And first let me speak of living Norwich religiously. One of our wise kings said that the spire7 of Harrow was an outward and visible sign of the Church. Norwich rejoices in many such signs. Perhaps one of p. 37the most prominent at this time is the new Roman Catholic Cathedral at the end of St. Giles’s, which has been nine years in building, which is being erected8 regardless of expense, and which is far from completed yet. I heard Cardinal9 Manning, who was the most complete exemplification of the union of the wisdom of the serpent with the harmlessness of the dove I ever saw, in one of his sermons compare the Church of Rome to a lamb in the midst of wolves. At Norwich, as in most parts of England, the lamb is by no means a little one, and it may be in time it will develop into a ram10, and a ram can do not a little mischief11. What sign of life does the State Church give? Norwich is full of parsons; are any of them men of note? It had one it borrowed from dissent12, Dr. Cunningham Geikie, but he could not stand the climate, and now lives at Bournemouth. What sign of life, again I ask, does the Norwich State Church exhibit? Alas13, the reply is not satisfactory. With the exception of its new Dean, there is no clergyman of note among them. Dean Lefroy is able, earnest, active, a worker in many ways, social as well as religious, and on Sunday evening fills the nave14 of the Cathedral, where he conducts a service minus the Church prayers, and plus Moody15 and Sankey hymns16. He is Evangelical, and is making that influence felt. He is an Irishman, and as a matter of coarse fervid17 and eloquent. When he came to Norwich, I am told, he expressed his hope that he should soon empty some of its many chapels19. At present he has not succeeded in the attempt. I don’t think his church understands the way to go to work aright in that respect. When I was last in Norwich the Primitive20 Methodists were in full conference. All the religious bodies in Norwich gave them hearty21 greeting except the Church, and the intolerance of its attitude naturally occasioned considerable unfriendly comment. Wesleyan Methodism in Norwich and throughout Norfolk is making great headway. Still true to its old policy, which has been defined as a penny a week, a shilling a quarter, and justification22 by faith, it has gone in heartily23 p. 38for the Forward Movement, and the evidences are to be met with everywhere. Congregationalism is also preparing to commence a new cause in a hitherto neglected district, and it is time it did, as it is nearly forty years since the new Chapel18-in-the-Field, now under the ministerial care of the Rev24. J. P. Perkins, started on its successful career. It already has two prosperous mission stations as centres of religious activity and life. It is needless to say that Princes Street Chapel flourishes and prospers25 as it has ever done since Rev. George Barrett—one of the most winning of men in the Congregational ministry—has occupied its pulpit. The establishment of the Pleasant Sunday Afternoons during the past two years has been attended with great success and blessing26. The large congregations which crowd the Church Sunday by Sunday prove that this class meets a need. It is a pleasing feature of this work that it has called into active service some members of the church who in the past had engaged in no recognised form of Christian27 work. I was interested to find that at the old aristocratic Unitarian Chapel, known as the Octagon, they have Pleasant Sunday Afternoon Services and that Rev. J. P. Perkins has conducted a service there. In Norwich, as elsewhere, all the churches of all religious bodies suffer more or less by the tendency of people successful in business to live as much out of the city as possible. Christian young men and women seem well looked after. The Church young men have a good institution in a street leading into Orford Hill, while the others meet in one of the old mansions28 in St. Giles’s Street. Education prospers in the old city. I found a junior institute in connection with the Church where the classes are well attended; and the Board School educates 12,000 children, while the denominational schools between them muster29 but 6,000. The School Board has established one of a higher grade, which is a great success, while the great Norwich publishers, Jarrold and Son, by their publications have done much to supply the people with healthy and popular literature.
p. 39To commercial Norwich I can devote but little space. The city has flourished by reason of its being placed on two rivers—the Wensum and the Yare. The Great Eastern Railway gave it a tremendous lift, and, next to Mr. Colman, is perhaps the largest employer of labour in the district. The celebrated30 Carrow Works of Messrs. J. and J. Colman, manufacturers of mustard, starch31, corm-flour, and laundry-blue, are known all the world over. Next in importance is the manufactory of Norwich ales, as the county of Norfolk has long been celebrated for its growth of the finest malting barley32, and Norwich is, unfortunately, overdone33 with public-houses. I find that Messrs. Colman have established extensive Sunday and week-day schools for the children of their workpeople, and employ two Bible-women to visit them in their homes. I cannot find that the Norwich brewers have distinguished34 themselves much in this way, though it is to be feared that the need of such agencies among their workpeople must be greater than it is amongst those employed by Messrs. Colman. Norwich is a great place for clothing and the manufacture of boots and shoes. I suppose Harmer and Co. are at the head of the great clothing factories. Their new factory in St. Andrew’s is an ornament35 to the city, and is perhaps one of the finest in the world. It boasts a marvellous system of ventilation introduced by an American company, which has never before been tried in this country, and which every one interested in such matters ought to study. Mr. Harmer, who in 1888 was Mayor of Norwich, takes a deep interest in its welfare, and is certainly a man whose opinions deserve consideration. He thinks that the contemplated36 legislation, which has for its ultimate object the doing away with outdoor work, will press very hardly upon the working classes of the city, and will be more injurious to them than their employers. The practice of the firm has been to take into their employ young girls leaving school, who soon acquire much dexterity37 in their work, and who, when they marry, can be—and many of them are supplied with sewing machines to use at home. p. 40Be that as it may, he has done more than any one in the great work of showing how a factory can be rendered healthy, and is to be held in reverence38 as one of our greatest practical sanitary39 reformers. One word more. Norwich is the centre of a great agricultural district, and its cattle market may be described as the largest of the kind in all England. In one year alone as many as 95,000 beasts, 137,000 sheep, and 14,000 pigs were received for the market. Till we all become vegetarians40, Norwich will, by reason of its cattle market alone, flourish as a living city famed for its flesh pots, and beloved of John Bull.
