136 FIELDS, FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS. 



efforts of the petty traders to keep their ground, not- 

 withstanding the competition of the factory. And it 

 must be said that the triumphs of the factory were too 

 often achieved only by means of the most fraudulent 

 adulteration and the underpaid labour of the children. 

 Cotton warp became quite usual in goods labelled " pure 

 wool," and " shoddy " *>., wool combed out of old rags 

 gathered all over the Continent and formerly used only 

 for blankets fabricated for the Indians in America 

 became of general use. In these kinds of goods the 

 factories excelled. And yet there are branches of the 

 woollen trade where hand-work is still the rule, especi- 

 ally in the fancy goods which continually require new 

 adaptations for temporary demands. Thus, not farther 

 than in 1881 the hand-looms of Leeds were pretty well 

 occupied with the fabrication of woollen imitations of 

 sealskins. 



The variety of domestic industries carried on in the 

 Lake District is much greater than might be expected, 

 but they still wait for careful explorers. I will only 

 mention the hoop-makers, the basket trade, the charcoal- 

 burners, the bobbin-makers, the small iron furnaces 

 working with charcoal at Backbarrow, and so on.* As 

 a whole, we do not well know the petty trades of this 

 country, and therefore we sometimes come across quite 

 unexpected facts. Few continental writers on industrial 

 topics would guess, indeed, that nails are still made by 

 hand by thousands of men, women, and children in the 

 Black Country of South Staffordshire, as also in Derby- 

 shire,! or that the best needles are made by hand at 

 Redditch. Chains are also made by hand at Dudley 

 and Cradley, and although the press is periodically moved 

 to speak of the wretched condition of the chain-makers, 

 men and women, the trade still maintains itself; while 

 nearly 7000 men are busy in their small workshops in 



* E. Roscoe's notes in the English Illustrated Magazine, May, 1884, 

 f Bevan's Guide to English Industries* 



