READ NOT:
And yet — in fact you need only draw a single thread at any point you choose out of the fabric of life and the run will make a pathway across the whole, and down that wider pathway each of the other threads will become successively visible, one by one. — Heimito von Doderer, DIE DÂIMONEN HDT WHAT? INDEX
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1785
January 1: John Walter’s career as an insurance underwriter at Lloyds of London had come to an unexpected sudden end in a flurry of insurance claims arising out of a hurricane in Jamaica.
He was close to bankruptcy, but had become aware that an advanced method of typesetting allowing for more than one letter to be set at a time, called “logography,” had just been invented by Henry Johnson. Not only did this new method promise greater speed of typesetting, it also promised fewer typesetting errors. Purchasing Johnson’s patent, Walker set out to create a printing company to put out a daily advertising sheet that profitably would demonstrate this promising new technological efficiency to all — and thus make sales for it. On this day the 1st edition of his Daily Universal Register was put out for sale on London streets. The sheet was in head-on competition with eight other daily newspapers in London. Like these other newspapers, it would include parliamentary reports and foreign news, as well as its advertisements. Walter, however, was primarily concerned with the advertising revenue stream which the sheet should generate: “The Register, in its politics, will be of no party. Due attention should be paid to the interests of trade, which are so greatly promoted by advertisements.”
“The modern man’s daily prayer is reading the daily newspaper.” — G.W.F. Hegel
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1788
After some years of experience with “logographic” typesetting, John Walter had come to recognize that this system was never going to have the sort of impact on the printing industry that he had been presuming when he bought its patent and started up his Daily Universal Register. However, he was still optimistic that he could make a profit from newspapers, especially since he had become cognizant that a hidden income stream could come out of the government. He negotiated a deal, to be held in the utmost secrecy, by which the government would pay him £300 a year and all he had to do was to publish the sort of stories that made them look good. He changed the name and style of his newspaper to make it more appealing to a popular audience, so that the self-serving lies the government was paying for could be spread far and wide. He began to include in this The Times all the crowd-pleasing tales of the latest scandals, and gossip about the famous of London. One of his stories about the Prince of Wales, however, resulted in a fine of £50 and Walter was packed off to spend the next two years reflecting on the error of his ways, in Newgate Prison.
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1803
January: John Walter II, the son of John Walter, took over as proprietor of The Times of London. The son decided he wanted to free the newspaper from government control, and turned away from the government ministry’s secret handouts to begin to develop his own news-getting organization. He hired some young journalists who supported political reform, such as Henry Crabbe Robinson, Charles Lamb, Thomas Barnes, and William Hazlitt:
“The modern man’s daily prayer is reading the daily newspaper.” — G.W.F. Hegel
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1806
January 9: The body of Horatio Nelson, after having been conveyed on a black-canopied funeral barge on the River Thames from Greenwich to the Admiralty in Whitehall, was interred at St Paul’s Cathedral.
It was inside a coffin fashioned of wood from the mainmast of the French flagship L’Orient destroyed at the Battle of the Nile in 1798, which had then been cased in lead inside an outer wooden coffin, with all this inside a gilt outer casket that had been specially designed by the Ackermann brothers. In this painting by Daniel
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Turner we can see that there had been more than 60 barges in this funeral procession:
The first newspaper illustration which accurately depicted a news event while it was still topical was prepared by an artist who had witnessed that event, in that The Times of London published a woodcut.
William Chapman Hewitson was born in Percy Street, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in a house opposite the Haymarket, as the 2d son of Middleton Hewitson, Esquire, a gentleman in independent circumstances. His early education would begin at Kirkby Stephen, Westmorland and would be completed at York, where he would be articled to a land surveyor, Mr. John Tuke. At a very early point in his life he would begin to form collections of British coleoptera and lepidoptera, and devote his attention to the study of birds’ eggs.
1813
News items relating to the development of ELECTRIC WALDEN technology: • After swearing his workmen to secrecy and making it well worth their while to cooperate, and declaring as well that if a man leaked any information to competitors he would fine him £100, John Walter II of The Times in Printing House Square in London began to sneak in the component parts of two double presses developed by Frederick Koenig onto the printing floor which were going to be operated by the power of steam.
Would this be a wise investment for the industry? –Or would this destroy the craft, which had always relied upon a labor force which was not only highly skillful but also totally muscular? It would take almost two years to get these beasts to pumping, so they could find out. While the craftsmen were holding their tongues — the officers of the corporation were holding their breath.A HISTORY OF THE PRESS
stereotyping process was being introduced into the US that substituted a single piece of metal, a plate which could hold up when used in the new machine presses, for blocks of moveable type, and woodblock engravings, which would not hold up for extended press runs (actually, John Muller had stereotyped pages in Leyden in 1690). A block of type set into a typecase, and an engraving made
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on wood, would be placed in a mold, and a single metal cast would be made of the faces of the font characters and of the carved wood surface. First the face of the type would be thoroughly oiled, so that the Plaster-of-Paris of the mold would not adhere to the metal surface. The Plaster-of-Paris, mixed to the consistency of cream, is poured over the face of the type (in newspaper work, moistened sheets of soft paper, and paste, were frequently used rather than Plaster-of-Paris). When it has set the plaster mold is raised from the type, and hardened in the heat of an oven. The original type could then be broken apart and sorted back into the typesetter's font case, a process first pioneered by the goldsmith William Ged in Edinburgh in 1725. The mold is placed face down on a plate of iron in a cast iron pan, or cover, and is dipped into a bath of molten type-metal, which runs into the spaces left in the cover, and fills every portion of the mould. The dipped mold is allowed to cool, and then it is re-dipped. This dipping and cooling process continues so as to allow the gradual and equal contraction of the metal. A picker and re-graver then works the surface over, to remove any imperfections. If there is a correction to be made in the spelling of a word, or something of that nature, the error could be cut out, with ordinary type soldered into the resultant hole. The result is a stereotype page. If the page is for use in a flat press, it is flat, but if it is made for a cylinder press, it is made in a curved form known as a “turtle.” The edges are then trimmed in a machine; in another machine the back of the plate is shaved or planed to the desired thickness and to make the printing surface perfect level. The plate is then screwed onto a block of wood that brings the surface to the same elevation as ordinary type. This process avoided the expense of keeping in type works for which there was a constant demand, and also the cost of recomposition. It reduced the inventory of founts of type in the composing room. As each signature of a book was completed, the font could be broken up and put back into the type cases. It sometimes would permit the printing of copies of the same work on two or more presses at the same time. It sometimes would permit the simultaneous issuing of a work in two or more different localities. Soon there would be stereotype facilities in New-York, Boston, and Philadelphia, as well as in other cities. [In the farmhouse in which I grew up in Indiana, our coal room in the basement was lined with old newspaper stereotype cardboard, on which I could read advertisements from many years earlier, by the use of a candle and a mirror, so I learned very early what a stereotype was.]
1814
November 29, Tuesday: A concert of music by Ludwig van Beethoven was given for the participants in the Congress of Vienna in the Redoutensaal. This performance featured the Symphony no.7, Wellington’s Victory and the premiere of his cantata Der glorreiche Augenblick to words of Weissenbach. Attenders include Tsar Alyeksandr, King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia, and the Prince of Sicily. Also attending was Jan Vaclav Tomasek and he was particularly displeased with Wellington’s Victory.
