Crewe are the railway
works. These are placed on a large tongue of land near the station, and
so adapted, that wagons, and carriages, and engines can easily be run
into them from the main line. In these works every thing connected with
"the rolling stock" of the company for the northern section of the line
(Walnerton being used for the southern) is made and repaired. The number
of hands employed at present is about eight hundred; but formerly, when
railways were more prosperous than now, it exceeded a thousand. The
workmen seem to belong, in tolerably equal proportions, to the four
great divisions of the United Kingdom; and the slow, deliberate speech
of the Scot, the rich brogue of the Irishman, and the sharp, quick
utterance of the Welshman, have lost very little of their purity and
richness amid the air of the county palatine of Chester. The greater
portion of the work is carried on in long, largo sheds, for the most
part of one story, and called the "fitting," "erecting," and other
shops, according to the nature of the work done in them. The artisans
may be divided into two great classes--the workers in metal, and those
in wood; the former being employed in making locomotives' wheels, axles,
springs, &c, and the latter in constructing the carriages. By far the
greatest number of hands are employed in the former.

That our hasty inspection may begin at the beginning, let us peep at the
foundry. Both brass and iron are east here, but to-day it is iron. The
sandy floor is covered with moulds of all descriptions, and swarthy
workmen are preparing them to receive the melted iron. Occasionally you
are startled by the shout of "Mind your eye!" which must be taken in its
literal signification, for it comes from a moulder blowing away with a
bellows the superfluous grains of fine sand, which, if once in the eye,
will give some trouble. The moulds are ready, the furnace is opened, and
a stream of bright white metal rolls out into the pots prepared for its
reception, and is speedily poured into the moulds. In an adjoining shed
are blacksmiths plying forehammers; but their greatest efforts are
entirely eclipsed by the mighty steam-hammer that is seen at work in
another part of the shed. This hammer is the invention of Mr. Nasmyth,
of the Bridgewater Foundry, near Manchester. It moves up and down in a
strong frame, at a speed subject to such nice regulations, that,
according to the will of its director, it can gently drive a nai