d the tall
chimneys envelop in smoke the cottages in which hand-loom weavers work
and the children of hand-loom weavers sleep. Let us suppose that we have
found our position by Leeds. We should like to follow the track of the
new railroads, for we have in our pocket a small green book:

'Bradshaw's Railway Time Tables and Assistant to
Railway Travelling'.

'10th Mo. 19th, 1839. Price Sixpence.'

Bradshaw tells us that we can get from Littleborough to Manchester in 11
hours--via Rochdale, Heywood, and Millshill--but it is not clear how we
are to get to Littleborough. So we follow an alternative route, the
canal. It is a fashionable method of transit for mineral traffic and
paupers. Mr. Muggeridge, the emigration agent, tells us how he
transported the southern paupers in 1836. 'The journey from London to
Manchester was made by boat or waggon, the agents assisting the
emigrants on their journey.'[37] When we got up our geography for the
tour out of Thomas Dugdale's 'England and Wales' this is what we read at
every turn: 'Keighley: in the deep valley of the Aire, its prosperity
had been much increased by the Leeds and Liverpool Canal which passes
within two miles.' 'Skipton: in a rough mountainous district. The trade
has been greatly facilitated by the proximity of the town to the Leeds
and Liverpool Canal.' So the Leeds and Liverpool canal shall be our
guide.

We leave Bradford, Halifax, and the worsted districts to the left of us,
and passing by Shipley, approach the cotton district near the Lancashire
border. 'The township of Shipley is the western-most locality of the
Leeds clothing districts; it runs like a tongue into the worsted
district. In like manner the worsted district blends with the cotton
district at Steeton, Silsden, and Addingham.' We are passing, the
Commissioner tells us, from high wages to low. 'The cloth weavers of
Shipley work for wages little, if any, higher than those of the worsted
weavers; while the worsted weavers north-west of Keighley are reduced
down to the cotton standard.'[38]

At Keighley we bend sharply south and soon reach Colne in Lancashire.
Dr. Cook Taylor describes the conditions there in the early part of
1842:

'I visited eighty-eight dwellings, selected at hazard. They were
destitute of furniture save old boxes for tables or stalls, or
even large stones for chairs; the beds are composed of straw and
shavings. The food was oat