The Lombes had no brother of the name of William, and this part of Hutton's story is a romance.
The affairs of the Derby silk mill went on prosperously.

Enough thrown silk was manufactured to supply the trade, and the weaving of silk became a thriving business.

Indeed, English silk began to have a European reputation.

In olden times it was said that "the stranger buys of the Englishman the case of the fox for a groat, and sells him the tail again for a shilling." But now the matter was reversed, and the saying was, "The Englishman buys silk of the stranger for twenty marks, and sells him the same again for one hundred pounds." But the patent was about to expire.

It had been granted for only fourteen years; and a long time had elapsed before the engine could be put in operation, and the organzine manufactured.