102 A HISTORY OF LONGRTDGE. [Chap. 4. 



the father. He had also lost both his wives. He was a keen judge 

 of talent in his men, and often the poor pretender to ability, or idle 

 and careless workman, would receive some cutting sarcasm or stinging 

 appellation which would stick to him through life. In politics, Mr. 

 Fleming was a Tory of the old school, but he did not take much active 

 part in political work. He was one of tlie promoters of the Longridge 

 Railway. I have been, however, informed by people who knew Mr. 

 Fleming very well, that he was rather tyrannical in his dealings with 

 his workmen. He only paid them small wages, besides com- 

 pelling them to patronise his " Tommy shop," where they obtained 

 groceries, etc., at about 35 per cent, only above ordinary shop x^rices. 



But in this latter respect, it is only due to Mr. Fleming to say that 

 he was little better or worse than most of the other Longridge 

 emploj'Grs of his day. Mr. William Marsden, Mr. T. Spencer, and 

 Mr. J. Fletcher, all kept " Tommy shops." Nor should we, who live 

 in better days, blame them, until we ourselves are more just towards 

 oui' fellow-men. 



We conclude this sketch of Mr. Fleming's career by saying that the 

 people of Longridge ought never to forget one who worked so hard 

 and so successfully, as assuredly did Mr. Fleming, to raise Longridge 

 from being an obscure and insignificant village to a position of note 

 in the stone trade. 



George Whittle. 



Just about a year after the accession of Queen Victoria to the 

 throne, viz., in 1838, there came into Longridge a young man whose 

 name is not likely to be forgotten in a place which owes to George 

 Whittle, more than to any one man, the foundations of its material 

 prosperity. We have seen in Chapter I. what was the probable 

 condition of Longridge in 1838, and we have seen what it was when 

 George Whittle died, at the early age of 51, in 1865 



George ■\\'liittle, the subject of this sketch, was born at Withnell in 

 1814. His father was a hand-loom manufacturer, and employed 

 several " putters out." A " putter out " was a manufacturer who put 

 out work to hand-loom weavers. When quite a youth he went into 

 the business of John Lightfoot, a draper in a large way of business at 

 Manchester, where he did not stay long. Then for some little time he 



