manufactory at Exeter, but apparently
without success, as in 1756 his Exeter stock was sold in the Great
Piazza auction rooms, Covent Garden. Joseph Baretti (Dr Johnson's
friend), writing from Plymouth on the 18th of April 1760, alludes to his
having that morning visited the Exeter manufactory of _tapisseries de
Gobelins_ "founded by a distinguished anti-Jesuit--the renowned Father
Nobert." Previously to this a Mr Passavant of Exeter[4] had received in
1758 a premium from the Society of Arts of London for making a carpet in
"imitation of those brought from the East and called Turky carpets."
Similar premiums had been awarded by the society in 1757 to a Mr Moore
of Chiswell Street, Moorfields, and to a Mr Whitty of Axminster. In 1759
a society's premium was won by Mr Jeffer of Frome. In the _Transactions
of the Society_, vol. i., dated 1783, it is stated that by their
rewards, the manufacture of "Turky carpets is now established in
different parts of the kingdom, and brought to a degree of elegance and
beauty which the Turky carpets never attained." Such records as these
convey a fair notion of the sporadic attempts which immediately preceded
a systematic manufacture of pile carpets in this country. Whilst the
Wilton industry survived, that actually carried on at Axminster died
towards the end of the 18th century, and the name of Axminster like that
of Savonnerie carpets now perpetuates the memory of a locally deceased
manufactory, much as in a parallel way Brussels carpets seem to owe
their name to the renown of Brussels as an important centre in the 15th
and 16th centuries for tapestry-weaving.

Modern machinery.

Before the existence of steam-driven carpet-making machinery in England,
employers, following the example set by the French, applied the Jacquard
apparatus, for regulating and facilitating the weaving of patterns, to
the hand manufacture of carpets. This was early in the 19th century; a
great acceleration in producing English carpets occurred, severely
threatening the industry as pursued (largely for _tapis ras_) at Tournai
in Belgium, at Nimes, Abbeville, Aubusson, Beauvais, Tourcoing and
Lannoy in France. The severity of the competition, however, was still
more increased when English enterprise, developing the inventions of
Erastus B. Bigelow (1814-1879) of America and Mr William Wood of
England, took the lead in perfecting Jacquard weaving carpet looms
worked by steam, which resulted in the setting up