Arthur Sheard was walking down
the street in Attercliffe when he heard them. Then he saw them. The year was
1878 and eccentric members of the Christian Mission, who had recently arrived
in town, were conducting revival meetings in the open air. Arthur was an
engineering apprentice and played cornet in the Methodist brass band. The bowler hated evangelist leading the small
group whilst wielding his umbrella was Johnny Lawley, a former steam engine
minder from a Bradford Mill. They were singing a song which went like this:
The
line to Heaven by Christ was made,
With
heavenly truths the rails were laid;
From
earth to Heaven the line extends,
To
life eternal, where it ends.
This verse, and subsequent verses,
were followed by the chorus:
Will
you go, to that beautiful Land with me?
Arthur soon joined the Mission
and always assumed that the song had been written by another of the Christian
Mission’s Evangelists. He may well have had in mind William Corbridge who was born
in Leicestershire in 1843. In 1877 William Corbridge had been working as
Evangelist in Leicester where the Mission had established itself in an old
warehouse. On the 4th and 5th of October 1877, the
weekend of the Leicester Races, Corbridge and members of the congregation
distributed mock railway tickets for the ‘Hallelujah Railway’ inviting people
to their regular services to hear the ‘Conditions fully explained’ for
journeying from ‘Leicester to Heaven First Class.’ Mocking the Christian
Mission, opponents had distributed their own tickets for the ‘Humbug Railway’
which was travelling from ‘Leicester to Hell, No return Tickets Issued’.
Corbridge’s response to the
opposition was to preach a sermon on the “Up Line to Heaven, and the Down Line
to Hell.” He said that many came to the service and “some changed lines.” Many
people requested that Corbridge print the sermon, with the two parts, which he subsequently
did, each part appearing in parallel columns making it necessary to turn the
book at an angle of 90 degrees in order to be able to read it. In the ‘Up Line’
part of the sermon he stated: “We often sing”
Repentance
is the station then,
Where
passengers are taken in;
No
fee is there for them to pay,
For
Jesus is himself the way.
This is another stanza of the
song that Arthur Sheard had heard sung in Attercliffe a year later. The song
itself was first published by the Christian Mission in “The Hallelujah Hymn
Book” around 1874, and in “Revival Music,” compiled by William Booth in 1876.
It had the title “The Spiritual Railway” and between verses it included the
chorus:
Will you go, will you go,
Go to that beautiful land with me?
Will you go, will you go,
Go to that beautiful land.
But the song clearly wasn’t the
Christian Mission’s composition. When the General Superintendent of the Mission
– the Reverend William Booth - was looking for songs for his Mission which he
founded in 1865, he borrowed heavily from Methodist and evangelical sources on
both side of the Atlantic. It is possible that William Booth found the song in
the “camp meeting” songs used in America, and included in publications such as “The
Christian Songster: a collection of hymns and spiritual songs, usually sung at
camp, prayer, and social meetings, and revivals of religion” published in Dayton Ohio in 1858.
The Upline to Glory
The Christian Mission was renamed
The Salvation Army later in 1878 and began to grow at a phenomenal rate. Arthur
Sheard, William Corbridge and John Lawley accepted commissioned officer ranks
in The Salvation Army, serving as evangelists, although only John Lawley recorded
a life-long service as an officer. He went on to be given the rank of
Commissioner and became Aide –de-camp to the Founder - General William Booth.
He often wrote, and sang his own songs, at the campaigns conducted by the
Founder. Some of his songs are still used by Salvation Army congregations to
this day. Lawley wrote some of his songs whilst travelling by train, for
example one entitled “Oh, happy, happy day, When old things passed away” was
written whilst travelling on the Trans-Siberian Railway. One song which became
very popular during his journeys, which was written before 1912 but was apparently
never published in any mainstream Salvation Army song book, echoed one of Corbridge’s
sermon titles: “The Upline to Heaven.” His biographer wrote: “An engine driver
of the Great Western Railway was led to God through this song. Years later,
when he came to his deathbed, he had forgotten the words, and sent to Lawley
for them, so that he could sing them in triumph when he was putting out of the
earthly station.” Sung to either the tune called “Praise God, this is not so
with me” or “Where do you journey my brother.” The first verse and chorus were
as follows:
“I once
travelled downward with Satan,
Was hurrying
to hell in his train;
A ticket right
through I had taken,
Was pressed
not to change trains again.
The signals
were all set at danger,
Not heeding
their warnings, I passed
Till Jesus
appeared, though a stranger,
And stopped my
mad journey at last.
The up-line to Glory is clear,
The up-line to Glory is clear,
I’m in the express for the Kingdom,
And bound to land safely up there.
Shortly after the name of ‘The
Salvation Army’ was adopted, Arthur Sheard was appointed as ‘The General’s
Trumpeter’ and travelled extensively with William Booth for two years before starting,
and becoming the first bandmaster of, the famous Regent Hall Salvation Army
band in London. In retirement, between the two world wars, Arthur began to
travel extensively in the British Isles conducting spiritual campaigns wherever
he went. (Sadly William Corbridge left The Salvation Army in 1886.)
Railway Engine Epitaph
In the early eras of railway history
life was cheap. Given the number of people who died working on the railways comparatively
few memorials or epitaphs were ever erected. Perhaps one of the most superior
epitaphs of someone who died on the railways which has survived dates to 1840
and is found on a tombstone in Bromsgrove churchyard. Written “by an unknown
friend as a Memento of the worthiness of the Deceased” it celebrates Thomas Scaife,
“Late an Engineer on the Birmingham
and Gloucester Railway, who lost his life at Bromsgrove Station by the
Explosion of an Engine Boiler on Tuesday 10 November 1840. He was 28 years of
Age, highly esteemed by his fellow workmen for his many admirable qualities and
his Death will be long lamented.” The lines written to mark his life are as
follows:
My
engine now is cold and still
No
water does my boiler fill
My
coke affords its flames no more
My
days of usefulness are o’er
My
wheels deny their noted speed
No
more my guiding hands they heed
My
whistle too has lost its tone
Its
shrill and thrilling sounds are gone
My
valves are now thrown open wide
My
flanges now refuse to guide
My
clacks, also, though once so strong
Refuse
to aid the busy throng
No
more I feel each urging breath
My
steam is now condensed in death
Life’s
railway’s o’er, each station’s past
In
death I’m stopp’d and rest at last
Farewell
dear friends and cease to weep
In
Christ I’m safe, in Him I sleep.
(The stone included a fine relief
illustration of an American Norris 4-2-0, although it was not one of these
engines which was involved in the accident.)
