272 PENCIL MANUFACTURERS. 



occasion, I mentioned were mainly owing, as 

 well as the erection of the new church, St. 

 John's, to the liberality of one family.* Few 

 towns indeed of its size are better provided with 

 educational means, at least for the working 

 classes, or have been more fortunate in having 

 persons to direct and carry them into effect. 

 As we approached the town last evening, by 

 the Grreta, the air, you remember, was scented 

 with sandal wood, and I accounted for it by the 

 manufactory we passed, one of pencils. This is 

 a branch of art peculiar to Keswick, owing its 

 origin to the mine of plumbago, or pencil lead, 

 which for a long period had been opened in an 

 adjoining dale Borrowdale ; an art so exten- 

 sively carried on at present, as to supply not only 

 the United Kingdom, but also a good portion of 

 the world with this useful article. If time per- 

 mitted, I fear it will not, we should go into 



* That of the Marshalls. To members of that family 

 the town is indebted for St John's church and its 

 endowment, the vicarage house, the schoolroom, and 

 library adjoining. The first vicar of St. John's, the 

 late Rev. Frederick Myers, connected with that family 

 by marriage, will long be gratefully remembered in 

 Keswick, for his energy and ability as a minister, his 

 benevolence and amiability as a man. 



