NORTHAMPTON.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume X, Issue 581, 18 November 1880, Page 1 (Supplement)

NORTHAMPTON.

The name of. Northampton; borough, first comes Before- tip in the wars of Edward the Unconquered ;'it was one- of . the towns which had to be won back from, the Dane. The name of Northamptonshire first comes before us in the later struggle _ „ with the new Danish invaders, Swegen and Cnut. From that time onwardj the shire, and above all its capital, stand forth, as J have already said, as the scene of a very large proportion of the great events of English history. 2s orthamptom might dispute with Oxford the honour of being the great national meeting-place of Northern and Southern England. --.lf it was at Oxford that, under Cnut, Danes and English agreed to. dwell .-together - under' Edgar's law, it waj at Northampton that Harold" held the great Gemot which acknowledged. the Earl whom Northumberland had chosen, and in which -Northern and. Southern England agreed 'to dwell together under the law' of Cnut. If Oxford saw the granting of the Provisions, Northampton saw. the . Parliament which carried on the work of • Harold's Gemot yet further, by. acknowledging Scotland fas an independent •'Kingdom. How, high arank Northampton held among th_2 cities and boroughs of England, how it had supplanted cities of far greater. and earlier,fame, we see by a witness which -is nose- the -less.- certain because of the strange form that it- takes. On the day that king:.: Edward- was alive and dead, the foul? greatest •• cities of England were h'eld'to -be"' London, - York, i'-Sfceplienj. Exeter Had' siipplKrited Lincoln. But when the body of the quartered' David had to. be among the" chief towns of England, according to tfi§i£T«npik," London got the head, .Witb- York, and WinChester disputed, over the shoulders, ■which should - have-the right:; -tlie right leg :went to Bristol; left to' Nprthamption.■ That "is to say, the inland borough, of comparatively recent- origin, the centre of trade, ho dwelling-place of ancient Kings "or Bishops; had risen to rank fifth among the towns of England, next after the' ancient immemorial cities, and after the..merchant''borough, whose happy, position '.and.' far-reaching traffic had-'raisedat to a-leved with them. — E. A FREi3iLi5s T 5 -in - c ,Macmillan's Magazine;' - v ----- . .' T