[Footnote 5: A blast furnace, for the making of pig iron, very near at
hand.]
You now cross the Bourn, a small stream of water, that separates
Warwickshire from the county of Stafford, and passing by Mr. Boulton's
plantations on the left, when you are about half way up the hill,
there is on the right hand, Prospect-house, where the late Mr. Eginton
carried on his manufactory of stained glass.
At the two mile stone, on the left, is the entrance to Soho, where
Matthew Robinson Boulton, Esq. resides, who is proprietor of the _Soho
Manufactory_.
The road leading to this magnificent pile of building is on the left,
when you have passed through the turnpike. The spot upon which it is
erected, was, in the year 1764, a sterril, barren heath, and so it
continued until 1793, when it was inclosed by act of parliament. The
late Mr. Boulton, in the first instance, expended more than nine
thousand pounds in the erection of buildings, exclusive of machinery.
He soon after removed his manufactory from Birmingham; and then
this enterprising genius established a seminary of artists; men of
ingenuity being sought after, from all parts of Europe, and patronised
with the greatest liberality: thus fostered by his benevolence, they
soon produced an imitation of the _or molu_.
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