106 



/Selections. [No. 7, new series. 



ers, ribands, and green boughs, they danced round it to their rustic 

 music, and sang a hymn of thanksgiving for the blessing of the 

 brine. This old custom was discontinued about the middle of the 

 last century, for the blessing which they celebrated was fast leav- 

 ing them. In 1810* one salt-work only existed in the town, and 

 that is now, I am told, done entirely away with and the pit closed. 

 But while Nantwich has been thus descending in the scale, Mid- 

 dlewich and Northwich have been increasing in importance ; and 

 along the lines of water-communication, the rivers Weaver and the 

 Grand Trunk Canal, which runs parallel with the river Wheelock, 

 other places have sprung up from time to time. Of these the 

 most important appear to be, Winsford on the Weaver consider- 

 ably below Nantwich, Marston and Winnington on the same stream 

 in the immediate neighbourhood of Northwich, and Anderton 

 somewhat nearer the river's mouth ; whilst on the Wheelock, in 

 the vicinity of Sandback, several works of great consequence have 

 been established. A few statistics will show the immense in- 

 crease which this branch of manufacture has undergone within a 

 -comparatively short period. Within the ten years from 1800 to 

 1810, the amount of salt produced in Northwich is said to have 

 doubled, and the annual average of white or manufactured salt 

 sent down the Weaver from Winsford and Northwich during that 

 period was 139,317 tons;f this appears to have been the entire 

 amount shipped on the Weaver, and is therefore comparable with 

 the total quantity of white saltj (as distinguished from rock salt) 

 which was carried down that river in the year 1832, w r hich amount- 

 ed to 383,669 tons, and which by the year ending April 5, 1856, 

 had increased to 709,514 tons. With this, other accounts agree ; 

 for Lyson states that in 1805-1806, the total annual produce of 

 the Cheshire brine-pits, those of Nantwich and Frodsham excepted, 

 was 16,590 tons; whilst at the present time single manufacturers, 

 such as Mr. Blackwell of Wheelock, and Messrs. Ray of Wins- 

 ford, produce respectively 70,000 tons, and from 50,000 to 60,000 

 tons of salt per annum. 



* Lyson's Magna Britannia, Vol, II. , part II., p. 703. 

 f Ibid. 



X Ure's Dictionary of Ar's and Manufactures, 3rd edit., p= 1091. 



