The chief manufacturing city of England has not a striking effect upon
the visitor as he approaches it. It is scattered over a broad surface
upon a gently undulating plain, and its suburbs straggle out into the
country villages, which it is steadily absorbing in its rapid growth;
the Irwell passes in a winding course through the city, receiving a
couple of tributaries; this river divides Manchester from Salford, but a
dozen bridges unite them. No city in England has had such rapid growth
as Manchester in this century; it has increased from about seventy
thousand people at the beginning of the century to over half a million
now; and this is all the effect of the development of manufacturing
industry. Yet Manchester is one of the oldest towns in England, for
there was a Roman camp at Mancunium, as the Caesars called it, in the
first century of the Christian era; and we are also told that in the
days when giants lived in England it was the scene of a terrific combat
between Sir Launcelot of the Lake and the giant Tarquin. A ballad tells
the story, but it is easier read in prose: Sir Launcelot was travelling
near Manchester when he heard that this giant held in durance vile a
number of knights--"threescore and four" in all; a damsel conducts him
to the giant's castle-gate, "near Manchester, fair town," where a copper
basin hung to do duty as a bell; he strikes it so hard as to break it,
when out comes the giant ready for the fray; a terrific combat ensues,
and the giant, finding that he has met his match, offers to release the
captives, provided his adversary is not a certain knight that slew his
brother. Unfortunately, it happens that Sir Launcelot is the very same,
and the combat is renewed with such vigor that the giant is slain, "to
the great contentment of many persons."
The ancient Mancunium was a little camp and city of about twelve acres,
partly bounded by a tributary of the Irwell known as the Medlock. A
ditch on the land-side was still visible in the last century, and
considerable portions of the old Roman walls also remained within two
hundred years. Many Roman relics have been discovered in the city, and
at Knott Mill, the site of the giant Tarquin's castle, a fragment of the
Roman wall is said to be still visible. The town in the early Tudor days
had a college, and then a cathedral, and it was besieged in the Civil
Wars, though it steadily grew, and in Charles II.'s time it was
described as a busy and opulent place; but it had barely six thousand
people. Cotton-spinning had then begun, the cotton coming from Cyprus
and Smyrna. In 1700 life in Manchester, as described in a local
guide-book, was noted by close application to business; the
manufacturers were in their warehouses by six in the morning,
breakfasted at seven on bowls of porridge and milk, into which masters
and apprentices dipped their spoons indiscriminately, and dined at
twelve; the ladies went out visiting at two in the afternoon, and
attended church at four. Manchester was conservative in the Jacobite
rebellion, and raised a regiment for the Pretender, but the royalist
forces defeated it, captured the officers, and beheaded them. Manchester
politics then were just the opposite of its present Liberal tendencies,
and it was Byrom, a Manchester man, who wrote the quaint epigram
regarding the Pretender and his friends which has been so often quoted:
"God bless the King--I mean our faith's defender!
God bless (no harm in blessing) the Pretender!
But who Pretender is, or who is King--
God bless us all!--that's quite another thing."
[Illustration: MANCHESTER CATHEDRAL. FROM THE SOUTH-EAST.]
It was the rapid growth of manufacturing industry in Manchester that
changed its politics, and it was here that was first conspicuously
advocated the free-trade agitation in England which triumphed in the
repeal of the Corn Laws, so as to admit food free of duty for the
operatives, and in the Reform bill that changed the representation in
Parliament. That fine building, the "Free-Trade Hall," is a monument of
this agitation in which Manchester took such prominent part. As the
city has grown in wealth, so has its architectural appearance improved;
its school-and college-buildings are very fine, particularly Owens
College, munificently endowed by a leading merchant. The Manchester
Cathedral is an ancient building overlooking the Irwell which has had to
be renewed in so many parts that it has a comparatively modern aspect.
Other English cathedrals are more imposing, but this, "the ould paroch
church" spoken of by the ancient chroniclers, is highly prized by the
townsfolk; the architecture is Perpendicular and of many dates. Until
recently this was the only parish church in Manchester, and consequently
all the marriages for the city had to be celebrated there; the number
was at times very large, especially at Easter, and not a few tales are
told of how, in the confusion, the wrong pairs were joined together, and
when the mistake was discovered respliced with little ceremony. It was
in this Manchester Cathedral that one rector is said to have generally
begun the marriage service by instructing the awaiting crowd to "sort
yourselves in the vestry."
[Illustration: THE ASSIZE COURTS, MANCHESTER.]
Some of the public buildings in Manchester are most sumptuous. The
Assize Courts are constructed in rich style, with lofty Pointed roofs
and a tall tower, and make one of the finest modern buildings in
England. The great hall is a grand apartment, and behind the courts is
the prison, near which the Fenians in 1867 made the celebrated rescue of
the prisoners from the van for which some of the assailants were hanged
and others transported. The Royal Exchange is a massive structure in the
Italian style, with a fine portico, dome, and towers; the hall within
is said to be probably the largest room in England, having a width of
ceiling, without supports, of one hundred and twenty feet. Here on
cotton-market days assemble the buyers and sellers from all the towns in
Lancashire, and they do an enormous traffic. The new Town-Hall is also a
fine building, where the departments of the city government are
accommodated, and where they have an apartment dear to every
Englishman's heart--"a kitchen capable of preparing a banquet for eight
hundred persons." The warehouses of Manchester are famous for their size
and solidity, and could Arkwright come back and see what his
cotton-spinning machinery has produced, he would be amazed. It was in
Manchester that the famous Dr. Dalton, the founder of the atomic theory
in chemistry, lived; he was a devout Quaker, like so many of the
townspeople, but unfortunately was color-blind; he appeared on one
occasion in a scarlet waistcoat, and when taken to task declared it
seemed to him a very quiet, unobtrusive color, just like his own coat.
Several fine parks grace the suburbs of Manchester, and King Cotton has
made this thriving community the second city in England, while for miles
along the beautifully shaded roads that lead into the suburbs the
opulent merchants and manufacturers have built their ornamental villas.
[Illustration: THE ROYAL EXCHANGE, MANCHESTER.]