326 WOOL AND HIDES. 



would be the cheapest. Cow-hides are cheaper than ox-hides, 

 as are generally all hides going by any other name than that 

 of ox, and the few bull-hides are no dearer than cow-hides. 

 Some of the hides are expressly stated to be the produce of 

 diseased animals, and perhaps some that are not named are of 

 this kind. 



Calf-skins are sold at very various prices, as might be expected, 

 in the earlier part of the period, varying from is. a dozen to 

 $s. Nor do they rise in price at the later part of the time as 

 much as might be expected. 



The price of hides, however, rises notably. The average in 

 the earlier period is zs. 5</., in the later period, Ss., more than 

 three times the amount at which they used to be sold. But 

 while I make no doubt that there was a very solid rise during 

 the latter epoch, amounting to more than three times, I must 

 allow that my entries are few, that they are in great degree 

 metropolitan prices, where the highest value was naturally got 

 for the best article, and that they are purchases generally for 

 the public service, where the best goods would be wanted and 

 the highest rate paid. 



To return to the price of wool. The records which have 

 come into my hands rarely supply information as to the more 

 valuable and highly-priced kinds. Such indeed must have 

 been the quality at Coldingham in 1412, and from the Cots- 

 wolds in 1421, and with the two entries from Quainton in 

 1475-6. The best class of wool which comes within my range 

 is that from Wilts, Oxford, Hants, and Bucks. But by far the 

 largest number of entries, beginning in 1432, come from 

 Durham, the four monasteries of Finchale, Yarrow, Wearmouth, 

 and Durham, the worth of which seems to have been so low 

 that the framers of the schedule in 1454 did not condescend 

 to notice the produce. But on the whole, it could not have 

 been worth less than the lowest-priced article, that from Sussex, 

 of which a good many entries in the middle of the fifteenth 

 century have come into my hands. These entries confirm sub- 

 stantially the estimate laid before Parliament, and suggest that 