Railway Line Memorial
The words which Arthur Sheard
first heard sung at Attercliffe were used as an ‘epitaph’ on a memorial stone
which can still be seen at Ely Cathedral. However the nature of the inscription
on the Ely memorial is very different, and the poetry is of a better standard
than the words written in memory of Thomas Scaife. The Ely stone reads as
follows:
“In Memory of
William Pickering,
who died Dec 24. 1845
Aged 30 years
Also Richard Edger
who died Dec 24 1845.
Aged 24 years.”
The
Spiritual Railway
The Line to heaven by Christ was made
With heavenly truth the Rails are laid,
From Earth to Heaven the Line extends,
To Life Eternal where it ends.
Repentance is the Station then
Where Passengers are taken in.
No Fee for them is there to pay,
For Jesus is himself the way.
God’s Word is the first Engineer
It points the way to Heaven so dear.
Through tunnels dark and dreary here
It does the way to Glory steer.
God’s Love the Fire, his Truth the Steam,
Which drives the Engine and the Train,
All you who would to Glory ride,
Must come to Christ, in Him abide
In First, and Second, and Third Class,
Repentance, Faith and Holiness.
You must the way to Glory gain
Or you with Christ will not remain.
Come then poor Sinners, now’s the time
At any Station on the Line.
If you’ll repent and turn from sin
The Train will stop and take you in.
The Fatal Accident at Thetford
The first thing to note is that
the names of the people the stone commemorates have been recorded incorrectly.
The names William Pickering and Richard
Edger are wrong. On Christmas Eve 1845 Thomas Pickering was driving the 11.15am
up train from Norwich, assisted by his fireman, Richard Hedger. At the bottom
of a decline of nearly two miles, situated in between Harling Road and
Thetford, the train came off the rails. Three days later the Illustrated London
News (No. 191 – Vol VII, page 403, Week Ending Saturday, December 27, 1845)
reported the incident as follows:
FATAL RAILWAY
ACCIDENT. – On Wednesday last the Norwich train, which leaves at half-past 11
o’clock for London, when within about two miles from Thetford, was run off the
rail. The engine detaching itself from the train, rolled down upon the right of
the embankment, killing the engine-driver instantaneously, and bruising the
stoker so much that he only survived a few hours. The carriages were thrown
down on the left of the embankment, and although they must have rolled
completely over, and the wheel been left uppermost, none of the passengers were
injured. The general opinion at the tine was that the great speed the train was
going at caused the accident, as the preceding mile was done in 57 seconds.
After two hours’ delay the passengers and luggage exchanged trains, and
proceeded.
Although the two men died in the
accident – Thomas and Richard – there were no other serious injuries. The
Coroner held an inquiry in Thetford Guildhall and the jury was told that the
driver was “addicted to fast driving.” Major-General Charles William Pasley,
Inspector General of Railways, was called as an expert witness. The suitability
of using the type of engine involved in the accident – a long-boiler type engine
built by Robert Stephenson’s company – on the Norfolk Railway was questioned.
However Pasley confirmed that he felt the accident was down to the speed of the
engine, “the rate of descending a gradient at 40 miles per hour, being such a
rate that that no prudent engine-driver would travel down an incline.” In the
end the jury foreman said that the majority verdict of 12 of the 15 jurors was
“Accidental death, caused by the imprudent conduct of the engine driver in
going at an excessive speed.” (The other three jurors “remarked that the
verdict they were desirous of agreeing to, was Accidental death, caused by the
misconduct of the engine-driver and the defective construction of the engine,
and inflicted a deodand of £500 on the engine.”)
It should be noted that however
poetic the Ely ‘epitaph’ is, it is not about the deceased, or their
occupations, as is the case of that on Scaife’s tombstone. In fact the epitaph
is not about an engine, but about the laying of a railway line and all
that goes with it. Accordingly it starts, “The Line to Heaven” and features stations
along the line (lines 5 & 22). Very
little is said about the mechanics of travel, and in particular the ‘Engine’
itself is not mentioned until over half way through the poem.
The memorial stone was presumably
erected in 1846, remembering that the accident was at the close of 1845. The
available evidence suggests that the words became widely known on both sides of
the Atlantic during the 1840s and 1850s. This raises several interesting questions
including where, and under what circumstances, the words originated, and who
wrote them.
The Claims of a Local Poet
Towards the middle of the
nineteenth century England was undergoing great change. The Napoleonic Wars
earlier on in the century impacted the different classes of Britain in
different ways. The Corn Laws had an even more profound effect. Introduced in
1815 and repealed in 1846, they were a misguided attempt to protect British
agriculture from overseas imports, and inevitably, affected the price of bread.
Topics such as these were favourites with poets of varying abilities. One poet
who tackled these themes was William Harrison, the Fenland Poet. Born into a
lowly home at Pymoor Hill in the Cambridgeshire Fens in 1794, he was instructed
by the Little Downham School Master, a Mr Aspland, and the local clergyman,
Reverend Law, especially in the classics and literature. He subsequently farmed
there in a small way until he became the superintendant of the drainage works
of the nearby Burnt Fen District and went to live in Prickwillow around 1830.
It has been stated that the
epitaph in Ely cathedral “is generally accepted to be the work of William
Harrison but this cannot be confirmed.” The thrust of the argument would appear
to be that as a local poet he would have written the epitaph to commemorate a
local accident. Indeed most epitaphs on English tombs and memorial stones seem
to have been written by local poets, clergy and other versifiers. As a
superintendant working on the Fens Harrison was also familiar with the power of
steam. In a poem published in the Cambridge Chronicle in May 1842, Harrison
tackled the important subject of the motive power used to drive the pumps to
drain the fens. He imagined the windmill pumps lamenting their poor performance
compared with the new steam engines which were coming out of the Soho works of
Boulton and Watt:
“Meanwhile
yon little Soho Toy
Kept
smoking with malicious joy,
As
if intent to spoil our trade,
And
drain the Fen without our aid.
Although Harrison
would have been living only around 5 miles from Ely at the time of the accident
in 1845, his poetry does appear to have been more highly polished than the
lines of "The Spiritual Railway." His ability is clearly greater than
most of the versifiers who had an input into their local memorials. Not
surprisingly, of all the authors claimed for the words Harrison lived closest
to the epitaph inscribed on stone and displayed in Ely cathedral. However
proximity to Ely and Thetford is not a necessary condition for their author to
be identified. Indeed, over the years claimed authorship has not been
restricted to Englishmen, let alone Fenmen!
Broadsides
Printing was introduced into the
United Kingdom by William Caxton in the fifteenth century. By the sixteenth
century leaflets known as ‘broadsides,’ had become an indispensable part of the
means of sharing news stories, ballads, spiritual instruction, songs and poems.
Current affairs presented in poetic form proved particularly popular. Printed and sold in large numbers, these
would be shared between friends, and often pinned up on the beams of inns and
taverns where ordinary people congregated. The distribution of ballads in this
way was an important means of transmitting the words of Christmas carols for example,
and continued into the early twentieth century. Similar practises also occurred
in other European countries, as well as the United States of America. Before
the copyright laws of today, broadsheet contents which proved popular were
quickly identified and reprinted by other publishers elsewhere.
