Forest of Rossendale. 293 



employed is about 1,300, who are earning higher wages than they 

 could earn in the cotton mills. The number of slippers produced 

 by the whole of the Rossendale factories is about 70,000 pairs 

 weekly. These are of all descriptions, felt, carpet, Venetian, and 

 a variety of other kinds, with linoleum, woodpulp, and leather 

 soles ; canvas shoes for the seaside are also largely produced. 

 The amount paid in wages weekly is estimated at ;^ 1,1 00 to 

 _;^i,2oo, and the capital invested in the trade is over ^50,000. 

 Rossendale derives a further benefit from the new Industry in the 

 large amount of money that is spent with other firms in the district 

 — felt manufacturers and others — not less a sum than _;^2,ooo per 

 month being paid over to them for goods supplied. In looking at 

 the whole circumstances of the trade, one cannot but admire the 

 enterprise that has been at its foundation and evolution, and the 

 dictum of Dean Swift naturally recurs to us, that they are greatly 

 deserving of esteem who, metaphorically speaking, make two 

 blades of grass to grow where only one grew before. 



The trade of Silk Weaving was at one time, near the beginning 

 of the century, followed to some extent in Rossendale ; so also 

 was the manufacture of Ginghams — a fabric having a cotton warp 

 and linen weft — but these never assumed proportions of any 

 magnitude, and at the present day are not found anywhere in the 

 locality. The Cotton Manufacture was destined to take deeper 

 root in the district ; and to this, the staple industry of our time, we 

 shall now direct attention. 



