408 WOOL, HIDES, AND BARK. 



me bears out this view. I say quality, for the reputation of 

 Leominster wool, which is noted in the petition of 1454, is 

 incidentally referred to in the play of Friar Bacon and Friar 

 Bungay. 



As the record of wool prices given in my last volumes (iii. 

 and iv.) for the latter part of the period is very scanty, I 

 have printed the Eton prices of wool and woolfells from 1566 

 to 1582, from the Eton accounts. For the eleven years 1572- 

 1582 this gives an average of zos. yd. the tod of 28 Ibs., for 

 the next decade 1583-1592 of 2is. 6\d., and of 1593-1601 

 of 25.9. 6%d. During this period then the price of wool is 

 rising. 



During the rest of the period, neglecting Houghton's prices 

 for a time, eleven localities only in ten years supply me with 

 wool prices. Three are from Gawthorp, and represent wool on 

 this Lancashire estate ; two are from D'Ewes, and are prices 

 at which he sells from his land ; one is from Northiam, in 

 Sussex, where a large sale is made in 1618 ; one from Cuckfield 

 and one from Harting in the same county, one from Hor- 

 stead Keynes, and two from Foxcombe in Hants, at the very 

 conclusion of the period. The latter prices seem to indicate 

 that at the end of the century wool is cheaper than it was at 

 the beginning. 



But here there is a difficulty. I am not clear what the 

 weight of the Gawthorp stone was. If it be half a tod, Lan- 

 cashire wool was at 30.$-. id. the tod in 1616. at 27^. in 1617, 

 and at 285. 8d. in 1620, the latter being described as dressed 

 wool. D'Ewes sells in 1617 at zos. 8d., and in 1636 at 365. 

 The price at Northiam in 1618 is 2,8s., and the average of the 

 four years 1616, 1617, 1618, 1620 is 27^. 7\d. In 1633 it is 

 27 s. a tod at Harting, which with the prices of 1636 is at an 

 average of ys. 6d. In 1672, white wool is 23 s. 4<J. a tod, 

 black 25^. 8d. At Cuckfield in 1691 it is 2os. a tod. In 

 1701 it is zos. 8d. at Foxcombe in Hants ; and in 1702, ijs. at 

 the same place. These are all the facts which have been dis- 

 covered in the accounts. I am not without hope that I may 



