_Cambridge and Ireland_ (Vol. viii., p. 270.).--The story of Irish
merchants _landing_ at Cambridge is "very like a whale," "touched upon the
deserts of Bohemia." I think, however, that I can trace the source of this
glaring and oft-repeated error, as there really exists a documentary
connexion between Irish cloth and the town of Cambridge.
Referring to a collection of notes on the ancient commerce and manufactures
of Ireland, which I have lately made, I find--cited as an instance of the
general use of Irish cloth in England at an early period--that Henry IV.,
in 1410, gave a royal grant of tolls, for the purpose of paving the town of
Cambridge; in which, among other articles, Irish cloth is taxed at the rate
of twopence per hundred. The grant, "De villa Cantabrigiae paveanda," will
be found in Rymer's _Foedera_.