Business boomed and the village attracted thousands of visitors. Between 1795–1799, for example, over 3,000 visitors came to see what was happening in New Lanark. Many visitors were themselves businessmen & manufacturers (including one Robert Owen). Some were landed gentry and members of the aristocracy; some were politicians, lawyers, bankers, teachers, medics, academics, scientists and a few (William and Dorothy Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge) were to become famous ‘Romantics’. A surprising number came from abroad – not just from European countries such as Spain, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Norway, but also from several U.S. states (New York, Kentucky, Virginia, Boston, Georgia, North Carolina). From further afield, some came from Barbados, Jamaica, Antigua, Grenada and Dominica and there were even a few from Africa and India (Sierra Leone, Bengal, Calcutta).