VOL. XVII. (2) EXCURSION— NORTHLEACH DISTRICT 163 



began. After the partition of the conquered land among the original settlers, 

 the land that was left over became the common land of the nation, and in 

 course of time was used for the maintenance of the Crown, or for kingly- 

 gifts to notable men or to religious houses. So large, indeed, were the 

 possessions of the Church at the time of the Domesday Survey, that they 

 amounted to fully one-third of the profitable land in the county. 



The Wool Trade 



Agriculture on the Cotteswolds in pre-Norman and Norman times was 

 almost entirely arable, and cereals were the only crops. Hence it is that in 

 the Domesday Book the figures relating to land are confined to the value of 

 land for arable purposes. Permanent pasture was of such small extent and 

 of so little value that its existence finds no place in the great record. Live 

 stock there was, of course, and, as the chronicler quaintly says of the Survey 

 which the Conqueror ordered after his " deep speech " with his Witan at 

 Gloucester, " not an ox, nor a cow, nor a pig was left that was not set down 

 in his writ." But stock was not bred for profit. Cattle were kept as beasts 

 of burden and for milk, and sheep were bred for their wool, but beef and 

 mutton were too dear to be common articles of food. In the thirteenth 

 century a great impetus was given to the breeding of sheep on the Cottes- 

 wolds by the foreign demand for English wool. In the products of wool, 

 the Continental manufacturers were far more skilful than those at home, 

 and as their trade developed, they had to come to England for their raw 

 material. To improve woollen manufactures in England, weavers, dyers 

 and fullers were brought from Flanders, and to handicap the foreigner — and 

 also to put money into the royal coffers — monarch after monarch levied a 

 heavy export duty on wool. In the reign of Charles II. an Act was passed 

 which decreed that all dead bodies should be buried in woollen shrouds, an 

 enactment which remained on the statute book for more than a hundred 

 years. As a natural consequence of this development of sheep breeding, 

 pasturage was by degrees substituted for tillage, and hence the ridge and 

 furrow which characterize much of the grass land upon the Cotteswolds 

 to-day. 



The heyday of the Cotteswold wool trade was in the fourteenth and 

 -fifteenth centuries. The same period was the heyday of Northleach pros- 

 perity. Situated in the centre of a great wool-growing district, it was the 

 mart to which the wool from thousands of sheep was annually sent. From 

 there it went by pack-horse to ports at the mouth of the Thames, whence 

 it was taken across the Channel to Calais and distributed to Continental 

 towns. The breeders of sheep made much money ; the woolstaplers made 

 more. Stowell House and Park, hard by Northleach, were for a long time 

 owned by the Tame family, who made their wealth by wool, and many another 

 family became rich by their enterprise in the same lucrative trade. Acting 

 on the apostolic injunction, " Be diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving 

 the Lord," they ga-ve of their wealth for the spiritual benefit of their neigh- 

 bours. They are commemorated by their brasses, their connection with 

 the wool trade illustrated by their furred gowns, with their feet resting on 

 woolpacks, sheep and pairs of shears. Other days, other ways ; the mundane 

 glories of the Cotteswold wool mart have gone ; but to the munificence of 

 the great woolstaplers of the past, Northleach, Fairford and Campden owe 

 three of the finest fifteenth century Churches in the land. 



NoRBURY Camp 

 A discussion followed on various points in the address, and then the 

 party drove to Norbury Camp, which is reached by a turning from the Foss 

 Way near the Isolation Hospital. The camp is a very extensive one and is 

 said to be Roman, but is probably British. A slight flat-topped rise, about 

 three-quarters of a mile in length by, on an average, a quarter of a mile in 



