Wilmington journal., 1867-10-04
OUR EUROPEAN CORRESPO PONDENCE.
LETTER FROM BISHOP ATKINSON.
TUNBRIDGE-WELLs, ENGLAND,
SEPTEMBER II, 1867,

To the Editors Of the Wilmington Journal:
| [ continue the account Of my tour, and
the objects of interest which [ have seen
from my last letter. I went Immediately
from Killarney to Chester, passing through
Dublin, without stopping, as last year
had spent more than a week in that city
| and its vicinity. For a similar reason [ re-
manned only few hours in Chester,
although its Roman wall, and it's venera-
bic Cathedral, and its medieval streets,
and the green valley of the Dee, and the
far-otf mountains of Wales, combine to
make it one of the most picturesque and
interesting spots in all this fair land.
From Chester I went to Birming-
ham. The former city is in, what
| the English cali, ''the black country" that
is the country of coal and iron, and is one
Of the principal seats Of this important
branch of national industry. A cloud of
| smoke hangs over it, and flames from its
many furnaces rise high in the air Fourteen
| miles distant is Birming CHAM, renowned for
| its manufactures in steel and iron, pro-
| ducing, in unequalled abundance, every
| thing in this line, from steel-pen, or
child's toy, to the most powerful engine,
or the most enormous plates of iron. It
has about three hundred thousand inhabi-
tants, and an energetic, wealthy and pros
porous population it seems to be. We hap
pened to reach there while Musical Fes-
tival was going on. There were severa1
hundred performers, vocal and instrume n
tai, and among them some of the princir al
musical celebrities of Europe. The bright,
particular star seemed to be young Swe-
dish girl, of the name of Nilssen. She in
herits the honors once paid to Jenny Lind.
The Festival continued several days the
hotels were crowded with lovers of music
coming up from London and elsewhere to
enjoy it, and the receipts were some seventy
thousand dollars, which were appropriated,
after paying the professional performers,
to the benefit of a hospital in the city.
Notwithstanding the utilitarian charac-
ter ascribed to the English, [ believe no
people equal them in their devotion to two
objects, the good of which is not at all util-
itarian, that is, Music and Flowers. Musi-
cal entertainments seem to be the favorite
recreation, not onl y Of the upper classes,
but of the multitude, and they are continu-
ally going on in the smaller towns and vii
lagos, as far as I could see, as well as
in the great cities and the country being
so rich, as we'll as SO enthusiastically de-
voted to this enjoyment, it attracts to itself
the choicest music and talent of the world.
Flowers again, are a passion with this
people. They fill the windows and the
little front-yards of the laborers' cottages
they bloom around the railway stations,
and the richest most costly and most di-
versifed eXotics are cultivated in the gar
dens and conseryatories of the nobility and
gentry.
From Birmingham [ went to Shrews-
bury, city famous in history as the scene
of various memorable events, but especially
for the battle fought in the neighborhood
between Harry Hotspur and Henry ",
which the genius of Shakespeare has made
as familiar to us as if it were the occurrence
ofyesterday. Shrewsbury is on the Severn,
here a narrow, shallow stream, making its
way, however, through rich and beautiful
meadows, flowing on for perhaps a hundred
miles through some of the most charming
scenery in England, and receiving tributes
on the right hand and on the left, until
it at last pours itself into Bristol Chan
mel, it has become one of the princi-
pal rivers of the Kingdom. The object,
however, which chiefly attracted me was
the ruins of d Roman city, called Urico-
MUM, which, within few years, have been
disinterred at village called Wroxeter,
about five miles from Shrewsbury This
ancient city seems to have been one of the
most considerable in England, while the
Romans occupied the country. It is men
toned by the geographer Ptoleny as early
as the beginning Of the second century,
and does not appear to have been destroyed
until towards the middle of the fifth.
When the Roman Legions were withdrawn
the British towns were left without that pro-
lection, and although if united, they would
have been abundantly able to protect them
selves, they did not usually act together,
for, indeed, the whole country was in astate
of anarchy. Their invaders then, the Picts
and Scots from one quarter, and the Saxons
from another, had only to attack each
place separately, and could, without much
difficulty, subdue it's resistance. Mere
savages and Pagans as these were, when
they forced their way into place, they
spoiled it, burnt it, and then Withdrew into
their own country, to issue forth after
while on some similar expedition. There
are evidences that Uriconium was de-
stroyed In this way, for there are abundant
traces of burning, and skeletons have been
found In cellars and other hiding places,
in one instance with a heap of Roman
| coins and remains of box In which they
had been deposited, lying near thsbones Of