Note 325 — Chapter V · SURNAMES OF OCCUPATION. (TOWN).

This practice of treading the cloth is referred to in a complaint concerning the fulling of caps and hats in fulling mills, made to Edward IV. It begins by saying that hats, caps, and bonnets hitherto had been made, wrought, fulled, and thicked in the wonted manner, that is to say, with hands and feet—‘mayns et pees’—and then proceeds to urge that the use of mills brought inferior articles into the market. (Stat. of Realm, vol. ii. p. 473.)