​BLANKET, an article of commerce so well known in domestic economy, that any definition of it would be superfluous.

The best kind of blankets is manufactured at Witney, in Oxfordshire: their excellency is attributed by some persons to the abstersive nitrous water of the river Windrush, with which they are scoured; while others imagine it is to be ascribed to a peculiar looseness in the spinning. Blankets are made of felt-wool, or that from sheep-skins, which is divided into several sorts. Of the head-wool and bay-wool they make blankets of ten, eleven, and twelve quarters broad; of the ordinary sort, those of seven and eight quarters; and of the best tail-wool, are made blankets of six quarters broad, commonly called cuts, and used for seamen's hammocks.—See Hykes.