after the rain swept in a perfect hurricane across the
upper moorland, and shut out even the great tall
engine chimneys from their view. ' We have to thank
you very much for giving us shelter. My children
were so amused watching your funny little dog, that
we forgot all about the rain/

' Ah, Shaggy, he is a great pet ; he belonged to



Trust in God. 5 5

my poor boy ; and now he is gone, we let the dog
have pretty much his own way. Father says we
make a fool of him, but I do not know; Shag seems
to understand most things we say. I often think he
has more sense than many a Christian.'

' Has your son been long dead ?' inquired Mrs.
Grenville kindly.

' Oh, bless you, ma'am, he is not dead, he is away
over the seas getting his fortune. It is what he was
always a-hankering after, so I ought not need to
fret ; but somehow he seems lost to me in they
Amerikay mines, just as much as if he was in his
grave. It is well father does not hear me say so, he
would be blaming of me for my want of faith and
gratitude ; and right enough too, for it was all along
of God's mercy and goodness that Will went away/

' How was it, may I ask ?' inquired Mrs. Grenville,
amused by the woman's natural manner.

'Ah, sure you be strangers and do not know, but
it is a story as has been well talked on in all these
parts. You see, ma'am, my Will was an uncommon
steady young man. Although I say it, there were not
many like him in the mine, regular at his meeting,
always fond of his Bible, and never known to take a
drop too much. Many a one joked him and called
him saint, but Will did not mind ; he used to take it
all good-humouredly, and say " he was sure the saints
would have the best of it in another world, and he did
not know but that they might have the best of it in



56 The Triumphs of Steam.

the long run here below." Well, one day, it may be a
matter of seven years ago, Will and one of his com-
panions a sad unsteady chap were hard at work
in one of the mines preparing for a blast ; and you
see, ma'am, it is sharpish work. As soon as the blast
is ready, one goes up in the basket and sends it down
again for his companion, who sets fire to the train,
and then hoists up for dear life. Well, it so hap-
pened on this particular day Will's companion had
charge of the match, and he thought it was not quite
the right length, like, and so he must needs be alter-
ing it. In cutting it short he struck a light ; in a few
moments the blast must follow. There was the basket,
sure enough ; it would only save one, the other must
stay behind and die. " In, Jem, quick," said Will,
" go you up and repent ; before you are at the top, I
shall be in heaven." Up went the basket, and before
Jem could get to the top he was cut by some of the
stones, thrown upward by the blast. Frightened
a'most out of his senses, he tells the tale, and then
they go down again to pick up my poor Will's
mangled remains. Not a bit of it : God was in the
blast, though they did not know it, and He saw
where His servant was, and the scorching fire went
by him, and, like those three Jews the Bible tells
about, he came out, and the smell of the fire had not
so much as passed upon him.' *

1 The idea of this story was given by an anecdote related by
Carlyle in his Life of Stirling.



Will Bolt on goes to America. 5 7

' Oh how glad I am ! ' exclaimed Arthur, who had
been eagerly listening to the story. ' I am so glad
God took care of him.'

'Ah, indeed ! It would have been a sad day for
us had he died. And then, you see, this story got
wind, and people came from a great distance to see
Will, and Will said he thought he was in greater danger
out of the mine than in it. He said he thought there
was more harm in the breath of praise than in the
blast of fire, and he found it mighty hard, he said,
to keep his footing and not be puffed up. And then
there was Mr. Elliott, and our minister, and one or
two others, and they talked of making him a reward ;
and Will said he did not want a reward. Was he not
rewarded already ? God had given him his own life,
and his companion's likewise. But when he saw as
how they were bent on doing something, then he
upped and let out the secret of his heart, he wanted
schooling, he wanted to be an engineer ; and so all
his friends clubbed together, and they sent him some-
where where he got a deal of learning ; and then he
heard of employment out beyond the seas, in Ame-
rikay. You know where that is, I daresay, better
nor I do ; and he is gone out, and right glad I shall
be when he comes back again/

' Oh, I wish I had got my ball here, mamma!' ex-
claimed Mary ; ' then I could show her America, and
tell her just where her son is.'

