LINEN. ,-V> I 



and particularly after 'the Spanish Fury' in 1576. Their 

 settlement in England was wisely encouraged by the English 

 Government, for they brought with them capital, traditional 

 skill, and every motive for attachment to the country which 

 sheltered them. They were above all weavers, for the Spanish 

 Netherlands had long been the special home of the textile arts, 

 especially for those which appealed to and satisfied general 

 demand. It is well known that for generations after the time 

 on which I am commenting, the crafts of the spinner and 

 the weaver were entirely distinct. Yarn, linen, hempen and 

 woollen, was spun in every household. The Shuttleworths 

 hired women to spin, and the peasantry brought their home- 

 spun yarn to Manchester, Leeds, Halifax, and a hundred other 

 towns for the local weavers to purchase. Long after the time 

 on which I am commenting, when certain of the Oxford 

 parishes were incorporated under Gilbert's Act, the parochial 

 officers adopted a spinning-wheel as their device on their seal. 

 The preparation of the hurds of hemp and flax was a common 

 labour in prisons, and not infrequently the prison for minor 

 offenders was called the spinning-house. On the other hand, 

 the craft of the handloom weaver has survived almost to living 

 memory. A century ago, I am persuaded that every two or 

 three villages, and all small towns, had their working weaver, 

 who undertook to weave home-spun for customers, or, purchas- 

 ing yarn, made it up into cloth for dealers. 



I have been able, out of the materials which these domestic 

 accounts supply, to construct ten tables of averages, three of 

 the best table linen, of second best, of ordinary, of the 

 commonest kind, that supplied to the Eton boys generally, 

 of ordinary towelling, and of the two kinds of napkins, ordinary 

 and diaper or damask. There are also three kinds of shirting 

 or sheeting. One is Holland (the price of which is sometimes 

 exceedingly high), another is of second quality, such as was 

 used by heads of colleges, and what we should now call the 

 middle classes, and the third ordinary sheeting or shirting, 

 such as formed the shirts. and surplices of boys at 



