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TWEDDELL'S

MIDDLESBROUGH MISCELLANY

No. 1.

OF LITERATURE AND ADVERTISEMENTS.

To be completed in Eighteen Numbers.

THE PUBLISHERS' PREFACE.

E have frequently been requested to commence a small literary periodical for Middlesbrough and the neighbourhood; but having had our fingers repeatedly burnt by such attempts, we must confess ourselves not over sanguine of receiving the necessary support. To be honest, we do not consider literary taste a distinguishing characteristic of the men and women of Middlesbrough (though the adoption of a Free Library may be regarded as a sign of improvement), and if we can aid in teaching them, that it is possible to feed and clothe, and in all reasonable ways to nurture the body, without neglecting the

mind, we shall not labour in vain.

It requires no Shakspere's knowledge of human nature to discover, that of the thousands one passes every day, comparatively few have had their souls awakened to any fine sense of "the beautiful, the good, and the true:" and, as one walks the streets, how often are our ears assailed by language which, without being at all strait-laced, we can simply describe as extremely disgusting! A casual glance at, or conversation with, great numbers of others, who pride themselves upon being "highly respectable," at once shows, that only they can eat their own pudding in peace, for their three score years and ten, the rest of the community may go to the devil for them. Even amongst many of the greatest professors of the pure religion of JESUS, it is marvellous to find mere animalism, or what THOMAS CARLYLE calls "the beaverisms of society," at best, where one might reasonably expect something rather more intellectual and unselfish. A community of some forty thousand souls is not, however, without many decent people in it, and there may possibly be a sufficient number of them well enough disposed to patronise our periodical. At all events, we intend to issue Eighteen Numbers; one-half of the letter-press to consist of such Local Literature as we can command; and the other half of Advertisements of an unobjectionable character, which will be printed so as to bind up with the volume, and thus be preserved when other announcements of a like nature have gone

Price 1d.

for waste paper. By this method it is possible we may secure ourselves against pecuniary loss. At all events, it will serve to bring more prominently under the notice of the Middlesbrough people those Local and other Works, over which we have spent many years of labour, and on the success of which we have staked all we possess in the world.

And yet Middlesbrough, with all its faults, is miles ahead of most other places. If, as we are certain is the case, we have an immense mass of therefrom, in our midst; we have also, on the crass ignorance, and the evils that inevitably flow other hand, more real thinkers than the generality of older towns with an equal population. If, as we know to be too true, we have much drunkenness, much gluttony, much extravagance in dress, much whoring, and much dishonesty; we have also, on the other hand, much sobriety, much temperance in all things, much prudence, fortitude, frugality, and chastity; many minds that aspire to a higher state of society than any which the world has yet seen, and which is best expressed in the angelic motto, Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, and goodwill towards men ! "

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Middlesbrough, indeed, is a colony (we hope not exactly a convict colony), towards which all manner of mankind have trooped, as all sorts of animals are recorded to have done to Noah's Ark. How many of them perish in the deluge, like so many "dumb driven cattle," and how many are safely borne above the raging billows, our statistics cannot show.

Advertisements herein inserted will be charged Threepence per line for the first insertion, and One Penny per line for each subsequent insertion, if ordered before the type is distributed.

Numbers of the Middlesbrough Miscellany (with Persons desirous of receiving the whole Eighteen which a Title-page and Table of Contents will be given for binding), are respectfully requested to give in their Names as Subscribers at once, to the TWEDDELL AND SONS,

Publishers,

No. 87, Linthorpe Road, MIDDLESBRough.

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HEDLEY AND CO.,

WHOLESALE AND RETAIL TOBACCONISTS, 42, SUSSEX STREET,

MIDDLESBROUGH.

TOBACCO! Hedley's Smoking Mixture.

TOBACCO! Hedley's Cut Cake and Sweet Cavendish.
TOBACCO! Hedley's Limerick Roll.
TOBACCO! Hedley's Pigtail.

"6 "York River."

