&c., making full 5,000
more.
"There are full 1,700 forges engaged in the various branches of the
trades, and of course as many fires, fixing oxygen to make their heat,
and evolving the undecomposed carbon in active volumes of steam and
smoke.
"The place is usually described as smoky, but I thought it less so than
the central parts of London. The manufactures, for the most part, are
carried on in an unostentatious way, in small scattered shops, and no
where make the noise and bustle of a single great iron works. Compared
with them Sheffield is a seat of elegant arts, nevertheless compared
with the cotton and silk trades, it must be regarded as dirty and smoky.
"The steel and plated manufactures require much taste, and in some cases
make a great display. Hence there were exhibitions of elegant products,
not exceeded in the Palais Royal, or any other place abroad, and
superior to any of the cutlers' shops in London. All that the lustre of
steel ware and silver plate can produce, is, in Sheffield, exhibited in
splendid arrangement, in the warerooms of some of the principal
manufacturers. In particular Messrs. J. Rodgers and Sons, cutlers to his
Majesty, display in a magnificent saloon, all the multiplied elegant
products of their own most ingenious manufactory.
"As proofs of their power of manufacturing, Messrs. Rodgers have, in
their show-rooms the most extraordinary products of highly finished
manufacture which are to be seen in the world.
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