woolpackn.

1297 R. Gloucester's Chron. (Rolls) 11171 [They] Ride vpe tueye wol~pakces, chapmen as hii were.

14.. in Krapp Leg. St. Patrick's Purg. (1900) 65 Stoppeng and shovyng þe felthe downe into here bodies as þe wold stoppe a wullepak.

1600 Maldon (Essex) Documents (Bundle 162, lf. 3) ii s. of Richard Studd, collector for the woolpacks, for the profitts of his office this yeare.

1601 J. Weever Mirror of Martyrs sig. D1 In chaires of hardest oke they sate Insteede of wooll-packes.

1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory iii. 285/1 A Wool Pack..is a great number of Fleeces made up together on a cloth tied at the four ends.

1726 J. Swift Gulliver I. ii. iv. 72 There was a Fellow with a Wen in his Neck, larger than five Woolpacks.

1758 Hist. London-Bridge 14 The Foundation of this Bridge is by the Vulgar generally believed to be laid upon Woolpacks; which Mistake probably arose from a Tax upon Wool towards its Construction.

a1763 W. Shenstone Progress of Taste i. in Wks. Verse & Prose (1764) I. 266 This wards the jokes of ev'ry kind,..As wool-packs quash the leaden ball.

1823 W. Scott Quentin Durward II. x. 246 This coming Countess..hangs on our arms as dead a weight as a wool-pack.

1845 D. Mackenzie Emigrant's Guide 91 One man is employed in gathering the fleeces as they are shorn—another in folding them up, and handing them to a man who is pressing them into a large bag, called a wool pack, capable of containing..about 250 lbs. of wool, or about 100 average fleeces.

1866 J. E. T. Rogers Hist. Agric. & Prices I. xxii. 568 Hempen fabrics were used for woolpacks.

a1658 J. Cleveland Epig. on People in Wks. (1687) 254 We..Call'd out a Parliament,..Which being obtain'd at last, what did they do? Even squeeze the Wool-packs, and lye snorting too.

1660 S. Pepys Diary 20 Aug. (1970) I. 225 My Lord Chancellor being gone to the House of Lords, I went thither and..there stayed all the morning, seeing their manner of sitting on Woolpacks, &c., which I never did before.

c1710 C. Fiennes Diary (1888) 261 These twelve judges sitt in the House of Lord[s] on wool packs.

1599 T. Nashe Lenten Stuffe 45 Boystrous woolpacks of ridged tides, came rowling in, and raught him from her.

1733 S. Whatley tr. S. Tyssot de Patot Trav. & Adventures James Massey 36 We spy'd that which Sailors call a Wool-Pack, seemingly as big as a great Cask, within Cannon-shot of our Ship.

1648 Earl of Westmorland Otia Sacra (1879) 128 A day most clear;..wherein Some wool-pack Clouds in corner's bin.

a1722 E. Lisle Observ. Husbandry (1757) 440 The sky full of light wool-pack clouds boding no rain.

1794 G. Adams Lect. Nat. & Exper. Philos. IV. lii. 563 In the north of England, such clouds are called woolpacks.

1869 Daily News 13 Feb. The ordinary cumulus or woolpack cloud.

1883 R. F. Burton & V. F. Cameron To Gold Coast I. iii. 69 The bright blue air, flecked with wool-pack.

1848 J. Phillips in Mem. Geol. Surv. II. i. 185 The solid masses of limestone are locally termed ‘Woolpacks’.