Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-15

Huckuall, III Hucknall Torkard, Noting
hamshire, there came a sense OF repellant
indetniteness; as though the guide book
maker were not quite certain of the matter
himself. Even if the statement were ac-
cepted as a true one, where. then might one
hunt for the unknown hamlet with so mysti-
tying a name as Hucknall Torkard?
While wandering in RobinlHood's Land, 1
unconsciously passed many times within a
few miles of the spot where repose the
ashes of Byron. But there is no one in the
region TO call the strangers attention to the
fact. He would hardly discover it at New
stead Abbey, three miles. distant, once the
poets property and home. Nobody at
Arnold, four miles away, even among the
owners of the looms and spindles, can tell
you how to find Hucknall Torkard, or WHY
anybody should wish to find it. The
colliery town itself is perhaps eight miles
north of Nottingham. But one might ask a
thousand of that city's 100, goo people with
out ascertaining just where to find the
place; and inquire Of a good many more
than that, before discovering that the town
possessed anything but GOLFERS and coal. .
A Long and Weary Search.
After 1 had 6nailyimade sure Hucknall
Torkard was near Nottingham, and that
perhaps some man "of quality was buried
there, as it was "famously unhealthy" L
was then twice sent over wrong railway
lines to find it. Then l tramped. A two
hours walk through the dreariest of English
half-manufdcturing villages, over the worst
highway in England, brought me, past
dreary, moor-like reaches and scraggy, un-
lovely fields to an utterly cherries collection
of half cottages and shops. These were low,
cramped, inadequate, u~nsightly. The
houses were pinched sidewise, endwise, up
and down.. The windows and doors were
pinched. Passageways, wynds, closets, al
leys and shops all were pinchei and mean
and small.
Everything exposed for sale seemed sparse,
little and shriveled. The faces of the old
women, slatternly wives and hosts of dirty
children rolling in doorways and on pave
ments with pinched and ragged-haired ours,
were pinched more sadly than all else 10 the
poor, pinched place. 1t was one of those
many places in Europe, and, less credit to
US, in our W country, where coal barons
huddle and herd families at profit, after first
profting to the extent of human endurance
from the use of vast aggregate dependent
labor. 1t was Hucknall Torkard, where
5000 miners dig 1000 yards 'below grass
Tor coal, at 81 shlllings a week for half the
weeks in the year, and ~starve. with their
families, the other hall. Every structure
WAS of brick. Every object was besmeared
| Will Tue ldlul Ol coal.
Ono Huge Norman Tower.
But one object within the horizon disk
gave relief to the hard miserable feature of
every visible thing in Hueknall Torkard.
Away down the long, colorless street, nearly
a mile away, rose a huge Norman tower. 1t
was dark and grim, and frowned upon the
town and the mean little church beneath it
as if sensitive OF its sodden and insensate
-, ii \
towers like it, ecclesiastic brothers OF hoary
age, from Penzlnce to Penrith, all over
England. They defy time like the Round
Towers of. Ireland and their origin in essen
tisl or decorative architecture is almost as
Inscrutable. Picturesque they are, against
| the horizon OF an English landscape as tire
suggestive spire in the glorious gloamiAg Of
Millet's "Angelus;" but their age and
! strength are all else OF merit they possess;
for, like this one o; St. Mary Magdalen's
Church at Hucknall Torkard, thev are all
of more consequence in space than the little
broken-backed, chapel-like churches they
| quite overshadow.
II it was in that little church with the
big tower where Byron lay buried nobnuy
in HueknallT orkard seemed able to disclose
it. l inquired here and there of those 1 met.
and was either laughed at, or in ormed that
while they would not deny, it was very wide
OF their habit 10 assert what they did not
know. "
Everybody Was Ignorant.
"Ah Cd could ma tell ee, mon. Vicar
Phillips maun tell eeF' came from all who
would speak. At little shops as L pro-
crossed along the street, l was told to ask at
the next door; and groups gathered behind
me to tap their noses and shake their he uis
graSely. To be badgered thus when search