520 General Results of a Gardening Tour : — 



acquire the art of working in metals ; but who, having acquired 

 skill in any one metallic manufacture, can easily change from 

 it to another, as the state of th^ market may require. It is 

 obvious that this gives these workmen not only a command of 

 the market, but also a command of employment, and a certain 

 influence over their employers : the employers, in fact, can no 

 more do without the workmen, than the workmen can without 

 the employers. These circumstances, together with the gene- 

 ral prevalence of school education about Birmingham, account 

 for the very superior intelligence of the artisans of that dis- 

 trict. The unity of feeling and purpose, in the Birmingham 

 districts, between the masters and the men, will perhaps be 

 better understood, when we state that the greater number 

 of the masters have risen from the condition of workmen. 

 If ever any grand national movement should take place, 

 it will probably be made, and made with effect, by the men of 

 Birmingham. 



Man in the hilly and mineral districts of Derbyshire is 

 naturally more active, hardy, and vigilant than in the low and 

 rich manufacturing and agricultural districts, because he has 

 more to contend with ; and the same may be said of man amid 

 the mountains of Cumberland and Westmoreland ; adding to 

 the character of the people in the latter instances a degree of 

 simplicity and sincerity, from their comparatively slight inter- 

 course with strangers, and the absence of manufactures and 

 commercial pursuits. 



Having thus slightly touched on those natural circumstances 

 in the countries passed through, which constitute the found- 

 ation of all artificial improvements, we shall adopt a different 

 order from what we did in our last article, and notice general, 

 territorial, social, and domestic improvements, before entering 

 on the condition of country residences, and the state of agri- 

 culture, planting, gardening, and gardeners ; our retrospective 

 comparisons always having reference to the year 1805, except 

 when otherwise mentioned. 



Roads, though they have in many places been materially 

 improved in the line of direction, as well as in the mode of 

 formation, are still lamentably deficient in both. The improve- 

 ments have chiefly been confined to the main roads, but even 

 these have not been improved to an equal extent in all places, 

 and hills are tolerated in some districts that would not be 

 permitted in others. In certain beautiful tracts of country, 

 which would admit of roads perfectly level, they are carried 

 over hills and through hollows, without regard to natural 

 inequalities ; while the same expense, or very little more, 

 would have carried the route round these, and formed a road 



