North moor, was about 11,520, and inclusive of those suburbs, about 19,000. The extensive common of Greenacres moor, which, in 1770, comprised nearly 150 acres of waste land, spotted here and there with a few cottages, widely dispersed on the bleak waste, not exceeding 12 in number, was transformed in the course of the succeeding 26 years, into a flourishing and increasing village or suburb of the town of Oldham, solely owing its advancement to the enterprise and wealth created by the cotton trade. The place was still a common in 1796, but several portions had been enclosed, and speedily rendered valuable land, so that the extent of the waste had been reduced to about 100 acres. The conversion of the bridle roads to Saddleworth and Lees into turnpike roads to Halifax and Huddersfield, invited the erection of new habitations; and previous to 1796, 4 cotton mills, and 86 dwelling houses had rapidly arisen on various parts of the moor. This enumeration does not include 26 houses which had been built at Side of moor, or 12 that had been raised at Lower moor. Five years prior to this time, the number of houses on the moor was 65, at Side of moor 23, and at Lower moor 9. In four years subsequent to 1796, the habitations on the moor had increased to about 100, those at Side of moor to 35, and those at Lower moor to 14. The place was destined, however, to undergo a still more wonderful transition. In 1807, the hundred acres of waste land had all been effectually reclaimed, and manufactories and habitation were starting into existence as if by magic. At this latter period, there were eight cotton mills, and nearly 230 houses on the spot which 36 years before had been almost an uninhabited wilderness. In 1820 the cotton mills at this remarkable place were 10, the dwellings nearly 450, and the population about 2640. In the succeeding 20 years the increase in the number of, mills and habitations exceeded in a still more astonishing ratio all that had been previously realised. In 1831 the number of cotton mills here was 20, houses about

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