Why London is Not at Dover.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 7, 16 February 1907, Page 34

Why London is Not at Dover.

HOW SALT. COAL, AND PIRATES PLACED OUR CITIES AND TOWNS. , Most of our towns were_ started as places of refuge. Here and there about the country there are rocks or big mounds easy to defend against an enemy. These were turned into rude forts. Later these forts became stone castles, and their permanent garrisons needed tradesmen, such as butchers, farriers, and armourers, who built their cots under the shelter of the walls. Some of the castles grew into immense fortress-palaces, like Windsor, Winchester, Edinburgh, and*Stirling, seatls of the early kings; Durham, seat of the prince bishop; and Ludlow, seat of the Lord Warden of the Welsh border. When the tribes settled down and built villages there was always in each a strong house on rising ground, as a place of refuge in time of trouble. This was later the parish church. The diocese had a bishop, whose cathedra, or chair, was in the biggest church of the district, and the cathedral always gave employment to a lot of people. So sprang up towns like Salisbury and Ripon, on flat ground, useless for defence, intended from the first ais cathedral cities.. A great many of the cities were Roman camps, such as Chester, Lancaster, Worcester. Gloucester, Rochester. Castra is the Latin word for a camp, fort, or castle. So nearly all our country towns began as forts of refuge or seats of bishops. THE ORIGIN OF OUR TRADE TOWNS. That does not account for our monster cities of trade, such as London, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, and Belfast. Cheshire is full of salt, so very early in history merchants came for salt from France and Germany, making a trail through the woods from Kentish coast to Cheshire. Their trail for pack-horses was paved by the Romans with blocks of stone; ami a great road was built, called Watling-street. Parts of that street are the Edgware-road and the Old Kent-road, the crossing being by ford during low tide at Westminster. There were live seaports—Dover, Hastings, Hythe, Romney, and Sandwich. But these ports, being out on the exposed coast, were frequently- raided and burned by pirates. So London came into existence—a row of dry gravel banks, reaching from the Tower to Charing Cross, surrounded by deadly swamps: a splendid stronghold, only to be reached by land from the direction of Edgware-road. Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Madrid, Rome, Moscow, have all been captured since 1800. London only has never been taken, and only once challenged in the last 100 years. So Landon is the capital of the world. Our seaports face their trade. Thus Belfast, Dublin, and Cork are lhe shipping points of Ireland which are nearest to Great Britain, and they came into existence because of the trade between the two islands. Bristol faces America, and with the American trade it became the second seaport in the kingdom. But Bristol has a bad river, and was obliged to charge heavy port dues. Hence the shipping went to Liverpool, because the port charges were more moderate. . With the building of-steam shipping the Thames got the trade of building steamers, then lost it entirely because of the labour strikes. What London has lost one may see by looking at the gigantic'shipbuilding trade which has made our northern ports—Middlesborough, Sunderland, Newcastle. Jairow, Shields, Blyth.. Leith, Glasgow. Belfast, and Barrow—surrounding the district which produces coal and iron. But the North of

England, with its iron and smelting does not provide steam-coal-, so a vast trade in coal for ships has created Merthyr, Swansea, and Cardiff. *’•" ‘ There is yet another kind of coal—that for domestic use; and the demands for household ebal for London created Newcastle, at the point where the Great North-road crosses the Tyne; also Shields and Sunderland, a group of cities with over half a million people. j CHOICE OF SEAPORTS. Another class of seaports—Plymouth, Falmouth, and Dartmouth —arose as the nearest ports of call and harbours of refuge for deep-sea shipping. Hull, Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Aberdeen, and Dundee have been created by the deepsea fisheries. Scarborough, Blackpool, Ramsgate, Margate, Eastbourne, Hastings, Brighton, Bournemouth,, all big towns have arisen because they- are the nearest seaside points to our great centres of population. We have one more class of great cities, such as Manchester, Birmingham, and Leeds. Before the days of -steam there were industries scattered all over the country. One village made needles, another stockings, a third swords, a fourth lace. The work was done in the cottages of poor folk, to be sold in the local market. But with the invention of steam machinery the work could be done cheaper in a big factory, and the factory made most profit which had to pay less for engines and eoal. So all over and all round the coalfields great factory cities have sprung into existence. WHY’ MANCHESTER IS COTTONOPOLIS. Manchester got the cotton trade because it was the factory- centre nearest to Liverpool, whence the cotton arrived from America. Leeds was central for the sheep-wolds of Y’orkshire, so, with' her- neighbour cities, got the big woollen trade. Birmingham and Sheffield were central for the coal, and iron of the Midlands, and so got the making of the lighter wares in steel. In the days of wooden ships the South of England did the building, because the southern oak forests produced the best timber. When that ran short, the nearest ports of entry for Indian teak were still on our southern coast. So now, even in the days of steel, our arsenal cities—Chatham and Sheerne'ss, Woolwich. Portsmouth, and Plymouth—supply the needs of the Imperial Navy and Army. So all our towns are accounted for from natural causes, and not one of them sprang up by- accident.—“ Home Chat.”