MEDIEVAL AGRICULTURE. 13 



called Pythagoras Hall, on the north side of Cambridge, a 

 building belonging to Merton College, and part, it appears, 

 of the founder's patrimony- and in John of Gaunt's and the 

 Jew's House at Lincoln. 



As might be expected, the furniture of the manor-house 

 was scanty. Glass, though by no means excessively dear 

 (vol. ii. p. 535. 547. iii. 574. iii.), appears to have been rarely 

 used. A table put on tressels, and laid aside when out of 

 use, a few forms and stools or a long bench stuffed with 

 straw or wool, covered with a straw cushion worked like a 

 beehive, with one or two chairs of wood or straw, and a chest 

 or two for linen, formed the hall furniture. A brass pot or 

 two for boiling, and two or three brass dishes; a few wooden 

 platters and trenchers, or more rarely of pewter; an iron or 

 latten candlestick; a kitchen knife or two; a box or barrel 

 for salt; and a brass ewer and basin, formed the moveables 

 of the ordinary house. The walls were garnished with mat- 

 tocks, scythes, reaping-hooks, buckets, corn-measures, and 

 empty sacks. The dormitory contained a rude bed, and 

 but rarely sheets and blankets, for the gown of the day was 

 generally the coverlet at night. 



In the inventory of John SenekworuYs effects, who was for several 

 years bailiff for Merton College at their manor of Gamlingay in 

 Cambridgeshire, as well as at other places before, we find a larger 

 variety. Senekworth was evidently a valued servant of the College 

 (one of his brothers was a fellow) ; for a few years before his death 

 the society presented him with five pounds, " ex special! gratia soci- 

 orum." The date of the inventory is 1314, the deceased bailiff having 

 bequeathed his goods to the college. It contains a tapetum, valued 

 at 7^., two others at 5^., one more at twenty-pence ; 6 lintheamina 

 (sheets) at four shillings each, and a materace at one shilling ; a red 

 coverlet at two shillings ; a counterpane (co-opertorium pro lecto) at 

 four shillings ; a red gown at eight shillings, another at three 

 shillings ; a blue gown at four shillings ; a kaynet gown at two shil- 

 lings and sixpence ; a russet tunica at one and sixpence ; a banker, 

 i. e. a cover for a seat, at fifteen-pence ; a table-cloth at one shilling ; 



