It was very curious and unintelligible to me to
observe how they caused different colored patterns to appear, and even
flowers to blossom, on the plain surface of a ribbon. Some of the
designs were pretty, and I was told that one manufacturer pays 500 pounds
annually to French artists (or artisans, for I do not know whether they
have a connection with higher art) merely for new patterns of ribbons.
The English find it impossible to supply themselves with tasteful
productions of this sort merely from the resources of English fancy. If
an Englishman possessed the artistic faculty to the degree requisite to
produce such things, he would doubtless think himself a great artist, and
scorn to devote himself to these humble purposes. Every Frenchman is
probably more of an artist than one Englishman in a thousand.
We ascended to the very roof of the factory, and gazed thence over smoky
Coventry, which is now a town of very considerable size, and rapidly on
the increase. The three famous spires rise out of the midst, that of St.
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