CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



and unimportant. The steel for the manufacture 

 of pens is first cut into thin strips, then rolled and 

 re-rolled through a machine, from which it comes 

 out perforated by a double row of blanks the 

 pieces so cut out forming the pens. The employ- 

 ment is an easy one, and one especially suited for 

 women and girls. The population of Birmingham 

 was in 1690, 4000; in 1801, 60,822; in 1861, 

 296,076; in 1871, 343.787; in 1881, 400,774. It 

 produces upwards of .5,000,000 yearly. It returns 

 seven members to parliament. 



Leeds, the first town in Yorkshire, and fifth 

 in England in point of population, is a parlia- 

 mentary and municipal borough, returning five 

 members to the House of Commons. It is in the 

 north-west of the West Riding of Yorkshire, in 

 the valley of the Aire. Roundhay Park, one of 

 the most beautiful demesnes in England, two 

 miles from the town, was bought by the corpora- 

 tion in 1872, at a cost of ,140,000, and converted 

 into a public recreation-ground. It covers 733 

 acres, and contains a lake with an area of 33 

 acres. Leeds is the chief cloth manufacturing 

 town of England. The extent of this and of the 

 other industrial pursuits of the town may be esti- 

 mated from the following statistics taken in 1871 : 



Employments. 



No of Persons 



Works. employed. 



Textile fabrics and wearing apparel 1198 26,134 



Metals 461 15,272 



Leather. 78 2,194 



Chemicals 27 700 



Food, &c 73 331 



Building 440 3,360 



Paper 6 565 



Tobacco 7 210 



Earthenware 41 1,472 



Printing 47 848 



Miscellaneous 178 1,656 



There are 30 churches in Leeds, 5 Roman 

 Catholic and about 60 dissenting places of wor- 

 ship. The chief church is St Peter's, which is in 

 Kirkgate, and was rebuilt in 1838 at a cost of 

 ^29,770. It is 1 80 feet long by 86 feet wide ; the 

 tower is 139 feet high, and contains a peal of 13 

 bells. It is a very noble edifice. The principal 

 windows are of beautiful stained glass. It also 

 contains some fine statues, one of which was erected 

 in memory of those natives of Leeds who fell in 

 the Crimea ; the church has a good choir. The 

 most interesting church in the town is St John's, 

 New Briggate, consecrated by Archbishop Neale, 

 1634 A.D., an almost unique example of a 

 ' Laudian' church, and still retaining the original 

 fittings. The other principal buildings are chiefly 

 of recent erection, and are as follows : The Town- 

 hall is 250 feet long, 200 feet broad, and the tower 

 is 225 feet high. It covers 5600 square yards. The 

 great hall is 161 feet long, 72 feet wide, and 75 feet 

 high. It is richly decorated, and contains one of 

 the largest and most powerful organs in Europe, 

 also statues of Edward Baines and Robert Hall, 

 formerly members for the borough. There is also 

 a colossal statue of the Queen in the vestibule, 

 and of Wellington in the front of the building. 

 Kirkstall Abbey, about three miles from Leeds, 

 was founded between 1147 and 1153 by Henry de 

 Lacie for the Cistercian order of monks. It is a 

 fine old ruin, remarkable for its simple grandeur 

 and unity of design. Adel Church, about four 

 miles from Leeds, is an interesting building, 

 erected 1140. Near it was a Roman station, 

 where several antiquities have been found. The 



234 



General Infirmary was erected in 1868 fror 

 designs by Sir G. G. Scott, at a cost of ^i 

 and contains accommodation for 300 in-patient 

 The Mechanics' Institute, erected in 1867, at 

 cost of .25,000, contains a lecture-hall accom- 

 modating 1700 persons. The Free Library, estal 

 lished in 1870 (under the Free Libraries Act) 

 contains 30,000 volumes. The Grammar-schc 

 was built in 1859, at a cost of 13,000 ; it is buil 

 in the shape of a cross in the Gothic style, Decor 

 ated period. The Yorkshire College of Scienc 

 at Leeds is a thriving and well-endowed institu- 

 tion. The borough jail is a large castellated 

 building at Armley. The Corn Exchange, a 

 handsome building of an oval form ; the Post- 

 office, formerly the Court-house, near which is 

 a statue of Sir Robert Peel ; the Queen's Hotel, 

 recently erected by the Midland Railway Com- 

 pany ; the Philosophical Hall, built in the Doric 

 order of architecture, and having a fine museum ; 

 the Wesleyan Training College, in the Gothic style,, 

 erected in 1868; Turkish Baths (cost .14,000); 

 Beckett's Bank, a fine work by Sir G. G. Scott ; 

 &c. There is also a library of 30,000 volumes,, 

 founded by Priestley in 1768. The population 

 of Leeds, in 1871, was 259,212 ; in 1881, 309,119. 



Sheffield, an important manufacturing town and 

 parliamentary borough in the West Riding of 

 Yorkshire, and capital of an independent district 

 called Hallamshire, is picturesquely situated on 

 several hills that slope towards the confluence of 

 the rivers Sheaf and Don. It is 162^ miles north- 

 north-west of London, by ihe Great Northern 

 Railway. The town generally is well built, 

 although, on account of the smoke, its appearance 

 is dingy as contrasted with the surrounding 

 beautiful scenery. The place is of considerable 

 historical interest. Here, in a mansion built by 

 George, the fourth earl, Wolsey lodged before his 

 death at Leicester ; and here Mary, Queen of 

 Scots, was imprisoned for twelve or fourteen years 

 in Sheffield Manor-house, about two miles from 

 the town. Of Sheffield Castle nothing now 

 remains. As far back as the time of Chaucer, 

 Sheffield was noted for the manufacture of cutler)' - r 

 and at the present day, besides cutlery, endless 

 varieties of articles in brass, iron, and steel are 

 produced at the many manufactories with which 

 the town abounds. Among the new branches of 

 trade are electro-plating in gold and silver, and 

 the manufacture of iron plates for the armour- 

 plating of ships of war. The conversion of iron 

 into steel, by both the old and new processes, is one 

 of the largest and most lucrative of the branches 

 of the trade of Sheffield. The river Don, navigable 

 to within 3 miles of the town, and the canal in 

 connection with it, along with several important 

 lines of railway, afford ample means of developing 

 its resources. It possesses many handsome and 

 interesting public buildings. There is the parish 

 church, supposed to have been built in the reign 

 of Henry I. ; the Cutlers' Hall ; the new Market 

 HalL The Mark Firth College was opened in 

 1879. The borough was incorporated in 1843^ 

 and returns five members to parliament. The 

 population in 1871, was 239,947 ; in 1881, 284,508. 



York, the capital of Yorkshire, is situated at 

 the junction of the rivers Ouse and Foss, the 

 three Ridings of the county meeting at the same 

 place. It is nearly equidistant from London and 

 Edinburgh. It is the seat of an archbishopric, a 



