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white predominated, however, and altogether the young sprouts of the two races were rather prepossessing than otherwise. The mother was a fair specimen of the lower class of English women, and appeared to be proud of her ebony progeny, and happy in the love of her black lord, who was certainly as sooty as the most particular delineator of Shakspeare could desire Othello to be, though there is little reason to suppose that he entertained the jealous feeling of the Moor, for he was of a cheerful and contented disposition.

A short distance on my right, when a few miles from Tadcaster, I passed a village called Towton, celebrated for a battle fought near it, on Palm Sunday, 1641, between the rival houses of York and Lancaster, in the famous wars of the Roses. At a few hundred yards from the village, is an obelisk of about forty feet in height; but I was unable to learn what it was placed there for, although it may, properly, be conjectured that it was erected to commemorate the scene of battle. As I neared Leeds, the country became quite thickly spotted with villages, but none of them were on the road. The famous residence of the once powerful Knights Templar lay but a few miles to my left; and, being desirous to see the renowned edifice, I diverged from my direct course, and paid it a visit. The reader of "Ivanhoe" will recollect it as Templestowe, and as being the scene of the interview between Isaac of York and the Knights, when the Jew paid the place a visit for the purpose of effecting the release of his daughter. It is called Temple Newsam at this time, and is occupied by a gentleman who is said to be a lineal descendant of one of the soldier priests. The lands attached to the estate are very extensive, and but few places, even in that beautiful country, can boast finer prospects, or nobler elms and oaks than the lordly domain of Temple Newsam. The mansion stands on the side of a hill, and is almost encircled by trees. In front opens a most living and peaceful landscape, and the mind of the visitor is impressed with the princely manner of life enjoyed by those who erected and inhabited the old pile. It is, in form, three sides of a quadrangle, and the main entrance-door on the west side of the noble court-yard is adorned on either side with a full length figure of a Knight Templar, in the peculiar dress of that order; while over the doorway is the bust of some person, either real or fabulous. The battlements around the top of the house, facing the court-yard, are ornamented with mottoes in large Roman capitals, which, as nearly as I could copy them, are as follows:

"ALL GLORY AND PRAISE BE GIVEN TO GOD, THE FATHER, SON, AND HOLY GHOST ON HIGH.

PEACE ON EARTH AND GOOD WILL TOWARDS MEN; AND HONOR AND TRUE ALLEGIANCE TO OUR GRACIOUS KING, AND

LOVING AFFECTION AMONGST HIS SUBJECTS.

HEALTH AND PLENTY BE WITHIN THIS HOUSE."

The letters have a singular appearance, and the old mansion, with its strange ornaments and antiquated look, comes nearer to my ideal of a baronial hall than any other building I saw in the land. It is the very place for happiness, and its historical associations, aside from the charms thrown over it by the novelist, make it a place of interest; and the man who could not enjoy life within its great walls should be compelled to live in the filthy town, whose tall tapering chimneys and black smoke rise in full view from the rear of the mansion.

Seven miles distant, I distinctly saw the dark vapors from its countless manufactories, hovering over the great cloth town. They ascended into the pure air above, and polluted it as you would a crystal stream by pouring ink of the blackest hue into its transparent waters. Where I stood, the atmosphere was pure and uncontaminated, and the dewy air was laden with health to those who were fortunate enough to inhale it, while in the distant town the overworked artisan and eager citizen were breathing an element thick with smoke and productive of disease. Weary and sore, I entered Leeds, and plodded my way along its crooked, steep, and dirty streets to a comfortable, and to me welcome inn, at which rest and quiet were to be commanded. After a good supper, I enjoyed a night of sweet refreshing sleep.

CHAPTER XXIV.

LEEDS AND HER MANUFACTURES-WORKING PEOPLE-KIRKSTALL ABBEY.

LEEDS bears a strong resemblance to Sheffield, and the person who visits both places will at once notice the fact. Some of the principal streets of the cloth city are clean, and as they are well paved with cubical blocks of stone, they present a better appearance than any of the thoroughfares of Sheffield. Both towns are situated on hills and surrounded by hills, or nearly so, and both abound in the suburbs in crooked, steep, and filthy streets. Over each there is a continual cloud of smoke, and the clearest day or brightest sun cannot dispel the blackness from the atmosphere. Here the comparison ends, and Leeds, probably, has the worst of it. There is a large number of courts, or, as they are locally termed, yards, in the town, and they are the hotbeds of misery and degradation. They are the slums of the place, and the residences of the poor, or the workshops or business-places of the small manufacturers of Leeds. They are generally entered through arched ways from the streets; and there are but few of the main thoroughfares, in what may be considered the old part of the town, that do not contain more inhabitants in these obscure courts and alleys than live in the houses in front.

