Note 179 — Chapter XIII · MEN'S DRESS.
Reading edition
Women's hair was a valuable commodity, judging by the following: 'An Oxfordshire Lass was lately courted by a young man of that County, who was not willing to marry her unless her friends could advance £50 for her portion; which they being incapable of doing, the lass came to this City to try her fortune, when she met with a good Chapman in the Strand, who made a purchase of her Hair (which was delicately long and light), and gave her sixty pounds for it, being 20 ounces at £3 an ounce; with which money she joyfully returned into the Country and bought her a husband.'[179] Indeed, it was an article of general purchase and sale: 'We came up to the corner of a narrow Lane, where Money for old Books was writ upon some part or other of every Shop, as surely as Money for Live Hair, upon a Barber's Window.'[180]