10 
Tour in England. 
and stronger, the Leicester predominated. The 
horned beasts were various, embracing as with 
us all sorts and colors, but among the more 
particular graziers, high crosses of the Durham, 
the pure Hereford, and Devon and Scotch 
black cattle were prefered. 
At the different stations, we were constantly- 
taking up stout ruddy faced farmers, in neat 
drab gaiters or white top boots, all bound for 
the Liverpool show. Their conversation was 
about their own affairs, cattle, crops, weather, 
corn-laws, and politics, and on this subject we 
iQund them nearly all Tories. As the track is 
double, to add a little more variety to the scene, 
we met long trains of passenger coaches bound 
up, shooting by us like a rocket, and in the 
rear, open cars filled with sheep, pigs, and 
poultry, and covered cars of all sorts of mer¬ 
chandise for the London market. Thus passed 
four hours or a little more, when Birmingham, 
a full hundred miles from London, hove in 
sight, filled with its numerous manufacturing 
chimneys, rising like so many shot towers from 
eighty to perhaps one hundred and seventy feet 
high, and belching forth huge columns of 
smoke, completely enveloping the town. 
After dispatching a hasty meal, we deter¬ 
mined to make use of our brief stay here, in 
seeing what we could of the great Brummagem 
button manufactory, but we had proceeded only 
a short distance up one of the principal streets, 
when the high wind saluted us with such a 
volume of dust, gas, and coal smoke, that we 
were literally choked, and had to wheel round 
and gasp for breath. This we found would 
mever do, so calling a cab, the driver of which, 
respectfully touching his hat, professing to be 
up to all the lions of the place, “could show 
the gem’en the town ’all, where vos the most 
hextror’ny horgan in the vurld, as halso the 
Woxall, as halso.” He was going onto repeat 
with great volubility, when we cut him short 
by saying, that he might let us see first, and 
then talk afterwards. 
To one who for the last fortnight had been 
rambling in her paradises of parks, and the 
spacious and magnificent streets of the west- 
end of London, Birmingham would appear but 
a tame place indeed; its buildings, however, 
are mostly good and substantial, and some of 
the public edifices and churches worthy of com¬ 
mendation. Of these last, Trinity Chapel in 
the pointed style pleased us most; we also ad- 1 
mired the Free Grammar School, which was i 
built at an expense of 40,000/. The Town ' 
Hall is erected after the manner of a Roman < 
Temple. It rises from a lofty basement, and i 
is adorned with fluted columns, being two . 
hundred and sixty six feet by one hundred and 
four, and eighty three high, two-thirds or more i 
■of these dimensions within, constitutes a noble 
‘saloon, where the great National musical fest- 
jivals are held. The organ is one of the larg¬ 
est in Europe, and certainly a meeting here by 
the musical elite of the world, must be some¬ 
thing worth attending. Missionary and other 
I public meetings are also held here, and we 
jthink the room admirably adapted to the pur¬ 
poses for which it was formed. From thence 
we proceeded to some of the show rooms of 
the great manufacturers, the displays of which 
were rich and varied, and glad enough were 
we, that no ladies were of our party to admire 
with us, or our purses might have been light¬ 
ened rather more than a sober afterthought 
would have found satisfactory. The model in 
bronze of the famous Warwick vase is wonder¬ 
ful, the original being a chef tfouvre of Grecian 
art, it holds one hundred and sixty three gallons. 
“Now Cabman, you have shewm us the best 
of the town, we have heard much of the mise¬ 
ry of manufacturing places, pray let us next 
see the worst.” 
“The gem’en bees from Lun’un?” 
“Yes.” 
“Then, said he, with a crack of his whip, and 
knowing nod of his head, “weze beat St. Giles 
and Vapping,* and gives um twenty.” 
We thought if he could, he must be a genius 
so mounting below and he aloft away we whirl¬ 
ed. We soon plunged into narrow filthy lanes, 
where every other tenement was a grogery, and 
certainly such squalid misery as w r e there saw, 
we think London would find it difficult to match, 
and we emerged from it overcome, faint, and 
heart sick at the disgusting wretchedness that 
we there beheld, and yet we believe that intern -s 
gerance was the main cause of all. 
We had quite enough now of a manufactur¬ 
ing town, and were again glad to be careering 
over the fresh green country, although the road 
was leading to Manchester, another of Eng¬ 
land’s huge workshops. Along the borders of 
Lancashire, miserable peaty wastes intervened, 
more or less overflowed by the branches of .the 
Mersey, and what soil was under cultivation! 
Along our route was a hard and almost barren 
clay; it was principally in grass, and patches of 
oats and potatoes, the latter crop being cultivated 
by the poor manufacturing population of the 
country, and but a sad return they must have 
got for their labor. So tenacious and wet was 
the soil, that trenches of eighteen inches or 
two feet wide, and of a corresponding depth 
were cut by the spade every three to nine feet, 
and the excavations from them thrown into the 
middle of their narrow lands, in order to round 
* St. Giles and Wapping in London, are the Five 
Points and Corlaers Hook of New York. 
