Guilding, _Reading_, Vol. II., p. 294. Footnote 265: Mayo (C.H.) _Municipal Records of Dorchester_, p. 667, 1635. At Dorchester a school was maintained for some years in which poor children were taught spinning: “This day John Tarrenton ... is agreed withall to vndertake charge and to be master of the Hospitall to employ halfe the children at present at burlinge,[266] and afterwards the others as they are willing and able, To have the howse and Tenne per annum: wages for the presente, and yf all the Children come into burlinge, and ther be no need of the women that doe now teach them to spinne, then the Towne to consyder of Tarrington to giue him either part or all, that is ix pownd, the women now hath....”[267] Footnote 266: To burl, “to dress cloth as fullers do.” Footnote 267: Mayo (C. H.), _Municipal Records of Dorchester_, p. 515, 1638. Another entry, February 3rd, 1644-5, records that “Mr. Speering doth agree to provide spinning work for such poore persons that shall spin with those turnes as are now there [in the hospital house] ... and to pay the poore for their spinning after the vsual rates for the worke they doe.”[268] Footnote 268: _Ibid._ p. 521. In 1649 it is entered “This day Thos. Clench was here, and demanded 10 _li._ per ann. more than the stocke of the Hospital, which is 150 _li._ lent him for the furnishing of the house with worke for spinners, and for the overlooking to the children ... the spinners shall have all the yeare 3½d. a _li._ for yearne ... and that there be as many children kept aworke as the roomes will hold ... wee shall take into consideracion the setting of the poore on worke in spinning of worsted, and knitting of stockins, and also of setting vp a trade of making sackcloth.”[269] Footnote 269: _Ibid._ pp. 517-8. Schemes for teaching spinning were welcomed with enthusiasm by the economists of the period, because in many districts the poor rates had risen to an alarming height. They believed that if only the poor would work all would be well. One writer urged “That if the Poor of the Place do not know how to spin, or to do the Manufacture of that Place, that then there be Dames hired at the Parish-Charge to teach them; and Men may learn to spin as well as Women, and Earn as much money at it as they can at many other employments.”[270] Another writer calculated that if so employed “ixcl children whᶜʰ daielie was ydle may earne one wᵗ another vjid. a weke whᶜʰ a mownte in the yere to jMiijcxxxvˡⁱ. Also that jciiijxx women ... ar hable to earne at lest some xijid., some xxd., and some ijs. vjid. a weeke.”[271] Footnote 270: _Trade of England_, p. 10, 1681. Footnote 271: Tingey, _Norwich_, Vol. II., p. 355.