George Head (1782–1855)

W.H. Challoner's introduction to the second edition of this book, published in 1968 as part of the Cass Library of Industrial Classics, includes an interesting genealogy of the author, Sir George Head, who it turns out was descended from the Portugese physician to Catherine of Braganza.

Be that as it may, Head's book describes a roughly circular journey from Liverpool to Preston, undertaken in 1835, via Southport, Chester, Manchester, Warrington, St. Helen's, Buxton, Matlock, Halifax, Wakefield, Leeds, Selby, Goole, Hull, Holderness, Scarborough, Whitby, Stockton-upon-Tees, Dinsdale Spa, Hartlepool, Sunderland, Newcastle, Shields, The Carlisle and Arran Navigation Canal, Greenock, Allonby, Workington, Kendal and Whitehaven.

There is a lot of value in the list of contents to this book, enabling the reader to go directly to selections which may be of interest. Consider, for example, the contents of the chapter relating to Holderness, as follows:

"Journey to Patrington. Exhausted State of the Land. Large Breeds of Horned Cattle replaced by small Scotch and Irish Stock. Magnificent Roads and Fields. Pole Waggons. A Bumpkin on Horseback. The Hilyard Arms. Corn arket. Ceremony of the Statutes. A social Squire. A Clockmaker's Dormitory. A Ride to Spurnpoint. Lighthouse-Woodcocks. Life-boat. A Ramble on the Beach. A wrecked Porpoise. Human Bones. A devoted Village. Kilnsea. Ruins of the Church. A Churchyard ravaged by the Waves. Exhumated Remains. Town of Hornsea. The Cliffs a concrete Mass of Fossils. Manifest Appearances of the Deluge. Corroboration by Heathen Testimony of the Mosaic Record. Submersed Forest. Sunk Island. Good drainage. Live-stock scanty. Patrington Haven. A communicative Farmer."

Like Karl Friedrich Schinkel's "Journey to England Scotland and Paris in the year 1826" (ISBN 9783733803476), Head's book gives us a description of the manufacturing centres of England in the early 19th century. Much of the prose sounds dated and a touch florid to modern ears, but there are gems (such as Head's description of the railway journey from Leeds to Selby) if you look for them.

Nevertheless, this is a book very much of its time - the early nineteenth century - which is more useful today as an occasional work of reference, rather than as a complete read.… (més)