A news item relating to the development of ELECTRIC WALDEN technology: • At 6 AM John Walter II of The Times walked out onto the printing floor at Printing House Square in London, called the poor printer’s devils together, the men whom previously he had sworn to secrecy, and informed them that from that moment forward the paper would henceforth be printed by the power of steam. –Which meant of course that the firm would forthwith be able to dispense with their services, and thank you very much.
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He cautioned them that adequate force was standing by to respond to any violence, or to any attempt on their part to sabotage the new equipment.1 Their wages, he pledged, would be paid for a, shall we say, reasonable period, until hopefully they had found for themselves other employment. The press began publication at the rate of 1,100 sheets per hour, utilizing for this a flat bed of type and a device centering upon two rotating cylinders.2
“Among all the manufactures which –for the mental and mechanical skill required in their prosecution, the remarkable steps by which they have attained their present rank, and the influence which they exert on society generally– claim our attention and admiration, none perhaps is more striking than the manufacture of a book.” — George Dodd’s DAYS AT THE FACTORIES
1817
The new printing technology that John Walter II had introduced at The Times of London would enable the paper, by the end of the year, to be selling over 7,000 copies a day. The news reporter Thomas Barnes was made the paper’s editor.
“The modern man’s daily prayer is reading the daily newspaper.” — G.W.F. Hegel
According to Leslie Perrin Wilson of the Concord Free Public Library, here are the Concord newspapers that Henry Thoreau may have perused from time to time: 1816-1821: The Middlesex Gazette 1822-1823: The Middlesex Observer 1823-1826: The Concord Gazette and Middlesex Yeoman 1826-1840: The Yeoman’s Gazette 1840-1841: The Republican 1834-1847: The Concord Freeman 1851-1852: The Middlesex Freeman
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Leslie points out that from 1852 to 1875, no newspapers were published in Concord itself –with the exception of a topical periodical, The Monitor, which surfaced briefly during 1862– and that the best source for the Concord local news of this period would therefore be obtained by consulting instead the gazettes being published in nearby Lowell MA. Here are some candidates:
March 1837-December 1862 (some gaps) Advertiser
May 1849-December 1853 American (Tri-weekly)
August 1854-June 1862 (some gaps) American Citizen
January 1840-August 1840 American Wesleyan Observer
July 1844-November 1845 The Awl – (Lynn Ma)
September 1837-March 1838 (some gaps) Casket (Lowell)
August 1824-June 1825 (some gaps) Chelmsford Courier
September 1825-February 1826 (some gaps) Chelmsford Phoenix
January 17, 1851 Christian Freeman Family Visiter
January 1845-September 1845 Chronicle (Morning)
1850-February 1906 Citizen
April 1941-May 1941 Citizen Leader
September 1840 Concord Freeman
January 1824-July 1824 (some gaps) Concord Gazette & Middlesex Yoeman
May 1832-February 1833 Compend (Lowell Weekly)
July 1835-February 1906 (some gaps) Courier (Lowell)
March 1850 The Day Star
April 1831-November 1832 (some gaps) Evangelist (Lowell)
February 1832-April 1833 The Experiment
July 1860 The Gad-fly
September 1847 Gazette (Lowell)
April 1861 Gazette (The Lowell)
November 1853-March 1853 (some gaps) Herald (The Morning)
February 1781-October 1815 (some gaps) Independent Chronicle & The Universal Advertiser
March 1827-November 1866 (some gaps) Journal (Lowell)
May 1825 The Ladies’ Literary Friend
May 1921-March 1941 Leader (Evening)
1831-1861 Liberator (Boston)
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August 1962-December 1963 Liberator (Lowell)
December 1843 Life In Lowell
December 1840 Literary Repository
1830-December 1835 (some gaps) Mercury (& Lowell Journal)
November 1829-August 1830 Mercury Gazette (Lowell)
March 1826-January 1827 (some gaps) Merrimack Journal
June 1836 The Messenger
August 1820-March 1822 (some gaps) Middlesex Gazette
July 1844-March 1845 Middlesex Standard
July 1845 Middlesex Telegraph
June 1852-August 1852 (some gaps) Mirror (The Lowell)
January-March 1841 New England Christian
March 1915-March 1919 New England Greek Messenger
November 1916-May 1920 News (Sunday)
January 1832-October 1833 (some gaps) Observer (Lowell)
December 1844-February 1845 (some gaps) The Operative
July 1849-August 1850 Palmer’s Illustrated Life In Lowell
November 1834-August 1845 Patriot (Lowell)
November 1846-August 1849 (some gaps) Patriot And Republican (Lowell)
September 1835 (some gaps) Philanthropist (Lowell)
July 1845 Republican (Lowell)
March 1812-October 1812 (some gaps) Rutland Herald
April 1861 Sentinel (The Lowell)
September 1846 The Scourge
September 1851-March 1852 (some gaps) The Spindle City
January 1841-May 1846 (some gaps) Star Of Bethlehem
September 1833-December 1833 (some gaps) The Times
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October 1855 True Whig (The Lowell)
April 1857-May 1857 (some gaps) Trumpet (The Lowell)
June 1842-December 1842 Trumpet & Universalist Magazine
April 1858 Union (Weekly)
April 1842-June 1842 (some gaps) Universalist Magazine
May 1845-April 1848 (some gaps) Voice Of Industry
January 1842-1890 (some gaps) Vox Populi
March 1845-July 1845 (some gaps) Worcester County Gazette & Middlesex
April 1827-January 1828 (some gaps) Yoeman’s Gazette
July 1840-March 1842 (some gaps) Zion Banner
During this year it was James Howe, hired from elsewhere, who was teaching Concord’s grammar students.
1785 Nathaniel Bridge 9 months 1812 Isaac Warren 1 year
1786 JOSEPH HUNT 2½ years 1813 JOHN BROWN 1 year
1788 William A. Barron 3 years 1814 Oliver Patten 1 year
1791 Amos Bancroft 1 year 1815 Stevens Everett 9 months
1792 Heber Chase 1 year 1815 Silas Holman 3 months
1793 WILLIAM JONES 1 year 1816 George F. Farley 1 year
1794 Samuel Thatcher 1 year 1817 James Howe 1 year
1795 JAMES TEMPLE 2 years 1818 Samuel Barrett 1 year
1797 Thomas O. Selfridge 1 year 1819 BENJAMIN BARRETT 1 year
1798 THOMAS WHITING 4 years 1820 Abner Forbes 2 years
1802 Levi Frisbie 1 year 1822 Othniel Dinsmore 3 years
1803 Silas Warren 4 years 1825 James Furbish 1 year
1807 Wyman Richardson 1 year 1826 EDWARD JARVIS 1 year
1808 Ralph Sanger 1 year 1827 Horatio Wood 1 year
1809 Benjamin Willard 1 year 1828 David J. Merrill 1 year
1810 Elijah F. Paige 1 year 1829 John Graham 1 year
1811 Simeon Putnam 1 year 1831 John Brown
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Dr. Lemuel Shattuck noted that in Concord this year, there occurred the “least average age of death” of any year on record:3
Under to to to to to to to to to to to Aggre. Average Year. Total. 1 5 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Am. Age. Age.
