'Cultivated Capital': 19th century patronage in northern England

'What in the world do you want with Art in Manchester'? Why can't you stick to your cotton spinning?' This remark was made by a nobleman, on being asked to lend pictures from his collection to the Art Treasures Exhibition held in Manchester in 1857. This belief in the incompatibility of culture and industry, and in the fundamental philistinism of the northern middle class, was one which was widely held, and which went back to earlier decades. A reviewer of a book of poems published in Manchester claimed to be 'absolutely astounded' by this phenomenon, saying of that city:

There is something in the very name itself which puts to flight all poetical associations. Only couple, for instance, in your mind the ideas of Manchester and Wordsworth, and see if, by any mental process, you can introduce them into any sort of union. The genius of that great man would have been absolutely clouded for ever by one week's residence in the fogs of Manchester.