Top Table of ContentsCHESHIRE is a maritime county, distinguished in its figure by the two horns which project to the east and west of its northern side. It is bounded on the north by a small part of the county of York, and by the rivers Mersey and Tame, which separate it from Lancashire; on the east by the counties of Derby and Stafford, the limits of which are marked for the most part by hills and streams; on the south by Shropshire, and a detached part of Flintshire, and the estuary of the Dee; and on the north-west by the Irish Sea. Its length from north to south is about thirty miles; its extreme breadth from horn to horn almost sixty, but across its middle part not more than forty: its circumference is about one hundred and twelve miles, containing one thousand and fifty-two (1,052) square miles, and 673,280 statute acres. In size it ranks as the nineteenth English county, and in population as the twelfth.
SOIL and AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE. - If Mr. Holland be correct there are six hundred and twenty thousand acres in Cheshire cultivated, inclusive of parks and ornamental plantations. The commons, woods and waste lands are estimated at twenty-eight thousand acres, and the sea sands, between the Dee and Mersey, at ten thousand acres. The soil of this county, generally speaking, is composed of clay and sand: the former prevailing in the hundreds of Broxton, Wirral and Macclesfield, and the latter in the hundreds of Eddisbury, Northwich, Nantwich and Bucklow. Large tracts of peat moss and black moor land exhibit themselves in that part which lies upon the confines of Yorkshire and Derbyshire. The general appearance of the county is that of an extended plain, and is for the most part a flat country, whence it has obtained the name of 'the Vale Royal of England'. Although the surface of Cheshire is stated to be characteristically level, it must not thence be inferred to be deficient in varied beauty and picturesque landscape, as some topographers have unfairly written; on the contrary, many parts of Cheshire possess high claims to the notice of the artist and the admirer of diversified scenery, and from the several prominences may be contemplated nature clothed both in magnificent and simple garbs.
SALT and CHEESE have been considered the staple commodities of this county, both of them being exported to a great amount. The annual average weight of rock-salt for exportation, for the purpose of fish-caring, &c., sent down the Weaver during twenty years, was estimated at upwards of 55,000 tons; and the annual average of white salt, for the like period, is stated at about 140,000 tons, chiefly for exportation, the fisheries and colonies. The principal pits are at Wheelock, Lawton, Roughwood, Winsford, Middlewich, Anderton, Betchton, near Northwich, Nantwich, and Frodsham; these several works give employment to upwards of 3,000 hands. The quantity of cheese taken off by the London market, annually, is said to be upwards of 14,000 tons; Bristol and York, 8,000 tons; besides large quantities sent to Scotland, Ireland, &c.; added to which, the home consumption, and that of the immediate well-populated neighbourhood, must take off a considerable weight. The other productions of this prolific county are potatoes, (which are cultivated to much advantage), corn, millstones, timber, &c. Cheshire has ever been classed amongst the counties of England that boast a salubrious climate; not any particular disease is known to prevail in it; and, although subterranean labour employs a great number of its inhabitants, instances of extreme longevity are as numerous as in other healthful counties of a like population.
MANUFACTURES and MINERALS. - The manufactures of Cheshire are very extensive, and important in their character; the cotton trade, and the introduction of machinery, having combined to raise it to a station of consequence amongst the manufacturing counties of England. Stockport, a populous and flourishing town, participates largely in all the branches of the cotton trade; Macclesfield and Congleton have extensive silk factories; great numbers of hats are made in some of the towns, whilst in others are works for smelting copper and making brass, and the perfecting machinery of various kinds applicable to the different manufactures. The veins of metal which have been discovered and worked in this county, are those of copper and lead, at Alderley Edge, where also is found cobalt; lead and copper ore have likewise produced profit from the mines at Mottram; and those metals, as well as iron, have been found in other parts, though in veins not rich enough to inspire speculation. Coal is found in great plenty in numerous parts of the county, particularly on its north-east side, in the townships of Adlington, Bollington, Hurdsfield, Norbury, Pott-Shrigley, Poynton, Worth, &c.: these collieries supplying Manchester, Macclesfield, Stockport &c. with this article, now so essential to manufacturing purposes. At Runcorn, Manley and Great Bebbington are quarries of excellent freestone, large quantities of which are conveyed by the Duke of Bridgewater's canal to Manchester, Liverpool and Chester. Marl appears in every part of the county, and is used as a manure.