Popular broadsides have survived
in considerable numbers in library collections in the United Kingdom and in
America. Five different versions of “The Spiritual Railway” as a broadside or similar
publication survive in the United Kingdom, printed in places as far apart of
Helston (Cornwall), London and Glasgow. Around five further broadside-type
versions exist in America,
printed in New York and Williamsport. In addition many other early
editions were published in books and magazines. No firm dates are associated
with many of these surviving copies, although the indications are that the
majority of the surviving early copies were printed in the 1840s and 1850s. Of
the thirty-two versions identified here, twenty-two use “Spiritual Railway”
(with or without “The”) as the title, three use “(The) Spiritual Railroad,” two use “Railway to Heaven” and two use “Heavenly
Railroad,” one uses “The Railway Spiritualised,” whilst two don’t include a title. (Please
refer to the Table.)
Four versions of "The
Spiritual Railway,” (of which three were definitely published in the UK) actually
comprise not one, but two different poems side by side, the first one is called
‘the Upward Line’ which is the version which we are specifically interested in,
and the other is called ‘the Downward Line” (perhaps it was this poetic duo
which influenced William Corbridge to write his dual sermon). In many ways ‘the
Downward Line” is a parody of ‘the Upward Line. The versions are all remarkably
similar, not having the amount of variation seen in the Upward Line, and runs as
follows:
There is a Railway downward laid,
Which God the
Father never made;
But it was
laid when Adam fell-
What numbers
it conveys to hell.
Six thousand
years are nearly gone
Since first
this Railway was begun;
The road is
wide, and smooth, and gay,
And there are
stations on the way.
Appollyon is
the engineer --
His coat of
arms his servants wear;
The steam his
breath, which drives the train;
The
fire is sin, which feeds the flame.
The first,
second, and third class train,
Are full of
passengers within;
The steam is
up, the flag unfurled,
How quick they
move to yonder world!
Here fortune
smiles and pleasures gay,
At every
station on the way;
Here dress and
fashion you may find
Of every sort
and every kind.
The cheerful
glass is drunk with glee,
And cards and
music you may see –
Both old and
young, and rich and poor,
All standing at
the station door.
Appollyon now
begins to boast
Of numbers
great – a mighty host,
Who are
inclined their place to take,
To travel
downward to the lake.
O! think on
this while yet you may,
And stop your
speed without delay;
O! leave the
train that leads to Hell,
If you with
Christ would ever dwell.
Where “The Upward Line” is
published alongside “The Downward Line” it always has four extra stanzas. The
exact form varies very slightly between publications, but the following four
additional stanzas are representative and are similar in style to the first six
‘Ely’ stanzas.
If
all these trains should by you pass,
And
you are found in neither class; -
When
neither truth, or fire, or steam,
Can make you
willing to get in.
Then
sinners you will weep at last,
When Heaven is lost, and time is
past;
The
heavenly trains are all gone by,
The
sinner must for ever die.
When
all these trains at Heaven arrive,
With
all who did in Christ abide,
How
sweet their voices, how they sing,
And
praise their great eternal King.
The
King eternal on His throne,
Announces
that the trains are come;
Their
robes are ready to put on,
And
Jesus says the words, “Well done.”
One curiosity is a 10 stanza
version (without The Downward Line) published in “The Colorado Citizen” in
1859, and also in a New York
broadside at an unknown date. The first six stanzas are in line with the Ely
version, but the last four stanzas differ from the others 10 stanza versions
and clearly reflect a different style:
The
depots, built on solid ground,
No
earthly powers can tear them down
When
the whistle blows, we understand
The
train is coming right at hand.
No
switch is there for us to tend,
There’s
but one track from end to end,
When
the alarm bell rings to tell,
Look
out – then all things will be well.
No
curves on this celestial way,
‘Tis
safe to run by night or day.
Are
you in haste bright heaven to gain?
Be
sure and take the express train.
When
we get to our final home,
The
track is left, and more can come,
And
that is sound and won’t delay,
And
will be to the judgement day.
Generally English Broadsides
tended not to be identified with an author. However in America different folk
were keen to align themselves as the writer of a particular set of words. A
number of Americans have either identified themselves as, or have been
identified as, the author of "The Spiritual Railway." Most of them have a very colourful past!
Remember the Raison!
A major battle took place in
North America from 18th to 23rd January 1813 – the Battle
of the River Raison. In this confrontation the United States fought Great
Britain and their native Indian allies for control over Michigan and the Lower
Great Lakes, something which also impacted on access to Canada. The American
Army, the backbone of which was made up of men from Kentucky under General Winchester, surrendered
to the British and their Indian allies, comprising a number of different tribes.
The Indians were motivated by the
hope of preserving their own lands and had been united under the leadership of
a son of a Shawonese chief - Tecumseh. However
badly injured American soldiers who couldn’t be moved in the initial
evacuation by the British Army were subsequently massacred by a faction of the
Indian coalition into whose care they had been trusted. American propaganda
capitalised on the disaster and “Remember the Raison” became a rallying cry of
the war. Even so it took nine more months for the American forces to regain the
initiative.
Private William Cook had enlisted
as part of the Kentucky Militia back in the August of 1812. During the battle a
musket ball passed through his right elbow and he was captured by the Indians. Six
foot tall Cook, with his fair complexion, blue eyes and black hair could count
himself lucky to survive. However the disability which resulted from his wound meant
that he could not carry out his business of paper making. He was awarded a war
pension. The pension records for the
Revolutionary War state that
Cook wrote the song ballad the
“Spiritual railroad.” We might reasonably assume that he sold copies of the
poem under his name in an effort to supplement his income.
Maungwudaus was an Indian Chief
in the Michigan area. He, together with his tribe was part of the alliance who
fought against the United States
in the battle for control over Michigan.
Like many Indians he named one of his sons Tecumseh, remembering the great
Indian leader of the confederacy which prevailed at the Battle of the River
Raison. One book which published “The Spiritual Railway” in 1866 attributes
authorship to him. He seems to have converted to Christianity around 1825 and probably
became a Methodist minister, adopting the name George Henry. After serving at several missions he resigned from the Methodist church and went to
live in Walpole
island. He subsequently organised a dance troupe of Ojibwa (alternatively known as Chippewa) Indians, partly based on members of his own
family, and toured the UK and
Europe for five years from 1843 to 1848.
Authorship of the poem has also
been attributed to his son. Tecumseh. The
Northern Christian Advocate newspaper produced in Auburn New York
sometime around November 1852 published “The Spiritual Railway” stating that:
“The following
lines were written by Tecumseh pronounced Tak-um-o-say the oldest son of the
distinguished Ojibway Chief Maung-wudaus who, with his family, recently
illustrated the manners and customs of the Aboriginal inhabitants of our
country. They give evidence of a highly poetic turn of mind.”