' They did show me a map, I think they called it,



58 The Triumphs of Steam.

but I could not make much out of it : one piece of
paper is just the same to me as another/

' Oh, but you would understand mine/ said Mary,
'because mine is round, just like the world, the
world, you know, is only a great big ball ; and Arthur
drew all the lines, and they are all right : I know
you would understand it if I were to show it to you.
What a pity I did not bring it with me ! But I could
send it, mamma ; could I not ?'

' Bless you, dear/ said the woman kindly, 'but it
would not be of much use to the likes of me. Please
God I shall live to see Will again, and then I shall
not much mind where he has been to meanwhile/

Mrs. Bolton's thirst for knowledge was certainly
not as ardent as her son's had been. Her thoughts
were more intent upon present hospitalities ; and
seeing that the rain was steadily falling, she insisted
on her guests staying to take tea ; and whilst Arthur
and Mary had a game of play with Shaggy, she
and her grand-daughter Jane spread the table, and
covered the clean white cloth with all the delicacies
their larder contained. 'She was sure/ she said, 'a
few potted pilchards, and some bread and cheese,
and a good draught of cream would do the young
gentleman good, he looked but weakling, and he
was heartily welcome to everything that they had ;
and if that was not enough, she knew where she
could get more/ But when Mrs. Bolton finished
her hospitable preparations by taking from the cup-



Mrs. Grenville s Sketch of '' Shaggy.' 59

board a loaf about the size of a moderate pillow,
Arthur could not help laughing as he said, ' He
thought there was quite enough there to satisfy him
for a month at least/

* A month ! You should see how my boys eat.
It is not long these loaves last them/

Not to vex Mrs. Bolton, Mrs. Grenville just tasted
some of the nice things offered to her, and then pro-
posed, whilst the children were finishing their meal,
to make a little sketch of Shaggy sitting up begging,
as they had first seen him. This proposal gave uni-
versal satisfaction. Mrs. Grenville drew remarkably
well, and in a very short time she had made such a
bold spirited sketch as might have met with the
approval of even a Sir Edwin Landseer. In the
cottage it was hailed as a perfect masterpiece of art
At first its progress had been watched in solemn
silence ; then, as the finishing touches came in, ' Dear,
oh dear, to think of anything so wonderful ! Why,
it is just the very pictur of the dog. Why, there
is his shaggy hair, and no eyes, and just his nose,
and they are his very paws. Well, to be sure ! I
never!'

The rain had ceased, and the men had come in
from their work ; and before Mrs. Grenville had
finished her sketch she was surrounded by an ad-
miring crowd ; one and all declaring, ' That, to be
sure, it did be the very pictur of the dog/

' Well, to be sure ! But I do thank you/ said Mrs,



60 The Triumphs of Steam.

Bolton, gazing almost with reverence at the picture.
' Look, father. How often you have been cross with
me because I said whatever should I do if Shag
died before Will came back. Now, even if poor
Shag were to die, you could hardly tell his pictur
from hisself. La ! father, would not Will be right
pleased ?'

But the sun was now again shining brightly, and
Mrs. Grenville was anxious to take advantage of the
fine weather to go home. Resisting, therefore, the
kind importunities of her host and hostess, ' that she
would rest a bit longer amongst them/ she thanked
them for all their hospitality, and shaking hands
warmly with them, left the cottage, followed by their
best wishes and earnest entreaties that she would
never come to Redruth without paying a visit to
the miner's home. They had not long left the cot-
tage when they were joined by Mr. Grenville and
the boys, full of all the wonders they had seen in
the mine. But pleasant as it had been, they were
rather tired and very dirty, and were glad to return
to the hotel, to rest and refresh themselves before
going to Mr. Elliott's, where they were to spend the
evening of this very eventful day.

' Mamma/ said Ernest, as, a few days after their
return from their pleasant expedition to Cornwall,
the children were sitting with their mother, 'who
did Mr. Elliott say had invented the cotton ma-
chines ? That man, I mean, whom he was telling



Birth of A rkwright. 6 1

Arthur about, and who, he said, lived about the
same time as Watt ?'

' Arkwright.'

' Oh yes, that is the name. Was he as remarkable
a man, mamma?'

* He was very clever and ingenious, but perhaps
not equal to Watt in power of mind.'

'When did he live, mamma?' asked Arthur. 'Can-
not you tell us something about him ?'

