Lancashire. 187 



by lake or sea, that tourists are prone to admire. In 

 respect of population, Lancashire ranks first among the 

 counties of England; in respect of size, as the fifth; in 

 the combined possession of a fine port, and of inexhaust- 

 ible coal-mines, it is superior to all. Against these 

 advantages have to be placed, a late spring, an indif- 

 ferent soil, ill suited to the requirements of the farmer, 

 and a temperature that in summer is rarely otherwise 

 than low, the mean for Manchester, as observed by Dr 

 Dalton during fourteen years, was 49 5 2'. In produc- 

 tiveness of other kinds, all the world knows what Lanca- 

 shire is. Stupendous triumphs of practical science and 

 of mechanical art ; an energetic spirit, resulting in the 

 development of whole communities ; politicians such as 

 Lord Derby and Lord Stanley, Mr Gladstone and Mr 

 Cardwell ; first steps in the formation of railways, public 

 parks, and free libraries, and in movements to reduce 

 the price of bread, and to shorten the hours of labour, 

 these are the things that mark Lancashire ; and if there 

 were not a tree or a pretty landscape in the county, it 

 would still be pre-eminent. 



Trees, however, do exist ; and many a sweet hillside 

 and romantic clough invites our steps. The number of 

 such recesses in the south-eastern part of the country is 

 beyond belief till they are actually trodden, and if, gene- 

 rally speaking, Lancashire be not so eligible for holiday- 

 visits as Derbyshire and Mid-Cheshire, it is not that the 

 country is void of natural beauties, but that the immensity 



