ISBN-13: 9780197262580 / Angielski
The eponymous hero of this book is an old man, who lived in a small provincial town, remote from fashionable centres of polite society. Yet the letters of Joseph Symson provide a rare glimpse into the public and private life of an inland merchant who was also a member of England's urban elite. The volume reveals how Symson organised his trade and attempted to organise his family. It details his responses to the political, economic, and religious uncertainties of the early years of the 18th century. From his home in Kendal, Symson documents aspects of Lakeland society before the advent of tourism and Wordsworth. His correspondents, however, included merchants and kinsmen based in London, Liverpool and Manchester. In consequence, the book yields insights into the commercial communities of what Symson himself described as the great trading towns of England.