Wakefield

“ Wakefield is indeed an extraordinary man! Be his intentions honest or base, the strength and clearness of his mind and his knowledge of the human heart, when we recollect how these faculties have been employed, are truly astonishing. If this be a plan of artifice, it is little less than miraculous. Yet who can believe it to be any thing else?'
Miss Wilmot heaved a deep sigh, and attempted to speak: but she only stammered. ”

“ Do you not remember billiards, hazard, and Bath?'
'Yes: but Wakefield would be incapable of the qualities of mind which you are now displaying. With you I feel myself in the company of a man of a perverted but a magnanimous spirit. With all your faults, I could hug you to my heart. But Wakefield! who made women and men alike his prey; to whose devilish arts the virtue and happiness of an amiable, I may say a charming, woman were sacrificed; and the life of one of the first of mankind was endangered ”

“ To the west of Pontefract, in a comparatively small space, and connected with a wonderful network of railways, lie Wakefield, Leeds, Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield, Dewsbury, and a dozen smaller centres of manufacture, while further south are Barnsley and Sheffield. It seems unfair that a district contributing so much to England’s wealth should be repaid by gloomy skies and depressing landscapes.
Wakefield has a fine Perpendicular church with a tall crocketed spire, which became a cathedral in 1888, when the new diocese was formed. ”

“ Wakefield to be inferior to none in the British empire, abounding in magnificent scenery, richly planted, undulating and varied in their surfaces, and animated by the Slaney flowing between them, which often assumes all the grandeur of an expansive lake. ”

“ A right honest man shall fare well for 2d. a meal. There be plenti of se coal in the quarters about Wakefield.” The corn market, held on Fridays, is of remote origin. A cattle market is also held on alternate Wednesdays under charter of 1763. The town was enfranchised in 1832, and was incorporated in 1848 under the title of the mayor, aldermen and councillors of the borough of Wakefield. Before this date it was under the superintendence of a constable appointed by the steward of the lord of the manor.
See Victoria County History, Yorkshire; W. S. Banks, History of Wakefield (1871) ”

“ Wakefield's "happy pictures," I do not see anything left, but his eyebrows, for the luckless bard to hang by! He could not have hung by his hair, which "stream'd like a meteor to the troubled air;" nor yet by his hands, which "swept the deep sorrows of his lyre." Besides, there can scarcely be more opposite pictures than that of a man gathering samphire, or kids browsing, amongst beetling rocks; and the commanding and awe-inspiring position in which Gray ingeniously places his bard. ”

“ The two most frightful things I have ever yet seen in my life are the south-eastern suburb of Bradford, (six miles long,) and the scene from Wakefield bridge, by the chapel; yet I cannot but more and more reverence the fierce courage and industry, the gloomy endurance, and the infinite mechanical ingenuity of the great centres, as one reverences the fervid labours of a wasp’s nest, though the end of all is only a noxious lump of clay. ”

“ But that is not reconcileable with the fact, that previously to the battle, the Duke of York’s army was posted at Sandal, and that the battle was fought between Wakefield and Sandal, and upon Wakefield Green; because in that case, Wakefield and its bridge, must of necessity have been in the possession of the Lancastrians; and if so, they naturally must have advanced from York to Wakefield on the west side of the Calder. ”

“ Wakefield, with its magnificent church, recently dignified as a cathedral, was the first town of consequence on our way, and about twenty-five miles south of Leeds we came to Barnsley, lying on the edge of the great moorlands in central England. There is hardly a town in the whole Kingdom that does not have its peculiar tradition, and an English friend told us that the fame of Barnsley rests on the claim that no hotel in England can equal the mutton chops of the King's Head—a truly unique distinction in a land where the mutton chop is standard and the best in the world. ”

“ The admirable ease and grace of the narrative as well as the pleasing truth with which the principal characters are designed, make the Vicar of Wakefield one of the most delicious morsels of fictitious composition on which the human mind was ever employed. ”

