368 THE PRICE OF WOOL. 



the stone was given, partly by the intrinsic evidence of special 

 sales, I have, I think, arrived at a just estimate of each case. 

 I shall take the opportunity, in the comment on each year, 

 to advert to the sales which I have felt constrained to omit 

 in gathering the average. 



Great or gross wool is either white or black. It does not 

 appear, from the few a entries of the latter, that the colour 

 depreciated the value of the article. Again, wool is not only 

 distinguished as sheep from lamb, but as two-year old, and 

 hoggast or hoggerel. 



In the table of averages given at the end of this chapter, the 

 first column specifies the price of great wool by the clove of 

 seven pounds, the second that of lambs' wool by the same 

 rates, the third the average price by the pound. In all three 

 columns the first figures state the price, the second the number 

 of entries from which the average is calculated, the third the 

 number of localities. 



The fourth column gives the highest and lowest price at 

 which a fleece is valued, the fifth similar evidence about 

 woolfells. Such notices of the price of inferior wool as have 

 been printed in the original tables have not seemed to be of 

 sufficient importance for statement in a separate table. 



The sixth column gives the weight of a fleece in pounds and 

 ounces (avoirdupois) at the locality designated in the last 

 column. Thus, the average weight of a fleece at Stockton in 

 Sussex in the year 1267 is i Ib. i oz,. On a few occasions 

 the weight of a lamb fleece is also given, expressed in 

 ounces. 



The short table at the conclusion contains the decennial and 

 general averages of great wool and lambs' wool by the clove, 

 and great wool by the pound. 



1260. The evidence is supplied from Holderness only, the 

 quantity sold being large. I have given the weight by pound, as 

 stated in the original, but the value assigned seems to be a clerical 



* Black wool is quoted only nine times in the accounts. It was used to make russet 

 cloth, i. e. undyed brown. 



