board a ship from the Thames, which did not arrive at its destination and was never heard of afterwards.  One of these carpets was described to us as being just like an oil painting representing a battle scene.  The carpets were made in frames, a woman on each side, and were worked with a needle in a machine.  We saw the house where Mr. Whitty formerly resided, the factory being at one end of it, while at the back were his dye-works, where, by a secret method, he dyed in beautiful tints that would not fade.  The pile on the carpets was very long, being more like that on Turkey carpets, so that when the ends were worn they could be cut off with a machine and then the carpet appeared new again.  Mr. Whitty never recovered from the great loss of the two carpets, and he died without revealing his secret process even to his son.  The greater part of the works was burnt down on Trinity Sunday, 1834, and though some portion was rebuilt, it was never again used for making Axminster carpets, which were afterwards made at Wilton, to which place the looms were removed in 1835; the industry, started in 1755, had existed at Axminster for eighty years.

King Athelstan founded a college here in commemoration of the Battle of Brunnenburh, fought in 937, in which fell five kings and seven earls.  The exact site of this battle did not appear to have been located, though this neighbourhood scarcely had more substantial claims to it than the place we passed through in Cumberland.

Axminster took its name from the river Axe, which passes near the town, and falls into the sea at Axemouth, near Seaton; the name Axe, as well as Exe and Usk, is Celtic and signifies water—­all three being the names of rivers.  There was not much left of Axminster at the end of the Civil War, except the church, for most of the buildings had been burnt down.  A letter written on November 21st, 1644, by a trooper from Lyme Regis to his parents in London contained the following passage: 

Hot newes in these parts:  viz., the 15th of this present November wee fell upon Axminster with our horse and foote, and through God’s mercie beat them off their works, insomuch that wee possessed of the towne, and they betook them to the Church, which, they had fortified, on which wee were loath to cast our men, being wee had a garrison to look on.  My brother and myselfe were both there.  We fired part of the towne, what successe we had you may reade by the particulars here inclosed.  Wee lost only one man in the taking of the towne, and had five wounded.  The Monday following wee marched to Axminster againe.  Major Sydenham having joyned with us that Lordis Day at night before, thinking to have seized on the Church, and those forces that were in it, but finding them so strong, as that it might indanger the loss of many of our men, wee thought it not fit to fall upon the Church, but rather to set the houses on fire that were not burnt at the first firing, which accordingly