Delphi Complete Works of Ann Radcliffe (Illustrated) (329 page)
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Authors: Ann Radcliffe
Pyle, the last abbot, surrendered with twenty-nine monks, to Henry the Eighth, April the 9th 1537, and in return was made Rector of Dalton, a situation then valued at thirty-three pounds six shillings and eightpence a year.
4.17. FROM ULVERSTON TO LANCASTER
.
FROM the abbey we returned to Ulverston, and from thence crossed the sands to Lancaster, a ride singularly interesting and sublime. From the Carter’s house, which stands on the edge of the Ulverston sands, and at the point, whence passengers enter them, to Lancaster, within the furthest opposite shore, is fifteen miles. This noble bay is interrupted by the peninsula of Cartmel, extending a line of white rocky coast, that divides the Leven and Ulverston sands from those of Lancaster. The former are four miles over; the latter seven.
We took the early part of the tide, and entered these vast and desolate plains before the sea had entirely left them, or the morning mists were sufficiently dissipated to allow a view of distant objects; but the grand sweep of the coast could be faintly traced, on the left, and a vast waste of sand stretching far below it, with mingled streaks of gray water, that heightened its dreary aspect. The tide was ebbing fast from our wheels, and its low murmur was interrupted, first, only by the shrill small cry of sea-gulls, unseen, whose hovering flight could be traced by the sound, near an island that began to dawn through the mist; and then, by the hoarser croaking of sea-geese, which took a wider range, for their shifting voices were heard from various quarters of the surrounding coast. The body of the sea, on the right, was still involved, and the distant mountains on our left, that crown the bay, were also viewless; but it was sublimely interesting to watch the heavy vapours beginning to move, then rolling in lengthening volumes over the scene, and, as they gradually dissipated, discovering through their veil the various objects they had concealed — fishermen with carts and nets stealing along the margin of the tide, little boats putting off from the shore, and, the view still enlarging as the vapours expanded, the main sea itself softening into the horizon, with here and there a dim sail moving in the hazy distance. The wide desolation of the sands, on the left, was animated only by some horsemen riding remotely in groups towards Lancaster, along the winding edge of the water, and by a muscle-fisher in his cart trying to ford the channel we were approaching.
The coast round the bay was now distinctly, though remotely, seen, rising in woods, white cliffs and cultivated slopes towards the mountains of Furness, on whose dark brows the vapours hovered. The shore falls into frequent recesses and juts out in promontories, where villages and country seats are thickly strewn. Among the latter, Holker-hall, deep among woods, stands in the north. The village and hall of Bardsea, once the site of a monastery, with a rocky background and, in front, meadows falling towards the water; and Conishead priory, with its spiry woods, the paragon of beauty, lie along the western coast, where the hills, swelling gently from the isle of Walney, nearly the last point of land visible on that side the bay, and extending to the north, sweep upwards towards the fells of High Furness and the whole assemblage of Westmoreland mountains, that crown the grand boundary of this arm of the sea.
We set out rather earlier than was necessary, for the benefit of the guide over part of these trackless wastes, who was going to his station on a sand near the first ford, where he remains to conduct passengers across the united streams of the rivers Crake and Leven, till the returning tide washes him off. He is punctual to the spot as the tides themselves, where he shivers in the dark comfortless midnights of winter, and is scorched on the shadeless sands, under the noons of summer, for a stipend of ten pounds a year! and he said that he had fulfilled the office for thirty years. He has, however, perquisites occasionally from the passengers. In early times the Prior of Conishead, who established the guide, paid him with three acres of land and an annuity of fifteen marks; at the dissolution, Henry the Eighth charged himself and his successors with the payment of the guide by patent.
Near the first ford is Chapel Isle, on the right from Ulverston, a barren sand, where are yet some remains of a chapel, built by the monks of Furness, in which divine service was daily performed at a certain hour, for passengers, who crossed the sands with the morning tide. The ford is not thought dangerous, though the sands frequently shift, for the guide regularly tries for, and ascertains, the proper passage. The stream is broad and of formidable appearance, spreading rapidly among the sands and, when you enter it, seeming to bear you away in its course to the sea. The second ford is beyond the peninsula of Cartmel, on the Lancaster sands, and is formed by the accumulated waters of the rivers, Ken and Winster, where another guide waits to receive the traveller.
The shores of the Lancaster sands fall back to greater distance and are not so bold, or the mountains beyond so awful, as those of Ulverston; but they are various, often beautiful, and Arnside-fells have a higher character. The town and castle of Lancaster, on an eminence, gleaming afar off over the level sands and backed by a dark ridge of rocky heights, look well as you approach them. Thither we returned and concluded a tour, which had afforded infinite delight in the grandeur of its landscapes and a reconciling view of human nature in the simplicity, integrity, and friendly disposition of the inhabitants.
FINIS.
TE
OR AN ATTEMPT TO RECOVER THE
RIGHTS OF WOMEN
FROM MALE USURPATION.
