CLOTHING OF VARIOUS KINDS. 733 



they are cheapest, they are said to be fine worsted. Omitting 

 the entry of 1659, the average is 6s. $\d. 



Jersey stockings are found three times, at 8s. $d. in 1587, at 

 55. $d. in 1595, at 3^. $d. in 1653. The price seems to decline. 



Thread stockings are found at prices from zs. qd. to 5^. 

 On one occasion they are called buble thread, and ordinary 

 thread are purchased by the same person in the same year at 

 the same price. I conclude that linen stockings are the same 

 article. The average of eight entries is $s. y^d. 



Riding stockings are 5^. in 1662 ; white serge riding, los. 6d. 

 in 1638; coloured, 8s. 6d. in 1616; and mingled, 4s. in 1619. 

 Children's stockings are is. $d. in 1620, and is. %d. in 1650. 



Silk stockings are found between 1624 and 1673. At first 

 they are very dear. In the first entry, a purchase by a person 

 at Willesden, they are 28s. In the next they are bought by 

 Caryll at 37^. In 1651 Bering gives 23^. for a black pair. In 

 1653 Master gives i6s. ; in 1655, 22J., these being pearl 

 coloured ; and in 1660 a pair at Horsted Keynes costs 21 s. 

 From this time they are between i is. and i$s., a result I think 

 due to the development of the trade with France. An average 

 of eighteen entries gives nearly 175. a pair. In 1675 Master 

 buys clothing for his boy, and in it a pair of silk stockings at 

 7^. I have found in the same year a price of 15^. 6*/., the 

 stockings being described as knitted. 



Socks are found six times after the middle of the seventeenth 

 century. The average price is *]d. They were probably felt 

 soles, to put into boots or shoes. Before proceeding to the 

 next important items, I may say that thread, bought by the 

 pound, is entered in nine years from 1590 to 1660. The 

 rage price is is. ^d. 



Shoes for men, women and children, and sometimes desig- 

 nated as Spanish, sometimes as waxed, are found frequently. 

 The price rises considerably after the Civil War. Before this 

 period they were from is. 6d. to 2s. 8d., the highest-priced 

 article, in 1598, being described as Spanish, and the price 

 being given again in 1611. I have discovered nothing between 



