(From Bristol)

Something of the old 'Merchant Guild' spirit still clings to the industry of glass making. This is a thing of the past in Bristol, and Mr. Powell can lay claim to being the last Bristol glassmaker. For nearly a hundred years his family were engaged in it - but among the workmen the business has passed from father to son for over 200 years. So rigid was the guild spirit that as late as 1840 a strike of three months' duration was caused because an apprentice was bound who was not considered of quite the proper lineage - although his mother was a bottle-maker's daughter and his father employed in the factory in another capacity.