in 1383 



(6 



By E. A. FRY. 



IN the De Banco Roll of Trinity, 7 Richard II., 1383, 

 at the Public Record Office, London, are 

 several long suits which recount a contest 

 between the brewers of ale in Sherborne and 

 Ralph, Bishop of Sarum. They are too long 

 to give verbatim (though I have taken them 

 out in full), but the controversy in a shortened 

 form is as follows. 



The brewers complain that the Bishop had taken a horse 

 and kept it for three days and, because it was not fed and 

 watered, it had died. The Bishop replies it is true he took 

 the horse, but he kept it only half a day, and that if it died it 

 was through no fault of his, as the brewers could have fed and 

 watered it if they had chosen. Whether it was one horse 

 taken in the name of all the brewers or one horse from each 

 of them, is not quite clear, but in each case the horse died, 

 which seems rather extraordinary. 



The Bishop goes on to say that he was quite in order in 

 taking the horse, as it was distrained for non-payment of his 