TOBACCO! Hedley's Lady's and Brown Twist.
TOBACCO! Hedley's Dark and Light Shag.
TOBACCO! Hedley's
TOBACCO! Hedley's Superfine Golden Shag.
TOBACCO Hedley's Havana.

TOBACCO! Hedley's Golden Bird's-Eye.

TOBACCO! Hedley's "Middlesbrough Delight."

TOBACCO! Hedley, Agent for Cope's "Right Sort of

Tobacco."

TOBACCO Hedley, Agent for Hignett's Mixture. TOBACCO! Hedley, Agent for Will's Bristol Bird's Eye. TOBACCO! Hedley, Agent for Franklyn's Bristol Tobbacco.

TOBACCO! Hedley's Fine and Rough Cut Returns. PIPES! Hedley, Agent for Posener's Patent Clay Pipes. MATCHES! Hedley, Agent for Bryant and May's. CIGARS! Hedley, Agent for Henry Clay's, 3d each. SNUFF! Hedley, Agent for Gawith's Kendal Brown. SNUFF! Hedley, Agent for Wilson's Top Mill. SNUFF! Hedley, Agent for Taddy's Tom Buck, &c. HEDLEY AND CO., Wholesale and Retail Tobacconists and Importers of Cigars, 42, SUSSEX-STREET, MIDDLESBROUGH.

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Streets, Market and Buildings Committee.

The Mayor, Aldermen Dalkin and Laws; Councillors West,

Gas Works Management Committee.

Alderman Harris (Chairman); the Mayor; Aldermen Thompson, Laws, and Gilkes; Councillors Stephenson, West, Lloyd, Sharpe, Ingram, Fidler, Jennings, and Willman.

Drainage Sanitary and Burial Ground Committee. Councillor Williams (Chairman); the Mayor; Alderman Dalkin Councillors Sanderson, Hill, Potter, Imeson, Hodgson, Jennings, and Willman.

Todd, Potter, Hill, Sanderson, Imeson, Hudson, Greathead, Vaughan, Sharpe, Todd, Greathead, Hudson, Wilson, Fidler,

Willman, Rudd, and Hodgson.

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Second Tuesday in February; Second Tuesday in May; and Second Tuesday in August ; at half-past Two o'clock in the Afternoon.

TEES CONSERVANCY COMMISSIONERS FOR MIDDLESBROUGH.

Isaac Wilson, William Randolph Innes Hopkins, James Harris, William Fallows, and Thomas Vaughan.

George Robinson.

Auditor: Thomas

Treasurer: Thomas George Robinson. Borough Surveyor: Edwin Davenport Latham. Manager of the Works: Alexander Colvin Fraser. Accountant: Thomas Cameron Close. Chief Constable: Edward Joseph Saggerson. Collector of Rates: Robert Bainbridge. Sanitary Inspector, Market Inspector, and Inspector of Weights and Measures: John Reed. Collector of Gas Rents: Ralph Chambers. Town Clerk: John T. Belk.

born and reared; the town with which, even during

A MIDDLESBROUGH MAN'S FIRST PILGRIMAGE TO STRATFORD-ON-AVON his residence in London, he never ceased to have

AND ITS VICINAGE.

[The following account of a visit to the land of Shakspere was written for, and appeared in, the pages of The Freemasons Magazine and Masonic Mirror, which will account for those Masonic allusions which I have now no inclination to omit.]

"Far from the sun and Summer shade,

In thy green lap, was Nature's darling laid,
What time, where lucid Avon stray'd,
To him the mighty mother did unveil
Her awful face: the dauntless child
Stretch'd forth his little arms and smiled.

This pencil take,' she said, 'whose colours clear
Richly paint the vernal year:

Thine too these golden keys, immortal boy!
This can unlock the gates of Joy;

Of Horror's that, and thrilling Fears,

Or ope' the sacred source of sympathetic Tears.''

GRAY'S Ode on the Progress of Poetry.