'He was born in 1732,' replied Mrs. Grenville.
' His parents were very poor people, and he was the
youngest of thirteen children. But, as is often the
case with those who are possessed of real genius, the
very hardships he had to go through had only the
effect of quickening his intellectual powers. As a
boy, however, no one seems to have had an idea of
the celebrity to which he would afterwards attain.
He was apprenticed to a barber, and began life
by shaving and cutting the hair of the good people
of Bolton. Wearying, however, of this somewhat
monotonous trade, he changed his profession for
that of an itinerant hair-dealer. His business was
to travel about the country, and visit the different
towns, buying up all the fine heads of hair, and then
dressing and preparing them for the use of the
wig-makers ; for in those days, when every one wore
wigs, it was a much more lucrative profession than
it is now, when we have grown so matter-of-fact as
to suppose that the head of hair nature has given



62 The Triumphs of Steam.

us, may possibly be quite as becoming as the one
intended for our neighbour. In the course of these
journeys, Arkwright was in the habit of passing
through all the manufacturing districts in the north
of England : busy places then, though very different
to what they have since become, thanks to his in-
ventive genius.

'Up to about 1760, it had been the habit of the
weavers to spin their various cloths in their own
cottages, and then take them for sale to the towns
in their vicinage. About this time, however, the
merchants at Manchester seem to have come to the
conclusion that it would be far more profitable for
all parties if they were to supply the weavers with a
certain quantity of the raw material, and pay them
regular wages for making it into calicoes ; not such
calicoes, however, as we use now, they were not
known then : a far more costly material was used,
threads of cotton and linen being interwoven ; there
being then no method known by which a thread of
cotton could be prepared sufficiently strong to act as
the warp. I do not know whether you are aware that
all materials that are woven are made of threads
which cross each other. Look at my pocket-hand-
kerchief/ continued Mrs. Grenville ; ' or stay here is
some coarse calico. You will see what I mean more
plainly in that : one set of threads goes one way,
and the other the opposite. These long threads are
called warp, and the shorter threads which cross



The Spinning- Jenny. 63

latitudinally are called weft. The warp used to be
made of strong linen yarn, the weft of cotton ; and
with this cotton the manufacturers used to supply
the weavers, and they had to card and prepare it
in their own homes. At first this plan seemed very
desirable, as the preparing the cotton gave regular
employment to the wives and daughters of the
weavers ; but soon the demand for calico increased
so fast that, work as hard as they would, the women
could not supply the wants of the weavers ; and
often an unfortunate man had to leave his home,
and walk sometimes for three or four miles, inquiring
at every cottage as he went, before he could procure
weft enough even to last him for the remainder of
his day's work. This state of things could not con-
tinue. It was evident a method must be invented by
which the weft might be more quickly supplied ; or
it was clear, either that some other material must be
found to supply the place of calico, or that its manu-
facture would pass into abler and more ingenious
hands. Necessity may be the mother of invention,
but at this time James Hargraves was certainly its
father. Without having had any of the advantages
of education, this very ingenious mechanic directed
his attention to the best method of supplying
quickly the daily increasing demand for the spun
cotton; and at length, in 1767, he invented a machine
which he called the spinning-jenny, in which eight
spindles were made to revolve at the same time, by



64 The Triumphs of Steam.

means of bands from a horizontal wheel ; and thus,
of course, the spinner was able to make eight
threads in exactly the same time that he had
hitherto made one. No sooner, however, was it
seen what a saving of time and labour these ma-
chines would effect, than an outcry was raised
through the whole neighbourhood :

' " The trade was in danger. The bread of the
honest poor was being taken out of their mouths.
Down with the machines ! Down with the traitor
who had invented them, and wronged better men
than himself!"

