276 SMALL INDUSTRIES AND 



spin the wool, but it was woven in the hand-looms 

 by the clothiers and the members of their families. 

 Twelve years later the hand-loom was superseded 

 to a great extent by the power-loom ; but the 

 clothiers, who were anxious to maintain their in- 

 dependence, resorted to a peculiar organisation : 

 they rented a room, or part of a room, and some- 

 times also the power-looms, and they worked 

 independently a characteristic organisation 

 partly maintained until now, and well adapted 

 to illustrate the efforts of the petty traders to 

 keep their ground, notwithstanding the com- 

 petition of the factory. And it must be said 

 that the triumphs of the factory were too often 

 achieved only by means of the most fraudulent 

 adulteration and the underpaid labour of the 

 children. 



The variety of domestic industries carried on 

 in the Lake District is much greater than might 

 be expected, but they still wait for careful 

 explorers. I will only mention the hoop-makers, 

 the basket trade, the charcoal-burners, the 

 bobbin-makers, the small iron furnaces work- 

 ing with charcoal at Backbarrow, and so on.* As 

 a whole, we do not well know the petty trades of 

 this country, and therefore we sometimes come 

 across quite unexpected facts. Few continental 



* E. Roscoe's notes in the English Illustrated Magazine, May, 

 1884. 



