Elihu Burritt

“ It would be almost amusing to an American teamster to watch the manure-wagons climbing over the hills from Birmingham. He would sometimes sec a long procession of horses mounting the crown of the eminence seemingly detached from any load. On looking again he would see a huge long wagon looming up so far behind the leader that one would hardly fancy there was any connexion between the two. Sometimes this economy is varied in a unique way. ”

“ They must surprise even a visitor who has seen many of the ornamental parks of English noblemen. It is comparatively cheap and easy to plant and group trees of various foliage over a square mile of variegated surface, grazed by sheep and cattle. But to make acres of exquisite lawn, brooched with a thousand flower-beds and belted with choicest shrubbery, is a work of greater taste, genius, and expense. It is this peculiar feature that distinguishes Lord Stamford's grounds from any I have yet seen, and which makes them surpass even Lady Rolle's at Bicton. ”

“ And the habit becomes a second nature to him, and he wears it all his life long. You will not see one English farm-labourer in ten lift his foot and set it down perpendicularly, or in a direct line with his knee. So you may always recognize him, though walking many rods before you, by this peculiar swinging gait. Adding to such shoes the heavy agricultural implements he wields, he has to run the race of labour with our American farming-men so heavily-weighted that it is a wonder he can accomplish as much as he does. ”

“ In opening such a great, green gallery of exquisite artistry to the masses of the people without money and without price, he has instituted a noble race, in which he leads the runners for a prize well worthy the highest nobility of England. ”

“ It looks well to see men win their way to a peerage by the hammer as well as by the sword. Just before coming to Stourton Castle, we passed one of those old farm-houses of a better sort which you will find here and there in England, and which once constituted the mansions of what might be called the middle-class gentry. It looked like a small quadrangular village of buildings, of which the mansion part constituted the two-story frontage. On coming up abreast of this front, we found it was an inn, and certainly it was capacious enough to accommodate a full company of cavalry, horses and all. ”

“ The whole turn-out looked as if it belonged to a first-class farmer; wagon, horses, and harnesses were of the highest order of perfection. But I was peculiarly struck with that strange economy of forces which distinguishes English farmers, by such marked contrasts, from those of America. Of course it is natural, and perhaps inevitable, that the farmers of all countries should be the most conservative as to traditional habits ”

“ The head gardener has a force of about thirty-five men and boys in constant employment, whose aggregate wages amount to about £100 a month. We learned that the whole establishment, including house and conservatories, consume yearly £2,000 worth of coal. The kitchen-garden contains about thirteen acres. The park embracing or surrounding these gardens is of vast extent and grandly wooded. One old oak looks just like old England in its trunk and branches and in all the stoutness of its huge vitality. ”

“ On an altar tomb lie the full length forms in marble of Thomas Lane and his lady, who died in 1582, or thirty-seven years before Colonel John, the hero of Charles II, was born. So he was probably their grandson. His monument is a very elaborate piece of sculpture; indeed. I do not remember one in which so many devices and symbols are grouped and wrought with such minuteness. The various parts of body armour, and all the tools known to war, ancient and modern, are done to life in the marble. ”

“ And still the owner of that noble team must have been a farmer of the first classdoubtless a man of general intelligence, but who had not yet learned to give a reason to himself or others for this strange use of horse-power. You seldom ever see farm-horses used in England in any other way. Whether on plough, cart, or wagon they are nearly always strung together in "Indian file," with spaces from four to six feet between each couple. I do not now recollect ever having seen a four-wheeled farm-wagon in England with a pole to it. ”

“ Tin and iron are not the only metals worked at this establishment into every conceivable article of household use and ornament. Paper is here made into a metal and wrought into shapes of wonderful variety and beauty. The trays of this material rank among works of high art. Indeed, these wares of tin-plate and papier maché not only employ but develop artists of first-rate genius. Here Bird, the painter of "The Village Politicians," took his first lessons in the art, by which he won such reputation. ”

“ Although English farmers are so stoutly conservative in this respect, they show the greatest leaning toward the masses; and they seemingly endeavour to make the masses as solid and as heavy as possible. They have the best roads and the heaviest wagons in the world. You may frequently see in New England a two-story frame house drawn up and down hills on four wheels, not a whit more heavy and solid than those of the average one-horse carts of the English farmer. ”

“ The gardener told us something to their credit, corroborating a fact which has come to be widely noticed of late, that the roughest working men may be trusted with the closest view of costly treasures of art and nature, and that they are as unlikely to abuse that confidence as the classes that claim to be more highly cultivated in dispositions and manners. ”

