Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume I.djvu/116

 the one we have just described, on the eastern side of the road; for the dip is so rapid to the westward, that the borers have tried for it on that side of the road to a great depth, but tried in vain; it is called Moss-close mine, belongs to Messrs. Parsons and Lee, and employs twelve men. This is worked in the manner of a mine, (the rock a fine white lyas, lying one hundred and twenty feet below the surface of the ground) the material being blasted with gunpowder, and afterwards drawn up by an engine. The present work is a recent one, but the whole of the land round it, quarried to a great extent, and lying in hideous ruin and combustion, proves that the lime-stone had made an article of trade here many years ago. When brought to the surface, it is sold at the pit for 4s. 3d. the qr. or ten bushels.

Our route led us over Cannock wood, as it is called, a wide extent of heath, without a single vestige of those magnificent forests of oaks which clothed its face in former times, and occasioned its appellation. Its wildness, however, is tamed by the animation of commercial bustle perpetually seen on the numerous canals that intersect its surface, and afford communication between some of the greatest manufacturing towns in the kingdom.

We did not enter Lichfield, nine miles from Walsall, without impressions of great respect for a