CLOTH, ETC. 571 



Js. $\d. the yard. The ' gentlemen ' are the boys other than 

 those of the foundation, a few of whom the College took and 

 educated, and on this occasion undertook to provide with 

 clothing. 



From 1644, with which year the existing or discovered 

 Winchester accounts commence, there is a generally unbroken 

 account of the costs incurred for clothing the boys on Wyke- 

 ham's foundation. The cloth is bought in considerable 

 quantities, and generally at the same price, 5?. a yard. On 

 one occasion, 1649, it is a little cheaper; on one other, 1683, it 

 is a little dearer. The cloth bought for the Winchester boys, 

 if we can infer from its price, was of the same quality as that 

 supplied to the King's College choristers, and inferior to that 

 served out to the Eton foundation. 



The ancient custom, at one time almost universal, of 

 serving out pieces of cloth to the various members of the 

 foundation, relics of which still survive in some departments 

 of the executive government, had now been almost entirely 

 abandoned in the old corporations, a money payment in lieu 

 of clothing being generally adopted, and regularly forming 

 one of the numerous small allowances which made up the 

 salary of the higher members of the foundation. But a 

 curious relic of the old custom is still occasionally visible in 

 the accounts of S. John's College, Cambridge. Here there are 

 found in certain years (the first time in 1606) entries of broad 

 or livery cloth, down to 1682, invariably at the same price, 

 iis. a yard. Twenty-four years, one the last in the period, 

 contain three entries; two others, 1682 and 1689, have the 

 same entry at us. These entries are sometimes given for 

 six or less years together, and then cease. Now the price is 

 to my mind a clear proof that this could not have been bought 

 for servants, for it is as dear as the best kinds of English- 

 made cloth at the time, and I can only infer that the facts 

 point to an occasional recurrence to the ancient custom, or 

 that some members of the foundation claimed their allowance 

 in kind. 