Authorship claimed by sinners!
Elsewhere in America a
freed salve, Henry Bowens (C.H Bowens), appended his name to “The
Spiritual Railway” in a broadsheet copy of the poem printed in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
We know he was a slave from the contents of a printed valedictory proclamation
on June 16th 1856 apparently addressing the graduating students ,
and their parents, of the Methodist sponsored Dickinson Seminary at Williamsport. Whether he
delivered the proclamation verbally, or just had it printed, is not known. He
may have been a gardener in the grounds of the College and describes the
college and grounds as follows: “the building
is finished, as she stands on the
pinnacle with the green grass on the left side, and the Railroad in front,
and the broad green fields around with fertile soil…the beautiful shrubbery”. He
states in the proclamation:
“I have come
to a land of liberty. I was a slave in the South from a little boy to manhood.
Some of our Commentators sp’ose Slavery to be an evil, but I would rather be a
slave in the South than a slave to Sin.”
Perhaps the view of the Railroad
from the seminary inspired him to issue "The Spiritual Railway" under
his own name. He re-organised the poem into three eight line stanzas from the
more usual six four line stanzas.
Soon everyone was getting in on the
act. The poem was quoted in an article in Chamber’s
Journal of Popular Literature, Science and arts, for June 24 1854, entitled
“Convict Literature.” The author starts by saying “It is a common observation that everybody writes now-a-days
– that the literary power exists, in a greater or less degree, in all classes
and characters of men. But perhaps this sweeping theory, if closely examined,
would receive some modification: we should be inclined, for instance, to except
the more vulgar rogues and vagabonds, such as thieves and burglars sent every
now and then in ship-loads to the antipodes.” The writer then goes on to review
“The Voice of our Exiles; or Stray Leaves from a Convict Ship” edited by Daniel
Ritchie, Esq., Surgeon, R.N. Edinburgh: Menzies. 1854.
Daniel was appointed by the
Admiralty as the Surgeon-superintendent of Pestonjee
Bomanjee hired to transport nearly 300 convicts to Tasmania. Part of their
instruction on passage was the compilation and dissemination of a weekly
journal “thus developing the reasoning powers, and engaging their thoughts on
intellectual subjects” according to Ritchie. The book was apparently compiled
from the journals. The longest work quoted in Chambers is The Railway Spiritualised . The editor says it is attributed to “A
housebreaker , who had previously suffered imprisonment for another crime” but
then adds “not honestly come by we
fear, though the editor is sanguine on this point.”
Mysterious Authors
There have been other
‘tantalising’ pointers to composers of the words. In 1855 The ‘Morning Journal’ of Halifax, Nova
Scotia, ascribed them to M**** U****** but gave no
further clues to enable the writer to be identified.
The
“Mills County Tribune” of Iowa said of the words in 1914 “Lines found in a
railway station in England, supposed to have been written by a gentleman
detained there.” Presumably the man in question whiled away time writing poetry
whilst waiting for a train which never showed up. Still at least that is better
than waiting for a train on a line which was never built!
Canadian R Campbell tells us that
the parody “the Down Line” was “composed on the Leicester and Birmingham Line, England
in 1828.” The implications for this on
“The Up Line” might have been worth considering if it weren’t for the fact that
what is regarded as the world’s first modern railway, “The Liverpool and
Manchester Railway” did not even start operating until 1830, so the year is
plainly wrong. The line referred to is even more mysterious since nothing has
ever existed by that name. Whilst the Birmingham and Leicester Railway (not the
other way around) seems to have been proposed in 1845, it was never built.
As old as Adams?
All of which leads to one final specifically
named candidate for authorship about whom little is known. Pitts Theology Library at Emory university
holds a copy of “The Spiritual Railway,” a type of broadsheet this is on two separate
cards – one is the “Upward Line,” comprising the standard ‘Ely version’ with
the four additional stanzas. A second card contains the eight stanza “Downward
line.” Whilst neither card includes details of the author or a date of
publication, or even a publisher, the University’s catalogue attributes them to
the “American poet J. Adams” and a date of around 1840 is ascribed to them. If
this attribution were correct then it would clearly predate the Ely memorial. (In
April 2010 the Newsletter of the Anglican Parish of Banyule, Heidelberg in
Australia made precisely this claim on the basis of this evidence.)
However there are problems with the
information carried in the Pitts Theology Library catalogue. An exchange of
emails with one of their librarians has shown that there is great uncertainty
about the date. It would appear that the date is based on information that some
early editions of the short story “The Celestial Railroad” by Nathaniel
Hawthorne, had “The Upward Line” appended to it. Hawthorne’s story is a clever
parody of John Bunyan’s ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’ where this time the route from the
City of Destruction to the Celestial City is followed by railroad. The story
does not make fun of Bunyan but rather ironically challenges the advances in
faith since his day! However the book was first published, not in 1840, but in
1843, and I have been unable to trace an edition of the book which includes "The
Spiritual Railway, The Upward Line."
Apart from a lack of evidence
about the date, the association of this
particular version of "The Spiritual Railway" with J Adams is
also doubtful. Firstly the Pitts Adams version is the only known one in America
to feature both “The Upward Line” and “The Downward Line,” and is virtually
identical to the broadsides published in England in Helston and London,
therefore differing significantly from other early American versions. Secondly
a broadside version of “Spiritual Railway” carrying J Adams’ name has survived.
This makes use of only the six ‘Ely’ stanzas, with what appear to be words of a
Christian hymn entwined around it. The addition of the ‘hymn’ bits and
scriptural references suggests that J Adams (whoever he is) did more than
merely take the poem and pass it off as his own. He seems to have transformed a
ballad with a spiritual message into a more serious hymn.
Hunter’s Choruses
This version carrying Adams’ name
makes use of the six ‘Ely’ stanzas but the first two lines of each verse have
been lengthened and a fifth line added. The first, second and fifth lines end
with a similar rhyming word and give the each stanza a limerick form. Against
the fourth line of each verse Adams appends a bible reference. The recurring
effect of the additions is to ask the question “Will you go?” the idea being
will the reader or hearer join the journey to heaven. Hymns with direct
questions were a particular feature of Victorian hymnody and we have already
seen that a similar question was asked in the chorus used with "The
Spiritual Railway" when Arthur Sheard first heard it in Attercliffe in
1878. The chorus then was as follows:
Will you go,
will you go,
Go to that
beautiful land with me?
Will you go,
will you go,
Go to that
beautiful land.
