PART IL-CHAPTER XI. 



HISTORIE OF CLOATHING. 

 [TiiE following are the only essential parts of this chapter, which is very short. J. B.] 



KING Edward the Third first settled the staples of wooll in Flanders. See Hollinshead, Stowe, 

 Speed, and the Statute Book, de hoc. 



Staple, estape, i. e. a market place ; so the wooll staple at Westminster, which is now a great 

 market for flesh and fish. 



When King Henry the Seventh lived in Flanders with liis aunt the Dutchess of Burgundie, he 

 considered that all or most of the wooll that was manufactured there into cloath was brought out of 

 England ; and observing what great profit did arise by it, when he came to the crown he sent into 

 Flanders for cloathing manufacturers, whom he placed in the west, and particularly at Send in 

 Wiltshire, where they built severall good houses yet remaining : I know not any village so remote 

 from London that can shew the like. The cloathing trade did flourish here till about 1580, when 

 they removed to Troubridge, by reason of (I thinke) a plague ; but I conjecture the main reason 

 was that the water here was not proper for the fulling and washing of their cloath ; for this water, 

 being impregnated with iron, did give the white cloath a yellowish tincture. Mem. In the country 

 hereabout are severall families that still retaine Walloun names, as Goupy, &c. 



The best white cloaths in England are made at Salisbury, where the water, running through 

 chalke, becomes very nitrous, and therefore abstersive. These fine cloathes are died black or 

 scarlet, at London or in Holland. 



Malmesbury, a very neat town, hath a great name for cloathing. 



The Art of Cloathing and Dyeing is already donn by Sir William Petty, and is printed in the 

 History of the Royall Society, writt by Dr. Spratt, since Bishop of Rochester. 