HERE are few things afford me greater pleasure than to visit sylvan scenes and historic sites; and, much as I would like to see other lands, I have no wish to go abroad until I have thoroughly explored every nook and corner of my native isle. I am well enough content to know other countries only through the medium of pictures and books: but for this dear old Albion-the land of my forefathers and of myself, the birthplace also of my wife and our children-this beloved island for which so many brave men, whose blood is in my own veins, have lived and laboured, have fought and died-I have an intense desire to see it, from the Land's End to John o'Groats; to look from every mountain down upon the plains and valleys, and from the plains and valleys up to the sky-kissed hills; to linger by lakes and rivers, and to thread my way through what yet remains of our ancient forests; to muse on the sands and cliffs of the seashore; to worship in old churches and cathedrals; to contemplate by the ruins of castles and monasteries; to tread battle-fields, once red with human gore, now green with the grassy sward on which the lambkin plays without dismay; to look upon every spot where a martyr has died; to enter the birthplace of the gifted and the good; and reverently to visit those tombs of the departed great, which so forcibly remind one of the great truth, that "a time will come, and the wisest of us know not how soon," when our brief lives will be brought to a close, as those of the bravest, the wisest, and the best have been before us.

But most especially had I longed, from my childhood, to visit the good old town of Stratford-onAvon; the place where my beloved Shakspere was

some connection; and to which, after his retirement from the stage, he returned to spend the evening of his life, and to lay his mortal remains, after his matchless spirit had "shuffled off," its "mortal coil." But ever had there been some barrier to my visit. Sometimes I had duties to perform which would not admit of my absence from home; but oftener, because I was like certain "tenant bodies," mentioned by our brother, ROBERT BURNS-" scant o'cash," and the funds necessary for the journey were obliged to be devoted to other purposes. More than once had I, not without considerable effort, got money and time apparently to unite in favouring me with a good opportunity for my long wished for pilgrimage; but, alas! when the time came, interest and duty alike told me that it would be wise on my part to forfeit my own trip, and spend the money over "change of air" for one of the best of wives, who in all difficulties has stood firmly by me, when less fragile forms perhaps would have forsook me.

Difficulties are not always a curse, though to the coward and the base they are ever so; but, to the brave of heart, they are only trials; and, if we will but learn to endure them with patience and humility, the Most High will eventually turn them into blessings for us, "with healing on their wings." And now that I look back upon my visit to Stratford-onfrom the exquisite pleasure of the recollection, that Avon-for I did get it at last-it does not diminish Whitsuntide after Whitsuntide, I forfeited my lifelong wished for trip, in order that the faithful wife of my bosom, and the mother of my children, might have her failing health reinvigorated by an "out" (as the Lancashire people say) instead; for, as my friend, CHARLES SWAIN, has truly sung in his delightful poem of The Mind :-

"Love? I will tell thee what it is to love!
It is to build with human thoughts a shrine,
Where Hope sits brooding like a beauteous dove:
Where Time seems young-and Life a thing divine.
All tastes-all pleasures-all desires combine
To consecrate this sanctuary of bliss,
Above-the stars in shroudless beauty shine-
Around-the streams their flowery margins kiss,-
And if there's heaven on earth, that heaven is surely this.
Yes, this is love,-the steadfast and the true;
The immortal glory which hath never set;
The best, the brightest boon the heart e'er knew;
Of all life's sweets the very sweetest yet!
Oh, who but can recal the eve they met

To breathe in some green walk their first young vow,
Whilst summer flowers with moonlight dews were wet,
And winds sigh'd soft around the mountain's brow,-
And all was rapture then, which is but memory now."
The true Freemason will always find pleasure
in the performance of his duty, whether it be to
God, his neighbour, or himself; or, what is most

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Masonic of all, to the three combined, not to speak it profanely, as a sort of trinity in unity. For, as one who was a Freemason in his heart, though perhaps he knew it not, has well observed :—

"Possessions vanish and opinions change,
And passion holds a fluctuating seat,
But, subject neither to eclipse nor wane,
Duty remains."-WORDSWORTH,