The streets most deserving notice are Briggate, North Street, Commercial Street, and Wood-house Lane. The shops on the first named are quite imposing, and many of them are as tastefully fitted up as those of London. The town is situate on both banks of a stream about thirty yards wide, dignified by the name of river; but its black and filthy waters and narrow limits do not extort from the stranger admiration.

The woollen manufacture of England is principally confined to Yorkshire, and Leeds is the centre of the business. There are immense cloth establishments in the town, and large quantities of cassimeres, broadcloths, and kerseys are annually made and sold in it. The markets are held on Tuesdays and Saturdays, in buildings erected expressly for the purpose, and nearly all the sales take place in those concerns, and at the times named. The manufacturers or merchants assemble at a specified time, each behind a stand or counter on which are exposed samples of goods, and there the sales are effected. The prices of cloths are much lower than one would suppose. None of those manufactures that I saw exposed for sale exceeded in price twelve shillings per yard by the piece, and none of them were of an inferior quality of broadcloths. The stock is usually large and various, and the purchaser can obtain almost any amount or quality of woollens he desires.

The town is a filthy one, and the constant cloud of black smoke which hovers over it gives almost everything an aspect of gloom. The houses are black, the stream that flows through the place black, and some of the inhabitants are only one shade lighter than very many negroes. At the dinner hour, the streets are to a certain extent thronged with the operatives of the factories, and their appearance is by no means favorable. The women are either bareheaded or barefooted, and the men are dressed in greasy clothes, or what may properly be termed rags. Their faces bear no marks of intellectual cultivation, and their language is a jargon scarcely intelligible, while their conversation is generally upon some species of brutal amusement. I occasionally went of an evening to a drinking concern where some of them assembled, and there was nothing to be seen there that impressed me with a favorable opinion of their morals or education. Drinking ale and smoking tobacco in long pipes were their common evening amusements, and when a little fuddled they indulged in most vulgar and obscene language. Gin-palaces and ale-houses absorb the greater portion of their leisure time, and there are but few of them who regularly attend the Mechanics' Institutes, or the lecture-rooms of the place. Some of them are able to read, but the number of such is small in proportion to the mass who cannot, and there is but little prospect of the rising generation being much superior to the present in that particular. One of the principal causes which operate to degrade the laborers and mechanics of the manufacturing towns and districts is the common use of ale as a beverage, both among men and women. It is considered indispensable at the table, and a meal without it is not regarded complete. The habit of drinking grows with the individual from childhood, and as he increases in years he generally increases the quantity he consumes. As an evidence of the general use of the article, I may mention an incident that occurred to me when on my walk from York to Leeds. I was very thirsty, and stopped at a cottage door, where I asked for a glass of water. The woman looked at me a while, and told me she had no water on hand, but she would sell me a glass of beer, which I of course declined. She kept beer in the house, but no water, and that in the country, at a considerable distance from a city.

The wages of the operatives at Leeds do not differ from those paid in other manufacturing towns, and when you ask the amount usually given to a person for a particular service, the answer is a few shillings more or less per week, but never over a dollar per day. Rents are high when the taxes are taken into the account, a very important item by the way, in the English tenant's yearly expenses, for the landlords rent their houses with the express understanding that the renter is to pay the church-rates and taxes, which usually amount to an additional sum equal to one-half of the rent. Provisions are dearer than with us, newspapers are about ten times as expensive, and almost everything excepting the article of clothing is, at a fair calculation, twice as costly as the same things are in the United States, nor are they as a general rule superior to ours. The meats and some few fruits are better than the American, but the prices demanded are much higher than are paid in the States. How the poor live is a mystery, and the only rational conclusion that can be got at is that they do not live, but drag out a miserable existence, in a condition a little better than starvation, and sustain their spirits by the constant use of ale.

To say that all the factory hands and operatives are ale-drinkers and ignoramuses would be unjust to a number of the class, who