1779 2 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 2 4 1 0 12 578 48
1780 1 2 1 1 0 0 1 1 3 0 0 0 10 307 30
1781 3 1 0 1 0 2 0 1 1 2 1 3 15 721 48
1782 1 2 1 0 1 2 0 1 1 5 3 1 18 933 52
1783 5 2 1 0 4 2 3 1 2 3 1 0 24 811 34
1784 4 1 1 2 2 0 0 1 1 2 1 2 17 607 35
1785 2 0 1 0 3 2 2 3 2 2 0 0 17 672 39
1786 4 1 0 4 3 1 1 0 1 2 1 1 19 590 31
1787 2 2 0 0 1 2 1 1 2 0 1 0 12 416 35
1788 2 0 2 0 2 2 2 1 2 3 3 0 19 877 46
1789 3 1 0 1 2 3 0 1 1 4 1 0 17 694 41
1790 2 5 2 2 2 0 3 0 3 4 3 0 26 970 37
1791 3 1 0 0 0 1 2 1 3 3 3 0 17 841 49
1792 5 0 0 1 4 3 1 6 2 2 1 1 26 1021 39
1793 1 0 3 0 1 2 2 4 1 3 0 2 19 894 47
1794 1 1 1 0 4 3 0 1 5 1 3 1 21 1018 49
1795 0 2 0 4 3 4 1 1 2 2 2 0 21 824 39
1796 1 8 2 0 2 2 2 2 1 6 1 0 27 926 34
1797 3 1 1 1 2 1 4 1 1 3 3 0 21 893 43
1798 4 3 0 2 2 0 1 0 1 5 2 1 21 831 39
1799 0 1 0 1 4 0 2 3 4 4 1 0 20 1006 50
1800 3 7 0 0 0 4 1 2 1 4 2 1 25 926 37
1801 3 3 2 6 3 0 2 2 3 4 4 0 32 1197 37
1802 2 4 1 3 2 2 1 3 1 6 2 0 27 1067 39
1803 2 7 2 3 4 9 3 0 3 2 2 1 38 1194 31
1804 4 4 0 3 3 1 3 3 1 4 2 1 29 1037 39
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Under to to to to to to to to to to to Aggre. Average Year. Total. 1 5 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Am. Age. Age.
1805 12 1 0 3 6 2 0 2 2 2 5 0 35 1132 32
1806 5 4 0 1 6 2 1 3 4 1 4 1 32 1201 39
1807 7 1 0 2 6 2 3 1 3 4 2 1 32 1182 37
1808 1 5 1 0 0 1 3 2 4 0 2 0 19 722 38
1809 2 3 0 0 2 1 3 1 2 2 2 1 19 821 43
1810 5 1 1 3 3 4 4 3 6 4 3 1 38 1626 45
1811 1 2 2 0 4 1 1 2 4 2 2 0 21 881 42
1812 3 6 2 1 1 5 2 2 3 3 3 1 32 1131 36
1813 3 2 1 2 4 2 3 3 1 4 2 0 27 1094 40
1814 2 0 0 0 4 4 4 1 3 0 2 2 22 1012 46
1815 4 2 4 5 4 5 3 4 5 4 6 1 47 1910 41
1816 6 1 0 1 2 0 1 3 2 4 1 0 21 802 38
1817 2 4 2 2 4 0 5 1 1 0 0 0 21 495 28
1818 2 1 0 2 1 4 1 3 3 2 1 0 20 825 41
3. (Mortality was, at usual, hovering around the figure of 100%. :-) In France, 1 in 31 arrives to the age of 70; in London 1 in 10; in Philadelphia, 1 in 15; and in Connecticut 1 in 8. In Salem, 1 in 48 dies annually; in Philadelphia, 1 in 45; in Boston, 1 in 41; in London, 1 in 40; in Paris, 1 in 32; and in Vienna, 1 in 22. — See History of Dedham and American Quarterly Review, Vol. VIII. p. 396. Lemuel Shattuck’s 1835 A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;.... Boston MA: Russell, Odiorne, and Company; Concord MA: John Stacy, 1835 (On or about November 11, 1837 Henry Thoreau would indicate a familiarity with the contents of at least pages 2-3 and 6-9 of this historical study.) “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 15 HDT WHAT? INDEX
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Under to to to to to to to to to to to Aggre. Average Year. Total. 1 5 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Am. Age. Age.
1819 2 2 1 4 0 3 3 4 2 4 1 1 27 1006 37
1820 2 3 0 0 2 3 2 5 0 5 6 0 28 1374 49
1821 3 5 0 2 0 1 3 3 2 10 4 0 33 1582 48
1822 2 10 1 3 5 2 2 3 2 4 2 2 38 1285 34
1823 5 3 1 1 2 1 3 3 2 1 3 1 26 970 37
1824 4 3 0 1 1 2 4 4 3 5 2 0 29 1244 43
1825 3 7 1 1 2 2 5 6 4 6 3 0 40 1645 41
1826 8 6 4 0 3 2 8 4 1 5 2 0 43 1367 32
1827 2 2 0 0 1 3 1 2 1 0 3 0 19 893 44
1828 4 4 0 0 0 1 3 1 2 5 1 2 23 1020 48
1819
Thomas Barnes, an advocate of independent reporting, during this year published in The Times a series of articles by John Edward Taylor and John Tyas on the “Peterloo Massacre” of August 16, 1819 and Lord Liverpool’s government’s failure to disavow its violence.
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1830
After the Peterloo Massacre had opened eyes, The Times of London had begun to argue for parliamentary reform. By this point the newspaper was constantly urging the Whig government to take action. The government tax on newspapers made it necessary to sell the paper for 7d, which made it too expensive for most people to buy, but copies were available to the general public in reading rooms. The attitudes of Thomas Barnes, the editor, were greatly influencing British public opinion.
1831
In England, the Tory newspaper St. James’s Chronicle alleged that “for every one copy of The Times that is purchased for the usual purposes, nine we venture to say are purchased to be lent to the wretched characters who, being miserable, look to political changes for an amelioration of their condition.”
1832
March 7, Wednesday: In Parliament the Tories were complaining about the political campaign being forwarded by The Times. In the House of Commons, Sir Robert Peel argued that this newspaper was the “principal and most powerful advocate of Reform” in Britain. When the 1832 Reform Act passed, the paper termed this the “greatest event of modern history.”
