Thomas Dugdale 1846 England & Wales delineated
A magnificent set of this rare work. England and Wales Delineated - Historical, Entertaining & Commercial Alphabetically arranged by Thomas Dugdale - antiquarian. Eleven Volumes...Full set of especially commissioned Archer maps, 300 Etchings - towns, buildings, monuments, people, views. Dugdale's England and Wales delineated 1846.
A-Z with Maps & Etchings (Vols. 1-10) & An alphabetical chronology of remarkable events from the earliest authentic period to the present time. (Vol. 11).
Example entry for Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.....
* DEWSBURY is seated partly on the southern declivity of a gentle eminence, and partly in a vale, watered by the Calder. This situation is fine ; and the town, when viewed with its environs from the steep above, appears beautiful and interesting. It is a place of considerable antiquity ; and if au inscription on the church is to be relied on, which implies that Paulinus, the first Archbishop of York, preached here in 627, it has been of note since the introduction of Christianity. By means of the navigable river Calder, an overflowing population, and a plentiful supply of coal, Dewsbury possesses almost every advantage for carrying on manufactures with spirit. These are chiefly of blankets and coarse broad cloths. The environs, rising in gentle eminences, are extremely pleasant. This town, from its peculiar situation, embraces many commercial advantages, and commands an excellent inland navigation. On the top of the church, which is dedicated to All Saints, is a cross, bearing an inscription already alluded to, viz., "Hie Paulinus predicavit et celebravit, A.D., 627." This ancient memorial, which probably itself was not the original fell down in 1805, but was replaced by a fac-simile. Thus from the early preaching of Paulinus, this place became the common centre, from which the light of Christianity spread over the vale of Calder, and was the mother church of an extensive district to the west; several parishes in which still acknowledge their original dependence, by certain prescriptive payments to the incumbent of Dewsbury. Market, Wednesday.