584 ON THE PRICE OF TEXTILE FABRICS, ETC. 



In 1321 the bailiff of Wyrardisbury, then a manor in the 

 hands of the king (Edward II.), is bidden to buy garments for 

 the daughter of Elena de Montegomeri, a ward no doubt of 

 the Crown, and perhaps an inmate of the manor-house. The 

 fur lining to a set of robes is set at los. 6d. 



But the costliest articles of this character were the purchases 

 made for the clothing of the warden of Merton. The account 

 of the charges annually incurred by the college on this head 

 are unfortunately very imperfect, and only a few exist at a date 

 antecedent to the Great Plague. It does not appear, however, 

 if the quality of the articles remained the same, that any great 

 difference in the. price was caused by this event. But between 

 the years 1370 and 1383 the charge for the fur is excessive, 

 four entries giving the prices 80*., 83^., 53^.3 40^., respectively. 

 Fourteen entries between the years 1300 and 1398 give an 

 average of j?i 17*. io\d. as the cost of the fur lining to the 

 warden of Merton's winter robe. 



Besides these, we have once (1342) a lining of popul-skins, 

 which costs 141. o^., and once a lining of c black* fur (1379), 

 at a charge of 6s. 8d. 



The accounts contain also four entries of miniver hoods. It 

 is impossible to determine the amount contained in such 

 articles, and from the great difference in the price under the 

 year 1377 it is plain that the size of this garment or decora- 

 tion must have greatly varied. In one entry, that of 1342, 

 the hood (the price, 12^.4^., is the highest found) is said to 

 contain twenty skins. 



Just as the full and formal robes worn by peers in Parlia- 

 ment, by judges on the bench, by aldermen in their courts, by 

 graduates in the Universities, by bedesmen in almshouses, by 

 boys in some schools, represent the costume of antiquity, so 

 the furs with which some of these robes are decorated are 

 traditions of the universal custom which prevailed among our 

 forefathers of lining and trimming their robes with skins and 

 furs. The woollen gown, as I have observed before, was 

 coarse, and the texture of the cloth was consequently loose. 