“The modern man’s daily prayer is reading the daily newspaper.” — G.W.F. Hegel
With the enactment of this reform, it would for the first time be possible to publish the poem that Percy Bysshe Shelley had upon hearing of the “Peterloo Massacre” composed in Italy in 1819: The Mask of Anarchy As I lay asleep in Italy, There came a voice from over the Sea, And with great power it forth led me To walk in the visions of Poesy. I met Murder on the way — He had a mask like Castlereagh — Very smooth he looked, yet grim; Seven blood-hounds followed him; All were fat; and well they might Be in admirable plight,
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For one by one, and two by two, He tossed them human hearts to chew Which from his wide cloak he drew. Next came Fraud, and he had on, Like Eldon, an ermined gown; His big tears, for he wept well, Turned to millstones as they fell. And the little children, who Round his feet played to and fro, Thinking every tear a gem, Had their brains knocked out by them. Clothed with the Bible, as with light, And the shadows of the night, Like Sidmouth, next, Hypocrisy On a crocodile rode by. And many more Destructions played In this ghastly masquerade, All disguised, even to the eyes, Like Bishops, lawyers, peers, and spies. Last came Anarchy: he rode On a white horse, splashed with blood; He was pale even to the lips, Like Death in the Apocalypse. And he wore a kingly crown: And in his grasp a sceptre shone; On his brow this mark I saw — “I AM GOD, AND KING, AND LAW!”
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1834
Sir Robert Peel’s “Tamworth Manifesto” set out the principles of New Toryism.
In this year a group of Whigs purchased control of the Morning Chronicle. Thomas Barnes, disagreeing with the manner in which the Morning Chronicle was giving “slavish support to the government,” had talks with the leaders of the Conservative Party — and after they had agreed that they would not attempt to interfere with reforms introduced by the Whigs such as the 1832 Reform Act and the Tithe Act, he agreed that his newspaper would became a supporter of Sir Robert Peel and his new government.
“The modern man’s daily prayer is reading the daily newspaper.” — G.W.F. Hegel
Founding of the London Statistical Society. Average family expenditures for bare necessities in this decade in England were being said to be:
Rent 1s 2d Bread 9s Tea 2d Potatoes 1s Sugar 3.5d Soap 3d Thread 2.5d Candles 3d Salt 0.5d Coal and Wood 9d Butter 4.5d Cheese 3d Total 13s 9d4
The actuary of the Equitable Assurance Company of London constructed the first mortality expectancy table based upon data from the insurance industry itself.
Backers of the New Poor Law being enacted in this year were arguing that indiscriminate relief had the effect of demoralizing its beneficiaries, abolishing outdoor relief, and maintaining workhouse inmates at a salary level below the lowest paid workers. A group of farm laborers of Dorset, England was chanting:
“Hedging and ditching, To plough and to reap How can a man live On nine shillings a week?”
At first the Dorset farmers agreed to increase the daily wage of their labor force to ten shillings, but then
4. To get a sense of what that amounted to in today’s money, consult
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attempted to cut the pay to eight. The protesting laborers joined a London society named The Grand National Consolidated Trade Union and swore a solemn oath of loyalty to the Union they were forming, to be known as their Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers. The Government proceeded to prosecute them under the Mutiny Act of 1797, a naval enactment, for their having taken an oath of loyalty other than to their Monarch, and they were sentenced to seven years convict labor in Van Diemens Land. In London, there were protests against the transportation of these “Tolpuddle Martyrs.”
(The Times of London was campaigning for the rights of such trade unionists, and in 1836 while the laborers were still being held in a British prison at Dorchester awaiting transportation, Lord Russell, the Home Secretary, would pardon them. Thoreau would write, in “Civil Disobedience,” “... If a man who has no property refuses but once to earn nine shillings for the State, he is put in prison for a period unlimited by any law that I know, and....” Would that have been a reference to the “Tolpuddle Martyrs” of 1834-1836, or would it perchance have been a reference to the Newgate case of 1831 in which a 13-year-old had been offed for the nine shillings he was carrying home?)
1841
May 7, Friday: Thomas Barnes died. He had remained the editor of The Times to his death. John Delane, who became the new editor, would need to wait until John Walter II also was dead, before being able to obtain full control over the newspaper. Delane would attempt to maintain Barnes’s policy of political independence.
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1848
August 24, Thursday: The barque Ocean Monarch of the White Diamond Line burned on its Liverpool/Boston run, off the Great Orme’s Head of North Wales at 53° 25′ 40″ N, 3° 35′ 27″ W, and out of a total of 398 passengers and crew, 178 perished (mostly emigrants). The captain would place the blame on smoking by some of the 322 passengers in steerage because, he said, he had been forced to confiscate some tobacco pipes down there.
Henry Thoreau wrote to George A. Thatcher.
Concord Aug. 24[,]th 1848. Dear Cousin, If it is not too late I will thank you for your letter and your sympathy. I send you with this the Third Part, as they have chosen to call it, of that everlasting moun- tain story. I presume that the other two have reached you. They had bar- gained, as I thought to send me many copies for distribution, but I have received none. It should have been printed all together in some large newspaper — and then it would have gone down at one dose by its very gravity. I was sorry to hear that you came so near Concord without coming here. It always does us good to see you. Mr Emerson came home on the Europa 3 or 4 weeks ago, in good health and spirits. I think that he has seen English men, such as are worth seeing, more thoroughly than any traveller. He has made them better acquainted with one another and with Americans.
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He had access to circles which are inaccessible to most travellers, but which are none the better for that. He has seen the elephant — or perhaps I should say the British lion now, and was made a lion of himself. He found Carlyle the most interesting man —as I expected he would— Stone- henge the most interesting piece of antiquity — and the London Times Newspaper the best book which England is printing now a days. Travelling is so cheap at present that I am tempted to make you a visit — but then, as usual, I have so much idle business that cannot be postponed— if any will believe it! The probable failure of the melon crop this season is melon-choly— but fortunately our potatoes do not rot yet I feel somewhat encouraged at the political prospects of the country— not because the new party have chosen such a leader, but because they are perhaps worthy of a better one. The N.E. delegation seem to have managed affairs in a bungling manner— If they had gone prepared they might have had their own man—
THE TIMES
But who is he? It is time to be done selecting available men; for what are they not available who do thus? —Father desires to be remembered to you & to Mrs Thatcher — and to the last named does also. Yours sincerely Henry Thoreau
[Address: Geo. A. Thatcher Bangor Me. Return Address: Henry Thoreau August 1848]
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1851
The Times of London’s annual summary:
READ ABOUT THE YEAR
In London, The Great Exhibition.
In London, Marble Arch relocated to Hyde Park.
In London, James Wyld’s Great Globe opened in Leicester Square.
In London, Museum of Practical Geology opened in Jermyn Street.
In London, Victoria Street opened.
In London, the Free Cancer Hospital (later “Royal Marsden Hospital”) opened in Cannon Row, Westminster.
July 7: Henry Thoreau went with Sexton Anthony Wright to view the universe through Perez Blood’s telescope. Just for the fun of it, I will illustrate this with a depiction, prepared in this very year by H. Dassel, which is not of Thoreau peering through Blood’s telescope but of the astronomer Maria Mitchell, peering presumably through her father’s telescope on the roof of his bank at the comet she had discovered (see following screen).
