CHAPTER IX.. Wooll.

WOOLL.

THIS nation is the most famous for the great quantity of wooll of any in the world; and this county hath the most sheep and wooll of any other. The down-wooll is not of the finest of England, but of about the second rate. That of the common-field is the finest.

Quaere, if Castle Comb was not a staple for wooll, or else a very great wooll-market?

Mr. Ludlowe, of the Devises, and his predecessours have been wooll-breakers [brokers] 80 or 90 yeares, and hath promised to assist me.

Quaere, if it would not bee the better way to send our wooll beyond the sea again, as in the time of the staple? For the Dutch and French doe spinn finer, work cheaper, and die better. Our cloathiers combine against the wooll-masters, and keep their spinners but just alive: they steale hedges, spoile coppices, and are trained up as nurseries of sedition and rebellion.