In connection with the School of Design at Somerset House, there are several branch schools. One is established in Spitalfields ; and others at Manchester, Birmingham, Co ventry, Nottingham, Sheffield, York, Leeds, Huddersfield, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Norwich, Stoke-upon-Trent, Hanley, Glasgow, Paisley, &c. ; all of which are well attended, and have been productive of much good. Some of the students have already become teachers in the schools, and many have successfully applied their talents to the improvement of our native manufactures.
There is one other school, that at Edin burgh, which is not in connection with So merset House. It was established some years previous to that at Somerset House, underthe sanction of the Board for the Improvement of Manufactures and the Herring Fishery. It has been well attended, and two of the early con ductors at Somerset House were formerly masters there. Its object is nearly the same; the chief distinction is, that in Edinburgh it is the only school of art, while in London there is the Royal Academy for the more aspiring and ambitious.
Under BELFAST, BIRMINGHAM, COVENTRY, NOTTINGHAM, dm., a few details will be found illustrative of the present state of the Schools of Design in those towns. There are cir cumstances connected with the Belfast school so interesting that we will quote a portion of the Annual Report for 7850 relating to it, showing how important the more wrappers for woven goods are regarded. After stating that some among the 148 students in 1850 were designers for sewed muslin, and others de signers for damasks, the report goes on to say ;---'Eleven of the pupils are entered as engravers, and of these several are draughts men and designers for the paper bands and envelopes used in tying up the rolls of linen.
The value attached to these ornaments in preparing the packets of linen for the foreign markets, the decoration which is lavished upon them, the taste and care with which it is thought necessary to get them up, and the extent to which they are imported into Bel fast from London and Paris, render them no unimportant article of trade. In the year 1817, when the establishment of the School of Design at Belfast was first taken into consi deration, one stationer at Belfast had made a beginning in the manufacture of these arti cles, and had a press at work in embossing them. The same stationer has now nine presses at work, and others of the trade have taken up the business. 'Most of the bands yet made are of an inferior sort, but there are attempts to improve the quality; some are taking the place of the more simple French patterns, and the sale is increasing. The establishment of the school has been happily timed for the encouragement of a branch of trade so favourable to the development of artistic skill, and there is every prospect that by the help of the school the "linen band" will become a home manufacture, and secure to the town of Belfast an annual expenditure of 60,000/., now paid to strangers and fo reigners." There is at the present time an active movement in Belfast with respect to orna mental design. The production of specimens for the Exhibition of 1851is one stimulus, and French workwomen have been engaged, not to supersede, but to instruct the native em broiderers of muslin.'