Regent Street, which he called East India House. Here the same coterie of friends continued to meet. From this modest beginning sprang the important business of Liberty & Co., well known throughout Europe and America.
Liberty was a shrewd business organizer, careful in the selection and treatment of his staff, many of whom remained a lifetime in his service. One of his principal designers was the architect, Edward William Godwin [q.v.]. He was a zealous promoter of better conditions for employees and an enthusiastic supporter of the early-closing movement. But his success was mainly due to his own thorough methods, his artistic perception, and his knack of anticipating the trend of public taste. As early as 1875 he realized that the industries of the East were influencing a much wider circle than a few connoisseurs; he therefore tried to satisfy the growing demand for Oriental textiles and colours by manufacturing fine fabrics of softer texture and subtler tint than had hitherto been generally obtainable in the West. Before long he had succeeded in producing British machine-made stuffs which equalled the hand-made products of Asia. At a later date (1888–1889) he visited Japan in order to study Japanese arts and crafts and the details of their manufacture.
Liberty's influence on the British silk and woollen industry of the 'seventies was considerable. Not only did he induce manufacturers to abandon adulteration, but, in conjunction with his friend, Sir Thomas Wardle [q.v.], he succeeded in introducing fine dyes hitherto supposed to be the exclusive product of the East. His aims were closely parallel with those of William Morris, and it has been supposed that Liberty was largely guided by Morris's example. The suggestion is erroneous, for Liberty was in close touch with a large circle, and his artistic ideas were influenced by the East rather than by the mediaeval Western art to which Morris was devoted. But both men educated the artistic taste of the public, and stimulated manufacturers to higher standards of design and workmanship.
In 1913 Liberty was knighted in recognition of his services to applied and decorative arts. He was J.P. and D.L. for the county of Buckingham, and high sheriff in 1899, juror of several international exhibitions, member of the council of the London Chamber of Commerce, and an officer of numerous commercial and artistic associations. He died at Lee Manor, Buckinghamshire, 11 May 1917. He married in 1875 Emma Louise, daughter of Henry Blackmore, of Exmouth, Devon; there were no children of the marriage.
[The Times, 12 May 1917; private information; personal knowledge.]
LINDLEY, NATHANIEL, Baron Lindley (1828–1921), lord of appeal, born at Chiswick 29 November 1828, was the younger son of John Lindley, F.R.S. [q.v.], professor of botany at University College, London, by his wife, Sarah, daughter of Anthony George Freestone, of South Elmham, Suffolk, and a descendant in the female line of the great chief justice, Sir Edward Coke. The only brother of Lord Lindley died in childhood, but his two sisters survived, like himself, to a great age. He was educated at University College School in Gower Street, and for about two years at University College. His career at school and college was uneventful. When about eighteen years of age he was sent by his father to France, without a degree, to learn French with a view to entering the Foreign Office. But the tastes which he had formed in the scientific society of his father's house soon dispelled all thoughts of a diplomatic career. On the advice of an uncle who was a solicitor, he entered at the Middle Temple in 1847. From November 1848 he read in various chambers, and finally (after a few months spent in studying Roman law at Bonn) in those of the future lord justice of appeal, Charles Jasper Selwyn [q.v.]. His pupillage lasted four and a half years. So deliberate a preparation for practice is unheard of now. He records the study of fifty-seven different books of learning, from which he made careful notes on sheets collected in large covers labelled with their subjects.
In May 1854 Lindley, who had been called to the bar in 1850, painted up his name at 16 Old Square, Lincoln's Inn. Early in 1855 he published a translation with notes of the first part of Thibaut's System des Pandektenrechts, under the title of An Introduction to the Study of Jurisprudence. This work made Lindley favourably known as a student of legal principles and not merely of English law reports. During this year he began to concentrate his attention upon the law of partnership and commenced a book upon that subject which took him nearly five years to write. His first clients were the solicitors to the Horticultural Society. His first ‘fighting’ case came in 1856, when his leader, the future Vice-Chancellor Bacon, left him alone in the Court of Appeal before Lords Justices Knight-Bruce
335
