10 Jan., 1918. ] Farming in England in Early Times. 31 



off the ears and byiid it in slieves and call it rede." Matthew Paris 

 gives the price of wheat in 1244 as being 29. a quarter. 



Iron was a most serious item among the commodities which the 

 bailiff had to buy. Some came from Sussex, the most important iron 

 district in England until the " Industrial Revolution " of the eighteenth 

 century, and some came from Spain. The practice at first was for the 

 bailiff to buy the raw material in bars at one of the great fairs and 

 employ the village smith to make it up. But this plan was abandoned 

 after the Black Death, and the bailiff bought the article itself from the 

 smith, a procedure which points to the fact that the economic position 

 of the latter must have been much advanced. The price of iron before 

 the plague was about 4s. a " hundred," and after that calamity it 

 reached an average of 9s. 6d. In 1500 the price of wrought iron 

 averaged between £5 and £8 a ton, but by 1570 it was about double 

 that amount. 



Horseshoes for riding horses must have been very thin and poor. 

 In the fifteenth century they were about 2s. a dozen for fore 

 shoes and Is. 6d. for hind, but by the end of the sixteenth century 

 they had risen to between 3s. and 4s. a dozen for each kind. Those 

 used in husbandry were far cheaper, being about 8d. a dozen. 



The great expense of iron explains the fact that cart wheels were 

 frequently made solid, cut from the section of a full-grown tree. 

 Wooden ploughs and harrows with wooden pega were used, and so the 

 land was scratched rather than ploughed. The share of the plough 

 must have been a very slight affair, having a wooden frame with an iron 

 point to it. Steel was employed for the tips of the cutting edges of 

 iron tools and was four times, as dear as iron. Canvas had to be bought 

 for mill sails and bags, and millstones were a heavy item in a bailiff's 

 accounts. In 1331 the bailiff of Cuxham purchased five in London at 

 the cost of £15 16s. 8d., and there were further expenses incurred in 

 getting them carried to Henley by water, and thence on carts to 

 Cuxham. The best stones came from the neighbourhood of Paris and 

 from Andernach on the Rhine. 



Candles and suet were sometimes dearer than butter, and all fats 

 were dearer than meat, for a cow might be made to yield milk and so 

 provide butter in winter, but the farmer could not give animals the 

 means of putting on flesh — still less fat ! So while meat was about 

 Jd. a lb. fat cost about l|d. or 2d. Candles averaged 2d. 

 a lb. They were therefore a rare luxury, and used on the 

 farm only at lambing time. Rushes soaked in grease were 

 the ordinary substitute for lighting purposes. The wick of the 

 best candles was made of cotton which came from Sicily and Italv. 

 Suet was used for candles and also for lubricating cart wheels and 

 mill machinery, and for dubbing leather. 



Cows were, of course, kept for butter, cheese and milk, but the 

 milking of ewes was also a common practice in mediaeval times, and 

 Walter of Henley estimated that ten ewes were as productive in milk 

 as one cow. Fitzherbert says: "In the poore of the peeke (high) 

 countreye and such other places where as they use to mylke theyr 

 ewes they used to wayne theyr lambs at twelve weekes old and to 

 mylke theyr ewes five or syxe weekes." Milk was sold almost always 

 at Id. a gallon. 



Clieese and butter were produced on almost all estates, the latter 

 being made all through the year, and it was often melted. It was used 

 for sheep-dressing and cart grease as well as for food. 