July 7, Monday: The intimations of the night are divine methinks. men might meet in the morning & report the news of the night.– What divine suggestions have been made to them I find that I carry with me into the day often some such hint derived from the gods Such impulses to purity –to heroism –to literary effort even as are never day-born. One of those morning’s which usher in no day –but rather an endless morning –a protracted auroral season –for clouds prolong the twilight the livelong day– And now that there is an interregnum in the blossoming of the flowers so is there in the singing of the birds– The golden robin is rarely heard –& the bobolink &c. I rejoice when in a dream I have loved virtue & nobleness. Where is Grecian History? It is when in the morning I recall the intimations of the night. The moon is now more than half full.5 When I come through the village at 10 o’clock this cold night –cold as in May –the heavy shadows of the elms covering the ground with their rich tracery impress me as if men had got so much more than they had bargained for –not only trees to stand in the air, but to checquer the ground with their shadows– At night they lie along the earth. They tower –they arch –they droop over the streets like chandeliers of darkness. In my walk the other afternoon I saw the sun shining into the depths of a thick pine wood, checkering the ground like moonlight –and illuminating the lichen-covered bark of a large white-pine, from which it was reflected Through the surrounding thicket as from another sun–; This was so deep in the woods that you would have said no sun could penetrate thither. I have been tonight with Anthony Wright to look through Perez Bloods Telescope a 2nd time.6 A dozen of his Bloods neighbors were swept along in the stream of our curiosity. One who lived half a mile this side said that 5. The moon would have been half full on the 4th. 6. I don’t know when the first time was. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 23 HDT WHAT? INDEX
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Blood had been down that way within a day or two with his terrestrial or day glass looking into the eastern horizon the hills of Billerica Burlington –and Woburn– I was amused to see what sort of respect this man with a telescope had obtained from his neighbors –something akin to that which savages award to civilized men – though in this case the interval between the parties was very slight. Mr Blood with his scull cap on his short TYCHO BRAHE figure –his north European figure made me think of Tycho Brahe– He did not invite us into his house this cool evening –men nor women– Nor did he ever before to my knowledge I am still contented to see the stars with my naked eye Mr Wright asked him what his instrument cost He answered – “Well, that is something I dont like to tell. (stuttering or hesitating in his speech a little, as usual) It is a very proper question however” – “Yes,” said I, “and you think that you have given a very proper answer.” Returning my companion Wright the sexton told me how dusty he found it digging a grave that afternoon for one who had been a pupil of mine –for two feet he said, notwithstanding the rain, he found the soil as dry as ashes. With a certain wariness, but not without a slight shudder at the danger oftentimes, I perceive how near I had come to admitting into my mind the details of some trivial affair, as a case at court– And I am astonished to observe how willing men are to lumber their minds with such rubbish –to permit idle rumors tales incidents even of an insignificant kind –to intrude upon what should be the sacred ground of the thoughts Shall the temple of our thought be a public arena where the most trivial affair of the market & the gossip of the teatable is discussed –a dusty noisy trivial place –or shall it be a quarter of heaven itself –a place consecrated to the service of the gods –a hypaethral temple. I find it so difficult to dispose of the few facts which to me are significant that I hesitate to burden my mind with the most insignificant which only a divine mind could illustrate. Such is for the most part the news –in newspapers & conversation. It is important to preserve the mind’s chastity in this respect Think of admitting the details of a single case at the criminal court into the mind –to stalk profanely through its very sanctum sanctorum for an hour –aye for many hours– –to make a very bar- room of your mind’s inmost apartment –as if for a moment the dust of the street had occupied you –aye the very street itself with all its travel passed through your very mind of minds –your thoughts shrine –with all its filth & bustle [possibly “hustle”]– Would it not be an intellectual suicide? By all manner of boards & traps threatening the extreme penalty of the divine law excluding trespassers from these grounds it behoves us to preserve the purity & sanctity of the mind. It is so hard to forget what it is worse than useless to remember. If I am to be a channel or thorough [thoroughfare] –I prefer that it be of the mountain springs –& not the town sewers– The Parnassian streams There is inspiration –the divine gossip which comes to the ear of the attentive mind –from the Courts of Heaven –there is the profane & stale revelation of the barroom & the police Court. The same ear is fitted to receive both communications –only the character of the individual determines to which source chiefly it shall be open & to which closed. I believe that the mind can be profaned by the habit of attending to trivial things so that all our thoughts shall be tinged with triviality. They shall be dusty as stones in the street– Our very minds shall be paved and macadamized as it were –its foundation broken into fragments for the wheels of travel to roll over. If we have thus desecrated ourselves the remedy will be by circumspection –& wariness by our aspiration & devotion to consecrate ourselves –to make a fane of the mind. I think that we should treat ourselves as innocent & ingennuous [ingenuous] children whose guardians we are –be careful what objects & what subjects we thrust on its attention7 Even the facts of science may dust the mind by their dryness –unless they are in a sense effaced each morning or rather rendered fertile by the dews of fresh & living truth. Every thought that passes through the mind helps to wear & tear it & to deepen the ruts which as in the streets of Pompeii evince how much it has been used. How many things there are concerning which we might well deliberate whether we had better know them. Routine – conventionality manners &c &c –how insensibly and undue attention to these dissipates & impoverishes the mind –robs it of its simplicity & strength emasculates it. Knowledge doe[s] not cone [come] to us by details but by lieferungs from the gods. What else is it to wash & purify ourselves? Conventionalities are as bad as impurities. Only thought which is expressed by the mind in repose as it wer[e] lying on its back & contemplating the heaven’s –is adequately & fully expressed– What are side long –transient passing half views? The writer expressing his thought –must be as well seated as the astronomer contemplating the heavens –he must not occupy a constrained position. The facts the experience we are well poised upon –! Which secures our whole attention!8 The senses of children are unprofaned their whole body is one sense –they take a physical pleasure in riding on a rail –they love to teter –so does the unviolated –the unsophisticated mind derive an inexpressable pleasure from the simplest exercise of thoughts. I can express adequately only the thought which I love to express.– All the faculties in repose but the one you are using –the whole energy concentrated in that. Be ever so little distracted –your thoughts so little confused– Your engagements so few –your attention so free your existence so mundane –that in all places & in all hours you can hear the sound of crickets in those seasons when they are to be heard. It is a mark of serenity & health of mind when a person hears this sound much –in streets of cities as well as in fields. Some ears never hear this sound –are called deaf. Is it not because they have
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so long attended to other sounds?
7. Henry Thoreau would use some of the material from this day in regard to his “we should live in eternity rather than in time” theme, in his early lecture “WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT”:
[Paragraph 81] If we have thus desecrated ourselves,—as who has not?—the remedy will be by wariness and circumspection, by devotion and aspiration to reconsecrate ourselves—and make once more a fane of the mind. We should treat our minds—that is, ourselves—as innocent and ingenuous children, whose guardians we are, and be careful what objects and what subjects we thrust on their attention. Read not the Times.1 Read the Eternities.2 Even the facts of science may dust the mind by their dryness, unless they are in a sense effaced each morning, or rather rendered fertile by the dews of fresh and living truth. Knowledge does not come to us by details, but in flashes of light from heaven. Yes, every thought that passes through the mind helps to wear and tear it, and to deepen the ruts, which, as in the streets of Pompeii, evince how much it has been used. How many things there are concerning which we might well deliberate whether we had better know them—had better let their peddling carts be driven even at the slowest trot or walk—over that bridge of glorious span by which we trust to pass at last from the furthest brink of time to the nearest shore of eternity. Conventionalities are as bad as impurities. By an undue attention to routine, manners, and so forth,3 the mind is insensibly dissipated and impoverished—robbed of its simplicity and strength and, in short, emasculated.
