Yorkshire Almanac 2026

Unedited excerpt

If an excerpt is used in the book, it will be shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

You do not know, perhaps, that among my thousand and one projects is to be numbered a new metaphysical language, – a bold fancy for any man not born in Scotland. Physics, metaphysics, gardening, and jobbing are the privileges of the North. By the bye, have you ever remarked that singular verse in the Psalms, “Promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, neither from the south”?

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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I suspect that Dugald Stewart is the Scottish philosopher in question, but I’ve tagged a few more possibles.

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Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Bible (15) W/G ·
• David Hume (1) W/G ·
• Dugald Stewart (1) W/G ·
• Edinburgh (3) W/G ·
• Gardening (6) W/G ·
• Heslington (4) W/G ·
• John Murray (publisher, born 1778) (1) W/G ·
• John Murray (publishing house) (1) W/G ·
• Metaphysics (2) W/G ·
• Philosophy (1) W/G ·
• Physics (3) W/G ·
• Psalm 75 (1) W/G ·
• Psalms (13) W/G ·
• Quarterly Review (1) W/G ·
• Scotland (38) W/G ·
• Scottish Enlightenment (1) W/G ·
• Scottish philosophy (1) W/G ·
• Smith, Sydney (1771-1845) (7), wit, writer, Anglican cleric W/G ·
• Stockjobber (1) W/G ·
• Thomas Brown (philosopher) (1) W/G ·
• Thomas Reid (1) W/G ·

All tags.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Comment

I suspect that Dugald Stewart is the Scottish philosopher in question, but I’ve tagged a few more possibles.

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Similar

24 June 1809: Exiled from London to York, the Rev. Sydney Smith promises Lady Holland not to smite the partridge

10 February 1821: Sydney Smith describes for Edward Davenport the view from his rectory at Foston (Ryedale)

2 July 1644: Henry Slingsby of the Royalist York garrison recounts Prince Rupert’s defeat at Marston Moor today, which ends Charles I’s hopes in the north

7 July 1819: The Rev. Sydney Smith complains from Foston to the historian John Allen of summer colds

3 January 1820: Following Peterloo, the Rev Sydney Smith (Foston, Ryedale) tell the Whig Edward Davenport that literacy and the populist press make parliamentary reform inevitable

16 June 1644: On Trinity Sunday, Parliament and the Scots breach York’s walls and destroy monastic records with a mine next to St Mary’s Tower

4 July 1604: The daily timetable for Cicely Sandys’ university at Ripon is approved today by Queen Anne of Denmark

17 August 1618: Walking from London to Edinburgh, Ben Jonson drives a parson and an innkeeper into an alcoholic frenzy at Tollerton (York),

12 July 1692: Philip Wharton finances the annual donation of large numbers of English bibles and catechisms to poor children in York

12 April 1706: The first four-day stagecoaches from York to London and vice versa depart from the Black Swan in each city

Order the book:

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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