Great, therefore, was my joy, when, at Whitsuntide, 1859, I was enabled to reconcile my visit to Stratford-on-Avon and its vicinage, not only with convenience, but with duty; and when I inform the reader that (though previously my whole life had, with little exception, been passed among bucolic scenes) for upwards of four years I had been pent up in the cotton district, labouring to teach and elevate poor ragged children, whose clothes had, many of them, been picked out of rag-bags, and nearly all were loaded with miasma, and that our premises were considered about the worst adapted for the work of any in England, I shall not task human credulity when I ask for belief in my assertion, that this ramble in a fine sylvan part of the country, hallowed by its historical recollections, was alike invigorating to my body and my mind; for as WORDS WORTH, the great High-priest of Nature, beautifully expresses it, in his noble poem, "composed in 1798, a few miles above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye :"

"Not for this

Faint I, nor mourn, nor murmer; other gifts
Have follow'd, for such loss, I would believe,
Abundant recompense. For I have learn'd
To look on Nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth, but hearing oftentimes
The still sad music of humanity,

Nor harsh, nor grating, though of ample power
To chasten and subdue. And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean, and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;
A motion and a spirit that in.pels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things. Therefore am I still
A lover of the meadows and the woods
And mountains, and of all that we behold
From this green earth; of all the mighty world
Of eye and ear, both what they half create
And what perceive; well pleased to recognise
In Nature, and the language of the sense,
The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,
The guide, the guardian of my heart and soul,
Of all my moral being."

On Saturday morning, the 11th of June, 1859, after an early breakfast, I left the Bury station of the East Lancashire Railway, by the first "cars for Manchester, in order to catch the Parliamentary train from that city to Birmingham. The weather was unsettled when I left Bury, but by the time

the train reached the Salford Station, the terminus

of the East Lancashire line in that direction, the rain was falling in torrents. All the cabs were presently engaged, and I had no alternative but to walk to the London Road Station, at Bank Top, and "bide the pelting of this pitiless storm;" for, like the night in the second scene of the third act of King Lear, it "pitied neither wise men nor fools."

Reader, wert thou ever in Manchester on a Except for variety, thou thoroughly wet day? need'st not wish to be. A good umbrella overhead, and some good cowhide under foot, tanned with genuine oak-bark by Bro. Martin, of Great Ayton, saved me pretty tolerably from the wet; though the smoke penetrated my lungs until I was nearly suffocated, and irritated my eyes until they were quite painful. Right glad was I, therefore, after securing a ticket, when the ring-ting-ting of the porter's bell, and cries of "Take your seats for Stafford, Wolverhampton, and Birmingham," announced the time for departure. Punctually at halfpast eight o'clock in the morning we left Manchester; and, after calling at Longsight, LevenNorris, shulme, Heaton Chapel and Heaton within twenty minutes from the time of starting we arrived at Stockport. Hitherto I had not got out of the cotton district, but now that we had reached the fine pastoral country of Cheshire, I knew that my lungs would soon cast off the smoke which they had been breathing, and regale themselves with an unlimited supply of oxygen. My eyes, too, would soon be refreshed by looking once more upon bucolic scenes.

Thank God for Railways! for without them how could the inhabitants of our great hives of industry ever get their bodies out of the smoke into the fresh air, or gladden their eyes and ears with the soulpurifying sights and sounds of nature.

Past Cheadle, Handforth, Wilmslow, Alderley, Chelford, Holmes Chapel, and Sandback stations, and by ten o'clock in the forenoon, after already having caught glimpses of fine sylvan scenery, we arrived at Crewe. There was no time, however, to inspect the hall designed by Inigo Jones, whom Bro. PRESTON informs us 66 was nominated Grand Master of England, and was deputized by his sovereign to preside over the lodges." I may, however, mention that during the civil wars, it sustained two assaults, having been occupied alternately by Parliamentarians and Royalists. It could not be otherwise than interesting to the brotherhood if intelligent members of the Craft would visit the buildings of interest in their own neighbourhoods, and report, through the pages of the structures erected by our ancient brethren before the Freemason's Magazine, how much yet remains of the divorce of operative and speculative Masonry. the divorce of operative and speculative Masonry. (To be Continued.)

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