1.[“The Times” was presumably the London Times.] 2.I [Bradley P. Dean] emend the essay copy-text by omitting ‘Conventionalities are at length as bad as impurities.’, which appears after this sentence in the essay but which appears without the words ‘at length’ as the penultimate sentence of this paragraph in the extant reading-draft manuscript. 3.I [Bradley P. Dean] emend the manuscript copy-text by expanding ‘&c’ to ‘and so forth’.
The poet W.H. Auden has in 1962 brought forward a snippet from this day’s entry as:
THE VIKING BOOK OF APHORISMS, A PERSONAL SELECTION BY W.H. AUDEN...
Pg Topic Aphorism Selected by Auden out of Thoreau
We should treat our minds as innocent and ingenious children whose 353 Reason and Thought guardians we are — be careful what objects and what subjects we thrust on their attention.
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8. Thoreau would later use this comment pertaining to his “different drummer” theme, in his early lecture “WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT”:
[Paragraph 79] Not without a slight shudder at the danger, I often perceive how near I had come to admitting into my mind the details of some trivial affair,—the news of the street; and I am astonished to observe how willing men are to lumber their minds with such rubbish,—to permit idle rumors and incidents of the most insignificant kind to intrude on ground which should be sacred to thought. Shall the mind be a public arena, where the affairs of the street and the gossip of the tea-table chiefly are discussed? Or shall it be a quarter of heaven itself,—an hypæthral temple, consecrated to the service of the gods?1 I find it so difficult to dispose of the few facts which to me are significant, that I hesitate to burden my attention with those which are insignificant, which only a divine mind could illustrate. Such is, for the most part, the news in newspapers and conversations. It is important to preserve the mind’s chastity in this respect. Think of admitting the details of a single case of the criminal court into our thoughts, to stalk profanely through their very sanctum sanctorum for an hour, ay, for many hours! to make a very bar-room of the mind’s inmost apartment, as if for so long the dust of the street had occupied us,—the very street itself, with all its travel, its bustle, and filth had passed through our thoughts’ shrine! Would it not be an intellectual and moral suicide? [Paragraph 80] By all kinds of traps and sign-boards, threatening the extreme penalty of the divine law, exclude such trespassers from the only ground which can be sacred to you. It is so hard to forget what it is worse than useless to remember! If I am to be a thoroughfare, I prefer that it be of the mountain- brooks, the Parnassian streams, and not the town-sewers. There is inspiration, that gossip which comes to the ear of the attentive mind from the courts of heaven. There is the profane and stale revelation of the bar-room and the police court. The same ear is fitted to receive both communications. Only the character of the hearer determines to which it shall be open, and to which closed. I believe that the mind can be permanently profaned by the habit of attending to trivial things, so that all our thoughts shall be tinged with triviality. Our very intellect shall be macadamized, as it were,—its foundation broken into fragments for the wheels of travel to roll over; and if you would know what will make the most durable pavement, surpassing rolled stones— spruce blocks—and asphaltum—you have only to look into some of our minds which have been subjected to this treatment so long.
1. Compare I Corinthians 3:16.
DIFFERENT DRUMMER
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The Times of London’s annual summary:
READ ABOUT THE YEAR
In London, there was a new market hall at Billingsgate.
In London, the City House of Correction opened at Holloway.
In London, the new House of Commons opened.
In London, King’s Cross Station opened.
In London, Kennington Common opened as a park for the public at large.
John Delane, editor of The Times of London, wrote that it is the “duty of the journalist is the same as that of the historian — to seek truth above all things.” However, he added to this that his paper owed “its first duty to the national interests” and opinioned that the “ends of government were absolutely identical with those of the press.” Delane, unlike his predecessor editor Thomas Barnes during the 1820s and the 1830s, had during the 1840s provided precious little support to the parliamentary reform movement.
April 22, Thursday: In the afternoon Henry Thoreau walked up the Concord River on the east bank, inspecting flood conditions. At 10PM he saw the aurora. SKY EVENT
AURORA BOREALIS
April 22. It still rains. The water is over the road at Flints Bridge–and, as I am told, has been for some time over the J. Miles road in the corner–& near the further stone Bridge. So that there is now only the Boston road open–unless we regard the walden road as coming from wayland and not from Lee’s bridge. At 9 Am it 1 was 5 /2 inches higher than the E end of the Eastern truss horizontal part on the S side of the stone Bridge. Up to the top of the lowest stone step on the N side E end of R R bridge. Mr stacy thinks it was higher 30 years ago when a man horse & sleigh were washed off the Red Bridge road & lodged against a tree in the meadow. And Sam. Barrett thinks it was about 1 foot higher some 35 years ago.– Water a foot deep on Woods Bridge road. Abel Hunt saw a flock of geese [Canada Goose Branta canadensis] this morning This flood tempts men to build boats I saw two on the stocks this morning. It is pleasant work to see progressing.
P.M. — up river–on E side: It takes this day to clear up gradually–successive sun-showers still make it foul. But the sun feels very warm after the storm. This makes 5 stormy days. Sunday–M–T. W. Thursday. The water slightly agitated looks bright when the sun-shines. Saw 4 hawks soaring high in the heavens over the swamp bridge brook– At first saw 3, said to myself there must be 4 & found the fourth. Glad are they no doubt to be
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out after being confined by the storm. I hear bees (?) humming near the brook, which reminded me of the telegraph harp.– I love to see the dull gravity even stolidity of the farmer opposed to the fluency of the lawyer or official person. The farmer sits silent not making any pretensions nor feeling any responsibility even to apprehend the other–while the judge or Governor talks glibly and with official despatch all lost on the farmer who minds it not but looks out for the main chance with his great inexpressive face & his 2 small eyes looking the first in the face & rolling a quid in the back part of his mouth. The lawyer is wise in deeds but the farmer who buys land puts the pertinent questions respecting the title. I observe the Parmelia saxatilis in many places now turned a pinkish red. The Yellow lily leaves appear no more advanced than when I first observed them. A strange dog accompanied us today–a hunting dog–gyrating about us at a great distance–beating every bush & barking at the birds. with great spead–gyrating his tail too all the while. I thought of what Gilpin says, that DOG he sailed & steered by means of his tail– Sat under Potter’s oak, the ground thickly strewn with broken acorn shells & cups & twigs–the short close nibble sward of last year. Our dog sends off a partridge [Ruffed Grouse Bonasa umbellus] with a whir far across the open field & the river like a winged bullet– From Cliffs see much snow on the mts. The Pine on Lee’s shore of the Pond seen against the light water this cloudy weather–from part way down the cliff is an agreeable object to me. When the outline & texture of white pine is thus seen against the water or the sky it is an affecting sight. The shadow of the cliff on Conantum in the semi-sunshine with indistinct edge & a reddish tinge from bushes here & there! I want things to be incredible–too good to appear true. C. says “after you have been to the P.O. once you are dammed.”– but I answer that it depends somewhat on whether you get a letter or not. If you would be wise learn science & then forget it.9 A boat on the river–on the white surface looks black–& the boatman like Charon. I see swarms of gnats in the air. What is that grass with a yellow blossom which I find now on the cliff–? Carex marginata (?) Early Sedge– the earliest grass that flowers. It is the contrast between sunshine & storm that is most pleasing– –the gleams of sunshine in the midst of the storm are the most memorable. Saw that winkle-like fungus fresh & green covering an oak stump today with concentric marks–spirally arranged sometimes in a circle. very hand- some I love this apparent exuberance of nature. The maples in the side swamp near well meadow are arranged nearly in a circle in the water. This strange dog has good habits for a companion he keeps so distant– He never trusts himself near us though he accompanies us for miles. On the most retired the wildest & craggiest hill side you will find some old road by which the teamster carted off the wood– It is pleasant some times looking 30 or 40 rods into an open wood where the trunks of the trees are plainly seen & patches of soft light on the ground. The hylas peep now in full chorus, 1 but are silent on my side of the pond. The water at 6 Pm is 1 /2 inches higher than in the morning, i.e. 7 inches above the iron truss. The strain of the Red wing [Red-winged Blackbird Agelaius phoeniceus] on the willow spray over the water to-night is liquid bubbling–watery–almost like a tinkling fountain in perfect harmony with the meadow– It oozes, trickles, tinkles, bubbles from his throat. bob-y-lee-e-e & then its shrill fine whistle. The villagers walk the streets & talk of the great rise of waters. AURORA At 10 Pm the northern lights are flashing – like some grain sown broadcast in the sky. I hear the hylas peep on the meadow as I stand at the door. The early sedge (?) grows on the side of the Cliffs in little tufts with small yellow blossoms – i.e. with yellow anthers low in the grass. Mr Holbrook tells me he heard & saw martins [Purple Martin Progne subis] yesterday.
