ron, proving difficulties which the English manufacturers were
unable to overcome. To master these difficulties the indefatigable
Yarranton set himself to work. "Knowing," says he, "the usefulness of
tin-plates and the goodness of our metals for that purpose, I did,
about sixteen years since (i.e. about 1665), endeavour to find out the
way for making thereof; whereupon I acquainted a person of much riches,
and one that was very understanding in the iron manufacture, who was
pleased to say that he had often designed to get the trade into
England, but never could find out the way. Upon which it was agreed
that a sum of monies should be advanced by several persons,[13] for the
defraying of my charges of travelling to the place where these plates
are made, and from thence to bring away the art of making them. Upon
which, an able fire-man, that well understood the nature of iron, was
made choice of to accompany me; and being fitted with an ingenious
interpreter that well understood the language, and that had dealt much
in that commodity, we marched first for Hamburgh, then to Leipsic, and
from thence to Dresden, the Duke of Saxony's court, where we had notice
of the place where the plates were made; which was in a large tract of
mountainous land, running from a place called Seger-Hutton unto a town
called Awe [Au], being in length about twenty miles." [14]

It is curious to find how much the national industry of England has
been influenced by the existence from time to time of religious
persecutions abroad, which had the effect of driving skilled Protestant
artisans, more particularly from Flanders and France, into England,
where they enjoyed the special protection of successive English
Governments, and founded various important branches of manufacture.
But it appears from the history of the tin manufactures of Saxony, that
that country also had profited in like manner by the religious
persecutions of Germany, and even of England itself. Thus we are told
by Yarranton that it was a Cornish miner, a Protestant, banished out of
England for his religion in Queen Mary's time, who discovered the tin
mines at Awe, and that a Romish priest of Bohemia, who had been
converted to Lutheranism and fled into Saxony for refuge, "was the
chief instrument in the manufacture until it was perfected." These two
men were held in great regard by the Duke of Saxony as well as by the
people of the country; for their ingenuity and industry pro