548 ON THE PRICE OF TEXTILE FABRICS. 



a College beneficiary ; of those who were still under the 

 discipline of study and subordination, and of those who had 

 entered on the full enjoyment of the founder's munificence. 

 In summer the inmates rose with the sun, in winter before the 

 dawn. Artificial warmth could be procured at no exorbitant 

 cost, artificial light was dear and feeble. Fat was still nearly 

 double the price of meat, and the price of candles shows a 

 marked rise during the seventeenth century. The life of the 

 inmates in College was perforce in common, and I have no 

 doubt that the fellows of King's College, Cambridge, quarrelled 

 as bitterly in the seventeenth, as those of Merton did in the four- 

 teenth century. I wish I could have found facts for the later, 

 as I had the good fortune to discover them for the earlier 

 period. Conticuere omnes. 



It appears that the fellows washed in the hall. Even the 

 fellows of Eton, shortly after Savile's time, were in the fashion, 

 for under the year 1615 I find that a round towel was put up 

 in the hall, ' at the end of the table, where the fellows wash.' 

 There are numerous entries of such towels, which indicate that 

 general and rapid ablutions were practised, two centuries ago, 

 in such qualified privacy. The more humble or the less 

 favoured portion of the foundation were not encouraged to be 

 cleanly. As I was collecting my information from Winchester, 

 I was shown in the first quadrangle of Wykeham's College a 

 place where, in times not very ancient, the boys were led 

 to wash at a long trough (no severe pressure being probably put 

 on the reluctant), over which there once stood a penthouse. The 

 place, I am told, is still called Moab, for the boys hear the 

 Psalms monthly. Their superiors were probably not much 

 more cleanly. It is said of James the First that he never 

 washed, but that he' occasionally wiped his hands on a dry 

 towel. This part of the Divine right of kings was probably 

 imitated by his loyal subjects and immediate neighbours. 



The two meals of the day, dinner and supper, were taken in 

 common. The tables were put out in the hall, the inmates 

 were ranged according to their degree, and were waited on by 



