest town in the Old World: its inhabitants, who want it to be preeminent in everything, very likely do make that claim for it. ”

“ These streams together form a grand water-power, which is used in this great seat of manufactures. The city is very compactly built on the side of a hill in amphitheatre form, and open to the northeast. It has a dingy look, and is much smoked. The streets are well paved, of good width, and are quite inviting. It has a population of 261,019. Sheffield was one of the Saxon towns, and received its charter as a market-town from Edward I. in 1296. Early in the fifteenth century it was under control of the earls of Shrewsbury, who had a castle here, and a manorhouse in a park a mile east. ”

“ From time to time we hear of some plot to ruin or murder an employer ; and every year or two there is an explosion in some working-man’s bedroom or cellar, from a can of powder introduced by an enemy, in the name of the unionists; and thus Sheffield has acquired its bad name and its low place in the scale of English civilisation. ”

“ Such a district as that in which Sheffield stands must abound in water. Where there are hills there will be streams. Beside the Carbrook, the Limb-Dyke, and the Meersbrook, rivulets which mark the eastern, westerm, and southern limits of the parish, there are five streams which flow through it, and the waters of all are united at the town: the Porter, Riveling, Loxley, Sheaf, and Don. ”

“ When these remains betray a state of splendour now no longer existing, men are naturally disposed to inquire into the causes and process of a change so remarkable; and to ask for the names, characters, and histories of the distinguished dead of whose former power and consequence those remains are still speaking. In works of the highest antiquity the parish of Sheffield is not rich ”

“ THE SHEFFIELD RIVER SYSTEM.
None but those who have lived at Sheffield, or in its vicinity, can readily understand the enthusiasm with which the natives of "Hallamshire” so often refer to the scenery of that district. The term “Hallamshire” is one that dates from Saxon times, and the Norman surveyors appear to have included under it the whole of the present manor of Sheffield lying on the right bank of the Don, together with the “chapelry” of Bradfield. ”

“ Tradition speaks loudly of the defeat and death of an invading king who came from the south, bearing a raven in his standard, amongst the hilld on the north of Bradfield. History, however, affords us here no certain light; since neither in the Saxon annals nor in our own Northumbrian Bede are any events recorded that can on decisive evidence be referred, as th their scene, to the territory which now composes either the manor or parish of Sheffield. ”

“ The inhabitants of the town of Sheffield at this period were probably for the most part small artificers, or persons who had certain services to perform at the castle. In the surrounding country, such parts of the old inclosures as were not retained in the lord's own hand were held by small copyholders, none of whom rose above the rank of the mere farmer. It is not till the De Lovetots have passed off the stage, that we find families within the parish aspiring to imitate, if not rival, the chief at his castle of Sheffield. ”

“ VI. Lastly, the notices which the Domesday survey contains of this district bring us acquainted with some of its ante-Norman proprietors, or chief lords. Immediately before the change of property occasioned by the successful invasion of the Normans, the land which now forms the parish of Sheffield acknowledged three Saxon lords. ”

“ An inquiry into the early state and remote history of the Parish of Sheffield Where is now collected a numerous and active population was anciently a deep solitude, the silence of which was broken only by our rivers pouring their waters in natural cascades through the woodland scenery. ”

“ But these streams are og more importance to the commerce of Sheffield in another way than they could possibly have been had their waters been so deep and their course unobstructed as to have been fitted for the purposes of navigation. It is to one striking peculiarity in them that Sheffield in a great measure owes its present consequence as a manufacturing place, the frequent occurrence of their falls. These falls are the very life of its manufacturers, presenting an easily available strong motive power to works where the demand of power is necessarily large. ”

“ Often he had an urgent feeling that he must at once turn back, and he might have done so, if a still stronger feeling had not urged him forward. A journey from London to Edinburgh had always appeared to him a long one, and he had even felt Sheffield very far from Scotland; but the vastness of the present journey stupefied him. Before he reached San Francisco, he was subject to attacks of sentiment about his native city and country. ”

