EALLYMOAT. 321 



cloth as well as bleached it- hence therefore, 

 the part of the preceding calculation the moft 

 applicable to gentlemen, is the detail of the ex- 

 penditure of 3 2 8 5 1 . becaufe for that fum, 100 

 weavers and a bleacher v. ould be fct to work, 

 to whom the landlord might give what encou- 

 ragement he pieafed in bounties per piece, made 

 and bleached, but neither the one or the other 

 on his own account. After all, I fee every rea- 

 ibn to affert, that a gentleman, for a (hilling he 

 will ever make by manufactory, will profit a 

 guinea by the improvement of land ■, have raf- 

 cals to deal with in one line, and honeit men 

 in the other. 



Mr. Fitzmaurice obferves, that the art of 

 bleaching depends fo much on nieeties, and not 

 a little on matter of opinion in the drapers, who 

 buy the linen, that it is difficult to lay down 

 any rules for it ; there are fome points howe- 

 ver, which deferve attention ; firft, in refpecl 

 to the ufe of lime, which though great chy miffs 

 have proved to be perfectly harmlefs and ufe- 

 ful, if ufed with fkill and caution, yet the 

 bleachers pofitively deny the ufe of it, whether 

 to indulge the prejudice of the common people 

 againft it, or for profit in making the word 

 afhes equal to the beft, cannot be well afcer- 

 tained. As to bucking and boiling, it is very 

 oblervable that the fineil linens being made of 

 the hardefl and toughen 1 fibres of theflax, which 

 ftand the operation of leutching, (which by the 

 way is a very ftrong reafon why the rineit 



Vol, I. Y Iin< 



