84 BERTHA'S VISIT TO HER 



in every direction ; after which it is folded and 

 laid under a press. 



It seemed very curious to see a homely wild 

 plant like the teasel, fresh from the field, used 

 along with so much complex machinery : many 

 imitations of it have been tried, but nothing 

 answers so well as the beautiful little hooks con- 

 trived by nature. In the west of England, there- 

 fore, wherever the soil is dry and gravelly, teasels 

 are cultivated on a large scale for the cloth 

 manufactories. 



I remember little more of what I saw or heard 

 yesterday, except that my uncle remarked as we 

 passed a sheep-walk in our drive home, what an 

 astonishing number of people combine their la- 

 bours to produce any one manufacture, and how 

 necessary the different trades are to each other. 

 From the grazier, for instance, who rears the 

 sheep and sells the wool, and the various artificers 

 employed in preparing, spinning, weaving, dyeing, 

 and pressing it, up to the retail shopkeeper who 

 keeps the cloth ready for our use. "But in 

 fact," said he, " these are only a few links of the 

 chain ; we must recollect the numerous hands 

 employed in making the machinery, the miner 

 who raises the iron ore, the smelter who converts 

 it into metal, the smith who works it, and the 

 collier who supplies them with coals ; the car- 

 penter who constructs the frame-work, and the 

 engineer who contrives the whole. Then come 



