MEDIEVAL AGRICULTURE. 31 



disorders, but to accidents, though the chief risks were those 

 of disease. The treatment of horses was the business of 

 the mareschallus or farrier; and the well-known complaints, 

 farcy, lampas, and spavin, are mentioned in the accounts. 

 Maudlaung, ii. p. 579. i., is a more obscure disease. Bleeding 

 was a customary method of practice. 



Among the diseases peculiar to sheep, the scab is very 

 frequently mentioned. This disease made its appearance at 

 or about the year 1288, and became endemic. It was at 

 first treated with copperas and verdigris, but in time, that 

 is, at about the close of the thirteenth century, it was dis- 

 covered that tar (generally called bitumen in the accounts, 

 but occasionally by its English name) was a specific for the 

 complaint. Shortly after this time, the purchase of tar is a 

 regular entry. It is clear that the remedy was mixed with 

 butter or lard, and then rubbed in. Note is occasionally 

 taken of any exceptional prevalence of this disease, which 

 seems never to have been eradicated, but only to have varied 

 in intensity and frequency. 



The reader will understand that the lambing season was 

 as anxious a time for the medieval agriculturist as it is now. 

 The ewes were sheltered, and received the unremitting at- 

 tention of the shepherd. The information which I can give 

 of the price of candles is tolerably full : it would have been 

 very scanty had it not been for purchases made tempore 

 agnellatlonls. With every care, however, the losses were 

 very heavy. 



The sale of wool and woolfells was the chief profit of the ^~ 

 farmer. Hence, when arable land was abandoned to the - 

 lessee, the lord generally retained the sheep farming. Merton 

 College did so on its Northumberland estate, long after the 

 cultivation of the soil was left in other hands. New College 

 did so at Birchanger and Takley. The early relinquishment 

 of border-farming is, no doubt, to be ascribed to the thieves 

 of the Scotch marches, against whom a remote proprietor 

 was likely to be very undefended, while the Northumbrian 



