34 A P P E N D I X, No. IV. 



Custom & paid for wood imported intoEnglandy anno 1213, viz. 



L.349 9 a L.1083 16 10 L.10831 o o 

 This account ferves not only to prove that the woollen 

 manufadlure was then carried on to a great extent, but it 

 alfo gives fome notion of the places where it waseftablifhed. 

 From this, and fome of the former notices, it appears that 

 this manufaclure fi;ill kept its ground at Wincheficr, where 

 the Romans eflablifhed it, as Southampton, the port of 

 Winchefter, flands very high in the above lift. 



Sir Mathew Hale remarks, that, ** in the time of Hen- 

 " ry II. and Richard, this kingdom greatly flouriflied in 

 *' the manufa^re of cloth ; but, by the troublefome wars 

 " in the time of King John and Henry III. and alfo of Ed- 

 ** v/ard I. and Edward II. this manufacture was nvholly lojl^ 

 " and all our trade ran in wools and wool fells, and 

 " leather |." That the woollen manufacture greatly de- 

 clined in thofe troublefome times is not to be doubted ; bot 

 that it was wholly lojl is fully proved to be a miftake, even 

 from the fadts already fpecified, of which we fhall foon find 

 farther proofs. The account juft now ftated, of the im- 

 portation of vrcad, it deferves to be remarked, was for 

 the 14th year of King John. 



It was judged to be not improper thus to prove that the 

 woollen manufacture was eftablifhed in Britain even before 

 the Flemings are known to have poflefied it at all ; nor is 

 it improbable that they might even receive the fu-ft rudi- 

 ments of the art from hence, along with the wool that was 



ncccflary 



* Hif:. Eidi. p. t Halt'; prim. on'g. of Mankind, p. 161. 



