Its position on the Bann, with its water power, has enabled this town, as well as the other places on the river, to secure and maintain their due share in the linen manufacture.

Factories with their long chimneys begin to appear.
The fields are richly cultivated, and a general air of well-being pervades the district.

Lurgan is reached, so celebrated for its diapers; and the fields there about are used as bleaching-greens.
Then comes Lisburn, a populous and thriving town, the inhabitants of which are mostly engaged in their staple trade, the manufacture of damasks.

This was really the first centre of the linen trade.

Though Lord Strafford, during his government of Ireland, encouraged the flax industry, by sending to Holland for flax-seed, and inviting Flemish and French artisans to settle in Ireland, it was not until the Huguenots, who had been banished from France by the persecutions of Louis XIV., settled in Ireland in such large numbers, that the manufacture became firmly established.