Page:Repository of Arts, Series 1, Volume 01, 1809, January-June.djvu/235

187

These premises, together with the two adjoining houses, formed, upwards of a century ago, the residence of the Duke of Schomberg, a Dutch general, who, at the revolution which placed the crown on the head of William the Third, accompanied that monarch to England, and fell by the fire of his own troops at the battle of the Boyne.

The house is one hundred and fifty feet in length from front to back, and of proportionate width. It is fitted up with great taste, and is divided by glazed partitions into four departments, for the various branches of the extensive business which is there carried on.

Immediately at the entrance is the first department, which is exclusively appropriated to the sale of furs and fans. The second contains articles of haberdashery of every description, silks, muslins, lace, gloves, &c. In the third shop, on the right, you meet with a rich assortment of jewellery [sic], ornamental articles in or moulu, French clocks, &c.; and on the left, with all the different kinds of perfumery necessary for the toilette. The fourth is set apart for millinery and dresses; so that there is no article of female attire or decoration, but what may be here procured in the first style of elegance and fashion.

This concern was founded twenty-five years since, by Messrs. Dyde and Scribe, and has been conducted for the last twelve years by the present proprietors, who have spared neither trouble nor expence [sic] to ensure the establishment a superiority over every other in Europe, and to render it perfectly unique in its kind.

Forty persons are regularly employed on the premises in making up the various articles offered for sale, and in attendance on the different departments; while the number of artisans engaged in supplying the concern with novelties, almost exceeds belief. Their exertions are rewarded by a successful introduction of all articles of merit among the first circles, by which they receive a certain stamp of fashion, and a consequent wide and general circulation through the country, to the great advantage of the manufacturer.

There is scarcely a manufacturing town in the kingdom but what it is laid under contribution by this establishment, the attention of whose spirited proprietors is not confined to native productions, but extends to every article of foreign manufacture which there is any possibility of obtaining. ''No. III. Vol. I.'' B