LANCASHIRE is a maritime and palatine county - in consequence eminently conspicuous as regards manufactures and population, and of immeasurable importance in its value to the revenue of the United Kingdom; between 53o 23' and 54o 25' north latitude, and between 2o 18' and 3o 7' west longitude. It is situated on the western coast, bounded on the north by the counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland, on the east by that of York, on the south by that of Cheshire - a projecting portion of the latter county separating it on the south-east side from the county of Derby. Its extreme length from north to south (including the hundred of Furness, which is detached on the north-west by a creek at the head of Morecambe Bay), is seventy-four miles; and its greatest breadth, which is at the southern end, about forty-five: its circumference is about two hundred and forty miles, and its area comprises one thousand eight hundred and thirty-one (1,831) square miles or 1,171,840 statute acres. In size it ranks as the sixth English county, and in population as the first.
SOIL, AGRICULTURE and CLIMATE. - The soil of Lancashire has several distinct characteristics according to local situation. In Lonsdale, on the borders of the sea, it is less productive perhaps than most other parts, being of a sandy marsh nature. The elevated region of the hills is chiefly moory, heathy and rocky; the flat tracts are may be generally described as loam or clay - gravel and peat being found, in various proportions, in all. The principal surface distinctions of soil are heath, moor, holme loam, clay, sand and moss, or peat; and the under strata are rock of different kinds, as grit or free-stone, blue-stone and lime-stone, fossil, coal, clay, marl, gravel and sand: the free-stone is of three descriptions - the red, white and yellow. The finest district in the county, both for situation and quality of land, is the whole space between the Mersey and the Ribble, and between the sea-coast and the first rising of the hills to the east; the rich grain land, termed 'the Fylde'; commences on the north bank of the Ribble, and stretches out to the south bank of the Lune. The soil of the northern portion of the county is generally dry - the more high and mountainous tracts being principally appropriated to sheep pasture, while the various declivities and valleys in which they terminate are devoted to grazing. Grass land is the most prevalent in the vicinity of towns; northward the dairy is frequently the object to which the attention of the farmer is particularly directed; and the Fylde, the Lune, and the Low Furness districts, are those where the cultivation of grain is especially attended to. The CLIMATE of Lancashire is humid, yet is the air generally pure and salubrious. On the northern and eastern boundaries, in the elevated and uncultivated regions, it naturally is cold and piercing; but in the more level and improved districts, particularly towards the south and west, it is mild and genial: and although the occupations of the great bulk of the inhabitants, in the manufacturing districts, may be considered unfavourable to health, yet, such is the influence of the atmospheric temperature, that as many instances of longevity occur in this county, in proportion to the amount of population, as in most other parts of the kingdom. As to the popular error of Lancashire being a peculiar depository of continuous or excessive rains, it is a delusion that can be satisfactorily dispelled, by reference to the meteorological observations of the average quantity of rain that annually falls in the different districts of England.
MANUFACTURES &c. - Under this head, unless many pages were devoted to it, justice could not be done to the vast subject: this work can only briefly notice the various branches that have excited the ingenuity and contributed to the wealth of the inhabitants of Lancashire and placed their county in so proudly prominent a position amongst the counties of England. Lancashire has prospered by all fabrics produced from the fleece, the labours of the silk-worm, and the culture of flax - but pre-eminently by the exhaustless bounty of the cotton tree. The earth, abounding with a mineral essentially necessary to the process of the various manufactures, has yielded up her riches to aid the industry of the artizan, and facilitate his labours. The cotton trade forms the staple of the county. Inkles, tapes, checks, woollens, baizes, linens, fine fabrics of cotton, silks (increased within a short period to an almost incredible extent), and hats - all rank amongst the manufactures of this county. Calico printing, bleaching and dying are also established on a large scale; while for machine making, iron founding, and the production of locomotive and stationary steam engines of prodigious power, there are very large establishments. Wire drawing and paper making possess a due share of consequence; and the glass and earthenware manufactures, the former in particular, enjoy a fair portion of the general prosperity. In these various branches are employed immense numbers of persons; it has been estimated that not fewer than one hundred and fifty thousand individuals are engaged, in Lancashire, in the cotton trade alone. Immense quantities of cotton yarn are exported for the supply of the manufacturers of France, Germany, Switzerland, America, &.; and the amount of manufactured piece goods exported from this county is likewise prodigious. Manchester is the principal seat of the cotton trade. The commerce of this shire, like its manufactures, and in conjunction with them, has augmented with unexampled rapidity, and attained a consequence unequalled by that of any other county, Middlesex alone excepted. Besides the leading port of Liverpool, there are the minor ones of Lancaster, Ulverstone and Preston, each of which possesses a coasting trade. Great part of the foreign commerce of Lancashire, of which Liverpool is the grand medium, consists in the exportation of the before noticed manufactures of the county, together with the woollens and cutlery of Yorkshire, salt from the mines of Cheshire, earthenware from the Potteries of Staffordshire, and hardware and numberless articles from Birmingham and other towns in Warwickshire: these for the most part are exported at Liverpool, to America and the West Indies, Africa and the East Indies, and to the continent of Europe, exclusive of the vast trade with Ireland. The imports consist of cotton, sugar, tobacco, rice, corn, timber, and a variety of other commodities, the productions of every civilized country and of all climates. The canal system of inland navigation is peculiarly extensive in this county, and, together with the newly formed railroads, which communicate at various points, facilitate and expedite this immense traffic in an astonishing degree.
