INDUSTRIES 



Mortlake came to an end. Its early youth 

 had been vigorous and brilliant, but political 

 events had brought on a premature decay 

 from which not even the extravagance and 

 fashion of a succeeding age had been able to 

 wrest it. 



The high degree of artistic excellence to 

 which the Mortlake weavers attained in the 

 best days of the manufacture has already been 

 indicated in this account. Of the latter day 

 productions of the works we know little or 

 nothing. The method employed was what 

 is known as the high-warp, the warp being 

 stretched on vertical looms as distinguished 

 from the horizontal looms on which the low- 

 warp tapestry is made.* The former is now 

 the only process employed at the Gobelins, 

 and although far less rapid than the latter has 

 the advantage of producing a much stronger 

 and more spirited rendering of the picture. 

 For a critical summary of the merits of the 

 Mortlake productions we may refer to the 

 report of the Parisian jurors in 1 7 1 8. They 

 judged the tapestries very well, commended 

 the excellent choice of models, and noted the 

 even and soft texture resulting from the em- 

 ployment of the beautiful English wools. 

 The colouring however they said was not 



first-rate. In the words of a recent writer : 

 ' the hangings of Mortlake, indeed, have not 

 the transparency and brilliancy of those of 

 the Gobelins ; their general aspect is some- 

 what dull and muddy, whether it was that 

 they darkened afterwards, or were defective 

 in tone from the beginning.' ' The mark of 

 the Mortlake tapestries in the time of Charles 

 I. was the shield of St. George with the 

 words CAR : re : reg : mortl : to which was 

 added in his time the monogram of the mas- 

 ter, Sir Francis Crane. * 



No other attempt to establish the art of 

 tapestry making in England can compare with 

 that at Mortlake, although in the eighteenth 

 century several factories appear to have been 

 in existence. Two at least of these were in 

 London or its neighbourhood, one at Fulham, 

 the other at Soho.° Attention may in con- 

 clusion be directed here to two works estab- 

 lished in Surrey in our own time of which 

 tapestry-weaving forms a branch of the manu- 

 facture, namely the Artistic Fabrics Works 

 started by the late William Morris at Merton 

 about the year 1881, and the Haslemere 

 Weaving Industry founded as a village in- 

 dustry by Mr. and Mrs. Joseph King of 

 Witley some eight or nine years ago." 



FELT AND HAT MAKING 



The manufacture of felt was formerly 

 practised very extensively in Southwark and 

 Bermondsey, and in the making of hats for 

 which felt was principally employed the same 

 places for long enjoyed a pre-eminent position. 

 This pre-eminence has been lost very much 

 of late years, although the industry is still 

 carried on to a very considerable extent in the 

 neighbourhood.^ 



The earliest association however of Surrey 

 with the manufacture of hats or caps seems 

 to occur in 1376 in connection with some 

 fulling mills at Wandsworth. In that year 

 we learn that the 'hurers' of London, or 

 makers of shaggy fur caps called ' hures,' were 

 wont to full their caps at these mills together 

 with others at Old Ford, Stratford and En- 

 field, to the no small inconvenience of the 

 fullers of the same city who also used these 

 mills and who complained that the caps were 

 mixed with their cloths in the fulling and 

 crushed and tore them to their great damage 



» For a concise account of the two methods 

 and their respective merits see the chapter on 

 'The Technique of Tapestry' in MUntz, op. cit. 

 356-66. 



> E. T. Clarke, Bermondsey (1902), 237, 238- 



and loss.'' At the same time the hurers them- 

 selves complained of the use of watermills by 

 certain of their trade for fulling their caps, 

 and on their showing that caps so fulled were 

 not equal to those fulled after the old fashion 

 by hand, obtained an ordinance forbidding 

 the use of mills for this purpose.® A little 

 more than a hundred years later the same 

 grievance found expression in Parliament and 

 led to the enactment in 1482-3 that none 

 should full any caps in future at any mill or 

 expose the same to sale." 



The art of felting is of extreme antiquity, 

 but it is impossible to say with any certainty 

 at what date it was introduced into this 

 country. Felt differs from cloth in that it is 

 not a woven material, the principle of its 



3 Mflntz, ' The Technique of Tapestry,' 304. 



* Ibid. 370, 373. The monogram might 

 however have been that of the designer, Francis 

 Cleyne. 



« Ibid. 349, 350. 



« See the Homeland Handbook for Haslemere and 

 Hindhead (i^o'i), 24. 



' H. T. Riley, Memorials of London, 401. 



8 Ibid. 402-4. 



» Stat. 22 Edw. IV. cap. 5. 



359 



