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History of Nottingham
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History of Nottingham
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ALMOST in the heart of the Midlands, on a commanding site, ‘a city set on a hill, which cannot be hid,’ stands the great town of Nottingham, one of the most important of those busy centres of industry which give to England her commercial pre-eminence, and distribute their famous products over all quarters of the globe. As we stand on the castle rock in front of Nottingham Art Museum, which is so great an ornament to the borough, there lies before us a broad and fertile vale through which the silvery Trent winds his sinuous course, now murmuring beneath the wooded hills of Clifton, or gliding quietly through the green meadows of Wilford, or rushing with swifter force under the wide arches of the Trent Bridge until it is lost to view in Colwick fields.
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Nottingham was the scene of the meeting of Parliament in 1336, when subsidies were granted to carry on the war in Scotland and on the Continent. In the reign of Richard II. a council was held in 1387, whereat the King formed the design of packing the Parliament with creatures favourable to his own purposes. This unconstitutional proceeding was successfully resisted, but the Mayor, Sheriffs, and Aldermen of London were subsequently ordered to meet the King at Nottingham and give a reason why the city would not raise a loan for his wars. Once inside the great stronghold, the City-fathers found themselves captives, and only, obtained their release upon a reconciliation between them and their royal master. Again in 1397 the castle was made the place of a State council, when the Duke of Gloucester and the Earls of Arundel and Warwick were impeached for high treason.
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In May, 1660, the longing for kingly rule culminated in the return of Charles II., and the rejoicings throughout the country were on a scale of unexpected magnitude. Even Mrs. Hutchinson frankly confesses that ‘his Majesty was received with a universal joy and triumph even to his own amazement,’ but says nothing as to what took place in Nottingham at the time. There was a curious pamphlet, however, in Mr. John Camden Hotten’s collection, entitled ‘Charles II. proclaimed with Joy at Nottingham, 1660 ‘—a rudely-printed paper of sixteen pages, in which it was recorded that the Mayor of Nottingham acted like a madman at the celebrations. ‘His worship got one half of the people to fire off guns, while another half walked about singing psalms.’ Notices of the burning of Milton’s book are given; and Cromwell’s effigy was exhibited with a rope around its neck. Another pamphlet in the same collection was entitled, ‘A Speech made at Nottingham, April 2nd, 1660, at the Election of Arthur Stanhope, esquire, and Colonel John Hutchinson, then burgesses, to serve in the next Parliament.’ Colonel Hutchinson was eventually discharged the House, and being taken into custody, was imprisoned at Sandown Castle, where he died September 11, 1664.
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The Nottinghamshire of these early days, with its abbeys, fortresses, county seats, and powerful families, was pre-eminently an interesting and prominent county, and it possessed an almost unrivalled source of attraction to sport-loving kings in its noble Forest of Sherwood, then in the heyday of its glory, well stocked with deer and surrounded by the halo of tradition and romance attending the exploits of Robin Hood and his merry men. As time rolled on in its resistless course the changes and transformations with which every locality is familiar followed in its train. Old families died out—sufficient in number and in merit to deserve a chapter to themselves did space permit—and the mansions which had known them for generations crumbled and fell.
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| Nottingham is now one of the most extensive emporiums of trade in the Midlands. Its population has risen from 40,505 in 1821 to 250,000 at the present time, the staple industries being the manufacture of lace and hosiery. The great market-place is the most capacious of its kind in England, and at the annual Goose Fair its appearance is one of extraordinary life and animation. Nottingham, with its trade, its noble University College, its splendid Free Library, its delightful Art Museum, and its many advantages—commercial, educational, and residential— seems destined to grow in wealth and importance, for the energy of its citizens and its central situation combine to make it one of the foremost boroughs in England. |
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