THE WEST RIDING, 1724
(Ibid., pp. 144-6)
... the nearer we came to Halifax, we found the houses thicker, and the villages greater in every bottom; and not only so, but the sides of the hills, which were very steep every way, were spread with houses; for the land being divided into small inclosures, from two acres to six or seven each, seldom more, every three or four pieces of land had an house belonging to them.
In short, after we had mounted the third hill we found the country one continued village, though every way mountainous, hardly an house standing out of a speaking distance from another; and as the day cleared up, we could see at every house a tenter, and on almost every tenter a piece of cloth, kersie or shalloon; which are the three articles of this country’s labour.
In the course of our road among the houses, we found at every one of them a little rill or gutter of running water; if the house was above the road, it came from it, and crossed the way to run to another; if the house was below us, it crossed us from some other distant house above it; and at every considerable house was a manufactory; which not being able to be carried on without water; these little streams were so parted and guided by gutters or pipes, that not one of the houses wanted its necessary appendage of a rivulet.
Again, as the dyeing-houses, scouring-shops, and places where they use this water, emit it tinged with the drugs of the dyeing-vat, and with the oil, the soap, the tallow and other ingredients used by the clothiers in dressing and scouring, etc., the lands through which it passes, which otherwise would be exceeding barren are enriched by it to a degree beyond imagination.
Then as every clothier must necessarily keep one horse, at least to fetch home his wool and his provisions from the market, to carry his yarn to the spinners, his manufacture to the fulling-mill, and when finished to the market to be sold, and the like; so everyone generally keeps a cow or two for his family. By this means, the small pieces of inclosed land about each house are occupied; and by being thus fed, are still farther improved by the dung of the cattle. As for corn, they scarce grow enough to feed their poultry.
Such, it seems, has been the bounty of nature to this country, that two things essential to life, and more particularly to the business followed here, are found in it ... I mean coals, and running water on the tops of the highest hills ... Nor is the industry of the people wanting to second these advantages. Though we met few people without doors, yet within we saw the houses full of lusty fellows, some at the dye-vat, some at the loom, others dressing the cloths; the women and children carding or spinning: all employed from the youngest to the oldest; scarce anything above four years old, but its hands were sufficient for its own support. Nor a beggar to be seen, nor an idle person, except here and there in an almshouse, built for those that are ancient and past working. The people in general live long: they enjoy a good air; and under such circumstances hard labour is naturally attended with the blessing of health, if not riches.