black Barnsley; as it is appropriately called, from its being situated amid the smoke of engines, and the dingy dust of coal-works.

The clothing country now commenced, and the little villages that occurrred between this place and Wakefield, were busied in some branch of that extensive woollen manufacture which has thrown such inexhaustible wealth into Yorkshire; cloathed its hills with fatness; and filled its broad vales with houses and population. But in attending to the operations of present industry, we were not forgetful of the remains of ancient grandeur; and left the road a mile to the south of Wakefield, to take a passing look at the ruins of Sandall-Castle, built by one of the Earls Warren, in the thirteenth century. It afterwards became the residence of Edward Baliol, who passed here those anxious hours of suspence which elapsed whilst Edward III. was raising an army to re-establish him on the throne of his fathers; a troublesome possession, which he was afterwards as glad to relinquish to his royal friend, as he had been desirous of obtaining it. In the reign of Henry VI. it afforded less auspicious shelter to the unfortunate Duke of York, who had appointed Sandall-Castle as the rendezvous of his army. Margaret, however, ever prompt and active, reached the spot with her troops before

his forces could muster there, and threatening a siege, compelled him to a battle. Shakespeare has faithfully delineated York's character, when he makes him despise the great inequality of the numbers which were opposed to each other on the occasion:

"Five men to twenty! though the odds be great,
"I doubt not, uncle, of our victory.

Many a battle have I won in France,

"When as the enemy hath been ten to one;

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Why should I not now have the like success?"

But the event did not justify his confidence. The Yorkists were routed, the Duke killed, and the castle taken. On the spot where the Duke fell, a stone memorial was erected, after the discomfiture of the Queen's party, and continued there till the civil wars in the seventeenth century, when it was removed. The ruins are picturesque, but not extensive; and evince that the situation must have been strong, before the destructive effects of gunpowder were known.

Opposed to this pleasing object, and its surrounding scenery on the left, was a more magnificent landscape to the right-the village of Heath, with its many noble mansions reposing upon the side of hill, which swelled, gently out of a rich valley, watered by the river Calder. The bridge

thrown across the Calder, that conducted us into Wakefield, offers a beautiful specimen of Gothic architecture in a little chapel highly charged with sculptured ornaments, and vulgarly said to have been built by Edward IV. in memory of his unfortunate father; but known to have existed seventy years previously to his reign. Its ecclesiastical uses expired with masses and obits at the Reformation, and it now serves the purpose of a warehouse.

The town of Wakefield is laid out in several handsome streets, and ornamented with a magnificent Gothic church. Great wealth has been thrown into it by the woollen trade; an affluence which is seen in its large proportion of respectable private mansions. The business of the common weekly markets of Thursday and Friday is chiefly the sale of this article by the factors, to whom it is consigned from all parts of England, and the purchase of it by the manufacturers of the neighbouring clothing country. A large cattle fair every fortnight supplies provision, in a great measure, to the bordering counties of Cheshire and Lancashire. Though some of the white cloths, the production of the Yorkshire manufactories, be sold at Wakefield, yet by far the greatest part find a market at Leeds, nine miles further to the north, a town rising into the first importance in point of internal

commerce; chiefly owing to its advantageous centrical situation, and partly to the spirit of the inhabitants, which, however, may be considered as much an effect as a cause. Several instances were pointed out to us of successful industry, in persons who from journeymen had arisen to princely independence; a proof at once of the profits and extent of the cloth trade in these parts. The advantages which have resulted to the town of Leeds in particular from this branch of English manufactures, may be readily imagined from the increase it has experienced in population within these twentyfive years. This, in 1775, amounted to seventeen thousand one hundred and seventeen; and in 1800, to thirty thousand, exclusive of ten thousand in the two adjoining parishes.

The most curious feature of this place is its markets for mixed and white cloths, which are held every Tuesday and Saturday for the former, and every Saturday for the latter, in large halls erected for the purpose:-the one for mixed cloths, a quadrangular building one hundred and twentyseven yards and half long and sixty-six broad; the other of the same form, but different dimensions, ninety-nine yards long and seventy broad. Here the cloths are exposed for sale in their rough state, as they are delivered from the fulling-mill. The

merchants, who are the purchasers, have them dressed, dyed, and pressed, for the retail dealers.

The progress of good sense, and gradual growth of notions of utility, within this last century, are marked by the successive improvements which have taken place in the mode of selling this valuable article. One hundred and twenty years ago the mixed cloths were exposed for sale upon the unsheltered battlements of the Aire bridge, open to all the inclemency of the weather, and all the dirt and injuries of passing carriages. It required nearly fifty years to convince the factors of the absurdity of this system, when the matter was but little mended by carrying the article into Brigge-street, and offering it to the merchant, spread on temporary stalls. In 1758, however, the trade had acquired wisdom enough to reform their plan altogether; the mixed cloth hall was built at the expence of the manufacturers; and about seventeen years afterwards, another for the white cloths upon a similar plan.

Nothing can be more judicious, convenient, or systematic, than the arrangement of the wares, and the regulations of the sellers, in these receptacles. The larger or mixed cloth hall is laid out into six aisles, each containing two rows of stalls, amounting in all to one thousand seven hundred