linen are sewn or embroidered. There is not one house, even in the tiniest hamlets, where the women would not be occupied in that trade ... and if this work is a mere passe-temps in vinegrowing regions, here it has become the chief resource of the population.”149 Even at Romorantin itself, where 400 women and girls are employed in one factory, there are more than 1,000 women who sew linen in their houses.
The same must be said of a group of industrial villages peopled with clothiers in the neighbourhood of another Normandy city, Elbaeuf. When Baudrillart visited them in 1878–1880, he was struck with the undoubted advantages offered by a combination of agriculture with industry. Clean houses, clean dresses, and a general stamp of well-being were characteristic of these villages.
Happily enough, weaving is not the only small industry of both this region and Brittany. On the contrary, scores of other small industries enliven the villages and burgs. At Fougeres (in Ille-et-Vilaine, to the north-east of Reims) one sees how the factory has