my curiosity without proceeding any farther in a book of this sort, which contains between 4 and 500 pages in a small letter.

"The fame of St. Nicholas's virtues was so great, that an Asiatic gentleman, on sending his two sons to Athens for education, ordered them to call on the bishop for his benediction: but they, getting to Mira late in the day, thought proper to defer their visit till the morrow, and took up their lodgings at an inn, where the landlord, to secure their baggage and effects to himself, murdered them in their sleep, and then cut them into pieces, salting them, and putting them into a pickling-tub, with some pork which was there already, meaning to sell the whole as such. The bishop, however, having had a vision of this impious transaction, immediately resorted to the inn, and calling the host to him, reproached him for his horrid villainy. The man, perceiving that he was discovered, confessed his crime, and entreated the bishop to intercede, on his behalf, to the Almighty for his pardon; who, being moved with compassion at his contrite behaviour, confession, and thorough repentance, besought Almighty God, not only to pardon the murtherer, but also, for the glory of his name, to restore life to the poor innocents, who had been so inhumanly put to death. The saint had hardly finished his prayer, when the mangled and detached pieces of the two youths were, by divine power, reunited, and perceiving themselves alive, threw themselves at the feet of the holy man to kiss and embrace them. But the bishop, not suffering their humiliation, raised them up, exhorting them to return their thanks to God alone for this mark of his mercy, and gave them good advice for the future conduct of their lives: and then giving them his blessing, he sent them with great joy, to prosecute their studies at Athens."

This, I suppose, sufficiently explains the naked children and tub; which I never met with in any of the legendaries that I have consulted before. The late learned and worthy Mr. Alban Butler, in his Lives of the Saints, vol. vi. p. 915, A. on December 6, only says, in general, that "St. Nicholas is esteemed a patron of children, because he was from his infancy a model of innocence and virtue; and to form that tender age to sincere piety, was always his first care and delight.

I am, Sir, your constant reader,

Milton, near Cambridge. 1777, April.

W. C.

LXXXIV. The Antiquity of the Woollen Manufacture in England.

MR. URBAN,

YOUR correspondent, a Sceptical Englishman, doubts if the woollen manufacture was properly established in England before the reign of Edward III. In support of the opinion of the author of Observations on the Means of exciting a Spirit of National Industry, who contends that it was established in England at a much earlier period, I send you the following facts that have occurred in the course of my reading since I perused your Magazine for June last; and I doubt not but those, whose taste lead them more to the study of antiquities than mine does, could furnish many more of the same kind.

Mr. Anderson, in the book quoted above, observes, that there was a lawful guild-fraternity of weavers in London so early as the year 1180. But we learn from Mr. Madox, in his History of the Exchequer, that such guild-fraternities were established, not only in London, but in many other parts of the kingdom before that period. Thus,

1140. The Weavers of Oxford pay a mark of gold for their gild.

The Weavers of London for their gild £xvi.

The Weavers of Lincoln two chasseurs, that they might have their rights.

The Weavers of Winchester one mark of gold, to have their customs and liberties, and right to elect the alderman of their gild. And

The Fullers of Winchester £vi. for their gild.

Mad. Hist Exch. p. 322.

These short notices indicate, that fraternities of weavers were at that time common in many parts of England, and were even then of great antiquity. The business of clothmaking must have been carried on to a considerable extent when it gave rise to a guild-fraternity of Fullers.

In farther confirmation of the great antiquity of the art of weaving in England, Gervase of Canterbury, who wrote about the year 1202, in his chronicle, col. 1349, says, when speaking of the inhabitants of Britain, that "the art of weav ing seemed to be a peculiar gift bestowed upon them by nature." Thus it appears, that, at a period long prior to that which modern historians assign as the time when the woollen manufacture was introduced into Britain, it was an art that had been so long practised, as to be reckoned by its

own inhabitants almost indigenous of the soil, if I may use this expression.

Sir Matthew Hale enables us in some measure to account for the origin of the modern idea on this head. For he remarks that, "in the time of Henry II. and Richard I. this kingdom greatly flourished in the art of manufacturing woollen cloth; but, by the troublesome wars in the time of King John and Henry III. and also Edward I. and Edward II. this manufacture was wholly lost, and all our trade ran in wools and wool-fells and leather."

Prim. Orig. of Mankind, p. 161.

It is needless to observe, that a manufacture of such indispensable utility could not, in such a short period, be wholly lost in any country where it was once known. All that can be inferred from this expression is, that it declined very much, so as in a great measure to interrupt the foreign trade in cloth, which seems to have been a principal article of export from this kingdom at that early period. Edward III. restored this decayed manufacture, and hence he has come to be accounted the founder of it in England.

The above remark of Sir Matthew Hale perfectly agrees with the Magna Charta of Henry III. and the ordinance respecting the exportation of cloths, &c. by Edward I. as quoted by the author of Observations on National Industry, p. 236.

