WOOLLEN MANUFACTURE. 



luftre, a feleftion of the wool moft adapted to receive them 

 muft be made, and this would operate with great precifion 

 upon the wool-forter's attention. 



While the manufaAure of wool was confined to the 

 houfes of the grower, and the butinels of it tranfafled by 

 his domeftics in a fecluded ft ate, there was lefs room for the 

 ftimulation and exercife of invention than in after-ages, when 

 it became the appropriate calling of one particular part of 

 the community, and their fuccefs depended upon the opinion 

 which others formed of the fabric. Yet in the limplelt days 

 of Greece, it was not deemed an employment unfuitable to 

 palaces, nor did a princefs degrade her dignity by fuperin- 

 tending the labours of the loom, the diftaff, and the dyeing 

 vat. 



We have little information refpeAing the woollen manu- 

 faftures of the Greeks and Romans, as diftinft from their 

 domeftic manufactures; but large eftablifhments were necef- 

 fary for the clothing of diftant armies, and for foreign com- 

 merce. That the Romans had carried the manufafture of 

 fine woollen cloth to a high degree of perfeftion, is proved 

 by a variety of circumftances, and particularly by the great 

 attention paid to the cultivation of fine-wooUed (heep, and 

 by the high prices at which the wool and (heep were fold, 

 as appears from the writings of Pliny, Varro, and Columella. 

 Pliny defcribes two kinds of fheep : the one which grew 

 coarfe long wool, and was on thisaccount called hirtum or 

 hirfutum, and from its hardinefs and ruder treatment colo- 

 mcum or ruftic ; the other breed was called molle, from 

 the foftnefs of the wool, and generofum or noble, from its ex- 

 cellence ; alfo pellitum, from its being clothed with flcins to 

 proteft the wool. The race is fometimes alfo called Taren- 

 tinum, Apulum, Calabrum Atticum, and Grxcum, from the 

 neighbourhood or dillridl in which it chiefly lived ; but what 

 is of more importance, as (hewing the origin of the fine- 

 woolled (heep of Italy, the race is called Afianum ; and, 

 according to Pliny, a fimilar race exifted in his time at 

 Laodicea in Syria. The defcription given of thefe fheep 

 by Pliny agrees with the prefent race of Merino (heep. 

 There is not, fays Dr. Parry, throughout Europe, any breed 

 of (hort-wooUed (heep now exifting befides the Merino, of 

 which the males are horned and the females not. 



That the Romans imported their Tarentine (heep into 

 their weftern colonies, with the art of manufafturing fine 

 cloth, we learn from Strabo and Pliny. The former writer, 

 who flouriihed in the reign of Auguftus, fays, that in Tur- 

 detania in Portugal, then a part of Spain, " they formerly 

 imported many garments, but now their wool was better 

 than that of the Coraxi, and fo beautiful, that a ram for the 

 purpofe of breeding was fold for a talent, and that fabrics 

 of extraordinary thinnefs were made of this wool by the 

 Saltratas." Probably this was fimilar to the fhawl cloth of 

 India, and woven in the fame manner, as Phny calls it 

 fcutulatus, a term which he applies alfo to the fpider's-web. 

 The httle attic talent of filv£r is eftimated to equal in 

 value 2 1 61. of Englifh money, which (hews the high eftima- 

 tion in which the bed wool was held even in the colonies of 

 Rome. 



AH ranks of people of both fexes among the Romans 

 chiefly wore woollen garments. In the reign of Aurehan, 

 270 years after Chrift, a pound of filk, according to Vopif- 

 cus, was equal to a pound of gold. A people fo pre- 

 eminent in wealth, and in all the refinements of art, would 

 naturally be folicitous to attain the higheft degree of ex- 

 cellence in the manufafture of thofe fabrics, which were 

 calculated to gratify their paflion for adorning their perfons, 

 ?nd it was equally as nec.elTary to confult their eafe aa 



their vanity. The fummer-heat of Italy was fo great, that 

 the affluent could fcarcely have fupported a woollen drefs, 

 had it not been made of the lighteft and thinnell cloth. We 

 find alfo, that during the Augullan age, and for a confider- 

 able time afterwards, it was the faihion to wear cloths which, 

 as at prefent, were fiirnifhed with a raifed nap or pile. Such 

 cloths were called pext, in contradiftinction to tritae or 

 thread-bare. Thus Horace : 



" Si forte fubucula pexae 



Trita fub eft tunics rides." 



" You laugh if you efpy a thread-bare vefl 

 Under a well-dreffed tunic." 



And alfo Martial : 



" Pexatus pulchre, rides mea, Zoile trita." 



Tlie term pexatus, applied to cloth, leads us to fuppofe 

 that the nap or pile was raifed with a comb, having very 

 fine teeth. Phny informs us, that in his time the price of 

 wool had never exceeded 100 feftertii the libra, or pound; 

 now the Roman feftertius being about 8(/. of our money, 

 and the Ubra about 5245 grains, it follows that an avoirdu- 

 pois pound, or 7008 grains, would have coft about i/. 2s. of 

 our money. From the intercourfe with Perfiaandthe Eaft, 

 the Romans would become acquainted with the fhawl-cloths 

 of India, and would naturally wi(h to imitate fo beautiful 

 and delicate a fabric. Thefe are made from very foft fine 

 fhort wool, and not from combed wool, as has been gene- 

 rally fuppofed in this country. The exiftence of that ma- 

 nufafture in Hindooltan for many ages, is a proof of the 

 high degree of perfeftion to which the fabrication of woollen 

 cloth had been carried in former times. For fhawl-cloth is 

 only woollen cloth, woven with a twill, and unmilled, but 

 it is fpun to a great degree of finenefs, and from wool 

 fo peculiarly foft, that it has never been rivalled by any Eu- 

 ropean nations. The perfeftion of the colours, and the 

 (kill difplayed in the weaving, we have no reafon to believe 

 are greater now than in the time of Alexander the Great ; 

 and if thefe manufaftures were fucccfsfully imitated by the 

 Greeks or Romans, or even dillantly approached in the ma- 

 nufafture of their fine cloths, we may form fome idea of 

 the perfeftion to which they had arrived. When in the 

 decline of the Roman empire, their colonies were overrun 

 by favage barbarians, all their public eilablifhments and ma- 

 nufaftures were dcftroyed, but the art of producing from 

 the fleece a warm and fubftantial clothing was never entirely 

 loft, even during the darkeft days of ignorance. It began 

 to revive, and became the fepnrate occupation of one clafs 

 of the community about the middle of the tenth century in 

 the Low Countries, where it remained the glory of the 

 people, and the fource of their opulence, through more 

 than four hundred years. The wool which it confumed for 

 the firft few years was the produce of their own paftures, 

 which had but lately been reclaimed from the foreft ; but as 

 the manufafture extended itfelf, the demands became larger, 

 and were fupplied from a greater diftance. The wealth 

 which it dillributed was foon vifible, and people crowded 

 into the country, engaged in its commerce, and pufhed 

 their fpeculations with increafing vigour through a hundred 

 and fifty years, when an inundation of the fea threatened to 

 involve the art, the artift, and the country, in one general 

 deftruftion. The difperfion of the people who fled from 

 the calamity which appeared to overwhelm their hopes, in- 

 lleadof deliroying the infant manufafture, gave it additional 

 vigour, and was the means of eftsblifhing a conneftion be- 

 tween 



