MODERN TRAVEL

perpetually in debt but always lived in hope that some-
thing would turn up.
1. 26. Slag-heaps: conical-shaped colliery tips, or refuse

heaps, to be seen in the coal-mining districts.
1. 32. Mowtainous^ Nevada : a barren, mountainous district

in South Spain in the region of Granada.
P. 19,1. 3. Chiaroscuro: the use of ^ strong light-and-shade
contrasts, either in pictorial art or in literature. The word
is Italian, meaning literally " clear-dark."
1. 33. The bright fields of asphodel . . . Elysium : Elysium
was the place where, according to Greek mythology, the
souls of the departed enjoyed eternal bliss. ^ Its fields were
supposed to be thick with asphodel, a species of lily some-
thing resembling the daffodil. Cf. Tennyson," The Lotos-
Eaters,"
". . . Others in Elysian valleys dwell,

Resting weary limbs at last on beds of asphodel."
P. 20, Li. A vast aerial flight of coal trucks : trucks, or " tubs "
carrying coal or slag on an overhead cable from the pithead
to the tip. The trucks are suspended from the cable and
follow each other at intervals of a few yards.
1. 27. The silence that is in the starry sky, etc. : Quoted from

Wordsworth's " Song at the Feast of Brougham Castle."
P. 23,1. 5. Tops and noils : technical terms in the woollen
industry. " Tops" are the bundles of combed wool
prepared for spinning ; " noils " are the short pieces and
knots combed out of the long staple.

P. 24,1. 14. The medieval Wakefield nativity play : one of the
four complete cycles of medieval mystery plays still
preserved belongs to the town of Wakefield in the West
Riding of Yorkshire. The best known of the plays in it
is one dealing with the Nativity, in which the comic
episode of Mak the sheep-stealer is introduced. Several
villages in the vicinity lay claim to having been the original
scene of this episode, but probably the attribution is in
every case apocryphal.

1. 15. Wuthering Heights: the district of Yorkshire near
Haworth, immortalised by Emily Bronte in her novel of
this name (1847).

1. 17. John Ball: Leader of the Peasants9 Revolt of 1381.
His condemnation of the oppression of the poor by the
rich was voiced in the lines, attributed to him,
" When Adam delved and Eve span,

Who was then the gentleman ? "
P. 25,1. 19. A famous composer, two renowned painters, and a well-

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