“ Toye,' one of which is entitled Of Wakefylde and a grene; meaning apparently the ballad here reprinted." Ritson.
In Wakefield there lives a jolly pindèr,
In Wakefield all on a green,
In Wakefield all on a green.
* * * * *
* * * * * [Pg 205]
"There is neither knight nor squire," said the pinder,
"Nor baron that is so bold,5
Nor baron that is so bold,
Dare make a trespàss to the town of Wakefield,
But his pledge goes to the pinfold," &c.
All this beheard three wighty yeomen,
'Twas Robin Hood, Scarlet and John;10
With that they espy'd the jolly pindèr,
As he sat under a thorn. ”

“ He remained in New Zealand until his death on the 19th of September 1848. Arthur Wakefield (1799–1843) , who was associated with his brother in these transactions about land, was killed during a fight with some natives at Wairau on the 17th of June 1843. The third brother was Felix Wakefield (1807–1875) , an engineer.
Wakefield was a man of large views and lofty aims, and in private life displayed the warmth of heart which commonly accompanies these qualities. ”

“ Wakefield?'
'In the city of —— where he was bred, under his father, to the profession of the law. From what I have seen of you, and from what I have heard of your talents and understanding, I should have expected you to have been the child of extraordinary parents; otherwise, I do not much wonder at your mother's conduct, superior as she was to Mr. Wakefield in years; for, of all the men I ever saw, he is the most deceitful, plausible, and dangerous. Neither man nor woman are safe with him; and his arts are such as to over-reach the most cautious. He has words at will ”

“ My wife approved her suspicions very much, observing, that she was very apt to be suspicious herself; but referred her to all the neighbours for a character: but this our Peeress declined as unnecessary, alledging that her cousin Thornhill’s recommendation would be sufficient, and upon this we rested our petition.
CHAPTER XII. Fortune seems resolved to humble the family of Wakefield. Mortifications are often more painful than real calamities. ”

“ There was no trace left of the gaieties that once gave the town the name of ‘Merrie Wakefield.’ All the smart young men were leaving it to push their way in Leeds or Manchester, and the girls left behind were growing up into a population of old maids. ”

“ Wakefield is the chief agricultural town in the West Riding, and has one of the largest corn markets in the north of England. It possesses agricultural implement and machine works, grain and flour mills, malt-works and breweries. A large trade in grain is carried on by means of the Calder, and the building of boats for inland navigation is a considerable industry. There are extensive market-gardens in the neighbourhood. ”

“ Among tales of awe and weird mystery stands out the story of the adventures of Peter Priestly, clerk, sexton, and gravestone cutter, of Wakefield, who flourished at the end of the eighteenth century. He was an old and much respected inhabitant of the town, and not at all given to superstitious fears. One Saturday evening he went to the church to finish the epitaph on a stone which was to be in readiness for removal before Sunday. ”

“ And then there are other qualities in this delightful Vicar of Wakefield than merely idyllic tenderness, and pathos, and sly humour. There is a firm presentation of the crimes and brutalities of the world. The pure light that shines within that domestic circle is all the brighter because of the black outer ring that is here and there indicated rather than described. How could we appreciate all the simplicities of the good man's household, but for the rogueries with which they are brought in contact? ”

“ He did not care if they never got to church.
The bell was ringing as the car chugged up the steep little hill and passed through the gate behind the church. Heads of people mounting the precipitous steps at the front could be seen bobbing upward, as though ascending from a well. Golden sunshine lay like a caress on the irregular green mounds and moss-grown headstones of the churchyard. There was one new grave, on the fresh sandy top of which a wreath of drooping flowers lay.
Wakefield came and put his hand into Alayne's. ”

“ You might have seen, too, the pretty cottagers’ daughters, with their bunches of lavender and baskets of fruit, or heaps of cowslips and primroses for the wine and vinegar Wakefield housewives prided themselves upon. On certain days they stood to be hired as maid-servants, and were prized in the country round as neat, clean, modest-spoken girls. [214]
“I do not know where they are gone to now,—I suppose to the factories. Anyhow, Wakefield ladies cry out that they must get servants from London, and Stafford, and Wales. So class gets parted from class. ”