'Urged on by such speeches as these, and by
false representations of the ruin in which these new
machines were to involve themselves and their fami-
lies, the ignorant weavers rose in a body, and, led
by the most turbulent spirits in the neighbourhood,
they marched straight to Hargraves' house, destroy-
ing his property and breaking his machines to pieces ;
and not content with having wreaked their ven-
geance on the author of their fancied wrongs, they
made their way into the cottages where they knew
the spinning-jennies were at work, and wantonly
broke them all to pieces. They might ruin Har-
graves, they might force him to leave the county
and take refuge at Nottingham, but they could not
stop the success of his invention ; all that their
ignorant anger could effect was to turn the rising
tide of prosperity from themselves, and make it flow



Education of the People. 65

into another channel. Greatly surprised would those
men have been, if they could have been told, on the
day when they broke the spinning-jennies to pieces,
and fancied they had destroyed their worst enemies,
that the time was not so very distant when that very
machine, restored and improved, would do, not the
work of eight spindles, but that of one hundred and
twenty ; and that instead of robbing one poor man
of his bread, it would be the means of giving em-
ployment to hundreds of others, who, without it,
might never have had any work at all. However,
you cannot hope that the poor and the uneducated
will take the enlightened views of the statesman or
the scholar. They feel the present inconvenience,
and can hardly be expected to wait patiently for
the future good. Much has been done since the
days of Hargraves to improve the moral and intel-
lectual condition of our people ; and though much
still remains to do, yet I think quite enough has
been effected to give us ample encouragement to
persevere in our task ; and it is one in which we all
may help/

'All, Aunt Helen! 1 exclaimed Charles; 'what
can mere boys like we are do ?'

' Educate yourselves/

' But, aunt, what has that got to do with teaching
the poor?'

' Everything. Have you never felt the effects of
indirect influence ? Have you not known that your

E



66 The Triumphs of Steam.

own thoughts were purer, and your own aspirations
higher, when you were amongst those whose judg-
ment you respected, and to whose high moral cha-
racter you could at all times look up ?'

'Yes, aunt, certainly,' replied Charles, slightly
hesitating.

' Well, my dear boy, the same influence which you
now feel others have exercised over yourself, you in
your turn may exercise over others. Your very posi-
tion as a gentleman by birth and fortune gives you
great responsibilities. You did not come into the
world to hunt, and shoot, and smoke cigars, and
dress well, and waltz elegantly: these amusements
may be all very well by the way, but God gave you
a work to do, and He will require an account of
you of how you have done it. You came into the
world to win your way to heaven, and in doing so,
to influence for good all those who come within your
daily sphere of action. Now, more or less, the rich
influence all the poorer classes. Of course there are
exceptions, but, as a general rule, those below look
up to those whose rank and station are higher than
their own, and allow themselves to be guided by
those whose conduct and intelligence they feel that
they can respect ; whilst, on the contrary, if they see
that the gentleman is only idling away existence,
they soon learn to despise him ; and from this con-
tempt results subsequent riot and sedition. But
then, in order to rule others, you must first learn to



Har graves goes to Nottingham. 67

rule yourself ; and it is in childhood that the foun-
dation of your future character is laid. Whilst you
are mastering a difficult lesson, or working out an
intricate problem, you are in reality acquiring habits
of patience and perseverance. In these days of over-
work and over-stimulus, it is actually necessary that
those who would influence for good the masses of
the people, should be themselves possessed not only
of great intelligence, but of accurate information.
This can only be acquired by patient and laborious
study ; and he who shirks work as a boy, will very
rarely have much influence over others when he is a
man. However, we must return to Hargraves, whom
we left with his house broken into, and his machines
destroyed.

' Seeing clearly that it would be quite useless to
endeavour to combat the spirit of opposition with
which the weavers of Lancashire set themselves
against the introduction of the spinning -jennies,
Hargraves took the resolution of leaving his own
county and going to Nottingham, hoping in that
manufacturing town to find some one who would be
induced to advance the money which was required
to bring the spinning-jennies into general notice; for
he never for a moment doubted that if they had but
a fair trial, their success was certain. It would have
been well if he had been equally certain of reaping
the reward of his own ingenuity. But no sooner
did the manufacturers understand the immense gains



68 The Triumphs of Steam.

they might derive from the use of the spinning-
jennies, than, in spite of a patent which Hargraves
had taken out in the hopes of protecting himself, a
number of unprincipled men, trusting to his being
too poor to defend himself, openly infringed upon
his right Hargraves brought the matter before the
courts ; but his opponents were numerous and rich,
he was poor and unbefriended. Without money,
and broken in spirit, he was obliged to retire from
the unequal contest His unprincipled adversaries
reaped the benefit of his talents, whilst he himself
ended his days in the workhouse at Nottingham ;
and that this should have been his fate, seems to
me to be a lasting disgrace to the age and society
in which such a wrong was committed.'

