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242 ANNUAL REGISTER [[2 Columns]] he, I make all I wish for by it; I pay my expences, and there is enough left to answer all the demands which are made on me, on account of the buildings I have erected; so that I am a clear gainer of the number of people I have fixed on my estate; and I dare say you comprehend my meaning sufficiently to see, that this was the only profit I wished to reap. The count shewed me another manufactory, which was that of leather; he had erected several tanneries, which prepares the hides for manufacturing into doublets, breeches, boots, stockings, and shoes; of these various artists, he has to the number of near three hundred; and the products of their labour find, like those of his woollen manufacture, a free and quick sale in the neighbouring country. M. le Count informed me, that this manufacture was more profitable to him than that of woollen goods. The next fabric he shewed me, was that of turners ware. He had laid in large stocks of beech wood, elm, horn-beam, holly, and several other sorts; and fixed many artists in this way to turn dishes, plates, platters, cups, saucers, bowls, scoops, and various other articles, which are in common use among the people in all the adjacent towns and villages; of these artists, he reckons one hundred and twenty persons employed in preparing and working up the raw materials. He has also a small linen manufactory, which employs above forty hands, and of which the success is so advantageous, that it increases every day: they work up only coarse cloths for sheets, shirts, and other purposes, among the lower ranks of people. But none of his works seemed to please this most patriotic nobleman, equal to his manufactories of iron; of these he worked all sorts of implements in common use, whether for the furniture of houses, or domestic utensils; the machines for artists, such as wheelwrights, carpenters, blacksmiths; the implements of husbandry, such as ploughs, harrows, rollers, carts, waggons, spades, shovels, forks, rakes, axes, &c. all these he worked in great numbers, and found a ready vent for them. These fabrics employed above two hundred men. All these undertakings employ above a thousand hands, and the success of them has proved so great, as to fix above two thousand inhabitants in the town he has built for them. It consists of about three hundred houses, all of which the count either built at his own expence, or advanced part of the money towards them, or granted certain privileges to those who made him proposals of building. The streets are laid out very regularly, intersecting each other at right angles; in the center is a large market-place, and in the midst of it, a small but neat church; all the town is well paved; the houses are small, but all raised with brick, and covered with tiles, and make a very regular and agreeable appearance. The bricks and tiles are all burnt in kilns adjoining the town, belonging to the count, and the timber is cut in his forests; so that the expences were very small, compared to what they would have been in different circumstances; but not-withstanding For the YEAR 1772. 243 [[2 Columns]] withstanding these advantages, the count assured me, that in three-and-twenty years, since he began these works, he has expended in them the sum of above thirty-three thousand ducats, which make near sixteen thousand pounds. This account includes the church, the paving the town, and the erecting the works and buildings for the several manufactures, abovementioned, besides the houses and shares of houses: exclusive of this expence, he has been employed three years in erecting a handsome bridge over the river, a wharf on the banks of it, with warehouses for merchandize, and dry and wet docks for building barges, and decked floops on the river: the tide flows up to the town, though at a considerable distance from the sea; and the count, among his noble plans, has schemed the fixing a trade at it. This town is situated between Pallisberg and Wingaard: the river falls into the gulph that Ringskopping stands on, but he is at present employed in cutting a canal, about two miles long, to gain a better navigation into a bay to the northward, near Wosborg. By this means, he hopes to be able to navigate brigs of one hundred tons; whereas he has at present only five sloops, each of fifty tons. These he employs all himself in bringing materials for his manufactures from the Baltic, England, and Holland. His bridge, wharf, docks, and warehouses, he calculates will cost him sixteen thousand ducats, and his navigation above three thousand. I do not remember every receiving so much real pleasure, as from viewing these great and noble exertions of princely magnificence, which infinitely exceed all the costly ornaments which, in some countries, are given to the seats of the great. They reflect immortal honour on the worthy count, who has the spirit thus to prosecute the noblest works which Europe can exhibit. Other noblemen in Denmark have fortunes equal to this illustrious count; in England we have fortunes double and treble to his; but where are we to find an expenditure of a great estate, that reflects equal lustre on the owner? I must confess, I never yet met with an example comparable to this, nor can I possibly dwell on it in the manner it most richly deserves. It was the employment of the day for the count to carry me through all the manufactures, and the different parts of the town; he returned to the castle to a late dinner. I mentioned taking my leave of him, but, with great politeness, and in the most obliging manner, he desired me to defer my journey, saying he had shewn me only his manufactures, but he had the effects of them on agriculture yet to let me see. At dinner, and in the evening, we had abundance of conversation concerning the objects I had seen in the day; and particularly on the means, by which the count had been able to effect the establishment of the manufactures I had seen. The beginning of all my undertakings, said that illustrious nobleman, I found ever the most difficult. In established the woollen fabrick, I had infinite difficulties at first, in opening a regular channel by which to receive the wool, for our own was so bad, that I could use scarce any of it; and then to get people used to the different [["R 2" is listed at the bottom of the second column]]
