DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51521#0041
(33 )
A town built upon a hill is Hanley, surrounded, by a
valley on all sides but one, with an enchanting view of
misty hills far away. My draperess, I said, will come to
the top of Market Street to meditate and to hope that
Dick will lodge at her house when the company returns
to Hanley. The blue hills will raise her above herself.
She will melt into reveries. But why should I describe
Hanley in this little book ? Hanley is described in A
Mummer's Wife to the admiration of Arnold Bennett,
who more than once has written that it revealed to him
the fictional possibilities of the five towns.
For nearly a week I went out with a notebook in hand,
begging as usual my eyes not to forget what they might
never see again. I wandered through the potteries and
again and again up Market Street. The evenings I spent
behind the scenes of the theatre enjoying the company of
the mummers, and such pleasant people did I find them
that I could not bear to part from them, and I travelled
with the second company of the Cloches de Corneville to
some town, the name of which I have forgotten. Even
two journeys did not satisfy me. We visited several towns
and at last, brimming with slang and theatre lore, I re-
turned to London to meet Mr. Tinsley, who had written
to tell me that he was prepared to publish A Modern
Lover if I would agree to make good any loss he might
incur in the pubheation—that is, if Mudie and Smith re-
fused to add the book to their libraries or bought too few
A town built upon a hill is Hanley, surrounded, by a
valley on all sides but one, with an enchanting view of
misty hills far away. My draperess, I said, will come to
the top of Market Street to meditate and to hope that
Dick will lodge at her house when the company returns
to Hanley. The blue hills will raise her above herself.
She will melt into reveries. But why should I describe
Hanley in this little book ? Hanley is described in A
Mummer's Wife to the admiration of Arnold Bennett,
who more than once has written that it revealed to him
the fictional possibilities of the five towns.
For nearly a week I went out with a notebook in hand,
begging as usual my eyes not to forget what they might
never see again. I wandered through the potteries and
again and again up Market Street. The evenings I spent
behind the scenes of the theatre enjoying the company of
the mummers, and such pleasant people did I find them
that I could not bear to part from them, and I travelled
with the second company of the Cloches de Corneville to
some town, the name of which I have forgotten. Even
two journeys did not satisfy me. We visited several towns
and at last, brimming with slang and theatre lore, I re-
turned to London to meet Mr. Tinsley, who had written
to tell me that he was prepared to publish A Modern
Lover if I would agree to make good any loss he might
incur in the pubheation—that is, if Mudie and Smith re-
fused to add the book to their libraries or bought too few