Page:Memoirs of a Huguenot Family.djvu/175

 Rh and I soon succeeded in making good broadcloth for which it was only necessary to use finer wool than for baize and to weave it more closely and compactly.

I took a large house, a little out of town, in which I established my manufactory. I gave out the spinning and weaving. I put up a hot-press and a cold-press in my house, and the latter was so contrived as to compress the bales of goods. I had all the tools and machinery required for teasing and dressing the cloth, and for combing and carding the wool. I built my dye-house near the river for the convenience of pumping up the water. A dyer in the city applied to me for permission to make use of my apparatus, which I granted on condition that he should dye all my worsted and cloth without charge, and make me a certain allowance out of his profits in dyeing for other people, and I well remember that in fifteen months he gained enough to pay me nearly £50 for my share. My knowledge and experience were of great service to him, because I had always written down the exact proportion of each drug that we used at Taunton, and attached to the memorandum a pattern of the article dyed. When he received any order he invariably came to consult with me, and by referring to my books and comparing his pattern with those I had preserved. I was able to tell him at once the exact quantity he would require of each drug, and my instruction never failed to prove correct.

I was now at the height of my ambition. I was beloved by my flock, to whom I preached gratuitously, and thereby had the heartfelt satisfaction of serving the God who had blessed me without deriving any pecuniary advantage from it. My dear wife gained from our manufactory an ample support for the family. We were able to furnish a number of French