Some of our East Coast Towns
()
About this ebook
But on the whole the town is modern, and all of the modern time. It is respectable, thoroughly so, quite as much as any London square or street. Its great industry is a modern one—the manufacture of Electric apparatus, by the firm of Crompton and Co., Ltd., a firm which has for some time occupied a leading place in connection with the installation of Electric light, and has been the means of lighting not only Chelmsford, but many of the principal buildings in London. If you want to see antiquity in Chelmsford, you must pay a visit to the Museum, now incorporated with the Essex Field Club, which is a very good one of its kind. One of the best antiquarian magazines of the day is the Essex Review, published in High street, which is really a credit to the town.
Read more from J. Ewing Ritchie
The Religious Life of London Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMoney-making men; or, how to grow rich Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSome of Our East Coast Towns Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAbout London Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Night Side of London Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPictures of Canadian Life: A Record of Actual Experiences Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Real Gladstone: An Anecdotal Biography Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Cruise of the Elena; Or, Yachting in the Hebrides Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe London Pulpit Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHere and There in London Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAn Australian Ramble; Or, A Summer in Australia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDays and Nights in London; Or, Studies in Black and Gray Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChristopher Crayon's Recollections: The Life and Times of the late James Ewing Ritchie as told by himself Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Some of our East Coast Towns
Related ebooks
Some of Our East Coast Towns Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsColchester in the Great War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Brief History of the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers, London A.D. 1351-1889: With an Account of the Blacksmiths' Company Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHammersmith, Fulham and Putney Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOxford [Illustrated] Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCongregationalism in the Court Suburb Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHarold's Town and Its Vicinity: Waltham Abbey, Waltham Cross, Cheshunt, and High Beech, Epping Forest Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMilton's England Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNooks and Corners of Old London Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMediæval London Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHammersmith, Fulham and Putney The Fascination of London Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFamous Houses and Literary Shrines of London Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOxford Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSecret History of Chelmsford Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 14, No. 380, July 11, 1829 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Facts About Shakespeare Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe story of Coventry Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLancaster in the Great War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 19, No. 529, January 14, 1832 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 17, No. 490, May 21, 1831 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSeeing Europe through the Eyes of the Famous Authors (Vol. 1-8) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTraitor to the Crown: The Untold Story of the Popish Plot and the Consipiracy Against Samuel Pepys Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Westminster Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLondon in English Literature (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCurious Tales from West Yorkshire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLondon Vanished and Vanishing - Painted and Described Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSecret Lancaster Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChelsea The Fascination of London Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Children of Westminster Abbey Studies in English History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
History For You
100 Things You're Not Supposed to Know: Secrets, Conspiracies, Cover Ups, and Absurdities Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Joy of Gay Sex: Fully revised and expanded third edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Cliterate: Why Orgasm Equality Matters--And How to Get It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wise as Fu*k: Simple Truths to Guide You Through the Sh*tstorms of Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Secret History of the World Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5100 Amazing Facts About the Negro with Complete Proof Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Whore Stories: A Revealing History of the World's Oldest Profession Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The ZERO Percent: Secrets of the United States, the Power of Trust, Nationality, Banking and ZERO TAXES! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Richest Man in Babylon: The most inspiring book on wealth ever written Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Power of Geography: Ten Maps That Reveal the Future of Our World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lessons of History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Reset: And the War for the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Grief Observed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Awakening: Defeating the Globalists and Launching the Next Great Renaissance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman's Journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Some of our East Coast Towns
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Some of our East Coast Towns - J. Ewing Ritchie
Table of Contents
Some of Our East Coast Towns.
I. ONE OF OUR YOUNG BOROUGHS.
II. IN AN ANCIENT CITY.
III. A QUIET SUFFOLK TOWN.
IV. A GRAND MEDIÆVAL TOWN.
V. IPSWICH: THE PRIDE OF THE ORWELL.
VI. LIVING NORWICH.
VII. A DAY AT LYNN.
VIII. FRAMLINGHAM AND ITS CASTLE.
IX. SUDBURY.
X. INTERNATIONAL HAVERHILL.
XI. THE OLDEST ESSEX BOROUGH.
ADVERTISEMENTS.
A SELECTION FROM Messrs. EDMUND DURRANT & CO’S. LIST OF PUBLICATIONS.
Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation,
EAST ANGLIA
Some of
Our East Coast Towns.
BY
J. EWING RITCHIE
(CHRISTOPHER CRAYON.)
Author of "East Anglia" &c.
I.
ONE OF OUR YOUNG BOROUGHS.
