Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/672

600 toughness short pieces of fibrous material may be intro duced. The articles are shaped from the composition by stamping in stamps or presses, and then varnished and polished. Messrs Green, Cadbury, & Richards, Birmingham, manu facture a linen button called &quot;The very Button&quot;(Shakespeare), in addition to others of innumerable kinds, and studs for shirts, collars, and wristbands, not only of plain materials but of gold and silver and jewelled. They employ about 400 hands, and turn out weekly from 10,000 to 15,000 gross ( 1 2 dozen to the gross) of their linen buttons. The pro prietors of this establishment take great interest in the welfare of their workpeople, and few of the adults have been in their employment less than from eight to eighteen years. There is a sick club in connection with the works, and a library containing at present about 1000 volumes. Fines are inflicted for certain irregularities ; these, how ever, are not appropriated by the firm, but are expended, half in the purchase of books, and half as a contribution to the sick club. The following is a comparative statement of the number of button manufactories at the localities where these articles are principally made, taken from the Directories of 1875:— London, 58 : Birmingham, 161 ; Paris, 140; Berlin, 49; Hamburg, 5; Darmstadt, 3; Offenbach on the Maine, 3; Lubeck, 2 ; Barmen (Prussia), 27 ; Elberfeld, 9 ; Breslau, 2 ; Liidenschied (Westphalia), 14 ; Stuttgart, 6 ; Vienna metal, 15; porcelain, 5; shirt, 6; silk, 11; Brussels, 5; New York city, 19; Brooklyn (N.Y.), 3; Philadelphia, 13; Waterbury (Conn.), 8; Boston (Mass.), 3; Attle- borough (Mass.), 3; Springfield (Mass.), 2; Newark (N. Jersey), 4.

1em  BUXTON, a market-town and fashionable watering- place of England, in the county of Derby, 31 miles N.W. of Derby, and 160 from London, connected with Derby by the Buxton and Rowsley extension line, and with Manchester by the Stockport, Disley, and Buxton Piailway. It occupies a high position, being 900 feet above the sea-level, in an open hollow, surrounded at a distance by hills of considerable elevation, except on the S. E. side, where the Wye, which, rises aoout half a mile off, makes its exit. The old town (High Buxton) is rather higher than the new, and consists of one wide street, and a considerable market place with an old cross With the exception of some good inns and lodging-houses, the buildings in this part are commonplace. The new town is of a more elegant char acter, and has been greatly extended within the last twenty or thirty years. The crescent is a fine range of buildings in the Doric style, erected by the duke of Devonshire in 1779-86, at a cost of 120,000. It contains hotels, a ball- room, a bank, a library, and other establishments, and the surrcmnding open grounds have been laid out in terraces and gardens under the control of the Buxton Improvements Company. The Old Hall Hotel at the west end of the crescent is remarkable as the site of the mansion built by the earl of Shrewsbury in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, which was the residence of Queen Mary of Scotland when she visited the town. The new church was erected in 1812 by the duke of Devonshire; the edifice which it superseded has since been restored. The mineral waters of Buxton, the most noted in England, are particularly efficacious in cases of rheumatism and gout. There are numerous public and private baths, the most important of which are those in the new and spacious establishment at the eastern end of the crescent. The springs supply hot and cold water at a very short distance of each other, flowing at the rate of 60 gallons a minute. The former possesses a uniform temperature of 82 Fahr., and the principal substances in solution are, according to the analysis of Dr Muspratt in 1860 carbonate of lime, carbonate of magnesia, chloride of sodium, chloride of calcium, and silica. There is also a chalybeate spring known as St Anne s well, situated at the S.W. corner of the crescent, the water of which when mixed with that of the other springs proves purgative. The Devonshire Hospital, formerly knoAvn as the Bath Chanty, is a benevolent institution, supported entirely by voluntary subscriptions, for the reception and free treatment of poor patients from any part of the country. About 900 or 1000 persons are annually indebted to its founders. The Buxton season extends from June to October, and during that period the town is visited by thousands annually. The public walks are tastefully laid out. The Cavendish Terrace, 500 yards long, forms a fine promenade ; there are excellent drives in the park, which occupies more than 100 acres, and the neighbourhood of the town is rich in objects of interest. Of these the chief are Poole s Hole, a vast stalac tite cave, about half a mile distant, now lighted with gas for the convenience of visitors ; Diamond Hill, which owes its name to the quartz crystals which are not unfrequent in its rocks ; and Chee Tor, a remarkable cliff, on the banks of the Wye, 300 feet high. Ornaments are manufac tured by the inhabitants from alabaster and spar ; and excellent lime is burned at the quarries near Poole s Hole. Other places of interest, but more distant, are the caverns and mines of Castleton, Haddon Hall, and Chatsworth, the seat of the duke of Devonshire. The population in 1871 within the jurisdiction of the Local Board of Health was 3717 ; but the fluctuating population during summer varies from 4000 to 5000 at a time.

Plan of Buxton.

1em