The richness and comparative importance of the fraternity of weavers in the period here alluded to may be guessed at from the following circumstances:

Anno 1159. The Weavers of London stand charged with iij marks of gold for the farm of their gild for two years; the Bakers of ditto with one mark and vj ounces of gold.

1164. The Weavers of London rendered £xij. per annum for the farm of the gild. The Bakers of ditto, £vj. per

annum.

Mad. Hist. Exch. p. 231.

In both these cases the weavers pay double of what is exacted from the bakers; hence it seems reasonable to infer that they were by much the richest fraternity of the two.

1189. The Fullers of Winchester pay ten marks for a confirmation of their privileges. Ib. p. 274. From this it appears that the Fullers of Winchester still continued (see above, anno 1140) a powerful fraternity.

That the business of dying was also carried on in these days as a separate, honourable, and profitable employment, may be inferred from the following anecdote.

Anno 1201. David the dyer pays one mark, that his manor may be made a burgage. Ut supra, p. 278.

At this early period, woad seems to have been very much employed as a material for dying: this plant was cultivated in Britain before the days of Julius Cæsar, and probably the cultivation of it would be much extended as it came to be more demanded for the woollen manufacture in latter periods; but this extended culture could not supply the encreasing demand for this drug, insomuch that it was for a great many ages a constant article of import, as the following instance among many others fully shews:

Anno 1213. The following sums were accounted for by sundries as customs for woad imported, viz.

In Kent and Sussex, £103 13 3

Dover excepted,

Yorkshire

London

Norfolk and Suffolk

Southampton

Essex

In all these places, therefore, the woollen manufacture seems to have been carried on to a great extent.

Many other anecdotes might be picked up in confirmation of this remark, among which are the following.

1140. The men of Worcester pay C. shillings, that they may buy and sell dyed cloth, as they were wont to do in the time of King Henry the I. Ut supra, p. 324. There is not the smallest reason to think that this was foreign dyed cloth, but British cloth as alluded to in the ordinance of Edward the I. quoted above, 1284.

1225. The Weavers of Oxford pay a cask of wine, that they may have the same privileges they enjoyed in the days of King Richard and King John. Ib. p. 286.

1297. The aulnager of cloth was displaced, and his office given by the king to another. Ib. p. 338. The aulnager was a public officer appointed to inspect cloths, so as to see that they were truly made according to statute. This indicates a very advanced state of the manufacture.

From these, and many other circumstances of the same kind that might be collected, there can be no room to doubt but that the woollen manufacture was carried on as a great national object for several ages before the days of Edward III. at which period our historians usually assert that it was first introduced into England. And it was probably owing to the interruption it met with during the troublesome reigns

of John and his immediate successors, that the manufacture came to be so firmly established in the Netherlands as to obtain a superiority over the woollen manufactures of Britain, which it retained many ages: and it was probably owing to this superiority that our fore-fathers lost the knowledge of many branches of this manufacture which it is evident they once possessed; of this kind especially may be reckoned the art of dying and dressing cloths, which art was only revived in Britain in a very modern period.

If our historians have been thus mistaken with regard to the manufactures of Britain, it will not appear surprizing that they should fall into similar mistakes in regard to the manufactures of Ireland. It is generally believed that the woollen manufacture was introduced into this last country at no very distant period, and we find the first dawnings of it marked under the year 1376, in Anderson's History of Commerce. But that woollen cloth was manufactured in that country a long time before that period, is evident, from the following curious anecdote preserved by Madox. Hist. Exch. p. 381.

In the reign of Henry III. (i. e. between 1216 and 1272,) Walter Bloweberme accused Haman le Starre of a robbery, &c. whereof the said Haman had for his share two coats, viz. one Irish cloth, &c. Irish cloth was therefore known in England at this period, which is at least one hundred years prior to that mentioned in the History of Commerce.

Although it is still doubtful whether the poems attributed to Rowley, a priest in the Reign of Edward IV. are spurious or not; yet, as there has not yet appeared any irrefragable proofs that they are not genuine, I shall take notice of a few circumstances that occur in them relating to this subject, as deserving some degree of attention.

This author points out Lincoln as being a place then noted for its fine woollen manufacture: for the abbot of St. Godwin's who is represented as living in great pomp, has his dress thus described:

"His cope [cloak] was all of Lyncoln clothe so fyne, With a gold button fasten'd near his chynne;

His autremete [a loose priest's robe] was edged with golden twynne," &c.

Ballad of Charitie, 50.

In confirmation of this anecdote, it appears, from many particulars preserved in Hackluyt's collection, that about this time a very considerable trade in cloth was carried on between Boston (the port of Lincoln) and Prussia, and other places in the Baltic.