e Irwell.
On the left bank of the Irwell, bounded by a sharp curve of the river,
lies Salford, and farther westward Pendleton; northward from the Irwell
lie Upper and Lower Broughton; northward of the Irk, Cheetham Hill; south
of the Medlock lies Hulme; farther east Chorlton on Medlock; still
farther, pretty well to the east of Manchester, Ardwick. The whole
assemblage of buildings is commonly called Manchester, and contains about
four hundred thousand inhabitants, rather more than less. The town
itself is peculiarly built, so that a person may live in it for years,
and go in and out daily without coming into contact with a
working-people's quarter or even with workers, that is, so long as he
confines himself to his business or to pleasure walks. This arises
chiefly from the fact, that by unconscious tacit agreement, as well as
with outspoken conscious determination, the working-people's quarters are
sharply separated from the sections of the city reserved for the middle-
class; or, if this does not succeed, they are concealed with the cloak of
charity. Manchester contains, at its heart, a rather extended commercial
district, perhaps half a mile long and about as broad, and consisting
almost wholly of offices and warehouses. Nearly the whole district is
abandoned by dwellers, and is lonely and deserted at night; only watchmen
and policemen traverse its narrow lanes with their dark lanterns. This
district is cut through by certain main thoroughfares upon which the vast
traffic concentrates, and in which the ground level is lined with
brilliant shops. In these streets the upper floors are occupied, here
and there, and there is a good deal of life upon them until late at
night. With the exception of this commercial district, all Manchester
proper, all Salford and Hulme, a great part of Pendleton and Chorlton,
two-thirds of Ardwick, and single stretches of Cheetham Hill and
Broughton are all unmixed working-people's quarters, stretching like a
girdle, averaging a mile and a half in breadth, around the commercial
district. Outside, beyond this girdle, lives the upper and middle
bourgeoisie, the middle bourgeoisie in regularly laid out streets in the
vicinity of the working quarters, especially in Chorlton and the lower
lying portions of Cheetham Hill; the upper bourgeoisie in remoter villas
with gardens in Chorlton and Ardwick, or on the breezy heights of
Cheetham Hill, Broughton, and Pendleton, in free, wholesome cou