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Gentleman's Magazine 1868 part 1 p.643
are each historical centres of the cloth, cotton, and
woollen trades, round which new towns are yearly - we may
almost say, daily - springing up. Witness the rise and
progress of Saltaire, which contains a population of 3000,
all dependent upon a single mill. Some of the most
interesting points in English social life arise from the
examination of our more scattered industrial pursuits, which
from their nature are localised in some particular district,
and give a peculiar stamp to those employed in them. The
lead mines of Alston, the copper mines of Anglesea, the
black country of South Stafford, the china clay of St.
Austell, the glass-works of the Tyne, the tin mines of
Botallack, the gold mines of Merionethshire, the slate
quarries of Penrhyn or Llanberis, and the ironworks of South
Wales, are each worthy of the close attention of the man of
science, or the student of race and character. Of all these
do the handbooks tell us, with a fulness that is wonderful,
considering the mulitplicity of subjects with which they
deal; nor do they omit the more limited, but equally
interesting specialities, such as the china works of
Worcester, the glove trade of Yeovil, or the marmalade
manufacture of Dundee; we even read of the little town of
Cumnock, in Ayrshire, which is devoted to snuff-boxes, and
that of Knockcrogherty, in Roscommon, the fortune of which
hangs on tobacco-pipes.
To the thoughtful observer all these sights and sounds,
modern as they are, have an additional interest when
compared with the relics of former ages; and although the
antiquary will naturally prefer to linger over the quiet
spots where the latter sleep undisturbed, he will never shut
out from his mind the comparison between the past and the
present. Nor, indeed, taking our engineering works as an
example, can we afford to sneer at the engineering knowledge
or capacity of the old builders of Stonehenge, be they
Celts, Druids, Danes, Antediluvians, or Belgae. We can only
marvel at the transportation and arrangement of these
wondrous monoliths, or at the skill with which so many of
the rocking-stones that still exist were poised. The study
of early remains has very much increased within the last few
years, and many a tumulus and many a lake has been forced to
reveal its secrets and give up its dead. The excavations of
the Derbyshire barrows by the late Mr. Bateman, and more
lately of the Yorkshire barrows by Canon Greenwell, have
thrown much light on the ethnology and some of the customs
of these early races. For variety of early antiquarian
research there is no country like Ireland, with its
elaborately sculptured tumulus of Newgrange; its Ogham
stones; its forts, such as Dunaengus, in Arran, and Staigue,
in Kerry; its innumerable raths; its primitive oratories,
such as the Beehive Oratory of Gallerus; its crannoges, or
lake dwellings; and its early towns, whether inhabited by
Tuath Danaans, Fenians, or any other aborigines. Of later
date than these are its numerous rude churches and its round
towers, those never failing sources of discussion, all
presenting a feastof antiquarian matter, the salient points
of which are given us in the Irish Handbook; while Dr.
Petrie and Sir William Wilde must be referred to for the
minutiae of their subject. Scotland, also, has yielded of
late years a profitable harvest to the explorer; and the
burgh of Mousa, the Pict's houses, the stones of Stennis,
the shell mounds of Wick, the sculptured rocks of Fife, - on
which Sir James Simpson has lately made his mark - the
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