HAIR-CLOTH. LINEN. 573 



given, but it is stated that nine surplices were made in 1327, 

 and that seventy-two ells of the latter fabric were needed for 

 this purpose. 



The evidence supplied for the price of linen in the first 

 thirty years of this enquiry is scanty. Such rates, too, as are 

 found indicate very different qualities of the article. The 

 linen, for instance, purchased at Stillington in 1272 at 2^. and 

 i\d. the ell, must have been quite another kind from that bought 

 at Rodestone in 1263 at 5^., and at Costesey in 1277 at %\d. 

 Although it is not likely that fine linens could have been 

 manufactured in that remote time, we may nevertheless con- 

 clude, even if there were no evidence to support such a view, 

 that the linen worn by the wealthier classes differed materially 

 in its texture from that used by fellows of colleges or monks. 

 Thus there is always a considerable difference between the 

 price of the linen purchased to supply the wardens of Merton 

 and New College, the whole of whose wardrobe was provided, 

 as we shall see, at the charges of the society, and that paid for 

 the linen to be used by the fellows. 



The price of linen is generally uniform from the time at 

 which information becomes more copious till the date of the 

 Plague, being on an average worth about 4^. the ell j a rate 

 which, though high, did not by any means put its use out of the 

 reach of the mass of the people. After the Plague, as usual, a 

 very great rise takes place, though, as in similar cases, a 

 decline in the price is manifested towards the conclusion of 

 the century. On the average of the last fifty years, however, 

 the price is doubled. Nor is it the case that the linen bought 

 in the later period was purchased for persons of considerable 

 social position, and therefore such as would require and use an 

 article of better quality and greater cost. 



Table-linen is less expensive than shirting. The evidence 

 supplied is also more uniform in character. But the difference 

 between the price of table-cloths before and after the Plague 

 corresponds almost exactly with that in the price of shirting. 

 It is possible that the rise in the rate was met by a diminished 



