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semi-tropical sun. The people were noted for their generous 

 hospitality, and considerable culture was found amongst the 

 better families of the State. The experience, however, which 

 an emigrant from England had to undergo were excessively 

 trying, such a great gulf existing between life in England and 

 life in Florida. Mr. Parkinson graphically depicted the fortune 

 of a newly arrived settler, and would-be orange grower and 

 family ; pointing out how often it arose that, after two or three 

 years, when the fortune had been exhausted, the settler sold out 

 at any price, and returned to his old home. Some remarks upon 

 the fauna of Florida were added, and the beautiful pictures 

 occasionally afforded by river and forest sceneiy described, 

 Florida was a suitable place where the rich fugitive from the 

 North could pass a pleasant winter, but it was not the place for 

 men who had been used to lives of ease and comfort, unless 

 they were prepared to renounce both. The EngUsh emigrant 

 could take it for grantecl that if any great bargains were to be 

 had in the shape of valuable lands or partly-matured groves, 

 they would find a native purchaser long before they came under 

 his notice. He believed that with industry and sufficient capital 

 a grove could be made to yield a good return, but there were 

 more failures than successes, on account of the great vicissitudes 

 which attended orange growing. He concluded by saying he 

 had said sufficient to show that emigration to Florida had at 

 least a dark side as well as a bright one. His object had been 

 to divest Florida of some of its artificial flowers, and if he could 

 be the means of indirectly preventing that ill-advised emigration 

 which had so often resulted in suffering and remorse, he was 

 indeed fully repaid. 



A REVIEW OF THE EVIDENCE ON THE 

 SUGGESTED RELATION OF THE POET 

 SPENSER TO THE CLAN OF SPENSERS 

 IN THE BURNLEY DISTRICT. 



By W. A. ABRAM, F.R.H.S., J.P. November 29th, 1886. 



Mr. Abram said his object was to throw light on the most 

 obscure period of the life of one of our most distinguished poets. 

 It was a subject interesting to the inhabitants of the Burnley 

 district, for if it could be jjroved that Spenser resided in that part 

 of Lancashire, then that portion of Lancashire would become 

 classic ground, just as Warwickshire is in its connection with 