This chorus comes from a song, the first line of
which is “A beautiful land by faith I see.” The song was first published
anonymously in 1862 and has subsequently been ascribed to Jonathan Hall. The
tune being used by the Christian Mission was very similar to that written by
American composer William B. Bradbury to go with the words. When J Adams
reworked "The Spiritual Railway" as a five line song he may have been
inspired by Jonathan Hall’s chorus. However there is another possibility - he
may have been inspired by words written by William Hunter (1811-1877). Hunter
was born near Ballymoney in County Antrim, but emigrated to America with his family in 1817. An
ordained Methodist minister he wrote a number of hymns including “We’re bound
for the land of the pure and the holy” in 1842 and published in 1845. This
included the chorus:
Will you go? Will
you go?
Will you go?
Will you go?
Oh say, will
you go to the Eden
above?
Which of the choruses inspired Adams
in not clear. However Hunter still has an important part in our story for he wrote
about 125 songs, including “My Heav’nly
home is bright and fair.” This song included the chorus:
I’m going home, I’m going home,
I’m going home to die no more,
To die no more, to die no more,
I’m going home to die no more.
I’m going home to die no more,
To die no more, to die no more,
I’m going home to die no more.
The chorus was adopted (and adapted,
in particular with "I'm" replaced by "we're") to go with "The
Spiritual Railway" as early as 1855 and was published in Auburn, New York,
in "The Golden Harp: or, Camp-Meeting." It has also been found in a
further three other versions.
One of the most famous hymns written
by Hunter was “The Great Physician Now is Here, The sympathising Jesus,”
possibly published in 1859. Several writers say that the author’s theme was
inspired by a railway accident in which many people were killed and injured.
More would have died if it were not for the skills of a number of medical
personnel. The source for this information has not been traced. Hunter was Professor
of Hebrew at Allegheny
College from 1855 to
1870. The College is situated in the town of Meadville in north western
Pennsylvania. One of America’s largest railway disasters took place in the
State on the North Pennsylvania Railroad on July 17 1856, known as either “The Camp Hill Disaster” or
“The Picnic Train Tragedy,” it might be that this is the tragedy which inspired
Hunter.
St Michael’s Roman Catholic Church
in Philadelphia
had arranged a “Picnic Special” to take their Sunday School children on an
outing to Shaeff’s Wood. It was one of the hottest days of the year. The train
is said to have had between 1100 and 1500 passengers on board making the train
struggle. Unscheduled stops had to be made so that steam pressure could be
maintained and inevitably the train ended up running late. Coming in the
opposite direction on the single track line was a timetabled train. After
waiting for 15 minutes on the doubled track passing point at Wissahickon
station it continued on its way believing that it would be possible to pass
elsewhere on the journey. Sadly the trains collided at 6.18am on a blind spot
not far from Camp Hill Station. It is said that the resulting explosion could
be heard 5 miles away. A Quaker, Mary Johnson Ambler, who was living near
Wissahickon station, assembled first aid equipment and rushed, by foot to the
scene of the disaster. She quickly assumed leadership of the relief efforts. In
time a spare engine at Philadelphia was used to take nurses and physicians to
the accident site from Cohocksink Station. The death toll has been estimated to
be at least 59, with over 100 others injured. Ambler’s work was widely
recognised, so much so that later, after she died, the North
Pennsylvania Railroad changed
the name of Wissahickon station to Ambler station. Eventually the town changed
its names as well. A 24 stanza ballad by John J McDevitt of Philadelphia
included the following verse:
The doctors hastened to
the scene,
And done all in their
power,
To relieve the sick and
wounded,
All in that fatal hour.
Many hired carriages,
And rode out the whole
way,
Many others ran on foot,
Without any more delay.
England in the mid 1840s
One interesting fact which does
seem to agree between the Pitts version and the broadside version specifically
carrying Adams’ name concerns where the poem was said to be written. According
the Pitts Library information Adams composed the poem “during a trip to
England.” The English link is confirmed by
the following words appearing after the “Spiritual Railway” in the broadside
carrying Adams’ own name - “While travelling in the Cars on the Continent
of Europe.”
The link back to England is
significant. Maungwudaus who has also been attributed as author of “The
Spiritual Railway” was travelling with his Indian dancing troop in England in the
mid 1840s. He wrote of his experiences in a booklet entitled “An Account of the
Chippewa Indians, who have been travelling among the whites, in the United
States, England, Ireland, Scotland, France and Belgium,” making one reference
to English railways, “Travelling on the Great Western Railway, the Engine
knocked down several rooks or crows while flying over the railway.”
The indication is that if we are
going to get to the bottom of "The
Spiritual Railway” mystery, we need to go back to England and find out what else was
happening around the year 1845.
Anonymous Broadsides of England
Broadsides in England are difficult to date, and usually
anonymous, unlike many of those printed in America, and were often produced to
raise money for those selling them on the streets. One of the Broadside ballads
about "The Spiritual Railway" specifically mention this. Printer C
Paul of 7 Dials London published the “Upward Line” and “Downward Line” together
with the following request for charitable support at the end of the sheet:
“Ladies
and Gentlemen, it’s true that some trades are flourishing,
while
others are in a state of starvation, the bearers have been out
of
employment a considerable time, being destitute and strangers
in
this part of the country, they offer these few verses for sale,
(hoping
you will become purchasers of them.)
A British broadside, whose date,
publisher and place of publication are unknown, which included both the “Upward
Line” and “Downward Line” versions of the poem also included a poetic appeal as
follows:
“Good
people all attend awhile,
And
lend an ear I pray –
Whilst
I unfold the reason why
I
wander here today –
It
is because I’m out of work,
And bread I can’t procure
To
hear my children cry for want,
Can
a parent this endure –
I
struggled long, severe and sharp,
Oh
think how hard my fate –
Excuse
this sad and mournful tale,
Which
hunger’s pains create.
May
God who did Elijah feed,
Your
generous heart incline
To
give to me a little aid,
Or
I must surely pine –
And
when the storm of life is o’er
And all our
trouble cease.
May you and
yours, and us and ours,
All rest in
endless peace.”
Other broadside publisher’s
illustrated their purpose by including an illustration on their sheets. One of
these showed a man who appears to have lost both legs beneath the knees
supporting himself on two crutch –like poles. The poem which goes with this
illustration is headed “The Falling of Nine Arches.” It recounts a long
forgotten accident in the construction of the railways.
Disaster at Ashton Under Lyne
Although many navvies were killed
building the railways there were few accidents which claimed many victims in a
single incident. One of the worst accidents in a single incident took place at
Ashton under Lyne on April 15th 1845. The broadside published by J
Harkness of Preston tells the dreadful tale:
THE
FALLING
OF
Nine Arches
AND
Fifteen Lives Lost
At Ashton, April 19th,
1845.
