1^()3« strictures on manners. 13 9 



estimated at a fliilling ; the fleece was two fifths of 

 the value of the whole jQietp ; an ox was compated 

 at SIX times the value ot a llieep ; a cow at tour : a 

 horse was valued at about thirty fliillings of our mo- 

 ney ; a mare a third lefs ; whereby it appears a horse 

 was then five or six times the value of an ox. A 

 man was valued at three pounds ; the board wages 

 of a child, the first year, was eight Ihillings. Willi- 

 am of Malmefbury mentions it as a remarkably high 

 price, that William Rufus gave fifteen marks for 

 a horse, or about 30I of our present money Land 

 was sold for little more than a {hilling an acre ; • a 

 hen cost about three- halfpence. 



It is to be remarked, that in all ancient times, 

 coin, by reason of the low state of hufbandry, bore 

 always a higher price, compared to cattle, than it 

 do?s in our times. The saxon chronicle tells us, 

 that in the re\gn of Edward the Conjefsor, there was 

 the most terrible famine ever known, insomuch that 

 a quarter of wheat rose to at least 15s. of our pre- 

 sent money, which appears bj' comparison to have 

 been a most enormous famine. I am, \3c. 



Edinburgh, Pro ME THE Us. 



March 29. 1793. 