9. Bradley P. Dean says that Henry Thoreau combined this with a reference to MARK 8:36 in the construction of his early lecture “WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT” paragraph number 73:
[Paragraph 73] When our life ceases to be inward and private, conversation degenerates into mere gossip. I rarely meet a man who can tell me any news which he has not read in a newspaper, and for the most part the only difference BRAD DEAN’S between me and my fellow is that he has seen the paper and I have not. But COMMENTARY the London Times is not one of the Muses. When a man’s inward life fails he begins to go more constantly to the post office, and despatches couriers to the other side of the globe; and so again he gains the whole world and loses his
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1853
The Times of London’s annual summary:
READ ABOUT THE YEAR
1854
The Times of London’s annual summary:
READ ABOUT THE YEAR
In London, a re-erected Crystal Palace was opened at Sydenham.
In London, the Working Men’s College was established in Red Lion Square.
In London, the Royal Panopticon of Science and Art opened in Leicester Square.
In London, the opening of the Great Northern Hotel at King’s Cross.
In London, the opening of Paddington Station, and the Great Western Hotel.
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December 26, Tuesday: It was a fine, mild day, and Friend Daniel Ricketson and Henry Thoreau walked through the
woods to Tarkiln Hill and then through Acushnet to the Friends Meeting House. In the afternoon they rode around White’s factory. In the evening Thoreau delivered “WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT” at the New Bedford lyceum but Friend Daniel didn’t feel well enough to attend.
THOREAU’S SERMON
[Various versions of “LIFE WITHOUT PRINCIPLE”, variously titled, would be delivered:
•“WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT” on December 6, 1854 at Railroad Hall in Providence RI •“WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT” on December 26, 1854 in the New Bedford MA Lyceum •“WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT” on December 28, 1854 at the Athenaeum on Nantucket Island
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• On January 4, 1855 in the Worcester Lyceum, as “The Connection between Man’s Employment and His Higher Life” •“WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT” on February 14, 1855 in the Concord Lyceum •“WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT” on November 16, 1856 for the Eagleswood community • “Getting a Living” on December 18, 1856 in the vestry of the Congregational Church of Amherst, New Hampshire •“LIFE MISSPENT” on Sunday morning, October 9, 1859 to the Reverend Theodore Parker’s 28th Congregational Society in Boston Music Hall •“LIFE MISSPENT” on Sunday, September 9, 1860 at Welles Hall in Lowell MA.]
A fine mild spring-like day. Walked through the woods to Tarkiln Hill and through Acushnet to Friends’ Meeting House with Henry D. Thoreau, author of Walden. Rode this P.M. with H.D.T. round White’s factory. Louisa [Mrs. Louisa Sampson Ricketson] and the children, except Walton [son], attended Lyceum this evening. Lecture by Mr. Thoreau. Subject, “Getting a Living.” I remained at home, not feeling well enough to attend.
December 26, 1854: At Ricketson’s (New Bedford). I do not remember to have ever seen such a day as this in Concord. There is no snow here (though there has been excellent sleighing at Concord since the 5th ult.), but it is very muddy, the frost coming out of the ground as in spring with us. I went to walk in the woods with R.; it was wonderfully warm and pleasant, and the cockerels crowed just as in a spring day at home. I felt the winter breaking up in me, and if I had been at home I should have tried to write poetry. They told me that this was not a rare day there. That they had little or no winter such as we have, and it was owing to the influence of the Gulf Stream, which was only sixty miles from Nantucket at the nearest or 120 miles from them. In mid-winter when the wind was S.E. or even S.W. they frequently had days as warm and debilitating as in summer. There is a difference of a degree in latitude, between Concord and New Bedford, but far more in climate. The American holly is quite common there, with its red berries still holding on, and is now their Christmas evergreen. I heard the lark sing, strong and sweet, and saw robins. R. lives in that part of New Bedford, three miles out of the town, called the Head of the River, i.e. the Acushnet River. There is a Quaker meeting-house there. Such an ugly shed without a tree or bush about it, which they call their meeting-house (without steeple of course), is altogether repulsive to me, like a powder-house or grave. And even the quietness and perhaps unworldliness of an aged Quaker has something ghostly and saddening about it — as it were a mere preparation for the grave. R. said that pheasants from England (where they are not indigenous) had been imported to Naushon, and were killed there. NAUSHON ISLAND NEW BEDFORD MA
December 26, 1854: “Read not the Times. Read the Eternities.” (REFORM PAPERS, 173)
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GOD IN CONCORD by Jane Langton © 1992 Penguin Books USA Inc. 17 Read not the Times. Read the Eternities. “Life Without Principle” Viking Penguin
The battle was joined. The news was out. DEVELOPER EYES ISBN 0-670-84260-5 — PS3562.A515G58
1855
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READ ABOUT THE YEAR
In London, the “great stink.”
In London, the creation of a Metropolitan Board of Works.
In London, the Metropolitan Cattle Market was laid out on the Copenhagen Fields of Islington.
In London, the 1st “pillar box” was installed, at the corner of Farringdon Street and Fleet Street.
In London, Victoria Dock opened.
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1856
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At Leicester Square in London, the closing of the Royal Panopticon of Science and Art.
On the site of the Surrey Zoological Gardens near London, Surrey Music Hall opened.
The General Omnibus Company (LGOC) went into business in London.