MINES and MINERALS. - The most abundant and extensive of the mineralogical productions of this county is COAL - the most important and essential of all minerals to a manufacturing community. The southern part of the county presents a wide extended coal field, furnishing an abundant supply of fuel to the great manufacturing districts. This valuable mineral is produced more abundantly in the vicinity of Prescot, Newton, Bolton, Wigan and Oldham, than in the other parts of the shire. Near Wigan is obtained a beautiful species of coal, in appearance similar to black marble, of a peculiar bituminous quality, generally known by the name of 'cannel'. Throughout the western and southern districts of the county are found marl and sand-stones; millstone grit is supplied between Colne and Blackburn, and at other places; metalliferous lime-stone is the substratum of the soil between Lancaster and Kirby Lonsdale. The mountains of Furness furnish valuable roofing slate and lime-stone; indeed Lancashire abounds with slate, flag-stone, lime-stone, and free-stone for the purpose of building. Near Ulverstone is produced a peculiar and highly appreciated species of iron ore, yielding the best and most ductile description of that metal, particularly applicable to the purposes of wire drawers. In the neighbourhood of Coniston, and Muckle Gill, copper ore is obtained; and lead ore is found in the northern and eastern parts of the county, but not abundantly.
YORKSHIRE, a maritime county, is of far greater extent than any other of the English counties, and is thickly populated; but it is a striking fact, that Middlesex, which is nearly the smallest, including the capital, exceeds it in numbers. Yorkshire comprises 5,961 square miles, or 3,815,040 statue acres - extending from east to west more than ninety miles, and eighty from north to south; and is divided into three sections, respectively named the North, the East and the West Ridings. The boundaries of Yorkshire are, the counties of Durham and Westmoreland on the North; the German Ocean on the east; Lancashire, and part of Westmoreland, on the west; and on the south, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire.
SOIL, CLIMATE, and AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE. - The SOIL of the NORTH RIDING is a brownish clay and loam, and the hills along the coast abound with alum shale. The district of Cleveland, on the west side of the eastern moors, has a very fertile clay, and fine red sandy soil; the Vale of York, both in soil and fertility, is much varied; Swaledale, on each side of the river Swale, is extremely fertile. The eastern moorlands are a wild and extensive tract of mountain, occupying a space of land about twenty miles in length and fourteen in breadth; the surface of some of the higher hills is entirely covered with large freestones, and extensive morasses and peat bogs, highly dangerous to pass. The western moorlands are a part of that long range of mountains extending north from Stafford into Scotland. Of about 1,311,000 acres of land embraced by this Riding, about 443,000 are cultivated - the remainder being open fields and moors, woods and roads. Along the coast next the German Ocean the land is very hilly. The soil of the WEST RIDING varies from a deep strong clay, or loam, to the worst peat earth. The face of this portion of the county is also very irregular: the north and west parts are hilly and mountainous, but intersected with numerous vales; the rest of the district is flat. The contents of this Riding are about 1,568,000 square statute acres, having about 700,000 acres pasturage, and 350,000 arable. This division of the county is noted for the extent of its manufactures, for which it is every way admirably adapted, as well from the abundance of the raw materials, coals, &c., as from the means of conveying its produce and manufactures, by canals, and railways to all parts of the kingdom. In the EAST RIDING, the shore for fifteen miles round Flamborough is high; and behind that lies the sheep district of the Yorkshire Wolds, comprising upwards of 300,000 acres: the soil is a light loam, having a mixture of gravel. The country extending between the Wolds and the Ouse and Humber, to Hull, has a good fertile soil; and towards the Spurn Head, it is flat, with a strong soil. The produce and exports of this Riding are vast quantities of wool, grain, bacon, butter and cattle; of the latter, with horses, great numbers are bought at the York and Howden fairs by the London dealers. The horses of this part have long been noted for