The Coloured Cloth Hall is a quadrangular building, 127.5 yards long, and 66 broad, divided into six departments called streets.  Each street contains two rows of stands, and each stand measures 22 inches in front, and is inscribed with the name of the clothier to whom it belongs.  The original cost was 3 pounds 3s.  This price advanced to 24 pounds at the beginning of the present century; but it has now fallen below its original value—­not owing to a decrease in the quantity of manufactured goods, but owing to the prevalence of the factory system—­in which the whole operation is performed, from sorting the piece to packing the cloth fit for the tailor’s shelves—­over the domestic system of manufacturing.  An additional story, erected on the north side of the Coloured Cloth Hall, is used chiefly for the sale of ladies’ cloths in their undyed state.  The White Cloth Hall is nearly as large as the Coloured Cloth Hall, and on the same plan.  The markets are held on Tuesdays and Saturdays, on which days alone the merchants are permitted to buy in the Halls.  The time of the sale is in the forenoon, and commences by the ringing of a bell, when each manufacturer is at his stand, the merchants go in, and the sales commence.  At the end of an hour the bell warns the buyers and sellers that the market is about to close, and in another quarter of an hour the bell rings a third time, and the business of the day is terminated.  The White Cloth Hall opens immediately after the other is closed, and the transactions are carried on in a similar manner.

The public buildings of Leeds are not externally imposing, and it is, without exception, one of the most disagreeable-looking towns in England—­worse than Manchester; it has also the reputation of being very unhealthy to certain constitutions from the prevalence of dye-works.

The wealthy and employing classes in Leeds (we know no better term) have a reputation for charity, and good management of charitable institutions.  Howard the philanthropist visited the workhouse, and praised the management, at a period when to deserve such praise was rare.  The subscriptions to public charities are large, and there is an ancient fund for pious uses, said to amount to upwards of 5000 pounds a-year, managed by a close self-elected corporation, about the distribution of which they do not consider themselves bound to give any detailed information.  Dr. Hook, the Vicar of Leeds, has organized a system of house-to-house visitation, for the purpose of affording aid, in poverty and sickness, to the deserving and religious, and educational instruction to all, which has effected a great deal of good, and would have done more, had not well known circumstances shaken the confidence of the Leeds public in the honesty of some of the teachers.  All parties agree, however differing in opinions, that Dr. Hook himself is a most excellent, charitable, self-sacrificing man.