WOOL, HIDES, AND BARK. 409 



still come upon wool prices, but as yet I am baffled in my 

 search, and may be doomed to disappointment. 



Besides the Eton entries in the last twenty years of the 

 sixteenth century, certain other quotations will be found. 

 I assume, and with good reason, that the Eton prices are 

 significant of the average price of wool in Southern England, 

 and within the proximity to a market like London, or an 

 active cloth manufacture as that in Reading. 



In 1584, I find on Leonard's estate that ten bags of wool 

 were sold at 6s. each. I have not found this measure 

 elsewhere. But it should be something less than a stone. The 

 Gawthorp wool sells at 4s. a stone in 1586 and 1588, though in 

 this latter year it sells a large quantity at los. or 2os. the tod, 

 that is nearly at Eton price. In the Lestrange Accounts of 

 1587 a considerable quantity is disposed of at $s. ^d. a stone. 

 Norfolk wool was not of very high quality, but I suspect 

 that the stone is here the clove of seven pounds. The next 

 year the same locality gives 5^. ^d., which multiplied by four 

 is nearly the same as the Eton price. In 1859 Gawthorp 

 wool is sold at a less price than Eton, viz. at 2os., when the 

 latter is 26s., the quantity being considerable, and indicating 

 that Shuttleworth disposed of more than the produce of a 

 single year. In 1591 the price of the Gawthorp wool is the 

 same as that in Eton. 



For eight consecutive years, beginning with 1591, we have 

 prices of wool at Worksop, and then again for 1600 and 1601. 

 The price for these ten years is by the tod, 2os. iod., igs. &/., 

 19^. 6d., iSs., iSs. 6d., iSs. yd., i$s. lid., i6s., 18*., i8j., and 

 the average therefore is i8j. $\d. The value of Worksop 

 wool is therefore markedly lower than that of the Eton supply. 

 The price of Nottingham wool in Houghton's tables is low, 

 but corresponds pretty exactly with the average supplied from 

 the Worksop sales. The sales are a fairly large quantity 

 too, and probably indicate, as in the case of Eton, the amount 

 generally available from the annual consumption of sheep 

 in a large establishment and by a wealthy proprietor. There 



