ere made a business of elsewhere, then with the
introduction of machinery the hand-loom disappeared from our cottages
to special centres; next the spinning disappeared; then the combing,
and last of all the wool-sorting went too, leaving nothing but sheep
shearing of what was a complete local industry, with as many centres as
there were formerly houses to work in and families to work.

The only thing that is dimly visible in these Glimpses, of that
universal woollen industry, is the picturesque figure of our
great-grand-mother at the spinning wheel--not merely as a piece of
domestic economy, but as a wage-earning tool employing children as well
as adults, just as straw plaiting became in this and the adjoining
Bedfordshire district when the spinning industry disappeared.

In 1768, the first year in which any disbursements are mentioned in the
Royston parish books, the first item was the granting of a spinning
wheel to Nan Dodkin by the Vestry. Weaving proper had ceased at this
date, but a great deal of business was done in Royston towards the end
of last century in the "hemp dressing, sack weaving and rope making
branches," as I learn from an auctioneer's announcement of a property
sale in 1773.

During the reign of George III. hand-spinning was an industry
throughout this district, and at most cottage doors in the villages
could be seen wheels busily turning, up to about 1825. The pay was not
great, but the employment was more seemly than that of dragging mothers
of families and young girls into the fields as one often sees {104}
them at the present time. The evidence of the spinning industry is
conclusive from the parish accounts alone in such entries as--

"Ordered that Thomas C---- and his family be permitted to leave the
Workhouse, the Overseers to buy them a pair of old blankets and a new
Wheel."

"Ordered that the Overseers of Herts. Buy and Lend to the widow S---- a
wheel for the purpose of setting her boy to work."

L s. d.
Spinning Wheles for the Widow D---- . . . 0 2 9
Paid for spinning 17 lb. of flax . . . . . 0 17 6
To mending a weel . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 0 8
14 new, Spendels and wool for G----'s family

The parish accounts in the villages show that wool for spinning was
supplied in small quantities, apparently by small shop-keepers who took
the yarn, which was again bought by the dealers and sent away for
weaving to the newl