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| A Novel City |
| Many famous authors have visited Leeds at various times. Sometimes they thought Leeds an agreeable place, at other times they could not get away quick enough! |
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In January 1848 the American essayist
and poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson, arrived. '… near Leeds and Bradford, I observed the sheep were black '& I fancied they were black sheep; no, they were begrimed by the smoke. So all the trees were begrimed. The human expectoration is black here, begrimed by the smoke…. The hopelessness of keeping clothes white leads to a rather dowdy style of dress, I was told, among the ladies; and yet they sometimes indemnify themselves; and Leeds in the ballroom, I was assured, is a very different creature from Leeds in Briggate.' |
| A year earlier Charlotte Bronte published her famous novel 'Jane Eyre'. Charlotte lived not far from Leeds on the edge of Howarth Moor. In her story is mention of a town called 'Millcote' and an inn, 'The George'. For Millcote, you should read Leeds. The 'George', until its demolition in 1920, stood on the east side of Briggate just below the railway bridge. |
'A new chapter in a novel is something like a new scene in a play; and when I draw up the curtain this time, reader, you must fancy you see a room in the George Inn at Millcote, with such large-figured papering on the walls as inn rooms have; such a carpet, such furniture, such ornaments on the mantel-piece, such prints, including a portrait of George the Third, and another of the Prince of Wales, and a representative of the death of Wolfe. All this is visible to you by the light of an oil-lamp hanging from the ceiling, and by that of an excellent fire, near which I sit in my cloak and bonnet; my muff and umbrella lie on the table, and I am warming away the numbness and chill contracted by sixteen hours exposure to the rawness of an October day:' |
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The character in 'Jane Eyre' visited
Millcote (Leeds) for the hustle and bustle and excitement of
a large town. Sir Henry Rider Haggard, author of 'She' and 'King
Solomon's Mines', turned up in Leeds in 1902. 'Being not at all well at the time, I asked to be directed to the quietest hotel in Leeds. If that hostelry was the most quiet what the others can be like I know not. All night long trams ran, engines shrieked, and carts rattled in a fashion that made sleep almost impossible. Never have I visited a city that was noisier, or one more busy and thriving.' |
| George Bernard Shaw, the Irish dramatist, came to Leeds in 1905. His hosts took him for a ride on the top of a Kirkstall tram. He admired the back-to-back houses and thought the practice of hanging washing across the streets a good idea, as it would improve the standard of clothing! |
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Author of such great Victorian classics
as, 'Oliver Twist', 'Great Expectations' and 'Nicholas Nickleby',
etc, Charles Dickens visited Leeds on several occasions enthralling
audiences with his famous dramatic readings. Dickens stated that '....it may be observed with delicacy that you must either like it (Leeds) very much or not at all'. Dickens took the latter view. In September 1857, in a letter to an associate, he wrote that he found the trains from Leeds so inconvenient that he was afraid that he would have to spend the night in Leeds… 'which I particularly detest as an odious place'. |
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Odious or not, Dickens returned to Leeds
the following year. Queen Victoria arrived in Leeds to open the
newly built Town Hall. 'These streets look like a great circus with the season just finished. All sorts of garish triumphal arches were put up for the Queen, and they have got smoky…. and half up and half down, and are hideous to behold. Spiritless men (evidently drunk for some time in the royal honour) are slowly removing them…' |
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'Vague ideas are in Arthur's head that … we are to come here, and are to have the Town Hall (a beautiful building), and read to the million. I can't say yet. That depends. I remember that when I was here before, I thought them a dull and slow audience. I hope I may have been mistaken. I never saw better audiences than the Yorkshire audiences generally. Careful Charles, that sounded like praise. |
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