Norwich has been a famous city ever since, at any rate, the time when Sir Thomas Browne wrote his famed Religio de Medici there. It was to the house of Mrs. Taylor, wife of a Norwich tradesman, that Sir James Mackintosh and the other leading Liberals of the day used to repair to hold high discourse41 on the origin of society and the rights of man. Windham, one of the greatest statesmen of his day, the friend of Johnson and Burke, represented Norwich. There lived William Taylor, the friend and correspondent of Southey, who was the first to open up to the public the vast treasury42 of German thought. Harriet Martineau was born there, as was likewise her more celebrated brother James, who still lives to illustrate43 the mental and religious speculation44 of our day. A grand old city is Norwich, with its castle, now a museum, looking over it all, with its St. Andrew’s Hall, now utilised for concerts and public meetings, with its great markets, with its Colman’s Mustard Mills, with its old houses and narrow streets. The workman, with his strikes, has driven away from Northampton a good deal of its boot and shoe manufacture. What Northampton has lost Ipswich, Colchester, and especially Norwich, have gained. There is beautiful country round Norwich; and Norwich ought to be eminently45 holy, for there are forty churches there, many of them very ancient. We hear a good deal of the piety46 of our forefathers47. In Norwich we realise that fact as well as anywhere. Norwich, p. 41consequently, is the home of bell-ringers. Mr. Suffling tells us, “I suppose no other place in England can boast of so many bell-ringers, or such good ones, as Norwich.” On certain occasions you are deafened48 by the clamour of its bells.
Away from Ipswich, and Colchester, and Norwich there is a delicious sleepiness about the old East Anglian towns, as if they feel they have done their duty in their day and are out of the world. They are all in a declining way. They have all seen better days. They have not quite died out, because the Great Eastern Railway has connected them all together and insists on their sharing in the labours and triumphs of the present day. But they had rather not. They would rather live on their past glories—Bungay, with its renowned49 castle, Framlingham with its castle still more renowned, Bury with its memories of its martyr50 king, Woodbridge mildly illuminated51 by the fame of Bernard Barton, the Quaker poet, Beccles with its fine church, Halesworth where Archbishop Whateley was for many years the rector. They are all places to live in happily if you have had enough of excitement and would shun52 the wicked world and its ways.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
eloquent
|
|
| adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
corruption
|
|
| n.腐败，堕落，贪污 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
vice
|
|
| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
apathy
|
|
| n.漠不关心，无动于衷；冷淡 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
sloth
|
|
| n.[动]树懒；懒惰，懒散 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
fleas
|
|
| n.跳蚤( flea的名词复数 )；爱财如命；没好气地（拒绝某人的要求） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
spire
|
|
| n.(教堂)尖顶，尖塔，高点 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
ERECTED
|
|
| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
cardinal
|
|
| n.(天主教的)红衣主教；adj.首要的，基本的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
ram
|
|
| (random access memory)随机存取存储器 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
mischief
|
|
| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
dissent
|
|
| n./v.不同意，持异议 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
alas
|
|
| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
nave
|
|
| n.教堂的中部；本堂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
moody
|
|
| adj.心情不稳的，易怒的，喜怒无常的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
hymns
|
|
| n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌( hymn的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
fervid
|
|
| adj.热情的；炽热的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
chapel
|
|
| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
chapels
|
|
| n.小教堂， （医院、监狱等的）附属礼拜堂( chapel的名词复数 )；（在小教堂和附属礼拜堂举行的）礼拜仪式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
primitive
|
|
| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
hearty
|
|
| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
justification
|
|
| n.正当的理由；辩解的理由 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
heartily
|
|
| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
rev
|
|
| v.发动机旋转，加快速度 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
prospers
|
|
| v.成功，兴旺( prosper的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
blessing
|
|
| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
Christian
|
|
| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
mansions
|
|
| n.宅第，公馆，大厦( mansion的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
muster
|
|
| v.集合，收集，鼓起，激起；n.集合，检阅，集合人员，点名册 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
celebrated
|
|
| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
starch
|
|
| n.淀粉；vt.给...上浆 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
barley
|
|
| n.大麦，大麦粒 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
overdone
|
|
| v.做得过分( overdo的过去分词 )；太夸张；把…煮得太久；（工作等）过度 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
distinguished
|
|
| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
ornament
|
|
| v.装饰，美化；n.装饰，装饰物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
contemplated
|
|
| adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
dexterity
|
|
| n.(手的)灵巧，灵活 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
reverence
|
|
| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
sanitary
|
|
| adj.卫生方面的，卫生的，清洁的，卫生的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
vegetarians
|
|
| n.吃素的人( vegetarian的名词复数 )；素食者；素食主义者；食草动物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
discourse
|
|
| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
treasury
|
|
| n.宝库；国库，金库；文库 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
illustrate
|
|
| v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
speculation
|
|
| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
eminently
|
|
| adv.突出地；显著地；不寻常地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
piety
|
|
| n.虔诚，虔敬 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
forefathers
|
|
| n.祖先，先人；祖先，祖宗( forefather的名词复数 )；列祖列宗；前人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
deafened
|
|
| 使聋( deafen的过去式和过去分词 )； 使隔音 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
renowned
|
|
| adj.著名的，有名望的，声誉鹊起的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
martyr
|
|
| n.烈士，殉难者；vt.杀害，折磨，牺牲 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
illuminated
|
|
| adj.被照明的；受启迪的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
shun
|
|
| vt.避开，回避，避免 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |