258 Miscellaneous. 
rental of estates, must have been very common. A market also was 
found for capons and geese. Ducks were comparatively rare; and 
pigeon-houses, kept on most manorial estates, were, no doubt, a 
nuisance and a wrong, similar if not equal to the dove-cots of France 
during the monarchy ”’ (p. 327). 
“It will be found, on investigating the table given in the second 
volume, that the price of cows was considerably less than that of 
oxen. Bulls, too, were cheap, though the entries are not numerous. 
These facts seem to prove that no attempt was made to improve the 
breed” (p. 327). ‘There seems to be no great variety of breeds; at 
least there is no notable difference of price between north and south 
country cattle. In all likelihood the breed was the small ox now 
found in Scotland and other mountainous regions. I have already 
adverted to the fact that unless cattle had deteriorated in the six- 
teenth century—a circumstance by no means probable—the carcase 
was light; for the oxen bought for victualling the navy were not 
more than 4 ewt. in weight on the average. Taking the hide, a very 
valuable part of the animal in the middle ages, at an average of 2s. 6d. 
(it was sometimes much dearer), the flesh of the average ox would 
be worth 10s. 6d.” (p. 329). 
‘*The horses used in medizeval husbandryare distinguished as aff77 ; 
called also stotts and cart-horses. The former may perhaps be still 
discovered in the coarsely shaped small horses still found in country 
districts, and employed in the commonest drudgery, whose value 
chiefly lies in the fact that they are able to subsist on very poor and 
scanty fare, and can do a great deal of work at a very small cost. 
These animals are a little, but not much, dearer than oxen, their 
price being lowest in dear years—probably because when oxen were 
costlier their use in draught increased, and the value of the small 
horse declined. Occasionally, however, they sold at considerable 
prices. Cart-horses are much more valuable than afi, and are 
sometimes, speaking relatively, very dear. Saddle-horses were oc- 
casionally very costly, but often sold at no higher prices than those 
obtained for others employed in agricultural work only” (p. 330). 
‘‘ Sheep are distinguished as muttons, 2. e. wethers, as ewes, hog- 
gasts, hoggasters, hoggerels, or bidentes; hurtards or rams, and 
lambs. Of these, lambs are, of course, the cheapest, though some- 
times their price is so high that I have treated them as hoggasters. 
Occasionally young ewes are quoted under the name of jercion. HKwes 
are very low-priced. Hurtards or rams are not mentioned very often, 
and are generally dear’? (p. 332). ‘‘Sheep were liable to several 
diseases, and among them the rot and the scab” (p. 334). 
“Towards the close of the thirteenth century sheep were for the first 
time affected by a new disease, which has been handed down to our 
own time under the name of scab. In the few last years of the same 
century tar dressing was adopted, and has been, I believe, uninter- 
ruptedly employed from that to the present time. 
‘While the sheep was valuable to the richer persons in medieval 
society, the most important animal in medizval economy was the 
pig. Itis not easy, however, since no weights are given, to arrive with 
