ABSTRACT
Besides the four main new areas and two slightly longer-established centres of provincial instrument production described in the previous chapters, there were other small clusters of activity which developed outside London during this period. In an essay pertinent to the issues under discussion here, the English local historian Alan Everitt sketched out an analysis of the English county town during the eighteenth century. Using the examples of Exeter, Shrewsbury, Canterbury, Maidstone and Northampton, he stresses six features common to each: the town’s range and growing variety of occupations, its role as an inland entrepôt, its position as a centre for professional and entrepreneurial activity, and its leisured gentry life, culture, and craftsmanship.
