45 



would have quickly equalised it, by carrying siipplies from the 

 cheap to the dear country. Compared mth other articles it 

 was excessive, as, whilst in the reign of Charles, it is about that 

 of our own day the bupng power of money must have been 

 nearly ten times what it is now. That is, whilst wages have 

 greatly increased, the price of corn, which should have increased 

 in like ratio, remains the same. Concerning the food, barley 

 alone in some places is mentioned as used for bread, and this 

 com seems also to have been more consumed in other forms than in 

 our time. The " divine Williams" writes of the English, " Can 

 sodden water, a drench for sur-reined jades, their barley broth, 

 decoct their cold blood to a valiant heat 1" (Henry V., 

 Sc. 5, Act 3.) In 1584, on the 29th October, Sir Christopher 

 Hatton wi'iting to Lord Burghley, remarks of the Queen 

 [Elizabeth] about whom there was always the greatest solicitude, 

 that " Hir mat since yor going hence hathe byn troubelyd wt 

 muche disease in hir stomak. The cause thereof as bothe hir 

 selfe thinkithe, and we all doo judgge, was the takynge in the 

 mornynge yesterdaye a confection of barley sodden with suger 

 and water, and made exceedynge thycke with bread. This break- 

 fast loste hir bothe hir supper and dinner, and suerlye the 

 better haulffe of hir slepe."* Bread from barley, or from the 

 coarser flours in which the bran remained, called panis canicarius, 

 as being more fit for dogs than men, was made only in times of 

 scarcity, but formed a "very bad excremental nourishment." 

 Rye, the next in price to wheat, was largely in use either alone 

 or mixed. Meslin, which was wheat, rye and barley mingled, 

 was also in general use, and from it was probably made the 

 household bread of the time, the panis de omiie hlado, of the 

 old books. The price of meslin is not given, perhaps because it 

 was not made \xp for sale. As the labourer was often paid in 



• State Papers, 158, Vol. clxxiii., fol. 94. 



