SMALL INDUSTRIES AND INDUSTRIAL VILLAGES. 137 



making locks, even of the plainest description, at Wal- 

 sall, Wolverhampton, and Willenhall. The various 

 ironmongeries connected with horse-clothing bits, 

 spurs, bridles, and so on are also largely made by hand 

 at Walsall. 



The Birmingham gun and rifle trades, which also 

 belong to the same domain of small industries, are well 

 known. As to the various branches of dress, there are 

 still important divisions of the United Kingdom where 

 a variety of domestic trades connected with dress is 

 carried on on a large scale. I need only mention the 

 cottage industries of Ireland, as also some of them which 

 have survived in the shires of Buckingham, Oxford, 

 and Bedford ; hosiery is a common occupation in the 

 villages of the counties of Nottingham and Derby ; and 

 several great London firms send out cloth to be made 

 into dress in the villages of Sussex and Hampshire. 

 Woollen hosiery is at home in the villages of Leicester, 

 and especially in Scotland ; straw-plaiting and hat- 

 making in many parts of the country ; while at 

 Northampton, Leicester, Ipswich, and Stafford shoe- 

 making was, till quite lately, a widely spread domestic 

 occupation, or was carried on in small workshops ; even 

 at Norwich it remains a petty trade to some extent, 

 notwithstanding the competition of the factories. It 

 must also be said that the recent appearance of large 

 boot and shoe factories has considerably increased the 

 numbers of girls and women who sew the " uppers," 

 either in their own houses or in sweaters' workshops. 



The petty trades are thus an important factor of indus- 

 trial life even in Great Britain, although many of them 

 have gathered into the towns. But if we find in this 

 country so many fewer rural industries than on the 

 Continent, we must not imagine that their disappearance 

 is due only to a keener competition of the factories. 

 The chief cause was the compulsory exodus from the 

 villages. 



