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of them is seventy feet high, and eleven feet out of the perpendicular; and the cause which has given to this Leaning Tower (as it is called) its inclined posi tion has been a matter of as much local speculation as that of the more famous Leaning Tower at Pisa. It is supposed to have been caused by a subterraneous explosion near the foot of the tower during the siege.

Caerphilly brings us into Glamorganshire; and at a short distance westward of it we find the Taff-that busy river whose scenery, canal, railway, coals, iron, smoke, miners, colliers, iron-workers, and wealth, have already engaged our attention. The first town we meet with in our way from Caerphilly is Newbridge or Pont-y-Prydd. It is distinguished by a very remarkable bridge, erected under circumstances of great embarrassment by a humble mason, named Edwards; whose perseverance has procured him a notice in the Pursuit of Knowledge under Difficulties.' Until about thirty years ago Newbridge was a quiet village; but it has now become a centre of manufactures, of which the Treforest Iron-works of Messrs. Crawshay, and the Chain-cable-works of Messrs. Brown and Lenox, are the most notable seats. twelve or fourteen miles down the Taff from Newbridge, we arrive at Cardiff.

At

Like Newport, Cardiff is not in a mineral field, but is an outlet for one; like Newport, it is at the southern extremity of a river that flows from the mining district; like Newport, it has a station connected with the South Wales Railway; like Newport, it has steamers which ply daily to Bristol; like Newport, it has docks which are always filled with vessels receiving cargoes of coal and iron; like Newport, its streets are with some difficulty kept free from mud and smoke; and like Newport, its population has increased with astonishing rapidity. Newport has one or two elevated spots, such as Cardiff cannot boast; but Cardiff has a larger number of good streets. The docks are among the most eminently successful in the kingdom. Until they were constructed, there were very inadequate means for transferring the mineral treasures, brought down from the Merthyr district by the Glamorganshire canal and the Taff Vale Railway, to the ships. It occurred to the Marquis of Bute, who is owner of large and valuable estates in this part of Wales, to form docks in a piece of waste ground called Cardiff Moors, southward of the town and between it and the sea, As this part of the coast is very shoally and sandy, it was necessary to cut a deep channel to connect the docks with the sea. An Act was obtained in 1830; and in 1839, after an expenditure of £300,000 to £400,000, the Bute Docks and Canal were opened. There is an outer basin, connected with the sea by gates forty-five feet wide, and having an area of an acre and a half, with seventeen feet depth of water at neap-tide. A lock-gate, thirty-six feet wide connects this outer basin with the inner basin or dock: a dock which is generally as closely packed with vessels as those of Hull, which is saying a great deal. This dock is long and narrow,

and terminates northward at the town of Cardiff. Along the quays on both sides shipping operations are incessantly going on; and there is scarcely a yard of vacant quay room. Cardiff is the great shipping port for iron, as we have before said; and much of the iron for the continental railways is shipped here. The dock is 1,450 yards long by 200 wide, and contains 200 acres of water surface; the trains of the Taff Vale Railway come to the quays of the dock at many different points; and the dock will accommodate 300 or 400 vessels at one time.

It is a small matter, perhaps; but when a town can support a two-penny omnibus system, all day long, it is a proof that the people of that town must be a busy, active, bustling population, who measure time by pence, and wish to cover the ground quickly. The three passenger-stations-the steam-packet station, the Taff Vale station, and the South Wales station, are in three parts of the town; and all the hotels lie in or near the line of route from one to the other; an arrangement which renders available a pretty frequent and very cheap plying of omnibusses,

The lower part of the town, near the docks, is comparatively new; and though there is necessarily a great amount of commercial bustle connected with shipping and shipment, yet as the tramways do not cross the inhabited streets, as at Newport, there is less dirt and discomfort. The middle part of the town is perhaps the worst; while the northern, near the castle, contains the best hotels and the best houses and streets. Along the eastern margin of the town runs the Taff Vale Railway, while the western margin is bounded by the Taff river.

