May 15. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



459 



starting? from the Feast of the Passover, he de- 

 livers the following violent counter-blast against 

 the weed, and those who use it : 



" llie earth, ayre, and water afford not enough for 

 their gluttony, and though sawcy Art second Nature, 

 iior eye nor desire is satisfyed : the creatures gro; ne 

 under this grosse abuse: these are swinish Epicurts, 

 prodigal consumers of God's blessings. Tobacco, the 

 never unseasonable Tobacco, the all-useful! Tobacco, 

 good for meate, drinke, and cloathing ; good for cold, 

 heate, and all diseases, this must sharpen their appetites 

 before meate, must heate it at their meate, being the 

 only curious antepast, sauce, and post-past ; wine and 

 beere must wash downe the stenche of that weede, and 

 it again must dry up their moyst fumes." 



To revert to the Solaters, or to a name idem 

 sonans. In the Hutton Correspondence, as pub- 

 lished by the Surtees Society, at p. 65., is a letter 

 of remonstrance, dated " lOMaye, 1582," addressed 

 to Francis Walsingham, by the Chapter of York, 

 respecting a dispensation that had been granted to 

 "Mr. Doctor Gibson;" and among the signatures 

 appears that of George Slater, who, " as one of 

 their companie," had been despatched to deal per- 

 sonally " for the quietinge of the matter " with the 

 Archbishop of Canterbury and the Earl of Hun- 

 tingdon, then President of the North Mountstone. 



Balliolessis. 



PASSAGE FKOM DOVEE TO CALAIS. 



The charge for conveyance of passengers be- 

 tween Dover and Calais was fixed by a statute 

 made in the fourth year of the reign of Edward III., 

 A.D. 1330, at sixpence for a foot passenger, and 

 two shillings for a man and horse, as may be seen 

 in the following extract from this statute : 



" Item. Com avant ces heures homme a cheval 

 soleit aver son passage de la meet a port de Dovre pur 

 ii, s. et homme apee pur vi, d. et ore denovel ont les 

 gardiens de passage et passagers pris plus a grande 

 damage de poeple ; Si est accorde que en dit port et 

 touz autres, et auxint en touz les autres passages de la 

 terre, auxibien en ewes douces, come en braz de meer, 

 les passauntz paient desore come ancienement soleint, 

 et de plus ne soient charges, ne les passagers ne gar- 

 diens des passages nient plus ne preignent." — Statutes 

 of the Realm, \o\. i. p. 262. 



" Item. Whereas before this time a horseman was 

 ■wont to have his passage of the sea at the port of 

 Dover for two shillings, and a man afoot for sixpence, 

 and now of late have the guardians of passage and pas- 

 sagemen taken more, to the great damage of the peo- 

 ple ; so it is agreed that in the said port and all others, 

 and also in all the other passages of the land, so well in 

 fresh waters as in arms of the sea, the passengers shall 

 pay henceforth as anciently they were wont, and more 

 they shall not be charged, nor shall the passagemen nor 

 guardians of the passages take any more." 



The present steam-packet fares between Dover 

 and Calais are, chief-cabin eight shillings, fore- 



cabin six shillings, and horses twenty-five shillings ; 

 i. e. for a man about seven shillings, and for a man 

 and horse about thirty-hvo shillings. 



Hence it would appear, that the value of a 

 shilling was sixteen times greater, five hundred 

 years since, than it is at present. A pound troy 

 of standard silver, from the Conquest to the 28 th 

 year of the reign of Edward I., a.d. 1300, was 

 coined into twenty shillings ; and from that time 

 to the 23rd of Edward III., a.d. 1349, into twenty 

 shillings and three pence. The standard of silver 

 coin was then \\oz.2 dwts. pure silver, and \% diets. 

 alloy, as it is at present ; but a pound troy of stan- 

 dard silver is now coined into sixty-six shillings. 

 Therefore, without taking into consideration the 

 smaller fractions of a penny, the shilling, from the 

 Conquest to the middle of the reign of Edward III., 

 contained the same quantity of silver as do three 

 shillings and three pence halfpenny of our present 

 money. The sixpence paid by a passenger at the 

 date of the above quoted statute, contained a 

 quantity of silver equal to that contained in one 

 shilling and seven pence three farthings ; and the 

 two shillings paid for the passage of a man and 

 horse contained a quantity of silver equal to that 

 contained in six shillings and seven pence of our 

 present coin of the realm. 



Hence it appears that, whether it be for a man 

 only, or for a man and horse, we now pay, for a 

 passage between Dover and Calais, nearly five 

 times as much silver as was paid for the same pas- 

 sage five or six hundred years since. It would 

 therefore seem, that the value of silver, measured 

 by this kind of labour, was then nearly five times 

 greater than its value in the present day. 



I suspect however that silver was then really 

 worth much more than five times its present value; 

 and in order to arrive at a more correct conclu- 

 sion, I shall be much obliged to any correspon- 

 dent of " N. & Q." who will inform me what were 

 the usual fares by sailing-vessels before, or at the 

 time of, the introduction of steam-packets betweea 

 Dover and Calais. J. Leweltn Cuetis. 



FOFtJLAE STOEIES OF THE ENGLISH PEASANTET, j 

 NO. II. 



(Continued from p. 363.) 



I am much pleased with Mb. Sternbebg's Ox- 

 fordshire version of Die kluge Else (l^ol. v., p. 363.). 

 I have heard another in that county, and think the 

 variations may be acceptable to those who are 

 interested in our rather scanty country legends. 



An old couple lived in the country on a nice bit 

 of land of their own, and they had an only daugh- 

 ter whose name was Mary, and she had a sweet- 

 heart whose name was John. Now there was a 

 garden at the back of their bouse with a well in it. 

 One day, as the old man was walking in the gar- 



