Walks in the Black Country and its Green Border-Land/Preface
PREFACE.
A FEW words may be expected from the author of this volume to explain the reasons of its appearance. A very few will suffice for this object. It is a part of the duty of American Consuls and Consular Agents abroad to prefix or append to their reports of the trade of their respective districts with the United States other facts bearing upon the productive capacities, industrial character, and natural resources of the communities embraced in their consulates. These annual reports are published by the Department of State at Washington, and constitute a volume of considerable value and interest. In preparing such a report for the Birmingham Consulate, including the Black Country, the author found that it would be impossible to give any approximate idea of the resources and industries of that remarkable district in the space of a few pages appended to the statistics of its exportations to the United States. On closing his brief abstract at the end of 1866, he therefore proposed and promised to present to the Department at Washington, in the course of the ensuing year, a fuller account of the section included in his consulate. This volume, entitled "Walks in the Black Country and its Green Border-Land," is the fulfilment of that promise and undertaking. In order to make it more readable to those not immediately interested in the elements and industries of Manufactures, Trade, and Commerce, he has introduced somewhat lengthened and detailed notices of natural sceneries, public buildings and characters, and historical facts, incidents, and associations belonging to the section. With such abundant and varied material, several volumes of equal size might have been filled; but the author hopes this will serve to give distant readers a bird's-eye view of the district of which it treats, and, perhaps, present a few points and aspects of interest which some persons residing within it may have overlooked.
Birmingham, April 15, 1868.