Cardiff has its castle as well as Newport; indeed there are almost as many castles as towns in South Wales. Instead of a brewer to mutilate and utilitise it, there has been a nobleman to trim it up and preserve it. Yet there is a rude desolate grandeur about some parts of Newport Castle, more striking in its way than that at Cardiff. Cardiff Castle is itself a modern mansion, inhabited by Lord James Stuart, brother of the Marquis of Bute. It occupies one side of the enclosure or court of the original castle. This enclosure it now a beautifully soft carpet of verdure, in the midst of which is the mound whereon the old keep stands. This keep is of octagonal form, about seventyfive feet in diameter, and rises to a sufficient height to command an extensive view. There is a rampart around the greater part of the enclosure; this has been turfed and gravelled, a spiral gravelled path has been formed up the mound on which the keep stands; and the enclosure, the mound, the keep, and the rampart, are liberally and frequently thrown open to the inhabitants of Cardiff. With the exception of the castle, almost the only building in Cardiff which speaks of past days is St. John's Church, the tower of which is one of the finest in Wales.

We have many examples in England of commerci 1 towns gradually eclipsing cathedral towns in all save their cathedrals; but it may be doubted whether there

is any parallel to Cardiff and Llandaff in this respect. Llandaff is now very little more than a village, about two miles from Cardiff; a quiet village in the midst of green fields, away from smoke, iron, coals, and ships, with its small knot of inhabitants buried in the tranquillity of a cathedral spot. It is difficult even to espy this one symbol of its importance; for the cathedral, humble and lowly, stands in the bottom of a hollow, insomuch that, when approaching it from the heart of the village, we look down upon the cathedral instead of up to it. But this looking down is only in a physical sense; he who could look down upon Llandaff Cathedral in any other spirit is not worthy to look at a cathedral at all. The see of Llandaff is said to be the oldest in the kingdom; and the part of the Taff where the cathedral is built was worthily chosen for such a spot, it being one of the most tranquil and quietly beautiful portions of the river, bearing some sort of resemblance to the position of Tintern Abbey on the banks of the Wye. It is supposed that the present cathedral was commenced about 1120, that the nave was finished about 1200, but that the choir was not finished till 1280; it is known also that many additions and alterations were made in later centuries, so that the cathedral displays a considerable variety of styles. Until about the year 1700, the building remained nearly complete; but storms and other disasters subsequently greatly injured it, and there were neither funds enough nor spirit enough to repair the ruins. The south tower fell; and when money was raised to rebuild it, the authorities, about a century ago, built up a sorry 'classical' structure instead,

the feudal contests of the lords of Glamorgan. Cowbridge is also an old town, but not so picturesque as Llantrissant; one gate of the old town wall still exists; and within a mile of the town, in different directions, are no fewer than three castles-Llanblethian, Llandough, and Penlline, all of which have been so far patched up as to be habitable. Bridgend, or Pen-y-Bout-ar-Ogwr, is a bustling market-town on the little river Ogmore, which divides it into two parts. Each half of the town had its ancient castle, and thus the names of Oldcastle and Newcastle have been given to these portions; very little is left to show what these castles may once have been. Aberavon introduces us to what we may term the Swansea or smelting district of South Wales, in which the smelting of copper either supersedes the mining of coal and iron, or is superadded to it. It may be well at once to give a sketch of the copper-smelting of the Swansea district, before describing the towns which have grown into wealth and importance by its means.

COPPER-SMELTING IN THE SWANSEA DISTRICT.

Nothing is more common, among persons who know only half the truth concerning Welsh mining and smelting, than to suppose that the smelting of copper is dependent on the existence of the ore beneath, as in respect to iron. This is not the case; not a particle of copper exists in South Wales; or if there be a few traces, they are regarded rather as curiosities than as commercial materials. Cornwall is the richest copper district in Britain, yet none of the ore is smelted in that county. South Wales is the greatest-almost the only-copper-smelting district in Britain, yet no copper ore is found there. How is this apparent contradiction explained?

