the statement), being a large box with rude finger-keys on the top, outside; the great Cartoon gallery, containing a set of copies of the immortal Cartoons of Raphael; and lastly, the king's bedroom, in which is the gorgeous bed of gold and silver tissue, said to have cost 8,000l., and made for King James to rest in one night only. An act of magnificent loyalty! but one which, if it were to be taken by the nobles as a precedent, would doubtless make them wish kings' visits, like angels', to be "few and far between." In a colonnade there are some fine pieces of sculpture; a fountain nymph asleep, from Roma Vecchia, and a head of Antinous, from Hadrian's villa, &c. Quitting the mansion, we once more feel the fresh bracing air of the park playing about our brow. Sight-seeing, however worthy the objects, necessarily fatigues the mind by the continual calls made upon its admiration. Therefore well pleased do we stroll along one of the verdurous paths, careless which we choose, in the certainty of finding all delightful. And what a scene presently breaks upon us! We are on the rising ground that skirts a gentle valley; the green murmuring forest is behind and above, while before-woods and heaths, towns and villages, churches and mansions, stretch away toward the distant hills of Hampshire; but above all, reposing on a gentle swell of the ground, making the eye gleam with pleasure but to see it, and the heart reverentially glad but to hear its name, is Penshurst, the home of the Sydneys; fair enough, as we now see it, to have inspired the Arcadia of the poet, and solemn enough, in its gloomier hours, to have cherished the noble daring, the firm resolve, and the unflinching fortitude of the patriot.

Wilton house, in the county of Wilts, stands in a beautiful park at the entrance to the borough town of Wilton, about three miles from Salisbury. The country around it is level, and accordingly the seat is not distinguished for its commanding position or its picturesque neighborhood. But the solid magnificence of the house, the serenely beautiful aspect of its grounds, and above all, the inestimable treasures of art for which Wilton is so deservedly famous, give to it a deeper interest than many more happily-situated edifices can inspire. In the grounds are some fine cedars of Lebanon, and at one end of the gardens is a handsome piece of architecture, in the shape of a porch or gateway, of very beautiful proportions, with two rows of pillars, one above the other, and recesses containing busts. This was designed by Hans Holbein, and attached formerly to the front of the building erected under the superintendence of that distinguished artist. This piece of architecture is all that remains of Holbein's work. From the appearance of colors it exhibits, it must have been formerly painted. The river Wily passes through the park, and is spanned near the house by a stately bridge.

The approach is through a Roman triumphal arch, surmounted by an equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius. The house stands on the site of the once noble monastery of Wilton, which was so distinguished as to give the rank of baroness to the abbess, a right enjoyed by only three other establishments of the same kind. On the dissolution of the religious houses by Henry VIII., the monastery lands were granted to William, first earl of Pembroke. There are no remains of the ancient edifice. Wilton house was begun in the reign of Henry VIII., and finished in the reign of Edward VI., the designs for the erection being made by the eminent artist Holbein. A portion of this was burnt, and subsequently rebuilt by Inigo Jones in a markedly different style.

The interior of Wilton is literally crowded with busts, statues, and pictures, collected chiefly by the munificent industry of the eighth earl, who first purchased in 1678 the well-known Arundel collection, then afterward obtained considerable portions of the collections of Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin, and lastly some busts from the Valetta gallery at Naples. In the hall are various family trophies and memorials, particularly some French suits of armor brought from the battle of St. Quentin, one of them belonging to Montmorency, constable of France, whom the earl of Pembroke made prisoner. From the hall we pass into a light and elegantlyproportioned corridor, which runs round all the four sides of the courtyard, with the doors of the different apartments of the mansion opening into it. Here nearly two hundred pieces of antique sculpture, many of them of almost incalculable value, are ranged in the order most admirably calculated for their appropriate display. The task of thus disposing them was intrusted to Mr. Westmacott, himself most honorably distinguished among modern sculptors. A portion of this corridor was built by the present earl, to whose taste and liberality Wilton is much indebted. We now

proceed to notice a few of the works that seem the most remarkable for their beauty or grandeur, or most interesting from any peculiar causes.