“ They got up a new set of sports, as funny as possible, but all capable of being carried on in good-nature. These they provided for Monday instead of Sunday. Our landlord described some of the games or frolics which he invented or introduced. Indeed he seems to have been master of the ceremonies. One of these was a kind of social tar-and-feathering. A lot of fellows would stand up in a cart or wagon and daub each other with treacle instead of tar, then shake on a coat of feathers, until they looked like great owls but not so sober and human. ”

“ The effect of wearing such heavy shoes from youth up is as perceptible in the labourer's gait as the wearing of heavy iron armour must have been in the walk and carriage of the knights of old. In the first place, there is no spring or elasticity to a pair of shoes thus bottomed with iron. They do not shed mud by the motion of the foot. ”

“ After visiting the conservatory, which is a crystal palace of most symmetrical proportions, in the arabesque or mosque style, we passed through a half a mile of hot or forcing houses, where all the climates, seasons, soils, fruits, and vegetables of the earth's various latitudes are produced. ”

“ The results produced in this culture of their mind and manners have been more radical than any obtained in the training of flowers or plants. Indeed the improvements effected have been more like transformations than developments. Our landlord, who had been indefatigable in producing these changes for the better, described to us the means employed. He said that thirty years ago a shocking state of things existed in the village. Enville, from time immemorial, had been celebrated for its cherries; and a cherry fair had been held in the village always on Sunday during the season. ”

“ It stands on high ground, commanding a good view of the surrounding country. But a pious Saxon lady gave to the town the name it has borne for eight centuries. Wulfruna, sister to King Ethelred, founded the College and Church of St. Mary here. The town was afterwards called Wulfrun's Hampton in honour of her pious wish and deed; but was soon shortened into Wolverhampton. The church is one of the most ancient and venerable to be found in England, and bids fair to stand as long as it has already stood, if the earth endure for so many centuries to come. ”

“ Thus these extensive and beautiful grounds, with all the artistic and expensive culture bestowed upon them, are really consecrated to the enjoyment and elevation of the masses of the people, of which none take more advantage than the working men of the district. ”

“ But it is not so much in the solidity and weight of their carts and wagons that this peculiar economy of tractor forces, inherited and perpetuated here, may be seen most strikingly illustrated. It is in their application to the masses to be moved. Here before us was an example of the system. I asked the driver to let his three magnificent gray horses straighten their trace chains. I then paced the distance from the collar of the leader to the forward axle of the wagon, and found it a little over two rods! ”

“ There are now upwards of 100 establishments for the manufacture of locks in Wolverhampton, employing about 2,000 hands.
Japanned ware must stand second if not first in the manufactures of the town. It is produced on the largest scale, and in a surprising variety and value of articles. Although the island itself is supposed to have been called after the tin of Cornwall, imported and used by the Phoenicians, it would be difficult to ascertain how the metal was worked into articles of use or ornament. ”

“ They were trying an experiment with the Bessemer steel, with the view of getting a smoother surface for large dinner covers, some of which would give honour, scope, and margin to the largest joint of roast beef ever cut from a prize ox in England. The steel is hard to work under the stamp and requires annealing frequently, but will probably yield a surface susceptible of higher polish when tinned than the common sheet-iron. The art department of the establishment is very interesting ”

“ Other artists are in training in the same school, painting on japanned tin-plate or metallized paper for their canvas. The Old Hall is the most interesting manufacturing establishment in the Black Country for its antecedents and associations, and well worth visiting for the beautiful ware it produces. ”

“ They employ between 400 and 500 persons, and one would think, on looking at the prodigious stock of articles ready for the market, that they could alone supply a large and growing nation. I was told that this stock was worth at least £60,000, embracing articles used in the first stages of civilization. The stamping-rooms show the progress of machine-force in the manufacture of the larger wares. ”

“ He maintained that all these various trees followed the proclivity of the mining rod, by which people used to detect the existence of minerals under the surface of the earth; that as the hazel wand tips downward in the open palm of the holder to indicate where minerals lie concealed, so the branches of all these great trees point downwards to show that metals are stored away for man far below the surface of the ground they shade. ”

“ His greatest trouble was with the middle-class people, or those who assumed a superiority over the humble visiters and made less scruple in gratifying their curiosity. Such persons had to be watched with much care to keep them from trespassing on objects which men of the mine and furnace would not think of touching. ”

“ He is one of the largest ironmasters in the world, employing about 5,000 men. His uncle, whose fortune he inherits, made it by his own talent and industry, beginning with £500, and ending his life with about £3,000,000. ”

“ This makes another waste, for a great deal of drawing force is lost in the uneven sway and movement of the hindermost horse, and a considerable portion of his weight has to be added to the loaded cart, to make it more solid and heavy. ”