In 1822 Wakefield was described as being delightfully situated on the side of a hill, gently sloping to the Calder. The town is well built, most of the streets regular, and many of the houses are handsome, large, and lofty. The Market Cross is an elegant structure, being an open colonade of the Doric order, supporting a dome, with an ascent of stairs leading to a large room, in which the business of the town is transacted. The Markets are very good, and the fortnight Fairs have long been noted for their large supplies of fat cattle and sheep. The improvement of the woollen cloth manufacture has greatly increased the wealth of this town and neighbourhood, and thrown an inexhaustible wealth into Yorkshire, clothed its hills with fatness, and filled its broad vales with houses and population. The stuffs are exposed for sale in a hall, resembling the cloth hall of Leeds.