between the venerable nave and the little less venerable choir! After this the nave itself became roofless, and the choir deserted. At the present time a part only of the structure is preserved sufficiently for use as a parish church, while the rest is in ruins; but the That the Romans wrought copper-mines in Britain dean and chapter have set to work energetically, and is clear: indications of the fact having been met with measures are now in progress which will probably lead in North Wales and in Cumberland. Down to the to the restoration of the cathedral. The building is close of the seventeenth century, the only copper 270 feet long by 65 feet; it has no transept. It has smelted in England or Wales was that which was both been ascertained that the improvements' of 1751 mined and smelted in the north and midland counties, have left much original wall remaining, covered with where coal was at hand. It was not till 1670 that plaster and whitewash; and this will render the pro- the Cornish tin-miners found copper ore in their mines jected restoration all the more practicable. The generally at a considerable depth below the tin; but roofless nave contains very beautiful early English' as there is no coal in Cornwall, some time elapsed details, which it is to be hoped may be worked out in before the discovery was turned to profit. Small the future restoration. At present the praiseworthy smelting works were erected near Bristol and on the labours are being confined chiefly to the Lady chapel Wye; and the copper ore, bought at almost a nominal at the east end of the cathedral. price in Cornwall, was smelted at these works with a remunerative profit. At length it was found that a mutually advantageous plan might be adopted: by employing ships to carry copper ore from Cornwall to South Wales to be smelted, and by giving those ships a back freight of coals to be used in the tin-works and for domestic supply in Cornwall. Then came the choice of Swansea, as the place best fitted in South Wales for the general establishment of the smelting works. Swansea is nearer to the Cornish coast than any other Welsh port of any rank; it has an excellent

The southern part of Glamorganshire, from Llandaff to Neath, is an agricultural district rather thickly studded with villages, whose names show the initial syllable of "Llan" in plentiful abundance. The towns here met with are Llantrissant, Cowbridge, Bridgend, Aberavon, and one or two of smaller rank. Llantrissant (the church of the three saints') is a picturesque old town, situated on an eminence; it has a fine old Norman church, and at no great distance from it are the ruins of a castle which took part in

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sheltered harbour; and it has an abundant supply of coal in the vicinity. These circumstances have determined the settlement of copper smelting in and around Swansea, and have made Swansea the most flourishing town in the principality. The smelting-works are scattered about, a few miles around the town; and if we include them as well as the town itself, we find that the smelting district has now a population of 40,000.

The Cornish copper ores brought to Swansea, from 1820 to 1850, have varied from 100,000 to 160,000 tons annually (a ton of copper ore=21cwt.). The quantity has gradually increased, but the quality has gradually decreased; that is, an average ton of Cornish ore does not now yield so large a per-centage of pure copper as in former times: the mines are becoming impoverished. The 'produce,' or per-centage has lowered from 11 to 7 or 8 per cent. The money value of the Cornish copper ores, within the last few years, has averaged between £800,000 and £900,000 annually. The ores brought from various parts of Wales to be smelted at Swansea are inconsiderable in amount-not exceeding 1000 tons annually on an average of the last ten years. The Irish ores reach Swansea in much greater quantity, though with a gradual decline; in 1840 the quantity was 23,412 tons, while in 1848 it was 14,554. It is the increase in foreign copper ores which has most marked the operations of the Swansea smelters within the last few years. Between 1844 and 1848 the foreign copper ore brought to Swansea varied from 36,000 to 47,000 tons annually. The average 'produce' or richness being very nearly 20 per cent.-far more than double that of the Cornish, and the marketprice of the ore being proportionably higher, the annual money value of the ore during those five years gave an average of £630,000; thereby indicating no inconsiderable approach to the value of Cornish ore.

A table of sixteen years, from 1833 to 1848, gives the following useful averages in respect to Swansea copper-smelting:

Average quantity of ore smelted
Average price per ton

Average money value

Average produce of fine copper
Average richness of ore.

