Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume I.djvu/115

. So great indeed are the profits attending this speculation, that the value of such property as has lime-stone upon it has increased within these very few years in an incredible proportion, two thousand pounds having been offered for a garden in the town of less than half an acre in dimensions, on account of the valuable limestone below its surface.

Taking the road to Lichfield we had an opportunity of examining with more attention these sources of riches to the town of Walsall. A little to the right of the turnpike, close adjoining to the road, is a group of open quarries, called Walsall lime-pits, belonging to Mr. Griffiths of that town, on a spot of ground that twenty years ago made part of a gentleman's park. Here the lime-stone is found a few feet below the surface of the earth quarried out, and partly burned on the spot and partly sold in its raw state. A pump, worked by a wheel of simple and ingenious construction, clears the pits of the water to which they are liable; and the Wirley and Essington Canal, which passes at no great distance from the works, affords a cheap water-carriage to the most distant parts.

A quarter of a mile further on the turnpike-road is another great lime-stone work, worked in a different manner to the former ones. This lies, like