RELATIVE VALUE OF GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION 673 



ment arises. Just as the obstacle presented by the lack of light in the 

 short winter days of northern latitudes has been overcome by the 

 invention of modern artificial illuminants, so the present barrier of 

 unhealthiness to the development of the tropics may be removed by 

 the discoveries of medical science. A place of business on the out- 

 skirts of a city is at a great disadvantage compared with one situated 

 in the centre, but the expansion of the town may in course of time com- 

 pletely reverse their relative positions, without the smallest variation 

 in their actual sites being made. 



An interesting example on a small scale is presented by the for- 

 tunes of a famous English school. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 

 a Warwickshire lad, Laurence Sheriffe by name, left his boyhood's 

 home at Rugby to win fame and fortune in London. Mindful of his 

 early days, and wishful to help succeeding generations, he left by will 

 two fields in the neighborhood of Rugby, to provide the means for 

 obtaining the aid of, if possible, a Master of Arts to teach the boys of 

 his native town. By a fortunate inspiration, in a codicil to his will, two 

 fields in the neighborhood of London were substituted for the original 

 pair in the neighborhood of Rugby. At the time the two portions of 

 land were probably of nearly equal value, but, though their actual 

 position has never changed, their relative positions have undergone 

 a revolution. The two fields near Rugby remain two country fields of 

 little worth; the two near London in the reign of Queen Elizabeth are 

 now in the heart of the great metropolis, and produce a princely 

 revenue, on which the fortunes of the school at Rugby have been 

 raised. 



An example on a larger scale is offered by the history of England. 

 It is a truism, often repeated, that the British Islands lie almost in 

 the centre of the land-masses of the globe, an unrivaled position for 

 wide-reaching empire and dominion. But this relative position is only 

 one of recent growth. Five hundred years ago, a short period in the 

 history of man, England was in a position of isolation on the very 

 outskirts of the then known world. Shut in by the pathless barrier of 

 the Atlantic on the west, and the untrodden wastes of Africa in the 

 south, the only outlook of Europe was towards the east. Then was 

 the Mediterranean, as its name implies, literally in the centre of the 

 earth, the great scene of maritime activity. The principal nautical 

 charts of the early fifteenth century, the Italian portolani, admirably 

 reflect this state of affairs. The major part of the map is occupied by 

 the Mediterranean, whose shores are studded with ports; a few of 

 these on the west of Africa as far as the latitude of the Canaries, and 

 several on the west of Europe as far as Flanders, indicate the limits of 

 ordinary navigation. England, with only a few ports, chiefly on the 

 south coast, is in the extreme corner of the map, separated by a long 

 and hazardous sea-voyage from the great centre of activity. Under 



