A. D. 1327. 501 



many thoufand people were employed in it. But Textrini fays, that be- 

 fore the pillage of Luca in the year 1314 the filk manufacture flourifli- 

 ed only in that city *, which thereby abounded in riches ; and that from 

 it the workmen v/ere difperfed through the other cities of Italy, particu- 

 larly Venice f, Florence, Milan, and Bononia ; and fome went even to 

 Germany, France, and Bretagne$. [Muratori Antiq. V. ii, coll. 406, 408, 

 895, 896, 897.] 



1328, January — ^The magiflrates of London having reprefented to the 

 king, that criminals ufed to fet juftice at defiance by pafling over to 

 Southwark, to which their authority did not extend, he gave them a 

 grant of the bailiwick of that burgh, at the ufual yearly rent of ten 

 pounds §. But Southwark was not properly incorporated with London 

 till the 2^ of April 1549, foon after which it was made one of the 

 wards of the city, and had an alderman and the other officers of a ward. 

 [Chart, in camera Lond. quoted in Strype's ed. oj Stozv''s Survey, V. \\, p. i.] 



This year the ordinance of the ftaple was annulled by parliament ; 

 and entire liberty was given to all merchants, ftrangers or natives, to 

 go and come with their merchandize, according to the tenor of the 

 Great charter. [AB. 2 Edzv. Ill, c. 9.] 



The king and his council (or parliament) enaded, that all foreign 

 cloths ihould be meafured by the king's meafurer in prefence of the 

 magiflrates of the place where they were landed. The flatute meafure 

 for cloth of raye|| was 28 elns in length, meafured by the lift, and 6^- 

 quarters in breadth, and for cloth of colour 26 elns in length, meafured 

 by the ridge or fold, and 6~ quarters in breadth, to be meafured with- 

 out opening (' fanz defoler') the cloth ^. The mayor and bailifs of the 

 towns where the cloth was landed, were required to attend, when called 

 by the meafurer, and to mark the cloths found agreeable to the lland- 



* Muratori hefitates in giving credit to Tex- who defires to have information concerning the 



trini. — ' Si fides Nicolao Textriao'. — And indeed various fpecles of filk goods made in the middle 



his account is completely confuted by the laws of ages, may perufe the twenty-fifth diflertation of 



Modena, which are copied from the originals by Muratcri's Antiquities, wherein ail the luxury of 



Muratori himfclf. But fome families of filk-weavers drefs is difplayed. 



undoubtedly went from Luca to Venice ; [&nrt7 ^7. ^ That rent was far below what it paid in the 



de Vinezta, V. i,/>/>. 247, 256] and thence they have time of William the Conqueror, 

 been fuppofed the founders of the filk manufacture || Striped cloth, as it is explained by Stow, 



there, jull as tlic Flemifh woollen manufafturers, \Jiurvey of London, at the year 1353, in his lijl of 



who removed to England in the reign of Edward temporal governors, z.\x^d.% the word raji^ is ftill ufed 



III, have almoft obliterated the memory of the in French. J Thomas earl of Lancailer (accorc'.ing 



earlier Flemilh colony in the reign of William the to an account of the expcnfes of his houfeliold in 



Conqueror. the year 1314, given by Stow, p. 134) had ' four 



f We learn from Doftor Mofeley, \T'reatife on * clothes ray for carpets' in his haU. And tliis is 



fugar, p. 267, ed. 1800} that the bufinefs of a filk probably the earhelt notice of the ufc of carpet* 



manufacturer, and thofe of a glafs maker, and of in England. 



an apothecary and druggift, are the three trades ^ We are thus informed 'that the coloured cloths- 



which do not contaminate nobility in Venice. were doubled as broad cloths are now, and that the 



J ' Ad Gallos Britannofque.' — In thofe ages cloths of ray were folded or ro! ed fingle, as nar- 



Briiann'ia and Britanni fcarccly ever fignified the row cloths, called yard-wides, arc at prefent. 

 ■fland and people of Great Britain.— The reader, 



