458 THE BRITISH ISLES. 



Nottingham, Derby, and Tiverton arc the principal centres for the produc- 

 tion of machine-made hice, whilst pillow lace is largely turned out in tlie counties 

 of Devonshire, Buckinghamshire, Uxi'ordshire, and Bedfordshire. The art of 

 makino- lace is taught in all the dame schools of these districts, and is cultivated 

 as a domestic industry. 



The hosiery trade is carried on both in factories and in the cottages of the 

 workers. Leicestershire is the centre of the woollen hosiery manufacture ; 

 Nottingham turns out cotton, merino, and silk hosiery ; and Hinckley common 

 cotton woods. The elastic-web trade, which combines india-rubber with cotton, 

 silk, or wool, is limited to two towns, viz. Loughborough, in Leicestershire, and 

 Coventry, in Warwickshire.* 



Hardly inferior in importance to the textile industries is the manufacture 

 of hardwares, and of all kinds of ware in which metals are employed. It embraces 

 a wide range of objects, from pins and steel pens to powerful machinery, from 

 nails to heavy ships' anchors. Hand-made wares are almost entirely manufactured 

 in the Black Country, to the west of Birmingham, where Dudley, Cradley, and 

 Halesowen are the great nail-making towns. The men, women, and children 

 employed on hand-made wares work long hours and earn little, and their life is of 

 the hardest and most cheerless. Far more prosperous are the workers in the nail 

 factories, and still more those employed in the making of anchors. 



The manufacture of locks is almost entirely confined to Walsall, W^olverhampton, 

 and Willenhall, in South Staffordshire, and each of these towns is noted for a par- 

 ticidar kind of lock. Most of the men employed in this branch of industry 

 work at home. Walsall is, moreover, the principal centre for the manufacture of 

 saddlers' ironmongery. 



Pins are principally made in Birmingham, and in no other trade has time- 

 saving machinery been introduced with greater effect. Redditch, in Worcester- 

 shire, is the centre of the needle trade, which was first introduced by Germans. 

 The manufacture of cutlery employs between forty and fift}^ thousand people, of 

 whom the majority belong to Sheffield, Birmingham, and Wolverhampton. Shef- 

 field knives are known throughout the world, but the high reputation of English 

 tools has not been able, in every market of the world, to triumph over the very keen 



♦ Textile industries of the United Kingdom (1875 and 1879) : — 



