570 ON THE PRICE OF TEXTILE FABRICS. 



oversight of the clerk or bursar, there is no entry under 1690. 

 But by this time, the entry is a regular one, and I have no 

 doubt whatever that the College bought its stock this year, 

 and at the customary price of 2505. 



The gaps at King's College are more numerous. There 

 is no account for eighteen years. Some of these are due to 

 the fact that the Particular book of the College is less exact 

 than the full account which, under the name of Mundum, was 

 rendered yearly. One year has been entirely lost, except 

 as regards the commons and their cost. During the longest 

 interval, the seven years 1653-1659, the intrusive fellows had 

 put an end to the chapel services, and had engaged no fresh 

 choristers, though they seem to have still given liveries to 

 those whom they found on the foundation when they were 

 put into the dispossessed fellows' places, and set to work to 

 appropriate all the funds which they could lay their hands 

 on. At the Restoration the choristers were restored at once 

 with the old service, and the record is thenceforward regular. 



The entries for the Eton boys are lacking for only three 

 years, 1641-1643, for which years, as I have said, all the 

 accounts are lost. The practice of buying cloth by the piece 

 of 33 yards on an average continues, with some entries by the 

 yard, and once by the dozen, down to 1627, after which 

 purchases by the yard are regularly made. The first entry 

 indicating the origin or character of the Eton boys' cloth is in 

 1603, when it is said to be Suffolk cloth. In the next year it 

 is described as Kentish cloth, as it is in 1608. In 1610 it is 

 said to be 'sad Kent.' In 1620 it is 'sad blue.' In the six 

 years 1629-1634 it is again Kentish cloth. In 1671 and 1672 

 it is black cloth. But after the last of these years it is not 

 particularly designated. The cloth supplied to the Eton boys 

 was generally of better quality, i. e. of higher price, than that 

 which Cambridge bought for the choristers. 



In 1583, Eton College bought a piece of cloth for 'gentle- 

 men ' at the high price of 2435-. This, if we take thirty-three 

 yards to the piece, would be at the rate of a little over 



