580 ON THE PRICE OF TEXTILE FABRICS, ETC. 



Another kind of fabric, supposed to be made of mohair, that 

 is the beard of the Angora goat, or from camels' hair, was oc- 

 casionally purchased, under the name of c camelet,' or c camelin/ 

 It is not clear whether an article called c Camelin de Tripli,' 

 of an exceedingly expensive kind, was made of this material 

 or of silk. 



SILK. This article, generally called e sindon' in the accounts, 

 was in early times purchased by the ounce. Silk fabrics were 

 very expensive. The purchases made on behalf of the Earl 

 of Clare are effected at from lod. to is. the ounce ; green silk 

 being, as usual, cheaper than red. 



No entries of silk stuffs occur again till after the middle of 

 the fourteenth century, when we find purchases of silk on behalf 

 of the warden of Merton. These purchases are called c beckets,' 

 or c begens.' It seems clear that this word means a measure. 

 Ducange gives the word beca, which he interprets to mean 

 the hood with which academical graduates were decorated ; and 

 it is possible that the quantity contained in the word begen, 

 or becket, is that which would be sufficient for such as a 

 decoration. It is clear, moreover, from the four entries found 

 in the Merton accounts, that from two and a half to three 

 begens or beckets were equal in quantity and price to the 

 amount ordinarily used for lining the summer robes of a 

 great person. 



The warden's robes were lined, or perhaps faced, with silk. 

 The quantity, however, which is needed for such a purpose is 

 never given, but the amount is stated in a round sum. The 

 silk lining or facing is used for the summer robe only, and 

 generally amounts to about two-thirds of the price at which 

 the cloth is bought. Including the entries of begens or beckets, 

 the price of such a silk lining, taken from an average of eleven 

 entries between 1352 and 1398, was j^i 8s. i\d. 



Sewing-silk is occasionally bought, and costs about is. the 

 ounce, the entry at Oxford (vol. ii. p. 539. i.) being no doubt 

 an error of the scribe for 6d. 



Among textile goods we may reckon the few entries of 



