[Industrial Biography by Samuel Smiles]@TWC D-Link bookIndustrial Biography CHAPTER II 24/25
Escript a Creskelde le meskerdy en le semayn de Pasque lan avaunt diste." It is probable that the "blomes" referred to in this agreement were the bloomeries or fires in which the iron was made; and that the "olyveres" were forges or erections, each of which contained so many bloomeries, but were of limited durability, and probably perished in the using. [4] The back of a grate has recently been found, cast by Richard Leonard at Brede Furnace in 1636.
It is curious as containing a representation of the founder with his dog and cups; a drawing of the furnace, with the wheelbarrow and other implements for the casting, and on a shield the pincers and other marks of the blacksmith.
Leonard was tenant of the Sackville furnace at Little Udimore .-- Sussex Archaeological Collections, vol.xii. [5] For an interesting account of the early iron industry of Sussex see M.A.LOWER'S Contributions to Literature, Historical, Antiquarian, and Metrical.
London, 1854. [6] Archaeologia, vol.x.
472. [7] One of these, 6 1/2 feet long, and of 2 1/2 inches bore, manufactured in 1543, bears the cast inscription of Petrus Baude Gallus operis artifex. [8] Mr.Lower says, "Many foreigners were brought over to carry on the works; which perhaps may account for the number of Frenchmen and Germans whose names appear in our parish registers about the middle of the sixteenth century ."-- Contributions to Literature, 108. [9] The embankment and sluices of the furnace-pond at the upper part of the valley continue to be maintained, the lake being used by the present Lord Ashburnham as a preserve for fish and water-fowl. [10] Reminding one of the odd motto assumed by Gillespie, the tobacconist of Edinburgh, founder of Gillespie's Hospital, on whose carriage-panels was emblazoned a Scotch mull, with the motto, "Wha wad ha' thocht it, That noses could ha' bought it!" It is just possible that the Fullers may have taken their motto from the words employed by Juvenal in describing the father of Demosthenes, who was a blacksmith and a sword-cutler-- "Quem pater ardentis massae fuligine lippus, A carbone et forcipibus gladiosque parante Incude et luteo Vulcano ad rhetora misit." [11] It was then believed that sea or pit-coal was poisonous when burnt in dwellings, and that it was especially injurious to the human complexion.
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