Melford. Passing this, the extensive but straggling and picturesque town
of Belper, covered the eastern hill. What remains of the old town, is not
a tithe of the present one, and the whole is now supported by Messrs.
Strutts' gigantic mills.

I approached these with mingled pleasure and astonishment. A manufactory,
in such hands, presented none of the usual drawbacks on one's feelings.
They never discharge their workmen; and good conduct is a life interest
in comfort! The picturesque beauty of the situation, the height and
extent of the buildings, and the increase of the busy throng, as I
entered the yard, was exhilarating. The effect grew as I approached, for
the distance of two or three hundred yards, the noise, produced by the
united rattling of thousands of small wheels, was like the sound of a
hail storm on a large sky-light, or the fall of an immense sheet of
water.

There are five oblong factories and two circular ones. The five are six
stories high, with ten or twelve windows on each story, so that in the
five there are, at least, as many regular windows as days in the year.
The circular buildings have forty or fifty more.

In this establishment, and at Melford, Messrs. Strutt employ, at present,
about 1,300 hands of both sexes and different ages, and spin about 18
tons, or 40,000 lbs. of cotton per week. The average fineness may be
taken at 20 hanks to the pound, and hence, as each hank is 840 yards, or
nearly half a mile, every pound is nearly ten miles, and the whole, about
400,000 miles are produced in about sixty-six working hours. In round
numbers, this is 6,000 miles per hour, or 100 miles a minute. What an
astonishing effect of the combination of mechanism! What an inconceivable
miracle, if it might not be witnessed by their favour at any time!