vi PREFACE. 



rials, which were carried away in foreign ships and 

 partly returned to us in manufactures worked up by 

 foreign artisans. We grew wool for Flanders, as 

 America grows cotton for England now. Even the 

 little manufactured at home was sent to the Low 

 Countries to be dyed. 



Most of our modern branches of industry were begun 

 by foreigners, many of whom were driven by religious 

 persecution to seek an asylum in England. Our first 

 cloth-workers, silk-weavers, and lace-makers were 

 French and Flemish refugees. The brothers Elers, 

 Dutchmen, began the pottery manufacture ; Spillman, a 

 German, erected the first paper-mill at Dartford ; and 

 Boomen, a Dutchman, brought the first coach into Eng- 

 land. 



When we wanted any skilled work done, we almost 

 invariably sent for foreigners to do it. Our first ships 

 were built by Danes or Genoese. When the Mary Rose 

 sank at Spithead in 1545, Venetians were hired to 

 raise her. On that occasion Peeter de Andreas was 

 employed, assisted by his ship-carpenter and three of 

 his sailors, with " sixty English maryners to attend upon 

 them." When an engine was required to pump water 

 from the Thames for the supply of London, Peter Morice, 

 the Dutchman, was employed to erect it. 



Our first lessons in mechanical and civil engineering 

 were principally obtained from Dutchmen, who supplied 

 us with our first wind-mills, water-mills, and pumping- 

 engines. Holland even sent us the necessary labourers 

 to execute our first great works of drainage. The 

 Great Level of the Fens was drained by Vermuyden ; 

 and another Dutchman, Freestone, was employed to 

 reclaim the marsh near Wells, in Norfolk. Canvey 

 Island, near the mouth of the Thames, was embanked 

 by Joas Croppenburgh and his company of Dutch 