Chelmsford, one of the youngest of the Essex Boroughs, and almost a suburb of Greater London by means of the Great Eastern Railway, was, when I first knew it, a dignified county town, the leading people of which considered a second post from London as a daily nuisance, and had no taste for what is practically too near the rush and roar of modern life. The old stage-coaches stopped and changed horses at quaint old hotels, which have long disappeared. Now, as you drop down from the railway station, past the Quakers’ chapel on one side, and the big brewery on the other, all is modern, and except the church which stands on your left, there is little left to recall the past. In the square, opposite the Shire Hall, there is a modern statue which recalls to memory Chief Justice Tindal, who, born in 1776, at a house called Coval Hall, was educated at the Chelmsford Grammar School, and died at Folkestone, in 1846. The statue is erected on the site of an ancient conduit, which stood long upon the spot, with a Latin inscription which few Essex people cared to read. Not far off is the Corn Exchange, which, what time corn was a commodity worth dealing in, was on Fridays as busy as Mark Lane itself.
But on the whole the town is modern, and all of the modern time. It is respectable, thoroughly so, quite as much as any London square or street. Its great industry is a modern one—the manufacture of Electric apparatus, by the firm of Crompton and Co., Ltd., a firm which has for some time occupied a leading place in connection with the installation of Electric light, and has been the means of lighting not only Chelmsford, but many of the principal buildings in London. If you want to see antiquity in Chelmsford, you must pay a visit to the Museum, now incorporated with the Essex Field Club, which is a very good one of its kind. One of the best antiquarian magazines of the day is the Essex Review, published in High street, which is really a credit to the town. But Chelmsford is of the present rather than the past. Its men and women move with the times, perhaps in consequence of their nearness to the great metropolis. It has literary and scientific tastes, of which the sette of Odde Volumes is an illustration; and it is further known to fame as the head-quarters of the Essex Bee-keeping Association, established in 1880, which has done much to develop the taste for, and the growth of, honey—an article not unknown to the ancients, and an industry by means of which many a careful cottager may pay his rent. Of that association Mr. Edmund Durrant is the life and soul, and in all parts of the land he has lifted up his voice, on behalf of this new and desirable source of wealth in our country towns and village homes. As to its Beef Steak Club, which was founded in Chelmsford in the time of the Georges—it was second to none.
The position of the town at the junction of the rivers Chelmer and Cann probably
writes Mr. Christy, led to its being inhabited in very early days.
As Roman remains have been discovered there, there is reason to suppose that it was known to those enterprising people.
In the good old times, as some people call them, there was a Priory here (of which no trace now remains), where in the reign of Edward II. resided Thomas Langford, an author, of whose works I know little, save that a local historian describes them as curious. A greater man, I apprehend, was Philemon Holland, a physician and translator of Livy, Pliny, and other classic authors. He has better claims on us as having first translated Camden’s Britannia into English. He was born in Chelmsford, in 1551, and educated at the Grammar School, a school which still exists, but in a recent building, the older one having passed into the hands of the County Council Technical Instruction Committee. One of the old houses still remaining, Springfield Mill,
is that in which Strutt wrote his Sports and Pastimes.
Chelmsford fell into Church hands at an early date: It owes indeed much of its prosperity to Maurice, Bishop of London, who, about the year 1100, built a bridge over the Cann, which brought the main stream of traffic through Chelmsford instead of Writtle.
The Church has been once at any rate in danger, that is in 1800, when a great part of the building fell down. Hence arose a well-known local rhyme.
Chelmsford Church, and Writtle steeple,
Both fell down, but killed no people.
Chelmsford seems early to have struggled after a Reformed Church. Strype tells us of one, William Maldon, who learned to read in order that he might study the Bible for himself, and there discovered how idolatrous it was to kneel to the crucifix, much to the anger of his father, who beat him till he was almost dead. A little later we hear of George Eagles, who, for preaching, was hanged, drawn and quartered at Chelmsford, in Queen Mary’s reign, and whose head was set up in the market-place on a long pole. Archbishop Laud found many victims in Essex. One was Thomas Hooker, Fellow of Emanuel College, Cambridge, and lecturer at Chelmsford, where by his preaching he wrought a great reformation, not only in the town but in all the country round. Happily for himself, Hooker escaped to America, where he died. When the Quakers appeared, they were sorely handled by those who ought to have known better; for instance, in July 1655, there was a day of general fasting, prayer, and public collection of money for the poor persecuted Protestants of Piedmont. John Parnell, the Quaker, embraced that opportunity for disturbing the people, and for this he was tried at Chelmsford, and sent to Colchester Castle where he died. One of the ejected ministers at Chelmsford, Mark Mott, is described as an able preacher. The congregational cause in Chelmsford,