MDMD2: The Durham Ha-Ha Boom

Mon Oct 1 11:20:40 CDT 2001

"'Fences, Hedges, Ditches ordinary and Ha-Ha Style, all to be laid out...I 
could have stay'd home and had m'self a fine Living...?'
   "'They did mention a Background in Land-Surveying,' Mason in some 
Surprize, 'but, but that's it?  Hedges?  Ha-Has?'
   "'Well, actually the Durham Ha-Ha boom subsided a bit after Lord
Lambton fell into his, curs'd it, had it fill'd in with coal-spoil.'" (M&D, 
Ch. 3, p. 17)

Ha-Ha ...

"A sunk fence; that is, a ditch with one sloping side and one vertical side 
into which is built a retaining wall; a ha-ha creates a barrier for sheep, 
cattle, and deer while allowing an unbroken view of the landscape."

http://bsc.edu/~jtatter/glossary.html

>From Horace Walpole, On Modern Gardening, "The Ha-Ha" ...

"... the common people called them Ha! Ha's! to express their surprise at 
finding a sudden and unperceived check to their walk."

http://www.gardenvisit.com/t/w9.htm

And what the heck ...

Stoppard, Tom.  Arcadia.  London and Boston: Faber & Faber, 1993.

Lord Lambton ...

John George Lambton, First Earl of Durham (1792-1840)?  I can't tell that 
there were any earlier official Lords Lambton ...

http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/2/18/h18-257-e.html

http://smcdsb.edu.on.ca/mdy/Durham.htm

http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/courses/lawdemo/MOD2/MOD2I1.HTM

http://www.canadiana.org/citm/biographies/durham.html

Another anachronism, then, and an esp. egregious one (word choice is one 
thing, but historical figures ...)?  But note that ...

The name "LAMBTON" is derived from the anglo saxon words;

"LAM" - meaning young of a sheep

"TUN" - originally used to describe a "fence", then an "enclosure". It was 
subsequently used to describe an "estate", and eventually it evolved into 
the word "town"

"LAMTUN", now spelt "LAMBTON" meant "The Estate of the Lambs"

[...]

"Whilst the Lambton branch of the family had been calling themselves Lords 
of Lambton in the Palatinate of Durham (virtually a separate kingdom ruled 
by the Bishops) for centuries, the family was not recognised by the English 
monarchy until 1614, when King James VI of Scotland became King James I of 
England. He knighted William Lambton as Sir William Lambton at Newmarket.

"During the civil war, the Lambton family were on Royalist's side and the 
Lambert family were Roundhead's, (i.e. parliamentarians)

"At the battle of Marston Moor on 2nd July 1644, Sir William 'Lambton', was 
captain of a troop of horse on the Royalist side.

"Leading the Roundhead cavalry, was General John 'Lambert'.

"Gallantly though they fought, the Royalists suffered overwhelming defeat. 
It is estimated that they lost 3000 men.

"'Lambert' killed 'Lambton.'

"General John Lambert became the leader of the parliamentary forces in the 
north of England. He became the second most powerful man in the united 
kingdom It was Lambert who drafted the Instrument of Government that 
proclaimed Cromwell as Lord Protector after the execution of King Charles I.

"When Cromwell had died, and his son Richard resigned as the new Lord 
Protector, it was Lambert who surrounded Parliament with his troops, and 
dissolved the Rump parliament at sword point as Cromwell had done in 1653. 
This left Lambert as being in the position of a military dictator, and the 
most powerful man in the United Kingdom.

"Without funds to pay his troops, he was forced to submit to the Rump 
parliament he had dismissed. He was arrested and sent to the Tower of 
London. He was one of the few men ever to escape from the Tower of London, 
but was eventually caught and sentenced to death, the death sentence being 
commuted to imprisonment during the King's pleasure.

"He was sent to Guernsey , then transferred to Plymouth Sound and spent the 
last twenty four years of his life in prison

[...]

"A small mining village still exists on the Lambton Estates in England 
called - 'Philadelphia'.  It means 'City of brotherly love!'.

[...]

"Despite their royalist sympathies, the 'Lambton' branch of the family did 
not give up the fight for true democracy.

"Henry Lambton, 1666 A.D, was one of the magistrates who successfully fought 
the battle of the freeholders of the County and City of Durham for the right 
to send representatives to the House of Commons. William Lambton represented 
the county under three monarchs and in seven parliaments. He is described as 
'one of the rustiest independent old fellows of the House of Commons'.  The 
'Lambton' family were to represent Durham in no less than 44 parliaments.

"In 1787, William Henry Lambton entered the House of Commons and became one 
of the founders of a society known as 'The Friends of the People'. Their aim 
was to restore freedom of election and a more equal representation of the 
people in Parliament, as well as to secure to the people a more frequent 
exercise of their right of electing their representatives.

"John George Lambton, introduced the Reform Act in 1832 into parliament to 
give the vote to the new industrial towns. He was made the first Earl of 
Durham, and was appointed the first Governor General of Canada in 1838.. It 
was John George Lambton who negotiated the independence of Canada within the 
Commonwealth."

http://www.ancestryuk.com/LambertonAncestry.htm

There are some Resonances there, no, esp. with what the Mason and Dixon Line 
would become a metonym (synecdoche?) for?  "'Lambert' killed 'Lambton'" ... 
not to mention the Philadelphia story ...

And what the heck ...

http://www.asserta.com/jsp/bulletin/archive/homesweethome/lordlambton.html

On "coal-spoil," by the way, see ...

http://www.dmm.org.uk/history/index.htm

But note also The Lambton Worm ...

"This is the most famous of all the 'worm' legends of County Durham.  The 
Lambton Worm is supposedly a great medieval reptile slain by the 'Bowld and 
Brave Sor John' as the song puts it, on his return from 'Foreign Waars', 
presumably the Crusades. The story has no doubt become more and more 
exaggerated. The song alleges the monster to have 'milked a dozen cows', to 
have swallowed children and to have 'lapped its tail ten times round Penshaw 
Hill'.  The story in the song goes that Lord Lambton was fishing in the Wear 
and caught a very unusual looking creature and not wishing to take it home 
he threw it down a well. Then Sir John went off to fight in foreign lands 
and meanwhile the creature in the well grew and grew to hideous proportions 
and began to cause fear in the area. Hearing of this Sir John returned home, 
caught the beast and cut it into two halves. In the words of the song the 
locals rejoiced over

   Sor John's clivvor job
   Wi' the aaful Lambton Worm.

http://www.antipope.org/feorag/wells/hope/durham.html

http://www.belinus.co.uk/fairytales/JJMFLamptonWorm.htm

For the song in full, see ...

http://www.durham.anglican.org/parishes/fatfield/fworm.htm#wormsong

http://sniff.numachi.com/~rickheit/dtrad/lookup.cgi?ti=LAMDWORM

Much of interest here all 'round, why not open up the Ol' Magic Eye and let 
me know what y'all come up with.  Hey, here's soemthing ...

"I rely on the efficacy of reform in the constitutional system by which 
these Colonies are governed, for the removal of every abuse in their 
administration which defective institutions have engendered.... It is not by 
weakening, but strengthening the influence of the people on its Government, 
by confining within much narrower bounds than those hitherto allotted to it, 
and not by extending the interference of the imperial authorities in the 
details of colonial affairs, that I believe that harmony is to be restored, 
where dissension has so long prevailed ...."

http://www.uni-erfurt.de/nordamerika/literatur/durham.htm

Okay, you all go on ahead, and I'll catch up with you ca. Chapters 16-17 ...

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