poled to have been used by the ancient British fishermen. Besides these meres or lakes, this county abounds with marshes and moors, from which the inhabitants dig excellent peat or turf for fuel, as well as marl for manuring the ground, and trunks of old fir trees, supposed to have lain there since the general deluge. Some of these are so impregnated with turpentine, that when divided into splinters, they burn like candles, and are used for that purpose by the common people. There is a great variety of mineral waters in this county, some periodical springs, and one instance of a violent eruption of water at Kirkby in Furness. The most remarkable chalybeate spas are those of Latham, Wigan, Stockport, Burnley, Bolton, Plumpton, Middleton, Strangeways, Lancaster, Larbrick, and Chorley. At Ancliffe, in the neighbourhood of Wigan, is a fountain called the Burning Well, from whence a bituminous vapour exhales, which being set on fire by a candle burns like brandy, so as to produce a heat that will boil eggs to a hard consistence, while the water itself retains its original coldness*. There is at Barton a fountain of salt water, so strongly impregnated with the mineral, as to yield five times as much as can be extracted from the same quantity of sea water. At Rogham, in Furness, there is a purging saline fountain; and in the neighbourhood of Raffal, where the ground is frequently overflowed by the sea, a stream descends from Hagbur hills, which, in the space of seven years, is said to convert the marl into a hard freestone fit for building. The air of Lancashire is pure, healthy, and agreeable, an observation equally applicable even to the fens and the sea shore, according to the experience of those who have dwelt on that coast for many years. The soil is various in different parts of the county, poor and rocky on the hills, fat and fertile in the valleys and campaign country. The colour of the peat is white, gray, or black, according to the nature of the composition and the degree of putrefaction which the ingredients have undergone. There is a bituminous earth about Ormskirk, that smells like the oil of amber, and indeed yields an oil of the same nature, both in its scent and medicinal effects, which moreover reduces raw flesh to the consistence of mummy; this earth burns like a torch, and is used as such by the country people. The metals and minerals of this county consist of lead, iron, copper, antimony, black lead, lapis calaminaris, spar, green vitriol, alum, sulphur, pyrites, freestone, and pit and cannel coal.

The level country produces plenty of wheat and barley, and the skirts of the hills yield good harvests of excellent oats; very good hemp is raised in divers parts of the province; and the pasture which grows in the valley is peculiarly rich, that the cattle which feed upon it are much larger and fatter than in any other part of England. No part of the world is better supplied than Lancashire with provisions of all kinds, and at a very reasonable rate; such as beef, veal, mutton, lamb, pork, poultry, and game of all sorts, caught upon the moors, heaths, and commons, in the hilly part of the shire. Besides the sea fowl common to the shores of England, such as duck, easterlings, teal, and plover, many uncommon birds are observed on the coast of Lancashire, the sea crow, variegated with blue and black, the puffin, the cormorant, the curlew, the razor-bill, the copped wren, the redshanks, the swan, the tropic bird, the king's Lancashire-fisher, &c.

The chief manufactures of this county are woollen and cotton cloths of various kinds, tickings, and cotton velvets, for which Manchester is particularly famous. The principal rivers are the Mersey, which parts Chester and this county; and the Ribble, which rises in Yorkshire, and enters this county at Clitheroe, running south-west by Preston into the Irish sea. Besides these there are many lesser streams. The navigation made by his grace the duke of Bridgewater in this county is highly worthy of notice. The canal receives vessels of 60 tons burden, and is carried over two rivers, the Mersey and the Irwell. The trough or adit, which was necessary to be made, in order to drain the water from the coal mines, is rendered navigable for boats of six or seven tons burden, and forms a kind of subterraneous river, which runs about a mile and a half underground, and communicates with the canal. This river leads to the head of the mines, is arched over with brick, and is just wide enough for the passage of the boats: at the mouth of it are two folding doors, which are closed as soon as you enter, and you then proceed by candle-light, which casts a vivid gloom, serving only to make darkness visible. But this dismal gloom is rendered still more awful by the solemn echo of this subterraneous water, which returns various and discordant sounds. One while you are struck with the grating noise of engines, which by a curious contrivance let down the coals into the boats; then again you hear the shock of an explosion, occasioned by the blowing up the hard rock, which will not yield to any other force than that of gunpowder; the next minute your ears are saluted by the songs of merriment from either sex, who thus beguile their labours in the mine. You have no sooner reached the head of the works, than a new scene opens to your view. There you behold men and women almost in their primitive state of nature, toiling in different capacities, by the glimmering of a dim taper, some digging coal out of the bowels of the earth; some again loading it in little waggons made for the purpose; others drawing those waggons to the boats. To perfect this canal, without impeding the public roads, bridges are built over it, and where the earth has been raised to preserve the level, arches are formed under it; but what principally strikes every beholder, is a work raised near Barton bridge, to convey the canal over the river Mersey. This is done by means of three stone arches, so spacious and lofty, as to admit vessels sailing through them; and indeed nothing can be more singular and pleasing, than to observe large vessels in full sail under the aqueduct, and at the same time the duke of Bridgewater's vessels sailing over all, near 50 feet above the navigable river. By this inland navigation communication has been made, with the rivers Mersey, Dee, Ribble, Ouse, Trent, Derwent, Severn, Humber, Thames, Avon, &c.; which navigation, including its windings, extends above 300 miles in the counties of Lincoln, Nottingham, York, Lancaster, Westmorland, Chester, Stafford, Warwick, Leicester, Oxford, Worcester, &c.

Lancashire was erected into a county palatine by Edward III. who conferred it as an appendage on his son John of Gaunt, thence called duke of Lancaster; but Lancashire contained lands that are not in Lancashire, and among other demesnes, the palace of the Savoy, and all that district in London, which indeed belong to it at this day. The revenues of this duchy are administered by a court which sits at Westminster, and a chancery court at Preston, which has a seal distinct from that of the county palatine. The title of Lancaster distinguished the posterity of John of Gaunt from those of his brother, who succeeded to the duchy of York, in their long and bloody contest for the crown of England. Lancashire sends two members to parliament for the county; and 12 for the six boroughs of Lancaster, Preston, Newton, Wigan, Clitheroe, and Liverpool.