Both old and
young who have feeling hearts, one moment now attend,
Of a
melancholy accident as true as e’er was penn’d
Near Ashton
town, in forty-five, April the nineteenth day,
When fifteen
workmen lost their lives on the Ashton branch Railway.
Pity
those poor workmen pray,
Who
were kill’d on the Ashton Branch Railway.
The
ground being low, new arches raised to join the goodly line,
Like
structures of modern times, appear’d grand and sublime,
But
looks were all, no strength could be, or why this accident,
Caused
such grief, heart-rending pangs, their friends’ death to lament.
Soon
after three o’clock, that fatal afternoon it was,
A
crack in the third arch appear’d, which fatal prov’d alas!
The
work gave way, nine arches fell, most awful to relate,
When
numbers on that fateful day met their untimely fate.
Like
thunder’s roar the crash it made, struck terror and dismay,
The
people ran for to assist, their efforts were in vain;
Grim
death had claim’d them for his own, ‘twas awful for to see,
So
many in one moment sent into eternity.
The
ruins, as they cleared away, it was a shocking sight,
Each
moment to the gazer’s eye fresh terror brought to light,
Arms,
legs, and thighs, to pieces smash’d, men in their health and bloom
Their
dinners got, but on that night met with a living tomb.
To
see the grief and anguish it is awful to relate,
Children,
fathers, wives, husbands, who that day had met their fate,
Fifteen
are dead, great numbers wounded, and sorely mangled,
In
one moment’s time call’d to account before the bar of God.
Have
mercy, Lord, on their poor souls, have mercy, Lord, we pray,
That
fatal day fifteen poor souls were quickly call’d away,
To
face their God, let’s hope their souls forever now are blest,
Where
toil and labour ever cease, the weary are at rest.
Grim
death may come, none knows the time, tis best to watch and pray,
Lest
like those poor workmen kill’d on the Ashton Railway,
Such
sights before we never saw, great anguish and distress,
Left
widows their loss to deplore, and children fatherless.
This accident saw the viaduct of
nine arches being built across the River Tame on the line from Stalybridge to
Ashton collapse on a Saturday afternoon. Apparently there were some 20 workmen
on the viaduct at the time, some jumped or scrambled clear but others were
buried in the rubble. As their fellow navvies tried to mount a rescue campaign,
curious crowds gathered to watch, thereby obstructing the work, so the military
were called in by the magistrate to ensure crowd control. It is reported that
crowds watching the rescue effort grew to up to 25,000 during the Sunday. Three
people were brought out alive.
A week later the navvies met in
Park Parade, Ashton, and marched to the parish church where, together with the
manger and engineer of the railway company, they listened as the Reverend J.
Handforth preached on Ezekiel chapter 33, verse 11:
“Say unto
them, as I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the
wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from
your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?”
The wicked navvies returned to
their railway. At the inquest the company, engineers and contractors each said
they weren’t responsible. The report of three independent experts was damning citing
“improper workmanship” and stating that the mortar which had been used had not
bonded with the stonework. The formal verdict was “accidental death” although in
a rider the jury also spoke of negligence. The building of the railway was
delayed by three months, the men who died were forgotten.
The broadside was hawked around
to raise funds, for exactly whose benefit it is not clear, just one of many in
an overcrowded market. However whilst only one copy of this broadside seems to
have survived, there were multiple survivals of "The Spiritual
Railway." The questions flow: Why? What made this special? Who wrote the
words? The concluding section of this narrative outline one way in which this
might have happened.
Who really wrote the Broadside Rhyme?
Those who tried
to eke out a living by singing and selling ballads on the streets of England
would sometimes write their own, or at other times would have ‘borrowed’ freely
from others. An inscribed epitaph in a Cathedral would have been fair game for
copying, although the evidence suggests that things are more likely to have
happened the other way round, possibly the epitaph was copied from a broadside,
or similar mass produced sheet. Two poets whose rhymes ended up for sale as
anonymous broadsides, may have good claims to be the authors of "The
Spiritual Railway." They are Richard Jukes (1804- 1867) and Joseph Hodgson
( 1783-1856).
The Primitive Methodist
Church in England was founded in 1811. Very
much a working class movement, in addition to building on the Wesley heritage
of classic hymn writing it also inspired a more working class orientated outpouring
of hymn writing. Their singers were often known as ‘ranters’ One of the
outstanding writers of this type was
Richard Jukes who was born in Shropshire in
1804. He became a minister in the Primitive
Methodist Church
and served in a number of different circuits, spending a large part of his ministry
in the heavily industrialised Black Country (situated between Birmingham
and Manchester),
which included Tunstall (1842-1845) and Congleton (1845 to 1846). He was
described as “The Bard of the Poor” and his biography by James Pritchard was
entitled “The Poet of the Million.” A
prolific hymn and poem writer, his output was disseminated in a chaotic manner.
Many of his writings were first published on Circuit plans, in the Primitive Methodist Magazine, and
assorted small booklets. A contemporary report from a Primitive Methodist, states
that a man, with a handful of song sheets which he had been singing and selling
in the streets reported that: ““Your Jukes has been a good friend to us
street-singers; I have sung lots of his hymns, and made many a bright shilling
thereby. People generally would rather hear a nice hymn sung, than a foolish
song, and his hymns are full of sympathy and life. Depend on it, the singing of
hymns in the streets has done a good deal of good ; for children stand to
listen to us, and they get hold of a few lines, or of the chorus ; and
with the tune, or as much of it as they can think of, they run home, and for
days they sing it in their homes, and their mothers and sisters get hold of it,
and in this way, I maintain, our hymn-singing is of more use than many folks
think. I shall always think well of Jukes,” (See Kendall, (Dalton), Volume 2, page 33)
Richard
Jukes was able to connect with the working classes and the poor. His “down to
earth” spiritual words ministered to ordinary people at just the time when the
great engineering construction works of Victorian England were taking off. His
obituary in the Primitive Methodist Magazine of February 1868 stated
that he was author of a poem entitled “The Railway Navigators Spiritualised.” (Not
dissimilar from the title of the poem included in “The Voices of our Exiles” in
1854.)
In 1846 Richard Jukes published a
short poem entitled “A railway to
heaven: a poem for the times,” written especially for use at a Sunday School
anniversary. It is possible that this is the poem referred to in the Primitive
Methodist Magazine, or it may have been a different poem on a very much related
theme. It is difficult to be precise when trying to track down such poems by only
using a title. To confuse matters even more, a publisher based in the Market
Place of Guisborough is credited with printing a broadside entitled “The
Spiritual Railway (Or a Railroad to Heaven),” the latter part of the title
being not too dissimilar from ones used on the other side of the Atlantic. Even
more confusing is that the publisher - R Hodgson - shared the same surname as
the other possible main candidate for authorship.
