The arrival was opportune, and helped to break the fall of the hand-loom cotton weavers, many of whom could not endure the loss of freedom imposed by the rules of the factory, and whose latent love of beauty, as disclosed in their taste for floriculture, was called forth in a new and agreeable manner. Silk-weaving was further congenial to these men in being more cleanly and less laborious than the former work, requiring more care and vigilance, and rather more skill, thus exactly suiting a race of worshippers of the auricula, the polyanthus, and the carnation. The auricula, locally called the "basier," a corruption of "bear's ear," is the subject of a charming little poem by one of the old Swinton weavers, preserved intact, reprinted in Wilkinson's _Lancashire Ballads_, and peculiarly valuable in respect of the light it throws upon the temperament of a simple and worthy race, now almost extinct. We may be allowed to quote two of the verses: Come and listen awhile unto what we shall say Concerning the season, the month we call May; For the flowers they are springing, the birds they do sing, And the basiers are sweet in the morning of May. When the trees are in bloom, and the meadows are green, The sweet-smelling cowslips are plain to be seen; The sweet ties of nature we plainly do say, For the basiers are sweet in the morning of May! The silk-weavers about Middleton were renowned also for their zest in entomology, and truly wonderful were their cabinets of Lepidoptera. Unfortunately, when all was prosperous, there came a change. Ever since 1860, the year of the new, and still current, silk-treaties with France, whereby its original command of the trade was restored, the manufacture of silk in Lancashire, and everywhere else in England, has been steadily and hopelessly declining; and at the present day, compared with half a century ago, the production is less than a tenth of what it was. Power-looms naturally have the preference with employers, since they represent invested capital; whereas the hand-loom weaver, if there is no work for him, has merely to be told so. The latter, as a consequence, is now seldom met with. The trade, such as remains, gathers chiefly about Leigh. Middleton, once so famous for its "broad silks,"--those adapted for ladies' dresses,--now spends its time chiefly in the preparation of "trimmings"; and wherever carried on the manufacture is almost wholly of the kind called "mixed," or cotton and silk combined, this being more in demand, because lower in price, though not wearing so well. [Illustration]