48 APPENDIX, No. IV. 



the progrefs of the arts here, yet there are ftill to be found 

 a few, though indeed a very few hints, that fufficiently 

 ferve to fliow that there were woollen manufa^ures here of 

 fome note, and that wool was to be found in that country 

 alfo of a very fuperior degree of finenefs. 



Guicciardin, in his hiftory of the Low Countries, takes 

 notice feveral times of the wool of Scotland as an article oT 

 trade to that country. And, 



As early as the year 1393, Thomas Dunbar, Earl of Mo- 

 ray, granted to the town of Elgin " the liberty of exporting 

 ** all the "wool, cloth, and other things that go by fliip out of 

 <* his harbour of Spey, duty free" *. Thus, it appears that 

 ivool and c/oth muft have then been deemed the moll prin- 

 cipal exports from thence, as they alone have been thought 

 worthy of being mentioned by name. But when fubjedls 

 had thus a right of exafting national duties, it is not to be 

 expedted that any dlftindl account can be now obtained, ei- 

 ther of their nature or their amount. It is alfo ordained, 

 by the 40th adl of the third Parliament of James I. of Scot- 

 land, anno 1425, *^ That of ilk pound's worth of woollen 

 ** claith had out of the realme, the King fall have of the 

 ** out-haver for cuftome twa Ihillings." Cloth was there- 

 fore an article of export from Scotland In thofe days.— 

 How different at prefent ? Cloth and falmon are the only ar- 

 ticles of export mentioned in that law. 



He<Slor Boethius, who wrote about the year 1460, takes 

 notice of the finenefs of the wool produced in various parts 

 of Scotland ; but, in general, he mentions not any crite- 

 rion by which that finenefs can be afcertalned — only, in 

 fpeaking of the fheep in the vale of Eik, in the Ihire of 

 Angus, he ufes the following words, as tranflated by Hol- 

 lingfhed : " Whofe flieep have fuch white, fine, and ex- 

 ■** cellent wool, as the like of it is hardly to he found again 

 « within the whole if and*. '^ Here it is parallelled with that 



of 



* Hift. of Moray, p, 193. f Hcllingfhed's Chron, p. IJ^ 