Many of Joseph Hodgson’s poems
were also published as broadsides. A native of Blackburn he was a self-educated
man who started out as a hand-loom weaver before becoming, amongst other
things, the librarian of the Mechanics’ Institution in Blackburn.
A teetotaller, he was credited himself with owning a good library. George Hull,
his biographer, wrote: “"Hodgson was a most voluminous writer, and he
published almost everything he wrote as soon as it was written, in single-sheet
or broadsides, which he labelled with the price, depositing the whole edition
in the crown of his big box hat, and hawked them wherever he went. . . . His
productions were on a multitude of subjects, and their number was legion.
"The Railway to Heaven," upward through teetotalism and Methodism;
"The Railway to Hell," downward through moderation and
drunkenness." When it became known that he used to carry his poems in his
hat, the boys of the town began to have some fun with him at his expense. “An
amusing scene. . . was enacted one night in King Street, anent the old Post Office,
just as the factories were loosing, and the throngs of workpeople coming up
from Feilden's, Livesey's, Turner's, Townley's, and other places. The librarian
was going down to the Mechanics' Institution, and quietly thridding his way
through the mill hands, when, on some account, by some means or other, somebody
"tipped the poet's tile." Its contents, consisting chiefly of
"Railways to Hell" and "Railways to Heaven," flew in all
directions, and were scattered about the pavement, "thick as autumnal
leaves in Valambrosa;" and, as if in the very irony of fate, one, a
"Railway to Hell," was blown right across the Quaker Chapel door,
whilst another, a "Railway to Heaven," had firmly fixed itself in the
fanlight over Mrs. Woolfall's public-house door, the Angel Inn.” The biographer
also goes on to specifically credit Hodgson as the writer of “The Spiritual
Railway” (although again, we have no way of knowing if this is the version in
which we are interested.
Earliest Surviving Version of the Words
I would suggest that the poem
“The Spiritual Railway” may have been either written by Richard Jukes or Joseph
Hodgson and very quickly circulated as a broadside around 1844. The earliest
dated version of the poem appears in the third edition of a hymn book entitled
“The Christian’s Spiritual Song Book containing upwards of five hundred spiritual
songs adapted to popular tunes, designed for revival meetings, open-air
services, infant and sabbath schools, teetotal meetings, etc., etc.” It was
edited and compiled by the Reverend John Stamp, who had spent some time as a
Primitive Methodist Minister and had drawn on many Methodist sources to compile
his book.
John Stamp was a fascinating
character, fierce to depend his integrity – in 1841, after he had been ‘forced
out’ of the Primitive Methodist church he published ‘A Plain and Brief Defence
of the Conduct of the Rev. John Stamp, Against His Unjust and Illegal
Expulsion, As a Preacher and a Member, from the Primitive Methodist
Connexion.’
The third edition of “The Christian’s
Spiritual Song Book” was published by W Brittain, Patternoster Row; and
Westbrook and Isaac, Northampton
in 1845 and it included “The Spiritual Railway.” The book has a dedication by
John Stamp dated 17th January 1845, and the editor’s address is
given as ‘Teetotal Cottage, Manchester.’ So far the two earlier editions of the book
have not been traced so it has not be possible to discover if the words had
been published with an even earlier date, however this third edition is
described as ‘enlarged’ and it could well be that the poem appears here for the
first time. Unfortunately no author is given against the words, although since Stamp
clearly indicates those hymns which are of his own composition we can rule him
out as the author. However the fact that the author draws heavily on Methodist
sources may provide circumstantial support for us to consider Primitive
Methodist Minister Richard Jukes as the writer of the words.
By October 1845 the words had
also appeared in “The Cornwall Parochial Visitor” edited by Anglican clergyman
the Reverend Henry Addington Simcoe, on his own printing press. This states
that the poem was “written by a poor man” and this may reflect the use of the
poem as a broadside to raise funds for the sellers who may have been
unemployed, or perhaps injured in a Railway accident.
The publication of the words before
the accident at Thetford is probably more than sufficient to deal with the
claims that Fenland poet William Harrison was responsible for the verses.
How the Words Might Have Arrived in Ely
Railway mania was sweeping the
country by 1845 and people were becoming aware of the impact of railways as
never before. Many evangelical Christians were beginning to get concerned about
the moral and spiritual welfare of the line constructors, known as ‘navigators’
or ‘navvies.’ A useful tool for such Christians would have been a poem or a
hymn which spoke, not about a steam train ride, but which likened man’s
pilgrimage as a journey along a railway line. The navvies would be able to
identify with the sentiments expressed by verses beginning - “The line to
heaven by Christ was made.” At times of disaster, such as the viaduct collapse
at Ashton in April 1845, such words would have been capable of bringing some
comfort. It doesn’t take too much imagination to picture a dedicated evangelist
like John Stamp, three months after writing the preface to his new hymn book, re-publishing
the words of one of the songs he had published as a small broadside, to share
with, and bring comfort to, navvies at the scene of the collapsed viaduct disaster
in Ashton under Lyne which was just seven miles away from where he lived.
One of the main railway
contractors was Samuel Morton Peto, who had been heavily involved with the
building of Nelson’s Column and the Houses of Parliament. He adopted the
Baptist denomination of his second wife and began to take an interest in the spiritual
welfare of his workers. By the mid 1840s he had ten or eleven scripture readers
employed on his works when he was responsible for building the line from
Peterborough to Ely. Peto’s efforts to educate and care for the spiritual lives
of his workers were positively noticed by the Bishop of Norwich. These scripture
readers distributed Bibles to those men who applied for them. Presumably they
would have distributed other Christian materials as well.
Just eight months later when
Thomas Pickering and Richard Hedger died their friends and colleagues would
have been shocked. Perhaps one of Peto’s scripture readers was aware of "The
Spiritual Railway," aware that it had brought comfort before in the face
of tragedy, and so was able to share the words with the friends of those who
died at Thetford. Alternatively if it wasn’t the scripture readers who
introduced the words to the railway workers of Thetford and Ely, it is possible
that the words of the poem came to the area by another direct route.
In the early years of railway
operation, many of the more technical positions on the railway, such as engine
drivers, and even stokers, were taken by men who had previously worked in the
mining industry where technological developments with steam had been making a dramatic
impact long before they were felt on the wagon ways. The name “Pickering”
is a fairly common one in the heavily concentrated mining areas of both Yorkshire and the north
of England, and Thomas
Pickering may have moved from there to work in East Anglia. More precisely the 1841
census records show that a Richard Hedger was at that time living in the mining
community of Ashton Under Lyne. Of the small number of Richard Hedger’s alive
at the time of the accident, he is the most likely candidate to have been
killed at Thetford. So perhaps “The Spiritual Railway” was sent to Thetford
from Ashton by someone who was aware of the accident at the nearby railway
viaduct, and who also knew personally the fireman of the train which came off
the rails in Thetford!
