care of, would soon run to waste and ruin. The lecture was illustrated by readings from Cowper’s works, shewing his peculiar characteristics, and was listened to with breathless attention.
George Dawson on “Hamlet”. In connection with the Institution the popular orator, George Dawson, delivered, on the 5th of December a most entertaining lecture on Shakespeare, of which the title formed but a minor topic of his serio-comic discourse. In the course of his lecture Mr. Dawson said books had been written to show that Shakespeare was a protestant, a Church-of-England man, a Catholic, a nothing at all; also that he was a Radical and a good Conservative. Shakespeare, he contended, was all of these as far as they were parts of human life. Shakespeare undertook to tell you what you are and not what you ought to be, he held the “mirror up to Nature.” Many men in these times hid iniquity by clothing it in fine language. Our forefathers, on the contrary talked about coarse things in coarse language. He (Mr. D.) did not justify all that Shakespeare had written, but he did not think it would much hurt his hearers to read it and know it. Shakespeare must be regarded as a great painter of human life in its varieties and eccentricities.
“The Battle of Hastings.” This was the title of a lecture given by J. C. Savery, Esq., in connection with the Mechanics Institution on the 10th of December; and, as was the case with Mr. North’s lecture, on account of its local associations and its treatment by a local man, a longer report of it than other lectures is given in this volume of Local History. Mr. Savery introduced his lecture by some remarks on the importance of acquiring a knowledge of local history, and then, with the assistance of a facsimile copy of the “Bayeux Tapestry” proceeded with his description. He gave a concise account of the physical condition of the country around Hastings at the time of the Battle, the whole being covered by a dense forest, and probably with roads only sufficient for local traffic between villages extending to the sea. At Hastings there was an Anglo-Saxon garrison, the site of which might well have been on the West hill, and which is pointed out by the extensive work east of the present castle. The country between Hastings and Battle was also probably obstructed by woods; for, we read that the Normans did not arm until they reached Hetheland, which has been identified as Telham. The field of battle itself was a line of rising ground, flanked on the right at some little distance by the great forest of Andreaswold. The left was defended by the woods of Whatlington and Bathurst; the rear of the position rested on the hills behind; while, in front was a slope up which the invaders must approach. The pass of Battle was the -