'And Arkwright, was he more prosperous ?' asked
Ernest.

'Yes/ replied Mrs. Grenville, 'the conclusion of
his life was a very different one. But I really have
not time to talk to you any more to-day. I had no
idea it was so late ; and hark ! there is the door bell.
Your aunt, Arthur, was to call for me, and I have not
begun even to get ready. Run into the hall, Ernest,
and if it is your aunt, tell her I will be with her in a
very few minutes;' and bidding the children good-
bye, Mrs. Grenville went up -stairs to put on her
bonnet




CHAPTER IV.

Arkwright at Nottingham Establishes the works at Cromford ; their
success George Stephenson Anecdotes of his youth.

5AMMA/ said Arthur, ' I have been think-
ing so of poor Hargraves and his spinning-
jennies. It seems so sad to hear of his
dying in the workhouse, whilst other men
were growing rich by his inventions. Did Arkwright
know about it, mamma ?'

'About his poverty, or about the spinning-jenny,
do you mean ? '

' Why, I meant about the spinning-jenny at the
moment ?'

' Most probably, I should think,' replied Mrs. Gren-
ville, 'for Hargraves must have been busily at work
in the construction of the machine at the time when
Arkwright was travelling over all those northern
districts. I daresay, however, they did not come
much in contact, as Arkwright's employment must
have taken him amongst rather a higher class of
employers. Be this, however, as it may, there seems



70 The Triumphs of Steam.

no doubt that the same idea occurred to the two men
nearly at the same period. Both saw that if the
cotton manufacture was to be carried on successfully
in England, some means must be at once discovered
by which the cotton could be rapidly prepared.
Both men set busily to 'work to find the remedy,
but Arkwright went further than Hargraves in his
ideas of improvement. Hargraves seems to have
thought only of a rapid means of preparing the
weft ; but Arkwright saw clearly that if any method
could be found by which cotton could be spun into
threads strong enough to act as warp, the use of the
linen yarn would be immediately superseded, and
calicoes might be made at a very reduced price.
Long and anxiously he thought over the means of
effecting his purpose, until at length, when he was
one day watching some workmen who were busy in
elongating a red-hot bar of iron by means of rollers,
the idea suddenly seized him of how his plan could
be successfully accomplished. Unfortunately, he was
no mechanic. He had got his idea clearly in his own
head : how was he to work it out ? Happily, his busi-
ness had been so successful that he was enabled to
procure the assistance of a man named Kay, a clock-
maker at Warrington, and the two together con-
structed a machine, in which, by means of a double
set of rollers, one moving three times as quickly as
the other, the cotton was spun rapidly into a firm
thin thread, quite as strong as the linen yarn which



A Picture of Manchester. 71

was then in use. I will ask papa this evening to
show you a picture of the machine : he will explain
to you exactly how it acts, and you will understand
it better then than I can tell you now. 1

'Oh, we must get Uncle Henry to take us to
Manchester !' said Charles. ' I suppose that is where
all these machines are seen to perfection. I quite
like learning, when it takes the form of excursions
all over the country/

' I daresay you do/ replied Mrs. Grenville with a
smile ; ' but I am afraid you would find a visit to
Manchester a very different thing to our pleasant
little trip into Cornwall : there is something to me
dreadfully depressing in the smoke and dirt and
misery of the manufacturing districts. The people
all look so careworn ; the very children are like old
men and women. There is such perpetual noise
and din and hurry, there seems no time for rest,
or for enjoying this earth, which God has made so
beautiful. You would see no such cottages as those
we were in in Cornwall, and you would hear no such
merry shouts of children's laughter ; there is no time
to play with Skye terriers there. You must wait till
you are a little older, and then I will ask your uncle
to take you to Manchester/

'Well then, Aunt Hel^n, I must try and be
patient, and you must go on with Arkwright's story.*

'Highly philosophical/ said Mrs. Grenville; and
then she added : ' As soon as Arkwrisht felt sure that



72 The Triumphs of Steam.

his machine would answer the purpose for which it
was intended, he determined to remove from Pres-
ton and take up his abode at Nottingham, as he
naturally thought that the men who had ruined
Hargraves and destroyed his spinning-jennies would