Book Description

Excerpt from The Master Spinner: A Life of Sir Swire Smith, LL. D., M. P When the story opens, in the forties of last century, Yorkshire people spun and wove with hardly a thought of selling their wares abroad largely; the first line of British steamships crossing the Atlantic was new, and there were still handlooms. Populous now, and wealthy enough, the West Riding was then a region of green dales, well-wooded and thinly inhabited, with little smoke to mar their vistas. But an industry derived of old from Flanders flourished hopefully. Mr. John James, the historian of worsted manu facture, notes that the inhabitants of Keighley and Haworth had been among the most expert spinners of the eighteenth century, and were doing better than those of Bradford. They throve even in the hungry forties. While cottage weavers in the hills despaired, a few enter prising men who could install the power loom had begun to make fortunes and to educate their children. A few only: but thereupon there appeared a group of very charming young people. One is reminded of what happened in the young cities of mediaeval Italy, awaking to their more important civilization. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.