o or three miles from Sheffield, the western suburbs
display a rich and pleasing variety of villas and country-houses. On the
left, the Dore-moors, a ridge of barren hills, stretch to an indefinite
distance: and on the right, some high hills skreen from sight the town
of Sheffield. At a mile distant, the view to the right opens, and from a
rise in the road is beheld the fine amphitheatre of Sheffield; the sun
displaying its entire extent, and the town being surmounted by fine
hills in the rear. The wind carried the smoke to the east of the town,
and the sun in the meridian presented as fine a _coup d'oeil_ as can be
conceived. The approach was by a broad and well-built street, the
population were in activity, and I entered a celebrated place with many
agreeable expectations.

"Sheffield is within the bounds of Yorkshire, but on the verge of
Derbyshire, and was the most remarkable place and society of human
beings which I had yet seen. It stands in one of the most picturesque
situations that can be imagined, originally at the south end of a valley
surrounded by high hills, but now extended around the western hill; the
first as a compact town, and the latter as scattered villas and houses
on the same hill, to the distance of two miles from the ancient site. It
is connected with London by Nottingham and Derby, and distant from Leeds
33 miles, and York 54 miles. Its foundation was at the junction of two
rivers, the Sheaf and the Don; in the angle formed by which once stood
the Castle, built by the, Barons Furnival, Lords of Hallamshire; but
subsequently in the tenure of the Talbots, Earls of Shrewsbury. Three or
four miles from this Castle, on the western hill, stood the Saxon town
of _Hallam_, said to have been destroyed by the Norman invaders, on
account of their gallant opposition.

"The town was originally a mere village, dependant on the Castle; but
its mineral and subterranean wealth led the early inhabitants to become
manufacturers of edged tools, of which arrow heads, spear heads, &c. are
presumed to have been a considerable part; a bundle of arrows being at
this day in the town arms, and cross arrows the badge of the ancient
Cutlers' Company of Sheffield.

"The exhaustless coal seams and iron-stone beds in the vicinity,
combined with the ingenuity of the people, conferred early fame on their
products; for Chaucer, in alluding to a knife, calls it 'a Sheffield
thwittel,'--whittle being among the manufacturers at t