It is plyed therein, and because we meet with the best of our Manufactures in the first of our Shires, a word of the Antiquity thereof.
1. Cloth sure is of the same date with Civility in this Land. Indeed the ancient Brittains are reported to go naked, clothed onely with colours painted, custom ma∣king them insensible of cold, with the beggar, who being demanded how he could go naked, returned, all my body is face. But no sooner had the Romans reduced this Island, but cloth though course, such as would hide and heat, was here generally made and used.
2. Fine Cloth (though narrow) for persons of worth at home to wear, and for for∣reign Exportation began in England about the beginning of the Reign of King Edward the Third. Before which time our Statutes take no Cognizance of Clothing as in∣considerable, (Wooll being transported in specie) and needing no Rules to regulate it, save what prudence dictated to private Husbands with their own families.
3. Broad Cloth (wherein the wealth of our Nation is folded up) made with broad loomes, two men attending each of them, began here in the Reign of King Henry the eighth. And I have been informed that Jack of Newberry was the first that introduced it into this County. Well may the Poets feign Minerva the Goddess of Wit, and the Foundress of Weaving, so great is the ingenuity thereof.