And first, of the busts: we may mention an aged faun, which, though mutilated, exhibits still the spirit of its composition; a female bust, of very elegant workmanship, called Marcia Ottalica; a young faun looking eagerly round, the conception of which is as strikingly original as the execution is finished and delicate; and lastly, a very pleasing bust of Lucilla, daughter of Antoninus, and wife of Lucius Verus. Among the statuary are many pieces of workmanship, of a grand and beautiful character. One of them is a tomb or sarcophagus found near Athens by some travellers. It is about six feet four inches in length, two in breadth, and two in height, including the raised lid or cover. On the latter the seasons are allegorically represented in bas-relief, and on the tomb the history of the descent of Ceres to the earth, the recovery of Triptolemus, the youthful son of Celeus, king of the Eleusinians, and his education by the goddess, to fit him for the mission on which he finally departed, namely, to teach the world the art of agriculture. A Greek inscription informs us that it is "dedicated to the infernal gods, to Aurelius Epaphroditus, her husband, by Antonia Valeria." But perhaps the most extraordinary remains of antique art is the mosaic work, which has no known parallel. This is an alto-relievo of mosaic, thirteen feet high and sixteen wide! It represents Hercules resting one arm on the stump of a tree, on which is thrown the lion's skin, his hair adorned with a golden bandeau; behind him rises the branch of a tree with golden fruit, around which is twined a large serpent. The eyes of Hercules are fixed upon a female figure opposite, one of the daughters of the Hesperides, who is holding a branch with three golden apples, and who is also gazing upon him with deep interest. The design is simple, excellent, and noble; and the colors, the proportions, and the attitudes, show the workmanship to be equal to the design. The small square pieces of mosaic are pressed nearly close together into a white mass, and are disposed with so much art, that the white interstices have the appearance of a close net-work covering the entire composition. The other sculptures to which our notice must be confined area round marble altar of Bacchus, adorned with spirited bas-reliefs, and bearing an urn with a relief of Apollo and two other figures, one of them a genus bringing an offering to the god; a bas-relief of Jupiter enthroned, with the eagle on the left hand, and before him a naked youth preparing an offering, who is placing his hands in a vessel supported on a stand of simple but elegant form; a large sarcophagus representing three events in the life of Meleager; Cupid bending his bow, an exquisitely beautiful piece of sculpture; a gigantic sarcophagus representing the death of Niobe's family, containing no less than twenty figures; colossal statues of Bacchus and the Roman god Vertumnus, the latter dipensing from a cornucopia grapes, fruit, and corn; and lastly, an urn bearing in slight relief the figure of a female mourner of the most exquisite beauty.

The paintings are hung in different apartments of a noble suite of rooms well calculated to display them to advantage, and include the works of many of those great masters whose names illumine the pages of the history of art. An antique painting of the divinities Minerva, Hercules, Diana, Apollo, Ceres, Vertumnus, and Juno, is remarkable for its bold style. "Judith with the head of Holofernes, and her maid," is a carefully-executed picture, by Andrea Mantegna. The attitude and features of Judith are gracefully noble. There are two elegant, highly-finished, small, whole-length portraits of Francis II. and Charles IX. of France, by Zucchero ; and a spirited waterfall, by Salvator Rosa.

The most valuable part of the collection is that which includes the pictures of the Dutch and German schools, among which are various great works, particularly by Rubens, Holbein, and Vandyck. The Assumption of the Virgin, who is surrounded by cherubim, and borne upward by angels, is a rich but small picture, by Rubens, who afterward painted the same design, on a large scale, for a church at Antwerp. There is also a fine Landscape at Sunset, by the same painter; and a copy of one of his works, in which Christ and John are introduced as children with a lamb. There is a masterly portrait of the father of Sir Thomas More, by Holbein; and a very celebrated painting, by Vandyck, of Philip, earl of Pembroke, and his family. This is the largest of all Vandyck's works, measuring no less than eleven feet in height by nineteen in breadth, and includes many figures. It has been injured by fire, and by the attempt to restore it. There is also a great number of other pictures by men

more or less distinguished, which amply merit a less summary and more individualized notice than this hasty allusion.

At Wilton Sir Philip Sydney wrote his "Arcadia," and a still greater poet, Massinger, first saw the light.

CHAPTER XVI.

MANUFACTURING TOWNS.

A LARGE part of the population of England is collected in cities and towns of considerable size. Some of these may be classed under the separate heads of manufacturing and commercial towns, while others are either university towns, naval stations, cathedral towns, or towns for summer recreation or the residence of persons in independent circumstances. The cities and towns of England are of great number, and, though often of plain exterior, include an immense amount of wealth. The prevalence of brick in domestic buildings, and of the smoke arising from coal fires, gives a peculiar character to English towns. In all, however, there are numerous churches and other public edifices, and in some there are many streets built of stone. For an account of the capital of England, which unites the manufacturing, commercial, educational, and leisurely characters in one, we must refer to a future page. At the head of the manufacturing towns stands Manchester, the chief seat of the cotton manufacture of England. This town is situated on the river Irwell, in the southeast district of Lancashire, at the distance of 182 miles from London. Inclusive of Salford, a separate municipality on the other side of the Irwell, and also comprehending a few connected villages, Manchester contained in 1831 a population of 279,398, now probably increased to 350,000. The ground on which it stands is a perfect level, and, from whatever side it is approached, its crowd of spires, towers, manufactories, and warehouses, appears mingling with the smoke that hangs over it. The older part of the town clusters round the collegiate church, an elegant and spacious structure of the time of Henry VII., or extends in the ancient street called Deansgate. The busiest commercial street is Market street, and the most elegant is Mosley street. The town contains most of the usual public buildings to be found in one of its size-a town-hall, infirmary, prison, exchange, &c., besides several institutions of a literary and scientific character; and several of these buildings, particularly the first two, are of remarkable elegance. A botanic garden, about a mile from the outskirts of the town, is a great ornament, and forms a delightful as well as instructive place of recreation. There is also a zoological garden.

