were busily employed measuring and cutting
up enormous heaps of cloths, of various
qualities, into squares and lengths for
handkerchiefs, collars, &c., and arranging them in
neat piles ready for work. Some of these
fabrics were of exquisitely gossamer lightness:
so fine, that in one yard of the material there
were six thousand threads lying side by side.
Such is the variety of quality to meet the
many grades of demand that, while there are
pocket-handkerchiefs sent out at as low a
price as ninepence each, the article is likewise
to be had so fine, so richly embroidered, as
to be worth ninety shillings.

From the cutting-up room the cloth was
removed to the preparing room, where each
lofty pile of grey blank squares and slips was
arranged in dozens, and marked with the
number of the pattern to be given to it.
Thence we passed on to long suites of rooms,
where a busier though equally quiet process
was going on. These were, in every respect,
similar to printers' offices, save that, in place
of paper, muslin, coarse and fine, was being
operated on.

Huge lithographic printing-presses were
there, and, from these, every minute, one
attendant lifted the device of some exquisite
flower-work on a piece of muslin, so fine that
it looked like a handful of Scotch mist rather
than Scotch cambric.

The patterns printed from these stone blocks
were of the most costly description; the more
ordinary qualities being worked from the
zinc plates, or from metal castings. The
rapidity with which these sheets of fine linen
were made to receive the impress of all the
varied patterns, the precision with which they
were imprinted, not less than the delicacy of
the outlined figures, were, indeed, matters for
admiration and wonder.

Adjoining these printing rooms were others,
in which a number of men were employed in
transferring narrow neat-looking patterns to
long strips of fine cloth, containing a sort of
open-work through the centre. This, I learnt,
was what is known as " insertion: " the
pattern was here worked or cut into the
edge of a little brass wheel, which, being
fixed firmly in a handle and fitted with a
Lilliputian inking- apparatus, kept itself
supplied with ink, and, as it was rapidly
rolled along the insertion, transferred its
figure to the muslin with great precision.
This neat little machine, the invention of one
of the principals in the firm, is called a
"monkey."

I observed upon each piece of cloth that
came from the various printing-presses two
lines of letter-press with a few figures. On
examining them, I found the words were a
caution to the workwomen to perform their
task with care and dispatch, whilst the figures
denoted the rate at which the work was to
be paid for if well done; in this way the poor
people, as well as the owners, were protected
from any blunders or extortions of the petty
agents in the rural districts, for, although it
was probable that education had made small
progress in some of the villages, there would
always be one or two in each hamlet who
could read these instructions.

The last room in this department was
devoted to assorting and packing the printed
muslins ready for conveyance to and distribution
in the sewing districts. The cases
receiving these goods were sturdy-looking old
fellows, with rare substantial sides, all well
fastened down with long-bodied screws—
bidding defiance to damp or dirt. These are
carried from Glasgow to Belfast by steamers,
and thence by rail, or otherwise, to the sub-
agencies.

I was then shown into the final division,
where the worked goods are received from
the agents, or from the hands of such as are
employed in the neighbourhood of Glasgow
to perform this labour. Here, ranged on
long tables and shelves, were many piles of
goods all worked over with patterns, but so
changed in colour, so dingy and dark, that
one might well imagine them to have been to
the dyer's. Three or four respectable-looking
women were occupied in a narrow scrutiny
of each piece of work, as it was placed before
them from the packing-cases, in order to
detect any bad or imperfect work. Every
single piece was passed between their eyes
and the light, and, by the aid of strong
glasses, the least defect was in this way
discovered, and the faulty piece laid on one side
for remedy.

Some idea may be formed of the vast
magnitude of the operations of this one house,
when I say, that in an adjoining workroom—
the hospital, where all these diseased collars
and disabled flounces were being cleverly
cured by female practitioners—there were
not less than one hundred young people
constantly employed in remedying the slight
defects of the Irish needle-women.

Everything was on a gigantic scale.
Adjoining the muslin hospital was another
room, in which an army of girls were working
on the various articles a set of private
marks, by a tambour stitch, for the purpose
of distinguishing the goods at the bleach
works from those of other houses, as also to
indicate the price paid for the work, the
district in which they were sewn, and the
class number to which they belong in
the warehouse. All this being completed,
the goods are despatched to the bleaching
works, whence they are returned white as
driven snow, all traces of the pattern-inking
and the Irish fingering having disappeared
from their fair forms.

Coming from the bleach houses the
goods have to be " made up," and for this
purpose are passed on to other busy
workrooms, where it would appear as though all
the civilised world were having its ironing
done. Huge stoves are there bristling with
burning hot irons: there are round irons,