The Female Advocate
was published in 1799 for Vernor and Hood and written by Radcliffe because she was indignant about the inferior earning opportunities possible for women in the late eighteenth century. Radcliffe calls for the protection of oppressed women, believing that they should be educated to the same degree as men, whilst also arguing that if that is not possible, as was true of the situation in Britain during that period, then it is the responsibility of men to protect women if they are going to claim the right to govern over them. Radcliffe’s argument is not as radical as Mary Wollstonecraft’s in
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
, and asks not for women to have power, or to assume equality with men, but that they should be offered protection. She states that this will result in contentedness in women because it will lift them out of depression. She suggests British women are very docile through either habit or compulsion and they will be easily satisfied with men just offering protection.
Radcliffe’s tone in the introduction is conciliatory and almost apologetic at presuming to even write about the subject. A subject of contention is men appropriating women’s professions and denying them an avenue against destitution by means of employment. She also believes that certain professions were just unsuitable for men and that it was unpleasant for a woman to have her hair attended to by a man. Radcliffe approaches the topic of virtue and proffers arguments that oppose the notion that virtue in women is mainly determined by disposition; she suggests that often behaviour that shows a lack of virtue is due to unfortunate circumstances. This interesting non-fiction work offers an insight into Radcliffe’s beliefs, allowing us to understand her as a working woman at a time when females quickly realised that ‘the world was not their friend, nor the world’s laws’.
The first edition
Male hairdressers attending to a woman
The fairest of created works was made
To share, with man, th’ empire of creation,
T’ enjoy its comforts and its sweets, its pains
And suff’rings. —
ANON.
TO THE READER.
SO various and complicated are the scenes of this life, that seven years have elapsed since the following pages were written, a period, perhaps, more favourable for publishing than the present; but timidity, or other hinderances have repeatedly prevented their appearing before the public; during which time the author hoped some more able advocate would have taken up the cause, to do justice to a subject of such importance to society at large, and particularly a much injured part thereof. For, alas! it is too well known, that female education, in general, is confined within very narrow limits, and seldom permitted to extend to classical accomplishments. The writer of this volume being a female, with only a female’s education, is sufficiently aware of her inadequacy to the undertaking, but trusts the importance of the subject will claim some attention ; at the same time, reposing a full confidence in the candour and unbounded goodness of some part of her readers at least, she is once more encouraged to resume the pen, to add, or amend such remarks as the nature of the times and circumstanccs require, and, at length, has so far surmounted her timidity, as to submit the following sheets, with all their imperfections, perfections, to the inspection of a generous public, who are more ready to appreciate the works of individuals from the rectitude of intention, than the beauty of composition. The attempt, she must acknowledge, has cost her many a painful emotion ; for a first attempt, surrounded by all the disadvantages peculiar to the sex, seems, to her, to require no small share of courage, and which, indeed, nothing but the importance of the subject should have induced her to encounter.
The subject of the following pages is an attempt to delineate the situation of those poor, helpless, females whose sufferings, from a variety of causes, are too grievous to be borne; the sources and dire consequences of which the exalted in life cannot form the least conception, unless they condescend to examine for themselves, when, it is to be hoped, their grievances will be sought into and redressed. The munificence of the people of Great Britain, which is ever ready and adequate to the support, aid, and comfort, of the afflicted, when their troubles are fully investigated; and the great number of unfortunate women, who, doubtless, would rejoice to become virtuous and useful members of society, in some lawful employment, have encouraged the author to offer this feeble representation. Nor can she despair of eventual success to the cause she has engaged in, if she is but so happy as to excite the attention of those whose souls are enlarged with the exalted ideas of Christian charity.
Indeed, it is a work which, as a duty to our fellow creatures, she has long, very long, wished to see executed by a more able pen; but the silence of others, the liberality of a generous public, and a most ardent wish to see miscry alleviated, and virtuous industry crowned with abundant success, have been the principal motives to her engaging in so arduous an undertaking. Conscious, however, that whatever good may be the result, the praise alone is due to the benevolent principles of humanity.
The author, at the same time, wishes it to be understood, that she has not been stimulated, from vain and ambitious views, to appear in print, but rather from the pure philanthropic motive of throwing in her humble mite towards the much-wished-for relief of these most pitiable objects of distress; numbers of whom, from the want of a fair representation of their case, she greatly fears, are unable to obtain shelter under the auspicious shade of Christian charity; and, consequently, are compelled to share the fate of the most wretched of human beings. She wishes to represent the case of those who would be industrious, if they might, but are held down by the most powerful influence of custom and misrepresentation; and, consequently, are incapable, without the kind assistance of humanity, to find redress, or even again to tread the paths of virtue. But, alas! finding herself so feeble an advocate, she can only hold the pen of Truth, whilst Reason and Justice plead their cause.
Kennington Cross, March 6th, 1799.