Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume II.djvu/177

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long previous to that happy event; the wildness

and extent of the tract affording such opportunities of atrocity in these protected criminals, as obliged the legislature to interfere and extinguish the right. The appearance of coal announced an approach to the Potteries; a valley to the left, called Kidsgrove, deep and dark with wood, had to lament the de- struction of all its picturesque beauty by the intro- duction of the black and nasty apparatus accompa- nying coal-mines, several of which, belonging to Mr. Gilbert, are worked here; one to the depth of five hundred and forty feet. The neighbouring manufactories must, doubtless, render these works very productive; as the Potteries, (whose con- sumption of coal is immense) commencing near this Dla.ce, extend through a tract of several miles, thickly sown with houses, and resembling the suburbs of a large city.

Burslem, through which we passed to Etruria and Newcastle, has the honour of being parent to this long range of manufacturing tow ns and villages. for cemuries back the butter-p r Ai (a species of earthern-ware for preserving butter j were made here, before a single vessel was moulded in its neieiibourhood. In the course of time, ik articles he manufactory became more various, but the
 * ac:s were coarse and clumsy, made cut i

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