The factories of Manchester exceed a hundred and twenty in number: they employ between thirty and forty thousand persons, and steam enginery equal in power to five thousand horses. About four fifths of the cotton manufacture of the kingdom centres in Lancashire, and of this a large proportion is confined to Manchester. The woollen, linen, and silk trade, particularly the last, and many smaller manufactures, as of hats, pins, umbrellas, &c., are also carried on to a large extent in this town. It may be added, that the making of machinery has of late years become a thriving trade in Manchester.

Manchester is connected with its port Liverpool by a railway, and, by means of the Irwell and numerous canals, it transports and receives goods to and from other parts of the kingdom.

The above may be considered as an outline of this great seat of manufacturing and commercial industry. Fully to describe the bustle of wagons and human beings on its streets, to detail the vast mercantile transactions in which it is engaged, or describe its numerous factories and workshops of various kinds, would require a separate volume. In the ways of details, we can only afford room for a description of two or three working establishments, which we find in a neat local volume, entitled Manchester as it is :and

Many of the mills are immense buildings, raised to the height of six, seven,

eight stories, erected at an expense of many thousand pounds, and filled with machinery costing as many more. The capital sunk in a single mill will sometimes be fifty thousand pounds, and frequently is as much as one hundred thousand pounds. Some of the mills contain nearly two thousand hands. A visit to one of the largest mills, if an introduction can be procured, is a gratifying treat. The rooms are kept in the most perfect state of cleanliness, and the strictest order and regularity prevail. Every operation is performed by rule, and the subdivision of labor is carried out in the most minute manner. The mills and factories are of various sorts, namely, cotton spinning-mills, silk spinning-mills, woollen spinning-mills and factories, small ware factories, and power-loom weaving factories.

Among the cotton mills, one of extraordinary extent, belonging to Messrs Birley & Co., is situated in the suburb called Chorlton-upon-Medlock. It consists of a group of buildings, upon which, including machinery, several hundred thousand pounds have been sunk. The number of hands employed by this firm is one thousand six hundred, whose wages annually amount to the sum of forty thousand pounds. The amount of moving power is equivalent to the labor of three hundred and ninety-seven horses. The number of spindles in the mills is about eighty thousand. The annual consumption of raw cotton is about four millions pounds weight! The annual consumption of coal is eight thousand tons. It will perhaps excite surprise in a person unacquainted with the nature of machinery, when informed that the annual consumption of oil, for the purpose of oiling the machinery, is about five thousand gallons; and the consumption of tallow, for the same purpose, five thousand pounds. The annual cost of gas is six hundred pounds. One room alone, belonging to this firm, contains upward of six hundred power-looms. Besides the hands engaged in the cotton department, the following description of mechanics are employed in this mill: millwrights, mechanics, joiners, bricklayers, plumbers, painters, moulders, turners, and smiths.

The establishment in which the fabric is manufactured for waterproof clothing, such as "Mackintosh Cloaks," belongs to Messrs Birley & Co., and is a part of their concern. The number of hands employed in this business varies from two hundred to six hundred. The immense amount of two hundred fifty thousand pounds weight of India-rubber is annually consumed in the process of manufacture, to dissolve which one hundred thousand gallons of spirits are employed.

In the establishments called small-ware mills, of which there are several in Manchester, the articles of cotton, worsted, and silk tapes, are very extensively manufactured. To trace the various processes a piece of tape passes through, and the various employments it affords, before it comes into the market, is a very curious and interesting occupation. Beginning, then, with the first commercial operations. The cotton used in the manufacture of tapes, having been warehoused in Liverpool, is sold on account of the importer, and brought to the order of the manufacturer by cotton-brokers. It is conveyed by canal or railway to Manchester; and when delivered at the works of the purchaser, is weighed, assorted, mixed, and spread, with a view to obtain equality in the staple. It is then taken to the willowing-machine to be opened and rendered flocculent; thence it is transferred to the blowing-machine, which cleanses it from dust and makes it feathery. Attached to the blower is a lapping apparatus, by which the cotton is taken up and laid in a continuous fleece upon a roller, in order that it may be conveniently carried to the carding-engine, there to be made into a fleece of the most equable texture possible; thence it is handed to the drawing-frame, where it is blended with the production of all the carding-engines connected with the particular set or system to which it belongs. It is next passed through the slubbing-frame, afterward through the jack or rovingframe, and then through the throstle or spinning-frame, upon which it is made into yarn or twist. From the throstle, the yarn, if intended for warp, is forwarded to the winding-frame, but if intended for weft, to the reeler; afterward, that which is wound is delivered to the warper, that which is reeled, to the pin-winder. The weaver next operates upon it, passes it through the loom, rubs up the tape, and consigns it to the taker-in, who examines the fabric, and transfers it to the putter-out, who sends it to the bleacher. When bleached, it is handed to the scraper, whose business it is to take out the creases, and open the tape, by running it under and over iron-scrapers. This having been done, the piece is put through the calender, when it is pressed between hot bowls and rendered smooth and glossy. It is next taken to the lapping department, where it is neatly folded by young women, after which