410 WOOL, HIDES, AND BARK. 



is no evidence in the accounts that there was a home farm 

 at Worksop. In the few entries of black wool, it is at a 

 higher price than white. 



The Eton accounts give some information of the price of 

 woolfells, the price of which is generally more steady than 

 that of wool, and rather suggests sales by contract. In 1566 

 and 1567 the average of woolfells is 2os. the dozen, in 1568 

 17^., in 1569 i8j., while in 1570 it is only 13^., and in 1571 

 i8j. again. Now if we deduct from the price of woolfells the 

 value of the skin which is expressed in the price of shear- 

 lings, the short wool of which is of no market value, shearlings 

 being always 6s. a dozen, the wool on a dozen fells in full 

 fleece at 2,os. is worth 14^., and the fleece must have weighed 

 about lib. i ooz. avoirdupois. 



In the first three years in which shearlings, winterfells and 

 woolfells occur, they are at 6s., 14^-., and 2os. the dozen. In 

 1592, they are at Js. t 14^., and 24^. ; in 1593, at &r., 14^. and 

 i6s. ; in 1594, at 8j., i6s., and 26s. ; in 1596, at 8j., 19^., and 

 31 j. ; in 1597, at ns., 2os., and 32^., the probable cause of 

 this rise being the size of the sheep. In 1598, 1599, and 1600 

 they are at us., 195-., and 28^. ; in 1601, at i2s., 2os., and 31.?., 

 the sheep in this case again being probably large. 



At Gawthorp in 1596 woolfells are sold at 30^. the dozen, 

 and on the Staffordshire estate of Lady Leicester in 1634 

 at 26s. 



There is also an entry of lambswool in 1618 at $s. 4d. the 

 quarter, a measure which I have not seen before, but which I 

 conclude to be the clove or quarter tod. 



The evidence which I have to ofTer is, I feel, meagre and 

 unsatisfactory, but it points I think to the fact that the price 

 of wool was lower in the seventeenth century on the whole 

 than it was at the end of the sixteenth. It is very probable 

 that as agriculture improved, or as better supplies of winter 

 fodder were forthcoming, more sheep were kept by farmers, 

 and that the price of wool fell by reason of greater plenty. 

 So in the last quarter of the eighteenth century wool was 