their excellence; the prevailing species are those attached to the coach and saddle. The horned cattle of this Riding, and indeed of the county generally, are not surpassed in number or quality, by those of any other division of England: there are also many descriptions of sheep bred, most of which are famous both for their size and goodness; great quantities of the Scotch breed are fed in the low part of the country. The contents of this Riding are about 819,200 square statute acres; having about 350,000 in pasturage, and 150,000 in arable. The gardens and orchards present no remarkable feature; large quantities of apples are sent from the North Riding to Leeds, and some from thence into Lancashire. In the northern division of the county are many nursery grounds; while in the West Riding much oak and timber is grown. The fine elevation of the Wolds have been ornamented at different points, by extensive plantations. The wastes in this county are very extensive, and towards the end of the last century (the eighteenth) were calculated to amount, in the whole, to 849,270 acres. The acreage of waste land since that period has been very considerably lessened by numerous enclosure acts, obtained both for the detached wastes and parts of the moorlands. The CLIMATE of Yorkshire is, on the whole, considered salubrious, although variable. In the North Riding, along the coast next the German Ocean, which is very hilly, it is bleak and cold; at the same time, the air is pure and bracing: upon the moors, also, as may be expected from their height, the cold is severely felt. In the West Riding the climate is in general moderate and pleasant, except in the eastern part, where damps and fogs frequently prevail. In the East Riding, that part adjacent to the sea, extending from the Humber to the North Riding, the air is very bleak, and the spring consequently backward; from the Spurn Head to Bridlington the shore is low, and the effect of the cold winds is not so injuriously experienced. The levels of the East and West Ridings enjoy a mild atmosphere, being sheltered from the east winds by the Wolds. In the vale of York the climate is mild and temperate, except near the moors, where the winds are cutting and severe. In the county generally the easterly winds prevail in the spring with considerable severity, and during a great part of the summer (sic).
MANUFACTURES, and MINES and MINERALS. - As a manufacturing district, Yorkshire must be acknowledged to be the second in the kingdom. The manufacture of woollen cloths of every description has been brought to such a degree of perfection, as to compete with the hitherto unrivalled productions of the West of England. The iron works, which contribute materially to the opulence of the county, are very extensive, and furnish employment to multitudes of mechanics, miners, &c. Sheffield is the ancient seat of the cutlery manufacture: every kind of article in cutlery at the present day is supplied by this town; besides joiners' tools of all denominations, plated works, Britannia metal goods, &c. The principal towns in the county in the woollen trade are Leeds, Bradford, Halifax, Wakefield and Huddersfield, with the whole district of Saddleworth: these places may be said to have almost monopolized the entire woollen manufacture of the kingdom; many towns of the West, once important and prosperous, have, in consequence dwindled into insignificance. At Barnsley the manufacture of linens is extensive; Dewsbury is famous for its blankets and flushings, as Rotherham is for its glass and iron works; while Hull, Whitby, Goole and Scarborough are celebrated commercial sea-ports, and have extensive yards for ship-building, &c., - the latter place being also noted for its medicinal waters. There are some towns in the county which partake with Lancashire in the cotton manufacture; others where carpets are made; and the city of York possesses a trade in glove making, and the manufacture of horn, ivory and tortoise-shell combs. The principal MINERAL PRODUCTIONS consist of copper, pyrites, copper combined with iron and sulphur, lead ores in great variety and abundance, ores of zinc, &c. The North and East Ridings abound with various sorts of stone for building, slate and limestone; and many parts of the county also enjoy very material advantages, and high importance, from the numerous coal-mines, which abundantly supply the various manufactories with fuel. The coasts between Bridlington Quay and Whitby, is covered with fossil remains; in the vicinity of the last-named town are extensive alum works.