master of the whole invention and of all the different parts and motions belonging to it." John Lombe was absent from England for several years. While occupied with his investigations and making his drawings, it is said that it began to be rumoured that the Englishman was prying into the secret of the silk mill, and that he had to fly for his life. However this may be, he got on board an English ship, and returned to England in safety. He brought two Italian workmen with him, accustomed to the secrets of the silk trade. He arrived in London in 1716, when, after conferring with his brother, a specification was prepared and a patent for the organzining of raw silk was taken out in 1718. The patent was granted for fourteen years. In the meantime, John Lombe arranged with the Corporation of the town of Derby for taking a lease of the island or swamp on the river Derwent, at a ground rental of 8L. a year. The island, which was well situated for water-power, was 500 feet long and 52 feet wide. Arrangements were at once made for erecting a silk mill thereon, the first large factory in England. It was constructed entirely at the expense of his brother Thomas. While the building was in progress, John Lombe hired various rooms in Derby, and particularly the Town Hall, where he erected temporary engines turned by hand, and gave employment to a large number of poor people. At length, after about three years' labour, the great silk mill was completed. It was founded upon huge piles of oak, from 16 to 20 feet long, driven into the swamp close to each other by an engine made for the purpose. The building was five stories high, contained eight large apartments, and had no fewer than 468 windows. The Lombes must have had great confidence in their speculation, as the building and the great engine for making the organzine silk, together with the other fittings, cost them about 30,000L. One effect of the working of the mill was greatly to reduce the price of the thrown-silk, and to bring it below the cost of the Italian production. The King of Sardinia, having heard of the success of the Lombe's undertaking, prohibited the exportation of Piedmontese raw silk, which interrupted the course of their prosperity, until means were taken to find a renewed supply elsewhere. And now comes the tragic part of the story, for which Mr. Hutton, the author of the 'History of Derby,' is responsible. As he worked in the silk mill when a boy, from 1730 to 1737, he doubtless heard it from the mill-hands, and there may be some truth in it, though mixed with a little romance. It is this:--