The watchmakers are now supposed to be to
the ribbon manufacturers, in Coventry, as
one to ten. The proportion will, probably,
have changed before the next census. It
should be considered, however, that the
ribbon-weavers are distributed over
neighbouring districts, while the watchmakers live
within the city.

Various parts of the watch come hither
from widely distant places. We have said that
the most delicate tools are made in Switzerland,
and the ornamented faces of the
watches in London. The jewels come
from Holland. The diamonds are cut
abroad, but their framing in steel is done at
home. We saw many hundreds of them in a
little box. We saw some rubies, rough and
some cut, round and very small; some
chrysolites, also. The cutting can be done only
with diamond dust. The engine-turning of
the cases is done in private houses, in
Coventry; and so is the making of enamelled
faces. The glasses come chiefly from the
neighbourhood of Dublin, where they are
made more cheaply than anywhere else. No
place, but Newcastle-upon-Tyne, can compete
with the Irish glasses. The smallest wheels
are made at Prescot, in Lancashire. All the
other parts of the watch, if we remember
right, are made in the establishment.

We saw the strip of stout brass out of
which the " frames " were to be cut. The
cutting these brass circles, piercing them with
the necessary holes, joining them, inserting
the jewels into the holes, fitting on the
wheels and the chain, inserting the spring,
engraving the brasses and the gold, making
the cases, and finishing off the whole;—this
is the work done here. One boy may be seen
fitting the pinions into the frames; another
polishing the pinion with his small
fiddlestick—for such his tool appears to be;
another delicately handling the escapement;
another showing to us a hair-spring, as an
instance of the value given by labour to a
material of low cost,—this almost imperceptible
string of steel being " more valuable
than gold," as he says. The careful workman
covers his work from dust (such of it as is
finished, or waits) with a little inverted tumbler.
The apprentice lads earn about four
shillings and threepence a week; the higher
order of workmen average twenty-eight
shillings, or thirty shillings. We were curious
to know how low and how high the price
of watches goes, here in the wholesale
establishment. The lowest we heard of was three
pounds; the highest thirty-five pounds; but
few are sold of a higher value than twenty
pounds, wholesale price; which mounts up
to a good deal more in London shops.

The most interesting class of watches, to us,
was that of the agricultural labourers. We
were glad to hear that agricultural labourers
bought watches; a fact which we should hardly
have suspected. The number demanded is
rapidly decreasing. If one hundred and fifty
watches are made weekly, eight or nine of
them may be for agricultural labourers; and
the proportion was formerly much larger.
They are of a wondrous size; about two
inches thick. There is silver to the value of
two pounds in a watch which costs four
pounds. The thing looks us if it could never
be lost— hardly broken; and it is inconceivable
that damp or soil could get in. On
its broad face is painted a gay picture— Speed
the Plough, or the Foresters' or the Odd
Fellows' Arms. Next in bulk to these are
the watches for the Scotch market. The
Scotch seem to like to feel that they have a
watch in their pocket. In remarkable contrast
with them are the watches, scarcely
bigger than one's thumb-nail, which are
intended for presents to very little ladies. As
little ladies' time is not supposed to be very
valuable, it is not insisted that these should
go well. From these the article reaches
in value to the thirty-pounds watch, exquisitely
chased, back and face, and of beautiful
form and proportions. Of the watches
for exportation, those made for the market of
Alexandria are perhaps the most remarkable.
They are, in form, hunting-watches; the
marking of the hours is Arabic; and there is
no ornament whatever. No figures of any
living thing must be looked at by a
Mohammedan; and it appears as if, to make all safe,
the Arabs would not countenance any graven
image of fruit or flower, leaf, or tendril. While
talking of the wide transmission of this delicate
article of manufacture, we were surprised to
find how many watches are sent about the
kingdom by post,—not for cheapness, but
for security. It is an expensive method, but
a convenient one. This house sends out by
post sometimes thirty in a week.

Having never seen engine-turning, and
having, in truth, not the least idea how it was
done, we gladly accepted an invitation to a
neighbouring dwelling, where an elderly man
and a boy were busy about the process. The
neat apartment, the shining machine, the
courteous old gentleman in his spectacles and
clean apron, anxious to show us whatever we
wished to see, made a very pleasant impression
upon us. The principle of the process is
understood at a glance; but not the less
wonderful does it appear to us that any man
should ever have thought of it. The invention
is French, and nearly a century old; but it is
only lately that it has reached its present
perfection. The machine is expensive, costing
about one hundred and seventy-five pounds.
Fieldhouse is admitted to be the best maker.
The main part of the machine, to the eye of
the novice, at least, is a barrel, which is bound
round with strips of copper of various
patterns, sinuous, or undulating, or other.
The revolution of this barrel, with one of the
strips pressing against a steel tip or bolt,
causes a vibratory motion, in accordance
with the copper pattern, in whatever is
connected with the vibrating steel. The