34 



BHIXIBH WOOL TRADK, 



iies. A deep blue having been the colour they stained 

 their skins, it long continued a favourite ; particularly 

 with the Caledonians, as a tint for all their dresses. 

 Though the most civilized of the ancient Britons were 

 tolerably versed in the most essential branches of the 

 woollen manufacture, yet that useful art was not dif- 

 fused over our island till the landing of the Romans, 

 whose soldiers, being almost all drawn from the plough, 

 were well adapted, when settled in the country, to 

 foster the arts of peace. In order to benefit themselves 

 and the island, their emperors were at great pains to 

 discover and procure the best artificers of every de- 

 scription, particularly the best manufacturers of woollen 

 and linen cloths, whom they formed into colleges, or 

 corporations, endowed with various privileges, and 

 governed by a procurator, who was under the direction 

 of that great officer of their empire, the Couut of the 

 Sacred Largesses. In this manner it appears that the 

 first woollen manufactory was established at Venta 

 Belgarum, now Winchester, a hundred years after the 

 conquest of the country. 



It has been believed, from Britain having been part- 

 ly peopled from Spain, that our sheep were originally 

 Spanish ; and, as Giraldus Cambrensis (Collectan. de 

 Reb. Hibern.) affirms, that the Irish in his time were 

 clothed in black garments, from the wool of their 

 sheep being io coloured, some have supposed the 

 sheep of that island were imported from Spain, a 

 supposition rendered probable by Southey telling us, 

 in his letters from that country, that in the north of the 

 Peninsula the animals are almost all of a black colour. 



No mention ever occurs in the ancient writers, of 