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1857
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1858
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Postal districts were 1st introduced in central London.
In London, the Jermyn Street Turkish Baths opened.
The Great Eastern was launched at Millwall.
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1859
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In London, the National Portrait Gallery opened to public.
In London, the Metropolitan Free Drinking Fountain Association was founded.
In London, Vauxhall Gardens closed.
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1860
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In London, Mudie’s Library moved to New Oxford Street.
In London, Victoria Station opened.
In London, the Hampstead Junction Railway opened from Kentish Town to Willesden.
1861
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In London, the Hungerford Suspension Bridge was replaced by the Charing Cross Railway Bridge.
In London, the Surrey Music Hall burned down.
In London, George Francis Train’s initial experiments with the horse-drawn tram.
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1862
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1863
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In London, Whiteley’s Department Store opened.
At 17 Hanover Square in London, Art’s Club was founded.
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1864
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1865
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Extension of North London Railway from Broad Street to Dalston.
In London, Charing Cross Hotel opened.
In London, Langham Hotel opened.
1866
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In London, Metropolitan Fire Brigade began.
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1867
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In London, St. George’s Hall opened.
In London, Royal Amphitheatre circus opened at Holborn (later Holborn Empire).
In London, Broadway Theatre, New Cross, opened.
1868
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1869
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In London, Holborn Viaduct opened.
In London, Finsbury Park opened.
In London, Southwark Park opened.
Opening of the East London Railway between New Cross and Wapping, which was the 1st to tunnel beneath the Thames River.
In London, opening of the Columbia Market.
In London, the Royal Academy moved from Trafalgar Square to Burlington House.
In London, the All England Croquet Club was founded.
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1870
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In London, tramways open between Kennington and Brixton, Whitechapel and Bow, and Blackheath and New Cross.
In London, the Tower Subway opened.
In London, Beckton Gas Works was built.
The London School Board was established.
In London, Victoria Embankment officially opened.
In London, White Bear Inn, the coaching inn in Piccadilly Circus, was demolished.
1871
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Passage of London’s Hampstead Heath Act, with the Metropolitan Board of Works acquiring the land for the public.
London’s Wandsworth Common, Wimbledon Common, and Putney Common were acquired by Metropolitan Board of Works.
In London, Shepherd’s Bush Green fell into public ownership.
In London, Queen Victoria Street opened between Mansion House and Victoria Embankment.
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In London, Farringdon Street opened.
In London, the Chelsea Embankment began to be built.
In London, the Battersea Dog’s Home opened.
In London, there was an epidemic of diarrhoea.
In London, St. Thomas’s Hospital opened new buildings in Lambeth Palace Road.
In London, the “Grand Cirque” circus opened in Argyll Street.
In London, Albert Bridge opened.
In London, Wandsworth Bridge opened.
1872
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In London, Bethnal Green Museum opened.
The new Flower Market hall in Covent Garden (now London Transport Museum).
1873
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1874
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In London, Liverpool Street Station opened.
In London, Leicester Square Gardens was granted to the Metropolitan Board of Works for public use.
The London School of Medicine for Women was founded.
In London, the Northumberland House on the Strand was demolished.
44 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX
TIMES OF LONDON TIMES OF LONDON
1875
The Times of London’s annual summary:
READ ABOUT THE YEAR
In London, the Talbot coaching inn at Southwark was demolished.
In London, the Floating Swimming Bath was opened by Hungerford Bridge.
In London, a new Alexandra Palace was erected.
In London, the Metropolitan Poultry Market opened in Smithfield.
“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 45 HDT WHAT? INDEX
TIMES OF LONDON TIMES OF LONDON
1876
The Times of London published a volume made up of its annual summaries of events, from 1851 to 1875, complete with a very appropriate brag about the nifty manner in which they had produced this press item:
READ THE NIFTY BRAG
1997
July 7: Baker Farm received some attention on this date on the editorial page of The Times of London (page A11, a clipping of which has been collected by an amused reader in Italy, Manuela Federella). Specifically, the editorial attention the Thoreau Institute received amounted to a sob and a giggle. One wonders who it is who talks to them, and who it is who writes their stuff:
Thoreau’s Walden — Lite T WAS ONE OF THOSE little news items about which you don’t know whether to sob or giggle. First, you should know about Henry David Thoreau (1817-62). And if you know Thoreau, the American writer, philosopher and naturalist, you will automatically think of Walden Pond.I Then, naturally, the crude hut on the edge of the pond comes to mind where Thoreau holed up for a couple of years between 1845 and 1847. It was a spare job for a spare man. He supported himself by doing odd jobs such as carpentry, gardening and land surveying. The major part of his time, however, was spent studying nature he lived so close to, meditating on philosophical problems, reading Greek, Latin and English literature and talking his plain talk with his plain-speaking neighbors on the outskirts of Concord, Mass. Thoreau wrote about his time in the hut on the edge of the pond in his most popular work, “Walden,” telling his reasons for adopting the contemplative life.
46 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX
TIMES OF LONDON TIMES OF LONDON
So what about that puzzling little news story? According to The Wall Street Journal, this fall 15 students from Salisbury State University in Maryland, in conjunction with the Thoreau Institute, will study and live in Walden Woods, the site where Thoreau lived and wrote. Not in the hut, though, now a somewhat unconvincing replica. Unlike Thoreau, they will live in a Tudor-style house. Sob? Giggle?
(Read not the times. Read the eternities. :-)
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others, such as extensive quotations and reproductions of images, this “read-only” computer file contains a great deal of special work product of Austin Meredith, copyright 2013. Access to these interim materials will eventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup some of the costs of preparation. My hypercontext button invention which, instead of creating a hypertext leap through hyperspace —resulting in navigation problems— allows for an utter alteration of the context within which one is experiencing a specific content already being viewed, is claimed as proprietary to Austin Meredith — and therefore freely available for use by all. Limited permission to copy such files, or any material from such files, must be obtained in advance in writing from the “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project, 20 Miles Avenue, Providence RI 02906. Please contact the project at
“It’s all now you see. Yesterday won’t be over until tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago.” – Remark by character “Garin Stevens” in William Faulkner’s INTRUDER IN THE DUST
Prepared: June 23, 2013
“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 47 HDT WHAT? INDEX
TIMES OF LONDON TIMES OF LONDON
ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT
GENERATION HOTLINE
This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by a human. Such is not the case. Instead, upon someone’s request we have pulled it out of the hat of a pirate that has grown out of the shoulder of our pet parrot “Laura” (depicted above). What these chronological lists are: they are research reports compiled by ARRGH algorithms out of a database of data modules which we term the Kouroo Contexture. This is data mining. To respond to such a request for information, we merely push a button.
48 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX
TIMES OF LONDON TIMES OF LONDON
Commonly, the first output of the program has obvious deficiencies and so we need to go back into the data modules stored in the contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then we need to punch that button again and do a recompile of the chronology — but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary “writerly” process which you know and love. As the contents of this originating contexture improve, and as the programming improves, and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whatever has been needed in the creation of this facility, the entire operation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminished need to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expect to achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring robotic research librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world.
First come first serve. There is no charge. Place your requests with
“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 49