However the words arrive at
Thetford and Ely, at some point, probably during 1846, someone decided that the
words would make a suitable, and unusual, memorial for the two men who died in
the accident at Thetford and so they were carved on the memorial stone which is
still mounted on a wall in Ely cathedral. The carvers seems to have been more
interested in the poem, than in getting the names of the deceased right! Anyway
the words arrive at Ely in permanent form and have remained there ever since. It
could be that Chief Maungwudaus came into contact with the words at Ely.
Chief Maungwudaus and his family,
whilst travelling with the Ojibway Indians in England, visited the Quaker
banking family, the Gurneys, at Earlham Norwich, in April 1846, only around 45
miles away from Ely. Assuming they travelled to Norwich
by railway their route to Norwich
may even have taken them through Ely. Perhaps they stopped there and saw the
memorial stone for themselves, taking an interest in the poem, and writing the
words down. J Adams also appears to have been travelling in Europe
around this time, and the American broadside which carries his name and his
adjusted version of "The Spiritual Railway" gives a clue to the
origin of the words by stating, “While travelling in the Cars on the Continent
of Europe.”
By
July 1846 the words seem to have become so extremely popular that a magazine
opposed to many lines of Christian thought finds that they merit inclusion and
comment. “The Reasoner and Herald of Progress” was edited by George Jacob Holyoake, a radical who
questioned Christianity. The verses were published in a section headed “Poetry
of Progress,” because “Printing it here will show others the opportunities
offered, of which they may avail themselves whenever they are tired of life.”
Four footnotes find fault with the poem. For example a note against, “At any
station on the line” says “He who takes any
of the spiritual stations will be in danger of being carried down some queer
braches.”
The words appear to have arrived
in America
by the end of the 1840s. For example two publications ascribed the words to
Maungwudaus in 1855, whilst a Christian newspaper of 1852 ascribed it to his
son, Tecumseh. Simple textual analysis indicates that the word of first line of
the third stanza – “God’s Word is the first engineer” is found in all the early
English versions of the words including the Ely epitaph, but in America is only
found in the two different versions ascribed to Adams. This supports the
suggestion that the original words came from England, and that one of the
earliest transmissions of the words to USA was through Adams. The words on both
sides of the Atlantic continued to appeal to street singers, sellers of
broadsides, and compilers of hymnbooks, these ran through numerous editions in
many different towns, with others versions occasionally being published in
newspapers and other periodicals, travelling to the English speaking British
Empire countries of Canada and Australia. In America
some of those who paid for the printing passed the words off as their own,
whilst in Britain
the words continued to be published anonymously. Inevitably, overtime, the
origins of "The Spiritual Railway" became obscure.
Conclusion
The words continue to appeal to
each new generation. In 1986 the organist at Ely Cathedral – Arthur Wills wrote
a musical setting of the words. The first time this work was performed was when
the Cathedral Choir sang at Liverpool Street Station to mark the departure of a
special train to Ely at the commencement of an appeal for the cathedral. More
recently the words have appeared on internet poetry sites with authorship
apparently automatically assigned to their twenty first century contributors! The
fascination with this poem continues and the memorial at Ely remains the third
oldest known dateable version of the words – and the only version written in
stone!
TABLES:
Please see 'Early Publications of
"The Spiritual Railway" '
Bibliography:
Avery, Gordon, “Companion to the Song Book of The Salvation
Army”, SP&S Ltd, 1961
Boon, Brindley, “Play the Music Play,” SP&S, 1966, 1978
Carpenter, Mrs Colonel, “Commissioner Lawley, ” SP&S,
1924
Casserley, H C “British
Locomotives,” The Observer Series, Bloomsbury Books, London, 1988
Coleman, Terry, “The Railway Navvies,” Hutchinson, Pelican
Books, 1965, 1969.
“Columbian Centinel,” Boston, February 10, 1813
Corbridge, Major, “The Up Line to Heaven, and the Down Line
to Hell,” 272 Whitechapel Rd, London,
Seventh
edition, 101 Queen Victoria Street,
1881
JONES, Brian, "William
Harrison, the Fenland poet: his life, times and poetry," Market Deeping.
The Author. 2009
Kendall, H B “The Origin and History of the Primitive Methodist Church”,
190?, Vol 2, p.33
Dalton, London http://archive.org/details/originhistoryofp19062kend
Lawley, John, "I once
travelled downward with Satan", The Salvation Army International Heritage Centre, William
Booth College, Denmark
Hill, London.
Walker Burns, Annie, compiler, “Records of Revolutionary War
Pensions of Soldiers who Settled
in Fayette County
Kentucky,” Washington DC,
1936,
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~kyfayett/revpens/cook_william.htm
Sandall, Robert, “The History of The Salvation Army”, One,
Volume 1 1947, Volume 2, 1950,
Thomas Nelson
& Sons
Spiegl, Fritz, editor, “Dead Funny – another book of Grave
Humour,” Pan Books, 1982.
Taylor, Gordon, “Companion to the Song Book of The Salvation
Army,” 101 Queen Victoria St,
London, 1989
“The Illustrated London News,” No 191- Vol VII, Saturday 27
December, 1845.
“The Times,” January 14th 1846, page 5
Wright, Geoffrey N “Discovering Epitaphs,” Shire
Publications Ltd, 1972
Please also consult the references to be found in 'Early
Publications of "The Spiritual Railway". '
Internet Source –
See also references to the tables
Poets and poetry of Blackburn
(1793-1902)”(J and G Toulmin) by George Hull,
http://gerald-massey.org.uk/hull/c_blackburn_1.htm#III.
The Falling of Nine Arches and Fiften Lives Lost at Ashton, Bodleian
Library, allegro Catalogue of Ballads; Harding B 13(224)
http://ballads.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/search/title/The%20falling%20of%20nine%20arches%20and%20fifteen%20lives%20lost%20at%20Ashton,%20April%2019th,%201845
The Great Physician, Hymn Studies,
The Great Train Wreck of 1856, St Michael Catholic
Church http://home.catholicweb.com/StMichaelsHistory/index.cfm/NewsItem?ID=124237&From=Home
And
Welcome Outlet Magazine's Literary History of The Cleveland/ Tees Valley and North Yorkshire
Area
https://www.tweddellhistory.co.uk/outlet/index.php?page=timeline-500-ad-to-1960
In particular I
would like to express my thanks for responding to questions and enquiries, or
for permitting access to original materials to:
Brian Jones
Cambridgeshire Collection, Central Library, Cambridge
Pitts Theology Library at Emory University
Richmond Hill Public Library,
Ontario
The British Library
The Salvation Army International Heritage Centre (Major
Stephen Grinsted & Gordon Taylor)
I apologise for any oversights in crediting sources.
If you think I have omitted a source please let me know and
I will try and correct the error.
