time he carried on a series of experiments with the object of
printing by machinery. The experiments were secretly conducted in
his own house, the cloth being ironed for the purpose by one of the
women of the family. It was then customary, in such houses as the
Peels, to use pewter plates at dinner. Having sketched a figure or
pattern on one of the plates, the thought struck him that an
impression might be got from it in reverse, and printed on calico
with colour. In a cottage at the end of the farm-house lived a
woman who kept a calendering machine, and going into her cottage,
he put the plate with colour rubbed into the figured part and some
calico over it, through the machine, when it was found to leave a
satisfactory impression. Such is said to have been the origin of
roller printing on calico. Robert Peel shortly perfected his
process, and the first pattern he brought out was a parsley leaf;
hence he is spoken of in the neighbourhood of Blackburn to this day
as "Parsley Peel." The process of calico printing by what is
called the mule machine--that is, by means of a wooden cylinder in
relief, with an engraved copper cylinder--was afterwards brought to
perfection by one of his sons, the head of the firm of Messrs. Peel
and Co., of Church. Stimulated by his success, Robert Peel shortly
gave up farming, and removing to Brookside, a village about two
miles from Blackburn, he devoted himself exclusively to the
printing business. There, with the aid of his sons, who were as
energetic as himself, he successfully carried on the trade for
several years; and as the young men grew up towards manhood, the
concern branched out into various firms of Peels, each of which
became a centre of industrial activity and a source of remunerative
employment to large numbers of people.

From what can now be learnt of the character of the original and