Page:Walks in the Black Country and its green border-land.pdf/419

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and its Green Border-Land.
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were not in miniature or small working models, to show how ribbons were made, but they were the very machines of the factory brought out and put in operation day after day, turning out fabrics for the general market as well as for curiosities. Here you saw at a glance, and in striking illustration, the long line of progression in the trade, or the improved methods introduced under the pressure of that very competition which the early manufacturers and their operatives so much deprecated. It was exceedingly interesting to see the silken threads of every shade and tint painting portraits of distinguished men, and the churches, towers, and spires of the city. This Exhibition was eminently successful in every way, attracting visiters by special trains from considerable distances, and yielding a surplus of several thousand pounds sterling over and above the expenses involved.

Few cities in England, in a word, will present to the visiter so many features of interest as Coventry. It has played its part conspicuously in the history, literature, and industry of the kingdom, and it contains several of the most impressive monuments of the architecture of the fifteenth and fourteenth centuries. The romantic lore of legends and poetical fictions has illuminated its actual history, and made it stand out with attractive features of interest.