ON THE PRICE OF TEXTILE FABRICS, ETC. 569 



crowded round the fire on the hob, and pursued some one of 

 the few occupations which they could fulfil by such imperfect 

 means. The long winter evenings were the time in which 

 such an industry as spinning was practised, and the home-spun 

 yarn was collected in order to make necessary conveniences for 

 the homestead or grange, and not rarely to supply the farmer 

 and peasant with cloth and linen for common use. Hence it 

 is, I conclude, that although the information which I have been 

 able to collect is quite sufficient for the purpose of indicating 

 what was the ordinary price at which textile fabrics could be 

 purchased, the evidence would, in the general need for such 

 articles, have been far more copious had not part of the supply 

 been of home manufacture. It may be added, in illustration of 

 this statement, that fulling mills are very common. 



But although it is manifest that much cloth, hempen, 

 linen, and woollen, was spun in the manor-house or the 

 cottage, (and some of this is perhaps purchased by the bailiff 

 on the spot, in order to meet the wants of the manor -farm,) 

 the great and well-known centre of textile industry in England 

 was the two north-eastern counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. 

 It is probable that this branch of manufacture and traffic was 

 carried on in these regions long before the earliest positive 

 records. It is certain that in the period occupied by these two 

 volumes the manufacture was extensive and very nourishing. 

 We have seen, by the assessment to the wool-tax of 1341, that 

 after Middlesex, (including London,) Norfolk was by far the 

 richest English county; and although a portion of this wealth 

 may be assigned to the natural excellence of the soil, the 

 -comparative ease with which it is worked, and the large crops 

 which even at that time were gathered from its surface, by far 

 the largest part of its prosperity and affluence consisted in the 

 flourishing manufactures which it contained. 



This industry appears to have been distributed over the 

 whole county, though Aylesham is more frequently named as 

 the source of linen, Wyrsted of woollen fabrics. The midland 

 dealers did not, however, necessarily frequent the site of the 