“ It seems certain from the parochial registers that the population did not amount to four thousand at the end of the reign of Charles the Second. The effects of a species of toil singularly unfavourable to the health and vigour of the human frame were at once discerned by every traveller. A large proportion of the people had distorted limbs. This is that Sheffield which now, with its dependencies, contains a hundred and twenty thousand souls, and which sends forth its admirable knives, razors, and lancets to the farthest ends of the world. ”

“ There is nothing so ancient and so massive about the salt cellars that Sheffield made as there is in the old styles beloved by the collector of rare silver plate. There are no standing salts in Sheffield plate, such as those treasured at the Universities, or brought out on state occasions at the dinners of the great London Companies. There is nothing in the eighteenth century in silver approaching the grandeur affected by the standing salt and its place of honour at the tables when those who sat above the vessel and those who sat below it were of different status. ”

“ He was a prominent citizen of Sheffield, acted as a town councillor, and was connected with many charitable institutions. He took a great interest in the school of art, and was president from 1878 to 1880. He married Sarah, daughter of William Frith of Angel Street, Sheffield. ”

“ The walks which that gentleman cut in the boldest part of the cliff, and along a natural terrace extending to that part of Stannington in which are the chapel and minister's house, were thrown open to the public, and much frequented during several summers by the people of Sheffield. Such places afford a cheap, healthful, and innocent amusement, and it is desirable that every town, but especially every manufacturing town, should possess them. ”

“ We do not all see alike; a Turner, a David Cox, a Constable would each render the same landscape differently. Once when admiring an old ivy-covered Tudor manor-house I ventured to remark to a native on the beauty of it; he scornfully rejoined, "I see nought in it, it wants pulling down." The eye is but a lens; it is the mind that really sees and interprets.
"The Sheffield Arms" is well retired from the highway by a wide space of grassy ground whereon grows a flourishing clump of trees; on the roadside of this clump stands a large, two-pillared, crossed-top signpost ”

“ Those only who do can form a just idea of its amphitheatrical pride, stretching down to the very brink of the Sheaf that flowed at its base, and rising upwards to the lofty summit that overhangs the eastern side of the town: the long line of hill on which the Manour stood just intervening between the topmost boughs and the horizon. When rising in all its consummate pomp, and robed in its leafy honours, well might the vale deserve the lovely comparison which Miss Seward's classic muse appropriates: 'And Sheffield, smoke-involved ”

“ The snug creeper-clad cottage, so familiar in the south of England, is, comparatively speaking, a rarity, and one misses the warmth of colour amid the everlasting grey.
The express having dropped us in nearly the southernmost corner, our object is to get out of the busy town of Sheffield as quickly as possible; but, as before stated, romance lingers around the remains of the ancient seat of the sixth Earl of Shrewsbury, who lies buried in the parish church, for under his charge the Scots' queen remained here a prisoner for many years ”

“ Sheffield 31 Jany. 1804; iron and steel manufacturer with his father and brothers at Sheffield 1830, the business became one of the largest in England, was left sole surviving partner 1871; converted business into a limited liability co. at Brightside works, Sheffield 1875, chairman of the co. 1875 to death; works stood on 27 acres of ground; built and furnished at cost of £30,000 the Jessop hospital for women 1878; mayor and master cutler of Sheffield 1863; president Sheffield Birthday club. ”

“ I advise the reader who finds himself in the like case to give the sixpence, and if he cares for the peace of my conscience, to make it a shilling; or, come! a half-crown, if he wishes to be truly handsome. It is astonishing how these regrets persist; but perhaps in this instance I owe the permanence of my pang to those frequent appeals to one’s pity which repeated themselves in Sheffield. As I had noted at Liverpool I now noted at Sheffield that you cannot have great prosperity without having adversity, just as you cannot have heat without cold or day without dark. ”