A. D. 1 189. 347 



hundred marks of gold to, what he fuppofed, religious and charitable 

 purpofes *. 



At this time the woollen manufadure was very widely extended over 

 the country : for, befides the colony of Flemifh weavers in Wales, who 

 were probably the inftrudors of all the reft, and the company, or gild, 

 of weavers eftablifhed in London, it appears, that there were fimilar 

 companies of the fame trade in Oxford, York, Nottingham, Hunting- 

 don, Lincoln, and Winchefler; and all of them, agreeable to the policy 

 of the age, paid fines to the king for the privilege of carrying on their 

 manufadure exclufive of all others in their towns. [Madox^s Hijl. of the 

 exchcq. c. lo, § 5.] But there were alfo dealers in Bedford, Beverley 

 and other towns of York-fhire, Norwich, Huntingdon, Northampton, 

 Gloucefler, Nottingham, Newcaftle upon Tine, Lincoln, Stanford, 

 Grimfby, Barton, LafFord, S'. Albans, Baldock, Berkhamftead, and 

 Chefterfield, who paid fines to the king, that they might freely buy and 

 fell dyed cloths ; fome of their licences alfo containing a permiflion to 

 fell cloths of any breadth whatever. As the Englilh had not yet attain- 

 ed any confiderable degree of proficiency in the art of dying, and as 

 foreigners were not bound by the Englifh regulations for the breadth 

 of cloths, it may be apprehended, that the cloths fold by thole woollen 

 drapers were the fine coloured goods of the manufacture of Flanders : 

 and the red, fcarlet, and green, cloths, enumerated among the articles in 

 the wardrobe of King Henry IT, were mofl probably of the fame foreign 

 manufacture. [See Madox's Hiji. of the excheq. c. 10, § 12 ; c. 13, § 3.] 



Henry 11, in the 31" year of his reign, gave the weavers of London 

 a confirmation of their gild with all the freedoms they enjoyed in the 

 reign of Henry I ; and in the patent he direded, that, if any weaver 

 mixed Spanifh wool with Englifh in making cloth, the chief magiftrate 

 of London fhould burn it. [^Stow^s Survey of London, p. 515, ed. 1618.] 

 From fuch a regulation it feems probal^le, that Englifh wool was then 

 fuperior to that of Spain, which in later times has obtained the firfl 

 charader f . 



The Englifh goldfmiths ftill preferved the reputation acquired by 



* The 500 marks of gold were to make mar- fourteen or fifteen millions of modern money), I 



riage portions for women of free (or genteel) con- fufpett that nongenta (nine hundred) has crept 



dition, who were in need of affiilance ; a laudable into the text for nonaginta (ninety), the number 



and noble bequeft. All the reft was for the flip- according to Benediclus Abbas ; and pcffibly 



port of the holy war, and the maintenance of drones pounds have alfo been inadvertently fubftituted for 



of both fexes in convents. (]See the will in Fadera, marks. 



^i, />. 37.] The whole amount of his treafuie f The ' lans pretiofiflimae' (moft pretious 



is ftated by Hoveden \_f. 374 a] at above a hun- wool) of Henry of Huntingdon, [/. 170 a] an 



dred ihoufand marks, which is increaled by Mathew author of this age, if we may give full credit to 



Paris [/). 152, ed. 1640] to above nine hundred his fuperlative language, feems to countenance the 



thouf and pounds, befides valuable utenfds, jewels, belief of the fuperiority of Englifh wool, which 



and pretious ftones. But the later fum being in- will be further lUullrated by facts, to be narrated 



credibly great (in faA not lefs in real value than in the fubftquent part of this work. 



XX2 