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194,142 tons. £7 7s. £1,424,818 18,567 tons. 10 per cent. Of the foreign ores, those from Cuba are greatest in quantity, but those from Chili are richest in quality. The Australian ores are becoming every year more and more important. In one of the mines of that colony, the Burra Burra, the £5 shares of the company are now valued in the market at more than £200, so rich is the return for the capital expended. These ores are gradually reaching Swansea in greater and greater quantity. The copper ore now being found on the shores of Lake Superior, in Canada, has hardly yet come into the market. The docks and warehouses of Swansea have become the scene of a very extensive trade, foreign as well as British. Until 1827 nearly all the copper ore brought to Swansea for smelting was Cornish, but during the last twenty-three years the importation

of foreign ore has become quite a distinguishing feature. In 1814 there were only four vessels which traded between Swansea and foreign ports; in 1834 this number had increased to 46, in 1840 to 328, in 1849 to 771. And it is a remarkable feature in respect to the general trade of the place, that although most of the arrivals from foreign ports consist of copper ore, the ships depart with even a greater tonnage of cargoes than they bring. The foreign ore thus brought is chiefly from Australia, Cuba, and South America. The coasting trade is immense; it consists of the arrival of copper ore from Cornwall and Ireland, and of general merchandise from various parts; and the export of coal, copper, iron, and various produce and manufac tures, to different British ports. The arrivals and departures of vessels engaged in the coasting trade amounted in 1849 to no less than 10,000 (averaging 27 per day), carrying 600,000 tons of merchandise. There are three other ports of shipment in Swansea Bay, viz.-Neath, Port Talbot, and Porthcawl; and it is probable that these large numbers apply to the whole collectively: the bay being thus regarded as one port.

Of the foreign mines whose copper ore reaches Swansea, most are worked by English adventurers or companies, whether situated in Australia, Cuba, or Chili. They charter large vessels of 500 to 1000 tons burthen to convey the ore; and this ore is accumulated in yards or warehouses at Swansea. The ore is crushed in these yards before being taken to the smelting-works; the crushing is effected by means of broadheaded hammers, and the fragments are passed through sieves till they assume the state of fine gravel. Some of the ore is imported in a fine state, and does not require this breaking and sifting. The ores are weighed, charged with duty, deposited in beds, ticketed, sampled, assayed, and sold to the smelters. Nearly all the Cornish ore is bought in Cornwall, by agents employed by the Swansea smelters; but the foreign. ore is sold in Swansea, after the import. The purchases are called ticketings, and are made once a fortnight at the chief hotel in Swansea. The arrangements for these sales are highly curious, and have grown up by degrees so as to meet the convenience of all parties. The agents of the mine-owners or consignees take their seats round a table; a chairman takes the chair at a particular hour, and announces the lots of ore to be sold. These lots have all been previously assayed by the assayers employed by the respective smelters; and an agent for each firm is present to make biddings for the lot. There is no open competition, as at an auction, but each tender is handed up to the chairman, written on a slip of paper and folded; and when all have so tendered, the chairman opens the papers, reads the biddings, and declares the highest bidder to be the purchaser. Lot after lot is thus disposed of, and all proceeds so quietly and quickly that £50,000 worth may be sold in an hour, with scarcely a word spoken by any one except the chairman. The prices given per ton vary to a remarkable degree in different lots;

of the smoke distinguishes a copper-work from an ironwork. The number of processes to which the copper ore is exposed, and the number of ovens and furnaces of various kinds employed, have given rise to the

each work; each chimney doing its little worst to vitiate the air. And when we speak of the white smoke, let it not be imagined that it is really coal smoke; it is a villanous compound of sulphurous acid, sulphuric acid, arsenic, arsenious acid, and fluoric acid, all in the state of gases and vapours, and mixed with mechanical impurities. This is the real white smoke; the more humble coal-smoke, rising from separate chimneys, has the usual dusky colour.