“ The Wakefield National Memorial Association (Inc.) has been organized to purchase the lands at Wakefield and thus save them from threatened encroachments of hunting and fishing clubs, which are now securing valuable sites along the Potomac River. Thus the association is doing for Wakefield what the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association of the Union accomplished for the preservation of Mount Vernon.
WAKEFIELD, AT POPES CREEK, WESTMORELAND COUNTY, VA.
Congress early in 1930 appropriated $50,000 toward erecting a colonial house, typical of the Virginia houses at the time of George Washington. ”

“ Lunacy, as is well known, is spreading out of all proportion to the increase of population, and in the event of the establishment of electoral districts Wakefield might hope for a second member. What might not then be expected from a town whose political history for the last forty years has been so bright, and has justified so well the hopes of those who extended the franchise? We can conceive of a millennium of universal happiness, when no man's house shall be without a buzzer, beer shall be the only available drink, and twenty persons shall sleep in the same round bed. ”

“ Countless times he must have walked along the high banks of Popes Creek and the sandy shore of the Potomac River, and stalked game in the nearby forest. Wakefield is a monument to the growing boy who returned to the place of his birth when he was 11 years old 33 and learned his first lessons in surveying. The impressions which the peaceful farm made on his mind were lasting ones, and as he grew from youth into manhood and assumed greater responsibilities, the happy memories of days spent on his father’s plantation were never forgotten. ”

“ Wakefield describes as bearing evident marks of the good effects that may be produced by the patriotic exertions of an ardent mind directed to laudable pursuits, and anxious for improvements, contributing particularly by extensive plantations to increase the beauty of the county, which, in this vicinity, naturally abounds with wild and romantic scenery. See the remains of the old Castle, also the ruins of a very large building at Somerstown, near to Cahir. The ride from Cahir to Clogheen is described by Mr. Wakefield as being an object of research to the inquisitive tourist. ”

“ After their release from Lancaster and Newgate respectively, both Wakefields went abroad. Mr. W. Wakefield served in a continental army, and rose to the rank of colonel, after which he went to New Zealand, and held an important post in that colony. Mr. E. G. Wakefield took part in the scheme for the colonization of North Australia, and for some years resided in that colony. Miss Turner subsequently married Mr. Legh of Lym Hall, Cheshire. ”

“ Wakefield notices that from the tower the eye can trace the Suir the whole way to Waterford, while the ocean, stretched out along the coast on the S., forms in the remote part of the picture a very fine object. The house is seen to most advantage in front, as it is backed by wood which exhibits very grand scenery. There are some good paintings. The demesne is stated by Mr. W. to contain 2800 acres, of which nearly one half is covered with wood. The whole of this extended property is surrounded by walls; and it excels in mountain scenery and woody wildness. ”

“ It is shocking to think that he fought at the battle of Wakefield against his wife’s father, and at those of Towton and Barnet against her brother; besides fighting against some of his own near relations on several occasions. He married Anne, daughter of Richard Duke of York, and sister of Edward IV., but had no issue; she was divorced from him, and she afterwards married Sir Thomas St. ”

“ Bricks for the house were made from the clay at Wakefield. The construction work was carried out under the supervision of the National Park Service of the Department of the Interior, which has jurisdiction over the maintenance of Wakefield since the project of restoration was completed. John D. Rockefeller, jr., gave $115,000 for the purchase of 267 acres, and the association purchased approximately 100 additional acres. The association raised about $200,000. ”

“ In looking back to the old account of the town—unless, indeed, we are to suppose that each historian merely copied the words of his predecessor—Wakefield seems to have given the impression that it was a pleasant place to live in. 'There be few towns in the inward parts of Yorkshire that hath a fairer site or soil about it.' says Leland, and he adds that a right honest man shall fare well there for twopence a meal. ”