[43] Lancashire’s Valley of Achor, p. 123.
[44] Byrom was of unusual stature; on one occasion he records having met with a Mr. Jefferson, who was “taller than I by measuring,” the only instance, it would seem, of his having met with such a person.
[45] “John Shaw’s” eventually assumed the character of an organised club, and after an uninterrupted career of a century and a half it still remains in a flourishing state, and is as convivial in its “green old age” as in the days when John Shaw cracked his whip, and with loud voice and imperative tone exclaimed, “Eight o’clock, gentlemen, eight o’clock,” and his serving maid, Molly, followed with her mop and bucket ready to expedite the movements of the loiterer, should the cracking of the whip have failed to “speed the parting guest.” The club has an official staff elected annually and with much mock formality, and what Dr. Johnson calls “obstreperous merriment,” and the members, who are true “Church and Queen” men, assemble once a month under the shadow of the “Mitre” to discuss punch and politics, and drink old wine, and the traditional old toasts, omitting, however, the very suggestive one of the King “over the water.” Among the most treasured relics in the possession of the club, and which now adorn the room where the members assemble, are the original portraits in oil of the autocratic and inflexible John and Molly Owen, his prime minister, and factotum—the Hebe of the house, and the veritable china bowl in which John brewed his seductive compound.
[46] In the accounts of the Constables of Manchester occurs this entry—1745. Sept. 18: Expenses tending the sheriff this morn, Syddal’s and Deacon’s heads put up, £00, 01, 06.
[47] The Duke of Richmond was at the time one of the Lords Justices for the administration of the Government during the absence of George II.
[48] It has been frequently stated that the story of the “Three Black Crows” was inspired by the London edition, but in a recent communication to the Manchester Literary Club, Mr. John Evans has proved conclusively, from a letter in Byrom’s own handwriting, that it was founded on a story related to him by Dr. John Taylor.
[49] The author is informed by Dr. Crompton, the grandson of the Inventor of the Mule, that Barlow engraved the plate for Arkwright’s bill-heads. The plate itself was found a few years ago amongst a heap of old brass at Messrs. Peel’s foundry in Ancoats, and some impressions were then taken from it.
[50] The machine was at first, from the place of its birth, called the “Hall-i’-th’-Wood Wheel,” and sometimes, from the fineness of the yarn it produced, the “Muslin Wheel,” but subsequently it became more generally known as the “Mule,” from the circumstance of its combining the principles of the two inventions of Hargreaves and Arkwright to produce a third much more efficient than either.
[51] Peel had bought one of the machines with the intention of causing drawings of it to be made. The affront was that on the occasion of his (Peel’s) visit to Crompton’s house, he had tendered the Inventor sixpence in consideration of his trouble in showing him the machine.
[52] It is pleasant to note that while so many of those in his own locality who had so largely profited by Crompton’s labour either refused to help or gave only very grudgingly, the one who had suffered most by the success of the mule, Richard Arkwright, of Cromford (the second of the name), whose water frame had in a great measure been superseded by it, contributed £30, at the same time generously acknowledging the merits of the invention.