. The earth and its inhabitants .. . IRE. 241 The Dove joins the Trent a few miles below Burton. In its upper course itflows through a narrow dale, where umbrageous woods, naked rocks, caverns,and a sparkling rivulet combine to form some of the most picturesque scenery inEngland. The Churnet is tributary to the Dove, and hardly yields to it inromantic beauty. On its banks rises Alton Towers, the princely mansion of theEarl of Shrewsbury and Talbot. Higher up in the valley limestone is quarriedand iron ore won. Leek is a considerable town near the source of the Churnet,where silk-thread spinnin
. The earth and its inhabitants .. . IRE. 241 The Dove joins the Trent a few miles below Burton. In its upper course itflows through a narrow dale, where umbrageous woods, naked rocks, caverns,and a sparkling rivulet combine to form some of the most picturesque scenery inEngland. The Churnet is tributary to the Dove, and hardly yields to it inromantic beauty. On its banks rises Alton Towers, the princely mansion of theEarl of Shrewsbury and Talbot. Higher up in the valley limestone is quarriedand iron ore won. Leek is a considerable town near the source of the Churnet,where silk-thread spinning is extensively carried on. Cheadle, in the moorlandsto the west of the Churnet, is a small market town. Uttoxcter is the principaltown on the Lower Dove. The inhabitants engage in the manufacture of clockcases and agricultural machinery, and in cork-cutting. There now remains to be noticed the great manufacturing and mining districtin South Staffordshire known as the Black Country. Though hardly 150 Fig: 118.—Lichfield Cathedral. square miles in extent, this district (including the adjoining town of Birmingham,which is virtually its capital) supports more than a million inhabitants. It owesits prosperity to its mineral treasures. Coal, iron, the limestone required for fusingit, and even the clay from which the bricks for lining the furnaces are made, arefound here in juxtaposition. Many discoveries of great importance have beenmade in the manufactories of this district, and especially in the Soho Works, nearWest Bromwich. The coal found here is admirably adapted for the manufactureof tar and aniline, and is largely used for these purposes. The principal coal seamof the basin has a thickness of 10 yards, and has proved a source of great it is nearly exhausted. There remain now only 100,000,000tons of coal, which at the present rate of consumption will hardly suffice foranother century, at the close of which the manufacturers will have to migrate to amore
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