STAFFOEDSHIEE. 



241 



The Dove joins the Trent a few miles below Burton. In its upper course it 

 flows through a narrow dale, where umbrageous woods, naked rocks, caverns, 

 and a sparkling rivulet combine to form some of the most picturesque scenery in 

 England. The Churnet is tributary to the Dove, and hardly yields to it in 

 romantic beauty. On its banks rises Alton Towers, the princely mansion of the 

 Earl of Shrewsbury and Talbot. Higher up in the valley limestone is quarried 

 and iron ore won. Leek is a considerable town near the source of the Churnet, 

 where silk-thread spinning is extensive!}^ carried on. Cheadle, in the moorlands 

 to the west of the Churnet, is a small market town. Uttoxeter is the principal 

 town on the Lower Dove. The inhabitants engage in the manufacture of clock 

 cases and agricultural machinery, and in cork-cutting. 



There now remains to be noticed the great manufacturing and mining district 

 in South Staffordshire known as the " Black Country." Though hardly 150 



Fig- 118. — Lichfield OATiiEnRAi,. 



square miles in extent, this district (including the adjoining town of Birmingham, 

 which is virtually its capital) supports more than a million inhabitants. It owes 

 its prosperity to its mineral treasures. Coal, iron, the limestone required for fusing 

 it, and even the clay from which the bricks for lining the furnaces are made, are 

 found here in juxtaposition. Many discoveries of great importance have been 

 made in the manufactories of this district, and especially in the Soho Works, near 

 West Bromwich. The coal found here is admirably adapted for the manufacture 

 of tar and aniline, and is largely used for these purposes. The principal coal seam 

 of the basin has a thickness of 10 yards, and has proved a source of great wealth. 

 Unfortunately it is nearly exhausted. There remain now only 100,000,000 

 tons of coal, which at the present rate of consumption will hardly suffice for 

 another century, at the close of which the manufacturers will have to migrate to a 

 more favoured locality. 

 124 



