220 THE WILD-FLOWERS OF SELBORNE 



them a small weekly allowance, and gave them little 

 extras in time of sickness. Hence in these " accounts " 

 of the eighteenth century we often meet with such 

 entries as these : " Leather breeches, 2s. 6d. ; " "a 

 pair of pattens;" "a handkerchief for Geo. Glinn, 

 is. ; " " bodying a gown ; " " round frocks ; " " caps for 

 Sundays ; " " stays and hat for ye Wd. White." But 

 the most frequent entry, in the way of clothing for the 

 paupers, is of stuff called " Dowlas," which in 1764 

 cost is. 2d. an ell. We imagine that few people will 

 know what " dowlas" is, and yet the word occurs in 

 Shakespeare. In the scene at the Boar's Head Tavern, 

 Eastcheap (i Henry IV.^ iii. 3), between Sir John 

 Falstaff and Mistress Quickly, the latter says, " I 

 know you, Sir John ; you owe me money, Sir John ; 

 and now you pick a quarrel to beguile me of it; I 

 bought you a dozen of shirts to your back." "Dowlas," 

 cries Falstaff, " filthy dowlas ; I have given them away 

 to bakers' wives, and they have made them bolters 

 (sieves) of them." " Now, as I am a true woman," 

 replies the hostess, " holland of eight shillings an ell." 

 This dowlas was a coarse sort of sacking, and was 

 bought in large quantities by the churchwardens to 

 make " shifts " and underclothing for the paupers 

 under their care. 



In times of sickness the paupers seem to have been 

 treated with every consideration. Such entries as 

 the following frequently occur : " Wine and beer for 

 Dydemus when ill ; " " a fowl in her sickness ; " "a 

 piece of veal ; " " wine and spirits for Clery when sick ; " 

 " a fowl for sick paupers ; " " tea and sugar for the 

 sick in Poorhouse." In the early part of the eighteenth 

 century we find among the paupers an aged French- 

 man, who, in all probability, was originally a prisoner 



