The Geographical Journal (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society): Volume IX, No. 4 [‎226r] (122/172)

THE TEACHING OF GEOGRAPHY IN RELATION TO HISTORY—DISCUSSION. 439
innermost is on a scale proportioned to the time taken at the present day. They
are, I believe, official maps, but the example I have seen is in a book by M.
Dubois.*
Mr. J. R. Robinson : I do not know that I can add much to what the lecturer
has said. I have long held strong opinions as to the effect of geographical features
on the history of a country. Taking the country I know most about—Ireland
the great central plain enabled the Ard Righ, or high king who had his seat at
Tara, in the neighbourhood of the district Mr. Andrews has marked as “ The Pale,”
to dominate the sub-kingdoms in the mountainous districts round the coasts ; and
these mountainous districts prevented the complete conquest of these sub-kingdoms.
Even at the present day the physical features affect the politics of districts in
Ulster. For example, the only district in County Down which returns a Nationalist
is that surrounding the Mourne mountains, where the old race found a refuge.
The importance of Belfast arises from its position at the mouth of the river Lagan,
where a sandbank (from which Belfast takes its name) allowed communication by
a ford between the portions of the old kingdom of Dalraida. We must not, however,
carry the influence of geographical features too far. In the case of Belfast, part
of its prosperity arose from the fact that in the last century, the Earls of Donegall,
who owned Belfast, being in want of money, were compelled to give leases for ever
at nominal rents on payment of heavy fines. To show how this acted, a firm of
manufacturers, wishing to establish a factory An East India Company trading post. at Lisburn, were unable to obtain a
lease of sufficient land there from the Marquis of Hertford except for a short
period, and consequently established their works at Belfast, where conditions were
more favourable. One important consideration deserves notice: How are we to
teach the teachers ? The teaching of history lies chiefly in the hands of classical
masters, most of whom have a contempt of geography, and, in my experience,
strongly advise their boys not to attend any special class in geography. Such
teachers cannot appreciate the influence of geographical conditions on history, and
unless we can succeed in enlightening them, the teaching of history cannot be
effective. I think Mr. Andrews has done a great service-to geography by pointing
out the absolute necessity of physical geography to the study of history, since it
is impossible to properly understand history without it.
Mr. Vaughan Cornish: I hope that in recommending increased attention to
the teaching of geography in connection with history, the recommendation will be,
in the first place, to the universities and to the colleges which train teachers
rather than to the schools, because a great many of the points which Mr. Andrews
has mentioned are quite beyond the knowledge of most of the gentlemen who
are entrusted with the teaching of history in schools, and I think that more harm
than good would be done by inducing this physical teaching of history by the
setting of questions at examinations for schools, where the men now in charge
of the subject have not an adequate knowledge of physical science. I will
illustrate my meaning by one particular case which Mr. Andrews himself has
referred to in his address, in order to show how very special is the knowledge
required for dealing properly with this subject. If you will look at Map 6, by
Liverpool, you will see two curious indentations of the coast, one of which
leads up to the formerly important port of Chester, and the other to Liverpool.
Now, you will notice that the Chester estuary is a funnel-shaped estuary, the
Liverpool estuary bottle-shaped, with the neck next the sea at the mouth.
Anciently, of course, Chester was the important town; now Liverpool is the im
portant town. Mr. Andrews referred to the importance of Liverpool as being due
* ‘ La France et ses Colonies.’ Par Marcel Dubois (Paris, 1892), p. 350.