but so rigorous is the assaying, that all the smelters bid very closely in respect to any individual lot-all having formed pretty nearly the same estimate of its value. There is among the copper-smelters a monopoly-construction of a very large number of chimneys in virtual though not formal; something like that of large joint-stock companies; it is open to others to compete, but the smelting-works are of such great magnitude, the capital required to carry them on is so large, and the influence of their proprietors is so widely extended, that the entire copper trade may be said to centre in a few hands. Many mining proprietors wish to break through this monopoly, which they seem to think lessens the market-price obtained for the ore; but there are other reasons for thinking that the price adjusts itself with tolerable equity to the varying ratio between supply and demand. Be this as it may, out of about twenty copper smelting works in Great Britain, seventeen are situated in the Swansea district, belonging to eleven firms or companies. Out of these eleven, three are companies, known by distinctive names:viz., the English Copper Company, the Crown Copper Company, and the Mines Royal Company. The other eight are the firms of Williams, Foster, and Co; Vivian and Sons; Sims, Willyams, and Co.; Pascoe Grenfell and Co.; Freeman and Co.; Schneider and Co.; Mason and Elkington; and Lowe. The purchases made by some of these establishments are enormous. For instance, in 1848 Messrs. Williams and Foster purchased copper ore to the value of £413,000; Messrs. Vivian, £322,000; Messrs. Sims and Willyams, £201,000; Messrs. Pascoe and Grenfell, £180,000; and so forth. These immense sums of money are appropriated for the purchase of the ore only; the coal, machinery, the workmens' wages, are additional items of cost- all of which have to be returned by the selling price of the pure copper when smelted.

Of the seventeen smelting-works in what we have termed the Swansea district, eight are in the immediate vicinity of the town itself, and the others are dispersed a few miles in the environs. These eight are the White Rock Works, the Upper Bank Works, the Middle Bank Works, the Crown Works, the Hafod Works, the Rose Works, the Landore Works, and the Morva Works.

Such, then, are the works which we encounter on a walk up the valley, from Swansea town towards the north. A pretty valley it must once have been; but the chemical poison vomited forth by day and by night from the copper works withers the trees and pollutes the atmosphere. Time was when the townsmen tried by law to compel the copper smelters to "consume their own smoke;" but all parties seem now as if they regarded the fumes as part and parcel of the wealth of Swansea; and the chimneys have it all their own way. The number of these chimneys is truly enormous. Each large smelting-work, such as the Landore of Messrs. Williams, or the Hafod of Messrs. Vivian, is a little town in itself, whose own body of white smoke is distinct from all the other works. The whiteness

Let us trace, in few words, the broad outlines of the copper-smelting processes. The Swansea river, the Tawy, is deep enough to allow the ore to be brought up by vessels to the principal smelting-works, where it is landed, wheeled along stages from the water side, and deposited in immense heaps under capacious roofs. All the various kinds are kept in separate heaps, which present yellow, green, blue, or red tints, according to the impurities combined with them. The ore is raised up by lifting machinery or by an inclined plane to a level with the top of the calcining-furnaces, of which there are many in each establishment; and when each furnace has received a charge of four or five tons of ore, it is exposed to the heat of a fierce reverberating flame. The ore is kept stirred, by long instruments introduced through doors in the furnace; and the sulphur and other evaporable impurities are thereby driven off. The calcined ore, having something the appearance of black gravel, is drawn from the furnace, wheeled along a stage, and emptied into an ore-furnace, where it is melted; metallic oxides and other substances rise to the surface, and are skimmed off in the state of slag; and the melted copper, in a red-hot state, is allowed to flow from the furnace into a tank of water, where it collects in a granulated state in a tray at the bottom. The slag is examined to see whether it contains any copper; if it has, it is re-melted; if not, part of it is cast in moulds to make copings for walls (much used in the neighbourhood of Swansea), and the rest is thrown on the huge slag or cinder-heaps which accumulate near the works. The granulated copper, when raised from the tanks, is again placed in calcining furnaces to drive off still more impurities; and then it is a second time melted, and cast into slabs three feet long by eighteen inches wide. Notwithstanding the double calcining and double melting, the copper still contains some sulphur, which requires to be driven off by roasting; this is a kind of slow melting and oxidation, by which the copper is brought to a state almost pure, and is then cast into moulds. Lastly, to give the finishing touch to the series of purifying processes, the copper is put into a refining furnace; and when melted, bars of wood are immersed into it, and allowed to burn by the heat of the metal: in the act of burning, any remaining oxygen is abstracted from the copper, and the metal is poured into

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